John Bemis
Reporter
Products are omnipresent in modern society. Students drive to school in cars , text their friends with phones, and sit in desks during class; all of these are sought supplies. Though cars, desks and phones are the finished result, engineers of different specializations are responsible to design, fund, manufacture, and market their ideas into reality. Students have learned the in’s and out’s of the engineering practice through the NCHS Engineering class.
Senior Owen Kennelly is currently designing adhesive, scratch-resistant car tail-light covers with custom photo-negative designs that light up with the brake-lights. Owen was inspired as he was examining automobile trends in New Canaan. “I’ve noticed that a lot of people around New Canaan like to customize their cars, and we can certainly help with that,” he said. “Who wouldn’t want to shine the NY Yankees letters or the Sox socks from your tail lights at people behind them?”
The first step in designing a product, Owen says, is taking notice of a flaw in an already existing product. “If you ever think ‘it’s really annoying when…’ or ‘I really wish this did…’ then you’ve already taken the first step into designing a product” he said. Secondly, Owen said, the engineer must address the issue and find a way to improve it. “The next step is to realize that you’ve just identified a problem, and after this, you hopefully have an idea for what the solution might be” he said.
Beyond aesthetics, Owen points out that there is a significant practical use for his product. “It’s not uncommon for a little fender-bender to occur when a huge number of teenage drivers are all backing out of the same parking lot at the same time,” he said. “Josh, one of my classmates, has a huge white scratch in his taillight from backing into a mailbox that will never come off. Ever. We can prevent that.”
Since taking the engineering class , Owen’s understanding of an engineer’s role has expanded. “Before NCHS engineering I though engineers were totally disconnected from the business side of things, but now I’m learning that that’s not always the case” he said. “From what I’ve learned, engineers are like a cross between businessmen and scientists,” Owen said. “They design their creations using math and prior knowledge, before having to find a way to sell it.”
James Zambarano, teacher of NCHS engineering courses, views engineering as a class with the potential to interest any student. “Usually engineering is seen as more focused towards students who are skilled in math and sciences, but my seniors have shown me that the design aspect helps bring in more artistically focused students as well” he said.
Mr. Zambarano said that he encourages his students to send surveys to test the market, because marketing is a key part of a product’s development. “When my students have a really cool idea, I urge them to ask themselves ‘is it sellable?’, which is where the emailed surveys come into play,” he said. “The surveys are a method for our engineers to test the market and get a good idea for who their customers might be, and then determine how they’ll proceed in designing their product”, he said.
Senior Josh Herrmann, a member of Owen’s group in the senior engineering class, said that research is a key part of the engineering process. “We’ve spent a bulk of the process so far looking for a plastic that will contour to the shape of different tail-lights,” he said. “It’s difficult, tedious work, but it has to get done before the product is consumer-ready”.
Senior Mike Dayton, another engineering student, agrees that engineering is falsely penned as a strictly math related pursuit. “Sure, math and science come into play,” he said. “But it’s truly about the ideas that you have in terms of solving a problem, and being able to approach that idea from multiple angles”
Owen, since taking the class, recognizes the importance of engineers in modern America. “The world is absolutely full of problems that need fixing,” he said. “One in ten bridges in the United States is in urgent need of repair. That sounds like a job for an engineer.”
Engineers exist to solve the worlds problems. “When engineers design a product, they build solutions to future problems that haven’t happened yet into the design,” Owen said. “Engineers think ahead so that no one else has to.”
