• Question: What kinds of information would you request or require before you felt you could do justice to a project assignment

    Asked by okoln003 to Amanda, Ben, Dan, Gary, Samer on 19 Jun 2013.
    • Photo: Amanda Lewin

      Amanda Lewin answered on 19 Jun 2013:

      We need drawings of the new building from an Architect. The architect will draw how the building will look from the outside and what size the rooms be and this is what we use to do our design.

      Sometimes we are putting an extension on a existing building or maybe changing the inside so the rooms are used for different things. In this case I would go down to visit the building so I can see what the existing fire alarm and lighting are like and make sure the new design links in with this.

    • Photo: Ben Drumm

      Ben Drumm answered on 19 Jun 2013:

      Personally, I like having all the facts. And getting hold of them is the first part of any project I do.

      Normally you start off knowing very little, but by speaking to the scientists who are kind of like my ‘customers’ I can establish their needs. I also speak to technicians, other engineer and manufacturers so I make sure I have the full picture as I’m designing my new gizmo.

      So the concise answer is probably – I would need to know exactly what a scientist wanted my new equipment to do, then I could get on with the design!

    • Photo: Gary Boorman

      Gary Boorman answered on 21 Jun 2013:

      Usually a ‘project brief’ – some documents describing what is required for a project, the reasons for it, the limits of the project – how much money is available, when it is required, what environment it will work in (designing something for a lab is different from designing something to go in a radioactive environment).
      Sometimes the people asking are not really sure what it is they actually need – so I often have meetings with them to discuss and define the project first.

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