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Cost engineering capabilities are becoming increasingly important for the competitiveness of industrial firms, especially for engineer to order products (ETOPs). Despite this relevance, the literature on the use of advanced data-driven methodologies, such as machine learning (ML), for early cost estimation (CE) of ETOPs is quite sparse. Furthermore, ML has still seen little use in real industrial applications due to several challenges. Accordingly, the objective of this paper is threefold: (a) to develop a solid early CE approach for ETOPs, including feature selection; (b) to investigate the benefits of adopting ML for ETOPs' CE; (c) to identify how ML can be introduced into real industrial context with little knowledge on ML. Long action research has been carried out with a large industrial company that produces Oil & Gas ETOPs. We observed how ML facilitates the exploration of the relationships between the choices of early design stages and the CE. ML algorithms also allowed to both capture the high variability of the data and test different combinations of cost drivers in very effective ways. The project resulted in an accurate CE framework with an iterative feature selection process and an approach for introducing ML into a real industrial context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to address issues of potential gender bias in pre-service elementary teachers' conceptions of engineers and engineering using Freire's (2018) Critical Consciousness perspective. By identifying the biasness as causal and structural attributions, the study also aimed to construct a critical pedagogy framework for future pre-service elementary teachers to reflect on and to radically reimagine and transform potential gender bias in their conceptions of engineers and engineering. Drawings of engineers and narratives of drawings from 115 pre-service elementary teachers served as data. The analysis comprised a two-step process: (1) identification of patterns through an inductive analysis of the data; and (2) analysis of patterns from the Critical Consciousness perspective to generate themes. Themes included: (1) depictions of male engineers being afforded privileges of having innate abilities to perform engineering from the standpoint of strong disciplinary backgrounds in mathematics and science while depictions of female engineers being afforded privileges of having innate abilities to perform engineering from the standpoint of computing, designing, and coding. (2) depictions of male engineers' "work" of engineering being related to tangible outcomes like physical products, and (3) depictions of male engineers as authority figures and having the ability to lead the work of engineering. The critical pedagogical framework constructed is a step toward developing a tool for critically reflecting, and radically imagining, reimagining, and thus transforming inequities inherent in future pre-service elementary teachers' conceptualizations of engineers and engineering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research shows a positive association between skilled migration and innovation. Related literature however is largely limited to the use of proxies such as patents, and publications. There is also a lack of attention to how innovation is accomplished in practices. This paper addresses these gaps with an examination of the innovative contributions made by immigrant engineers in Canada. Conceptually, informed by practice-based theories, it conceives innovation as a sociocultural and sociomaterial process that leads to the transformation of the object/motives of activities, i.e. the problem space to which actions are directed. Empirically, drawing on a thematic and situational analysis of the career accounts of 32 immigrant engineers, it shows that immigrants expand engineering practices by introducing, inter alias, new technologies, products, processes, policies and standards. It further traces the rise of the problem spaces, and the ways in which engineering objects and other practitioners are knotted into practices of innovation. It argues that while immigrants manage to introduce epistemic objects through continuous learning and knowledge translation, it is through the enrolment of other practitioners, and technologies and tools that relations of differences and power are (re)negotiated, and new ways of doing become amplified as innovation at work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 3rd South East Asian Young Engineers Colloquium (YEC) took place from 19-20 January 2024, organized by the National Groups of Rep. of Korea, China, Japan, and Hong Kong S.A.R. China. The event showcased the knowledge and innovation of the engineering community in the region and had a total of 149 registered attendees. The colloquium included a design competition, presentations on structural engineering advancements, and social activities. The event provided a platform for young engineers to connect, exchange ideas, and foster collaboration. [Extracted from the article]

Pragmatists are interested primarily not in representing a purportedly unchanging Reality but in articulating prophetic future possibilities on the basis of the values most venerated by a culture/society in the present. This makes pragmatism sound a little like 'Conceptual Engineering'. Conceptual engineers too are interested in transforming our ways of talking, which implies some notion of how such improvements are to be evaluated. Nevertheless, this paper argues that accounts of conceptual engineering that regard it as key to the project of elucidating an externalist semantics find it difficult to accommodate on their own terms the problem-phenomena taken to be of shared interest: regions of discourse where the demand for change are at their most pressing culturally. This difficulty takes the form of what I call the Conceptual Engineering Dilemma (CED), an inability to accommodate simultaneously the ethical and ameliorative dimensions of contestation. I argue that acknowledging the formalist commitments that undergird CED should make pragmatism more appealing to the practically-orientated analytic philosopher and conclude with a brief survey of some of the tools that it makes available for the pressing work of changing minds for the better. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The later Carnap is usually cited as the first conceptual engineer – someone who argues that we can and should revise our concepts in order to make them fit for their purpose. This paper shows that there is an earlier, pragmatist, account of conceptual engineering and that today's conceptual engineers would do well to turn to it, rather than to Carnap. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Positioned as part of leadership development in many organizations, 'stretch assignments' are a type of work assignment that can prove someone's readiness to advance in their career. Informed by status characteristics theory, our research investigates the frequency and expected outcomes of stretch assignments among recent engineering graduates in the workforce. Findings suggest that early-career stretch assignments, especially assignments involving new and unfamiliar areas, potentially intensify gender and racial/ethnic workforce inequality. Other types of assignments that may be more familiar and clearly-scoped to early-career engineers show a different and less inequality-intensifying pattern. We discuss why early-career engineers' assignments may be sites of inequality and the need for more focus on organizational processes around career-advancing work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the journal Engineering Studies, which has been publishing interdisciplinary work on gender, race, and power in engineering for the past fifteen years. It highlights special issues on engineering masculinities, exclusion and inclusion in engineering education, and gender dynamics in industrial design. The article also provides a list of articles published by the journal on these topics, emphasizing their high citation and readership rates. It acknowledges the lack of geographic diversity in the research, with most of the work coming from the US and Europe. The article then focuses on three specific articles in the issue that explore the experiences of early-career engineers and the impact of gender and race on their career opportunities. It concludes by encouraging more diverse research in terms of geographic locations and topics. [Extracted from the article]

Engineering identity has been repeatedly linked to the retention and success of engineering students, however, the current methods for understanding identity may not capture the holistic engineering identity journey. This study reviewed the method of utilising journey maps as a new approach to capture student engineering identity experiences. Interviews were conducted with 30 engineering students and early career engineers in which the participants responded to semi-structured, open-ended questions through the creation of their individual journey map. These maps were then thematically analysed to identify the key influences of engineering identity and the stage of their university journey when these influences occur. We determined that participants who strongly identify as engineers more often discussed and valued social identity experiences in the mid-year and final years of their degree, in contrast to participants who did not feel like engineers. We found that utilising journey maps as a tool for understanding identity allowed for a retrospective correlation between experience and impact, provided the participants space for authentic reflection and honoured the individuality of identity development. This method of journey mapping could be used to inform engineering education research in the further exploration and understanding of student identity development, reflective experiences and narrative storytelling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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]

This article is a summary of the 10th International Conference on Inverse Problems in Engineering (ICIPE 22), which took place in May 2022 in Francavilla al Mare, Italy. The conference brought together applied mathematicians and engineers from various disciplines to collaborate and discuss the use of inverse analysis tools in fields such as manufacturing, medical imaging, and space applications. The event also honored Professor James V. Beck, who made significant contributions to parameter estimation and inverse heat transfer problems. The conference featured keynote addresses, lectures, and a tribute to Prof. Beck. The article expresses gratitude to the organizers, sponsors, reviewers, and the editor-in-chief of the Heat Transfer Engineering Journal. The 11th ICIPE conference will be held in Brazil in 2024. [Extracted from the article]

Focusing on Colombian engineer Miguel Triana's 1907 travelogue Por el sur de Colombia, this article discusses the role that labour, broadly understood, plays in the projects of state transformation of the Putumayo region, in the Colombian Amazon. The text analyses the role that physical effort plays in making possible the construction of infrastructural works such as roads in the Amazon space, but also in the concrete forms of land cultivation he observes in Indigenous peoples and in his own process of writing his travelogue. Theories of environmental determinism turn out to be key in Triana's understanding of labour as a way of transforming nature and bringing progress to the Colombian frontiers. The article makes clear the rhetorical process through which different forms of materiality – roads, bridges, books, cultivation – are seen as parallel forms of embodiment in the discourse of engineering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"Learning engineering" has gained popularity as a term connected to the work of learning sciences. However, the nature of that connection is not entirely clear. For some, learning engineering represents distinct, industry-inspired practices enabled by data abundance and digital platformization of learning technologies. That view is presented as one where learning engineers apply learning research that has resided in experimental studies. For others, learning engineering should refer to the use of the full breadth of knowledge developed within the learning sciences research community. This second view is more inclusive of the fundamentally situated, design-oriented, and real-world commitments that are the backbone of the learning sciences, as reflected in this journal. The two views differ even as far as whether the academic field is labeled "learning science" or "learning sciences". This article examines and articulates these differences. It also argues that without course correction, many who identify with learning engineering will conduct technology-supported learning improvement work that, at its own risk, will neglect the full and necessary scope of what has already been and continues to be discovered in the learning sciences. Moreover, it behooves all to consider recently elevated, but deeply fundamental questions being asked in the learning sciences about what is important to learn and toward what ends. With some more clarity around what is actually encompassed by the learning sciences and how all interested in design and educational improvement can build upon that knowledge, we can make greater collective progress to understanding and supporting human learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BaTiO3 properties can be enhanced to improve capacitor energy storage density through electric-field (E) dipole engineering at the nanoscale (E-DENS). E-DENS allows engineers to modify the internal E through dipole interactions. E-DENS of Ba[(Y3+,Ta5+)xTi1-2x]O3 with 0.0000 ≤ x ≤ 0.0500 are investigated by substituting Y3+-Ta5+ dipole pairs for Ti4+-Ti4+ non-dipolar pairs within the BaTiO3 structure. The Y3+ and Ta5+ ions are more polarizable than Ti4+ and are expected to increase the temperature at which the material becomes cubic and paraelectric. Room temperature XRD, UV-Vis-NIR, LCR, and resistivity analysis have been used to characterize Ba[(Y3+,Ta5+)xTi1-2x]O3 with 0.0000 ≤ x ≤ 0.0500. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The body of knowledge is known as technology, and the process of developing technologies is called engineering.[[1]] Technology can relate to inventions as rudimentary as stone tools or as complicated as genetic engineering and information technology. Green solutions are applied in almost all engineering industries, and the merger of Engineering and Business Engineering is gaining traction among corporate executives. With the thirst for new technologies and the ongoing evolution of technology, the future of engineering and technology has become intriguing!. [Extracted from the article]

The IABSE Young Engineers Mentorship Programme was launched on February 23, 2024, by Dr. Tina Vejrum, the President of IABSE and Senior Technical Director at COWI, Denmark. The program aims to provide guidance and support to young engineers by senior engineers, focusing on technical knowledge and skills required in the profession. The program offers various topics for mentors to choose from, and participants have the opportunity to ask questions and receive career guidance from Dr. Tina Vejrum. The video recording of the program is available for IABSE members and young engineers. For further information and inquiries, individuals can visit the IABSE website or contact the Young Engineers Committee. [Extracted from the article]

Shock and vibration generated during transport can lead to overload failure and fatigue fracture in museum objects. Damage can be prevented using transport packing providing both adequate shock absorption and vibration isolation. This research demonstrated that standardized packing with enhanced vibration mitigation is achievable for three-dimensional objects in a busy museum environment. Based on state-of-the art predictive modelling, extensive engineering and collection care expertise, a calculator tool was developed that allows users to create packing with improved vibration isolation by using the overall dimensions and weight of an object. This research highlighted that effective vibration mitigation can only be designed in a concerted cross-disciplinary effort by engineers and collection care professionals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

They note that I representation i is a characteristic feature of many models in science and in engineering design, and that scientific and engineering models differ more gradually than fundamentally. I Third i , due to the view of engineering as "wicked" technical problem-solving, and as already mentioned, engineering knowledge (how) is not considered an end goal of engineering. I First i , they all agree that we need to move beyond the long-debunked but still popular characterization of engineering as "applied science".[7] I Second i , most authors replace the latter characterization with the more appropriate conceptualization of engineering as "wicked" technical problem-solving. This issue is devoted to Engineering Epistemology, which is understood as the study of how engineers combine descriptive knowledge and normative know-how to address their theoretical and practical, often "wicked", engineering problems.[1] The authors all agree that while the application of scientific knowledge is a necessary ingredient, it is far from sufficient to solve these problems. [Extracted from the article]

This study aimed to explore how preschoolers perceive engineers and engineering by using their drawings. For this aim, phenomenography was used as a research approach. The data were collected using the draw-and-tell technique and through the drawing and explanation related parts of the Draw an Engineer Test. Totally, 436 preschool children from 16 different cities in Turkey were asked to draw an engineer and narrate their drawings. The data were analyzed using inductive content analysis. Findings indicated that some children did not reveal an understanding of engineer or engineering via their drawings (n = 50). A limited number of children (n = 17) had a perception of engineer parallel to the definition of the engineer in the literature. Most children (n = 199) tended to perceive engineering as a male-specific and physical work and represented engineers while working outdoors (n = 147); building structures or constructing machinery (n = 156). This research implies that preschoolers should have a higher amount of opportunity to explore engineering in everyday life with the empowerment of teachers, parents, and community members. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study is to explore engineering managers' perspectives on what actions they should perform to assist newly hired engineers and what proactive steps newly hired engineers should take during the onboarding/socialization period. In total, nine unique managers' actions and nine distinct new engineers' actions were identified by applying Morrison's socialization framework and interviewing seven engineering managers working in aerospace companies. This study offers practical actions that engineering managers and new engineers can apply during the socialization period, and it provides research design guidance that engineering managers can use to find additional actions attuned to their organizations/workgroups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lactic acid is an important platform chemical used in the food, agriculture, cosmetic, pharmaceutical, and chemical industries. It serves as a building block for the production of polylactic acid (PLA), a biodegradable polymer, which can replace traditional petroleum-based plastics and help to reduce environmental pollution. Cost-effective production of optically pure l- and d-lactic acids is necessary to achieve a quality and thermostable PLA product. This paper evaluates research advances in the bioproduction of l- and d-lactic acids using microbial fermentation. Special emphasis is given to the development of metabolically engineered microbial strains and processes tailored to alternative and flexible feedstock concepts such as: lignocellulose, glycerol, C1-gases, and agricultural-food industry byproducts. Alternative fermentation concepts that can improve lactic acid production are discussed. The potential use of inducible gene expression systems for the development of biosensors to facilitate the screening and engineering of lactic acid-producing microorganisms is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is an increasing demand for bioproducts produced by metabolically engineered microbes, such as pharmaceuticals, biofuels, biochemicals and other high value compounds. In order to meet this demand, modular optimization, the optimizing of subsections instead of the whole system, has been adopted to engineer cells to overproduce products. Research into modularity has focused on traditional approaches such as DNA, RNA, and protein-level modularity of intercellular machinery, by optimizing metabolic pathways for enhanced production. While research into these traditional approaches continues, limitations such as scale-up and time cost hold them back from wider use, while at the same time there is a shift to more novel methods, such as moving from episomal expression to chromosomal integration. Recently, nontraditional approaches such as co-culture systems and cell-free metabolic engineering (CFME) are being investigated for modular optimization. Co-culture modularity looks to optimally divide the metabolic burden between different hosts. CFME seeks to modularly optimize metabolic pathways in vitro, both speeding up the design of such systems and eliminating the issues associated with live hosts. In this review we will examine both traditional and nontraditional approaches for modular optimization, examining recent developments and discussing issues and emerging solutions for future research in metabolic engineering. [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]

This was not the case with Robert Stevenson whose account of the Bell Rock lighthouse glosses over Rennie s role, and who clearly irritated Rennie. John Rennie: Engineer of Many Splendid and Useful Works: By Peter Cross-Rudkin. Cross-Rudkin discusses Rennie's relations with his fellow engineers: friends such as Watt and Mylne. [Extracted from the article]

Over two days, participants engaged with questions about what it means to do engineering work, who gets to be an engineer, how engineering graduates can be prepared more effectively, and how engineering practice might be transformed to better serve engineers, employers, and the public. In studies of engineering practice, the early career phase is a particularly intriguing area of inquiry. Since then, an increasing number of researchers have published studies on early career engineering practice; however, such research has remained somewhat limited in scope due to the complexities of the space, the changing demographics of engineering students, and the dynamic nature of engineering practice. [Extracted from the article]

Under the influence of natural science, twentieth century philosophy departed from its Socratic heritage and increasingly isolated itself within the discipline. This new disciplinary way of doing philosophy produced a greater amount of professional knowledge and expertise, but it also separated philosophy from its broader social context. Since the mid-20th century, various efforts were made under a variety of banners to reconnect philosophical thinking with society, with field philosophy representing the most genuine break from the disciplinary paradigm. It advocates collaborative work and rejects philosophic jargon. It also shares much in common with a parallel Chinese approach called 'philosophy of gongcheng.' The philosophy of gongcheng is mostly initiated by top-level engineers, especially academicians with real political power, with the aim of enhancing the real-world engineering practices. This paper traces the roots of philosophy of jishu in China to reevaluate the appearance of philosophy of gongcheng, and exposes the differences between these two parallel transdisciplinary approaches. Working with engineers deepens the understanding of engineering practices and provides some fresh insights on previous philosophical theories. Both field philosophy and philosophy of engineering need to ask, is there only one way to do philosophy? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Engineering communication is a highly desirable competence in industry. However, to become efficient communicators, engineers must consider cross-generational styles in the process. In this exploratory case study, engineering leaders from four industrial segments (High-Tech, Automotive, Aerospace, and Manufacturing) who have had a history of communicating throughout different contexts and projects were studied. Interviews and memos were primary data sources used in this study. Key findings included the need for younger generations of engineers to communicate thoughtfully and with humility. Also, older engineers expressed the need to adjust their communication styles with younger engineers by adapting their communication to include varying modalities (e.g., in person, in writing, with technology). The findings from this exploratory study can help engineering educators consider how to teach communication skills to students while increasing their awareness for cross-generational interactions upon graduation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Women engineers in Germany rarely reach the higher management levels of companies. The men-dominated work culture in engineering is regarded as one of the reasons for this. In particular, because there is a masculine 'engineering habitus', the women's habitus conflicts with the field-specific rules. However, successful women engineers are able to deal with and adapt to the 'engineering habitus' to integrate into the profession. This study examines the importance of the help of others in overcoming this problem. It asks how social support promotes the adaptation to an engineering habitus that benefits women engineers who aim to achieve leadership positions. To answer this question, qualitative interviews with women engineers who hold leadership positions were analyzed. The results reveal that the adaptation to the engineering habitus can be facilitated by the social support of various persons. In particular, supervisors, role models, and colleagues introduce women to the work culture and they give them access to higher-status persons. Partners and women's networks provide emotional support to deal with gender-specific challenges and they help to alleviate the conflict between their roles as women, mothers, and engineers. This study deals critically with masculine norms in engineering and highlights the need for an inclusive work culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Afterwards, current IABSE Young Engineers Programme Chair, Dr. Igor Kavrakov, gave a brief introduction of IABSE and the IABSE Young Engineers Programme. This year the colloquium was organised by the German and Czech National Groups of IABSE in cooperation with our local host, the Chair of Steel Construction of Technische Universität Dresden. [Extracted from the article]

This study examines the relationship among engineers' basic skills, problem-finding and -solving capabilities, and innovation outcomes, using questionnaire survey data for Lao P.D.R., Thailand and Vietnam for the period 2016 to 2017. We perform two-stage least squares (2S.L.S.) estimations, which use the variables for engineers' basic skills and capabilities for finding and solving problems within the firm as instruments, and the indicators for capabilities for finding and solving problems of suppliers and customers as endogenous variables. The estimation results reveal the relationship between problem-finding and -solving capabilities and process innovation. The findings from the empirical analyses suggest a possible upgrading strategy for firms to transform quality control management into innovative abilities. The estimation results also support the necessity of policy support for nurturing both engineers' basic technological and managerial skills and capabilities for problem-finding and -solving. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The notion of "resources" is often framed in an economic sense: money, time, equipment and the like. The authors reconceptualise this notion, situating resources as embedded in curricular frameworks, teacher practice and student experience. This leads them to define resources as "the potential to participate in socio-cultural action" which is illustrated in this article through a series of reflections on the part of the authors, all within the context of engineering education. First, they demonstrate that curriculum can be productively thought of as a route marker for the development of resources that students need in order to enact their role as professional engineers. Thereafter, they show that lecturers bring tacit resources of trust, care, creativity and credibility to the teaching and learning space, and that these are necessary to overcome the inertia that often resists the transformation of teaching and learning practice. Finally, they reflect on how students' prior learning experiences can be harnessed as a resource for teaching and learning. In so doing, they present resources as tied to sociocultural practices and personal and institutional histories, and encourage others to take up these ideas so as to consider how resources, viewed in the authors' sense, are valued within (engineering) education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On 28 July 2014, a smartphone app warned Mexicans of an earthquake that never came. Engineers took this misfire seriously, concerned that it might have a 'cry wolf' effect. They were concerned that people could lose confidence in the early warning system and then, the next time that alerts sounded before one of Mexico's frequent and violent earthquakes, people might fail to take potentially life-saving action. In this article, I argue that these responses to the misfire reveal cries of 'crying wolf' as enactments and explorations of particular forms of responsibility integral to Mexican engineering subjectivities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This handsomely illustrated book is the first major reassessment of John Rennie (snr) since C.T.G. Boucher's I John Rennie,1761-1821: The Life and Work of a Great Engineer i which came out in 1963. John Rennie "Engineer of many splendid and useful works": by Peter Cross-Rudkin, Railway & Canal Historical Society 2022, 208 pp., 112 illus., £25 (hb), ISBN 978-0-901461-72-8 However, somewhat frustratingly, it is only in his final chapter, entitled "The Man and his Contribution", that Cross-Rudkin provides more flesh to Rennie's character and family and to Rennie's relations with his contemporaries. [Extracted from the article]

If it is understood that engineers are 'turning dreams to reality,' then educators share the responsibility for supporting engineers in developing the capacities to consider the future impacts of their decisions. Yet even the most competent engineer's decisions can contribute to macro-ethical failures that arise from narrow problem framing, unevenly distributed risks and benefits, or design solutions unfit for their intended social and cultural contexts. This paper describes how macro-ethical failures can arise at different points in engineering design processes, and considers how competences associated with responsible innovation might assuage those vulnerabilities. To build those competences among future professional engineers, examples of pedagogical approaches are presented at three scales: activities, courses and curricula. For scholars and educators interested in engineering ethics, this article challenges approaches that favor individualistic understandings of responsibility, instead seeking to support learners' awareness of, and ability to, ameliorate macro-ethical failures. For scholars and educators interested in operationalizing responsible innovation as a learning outcome that aligns with engineering practice, we offer an entry point for that conversation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a brief review of engineering biography, probably the most popular form of engineering history. Arguably this has resulted in engineering history dominated by a few well-known figures. Insufficient attention has been paid to networks, including family life, socio-economic context, and the achievements of less popular figures. Drawing on personal research into the lives of many pre-1920 civil engineers the author considers how engineering biography has developed, and what could be done to improve its value for non-specialist historians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An editorial is presented which discusses about the approaches in the study of history, science, technology of engineering, the educational research, the topics including engineers and construction of states and the diversity in engineering education, It talks about ability of engineers to aid state construction, mathematician and military engineers of Portuguese, developing mathematical theorems and practice of diverse engineering fields.

Engineers require new tools to meet the challenges of increasing system complexity, and visualization tools may present promising solutions to enhancing an individual’s ability to analyze highly complex systems. Integrating visualization could provide managers with the opportunity to influence change early, minimizing cost and schedule impacts. This article provides an empirical evaluation of the potential impact that implementing requirements visualization tools can have on projects. The study, based on a sampling of 145 subjects, compares participants’ ability to recognize relationships expressed in traditional requirements format versus integrating a visualization format. The study’s results indicate significant improvement with graphical format employment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Success in complex and holistic engineering practices requires more than problem-solving abilities and technical competencies. Engineering education must offer proficient technical competences and also train engineers to think and act ethically. A technical ‘engineering-like’ focus and demand have made educators and students overlook the importance of ethical awareness and transversal competences. Using two Finnish surveys, conducted in 2014 and 2016, we examine how engineers perceive working life needs regarding ethics. The data consider different age groups. We research whether an engineer’s age affects their perception of the importance of ethics in their work and if there are differences between young experts and young managers in their use of ethics within work. The results indicate that practising engineers do not consider ethical issues important in their work. This especially applies to younger engineers; the older an engineer, the more important they consider ethics. No statistically significant difference was found between young engineering experts and managers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The importance of science in development has been increasingly recognised in development discourses and policy since 2000. Engineering is less visible though engineering and engineers are important for the building and maintenance of transport, water, energy, industrial, informatics, urban and health systems. This article aims to investigate why engineering has not received more emphasis, including why development engineering has not been institutionalised like tropical medicine. It explores the nature of engineering in development, highlights recent efforts to headline engineering for development and, using analyses of what engineers know and do inside international development, suggests that its profile and effectiveness is emerging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Beginning with colonial times and continuing to the present, irrigation engineering has been and is an important site for the construction of gendered power and hegemonic masculinities. The strong connection between masculinities and professional irrigation cultures provides one possible explanation of why hydraulic bureaucracies are so resistant to change: it makes behaviours and codes of conduct that are learned seem natural. Taking inspiration from masculinity studies and from feminist studies of technology and organizations, this article proposes two possible lines of inquiry for critically disentangling how the irrigation profession becomes or is made masculine. The first is the feminist historical analysis of water bureaucracies, and the second is a critical ethnography of contemporary irrigation organizations. Such studies are needed both to create more space for women engineers in government water agencies and to contribute to unravelling important cultural aspects of water politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, using the Department of Irrigation in Nepal as a case study, we argue that professional performance in irrigation engineering and water resources development is gendered and normalised as ‘masculine’. In Nepal, the masculinity of professional performance in irrigation engineering is located in intersections of gender, class, caste, ethnicity, sexuality, nationality and disciplinary education, and hinders especially female engineers to perform as a ‘normal’ engineer. Our analysis is based on interviews with male and female engineers in the department, documentation research, and ethnographic observations in the period 2005–2011. Our study suggests that professional performances and engineering identities in the organisation have always been tied to performances of masculinity. This implies that career prospects in the Nepalese irrigation department for female engineers remain grim; because for them to succeed and belong, they have to reconcile the near incommensurable: a performance of a ‘lady engineer’ with that of a ‘normal’ engineer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholars have noted that there is hesitation to utilise findings from gender studies in engineering education. Issues within gender studies may be part of the matching problem. Debates concerning two concepts for new engineering paradigms are investigated:careandheterogeneity. Their appeals and the respective complications which they tend to be associated with are revisited. Two examples are explored in detail. The tensions revealed lead to the contents of technical work. More social sciences content in engineering education is sometimes suggested, as a way to support more humane approaches. But, if the calculations that decide how many bolts of what dimension are to be put where are ‘masculinist reductionism’, it still remains that someone will have to do those calculations. Is emphasis on social issues really what we want from engineers? [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The use of science and engineering skills to address the novel challenges of modern society through innovative solutions is regarded as an essential strategy around the world. Many of the studies on innovators, however, are not specific to engineers. To address this gap, this study explored engineers’ views of innovation and the attributes of engineers who create, develop, and implement innovations through in-depth interviews with expert engineering innovators. The study was set in an interpretivist framework and developed a socially constructed description of engineering innovativeness. Forty-five US-based expert engineering innovators were interviewed; these interviews were coded using a grounded-theory approach until categorical saturation was achieved. The results include the identification of 20 characteristics of engineering innovativeness, as well as an ‘engineer’s definition’ of an innovation and several general descriptors of ‘non-innovative’ engineers. The significance of this study comes from its use of detailed qualitative data gathered from peer-recognized innovative engineers from industry, entrepreneurial ventures, and academia to identify and define characteristics of engineering innovativeness in particular. The identification of these characteristics has implications for the training and development of engineers, for engineering team formation and management, and for programs, policies, and interventions aimed at supporting innovative behavior by engineers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is concerned with how engineers working in renewable energies in Germany and Austria position themselves and their professional activity within this relatively new field of engineering occupation by mobilizing a specific androcentric construction of engineering as a symbolic resource. Drawing on qualitative interviews, the argument unfolds in three steps: First, the paper reconstructs how engineers draft an image of their professional activity by symbolically aligning it with established understandings of engineering in traditional areas of engineering occupation and by simultaneously distancing it from allegedly ‘other’ notions of engineering practice that are framed as ‘alternative’. The discursive distinction between professional engineering and its alleged ‘alternative’ counterpart constitutes the former as hard, sincere, structured, and reliable activity based on an instrumental rationality. Second, it is shown how the professional/alternative distinction is gendered with ‘the alternative’ being devaluated and feminized. Consequently, it is argued that there is an implicit association between the discursively constituted idea of professional engineering and masculinity. Third, this discursive construction of engineering is interpreted as a symbolic resource in the engineers’ claim to be recognized as professional actors within renewable energies and, thus, in their struggle for favourable positions within this social field of power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

IABSE's Technical Committee is planning a new IABSE Academy, which aims to provide more opportunities for young engineers to learn and develop for the benefit of the societies that our profession serves. In IABSE, we believe in international collaboration, professional dialogue and knowledge sharing to foster understanding and respect between people and organisations across borders. [Extracted from the article]

We present a case study centered on an engineering design initiative in which engineers invite scientists to participate in an interdisciplinary collaboration aimed at designing an unmanned, underwater robot. Our interviews of faculty and student project participants were the central focus of our analysis, while the knowledge products produced by the participants in the form of journal articles played a role in our formulation of an open-ended interview question set. Boundary objects in the form of fish and their bio-robotic replications emerged as having played a central role in facilitating the negotiation of epistemological challenges, which were instantiated as differing experimental practices, theories, and concepts. Our analysis of the interview data pays particular attention to the role of boundary objects and epistemological challenges in shaping research and pedagogical practices and in bringing about disciplinary knowledge gains. We propose that interdisciplinary research processes operate viaboundary objectsto facilitateepistemicnegotiations that are leading todisciplinary transformations.The researchers’ reflections indicate that many of their approaches to research and education were fundamentally impacted through this collaboration and that their respective disciplines experienced knowledge gains that may not have been possible within a single-disciplinary framework. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The book by Anand and Govindjee deals with the continuum mechanics of solids in a comprehensive manner - making it an ideal textbook to learn from and an ideal reference to consult. Continuum mechanics of solids: by Lallit Anand and Sanjay Govindjee, Oxford, UK, Oxford University Press, 2020, 736 pp., £65.00 (hardback), ISBN: 9780198864721. Continuum mechanics deals with the mechanics of solids and fluids. [Extracted from the article]