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Showing posts from January, 2023

Summary Reader Response Draft 1

This article “The Future”, Lockett (2022) introduces a new discovery of lithium-sulphur batteries and how it will shape the future. Currently the battery tech of choice has always been lithium-ion batteries, however they have some downsides to using it. The materials that are needed to build lithium-ion batteries are lithium, graphite, cobalt and manganese. However raw material like  cobalt is environmentally damaging as they leach out toxic chemical when mining it. There is also the life cycle problem where the lithium-ion battery will lose its power storage capacity if it is repeatedly being charge them, and the battery would have to be thrown away and contributed to electronic waste which is becoming a problem for the world to deal with. The discovery of lithium-sulphur has shown the potential to replace the current battery choice as it is cheap and environmentally friendly compared to lithium-ion. Furthermore, it is more energy dense and lightweight. However, the drawback of l

Summary Draft 2

  This article “The Future”, written by Lockett William introduces a new type of batteries called lithium-sulphur and how it will shape our future. Currently our battery choice has always been lithium-ion batteries, however they have some downsides to using it. Scientists at Drexel have been trying to find a way to allow the production of batteries to be cheaper while having more power output where they discovered lithium-sulphur which is able to solve all lithium-ion’s problem. Firstly, lithium-sulphur batteries are cheaper to produce as the resources needed to make this battery are abundant all over the Earth, and mining for sulphur can reduce the ecological impact whereas mining for cobalt, one of lithium-ion main components is environmentally damaging. Secondly, lithium-sulphur batteries are three times more energy dense versus lithium-ion batteries, meaning that it has a larger storage capacity, and it is much lighter. However, the downside to using lithium-sulphur is that

Summary Draft 1

Lockett, W. (2022, April 17). The Future https://bigthink.com/the-future/lithium-sulfurbatteries/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook&fs=e&s=cl&fbclid=IwAR1JQVrPK4Nt6YauDpwVZrmkeHE1jR0zfHdUdqe1wC5xr4XEabacCNVJLE#Echobox=1658939001-1 This article discusses the benefits of lithium-sulphur battery compared to our current choice of lithium-ion battery and how it will change our future. The main materials needed to build lithium-ion batteries includes of lithium, graphite, manganese and cobalt, however cobalt mining is very environmentally damaging as they destroy the ecosystem and leech out toxic chemicals while mining. Scientists at Drexel have been trying to find a way to allow the production of batteries to be cheaper while having more power output, until recently that they discovered lithium-sulphur which is able to solve all lithium-ion’s problem. Firstly, lithium-sulphur batteries are cheaper to produce as the resources needed to make this battery are abundant all o

Submission 1a: Descriptive Reflection: Self Introduction Letter

  Subject: Self Introduction Dear Mr Brad Blackstone,   My name is Justin, and I am writing to introduce myself to you as a student in your Critical Thinking and Communication (UCS) class. Some background about me is that I graduated from Singapore Polytechnic with a diploma in mechanical engineering. In the beginning, I had no idea what I liked, so I chose engineering as mathematics and physics are my strong suit. During my final year project in Polytechnic, I met with many industry leaders in the field of engineering, where they showed on the potential of engineering can do and how they are able to impact and make changes to people's life, and it successfully managed to pique my interest of engineering, hence I decided to continue my choice of engineering in university hence enrolling in this engineering program.  My weakness in communication is public speaking, as I tend to feel nervous when speaking to large crowd and in a classroom setting as well, because I am worried

Importance of Communication Skills

                      “I contend that we (engineers) are undervalued because of our widespread                     inability to explain what we do to the general public (and why it is so important). It is one of the hardest goals to accomplish, to be able to boil down difficult concepts into a short and easily understood presentation or elevator pitch.” Marybeth Miceli, President, Miceli Infrastructure Consulting, USA (2011)       My take on this quote is that for engineers that are specialised in their field, whenever they must explain a topic needing their expertise, they tend to talk too in depth about it to the point where not everyone is able to understand what they are saying unless they have some background knowledge about the topic.  Thus, engineers being undervalued is due to the fact that we are unable to simplify the terms for the common people to understand as the things might be too complicated, hence usually people would be asked to explain it in layman terms