andreweverett360 Book Review, Creativity

Making Art Work

Making Art Work: How Cold War Engineers and Artists Forged a New Creative Culture

by W. Patrick McCray

This book picks up where C.P. Snow left off in his 1959 book The Two Cultures. Snow was a British chemist turned novelist who had scientist friends and literary friends, but he observed that these groups were two separate cultures who rarely communicated with each other. Patrick McCray is a history professor at UC Santa Barbara. In Making Art Work, he studies several endeavors to bridge this divide, primarily in the 1960s, but also more recently. Specifically the book is about collaborations between artists and engineers.  Continue reading “Making Art Work” →

andreweverett360 Book Review, STEM

101 Things I Learned in Engineering School

101 Things I Learned in Engineering School

by John Kuprenas with Matthew Frederick

Engineering involves the application of mathematics, physics, and chemistry, but “the heart of engineering isn’t calculation; it’s problem solving,” writes John Kuprenas, a civil engineer. Here is a sampling of his insights.

“There’s always a trade-off. Lightness versus strength, response time versus noise, quality versus cost, responsive handling versus soft ride, speed of measurement versus accuracy of measurement, design time versus design quality… It is impossible to maximize the response to every design consideration. Good design is not maximization of every response nor even compromise among them; it’s optimization among alternatives.”

Continue reading “101 Things I Learned in Engineering School” →

andreweverett360 Book Review, STEM

Water 4.0

water-4-0

Water 4.0: The Past, Present, and Future of the World’s Most Vital Resource

by David Sedlak

David Sedlak is a professor of environmental engineering at the University of California, Berkeley. In this book he explains the history, science, engineering, and political aspects of water and sewer systems. First, it may be helpful to decode the title:

  • Water 1.0—a system of importing and distributing water.
  • Water 2.0—drinking water treatment including filtration and chlorination.
  • Water 3.0—sewage treatment.
  • Water 4.0—next-generation water systems.

I will focus on some of the more contemporary topics in this summary. Continue reading “Water 4.0” →