EngD Archive

Rhino error – This object cannot be modified because it is controlled by a document

So it’s been a bit busy recently at work writing up literature review notes, preparing for a visit to Trondheim, Norway, and continuing my research into operational modelling and planning for NHS hospitals. One of the key concepts of the development work I am currently undertaking to solve a research aim is the use of

A research update

It’s been a while since my last post here, mainly because I haven’t been working on anything overly complicated. Since June, I’ve been working mostly on a dashboard and paper writing/editing (including the European Healthcare Design Conference), so there hasn’t been much interesting to write. Today though I’ve had a little switch back into some

European Healthcare Design Conference 2016

Monday 27th and Tuesday 28th June 2016 saw the second European Healthcare Design (EHD) conference held at the Royal College of Physicians in London. The conference was aimed at those designing healthcare facilities to disseminate and share new knowledge and case studies in the field of healthcare design. I attended the conference both as a

A look back at 2015

With 2015 now well and truly over, I thought it might make for a good reflection to look back at how 2015 went in terms of the EngD, and prepare some goals for 2016 to measure a successful year. This way, when it comes to the end of 2016, I can look back and see

Healthcare Estates Conference 2015

Tuesday 20th and Wednesday 21st October 2015 held the annual Healthcare Estates conference in Manchester. The majority of delegates were those working in NHS estates, though there were other professions including architects, engineers, chief executives and researchers. I attended the conference in my capacity as a Research Engineer to find out some of the developments

How to add custom User Data to Rhino Objects

Objects in Rhino (the 3D modelling software, not the organs of the animal) have the option to attach custom user data that you may wish to share across tools. This might be of particular use in Grasshopper, enabling you to send one piece of geometry down the wires with custom data attached, rather than having

How to pass custom data between Grasshopper components

Grasshopper is designed to work with components that handle specific functions, rather than components which try to do an ‘all-in-one’ approach. When designing your own custom Grasshopper components, there might be a need to pass custom data along the wires between components. This is easy enough to do when you know how, but getting to

CICE Conference 2015

Monday 22nd and Tuesday 23rd June 2015 saw the Centre of innovative and Collaborative Engineering (CICE) conference held at the Burleigh Court in Loughborough, collecting the minds of the current set of Research Engineers together for talks about the EngD process, writing up, networking and what happens after the EngD is completed. The Monday schedule

Activity Sampling – equations and explanations

What is Activity Sampling? Activity Sampling, also referred to as work sampling, is a method of data collection through observations whereby you take samples of the occurrences, rather than a continuous observational study. It was developed by L.H.C. Tippett in 1927 as a way of monitoring large numbers of machines and workers spread out over

Mendeley – changing ‘et al’ usage

What is Mendeley? Mendeley, for those who don’t know, is a handy reference organiser – it can save PDFs and sync them across devices (using an online account) so you can access your papers on any machine with an internet connection (an online database exists if you don’t want to install the application on every