MEC1281 Effective Communication Blog

When I saw the module "Effective Communications", I thought to myself “What is the point of this module? I can already communicate effectively with my peers.” However, when professor Brad started going through the content, I realized that I did not know much. There are so many aspects of communicating that are often overlooked. From the words that we speak to our body language to how we type in our emails, there was so much that I was doing wrong. Having eye contact and proper posture can make a big difference in how the audience perceives us in a presentation. I felt that constant peer reviewing and peer feedback make us critique each other’s work and this helps us spot mistakes in our own work which is a skill that is very underdeveloped. I feel that I was very weak in reviewing my work and making improvements in them, but with the rubrics and guidelines given to us, I felt that it was easier to make improvements. This module has taught me how to communicate with my peers i...

Marr, B. (2019, June 5) The Incredible Autonomous Ships Of The Future: Run By Artificial Intelligence Rather Than A Crew https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2019/06/05/the-incredible-autonomous-ships-of-the-future-run-by-artificial-intelligence-rather-than-a-crew/#2fa1d9b66fbf Annotated summary on an article related to SmartNav The article, “The Incredible Autonomous Ships Of The Future: Run By Artificial Intelligence Rather Than A Crew” (Marr, 2019), introduces the concept of autonomous ships, how they are beneficial, and what difficulties they currently face. The author wrote this article to inform the general public about autonomous ships. Autonomous ships are vessels that “can operate on its own without a crew” (Marr, 2019). The author believes that autonomous ships are not the end of manned ships as their applications are not universal. There have been deployments of autonomous ships in calm waters with simple routes and little traffic. Autonomous ships are not ju...

CBInsights(2018, August 28) Massive Cargo Ships Are Going Autonomous. Here Are The Companies & Trends Driving The Global Maritime Industry Forward. https://www.cbinsights.com/research/autonomous-shipping-trends/ Annotated summary of an article related to SmartNav The article, “Massive Cargo Ships Are Going Autonomous. Here Are The Companies & Trends Driving The Global Maritime Industry Forward” (2018), it describes how companies are progressing in autonomous ship technology and how this may “improve safety, lower costs, and reduce energy consumption”.   The article states that autonomous technology is developed by both corporate and start-up companies to be implemented on existing vessels. Autonomous ships will have a positive impact on global trading. Up to 96% of maritime accidents are caused by human errors, which will be reduced with autonomous ships . Autonomous ships will also reduce shipping costs. Up to 30% of a ship’s total costs is due to crew-related ex...

Introduction  This report introduces SmartNav and how it will greatly benefit the shipping industry of ships 300 gross tonnage and larger improving its efficiency and making sea travel safer. This product will greatly benefit seafarers, shipping and transport companies. Background 16 of the world's cargo ships emit as much “lung-clogging sulphur pollution” as all the cars in the world (Pearce, 2009). Planning the shortest travel routes used by cargo ships, operating costs and the pollution produced by cargo ships can be reduced. From 2011 to 2019, there were 25614 ships involved in collisions. (EMSA, 2019) Ship collisions have many factors with human error being the largest factor.  According to the article “Modes of Transportation explained: Which type of cargo and freight transportation is the best?”(Carnarius, 2018), seaborne trading makes up 90% of global trading. Ocean freights are the preferred method of transportation due to being the cheapest method of sh...

The article "This soft robotic gripper can screw in your light bulbs for you" (University of California - San   Diego, 2017) introduces how in 2017, a team of engineers at the University of California San Diego (UCSD) designed and built a soft robotic grip and its features. The soft robotic gripper is able to "pick up and manipulate objects without needing to see them and needing to be trained." (University of California - San Diego, 2017). It has three fingers made of pneumatic chambers with many degrees of freedom allowing manipulation of the held object. A smart sensing skin made of silicon rubber with embedded sensors made of conducting carbon nanotubes covers each of these three fingers. The sensing skin records and detects the nanotubes conductivity changes as the fingers bend. The data is then processed by the control board, which then creates a 3D model of the object the gripper is manipulating. There are similar grippers developed by the Distributed Rob...

The article "This soft robotic gripper can screw in your light bulbs for you"   (University of California - San Diego, 2017) introduces how in 2017, a team of engineers at the University of California San Diego (UCSD) designed and built a soft robotic grip and its features. The soft robotic gripper is able to "pick up and manipulate objects without needing to see them and needing to be trained."   (University of California - San Diego, 2017) . It has three fingers made of pneumatic chambers with many degrees of freedom allowing manipulation of the held object. A smart sensing skin made of silicon rubber with embedded sensors made of conducting carbon nanotubes covers each of these three fingers. The sensing skin records and detects the nanotubes conductivity changes as the fingers bend. The data is then processed by the control board, which then creates a 3D model of the object the gripper is manipulating. There are similar grippers developed by the Distributed...

The article "This soft robotic gripper can screw in your light bulbs for you" introduces how in 2017, a team of engineers at the University of California San Diego (UCSD) designed and built a soft robotic grip and its features. The soft robotic gripper can "pick up and manipulate objects without needing to see them and needing to be trained." It has three fingers made of pneumatic chambers with many degrees of freedom allowing manipulation of the held object. A smart sensing skin made of silicon rubber with embedded sensors made of conducting carbon nanotubes covers each of these three fingers. The sensing skin records and detects the nanotubes conductivity changes as the fingers bend. The data is then processed by the control board, which then creates a 3D model of the object the gripper is manipulating. There are similar grippers developed by the Distributed Robotics Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the Ministry of Higher Educati...