One career that is open to designers and engineers lies in academia. Becoming a professor is no easy task, but Chris Mabey (a past BDR editor) has successfully taken this route. Read on to learn his path and some insights to how you can emulate this journey.
All by Chris Mabey
How to get the most out of an engineering conference
Attending conferences can be nerve racking and exhausting, but they are also exciting and inspiring. When I started my PhD, I thought I would be able to go to many conferences, but a pandemic had other plans. I found myself only attending one in-person conference during my program. With only one chance at an in person conference, I knew I needed to make the most of it.
Why Does the Leaning Tower of Pisa Lean? What Can It Teach Us About Design?
The Leaning Tower of Pisa, or simply the Tower of Pisa, attracts 5 million visitors every year. It certainly is a strange sight to behold as you walk through the city walls. Why does it lean?
6 Tips for Being Successful in Graduate School
Starting a graduate program in mechanical engineering is very different from your undergraduate program. You will take fewer classes, but you will also now have a large part of your time devoted to independent research as you work to complete a thesis or dissertation. This article is meant to help you find successful strategies sooner in graduate school, so hopefully, you can get through your program more efficiently and enjoy it more.
Good Design: Trublue Belay Gate
How is a triangular piece of fabric keeping rock climbers safe at the gym? Read about what makes the Trublue Belay Gate a good design.
Optimizing vs Satisficing: Tips for Product Design and Designing Your Life
Should I optimize my choices or satisfice them? What is satisficing? Find out more about these choices in design and find out how you can become the best in the world at something.
What is the circular economy? How do I design for it?
At the rate humans are using ecological resources, we would need 1.7 earths to achieve sustainability [1]. The major problem here is that we only have one earth. The circular economy aims to reduce the need for the extraction of new resources.
5 Articles to Help You Have a Successful School Year
Another academic year is starting. COVID-19 continues to impact the world of engineering education, but certain things will always remain like CAD, Hooke’s Law, and projects that may seem enormous (Pro tip: start on them now!).
What I Learned From My Biggest Product Development Mistake
I have made a lot of mistakes over my time in product development. These range from small things like missing a dimension on a drawing, to sending the wrong paint code to a factory so a batch of new bikes were about to be painted like confetti. My biggest mistake was made early on in the development of my first product.
Designing Sailboats to go 60 mph
America’s Cup is one of the most interesting sporting events in the world, from a design perspective. No, it isn’t the hardest-hitting sport, and the boats don’t reach Formula 1 speeds. The interesting part is that the winner gets to make the rules, and set the location for the next competition.
Should we design things we don’t understand?
Over the last few years you have probably heard the words machine learning (ML) and AI thrown around more and more. Using tools like Microsoft Azure Learning Studio you can get an ML algorithm running in a few minutes without ever writing any code. Is it ethical to design products with tools I don’t fully understand?
Designing Your Year
It’s that time when many of us reflect on what we have accomplished and what we might like to change in our lives. Whether or not you set new year’s resolutions there are important parts of the design process that can help you design a better year for yourself.
Five Articles From 2020 You May Have Missed
Some of the design review staff’s favorite articles of the year that you may have missed. 2020 was certainly a year like no other, but these articles provide design lessons to help you any year.
Most Read Articles of 2020
The most read articles of the year! Take a few minutes and see what you may have missed and how these articles can make you a better designer.
Megatrends and Product Development
How can we know what changes will take place over the coming decades? Yes, we won’t know everything about the future world but long term trends that will affect all areas of life can be known, and then used to estimate future conditions. These are called megatrends.
The Winner of the BYU Design Review Competition is...
We had so many great submissions for the first BYU Design Review Competition! From everyone here at the BYU Design Review we want to say thank you to everyone who participated! We had a lot of fun reviewing your entries and seeing all the creative designs you came up with.
The Peer Review Process and Why it Matters for Design
With attacks on the scientific community happening everyday, I thought it would be helpful for people to know more about the peer review process. Yes, the peer review process does have problems, but currently it is our best bet at getting to the facts. Find out why this matters to you as a designer.
5 Tips for Learning Difficult Material
Learning is an essential skill as an engineer. New technology is always emerging and the skills needed for a particular design are always changing. Learning new skills isn’t always easy, especially when you progress past what Youtube can teach you.
Capstone Success Tips
Seniors in engineering around the country are about to start their capstone experience. For many of them it will be the biggest project they have ever undertaken. As a previous capstone student and coach here are some tips to help you be successful.
Five Articles to Get You Ready For School
The new school year is right around the corner. Succeeding in engineering coursework is no easy feat. Here’s some articles to make it a little easier for you.