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First
Chesapeake Power Boat Symposium
Miscellaneous Musings from the Technical Director
Monday, 17-Mar-2008 by
Donald MacPherson - Technical Director
I love symposia and conferences. I've been to a
lot of them, and some are better than others. Over March 7th and 8th,
I was in Annapolis for the inaugural Chesapeake Power Boat
Symposium (CPBS). Many of you may know of the Chesapeake Sailing
Yacht Symposium (CSYS) that has become a bi-annual fixture in the
sailing yacht design community. Well, CPBS is not CSYS - at least not
yet... [Read]
SNAME
New England Section "Student Papers Night"
Miscellaneous Musings from the Technical Director
Monday, 3-Mar-2008 by Donald
MacPherson - Technical Director
Perhaps my favorite SNAME section meeting of the
year is the "Student Papers Night", held each
February. This is an opportunity for engineering students to
"test drive" the process of writing a technical paper and
presenting it to an audience of professionals. Everything about this
evening is what is good about a professional society meeting... [Read]
Qualitative
behavior: KISS me
Miscellaneous Musings from the Technical Director
Monday, 11-Feb-2008 by
Donald MacPherson - Technical Director
Which would you rather have - a weather report
that was perfectly correct 80% of the time and completely wrong the
remaining 20%, or one that was exactly opposite 100% of the time. Give
me the weather report that is always wrong, and I'll plan for the
opposite. In my opinion, consistently good qualitative behavior
always trumps inconsistent quantitative accuracy. So how does one get
there? KISS me... [Read]
Designers
and naval architects: to a degree
Miscellaneous Musings from the Technical Director
Monday, 28-JAN-2008 by
Donald MacPherson - Technical Director
The topic of engineering licensing pops up
every now and again, as does the question about the need for a formal
university degree in an engineering discipline. I was recently asked
what I thought about it, and frankly, I didn't have much of an answer.
It seems to me that this entire discussion is about the
"reasonable management of risk," both in terms of palpable,
physical risk, but also of financial and societal risk... [Read]
Thoughts
on this Holiday Season
Miscellaneous Musings from the Technical Director
Monday, 24-DEC-2007 by
Donald MacPherson - Technical Director
This autumn has been particularly busy, both
within HydroComp and also personally. It seems like the Christmas
season starts earlier each year. (Stores were selling Christmas
decorations the day after Halloween...) By the time we reach the new
year, we are more tired and overwhelmed rather than excited and eager
to celebrate the holidays... [Read]
An
unexpected lesson in success [Part 2]
Miscellaneous Musings from the Technical Director
Monday, 10-DEC-2007 by
Donald MacPherson - Technical Director
Last spring, I was asked to adjudicate a student
design competition, where one of the review questions in determining
which group was most "successful" was to determine if the
groups "Exceeded," "Met," or "Did not
meet" expectations. My immediate question was, "What were
the expectations?"... [Read]
An
unexpected lesson in success
Miscellaneous Musings from the Technical Director
Monday, 26-NOV-2007 by
Donald MacPherson - Technical Director
This blog entry finds me returning from the 2007
U.S. Field Hockey National Festival. A fun week, and one that provided
a surprising opportunity for me to reflect on the nature of success
- by observing stark contrasts... [Read]
Notes
from IBEX 2007
Miscellaneous Musings from the Technical Director
Friday, 1-NOV-2007 by Donald
MacPherson - Technical Director
I hope that you'll forgive the few weeks that I
have taken off from writing a blog article. As Stephanie noted in her
previous article, this is a very busy time of year, with trade shows,
conferences, my university teaching, and end-of-year product
development and planning. So, let me make a few comments about my trip
to IBEX 2007 in Miami Beach... [Read]
It's
trade show season again
Friday, 19-OCT-2007 by
Stephanie McArdle - Marketing Manager
It's trade show season again and with it comes
the many opportunities to meet with clients, colleagues and new
prospects. There is also that certain feeling associated with red-eye
flights, missed connections, preparing for being out of the office,
and a very crammed trade show schedule. It's a frenetic life
from early October to mid-December... [Read]
Congratulations,
Stephanie!
Monday, 24-SEP-2007 by
Donald MacPherson - Technical Director
Many of our loyal customers have known Stephanie
McArdle for many years. Perhaps you have followed her reports of
travel and activities in these blog pages. Well, we are extremely
pleased and proud to congratulate Stephanie on her recent marriage.
Her new husband, Dylan, is a great guy (and an engineer - so what's
not to like?). We wish all the best to Stephanie and Dylan for a long
and happy life together.
Truth
or Dare: trust no data
Miscellaneous Musings from the Technical Director
Monday, 20-AUG-2007 by
Donald MacPherson - Technical Director
Remember the game Truth or Dare? You know,
the game where you had to choose between the truth and or an
embarrassing alternative? Well, it seems that Truth or Dare is a daily
event for anyone who is in the propulsion business, especially
application engineers and those sizing propellers for a living. While
we find the best games occur when dealing with consumers (boat owners
or builders), we also find that the largest multi-national
manufacturers are offering us some real challenges. Consider this
recent email to me from a propeller vendor and PropExpert user... [Read]
Our
community is more than just where we live
Miscellaneous Musings from the Technical Director
Monday, 23-JUL-2007 by
Donald MacPherson - Technical Director
A few blog articles ago, I had mentioned how our
university interns have successfully contributed to our products and
services. In fact, they have positively contributed to the office at
large. There is valuable treasure in the community outside of our
office doors, but you have to go and get it. We are very proud of
HydroComp's culture of interacting with the local and regional
communities. We make this a priority. Everyone pitches in, many
times even after they have moved on from HydroComp to other
endeavors... [Read]
Neural
nets and genetic algorithms
Miscellaneous Musings from the Technical Director
Monday, 9-JUL-2007 by Donald
MacPherson - Technical Director
I received an email from one of our software
customers mentioning a new technical paper about the use of neural
network (NN) techniques for the prediction of residuary
resistance. This is something that I have discussed in a past blog
article, and we have internally investigated for almost 10 years. The
authors' contention was that their NN-based dimensional analysis
resulted in improved quality of the prediction. Let me tell you why
the authors are, at the same time, correct and yet also very, very
wrong... [Read]
Training
seminars: the handshake connection
Miscellaneous Musings from the Technical Director
Wednesday, 18-JUN-2007 by
Donald MacPherson - Technical Director
I had a really great time last week with eight
propulsion professionals at a special one-day PropExpert seminar that
we held right here in Durham. The discussion was active and the topics
extended beyond just the use of PropExpert. (This is typical for our
seminars, where some of the tangent discussions can be very lively and
constructive.) Also last week, I received an email about participating
in an industry online training program. It got me to thinking,
which can be a dangerous thing... [Read]
HydroComp
engineer completes marathon
Thursday, 31-MAY-2007 by Vin
Puleo - Project Engineer
The 19th annual Vermont City Marathon was
held May 27th, and HydroComp engineer, Vin Puleo, was one of the 7600
participants to run the 26.2 mile (42.195 kilometer) course in
Burlington, Vermont. Vin started an 18 week training program towards
the end of January, and completed a variety of distances... [Read]
2007 ARCHIVE
Upcoming
technical papers and presentations [Read]
Miscellaneous
Musings from the Technical Director
Monday, 28-MAY-2007 by Donald
MacPherson - Technical Director
Care
and feeding of your security key [Read]
Miscellaneous
Musings from the Technical Director
Monday, 14-MAY-2007 by Donald
MacPherson - Technical Director
Like spinning a
prop? Try spinning a Frisbee! [Read]
Thursday, 03-MAY-2007 by
Matthew Packard - Project Engineer
Different
gear ratios and unbalanced propeller thrust [Read]
Miscellaneous Musings from the Technical Director
Monday, 30-APR-2007 by Donald
MacPherson - Technical Director
Deficiencies
in shaft diameter calculations [Read]
Miscellaneous Musings from the Technical Director
Monday, 16-APR-2007 by Donald
MacPherson - Technical Director
Replies
to PropExpert Survey Comments [Read]
Wednesday, 2-APR-2007 by
Donald MacPherson - Technical Director
Ireland
Representative to Relocate [Read]
Tuesday, 20-MAR-2007 by
Stephanie McArdle - EU Marketing and Sales Manager
A
History of Interns [Read]
Miscellaneous Musings from the
Technical Director
Wednesday, 14-MAR-2007 by
Donald MacPherson - Technical Director
In-House
Software: Risk or Asset? [Read]
Miscellaneous Musings from the
Technical Director
Monday, 19-FEB-2007 by Donald
MacPherson - Technical Director
Bienvenido
a SINAVAL y Bilbao [Read]
Thursday, 01-FEB-2007 by
Stephanie McArdle - EU Marketing and Sales Manager
Top
Ten Prognostications for 2007 [Read]
Miscellaneous Musings from the
Technical Director
Monday, 01-JAN-2007 by Donald
MacPherson - HydroComp Technical Director
2006 ARCHIVE
HydroComp
Holiday Letter [Read]
Miscellaneous Musings from the Technical Director
Monday, 25-DEC-2006 by Donald MacPherson - HydroComp
Technical Director
U.S.
National Field Hockey Festival [Read]
Monday, 04-DEC-2006 by
Donald MacPherson - HydroComp Technical Director
What
Happens In Vegas... [Read]
Thursday, 30-NOV-2006 by Matthew Packard - Project
Engineer
METS
2006 Wrap-up [Read]
Miscellaneous Musings from the Technical Director
Monday, 20-NOV-2006 by
Donald MacPherson - HydroComp Technical Director
Thoughts
from IBEX [Read]
Miscellaneous Musings from the Technical Director
Monday, 06-NOV-2006 by Donald MacPherson - HydroComp
Technical Director
EU
PropExpert Seminar Nov. 13th [Read]
Friday, 03-NOV-2006 by
Stephanie McArdle - EU Marketing and Sales Manager
Programming
Classes in Engineering Schools [Read]
Miscellaneous Musings from the Technical Director
Monday, 16-OCT-2006 by
Donald MacPherson - Technical Director
CFD:
Computational Fluid Distraction? [Read]
Miscellaneous Musings from the Technical Director
Monday, 02-OCT-2006 by
Donald MacPherson - HydroComp Technical Director
SNAME
Propeller Symposium [Read]
Miscellaneous Musings from the Technical Director
Monday, 18-SEP-2006 by
Donald MacPherson - Technical Director
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