There are number of new projects on the backburner that I believe would be of use to you, MVP Blog readers. So, I am very excited to introduce to you my partner for several of these projects, Dr. Sunil Acharya.

Sunil is an expert in Multiphysics Modeling and Product Development, as well as a very creative entrepreneur. Since I started talking with him a few weeks back, our list of joint ventures has been expanding exponentially. Just to give you some ideas of what will be coming up in the next several months:

- We are working on putting together a series of materials on effective engineering computer modeling, tailored specifically for industry professionals (think “Cliff Notes”). The idea is to help engineers who are working for companies that actually need to create products (as opposed to prove nebulous theories) to do their job better with the help of computer simulations.

- We are also putting together an on-line conference, that will provide technical professionals with specific tools and techniques that will help them find new jobs, get promotions or simply keep their current employment.

If you are interested in learning more about either one of those projects, please contact me at masha@mvpmodelingsolutions.com.

And now it is my pleasure to introduce to Dr. Acharya and his article: Braving a New World.

Braving a new world

I used to be fascinated with listening to the conversations of people born in the first quarter of the 20^th century. Their stories reminded me of walking from one chamber of a natural history museum to another: horses, lights, cars, phones, A-bomb… I used to think that that those experiences were one of a kind and that there will never be another generation with so many changes in a single lifetime. Read more »

Last week I had a typical conversation with a potential client. After the engineer described a problem his company was having, the conversation went something like this:

Potential client (PC): “Great! You do have an impressive background and you’re right – we have a lot of gaps that you can help us fill.”

Me: “It helps to have a pair of expert eyes look over your R&D processes.”

PC: “That makes sense. We worked with consultants before and were amazed how much time they saved us! How much would your services cost?”

Me: Describe various services. Give a range of very reasonable prices.

PC: “Oh…well the budgets are tight, the economy is bad…no one has money…I think we will try to do this in-house…”

Me: “Haven’t you been trying to do this in-house for a while now?”

PC: “Well yeah, but the budgets are really tight…so we’ll try to do it ourselves… We’ll call some vendors, read some technical papers…”

Me: “How long do you think that process will take you?”

PC: “Well, probably much longer than if you were working with us…”

Me: “And how much do you estimate that time would cost?”

PC: “Well, since we’ll just be using in-house engineering time, it would not cost us anything.”

Me: “????!!”

Read more »

Are you finding it easy to get funding for projects that involve computer modeling? Or is it rather difficult to get budgets approved for new software licenses, and computer workstations? This article in Product Design and Development on-line might be of use to many of you. Please share with us your experience by posting comments!

Read more »

I am trying out another spiffy new way to provide valuable information to you, MVP blog readers. This is a 4 minute slide presentation about two biggest problems that plague the reactive flow modeling efforts in the engineering industry.

Basically, they boil down to two issues:

1) A perfect modeling software does not exist

2) Chemical mechanisms are user input

- Correct mechanisms do not exist

-  An industry standard for mechanism testing does not exist

Interested? Play the video or watch it on youtube if your browser gives you problems. Read more »

I am not a big fan of movies, but last weekend, my three year old son forced me to watch “Flubber” with him, which is a 1997 family comedy about a kooky, but genius science professor (Robin Williams) who invents a new energetic material called “Flubber.” My son’s favorite scene was when the cute, giggly “flubber” creatures started dancing around to some catchy Latin tunes. My favorite scene was the absent-minded professor walking into an art class and carrying on a lecture, obviously meant for his physics class, un-phased neither by the confusion of the students nor by the presence of the two nude models in front of his desk.

This cute family flick got me thinking – does a scientific genius always require the absence of skills that human race has been evolving over thousands of years? Skills, like talking to other humans so that they understand us. Making other people feel comfortable around us, thus allowing us to build strong communities and survive as a species. Abilities, like reading facial expressions of our audience to make sure that we are not presenting a physics lecture to a room-full of art students, or simply not boring our audience to death. Read more »