Meet the member waiting for?
Simpson, had been working with the IED and succeeded in accrediting the industrial design course with the Engineering Council. Of course this accreditation was not retrospective, but the almost identical course structure undoubtedly helped my application. Dr Simpson proposed me as a member of the Institution in 2002, and the IED were thorough in their scrutiny of both my first and second degrees. In March 2003, less than seven years after graduation, I was elected as MIED and registered with the Engineering Council as a Chartered Engineer.
‘Engineering design’ is, to my mind, an extraordinarily broad subject. Having worked with bicycles, one may have been forgiven for thinking that it is similar to mechanical design. However, witness the endless form/function
argument that exists between design and engineering, and the compromises each foists on the other. In my mind, whilst the form of an object does not have to reflect its function, the form should be viewed as part of the function – to a greater or lesser extent, depending on the item. But the scope of engineering design covers much more ground than this, and the Brunel-taught skill set has been put to good use in areas such as computer programming, artwork origination, information systems, network architecture, business process engineering – and still, at times, working with machine tools to get the
Guvnor
job done. All businesses require design input in all these subjects and I was fortunate enough to be able to help Pashley Cycles (and, later, The Moulton Bicycle Company) with all of these – and much more.
The bicycle is a pure mixture of engineering and ergonomics. With its mechanical guts are exposed, it hides nothing. I find it to be an uncompromising master. There is nothing the
23
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36