Synthesis Post

Engineering is a vital aspect in life to keep a balance between what the problems are now and what we need to do about them. With the importance of engineering comes creating objects never thought of before while also it entails issues in ethics, and stereotypes.  

Ethics is a huge part about being an engineer. The products being designed are used in the public's daily lives, and many times, the product is keeping the user alive. For example, every time you are in a car, on a bridge or using any type of technology, you expect it to be built in a way where safety was the highest concern before cost. Unlike many fields including business, or law, safety is put before money. If you would like to read more about ethics in engineering refer to this post. Prompt Two: Defining Ethics

The stereotype that being an engineer is a man’s job is not only false, but sadly it is heavily influencing the amount of women currently holding engineering positions. This all goes back to what kids study in school. Many places are seeing declines in women participating in advanced level math and science courses, which is leading to them to not furthering their education into a science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, or a “STEM” field. An example where this is shown can be found in this Women and Minorities in Engineering

Since Engineering is a STEM major, high school students interested in engineering should take many STEM related classes during their time in high school.  These classes include advanced courses in mathematics, chemistry and physics.  These classes will make students more prepared for the coursework they will experience during their time at college.

In some countries, the number of high school students that are taking STEM classes is decreasing. This can lead to a shortage of STEM degrees in the future. Students, both boys and girls, should be taught about the importance of STEM majors at a very young age, and should be encouraged by their parents to take STEM classes in high school. Even though not everyone enjoys this field, it is important that students get the opportunity to experience engineering. Australia struggling to produce engineers

The world of engineering is forever going to keep changing and improving. As well as using that improved technology to make further changes to put us into the lead in the race for new technology.  In order for changes to be made in engineering, we have to look back at the history, making sure the mistakes that were made then, are not repeated here in the present and future which would ultimately set us backwards.

One of the main goals of engineering is to improve designs and create new materials so they are the best they can be, while also keeping costs low and efficiency high. The advantages of these kinds of improvements would be that a new product would have the same strength as other materials such as steel, for example, but with much less weight and production costs. Some products could eventually be made with less quantity of material while having the same performance. Finally, more ways could be found to produce the same product at a smaller cost, simpler manufacturing steps, and with less impact on the environment. A Steel Makeover

Some would say the future is now and the future of technology is a thing of the past.  Present day engineers have already worked ahead on futuristic technology, one example being artificial intelligence. Artificial intelligence is already being used to design products and complete tasks that humans can’t yet comprehend. The main goal for any engineer, when working with artificial intelligence is pretty much trying to create a mechanical brain that can use the data it receives to make decisions without any guidance from others.   Sooner or later, improvements in engineering will allow us to create an A.I. that can function as a separate human being and understand decisions on a human scale. Artificial Intelligence in Civil Engineering

The world issues in ethics, and stereotypes can be seen in engineering, especially with a lack of women filling jobs, but the field as a whole is battling this. Engineering is an exciting field full of futuristic productions while also being a part of history.  Engineering is a vital aspect in life to keep a balance between what the problems are now and what we need to do about them.

Tiny engineering - Headphones

Weiyu Li


When we are walking in the streets, we can see some cool boys or girls wearing the headphones, some of them are in-ear earphones, some of them are headsets. In fact, the earphones are not so simple, the companies try to make the good effect of listening, as a result, the engineering in the earphones are important.

 

Headphones could reduce the noise from outside the environment which constructed from the ear and the headphones. To cancel the lower-frequency portions of the noise, noise-cancelling headphones use active noise control. They incorporate a microphone that measures ambient sound, generate a waveform that is the exact negative of the ambient sound, and mix it with any audio signal the listener desires. Also, the headsets could cancel the noise because of the totally ear-covering. 

Hi-Fi isn't the name of the certain headphones but the quality of the songs. Some headphones might have good quality, they may got low by the reason of the quality of songs. Hi-fi reproduction is a term used by home stereo listeners, audiophiles and home audio enthusiasts to refer to high-quality reproduction of sound to distinguish it from the lower quality sound produced by inexpensive audio equipment, or the inferior quality of sound reproduction that can be heard in recordings made until the late 1940s.Ideally, high-fidelity equipment has inaudible noise and distortion, and a flat (neutral, uncolored) frequency response within the intended frequency range.

resourse of noise reducing headphones

resourse of Hi-Fi

Engineering Olympics

Post By David DeMeo

         An article posted by Janye Bugda is showing the "engineering olympics" that were put on by Wilkes University at a local Pennsylvania high school. These types of events seem to be occurring more and more attempting to spark the interest of high school students to the engineering field.
   
     This specific competition had high school students from Pennsylvania come to display their skills and the winner would receive $10,000 towards their education at Wilkes. The students did not know what the task were going into the competition, but were then asked to complete certain task like creating a water distribution system and a catapult. This challenges the thinking of the students without using research. The students at the event discussed the difficulty in the task and the amount of math and science thinking needed to be successful.
   
   I have personally seen these in my past high school career and was a part of a similar long-term STEM program. These programs allow students to change their high school education and push it towards the STEM fields. The real world is in high demand of engineers as discussed in past blog post.

Source

Exploring Communication: Prompt Three

By Joao Martins

For this prompt, I interviewed Luis Martins, a mechanical engineer that works for Owens Corning, a company that manufactures fiberglass. Luis works as the vice president of global operations. The first thing I asked him about was the writing that he needs to do for his job.  He explained that he usually has to create many excel spreadsheets with data about the performance of the company. He also has to create power point presentations using this data. He later shows the power points to his team where they decide what to do in the future based on the company's results or any unpredicted events. I later asked him about common misconceptions of the engineering fields. He described to me that a lot of people assume engineers are introverts and keep to themselves, but this is wrong. According to him, communication is essential for any engineering field, and being able to work well in a team is extremely important.    

How To Get That Engineering Internship.

By: Alex Vu

Internships in the college life are the golden snitch of Harry Potter, they go by fast and they are very hard to secure.  But in order to get an engineering internship, you have to take any opportunity the first chance you get or they will disappear in an instant.  The best start is to join every club you can, participate in every activity you can and the opportunities will start falling in.

Here are a few basic steps to improve your resume so you can get the internship.

1)Make a goal that peaks your interest and work towards it.

• Writing 
• Exploring

2) Pick up a new hobby.

• Learn an instrument 
• Play a sport

3) Read anything that has words on it. Because you could possibly learn something you might not learn in class.

• Books
• Magazines
• Blogs

4) Learn different skills.

• New languages
• Driving
• "Handy Man"

5) Finally you should travel the world to experience the world's culture and possibly learn how they do engineering and then you could apply it to the engineering we have here.

Source: here

Prompt#8 The serious difference between the theory and the fact

Weiyu Li

As an international student, I finished my high school in China. During my time in high school, I attend the China Adolescents Science & Technology Innovation Contest. With the experience of making the unpowered planes, I started to know that there are big differences between the theory and the fact.

Firstly,we designed the blueprint of our unpowered plane. We always tried the plane with long and wide wings like we calculated before. However, the long and the wide wings made the wings heavy, the parts which connect the wings and the body of the plane support too large force, which makes the plane not so firm.

Secondly, the fact includes the fund. For example, the plane we made needs the material named carbon fiber. We found a factory which makes the products of carbon fiber professionally. In fact, the price of that really out of our expect. It's about 6000 CYN per square meter which about 900 dollars.

Lastly, the experiments usually happens out of plans. The planes land out of the range, the weather affects the time of raising our of the atmosphere and the data collecting work is hard during the plane flying. The GPS lost connection with the control base which was supposed to work well. The theory always shows us the maximum of the nice working of all kinds of things. We should think about that well when we are using that.

resource

What It Takes To Become A Mechanical Engineer

By: Alex Vu


This week I decided to look more in depth into my major of mechanical engineering, exploring the financial aspects and as well as where are needed most.  On average the median annual salary for mechanical engineering in the United States was $83,000 in 2014.  From the year 2012-2022 they only expect the wages as well as number of jobs to only increase by 5 percent.  The biggest increase in jobs by percentage is located on the west coast of the United States averages out to around 19 percent per state.

I also wanted to look at what the road to a mechanical engineering degree looks like and what kind of degrees I would have to achieve. 

Step 1: Get a bachelor degree in mechanical engineering ( 5-6 years)

Step 2: Earn an Engineering License

Step 3( optional): Become certified in engineering

Although it is only three basic steps into becoming an engineer, there are also hundreds of different paths you can take to getting there.

~ source: Learn How to Become

Australia struggling to produce engineers

Post by David DeMeo

           An article posted by an Australian news paper discussed the falling numbers of students who are in science and math courses. This is looking to decrease the already low numbers of engineers produced in Australia. The statistics of high school students taking advanced math classes is falling. "The number of boys studying advanced math at senior high school dropped from 15.9% in 2001 to 11.5% in 2015 while girls studying intermediate math dropped from 30.9% to 20.6%." Prior to this fall, the gender gap in engineering was the main problem and while this is still a large issue, the number of total students in engineering will have to be the focus for Australia. One way they have been dealing with this issue is by bringing in engineers from overseas, but this is not a permanent fix, and without sufficient numbers of engineers in Australia the country will not be advancing as quickly as they plan to. The need for the country to have greater numbers of students in engineering is very important.
     
           As an engineering student, I know that it is not an easy career to take on and if the students interest in math is not there then engineering is definitely not the choice. A possible fix from my point of view is not to attack the idea of engineering and force that on the students, but get the interest in math and science up. Letting the students participate in more fun and interesting projects will show them it is more than just useless numbers on a test.
       
          Using this article, as a current engineering student, I might begin to look for jobs and internships in Australia knowing that there is a demand.

Source

Reusable Rocket Success

By Joao Martins

Space X has been getting a lot of media attention this week for successfully reusing the Falcon 9 first stage rocket. This was one of the first successful attempts in launching a a satellite into orbit and capturing the rocket back for future use. Usually when a satellite is launched, only a few, if any, parts of the rocket are saved for future use. This new type of reusable rocket is very important because it saves a great amount of money and materials when space missions are being planed. This new technology is far from perfect, however. According to Gwynne Shotwell, the president and COO of SpaceX, it took them over four months to fully reassemble the reusable rocket after its previous launch. Their ultimate goal is to be able to reuse the rockets on the same day. The company is currently working on a final version of the Falcon 9, which is supposed to fly its first mission later this year. Shotwell says this latest version is being designed to re-launch multiple times. “The final vehicle design spin that we are doing on Falcon 9, that we will be flying later this year, that should be capable of up to 10 or even more (launches),” she said.

Source:
http://www.theverge.com/2017/3/30/15117096/spacex-launch-reusable-rocket-success-falcon-9-landing