Gordon Murray: An Automotive Legend

   Gordon Murray is one of the most well known individuals in the engineering world. He is most well-known for his ground breaking McLaren F1 design and also for his prestigious Formula 1 racing history as the man behind the McLaren's Formula 1 cars (Below to the left is an image of the famous Gordon Murray and to the right is his famous McLaren F1).

(Here is a link if you want to know more about the famous McLaren F1 http://www.carzi.com/2007/07/05/gordon-murray-the-automotive-rockstar/)

(Here is a link to more about Gordon Murray
http://www.gordonmurraydesign.com/pm-welcome.php)






    He is considered to most the father of modern super cars and personally to me he is someone that I look up to greatly and hope that one day i can be where he is in the discourse community of mechanical engineers. He is also one of the leading engineers in green energy in cars with his new T25 and T27 cars that he is in the process of Designing and creating ( link to article about those two concepts http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/f1-information/whos-who/whos-who-m/gordon-murray/).

   He is a prime example of a full member of the mechanical engineering discourse community according to Gee because he exhibits every aspect that I have explained in the last five posts about Gee's discourse. He was born into the discourse thanks to his father being a motorcycle racer and mechanic and he is at the top of the mechanical engineering field thanks to his McLaren F1 design and he has followed the trend of hybrid engines and in addition his hybrid designs are of the most efficient so far. That all gives him the authority and influence that he has over others that are of less status than him in the discourse of mechanical engineers.

Trends in the Discourse Community of Mechanical Engineering: Hybrid Engine Development

   Trends play a massive role in the field of mechanical engineering from what I have gathered from all of the research I have conducted over this past semester. For example, the trend of hybrid engines has been an ongoing trend in the field of mechanical engineering for quite some time now and as many scholars of rhetoric and composition have mentioned in order to have authority and superiority in a discourse one must be on top of new trends. This is very true for the community of mechanical engineers because without keeping up to date with new trends one would be lost in the new developments and would not be able to contribute to the trend at hand.

   Mechanical engineers must always be on the prowl for new trends in order to keep themselves well versed and knowledgeable about new technologies and advances. The hybrid system has been a prime example of a trend that mechanical engineers needed to jump on right away and those that didn't have not been recognized in the recent years due to the fact that we are in an environmental crisis right now and are in dyer need of clean energy and technology. Those like Gordon Murray that I will talk about in the next post have continuously maintained themselves in the mechanical engineering field because they have kept up with this trend.

   Hybrid engines have been developing ever since Ferdinand Porsche’s System Lohner-Porsche Mixte from 1899 (Image below is this first system). 

   Now days thanks to mechanical engineers we can see the drastic change that has been made since 1899 and it comes to show that following trends in mechanical engineering is essential to the community but in addition new trends in the field open the doors to new, young engineers like ourselves giving us more job opportunities. And this is what the hybrid system has become today ( Image below).

http://www.alternative-energy-news.info/bmw-hybrid-sports-car/

(Link if you want to learn more about the new BMW hybrid design)

  

Believing in Gee's "Discourse"

   Gee's final aspect of "Discourse" is believing which plays a big role in the way that mechanical engineers think, act, and feel. In the professional discourse of mechanical engineering they are expected to have their own beliefs that drive them to do what they do each and everyday but they are also expected to hold beliefs that are in line with those of the company they are working for. This is so that they are all on the same page and do not have conflicts due to things like beliefs.

Although most may think that the main reason why individuals join the discourse of mechanical engineering to make money that is not the real reason why most do. Yes the money is always a good thing especially after all the hard work that these individuals have put forth to get to where they are but mechanical engineers believe in trying to make the world a better place through their advancements and innovations.

   They also join the discourse for other reasons ranging from believing in themselves and their abilities to more complex reasons such as believing in a certain company for what they are doing. They believe in all sorts of things but overall it is their beliefs that keep them going and push them to do what they do each and every day to better the lives of everyone on this earth.

Valuing in Gee's "Discourse"

   Gee's fourth aspect of "Discourse" is valuing which for mechanical engineers is very important. Every  engineer is different for the most part when it comes to what they value but all mechanical engineers have some values that they all share and are very important to them as mechanical engineers. Some of the values that mechanical engineers share include: what their companies expect from them, the engineering ethical code, and various other things like their families and work ethic. Mechanical engineers also value their knowledge and greatly value the support of others when they are doing something that no one has ever seen before.

    In my personal opinion I believe that valuing is one of the most important aspects of Gee's "Discourse" because they are the foundation of any discourse. If one does not value a discourse they cannot possibly be considered a member of it as Gee explains because in order to be a full member one must have all of these traits.

   I personally have learned to value our engineering ethical code because I know that if I plan on becoming a member of this prestigious discourse in the near future I must discipline myself and value the things that my fellow mechanical engineers do.
(link to the engineering ethical code http://www.nspe.org/Ethics/CodeofEthics/index.html)

Being in Gee's "Discourse"

   The next aspect of Gee's "Discourse" is being. In the discourse community of mechanical engineers being means pretty much the same thing as it has not changed much over the last several years.

   In the discourse of mechanical engineering the dominate gender has always been males and although in recent years more women can be found in the field the majority are still men. In addition to most members being men the age range has not really changed much either and currently it is at about 25-44 years old which comes to show that many begin working right out of college.

   The professional discourse community of mechanical engineers also has a minimum level of education that must be met in order to be considered a member. They require at minimum a bachelors degree in mechanical engineering from a university level college. Pay is also somewhat related to educational prestige as well because the higher your degree the more opportunities you may get. The average annual income for mechanical engineers has not changed much over the years and is currently at about $78,160, which is a pretty good starting pay for an individual right out of college and yearly salary does tend to increase over time and the experience level that one has.

   
 

Doing in Gee's "Discourse"

   The next aspect of Gee's "Discourse" is doing. The mechanical engineering discourse has a wide variety of practices that range from simple research to more complex mathematics.

   Mechanical engineers do a lot of math as one may expect and they also do a great deal of research in order to better understand things so that they can make them better for the rest of the world.

   One misconceived perception that many have about mechanical engineers is that they are all really nerdy and have no lives outside of their workplace and this is very false. As i will explain later Gordon Murray is an exceptional mechanical engineer and he neither looks nerdy or lacks a full life. Some things that mechanical engineers like to do on their spare time is build things, play sports, and the list goes on forever because unlike what many think they are not machines they are just ordinary people with extraordinary abilities that they use to make life better through technology.

   As a mechanical engineering student myself I have had to do some pretty neat stuff in my last two semesters as a mechanical engineer and if you are planning on joining this field in the near future you might expect to have projects like the following: my first semester as an engineering student we had to create a "Mars Rover" as they called it that was strictly mechanical and we could not use anything electrical nor any other type of motor. It was a pretty tough task as you may imagine but as a group we persevered and did very well on the project. The image to the left is what we ended up with. Then this past semester we had to create a naval craft that we had to place in our Reflect Pond at the UCF campus and get from one side of the pond to the other without using a remote control and our final product is the image to the bottom right.

Saying (writing) in Gee's "Discourse"

   Saying (writing) is Gee's first characteristic of what he considers "Discourse". According to Gee in order to become a full member of a discourse one must be able to speak the language or lexis of the community and in addition look the part. This is a very important aspect of Gee's "Discourse" definition because if one does not master the communities lexis and speaking norms they will never be able to be a full member of the community.

   The way that mechanical engineers speak is very different from other professions due to the fact that they must always be extremely accurate and researched in what they are saying to others in their discourse whether it be coworkers, their bosses, or even their clients.

   Mechanical engineers follow those same guidelines in their writing as well. Their preferred methods of writing include: charts, diagrams, mathematical problems, blueprints, and various other methods. They prefer their information to come in such forms so that they can understand the information better and can make improvements easier because they can see what has already been done and where things can be made better. Mechanical engineers also talk a lot with other engineers in order to get the opinions of others that are just like them.

 ( This is an example of a blueprint that automotive engineers use in their saying)


    Mechanical engineers also have a very unique lexis (special terms). As most would think, the way that they speak is very technical and hard to understand when one is not a part of their community. Some of the words that make up their special lexis include:  creep which does not mean a scary person to them but rather "time-dependent strain occurring under stress", aging which to a mechanical means “a change of properties that occurs at ambient or moderately elevated temperatures after hot working, heat treating, quenching, or cold working” rather than getting old, and lastly allowance meaning “the intentional or desired difference between the maximum limits of mating parts to provide a certain class of fit” to the mechanical engineering world when to non members it simply means what is allowed.