• Question: Describe a time when you confronted a problem that really tested your engineering know-how.

    Asked by 573beb28 to Nathan, Aislinn, Padraic, Sinead on 9 Feb 2015. This question was also asked by dancer10.
    • Photo: Nathan Quinlan

      Nathan Quinlan answered on 9 Feb 2015:

      Well when I got involved with students in designing and building a car for an energy-efficiency competition, I was well out of my depth. I knew very little about the engineering of cars and I wasn’t even particularly interested in them. But I was excited about making and racing a simple car. Here’s the thing – engineering know-how isn’t set in stone they day you leave engineering school, or any other time. Engineering gives you a kind of mental toolbox of techniques you can use on a wide range of areas, and a language to let you understand other engineers. So you can always learn new stuff if you keep your mind open. You learn how to learn! As an engineer you’re always expanding your know-how. Actually, I think that’s the best bit.

      In the case of the car, luckily, somebody wrote a very detailed technical book about the kind of car we are developing. Then our team was able to have a meeting with the organiser of the Shell Eco-marathon, who gave us the sort of personal pointers you can’t get from a book. So yes, always I’m coming up against gaping holes in my knowledge, but with help and effort I can fill them in or get around them.

    • Photo: Aislinn Coghlan

      Aislinn Coghlan answered on 11 Feb 2015:

      Hi,

      I would say my engineering know how gets tested everyday!

      When I was designing the hydraulic fracturing plant to get has up from under the ground. I had no prior knowledge of it so I had to use the basic principles I had learned and apply it to the situation. It worked out well in the end though!

    • Photo: Sinead Quirke

      Sinead Quirke answered on 12 Feb 2015:

      Hi,

      When I worked in the water treatment plant the quality of the water deteriorated for no apparant reason. I had to work closely with chemists and it took us a week to fully resolve the problem. What had started with one problem – which was a change of supplier for a particular chemical which had slight difference s in its chemical compostion then changed to a second problem. It took only a day or so to figure out the first problem but we had to go back to first principles, clear out all the water from teh plant and start again. This didnt work and we then figured out that a setting on a machine had been inadvertantly changed on the same day that we switched chemcials – the switching of chemical brand had masked the real problem.

Comments