A blind girl lost everything, but a boyfriend. One day, he asked her “If you could restore vision in the future, would you marry me?” She said yes. Later she got two transferred retina but refused his proposal because she found him blind. He replied “Take care of my eyes.”

Picture from http://www.healthspablog.org/2008/12/31/tips-on-behalf-of-the-healthy-and-beautiful-eyes/

In order to know more about Industrial Engineering (IE), I did some research of famous Industrial Engineers. They are pioneers and trail blazers. They made the world spinning more efficiently and improved the standard of living of human beings. They gave me inspirations, motivations, and courage to work hard on my interest field of study at the Top IE University in the United States–Georgia Institute of Technology. They are Henry Ford, Frank Bunker Gilbreth, Sr. and Hywel Murrell.

Although Henry Ford was not graduated from an IE School, he contributed a significant work in the field of Industrial Engineering. When we talk about car industry, Ford is a high frequency word. Being the second largest company in car industry, Ford experienced ups and downs from 1903. Henry Ford, the founder of the Ford Motor Company, made the company a success after he became the chief engineer. Henry Ford realized his dream of producing an automobile that was reasonably priced, reliable, and efficient with the introduction of the Model T in 1908. This vehicle initiated a new era in personal transportation. It was easy to operate, maintain, and handle on rough roads, immediately becoming a huge success.

Here is the industrial engineering work done by Henry Ford. By 1918, half of all cars in America were Model Ts. To meet the growing demand for the Model T, the company opened a large factory at Highland Park, Michigan, in 1910. Here, Henry Ford combined precision manufacturing, standardized and interchangeable parts, a division of labor, and, in 1913, a continuous moving assembly line. Workers remained in place, adding one component to each automobile as it moved past them on the line. Delivery of parts by conveyor belt to the workers was carefully timed to keep the assembly line moving smoothly and efficiently. The introduction of the moving assembly line revolutionized automobile production by significantly reducing assembly time per vehicle, thus lowering costs. Ford’s production of Model Ts made his company the largest automobile manufacturer in the world.

Henry Ford’s industrial engineering idea of improving car manufacturing efficiency had an impact on Japanese car industry also. His word and dedication pushed the development of car industry. With his work, we are able to have our own cars to travel, to go shopping and to go to work. He inspired me that there is a space to improve manufacturing efficiency.

From the case of Frank Bunker Gilbreth, Sr., I found that sometimes I could give up the well-paid work to pursue the more developed idea of improving efficiency that may be helpful in the future. Gilbreth discovered his vocation when, as a young building contractor, he sought ways to make bricklaying (his first trade) faster and easier. This grew into collaboration with his eventual spouse, Lillian Moller Gilbreth, who studied the work habits of manufacturing and clerical employees in all sorts of industries to find ways to increase output and make their jobs easier. He and Lillian founded a management consulting firm, Gilbreth, Inc., focusing on such endeavors. However in 1912, Frank Bunker Gilbreth, Sr. gave up his firm and started the research of management engineering. From 1912 to 1917, he set a experiment firm at Providence. He gained the title of “the expert of management.” His work includes the improvement of operation and predicted timeline for operation. Those works are still significant in manufacturing industry. He gave up his well-paid job. However, he made the whole word applying his work and to improve the life of people.

Hywel Murrell, a British psychologist, promoted the concepts of ergonomics. Ergonomics (or human factors) is the scientific discipline concerned with the understanding of interactions among humans and other elements of a system, and the profession that applies theory, principles, data and methods to design in order to optimize human well-being and overall system performance. The coining of the term Ergonomics, however, is now widely attributed to Hywel Murrell, at the 1949 meeting at the UK’s Admiralty, which led to the foundation of The Ergonomics Society. He used it to encompass the studies in which he had been engaged during and after the II World War.

Hywel Murrell reminds me that IE is always related to human factors. In order to increase productivity, we have to focus not only on machines, but also on human factors. We have to ensure the health status of workers and their well-beings. For example, industrial engineers should consider necessary set-ups to prevent repetitive strain injuries, which can develop over time and can lead to long-term disability. Productivity serves people, but well-beings of workers should be the priority at least.

Ever since I was young, I heard about the stories of Jimmy Carter, 39^th President of the United States who was the 2002 Nobel Peace Laureate. He was a great leader who focused on and promoted human rights all over the world. One of his achievements was promoting the restoration of diplomatic ties between the United States and China in 1979. In addition he is an alumnus of Georgia Institute of Technology.

Established in 1885, Georgia Institute of Technology is among the top public universities in the United States of America. Among its many colleges, the college of engineering of Georgia Institute of Technology ranks among the top 10 undergraduate engineering colleges, with many prestigious scholars, rich learning resources and well-equipped facilities.

College of Engineering is my top choice. The primary impetus is due to my enthusiasm with mathematics and physics. The two-year study at the science faculty of Hwa Chong Institution College Section, I have established a solid foundation for engineering with university physics in level higher three (H3). By participating national and international mathematics competitions and obtaining commendable results, I have come to realize that engineering is the most appropriate choice for me.

Among all the disciplines of college of engineering, School of Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISyE) is my top choice as ISyE offers the best engineering education as well as management. Moreover, what attracts me is also ISyE’s two major objectives–saving average cost for the company and improving productivity of industries. In a world with increasing demand for goods and services, improving productivity is a challenging issue. Furthermore, the ever increasing oil prices and resource exhaustion have resulted in worsened supply-push inflation in certain countries such as China and India. The quality of life of the people who are suffering inflation will be affected, with an urgent need of ISyE talents globally to cope with the current industrial and economic problems.

The curriculum of ISyE of Georgia Institute of Technology is holistic in the sense that it consists of core module and elective courses for different ISyE programs. Besides basic subject courses such as physics, chemistry, mathematics and required program subjects, there are over 30 technical and unrestricted electives such as ISyE Electives and Free Electives. The list of courses may look confusing because some courses seem to overlap with other courses such as ISyE 2027 Probability with Applications and ISyE 2028 Basic Statistical Methods. However, I realized that specialization is the reason for the detailed course options. Specialization in only one area can bring about maximum efficiency according to the law of comparative advantage in economics. Hence, an outstanding college should make students unique by providing different courses for them to specialize in their areas of study. Thus the variation of choosing courses attracts me to study in ISyE department. I am glad that the ISyE department is capable to shape me as a unique engineer.

photo was taken by Qiming Zhang

I supposed to present this during the Wednesday Class. However, the time was not enough for our class. I decided to post a blog here for you to understand more bout time-lapse.

Frequency at which film frames are captured (frame rate) is much lower than that which will be used to play the sequence back. When replayed at normal speed, time appears to be moving faster and thus lapsing. This is Time-Lapse Photography.

Basically, the equipment set-up contained a tripod, a Digital SLR (Single Lens Reflex) camera and a cell phone timer.

For things that move very slow, (like the cloud) we decided to take a picture per 15 seconds. And the total time was about one to one and half hours. Thus we have 240-360 pictures.

Usually, the pictures were to play about 24-30 frames per second. Thus, for one scene (or situation), we have 10 to 15 seconds of video clip. However, we could  repeat one scene once or twice, because we believe that the good way to emphasize our point is to repeat it.

For things that move faster, (like the people in a walk way.) we decided to take a picture per 5 seconds for about 30 minutes. It could produce the same effect as the previous trial.

For accurate timing, we were using cell phone timer. It was not 100% accurate, but it was the best that I can do.

But greater accuracy in time-increments and consistency in the exposure rates of successive frames are better achieved through a device that connects to the camera’s shutter system (camera design permitting) called an intervalometer. However, an intervalometer is expensive and not applicable.

I perceived Symphony as a form of music before reading A Whole New Mind written by Daniel Pink. After reading the Symphony Chapter of the book, I found that there is more meaning behind the word Symphony. Symphony was defined as the ability to put together the pieces. From this definition, I tried to figured out that it is about the R-Directed Thinking.

I did a self-portrait from one of my pictures taken in 2010. During the drawing, I probably feel the meaning of relationship. When drawing the self-portrait, I found that positions of eyes, and the ability to see the whole picture of myself are vital to draw the self-portrait. I took the advice from the book that “the distance from the center line of the eyes to the bottom of the chin is equal to the distance from the center lin of the eyes to the top of the head.” Here are my pictures and my self-portrait.

I am taking a psychology class. From some psychological  experiments about our brains,  I learnt some physical changes of human’s right hemisphere when we are doing R-directed thinking. I felt that I am able to understand the content of the book better. Our Right -hemisphere is good at geometry and mental rotation of shapes. Thus, Drawing the picture was truly used our R-Directed Thinking.

This is my Symphony? Where is yours?