• Question: are you ever inspired by someone else's project or do you stick to yourself?

    Asked by Nads to Shruti, Mark, Faranak, Douglas, Charlene, Alistair on 11 Mar 2019.
    • Photo: Shruti Turner

      Shruti Turner answered on 11 Mar 2019:

      Have you ever heard the saying “there’s no such thing as an original idea”? I think that is very much what engineering is like. Seeing other people’s work allows you to make yours better, both because you see the great things that other people have done but also because you see the mistakes that they have made and you can learn from them.
      I think that there are many projects (both engineering and otherwise) that I can and have learned from to help me see a different side to my own work or apply the techniques to my project. Whilst I spend a lot of time working on my project alone, I wouldn’t dream of saying that it is all mine and I got no help from other sources!

    • Photo: Faranak Bahrami

      Faranak Bahrami answered on 11 Mar 2019:

      There are many interesting projects around that you can always get inspired by. they might not be necessary the same as yours, but you get inspired by them and makes you think about the things that maybe you didn’t consider before, so you’ll get new ideas on how you can do yours.

    • Photo: Alistair McConnell

      Alistair McConnell answered on 11 Mar 2019:

      We build on the shoulder of giants in academia and engineering.
      You want to avoid ever copying another persons work, but building on their work is how progress can be made and you always want to avoid redesigning the wheel.
      Many projects can give you the inspiration to begin with and then you develop your own work from there.

    • Photo: Mark Bentley

      Mark Bentley answered on 11 Mar 2019:

      All the time.

      I’m always looking at things, a hand rail, to bit of scientific research equiptment, a kettle, a tree….

      Shruti put it very well there are very few new ideas, we pull inspiration from all over, well I do, I never copy someones idea but a mechanism design you have seen somewhere mixed with a dodad from here and there and a sprinkling of shiny things and you have a new device.

      Be curious Nads, look around you all the time and work out how things work!!!

    • Photo: Charlene Chung

      Charlene Chung answered on 11 Mar 2019:

      All the time and everyday.
      There are so many different thoughts and perspectives in the work place that is it a massive pot of influence, inspiration and motivation 🙂

    • Photo: Douglas Wragg

      Douglas Wragg answered on 12 Mar 2019:

      It was one of Henry Royce’s quoted sayings – “Take the best, and make it better.”
      I think that engineers all over the world look at other examples of engineering and think – “I can do better than that.”

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