Category Archives: Engineering

USA Innovation Lead Challenged

U.S. Tech Lead Challenged by Globalization of Innovation by George Leopold

The exodus of much software development has proven to be a lightning rod in the U.S. debate over outsourcing. But an expert at the symposium said the U.S. remains the clear innovation leader in terms of patents. Chris Forman of Carnegie Mellon University said software services are being outsourced, mostly to India, while innovative database and office automation software continues to be written here.

That could change, however, if the steady decline in federal research dollars continues along with the decline in U.S. computer science graduates, Forman said.

For now, the experts concluded, America retains the keys to innovation. The question, they added, is for how long?

Related:

Mistake Driven Engineering

Book Cover graphic - Success Through Failure

Engineering a Safer, More Beautiful World, One Failure at a Time by Cornelia Dean:

Success masks failure. The more a thing operates successfully, the more confidence we have in it. So we dismiss little failures — like the repeated loss of a space shuttle’s insulating tiles launchings — as trivial annoyances rather than preludes to catastrophe.

Success through Failure: The Paradox of Design by Henry Petroski – read a sample chapter (from Princeton University Press):

Sometimes, as when a part breaks in two, the focal point for the improvement is obvious. Other times, such as when a complex system runs disappointingly slowly, the way to speed it up may be far from clear. In all cases, however, the beginnings of a solution lay in isolating the cause of the failure and in focusing on how to avoid, obviate, remove, or circumvent it. Inventors, engineers, designers, and common users take up such problems all the time.

Related:

Study on Minority Degrees in STEM fields

The American Council on Education has published a study: Increasing the Success of Minority Students in Science and Technology.

Key Findings:

  • In the 1995-96 academic year, 18.6 percent of African-American students and 22.7 percent of Hispanic students began college interested in majoring in STEM fields compared with 18 percent of white students and 26.4 percent of Asian-American students.
  • By the spring of 2001, 62.5 percent of African Americans and Hispanics majoring in STEM fields attained a bachelor’s degree compared with 94.8 percent of Asian Americans and 86.7 percent of whites.

Students who graduated in STEM fields (by spring 2001) were:

  • better prepared for postsecondary education because a larger percentage took a highly rigorous high school curriculum.
  • nearly all were younger than 19 when they entered college in 1995-96
  • more likely to have at least one parent with a bachelor’s degree or higher.
  • came from families with higher incomes.
  • more likely to work 15 hours or more a week.

Full press release on the study.

What’s so Exciting About Engineering?

What’s so exciting about engineering? by Leigh M. Chowdhary:

“I thought it was really great,” says Hannah M., an 8th grader at Sacred Heart Middle School. “I liked the experiments.”

A crew of 150 girls age 10 to 14 from four Chicago area schools were scientists for a day. Some kids used static electricity from balloons to move sticks through a racecourse. Others watched videos of female inventors–who created things such as smear-proof lipstick and Kevlar (a substance used in bullet-proof vests).

This article discusses a Wow! That’s Engineering event.

Previous post on Science for Kids – learning through action.

Women in engineering change the world around us for the better every day! Tell us in 100 words or less about a promotion that you would create to make the world a better place and you could win one of these prizes. Deadline is April 19th!

Technology Education: USA and India

US wants to replicate India’s technology education success by Bibhu Ranjan Mishra:

Sources say that over 70,000 Indian students are undergoing higher studies in the US, which is the highest anywhere in the world. In contrast, there are just 780 US students presently undergoing studies in some Indian universities, mainly in IT, agricultural sciences and working with high schools to understand the pattern of higher secondary education in India.
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Both Spellings and Enzi, who were the part of a delegation comprising some leading US Senators that visited Bangalore recently told Business Standard that the way India was churning out over 200,000 engineering graduates every year, while at the same time maintaining quality, really baffled them.

National Conference on Service Learning in Engineering

National Conference on Service Learning in Engineering

Service learning is a rapidly growing pedagogy in engineering, technology and computing that actively engages students in real problems in local and global communities. Research has shown that service learning enhances learning of classroom content. Research and active programs indicate that the community context can help address the under representation of our student populations. This conference will bring leaders from education, industry and government together with service learning practitioners to identify how to capitalize on the current momentum and to maximize its impact.

May 24th and 25th, 2006, National Academy of Engineering, Washington, DC. There is no charge to attend but space is limited.

Great Moonbuggy Race

Moon Buggy Race Vehicle

Great Moonbuggy Race – Huntsville Center for Technology High School and Pittsburg State University win their divisions.

The two winning teams were among 33 that raced their original moonbuggy designs across a half-mile simulated lunar surface at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville April 7-8.

More from the NASA education site

Previous posts about science fairs, engineering challenges, science competitions, etc.

Sports Engineering

Wind Tunnel at MIT for sports testing

MIT is not the first school to come to mind when discussing athletics. However, the MIT Center for Sports Innovation (CSI) is making news. The CSI mission is to expand the students’ learning experience by involving them in the development of sports technology and products.

One project at the Center is a wind tunnel used for bicycle testing:

The design and construction of the bike test stand was Brian Hoying’s senior thesis project. The data acquisition software upgrade was Mark Cote’s freshman term project. The resulting test system was deemed “the best cycling test system I’ve ever seen” by Phil White, owner of Cervélo Cycles, and sponsor of the CSC professional cycling team.

It is great to see student projects with such success.

Mark Cote, a researcher at the MIT Center for Sports Innovation, has an impressive list of clients — from Tour de France stage winners to some of North America’s leading bicycle manufacturers. Now the wind tunnel specialist plans to use his expertise in fluid dynamics to develop and, he hopes, patent his own advances in aerodynamic cycling gear.

Not bad, considering that Cote, 21, is still an undergraduate.

Companies Hunting for Engineers to Fill New Jobs

Increase in work has companies hunting for engineers by Molly McMillin:

In 2007, Airbus’ North America Engineering Center in Wichita must hire an additional 150 engineers because of new work it is getting. Bill Greer, Airbus North America’s vice president and general manager, said he will hire as many engineers locally as he can for the wing design center, which now employs 207 engineers.

But if he can’t find enough high-quality, experienced engineers in Wichita, Greer said he will contract with engineering companies outside Kansas.
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Cessna Aircraft hired 150 engineers last year and plans to hire 100 to 120 more in 2006.

Raytheon Aircraft expects to add more than 100 engineers in the next year.

Right now, both say they are finding the engineers they need.
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WSU, which has 155 to 160 engineering graduates in a year, is not graduating all the engineers Wichita needs, Toro-Ramos said.

Those who are graduating are getting multiple offers of employment, she said.