Category Archives: Engineering
Tinker the Robot Gets Kids Hooked on Science and Engineering | riversideca.gov – RiversideCA.gov
Published: 10/19/2022
Kay Yangs daughter flips through a Tinker the Robot lab notebook. Courtesy Tinker the Robot
The City of Riverside celebrates National Women in Small Business Month, and Kay Yang is a shining example of a local entrepreneur and engineer who rises above gender barriers. As a little girl growing up in Chino Hills, Yang remembers building a mini pulley system for her Barbie Dreamhouse. She and her dad would spend hours tinkering and problem-solving in their garage.
I became an engineer because thats what my dad and I did on the weekends, said Yang, founder and CEO of Tinker the Robot. He taught me aerodynamics by observing birds and physics by launching catapults. He made these subjects relatable and engaging.
Yang went on to work in several industries, including biotechnology, defense, cleantech, and consumer products, making Disney Princess toys at Mattel. Inspired by her upbringing, Yang left Mattel seven years ago because she wanted to create a toy with more educational value. She set out to reimagine the way engineering is taught and make STEM engaging to a population that might not think these subjects are for them especially girls. After learning what families want is an experience, Yang evolved the Tinker idea from a toy into science and engineering workshops and homeschool kits.
My husband loves to say we hook them and then we teach them, Yang said of her atypical approach where students learn to build something before the battery of math and theory lessons.
A student proudly displays her bright LED light in her lab notebook. Courtesy Tinker the Robot
Upper elementary through middle school-aged children engaging with Tinker receive a lab notebook, similar to a graphic novel, that includes a hybrid curriculum with instructions to build anything from a robot to a light sensor. Yang and her small and but mighty team launched a summer series this year for 4,000 students spanning 140 Los Angeles Unified School District sites, as well as 30 parks and recreation locations.
It's not a stereotypical class where were lecturing, Yang said. We set up a build and encourage the kids to experiment. Were there to guide them. We want them to make mistakes, raise their hand, and ask questions.
One of Yangs favorite things is watching students have eureka moments when a literal or figurative lightbulb goes off during a build. Yang hires teachers whose day jobs are technicians and engineers to make the experience more relatable for kids. This way, Yang said, students see the skills they learn can be explored forever as a solid career choice.
Were sparking students innovation, then letting them ignite on their own, Yang said.
Yang is a member of ExCITE Riverside Incubator, and she credits its mentorship resources with propelling the company forward. Tinker the Robot placed second at the 2022 Riverside Fast-Pitch Competition and advanced to the regional finals.
Kay Yang celebrates her 2022 Riverside Fast-Pitch Competition win with Mayor Patricia Lock Dawson. Courtesy Tinker the Robot
So much of what youre trying to accomplish as an entrepreneur, you do alone, Yang said. But if you work within a community, youre so much stronger. Thats what ExCITE provides.
One of Yangs goals is to pilot a program within Riverside Unified School District as a way to become even more embedded in the Citys robust entrepreneurial culture and conscience.
Leaders in Riverside are always thinking about the future and how to create a competitive advantage for the community, she said.
Whats next for Tinker is an engineering take on The Magic School Bus series for kindergarten through second graders, and programming for Riverside-based nonprofit C3 Initiative to get 1 million minority youth exposed to coding.
We are proud to support Kay Yang, whose entrepreneurial spirit not only drives our economy forward but inspires the next generation of STEM professionals, said Riverside Mayor Patricia Lock Dawson. Tinker the Robot demonstrates its never too early to lay the foundation students, especially girls, need to pursue and exceed in science and engineering.
For more about Tinker the Robot, go to http://www.tinkertherobot.com.
A Tinker the Robot workshop. Courtesy Tinker the Robot
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Tinker the Robot Gets Kids Hooked on Science and Engineering | riversideca.gov - RiversideCA.gov
Corps takes part in American Indian Science and Engineering Society national conference – spl.usace.army.mil
PALM SPRINGS, California The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was among several agencies recruiting potential employees during the American Indian Science and Engineering Society National Conference Oct. 7 at the Palm Springs Convention Center in California.
The AISES National Conference is the largest college and career fair in the U.S. for Indigenous students and professionals in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics field.
The Corps is here today to support STEM, recruit the best future engineers from a more diverse background and promote inclusion, said Kimberley Oldham, a senior hydropower program manager with Southwestern Division.
During the Conference, the Corps conducted the Tribal Partnerships for Water Resource Projects presentation. More than 50 visitors attended the informational presentation, which discussed the Tribal Partnership Program, or TPP. The TPP provides authority for the Corps to investigate water-related planning activities related to the study, design and construction of water resources development projects located on tribal lands.
I hope through this conference we increase our presence in native communities and develop better partnerships with tribal governments, said Oldham, a Muscogee Creek Yuchi Indigenous American. Its also a great opportunity to network with other Native Americans within the Corps. This is the first time we had six Indigenous Corps employees working at the event.
More than 60 participants visited the Corps booth to discuss engineering projects and civil works programs, while also applying for available positions. The three-day conference attracted about 2,000 members and attendees. The conference featured professional development discussions, networking opportunities, student presentations, a career fair, cultural events and other activities.
I was inspired that we had so many American Indigenous employees from around the Corps present at the event, said Corina Zhang, a senior resident engineer with Omaha District. It was a great opportunity to see our originations commitment to American Indigenous communities.
Omaha District works with 53 federally recognized American Indigenous tribes. The district is the largest by landmass, spanning an area from Wisconsin to Montana.
It was one of the best career fairs Ive attended, Zhang said. As a civil engineering body, it was important to represent how the Corps supports and helps the nation. I felt like there were many interested and brilliant candidates with diverse skill sets. I was energized being able to share my experience and expertise with future engineers and scientist.
At the conclusion of the college and career fair, Omaha District awarded a letter of intent to hire to Madison Phelps, a civil engineer major from the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology. Like many attendees, Phelps traveled to the event to support AISES, network among American Indigenous professionals and explore career opportunities. She said she has an interest in the Corps Emergency Management and Response program.
As an engineer, I would like to make a positive impact in local communities, Phelps said, before the presentation. Im very excited to see how I can contribute to the Corps rapid response team.
The Corps mission is to provide engineering solutions to the nations toughest challenges. The organization employs more than 32,000 people worldwide.
The Corps South Pacific and Northwestern divisions presented a total of three letters of intent to hire during the conference. The Corps Civilian Personnel Advisory Center also was present at the event to assist and support the selection process.
For more information about U.S. Army Corps of Engineers careers, visit http://www.usace.army.mil/careers.
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Kimball named Finley Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering – Missouri S&T News and Research
Dr. Jonathan Kimball, professor of electrical and computer engineering (ECE) at Missouri S&T, has been named the Fred W. Finley Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE).
Kimball stepped into the role as ECE department chair in August. He joined the Missouri S&T faculty in 2008, where he has served as director of the Center for Research in Energy and Environment since 2019. He is a senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineering (IEEE).
Kimball received a bachelors degree in electrical and computer engineering from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. He received a masters degree in electrical engineering and a Ph.D. in electrical and computer engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Kimball worked in private industry for several years before joining S&T.
Fred W. Finley, a 1941 electrical engineering graduate from what was then known as Missouri School of Mines and Metallurgy, established the scholarship in 1987. Now deceased, Finley founded Finley Engineering Co. in Lamar, Missouri.
About Missouri University of Science and Technology
Missouri University of Science and Technology (Missouri S&T) is a STEM-focused research university of over 7,000 students. Part of the four-campus University of Missouri System and located in Rolla, Missouri, Missouri S&T offers 101 degrees in 40 areas of study and is among the nations top 10 universities for return on investment, according to Business Insider. S&T also is home to the Kummer Institute, made possible by a $300 million gift from Fred and June Kummer. For more information about Missouri S&T, visit http://www.mst.edu.
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KU Engineering professor wins $100K award to research wastewater intensification – The University of Kansas
LAWRENCE A prestigious award from the Water Research Foundation will provide the opportunity for a University of Kansas School of Engineering professor to research a breakthrough approach to improving water quality.
Belinda Sturm, professor of civil, environmental & architectural engineering, is the winner of the 2022 Paul L. Busch Award. With this $100,000 research prize, Sturm will assess how the physical, chemical and biological properties of aerobic granular sludge impact the removal of pathogens and microplastics from wastewater.
Sturms research could allow municipal wastewater treatment plants to double their capacity without the need for expanding or adding new treatment equipment.
The greatest achievement in water quality research is obtained when knowledge is put into practice to create a safer environment, Sturm said. This award will enable me to explore a new research application in collaboration with utility partners.
Wastewater from residences, businesses and other properties carries materials such as carbon, nutrients, pathogens and microplastics to water resource recovery facilities (WRRFs). While WRRFs have processes in place to remove contaminants, there is a need for more research into increasing capacity, ensuring efficiency and understanding the broader applications of existing treatment technologies.
Partnering with the city of Lawrence as well as Metro Water Recovery in Denver, Sturm will assess the removal of pathogens from wastewater due to grazing by the protozoa in biofilms, as well as the sorption of microplastics onto aerobic granular sludge granules.
This research will explore the fundamental properties of AGS while demonstrating full-scale and practical improvements for water quality, Sturm said. This research has the potential to significantly enhance wastewater treatment and further the science related to biofilms.
In addition to her work at KU, Sturm serves as director of the Kansas National Science Foundations Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (NSF-EPSCoR) and chair of the Water Environment Federations Municipal Design Symposium.
For 22 years, the WRF Endowment for Innovation in Applied Water Quality Research has supported the Paul L. Busch Award, providing more than $2 million in funding to researchers who are making major breakthroughs in water quality science.More information about the Paul L. Busch Award can be found on WRFs website.
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UCLA Engineers Design AI Material That Learns Behaviors and Adapts to Changing Conditions – UCLA Samueli School of Engineering Newsroom
Just like a pianist who learns to play their instrument without looking at the keys or a basketball player who puts in countless hours to throw a seemingly effortless jump shot, UCLA mechanical engineers have designed a new class of material that can learn behaviors over time and develop a muscle memory of its own, allowing for real-time adaptation to changing external forces.
The material is composed of a structural system made up of tunable beams that can alter its shape and behaviors in response to dynamic conditions. The research finding, which boasts applications in the construction of buildings, airplanes and imaging technologies among others, was published Wednesday in Science Robotics.
This research introduces and demonstrates an artificial intelligent material that can learn to exhibit the desired behaviors and properties upon increased exposure to ambient conditions, said mechanical and aerospace engineering professor Jonathan Hopkins of the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering who led the research. The same foundational principles that are used in machine learning are used to give this material its smart and adaptive properties.
When the material is placed in aircraft wings, for example, it could learn to morph the shape of the wings based on the wind patterns during a flight to achieve greater efficiency and maneuverability of the plane. Building structures infused with this material could also self-adjust the rigidity in certain areas to improve their overall stability during an earthquake or other natural or manmade disasters.
Utilizing and adapting concepts from existing artificial neural networks (ANNs), which are the algorithms that drive machine learning, the researchers developed the mechanical equivalents of ANN components in an interconnected system. The mechanical neural network (MNN), as the team called it, consists of individually tunable beams oriented in a triangular lattice pattern. Each beam features a voice coil, strain gauges and flexures that enable the beam to change its length, adapt to its changing environment in real time and interact with other beams in the system.
The voice coil, which gets its name from its original use in speakers to convert magnetic fields into mechanical motion, initiates the fine-tuned compression or expansion in response to new forces placed on the beam. The strain gauge is responsible for collecting data from the beams motion used in the algorithm to control the learning behavior. The flexures essentially act as flexible joints among the moveable beams to connect the system.
Video showing a mechanical neural network adjusting its rigidity in response to appliedforces. Credit: Flexible Research Group at UCLA
An optimization algorithm then regulates the entire system by taking the data from each of the strain gauges and determining a combination of rigidity values to control how the network should adapt to applied forces.
In order to check the validity of the strain gauge-monitored system, the research team also used cameras trained on the output nodes of the system.
Early prototypes of the system exhibited a lag between the input of the applied force and the output of the MNN response, which affected the systems overall performance. The team tested multiple iterations of the strain gauges and flexures in the beams as well as different lattice patterns and thicknesses before achieving their published design that managed to overcome the lag and accurately distribute the applied force in all directions.
Identifying the reasons why [the networks] failed to learn is important for understanding how to design MNNs that successfully learn, the researchers shared how they solved the problem through trial and error over the past five years.
Currently, the system is about the size of a microwave oven, but the researchers plan to simplify the MNN design so that thousands of the networks can be manufactured on the micro scale within 3D lattices for practical material applications. Aside from using the material in vehicles and construction materials, the researchers suggest MNNs could also be incorporated into an armor to deflect shockwaves, or in acoustic imaging technologies to harness soundwaves.
The papers lead author Ryan Lee is a mechanical and aerospace engineering doctoral student and member of Hopkins Flexible Research Group at UCLA. Erwin Mulder of the University of Twente in Enschede, Netherlands, also worked on the research, which was supported by grants from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research.
Natalie Weber contributed to this story.
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Platform Engineering: What Is It and Who Does It? – thenewstack.io
You may have heard about platform engineering, a new term adding itself to the already crowded set of roles in the development and DevOps world.
In this post, well cover platform engineering, how it differs from DevOps, why you might consider investing into platform engineering, and who needs platform engineering skills.
Platform engineering is the process of designing, building, and maintaining workflows and tools for software engineering organizations to drive consistency and speed up common tasks.
In addition, many platform engineers maintain an integrated software product called an internal developer portal, which consolidates data and knowledge fragmented across clouds, tools and teams so everyone in the engineering organization can discover essential information about their applications, services and infrastructure in one self-serve place.
Platform engineering is a new field that has arisen to meet the growing complexity of distributed software development. As software development has started involving more tools, clouds and workflows, its become increasingly difficult for software developers who are now asked to manage more different aspects that go into writing robust, secure, performant and capable applications.
Platform engineering arose to help software developers manage the complexity of developing their applications. While DevOps aspires to automate deployment and the end-to-end running of applications, in practice, this is only achievable by the largest and most talented organizations.
In reality, when organizations remove operations and implement DevOps, specific DevOps antipatterns appear. We can see some of these antipatterns in reviewing various State of DevOps reports. For example, one study shows a clustering effect where the top-performing organizations have succeeded at a you build it, you run it approach. However, the other cluster is where this pattern fails, and these organizations suffer from the following antipattern.
Platform engineering is a new field that has arisen to meet the growing complexity of distributed software development.
Senior developers often take on the role of a shadow ops organization, so the best development resources, the ones that cost the most and are better used for increasing speed and quality within the development team are unable to do the job the company hired them to do because theyre now spending their time covering live operations and other operations-related tasks like service creation.
This leads to fragmentation of ops across the organization, often with varying degrees of quality, and it depends on the amount of time the senior developer could devote to setting it up and maintaining it.
What differentiates successful organizations from those that are not? The most successful had an internal team that is responsible for an internal development portal that supports the development teams. These dedicated teams allowed delivery teams to focus on creating functional software features, not on managing dependencies, pipelines and tools.
One issue when adopting platform engineering is the tendency to build another silo. A good example would be a ticketing system where users can request features or report bugs, the requests go into the platform engineering realm, and are eventually resolved. You can combat this by focusing on enabling users to self-serve their own needs with your portal by providing accurate and relevant documentation, training sessions and pairing with users to solve their problems.
Another issue is prioritizing the right things. There are a lot of users from many different parts of your organization, so having a single feature request pipeline for those things users cannot self-serve with a committee deciding on priority is essential to servicing the needs of your organization effectively.
Keep your platform team adaptable and not stuck in the past ways of doing things. With the rapid pace of change in IT, its hard to keep up. Enablement is one way you can ease the burden on your team, but also allowing your team a consistent amount of time to train on new technologies is another.
Platform engineers are responsible for deploying, and maintaining the internal development portal. They also work with a variety of stakeholders to ensure that the portal meets its users needs.
Platform engineers typically have a deep understanding of software engineering practices and how software engineers work. In addition, platform engineers understand what the organization is attempting to deliver and the tools and workflows needed to accomplish those goals. They also have experience with a variety of DevOps tools and practices.
While a successful platform engineer needs to understand software development and DevOps tools and practices, they also need to be able to work effectively with people. Platform engineering is a team sport. They need to be able to communicate with stakeholders from all parts of the organization, from the C-suite to junior developers.
They also need to be comfortable with change. Platforms, DevOps and software engineering are constantly evolving, and the flexibility to adapt to new technologies and approaches is probably the most important skill theyll need.
Platform engineering is closely related to DevOps. Many platform engineers come from a DevOps background. DevOps is a set of practices that help businesses deliver software faster and more efficiently. It emphasizes collaboration between development and operations teams.
Platform engineering borrows many of the same principles from DevOps, including automation, continuous delivery and continuous integration.
Platform engineering differs from DevOps in that platform engineering builds the tools to help engineers and DevOps perform their tasks. Tool creation is generally not a focus for DevOps, or if tools are created, its done on an ad hoc basis.
Site reliability engineering (SRE) is another closely related field. Like platform engineering, SRE focuses on the availability and performance of software systems. SRE practitioners are often responsible for monitoring and responding to incidents. They also work with developers to prevent outages from happening in the first place. However, platform engineers are more focused on development, while SRE practitioners focus more on operations.
If your organization is developing software, theres a good chance youll need platform engineering skills to help accelerate your software development teams. Integrated development platforms are becoming more and more common, and theyre being used to help some of the most disruptive and adaptable software development teams in the world expedite their work.
Platform engineering is a team sport.
Platform engineering is something to consider for all organizations thinking about implementing DevOps. As businesses strive to deliver software faster, they need processes and engineers who can enable their software development teams, not hinder them.
The DevOps antipatterns are something to keep in mind while making your decisions. First, ask yourself if you can execute DevOps successfully. If not, then an internal developer portal and platform engineering may be the right choice for you.
An internal developer portal is a self-service application and data store that lets developers and managers track and organize everything their engineering teams build and operate.
First off, the catalog consolidates data and knowledge fragmented across clouds, tools and teams so everyone in an organization can discover essential information about their applications, services and infrastructure in one place.
This provides a variety of utility to organizations:
Platform engineering teams can build or buy internal developer portals. Building affords maximum flexibility to tailor the solution to the organizations needs; however, the level of effort associated with building and maintaining it negates the value entirely unless youre a mega-cap company. There are open source projects, including Backstage and Gimlet. The first is a DIY portal, and therefore organizations will still be required to invest heavily to attain value. Gimlet focuses on Kubernetes-based environments.
Ready-to-use internal developer portals are rapidly increasing in popularity. Configure8 is an increasingly popular option because of its end-to-end awareness of services and infrastructure, not just Kubernetes, and its advanced analytics.
Next, some platform engineering teams choose to add scaffolding services to their offering. The scaffolder consists of templates that make it simple for developers to spin up new services. This makes it easier for developers to properly launch new production services adhering to organizational standards while enjoying flexibility when needed. Scaffolders can then register the new services and related tools in the catalog so its always up to date.
If your organization is developing software, theres a good chance youll need platform engineering skills to help accelerate your software development teams.
Scaffolders are sometimes included with universal catalogs, and they can also be created separately alongside catalogs. In this case, blueprints created in a scaffolder are then merchandised inside the enterprises catalog solution via a plugin integration.
In terms of standalone tools, there are a number of open source scaffolders, such as Cookiecutter and Yeoman, and standalone commercial software solutions like Humanitec.
Its important to consider how often your enterprise will actually be creating new services versus managing and improving the existing system as you consider the relative priority of your platform engineering investments.
Finally, some platform engineering teams are investing in making it simpler to manage their infrastructure. The more infrastructure you have, across many accounts and clouds, the more value your organization will get from integrated management capabilities. These capabilities may enable you to change the size of an instance, provision different types of storage or resize Kubernetes clusters.
Many teams have invested in Infrastructure as Code (IaC) solutions such as Cloudformation and Terraform and would run changes through their normal update process while others may want a simple way to deep link into the resources running a service from within the catalog of their IDP. Much like with scaffolding, platform engineering teams should consider the frequency of these types of changes, compatibility with their IaC investments, and the number of users in the overall engineering team affected by these scenarios when planning their investments.
There are a variety of other tools and applications available for platform engineering. Here are some of the most popular ones:
Orchestration:
These are just a few of the tools and applications available for platform engineers. Platform engineering is an emerging field, so expect more tools to enter the market.
As distributed cloud systems become more commonly used and architectural patterns continue to evolve, the demand for platform engineers and internal developer portals is expected to grow.
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Platform Engineering: What Is It and Who Does It? - thenewstack.io
Terre Haute North engineering students are stepping up to help the environment and save you money on your next electric bill – WTHITV.com
TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (WTHI) - A group of Wabash Valley students is taking big steps to help our local environment and to help you save money on electric bills.
At Terre Haute North High School, 10 Civil Engineering and Architecture students are introducing their project known as "Vortex on the Wabash" to the community.
"I have lived here my whole life, and honestly it would be spectacular to be able to make a difference in the city that I have been able to live in," Logan Wenzel, one of the engineering students, said.
Logan Wenzel is just one of 10 high schoolers who took on a collaborative project at the start of the year, and it's for more than just a letter grade.
"We wanted to do this because nowhere else in the United States has really started doing this," he said. "Terre Haute would be completelydifferent and it would change everything about the way that we look at energy in Terre Haute."
Here's how the project works. Basically, the Vortex turbine generates electricity by using natural water sources, in this case, it would be the Wabash River. The water is then redirected from the river by a small channel that runs through the turbine. The water then spins the turbine, transferring it into clean energy.
The goal is to install multiple turbines to produce enough electricity to power the entire city.
"This is real world stuff," Jasen Gibbens, theCivil Engineering and Architecture teacher, said. "You are given a problem from your boss and then you have to fix the problem. I learned that early in my career and I thought, this would be the perfect opportunity to put a bunch of juniors and seniors who want to be here and want to learn and fix their communities [on a project like this}."
Students say a system like this is not only great for the environment, but it could also save residents thousands of dollars in energy costs.
"How would [people in the] state not like having to pay an electric bill? What could you do with that money instead?" Gibbens said.
And for students like Logan Wentzel, this project is more to him than helping the environment and saving money, it's also about bringing more people to the city of Terre Haute for generations to come.
"Most people that live here, especially my age, don't want to stay here, but they should, because living in Terre Haute is a lot better than what they think," Wenzel said. "This can truly help them see what we can do to help."
Now, the hope is to get this project moving forward with further discussion with city leaders soon.
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How Skill-Lync is shaping the engineering future in India – CXOToday.com
CXOToday has engaged in an exclusive interview with Mr. SuryaNarayanan PaneerSelvam, Co-Founder at Skill-lync.
One thing led to another, it was after Sarang and I completed our Masters, we realised that whatever we had learned during graduation did not help us land a job, or even keep up with our Masters coursework. This pushed us to find a solution that would make it easy for other graduating engineers to skill-up, and become more employable.
We started creating small videos on YouTube during our post-graduation and tested multiple learning modules. By 2015, we started selling our courses to US colleges, providing value-added courses, as well as started conducting live sessions. Once the colleges started to pay, we realised that there is a potential in the market which led us to collaborate with about 12 colleges from Chennai, who paid around Rs 5,000 for each student. By the end of 2015, we had more than 300 students with us. Both Sarang and I decided to quit our jobs then and return to India to focus on building Skill-Lync.
However, now, amid COVID-19 we have partnered with more than 50 colleges and corporations to provide these courses.Our mission is aligned with the Govt. of Indias clarion call of building a skilled economy as there is a shortage of high-quality engineering talent in the country that can help India ride the next industrial wave. There is a need for credible platforms such as ours created on the back of academia and the industry to ensure that the students garner the right skill set to work on the next-gen, disruptive automotive technology.
Today, we have collaborated with more than 300 colleges and corporations to provide these courses. Skill-lyncs mission is aligned with the Govt of Indias clarion call of building a skilled economy as there is a shortage of high-quality engineering talent in the country that can help India ride the next industrial wave.
2. How does it help engineering students become industry ready?
Skill-Lync has been able to establish itself as a credible partner for organisations looking at building an upskilled talent pool. We have exclusive paths to get students trained in cutting-edge content upskilling for high-quality jobs. Students from more than 80 countries have enrolled on Skill-Lync, including geographies such as the U.S., UK, UAE, Germany, Australia, Canada among others with more than 300 corporates partnerships such as Cyient, Renault-Nissan Technology Business Center India (RNTBCI), TATA Elxsi, Expleo, Segula Technologies to provide job offers to engineering students after the completing the course.
Additionally, Skill-Lync has been on an upward growth trajectory regardless of the pandemic, offering solutions that cater to the upskilling and reskilling aspect, hence it augments the skills needed for engineers to stay relevant in accordance to latest technological disruption across industries.
3. What are the other sectors you feel needs upskilling?
In a country like India having 1.3 billion population, upskilling is required in almost all sectors but mostly it is required in education, tech sectors, healthcare , BFSI, IT, retail and so on. The need for employees to constantly upskill has only steadily increased especially after Covid-19. The lockdown has turned into a necessity because of the sudden rise in online platforms offering upskilling courses.
4. Will Skill-Lync look at expanding its sectors beyond the engineering sector?
We want to dive deep into the engineering sector first and make Skill-Lync a top platform for all engineering sectors that can provide upskilling courses to make students industry ready. There are a few industries which might be our next focus point when it comes to upskilling, but at the moment, we are only looking at core engineering.
5. How has the brand grown over the years?
Over the years, Skill-Lync has expanded globally. The platform till now has upskilled over 30,000 students from 80 countries across India, Middle East, North Africa A (South East Asia), the US, Canada, Australia and Europe. Since inception, we have seen growth, and we want to bring robust results for the next two quarters to work toward our growth playbook. Till now the company has partnered with 350 companies, including Nissan, Renault, Mahindra, and Tata Elxsi, for student placements. If I talk about the target, we want to see 30% of revenue coming from other geographies within the next two years, which currently is at 12%. Covid19 has pushed many more students to look at online resources to skill & upskill themselves. We saw a 20% uptick concerning student interests.
6. How is the company making a dent in Indias $15 billion edtech industry?
There are several driving factors that have helped Skill-Lync stand out in a deeply cluttered ed-tech market. We operate within the higher education segment of the edtech industry that has seen a 75% increase in its user base, with the market size now comparable to other subdivisions such as K-12. Within higher education, Skill-Lync has carved a niche for itself wherein we are reimagining the Indian engineering education ecosystem. Our demand is augmented by the fact that despite being the 4th most opted domain at the undergraduate level in the country, the engineering curriculum & the institutions have a disconnect between what the industry demands and what the students are being taught.
7. Why is there a need to embrace upskilling in the world
The lockdown resulted in a sudden rise in online platforms offering upskilling courses. Many businesses have adopted new trends requiring frequent updates, particularly during the pandemic, encouraging people to upskill and re-skill to stand out.
For instance, the automotive industry is going through a significant change, driven by sustainability and an increasing base of conscious consumers. In addition to our coursework, we offer first-hand experience of building engineering models from scratch, thus providing a holistic view of the future of the automotive industry. Our main goal was to help the students gain insights into the future of the automotive industry which not only helps them understand challenges but provide the experience in making real products. A team of 10 students and technical engineers had built a full-scale in-house SUV prototype called -Lyncer S1. With this SUV creation, our only aim was to give more practical and hands-on knowledge to the students.
8. What are some of the benefits for Skill-Lync students?
Our courses are designed to make engineers industry-ready across core engineering domains such as mechanical, electrical, civil, computer science, electronics and biomedical engineering. We do a complete industry mapping, identifying the market gaps and the roles that corporates are looking to fill and empanel experts from Fortune 500 companies curating courses that are project-driven, thus offering deep engineering expertise to the students. We provide mock interviews for students before they face the industry experts for the job. We customise our curriculum to meet the learning outcomes that are specially curated as per the industry demand. We have built an in-house Electric Vehicle to help its students gain insights into the future of the automotive industry. The vehicle was built by a team of 6 in-house experts at Skill-Lync in collaboration with professionals allowing students to gain first-hand experience in building EV and EV prototypes independently.
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How Skill-Lync is shaping the engineering future in India - CXOToday.com
These Are the Worst Examples of Automotive Badge Engineering Ever – Jalopnik
I would like to nominate the collective badge-engineering that happened when GM killed off Saturn and Pontiac during the 2007-2008 financial crisis and subsequent bankruptcy.
The Saturn Outlook replaced the GMC Acadia (despite being the same car). Yes, GM literally rebadged a car as a replacement for its nearly-identical platform-mate. The Saturn Vue became a Buick but GM never actually shipped it to anyone and instead rebadged it a third time as the Chevrolet Captiva Sport and sold it to Hertz. The Pontiac G2, already a badge-engineered version of the Chevy Aveo, became a trim line of the Aveo in the middle of 2010. Also future Saturns all became Buicks with no regard for how theyd fit into the lineup which is how the Opel Insigna became the Buick Regal.
Lots of weird things happened when the clock ran out on Saturn and Pontiac as SamTheGeek reminds us Opels-turned-Saturns-turned-Buicks, after all. But the Saturn Outlook effectively being revived as the first-gen GMC Acadias mid-cycle refresh was one of the weirder ones I didnt notice. Kyree has the details:
You are correct , and most people dont notice that. The Saturn Outlook shared most of its shape with the GMC Acadia, but with some distinctions, like the wheel flare shape, rear light apertures, and wraparound rear windscreen. Overall, the Saturn was more chiseled.
The Saturn Outlook was discontinued with the rest of the Saturn brand in 2010. But, when GM decided to facelift the remaining three Lambda crossovers for 2013, it decided that the Saturns shape better fit GMCs then-new blocky, chiseled theme...and so quietly switched to using the Outlook tooling. Even the rear bumper cover, in its entirety, was snatched from the Outlook for the 2013 Acadia.
As far as what happened with Saturn and Buick, Im sure GM realized it was more profitable to sell the rebadged Opels as Buicks than Saturn, and they mostly fit quite well into the lineup. Buick needed compact and midsize sedans, and the Opels fit the bill nicely. The Encore was a particularly good idea.
The Cascada, however, was an interesting indulgence in a world where such cars (which also included the late 200 Convertible and Eos) were dying off left and right.
Suggested by: SamTheGeek, Kyree
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These Are the Worst Examples of Automotive Badge Engineering Ever - Jalopnik
Electrical engineer will develop next-generation x-ray technology for accessible preventative healthcare – University of California, Santa Cruz
Heart disease is a leading cause of death worldwide, and catching it early can make a significant difference for prevention of future cardiovascular events. But in many places, there is limited accessibility to technology that can detect early signs of the disease, such as coronary artery calcification (CAC), when the flow of blood through the arteries is blocked by a buildup of plaque, increasing the likelihood of a heart attack.
Currently, detecting CAC requires CT scans which are costly, deliver large doses of radiation, and must be done in a hospital setting but UC Santa Cruz Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering Shiva Abbaszadeh is developing a solution that will make this preventative health care much more accessible. With a new $2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health, Abbaszadeh and her collaborator at Stanford University Assistant Professor of Radiology Adam Wang will develop new technology for detecting CAC that can be easily incorporated into routine chest x-rays, the most common medical imaging procedure.
Having an x-ray system that is easily portable can make a huge difference for some areas that might not have access to CT scans because they need a hospital environment, Abbaszadeh said. We can advance material decomposition and lesion differentiation of x-ray imaging.
The novel technology will be an advanced, dual-layer x-ray detector, producing both a traditional image of the body as well as a material-specific image which, in this case, would detect calcium. Wangs team will develop artificial intelligence algorithms to automatically detect and quantify how much calcium is present. The technology will be a drop-in solution for existing clinical procedures and doesnt require any additional radiation or scan time.
While the researchers will initially focus on CAC detection, they believe their system could be used for early detection of lung and breast cancer, tuberculosis, and other diseases.
We are developing a technology platform by combining innovations in materials science, radiation detection, circuit design, and computation to bring new capabilities to x-ray imaging, Abbaszadeh said. One application is what weve targeted coronary artery calcification but the problem is much bigger and can have a wide impact.
To create the next-generation technology for x-ray imaging, Abbaszadeh and her students will utilize the equipment in her lab at the Baskin School of Engineering to engineer the optical and electrical properties of chalcogenide material materials that contain one or more chalcogen elements. This facility, which is dedicated to developing detectors based on chalcogenide alloys of the element selenium, is the only such facility in a research setting in the country to Abbaszadeh and Wangs knowledge.
A dedicated facility for detector development presents a wide range of research opportunities for Abbaszadehs lab, as the material has properties that are well-suited for both photodetectors, used for applications ranging from medical imaging to high-energy physics.
This collaborative project will provide exciting opportunities for students in the two researchers groups to be part of a larger learning environment in which they can visit each other's labs and gain experience with all facets of their technology, including hardware engineering, AI development, and the clinical setting in which their work will be put to use.
Wang and Abbaszadeh will also collaborate with researchers at the Stanford School of Medicine, who will provide input on how to best design their systems for use in the clinical setting and provide images from real instances of CAC to train Wangs AI models. Former Stanford instructor Martin Willemink and Stanford Professor Dominik Fleischmann provided input into the development of the project, and Fleischmann, who is the director of Stanfords cardiovascular imaging division, will continue to lend his expertise. They will also collaborate with industry partners to demonstrate the performance of the new system.
Between the detector physics that Shivas working on, and the artificial intelligence algorithms we're developing at Stanford, were providing better image input information but also we will have algorithms that automatically detect and quantify how much calcium there is, Wang said. Its an improvement on multiple fronts.
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