engineering

Paul K. Wright

Paul K. Wright is a engineering topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Paul K. Wright rather than just read about it. In short: Paul Kenneth Wright is a mechanical engineer best known for his work on the UC Berkeley-based CyberCut/CyberBuild project, which established a set of standards that streamlined the conversion of creative manufacturing designs into rapid prototyping. Wright's NYU research group (led by Israel Greenfeld, Fred Hansen, and Louie Pavlakos) is also known for developing the first open-architecture control-of-manufacturing…

Key takeaways

Paul K. Wright belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Paul K. Wright to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Paul K. Wright from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Paul Kenneth Wright is a mechanical engineer best known for his work on the UC Berkeley-based CyberCut/CyberBuild project, which established a set of standards that streamlined the conversion of creative manufacturing designs into rapid prototyping. Wright's NYU research group (led by Israel Greenfeld, Fred Hansen, and Louie Pavlakos) is also known for developing the first open-architecture control-of-manufacturing systems, and for developing Internet-based CAD/CAM systems.

CITRIS and other positions Wright was the director of the Center for Information Technology in the Interest of Society (CITRIS), a four-campus University of California research institute that applies information technology to large-scale societal problems. Wright also holds the A. Martin Berlin Chair in the University of California at Berkeley's Mechanical Engineering Department. He is co-director of the Berkeley Manufacturing Institute (BMI) and co-director of the Berkeley Wireless Research Center (BWRC). From 1995 to 2005 Wright was the co-chair of the Management of Technology Program, a multi-disciplinary program at UC Berkeley dedicated to bringing high-tech products to the marketplace.

Education He born in London, in 1947, Wright earned his B.Sc. and Ph.D. from the University of Birmingham, England. He came to the United States in 1979 following appointments at the University of Auckland, in New Zealand, and Cambridge University, in England.

Publications and awards Wright is author or co-author of more than 200 journal and conference articles and is co-author, with David A. Bourne, of the book Manufacturing Intelligence. Wright also co-authored the book Metal Cutting with E. M. Trent. His book 21st Century Manufacturing won the Society of Manufacturing Engineers Eugene M. Merchant Book of the Year Award in 2001.

Memberships Wright became a member of the National Academy of Engineering in 2007, a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers in 2003; and a Fellow of the Society of Manufacturing Engineers in 1998.

Current research His current research focuses on energy scavenging and storage for micro-scale motes, smart materials, design and manufacturing for micro-integration of 'intelligent objects," and the applications of wireless sensor systems. For example, beginning in 2002, following California's electricity crisis, CITRIS and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory researchers worked on Demand Response (DR) with the California Energy Commission [through its Public Interest Energy Research (PIER) program and the California Institute for Energy and the Environment (CIEE)] to create a multi-disciplinary team of architects, engineers, and user-interface specialists. Working with colleagues David Auslander and Dick White, Wright was part of the group that created a reference design for open system programmable communicating thermostats (PCTs). Combined with related work on smart sensors, and grid-level IT techniques, Demand Response (DR) can reduce peak-load consumption behaviors using time-of-use and critical peak pricing.

References

External links Paul Wright's UC Berkeley Engineering page CITRIS biography of Paul Wright

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Paul K. Wright

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Paul K. Wright claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Paul K. Wright before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Paul K. Wright ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Paul K. Wright

In research: Paul K. Wright appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Paul K. Wright in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Paul K. Wright is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1947 births, 21st-century American engineers, Alumni of the University of Birmingham, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Paul K. Wright outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Paul K. Wright in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Paul K. Wright means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Paul K. Wright out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Paul K. Wright in simple terms?

Why does Paul K. Wright matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Paul K. Wright?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Paul K. Wright.