From:	Project manager
Subject:	Understanding the challenges in responding to a structural collapse
Attachment	The Engineering Process (pdf)

Good job on the analysis of structural collapse!

Now, you will have the opportunity to practice the initial steps of the engineering process in a search and rescue situation. The Toronto Rescue Squad has requested your engineering advice to help them analyze one of their rescue exercises and to come up with some tools, simple machines, and/or constructions that would help in making rescue operations in partially-collapsed structures a little easier. 

Due to budget limitations, the rescue squad has requested that you help them make the best use of the resources that they currently have available on-site. Besides the usual tools found at a construction site, there are also planks of wood of all sizes and lengths, pulleys, and some rope. You and your fellow engineers first walk through the operation shown at:

http://www.toronto.ca/fire/news/rescue_exercise/01.html

After observing the squad perform their rescue exercise, let them know that you will need a few days to put together your analysis and recommendation.  We’ll meet with them again to present your report. A team or 2 or 3 of you will be working together on this project.

Definitely refer to the task Requirements, because I’ve provided guidelines for approaching this problem.  Basically, you will be applying the Engineering Process (attached) as a problem solving model.  You’ll have a chance to brainstorm and sketch out ideas with your teammate(s).  You’ll need to recall basic principles of mechanics and simple machine concepts, inclined planes/wedges, levers/torque, screws, wheel & axel, rotating wheels, gears, pulleys friction, etc., and test out some ideas about ways in which these principles would be used in structural collapse rescue efforts.

Format for submitting your analysis and presentation/report:

• Written statement of the problem you plan to address, and for which your recommendations will be helpful
• An analysis of the principles you will be using in your solution (you may use the answers you obtained from your experiments)
• List and diagram of the tools, construction, or simple machines you recommend using the principles in the rescue effort
• Written description and presentation of how your recommended tools/objects or construction in the diagram will be used, with some supporting data to demonstrate how it/they should work.  Please be professional in presenting.  Introduce your team members and their roles.

Good luck!