On 22 September 2021, a virtual rapid prototyping workshop titled, ‘Design Something that Solves a Problem in Your House’ was participated by Mechanical Engineering students and academic staff from the Faculty of Engineering and Technology (FET). The workshop was co-organised by the Industrial Linkage Committee (ILC) and Mechanical Engineering programme (ME) in collaboration with James Dyson Foundation.
The session was kicked off by a welcoming speech by Dr. Lim Boon Kian, the Programme Coordinator of the Mechanical Engineering programme in expressing his appreciation to two invited speakers: Ms. Teyo Zhe Yong, the Graduate Fluid Dynamics Engineer, and Mr. Haikal Isa, the Design Engineer from James Dyson Foundation. In the presentation, the speakers shared their knowledge and experiences as part of the 6,000 engineers and scientists working in Dyson.
Each year, the James Dyson Award, an international design award is held to inspire young inventors in solving real-world problems. The ninety-minute workshop was facilitated with the objective of preparing the engineering undergraduate students for the international design competition in near future. A total of ten individual groups have participated in designing a solution to address the core theme of the workshop.
Mr. Haikal also explained to the participants that the engineering design process involves multiple stages of review starting from the identification of problems to the final design solution. Each group of students was given five minutes to present their design solutions which Ms. Teyo and Mr. Haikal helped to facilitate the designing process by providing constructive feedback for improvements so the students are ready to take up the challenge to participate in the James Dyson Award in the coming year. The faculty expresses its gratitude for the support provided by James Dyson Foundation to make the virtual workshop a success and is looking forwards to more opportunities for collaboration with James Dyson Foundation in the future.
