Engineering to inspire

I believe I can fly: On flight and flying machines

1-8 Feb 2010

Lemme ask you a question: “Have you wanted to fly?”

If not, then you’re missing out on the greatest of all human inventions – our ability to fly. Admittedly we fly seated instead of flapping our arms like birds, but it’s certainly better than being landbound… and as a pilot friend of mine once said: “Once you’re up there, you’ll never want to come back down.”

But we might soon find our wings clipped if we don’t figure out how to reduce the ecological cost of flying (and all things locomotive). That’s why we heart this electric plane that allows us to fly from Singapore to KL in a single bound and on $2 too! And in a fit of natural inspiration, they’ve took a leaf out of a tree and modelled a single-wing airplane after it. Apparently it flies pretty ok. If you want it to go down.

But flight isn’t just confined to airplanes. It goes down into the seas with this personal submarine that’s modeled after airplanes and uses aerodynamic principles to float, dive and glide through the seas. And the Russians once tried to cross-breed a tank with a plane with surprising results.

Here’s a weird application where we can levitate things with sound. Originally intended as a way to clean moon and mars vehicles, Acoustic levitation might just be the boost that concerts need to outflank each other.

Finally, we’ve posted up photos of the Singapore Airshow 2010 on our Facebook Fanpage. Y’know… just in case you didn’t make it out to middle-of-nowhere Changi Exhibition Centre.

Click on any photo to see our entire gallery! (Takes you away from this blog)

Living spaces: It ain’t up the clouds

Most of us live in buildings: be it bungalows, HDB flats, or huts. Some of them are exquisite but dysfunctional, others value function over style. Architects and developers ask “Why can’t we have both?”

Sure we could.

Just look to these projects for inspiration. And mix-and-match them to your liking.

Terrex ICV: ST Kinetics

We’re at the ST Kinetics’ skatepark for mechanical monsters. It’s a large smooth concrete testing ground of log-like humps, mountainous inclines, curved swathes and a wading pool that’s twice a man’s height.

And we’re crawling over the army’s latest toy – The Terrex – like a bunch of ants.

The 24-ton (that’s 24,000 kg) armour-plated vehicle looks like two D-day barges bookending a kosong sandwich on eight “I’m-gonna-crush-you” wheels. There were discreet lumps on the edges of the vehicle. The roof turret with an unblinking camera swivelled around and around. Human heads encased in large headphones poked through two hatches.

They disregard the baking sun. And revved up the engine.

Good vibrations: Concerts galore!

25-31 Jan 2010

What a month of concerts!

We had Green Day, Boys Like Girls, and A*Mei. And this week is all Muse at the Big Night Out. And they all sounded great! That’s why we paid tribute to Sound engineers last week. These hidden talents are responsible for syncing up the band’s sounds – from drummer to guitarist to Martin.

That’s no mean feat so give ‘em respect. Check out Tom Butcher’s blog on how music, software and electronics could come together (thanks for the tip, fourwallsofsound!).

Especially in other areas where they come up with new musical experiences such as the voice-controlled toy piano where the piano tinkles to your singing, or The Audiopad – a brand new console that mixes music with a flick and twist of bottle caps.

Early adopters will want these oh-so-cutting edge audio gadgets to stay ahead of the musical scene. Alternatively get decked out with The Dancepants Kinetic Music Player where music is powered by your running feet via your pants.

I’ve always wondered – what if Boys Like Girls had the Boom Bench for their concert? Now that would seriously rock the house down.

The Great Escape by Boys Like Girls at Resorts World Singapore (src: 9421700)

Let’s make good sounds: The art of sound engineering

Sound engineers deal with sound and make it sound good. They record, synchronize, mix, or reproduce music, voices or any other sound.

And sometimes they’re the music police for concerts.

Sound engineers make sure that the musicians are synced up with each other. So they might dim the clash of drums, tweak up guitar strings and let the lead singer’s voice wail through the concert hall for an Über musical experience. So if you got no satisfaction from the speakers at a gig – that’s the sound engineers’ fault.

Thus they are important folk in making music, acoustics, and even movies (remember THX sound system?) sound good.

There are courses out there (Nanyang Polytechnic’s AV technology course for instance) that will teach you the basics. But to be really good, you’d need a ear for it, and plenty of curiosity and desire to investigate the aural spectrum.

Like Diego Stocco, a master sound engineer who makes music from the unlikeliest sources such as “clothes drying rack, pipes with water running through them, a burning piano, light bulbs, a typing machine, a bass made from a bedside table, and a ‘sonic washer’”

Last week in UCreateChange: Films & entertainment

18-24 Jan 2010

The Avatar and 3D entertainment craze certainly swept us into the world of red and blue and fuzzy lines that made images pop out from the screen.

And home film buffs can now do it to the tune of $21,000. Panasonic’s 3D camcorder is the first to combine 3D lenses into one easy to carry unit. We say wait a bit, it’ll get smaller, faster, and cheaper.

“What is Engineering [about]?”

Two weeks ago, I’ve had a bunch of questions on “What’s engineering?”

That discussion (right fine, it was an argument) got me thinking about the nature of engineering and what’s it about. Is engineering really just making stuff like cars, buildings and mp3 players? Is it a way of improving our lives? Or is it a way to view the world?

I figured that I’d might as well ask an engineer on it’s all about. Good thing that Creator of Tomorrow, Justin Chiam from SIA Engineering, stepped up to the plate and gave us an answer (or eight of them) to the “what’s it about?” question. Some of his answers, most of us would instinctively know. The rest perhaps, not so. But in all, it’s a good list to get a feel of how engineers see engineering.