Chapter 46

September’ 2003,
GCP, Nassau County, NY.

“This project demands apparently two thousand five hundred productive working hours”, Aryan voiced out leaning forward by placing both his fists on the Kennedy and Coe table, “you are eight in number, working six hours a day can guarantee us the product in couple of months”, he said and proceeded to his seating.

He looked over the captain for the Project, “I believe the computer-aided design is done long before. Do you have the results from the simulated environment? Mathew,” asked Aryan.

“Oh yeah! Here they are”, he handed over the record of design and analysis of the entire model.

“The stress and suspension analysis looks interesting”, Aryan said, “Let’s freeze the dimensions because they also tend to match with the chassis I modelled last year at the JAPMI. Everything looks great, I hope we could start building a mock-up using plastic materials to ensure that the design is achievable in reality. We do have sponsors but this is your first product with no prior experience. It is essential to proceed with mock-up modelling to minimize the overall cost”.

Aryan took a sip of water and continued, “We will be going with the fabricated chassis of mine. It is much easier that way, taking the existing set up and leveraging on what we have than to start from the scratch”, He glanced over all the attendants in the conference room, “I reckon people are good at vehicle dynamics, heat transfer, material sciences and solid mechanics in excess of what you guys required to get your degree because this project needs you to demonstrate your knowledge, understanding and reasoning. Why you had to do something in a specific way and why not the other, what was the thought process before arriving to a conclusion on a spare part, do you really understand what you have at stake and while utilising them? These are a few intuitions you should have asking yourself during the course of the development. Engineering is an art of choosing compromises that best solve the problems, as they say it. It is not only important to play with the advantages of one over the other but to know its limitations as well. This rule applies everywhere, even to our lives. It is necessary to do your thinking on the design decisions upfront. Conveying the best of your understanding to someone, who has experienced racing all of their lives or to an inexperienced car owner, is your job.” And he paused the talk.

“We should thank the young man for his lead on the investor”, Malcolm Intervened, “and it is now our responsibility to deliver what the sponsor is looking in return for their donations. They will be coming back in the years to come, if you show case your potentiality by bringing the product to live,” he enlightened the young kids, “Good luck with the assignment”, he said and concluded.

“Let’s roll up young men”, Aryan cheered the fledglings, “right from tomorrow morning”.

The crew dispersed from the conference room after the meet. The juveniles were in high spirits for their upcoming engagement but Aryan wondered if they would potentially keep up the spirits till the completion of the task. Though he had notions in a manner, they eventually proved him wrong.