Category Archives: Engineering
I Was an Engineer at a Major Automaker. Here’s the Dark Side of the Job – The Drive
In a past life, I worked as a graduate engineer for one of the biggest automakers in the world. I've talked about the good points of my time there, such as meeting new people and learning new things. However, there was also plenty to dislike about the experienceas you might imagine, given that I no longer work there.
As I mentioned in my previous piece, everyone knows what comes out of an automotive factory. But the public rarely gets a look into what goes on inside of an automotive factory. So, I decided to write about my experiences during my time there in the hope that they'd be illuminating. Whether you're just curious or you're an engineering student that wants to hear about the gritty reality of working in the field, this is for you. Consider it a dive into the hot, greasy, underbelly of the manufacturing machine.
That's not just flavor text, either. The casting plant that I worked in was oily and dirty. You might have seen videos of pristine, world-class automotive factories turning out parts; ours was not one of those. On any given day, you might have to climb under a machine, getting yourself covered in coolant, oil, and aluminum swarf in the process. Factory-issued thick cotton shirts were standard wearnot because there was a strict uniform requirement per se, but because any clothes you wore to work were liable to get ruined on the factory floor.
It wasn't a disaster, by any means, but the filth was very much there. This isn't an outright negative; casting is messy, something generally expected in an industrial setting. However, cleaner factories often run more smoothly and are nicer, less dangerous places to work. That, in addition to a toxic work culture and low pay, were some of the realities of my old job.
Speaking of running smoothly, a real pain point for everybody was the plant's uptime. On paper, we ran the plant round the clock, seven days a week, 24 hours a day. Casting is very much a heat-sensitive process and dies take time to reach equilibrium temperatures to make good parts, so you want to keep the machines running non-stop, even across shift changes. Yes, that was the plan on paper, but the reality was often anything but.
The problem stemmed from the fact that a plant doesn't run well without continual investment in upgrades and maintenance. Decades-old machines were held together with quick fixes and running repairs, and the dies themselves were much the same. Thus, things would break down. They would break down a lot. Then, because they'd broken down, we wouldn't have made enough parts on a given shift. So to make up for the shortfall, the factory would then skip future maintenance windows in an attempt to catch up.
Predictably, this led to yet more breakdowns, more missed parts, and a senior staff that grew increasingly upset as the year went on. A supervisor exasperatedly exclaimed one day, "Some of us can't even enjoy a glass of wine on the weekend because we must always be ready for another problem!"
It was a strange feeling being in those tough meetings as a fresh graduate. It was difficult to know how best to contribute. It was clear the factory was struggling, but those with the most age and experience were themselves short on answers for a quick solution. There were no good days so much as there were those with less going wrong than usual.
There were compounding cultural issues, too. When machines failed or started producing bad castings, operators and maintenance crews would often change machine parameters to try and compensate. For example, if the castings were sticking, they'd try increasing the water sprays or reducing the die closing times. (Engineers reading this are screaming right about now.)
This kind of approach is literally the worst thing you can do from a process control perspective. The proper methodology is to design a process to operate in a set way in order to make good parts. If that process then starts making bad parts, something must have gone wrong, so either the failed part of the machine or the process should be corrected. Trying to chase away the problem by varying the process parameters just means you're going to make more parts that are probably bad in another way. However, tight engineering resources and timelines meant this happened pretty much every day I was there.
Perhaps due to the neverending production backlog, senior engineers and production managers routinely worked well beyond the 40-hour week. From what I could tell, many had done so for much of their professional lives, wearing it as a sort of bitter professional honor. Given the state of the plant's operations, it really raised the question as to whether or not this was the right way to go. But to them, this was gospel. One engineer told me he once got in a huge fight with his wife when he got home from work at 11 p.m. one night. Rather than argue, he went back to the plant.
This working culture was pretty toxic. I was often congratulated on the quality of my work but chastised for getting to work and leaving on time. The amount of work I did mattered not. I was simply expected to sit in the office longer to demonstrate some kind of point, regardless of whether there was anything more to be done or not. The fact that I had stayed back late on many occasions to breathe life back into failed machines didn't factor into the equation, apparently. Neither did my weekend overtime.
The plant had some weird demographics, too. The casting specialists were either all over 55 and had been there for 20-plus years or they were a newly-hired graduate. There was this huge age gapas if the hiring managers had not thought to hire anyone new until most of the casting engineers were facing retirement. The casting plant was also heavily skewed male (as many are) and 90 percent of the women that did work there worked under the solitary female manager.
Given the rusted-on senior crew and the slowly contracting casting industry in Australia, this resulted in frustrating issues. Some staff that had "been there forever" were widely noted to have problems working with others. But as they were considered "difficult to replace," they held their jobs and everyone else had to put up with them on a daily basis. The amount of anger and bile that bubbled around that place was truly excruciating. If you've ever had to work with someone that's pissed off and angry every single day of the week, you know how draining it can be.
Safety was also somewhat of a concern. I was thankfully never hurt at work and I didn't see too many others injured, either. However, attitudes, in general, were poor. Most concerningly, the safety manager stopped coming into work one day and was never replaced during my time at the plant. Rumors flew but the word on the street was that he had "taken his job too seriously."
It might sound like a whole lot of fuss over nothing, but safety in a casting plant is of utmost importance if you don't want to die in a giant fireball. When molten aluminum comes into contact with water, it can violently explode, often claiming lives and destroying entire factories in the process.
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I Was an Engineer at a Major Automaker. Here's the Dark Side of the Job - The Drive
Global Precision Engineering Machines Market Forecast to Reach USD 19.27 Billion by 2028 – ResearchAndMarkets.com – Business Wire
DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The "Global Precision Engineering Machines Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report by End-use, Region and Segment Forecasts, 2021-2028" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.
The global precision engineering machines market size is estimated to reach USD 19.27 billion by 2028, expanding at a CAGR of 6.6% from 2021 to 2028, according to the report.
The increased demand for advanced machining solutions, as well as the focus on reducing downtime to promote production efficiency, improve accuracy, and optimize machining processes, are driving sales growth. Moreover, Industry 4.0 promotes the integration of manufacturing facilities with other processes to create holistic and adaptive automation system architectures using precision engineering machines for production and manufacturing. Hence, the market comprises significant opportunities with the advent of industry 4.0 in the forthcoming years.
The increased popularity of precision engineering machines can be attributed to their computerized accuracy, which helps improve the productivity and efficiency of manufacturing processes. The scope of precision engineering is expanding owing to the rising technological possibilities. Precision engineering machines facilitate automated operations and, hence, reduce the time required for machining components. These machines can continue operating without any manual intervention and supervision once the machinist feeds the codes into the computer. Industrial automated machines, often known as robots, have proven to be beneficial for both discrete and continuous manufacturers in numerous ways. Some of these benefits include more efficient production procedures and higher productivity.
The COVID-19 pandemic has negatively impacted the market by restraining innovation, reducing profitability, and depleting cash flow and economic imbalance. The COVID-19 pandemic also resulted in the cancellation of many events in 2020, which restricted manufacturers from marketing their new products or technologies. On the other hand, untrained workers may struggle to manage precision engineering machines, resulting in potential machine damage, and putting the manufacturing unit's investments at risk. As a result, a scarcity of experienced operators is posing a significant barrier to market expansion. The shortage of skilled manufacturing workers, such as precision machinists and tool and die makers is affecting industries such as aerospace and steel.
Market Report Highlights
Key Topics Covered:
Chapter 1 Methodology and Scope
Chapter 2 Executive Summary
2.1 Precision Engineering Machines Market - Industry Snapshot and Key Buying Criteria, 2018 - 2028
2.2 Global Precision Engineering Machines Market, 2018 - 2028
Chapter 3 Precision Engineering Machines Industry Outlook
3.1 Market Segmentation
3.2 Market Size and Growth Prospects
3.3 Precision Engineering Machines Market - Value Chain Analysis
3.4 Precision Engineering Machines Market - Market Dynamics
3.4.1 Market driver analysis
3.4.1.1 Growing demand for advanced machining solutions
3.4.1.2 Emphasis on increasing efficiency and reducing downtime
3.4.2. Market opportunity analysis
3.4.2.1 Shortage of skilled workforce
3.4.3 Market challenge analysis
3.4.3.1 Continued urbanization and rise in industry 4.0
3.5 Penetration and Growth Prospect Mapping
3.6 Precision Engineering Machines Market - Porter's Analysis
3.7 Precision Engineering Machines Market - Competitor Analysis, 2020
3.8 Precision Engineering Machines Market - PESTEL analysis
Chapter 4 Precision Engineering Machines End-Use Outlook
4.1 Precision Engineering Machines Market Share By End Use, 2020 & 2028
4.2 Automotive
4.3 Non-Automotive
4.3.2 Aerospace & Defense
4.3.3 Engineering & Capital Goods
4.3.4 Power & Energy
4.3.5 Others
Chapter 5 Precision Engineering Machines Regional Outlook
Chapter 6 Competitive Landscape
For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/uc8ais
About ResearchAndMarkets.com
ResearchAndMarkets.com is the world's leading source for international market research reports and market data. We provide you with the latest data on international and regional markets, key industries, the top companies, new products and the latest trends.
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James Webb Space Telescope: The engineering behind a ‘first light machine’ that is not allowed to fail – Space.com
Randy Kimble will never forget the days in August 2017 when Hurricane Harvey battered Texas. As a project scientist for integration, test and commissioning of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), he had no option to hide at home. The giant telescope, at that time already 10 years behind schedule and considerably over budget, was right in the middle of one of its 100-day space simulating test campaigns at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston.
"The main gate was under several feet of water and the rest of the center was shut down," Kimble told Space.com. "But there was still one route from a hotel strip in that area and you could get in through the back gate at Johnson. Just by a matter of days, we didn't run out of liquid nitrogen to keep the cooling system going. It was very tense."
Kimble has worked on JWST since 2009 after spending two decades developing instruments for JWST's predecessor, the Hubble Space Telescope. Still, he said, the tests of JWST, carried out inside the 40-foot diameter Chamber A (built in the 1960s to test equipment for the moon-bound Apollo missions), were a career highlight. They involved lowering the telescope's temperature to the minus 390 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 217 degrees Celsius) in which it will operate, and in a vacuum similar to that of space.
Live updates: NASA's James Webb Space Telescope launchRelated: How the James Webb Space Telescope works in pictures
"The cryo-vacuum tests for Webb were long and gruelling," Kimble said. "It would take weeks just to cool everything down safely and then warm up again safely at the end of the test. And in the middle, when you are cold and stable, that's when you do your detailed testing."
Over a six-year period, multiple test campaigns were conducted with teams working on site 24/7, including weekends and holidays, Kimble said. The spacecraft's four scientific instruments were also tested separately, multiple times, and so was virtually every part of the telescope, the most complex, daring and expensive space observatory ever built.
Some 30 years in the making and with an eventual price tag of $10 billion, the James Webb Space Telescope is simply not allowed to go wrong. The problem is that in the space business, it is rather easy to go wrong.
When the Hubble Space Telescope launched in 1990, it soon became obvious something was amiss. The images it sent to Earth were disappointing, blurry, nowhere near to what scientists had expected. The problem was traced to the telescope's great mirror, which was improperly polished during manufacturing. A rescue mission involving a team of astronauts was sent to fix the problem. Hubble received 'glasses' to correct its short-sightedness and turned into the astronomical powerhouse that has since generated thousands of iconic and scientifically priceless images.
With the James Webb Space Telescope, rescue missions are impossible and therefore no failures are allowed.
"James Webb Space Telescope is a prototype and with prototypes, you can always have something that goes wrong," Mark McCaughrean, senior advisor for science and exploration at the European Space Agency (ESA) and interdisciplinary scientist at the JWST science working group, told Space.com. "That's why JWST is so expensive. Because we've spent two decades building and testing every single piece a million ways to do everything to make sure it doesn't have problems."
But why does Webb have to be so complex? Wouldn't a simpler mission work just as well? And why cannot it be serviced by astronauts?
The fact is that serviceability was never an option for Webb. The science it is meant to deliver, the depths of space it is intended to glimpse, simply cannot be accomplished with a spacecraft that astronauts can visit (at least not with currently available spaceships).
The James Webb Space Telescope, sometimes fondly referred to by astronomers as the 'first light machine,' was built to see the first stars and galaxies that emerged from dust and gas of the early universe, only a few millions of years after the Big Bang.
Because these stars and galaxies are so far away, the visible light they emitted when the universe was only a few hundred millions of years old has shifted into the near infrared and infrared part of the electromagnetic spectrum. This strange effect, known as the red shift in astronomical jargon, is a result of the expansion of the universe and the ensuing Doppler effect. That's the same effect that distorts the frequency of a siren of a passing ambulance car.
Infrared radiation is essentially heat, and can be detected with special sensors that are different from those detecting visible light. Since the stars and galaxies that JWST was designed to study are so far away, the incoming signals are also extremely faint. The scientists and engineers behind JWST needed to tackle a range of technical obstacles to make this hoped-for detection possible.
The Hubble Space Telescope, although originally designed to detect only the visible light of the universe (that in wavelengths that the human eye can process), was in 1997 equipped with then cutting-edge infrared detectors during the second servicing mission; these sensors were later upgraded when new technology became available. But still, infrared astronomy was an obvious afterthought for Hubble, and the telescope clearly wasn't optimized to feel the warmth of the most distant universe.
Hubble orbits Earth at the altitude of 340 miles (545 kilometers). On top of being regularly blasted by direct sunlight, Hubble also absorbs Earth's heat. As a result, its infrared detectors are quite dazzled by the telescope's own warmth and it simply cannot see those faint and distant galaxies.
"If you want a really sensitive infrared telescope, it needs to be really cold," McCaughrean said. "And to get really cold, you need to get away from Earth."
And the James Webb Space Telescope will be far away from Earth indeed, about 1 million miles (1.5 million km) away. That's more than four times farther than the moon. The telescope will orbit the sun, while simultaneously making small circles around the so-called Lagrange point 2 (L2) a point on the sun-Earth axis constantly hidden from the sun by the planet. At L2, the gravitational pulls of the sun and of Earth keep the spacecraft aligned with the two big bodies.
But even that wouldn't make Webb cold enough to accomplish its mission.
The largest piece of the spacecraft and one without which the mission would be impossible is its tennis court-sized deployable sunshield made of five layers of an aluminum-coated space blanket material called kapton.
The sunshield will unfurl in space before the telescope reaches its destination in one of the most nerve-wrecking parts of the spacecraft's post-launch deployment sequence.
"The sunshield is by far the most mission-critical thing," said McCaughrean. "If it doesn't fully deploy, the telescope doesn't work. We have obviously folded and unfolded it many times on the ground, but nothing like this has ever been flown in space before, and the lack of gravity simply changes things."
The sunshield is James Webb Space Telescope's main cooling mechanism. Nestled behind it, the mirrors and the four never-before-flown instruments will remain far below freezing at 390 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 217 degrees Celsius). The sun-facing side, on the other hand, will be incredibly hot up to 230 degrees F (128 degrees C).
"The sunshield is like sunscreen with an SPF of at least a million in terms of how much it attenuates the solar energy," said Kimble, the testing and integration project scientist who rode out Hurricane Harvey with JWST. "That allows us to passively cool down cold enough that for most of the wavelengths, the observations are not limited at all by the glow of the telescope."
The sunshield is not a simple parasol; a lot of clever engineering went into its design. The five layers of the ultralight kapton material are precisely spaced so that the heat absorbed by each layer is perfectly radiated away from the spacecraft through the gaps. While superthin and ultralight, the material is also incredibly sturdy, enough to survive bombardment by meteorites.
To do what it has been designed to do, the James Webb Space Telescope really couldn't be small. The Hubble Space Telescope, with its mirror 7.8 feet (2.4 meters) in diameter, couldn't detect those distant early galaxies even if it were as cold as Webb.
"If you want to see those distant, faint galaxies, then you need to gather more light," Kimble said. "And so the simple fact that Webb's mirror collects six to seven times more photons in a given amount of time [than Hubble], gives you a significant advantage."
The ability of a telescope to collect light increases with the square of the size of its mirror, explained McCaughrean. With its 21-foot (6.5 m) mirror, Webb will not only be able to take sharper, deeper images of the universe than those that made Hubble famous, it will also do so in a fraction of the time required by Hubble.
"Some of the deep field work that Hubble has done, they would look in a particular field for a couple of weeks," Kimble said. "Webb can reach that kind of sensitivity limit in seven or eight hours."
But here comes another challenge. How do you lift something the size of a tennis court with a 21-foot mirror into space?
The Hubble Space Telescope, which measures 44 feet long (13.2 m) and at most 14 feet (4.2 m) across, fitted quite snugly into the 60-foot long (18.3 m) and 15-foot wide (4.6 m) payload bay of the space shuttle Discovery, from which the telescope was deployed in 1990.
But the widest rocket fairing available when Webb was designed was Europe's Ariane 5 rocket, and the telescope's mirror is more than 3 feet (1 m) too wide to fit. So for Webb, getting to space requires folding and unfolding. The mirror and the sunshield, as well as the usual solar arrays and antennas, must all be neatly stowed for the telescope's launch.
The mirror, made of 18 hexagonal segments, each 4.3 feet (1.32 m) across, collapses like an origami for the launch. Once in space, these elements unfold, locking together. The jigsaw puzzle is so finely tuned that once the mirror is fully aligned, the seams between the individual segments will be perfectly smooth.
Aligning the mirror once in space will be an intricate endeavour of several months, relying on one of the cameras aboard the spacecraft, the NIRCam instrument.
"Aligning those mirror segments to make a smooth, continuous mirror shape out of them is going to be fascinating," said Kimble. "At the beginning, we will produce 18 separate images with NIRCam; at the end, we will have a single beautiful image."
NIRCam, McCaughrean said, just like many other components of the telescope, is simply not allowed to fail.
"If NIRCam failed, you won't be able to line up the telescope," said McCaughrean. "That's why there is lots of redundancy in it. It has got two completely separate camera systems inside, so if one fails, you have the other one."
At the backs of the 18 hexagonal mirror segments are small motors that delicately press onto the plates, shifting and bending them with extreme precision until they create one giant, perfectly smooth mirror.
"That means movement at the level of nanometers," said McCaughrean. There are 25.4 million nanometers in one inch. "It's incredibly complicated. And that's why it takes so long for us to actually commission the telescope. We launch it in late December, but the first images won't come until the summer of 2022 because it takes that long to line everything up."
The mirror also needed to be extremely lightweight. Had the engineers simply scaled up the 8-foot glass mirror of the Hubble Space Telescope to build the 21-foot mirror of Webb, the telescope would be too heavy for any existing rocket to lift.
As it is, Webb's mirror is about an order of magnitude lighter per unit area compared to Hubble's mirror. Each of the 18 hexagonal segments, made of ultralight metal beryllium, weigh only 46 pounds (20 kilograms). The entire spacecraft, despite its enormous size, weighs only 6.5 metric tonnes compared to the 11.1 metric tonnes of the smaller Hubble.
The surface of the mirror is plated with gold, giving it the signature yellow tint. "The golden color was chosen because it's the best for reflecting infrared radiation, much better than white or silver," says McCaughrean.
The light reflected by the giant mirror is then concentrated onto the 30-inch (74 centimeter) secondary mirror that sits opposite the large mirror attached to a foldable tripod that must also deploy in space. From there, the light enters through an opening at the center of the large mirror into the telescope, where a tertiary mirror sends it to the detectors.
The James Webb Space Telescope launch is currently scheduled for Friday (Dec. 24). Launch day will be a big moment for the thousands of engineers and scientists who have been involved in the mission since its conception in the early 1990s.
But even after launch, the telescope, which has stretched so many people and so many technologies to their limits, will not allow them to rest. The launch will be the beginning of what Kimble described as "extended thrill," a six-month period of gradual deployments, cooling down, switching on, aligning and testing.
"The first weeks, during our journey to L2, that's when we will see the major deployments," said Kimble. "The sunshield, the mirror, the secondary mirror's support tripod, the solar wings. The telescope will build itself like an origami."
In a press conference held on Nov. 2, Mike Menzel, Webb lead mission systems engineer at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, said that 144 release mechanisms must work as intended for the deployment to succeed.
"There are 344 single-point-of-failure items on average," Menzel said in that press conference. "Approximately 80% of those are associated with the deployment."
Assuming all its deployments work as intended, Webb will be perched at L2 approximately one month after launch, hidden behind its giant sunshield. Then the telescope will perform the procedure Kimble tested in Houston during Hurricane Harvey slowly cooling down to its operational temperature while testing its instruments and aligning its mirrors.
"We can do some rougher alignments on the way down as the system is cooling," said Kimble. "At that stage, the structures will still be moving a little because of the cooling and shrinking, so the final tweaking can only be done after we reach temperature stability," 100 to 120 days into the mission.
For Kimble, these months will represent a peak of his career, ensuring that he is "going out with a bang," he said. After more than four decades working on the most cutting-edge space telescopes, the scientist said he is ready to hand over the magnificent first light machine to others after the end of its nerve-wracking commissioning period.
"It's going to be very, very intense," he said.
Follow Tereza Pultarova on Twitter @TerezaPultarova. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.
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Diesel Engines Move Goods Around the Globe; UVA Engineers Work to Curb Emissions – University of Virginia
As technical remedies to climate change go, taking carbon emissions out of passenger transportation is easy; we can switch from gasoline engines to electric motors fueled by renewable energy sources.
In contrast, decarbonizing heavy freight carried by trucks is hard. No technology today has the power and efficiency to replace diesel engines for moving goods over long distances by land and sea, which is unfortunate because societys increased shipping demands are driving up diesel consumption.
Researchers at the University of Virginias School of Engineering and Applied Science are taking on the challenge to discover which diesel fuels burn cleanest, under what conditions and with the fewest offsetting environmental costs. Their particular focus is minimizing production of nitrous oxide, or N2O.
William S. Epling, professor and chair of chemical engineering, is leading the effort with co-principal investigators Lisa Colosi-Peterson, an associate professor in the Department of Engineering Systems and Environment, and Chloe Dedic, an assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering.
Also contributing as senior investigators are Robert Davis, William Mynn Thornton Professor of Chemical Engineering, and Chris Paolucci, assistant professor of chemical engineering.
The project is supported by a $1.7 million grant through the Environmental Convergence Opportunities program of the National Science Foundations Division of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental and Transport Systems. The program requires that research team members have disparate expertise and perspectives to find imaginative solutions to difficult and pressing societal challenges.
So, for this funding, even before team members can grapple with solving the technical problem, they have to find common ground on the research questions amongst a group of people whose expertise and perspectives are, by design, different from one another.
That was harder than you might imagine it to be, but it was hard on purpose, said Colosi-Peterson, an environmental engineer who joined the team because she recognized that diesel engines arent going away any time soon. I think the NSF is very clever to have such a big incentive, because it took a lot of thinking to come up with something that really leveraged all our individual skills and interests.
Colosi-Peterson is an expert in life cycle assessment, a computer modeling-based area of study that examines the environmental price tag of the products, processes or services people use. Dedic studies combustion and reacting flow systems, and is a rising star in the development of new laser-based techniques for nonintrusive measurements of the complex chemical reactions and fluid dynamics that occur during combustion. Epling is well known in his sphere of catalysis, especially for his work to reduce pollutants emitted from diesel engine exhaust systems.
When fuel whether biomass- or petroleum-based is combusted, not all of it is burned. The exact chemical composition of the leftover hydrocarbons depends upon numerous factors, including fuel type. To meet Environmental Protection Agency vehicle emissions regulations, the catalytic converter in your car and the after-treatment systems used in diesel semi-trailer tractors clean those exhaust gases through chemical reactions after they leave the engine.
What eventually comes out the tailpipe at any given moment also depends on variables such as whether the engine is hot or cold, how effectively the air and fuel mixed in the engine, and the age of the catalyst material, which loses efficacy over time. The team is looking broadly at these emissions, including carbon dioxide, methane and particulate soot, but the primary target is N2O.
Heres the thing: N2O is not made in your engine.
Its made over your catalytic converter, which is supposed to clean up the exhaust gas. What we want to do is understand how a diesel catalytic converter makes N2O, as a function of the fuel type, Epling said. If we know what hydrocarbons lead to the most or least N2O being made, then we can think about what is the right type of fuel that minimizes how much N2O is made.
Why the focus on N2O? The EPA, historically more concerned with air pollution than climate change, only began regulating N2O for diesel exhaust in 2011 after numerous studies showed the gas global warming potential, which scientists call GWP, to be 298 times greater than carbon dioxide. Thats because N2O traps more heat than other greenhouse gases.
Carbon dioxide is still the biggest greenhouse gas contributor from diesel because of how much is exhausted, said Carlos Weiler, a Ph.D. student in Eplings lab who is running the catalysis experiments for the project. The industry also doesnt have a good way of mitigating N2O production.
And so, we have to look at the other products that are formed, Weiler said. Theyre all destructive to the environment in some way, but in terms of the global warming potential of diesel exhaust, N2O is pretty potent.
Weiler will run experiments using different fuel inputs and catalyst combinations working under advisement from Epling and Davis, another widely recognized catalysis expert. Essentially, the unburnt hydrocarbons from combusted fuel will go into a catalytic reactor that simulates a diesel after-treatment system, and Weiler will measure what gases come out. Weiler will feed his results to Sugandha Verma, a graduate student in Paoluccis computational catalysis group, who will use computer simulations of catalytic reactions to predict outcomes and suggest further lab experiments.
But understanding how N2O is made by the catalytic converter, or how much, requires knowing what hydrocarbons leave the engine. Thats where Dedic comes in. Measuring whats left of a fuel after engine combustion is difficult because the compounds are structurally very similar. Traditional spectroscopy, which relies on how light interacts with various molecules, struggles to distinguish one hydrocarbon from the next. There are techniques to count the number of carbon and hydrogen molecules, but that entails removing gas samples from the engine during combustion, potentially changing the chemistry.
The best-case scenario is taking a measurement without interrupting the sample where the reaction is happening, Dedic said. Then youre getting a true measurement of whats occurring within your reactor.
Dedic is approaching these challenges from two angles. First, her team is designing a simplified reactor a burner that can safely combust liquid diesel formulations in the lab to isolate the combustion chemistry from other engine effects, such as fluid dynamics. The second is using ultrafast laser sources to develop new measurement techniques for the project.
We want to probe these molecules on the same time scales that theyre reacting and colliding with one another. We can observe molecular vibrations and rotations in time to provide more information than you get from traditional frequency-resolved spectroscopy, Dedic said.
While Dedics lab identifies diesel products for Eplings team to experiment with, Colosi-Petersons life-cycle assessment group is taking a systems approach, designing models to use the lab data to predict the costs of implementing the fuels in the real world. For example, if biomass-based diesels produce less N2O, how much agricultural or carbon-capturing forest land would be lost to fuel production? How much energy will we expend to grow biofuels, and where will that energy come from? Another important question Colosi-Peterson will examine is whether reducing N2O from diesel emissions even matters, or is it insignificant relative to the effects of other pollutants?
The project sets up a back-and-forth dynamic between the experimentalists and the modelers to better integrate the three research groups, which ordinarily would do their work independent of each other. Its a more proactive approach to improving the environmental performance of new technology in development, Colosi-Peterson said, rather than waiting for the technology to come along, and then assessing its societal cost.
Bill and Chloe might say, Heres a couple of things were thinking of doing, and I put all of that data into my model, and say, Well, heres what would happen if we did that at large scale. Is there any way you could make this part of the process a little bit less emitting?
And so I think that this desire to work more closely together during the bench scale is meant to cut out some of that trial and error and to be more intentional about the kinds of fundamental science that Bill and Chloe do.
The teams research will be exacting in its science, but holistic in its approach, Epling said, referencing the projects title, A holistic effort to decarbonize diesel for heavy duty transportation: Targeted combustion and exhaust catalysis research to improve life-cycle performance. He hopes the collaboration will lead to more nuanced policy-level understanding of to what extent proposed strategies such as a regulation to reduce N2O emissions from diesel engines can deliver meaningful global warming improvements.
One way policy may ultimately be improved is through the cross-training of the students collaborating on the project, who are just beginning their Ph.D. studies, Colosi-Peterson said.
Its really powerful when the student making the catalyst and running reactions in the lab is confronted with questions about the difference their technology will make, or its consequences, she said.
Conversely, Bill or Chloe may challenge some of the values my students are using in their systems-level analyses, in effect ground-truthing the assumptions we make when we build models for policy formation and legislation. I think theres a lot of benefit in students having to think at the bench scale and at the systems level.
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2021’s news highlights from the Faculty of Science and Engineering – The University of Manchester
Our world-leading science and engineering at The University of Manchester has been the cause of some exciting stories this year. Whether its space, materials, or the climate, our stories have been top news across the country and the world. Heres some of the most popular and interesting news releases from the Faculty of Science and Engineering in 2021. Enjoy!
January
The worlds finest fabric: 2021 started with an award win as a team of University scientists were honoured with theGuinness World Recordfor weaving threads of individual molecules together to create the worlds finest fabric, overtaking finest Egyptian linen.
February
Mysterious gamma-ray source identified: The start of the year continued with a spectacular space discovery as a rapidly rotating neutron star was found to be at the core of a celestial object now known as PSR J2039-5617. The astronomers findings were uniquely boosted by the Einstein@Home project, a network of thousands of civilian volunteers lending their home computing power to the efforts of the Fermi Telescopes work.
March
7bn innovation investment: A major investment boost for the North was announced in March to the tune of 7 billion to support economic growth in the region. The University of Manchester will be joined by leading innovators from business, science, academia and local government in developing the Innovation GM partnership as the basis of a formal collaboration deal with Government, suggesting it could create 100,000 jobs.
April
Solved: The Brazil nut puzzle: April saw researchers finally crack the age-old Brazil nut puzzle. For the first time they captured the complex dynamics of particle movement in granular materials, helping to explain why mixed nuts often see the larger Brazil nuts gather at the top. The findings could have vital impact on industries struggling with the phenomenon, such as pharmaceuticals and mining.
May
Graphene solves concretes big problem: In May, graphene met concrete in another world first which could revolutionise the concrete industry and its impact on the environment. In a joint venture, with Nationwide Engineering the team has laid the floor slab of a new gym with graphene-enhanced 'Concretene', removing 30% of material and all steel reinforcement. Depending on the size of onward projects, it is estimated to provide a 10-20% saving to its customers.
June
Plans for ID Manchester revealed: Summer began with the announcement that The University had found a partner to deliver the ambitious 1.5 billion ID Manchester project. The project will look to re-develop the North Campus to become a globally significant innovation district with specialist infrastructure to commercialise scientific discovery and R&D innovation.
July
New technology to help achieve Net Zero: July saw new efforts to help the world achieve its Net Zero targets with the aim of converting CO2, waste and sustainable biomass into clean and sustainable fuels and products. Catalysts are involved in helping to manufacture an estimated 80% of materials required in modern life, so are integral in manufacturing processes. As a result, up to 35% of the worlds GDP relies on catalysis. To reach net zero, it will be critical to develop new sustainable catalysts and processes.
August
Breakthrough in metal bonding: In summer we reported that scientists managed to successfully make actinide metals form molecular actinide-actinide bonds for the first time, opening up a new field of scientific study in materials research. Reported in the journal Nature, a group of scientists from Manchester and Stuttgart universities successfully prepared and characterised long-sought actinide bonding in an isolable compound.
September
Using astronaut blood to build space houses: September saw blood, sweat, tears and space with a discovery that astronaut blood could be the key to creating affordable housing in space. In their study, published in Materials Today Bio, a protein from human blood, combined with a compound from urine, sweat or tears, could glue together simulated moon or Mars soil to produce a material stronger than ordinary concrete, perfectly suited for construction work in extra-terrestrial environments.
October
New era of physics thanks to neutrino experiment: A two-decade long physics question was explored in October with a discovery that could cause a radical shift in our understanding of the universe. A major new physics experiment used four complementary analyses to show no signs of a theorised fourth kind of neutrino known as the sterile neutrino. Its existence is considered a possible explanation for anomalies seen in previous physics experiments.
November
New study shows link between weather and COVID-19 transmission: It wouldnt be a 2021 news round-up without mention of COVID-19. A new meta-analysis of over 150 research papers published during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated the link between the weather and the spread of the illness. The research, published in the journal Weather, Climate, and Society, started with 158 studies that were published early in the pandemic using data before November 2020. It was discovered that early data was often inconsistent as they were affected by seasonal cycles and weather conditions impacting on the spread of the virus.
December
Challenging Einstein with stars: Rounding off another unusual year we saw scientists across the globe collaborate to challenge one of Einsteins greatest theories the theory of relativity. Using seven radio telescopes and taking 16 years the team successfully observed a double-pulsar system which demonstrated new relativistic effects that, while expected had never been observed and proved before.
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2021's news highlights from the Faculty of Science and Engineering - The University of Manchester
Learning science and engineering gets more effective, accessible, and fun with this portable teaching box! – Yanko Design
STEM subjects have evolved since I was a student. With assistance from projectors and computers, the teaching methods have changed in the process to provide interactive ways to impart learning. In most educational systems, old-school methods are still prevalent, and the first-hand experience in the classroom suggests that students often find it difficult to grasp scientific concepts. This means that there is scope for a method of teaching science and engineering, and this is where the grasp it comes into the scene.
Designed by Augmented Haptics, and brainchild of Greg and Fabian, the rig is a demonstrative method of scientific teaching that classrooms will adopt instantly. The website of the product notes that Dr Gregory Quinn (Gerg) and Fabian Schneider, design engineer and computer scientist respectively, came up with the idea of grasp it with the intention to make learning in engineering and science more effective, accessible and fun.
From how it appears, its a very portable and convenient box of possibilities. The suitcase-style teaching equipment made from wood can be easily carried by teachers into the classroom and opened up to reveal endless possibilities of interactive, haptic and demonstrative learning. Using the grasp it, comprising a set of LEGO-like plastic pegs that can be attached together to form various tangible structures that can be tweaked, twisted and rebuilt depending on usage. These modules can be fastened to the board (attached to the equipment) through the holes built into it.
Interestingly, the grasp it presents a teaching method that keeps both teachers and students active. It is convenient to use and setup and inculcates the power of observation, thinking and reasoning in students. To this end, grasp it creates unlimited pedagogy possibilities using the power of touch and digital augmentation. The product comes with a small drawer that houses a tactile stick and a projector. When the interactive class of engineering demands, the projection can be turned on and the structures created using the plastic pegs can be applied with pressure at various points (using a tool). This can demonstrate the class with torque and force being applied on the creation to help them understand the reliability of a structure per se.
Grasp it is still a work in progress and limited to learning of science and engineering. It is expected to expand into many more STEM subjects including electronics, thermodynamics, computing and more.
Designer: Augmented Haptics
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Research Engineer job with KHALIFA UNIVERSITY | 275757 – Times Higher Education (THE)
Job Description
(Research Engineer)
Description
Research Engineer
Job Purpose
To provide high quality research support and undertake competitive research and development aimed at reporting to the Executive Affair Authority (EAA) thereby contributing to the academic and research translation mission of the University.
The primary purpose of the role is to manage equipment and pilots related to the Executive Affair Authority (EAA) project led by Khalifa University on airborne water generation (AWG). The platform developed during this project will involve experimental design, pilot operation and maintenance and modelling of data.
The research engineer will engage actively to acquire new and unique skills necessary to advance their career with guidance from the advisor. These skills include, but are not limited to, the ability to present research plans and findings in a convincing style, both in oral and written modes of communication, the ability to understand research group management and supervision of others, the ability to establish contacts and network with colleagues pursuing a similar research agenda, the ability to organize and teach a class or a course if more inclined towards a teaching career (if relevant).
Key Roles & Responsibilities
Strategic Responsibilities
Operational Responsibilities
Supervisory Responsibilities
Qualifications
Qualifications & Experience
Required Qualifications
Required Experience
Should you require further assistance or if you face any issue with the online application, please feel to contact the Recruitment Team (recruitmentteam@ku.ac.ae).
Primary Location: KUK Khalifa UniversityJob: Research EngineerSchedule: RegularShift: StandardJob Type: Full-time
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Research Engineer job with KHALIFA UNIVERSITY | 275757 - Times Higher Education (THE)
Engineering and IT jobseekers connect with employers at career fair – Chicago Daily Herald
After going virtual a year ago, the 6th annual Engineering and Information Technology Internship & Career Fair returns to an in-person setting. The event, hosted by the College of Lake County's (CLC) Career and Job Placement Center (CJPC), will run from 1-3 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 7 in the A-Wing of the Grayslake Campus.
"We are very excited to have the fair return to an in-person event," Workforce Development Manager Gina Smith said. "Historically, this is our largest recruiting event of the year, attracting students from engineering and IT programs across the country."
The career fair allows students and other jobseekers to meet with an expected 20 employers this year, who are eager to bring on top talent. Students from top engineering schools such as University of Illinois, Purdue, Michigan State, Ohio State and others, along with professional-level job seekers will be in attendance.
"The IT focus is a new addition in the past two years," Smith said. "Local employers expressed a desire to target this highly skilled group of students, new graduates and the wealth of experienced talent in Lake County."
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Engineering and IT jobseekers connect with employers at career fair - Chicago Daily Herald
Data Curation and Governance are the Top-Two Data Engineering Challenges for 2022 – Solutions Review
Data curation and governance are the top-two data engineering challenges for 2022, according to a report by Gradient Flow and Immuta.
Data curation and governance are the top-two data engineering challenges for 2022, according to a new report commissioned by Gradient Flow and Immuta. The 2022 State of Data Engineering survey examined the changing landscape of data engineering and operations challenges, tools, and opportunities. The data engineering challenges that data professionals worry about most come after data has been extracted, loaded, and transformed. Data for the report was gathered from a global audience of 372 respondents, more than half of which were data engineers or data architects, over 61 days.
The main data engineering challenges cited by those polled include validation, data monitoring and auditing for compliance, data masking and anonymization, as well as data discovery. Nearly two-thirds of respondents (65 percent) said their company is either 100 percent cloud-based or will be in the next 12-to-24 months. In the same way, 62 percent of respondents signaled their plans to adopt one of the top-five cloud databases and platforms (Amazon Redshift, Amazon Athena, Google BigQuery, Databricks, and Snowflake) in the months ahead.
While 64 percent of those polled come from organizations already collecting and storing sensitive data, the vast majority (88 percent) indicated that their firms are subject to one or more data use rules or regulations like GDPR, HIPAA, CCPA, and SOC 2. Additionally, 30 percent of respondents reported a need to comply with internal, company-specific rules around data. Somewhat concerning is that more than a quarter of all those polled were unsure of what (if any) data quality solution their organization is currently using.
The data engineering landscape is changing and maturing. Whereas years ago there were few, if any, tools to solve data challenges, a plethora of technologies both commercial and open-source are now available. These technologies are helping organizations leverage their sensitive data for real-time access and analytics, all while protecting it in accordance with a growing body of regulatory requirements. There are also an entirely new crop of data engineering training courses and online certification options available (tto enable technical and non-technical users alike to develop on-the-fly skills.
Tim is Solutions Review's Editorial Director and leads coverage on big data, business intelligence, and data analytics. A 2017 and 2018 Most Influential Business Journalist and 2021 "Who's Who" in data management and data integration, Tim is a recognized influencer and thought leader in enterprise business software. Reach him via tking at solutionsreview dot com.
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Data Curation and Governance are the Top-Two Data Engineering Challenges for 2022 - Solutions Review
PhD Studentship, Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering job with UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMPTON | 275929 – Times Higher Education (THE)
Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering
Location: Highfield CampusClosing Date: Monday 28 February 2022Reference: 1648321DA
Predicting unknown flow physics by integrating experimental measurements into low-fidelity simulations
Supervisory Team: Sean Symon and Bharath Ganapathisubramani
Project description
Numerical simulations of fluid flows play an important role in aerodynamic design since experimental measurements are typically limited and difficult to measure in all regions of the flow. Simulations can provide significantly more information than experiments, but modelling assumptions are necessary since it is not computationally tractable to simulate realistic flow conditions. This project investigates a more active role for experimental data by using it as an input to simulations.
Experimental measurements, which are incomplete and uncertain, are fed into a low-fidelity simulation to produce a hybrid flow field that mimics large-scale features in the experiment. The objective is to assimilate experimental measurements of three-dimensional velocity fields around a finite-aspect ratio wing. The experimental data will be time-resolved and fed into a low-fidelity CFD solver. Once this has been achieved, the framework will consider external disturbances, such as gusts, which lead to transient flow behaviour. The assimilated flow fields will uncover additional flow physics and be used to construct reduced-order models.
Entry Requirements
A very good undergraduate degree (at least a UK 2:1 honours degree, or its international equivalent).
Closing date:applications should be received no later than 28 February 2022 for standard admissions, but later applications may be considered depending on the funds remaining in place.
Funding: For UK students, Tuition Fees and a stipend of 15,609 tax-free per annum for up to 3.5 years.
How To Apply
Applications should be made online. Select programme type (Research), 2022/23, Faculty of Physical Sciences and Engineering, next page select PhD Engineering & Environment (Full time). In Section 2 of the application form you should insert the name of the supervisor Sean Symon
Applications should include:
Apply online: https://www.southampton.ac.uk/courses/how-to-apply/postgraduate-applications.page
For further information please contact: feps-pgr-apply@soton.ac.uk
The School of Engineering is committed to promoting equality, diversity inclusivity as demonstrated by our Athena SWAN award. We welcome all applicants regardless of their gender, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation or age, and will give full consideration to applicants seeking flexible working patterns and those who have taken a career break. The University has a generous maternity policy, onsite childcare facilities, and offers a range of benefits to help ensure employees well-being and work-life balance. The University of Southampton is committed to sustainability and has been awarded the Platinum EcoAward.
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