Author: Helen Lockett
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Design for repair and maintainability
Recently, I have been thinking about design for repair and maintainability. The three ‘R’s of sustainability remind us to Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, but ‘Reuse’ can be a challenge when so many products are not designed with maintenance or repair in mind. Home printers are a good example, with huge numbers of printers ending up in […]
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Using remote and onscreen laboratories in online learning
As many Universities need to quickly move their learning online during the current coronavirus crisis, we have received many questions about our remote and virtual laboratories. This blog collects together useful information about our OpenSTEM Labs and provides links to online resources. This blog is a working document and was last updated on 20th November […]
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The Design Group at TEDx – Part 2: Imagine what’s next… the future of aircraft manufacturing is additive
On 8th November 2019 I participated in TEDx Open University. When I sent off my audition video last summer, I had no idea how much time and effort it would take to develop a 10 minute talk! I applied to speak at TEDx because I was keen to share my research on sustainable manufacturing with […]
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Digital Twins
‘Digital twins’ are in the headlines this year and I have attended two events focusing on digital twins in the last few weeks. The first was in the context of the built environment and the second in aerospace and it was interesting to compare the approaches. A digital twin is a digital replica of a physical system […]
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Additive Manufacturing – helping to reduce waste in aircraft production
If you’ve read all the hype about 3D printing in recent years, you would be forgiven for thinking that we should all be driving around in 3D printed cars and 3D printing our own furniture by now. Of course, in reality any new manufacturing process takes time to move into production, and after the hype […]
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What’s new in aircraft design?
This week I attended the Royal Aeronautical Society 6th Aircraft Structural Design conference (https://www.aerosociety.com/events-calendar/6th-aircraft-structural-design-conference/) hosted at ‘We the Curious’ in Bristol. The conference aimed to address the challenges faced by designers of next generation aircraft, including environmental constraints, advanced manufacturing and materials as well as new design approaches. Smart and efficient mobility with reduced environmental impact […]
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Reflecting on a hundred years of engineering design education
I have always known that my grandfather Thomas Clinch was a railway engineer, but I was only recently given some reports from his engineering degree at Imperial College (1921 – 1923). The first thing I noticed about the reports is how beautifully presented they were – everything written in longhand script, with accurate hand-drawn figures […]
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Creativity and collaboration as a means to engage women in engineering?
Last week I attended Inside Government’s “Promoting Women in STEM” forum in Manchester. It was great to spend a day with like-minded people, discussing the challenges associated with achieving greater gender diversity in STEM related jobs and education. Helen Wollaston, Chief Executive of the Women in Science and Engineering campaign (https://www.wisecampaign.org.uk/ ) highlighted the leaky […]