Engineering Web Series?

[Galenbo]

That's not what this thing is about.
Again, the things they want to see:

Skip Ahead is a joint initiative of Screen Australia and Google to help a new generation of online storytellers to expand their vision and the ambition of the content they create for online audiences.

The program aims to cultivate original Australian narrative-based content made specifically for global online audiences.

"the potential of the project to expand the subscriber base of the applicant’s channel(s) and/or reach new audiences and opportunities for commercialisation (20%)"

This can't be my regular technical type videos that appeal to just my regular audience.

Sorry, I hadn't seen these sentences.
Am I the only one that hardly can imagine what is asked here? Maybe because i'm no native english speaker.
(or maybe because it's some strange govt-related spec writer?)

What I (I guess falsely) understand in these sentences is:
1) give management lessons
2) translate Australian to global english
3) do some marketing

The other times I saw such sentences, those specs were written on an existing consultant organisation, and the 'winner' was already known.
But I'm surely wrong about that this time.

[Mechanical Menace]

This can't be my regular technical type videos that appeal to just my regular audience.

Given that then an exposé on the oh so common renewable energy and free energy scams would be brilliant, I just wouldn't limit it to solar roads. You could look into the whole culture of the believers and the scam artists themselves as well as the technical and straight up physics failings.

I also think that you're an outdoorsy type and a fan of renewables done right could help it carry more weight than it "just" been the opinion of engineers etc...

[Zucca]

No one has any idea for topics? 

"The Art of EE Design"

A movie exploring the beauty of solving a problem through electronic systems: showing examples of bad/good designs, interviews with some smart asses EE.
Basically do you remember the video when Dave explained the µCurrent? Something like this but professionally made.

[rx8pilot]

This can't be my regular technical type videos that appeal to just my regular audience.

Given that then an exposé on the oh so common renewable energy and free energy scams would be brilliant, I just wouldn't limit it to solar roads. You could look into the whole culture of the believers and the scam artists themselves as well as the technical and straight up physics failings.

I also think that you're an outdoorsy type and a fan of renewables done right could help it carry more weight than it "just" been the opinion of engineers etc...

I like this one.......has a BIG audience and does not need overly detailed engineering analysis to present some critical thinking skills needed to debunk eco-energy-scams.

[LabSpokane]

This can't be my regular technical type videos that appeal to just my regular audience.

Given that then an exposé on the oh so common renewable energy and free energy scams would be brilliant, I just wouldn't limit it to solar roads. You could look into the whole culture of the believers and the scam artists themselves as well as the technical and straight up physics failings.

I also think that you're an outdoorsy type and a fan of renewables done right could help it carry more weight than it "just" been the opinion of engineers etc...

I like this one.......has a BIG audience and does not need overly detailed engineering analysis to present some critical thinking skills needed to debunk eco-energy-scams.

To see one film in this genre, head to: www.switchenergyproject.com

Scott Tinker is a geologist, but a very well respected one. I'm not saying to use it as a model. it is well done, very balanced, and worth seeing as a baseline.

[dr.diesel]

It won't interfere with Mailbag Monday will it?

[ez24]

I may be off base but my feeling this is about entertainment, not serious stuff like here.  So someone sitting at a scope is not going to make the cut.

So some of my suggestions (on stories):

- robot wars  or robot contests in your universities  ( I liked the robot wars a few years ago where they chopped each other up)

- do you have any schools doing any kind of races across Australia using technology?

- drones, drone wars

- well anyway my feeling is they want entertainment, and us being here, it would be technology related.  Today that is toys, robots, cars, airplanes.  ie anything that moves, not test equipment.  Can you doing anything along the lines of MythBusters, ie what would happen if you put a stick of dynamite inside a Tek 465 and wire it to the 20mV/div scale?  They would use a solenoid activator to turn the knob by the way.

Some schools in the US have robot contests, solar car contests, etc.  Do Australian schools do the same?  Something fun that electronics is involved.    So there could be schools, government, private industry.

Does DARPA do anything there?  They have some fun robots  (7.8 million views)  -->   

Or how about one of these going up Ayers Rock  (1.7 million views and my favorite)  -- >    Maybe they could loan one to you and you could do a break down test on top of Ayers Rock.
Maybe Boston Dynamics would work with you (it might help them break into the Australian market)

Can you report on the Australian military work on robots like DARPA?  Any other interesting robotic or drone work being done in Australia?

Do you have any robots going after the dingos?  How about a kangaroo robot?  Seems you have lots of opportunities due to your unique animals and landscape (the Outback).  How about a robot that hops like a kangaroo, runs like a dingo, and crosses the Outback?  Have drone companies crossed the Outback?  Now that would be an Australian story.   

ie any electronic stories on the Outback (maybe put a 8 1/2 digit Keysight on a sled and drag it across the Outback then check the drift?)

A bicycle moves also  --> 

the moral of the story - I do not know what Australia is doing with robots so that might be a fun story.

[Muttley Snickers]

I said previously that I wouldn't post on this topic again mainly because I didn't understand the criteria that was being requested as part of the proposal, and in all honesty I still don't.

Had a look at the videos that you linked to and was not the slightest bit impressed, the lend me your car thing was just showing the tourist a view and was far too planned and scripted for my liking, lost me at the DeLorean but I gave it a chance for a few more videos, didn't get any better. Wont even bother with the rest, had a quick look through, seen zombies before, the axis thing I didn't get at all and the rest were cartoons, and someone gave these people money, for what ?

I do have one more concept and it's a subject that you have touched on before, it indirectly involves you and for that matter all Australians, how about an insight into the National Broadband Network, travel around, talk to the people who are actually installing the cabling and infrastructure, spend some time in the pit yourself, the onsite guys will be entertaining. Have a chat with Malcolm, chuck some rocks at Telstra and NBN Co.

Who will maintain it going forward, who are these people, how did they get here. What qualifications do they need, visit some universities, how will it benefit people. I'm thinking along the lines of a heads up rather than a how to, potential for a huge audience.

You get the gist.

[rogerx3]

Especially after seeing eevblab10 I think Dave should do a series on electronics building blocks.

[EEVblog]

- do you have any schools doing any kind of races across Australia using technology?

Yes, the world solar racing car challenge is held every year in outback Australia.
I was invited to tag along last year, but you know, family priorities, cost, time, the usual stories.

Can you report on the Australian military work on robots like DARPA?  Any other interesting robotic or drone work being done in Australia?

Just tonight I was invited to see and talk tech on a 2.1m rotor-rotor span, 50kg payload ocotocopter.

[ez24]

Just tonight I was invited to see and talk tech on a 2.1m rotor-rotor span, 50kg payload ocotocopter.

now that is interesting - I will start my diet now (50kg uh?)   Maybe could be used to get dogs to the vet ?  ie an emergency air ambulance for animals !  How much does a pig weigh?  ie the day of the flying pigs

hint: for entertainment value and if safe - fly a small pig and post "flying pigs"  Could stay 1 foot off the ground (grass) and use camera angles to make it look good and not endanger the pig.  Since you have a lot of the same slang as the US does, I assume "flying pigs" is also in your language as an idiom or joke of some sort.

like "that will be the day when pigs fly"  or "that will be the day when Dave talks about 2.1 meter ocotocopters"

[tautech]

You could even say that there is a bit of a divide between the old school and new school groups. The HAMs and highly analogue people, and the new "digital module" people who just plug stuff into their Arduinos and use a code library to make it work.

IMHO it's far bigger than this....
EG. My father who was born 200 m from where I live, he saw electricity installed in 1935 and electricity made the largest diference to his, his parents and all our lives, more so than ANY technology in the last century. AND how much are we and and our children taught to marvel in this wonderful electrical world we live in.........BUGGER ALL. 
We respect the guy that mixes our drinks more than those that craft the gadgets that make our lives easier with electrial/electronic wonders. 

Dave, take some time to demonstrate how little we take electricity for granted, how its power influences everything we do, from cell phones to washing machines to PC's to elevators to TV's and so on.
Because ppl can't see it, they don't/won't understand it, it's our job to enlighten them.
Think about "hooking" the un-initiated into the EE field, your existing work for them to "grow" in to. 

[Mechanical Menace]

Tautech, if we carried on treating things as miracles long after they'd become common place we'd still be marvelling at how amazing sharpened sticks are and worshipping people who could start a fire. I'm not saying certain amazingly important things aren't underappreciated compared to useless gits but going too far the other way isn't a good idea.

[tautech]

Tautech, if we carried on treating things as miracles long after they'd become common place we'd still be marvelling at how amazing sharpened sticks are and worshipping people who could start a fire. I'm not saying certain amazingly important things aren't underappreciated compared to useless gits but going too far the other way isn't a good idea.

Agreed, but in your opinion isn't it so often overlooked? 
I see the rug rats of today with NO appreciation of the world we live in, be it natural or man-made.
Aren't they supposed to be the future, god help us.

[Mechanical Menace]

Agreed, but in your opinion isn't it so often overlooked? 
I see the rug rats of today with NO appreciation of the world we live in, be it natural or man-made.
Aren't they supposed to be the future, god help us.

I think some of that is the impression you get of kids, not what they're really like if you can deobfuscate the slang. I also think that my generation onwards have grown up with having to just accept and take for granted amazing changes every couple of years otherwise we'd be overwhelmed.

I mean when I was very young I got a BBC with a whopping 64k of ram. When I was 15 I had a mobile phone that could connect to a cut down version of the web and run Java apps. Inbetween and since there's a constant stream of what once upon a time would be a world changing new tech that there could be decades or (probably before anyone on here can remember) generations between. We've never really had a chance to appreciate what an improvement these new toys have made except in retrospect.

Why do you think the retro scene has got so big? Because it's easier to see what changed the world than what is changing it.

[tautech]

Agreed, but in your opinion isn't it so often overlooked? 
I see the rug rats of today with NO appreciation of the world we live in, be it natural or man-made.
Aren't they supposed to be the future, god help us.

I think some of that is the impression you get of kids, not what they're really like if you can deobfuscate the slang. I also think that my generation onwards have grown up with having to just accept and take for granted amazing changes every couple of years otherwise we'd be overwhelmed.

I mean when I was very young I got a BBC with a whopping 64k of ram. When I was 15 I had a mobile phone that could connect to a cut down version of the web and run Java apps. Inbetween and since there's a constant stream of what once upon a time would be a world changing new tech that there could be decades or generations between. We've never really had a chance to appreciate what an improvement these new toys have made except in retrospect.

True, its a diffent view from my age point. Ram was the sheep that rode a ewe whem I was young and 64k was an address down the road. 

Target audience will be the key for Dave on his quest, and that's not old farts like me. 

[EEVblog]

Another idea:
A doco on how crowd funding has changed the shape of small business startups. Interview people who have gotten millions practically overnight.

[ez24]

A doco on how crowd funding has changed the shape of small business startups. Interview people who have gotten millions practically overnight.

I agree  -   millions is just as much fun as drones and flying pigs

[rx8pilot]

Another idea:
A doco on how crowd funding has changed the shape of small business startups. Interview people who have gotten millions practically overnight.

You will un-earth some naive characters with big dreams and marginal skills for that topic. Maybe a double threaded presentation where one person is actually successful and another is a failure. What was done right and where did the failure go wrong?

Google Sketchup and a 3D printer enable so many to think they can manufacture something commercially. Many new-ish tech is very enabling like 3D printers and micro-controllers. You still have ALL of the challenges of starting and running a real business. Some get that and plan for it, but most seem to think that they only need an idea that they can print out on their new $1500 printer. Those that fund the effort are paying for a VERY steep learning curve that will benefit that person or group - but they may or probably wont get a product delivered as promised.

Yes, I like this one. It could set the stage for cleaning up the system where total hacks are at least ID'd to give the backers more information to base the decision.

[timofonic]

You could even say that there is a bit of a divide between the old school and new school groups. The HAMs and highly analogue people, and the new "digital module" people who just plug stuff into their Arduinos and use a code library to make it work.

IMHO it's far bigger than this....
EG. My father who was born 200 m from where I live, he saw electricity installed in 1935 and electricity made the largest diference to his, his parents and all our lives, more so than ANY technology in the last century. AND how much are we and and our children taught to marvel in this wonderful electrical world we live in.........BUGGER ALL. 
We respect the guy that mixes our drinks more than those that craft the gadgets that make our lives easier with electrial/electronic wonders. 

Dave, take some time to demonstrate how little we take electricity for granted, how its power influences everything we do, from cell phones to washing machines to PC's to elevators to TV's and so on.
Because ppl can't see it, they don't/won't understand it, it's our job to enlighten them.
Think about "hooking" the un-initiated into the EE field, your existing work for them to "grow" in to. 

I would prefer an "edutainment" web series about it.

- How electronics started, hobbyists, Open Hardware and how important electronics is for our current livings.
- Explain in a interesting and easy way basic electronics concepts, discrete components and how much fun they can be.
- A critic about the LEGO way of electronic hobbyists and how it can destroy real creativity, just like you can buy everything instead building it yourself.

What I would do? Something like Halt and Catch Fire with a bit of IT Crowd, but full of realism and good actors that look like the real pioneers. It would cost millions and require a very large cast.

But not, that's not going to happen! People prefer to see gangsta rap, realities, "sports" and all kind of retarded bullshit instead

[rocketfire]

1st suggestion: converting an old car into a drag EV. It doesn't need to be road registrable or have long range just good power.

There's lot of tech decisions to be made; battery types, energy vs power, power electronics, motor choice, etc. All pretty "normal" ee decisions but on a larger scale. Plenty of resources to draw on, plus car mods go great on youtube.

2nd suggestion: Convert a farm quad bike to EV. Farmers don't need to do many K's but an EV quad would be cheaper to run, more reliable and safer. Plus the lessons learnt would help with pimping the Sinclair C5.

[Galenbo]

Another idea:
A doco on how crowd funding has changed the shape of small business startups.

+1

[ez24]

On my local TV news (San Diego, Calif) last night was a story on a "air bike".  It was invented in New Zealand and is being developed in Sydney.  I thought it was interesting to see a story related to Sydney on my local news.  The "air bike" , sorry I forgot the correct name, uses two fans and looks like it hovers about 6 inches off the ground.

But I still think a pig at the controls would be more interesting.  I saw an old film once of a horse driving a car by itself.

[Twonius]

Do a full autotopsy on a tesla model S. After its stripped down drive it around like a big go-kart

These guys did it with a Corvette, and a crappy one at that.

[dexters_lab]

No one has any idea for topics? 

how about looking at the design to production of high value electronics goods...  top spec mobile phones comes to mind or things that have particular design constraints on size, weight like action cams

of course you would have to get co-operation from the brands featured