Category Archives: Engineering

Humorous Take on the Language of Engineers

A humorous take on the language of engineers from Xooglers (former Googlers):

Orthogonal – Engineers are always talking about things being orthogonal to each other. The first time I heard the term, I thought it meant something like “11-sided.” It doesn’t. I’ve read the definition many times. I still don’t really get it, which didn’t stop me from casually dropping it into conversations with engineers. “Oh, yeah, that press release is totally orthogonal to the ads we’re running on Yahoo.”
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Non-trivial – It means impossible. Since no engineer is going to admit something is impossible, they use this word instead. When an engineer says something is “non-trivial,” it’s the equivalent of an airline pilot calmly telling you that you might encounter “just a bit of turbulence” as he flies you into a cat 5 hurricane.

Have a nice weekend.

USA Science and Engineering Doctorates Hold Steady

Statistics from NSF

1995 2000 2004
Total S&E Doctorates 29,533 26,536 26,275

NSF also indicates 33% of all doctorates (including those outside science and engineering) went to non-USA citizens in 2004 compared to 32% in 1995. It is not surprising that the percentage of non-USA-citizen doctorate degrees, awarded in the USA, is much higher for many science and engineering fields (65% in engineering, 56% in mathematics, 55% in physics). It might be surprising to many people that 56% of computer science doctorates were awarded to non-USA citizens.

More detailed data on Science and Engineering Doctorate Awards is available from NSF.

NASA Telerobotic Competition

NASA Announces Telerobotic Construction Competition

“The Telerobotic Challenge may directly affect how exploration is conducted on the moon,” said NASA’s Associate Administrator for the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate, Scott Horowitz. “If the Challenge can successfully demonstrate the remote assembly of simple and complex structures, many aspects of exploration in general will be affected for the better.”

This Challenge will be conducted in an arena containing scattered structural building blocks. The task is to assemble the structure using multiple robotic agents remotely controlled by humans. The operators may only see and talk to the robots through communications’ equipment that simulates Earth-moon time delays and restrictions. The robots must be smart enough to work together with only intermittent human direction to be successful.

Rules will be finalized in early 2006 and the competition will go into 2007. This is part of the NASA Centennial Challenges in which prizes seek to stimulate innovation and competition in solar system exploration and ongoing NASA mission areas.

Formula One Race Car Engineering by Students

Schools Innovation Design Challenge National Finals, Australia:

Victoria University set up the Victorian arm of the project, which involved 18 secondary schools from metropolitan and regional Victoria for Years 7-10 students to design, manufacture, test and race model F1 cars.

VU’s Program Manager Schools, Joe Micallef said: “This has been a fantastic opportunity for secondary students, who have been able to use sophisticated engineering technology – some of which professional engineers haven’t even used yet.”
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And the students are not just competing for honour, the outright national champions will receive an all-expenses -paid trip to the UK to represent Australia at the World Finals next January.

Formula One team success for Longreach students

Fast-tracking engineering knowhow:

“We’re trying to get kids interested in engineering and manufacturing careers,” said Re-Engineering Australia national project manager Paul Bray.

“So we’re giving them access to the same tools that are being used by industry to design and make these things so they can see that it really is practical and fun.”

For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST)

Students at FIRST Robotics competition

For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST) is a “multinational non-profit organization, that aspires to transform culture, making science, math, engineering, and technology as cool for kids as sports are today.”

FIRST Robotics Competition – In 2005 the competition reached close to 25,000 high-school-aged young people on close to 1,000 teams in 30 competitions. Teams came from Brazil, Canada, Ecuador, Israel, Mexico, the U.K., and almost every U.S. state.

The FIRST Vexâ„¢ Challenge (FVC) is a pilot, mid-level robotics competition for high-school students. It offers the traditional challenge of a FIRST competition but with a more accessible and affordable robotics kit. FIRST is currently piloting the FIRST Vex Challenge as a potential FIRST program.

China, Germany to Join Hands in Engineering Education

China, Germany to Join Hands in Engineering Education from China’s People’s Daily:

Chinese and German engineering experts convened Monday in Beijing to discuss future cooperation in engineering education and mutual accreditation.

The Symposium on Perspectives of Sino-German Cooperation in Realm of Engineering Education and Accreditation, co-sponsored by the Chinese Association for Science and Technology (CAST) and the Association of German Engineers, is expected to shape the future accreditation of engineers between China and Germany.

Chinese Association for Science and Technology – English section of the site:

On July 4, Chinese Vice-President Zeng Qinghong joined the residents and children of the capital in activities marking the National Science Popularization Day. He expressed his cordial greetings to the nation’s scientific and technological workers and volunteers devoted to the cause of science popularization. He stressed that science popularization is a basic work concerning the development and prosperity of the nation, which needs the continuous endeavor of the whole society. It is necessary to sum up experience, intensify the science popularization work in the rural areas, enterprises, schools, communities and households and push it onto a new stage, remarked Zeng.

Engineering in America

America’s High-Tech Quandary by Charles Murray

Reliable statistics are few, but numbers published by the National Science Foundation (NSF) indicate that engineering students are a small minority in U.S. colleges. In 2000, NSF figures showed that just 4.7 percent of U.S. undergrad degrees went to engineers, while 38.7 percent of the undergrad degrees in China were awarded to engineering students.
Country First university degrees Engineering degrees Percentage
China 567,839 219.563 38.7%
Taiwan 117,430 26,587 22.6%
Germany 178,618 36,319 20.3%
Japan 542,314 104,478 19.3%
France 275,316 34,293 12.4%
Ireland 18,669 2,014 10.8%
United Kingdom 274,440 20,280 7.4%
Kenya 15,620 740 4.7%
United States 1,253,121 59,536 4.7%
The situation has been brewing for more than a decade, say academics. During that time, China’s leaders have repeatedly expressed a desire to emphasize engineering in their universities. Today, with all nine of the country’s Politburo Standing Committee—the top tier of the Communist party—being engineers, the vision has become more focused than ever. Chinese officials reportedly are aiming for 50 percent of the country’s college graduates to come from engineering. Today, the figure hovers between 35 to 45 percent, according to the best estimates.

On the lack of engineering students in the USA:

A combination of factors—salaries and public image, as well as offshoring of jobs to Asia—has made engineering appear undesirable to high school kids who might otherwise choose it as a career path.

Ok, the article makes some good points but I don’t think this is one of them. Salaries look pretty good. Public may not be great but it doesn’t explain much of the shortfall. Hard work, yes I believe that discourages many studnets. Difficult path, yes. Not enough effort to encourage science and engineering education, yes. But sorry I don’t believe salaries, public image and offshoring are the combination of factors resulting in turning high school students away from engineering.

Siemens Westinghouse Competition Winners

Siemens Westinghouse Competition press release:

Michael Viscardi, a senior who is home schooled, won the $100,000 Grand Prize scholarship in the individual category for mathematics research with real-world engineering implications. Anne Lee, a senior at Phoenix Country Day School in Paradise Valley, Arizona, and Albert Shieh, a junior at Chaparral High School in Scottsdale, Arizona, won the $100,000 prize in the team category, which they will share equally, for developing new software that more accurately analyzes genetic data.

Articles on the competition (I like the local focus of the headlines):

Siemens Westinghouse Competition in Math, Science and Technology web site. Their web site, and the articles above, provide interesting details on the highly advanced work of the participating high school students.

The Siemens Foundation provides more than $2 million in college scholarships and awards each year for talented high school students in the United States.

Adventures in Synthetic Biology

cover graphic of Adventures in Synthetic Biology Nature offers its first ever comic: Adventures in Synthetic Biology (via easternblot). Learn more about the creation of the comic. The graphics are nice, though honestly the interface to view the comic could be better. The pdf version is larger and easier to read.

I think it is great to experiment with using different ways to present scientific ideas. This comic is a good example of one of those ways. Also see several books that use cartoons to present ideas: Cartoon Guide to Genetics, Cartoon Guide to Physics and Cartoon Guide to Chemistry (all by Larry Gonick).

More comic presentations from howtoons.

Related links:

Center for Engineering Educational Outreach

Center for Engineering Educational Outreach at Tufts University.

The core purpose of the CEEO is to Improve Engineering Education for all Ages from the K – 12 student, to her parents, to the university engineering and liberal arts student. Four “towers of work” make up the Center: (1) engineering education research, (2) educational tool development, (3) teacher/volunteer support, and (4) a “bakesale” tower that funds a lot of these efforts.

The center provides a number of excellent resources including:

  • Robotics: Fundamentals of IT and Engineering – “to design a curriculum for an after school program that will integrate robotics into science, technology, engineering and mathematics courses in the Boston Public Schools.”
  • Student Teacher Outreach Mentor Program (STOMP) – “places engineering students into classrooms and after school programs to support engineering education. The students aid educators in designing and implementing hands-on activities that teach engineering concepts ranging from the design process to gear ratios to digital logic.”
  • Pre-College Engineering for Teachers (PCET) – “professional development program for K-12 teachers sponsored by the National Science Foundation. Teacher participation starts during a ten day summer workshop, and continues during the school year. The workshop introduces teachers to different strategies for incorporating engineering design into their classrooms, and each participating teacher is required to include a unit about engineering design in their classroom during the following school year.”
  • Robotics Academy

A great resouce.