Following the Mythbuster star's visit to the university last summer, Lappeenranta University of Technology (LUT) is putting the finishing touches on its Jamie Hyneman Center.
During a lecture he held on his visit there last year, Hyneman underscored the importance of collaboration in various fields of study, emphasising that science was like a game of experimentation. The institution apparently agreed with his ideas -- and the new centre, which will officially open in the autumn, is their response.
According to the project's manager, Terhi Virkki-Hatakka, the school hopes the 300 square-metre facility will draw students from across different fields from the university and the nearby polytechnic.
Students are free to use the facilities as they please. The center features working spaces and labs for exploring novel uses and applications of materials like electronics, wood, plastics and metal. Creators behind the project say that ideas often hatch in informal circumstances, so the institution wants to give student innovators the power to harness those ideas as they sprout.
[...] The Jamie Hyneman Center will be unveiled on September 29.
https://yle.fi/uutiset/osasto/news/university_seeks_innovators_not_test-takers/10223079
(Score: 4, Interesting) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Saturday May 26 2018, @09:04AM (7 children)
-ore.
When my father studied for his BSEE from '58 to '62, _every_ engineering student learned to use lathes and milling machines.
While it is uncommon for today's engineers to use machine tools on the job, it is quite common for engineers to design metal parts that cannot be fabricated. It really does help to be handy with tools.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 5, Interesting) by suburbanitemediocrity on Saturday May 26 2018, @09:52AM (3 children)
It is one of the huge regrets/disappointments in my life that I did not learn about machine tools until ten years after graduating with an engineering degree. Engineering college teaches almost nothing practical like what's the difference between a tantalum and electrolytic capacitors and where and why would you use each. I guess they do in some specialized classes, but everything I got was theoretical and math heavy. Not necessarily bad if you want to stay in school the rest of your and to homework problems, but largely useless in the real world where some old guy points and says stick an inductor there and your design will work.
Even in high school I probably would not have taken machine class had it been offered due to the stigma, but maybe I would have seen the light earlier.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 26 2018, @10:47AM
In high school (class of '71) my honor student (AP) peers were surprised that I took metal shop, and a few of them questioned my decision. But I would not say that it was enough to warrant the term "stigma". As well as being fun and useful, the shop class also turned out to be an easy A and I learned a great deal from the instructor. I also got to rub elbows with a good bunch of kids who were not college bound. Last time I checked, my old school doesn't offer classes like this anymore, a sad state of affairs.
In a way I've made a career of this -- I own a tiny engineering company that provides specialized software tools. It seems like part of my success is being willing (and able) to talk with people across traditional blue collar & white collar jobs. Often the solution to a problem comes from someone at a low level that isn't being heard by management.
(Score: 3, Touché) by DrkShadow on Saturday May 26 2018, @03:45PM (1 child)
I bet it taught you EE design tools (but only by necessity), current working methods, design pattern that are used throughout industry, how to document and vet your designs, and such. How nitty-gritty do you need? Did you mean to attend a vocational school but end up in a university? Next you're going to start complaining about the requisite English classes.
Even so, I bet you figured it out just fine when you needed to. You could perhaps attribute that to the general success of your education. Or, is it something easy enough that anyone can figure it out? (so why teach it in a university, and why bring it up as a fault that they didn't?)
(Score: 2) by suburbanitemediocrity on Sunday May 27 2018, @02:10AM
Actually more English classes might be better for many people as communication is a huge part of the job, differential equations, not really (my first major was in differential equations, so I know). Some jobs in the field yes, but they are much more rare.
Engineering is much more vocational like than I had envisioned going into it. It's a lot of use of highly specialized software and you really should have a good understanding of what the software does in case it gives you bogus results, but no one AFAIK is siting down with pencil and paper and working out the inertial tensor to a tie rod on a steering system, it's not a valuable use of time which is better spent on supplier methods of testing and shipping protocols. As frequently lamented by a lot of friend from college on their first jobs - an engineer is just a business person who can do math.
I know there are some jobs where you do do technical work (I've had them, they are fun and why I went into the field), but they are few and far between.
(Score: 2) by crafoo on Saturday May 26 2018, @10:55AM
hah! Yeah, I see that all the time too. Also an engineer or two I've heard say unjokingly, "righty-tighty lefty-loosey" under their breath.
It really does help to know how to build things before you go tell other people how to build things for a living. Even just a tiny bit of experience helps.
(Score: 2) by driverless on Sunday May 27 2018, @10:49AM
I dunno, for a place that advertise sitself as LUT (I assume there's also a CLB somewhere) I'd hope they at least teach them how to use synthesis tools, hand-layout hasn't been done since the 1980s.
(Score: 2) by JeanCroix on Wednesday May 30 2018, @01:37PM
(Score: 2) by looorg on Saturday May 26 2018, @11:00AM (2 children)
So endless amount of free C4 and ANFO then? That place is going to be da bomb!
(Score: 4, Informative) by c0lo on Saturday May 26 2018, @11:04AM
Nope, that would be in Adam Savage Centre.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 26 2018, @01:09PM
This is why I got sick of mythbombers. Just blowing up stuff anymore. Initially I thought this could be a fun show combining science and engineering in small scale DIY projects but then it all went to hell.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 28 2018, @08:36AM
The word 'collaboration' does not quite mean what a lot of non-native English speakers think it means.