• Question: How do you usually start your projects?

    Asked by 926arth47 to Alejandra, Ana, Daniel, Sophie, Todd, Zach on 13 Mar 2017.
    • Photo: Todd Burton

      Todd Burton answered on 13 Mar 2017:

      That’s a pretty personal question, as a PhD student you typically earn between £14,000 and £16,000 depending on where your funding comes from. Graduate engineers typically earn between £25,000 to upwards of £30,000, from then on it’s left to wage progression with each year in the company and your ambition and where you want to get to.

    • Photo: Alejandra Aranceta

      Alejandra Aranceta answered on 13 Mar 2017:

      Hi arth,

      Any project starts with an idea! If you have any ideas of projects, write it down, identify what you want to achieve, and more importantly (and what becomes the process of your project) how you want to achieve it. Once this is clear, you need to think what kind of resources you need, do you need special kits of chemicals? or special pieces of software/hardware? And based on this, you can check what you have and what you need. If you have a budget allocated for your project then it’s just a matter of buying the stuff, otherwise, you need to find a way of funding your research (there are charities, societies, foundations that support research).

    • Photo: Daniel Morse

      Daniel Morse answered on 13 Mar 2017:

      Ideas and discussions tend to be the way things start out. Someone will have an idea (doesn’t even have to be specific) that we can discuss… as the discussions happen, we make a plan and look for funding opportunities.

    • Photo: Sophie Cox

      Sophie Cox answered on 13 Mar 2017:

      Hi 926arth47,

      Our projects usually start with a problem. That might is a problem that one of our team has encountered which we then try and find our if other engineers in our field are having. Or it might start with a problem that a doctor is having, which we then see if there is demand for from other doctors.

      Like the other engineers have said when project start off there often needs to be lots of flexibility and that’s really when we as engineers can be most creative with our ideas. I really like to try and draw solutions or do big brainstorms and just throw words/ideas out there and see where we end up 🙂

    • Photo: Ana Gallego

      Ana Gallego answered on 14 Mar 2017:

      A very good question!

      My projects tend to start with an idea. The idea usually comes from a need or a challenge.
      We then do a lot of research about what is existing out there already and the actual market, to understand how to tackle it and find out if it has been done in the past etc.
      After reading a lot, I would most likely start creating some prototypes, either with real materials or in the computer and the 3D printer.
      If it somehow works, I would probably speak to the company’s management to ask if they would like to pursue further with it.

    • Photo: Zach Welshman

      Zach Welshman answered on 15 Mar 2017:

      With a pen and paper:

      Describe your project in 30 words or less.
      Form a question – what are you trying to accomplish buy the end of the project.
      Break down the work into phases
      Give your self a time frame
      Ask yourself why can’y you accomplish the goal in half that time – this shows me where the gaps are in my plan.

      For generating ideas there are lots of tools. Try looking at 6 Hats Thinking (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_Thinking_Hats) and Design Thinking (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Design_thinking)

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