Thursday, March 30, 2006
Rolling Stones - Satisfaction
“Do you seriously think that will work?”
Those were one of the first few words I heard from a certain person about my Final Year Project when I had just started on it and was experimenting with concepts. Now, this person had graduated from NUS with a degree in Engineering perhaps 2 or 3 years ago and was an employee of NUS, working in the same laboratory where I was based. He was, arguably, slightly more experienced even if he hadn’t yet worked in the engineering field, and had seen the work of previous teams before me. I had just taken over a project that, frankly speaking, wasn’t in very good shape. The basic idea was there, but the prototypes created so far weren’t useable at all. I had my work cut out for me, and then some.
That was about 1 year ago. Today, as I sit here typing this with the 1st draft of my thesis sitting beside my laptop (after several days and sleepless nights of last minute machining, testing and typing) , it’s time to take stock.
It wasn’t always smooth sailing. There were precious few precedents to go by and information on such things was scarce and patchy. Material disappeared into an eternal limbo in the United States Postal Service, and the workshop undertaking our machining was bogged down by a huge backlog and staff reshuffle, adding delay after delay. Many design iterations, educated (albeit sometimes lucky) guesses and lots of elbow grease went into creating the various prototypes that I tested and found somewhat unsatisfactory. Hours were spent at my cluttered drawing desk with pen and paper, scouring the libraries and Internet for inspiration or sitting in front of my computer screen doing 3D models, and also in the workshop undertaking some of the machining myself (with a steep learning curve) when I just couldn’t wait for things to get done.
Mine was probably one of the messier FYPs, which suited me just fine. After machining my hands would be covered with black grime that stubbornly resisted most forms of soap, and after testing my prototypes I’d end up with plenty of dust on my clothes and myself, looking more like a construction worker than an undergraduate student. Still, I was like a pig in the mud, perhaps in more than the figurative sense. Stuffy laboratory experiments and complex theoretical discourses aren’t my kind of thing, and this was right up my alley.
Finally, everything fell into place, and not a moment too soon. Days before the submission deadline for the first draft, the last iteration of my design was finally coming to life as finished products and machined components came pouring in. After putting it all together and doing some last minute testing, I finally had a prototype that could get the job done.
Which is why when I recalled the words of that certain person, who has since left for work elsewhere, I couldn’t help but smile to myself. The war may not be over, but winning each battle brings with it a certain sense of satisfaction, even if there’s more to come.
Making stuff work gets me going. And yes, I think it works.
Those were one of the first few words I heard from a certain person about my Final Year Project when I had just started on it and was experimenting with concepts. Now, this person had graduated from NUS with a degree in Engineering perhaps 2 or 3 years ago and was an employee of NUS, working in the same laboratory where I was based. He was, arguably, slightly more experienced even if he hadn’t yet worked in the engineering field, and had seen the work of previous teams before me. I had just taken over a project that, frankly speaking, wasn’t in very good shape. The basic idea was there, but the prototypes created so far weren’t useable at all. I had my work cut out for me, and then some.
That was about 1 year ago. Today, as I sit here typing this with the 1st draft of my thesis sitting beside my laptop (after several days and sleepless nights of last minute machining, testing and typing) , it’s time to take stock.
It wasn’t always smooth sailing. There were precious few precedents to go by and information on such things was scarce and patchy. Material disappeared into an eternal limbo in the United States Postal Service, and the workshop undertaking our machining was bogged down by a huge backlog and staff reshuffle, adding delay after delay. Many design iterations, educated (albeit sometimes lucky) guesses and lots of elbow grease went into creating the various prototypes that I tested and found somewhat unsatisfactory. Hours were spent at my cluttered drawing desk with pen and paper, scouring the libraries and Internet for inspiration or sitting in front of my computer screen doing 3D models, and also in the workshop undertaking some of the machining myself (with a steep learning curve) when I just couldn’t wait for things to get done.
Mine was probably one of the messier FYPs, which suited me just fine. After machining my hands would be covered with black grime that stubbornly resisted most forms of soap, and after testing my prototypes I’d end up with plenty of dust on my clothes and myself, looking more like a construction worker than an undergraduate student. Still, I was like a pig in the mud, perhaps in more than the figurative sense. Stuffy laboratory experiments and complex theoretical discourses aren’t my kind of thing, and this was right up my alley.
Finally, everything fell into place, and not a moment too soon. Days before the submission deadline for the first draft, the last iteration of my design was finally coming to life as finished products and machined components came pouring in. After putting it all together and doing some last minute testing, I finally had a prototype that could get the job done.
Which is why when I recalled the words of that certain person, who has since left for work elsewhere, I couldn’t help but smile to myself. The war may not be over, but winning each battle brings with it a certain sense of satisfaction, even if there’s more to come.
Making stuff work gets me going. And yes, I think it works.
# posted by BloozeGit @ 10:09 pm 
