ATLANTA The annual 100 Most Influential Women in Georgia Engineering includes multiple Georgia DOT Board and team members on the list.

Engineering Georgia magazinehas announced its annual listing of the 100 Most Influential Women in Georgia Engineeringwhich included the women of the State Transportation Board (STB) and the Georgia Department of Transportation (Georgia DOT) for the sixth consecutive year. Nominated and selected by their peers, Georgia DOT is well represented on the list with four STB members and five Georgia DOT team members.

These women have had a profound impact on transportation in their respective careers and through their work and leadership are responsible for having inspired many of the next generation of young women who are in or may be considering a career in this field, said Georgia DOT Commissioner Russell R. McMurry, P.E. I am honored to work alongside these exceptional women and each of them are deserving of this recognition.

The women recognized who are affiliated with Georgia DOT include:

Ann R. Purcell, who represents Congressional District 1 on the STB, was elected in 2013. Purcell previously served 18 years in the Georgia House of Representatives.

Stacey Key, who represents Congressional District 5, joined the STB in 2013. Key iscurrently thepresident and CEO of the Georgia Minority Supplier Development Council (GMSDC) and serveson various boards, including the Emory University Center for Ethics, College Football Hall of Fame, the Georgia Chamber of Commerce and the Midtown Alliance.

Emily Dunn, who represents Congressional District 9, was elected to the STB in 2011. Dunnis alsoowner and CEO of Toms Amusement Company, Inc. and currently serves on the board of the Amusement and Music Operators Association.

Dana Lemon, who represents Congressional District 13, was the first womanelected to serve on the STBin 2003 and is the longest serving board member. She is the presidentof W.D. Lemon and Sons Funeral Home. She has been recognized by both the Georgia House of Representatives and the Senate for her public service contributions to the state of Georgia.

Jannine Miller currently serves as Georgia DOTs planning director. In 2023, Gov.Brian P. Kemp also appointed her Executive Director of the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority, the State Road and Tollway Authority and the Atlanta-Region Transit Link Authority. Shepreviously served as Senior Advisor to the Secretaries of US DOT and USDA.

Meg Pirkle, P.E., is the first woman to serve as chief engineer for Georgia DOT,a position she has held since 2015.Pirkle oversees the management of Georgia DOTs Engineering, Construction, Intermodal, P3, Permits and Operations and Program Delivery divisions.Pirkle has been with the department for more than 34 years serving in a variety of roles including transportation engineer, planning engineer, state scheduling engineer, assistant preconstruction division director, division directorof administration andassistant to the chief engineer.

Angela Whitworthis the treasurer of Georgia DOT and has served a variety of financial and accountingroles at the department including budget administrator, financial management administrator, director of finance and assistant treasurer. With25 years of public service to the State of Georgia, Whitworth has held various accounting and financial roles with the State Board of Pardons and Paroles and the Georgia General AssemblysLegislative Budget Office.

Hiral Patel, P.E., is the director of the Division of Engineering, a position she has held since 2015. She has been with the department for more than20 years serving in a variety of roles including area engineer, senior project manager and assistant state program delivery administrator.

Kathy Zahul, P.E., is the assistant director for strategic and systems planning. She has been with the Department for 28 years and has held a variety of roles in construction, state aidand bridge maintenance. Most recently she was the District Engineer for Georgia DOTs metro Atlanta district.

Engineering Georgias list of 100 Most Influential Women in Georgia Engineering is in theMarch/April issueof the publication. It also includes a profile article of Georgia DOTs planning director, Jannine Miller.

The Georgia Department of Transportation plans, constructs and maintains Georgias state and federal highways. Were involved in bridge, waterway, public transit, rail, general aviation, bike and pedestrian programs. And we help local governments maintain their roads. Georgia DOT and its nearly 4,000 employees are committed to delivering a transportation system focused on innovation, safety, sustainability and mobility. The Departments vision is to boost Georgias competitiveness through leadership in transportation.

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GDOT women named to most influential in engineering list - ValdostaToday.com

ByLisa Ercolano

It may look like a simple contraption of nylon straps, molded polycarbonate strips, and foam padding, but to a local artist, it represents so much more: a voice, the ability to communicate thoughts and ideas, and freedom of expression.

"Art gives me a way to express myself without anybody interpreting for me," says Dan Keplinger, whose severe cerebral palsy prevents him from both speaking intelligibly and from using his hands to create the art that is his living and lifeblood.

Video credit: Roy Henry/Johns Hopkins University

Instead, his stylus and paintbrushes are affixed to a carbon-fiber rod mounted on a "crown" strapped to his head and under his chin, allowing him to use head movements to type messages on a computer and to create bold impressionist figurative works of art that have been exhibited in shows from New York and Washington, D.C. to Chicago and San Francisco.

Though Keplinger has used a similar device to paint, draw, and communicate since he discovered his prodigious talent in an art room at Parkville High School in the 1990s, the current versionwhich includes high-tech features aimed at enhancing its ergonomics and functionalitywas created by a team of Johns Hopkins engineering students who are part of the university's Volunteers for Medical Engineering group.

Image credit: Will Kirk / Johns Hopkins University

Led by senior mechanical engineering student Roberto Flores, VME members work with the Image Center of Maryland, a non-profit that pairs area residents dealing with disability challenges with volunteer engineers who create devices aimed at enhancing their independence.

"Dan's crown is one of three projects we tackled this year," said Flores. "It had major issues after years of being used for hours a day, and we provided some improvements."

Those upgrades included not only making the crown more durable and comfortablethe chin strap was so loose that the artist had work with his mouth open, so his lower jaw held it in placebut also customizing it to hold the stylus required for use with a touchscreen. When the team first met the artist, his stylus was attached with paint-splattered masking tape.

Image credit: Will Kirk / Johns Hopkins University

Keplinger asked for the ability to easily add (or remove) a pencil eraser to the stylus tip so he could shift between creating art and typing on his keyboard. (Typing sans tip could damage the stylus.)

"Before, he would try to use his hands to hold the eraser and move his head to manipulate the stylus to get it on the end. Sometimes, it would fall, and he couldn't retrieve it," says team member Melody Lei, a senior mechanical engineering major and project lead.

The team's solution was to create a 3D-printed plastic base that is mounted on the artist's desk and holds the eraser. Keplinger uses his head to maneuver the stylus into the base, snapping the eraser on and off the end as needed.

"Working with the students let me see new ways to do things, and the new crown will make my life a bit easier," says the artist, whose inspirational life story was the subject of King Gimp, a documentary that won an Oscar for "Best Short Subject" in 2000.

JHU VME team members on the project include Conor Allan, Tunde Ayodeji; Claire Borden; Alexis Diaz; Grace Huang; Nick Llaurado; Elaine Nagahara; Catherine Pollard; Delphine Tan; Alex Tinana; and Daniel Wang.

Image credit: Will Kirk / Johns Hopkins University

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Freedom of expression through engineering | Hub - The Hub at Johns Hopkins

Dubai, United Arab Emirates Businesses global investments in engineering, and on research and development in the engineering (ER&D) sector, are set to rise strongly over the next five years, expanding at a double-digit compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10% up to 2026 despite currently uncertain economic conditions, Bain & Companys latest research reveals.

A ramped-up pace of investment by industry in digital engineering and related capabilities, as businesses accelerate spending on digitalization, is central to the strong projected trend in overall investment. Digital investments are set to register a CAGR of 19% from 2022 to 2026 almost double the overall investment growth rate for ER&D spending, Bains survey of more than 500 senior executives globally shows.

Bain & Companys findings, in its latest Global Engineering and R&D report, reveal that majority of the senior executives surveyed plan to increase ER&D spending despite present economic upsets and turbulence. Industries still planning to increase such spending include automotive and mobility, aerospace and defense, medical devices, advanced manufacturing and services, energy and natural resources and telecommunications.

Companies today view ER&D as a strategic capability that will determine their future success and shape new business models. Investments in ER&D not only improve products but also increasingly reinvent or disrupt parts of the business, said Zurich-based partner Daniel Suter.

ER&D is defined as the wide array of activities aimed at developing new products and services and improving existing ones. Digital engineering refers to the discipline of developing new, connected, and digitally enabled products and services using technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, and cloud computing.

As spending soars, leadership teams are redoubling their efforts to achieve a solid return which is made more challenging in a recession.

During past recessions such as the 20082009 global financial crisis, ER&D spending was more resilient than GDP growth, according to Bains research. And between 2014 and 2021, global ER&D spending grew nearly four times faster than GDP. One explanation is that a large body of ER&D work typically spans longer time horizons and thus tends to be less fungible than other types of spending.

The most successful companies use recession years to out-innovate competitors by acquiring companies at lower multiples, poaching critical talent, and investing in intellectual property and R&D said Suter.

Bridging the talent gap in ER&D

Bains report showed that 73% of ER&D companies report talent gaps, and that divide will widen as baby boomers retire more quickly than new graduates fill their shoes, and mid-career engineers transition to non-engineering roles. Globally, the percentage of engineers quitting their jobs at engineering companies has risen to between 16% and 17%, up by nearly 2 percentage points from three years ago.

Based on our analysis, it seems that the shortage of skilled engineers is a challenge that is not only affecting the Middle East. It is a global problem that will have an impact now and over the coming decade. While leading businesses acknowledge that there is a skill set gap leading to a tight talent market, it is of absolute importance to evolve and enhance engineering roles to attract and retain talented employees, commented Karim Shariff, Partner at Bain & Company Middle East.

Using digital ER&D to create value and improve outcomes for customers

Historically, companies have viewed ER&D as a core function to make products better and cheaper. Today, an emerging group of leaders are putting ER&D and new technologies at the center of their businesses to innovate and reinvent business models. They are moving into outcome-based solutions that allow customers to pay based on agreed results, such as machine uptime.

The risk of technology-based disruption adds urgency to the search for new sources of value creation. Companies in ER&D-heavy industries that do not invest and innovate to improve the customer experience may find themselves rapidly sidelined by nimble rivals, said Suter.

Nearly three-quarters of chief technology officers surveyed by Bain said that shortening time to market is a top priority for engineering departments, while 70% say incorporating novel technologies into products and services is a key priority.

Companies transitioning to new business models have incorporated strategies such as investment in technology e.g. a digital twin to catch errors and reduce time to market; expanding the engineering teams scope across product/ solution lifecycle; cross-functional teams that provide access to strategic assets such as technology expertise to all departments; shift from cyclical product development towards continuous technology development; and an ecosystem of partners to fuel innovation and broaden their capabilities.

Top three outsourcing sectors - industrial manufacturing, automotive, medical devices

Signaling a strategic shift, 60% of companies plan to increase ER&D outsourcing over the next three years, according to Bains survey. Historically, large companies have outsourced about 18% of ER&D work by value. That level is far lower than that in the IT services sector, which went through a similar transformation in the 2000s and now outsources 46% of activities.

In addition to accelerating innovation, outsourcing and offshoring also help leadership teams address chronic talent shortages and mounting cost pressure. Over 80% of the senior executives surveyed report talent gaps in areas requiring digital expertise, including data engineering, data analytics, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, IoT, and connectivity, but also in other crucial areas such as systems engineering. Underscoring that trend, 73% of respondents said industry or technology expertise is the most important factor in selecting an outsourcing partner. That compares with 59% of respondents who cited cost as the No. 1 factor.

Jawad Abdulsamad, Associate Partner at Bain & Company Middle East, said: Bain's survey has shown that ER&D outsourcing is evolving and will continue to boom over the next three years, specifically in the industrial manufacturing, automotive, medical devices, energy, aerospace and defense sectors. Service providers are now being sought out for new capabilities that companies need. The demand for outsourced work was previously for mechanical and core engineering skills, this has changed and executives are now planning to invest heavily in digital engineering capabilities, with a particular focus on areas such as cybersecurity, IoT, cloud, embedded software, data engineering and analytics.

Finally, the types of projects are changing. Historically, large research organizations have mainly outsourced activities like testing, validation, and compliance while keeping core systems and products in-house. Now, the same companies are outsourcing a wider scope of activities, such as the end-to-end design of products or the development of key components such as combustion engines, traditionally a vital capability of automotive OEMs.

Note: Investments in ER&D include expenses for research, product, engineering, content, technology, and software development, product testing, regulatory and clinical trials, and other ER&D related costs. industry.

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Global investments in engineering and R&D to grow at 10% CAGR despite downturn - ZAWYA

A Japanese robotics company called Jizai Arms has engineered a system of spider-like robotic limbs consisting of six arms that can be controlled by the user wearing them. These robotic arms can be attached, detached, or even replaced altogether in order to redefine and revolutionize the way humans interact with robots and artificial intelligence (AI).

Half a century since the concept of a cyborg was introduced, Jizai-bodies (digital cyborgs), enabled by the spread of wearable robotics, are the focus of much research in recent times, states the companys website.

Jizai arms is a supernumerary robotic limb system consisting of a wearable base unit with six terminals and detachable robot arms controllable by the wearer. The system was designed to enable social interaction between multiple wearers, such as an exchange of arm(s), and explore possible interactions between digital cyborgs in a cyborg society.

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Spider-like robotic AI arms can be attached to and controlled by ... - Interesting Engineering

For nearly 40 years, Timothy Frei has exemplified the very best of the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering. He is a veteran technology executive with aerospace and defense industry giant Northrop Grumman. As a Bruin engineer, he has also been an active contributor to his alma mater.

Since 2013, Frei has served as a member of UCLA Samuelis Deans Advisory Council, which evolved into the Deans Corporate Advisory Board (DCAB) in 2016 when he became chair of the board. He has also served on the Deans Executive Board since 2017, and in these two roles, he has led an extraordinary group of high-level executives in meaningful partnerships with the school to groom the next generation of engineers and computer scientists who can meet the growing demand of industry.

As chair of DCAB, Frei has been a key collaborator in spearheading the boards efforts to support the top strategic goals of the school providing critical leadership, facilitating meaningful conversation and guiding the direction of this significant industry-academia partnership toward outcomes with distinct and impactful results. His thoughtful considerations and acute understanding of the issues facing higher education and industry in science, technology, engineering and mathematics have been invaluable to the UCLA Samueli community. Thanks to his efforts, Northrop Grumman has supported many of the schools programs and initiatives, including those launched by Women in Engineering at UCLA, the Center for Excellence in Engineering and Diversity, and the UCLA Samueli Transfer Center.

Frei has had a long and illustrious career with Northrop Grumman. In addition to his current role as sector vice president of Research & Advanced Design at Northrop Grumman Aeronautics Systems, he previously served as sector vice president of Strategy and Business Development at Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems, and as sector vice president of the firms Global Strategy and Mission Solutions. He also served as vice president and general manager of the Space Systems ISR, Communications Systems and Advanced Systems business units. He held other engineering and leadership positions at Northrop Grumman, with experience spanning more than 25 different air and space programs in 15 mission areas, covering all phases of engineering from concept definitions, to design, production, integration, test, launch and operations.

A double alumnus of UCLA, Frei has earned a bachelors degree in aerospace engineering and a masters degree in mechanical engineering with an emphasis in applied dynamic systems control. In addition, he completed the UCLA Executive Program in 2001 at the Anderson School of Management and is a chartered financial analyst.His wife of 36 years, Lisa, is also a UCLA alumnus.

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UCLA Engineering 2023 Award Recipient Alumnus of the Year - UCLA Samueli School of Engineering Newsroom