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Asked by amulligan12 to Cathy, Jaz, Mark, Roma, Rory on 16 Jun 2014.
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Rory Hadden answered on 16 Jun 2014:
For me this happens almost every day. I work in a university where we research loads of new ideas and topics. There are many questions that we do not know the answer to yet and this means that there is often not enough existing information or knowledge. I have to apply all of my engineering know-how to tackle these problems. Often it takes a team of us to come up with the solution – engineers never work alone. This problem solving is very creative – it is what I love most about my job!
Most recently this was devising a new method to predict how fast some plastics would catch fire. This is a very tricky problem and in the end we had to invent some new methods. It was very exciting to be able to see that our new method worked!
I hope this helps.
Rory
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Roma Agrawal answered on 16 Jun 2014:
It also happens to me very often- all buildings are different and need different solutions, so I often have to do some research and read books to work it out. Or ask my wise colleagues!
A particular example is when I was looking at how wind will make the top of the Shard vibrate! -
Jaz Rabadia answered on 16 Jun 2014:
I had to look at Debenhams store that was using lots of energy and staff were constantly cold. I had to understand in detail the equipment that is used to heat the store and look at the building fabric to try to understand why the heat kept escaping the building. It meant having to do lots of reading on heat pumps, fan speeds and air tightness. But like the other engineers my colleagues were able to help me and i called a few specialists for their ideas too.
Jaz
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Cathy Fraser answered on 16 Jun 2014:
I had a problem with a specific type of power station – we were arranging to test this starting up by itself and coming onto the electricity system.
My knowledge on this type of station was really limited – so I was out of my depth on arranging the technical details of the test.
In the end, I worked with a colleague on the test, and had to do some learning from technical papers and books to make sure I knew enough!
There’s plenty of things that we don’t know – what I find great about engineering is that people are ready to help if you ask – and there’s a wealth of information out there ready to be learnt! -
Mark Greaves answered on 17 Jun 2014:
This is going to sound a bit simple but the reality was far from it at the time. I had to select a number of pressure reducing valves for our water network – we use these so we don’t over-pressurise our pipes. The valves are very difficult to understand as they use a pilot system to regulate pressure. The system is purely mechanical with no electricity required.
Although these valves are used widely throughout the water network it took me a long time to get my head around their operation.Mark
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