Eric the Red

An engineering friend forwarded me a rather amusing email he received last spring. Engineers are apparently required to take a class in product re-deisgn (ENME 371), where they work in groups to test and improve a product donated by a company.

The product in question was a sander developed by Black & Decker. One of the things student teams were told to do was to take original parts, and “hack” them into new ones to fit the improvement found by the team. Trouble was, the students were not given replacement parts to repair their sanders at the end of the semester.

My friend received an email on the issue, the relavant section is quoted below:

“You are responsible to have a sander in working condition without any modifications.
If you cannot fix your sander or it simply does not work, your team will have to buy a new one. Please email your respective teaching fellow AND Dr. Thamire if this is the case. You will also be responsible in paying for any missing supplies that were in your kits. If you have any questions, feel free to email me.”

Now let me remind you of a few things:

• Students were required to break down the sander for testing and analysis.
• Students were required to mod the original components to produce an “improved” design.
• Students were then required to repair the sander to working order without replacement parts because of an error of the instructor.
• Students were told they would be required to pick up the bill for their dysfunctional sander in order to receive their final grade.

Now I am just itching to sign up for this class, so I can pay for poor planning and total mis-management by the instructors, aren’t you?