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Box's paper helicopter has been used to teach experimental design for more than a decade. It is simple, inexpensive, and provides real data for an involved, multifactor experiment. Unfortunately it can also further an all-too-common practice that Professor Box himself has repeatedly cautioned against, namely ignoring the fundamental science while rushing to solve problems that may not be sufficiently understood. Often this slighting of the science so as to get on with the statistics is justified by referring to Box's oft-quoted maxim that "All models are wrong, however some are useful." Nevertheless, what is equally true, to paraphrase both Professor Box and George Orwell, is that "All models are wrong, but some are more wrong than others." To experiment effectively it is necessary to understand the relevant science so as to distinguish between what is usefully wrong, and what is dangerously wrong. This article presents an improved analysis of Box's helicopter problem relying on statistical and engineering knowledge and shows that this leads to an enhanced paper helicopter, requiring fewer experimental trails and achieving superior performance. In fact, of the 20 experimental trials run for validation–10 each of the proposed aerodynamic design and the conventional full factorial optimum–the longest 10 flight times all belong to the aerodynamic optimum, while the shortest 10 all belong to the conventional full factorial optimum. I further discuss how ancillary engineering knowledge can be incorporated into thinking about–and teaching–experimental design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carbon nanotube cement-based grouting materials currently mostly stay in the pure slurry research stage, and there is little research in the field of rock crack reinforcement combined with the engineering application background. Therefore, on the basis of existing research, it is important to expand the dispersion of carbon nanotubes in cement paste, and to carry out research on the reinforcement of fractured rocks in combination with the engineering background. This paper combines the actual needs of construction engineering to prepare carbon-based nanomaterials, and analyzes its impact on construction engineering in combination with experiments. Moreover, this paper analyzes the influence of carbon nanotubes on the macro-mechanical properties of cement-based materials, and studies the influence of modified carbon nanotubes on the macro-mechanical properties of cement-based materials. In addition, this paper explores the micromechanical properties of carbon nanotube cement materials at the nanometer scale. The research results verify the effectiveness of carbon-based nanomaterials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The field of architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) is continually striving to use resources efficiently and manage complex processes. Now more than ever, there is a strong need for digital transformation in AEC. The improvement in the accessibility of consumer-based head-mounted displays (HMD) is attracting different entertainment and research fields to immersive virtual reality (VR) applications. Building Information Modeling (BIM) is known as a promising technology in AEC. The full potential of BIM is not yet employed to empower this field, however, and this could be a result of some barriers still to be surmounted by BIM in both technological and management perspectives. One of these barriers is the communication and collaboration between design, construction, operation, and maintenance phases. VR can fill this gap by providing additional capabilities for BIM which either were not available before or were not possible to employ in practical ways. In this paper, we systematically review recent research around the application of VR in BIM and discuss the results using the PRISMA flowchart. We discuss the most commonly used technologies, software, and evaluation methods and the various applications of VR in the reviewed papers. Finally, we extend the discussion by summarizing the potential future work in this area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Collaborative engineering is not a new subject but it assumes a new importance in the Industry 4.0 (I4.0). There are other concepts frequently mismatched with collaboration. Thus, the main objective of this paper is to put forward a collaborative engineering concept, along its sub concepts, supported by an extensive systematic literature review. A critical analysis and discussion about the fundamental importance of learning, and the central human role in collaboration, in the I4.0, is presented, based on the main insights brought through the literature review. This study also enables to realize about the importance of collaboration in the current digitalization era, along with the importance of recent approaches and technology for enabling or promoting collaboration. Main current practices of human centered and autonomous machine-machine approaches and applications of collaboration in engineering, namely in manufacturing and management, are presented, along with main difficulties and further open research opportunities on collaboration.. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study reviews how empathy and its role are conceptualised in entrepreneurial and engineering literature. Our findings can then be used as a foundation for developing contextual and theoretical models of empathy for entrepreneurial engineering. These models will help create teaching practices and approaches to prepare empathic entrepreneurial engineers. The study deployed a systematic literature review of 40 papers from engineering and entrepreneurship fields, obtained from the Scopus and Web of Science databases. The analysis involved three phases. First, a descriptive analysis of research on empathy in entrepreneurship and engineering was completed, followed by a content analysis focusing on definitions and the role of the empathy phenomenon and a co-citation analysis to identify commonly cited authors. The results of this literature review demonstrate different indicators that reflect the current state of empathy research and study trajectories of this phenomenon in the fields of engineering and entrepreneurship. These indicators include the number of papers related to empathy in engineering and entrepreneurship literature by year of publication, definitions of empathy and keywords used in analysed literature as well as list of authors and their area of interests within empathy research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The market share of small household appliances has grown tremendously in recent years. Varied innovation methods are applied in developing small household appliances, including Turkish Coffee Makers; however, Kansei Engineering has not yet been carried out in this field. This paper aims to conduct Kansei Engineering methodology on these machines to provide design inputs for industrial designers. The domain of the study is Turkish Coffee Makers with one pot and without a water tank, and the target is between 20-40 aged Turkish people. 382 participants attended the study, and 16 stimuli were utilised. The study methods are extracting Kansei words, selecting product properties, affinity diagram, SD Questionnaire, factor, descriptive, and PLS analyses. The results suggest that designers can generate Turkish Coffee Makers with Square with fillet as the top view, Trapezoid as the front view, C-shape cornered as the right view, and two colours as the main body colour; and design these products depending on the design factors of stylish, easy to use, joyful, trend follower, functional, desirable, youthful, dissimilar, and luxurious to succeed in the market. As a result, product designers might determine the product properties more efficiently via the findings of this study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A family of three-step optimal eighth-order iterative algorithm is developed in this paper in order to find single roots of nonlinear equations using the weight function technique. The newly proposed iterative methods of eight order convergence need three function evaluations and one first derivative evaluation that satisfies the Kung–Traub optimality conjecture in terms of computational cost per iteration (i.e. 2 n − 1 ). Furthermore, using the primary theorem that establishes the convergence order, the theoretical convergence properties of our schemes are thoroughly investigated. On several engineering applications, the performance and efficiency of our optimal iteration algorithms are examined to those of existing competitors. The new iterative schemes are more efficient than the existing methods in the literature, as illustrated by the basins of attraction, dynamical planes, efficiency, log of residual, and numerical test examples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the paper discussing topics related to the development of modern data analysis. The paper presents several analyses of one particular dataset and tackles on the digitization of the engineering sciences including seismic records and speech while other topics talked about explanatory data analysis.

In this paper, we address the lack of a unified approach to understanding engineering practice by developing and presenting a taxonomy of common engineering activities. The taxonomy consists of 86 common engineering activities linked to 17 engineering competencies and the 11 International Engineering Alliance graduate attributes. The list of activities was developed using a six-step process, including multiple systematic literature searches and surveying engineers. The taxonomy provides a critical foundation for better understanding what engineers do, particularly in the Australian and New Zealand context. The taxonomy has potential utility in both engineering practice research and engineering education curriculum reform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Technical writing skills are vital to professional engineers, but many engineering students find them difficult to master. This paper presents a case study carried out among ~300 first and second year engineering students who had little previous experience in technical writing. The aim was to support them to write better technical reports. Students were asked to write an 800-word report following an experimental laboratory and to include written reflection on their work. This improved writing skills (as measured by mark awarded and by questionnaires completed by students before and after the activity) by encouraging self-regulation and had the additional benefit that students were more satisfied with and engaged with the feedback they received on their work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Quality assurance in higher education is one of the cornerstones of the Bologna agenda and the Lisbon strategy, which aims at establishing the world's most competitive knowledge economy. Extensive literature up to now has addressed quality assurance as a regulatory and policy mechanism and has presented quality assurance and market forces as antagonistic. However, what policymakers in the field fail to see is that the 'official' quality assurance processes also have implications in terms of competition. Indeed, higher education institutions are using the results of these, in principle aseptic, non-market-related evaluation processes, as a way to achieve competitive advantage. This paper analyses the case of higher education institutions in engineering in France. The institutional websites of 163 higher education institutions have been analysed through code-based content analysis techniques and Multiple Correspondence Analysis. This study shows that the analysis of institutional websites can be used as a tool to gauge the importance of the different dimensions of quality assurance for higher education institutions in a given national system. Furthermore, a clear association has been found between the ranking position of an institution and its communication behaviour. The results have been interpreted in the light of Neoinstitutional Theory and Porter's generic competitive strategies. Practical implications for quality assurance practitioners and managers at higher education institutions have been highlighted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public participation in engineering projects has been minimal to date, whereas it is growing in other fields. This paper assesses the lessons learned from public participation in two hydrologic engineering projects, as citizen scientists or through participatory mapping. The two projects were conducted in communities that faced a common problem of flooding due to sea-level rise. The lessons learned include the need to invest time at the beginning of a project to get an idea of what knowledge the public can contribute and have a plan in place to sustain participation at the level needed for the project to be successful. Our cost comparison shows that public participation should be encouraged when the project area is large enough to make travel for data collection cost prohibitive, or when extensive interaction with the public will already be required. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ensuring adequate ventilation during tunnel construction is a critical issue that directly affects construction efficiency. A good ventilation environment can effectively guarantee the construction progress. In this paper, by repeatedly selecting the flow field simulation parameters and continuously summarizing the calculation methods, a reasonable model is selected to simulate the tunnel engineering. Specifically, the eddy current zone near the working face is obtained by analysing the flow field of forced ventilation tunnels. Furthermore, we analyse the dispersion and accumulation of harmful gases in the tunnel. The CO concentration at typical locations in the tunnel is also examined in order to determine areas with the lowest likelihood of harmful gas discharge. We then propose adding a jet fan to the tunnel to create an extraction plus ventilation tunnel. Simulation results reveal that the addition of a jet fan causes eddy currents that improve the extraction of harmful gases, thereby greatly reducing ventilation time and increasing efficiency. The results of the model can effectively guide the actual project, and help them save the construction time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Various outcome-based education (OBE) performance measurement approaches demonstrate students' attainment of a set of Graduate Attributes (GA) in the engineering programme. This paper presents four measurement models, namely the indicative, explicit, GA assessment, and culminating models, to measure GA attainment. The indicative model uses the total assessment mark as an indicator for GA attainment, whereas the explicit model utilises a specific mark from an assessment. The GA assessment and culminating models utilise the explicit approach from assessments that fulfil the GA requirement. The culminating model only consists of assessments from advanced and capstone courses. This research aims to determine whether the indicative model that uses an indicator approach can significantly represent GA attainment. This research also explores assessment selection differences in GA attainment. Statistical analysis was used to determine if the models were significantly different through the paired two-sample means t-test. The indicative model could not represent the GA attainment as it differed substantially from the explicit model. Both GA assessment and culminating models can be used to represent the attainment of students' GA. GA assessment model provides monitoring of students' progress in GA attainment, while the culminating models enable measurement at capstones and in advanced years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the use of systems development as a methodology in information systems (is) research is described and defended. A framework to explain the nature of systems development as a research methodology in is research is proposed. Use of this methodology in the engineering field in general is compared with its use specifically in computer science and computer engineering. An integrated program for conducting IS research that incorporates theory building, systems development, experimentation, and observation is proposed. Progress in several application domains is reviewed to provide a basis upon which to argue that systems development is a valid research methodology. A systems development research process is presented from a methodological perspective. Software engineering, which is the basic method of applying the systems development research methodology, is then discussed. It is the authors' belief that systems development and other research methodologies are complementary and that an integrated multi-dimensional and multimethodological approach will generate fruitful is research results. The premise is that research contributions can result from systems development, experimentation, observation, and performance testing of the systems under development and that all of these research approaches are needed to investigate different aspects of the research question. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, an optimisation approach is presented to solve combined economic and emission dispatch problem, a multi-objective optimisation problem, by using artificial immune system (AIS). The AIS algorithm with clonal selection mechanism is implemented to obtain optimal economic and emission dispatch considering the losses. This multi-objective problem has been solved by two approaches namely price penalty factor and fuzzy decision making approach. The effectiveness of the presented formulations has been tested on three and six generating unit systems. Results obtained from the above mentioned methods are compared with different optimisation techniques and are found satisfactory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article provides information on the topics discussed in the journal related to statistics for the physical, chemical and engineering sciences. The issue of the journal summarizes the highlights of the 48th volume, it provides statistics on journal operations for manuscripts submitted in 2005 and describes general trends in statistical content of manuscripts submitted and accepted to the journal 2005 to 2006. The journal had received 186 new submission in 2005.

Designers of significant works of infrastructure should consider the complexities of climate change and anticipate the potential impacts over the projected lifetime of the infrastructure. This paper addresses how engineers can comprehensively address climate change in design in a balanced manner. It provides a framework for adaptation in engineering design and includes a specific approach towards a balanced whole-of-life assessment of risk, as opposed to a do-nothing approach, or conservatively designing for worst-case scenario impacts that may not be realised for many decades. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper contributes to understanding of the generic engineering competencies required by engineers graduating in Australia and to competency theory. The Competencies of Engineering Graduates (CEG) Project was conducted to identify the generic engineering competencies required by engineers graduating in Australia. The methodology adapted a theoretical framework for understanding key competencies developed by the Definition and Selection of Competencies Project commissioned by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. The phases of the CEG Project included a literature review, a panel session, two large-scale surveys and a focus group. By reflecting on the whole CEG Project, this paper provides insight into the nature of competencies required by engineers in Australia. Implications for engineering educators are described. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The compression strength perpendicular to the grain is one of the important timber properties for structural design. Exceeding the strength value will not only lead to large deformations and thus a serviceability issue, but it can also lead to a failure and thus a safety issue. Only some compression strength values and little information about the complete behaviour for Radiata Pine from New Zealand can be found in the literature. To correct this lack of information, tests have been conducted to investigate the compression behaviour, whereby compression strength values perpendicular to the grain much lower than the ones published in the current standard were noted. To make the designers become aware of this issue, the paper presents the experimental results of compression tests perpendicular to the grain with New Zealand Radiata Pine lumber. The test results are compared with strength values of the national and different international standards, as well as experimental research results of different species. It also gives an overview of the testing standards in use in different countries, showing the difficulty to determine a consistent strength value. According to the experimental results, the use of about half of the strength value published in the current design standard for compression perpendicular to the grain is recommended for structural sawn timber from New Zealand Radiata Pine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Remote laboratories are a mature technology that are becoming increasingly prevalent in the delivery of undergraduate engineering degree programs. While the literature has moved to the point where the educational value of these laboratories is being evaluated, there is presently no framework provided to help academics determine the suitability of a particular laboratory experiment for conversion to remote-access mode. This paper analyses a second-year fluid-mechanics laboratory to determine its suitability for such a conversion, and then draws from this analysis three key factors that can be used as a preliminary framework for making generalised decisions regarding the suitability of any laboratory class for use in remote mode. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to present the results of a study into how student attributes influence their experience of problem-based learning (PBL) in virtual space. Some engineering faculties in Australia are turning to the PBL paradigm to engender necessary skills and competence in their graduates. At the same time, due to economic and other factors, some faculties are moving towards distance education. Logically, questions are being asked about the effectiveness of PBL for technical fields such as engineering and surveying when delivered in virtual space. This paper outlines an investigation of how student attributes such as final course grade, age, academic study major and interaction with their team facilitator affect the student learning experience in PBL courses offered in virtual space. A phenomenographical study was carried out on a suitable PBL course. A frequency distribution was then superimposed on the outcome space to assist analysis and to aid interpretation of results. This frequency distribution was then used to analyse the effect of different student attributes on the learning experience. It was discovered that the quality, quantity and style of facilitator interaction had the greatest impact on the student learning experience. This highlighted the need to establish consistent student interaction plans, and to set and ensure compliance with minimum standards with respect to facilitation and student interactions. The findings also have ramifications for future staff professional development activities before starting as facilitators in these courses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on using Microsoft Excel coupled with Visual Basic for Application (VBA) in teaching two courses for the students in the Civil & Environmental Engineering Department in United Arab Emirates University. The first course covers the use of the stiffness matrix method for the analysis of 2D trusses, beams and frames. The latter has a more advanced content by focusing on 2D solid elements, plates and shells. Throughout the offering of both courses, the authors, with the aid of hands-on sessions and multimedia, guide their students to develop different user-defined VBA functions in Excel, which are used to derive the solution of different structural and stress analysis problems. The paper also proposes a new method in Excel that may be used to eliminate possible cheating (e-cheating) when students exchange files using email, Bluetooth or any other means. The proposed method has been utilised by the authors to minimise potential e-chaeting and copying among students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multi-disciplinary multi-national education and research in building architecture, engineering, construction, and operation (AECO) can involve participants with different first languages and/or different preconceptions. Further, AECO education and research can involve uncertain and evolving situations and/or geographically dispersed interactions. As a result, generic methods for preparing and communicating information, such as business English and standard process charting techniques, may be insufficient to facilitate shared understanding among participants. This paper describes three cases of information and communication design in AECO education and research. These cases involved a variety of methods, including: concept mediation; the explicit representation of implicit context; and the development of a symbol system. At the time of the research, underlying issues and potential methods must be identified through labor-intensive and time-consuming survey research. It is argued that the formulation of simple checklists could make information gathering and communication design more feasible and viable for multi-disciplinary multi-national AECO education and research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a novel theoretical framework of engineering ethics, specifically how engineering professional practitioners make sense of ethics. Multiple regression was applied to 2009 survey data (N=2276, 38% return) of practising engineers, to identify groups of competencies correlated with ethics. These were identified as values within an ethics worldview model. The model has two compartments. One is the development of a professional worldview, whereby professional engineers reconstruct their own values over time, and then seek to embody those in their own life. The other is an awareness of the need for professional judgement in complex decision-making. All the significant variables identified in the survey may be accommodated in this model. While the raw data (ex 2009) were dated, the method and findings help move the field forward by providing new insights into how practising engineers make sense of ethics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tertiary programmes in a discipline such as engineering must balance the competing needs of two key stakeholders: the university that designs and delivers the programme, and the professional body that accredits it. Programme and curriculum design in universities is traditionally bottom-up in nature, with courses designed by individual academics, and assembled into cognate programmes. Graduate qualities and accreditation criteria are mapped retrospectively onto the structure. Designing programmes from the top down, driven byuniversity and the accreditation body needs, is a desirable goal. However, without proper support tools, balancing competing needs across multiple courses and year levels is a complex task. Quality Function Deployment (QFD) was created for this precise purpose. Treating the design of a tertiary programme the same as the design of a system suggests that QFD, and the implementation tool known as the House of Quality (HoQ), should be ideally suited to this purpose. The aim of this paper is to show how QFD and the HoQ can be applied to the design of an engineering programme, creating a specification that accurately reflects the voices of stakeholders, and serves as a benchmark for validating that these needs have been met in the implemented design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the phenomenon of genderized technology. A model of genderized technology is outlined, identifying mechanisms of genderization at three levels: institutional, symbolic, and characteristics of research work. Using survey material from Norwegian engineering students, it is shown that technology is genderized through all three sets of mechanisms. Although an increasing number of women study engineering, there is an emerging gender division in the choice of field and speciality. The paper argues that this division partly is related to the phenomenon of gender-typing of artefacts. Students perceive some artefacts as 'masculine', others as 'feminine' or 'neutral'. This symbolic aspect of technology is produced by the appearance of the artefact and the sex of the stereotypical user. Finally, the paper explores students' views on ideal characteristics of technological researchers. It is found that 'female' characteristics are valued more than masculine, and that the difference between male and female students in this respect is very small. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The implementation of artificial intelligence and 4.0 technologies helps business leaders make better decisions to reduce costs, improve team performance, and increase productivity. It also enhances the quality of work life of workers, allows the optimization of the information obtained from the equipment in real time, in this way even unscheduled maintenance can be avoided. A systematic review of the literature regarding the applications and benefits that artificial intelligence has given to companies is presented, the information was obtained from databases such as Ebsco, Scopus, MDPI, ScienceDirect. Analyses, concepts, and contributions that have benefited the understanding of the need to embrace new technologies 4.0 and artificial intelligence are presented, for the benefit of companies and workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Targeting the problem of traditional sparrow search algorithms being prone to falling into local optima, a new algorithm called the Chaotic Sparrow Search Algorithm with Manta Ray Spiral Foraging (abbreviated as MSSA) is proposed. The Logistic-Sine-Cosine chaotic map and elite Reverse learning strategy are fused to initialize the population. It is experimentally demonstrated that this hybrid strategy outperforms the population after random initialization in reducing ineffective sparrow individuals. In the vigilante update stage, the spiral foraging behaviour of the manta ray population in the integrated manta ray optimization algorithm, the sparrows search around the best food source, which enhances the sparrow search algorithm's ability to explore the optimal solution. To enhance the stability of the algorithm to search for the optimum, a mixed Gaussian variational and logistic perturbation strategy is proposed to further improve the performance of the algorithm. Finally, using 12 commonly used benchmark test functions and the Wilcoxon rank sum test, MSSA was compared with other original algorithms and advanced improved algorithms, it is demonstrated that MSSA has higher accuracy and convergence performance, and the improved MSSA algorithm is applied to three types of engineering optimization problems with constraints, demonstrating its feasibility and effectiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Neo-Darwinism conceptualizes evolution as the continuous succession of predominately random genetic variations disciplined by natural selection. In that frame, the primary interaction between cells and the virome is relegated to host-parasite dynamics governed by selective influences. Cognition- Based Evolution regards biological and evolutionary development as a reciprocating cognition-based informational interactome for the protection of self-referential cells. To sustain cellular homeorhesis, cognitive cells collaborate to assess the validity of ambiguous biological information. That collective interaction involves coordinate measurement, communication, and active deployment of resources as Natural Cellular Engineering. These coordinated activities drive multicellularity, biological development, and evolutionary change. The virome participates as the vital intercessory among the cellular domains to ensure their shared permanent perpetuation. The interactions between the virome and the cellular domains represent active virocellular cross-communications for the continual exchange of resources. Modular genetic transfers between viruses and cells carry bioactive potentials. Those exchanges are deployed as nonrandom flexible tools among the domains in their continuous confrontation with environmental stresses. This alternative framework fundamentally shifts our perspective on viral-cellular interactions, strengthening established principles of viral symbiogenesis. Pathogenesis can now be properly appraised as one expression of a range of outcomes between cells and viruses within a larger conceptual framework of Natural Viral Engineering as a co-engineering participant with cells. It is proposed that Natural Viral Engineering should be viewed as a co-existent facet of Natural Cellular Engineering within Cognition-Based Evolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Online running condition monitoring of the vertical roller mill (VRM) is significant to assess the equipment performance degradation and reliability. This paper proposes a performance reliability assessment method based on autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) model and hidden Markov model (HMM) using the real-time sensing monitoring signals, which is designed to analyze the running state and predict the reliability of VRM. As most faults of VRM relate to hydraulic pressure of loading system and mechanical vibration, research on hydraulic monitoring and vibration monitoring is prerequisites, which determines the sensing parameters and monitoring points, provides the data base for following reliability assessment. Then ARIMA is applied to establish the performance degradation path using the historical sensing monitoring data. Finally, the multi-observation HMM is used to estimate the reliability changing trend of the equipment, the input observations of which are the predictive data from the performance degradation model. At the end of this paper, an experiment based on the real VRM sensing monitoring data is used to verify the effectiveness of the performance reliability assessment method. The experimental result shows that the proposed method is effective for performance reliability analysis and health condition management of VRM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Engineering degree programmes include a significant amount of practical work for which national accrediting bodies stipulate a set of laboratory-learning outcomes. This paper sets out to understand how students' interactions in the laboratory contribute to the attainment of laboratory-learning outcomes. The investigation was conducted in the traditional face-to-face laboratory mode. Results from surveys of final-year students and instructors are reported. Students' and instructors' perspectives of the relative importance of four main types of student interaction to meet each of the Engineers Australia laboratory-learning outcomes are also presented. Students primarily expected to interact with instructors more than with students (directly or through observation of interactions) or equipment for their achievement of the learning outcomes, whereas instructors reported that all of the interactions are important to achieve the learning outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents lessons from the process of creating and implementing an engineering design course in the Azraq refugee camp in Jordan over multiple iterations from 2016 to 2019. This design course used an innovative localised engineering in displacement curriculum, integrating an active, blended, collaborative, and democratic learning environment. The idea of 'localisation,' building off of authentic learning and participatory design, was central to the contextualised design we use, tailored to local assets, and showcased in capstone projects at the end of the course. The capstone projects consisted of realistic design solutions to problems that refugees faced in their daily lives. We present findings that include a description of the course design and the students' localised products. Further, our thematic analysis provides insights into both the contextual challenges in implementing engineering courses and co-design in refugee camps as well as the pedagogical response to these challenges. Overall, we describe as a general outcome of our study the novel approach to teaching engineering design for learners in the Azraq refugee camp, which could be applied in other contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of online resources in the assessment of engineering modules is generally being encouraged in higher education institutions. This paper reflects upon the experience of open book testing of first year engineering students in two elements of assessment in a continuously assessed two semester long module. This mode of assessment is more convenient for the large percentage of part-time students on the programme, who only attend one day per week. A longitudinal study over a four year period shows that not all students like to be assessed in this way, even though evidence indicates improvement in pass rates over those achieved from more traditional modes of testing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes our experiences using Active Learning in four first-year computer science and industrial engineering courses at the School of Engineering of the Universidad Católica de la Santísima Concepción, Chile. This work corresponds to the implementation stage of the curriculum reform using a CDIO-based approach currently underway at the School of Engineering. Before this reform, students had only one introductory course to their field of study, meeting one hour a week. After the reform, computer science students take an Introduction to Computer Science course and a Programming Laboratory. Similarly, the industrial engineering program now includes an Introduction to Industrial Engineering and an Engineering Communication course. These courses have been designed using CDIO standards 1, 4 and 8 as guidelines and have been formulated to include active learning in its many forms such as project-based learning, problem-based learning, case studies, small group discussions, oral presentations and reflective memos. The redesign impact was assessed via anonymous student surveys and reflective memos. Our results show improved student understanding of their professional endeavour and increased student motivation for their engineering programs. Student surveys registered high degrees of satisfaction with active learning techniques, working in teams, and receiving immediate feedback from instructors and peers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Experiments in systems where each run generates a curve, that is, where the response of interest is a set of observed values of a function, are common in engineering. In this paper, we present a Bayesian predictive modeling approach for functional response systems. The goal is to optimize the shape, or profile, of the functional response. A robust parameter design scenario is assumed where there are controllable factors and noise factors that vary randomly according to some distribution. The approach incorporates the uncertainty in the model parameters in the optimization phase, extending earlier approaches by J. Peterson (in the multivariate regression case) to the functional response case based on a hierarchical two-stage mixed-effects model. The method is illustrated with real examples taken from the literature and with simulated data, and practical aspects related to model building and diagnostics of the assumed mixed-effects model are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Glazed curtain wall systems have been gaining popularity in recent times, and are commonly found in all types of commercial, industrial, institutional and residential buildings. The design of curtain wall façade systems covers aesthetic considerations, weather proofing and structural evaluation. Structurally the curtain wall is designed for in-plane and out-of-plane loads and movements. The size and the profile of the glazed curtain wall are normally specified by the architect, while the structural design is undertaken by façade engineers. There is very limited published literature available on the structural design for engineers especially for the design of point fixed glazed curtain wall systems. In this paper, an overview of the methodology for the design of both unitised glazed curtain wall systems and point fixed glazed curtain wall systems is presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The pre-stressed concrete sleepers (or railroad ties), which are installed in railway track systems as the crosstie beam support, are designed to carry and transfer the wheel loads from the rails to the ground. It is well known that railway tracks are subject to impact loading conditions, which are attributable to the train operations with either wheel or rail abnormalities such as flat wheels, dipped rails, etc. These loads are of very high magnitude but short duration. In addition, there exists the potential of repeated load experience during the design life of pre-stressed concrete sleepers. Pre-stressed concrete has played a significant role in maintaining the high endurance of sleepers subjected to low to moderate repeated impact loads. In spite of the common use of pre-stressed concrete sleepers in railway tracks, their impact response and behaviour under repetitions of severe impact loads are not deeply appreciated, nor taken into consideration in design. This experimental investigation was aimed at understanding the residual capacity of pre-stressed concrete sleepers in railway track structures under ultimate impact loading, in order to develop state of the art limit states design concepts for pre-stressed concrete sleepers. A high-capacity drop weight impact testing machine was constructed at the University of Wollongong to achieve this purpose. A series of severe impact tests on in-situ pre-stressed concrete sleepers was carried out, ranging from low to high impact magnitudes. The impact energy was evaluated in relation to the drop heights. The impact-damaged sleepers were re-tested under static conditions in order to evaluate the residual fracture toughness in accordance with the Australian Standard. It was found that a concrete sleeper damaged by an impact load could possess significant reserve capacity sufficient for resisting about 1.05 to 1.10 times the design axle loads. The impact behaviour and residual fracture toughness under different magnitudes of impacts are highlighted in this paper. The effects of track environment, including soft and hard tracks, are also presented together with a discussion related to the ultimate limit states design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article features a discussion on engineering, science and technology and its effects to society. The objective of engineering can be stated as the harnessing of nature for the benefit of mankind. New understanding of the processes of nature has usually been followed by rapid practical application to fulfill some human desire. The prime motivation for much scientific enquiry was the attainment of some personal or national advantage over the elements or over one's neighbors. The greatest real advancement consists of little technical and much social advancement.

Skills shortages have been widely reported by engineering industries in Australia. At the same time, migration literature suggests that there is under-employment of migrant engineers. To investigate this seemingly contradictory situation this paper reviews 2006 census data to examine the stock of engineering graduates in Australia, and compares the employment and occupational profiles of migrants with the locally-born. The results show that there was a large pool of engineering graduates in Australia who were not employed in engineering occupations. Migrants, whether they had Australian or foreign engineering qualifications, experienced different labour market outcomes from locals. Two factors emerged from the study as influencing labour market outcomes for migrants: region of origin and duration in the host country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents abstracts on engineering topics which include aligning the attributes of engineering graduates with the demands of the industry and governing bodies, the 90th anniversary celebration of Engineers Australia and "Eco-Logical" Engineering.

Intense competition and the requirement to continually drive down costs within a mature mobile telephone infrastructure market calls for new and innovative solutions to process improvement. One particular challenge is to improve the quality and reliability of the diagnostic process for systems testing of Global System for Mobile Communications and Universal Mobile Telecommunications System products. In this paper, we concentrate on a particularly important equipment type—the Base Transceiver Station (BTS). The BTS manages the radio channels and transfers signalling information to and from mobile stations (ie mobile phones). Most of the diagnostic processes are manually operated and rely heavily on individual operators and technicians' knowledge for their performance. Hence, there is a high cost associated with troubleshooting in terms of time and manpower. In this paper, we employ Bayesian networks (BNs) to model the domain knowledge that comprises the operations of the System Under Test, Automated Test Equipment (ATE), and the diagnostic skill of experienced engineers, in an attempt to enhance the efficiency and reliability of the diagnostic process. The proposed automated diagnostic tool (known as Wisdom) consists of several modules. An intelligent user interface provides possible solutions to test operators/technicians, captures their responses, and activates the automated test program. Server and client software architecture is used to integrate Wisdom with the ATE seamlessly and to maintain Wisdom as an independent module. A local area network provides the infrastructure for managing and deploying the multimedia information in real time. We describe how a diagnostic model can be developed and implemented using a BN approach. We also describe how the resulting process of diagnosis following failure, advice generation, and subsequent actions by the operator are handled interactively by the prototype system. The results from an initial survey are presented, indicating sizeable reductions in fault correction times for many fault types. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As recently as 1950, 30% of the world's population lived in urban areas. By the year 2030, 60% of the world's population will live in cities, according to the United Nations (2001) World Population Prospects Revision Report. Urbanization is quickly transitioning communities from the natural rural vegetation to man-made urban engineered infrastructure. The anthropogenic-induced change has manifested itself in microscale and mesoscale increases in temperatures in comparison to adjacent rural regions which is known as the urban heat island (UHI) effect and results in potentially adverse consequences for local and global communities. One of the great challenges facing our current generation of scientists and engineers is how to support the growth of the new and existing arid urban centers in a sustainable manner. This is even more pronounced in arid regions, which will sustain the greatest rate of urbanization. This paper is focused on understanding the interdependency of the infrastructure used to support the growth of urban regions and their environmental, social and economic consequences with an emphasis on the rapidly urbanizing arid region of Phoenix, Arizona. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Controlling pressure impact of water hammer is an important guarantee for safe and stable running of pipeline systems. Previously, we proposed a spring self-adaptive auxiliary control (SAC) system to improve the pressure control ability of a surge tank. However, the working efficiency of the SAC system is affected by various parameters. A reasonable designing strategy becomes an urgent need to properly determine the parameters of the SAC controller. In this study, based on our calibrated numerical model, various transient responses of a SAC system with different parameters were further investigated. The latency response threshold and the spring orifice coefficient were identified to be the two most sensitive parameters that determine the controller working efficiency. Based on the objectives of reducing the in-pipe extreme pressure and in-tank water level fluctuation, an analytical dual-objective optimizing Method was proposed for application. The results demonstrated that the pressure control capability of SAC controller can be optimized by the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A preface to the September 1, 2014 issue of the "Australian Journal of Electrical & Electronic Engineering," is presented.

The pace of global change is accelerating. The fundamentals which have guided our choices and actions over the last four decades no longer apply. The traditional role of the structural consulting engineer is changing in ways we could never have imagined even a decade ago. Structural engineers who built their careers on being technically strong, accurate and thorough, with sound communication skills are finding that their traditional strengths are increasingly less important. Structural engineering design is no longer a sequential process and design is being developed concurrently along many fronts at once. Tasks that once took many man-months of design team effort are being processed by a computer in a matter of hours. In parallel with technological changes, our clients are changing. They no longer seek purely technical solutions from structural engineers but are seeking to appoint business consultants who can provide expert advice across a range of multidisciplinary challenges that they face. In this paper the author draws on 30 years of experience as a structural engineer working for major engineering consultants to describe a personal view of the skills and attributes that today’s young professionals need to adopt to thrive and survive in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on some investment decisions of Sir W.G. Armstrong Whitworth & Co. Ltd. Because of its implications for the growth performance of the British economy before 1914, the reluctance, of many of Britain's largest firms to move into some of the more important expanding areas of engineering after 1890 is a subject which has long interested economic historians. At a general level there has been much discussion of this phenomenon, but there has been little evidence derived from business records. The purpose of this paper is to examine some of the investment decisions made between 1900 and 1914 by Sir W.G. Armstrong Whitworth & Co. Ltd. in order to shed some light on this question. An old established Tyneside engineering firm, Armstrong Whitworth was one of Great Britain's largest industrial undertakings, and by the turn of the century it was increasingly specializing in the armaments business. As economist R.C. Trebilcock has convincingly shown, the nature of the company's arms operations favours a move into one of the new industries of this period, the motor vehicle business, a move which was in fact made by Armstrong's shortly after 1900.

Standard industrial organization theory has paid quite a lot of attention to firm behavior in an increasingly competitive market environment (see, e.g., Carroll and Tosi 1977, pp. 521-23). What has been much less discussed, however, is how firms with a changing ownership pattern behave when confronted with an abrupt transformation, of their market setting. This paper makes an attempt to evaluate the behavioral reaction of Hungarian engineering firms undergoing transformation and/or privatization to the rapid changes in their market environment The paper consists of three parts. First, a brief assessment of the performance of the engineering industry, the Hungarian privatization process, and privatization in the engineering sector is given. The second part tries to look into some specifics of Hungarian enterprise behavior with respect to exports. The third part has the objective of establishing relationships, if any, between, privatization and export behavior in 1992. For Parts 2 and 3 of the paper, extensive and mostly still unpublished case-study material is used. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The generation of high-quality volume meshes out of µCT data can be a challenging task that is mandatory to perform CFD simulations of fluid flows within or around scanned objects. Despite the growing relevance of CT-based CFD simulations, there is still a lack of a standardized, free-to-use workflow. In this work, an open-source based workflow is presented, which covers all steps from the CT image stack to a volume mesh in the end. The software packages ImageJ, ParaView, and Blender are used for surface reconstruction and processing of µCT data; resulting meshes are evaluated regarding geometric parameters, surface fidelity, and used memory. For volume meshing, the mesh generator snappyHexMesh implemented in OpenFOAM is used. A detailed description of this workflow is provided in the Supplementary Materials. We demonstrate how potential pitfalls and shortcomings can be avoided and how surface smoothing is especially important to preserve the surface area of scanned objects. We use CT data of a 10 ppi open cell foam to illustrate that data decimation can reduce the required time for the volume meshing by up to 45% and RAM up to 75%. The resulting meshes are used to simulate flow fields and heat transport with a surface heat source. The resulting temperature fields show that differences in the surface area and recesses in an unsmoothed mesh can affect the outcome of heat transport simulations, highly relevant for reactive CFD simulations. The results highlight the quality of our workflow's outcome, which can help engineers that rely on CT reconstruction processes, also for other applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]