Ivy’s Corner

The Toyota Mirai is an electric car, boasting a unique engine that distinguishes itself from its market rivals. The Mirai uses a Hydrogen fuel-cell stack to power itself, unlike conventional batteries. How does it work? According to Hunting (2023), external oxygen mixes with the hydrogen stored to generate electrical energy, which powers the electric motors. Water is the only waste product due to the mixture, causing zero emissions. Based on the Mirai webpage by Toyota itself, (2023 Toyota Mirai…, Toyota, n.d.), the Mirai’s hydrogen engine allows a rapid refueling time of five minutes. Some additional performance figures and features of the Mirai include a 645- kilometer range on one tank, and three different driving modes depending on the driver’s utilization of the vehicle, (Eco, Normal and Sport). Since the Mirai’s introduction in 2014, the second generation Mirai boasts many improvements compared to the model before. For starters, the ride is quieter and smoother. Its new engine a...

Toyota Mirai Research Pathway Image source:  https://www.toyota.co.uk/new-cars/mirai Chai and Ivy were paired up together to decide what system choice we wanted to summarise for:  1. Chai was interested in hydrogen fuel-cell cars and infotainment systems, whereas Ivy, on the other hand, was keen on working on topics relating to hydrogen fuel-cell cars and robot workers.  2. Since Chai and Ivy were paired up, we were tasked to do research on a common topic, which was hydrogen fuel-cell engines. Ultimately, we decided to choose the Toyota Mirai as the specific model for our topic, since it was one of the more popular and well-known hydrogen fuel-cell cars on the planet. 3. To find a brief description of Toyota Mirai’s hydrogen fuel-cell system, Chai went to ChatGPT to search for an answer. (How does a hydrogen fuel cell engine work in a Toyota Mirai?) 4. Ivy went to Toyota’s website to read more about the Toyota Mirai’s specifications as well as a brief description ...

Professor Blackstone,   Good day to you! I am writing this to introduce myself to you as one of your first-year engineering students in your UCS1001 class. My name is Ivy Lim and I graduated from Ngee Ann Polytechnic with a diploma in biomedical engineering (BME) in 2021. I worked as a technical officer in the BME department of a hospital before I decided to further my studies and obtain a degree.   Before my polytechnic journey, I did not know which career path is suitable for me, but I wanted to try to work in any jobs relating to healthcare, which was why I applied for different healthcare related courses across all polytechnics in Singapore. In 2021, the year I graduated from Ngee Ann Polytechnic, there was still an outbreak of COVID-19, and getting a placement in university was a challenge. Thus, I decided to apply for a full time job that was related to my course. After working there for almost two years, I decided to further my studies in an engineering course, so I wou...

  “Without clear lines of communication, our ideas would stay within our own small development teams instead of becoming mature products. While this is obvious to those of us who have become experienced engineers, the real question is: Why is it lost to us when we are engineering students?”  - Akbar R Khan, Software Systems Engineer, USA, “Good Communication Is Essential…” (2014) MY THOUGHTS I totally agree with this quote that communication plays an important role in a team. Effective communication can lead to teams' agreements, rule out possible failures and the most important in production which is, saving costs. But nowadays, effective communication is dying down among engineering students because they rely on immediate answers from seniors, tutors and online resources. They are scared of failures, sometimes they discouraged from exploring new ideas and to use what is already provided or having their idea get shut down without any consideration or thought. Leading to a lac...