Category Archives: Engineering
Narro expands civil engineering capacity with dedicated team – Scottish Construction Now
The growth and expansion of Narro has continued with the ongoing enlargement of its dedicated civil engineering team.
The revamped team will take the lead on all drainage, highways, active travel, public realm and infrastructure engineering projects.
Amelia Donovan joins the team as a project engineer, based in the Edinburgh office. Amelia graduated from the University of Edinburgh in 2020 with an MEng in Civil Engineering. Since then, she has developed expertise in highways and transport infrastructure, which will further enhance the skillset within the team.
Amelia joins principal civil engineer and section leader Craig Smith, senior civil engineer Alan de Pellette, senior technician Jack Munro, project engineers Owen Cairns and Reece Edgar, and civils eechnician Stuart McColgan.
Craig Smith said: Im delighted that Amelia is joining the team, shes bringing some excellent experience in roads and transport, which compliments the existing skillset. The addition of Owen, Jack and Stuart within the last six months has also really enhanced our technical resources, allowing us to tackle civil projects of increasing size and scale.
Narro managing director, Ben Adam, added: Over the thirty-six years the company has been in operation, weve built up an excellent reputation for providing quality engineering consultancy services. Civil Engineering has always been a key sector for us, and weve done great projects, for example at Culzean Country Park or the Scottish National Gallery at Princes Street Gardens in Edinburgh. Weve also built on our conservation and refurbishment expertise to restore historic infrastructure such as bridges, harbours and piers.
Weve really been seeing increasing demand in for civil engineering work over the past few years. The growing number of enquiries from the public sector and more projects having a civil engineering aspect made appointing a dedicated team an obvious choice. We currently have over 50 projects with a civil engineering element! Im delighted that the team is growing and Im confident that they will continue to provide excellent support to our clients and partners across all our six office locations.
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Narro expands civil engineering capacity with dedicated team - Scottish Construction Now
Aerospace Data Acquisition System Market to Witness Growth … – Digital Journal
New Jersey, United States, Mar 27, 2023 /DigitalJournal/ The data acquisition (DAQ) system refers to a system that can measure and record physical or electrical properties to understand the systems performance. DAQ systems are computer-based measurement systems that help in measuring an electrical or physical phenomenon such as current, voltage, pressure, temperature, or sound. These systems capture and store data from an actual system for further scientific and engineering review.
The global Aerospace Data Acquisition System Market is expected to grow at a Robust CAGR of 5% during the forecasting period of 2022 to 2029.
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Aerospace Data Acquisition System Market research is an intelligence report with meticulous efforts undertaken to study the right and valuable information. The data which has been looked upon is done considering both, the existing top players and the upcoming competitors. Business strategies of the key players and the new entering market industries are studied in detail. Well-explained SWOT analysis, revenue share, and contact information are shared in this report analysis. It also provides market information in terms of development and its capacities.
Some of the Top companies Influencing this Market include:
Nuvation Engineering, Curtiss-Wright, Danelec Marine, Honeywell, GE Aviation, L3Harris, Teledyne Technologies, Acr Electronics, Flyht Aerospace Solutions, Phoenix International Holdings, Elbit Systems, AEVEX Aerospace, MTS Aerospace, Dewesoft, ETMC Technologies, Digilogic Systems, Bustec, DynamicSignals, Hi-Techniques
Various factors are responsible for the markets growth trajectory, which are studied at length in the report. In addition, the report lists down the restraints that are posing threat to the global Aerospace Data Acquisition System market. This report consolidates primary and secondary research, which provides market size, share, dynamics, and forecast for various segments and sub-segments considering the macro and micro environmental factors. It also gauges the bargaining power of suppliers and buyers, the threat from new entrants and product substitutes, and the degree of competition prevailing in the market.
Global Aerospace Data Acquisition System market segmentation:
The market is segmented based on the type, product, end users, raw materials, etc. the segmentation helps to deliver a precise explanation of the market
Market Segmentation: By Type
Flight Data RecordersCockpit Data RecordersVoyage Data RecordersOthers
Market Segmentation: By Application
Military AircraftPrivate AircraftCompetitor Analysis
Global Aerospace Data Acquisition System Market research report offers:
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This report studies the global Aerospace Data Acquisition System market, analyzes and researches the development status and forecast in North America, Asia Pacific, Europe, the Middle East & Africa, and Latin America. Various key players are discussed in detail and a well-informed idea of their popularity and strategies is mentioned.
The cost analysis of the Global Aerospace Data Acquisition System Market has been performed considering manufacturing expenses, labor cost, and raw materials along with their market concentration rate, suppliers, and the price trend. It also assesses the bargaining power of suppliers and buyers, the threat of new entrants and product substitutes, and the degree of competition prevailing in the market. Other factors such as supply chain, downstream buyers, and sourcing strategy have been assessed to provide a comprehensive and in-depth view of the market.
The report answers questions such as:
Contents
Global Aerospace Data Acquisition System Market Research Report 2022-2029
Chapter 1 Aerospace Data Acquisition System Market Overview
Chapter 2 Global Economic Impact on Industry
Chapter 3 Global Market Competition by Manufacturers
Chapter 4 Global Production, Revenue (Value) by Region
Chapter 5 Global Supply (Production), Consumption, Export, Import by Regions
Chapter 6 Global Production, Revenue (Value), Price Trend by Type
Chapter 7 Global Market Analysis by Application
Chapter 8 Manufacturing Cost Analysis
Chapter 9 Industrial Chain, Sourcing Strategy, and Downstream Buyers
Chapter 10 Marketing Strategy Analysis, Distributors/Traders
Chapter 11 Market Effect Factors Analysis
Chapter 12 Global Aerospace Data Acquisition System Market Forecast
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Aerospace Data Acquisition System Market to Witness Growth ... - Digital Journal
What to expect from BTech programme? What ties different engineering branches together? IIT Bombay professor decodes – The Indian Express
Abhijit Majumder
(A Lesson from IIT is a weekly column by an IIT faculty member on learning, science and technology on campus and beyond. The column appears every Friday)
We see a lot of turmoil in the teenage years. Not only does ourbody go through big changes, so does our behaviour. Adding to this stress is the question of what one has to do after school. While some are quite focused and clear about their career goals, most are not.
Many select engineering as the next step because of pressure and the perception that it provides opportunities in terms of jobs.
While there is no harm in keeping job prospect in mind while selecting the branch, we should not forget that the placement would only follow the successful completion of the four years of study. Hence, it is important to know what to expect in your undergraduate years. While the exact syllabus varies from college to college, some factors remain common,
As I am a chemical engineer, I wish to start with my own branch. When I chose to study it, I had no clue what the course entailed. From the name, I thought that it would have lots of chemistry. I am not alone; many people think the same. Even today, people mail me with chemistry problems. However, chemical engineering has very little to do with chemistry.
I often joke that the way Apple does not have vitamin C in their phones, chemical engineering also does not have chemistry. Instead, we have an understanding of how a chemical process plant functions. We study its constituting operations, such as how one component gets transferred from one material to another when they are brought in close contact in distillation columns.
We study how chemical reactions take place and what kind of reactor might one design to get the best quality product at the least cost. We learn about calculations that go into determining safety factors in a plant design. In short, we do a lot of mathematics and calculations to make sure a chemical process plant such as a petroleum refinery unit runs seamlessly. We also design equipment such as pressure vessels and heat exchangers that are often used in chemical industries.
While different branches have their own characteristics, one common thread is mathematics.
Mathematics is the language of engineers. We express the problems in forms of matrices, probabilities, and differential equations. In whichever branch you may choose, solving equations is probably common in every field of engineering.
My computer science colleague, Supratik Chakraborty, said, Can we find limits of what can be computed? Are there things that cant be computed, regardless of how powerful computers we have? How much time, space, and energy must it take to compute certain things? These are fundamental questions, not all of which have satisfactory answers even as of today. The theoretical part of computer science tries to understand and address these questions using mathematical principles.
So, even for a field as computer science, its not just coding. The emphasis is on solving unanswered questions using maths. Similarly, civil engineering is not just about making bridges but also solving partial differential equations that govern the mechanical stress distribution in those bridges. Hence, having a knack for equations is a must for all fields of engineering.
Another common aspect is the ability to create and imagine. The job of an engineer is to solve real-life problems. Many times, there is more than one solution and we may not have enough computational ability even today to get a definite answer.
In such situations, one may need to take various approaches to tackle the problem computationally or to use common sense to choose one from many. Also, as engineers are creators too, one may need to imagine something that even does not exist, or, at least, does not exist in front of us. Hence, the ability to imagine, visualise, and plan is an integral part of engineering training. Unlike our school where every problem in book had a definite answer, engineering teaches us that life is fuzzy and that creativity is integral to navigating the unknown. It may sound simple, but I have seen students who feel quite uncomfortable to embrace this uncertainty.
Another interesting common aspect of all the branches is the continuous change or evolution that they have had in recent years. For example, metallurgy is not only about metals. It lovingly embraces polymers, ceramics and many other materials. Thats why now we call the branch as Metallurgy and Material Science.Similarly, mechanical engineering is not limited to gears and cantilevers but may include nuclear reactor design, energy, and climate.
Fading Boundaries
At IIT Bombay, we see faculty members in civil engineering working on biology, and someone from metallurgy and material science working on water treatment. As professors, we have realised that real-life problems are not limited by the boundaries of streams. For example, designing a diagnostic kit may need inputs from biologists, chemists, material scientists, chemical engineers, electrical engineers and so on.
To design biomedical prosthetics, one may need inputs from specialists in artificial intelligence and machine learning. Keeping this multi-disciplinary need in mind, here at IITB, we are reducing the stream-specific course loads (which we call as core courses) and giving students the opportunity to pick the courses of their interest. They are free to create their own a la carte menu with the help of their faculty advisor.
As a result, students have the opportunity to get trained in subjects that interest them whether it is management, design, bio-science, psychology, and even social sciences. Hence, even if one has a strong inclination for a particular branch, say mechanical engineering, but gets an admission in chemical engineering, she should not be disheartened. If one is interested, one can train themselves in whatever topic in todays world of open knowledge flow.
The writer is associate professor at the department of chemical engineering at IIT Bombay.
(With inputs from Prof. Supratik Chakraborty, Computer Science and Engineering and Prof. Deepankar Choudhury, CivilEngeneeringat IIT Bombay).
Originally posted here:
5 Indigenous engineering feats you should know about – The Conversation
For many millennia, Indigenous Australians have engineered the landscape using sophisticated technological and philosophical knowledge systems in a deliberate response to changing social and environmental circumstances.
These knowledge systems integrate profound understanding of Country, bringing together an understanding of the topography and geology of the landscape, its natural cycles and ecological systems, its hydrological systems and its natural resources, including fauna and flora. This has enabled people to manage resources sustainably and reliably.
Engineering is about process, and the process of engineering was very different in Australia before the English colonised the land. However, when our Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander students take the step into engineering, or other STEM subjects, there is little material provided that relates to their experience or their peoples technical and management knowledge. This is a result of historic denial of the First Nations of Australia as enduring scientific and technical civilisations.
The versatility and minimalist nature of Aboriginal technology designs are inspiring. The flexibility and artistry in tool manufacture, which can differ in neighbouring communities, is a salient lesson for engineers now. Some key aspects of this approach can be seen through five examples of ingenious Indigenous engineering.
The King Sound region of the Kimberleys in Western Australia is renowned for its strong tides, rips and whirlpools. Navigation can be difficult, though there are areas of calm water in the bays. The Bardi community, from One Arm Point, call their raft the kalwa.
The raft is made mostly of light mangrove wood, providing buoyancy. The two fan-shaped sections that make up the boat are wider and thicker at the outer ends to provide stability. These two sections, lapped over each other, are made on a base of mangrove trunks sharpened at the ends; hardwood is used to pin them together. A small basket, made with hardwood pegs on the back section, is used to secure belongings or any fish that are caught.
The design ensures the top of the raft stays above the water when loaded with the paddler, passengers and belongings. The size of the raft determines the load it can carry. Water that washes over the raft will flow out through the gaps between the wooden slats.
Ingeniously, the structure can be pulled apart. One half can be tied to a harpooned dugong, which will swim around and become exhausted, while the hunter floats on the other half.
Rafts were made in different styles all around the coast of Australia, from the different materials available in particular areas and for uses relevant to that landscape.
The Thuwarri Thaa (aka Wilgie Mia) Aboriginal ochre mine is located in central WA in the Weld Range, between Mount Magnet and Meekatharra. It has been in use for probably tens of thousands of years, including by non-Aboriginal miners from the 1940s to 1970s.
The ochre is still important in body and artefact painting for ceremony. It is also used as a skin coolant during summer and for warmth during winter; as a fly repellent; in curing hides and in making glue. Ochre has many uses. Richard Wainwright/AAP
The mine is a deep, sloping shaft cut into the mountain. Wood was carried into the cavern and made into scaffolding to reach seams of ochre out of reach above the cavern floor. Tunnels have been dug along seams in the walls. Heat, flaked pebbles and fire-hardened, sharpened wood were used to undercut the seams of ochre. Fire may have been used to crack the surrounding rock, as well as to provide light deep in the cavern. At times, large sections of ochre could be wedged off.
The ochre was mined from deep underground and then processed onsite. Some was transported by traders northwest to Carnarvon (450 km), south to Kellerberrin (525 km) and east to Wiluna (300 km). To transport, the ochre was dampened and rolled into balls.
Thuwarri Thaa was reserved as a mens only site and stories pass down knowledge of the site and the material. Its location, its mining and its uses are embedded in the creation story of the marlu or red kangaroo. The red ochre is his blood, the yellow ochre is his liver and green is his gall. The entire mining and distribution industry was regulated by these cultural constraints and influences and thus maintained sustainable practices.
When non-Aboriginal people mined there, the roof was blasted off a large cavern at a nearby site, little Wilgie Mia. Ochre from the site is still used in ceremony. People can visit with a permit if guided by Wajarri Yamaji Traditional Owner guides.
The Budj Bim area (also known as Lake Condah), a dormant volcano in south western Victoria, was continuously occupied for thousands of years. The Gunditjmara community farmed eels and harvested galaxia fish in a series of dams and water channels constructed out of the basalt lava flows, an amazing surveying feat.
More than 30,000 years ago, Budj Bim (called Mount Eccles by Europeans) spewed forth the Tyrendarra lava flow, a significant creation event in this country recorded in local oral history. The lava flow to the sea created large wetlands by changing the drainage pattern. This volcanic activity lasted until after the last ice age. Carbon dating shows aquaculture began as early as 6,700 years ago, soon after the lava flow stopped.
The people then continued to alter the water flow through the region with excavated channels. The channels are made in straight or curved paths, with sharp corners helping to reduce the speed of water. Dam walls were built to produce ponds.
These traps for eels and the fish traps in other locations were designed to allow animals to enter the trapping area, be retained in the cooling water and then captured when required for food. The eels remained in pools designed for collection for long periods, where they would breed. This provided a food supply all year round.
The rock was also used to construct dwellings or stone huts, along with 36 storage structures and 12 pits, which are associated with eel trapping. Most of the stone dwellings have a diameter of less than 1.6m. The rest are considered to be storage caches. The area has many scar trees with signs of burning; many of the Manna gums were used for baking and smoking and preserving the trapped eel. Smoked eel products were traded over a wide area.
The structures were exposed during heavy fires in the area and the extent of the all the engineering work is still not known. These traps are an Australian UNESCO World Heritage site, the only one listed exclusively for its Aboriginal cultural values. The Gunditjmara people now work with engineering students designing projects exploring engineering approaches embedded in the landscape.
When Ben Lange, an Aboriginal man from Cairns who plays the Yidaki, came to the University of New South Wales to study electrical engineering, he worked with the physics department to look at how the Aboriginal people created sounds with this instrument. This work led to greater understanding of the use of the mouth and its components in speech production, providing inspiration for new approaches in speech therapy.
The Yidaki (European name the Didgeridoo) is a drone pipe played with circular breathing the lungs are used as a form of air storage to maintain a continual flow through the pipe. The wood is selected from termite-hollowed trees. This bore is widened by hand, especially at the base of the pipe. Bees wax is used to smooth the mouthpiece.
The shape of the mouth across the pipe, the control of air through the mouth with the diaphragm, and the position of the tongue in the mouth, as well as the shape of the players voice box, all affect the sound from the instrument.
The Brewarrina fish traps, called Biame Ngunnhu by the local Ngemba people, were created by Biaime in the Dreamtime there is no oral record of other events that locate the period of construction. They are considered the oldest and longest-lasting dry wall construction on earth.
Dating of the traps would be hard, especially as many of the stones were recently moved to construct a stone weir across the river. Importantly, these fish traps provide an example of collaborative knowledge sharing and governance.
The fish in the river include Australian grayling, river blackfish, short-finned eel, Australian smelt, climbing galaxias, common galaxias, congoli, flathead gudgeon, mountain galaxias, pouch lamprey, smallmouth hardyhead, trout galaxias and southern pigmy perch. However the main fish there now are introduced carp, and the high level of irrigation upstream means the river is often dry.
There is great diversity of Aboriginal peoples across Australia. Aboriginal people have different languages and come from vastly different landscapes, each with their unique ecology. Yet technology is part of our everyday life: the houses we live in; the internet we learn with; the watercraft we use for fun or fishing.
Indigenous communities need students graduating with the skills to help maintain and build infrastructure or create software to support their enterprises and care for Country. In project management, the participatory democracy practised in Indigenous communities is a good example of flat management processes and a way to reinvigorate the Western approach to sustainability and democracy that is failing in our engineering projects as much as in the political space.
Indigenous Engineering for an Enduring Culture, edited by Cat Kutay, Elyssebeth Leigh, Juliana Kaya Prpic and Lyndon Ormond-Parker is published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
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5 Indigenous engineering feats you should know about - The Conversation
UK engineering degree coming to area | News | paducahsun.com – Paducah Sun
Area students could pursue a bachelors in computer engineering technology through a collaboration with the University of Kentucky and West Kentucky Community and Technical College.
Dr. Charles Lu, director of the UK College of Engineering-Paducah Campus, said the final approval process began in November and is pending.
UK has offered the same ABET program since the late 90s to Lexington students through a partnership with Bluegrass Community & Technical College.
Likewise, students here would study at WKCTC for four years.
Students wont need to go anywhere; theyll stay here for two years and complete an associates, (then) stay for two more years and complete a four-year degree, Dr. Lu said. Along the way, the program offers several professional certificates.
Those certificates include aerospace, production, and sustainability and environmental engineering.
The concept isnt new: UK and WKCTC have offered four-year mechanical and chemical engineering pathways since 1997.
Dr. Lu said this program differed as a more general program.
Chemical engineering, for example, I might work at a chemical plant, he said. But computer engineering technology is basically everywhere every product you see every day in general manufacturing. Anyone graduating from this program can work in the aerospace industry, automotive industry anything automated with software.
Computer engineering blends hardware and software design. On the UK site, the program curriculum shows courses in coding and circuitry.
Early courses introduce students to programming. Later classes feature embedded systems i.e., software not in a normal computer. Modern refrigerators, traffic lights and timer circuits in coffee makers feature embedded programming.
The US Bureau of Labor projects a five-% growth for computer engineers by 2031. The 2021 median salary was some $128,000.
While some coding jobs will decline advances in AI could cause that there is similar growth projected for most hardware-, software- and computing-focused careers.
This program offers many options, Dr. Lu said. It has the potential to serve many industries and provide different types of workforces, from technicians to engineers.
When students come here, they enroll in WKCTC, so theyre also eligible for scholarships from both institutions.
The UK College of Engineering cites an annual $25 million economic impact from area engineering graduates.
Some 500 local engineers have graduated, 40% first-generation college students.
Over 70% of them choose to stay local, with the opportunity to go anywhere else in the country, Dr. Lu said. Thats the impact in the local community.
On Wednesday, the Paducah Area Community and Reuse Organization pledged $50,000 to the program, marking a total $602,000 in pledges.
Continued here:
UK engineering degree coming to area | News | paducahsun.com - Paducah Sun
White men still hold majority of US science and engineering jobs – Nature.com
A report from the US National Science Foundation finds that the majority of science and engineering jobs are held by white men.Credit: Getty
Women, members of minority ethnic groups and those with disabilities continue to be under-represented in positions across the US science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) workforce, according to a report by the US National Science Foundation (NSF).
The report finds that although the proportions of jobs held by these groups rose overall between 2011 and 2021, they remained lower than the groups representation in the nations population. Women, for example, comprise 51% of the US population but represent just 35% of employees in the US STEM workforce. The findings relate to the academic, industry, non-profit and government sectors, including roles such as managers and technicians, and those in related areas such as health care.
White men dominate science and engineering positions in the nation, the report finds; nearly three-quarters of people in these roles identify as male. Almost two-thirds identify as white.
Just one-fifth of the science and engineering workforce identifies as Asian, 8% as Hispanic or Latino, 8% as African American and 0.4% as American Indian or Alaskan Native. Although people with at least one disability represent about one-quarter of the US population, they accounted for only 3% of those in science and engineering positions. The proportion of these workers in the general STEM workforce has remained unchanged in the past decade.
Ableism, or discrimination against people with disabilities, along with continuing inaccessibility of physical and virtual spaces, could bar scientists with disabilities from seeking or getting positions in their field, says Bonnielin Swenor, director of the John Hopkins University Disability Health Research Center in Baltimore, Maryland. She notes that barriers are exponentially greater for scientists with disabilities who are also members of other under-represented groups. These disparities are both a cause and consequence of inaccurate, but common, views that people with disabilities dont belong in STEM, are incapable of being scientists and are overlooked as STEM leaders, she says.
Academics fight moves to defund diversity programmes at US universities
Under-representation in STEM could result from a scarcity of role models, says Johnna Frierson, associate dean for equity, diversity and inclusion for the basic sciences at Duke University School of Medicine in Durham, North Carolina. She sees the problem as a cycle in which lack of representation leads to continued lack of representation. If ones environment doesnt have robust diversity in representation, it can send an implicit message that individuals from under-represented groups do not belong and cant be successful in those spaces, she says.
The NSF report also finds that earnings disparities in science and engineering (S&E) positions persist between different groups. In 2020, the median annual wage for all employees in the sector was US$89,990. But men in these fields earned around $25,000 more than their female counterparts ($99,923 versus $75,562). The median salary for white S&E workers was $89,977. For Asian S&E workers, it was $107,150.
The report also finds that female scientists hold almost two-thirds of positions in the social sciences, including psychology, sociology and anthropology, but fewer than half in biological, agricultural and related disciplines. They continue to be under-represented in the physical and related sciences, including physics and chemistry (33%), computer and mathematical sciences (26%) and engineering (16%). White people also take up a majority of positions in each discipline. Among computer and mathematical scientists, 57% identify as white. The other three disciplines have similar numbers: 63% of biological, agricultural and other life scientists identify as white, as do 69% of engineers and 71% of those in physical sciences.
Chemistry course corrections tackle bias
Some have criticized the report for its lack of data on people from sexual and gender minorities (LGBT+) in the STEM workforce. Ramn Barthelemy, a physicist at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, who has studied equity and inclusion in physics, says that his work on LGBT+ faculty members, and on LGBT+ physicists in particular, has shown concerning trends, including exclusionary behaviours and negative workspace environments1. Those trends, he adds, are particularly worrisome for those in the community who also identify as women or as a person of colour. Without proper representation in data, he says, we arent being included in metrics on diversity, equity and inclusion, further marginalizing the community.
NSF representatives say that the agency is integrating questions about the LGBT+ community into its surveys, adding that it hopes to publish its analysis of the data in a few years.
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White men still hold majority of US science and engineering jobs - Nature.com
Engineering students work to provide clean water to residents of the … – The Daily | Case Western Reserve University
When you wake up each morning, its likely you dont think twice about how youre going to acquire safe drinking water for the day. Unfortunately, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, thats not the case for 2 billion people around the world who lack easy access to such a commoditybut Case Western Reserve students are working to be a part of the solution.
In recognition of today (March 22) being World Water Day, The Daily caught up with the CWRU chapter of Engineers Without Borders. Members of the group traveled to Cruce de Blanco, a community in the Dominican Republic, in January to build a water chlorinator and install a sediment filtration system that would bring clean drinking water to the homes of 450 residentsand alleviate the cost of buying bottled water.
Theres rampant poverty in the community and [buying bottled water] is a huge cost for them to undertake, said Victor Nash, the teams translator and second-year civil and environmental engineering major. For all of their drinking water to come from that source is not good for their way of life.
Students from Case Western Reserve have traveled to Cruce de Blanco 12 times since 2007, and it was during one of their early visits that they constructed a brand new water distribution system all together.
Claire Daugherty, fourth-year mechanical engineering student and co-lead of the project, said historical documentation from prior trips is helpful, but since no one has traveled to the community since before the pandemic began, it was challenging to understand the current state of the system.
Still, the team of 10 students developed a strategy while working to reestablish relationships with community leaders and learn the lay of the land. By Jan. 6, they were ready to see it for themselves.
We had our schedule planned out the way we thought it would go, said Danielle Sarno, a fourth-year biomedical engineering major and co-lead. But the first day we got there, we quickly learned that it was not going to go as planned at all.
On day two, Sarno and Daugherty learned that the sediment tank wasnt working, there were multiple bypasses in the system, and water wasnt even reaching some places in the village all of the time. They knew they had to pivot.
We thought we could get our shopping [for supplies] done in one day, Lekha Joy, a first-year student, said. We had to go almost every day.
Despite the initial roadblocks, the team got to work on their three initiatives: building a chlorinator, establishing new pressure reducing valves (PRVs) in the distribution line and putting a sediment filter screen at the intake. All are improvements that provide community members with cleaner, safer drinking water.
The work often required late nights and early morningsand building the sediment filter at the intake involved a two-mile hike both ways.
The main goal for the sediment filter was to reduce the amount of labor that was initially required, Sarno said. Before our trip, they had two 70-plus-year-old community members going up to clean out the sedimentation tank and doing this strenuous hike twice a week. The goal is that the sediment filter screen reduces that.
Some initiatives are still ongoing. During their preparation in the U.S., the CWRU students determined the correct places to install the PRVsusing hydraulic calculationsbut when they learned the system was different than they thought, they scaled back their plans, placing three out of the four PRVs. Incoming co-team leads Nash and Isabel Meltzer are still communicating with community leaders to facilitate the completion of this part of the project to ensure all homes are receiving water.
Finally, the team built the chlorinator. After taking their time to source the safest and easiest-to-use chlorine for the system, they put on their headlamps and worked after dark on their final night, alongside community members, to complete the structure.
Learn more about the efforts of Engineers Without Borders.
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Honey, the 3D printI mean, dessertis ready! – Columbia University
New York, NYMarch 21, 2023Cooking devices that incorporate three-dimensional (3D) printers, lasers, or other software-driven processes may soon replace conventional cooking appliances such as ovens, stovetops, and microwaves. But will people want to use a 3D printer--even one as beautifully designed as a high-end coffee maker--on their kitchen counters to calibrate the exact micro- and macro-nutrients they need to stay healthy? Will 3D food printing improve the ways we nourish ourselves? What sorts of hurdles will need to be overcome to commercialize such a technology?
Columbia mechanical engineers are working to address these challenges in Professor Hod Lipsons Creative Machines Lab. In a new Perspective article published today bynpj Science of Food, lead author Jonathan Blutinger, a postdoctoral fellow in the lab, explores these questions and more, discussing with Professor Christen Cooper, Pace University Nutrition and Dietetics, the benefits and drawbacks of 3D-printed food technology, how 3D-printed food compares to the normal food we eat, and the future landscape of our kitchens.
Food printing technology has existed since Lipsons lab first introduced it in 2005, but to date the technology has been limited to a small number of uncooked ingredients, resulting in what many perceive as less than appetizing dishes. Blutingers team broke away from this limitation by printing a dish comprising seven ingredients, cooked in situ using a laser. For the paper, the researchers designed a 3D-printing system that constructs cheesecake from edible food inks including peanut butter, Nutella, and strawberry jam. The authors note that precision printing of multi-layered food items could produce more customizable foods, improve food safety, and enable users to control the nutrient content of meals more easily.
Because 3D food printing is still a nascent technology, it needs an ecosystem of supporting industries such as food cartridge manufacturers, downloadable recipe files, and an environment in which to create and share these recipes. Its customizability makes it particularly practical for the plant-based meat market, where texture and flavor need to be carefully formulated to mimic real meats, Blutinger said.
To demonstrate the potential of 3D food printing, the team tested various cheesecake designs, consisting of seven key ingredients: graham cracker, peanut butter, Nutella, banana puree, strawberry jam, cherry drizzle, and frosting. They found that the most successful design used a graham cracker as the foundational ingredient for each layer of the cake. Peanut butter and Nutella proved to be best used as supporting layers that formed pools to hold the softer ingredients: banana and jam. Multi-ingredient designs evolved into multi-tiered structures that followed similar principles to building architectures; more structural elements were needed to support softer substrates for a successful multi-ingredient layered print.
We have an enormous problem with the low-nutrient value of processed foods, Cooper said. 3D food printing will still turn out processed foods, but perhaps the silver lining will be, for some people, better control and tailoring of nutrition--personalized nutrition. It may also be useful in making food more appealing to those with swallowing disorders by mimicking the shapes of real foods with the pureed texture foods that these patients--millions in the U.S. alone--require.
Laser cooking and 3D food printing could allow chefs to localize flavors and textures on a millimeter scale to create new food experiences. People with dietary restrictions, parents of young children, nursing home dieticians, and athletes alike could find these personalized techniques very useful and convenient in planning meals. And, because the system uses high-energy targeted light for high-resolution tailored heating, cooking could become more cost-effective and more sustainable.
The study also highlights that printed food dishes will likely require novel ingredient compositions and structures, due to the different way by which the food is assembled, said Lipson. Much work is still needed to collect data, model, and optimize these processes.
Blutinger added, And, with more emphasis on food safety following the COVID-19 pandemic, food prepared with less human handling could lower the risk of foodborne illness and disease transmission. This seems like a win-win concept for all of us.
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Honey, the 3D printI mean, dessertis ready! - Columbia University
Local teams design out of this world projects in regional engineering contest – Mankato Free Press
Its a contest that asks students to come up with a machine that shows how different types of energy work such as electrical, chemical or kinetic, among others and relate their project back to a theme.
This year, the Engineering Machine Design Contests theme is Transforming Space Technology, and Blue Earth Area high school students were among several local teams to create engineering projects that were out of this world.
Junior Gustavo Chavero said their project follows the story of a prisoner in outer space trying to escape.
We thought of it as a prison break from outer space, and we have a marble that is the prisoner, and he tries to escape through a series of courses and ends up leaving the planet hes currently on, he said.
The project runs mostly on gravity until the end, where a lever and a trebuchet help the prisoner escape.
Ninth grader Dane Sohn said the idea for the project came from a lot of brainstorming.
Each person had different ideas that we could start with, and we ended up on the prison break. At first we didnt have a final ending, but then we figured we could just have him escape, he said.
Lake Crystal Wellcome Memorial high school students also participated.
Their Rube Goldberg machine-style entry focused on NASA, said 10th grader Destiny Alberty, and involved uses of gravity, levers, motors and even hydraulics.
We wanted to focus on NASA and how its very clean. It doesnt necessarily look pretty, but its effective and it gets things done, Alberty said. We mainly wanted to focus on the technology part of the space technology. Thats why we picked NASA.
Minnesota State Universitys College of Science, Engineering and Technology hosted the Minnesota State Engineering Center of Excellences regional contest Friday afternoon.
A combination of both middle and high school teams from across the state competed, said College of Science, Engineering and Technology Acting Dean Aaron Budge.
The junior division consisted of teams from St. Paul, Cottage Grove and more.
The senior division, meanwhile, featured teams from Blue Earth, Iowa, Owatonna, Lake Crystal and more.
Awards are given out in part to teams with projects that are durable, extensively use household items, best display the competition theme, are the crowd favorite and more.
Finalists in both divisions also get the chance to advance to the championship, held at Anoka Technical College.
Projects are judged on a combination of requirements, said Budge.
They give a presentation about what their machine is and does and how they came up with that theme. Part of it relates to that oral presentation that they do. Part of it relates to how well the machine actually works. Does it require them to intervene? he said.
Projects are also limited in size and have to have a certain number of steps along the way.
Otherwise, the creativity is up to the students.
Budge said the contest gives an opportunity for students to get involved in STEM.
That type of excitement is really what were hoping to have, to get the students excited about science, engineering, mathematics and other things that can really see them through moving forward in their career, he said.
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Local teams design out of this world projects in regional engineering contest - Mankato Free Press
Connected vehicles the latest tool to give engineers real-time insight … – Purdue University
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. Purdue University researchers have developed techniques to harness big data from connected vehicles to monitor congestion caused by crashes, weather and construction. As part of their work, they analyzed over 503 billion records in December 2022 to monitor the national impact of a large winter storm.
The team is led by Darcy Bullock, the Lyles Family Professor of Civil Engineering in Purdues Lyles School of Civil Engineering, and focuses on developing scalable techniques for measuring and graphically visualizing traffic congestion.
For many years, the U.S. Department of Transportation, universities and private sector companies have published annual congestion reports and rankings of states and cities. However, Bullock believes the new frontier is to develop techniques that use connected vehicle data to map out the time, location and severity of congestion in a uniform manner across all 50 states. This will provide a more robust systemwide characterization of interstate congestion to prioritize national infrastructure investments as well as monitor the resiliency of our network during large weather events such as winter storms or hurricanes.
There are three key ingredients in this analysis: data, cloud platforms and graphic visualization methods. The combination enables decision makers to quickly understand how traffic is moving, said Howell Li, principal research analyst, who has worked with Wejo Data Services Inc. to analyze the data systematically in real time using Googles BigQuery. On a typical Friday afternoon, Purdue ingests approximately 600,000 records per minute on just Indiana roads. At a national level, there are over 25 million connected vehicle records generated every minute.
Transportation research engineers Jairaj Desai and Jijo Mathew and PhD candidate Rahul Sakhare have developed analytical techniques for processing that data in real time to create graphical maps showing week-at-a-glance charts depicting the time, location and severity of traffic congestion. These same techniques could also be used to show how usage of electric vehicles and hybrid electric vehicles varied by states and interstate routes.
Privacy is very important for all of our public and private sector partners, Bullock said. Our connected vehicle data provider employs consented, deidentified and anonymized data that is consistent with both U.S. and EU general data protection regulations.
The Purdue team produced two major reports in 2022, one for August and the other for December. Although both reports used similar analysis techniques, the August report is a great tool to see the impact of construction work zones on mobility. The December report provides an example of the impact of a large winter storm moving across the U.S. and the subsequent state-by-state recovery. A video illustrating the national impact of that storm on I-80 can be seen at https://youtu.be/YrYz9CovAuA. State-by-state impact on all interstate routes can be found at https://doi.org/10.5703/1288284317591.
From a national perspective, this is really valuable, Bullock said. Data like this can show us our overall interstate network resiliency as well as provide insights to support operational decisions and long-term national infrastructure investments.
About Purdue University
Purdue University is a top public research institution developing practical solutions to todays toughest challenges. Ranked in each of the last five years as one of the nations 10 Most Innovative universities by U.S. News & World Report, Purdue delivers world-changing research and out-of-this-world discovery. Committed to hands-on and online, real-world learning, Purdue offers a transformative education to all. Committed to affordability and accessibility, Purdue has frozen tuition and most fees at 2012-13 levels, enabling more students than ever to graduate debt-free. See how Purdue never stops in the persistent pursuit of the next giant leap at https://stories.purdue.edu.
Media contact: Brian Huchel, bhuchel@purdue.edu
Source: Darcy Bullock
https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/imr/
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Connected vehicles the latest tool to give engineers real-time insight ... - Purdue University