NSF Engineering Division is Reorganization

Read about the reorganization of NSF’s Engineering Division in their adobe acrobat (pdf) document (the only format in which they provide the document). How does an organization, in this day and age, post a scanned image online instead of posting a text readable document (for a present day document that obviously could just be printed to pdf format and retain text.

In addition to the obvious lameness of such a move when a federal government agency does it (like NSF) they violate the “section 508” regulations put in place to provide adequate access to government documents for those with disabilities.

Hopefully someone will get them to correct their failure soon. NSF does great things, but this failure to provide even the most basic web usability is an embarrassment.

Update – they did correct this, I don’t know when as it is months later when I am updating this but still I am glad they did.

Engineering Education: Can India overtake China?

Engineering education: Can India overtake China? by George Iype, Rediff:

India currently has 113 universities and 2,088 colleges, many of which teach various engineering disciplines. Engineering colleges in the country have been growing at 20 per cent a year, while business schools have grown at 60 per cent.
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According to a McKinsey Global Institute study on the emerging global labour market, India produces a large number of engineering graduates every year, but multinationals find that just 25 per cent of them are employable. ‘In India, the overall quality of the educational system, apart from the top universities, could improve significantly,’ the report said.

Once again they quote the 600,000; 400,000 and 70,000 figures which the Duke University study shows is misleading. Still the short article provides some interesting information. Also the comment section shows the Duke study is beginning to seep into the public consciousness.

Examining the best numbers we can get (and trying to get better numbers to use for analysis) is a good idea. Still, we should not ignore the importance of the large macro trend. China and India are producing a significantly increasing proportion of the world’s engineers. Duke’s study indicate the comparison numbers are exaggerated, but the underlying trend is still strong and real.

I think the increase in China’s and India’s engineers will be a good thing for the world. And I think the both countries will continue to increase the numbers of engineers that are equal in skill and ability to others internationally (I can imagine today a higher percentage of USA engineers are highly skilled but that will not necessarily be true 30 years from now – it depends on the actions taken by many people, in government, academia and industry).

The continuation of the trend is not guaranteed; it will largely depend on the the continued economic success of India and China. If it continues it will also require some adjustments by engineers everywhere, which is one reason getting better data is wise.

Biological Molecular Motors

bio

Image: The biomolecular portal motor of bacteriophage PHI-29 (yellow) compresses the coiled DNA into the viral capsid at 6,000 times its normal pressure. (courtesy the Bustamante group)

Start Your Protein Engines by David Pescovitz:

Oster and his research group investigate the physics and chemistry behind great engineering mysteries of the natural world, from protein motors to cell motility to how bacteria form thriving populations that aren’t so different from ant colonies, or even human societies.
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Working with UC Berkeley professor Carlos Bustamante, researchers have also studied the motor that packs a virus’s DNA so tightly that it can be injected into a hijacked cell at ten times the pressure of a cork shooting out of a champagne bottle. And they’ve modeled the donut-shaped molecular motors that move along DNA strands during replication.

In the closing paragraph Dr. Oster is quoted on the use of models, which reminds me a the quote from Dr. George Box: All models are wrong, some are useful.

Other articles from from the most recent ScienceMatters@Berkeley: The New New Math of String Theory and Molecular Rules Of Engagement. Also see previous article: The Cellular Mechanic.

Canadian Association for Girls In Science

Photo of Larissa Vingilis-Jaremko

Canadian Association for Girls In Science (CAGIS)

CAGIS chapter members, aged 7-16, meet monthly to explore STEM with fun, hands-on activities led by women and men specializing in many different fields. Since CAGIS is for girls by girls, members are encouraged to take an active role in the development of their own club by voicing their opinions, exploring their interests, writing for the newsletter, writing for New Moon Magazine, and helping to organize the regular chapter events.

Article on the founder of CAGIS, Larissa Vingilis-Jaremko (in photo): Life sciences student honoured for promoting science to girls:

Curious Cat directory of science and engineering educaiton web sites

Ventless Clothes Dryers

Ventless Washer Dryer

Ventless Clothes Dryers

Engineers have provided an alternative to the normal cloths dryer that requires venting. This can come in handy in some apartments that don’t offer a good location for a dryer that also provide an easy venting option. How does such a dryer work:

Ordinary dryers suck in cool, dry air from the room, heat it, blow it through the clothes, and then discharge the damp, hot air outside through a vent. This dryer, on the other hand, runs the exhaust through a heat-exchange system to cool it. Cold water flows through the heat exchanger, absorbing heat from the air. As the air cools, the moisture in it condenses and runs down the drain (along with the used cooling water); the dry air is then heated again, sent back through the clothes, and the cycle continues.

There are even dryers that dry clothes in the same compartment they are washed in, photo: EdgeStar Ventless 110 Volt Combo Washer Dryer.

More details from: What is a ‘condenser’ dryer?

International Fulbright Science and Technology Award

The International Fulbright Science and Technology award offers 25 awards for non-USA citizens to study science and engineering in the United States. The deadline for application is 1 September 2006 (though some sources give different dates): apply online. This is the first year this award has been offered.

Eligible fields include: Aeronautics and Aeronautical Engineering, Astronomy, Biology, Chemistry, Computer Science, Engineering (computer, electrical, chemical, civil, environmental, materials, mechanical, ocean, and petroleum), Environmental Science, Geology and Atmospheric Sciences, Information Sciences, Materials Science, Mathematics, Neuroscience, Oceanography, and Physics.

I can’t find any information on it on the main state department or fulbright scholar sites. But there are a number of embassy sites that mention it and an article from Barbados.

Re-engineered Wheelchair

photo of new wheelchair

Wheelchairs given design makeover by Geoff Adams-Spink, BBC News

Five years later – a development phase that Mr Spindle describes as “extremely difficult” – Trekinetic chose the Mobility Roadshow to unveil a radical new design.

The K2 has three wheels – two large ones at the front that can take mountain bike tyres – and a smaller one at the back.

The company says it is ideally suited for off-road use but can be just as useful in towns and cities too.

Manufacturers of the wheelchair: Trekinetic. They seem to be getting a bit too much publicity, when I visited I received the following: “This account has exceeded it’s bandwidth quota and has been temporarily disabled.” I would imagine it will be available again shortly.

Science and Engineering Podcasts

Engines Of Our Ingenuity hosted by John Lienhard, University of Houston’s College of Engineering, (podcasts via NPR).

A complete history, with transcripts and audio of the over 2,000 episodes, is online – episodes include:

This is a great resource. “The Engines of Our Ingenuity tells the story of how our culture is formed by human creativity. he program uses the record of history to reveal the way art, technology, and ideas have shaped us.”

More NPR Technology podcasts

The Science of the Football Swerve

With the World Cup (football – soccer) underway lets look at The science behind the swerve by Dr Ken Bray:

It took the modern science of fluid dynamics to understand exactly what happens in a swerving free kick. When a football moves through the air at low speed the air flow separates from its surface at characteristic points…

When the ball rotates – see graphic 3 – the boundary layer remains tripped but the air flow separation around the ball is distorted. Separation occurs earlier on the side rotating against the flow and later on the side rotating in the same sense as the flow. This causes a pressure differential and a deflecting force which is responsible for moving the ball in the air in a free kick.

More posts on science in athletics

Recharge Batteries in Seconds

MIT researchers are working on battery technology based on capacitor technology and nanotechnology.

Super Battery (video also available):

Rechargable and disposable batteries use a chemical reaction to produce energy. “That’s an effective way to store a large amount of energy,” he says, “but the problem is that after many charges and discharges … the battery loses capacity to the point where the user has to discard it.”

But capacitors contain energy as an electric field of charged particles created by two metal electrodes. Capacitors charge faster and last longer than normal batteries. The problem is that storage capacity is proportional to the surface area of the battery’s electrodes, so even today’s most powerful capacitors hold 25 times less energy than similarly sized standard chemical batteries.

The researchers solved this by covering the electrodes with millions of tiny filaments called nanotubes.
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This technology has broad practical possibilities, affecting any device that requires a battery. Schindall says, “Small devices such as hearing aids that could be more quickly recharged where the batteries wouldn’t wear out; up to larger devices such as automobiles where you could regeneratively re-use the energy of motion and therefore improve the energy efficiency and fuel economy.”

Previous post: MIT Energy Storage Using Carbon Nanotubes