Advanced Manufacturing Partnership Regional Meeting at MIT

Today I wrote a lenghty response to a discussion I'd had my eye on in the UK Design Council forum on LinkedIn. After it received a like today I thought I would share...

"We want the words 'Made in Britain,' 'Created in Britain,' Designed in Britain,' 'Invented in Britain' to drive our nation forward. A Britain carried aloft by the march of the makers."

George Osborne promotes design in the budget. Do you believe him?

I am interested in the manufacturing debate and today attended the Advanced Manufacturing Partnership Regional Meeting at MIT. I see the situation in the US as fairly analogous with the UK, and one of the points president Susan Hockfield always makes it that today the general opinion is that nothing is made in the US anymore. However manufacturing still contributes around 12% of their GDP. In fact they are still the world leader in manufacturing however the general consensus would disagree.

So, the need to raise public awareness and maintain pride in national manufacturing is important, otherwise we risk resigning to the fact that more and more is moving oversees. However, the "Made in Britain" tag seems to me to largely play into the fact that everything you pick up says "Made in China" on it.

from an article...

To someone shopping for toys, shoes, or sporting equipment, it can often seem that way. But that’s because Chinese factories tend to specialize in low-tech, labor-intensive goods — items that typically don’t require the more advanced and sophisticated manufacturing capabilities of modern American plants.

A vast amount of “stuff’’ is still made in the USA, albeit not the inexpensive consumer goods that fill the shelves in Target or Walgreens. American factories make fighter jets and air conditioners, automobiles and pharmaceuticals, industrial lathes and semiconductors. Not the sort of things on your weekly shopping list? Maybe not. But that doesn’t change economic reality. They may have “clos[ed] down the textile mill across the railroad tracks.’’ But America’s manufacturing glory is far from a thing of the past.

(http://articles.boston.com/2011-02-06/bostonglobe/29344173_1_manufacturing-output-black-dress-decline/2)

So, fully acknowledging I have not read the length of this discussion. I guess my comment reinforces Bruce's earlier statement.

I question the emphasis on consumer products. I feel the "march of the makers" should be at a business-to-business level as the previous example of Scottish textile mills, and companies like Teknek "world leader in contact cleaning equipment" support. As an engineer, I think of Rolls Royce, (voted number 1 UK superbrand in 2011) a leader in engines, but is there value in a "Made in Britain" stamp if it's it going in an airplane made from parts from all over the world.

n the US the emphasis is certainly on advanced manufacturing processes first, and this allows them to make advanced products such as semiconductors and pharmaceuticals, but to also make everyday products more competitively. (For example, Obama recently visited Alcoa in Iowa who, through process innovation, are making rolled aluminium competitively for significant export). This example was the kind of thing people in the Technology break out session were excited about today.

My time at Shelter Centre - EWB-UK internship 2008

I just drafted this for a GU newsletter that's going out, I so infrequently get round to writing anything that I thought it made sense to share it.


I graduated from the University of Glasgow in 2010 with a MEng in Product Design Engineering. This course teaches you how to design and manufacture new innovative products, but on a more general level you become really good at creative problem solving. In my third year of University I learned that I could apply this creative problem solving to more than traditional engineering challenges. I took a summer internship with Engineers Without Borders UK and spent 3 months at an NGO called Shelter Centre, hosted by the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies in Geneva. That Summer I worked with Estelle Soh to write the first draft of a new set of guidelines on transitional shelter. In Sri Lanka after the tsunami, in some cases it took nearly 5 years to permanently reconstruct the homes which were damaged. Traditionally, aid agencies would distribute tents in the wake of a disaster, but tents only last 6 months in the field, and people cannot be expected to rebuild their lives in these conditions. Transitional shelter encouraged agencies to instead provide materials such as wood and tarpaulin, and help people to build shed-like structures which can be extended and reinforced over the long reconstruction period and ultimately reused when building their permanent home. 

I learned two key things during this placement which continue to inform everything that I do.

1. Understand the bigger picture. Design and construction of shelter was one chapter of twelve. You might have the best design, but if you have no understanding of the cultural context, the politics and the co-ordination of logistics you as a designer have no control over whether your design will impact the lives of people as you imagined. In fact, in the humanitarian world all too often, well-intentioned interventions can actually worsen the situation.

2. The importance of presentation. Like most sane people, when Tom Corsellis (CEO of Shelter Centre and architect by training) took a ruler to the screen of his computer to point out that the text on my conference invitation was misaligned, I found myself thinking this seemed a little extreme. However, by the end of the Summer I saw first-hand the importance of being a stickler for details. We had just presented the first draft of the guidelines at UNHCR, and someone remarked that it was far superior to what they could ever produce in such a short time frame. It was then that I realized by taking the time to make sure everything we sent out was highly polished and professional, a small NGO of “6 people in a shed” could have a huge influence on the big players in their industry. 

In order to better understand policy I became involved in the Royal Academy of Engineering’s Standard Leadership Award Scheme and took courses in public outreach, renewable energy, and leadership. I became interested in the UK Design Council and how design and innovation can be used to improve public services such as healthcare and transportation. This passion helped me receive a fellowship from the Kennedy Memorial Trust allowing me to pursue my graduate studies in Mechanical Engineering at MIT.


http://sheltercentre.org/
http://www.ewb-uk.org/programmes/placements
http://www.raeng.org.uk/education/undergrad/programme.htm
http://www.designcouncil.org.uk/

Congressional Visits Day

This past week I was fortunate to be able to visit Washington DC as part of the MIT Science Policy Initiative. We met with members of congress and their staff to talk about the importance of our research and the role that federal funding played in supporting that research which in turn would lead to economic growth and maintain International competitiveness.

Congressional Visits Day  is a two-day annual event that brings scientists, engineers, researchers, educators, and technology executives to Washington to raise visibility and support for science, engineering, and technology.

SPI are the only all student group to attend CVD, and so this really was a great opportunity. We came at a difficult time, asking members to protect levels of science policy funding for FY11 and maintain them for FY12 the day before a potential government shut down. However, it was also an opportunity to reinforce the importance of research funding at this crucial moment.

Not so smart

So last week was crazy. I had my first near all nighter up til 5, up at 7. To be honest I felt pretty good about it because a lot of my friends seem far busier than me and I was starting to get a little concerned that I was missing something. For the 2.75 Precision Design class we had a lab assignment and would you believe it, I found myself in the workshop. We had to make something which demonstrated the principle of kinematic coupling. There are 2 main types of kinematic coupling, the 3 V-groove coupling and the Kelvin coupling, so named because it was favoured by Lord Kelvin. Now, I know you're thinking what I'm thinking. Lord Kelvin is only Glasgow's greatest scientisit! So it was clear I was going to have to make that one. Only down-side was it was way more tricky so it took a long time and I had to get someone to program the CNC mill for me.

tada! It's only a set of stackable coasters. So 3 hemispheres on one locate to 3 grooves on the other, in this case one being tetrahedral, the other a v and the other a flat plate. This exactly constrains 6 degrees of freedom and provides a precise and repeatable locating mechanism. How about that. Whilst I wanted to keep this blog for all the fun things I'm doing in the US of A I thought I should give some impression that my lack of communication is because I'm hard at work during the week! On that note lets skip to the weekend.

So with lab report handed in and Dad's Christmas present in the bag, we had a pizza party at the end of class. On Friday I volunteered at Beyond Cause Marketing an event running at MIT. I thought something which combined good causes and marketing would be right up my street and I also had a free Friday so there you go. It was pretty interesting, I met the lady who organises the X-Prize and told her I'd heard about it when I did my lasers report on the space elevator. A lot of other interesting people were there. I had my first experience of people probably listening to you way more because of the intial, oh this girl must be really smart thing. So that was nice.

Afterwards I met Alison and tagged along to a trip to the Institute of Contemporary Art organised by people at her graduate halls. It was really great, the building is awesome, particularly the media room and the exhibitions were contemporary in a good way rather than when you're just presented with a lot of disturbing/weird stuff. Saying that there were a lot of little jugs carved out of human bone.

My favourite exhibit was the stuff by Evelyn Rydz who does these very detailed drawings in coloured pencil on overlayed tracing paper that creates this kind of subtle glow. I mainly liked it because whilst I try to embrace the letrasets I do still love my colouring pencils.

After the ICA we went to Legal Seafoods. The graduate halls were subsidizing the trip because they like to encourage social outings. Alison and a couple of others went grand and got lobster. I was a bit scared to get one having never tried any before and also there was this awkward thing where I didn't know if my meal was subsidized because I was the only one who didn't actually live in their halls. Tried a little bit of Alison's and I think I can handle it so definitely going to take Sam out for lobstah when he gets here. I hear Maine's the place to go though. The whole process was pretty entertaining.

So that evening it was my friend Jack's birthday. I was really excited to go out and wanted to make a fuss over it because I thought it must be a bit weird having a birthday and you've got none of your good friends from home about. I hadn't yet been home since getting up at 7am so I thought I should go and drop off my schoolbag. I got back and realised I had lost my keys. I also realised the house I live in has no doorbell! All the lights were off, and Lisa and Ben wouldn't hear even if I knocked as they live on the third floor. I went round the back and see no lights on, pluss at 10pm on a Friday night it was likely nobody was in.

I cracked open my laptop on the porch and emailed everyone whilst looking for phone numbers. After 20 minutes or so Lisa got the email and came down to let me in. Phil's friend had the spare key and I still really wanted to make Jack's birthday. I remembered getting 3 keys when I moved in and reasoned that one was for the back door, and the other the shed so I went to find it and try it out. Dumped all my stuff and went out to try the back door key only to find the back door locked automatically and the key was poorly cut and didn't work. I was then stuck outside with no phone, laptop, money or coat so my options were pretty slim. Lisa seemed to have gone back up to bed and now that she thought I was inside I didn't think she'd come to check. So, I thought I'd leave a note and head to the bar my friends were at. I ran to Starbucks just before they shut and they leant me a receipt to write a note on so I left a message at the front and back door. I was about to leave when I realised I didn't have my passport so I wouldn't get into the bar, and I didn't have any money so I'd have to walk for 40 minutes.

I figured I would have to bite the bullet and wake up a neighbour. I went next door where the lights were on and ended up in the home of a Warren Goldfarb, a Harvard professor. He had a Charles Rennie Mackintosh poster on the wall so we found some common ground. Fortunately he knew Lisa and Ben so after tracking down the house phone number all was well. I finally got into my room and decided to just stay put that night.

The next day I set about getting some keys cut! I did a bunch of other errands thanks to having no hangover to navigate and so got my shoes in for repair at a place on the corner. I also managed to get a nice Chinese lady to agree to fix the dress I bought last time I was in Boston with the broken beading so I'm pretty excited to get that back! If she's done a good job I might keep her in business with the various holes and loose buttons I've got going on.

I continued to explore my neighbourhood and headed along to Cambridge Used Bikes on a recommendation from my friend Chris. It was in the basement of an amazing antiques market. I was very close to buying an old cook book when a member of staff asked if he could help and reminded me that I could get a lot of recipes on the internet these days. Downstairs I admitted cluelessness as to what to look for and the guy gave me a couple of 21" frame options. I quickly blew my cover by admitting that I absolutely loved the canary yellow cruiser and was very soon giving it a test ride round the car park. I also tried a more sensible and slightly cheaper mountain bike but seeing as you're only in America once I thought it was a time for bold decisions. The bike was $225 and once I'd bought all the extra safety gear it had fair totted up. However, this new mobility allowed me to go to a better supermarket which is about a mile and a half away. I was however 2 eggs down by the time I got home! So the guy checked the serial number and informed me this bike was made in Chicago in 1973. Someone made the comment that this bike was made for me and I found a surprising coincidence in the name of the new version!

Having bought my bike I headed to Whole Foods to buy some decent ingredients in preparation for Canadian Thanksgiving on Sunday! I had said I was going to bake something and thought it'd be wrong not to attempt a pumpkin pie, although I bought stuff for apple pie as well for back up. I told Lisa what I was up to and she kindly looked out all the necessary equipment. Turns out making pumpkin pie from scratch is a total nightmare! After boiling, scooping, puréeing and seiving the pumpkin I had enough orange gloop to get started. Lisa informed me she normally just buys a can. Woops! I also decided to make the pie dish from scratch. So by 2pm I was basically at square one if I hadn't been stubborn about doing it all myself.

Took a break and headed out to the Sowa Open Market which describes itself as Boston's original outdoor art and indie design market. Sounded pretty perfect and it really was. I loved all the stuff! They had some very cool vintage stalls, I spent a lot of time mulling over a ramshackle leather bag with a motif of the pyramids on it when the lady came in and said I could have it for $5 because the zip was bust. A "weekend project" she said. Fortunately I remembered the fact I'm at MIT and should be working my butt off on bigger challenges than fixing a zip and so I left it there. Obviously I shall return in a few weeks and if it's still there I might buy it and take it to my new friend the Chinese seamstress! There were some nice leather goods, and funky jewellery and loads of cool illustrative tees. Basically you're all getting your Christmas presents from there! There was even a nice lampwork glass beads stall for Mum. I duly took a photo and picked up a business card. Check out the website and if you want me to do a little bead traficking I will see if Liliana and I can come to some kind of arrangement.

Obviously I couldn't bring myself to leave, and I had met Jack so wanted to hang out with him a bit seeing as I'd missed his special day. We got coffee at the cafe down there. Definitely going to go back for the next Sunday market. Returned home to finish what I had started, apple pie now completely off my radar. I was already pretty late and having realised the pie filling was basically liquid I had to get it cooked at mine before transportation. After cooking it had not set but I was already late so had to do parcel it up and get to the halls where the meal was being held. The thing did not travel well!

Anyway, Canadian Thanksgiving dinner was wonderful. We had chicken and rice dishes and wine, and vegetables and a ton of yummy things. 50% Canadian turnout too so pretty authentic. I took a bit of stick for my unfinished dish but mostly for the fact I brought maple syrup to go with it (thanks recipe!) which is apparently a total no no. We ate and drank then went down to the games room where they've only got air hockey! My embarrasingly competitive side came out, obviously I whooped Jack. Then it was time for some rock band which obviously I loved as well. The drum kit is pretty sweet but the cymbal didn't work so you could never get above around 60% which was pretty sad.

Monday was Columbus day so we had a holiday. The sliver of pie I had took home had been transformed by a night in the fridge making me appreciate that pumpkin pie needs to cool to set! I'll have it sussed by American thanksgiving hopefully. I spent the morning buying a glucometer to test for precision design and then had a five hour ideation session for my development ventures class. Anyway... and that's when things start to get boring again.

I have made a bit of progress this week having expressed an interest in medical devices. I just need to spend time finding the right project and potential funding before that's a goer. This weekend is dominated by my big entrance into the world of amateur ballroom dancing! I am competing in the Harvard Beginner's competition and dancing swing and rhumba with another rookie called Jason, then doing hustle as a "rookie - veteran" couple with a guy called Vik who I met tonight. I need to buy shoes and something to wear and all that in the next few days. Pretty scared about it but new experiences etc! I think JFK would approve.

Wrap it all up with a nice photo I took today showing why people are always banging on about New England in the fall. I'm really not used to clear skies in the -ber months.

The XX

Tonight I went to see Mercury Prize Winners the XX at the Orpheum Theatre in Boston and they were frickin' great. Thanks to my new iphone Andrew and Sam both got woken up with a wee Skype call. Hope it was appreciated!

New Hampshire

Today I was invited along on the annual Precision Engineering research group trip to New Hampshire put on by Prof. Slocum for his grad students. Got a ride out in the morning from a guy called Folkers in his Camero. Got to Slocum's house and what do you know, it's got a bit of a Meadowhead Farm vibe about it. Got greeted by the biggest dog in the world, or a great pyrenees called Inca. They also have a little spaniel called Lucille who had a cast on her leg which was rather adorable.

There were around 20 of us, a lot of spouses and even a couple of kids there. We made the packed lunches in an efficient fashion around the breakfast island. I got involved with some peanut butter and jelly.

We drove a fair way upwards and hiked a half hour or so up to a peak and sheltered from the wind whilst we ate lunch. Nice to get some fresh air. Then we drove to a farm for a pit of apple picking. It was a lot of fun! I busted out some pretty mean apple picking skills and shimmied up a tree to get the perfect apple off one of the top branches. Apples of the day were the Macintosh and the Macoun, keeping things nice and Scottish. I managed to eat three during the picking and we came away with 10 massive bags and pocket fulls. Went via the farm shop and obviously bought about 6 dozen cider flavoured donuts just to undo any health benefits of the morning activities.

Got back to Slocum's ranch and the ladies went inside to bake some apple pies whilst the men went and chopped wood. Slocum went off to try and shoot some wild turkey with his bow that we'd seen on the drive back. They didn't have much luck so instead he set about slicing a tree up with Danielle and a large chainsaw to fashion a couple of table tops. Needless to say, my apple pie was frickin' fantastic.

We sat around a fire pit whilst the barbecue was fired up. We had some amazing steaks from the butcher that were pretty incredible. I've got to stop moaning about American food! Just need to buy a car and drive myself to a butcher. It was a really fun day. Met Mrs. Slocum senior and Mrs. Slocum who were both at MIT as well, then got a lift back to Massachusetts with the youngest of Slocum's kids and we talked about words which were different. That conversation never gets old. Crisps and lollipop came out as pretty popular examples.

ELEW

So tonight I was invited to an event at the Kennedy Memorial Library. They were hosting a concert by the celebrated "RockJazz" pianist Eric Lewis. It was the first concert to be held at the library, and was organised to commemorate the fact that Jackie Kennedy had hosted the first jazz concert at the White House when she invited the Paul Winter Sextet to perform in 1962.

I was invited to a reception beforehand where I met a number of influential people connected to the library as well as people who had previously worked for the late Senator Ted Kennedy. I also enjoyed the roast duck, grilled artichoke and glazed salmon canapes, all washed down with some Sauvignon Blanc and a couple of chocolate dipped strawberries for good measure.

There was a stage set up in the auditorium with a grand piano in the centre, and seats were laid out all around. We had an amazing view as seats had been reserved for us so I was able to witness every bead of sweat, or grimace which crossed his face. It was an amazing performance, I haven't seen anything like it. Someone made the valid point that you'll be paying hundreds of dollars for tickets soon! My favourite tracks were Heartbeats by the Knife shown in the video and Michael Jackson's Human Nature.