DoD Ch. 20

       Brooks begins talking about where great designers come from.  He mentions Schon's ideas on Technical Rationality.  Brooks believes in order to really create something awesome you must have a good design education. Only by designing many things will one learn from experiences.  Then brooks talks about a dual-ladder. Plans keep designers' minds broad and on point. He also says sometimes outside resources can open designers minds.  For many jobs only the right designers will work.  A secure manager is very important in a design.  A good design technique is to sketch ideas and have them reviewed. Designers should also learn from others past experiences, duhh. Brooks concludes talking about good designer training techniques.

DoD Ch. 19

     Chapter nineteen begins talking about great designs.  Brooks continues to talk about well known products.  Then he talks about the conservative process of a great design. There are also many compromises throughout a product design. The important part of design is to hold off just long enough to make a great design and talk about smaller issues later. Then other products are made similarly. Improved designs raise the  floor of a design; however, only genius designers can raise the roof. Then brooks talks about Steve Jobs a little and his great designs. Finally he concludes with a few sentences on conceptional integrity.

DoD Ch. 18

     This chapter starts off about the way the mind is a path into the brain and comparing that idea to machine-mind learning in hopes of implementing a Dream System to build houses.  This method used for building houses would start with 2-D printing. Then Brooks brings in the 3-D aspect. Then this smart design moves onto the exterior views of a home. Next he talks about the workbook view, aka the progress and action plans. Brooks then talks about how computers would have to get into the specifications of such a project. Finally Brooks talks about the generalization view. And he concludes with some statements about the feasibility of such a Dream System.

DoD Ch. 17

     Brooks enters section four of his book with the idea of creating a dream program to create houses and buildings. He mention having the help of his students from UNC Chapel Hill in designing this idea.  They used a top down approach. He refers to his program as the Dream System and demonstrates how it would breakdown someone's requests for their house using a model library. Brooks then writes about the hazards of this method. He related the verb-noun analogy to building a house, interesting. He mentions that since voice is the only way to portray commands, the Dream System with have a voice recognizer with general verbs.  Then he goes further in depth about the nouns. Furthermore, he talks about 2-D sketching.  Then he talks about 3-D sketching. Then he brings in adverbs. Next he talks about the design for the different points of views, interior, exterior, ect. Nearing the end he sums up his points and points of view issue.  Then finally concludes with the depth perception topic.

DoD Ch. 16

     This chapter is about design's trajectories and rationales. Brooks begins talking about linearizing the Web of knowledge, or understanding the different paths of a typical design. Then Brooks talks about design trees that represent trajectories.  He then shows a few examples of design trees. Then he goes more in-depth about the design process being more than just fulfilling requirements. Brooks breaks down all the different options that arise during a design and explains the important of alternative paths. The he bring up the difference between trees of design versus trees of decisions. He continues on talking about the different types of design. Then he mentions some alternative tools commonly used in design processes. Then he talks about the importance and growing use of Compendium. Nearing the end Brooks mentions some tantalizing tools.  In conclusion, Brooks explains the importance of DRed and RR and BAE systems.

DoD Ch. 15

     Brooks begins this chapter talking about how design has become far more complex and less hands on compared to original designers like Edison and Ford. He continues to talk about the effects of this "divorce of design." Next Brooks talks about the remedies to these arising problems.  These remedies are, "Use-scenario experience, Close interaction with users via incremental development and iterative delivery, concurrent engineering, and education of designers." All of these walk through the necessary steps of what designers need to do.

DoD Ch. 14

     Brooks begins chapter 14 by talking about mistakes and how professional mistakes have much dire consequences than amateur mistakes, i.e. bridge collapses. The he cites JCL as the worst computer language ever created and used by IBM's operating systems.  He goes further into what JCL is and how its flawed.  He comments on the flawed complier and necessary information to knowJCL is vast and no one really knows how to use it. He mentions there are too few verbs, almost no branching, no iteration, and no clean subroutines. Brooks then talks about how JCL became into existence and why its flaws were overlooked. Finally he concludes with the lessons learned: Study failure more closely that success, don't be overconfident with success, and always consider assumptions and environments of designs.

DoD Ch. 13

     Brooks starts the chapter talking about the roles of exemplars.  He mentions many designs are not all-new but rather based around old designs and made better. The next page talks about computer designers and how professionals have a wider range of exemplars than amateur designers. In order to study rationales of exemplars, one must study the technical papers and books about products, not just the basic manual.  Then Brooks talks about the evolution from first-gen computers to third-gen computers.  Then came virtual memory, the minicomputer, and the microcomputer. Brooks next writes about how authors can improve exemplars and write about them.  This practice takes careful criticism and in depth analysis.  Then Brooks talks about how designers must not be lazy but must have pride and originality in order to really create new exemplars.

DoD Ch. 12

     Brooks opens the chapter talking about esthetics and how people have been decorating things for centuries.  Then he related this topic to programming and mathematics.  The word parsimony and structural clarity arise in Brooks discussion about programming elegance.  Brooks continues discussing orthogonality and propriety issues in computer architecture.  He hits on the importance of structural clarity as well.  Then he moves onto styles of design. In his style section, he hit many topics like the importance of details, minimization of mental effort, clarity, and consistency. Then Brooks talks about the properties of style, i.e. specification, evolution, and consistency. He continues with some guidelines about how to achieve good style. These guidelines are make conscious judgements, practice, practice, practice, revise, and choose designers carefully.

DoD Ch. 11

     Brooks begins by talking about constraints challenge the designer.  Then he talks about the different types of constraints and describes each one: Real, Obsolete, Intentional artificial, and constraints misperceived as real.  Obsolete constraints come from using old technology. Misperceived constraints are constraints that are subtle and hard to see. Brooks further explains these types of constraints as false constraints.  Then he goes on to talk about general-purpose vs special-purpose constraints. An example is designing a 100 sq-ft house versus designing a 1000 sq-ft house for a family with 2 children in NC facing north.  Brooks then talks more about these general-purpose vs special-purpose computer architecture. Brooks finishes talking about software and spatial design.

DoD Ch. 10

     Chapter ten starts with opening a discussion about budget resources, cost ratios, and many other budgeted critical resources.  Then Brooks talks about the specific budgeted resources for specific careers, i.e. architects, comp scientist, ect. Then he talks about how budget resources have changes over the years with new technology. Next the chapter describes who, how, and why certain people must be in charge of budget control. The chapter ends with Books talking about Ken Iverson's award winning APL language.

DoD Ch. 9

     Chapter nine deals with user models and who really puts in the effort in the beginning of a design. Then Brooks talks about team design and the use of models in complex design and how several factors play into design models.  He goes on to talk about how sometimes facts about a product aren't known until the design is underway or almost finished.  This is why we "guess" or "postulate" attributes of design.  This assumptions will have to be defined in the end by the chief designer.  Brooks concludes the chapter by saying that more definite assumptions are better than vague assumptions.

DoD Ch. 8

     Brooks begins chapter eight describing the two sides of creating a complex design from a rationalist and empiricist point of view. Then he talks about how hard it is to design a perfect program in one try, nearly impossible. He continues on about how formal proofs of correctness work in software but not for other types of physical design. Then he writes about the several types of testing that is used instead of proofs for physical designs.  In conclusion, the more sophisticated the analysis and testing, the more complete and perfect a design is.

Conflict of Interest

        In the Drug article http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/sep/21/drugs-industry-scandal-ben-goldacre , a drug, Reboxetine, was used to replace placebo pills.  The drug was published as being better by drug reps and it was even approved by the MHRA.  The people publishing this drug had an interest in"making money." However doctors have an interest of "making patients better."  So the conflict was that making money put patients at risk. There was actually substancial evidence showing that Reboxetine was not as good as placebo pills and had worse side effects. This evidence was, however, not published due to the fact that the drug wouldn't be able to be marketed.  All in all you can see how this conflict of interest was very bad for patients and caused big problems.

DoD Ch. 7

    Chapter seven begins with a discussion about telecollaboration and why it is such a necessity in todays society since peoples skill sets can be so rare.  Then Brooks talks about the Airbus collaboration that span across four countries. The nest page discusses the collaboration on the IMB System/360 Computer Family, which has been talked about several times, and how it was harder to collaborate because of primitive technology. Then Brooks writes about how to make telecollaboration work. Next he tells us how important smooth flowing, well-defined interfaces are. Then Brooks talks about the importance in face-time and low tech communication like the post letter. He then explains the levels of important technologies for collaboration, i.e. letter, telephone, document sharing and videoconferencing. Then Books mentions that videoconferencing actually didn't grow as rapidly as expected dues to low frame rates and bandwidth limitations. Brooks concludes talking about how collaboration tools are used mostly among educators and not in the design world.

DoD Ch. 6

    Brooks starts this chapter by introducing collaboration among design groups.  He mentions several designers that have created spectacular works on their own. Now designs have switched from solo to teams for the sake of being able to understand and process more information and not have mistakes. Then Brooks talks about mastering sophisticated technology. Brooks explains how being first to market gives you the opportunity to make mad profit.  Next he talks about the costs of teams, i.e. partitioning cost, learning/teaching cost, control change, and communication cost. Brooks then hits on the subject of conceptual integrity and negotiation.  Next he writes about one user interfaces that have to be designed well enough for everyone to understand them.  Then he talks about how teams brainstorm ideas. Then  he talks about how competition can be a replacement of collaboration because so many people compete for one goal and have to make several designs. Brooks then talks about how graphing and reviewing works among groups. Then he talks about the fantasy concept of design and how sometimes collaboration doesn't work. He concludes talking about how awesome two person teams can be in design processes.  And finally he related these ideas to computer scientists.

Project Design Pages

AutoView

< http://aux.coe.utsa.edu/~eesenior/fall2011/Team01/index.html >

Description: This is a project that detects free parking spaces. These guys built an iOS App and a mini model as a prototype.

Acess - Autonomously Controlled Energy Storage System

< http://aux.coe.utsa.edu/~eesenior/spring2011/Team04/ >

Description:  This design is as it sounds a energy efficiency controlling system for things that charge. This project is awesome because of its design webpage.  We are considering using a similar design.

DoD Ch. 5

Brooks first talks about the dominant design and how too many designs can be misleading and not useful.  Then he talks about Maher, Poon, and Boulanger's model that "evolves" on both sides, quote "The problem space and solution space co-evolve together...." He then disagrees and thinks that even this evolution model isn't sufficient. Brooks also mentions a Whirligig model and Raymond's Bazaar model that involve cycles and a cathedral-like design, respectively.  He goes in depth about the bazaar model saying that this model consists of many vendors and many buyers who vote, and in turn, reward vendors. This model typically produces a much more superior product since so many people develop it.  Brooks then mentions that the bazaar model works so well because the producers are the users.  Finally Brooks sums up this chapter with the Boehm Spiral model.  This model is strong and pushes forward ideas. Lastly Brooks summarizes chapters 2-5 and refers to each model with small notes about them.

DoD Ch. 4

     Brooks starts off with a story about the construction of the Comanche helicopter, and its high standards.  He then writes about how many wishes and requirements are common of a design, but usually these desires aren't possibly to reach.  Then he goes on about how requirements change while design choices are made.  He also mentions a Requirements Traceability Matrix that keeps tracks of requirements.  Next Brooks talks about how the world is controlled by "pride, greed, and sloth," which is fairly obvious. For this reason the world needs contracts, which Brooks writes about next.  The last few pages describe the ideal model for a contract and also how relations work among contracted clientele.  

DoD Ch3.

     Brooks starts by talking about a past life experience where he was instructed to design and refine a database. He had to refine the database several times to fulfill the clients needs, which were not clear from the beginning. He refers to it as goal iteration, and he considers it to be a key aspect of design. He then refers back to the tree diagram, saying that one can't always map out the whole tree diagram before beginning the design process. Each tree diagram node has many parallel possibilities. Brooks then talks about how estimations play a role in design. Next he discusses the "desiderata" for a while and how constraints constantly change due to discoveries and such. Brooks goes on to discuss how some designers actually don't work the ways previously stated.  On pg. 14 he talks about the waterfall model and its backward flowing arrows. Brooks finally addresses his opposers ideas on the design process.  And in conclusion, he states that designers are right-brained, spatial thinkers that use oversimplified models to help with extremely difficult designs.

Definition of Design

The simple definition that Brooks uses comes from the oxford dictionary:

"Design"- To form a plan or scheme of to arrange and conceive in the mind for a later execution.  

DoD Ch. 2

This chapter described how dependent design is on theory.  The process of design is explained through an example with a tree diagram.  Then the author talked about Herbert Simon and his theories of AI. He also refers to algorithm and their usefulness.  He goes on about how tree diagrams are simple and easy to follow; if the design fails you can go back one step.

D.o.D. Ch.1

     This first chapter introduced the idea of design to the reader.  It looked into the philosophical and deeper meanings of design using philosophers like Aristotle, Leonardo da Vinci, Plato, and many more.  Frederick Brooks Jr. did a good job of defining the concepts of design.  He refereed to the era of the original architecture developed by IBM in the 60's. Then he talked about how valuable design concepts are.  He also briefly went into the process of design and cited many designers ideas of design from 1450 to 1990.  In conclusion Brooks introduced the "Kinds of Design," which he will look further into throughout the book. Essentially this was an introduction chapter...go figure.

Project Demo Evaluations

ESE116 "The Clock" - 85 This clock reader seems quite simple to design with a sensor and micro-controller.

Flashlight Follower - 93 The design worked well but was a bit simple.

ECar - 85 They didn't even test it on the ground.

Dance with your Hands - 100 Awesome job combining software/hardware of a kinect to droid platform.

Pokemon Stadium 350 - 100 Very interesting design project combining classic gaming and robots.

Rhex Box - 100 The box worked well in keeping the player in the middle. Successful job.

Automatic Chess player - 100 If the project beats the player; either way it was a great design and product.

Sign Master 9000 - 100 Useful design in teaching sign language.

Kinecto Vision - 100 Great simple idea that worked; could be worth millions.

FPS 360 - 100 Great FPS design and it worked well.

Universal Glove Controller - 95 Smart use of a gyroscope to control a car. 

Green Engineering - 95 Well programmed and worked to my knowledge.

R.A.V.E.N - 93 Very complex software program and hardware building. Even if it didn't work it was a good try.

High Speed Water Purification system for Developing countries - 95 Great use of renewable energy and good idea. Although it looks quite expensive.

Street Solutions - 93  This design seemed to be efficient but would be hard to test and really find out results without making it live.

Energy Performance Rating of UPenn - 95  Useful idea for energy saving.

AccuEnergy - 93  Sounds like a good idea, but hard to say how important it would be.

Electronic Pitch Trainer - 90 Interesting design, helpful for many people that could understand the software.

AutoPlug - 87  I don't know how practical this would be for individuals, but I guess for dealerships it would be useful.

Stadium Express - 95 Awesome idea. I don't know why this hasn't been implemented earlier besides the fact that cell reception in a stadium is very difficult.

Urban Energy Consumers as Solar Producers - 90 Useful idea for better energy.

Economic Network Model - 85  Seemed very abstract and not to hard to do.

Sustainable Rainforest Solutions - 90 Looks like it took some time and effort. Agree with their ambitions to save the rain forest.

Spam Detection on Wikipedia - 95  This is a necessary application for such an active website.

Wind's Up! - 95  These ideas need to be worked on by smart individuals such as these.



Detection of Pneumonia by Computer-Aided Auscultation - 95 This was a bit over my head, but sounds like a good design.



Intelligent Information Systems for Technical Trading Analysis - 93 Sounds like a money making program.


Laser Cutter - 100  Someone must have had some awesome funding for this project.  Looks professionally built.

CIMG107 - 80  Not sure the point of the project; it did do a flip.


ADC Lab - 80 Don't understand what the design really is..


NXT Line Follower - 80 I designed something exactly like this in CS102 my Freshman year.

What is Design?

    When I think of design, I think of the process of creating a new product or plan for a new product using techniques like blueprints, circuit diagrams, and ect.  Design processes usually use software in the beginning before moving onto hardware testing.  This process takes research and trial and error in order to reach a working prototype.  Once you have a prototype, you then have to work out the kinks and make the prototype a fully functioning safe product.

   This is my idea of "design."

Why E.E?

     When asked why Electrical Engineering, I always have a different answer because there are many reasons.  Since I was a kid, my parents provided me with all sorts of toys that involved problem solving and building techniques.  These days were the foundation to my love for engineering.  Then as I traveled further into my studies in high school, I focused on math and science.  If there was one thing I could change about my school experiences, it would be starting higher level maths and sciences earlier, but that is beside the point.  In my senior year I took A.P. Physics.  By this time in my life, I knew I wanted to study engineering in college; the question was, "what kind of engineering." I found the answer during the last month of my physics class. For this month, we studied and worked with Lego Robotics kits.  This required programming and the basic knowledge leading into electrical engineering.  Therefore I chose E.E. as my major and have enjoyed it's challenges sense.
     As I reach my last year of college, I have a want for more knowledge. I would like to travel out west to a respected college and pursue my graduate degree (possibly in micro-electronics). After obtaining this degree I will have more of an idea as to what I would like to do after Grad school. After graduating with a Masters, I expect to get a job paying in the 65K and up range.