Category Archives: Engineering

Korean Engineering Education

Different Engineering Education Expectations

The “Engineering Education Innovation Center” of the engineering department at Yonsei University surveyed 350 human resources officials at some 100 small- and medium-sized companies, as well as big companies, including Samsung Electronics, LG Electronics, Doosan Heavy Industries and Construction, and Nexon. In the survey, they gave engineering graduates an “F” grade in 13 out of 14 categories. Engineering graduates themselves also said, “Education in college is not useful to our work.”

On the contrary, however, engineering professors gave high marks of 97 out of 100 on their knowledge, and answered positively regarding their teaching skills, which revealed the different views colleges and companies have.

The conflict between what is being taught and what is needed in business is the subject of continuing debate globally.

More Automotive Engineering Jobs

I must say I am a bit skeptical but I am hardly an expert in forecasting automobile engineering jobs so maybe it is a good prediction, Study forecasts 300,000 more automotive engineering jobs worldwide by 2015:

According to a study by the Oliver Wyman consultancy group published in yesterday’s Die Welt newspaper, Car Innovation 2015, nearly 300,000 R&D engineering jobs will be created across the global automotive industry over the next eight years, bringing the total of such jobs to 1.1m, from the 813,000 in 2005.

Most of the new jobs will be with automotive suppliers, to whom assemblers are conferring more and more R&D responsibility, and the jobs will be concentrated in China, India, Eastern Europe and South Korea

Computer Game and Real World Education

Planning ahead: UW game teaches kids, mixes virtual, real worlds

14 middle schoolers have been participating in “Urban Science” and working in a computer lab at Wendt Library on the UW’s engineering campus. They spend their summer mornings immersed for four weeks in a highly sophisticated computer game that takes them deep into a world where the lines between fantasy and reality are deliberately blurry.

The students work for a fictitious firm called Urban Design Associates, are assigned the title of planner, carry business cards and do field research in actual neighborhoods, armed with digital cameras and notebooks, under the guidance of graduate students in the educational psychology department. As part of the game, the grad students are known as planning consultants.

I like the real world and technology interaction for education. I believe getting kids involved with real world problems is a good way to get them interested in learning.

Robotarium X – Robot Zoo

Robotarium X, the worlds first zoo for artificial life, has opened in Alverca, Portugal.

The robots are all original, created specifically for the project, representing 14 species classified by distinct behavior strategies and body morphologies. Obstacle avoidance, movement or sunlight detection and interaction with the public are some of the robots skills.

Robotarium X, the first zoo for artificial life, approaches robots very much in the way as we are used to look at natural life. We, humans, enjoy watching and studying other life forms behavior and, sadly, also to capture them. However, in this case, although the robots are confined to a cage it can be said that, not like animals, they enjoy it. In fact the Robotarium is their ideal environment with plenty of sun, smoothness, tranquility and attention. There are no fights or aggression and the only competition is to assure a place under the sunlight.

Ok, I must admit the “zoo” seems to be a bit small and primitive but imagine what similar, more advanced, exhibits we will likely see in the future. The robots really look like sushi don’t they? via: The World’s First Robot Zoo

Another Humanoid Robot

promet3 - Humanoid Robot

Kawada Industries press release on HRP-3 Promet Mk-II (link to Google translation from Japanese to English). The robot is waterproof and does not need the power backpack most other humanoid robots require. It can work in real environments (small spaces, uneven flooring…) – see links for videos and more photos.

They refer to the pose to the left as the work pose. So I guess the device in its hand is a power tool not an advanced laser weapon – though it does resemble such a weapon when I look (maybe that shows my bias).

robot Watch story (link to the Google translation of Japanese to English) – many photos and links to more info.

Kawada Industries HRP-2″Promet”,G on the previous version (with several videos):

The total robotic system was designed and integrated by Kawada Industries, Inc. together with Humanoid Research Group of National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST). Yasukawa Electric Corporation provided the initial concept design for the arms and AIST 3D Vision Research Group and Shimizu Corporation provided the vision system.

HRP-2’s height is 154 cm and mass is 58 kg including batteries. It has 30 degrees of freedom (DOF) including two DOF for its hip. The cantilevered crotch joint allows for walking in a confined area. Its highly compact electrical system packaging allows it to forgo the commonly used “backpack” used on other humanoid robots.

Two Top Google Engineers Move to Benchmark Capital

Here is an example of what I mentioned the other day (in Engineers: Future Prospects): Two top Google engineers leave — to Benchmark Capital:

two of the masterminds behind Google Maps and several other Google products, have joined the firm as “Entrepreneurs in Residence.” This gives them paid positions to hang out at Benchmark’s offices on Silicon Valley’s Sand Hill Road and think through starting a business. They have a specific idea in mind, but are secretive about it, telling VentureBeat only that it’s a “consumer Internet” company.
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There were six Google employees responsible for creating Google Maps. Taylor was the overall project leader, while Norris was responsible for the Web server side of the product.

Using Bacteria to Carry Nanoparticles Into Cells

Bacteria ferry nanoparticles into cells for early diagnosis, treatment

Researchers at Purdue University have shown that common bacteria can deliver a valuable cargo of “smart nanoparticles” into a cell to precisely position sensors, drugs or DNA for the early diagnosis and treatment of various diseases. The approach represents a potential way to overcome hurdles in delivering cargo to the interiors of cells, where they could be used as an alterative technology for gene therapy, said Rashid Bashir, a researcher at Purdue’s Birck Nanotechnology Center.

The researchers attached nanoparticles to the outside of bacteria and linked DNA to the nanoparticles. Then the nanoparticle-laden bacteria transported the DNA to the nuclei of cells, causing the cells to produce a fluorescent protein that glowed green. The same method could be used to deliver drugs, genes or other cargo into cells.

“The released cargo is designed to be transported to different locations in the cells to carry out disease detection and treatment simultaneously,” said Bashir, a professor in the Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering and the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering. “Because the bacteria and nanoparticle material can be selected from many choices, this is a delivery system that can be tailored to the characteristics of the receiving cells. It can deliver diagnostic or therapeutic cargo effectively for a wide range of needs.”

Harmless strains of bacteria could be used as vehicles, harnessing bacteria’s natural ability to penetrate cells and their nuclei, Bashir said. “For gene therapy, a big obstacle has been finding ways to transport the therapeutic DNA molecule through the nuclear membrane and into the nucleus,” he said. “Only when it is in the nucleus can the DNA produce proteins that perform specific functions and correct genetic disease conditions.”
Continue reading →

Building an Electricity Producing Wind Turbine

How I home-built an electricity producing Wind turbine:

Several years ago I bought some remote property in Arizona. I am an astronomer and wanted a place to practice my hobby far away from the sky-wrecking light pollution found near cities of any real size. I found a great piece of property. The problem is, it’s so remote that there is no electric service available.
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Whether you build your own, or buy one, you will need some sort of controller for your wind turbine. The general principal behind the controller is that it monitors the voltage of the battery(s) in your system and either sends power from the turbine into the batteries to recharge them, or dumps the power from the turbine into a secondary load if the batteries are fully charged (to prevent over-charging and destroying the batteries). The schematic and write-up on the above web page does a good job of explaining it.
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My ultimate goal is to have enough power from wind and solar sources to power a small cabin and observatory on my remote property that will only be occupied occasionally and won’t have much need for electricity. If you need a bigger system, then you need someone with experience with bigger systems to help you out.

Very interesting home engineering project. Related: Awesome CatCam – Engineering at Home – The sub-$1,000 UAV Project

Re-engineering Engineering Education

Re-engineering the engineer, Business 2.0’s take on the Olin education experiment:

You don’t have to spend much time at Olin to sense that something important has changed. Instead of the difficult, and often boring, math and physics classes of the old weed-’em-out-early engineering schools, you find courses like Engineering 2250: User Oriented Collaborative Design. In a typical session, you might encounter kids dressed in pajamas, sweats, shorts, and sandals and an atmosphere that feels more like an art studio than a classroom. On one spring day, a couple of couches and armchairs occupied the center of the room, and a student sat cross-legged atop a table, philosophizing about the lives and demands of makeup artists. Students in UOCD don’t build actual products, touch any technology, or even work a single math problem.

“It doesn’t look like engineering,” admits Benjamin Linder, the assistant professor who helped create the class. Olin’s curriculum is centered on courses like UOCD and Design Nature — the class that produced those climbing critters. Miller, 57, a thin, bald, engaging administrator who is prone to analogies, likens the traditional curriculum to a music school where students learn history and theory but never touch their instruments. Olin, by contrast, introduces project-based courses to its students early and often.

Olin also insists that students spend more than a quarter of their time studying business and entrepreneurship, humanities, and social sciences. “Olin really bends over backward to get the students to recognize the interactions between these disciplines,” says Constance Bowe, who studied the college as a researcher at Harvard Medical International. To help instill the entrepreneurial spirit, the college created the Olin Foundry, in which the school houses and partially funds as many as a dozen student startups.

Students also experience the business world firsthand through Olin’s senior consulting program for engineering. This year 12 corporations — including Boeing, Boston Scientific, Hewlett-Packard, and IBM — paid Olin a combined $700,000 to have groups of five seniors serve as consultants for a full academic year on some of the companies’ pressing technological and engineering problems. “By the time they’re seniors, they’re nearly operating at a professional level,” says David Barrett, the Olin associate professor who heads the program. “It gives them authenticity they wouldn’t get in a classroom.”

EasyJet EcoJet

The easyJet ecoJet: to cut CO2 emissions by 50% by 2015:

Rear-mounted “open-rotor” engines offer unrivalled environmental performance for short-haul flying due to their higher propulsive efficiency. However, there are significant difficulties in fixing such a large engine under a wing of a narrow-body aircraft, making rear-mounting of the engines the optimum solution.
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In addition to engine efficiency and weight reduction, one of the primary methods of reducing fuel burn is by reducing drag. Conventional jet aircraft currently suffer increased drag from turbulent airflow over their wings. A wing profile that allows the easyJet ecoJet to maintain laminar flow over a significant proportion of the wing will greatly reduce cruise drag.

Giving the wing a slight forward sweep increases the proportion of laminar flow over the wing (as the clean airflow from the wingtip tends to flow to the wing root in contrast to the turbulent air from the fuselage being dragged across the wing with conventional reverse sweep). In addition, it improves the stall performance of a laminar flow wing. Minimising drag is imperative in the design of glides and most gliders with laminar flow wings also have a slight forward sweep to the wing.