Dear Julian,
Thank you for your highly helpful message, it was most interesting. Your
points were extremely handyin getting an idea of the lab activities.
Hopefully I will be able to visit one soon!
If anyone else has any other points to add, please do! All information is
extremely useful.
Once again, many thanks.
Gideon
-----Original Message-----
From: Engineers and biologists mechanical design list
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of J F V Vincent
Sent: 06 March 2005 14:33
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Day in the life..
These days I think most people, even when they're doing experiments
regularly,
spend a large amount of time in front of a computer. Whereas one used to
list
data straight into the results book and do sums on a slide rule or in the
head,
these days one gets 10 or 100 times the amount of data to play with, and the
only way to do it is on a spreadsheet or similar program. Also there are
design and analysis tools for modelling results (e.g. CAD, CFD, FEM, loads
of
specialised stuff) so that one can do experiments on a computer. Perhaps
you
should be asking us all (a) to say how much time we spend in front of a VDU,
writing and analysing; (b) simply to list the kit in the lab and (c) give an
idea of workshop facilities. These questions will be much eeasier to answer
than your rather vague "how do you spend your day", and it's also more
closely
related to the space available. As an exercise, try allocating the size of
rooms in your house dependent on the proportion of time you spend in each.
The
bedroom would be huge!
So:
(a) I suspect about 30 - 60% of time in front of a VDU. This is in a room
separate from the lab, and is a place to keep books, records, etc.
(b) kit in our lab (we have some animals and plants, work on robots based on
animal locomotion, make and test materials and little gizmos) - there's a
'wet'
area with sink, drainage, fridge and deep freeze; several microscopes
(polarising; large compound with hardness tester; large compound with
computer
and micro-manipulator; large dissecting microscope; computer with video
input
for image analysis; at least three testing tanks for testing aquatic
propulsion
(2 of them are about 50 x 75 cm, about 50 cm high; the third is about 150 cm
high with footprint 1 m x 5 m); high-speed video with computer; bench-top
Instron; rheometer; water sorptiometer; analytical balance; rapid
prototyping
machine; bits of kit + bench space for messing around with fibrous
composites
and resin; bench space for messing around with simple experiments, making
bits
of electronics, etc.
(c) workshop facilities (shared) - we need work on lathe and mill, general
metal
bashing, band saw, drilling, wood work.
Hope that helps.
Julian
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