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Asked by Fionntan Austin to Aislinn, Fiona, Nathan, Padraic, Sinead on 2 Feb 2015.
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Padraic Morrissey answered on 2 Feb 2015:
I think it depends on what type of engineering you’re doing, so I’m sure all of the engineers here will have different answers!
In my job, I spend about half my time thinking about a project on paper (making designs, figuring out if it will work). Then once I’m happy with a design, I’ll get it made and spend the rest of the time in the lab testing and tinkering! That 50/50 balance suits me best, because I like the design aspect of engineering but also really enjoy tinkering with stuff.
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Sinead Quirke answered on 2 Feb 2015:
I spend time thinking and developing a plan. You need to be clear about the problem you want to solve, what are the different options available to solve it, which of these is best option, how much money time and people do you have. It is much easier and quicker to figure things out on paper / in your mind, before you start building and spending money.
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Nathan Quinlan answered on 2 Feb 2015:
I try to do as much as possible on paper. It’s easier to fix problems then than after you’ve built a thing. But after it’s built, you always discover things you didn’t think of – or things you just couldn’t have predicted on paper (or with a computer). I hope that one day I’ll be a good enough engineer that my design will be right first time.
To answer your question – usually, more time tinkering than working on paper. But there’s often computer work in between that takes the most time of all.
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Aislinn Coghlan answered on 3 Feb 2015:
I first do it on paper. When I have worked out all of the nitty gritty stuff I build it on a computer using simulation software.
That way you can tweak things and see if it works the way you planned it.
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