All posts by Michael Lipsett

Machinery Diagnostics in Beersheba

I have enjoyed my time in Beersheba. It is on the edge of the Negev desert. Koby Bortman and his students have been great to work with. I have had a nice little place to stay in, which has been good for keeping up with what is going on in Canada nine time zones away.  Writing papers is efficient when there are authors on two different shifts.

The machinery diagnostics lab here has a good approach to research in this area. Relationships between models and experimental results are based on simulations calibrated to the lab apparatus. This gives a good opportunity to assess the model quality against real data. Of course, the simulations don’t always work as hoped. I have spent a lot of time with students staring at graphs trying to figure out what the problem is. To troubleshoot a simulation, we can take several  steps:

1) check the solver

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change time step and look at the sensitivity of the solution between different cases
change solver type (slower-order solver will be more robust but less accurate)
2) simplify the mathematical model
change the model to linearize it, or to remove some terms, so that the model is simpler (and hopefully the simulation results can be compared to a benchmark case or to an analytical solution). Another option is to change parameters of the model to make the set of equations less stiff (that is, less sensitive to small changes)
3) change the mathematical model
if some part of the model is causing the problem, then we may need to change the formulation, for example, making the nonlinear functions continuous.
In all cases, having a data set for verification is critical.
This is fun.

Masada, The Dead Sea, and Working Eight Time Zones Away

I have been in Beersheba, on the edge of the Negev Desert in Israel, for a couple of weeks. Other than the culture shock of not speaking Hebrew, it has been pretty good. People are generally friendly, although, um, assertive, and I have really enjoyed the collaborations that I have embarked upon at Ben Gurion University of the Negev.

Until now, I have been focused on working with students, and keeping up with work back in Canada. Being on the shift schedule before everyone in Alberta has its advantages. I am able to get a day’s worth of work done before the emails start rolling in. But it does mean the occasional Skype call with a student team at 11 pm.

I traveled East to the Dead Sea on the weekend with my host Jacob and his wife Dora. It was a splendid day. We went to Masada, the ruins of Herod’s fortress taken over by Zealots in 70 AD and then besieged by the Roman army. The fortifications are 400 m above the rift valley of the Dead Sea. The view (straight-down) from the palace lookout is exhilarating – and alarming. A quiet place for such a violent history.

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The Dead Sea is, well, a saturated solution of salt water, with a bottom of salt grains. I tend to sink rather than float, but this time I could relax completely. Savasana in salt. The surroundings are stark, but people were relaxed, just enjoying the day.

I think I will try the Red Sea next.

A Few Words to the Graduating Class of 2014

(Here is the text of what is being recorded for presentation at the MECE grad banquet on April 4, 2014.With mild horror, I realize I graduated thirty years ago.)

“It is an honour for me to offer you, the graduating Mechanical Engineering class of 2014, a few words.

Of course, my first advice would be not to trust authority too much, and not to let anyone tell you what to think.

“So instead of offering words of alleged wisdom, let me instead offer a few suggestions on how to compose your life.

“Do something that you believe in, and work hard to do something worthwhile in your career.

“Don’t worry about money. If you do good work, enough money will come.

“Find a hobby or activity that can be life-long. Work should not be your whole life, even if it is your calling.

“Read great books. If a book does not resonate with you, then put it down and try another. The same book has told me different things at different times.

“Always learn something new. Ask questions & look for answers – but not every question has the answer you expect.

“Seek simplicity, and distrust it.

“Whatever situation you are in, whether it is a triumph or a crushing loss, say to yourself ‘this too shall pass’.

“Treat yourself well, so that you can be the right person for your family & friends.

“If you marry, then marry only for love.

“Be generous with your time, meanwhile remembering that time is really all we have.

“Do not trust blindly, and yet do not be cynical.

“Live every day.

“Best of luck, in your life and in your career.”

Designing and Planning Experiments

An experiment is a test, usually comprising a series of trials under different conditions. Experiments are used widely in the engineering world for characterizing performance of a product, constitutive relationships of elements in a system (e.g. a spring constant or electrical impedance), material properties under standard geometries, deflections under defined boundary and loading conditions (for validating finite-element models), and many, many other relationships.

Experiments are done when there is no practical or cost-effective means for modeling a relationship amongst variables (which input variables are most influential on the output response) to reduce the time required to design & develop new products & processes, and to understand where to set inputs so that output is near a desired value to improve performance. Experiments are a means to evaluate design alternatives.

An experimental plan describes controlled variables (fixed conditions in the experiments), manipulated variables (inputs that are explicitly changed in experimental conditions, including knowing that these variables have been set to correct values); and responding variables (outputs that are measured in a known manner).

The plan needs to describe the procedure in sufficient detail that it could be duplicated by others, and the order in which experimental trials are conducted to reduce temporal bias associated with when trials are done (including repeats).
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Changing one variable at a time is very inefficient. Interactions may be poorly understood. Statistically designed experiments using the factorial concept allow for more than one variable to be changed at a time. Factorial design of experiments allows for the range of all inputs to be covered without having to test every combination of all variables.

A clear and complete plan will be a good guide as you do the work; there is less chance that something important is forgotten; and having a procedure means that you will have that part of the thesis already written.

Balancing Creativity with Analytical Rigour in Engineering Design

MECE 460, the senior design project course, is great to teach. In just a few months, I have interacted with people who want engineering students to design new bicycles for children with disabilities, robots for tailings ponds, and even advanced footwear.

Teaching design is also very challenging. Most engineering courses teach structured methods for solving idealized problems of applied physics. Solving problem sets can be lots of fun and very satisfying, because there is a correct answer. Design has no single right answer. Problems are complex, open-ended, and require iterative approaches to developing solutions.

Experiential learning is an ideal way for students to explore the design process, to work as a team, and to come up with designs that will meet (or exceed!) a client’s needs. Most engineering students have little experience this style of learning, and yet this type of work is as close to the way that engineers work than the structured methods for solving problem sets of idealized physical systems.

Design teams tackle problems that are too complex for individuals to solve in a single term. For this reason, a team must form close working relationships and work effectively immediately, with both common purpose & division of labour, which demands good project planning & close coordination. The students have to work with a client, who may or may not have a clear idea of how the solution might look. (It’s generally more difficult to work with a client who has a fixed idea of what the design should be, because this limits innovative thinking.) Engineers have to be vulnerable to new ideas.

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In this regard, engineering design isn’t really any different from invention, art, or any other large creative endeavour. What differentiates engineering design is the application of scientific knowledge and engineering analysis to predict how a design will behave before it is built, using empirical knowledge and analytical methods (which increasingly includes numerical simulations rather than just hand calculations or dimensionally scaled physical models). A validated numerical models can quickly analyze the response of a multiphysics system. A poor model can produce a very pretty false picture. The challenge is to know the difference.

Once the team has a great idea, and confidence in the methods for analyzing how well the concept will work, then these creators can explore how to make the design elegant. One aspect of elegance is to combine features so that a single part of a system contributes to more than one attribute. An example would be a material in a shape that delivers structural strength in an appealing form with a suitable colour and finish. Sensitivity analysis (using design of experiment methods) allows the analyst to examine the effect of changes in design parameters on performance. This is the new empiricism, combinatorial design.

But elegance is much more than simplicity. It is naturalness. A person should appreciate good design by how intuitively it works and how good it looks. Good design is an experience of a person interacting with an artifact, be it a bicycle, or a shoe.