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Background: Out-of-school time (OST) science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) programming has positive impacts for youth, and the importance of engineering design activities and principles within STEM programming is well-supported by research. Including subject matter experts (SMEs) in these programs enriches the experience of youth participants. Public libraries are widely accessible to the public, and their role in the OST arena is expanding. Library staff can boost the quality of STEM learning experiences by partnering with SMEs. Purpose: Subject matter experts (SME) contribute more than just their expertise. Between 2018 and 2019, a group of diverse professional engineers and librarians co-facilitated engineering activities at six U.S. libraries serving traditionally underserved populations. This study investigates the alignment in active learning preferences between youth, library staff, and professional engineer volunteers. Method: The study's design implemented the Framework for the Observation and Categorization of Instructional Strategies (FOCIS), which identifies seven different types of learning activities: collaborating, competing, performing, discovering, making, teaching, and caretaking. The FOCIS helped researchers evaluate the learning activity preferences of youth participants, engineers, and librarians. Results: The analysis showed that the learning activity preferences of youth and engineers were much more closely aligned than those of librarians. Conclusions: Alignment between youth-program participants and SME program facilitators has the potential to enrich the program experience and foster active engagement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasing complexity of societal problems and the need for more interdisciplinary problem-solving in the future raise new demands for future engineering competences. Consequently, competences related to management and leadership must be reconsidered and reflected in both engineering education and engineering education research. This leads to the following research question: In which ways are students' learning of management and leadership articulated and related in engineering education literature? In this study, this research question is answered through a systematic literature review wherein 112 journal articles were reviewed to explore articulations of students' learning of management and leadership competences. The review finds extensive diversity in the literature, with different and sometimes even overlapping articulations of management and leadership in an educational context. Furthermore, the review identifies a difference between implicit and explicit approaches to addressing the development of students' management and leadership competences. Finally, the importance of the mutual interaction between management and leadership is discussed in an engineering education context. It is stressed that moving forward when working with complex problems in interdisciplinary teams requires both change and vision, as well as the tools and plans to actually make it happen. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Engineering curricula need to integrate global competence learning to ensure that graduates can succeed in globalised labour markets. In this context, this study examines disciplinary engineering courses, focusing on the key characteristics of globally competent educators and teaching approaches in terms of learning environments and course activities from the students' perspective. We conducted focus group discussions with 28 students from different engineering disciplines to learn more about their perceptions and experiences. The results suggest that they felt that integrated global competence learning would require educators to demonstrate open-mindedness, a global mindset, and strong social skills. In addition, global competence teaching approaches were associated with learning environments that were described as engaging, inclusive, and student-centered, and with course activities that were related to real-world situations, included collaborative elements, and were facilitated and supported by the instructor. This study contextualises the idea of global competence in engineering education and provides valuable insights into students' perspectives and experiences with its integration during their studies. It also critically examines students' ideas and suggestions about opportunities for such learning in relation to educational science, and suggests a way forward for global competence in engineering education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gamified-integrated STEM is a technique that combines integrated STEM stages with gamification elements and can engage individuals in climate change communication. This paper presents a gamified-integrated STEM activity focused on global climate change. The activity includes gamified-integrated STEM instructional stages implemented in 6 lesson hours. The game elements used in the activity were time, rewards, points, badges, leaderboards, materials, stories, goals, and rules. Badges included: Decoders, Explorer, Meteorologist, Climatologist, Benevolent Koala, Scientist, and Engineer. The activity was designed for middle school students and aligned with the Next Generation Science Standards. Educators are encouraged to incorporate this pedagogical activity within their instructions to elucidate fundamental concepts related to the consequences of climate change. In doing so, teachers can promote student engagement, improve awareness, and refine problem-solving competencies pertinent to climate-centric challenges. The activity has been evaluated and recommendations for enhancement have been made to ensure optimal efficacy in cultivating gamification and a nuanced understanding of climate-related topics among learners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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]

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]

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]

While many early-career engineers in the United States leave the field of engineering in the first few years of their careers, we know little of their early professional experiences and reasoning for career plans. We conducted 33 semi-structured interviews with early-career engineers, comparing the experiences of engineers across intersections of gender and race. In particular, we examine meaningful early-career experiences and how these connect to the innate needs of autonomy, competence, and relatedness, as well as career intentions. Top moments on the job were often first-time experiences and milestones that enhanced the engineers' sense of competence. Meaningful moments connected to relatedness were more often positive than negative experiences for White men, whereas experiences undermining relatedness were more common for people of color and/or women. Connections to autonomy emerged more in bottom moments, especially for White engineers. Across different intended career pathways, early-career engineers often evaluated their experiences regarding their ability to work effectively and through social validation from peers and managers (or undermined by a lack thereof). The results indicate the need for a greater understanding of early-career affordances in supporting entry and retention in the engineering workforce by promoting individual effectiveness and social validation. [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]

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]

Presented here is a novel engineering degree initiative established at Charles Sturt University (CSU), Australia. This program embodies emerging trends and prospects in engineering education, aspiring to nurture adept engineers well-prepared for practical application. Furthermore, this paper delves into the application of this program for training the next generation of water engineers, equipping them with indispensable skills to confront novel challenges. The CSU Engineering program incorporates several attributes commonly found in progressive engineering curricula. It places significance on work-based learning and encompasses an extensive 6000-hour industrial work placement. This emphasizes student self-reflection, engineering design, robust academic leadership, the integration of educational innovation and novel tools for scholastic exploration, and comprehensive student assessment. Gaining robust industry support, the CSU Engineering program garners recognition as an exemplar for future education. The adaptability, professionalism, responsibility, and leadership exhibited by CSU cadets are highly regarded by their industrial partners. Feedback highlights the consistent advancement of cadets' soft skills, spanning teamwork, communication, leadership, community engagement, and interpersonal relations. Notably, CSU cadets receive substantial remuneration from their industrial engagements. Despite the challenges posed by COVID-19 restrictions, the CSU Engineering program continues to operate seamlessly with minimal disruption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We construct a new procedure for clustering partially masked images from wafer bin maps (WBMs). A WBM is an image of bin codes from circuit probe tests on a wafer after a semiconductor manufacturing process. Certain defect patterns of WBMs provide engineers with information to isolate manufacturing problems. The engineers prefer to see the identified defect patterns in clusters. Then they may match each cluster to a well-known defect type or they could easily see if there are new defect patterns. However, the WBMs may be masked at a large area due to the sequential circuit probe tests for bin codes. WBMs may also have various proportions of noise. There are two major contributions of this research. First, our method of locally iterative interpolation for the image reconstruction of masked WBMs will recover certain parts of the original patterns. Second, we proposed a new modified Radon transformation to extract features for better clustering of partly masked WBMs. We demonstrated our procedure on synthetic WBMs with various defect pattern types and levels of masking through a simulation study. The image patterns of WBMs during simulation were observed from a specific kind of real wafer product. [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]

Regulation is usually justified by the public interest in theory but in practice may end up serving special interests. This paper evaluates the regulatory frameworks for engineers and engineering technologists in Kenya with the view to establishing whether they take the public interest into consideration or only other special interests. Taking public interest into account is necessary to foster development and avoid regulatory conflicts. The study used qualitative document analysis (QDA) to collect and analyze the documentary data available in relevant statutes, namely the Engineers Registration Act (1969–2012), the Engineers Act (from 2012), and the Engineering Technology Act, as well as the Auditor-General's annual reports. The main aim of the study is to establish whether the regulators are motivated by public interest or not. The findings are that public interest is not the main goal because regulators focus on non-regulatory activities such as business investments, there is capture of regulatory instruments by the regulator, there is limited inclusion of other actors in the regulatory operations, there is engagement in extraprofessional activities with the risk of distraction from the core mandate of professional regulation, there is budgeting for excess funds, a lack of clear definition of the public interest in the relevant sections of the statute. The findings confirm pursuit of special interests by the regulators, rather than the public interest. The main contribution of the study is that in developing and African countries, regulatory mechanism of professions can be captured by the regulators to further narrow or special interests, just as it happens with the regulation of businesses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In response to the challenges faced by post-disaster construction, the present study endeavours to offer an improved solution in a practical manner. To this end, a critical analysis of modular systems that can be employed in post-disaster construction is conducted, which is succeeded by the set of required features. Considering these features, a system based on modular prefabricated components (MPC) is presented, which effectively eliminates all hitches while demonstrating facilitated solutions. From a practical standpoint, a comprehensive description of the structure's dimensions, assembly steps and design constraints are proffered, accompanied by primary structural analysis factoring in the highest risk categories. The applicability and limitations of the system in post-disaster scenarios are also discussed in comparison to other modular construction methods. The findings indicate that the system exhibits high levels of disjoint-ability and collectability, flexibility and customisability, developability and repairability, in addition to being cost- and time-efficient. Furthermore, it demonstrates a favourable response to the predicaments posed by post-disaster situations, such as logistics, construction process, safety, seismic behaviour and environmental effects. Overall, this research highlights the applicability and potential of MPC systems in post-disaster construction and delivers a valuable output for policymakers, managers, architects and engineers involved in this regard. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article traces the career of the Greek Orthodox Ottoman engineer George Franghia, who served for a decade and a half at the end of the nineteenth century as the engineer of the District of Jerusalem. Franghia, a brilliant and prolific engineer whose name has almost entirely disappeared from the annals of Late Ottoman Jerusalem, was responsible for numerous infrastructure projects, construction plans, and an ambitious vision for modernization which would have completely changed the nature of the city and District of Jerusalem had they been fully implemented. It presents his achievements, and the vicissitudes of his lengthy career, which eventually led him to serve the central Ottoman authorities in Istanbul including the Sultan himself, despite being involved in numerous other initiatives in Jerusalem, both private and public. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, an engineer at Google, Blake Lemoine, claimed that a chatbot he had designed had learned to have intelligent conversations with him. But that's a far cry from how AI folks typically think of computers and artificial intelligence. Now, because the system acts "intelligently", AI nerds, like that Google engineer Lemoine, mistakenly conclude that the system is "intelligent.". [Extracted from the article]

The transfer of technical artifacts from industrialized countries to other parts of the world is nowadays a common and everyday occurrence. But the differences in the cultural backgrounds of societies, and the cultural and social consequences of technological incursion on destination societies have led to conflicts and dichotomies that have sometimes destroyed the cultural infrastructure of these destination societies. Therefore, making changes to imported technologies and the possibility of developing technology based on the needs of the native culture have been indispensable necessities for destination communities. In this article, we explore the possibilities surrounding this issue and look for a solution to be implemented. To this end, we first review and critique the views of scholars of science and technology studies and also of the philosophy of technology, and in particular look at the work of Ihde and Feenberg. We found their answers to these questions to be constructive but lacking a holistic approach that is also practicable. Finally, by presenting a three-step solution of our own, we try to bridge the gap and link the ideas of thinkers and the real issues of technology and culture in non-industrial societies. We believe these three steps offer a way to indigenize various forms of imported technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the things I appreciate about the engineering studies community is that we are welcoming of new scholars, both those who are early in their career and those who are turning to engineering studies after having developed their career in other academic spaces. I insist that my students and potential authors minimize the passive voice whenever possible not just for the reasons of clarity, described above, but because of the philosophical and epistemological differences undergirding the language we use. The passive voice exemplifies what Donna Haraway called "a view from above, from nowhere".[3] It presumes that knowledge is objective and that the context of the research and the personhood of the researcher are irrelevant. [Extracted from the article]

Stone columns are widely used around the world as cost-effective soil improvement techniques for highways and embankments. They are also used as drainage to expedite the consolidation period, and accordingly to increase the allowable pressure, reduce settlement, and reduce the liquefaction potential for shallow foundations. Currently the design of these columns is based on the unit cell or homogenised material concepts, which neglect the effect of the interaction of the columns. This paper presents a 3-D numerical model using the finite element technique and the commercial software 'ABAQUS' to simulate the case of a group of stone columns installed in soft clay. The model is capable of capturing the interaction between columns and the surrounding soil and of establishing the mode of failure of the system. After validating the model with the available experimental results, it was used to predict the allowable pressure and the failure mechanism of groups of stone columns for given geometry/soil conditions. An improvement factor was introduced 'IF', which is defined as the ratio of the capacity of the improved to the unimproved soft clay. The results of this investigation are presented in the form of design charts to assist the engineer to determine the level of improvement needed to achieve a given allowable pressure for the foundation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay investigates the notion of counterproduction in the writings of Alexander Kluge. In Kongs große Stunde (2015), Kluge identifies counterproduction as an essentially reparative practice. It combines a constructive ethos of care with the deconstructive attitude of critique. In this sense, repair work as counterproduction offers a model to overcome the age-old dichotomies of theory and praxis, as well as analysis and synthesis. As a form of critical labor of intelligence, it also offers a new perspective on current debates on the value of critique in the humanities in general and literary studies in particular. The objects of (literary) critique transform from matters of fact into matters of concern. Repair workers like the engineer or the bricoleur are attentive to the precariousness of all artifacts. For them, (literary) objects are in constant need of care. They (re-)construct and maintain integrity and functionality by (re-)assembling seemingly random and heterogeneous elements in an open-ended process, thus producing the poetic vision of a future not based on the demands of Capitalist production but on counterproductive repair work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A Construção do Algarve. Manuel Gomes da Costa was the architect who mediated and reconciled all the contradictions in the process of stabilizing an idea of regional and modern Algarve architecture over the four decades dissected in the book. The author attributes this simplification to the still outstanding contribution of Raul Lino and, in the architectural practice of the 1930s, sees the "modernist vernacular" as a third way to the Algarve's identity. [Extracted from the article]

Ecosystem engineers influence the physical environment, which changes the distribution and availability of resources to other organisms. Based on their burrowing abilities, freshwater crayfish have been widely recognised as ecosystem engineers. Crayfishes construct burrows that range from simple, rudimentary depressions in aquatic systems, to complex, labyrinth-like terrestrial burrows that may be significant distances from permanent water bodies. Here, we investigate ecosystem engineering and burrowing of the slender crayfish, Faxonius compressus, which lives in lotic environments characterised by an abundance of small cobble- and gravel-sized substrates. Without larger substrates to burrow under, we found F. compressus populations construct extremely high densities of burrows across riffle, run and pool macrohabitats. Based on the average number of burrows, a 5 × 100 m pool is estimated to contain an average of 25,860 burrows. We also conducted behavioural observations of this species to glean information on their natural history. Faxonius compressus regularly inhabits and competes for ownership of burrows which serve as a shelter from predators. Importantly, these burrows are not only used by F. compressus; we documented other crayfishes and fish species utilising these burrows. In total, we documented two other crayfishes and six fish species utilising F. compressus burrows. We discuss the ecosystem engineering abilities of this species in relation to other crayfish and suggest future avenues of research to elucidate this species' natural and life history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Kevin Scharp's influential work on the alethic paradoxes combines an extensively developed inconsistency theory with a substantial conceptual engineering project. I argue that Scharp's inconsistency theory is in tension with his conceptual engineering project: the inconsistency theory includes an account of concepts that implies that the conceptual engineering project will fail. I recommend that Scharp revises his account of concepts, and show how doing so allows him to resolve the tension. The discussion is important for ongoing work on conceptual engineering. Firstly, it is important to get clear on whether Scharp's conceptual engineering project is – or could be – successful. Secondly, the issues discussed herein may generalise to other conceptual engineering projects, such as explication and ameliorative projects. In particular, the discussion has implications for how conceptual engineers can think about concepts and their relation to how we use words. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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]

An interview with Nicholas Bergh, a sound restoration engineer and owner of Endpoint Audio Labs is presented. When asked about Endpoint Audio Labs and his specialty, he said that his work primarily revolves around preserving and restoring archival audio, focusing on both commercial recordings in need of improvement and challenging projects involving ethnographic recordings or interviews for documentaries.

"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]

The article explores the relationship between humans and other animals, technology, and engineering practices in a project testing Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) in the arctic. Generally, roads are engineered to promote efficiency and predictability for transport. However, in the arctic northern region of Norway, animals sometimes challenge these virtues. Using Goffman's notion of frames and Callon's concept of overflow as theoretical starting points, the article explores how transport engineers develop intelligent transport infrastructure and envision ways of including animals and other non-humans in the engineers' framing of the road. The engineers first and foremost implement new technological artefacts, which allow them to survey the road in a manner which makes nature's overflows onto the road more manageable. However, these artefacts do not merely contain nature in the engineers' frame—the engineers also envision humans, in this case, motorists, to change their practices. As such, the engineers' attempts to contain animals in a particular frame entail using technology to assemble a new relationship between nature and culture. Taking nature into account when planning and developing infrastructure means reassembling a particular nature-culture relationship. Thus, the article points out that in order to engineer nature, it is also necessary to engineer culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dr. Kenneth John Bell, a prominent figure in the field of chemical engineering and heat transfer, passed away in 2023. He was a founding editor and the first editor-in-chief of Heat Transfer Engineering, a respected journal in the field. Dr. Bell had a distinguished career, including positions at Oklahoma State University and General Electric, and he made significant contributions to the design of heat exchangers. He was also involved in various consulting and research projects, and received several awards for his work. Dr. Bell is remembered for his expertise, dedication, and contributions to the field of process heat transfer. [Extracted from the article]

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]

Therefore Graph HT ht is a right triangle. Well, obviously if they are the same in the corresponding locations (so Graph HT ht generalizes), then they will be congruent. The general case ( I n i > 6) can be easily derived from the hexagons adjoining a suitable ( I n i - 4)-gon (see Graph HT ht in Figure 7). [Extracted from the article]

Corpus evidence suggests that in contexts in which the presence of multiple antecedents might favor plural reference, the disadvantage observed for singular reference may disappear if the potential antecedents are combined in a group-like plural entity. We examined the relative salience of antecedents in conditions where the context either made a group interpretation available (i.e., mereological entity) (e.g., The engineer hooked up the engine to the boxcar ..., where group = train), or not (e.g., The engineer detached the engine from the boxcar ...). Results from three experiments in which participants were asked to identify referents for singular versus plural pronouns (Experiment 1), to confirm the referents of pronouns in a sentence completion task (Experiment 2), and to provide paraphrases for given texts (Experiment 3), collectively provided evidence that the creation of a group makes that entity (i) a possible referent for singular anaphoric reference and (ii) more salient than its constituents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated the relationship between generational cohorts and job retention as influenced by coping strategies. Participants were a convenience sample of 151 full-time South African engineers (Generation X: 1961 to 1980 = 47.7%; white = 66.9%; male = 89.4%). Participants completed the Positive Coping Behaviour Inventory (PCBI) as well as the Retention Factors Behaviour Inventory (RFBI). A stepwise regression analysis revealed no age cohort differences in terms of job retention. However, affective positive (emotion-focused) coping significantly predicted satisfaction with retention factors. No differences were found in term of the demographic variables. Human resource practitioners should prioritise innovative work coping mechanisms that will guide retention strategies within the engineering sector in South Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the multifaceted political and cultural meanings of electrical supply and technologies in a context of recent loss of an empire and a contested nation-building process. It explores how some Spanish engineers employed electricity to articulate a nationalist modernism that saw electricity as a secure path to development and industrialization, particularly following the final collapse of the overseas empire in 1898. At a time in which several groups confronted the challenges of Spanish modernization and the reconfiguration of post-imperial national identity, electricity became involved in several socio-technical (and energy) imaginaries as well as in techno-political strategies. However, conceptions of how the new 'electrified' future should look like varied greatly, especially when dealing with the specifics of designing large-scale electrical infrastructures. Given the diverse professional, social, and political outlooks of the different Spanish engineering communities, mobilisations of electricity were inscribed within complex and evolving social and political agendas. This article highlights the need to understand electrification – and by extension, energy transitions – as a contingent process that must be adapted to pre-existing political and socio-cultural forms to ensure the most socially inclusive and culturally nuanced account of its heterogeneity. [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 objective of this paper is to investigate the influence of various geometrical uncertainties of analytical modelling affecting the evaluation of building deflections induced by tunnelling or mining subsidence. Based on Winkler model coupled with an elastic Euler-Bernoulli beam, an analytical approach is applied to evaluate the influence of major sources of uncertainties related to the Soil-Structure Interaction (SSI) geometric conditions and properties, namely, the free-field ground movement profile, the building position with respect to the settlement curvature and the variability of the structure stiffness caused by the heterogeneity of structural materials and openings (doors, windows, etc.). A comparison of results from various configurations is done to evaluate the degree to which the developed analytical approach reproduces reality. Results reveal a discrepancy in the structure response by considering these uncertainties in the entire domain of variation of the SSI parameters. For an operational use, a coefficient A is proposed; this coefficient can be used by engineers and designers when evaluating the building damage induced by the transmission of ground movements to structures taking into consideration these uncertainties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The evaluation of building energy performance requires a baseline for comparison. Common empirical baselines are usually used for existing buildings since they are fast and convenient. However, the same type of building at the same location will receive the same baseline despite their difference in usage. Individualized baselines by creating building energy models are possible solutions, but it is labor intensive and time-consuming. To fill the gap, this study is to develop individualized empirical baselines for existing buildings in a fast way. First, common empirical baselines are created based on survey data. Then, to get training samples, building energy models for large-scale existing buildings are created and simulated. Finally, based on simulation results, mathematical models to get individualized empirical baselines in a fast way are created. U.S. medium office buildings were used as an example to demonstrate the method. We developed 30 mathematical models for medium office buildings in two vintages (constructed before 1980 and after 1980) and 15 climate zones. The mean absolute percentage errors (MAPE) between the individualized empirical baselines and the modeled baselines for those 30 mathematical models are all lower than 5.5%. An engineer can obtain the individualized empirical baseline for an existing building in a few seconds by using the open-source tool we developed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wear phenomenon impact the operating efficiency and service life of engineering materials due to the influence of surface interaction at different working conditions. Successive tribological studies on wear-resistant materials in the last decade is estimated at approximately 40% of friction and wear, including laboratory tests. Most locally improvised wear testers in accordance with American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) and European (EN) standards, though, achieve 95-97% parametric accuracies with reduced cost, they hardly harmonize degradation and Archards coefficients for all possible wear factors, providing little data for simulation of mechanical and chemical wears which are responsible for non-uniform aggregation of wear patterns in practice. Complexities of intermeshing factors which combine to influence the effectiveness of developed test devices span over loads, speeds, temperatures, pressures, and ambience for various applications. This study highlights the techniques of wear characterization, test standards, and wear reduction with emphasis on surface texturing for improved eta/beta phase rearrangements at low working temperatures in the enhancement of grain contraction during high bias-voltage cathodic substrate multi-phase coating, phosphating during pretreatments using peening techniques, residual stress reduction during cryogenic heat treatments as well as the impact of suitable architectural matrix composite strengthening, microstructures, and material reinforcements as suitable factors to influence improved tribological behaviors in materials. Optimal additive manufacturing (AM-fabricating) techniques with pretreatments, thermal cycling, and tempering can engineer enhanced anti-tribocorrosion in automotive components. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Technology development opens up for new possibilities to facilitate the production processes through digital information systems. To optimize the systems' value, the form, content, and medium must fit the needs of the workers. This article aims to contribute to the discussion on value, use and design of digital assistance systems for production. It presents empirical data from a case study at a Norwegian shipyard, on production workers' perception of coordinative challenges, and the value (including content) of digital assistance systems in complex shipbuilding projects. A quantitative survey among supervisors and operators at the shop floor was conducted twice due to different circumstances at the yard. These variations in circumstances are valuable to enable an evaluation of the workers' perception of coordinative challenges and digital solutions in different situations. The findings indicate a pronounced positive attitude towards the potential of digital systems. Moreover, the role of supervisors and operators in coordinative challenges leads to different requirements to the solutions. The results from this study will have both industrial and scientific implications, as they provide valuable insights to help develop user-friendly systems that aid both workers and the company in terms of efficiency and accurate communication. [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]

In today's world, people need sleeker devices with better functionality and longer battery life. This can be achieved by integrating more components onto smaller chips, resulting in a shift to low-geometry chip design. However, power dissipation due to dynamic and static currents is more prominent in all ICs, resulting in an increase in overall power consumption. Estimating power dissipation early will provide more accurate usage of power pads/strips and help floor plan engineers do power planning efficiently. As you provide more details about your design characteristics, the estimation of power will be accurate. The major focus of this work is to give an alternative solution to predict the power dissipation of integrated circuits using a machine learning approach in both pre and post layout. The proposed work uses supervision models and algorithms like Linear regression, KNN, SVM, and RF for power prediction and a comparative study is made between power estimates made using ML algorithms and by the Cadence EDA tool for a particular technology for various bench circuits. The average error is less than 4% when we compare the estimated power using ML and by using the Cadence EDA tool and shows that for estimation of power in integrated circuits, Random Forest is a well-suited algorithm with an error percentage varying from 2 to 4. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How can we make software services evolve safely and be long-lived? By designing on the premise of microservices, the services become loosely coupled, which can localise the changes in the system and accelerate the changes. However, from a medium- to long-term perspective, it is not easy to respond to changes in technology trends, business changes including legal revisions, and changes in user requirements among the changing project members. We propose DevFemOps as a way to enhance maintainability and achieve continuous quality improvement, coining the term DevFemOps to place Formal Engineering Methods at the center of the DevOps cycle. We also define the DevFemOps QA engineer as a new role within the agile development squad that is responsible for the quality of the product. In this paper, we will describe how the DevOps cycle, with QA engineers at the center, can bring us closer to the goal of DevFemOps. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The white-lipped peccary (Tayassu pecari) is considered a key species for its role as an ecosystem engineer. Given their important ecological function, there is a great concern in the scientific community regarding the many reports of disappearances or great abundance reductions throughout its distribution (from southern Mexico to northern Argentina). Based on an extensive survey effort, we report new data of presence of WLP after a period of no detections in the Argentine Yungas. The study was conducted in the Yungas ecoregion, provinces of Jujuy and Salta, Argentina. Data was collected from camera trap, direct sightings and footprints during 2013–2021. From a total of 30,186 trap nights, we obtained 8 WLP detections. There were no detections before 2017, while as of 2018 there was at least one camera trap record in each of the years. Additionally, opportunistic records were obtained yearly from 2019 to 2021. The period without detections could be related to a period of a population cycle, as suggested in different regions of America during the last century, being disease the most likely cause. These cycles generally follow a pattern of a rapid population decline, a period of absence or low abundance followed by slow population growth. We believe that if the trend continues and the number of detections increases, we could be facing the early stages of the increase phase in the WLP population cycle in the Argentine Yungas. This type of report is important to document and contribute to a better understanding of the WLP population cycle process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Engineering occupations coevolved with industries producing material outputs: mining, construction, manufacturing. Yet wealthy economies have long been moving toward intangible services, the products of industries including finance, wholesale and retail trade, entertainment, travel and transportation, health care, and the public sector (including, e.g. much of education). For the United States the shift is evident in statistical data going back well over a century and services now account for nearly 90 percent of all employment. The job share is lower for engineers, but even so the majority work for service-producing entities. Entanglement and interdependence of services and goods hinders understanding of the dynamics, as does rapid growth in jobs classed in official employment statistics as computer-related even though much of the work resembles engineering. Because of this, field studies that explore actual job content will be needed to develop clearer pictures of the everyday tasks employers assign technical workers in postindustrial economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Engineers rely on communication skills to collaborate and make decisions across boundaries. This research seeks to examine an under-explored communication practice of engineers in work environments – persuasive communication. Research on persuasive communication (i.e. practices seeking to influence) includes extensive explorations within laboratory settings and certain contexts (e.g. healthcare, politics), yet should be further expanded within the engineering context. Using a multiple case study approach, we explored engineers' communication practices across three organizations as they sought to negotiate, build consensus, persuade, and make decisions across boundaries. Engineers within this study commonly used persuasive communication to gain access to resources, align goals, and influence design decisions. These practices are presented through three narratives constructed based on the analysis of interviews and meeting observations as well as a rich understanding of the context. The narratives illustrate six emergent features of persuasive communication: (1) emotional engagement, (2) credibility of those involved, (3) audience consideration and power dynamics, (4) timing, (5) adaptability, and (6) shared situation awareness. These results highlight the pervasiveness of persuasive communication within engineering practice, providing a foundation for future work. The findings also have implications for supporting the development of engineering students and early career engineers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As part of a departmental reform project, a large University converted a "Precalculus College Mathematics" lecture-based course for 97 students into an active learning flipped classroom for first-year engineering students. The curriculum was designed specifically to provide applications of pre-calculus in various engineering subjects. This paper outlines the course evolution, design features, ongoing adjustments made to the course, and quantitative data from the common examination and course evaluations to support the instructional design. The paper concludes with a reflection on which aspects of the learning environment helped facilitate successful learning and guidance for future implementations of a large-scale flipped undergraduate mathematics classroom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The false mussel Mytilopsis sallei (Récluz, 1849) invaded the Songkhla Lagoon System in southern Thailand more than two decades ago. The false mussel forms dense beds, creating three-dimensional habitat structures on soft substrata which harbour a myriad of organisms. We compare a community of benthic macroinvertebrates in a habitat modified by M. sallei with a community in an unmodified habitat. The study focused on a canal feeding into the southern end of the lagoon system and covered three seasons (north-east monsoon season, dry season and south-west monsoon season) in a 12-month period. A total of 26 taxa were present in the modified habitat and 22 in the unmodified habitat. In the modified habitat, abundances of other byssally attached bivalves, flatworms and some species of amphipods were more than an order of magnitude greater than abundances in the unmodified habitat. Differences in the community composition between habitats were observed but were dependent on sampling location and time. Although the modified habitat hosted greater numbers of species and individuals in most comparisons, the Shannon–Wiener index and Pielou's evenness index were lower for this habitat as it tended to be dominated by a few taxa. The results highlight the role of M. sallei as a habitat engineer that promotes species richness and abundance of some benthic macroinvertebrates. Nonetheless, temporal variation in environmental drivers, especially salinity, might also be important in determining biodiversity in the studied estuarine system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses a little-known history of the Architectural Association's (AA) short-lived Environmental Access course in the 1990s, a course that was designed not just 'for' but vitally 'constituted of' disabled people. It reflects on the legacy and implications of the course founder—Andrew Walker, a well-known tutor at the AA who was injured in an accident and wheelchair-bound for the remainder of his life. The course, viewed through the allegory of the lift at 36 Bedford Square, is a micronarrative meditation on repair, maintenance, and inheritance—of institutional values, priorities, and the need for reparative curricula. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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]