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The IABSE Young Engineers Colloquium (YEC) in East Asia is jointly organised by the Japanese, Chinese, Korean and Hong Kong Groups of IABSE. The lecture showed a way to achieve sustainable bridge construction with non-metallic and long-life bridges. It was announced by Prof. Ho-Kyung Kim at the closing ceremony that the 3rd IABSE Young Engineers Colloquium in East Asia will be held at Seoul National University, South Korea, on 11 and 12 November 2020. [Extracted from the article]

Using data developed for, and presented to, the US District Court, this study evaluates the performance of women-, African-American-, and Hispanic-owned firms vis-à-vis firms owned by neither women nor minorities in three different South Florida markets: architecture, structural engineering, and civil engineering. After controlling for the influence of experience, size, and location, three of the most commonly used determinants of firms' earnings, the empirical results suggest that the three markets do not convert firms' characteristics into economic outcomes in the same manner for women and Hispanic owners as for owners who are neither women nor minorities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The research discusses the design philosophy for product development. It emphasizes the importance of independent evaluation with non-expert knowledge base in a commercial product design. To resolve the issues with the raised design philosophy, a fuzzy mathematic model with modified Hamming distance fuzzy set method is proposed to conduct such a non-expert evaluation for achieving better product design in industrial practices. This modified fuzzy model is able to coordinate and to deal with the tangled fuzzy and non-fuzzy issues involved in the product design to carry out a comprehensive and effective non-expert evaluation. With the model, a simple and effective tool can be built for engineers to conduct sophisticated product design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the role played by geographic information systems in understanding the relationship between engineering and social sciences. It provides a discussion on the challenges offered by the emergence of high technologies to the field of social sciences and how it addresses the needs of the society. The efforts shown by engineers to introduce the significant role of engineering in communication and information technologies are also considered. The contributions of geography of information in bridging the gap between engineering and social sciences include charting locations, mapping the information society, analyzing cyberspace, and planning in the information age.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether perceptions of Japanese secondary school educators toward accountants is different from those of other professionals such as engineers, attorneys and doctors. The accounting profession around the world has been struggling with the ‘best and brightest’ student issue for some time. It is becoming much more difficult to attract such students into the accounting profession. The seminal paper in this stream of research is Hardin et al. (2000, Advances in Accounting, 17, pp. 205–220) based on work done in the USA. This current paper replicates the studies of Hardin et al. (2000) and Wells and Fieger's (2004, Paper presented at the AFAANZ Conference, Alice Springs) studies in the USA and NZ respectively on the perceptions of the accounting profession by influential educators using Japanese subjects. While findings of counterpart studies suggested secondary school teachers have relatively lower opinions of accounting compared to the other three professions, our study found the perceptions of accountants by educators in Japan was relatively lower than law and medicine, but higher than engineering. Our results also suggested that this distinctive feature in Japan is partly based on their different perspectives of the certified professions. This aspect could contribute to a higher rating of educators' perceptions toward accountants relative to engineers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current localization practices suffer from a narrow and static vision of culture resulting in usability problems for IT product and design. To address this problem, this article compares user localization efforts of mobile messaging technology in two different cultural contexts with a new methodology of cultural usability. It calls for expanding the scope of localization practices and linking user localization efforts to the IT product design cycle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A longitudinal study of four engineers shows that moving into positions of authority and responsibility allows them to claim agency within the structure of the organization. However, that structure is less stable than it first appears, and they use writing to try to establish it in a way that will allow them to achieve their goals. Agency seems to consist of the conjunction of discursively established positions in the organization and participants' taking organizational intents as their own. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When the United States entered World War I in 1917, there was no elaborate framework for providing scientific advice to the government. Engineers and scientists struggled to find an appropriate mechanism, but the former found themselves subordinated to a scientific community which sought to dominate emerging structures. At stake was not merely the credit for helping win the war, but also an advantage in the coming postwar definition and expansion of industrial research. Scientific leaders sought advantage by making a distinction between ‘engineering research’ and engineering practice, and claiming jurisdiction over the former. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Both anecdotal and research evidence show that engineering interviewers have long been interested in hiring engineers based on the degree to which they "fit" the culture of the organization and the behavioral expectations of the job and work group to which they will be assigned. This article examines how an increasingly prevalent interviewing technology, the situational interview (SI) (Latham, Saari, Pursell, and Campion, 1980), can be used to assess the match between behavioral tendencies of job applicants and behaviors required for successful performance. In particular, this article (a) examines the concept of "fit" and its importance to hiring engineers, (b) reviews the advantages of the SI as an interviewing method for measuring fit, (c) explains the methods and processes needed to construct an SI, and (d) illustrates how to construct an SI to examine an engineering applicant's tendency to behave according to organizational expectations in dealing with a critical work situation typically faced by new hires. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Grey-haired engineers in large organizations appear to be far less common than the baby boom would suggest. An historic assumption is that they were promoted into management functions. A random sample of 270 mature engineers was taken. More than one third agreed to be interviewed by telephone. Supporting evidence of current status was found for another third. The assumption of promotion to explain the lack of mature engineers is not supported. Most began leaving the large organizations in significant numbers at around 50 years of age. Those in management positions have the same attrition rate as the front line positions. Dealing with a potential shortage of engineers by extending the retirement age past 65 would have no noticeable impact based on these results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper considers the role of the person, process (including methods), product and design climate (press) to achieve effective, appropriate design solutions. It is insufficient to recruit ‘good’ people; other attributes including their problem-solving style are also important to achieve competitive design solutions. It is important that engineering design methods are selected correctly by designers in industry, otherwise inappropriate or invalid results may be obtained. This paper reports the experiences of engineers in industry who use design methods and the problems they encountered. The concept of problem-solving style is then explored as a principle on which to base method selection in order to match the solution generation characteristics of the methods with the desired solution requirement characteristics. Finally, a brief comment is made on the elements that make for a creative design environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the worldwide demand for energy is growing, engineers are facing a challenge to design plants with minimum energy requirements. Distillation is an energy intensive process regardless of the products being separated. Using as an example the separation of alcohol–aqueous mixture, this article describes some options applicable to both revamp and new installations where the reduction of energy consumption is achieved. The “Hybrid” application is represented by the Water‐Tetrahydrofurane (THF) separation comparing a conventional two column Pressure Swing Distillation(PSD) system with a pressure distillation using a membrane unit. The main focus is on energy savings for a given separation problem trough the introduction of membrane unit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article provides information on the Bordeaux Nuclear Research Center or the Centre d'Etudes Nucléaires at Bordeaux-Gradignan in France. It is composed of permanent researchers, engineers and technicians, and medical students. The center's scientific program covers a broad range of topics in nuclear physics, such as astroparticle physics. The center will play a key role in the construction of SPIRAL2 project.

This work presents an alternative approach for the preliminary design of plate and frame heat exchangers in complex flow arrangements and looks at the use of this type of exchanger in multi-stream applications. The need for a new design approach arises from the fact that most current design algorithms are industrially owned and thus are not readily available to the practicing engineer. The essential information required for the design of plate and frame heat exchangers are the heat transfer and friction performance data, which again are industrially owned. However, a few correlations for the most common type of plates have been reported in the open literature and, in this work, are used for the development of a design approach that exploits the concept of full utilization of allowable pressure drop. This method can be used as a first estimate for the determination of the surface area requirements of single-phase, two-stream heat exchangers. It is shown how the approach can be extended to the targeting and design of heat recovery systems or multi-stream exchangers where plate heat exchangers are a suitable option. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article demonstrates with a simulated example the problem of spurious regression for autocorrelated data. This is one of the problems quality engineers may encounter when investigating possible input-output relationships. Suppose the process is an industrial furnace and one wants to see if there is a possible relationship between an input variable, such as fuel rate at a given time and the temperature in the furnace.

Since 1990, the downfall of ideological borders has triggered a tendency toward a global economy. This globalization has rewritten the market rules, forcing international companies to adapt the way in which they do business and their structures. With some delay, politics and academia in Europe have reacted, resulting in the envisaged creation of a ‘Higher European Education Area’, commonly known as ‘Bologna Process’. To help in the ongoing process of redefining university curricula, this article reviews the requirements of international employers, taking Siemens as an example, and the consequences for engineers. It will be shown that the number of jobs requiring a solid technical base has not diminished, but that the demand for graduates combining technical knowledge with other skills is growing, due to the more complex working environment. In addition, these ‘soft skills’ carry more weight when individuals move up the career ladder. Therefore, a technical bachelor’s degree that can be combined with a master’s degree in another major can be an attractive entry option for many students, who currently are deterred by the long courses that prepare them simply for a technical career. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The demand for flexible engineers presents significant challenges to engineering education. Among these is the need for engineers to be prepared to understand and deal with organizational change. Yet engineering education and research on engineers have overlooked the impact of organizational change on engineering work. After outlining the impact of globalization on organizational change, this paper contributes to our understanding of how engineers experienced organizational change immediately after a merger when two major aerospace companies came together, bringing two different corporate cultures together and different models for the organization of work. Based on the analysis of these experiences, this paper offers, first, a hypothesis connecting engineers’ educational experiences with their responses to organizational change and, second, a curriculum proposal to help students prepare for the complex experiences of engineering work in ever changing organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses three levels of computer use—literacy, fluency and flexibility. Literacy is about the use of particular tools to satisfy well-defined tasks while fluency is a deeper form of knowledge that allows people to adapt to the uncertainties of computing and keep up with new, technological trends. Computational flexibility suggests the further capacity toinvent software when existing applications fail to solve new problems. I will suggest a need for designers to become computationally flexible to achieve goals that often begin as ideas that are difficult, if not impossible, to articulate and hand off to expert software engineers for further development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Decisions made during the briefing and conceptual design stages of a building project are critical to its success. One of the earliest major decisions which can have a significant effect on downstream events and results is the selection of the structural frame. Given its importance to the efficacy of the finished building, the structural frame selection process should arguably be objective and transparent, the final decision being based on the frame's ability to perform against a range of criteria appropriate to the scheme in question. However, the heuristics underpinning such decisions tend not to be explicit and thus, are difficult for inexperienced clients to understand. This article reports on research which examined the criteria used by clients, structural engineers, architects and main contractors when selecting structural frames. These were established via a postal questionnaire survey of a stratified sample of design professionals, contractors and client organizations. The analysis reveals marked differences in the perceived importance of the criteria identified amongst the respondents, which may result in conflicts between design and construction advisers and their clients should they be made explicit in the design process. Nevertheless, it is important that such differences are revealed within the decision‐making process if more appropriate design decisions are to be made in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Logistics or supply chains play a central role in effective management. Inventory control systems play a significant role in managing supply chains. This article provides engineering managers with guidelines to choose a cost-effective supply chain inventory control system through analyzing push inventory systems (MRP), and pull systems (JIT). Simulation modeling was used to build and analyze the supply chains with stationary and cyclical demand patterns. The article indicates the main variables that should concern the engineering manager to choose between MRP and JIT. The paper concludes that because JIT reduces the holding cost, it becomes a more cost-effective system at a wider range as the demand level increases. The results also show that when information is shared across a supply chain that implements a MRP system, the cost reduction is significant in comparison with no information sharing especially under cyclical and highly variable demand patterns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Improving supplier performance is a challenge faced by many organizations. This article describes one mechanism, the supplier score card, for supplier performance improvement. Five steps for supplier scorecard design and implementation are presented. These steps are based on the design and implementation of a supplier scorecard process in a medium-sized, ISO 9001:2000 certified metal fabrication manufacturer. A three-part scorecard was developed and implemented at the case study site. Through this case example, the challenges to the design and implementation are discussed to provide engineering managers with information to assist in the development of an effective supplier scorecard process in their own organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Engineers have a set of powerful tools at their disposal for designing robust and reliable technical systems. In educational design these tools are seldom applied. This paper explores the application of concepts from the systems approach in an educational context. The paradigms of design methodology and systems engineering appear to be suitable for both analysing existing education and designing new curricula. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the word complexity is often used by engineers who are trying to re-design or re-organize a system, a formal definition of the term is often lacking. This paper introduces and extends the application of the concept of entropy to the quantitative analysis of complexity in the design and study of manufacturing systems. Sequence disorder complexity and routing complexity are defined in the context of manufacturing systems specifically including rework cells. Different kinds of rework cells are defined and their parameters presented. The difference between input and output sequences is studied with respect to rework cell system parameters and we introduce a quantitative complexity metric to measure the difference between alternative rework cells. The emphasis of this paper is on providing a comprehensive comparison on system performance of several structures of rework cells in terms of complexity, cost and quality. The paper concludes that both the choice of rework cells structure and system parameter selection are important to the design of rework cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is striking to notice that the notion of skill is not only used in industry but also in higher education in most major industrialized countries. If a significant number of companies have taken a skills approach, one notices that this term is also used in higher education to determine teaching programmes according to a simple idea: higher education no longer simply seeks to transmit knowledge but to train students in skills that they will be able to use themselves and in the development of the economy, as well as work situations that they will encounter once they leave school. One cannot help but notice the emergence of this notion of skills both in industry and in higher education. As researchers, we are in a position to observe, follow and evaluate the establishment of the skills approach in industry; as teachers we must take part in the skills approach initiated by our engineering school, the Ecole des Mines de Nantes. The use of the term ‘skills approach’ in both cases leads one to believe that there is some form of coherence between the two projects and even that the skills approach in higher education is a direct response and an adaptation to the skills approach initiated in industry. This is why it seems worthwhile to elucidate what we mean by the skills approach in industry, to clear up any ambiguities and try to measure what could be, from our point of view, the conclusions that an engineering school can draw for itself given the emergence of the notion of skills in industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Design is at the heart of vocational training programmes. That is the reason why teaching design and training students to design are major concerns of engineering schools. Our participation in this training favours a particular approach: reflexive practice. The Reflexive pedagogy lays the emphasis on the metaphorical dimension of learning. It is based on the idea that if the learner understands his/her own mental processes while learning, she/he learns better, by learning to learn. Reflexive thinking in our application is supported by a graphical representation. This graphic should enable the learners to turn the idea they are building up of their design activity into a kind of object. This article presents the reflective pedagogy that we have been using for several years now in collaboration with lecturers in technology to foster training in design for future engineers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is a long and winding road from invention to innovation. Starting from this observation, this paper presents a historical perspective on the capabilities engineers should possess to do their work. The importance of the ‘communicative competence’ involved in creating a social base for innovation is underpinned. We will present a theoretical framework with regard to engineering and society and argue that this competence requires a good understanding of the social dynamics of technology as well as the ability to communicate on the level of facts, values and emotions. Three particular skills are extensively discussed: orientation on the future and the abilities involved in dialogue and cultural differences. We will argue that engineers can develop this new competence through project learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Emerging engineers need to rely on a whole body of scientific and technical knowledge, but also on a wide set of competencies. For engineering schools a competency objectives approach requires specific pedagogical methods. Some competencies based on skills and attitudes are difficult to develop through traditional teaching, so in 2003 our institution implemented a project-oriented framework combining pedagogical methods such as project-based learning, active pedagogy and traditional teaching paradigms. In practice, each semester students work in groups on a competency-controlled project lasting over 100 hours per student. Although comparisons between various pedagogical methods are difficult and sensitive, numerous internal signals confirm the validity of several aspects of our mixed option. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper shows how a study in educational sciences focused on the concept of ‘competence’ can bring about changes in the pedagogical methods used when training engineers. Instead of using personality traits to understand innovators, a PhD study focused on practices and competencies revealed that, amongst other things, self-directed learning skills are of prime importance in the success of innovation processes. This led the teaching staff of a French engineering school to set up a project aimed at integrating self-directed learning into the curriculum. Applied to English language learning, the system described here is based on an alternation between active and reflexive phases. It also provides students with continuous support, thus transforming the role of the teachers into facilitators. Consequently, the development of students’ linguistic skills requires an evolution in teachers’ professional competencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Engineering curricula are increasingly focused on developing student competencies. Many new competencies needed by engineers today are professional skills (sometimes called the ‘soft skills’). Among the new competencies for engineering graduates is global competence, the ability to work knowledgeably and live comfortably in a transnational engineering environment and global society. While there is broad agreement within the engineering community for the need to better prepare engineers for global practice, there is much less agreement as to what skills and abilities define global competence, what combination and duration of international education and experiences best instil it and what means and metrics should be used to judge whether students have attained it. This paper presents a conceptual model to define global competence, a curriculum model for instilling it and an assessment model to determine if graduates have attained it. It concludes with a description of a quasi-experimental research effort now underway designed to evaluate and validate these models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the pedagogical principles that underpin the design of the Master of Engineering Practice, a distance education program offered by the University of Southern Queensland. This innovative program enables experienced engineering technologists to use their workplace learning to assemble portfolios that demonstrate their achievement of many of the competencies defined for a graduate of the program. Students are required to be self-directed learners and to use reflective practices to assess their own learning. Following a self-assessment process undertaken in the first course in the program, each student prepares a Pathway to Graduation Plan which they then follow through to graduation. Graduates of the program are able to become registered as Chartered Professional Engineers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In contrast with hourly manufacturing and service workers, the productivity of salaried knowledge workers such as engineers can be difficult to measure. In particular, hourly workers may practice physical absenteeism, while salaried engineers may practice mental absenteeism. An important aspect of this issue is what specifically causes engineers to mentally depart from their jobs before they physically leave. This phenomenon is labeled "cognitive turnover" (CT). The contribution of this article is to provide empirical data from engineers across multiple organizations to illustrate how CT can be identified and measured. This research demonstrates the first two phases in the development of a methodology that an engineering manager can use to identify the measures that provide evidence of eCT for engineering knowledge workers. The methodology seeks to identify personnel experiencing CT, categorize relevant causes, and provide pertinent solutions. This will allow organizations to evaluate their situation and explore solutions that can improve productivity for their engineers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article contributes to providing insight into the growing form of outsourcing by studying different managerial roles by IT project managers in outsourcing and termination projects. During the last several years outsourcing has emerged as a major issue in IT management. In this article we have examined which management roles are emphasized by the client's and vendor's project managers in both outsourcing as well as termination projects. The six managerial roles we applied were leader, resource allocator, spokesman, entrepreneur, liaison, and monitor. An important insight from this study is the need for a contingent approach to outsourcing projects and that the appropriate leadership role depends on the outsourcing perspective, time, and situation. Another result from this study is that external project manager roles are found to be significantly more important in outsourcing termination projects than in outsourcing projects. Although this paper is based on limited data, it lays the foundation for a framework of management roles in IT outsourcing projects. An engineering manager can use this article to better understand which roles project managers should emphasize in IT outsourcing and termination projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Large-scale engineering systems provide important functions to the human society. The involvement of multiple, competing functionality requirements and lots of resources has imposed high expectations, and at the same time challenges, for achieving reliable, affordable design. Axiomatic design approach has demonstrated its strength in various types of large-scale system design, including vehicles, aircrafts, manufacturing facilities, and so on. However, several obstacles are yet to be overcome in proper application of the axioms to a real-world design problem, by both researchers and practitioners. In this work, a systematic methodology is presented for applying Suh’s axioms to evaluate and optimize large-scale engineering systems. When using the proposed methodology, design matrices are first obtained to map multiple, competing functionality requirements to their associated physical embodiments at different system hierarchical levels based on Axiom 1. An R / S analysis using surrogate modelling is then conducted on the design matrices to evaluate the existing system design. If the evaluation shows any areas for improvement, a combination of surrogate modelling-based R / S analysis and optimization is used to achieve a less functionally coupled design. An application in a nuclear reactor system design is used to demonstrate the use of the proposed methodology in dealing with real-world design problems. The results show that the proposed methodology provides a promising approach to efficiently evaluate and optimize a large-scale engineering system against multiple, competing design objectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Optimization can be a time-consuming and demanding process when an analytical model of the system of interest cannot be developed. The problem is even more extreme when the robustification of the system is desired. Under such circumstances the design engineer will typically resort to design of experiments (DOE) or finite element analysis/computational fluid dynamics or some combination. Each can be time consuming and demanding. It is shown in this paper that by combining dimensional analysis with DOE it is possible to generate a near-exact surrogate model of a system empirically. This can be done with a significantly reduced number of experiments when compared with traditional DOE techniques. The approximation is sufficiently accurate to be optimized or robustified using methods traditionally suited to analytical models. A strategy designed to help the design engineer take full advantage of this approach is presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Math-education reformers encourage the incorporation of mathematical modeling activities into K-12 curricula. Many of the purported educational benefits derive from the authenticity of the activities-how well they reflect the everyday and occupational mathematical practices of adults. But a paucity in the literature of observational descriptions of adult modeling behavior has made it difficult to judge the authenticity of classroom activities and their potential to prepare students for out-of-school problem solving. The ethnographic study reported here investigated the everyday problem-solving activity of structural engineers in practice. Modeling was found to be central to and ubiquitous in the engineers' work, giving rise to some of their greatest intellectual challenges. These engineers use, adapt, and create models of various representation forms and degrees of abstraction. Two major challenges of modeling emerged: understanding inaccessible phenomena and keeping track of models. These challenges, and the nature of engineering models themselves, are not well reflected in the modeling tasks typically prescribed for the K-12 classroom, which will likely limit their educational benefits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A Danish engineer, Alexis Køhl (1846–1920), invented a number of cryptographic systems between 1876 and 1919. Some of these systems were simple, others were more complicated machine systems. Few of Køhls systems were ever used. One system was used to some extent in the Nordic countries, but generally Køhl felt that his “genius” was not properly recognized. There were no sensational cryptographic innovations in his systems, but some of them were quite smartly implemented. His first machine systems made use of some of the earliest mechanical typewriters. All his life Køhl claimed that his systems were unbreakable. He never made the fortune that he thought he deserved. This paper discusses Alexis Køhl's life, his systems, and describes the known surviving devices. Additional information would be highly appreciated by the author. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The energetic city of New York welcomed the participants of the IABSE Congress in the Javits Center, close to the newly refurbished area of Manhattan called Hudson's Yards. While enjoying a fascinating view over New York's skyline, young engineers had the opportunity to meet the more experienced engineers in a casual setting. Thanks to IABSE Fellows and their sponsorship of the YEP, young engineers who participated in this Congress received one year's free IABSE membership, which is greatly appreciated. [Extracted from the article]

It is very important for State Departments of Transportation (DOT) to establish strategies with regard to maintenance, repair, and rehabilitation (MR&R) of bridges. With the availability of Bridge Management Systems (BMS) such as PONTIS and BRIDGIT, owners are beginning to emphasize cost-effective proactive strategies from the start, when the bridge is new. Therefore, a model is required for the development of optimal MR&R action scenarios suitable to each DOT for effective management of the bridges. This article introduces a Model for Evaluating Maintenance, Repair and Rehabilitation Strategies (MEMRRES) in concrete bridge decks. The MEMRRES assists the decision makers in determining the optimal MR&R strategy among the feasible MR&R strategies. The MEMRRES methodology is explained through a hypothetical example and is applied for determining the optimal MR&R strategy of concrete bridge decks for 24 State DOT (DOTs). It can be used as a tool by bridge engineers within their respective DOT to select cost-effective MR&R actions for concrete bridge decks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the development of the international context in which U.S. scientists and engineers create new knowledge and ideas. Indications of the determination of Asian policy makers to strengthen their research and development systems and their knowledge economies; Problem posed by the failure of the U.S. scientific community to participate in the trend in the emergence of global attitude among scientists; Overview of the development of the collaborative links between scientists.

The article presents information about the findings of a sociological survey of engineering and technical personnel in Naberezhnye Chelny in 2000. Out of 260 respondents, more than 60 per cent expressed dissatisfaction with the role of the engineer in today's industry and with the fact that the creative potential of engineering and technical personnel is not sufficiently in demand. More than 80 percent expressed dissatisfaction with their material condition. Also coming as no surprise are the pessimistic expectations with respect to the prospects of their profession mentioned by about 40 percent of the respondents. It should be noted that in terms of their proportion among the city's intelligentsia, engineering and technical personnel hold a dominating position. Youngsters' orientation toward a profession is directly susceptible to the influence of prestige, which is to say, the place which any particular profession holds in the public consciousness, as well as the influence and the respect that the profession enjoys in society.

In the business community, it has become critical that companies know how productive their engineers are. Organizations find it very difficult to measure the productivity of their knowledge workers (e.g., engineers) because their work output is cognitive. Because the nature of the work is “thinking” or “knowledge application,” which brings important ideas and breakthroughs to organizations, this challenging task must be undertaken. Quality control (QC) charts were used to measure cognitive indexes of a group of knowledge workers, working engineers. These statistical process control charts measured previously developed cognitive indexes. The QC chart components were created from a representative group of working engineers, and then another sample of engineers were tracked over time for out-of-control run patterns. The results indicate that the cognitive behavior index would show out-of-control patterns for low productivity engineers. Substantial performance improvements are possible for engineers, resulting in cost savings from reduced negative turnover and lowered productivity giving better returns on engineering salaries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we analyse a collective approach towards enhancing undergraduate Engineering Education. All the authors, both engineers and faculty developers, have, at some point in this collaboration, been involved in the vision, development or implementation. Our desire is to demonstrate the incremental nature of the process as well as evidence of impact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to present the development process of a computer-based audiometric testing and tailored intervention program, and assess its feasibility by obtaining users’ feedback. The program was implemented for 397 operating engineers at their union training center, and its feasibility was evaluated by obtaining quantitative and qualitative feedback from the participants through a survey and focus group. Over 96% of the participants indicated they liked receiving a hearing test by computer; the computer-based test worked smoothly; and the computer-based training was well organized, effective and held their interests. Almost all (more than 99%) said they would recommend this program to other workers. This project is considered as one of the first ones incorporating multimedia computer technology with self-administered audiometric testing and tailored training. Participants’ favorable feedback strongly supported the continued utilization of this approach for designing and developing health screening and intervention to promote healthy behaviors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two relatively short linear swales previously inferred to be ancient roads are found in close proximity to the Standing Rock Great House. It is unlikely that these swales coincide with regional travel routes. Instead, they are remnants of structures that at least in part, controlled surface water flow. Geomorphic analysis of the terrain surrounding the great house indicates that the structures were placed in a well understood hydraulic environment. The ancient engineers accounted for the general condition of scarce water in the area and for those less common times when heavy rainfall would force them to deal with excess water. At Standing Rock, ancient engineers had more in mind than travel routes when they planned the construction of their community, and this raises the question, "When is a road more than a road?" [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article contributes two models for evolving a successful university-based technology incubator. The first model describes the necessary steps and actions required to evolve the incubator. The second model describes the elements of a successful incubator. A case study using the technology incubator at the University of Central Florida (UCF) is used to understand and describe these models. The UCF technology incubator was the winner of the 2004 Incubator of the Year from the National Business Incubator Association. An engineering manager, economic development organization, entrepreneurship support organization, or technology incubator manager can use this article to develop specific approaches to building and running an incubator. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a case study of an industry-university partnership and identifies benefits to participating companies and to the university. Engineering managers in both academia and industry can use this article to gain an understanding of the value of industry-university partnerships. Twenty-seven research and development (R&D) projects at the University of Alberta's Advanced Engineering Materials (UAAEM) Centre were evaluated. The projects were sponsored jointly by government and private sector companies. One important finding is that both university engineering researchers and engineering managers from industry can derive valuable but different benefits from the same research project. Another significant finding is that government investment can attract other investments to the projects. The research conducted for this report has revealed that UAAEM's R&D projects have significant positive impacts to the related companies, as well as to the university, professors, and students. Government seed capital of $170,000 attracted industry investment of $580,000, indicating a leverage of 4.4. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The point of departure of this paper is that Hong Kong consulting engineers face a challenge of making a transition from a traditional mode of learning based primarily on the exploitation of existing knowledge to a more innovation-oriented mode of learning. Focusing on three key dimensions of the accumulation of knowledge in the consulting engineering sector, the paper examines the intrinsic and extrinsic barriers to an innovation-oriented mode of learning among consulting engineering firms in Hong Kong. First, the paper studies the role of mobilizing creative human resources; second, it examines the role of partnership and interaction in project-based organizations; third, it explores the effects of more widespread use of information and communication technology (ICT) for enhancing the flow of knowledge and innovation in the sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Regulating and permitting superheavy loads is a part of the Department of Transportation's operation. Since the size and weight of the superheavy loads greatly exceeds that of ordinary trucks, pavement engineers face a challenge if they do not have an appropriate analysis procedure. This paper covers the general superheavy load programme in Texas as well as some analysis and field monitoring done between November 2001 and November 2002. The results presented here are those related to gross vehicle weight (GVWs) greater than 227,000 kg where pavement analysis is required. There have been 63 superheavy load moves evaluated during the year monitored. There were three superheavy load moves of over 454,000 kg on load-zoned roads (with a GVW restriction of 26,520 kg). No structure-related damages or rapid shear failure have been observed during the monitoring period. Only three cases of minor pavement damage were reported by the districts as a result of superheavy moves. Two cases were related to a fresh seal coat overlay. Thus, superheavy load moves on such newly overlaid pavements should be curtailed in the future. Because of this observation, a policy was adopted to re-route superheavy load moves to 5 weeks or older pavements. Currently, it is thought that the structure is adequate to support the moves when the remaining life prediction from the Asphalt Institute equation is 585 repetitions or greater. Although there are imperfections in the analysis procedure adopted, Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) is committed to continuously improve the superheavy load analysis procedure with more on-site monitoring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article describes an active learning method for the teaching of physical sciences and mathematics to engineers. After defining the challenges involved in the training of engineers, we shall describe the answers provided by our method, 'learning by doing' (named 'Apprentissage Par l'Action' in French), by introducing four key points: real-life simulation, the management of non-success, the result requirement and the different roles of the teachers. An assessment of this experience is carried out which emphasizes the factors paramount in the success of this pedagogical innovation. Similarities between our experience and other well-known methods such as problem-based learning, problem solving and, more generally, the concept of learning by doing coined by John Dewey in his philosophy of education, are mentioned. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Engineers deal with uncertainties in all their activities, and must often make decisions under conditions of uncertainty and risk. Infrastructures engineering is no exception--design codes are developed to ensure a desired level of safety and performance, or to ensure a specified operational life with a prescribed level of reliability; the required decisions must often be formulated without complete information and thus contain uncertainties. In considering uncertainties, it is important to recognize two broad types; namely, the aleatory type which is associated with natural randomness and the epistemic type which is associated with imperfect knowledge. Proposed here is a framework for the proper modeling and treatment of each type of uncertainty in the formulation of risk-informed engineering decisions. The concepts are illustrated with applications to bridges and offshore marine structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]