About My Research

This site serves as a reflection of my graduate thesis work in automotive textile design at North Carolina State University.  I began this site in January 2009 and plan to maintain it until my graduation in December 2009.  I have been in the graduate program at the College of Textiles for 1 year of a 2 year program.  During this first year, I have focused on the automotive industry, design, and sustainability.  Now at the half-way point, I have selected my thesis topic and made plans as to how to approach my research so that my work is complete by October 2009.  In the right column of this blog, I have posted my personal timeline to ensure that I am meeting my deadlines.  Please take time to look through all the information included in the right hand column, especially if this is your first time visiting this site.

The purpose of this site is 3-fold.
1) Most scholars are only given 1 chance to write a thesis, and 2 years to learn how to do so.  Sure there are books on research methods and databases of theses to form a background or starting place for your work, but no one really explains to us exactly what this process is like from start to finish.
2) Over the past year, I have learned beyond my expectations about the automotive industry, past, current, and future.  Throughout my next year of study, I have access to resources that would be coveted by any designer in this industry and plan to uncover valuable correlations between design and success.  I will post many images and articles which I find the most enriching.
and 3) Writing my thoughts and progress where it is publicly available will encourage me to meet deadlines and provide a clear platform to keep my committee informed.

My Topic
I will be examining the history of automotive bodycloth development and aligning this with outside factors such as the economy, increase in mass production, increase in technical standards and regulations, the importance of fashion and color, along with what at this time is an unpredictable number of additional variables.  The ultimate question I aim to answer is if there is a concrete way to measure and predict success in order to save time, money, and resources.

1.29.2009

Ann Arbor, Michigan

To back track a bit...
...While in Detroit I had a chance to meet Stephanie Rodgers.  Stephanie is the President and Founder of Automotive Textile Solutions Inc.  It was her company that co-sponsored the Automotive Design Competition along with Kolon.  Automotive Textile Solutions is an engineering firm devoted to the practical engineering, development, and implementation of textile structures used in vehicle applications.  ATS was created to be the bridge between the inner workings of textile structures and the achievement of performance characteristics that vehicle and component manufacturers demand.  To learn more about this company, please check out their website: www.autotexsolutions.com

While in Ann Arbor, Johanna and I visited with my friend Charlie.  I met Charlie this past summer while studying at Nagoya University.  Six students from the University of Michigan attended the summer program (most of which were on ski trips since it was the MLK holiday).  But it is still good to know that I have friends in the area (more incentive for moving to Detroit) and it was wonderful to spend the day with Charlie and catch up with each other.  Charlie gave us a tour of campus...which was beautiful!...especially in the snow!  

He took us into a building with a huge water-filled room, which was labeled "Marine Hydrodynamics Laboratory".  As we were peering in, making guesses as to what it might be, a man stopped to talk to us and asked if we wanted to see it...of course we did!  It turns out that this is the Physical Modeling Basin, originally built in 1904!  The model basin was the first of its kind owned and operate by an educational institution.  It is equipped to facilitate a full range of classical, innovative, and unique experimental procedures encompassing all areas of the marine environment.  The model basin measures 360 feet in length, 22 feet wide at the water surface, and has an average depth of 10.5 feet.  The towing carriage can accomadate models up to 25 feet in length and several tons in weight.  We also discovered that it can carry the 3 of us and 2 operators when we took it for a test drive!  The maximum carriage speed is 22 ft/sec, controlled by a computer.  A computer also controls a wedge type wave maker which is capable of producing regular or irregular sea states.  To learn more, check out the UofM Engineering program: www.engin.umich.edu
Posted by at
Labels: ,

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)