Category Archives: Engineering
Computer science and history lead faculty hiring, no long-term trend to engineering – The Daily Princetonian
Earlier this month, the University announced that the Board of Trustees had approved the hiring of seven new faculty members including the return of the prominent African American Studies scholar Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor.The University has announced new faculty appointments six times over the past year. The Daily Princetonian looked back at faculty appointments over the past years to examine trends across academic disciplines.
In the past two years, the University hired 52 new professors, with the highest number of professors being hired within the the computer science and history departments. Despite differences between departments, the data does not show a long-term shift to a single area of study.
Four new professors is in line with the growth of the Department of Computer Science in recent years in terms of undergraduate enrollment. The Department of Computer Science awarded just 36 undergraduate degrees in 2011, but 212 members of the Class of 2024 declared Computer Science. There has been growth just over the past few years. Computer science (B.S.E.) has become the most popular major, going from 9.9 percent of the Class of 2020 declaring the major to 11.9 percent for the Class of 2024. Computer science (A.B.) experienced a similar increase, going from 2.6 percent for the Class of 2020 to 4.4 percent of the Class of 2024.
Two out of the four professors hired in computer science are in research areas related to technological implications on humans. Parastoo Abtahis research focus is human-computer interaction, and Aleksandra Korolova, formerly of the University of Southern California, focuses on the societal impacts of algorithms and AI. The other two hired professors are Alex Lombardi, who studies the theoretical foundations of cryptography, and Ellen Zhong, whose research areas are computational biology and machine learning.
The Department of History, the other department that hired four professors over the past two years, has actually experienced a decrease in popularity as one of the most declared majors over the past five years. For the Class of 2020, 5.8 percent of the class declared history, while for the Class of 2024, 4.2 percent of the class declared it as their major.
The four professors hired in the history department focus on a range of different topics. Matthew Jones, formerly of Columbia University, studies the history of science and technology. Yonatan Glazer-Eytan focuses on early modern Spain, exploring the interfaith and interethnic relations on the Iberian peninsula. Elizabeth Ellis specializes in early American and Native American history. Corinna Zeltsman studies modern Latin America, particularly in 19th- and 20th-century Mexico.
The School of Public and International Affairs also had more departmental hires. SPIA hired three new professors in the past three years, possibly accommodating an increase in size over the past five years.
Over the past year, President Christopher Eisgruber 83 has expressed his commitment to expanding STEM on campus, saying that the University cannot be a great liberal arts university in the 21st century without having a great school of engineering.
In an interview with The Daily Princetonian, Eisgruber stated that if he had to pick one top priority for the next five years, it would be rebuilding and fortifying our School of Engineering and Applied Science.
Despite Eisgrubers commitment, the University has not shown a pronounced increase in professors hired for the engineering school over the past five years. They have hired 13 professors across the five engineering departments comparable to hiring rates for the humanities departments. Small disparities could be attributed, in part, to differences in rates at which professors are leaving various departments.
Additionally, a number of the hired professors are coming from other institutions. Seven of them are from public universities, six from international universities, and 14 from private universities.
Isabel Yip is a head News editor for the Prince.
Annie Rupertus, Julian Hartman-Sigall, and Marc Lessler contributed reporting.
Please send any corrections to corrections[at]dailyprincetonian.com.
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Salary and Growth Prospects in Robot Engineering – Robotics and Automation News
With growing automation, robotics engineering is currently making great strides. It is a rapidly developing field with virtually infinite opportunities in terms of innovation and growth.
As we march towards a more automated world, industries and companies focusing on robot engineering are showing an increased demand for robotic engineers.
Unfortunately, currently, in the demand-supply chain, the demand for skilled and qualified robot engineers is much higher than supply. Get the most out of your career with the help of professional robot engineering resume.
The good news is, this lack of ample talent has led to hiked salaries unlike you may have ever thought of. This field presents incredible career opportunities for those interested in pursuing this domain.
If you are trying to learn what kind of future you can expect monetarily as well as career growth-wise, weve got you covered.
We live in a world revolving around capitalism, and all want to make more money. Robotics Engineering is one field where you can expect a lot of money.
This profession requires very specific skills which are not easy to learn, let alone master. Robot engineers are extremely skilled people and get paid for these skills generously.
On average, as a robotics engineer, you can expect a starting salary of $100,000. If you are at the top of your class or have an extraordinary resume, you can expect something along the lines of $150,000 to $200,000 per year.
However, if you are on the opposite end of the spectrum and fall in the bottom 10 percent, you still make nearly $70,000 per annum. This however is a fluctuating price range and depends on where your job is located, how big the company is, and so on.
There are several factors impacting your salary range like your educational background. Beyond your education, your experience in the industry, skills, and specific field of specialization (aerospace, defense, and so on) all make an impact. Whether you have an advanced degree or certifications also comes into play.
As mentioned earlier, the growth prospects in this industry are immense and are only anticipated to grow in the coming years.
Some industry experts expect that the growth in the field of robotics engineering would be at around 9 percent during this decade. The main driver of this demand will be the increased integration of robotics across a diverse range of industries.
Furthermore, the development and growth of new technology like artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and the Internet of Things (IoT) will also act as fuel propelling this domain.
The growth will significantly be leveraged for healthcare, manufacturing, and agricultural sectors, thereby further driving up demand.
With such positive predictions for the field, the opportunities are endless. If you are seeking career opportunities, some of the leading industries include the ones below.
The defense segment is one of the most crucial segments for every country. This is one sector that pays the highest salaries to robot engineers, as tools thus developed play a vital role in keeping threats at bay.
Inventions like the drone, are an example of the implementation of robotics in defense.
Agriculture is another super important field upon which a country heavily relies.
In efforts to make agriculture and farming easier for farmers, tremendous leaps are being made in the field of robotics. The aim is to control tasks like harvesting, planting, and monitoring crops through robotic equipment.
This is expected to lessen the burden on the farmers and make the process much more efficient.
The healthcare sector is one of those sectors which is driving up the demand for robot engineers by a lot. Within this sector, robotic surgical systems are one of the highlight solutions at the moment.
Overall the healthcare system is expected to become much more manageable and efficient through the integration of robotics. These systems are expected to be deployed to fulfill patient care requirements.
By automating certain tasks in the manufacturing process, robot engineering is expected to make the manufacturing process error-free. For some industries, it will also play a vital role in maintaining hygiene, as well as enhancing the pace of the process.
In short, robot engineering is a hot domain right now and is expected to stay in this position for the foreseeable future. If you are in this field or are contemplating pursuing it, go for it. The future of this industry is very bright.
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Salary and Growth Prospects in Robot Engineering - Robotics and Automation News
UT professor of mechanical engineering designs robots that could … – The University of Texas at Austin
I write about faculty members at The University of Texas at Austin for a living. Most of the time I remain out of sight, acting as the invisible fourth wall, to borrow a term from theater and film. But Ashish Deshpande and I have a backstory thats relevant to his work. So writing about him without telling you how we first met seems a bit well, robotic.
On Jan. 19, 2018, I was at work in Walter Webb Hall, where UTs communications team then had its office, when my right hip began to buckle with each step. Within three minutes, I was sitting on the floor, no longer able to walk or move my right arm. At 50 years old, out of the blue, I was having a major hemorrhagic stroke. That evening at UTs Dell Seton Medical Center, brain surgeons stopped the bleeding and probably saved my life.
After 10 weeks in hospitals and rehab centers, I was invited to join a study involving a robotic set of motorized arms that could take my upper body through a range of motions that were now impossible on my own. I agreed, and that is when I met Ashish Deshpande, then an associate professor in UTs Walker Department of Mechanical Engineering and creator of this device, known as Harmony.
After my hands and arms were connected to the robotic arms (designed by Apple), which look a bit like stormtrooper armor from Star Wars, one of Deshpandes Ph.D. students hit a few keys at a computer, and the robot went slack, supporting the weight of my arms but not controlling the direction. My arms were effectively floating in zero gravity.
I then proceeded to use what little strength I had to move my nearly paralyzed arm through six motions at the students direction. If I initiated the move in the right direction, Harmony rewarded the effort by assisting me through the rest of the motion, its tiny motors whirring and conjuring up all sorts of science-fiction references. At the end of the studys 12 sessions, the team surprised me with a new trick mirror mode in which anything I did with my strong arm Harmony mirrored with my weak one. After months of stiffness and soreness due to the lack of motion of my weak arm and shoulder, suddenly I felt whole and symmetrical again, if just for a few glorious minutes.
It has been about five years since that study, and when Deshpande recently was promoted to full professor, I visited him again to learn more about his work with stroke survivors and how it was that he came to UT.
I found him in a new lab, which he shares with other faculty members, known as Texas Robotics in a beautifully converted historic gymnasium, Anna Hiss Gym. Work cubicles and machine shops sit on the gyms old hardwood floor, and the huge arched windows of the 1930s building let in abundant daylight.
Deshpande grew up in Nagpur, India, a city the size of Houston. His father was an agriculture extension officer who grew up in a village. He always tells me that him coming to the city was as big as me moving to America, Deshpande says.
A notable feature of the professors life has been the constant presence of strong women: a grandmother who was the family matriarch, a mother who was a high school science and math teacher, two older sisters, and now a wife and daughter, along with a son. I am lucky to be surrounded and guided by these strong women, he says with a smile. I just follow their lead Im good at that.
One of his sisters is an occupational therapist who treats patients with neurological injuries, including strokes, and he credits her work, as well as his mothers sense of service to others, with turning his interest in robotics toward improving rehabilitation. What is your lifes mission beyond personal gains? Are you helping people? I always heard that from my mother.
After finishing his bachelors degree at his hometown university, he found himself at a crossroads. He had a job offer from Bajaj Auto, one of the largest automotive manufacturers in the world, and had been admitted to graduate school at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. A phone call from the professor with whom he wanted to study tipped the scales. He recalls his first flight at age 20, his first time seeing snow, and new friends who took him to the Burlington Coat Factory for a proper jacket.
His decision to pursue a Ph.D. at the University of Michigan was the first truly conscious choice of his career; all his previous moves were simply defined by his circumstances. I liked the ideation, diving deep, all the math around it, but also communication and writing. He loves literature, especially old classics in his local language, Marathi. Most of all, he loved the incredible developing technology. But something was missing. It lacked the human element, and he wanted his research to focus directly on helping people. Academic freedom allowed him to direct his research toward serving a need he saw.
A postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Washington helped him combine his passions for research and helping people. Some 800,000 Americans have a stroke each year. What could he do for these patients who are left with serious disabilities? His first faculty position, at the University of Maine, required him to focus more intensely to build a lab, direct graduate students and get funding. There, he met Elizabeth DePoy, a professor of disability studies in their social work school, and she was the inspiration for Harmony. She was inspiring me and others on the faculty to look at the needs of people with disabilities holistically, he remembers. They were not thinking about rehabilitation, but only exercise machines for people with disabilities. Initially we thought of this as a rowing machine for people with arm and hand disabilities.
When he came to UT in 2011, he began focusing increasingly on stroke. He felt he was complicating matters by combining the upper and lower body, so he decided to focus only on the upper body. Two years after Harmony, he launched Maestro, a similar robotic interface to rehabilitate hands.
Why did he and his wife, biology professor Shalene Jha, pick UT? They were deciding between Yale, Tulane, UC-Irvine, Central Florida and UT, and it was Texass prestige and rankings that tipped the scales in its favor. We loved the campus and the facilities. I liked the department vibe during the interview, and I had good faculty mentors. We could see ourselves right away living in Austin. More recently they had an opportunity to go to the University of California, Berkeley that they passed on. I have not regretted coming to UT for a single moment, he says. I get to work with amazing students and really good colleagues.
***
I asked Deshpande, now 12 years into the Harmony project, what he could report in the way of successes, and his answer revealed the painstaking and incremental reality of the research in which I participated. He sees it in two phases. Phase one is building a device that is a research platform that has lots of features allowing us to ask interesting, difficult questions, and weve done that. Those questions include: Can they build a robot that is safe, that can move different parts of the body, that can measure all these different forces, and that can be highly responsive, so if the survivor can do something, the robot does not do that? I think we have successfully accomplished that, he said. Were very happy with it. The team has shown that Harmony can help deliver therapy not only in a lab but also in a hospital setting, and there is a huge potential to improve outcomes.
The phase two question is challenging but also more exciting and is where the rubber meets the road: Can Harmony help therapists deliver treatment that leads to full recovery? All that is on the table right now. We are tackling tough questions that might lead to a significant breakthrough.
Getting those results will involve intense collaboration with experts in two other fields. He sees his research as a three-legged stool: robotics; therapists and medical doctors; and neuroscientists. Therapists are thinking in practical terms about protocols. Neuroscientists are thinking first about the mechanism of the injury and then the mechanism of recovery. How does physically moving the body cause neuronal growth? Im in the service of both of them, he says.
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Engineers Take Calvin Education Beyond Proof Of Concept – News – Calvin University
When Nate Anderson from Minneapolis, Minn. was making his college decision, he was looking for two things: a smaller private Christian university and a great engineering program.
There are a lot of small Christian schools in the United States and a lot of schools with really great engineering programs, said Anderson. But if you look at the Venn diagram of the two different categories, theres almost nothing in the middle.
Anna Giboney, from La Crescenta, California, added a third criterion. Coming from a diverse pocket in California, she wanted the opportunity to engage with a multicultural community.
Fortunately for both Anderson and Giboney, there would be no need to scale back their expectations.
Calvin was one of those very few schools that fit in that small slice of the Venn diagram, said Anderson.
Thats something that pulled me in, not only the Christian and the engineering aspects, but that third branch of how many international students are on campus and that Calvin actually has engineering trips abroad, said Giboney. To be able to fit an international experience into a four-year degree is really uncommon.
Anderson and Giboney are now in the final few weeks of their Calvin experience and together working as part of a four-person team on their senior design project.
The team is designing a user-friendly device that will help people living in India and China, two countries most affected by long-term exposure to air pollution, to detect if they are in harms way.
While there are ways to detect the presence of certain harmful pollutants already, they are industrial-grade devices and cost hundreds of dollars. So, the gap we are filling is in that common user, said Giboney, not someone who wants to spend $600 on a device, someone who wants to spend a lot less to see if their kids need to get out of the current environment they are in for their safety.
Anderson and Giboney, along with fellow engineering majors Jordan Alexander and Ben DeWeerd are one of the 20 groups who will showcase their worktheir prototypes or proof of conceptson Saturday, April 15, 2023, at the Senior Design Open House.
Braden Kopenkoskey, Jacob Van Wyngarden, Jonathan Washburn, and Ryan Storteboom, are another team of engineers ready to showcase their project, a machine they designed to automate the process of making pigs in a blanket.
Ryans family works with South Olive Christian School and they run a year-round fundraiser with the proceeds going toward helping kids from very low-income families be able to attend the school, said Van Wyngarden.
The fundraiser is a resounding success year-after-year, they make and sell pigs in a blanket, but the number of man hours and labor-intensive process was causing volunteer burnout. So, the team of engineering majors at Calvin got to work and created a solution that automates the process and multiplies the product and the impact.
The school estimates that if they could double their production, they could double their sales, said Kopenkoskey. So, we are going to see a dramatic increase in what they can produce and fundraise for and its going to significantly drop tuition rates for those who need it most.
All of the senior engineering teams are working on solving problems with their projects and are committed to, actually intentionally trained to, not only create solutions but ones that are customized to fit the culture and context.
All the engineering classes we take focus on problem solving, said Trevor Boer, a civil and environmental engineering major. So just the general curriculum in the engineering program prepares all students well for tackling a design problem. What are the specs you need to meet, the requirements, the project needs? And also, the emphasis in Christian engineering, how do you consider the cultural appropriateness of the design?
Boer is working with fellow civil and environmental engineering majors Jose Munoz, David Bulten, and Matt Van Zeelt in coming up with a gravity-fed water distribution system for a community in Honduras.
Weve done something similar in one of our hydraulic classes, now we are doing it more in real life, said Bulten.
The overall process and the software that we are using to create that design is the same, said Van Zeelt, but we are able to build on what we learned in that course and are making it more complex for this larger scope.
The visuals, the proof of concepts the students will present in mid-April are indeed impressive, even on-par with industry output.
The fascinating thing is with a lot of engineering companies, thats where they stop [with a proof of concept], said Giboney. So, big companies will hire an engineering company and ask them to give them a proof of concept as the deliverable, so having the seniors end at proof of concept isnt as if we are missing the next step in manufacturing, its actually what a lot of companies do in engineering.
But the outcome for each of these soon-to-be graduates goes well beyond the design solutions they helped create.
The reason I wanted a private Christian liberal arts education is the ability to diversify my learning and thats what Ive loved about Calvins engineering program, said Giboney. It was concentrations, it wasnt majoring in mechanical engineering and never getting access to any of these other branches.
We get a broader education, so its nice because we are dangerous in different disciplines, said Boer. Like we took an electrical course, so if I ever talk with the process group at my firm, who do a lot of electronics, I at least know what they are talking about, Im not going in blind.
Our classes here really teach us how to learn so that we can be successful when we go out into the workforce and world, said Alexander. Whether thats learning new things in engineering or learning how to be leaders or good speakers or good communicators, I think Calvin has equipped me to learn.
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Engineers Take Calvin Education Beyond Proof Of Concept - News - Calvin University
College of Engineering Announces 2023 Outstanding Alumni – UMass News and Media Relations
The UMass Amherst College of Engineering is proud to announce the recipients of its 2023 Outstanding Alumni Awards (OAA). Awardees represent the colleges five departments and include five distinguished alumni and five outstanding young alumni.
Visionary leaders in their field, recipients of the Distinguished Alumni Award have reached exceptional levels of professional and personal achievement. This award recognizes distinguished leadership, service, teaching, innovation and other exemplary accomplishments that positively impact society and the engineering profession. This years Distinguished Alumni Award honorees are:
Emerging leaders in the early stages of their careers, recipients of Outstanding Young Alumni Award are generally no more than ten years out from receiving their UMass engineering Ph.D. or no more than fifteen years out from receiving their UMass engineering undergraduate degree. This award recognizes outstanding professional and personal achievements and highlights the recipients ambitions and potential to positively impact UMass, the Commonwealth, the nation, and the world.
This years Outstanding Young Alumni Award honorees are:
These gifted alumni bring tremendous pride and distinction to the College of Engineering and the broader UMass community.
Several recipients of this years awards remained in Massachusetts after graduating from UMass, and have established themselves as engineering leaders within the Commonwealth. Arnaz Malhi serves as director of strategicoperations technical development at Moderna, the Cambridge-based biotechnology company; Andrew C. Sousa is the manager of hardware engineering for American Robotics, a Boston-area commercial developer of drone systems; and, in his role as a Principal for Boston-based Thornton Tomasetti, Peter J. Quigley is currently working with Commonwealth Fusion Systems and MITs Plasma Science and Fusion Center to develop SPARC, a compact, high-field, net fusion energy device.
In addition, several of this years recipients maintain close ties to the College of Engineering. For example, Nilesh Shah serves as the chair of the Industrial Advisory Board of the Chemical Engineering Department. And Paul Banks met his wife Nancywho is also an engineerwhile they were students together at UMass. He has served on the MIE Industry Advisory Board for 15 years and currently serves as its co-chair. In addition, he has hired over 25 UMass Amherst graduates over the course of growing his company, B2Q Associates, an Andover, Massachusetts-based independent engineering consulting firm that specializes in the design of high-tech and industrial projects.
The OAA recipients will be celebrated during an invitation-only event in the Old Chapel on Thursday, May 11.
Learn more about their accomplishments at: https://www.umass.edu/engineering/OAA-2023
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College of Engineering Announces 2023 Outstanding Alumni - UMass News and Media Relations
TDengine and Casne Engineering Partner to Drive Innovation in … – GlobeNewswire
LOS GATOS, Calif., April 05, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- TDengine, the popular open-source time-series data platform, and Casne Engineering, industrial engineering and technology services provider, announced today a strategic partnership aimed at advancing innovation in the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) market.
Through this partnership, Casne Engineering will integrate TDengine's time-series database technology into its existing IIoT solutions, creating a comprehensive IIoT platform for industrial customers. The collaboration seeks to help customers improve operational efficiency, reduce downtime, and increase overall equipment effectiveness (OEE).
Joining forces with TDengine will help to expand the range of possibilities in delivering cutting-edge IIoT solutions to our customers, said Nick Wiley, executive vice president of Casne Engineering. We chose TDengine because of its flexibility and performance for ingesting time-series data in the cloud. Theres no question about the platforms ability to scale with us.
Using the TDengine platform and TDengine PI Connector, Casne will be better able to marshal large quantities of sensor data into the cloud, centralize data from disparate on-premise systems and geographical locations, share select data elements with partners and vendors, and perform real-time analytics using modern cloud tech stacks.
"Collaborating with Casne Engineering will allow TDengine to accelerate innovation in the IIoT space, said Jeff Tao, CEO of TDengine. Our partnership will enable customers to extract more value from their data, optimizing their operations for increased productivity and profitability."
For more information, visit TDengines and Casnes websites.
About TDengineTDengine is the popular, open-source data platform purpose-built for time-series data. With over 20,000 stars on GitHub and hundreds of new installations daily, TDengine is used in over 50 countries worldwide. The company is headquartered in Los Gatos, CA, and has raised $70M in venture capital. Learn more at tdengine.com.
About Casne EngineeringCasne Engineering is an independent engineering, integration, and technology services firm with a rich history of over 40 years and a team of 120 professionals. The company provides comprehensive services from conceptualization to design, development, integration, and ongoing maintenance support. With expertise across multiple industries, the company delivers high-quality engineered systems to both the public and private sectors, from small startups to Fortune 50 companies, worldwide. Learn more at casne.com.
ContactPress Contact: press@tdengine.com
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TDengine and Casne Engineering Partner to Drive Innovation in ... - GlobeNewswire
How Engineering, Architecture, and Construction Firms – FiscalNote
We spoke with business development professionals in leading engineering, architecture, and construction firms who rely on Curate to surface business insights from local government documents to find out which types of meetings and documents are the most useful for finding projects at the earliest stages.
Here are some of the signals proactive business development leaders look for within local government meeting minutes and agendas to find actionable leads.
Comprehensive plans lay out a communitys goals and plans for the next 10 to 20 years. They may include plans for extensive zoning changes and will often lay out proposals for expansions of road and sewer infrastructure to accommodate growth. The intent of these changes is often to improve the communitys economic competitiveness by paving the way for new development precisely why these documents can be a valuable lead for architects and engineers.
Curate clients in the engineering space pay close attention to comprehensive plans to find potential opportunities for the kinds of projects they specialize in.
For example, a community might note in its comprehensive plan that a key part of its strategy to expand the supply of affordable housing near its downtown is to change the zoning of specific neighborhoods to allow for higher density. This change will open up new parcels for multifamily development in those specific neighborhoods, so architects and engineers specializing in multifamily projects can proactively create new business opportunities by bringing these insights to the attention of developers within their network. If the developer is from out of town, they may not be aware of the change, and thus the architect can provide value and win the developers trust which goes a long way toward winning their business.
A conceptual review meeting is usually an optional step in the public approval process, but developers will use it when they are pursuing projects that may be risky or controversial, such as a new multi-use retail and residential project in an already densely populated area. Even if a project aligns with the communitys overall goals for adding housing and retail spaces, the immediate neighbors to the project could sink it if they dont support it.
A conceptual review is an opportunity for the developer to share their plans with the public, gather feedback about the size, scope, and design, and make changes or scrap the project completely based on the results.
David Siegel, executive director of the Minnesota Builders Exchange, notes that conceptual reviews can be especially useful for general contractors and subcontractors, because developers have usually hired an architect or engineer to create the preliminary design that theyll bring to the community but, in most cases, they havent yet hired a contractor.
Zoning issues are a strong signal that future development is coming to a specific area. There are two types of zoning changes to look out for: a zoning change and a zoning variance.
A zoning change is typically initiated by community leaders as part of an overall growth strategy. This can be a good signal to start reaching out to developers to see if theyre interested in developing that area, but it doesnt usually signal the early stage of a specific project.
However, if a business or a developer wants to build a new facility in an area where the zoning doesnt support that kind of building, they have to petition the council for a variance or a conditional use permit. If theyre unable to get the appropriate variance or exception, the project wont be able to proceed, so project leaders usually complete this step at the earliest stage of a project, in some cases before theyve committed to an architect or engineer.
Getting access to private projects is particularly difficult because theyre not really in the public eye, Siegel says. But they still usually have to get some kind of permit or approval from the city. Maybe they need a variance from township ordinance in order to do this. Or maybe there will be heavier trucks coming in than originally anticipated, and theyll need to have the roadway re-done.
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How Engineering, Architecture, and Construction Firms - FiscalNote
Communication: Using Social Engineering Techniques in Everyday Life – Security Boulevard
When I first started in the social engineering field, I had no idea how much it would impact my everyday life. Namely, my communication skills. What exactly is social engineering? How does it change my day to day? And how can you benefit from the same techniques Ive learned in your own life? Lets dive in together.
What is social engineering? We define it this way Any act that influences a person to take an action that may or may not be in their best interest. Like most things, it can be used for good or bad. Today we will discuss how to use social engineering techniques for good in your everyday life.
When used for good, social engineering can have profound effects on your communication skills and your relationships. How so? Many of the techniques we use in social engineering are used to build up common interests and trust, both of which are vital to building rapport and thriving relationships. So, what are some of these techniques?
Lets discuss three social engineering techniques that stand out to me:
A reliable human trait is that people like to be right. One technique you can use for helping someone to be more open to your requests is to suspend your own ego, so they do not view you as a threat to theirs. This could mean anything from not correcting someone to not proceeding to share your own greater knowledge. This is arguably one of the hardest techniques to put into practice. We naturally like being right and sharing our knowledge with others. And ego suspension doesnt mean always being wrong or not sharing your knowledge, it just means greater awareness of when it is appropriate to do so.
Have you ever been in a discussion where someone keeps correcting you, even if youre just sharing an opinion? How did it make you feel? Likely, you felt annoyed and maybe even slightly defeated. We surely dont want to make others feel that way. I have noticed that when I implement ego suspension, even when difficult, my interactions with people go more smoothly.
Quid Pro Quo is Latin for something for something. It means you give a little to get something back. Think of throwing a ball back in forth. Each time it exchanges hands, a little information is given. Another way to picture it is by imagining the feeling of buyers remorse.
I recently attempted to save money on my hair appointment by cancelling it and ordering a color depositing conditioner. I ended up using it incorrectly and dyeing my hair the completely wrong color! Now I not only have to go back to my stylist but am stuck with this conditioner that I will never use again. Buyers remorse! You can make the person youre talking to feel that same way if you end the conversation and they know nothing about you. This doesnt mean you have to tell them your life story. Rather, think about what you want to know and offer them something of equal value. For example, if you want to learn someones middle name, offer them yours first, and so on.
You may be wondering how validation is a social engineering technique. Think through the effects of validation, though. If you make someone feel heard, seen, understood, they are going to trust you more.
Just the other day I made a vishing call where the lady I was speaking to was frustrated about some computer issues. As I was pretexting that I was calling from her IT department, I was supposed to be able to help her fix these issues. In reality, I know nothing about IT work. So instead, I apologized for her trouble and told her how frustrating I know it must be. She responded so well to this that she didnt even mind I didnt know how to fix her computer! I was able to gain her trust to the point where it made her feel better for having talked to me. In my everyday life I enjoy using this technique for one simple reason: I like to feel validated as well. When used with good intent, validation will only yield positive results.
Why should we make the effort to utilize these techniques? They all have one thing in common; they help ensure the person we are speaking to feels good. Thats a powerful thing! Using these techniques intentionally at first will help you to put them into practice. Eventually, it will become your natural way of conversing. If we all focus on suspending our egos, quid pro quo, and validating others, communications all around would improve. Lets be a part of that.
Written by: Shelby Dacko
At Social Engineer LLC, our purpose is to bring education and awareness to all users of technology. For a detailed list of our services and how we can help you achieve your information/cybersecurity goals please visit:
https://www.Social-Engineer.com/Managed-Services/.
*** This is a Security Bloggers Network syndicated blog from Security Through Education authored by Social-Engineer. Read the original post at: https://www.social-engineer.org/newsletter/communication-using-social-engineering-techniques-in-everyday-life/
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Communication: Using Social Engineering Techniques in Everyday Life - Security Boulevard
Mom, Dad, I Want To Be A Prompt Engineer – Forbes
the new reality
MidJourney
A new career is emerging with the spread of generative AI applications like ChatGPT: prompt engineering, the art (not science) of crafting effective instructions for AI models.
In ten years, half of the world's jobs will be in prompt engineering, declared Robin Li, cofounder and CEO of Chinese AI giant, Baidu. And those who cannot write prompts will be obsolete.
That may be a bit of big tech hyperbole, but theres no doubt that prompt engineers will become the wizards of the AI world, coaxing and guiding AI models into generating content that is not only relevant but also coherent and consistent with the desired output.
So, what exactly is prompt engineering?
Getting generative AI to do what you want is no easy task, as anyone who has tried image generation systems like Dalle-E or MidJourney or language models like ChatGPT. While successful creations are dazzling, an untrained users results are likely to be deeply flawed or, with ChatGPT, even wrong. The same is true for AI code-writing generators.
Thats because generative AI models respond to natural language and natural language is notoriously imprecise. The same sentence can have different meanings depending on the context, making it difficult for the AI model to understand what the user wants it to generate. And natural language prompts may not provide enough context for the AI to understand the user's intent fully. This can lead to the AI generating responses that are not relevant to the user's needs or expectations.
Also, generative AI models are typically trained on large amounts of text data, but the training data may not contain examples that match the specific intent of the user's prompt. This can limit the AI's ability to generate responses that accurately reflect the user's needs.
And, finally, generative AI models are trained to generate responses based on patterns in the training data, so they may not be able to generate responses that are truly creative or innovative.
So, talking to a generative AI model is a bit like speaking to an idiot savant you need to understand what they respond to if you hope to get the results you want.
Already, prompt engineering experts are popping up all over the place, startups are offering prompt engineering services and companies are starting to list prompt engineer as a job title. Trainers and educators are fanning out to help industries train workers on how best to use the generative AI, and video lecture sites like Udemy are already offering many courses on formulating effective prompts. Whether or not the importance of the job grows to meet Robin Lis expectations, it is likely here to stay for a while.
Meanwhile, with the increasing sophistication of AI algorithms, it is becoming more feasible for AI systems to take over the role of coding, leaving software engineers to focus on higher-level tasks such as formulating intent and logical sequences to guide the code generator. This shift will likely require software engineers to have a more profound understanding of AI algorithms and how they operate. As a result, they will be able to craft prompts that can direct the AI to generate code that meets the desired specifications accurately.
The role of software engineers will evolve into one of guiding and overseeing the AI's work, providing input and feedback, and ensuring that the generated code meets the project's requirements.
Prompt engineering will be critical in using automated code generators as prompts must be carefully crafted to accurately capture the intent of the desired code. Additionally, prompt engineering can help ensure that the generated code aligns with industry best practices, standards, and guidelines.
Already, we are seeing the compilation of prompt libraries, like libraries of pre-written code or software components that can be reused in different programs or applications. Just as a code library contains components designed to be reusable, allowing developers to save time rather than creating new code from scratch, prompt libraries will do the same.
There are also prompt specializations emerging for code generation, output testing, text generation, and art generation. Ultimately, prompt engineering is all about knowing what to communicate to an AI model to produce the desired output, empowering users to optimize communication for accurate outputs.
There is a flood of startups and new tools to help engineer prompts, including PromptPerfect and PromptingGuide. Online schools are beginning to offer courses in prompting and PromptBase is an online marketplace for buying and selling high-quality prompts. The list goes on and on and will undoubtedly grow.
Startup Anthropic, whose mission is to create reliable, interpretable, and steerable AI systems, is offering a salary of up to $335,000 for an experienced prompt engineer. The position involves figuring out the best methods to prompt AI for various tasks, documenting these methods, building a library of tools, and creating tutorials for others to learn prompt engineering.
Ultimately, prompt engineering can help improve the usability and reliability of automated code generators, making them more accessible to users who may not have a strong background in programming. This emerging class of skilled human operators who know how to interact with AI models effectively will bridge the gap between the human and the AI worlds.
Craig S. Smith is a former correspondent and executive at The New York Times. He is host of the podcast Eye on A.I. (www.eye-on.ai)
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Southwest Construction Views – Engineering News-Record
Last year's Southwest Design Firm of the Year, EPS Group, was among the numerous firms that reported increases in revenue during 2022.Photo courtesy of EPS Group
ENR Southwest's annual Top Design Firms survey has officially closed, with the 2023 regional ranking publishing in the upcoming May 1st edition. While readers will have to wait to see how well individual firms fared in 2022 and where they landed in this year's ranking, we can certainly report that the survey results confirm that, overall, Southwest architectural and engineering firms kept busy during the preceding year.
For example, in ENR Southwest's Top Design Firms ranking of a year agobased on 2021 revenuethe top-25 companies collectively reported regional revenue of $1.04 billion, just edging out the 2020 figure of $998 million. By comparison, this year's 2023 ranking will show a sizeable jump in overall revenue, with the top 25 firms collectively reporting more than $1.4 billion in revenue during 2022.
In addition to the ranking, ENR Southwest's May 1 print edition will provide perspective and comments from regional firms, not only about the year that was, but how business activity appears to be trending for the future. For now, here's our preview of this year's ranking, listed alphabetically.
AECOMAffiliated Engineers, Inc.Atkins, member of the SNC-Lavalin GroupAtwell, LLCAZTEC Engineering Group, Inc.Bohannan Huston, Inc.Bowman (Bowman Consulting Group)Bridgers & Paxton Consulting Engineers, Inc.Burns & McDonnellCobbFendleyCorganCTA Architects EngineersDekker/Perich/SabatiniDeSimone Consulting EngineersDLR GroupElectrical Consultants, Inc.EPS GroupGannett FlemingGeo-Logic AssociatesGreeley and HansenHDRHorrocks EngineersHuckabeeIMEG CorpJCJ ArchitectureKimley-HornKleinfelderManhard Consulting, Ltd.Merrick & CompanyMichael Baker InternationalNinyo & MooreParametrixPGALPSOMASRyan Companies US, Inc.Schneider Structural EngineersSMASmithGroupSolomon Cordwell Buenz (SCB)Stanley ConsultantsStantecStrand Associates, Inc.Sunrise EngineeringSWCA Environmental ConsultantsT2 Utility EngineersTerraconThe Korte Co.Walter P MooreWilson & Company, Inc., Engineers & ArchitectsWood Rodgers, Inc.WSP USA
Scott Judy is Deputy Editor for Regions, and editor of ENR Southeast, one of Engineering News-Record's 10 Regional publications. His roughly 27 years as a construction journalist began with an 11-year stint covering Midwest construction projects. In 2000, Judy helped launch the publication now known as ENR Southeast. He often delves into controversial aspects of the construction industry such as bankruptcies and fatal accidents, and wishes he would never have to cover another accident but suspects that he might.
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