France Première Engineering Science

1. Competences and content

Innovate: design project, creativity · Analyse products, power and information chains · Model and solve: statics, electricity · Experiment and simulate · Communicate technical information · Programming embedded systems

• The Design Process: From Problem to Product – The design process is a loop of steps designers use to solve a real problem for real people: investigate the need, define it in a brief and a measurable specification, generate many ideas, build a prototype, then test and evaluate it against the specification. Whatever fails sends you back round the loop. This repeating is called iteration, and it is how almost every product, app, building and artwork is improved.
• Systems Engineering – Systems engineering designs a product as a whole system. It starts from the user's need, turns it into measurable requirements, follows the flows of matter, energy and information through the parts, and checks the result on the way back up the V-cycle: verify (built right?) and validate (right thing?).
• Torque, Angular Momentum and Equilibrium of Rigid Bodies – Torque is the turning effect of a force: τ = r × F, size rF sinθ, unit N m. Angular momentum is the turning version of momentum: L = r × p; for a body spinning about a fixed axis L = Iω. Torque changes angular momentum: τ = dL/dt. If the outside torque is zero, L stays constant, so pulling mass in makes a body spin faster. A rigid body is in equilibrium when the total force is zero (no sliding) and the total torque about any point is zero (no turning).
• Modelling and Simulation in Engineering – Engineers test a design on a model before making it. A model can be physical (a scale model or prototype), mathematical (equations) or digital (a CAD model). Every model has effort variables (force, voltage, pressure) and flow variables (speed, current, flow rate); effort × flow = power. Simulation software cuts a part into small finite elements, writes equations for each and a solver finds the answer; moving systems are solved in small time steps. Results such as stress, bending and safety factor are read from colour maps and graphs. A finer mesh or smaller time step is more accurate but takes more computing time. Finally, results are checked against real tests with sensors, taking measurement errors into account.
• Technical Drawing: Communicating Design Ideas – Technical drawing is a shared visual language for showing the exact shape and size of an object. Designers start with freehand sketches, then use pictorial views (isometric, oblique) to show the object in 3D, and orthographic projection (front, top and side views) with standard lines, dimensions in millimetres and a scale so that anyone can make it. Today most drawings are made with CAD software.
• Embedded Systems – An embedded system is a small computer built inside a bigger product to do one job, like a washing machine or a traffic light. It reads sensors (input), runs a program on a microcontroller (process) and drives actuators like LEDs and motors (output). The program repeats in a loop and uses variables, conditions and events. Smart objects send their data to other devices using protocols such as Bluetooth or Wi-Fi.