Search

Examines various topics related to education, careers, and social status in China. Indicates that advantages of science/technology careers are the direct result of recently adopted policies designed to encourage and make better use of China's scientists and engineers. Comments on political factors which help shape career choice are included. (JN)

Archives and oral histories show that the Ming Tombs Reservoir was a showcase project in Communist China directed by and involving the country's top leaders. This was one of the first projects to rely on the mobilization of physical labor rather than specialized machinery, driven by a belief in self-reliance and the use of local resources. It argues that the focus on the "masses," rather than engineers or scientists, challenged established engineering procedures and technical traditions. Historical evidence suggests that adopting a "build while being designed" mindset and mobilizing the "masses," projects could be completed, but often in ways that ultimately proved less than optimal. The case study suggests that innovations fail when local enthusiasm and technical knowledge are not balanced. By focusing on the role of the "masses" in shaping a novel technological landscape, this article highlights "mass engineering" to better understand this model of native innovations and economic autarky. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Engineers operate in an increasingly global environment, making it important that engineering students develop global engineering competency to prepare them for success in the workplace. To understand this learning, we need assessment approaches that go beyond traditional self‐report surveys. A previous study (Jesiek et al., Journal of Engineering Education 2020; 109(3):1–21) began this process by developing a situational judgment test (SJT) to assess global engineering competency based in the Chinese context and administering it to practicing engineers. Purpose: We built on this previous study by administering the SJT to engineering students to explore what prior experiences related to their SJT performance and how their SJT performance compared with practicing engineers' performance on the SJT. Method: Engineering students completed a survey including the SJT and related self‐report survey instruments. We collected data from three groups of students: those who had studied abroad in China; those who had studied abroad elsewhere; and those who had not studied abroad. Results: We found that students' SJT performance did not relate to their scores on the self‐report instruments, but did relate to their participation in study abroad programs. The students also performed better on the SJT when compared to the practicing engineers. Conclusions: Our results highlight the need to use multiple forms of assessment for global engineering competence. Although building evidence for the validity of the Global Engineering Competency China SJT is an ongoing process, this data collection technique may provide new insights on global engineering competency compared to traditionally used assessments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Remote sensing images and related stereoscopic illusions, such as stereoscopic illusion, often confuses engineers and technicians. In order to utilize the beneficial illusion and eliminate the harmful one, this paper studied the relationship between graphics and background from the Necker Cube in visual psychology. Through experiments and engineering practice, this paper further analyzed the types, principles and conditions of stereoscopic illusion in remote sensing image railway engineering mapping, and discussed its application and correction methods. The conclusions are as follows: (1) Stereoscopic illusion is common in remote sensing images of mountainous areas in the northern hemisphere, and the first and second steps of terrain in China are typical. (2) The three geomorphic types that produce stereoscopic illusion are: sinusoidal continuous mountain area, "Π" platform and "U" gully. (3) The causes of stereoscopic illusion include sunshine conditions, image resolution and image contrast. (4) The stereoscopic illusion of water body can be divided into three situations: bulge effect, confusion effect between bulge and depression, and depression effect. (5) The stereo illusion of remote sensing images of sinusoidal topography and Π-shaped gullies can be corrected by DEM rendering method and 3D scene method, U-shaped gullies can be corrected by 3D scene method only. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: In China, external supervision on construction safety mainly comes from the government and supervision engineers (SEs). However, the construction safety supervisory mechanism (CSSM) contains some dilemmas affecting the improvement of safety performance, such as the declining impact of SEs, the increasing rent-seeking behaviors of contractor and excessive government interference. This study aims to depict and analyze the CSSM in China from an evolutionary game view. The objectives are to understand the supervision strategy and evolutionary behaviors of different stakeholders, propose suggestions for improving safety performance and help the key safety supervision stakeholders, especially the government, formulate a suitable safety supervision strategy. Design/methodology/approach: This research uses tripartite dynamic evolutionary game theory to study the CSSM in China and solve the stable equilibrium solution using system dynamics. Findings: This study has revealed the game relationship of construction safety supervision mechanisms in China and solved the stable equilibrium solution. The results prove that a supervision engineer (SE) plays a crucial role in the CSSM, and "supervision engineer useless" is an unreasonable assertion. For government supervision agency (GSA), excessive inspection and free-market regulation are neither wise strategies. GSA can reduce the inspection frequency when general contractors (GCs) input high safety investments and SEs implement responsible supervision. But keeping proper government supervision to avoid GC's unlawful behaviors and SE's rent-seeking is indispensable. In addition, excessive governmental supervision will weaken SE's role, so the government should transfer some supervision powers to SE. Originality/value: This study focuses on the dynamic evolution process between GSA, GC and SE. This method is different from most research that neglected the dynamic characteristic of system and game solution stability. The research methods not only contribute to construction safety supervision policy-making in China but also help to improve supervision efficiency in other countries and other fields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abandonment of the taken-for-granted attitude of territoriality in the studies of state space has been followed by diverse concerns and competing interpretations with different focuses notably on state–market relations, spatiality of social life, and relativization of scale. Inspired by Lefebvre's spatial triad, applied textual analysis, and in-depth interview, this study critically evaluates the Chinese practices of setting up National New Areas to reshape the trajectory of urban and regional development using the Liangjiang National New Area (LNNA). Our research foregrounds the relativizing dimensions of state space in which the creation of the LNNA was conceived, perceived, and lived by key stakeholders holding different positions and vested interests. The LNNA is the spatial manifestation of the special vision and mission of China's national developmental agenda and the adjustment of power relations within an authoritarian Party-state. However, it is a controversial project which requires negotiation, contestation, and reconciliation among grassroots people. This study shows that even in China, there existed pervasive negotiation and resistance from diverse stakeholders from the bottom up. Our research suggests an alternative perspective that goes beyond the popular dichotomy of state–market or society–space relations in the studies of state space and takes seriously the dialectical relations among the forces at work in the (re)production of state space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Chinese government has pointed out in relevant literature that by 2020, China is in short supply of high-level innovative technology talents, and China's engineering education will face unprecedented challenges. Based on the needs of China's future economic development, the Ministry of Education urgently launched the "Excellent Engineer Education and Training Program" in 2010, which aims to cultivate a large number of solid theoretical foundations, strong practical skills, and high innovation capabilities for the industry, the world, and the future. An outstanding engineer is the one who can quickly adapt to the needs of economic and social development. The program is divided into three levels of undergraduate, master, and doctoral training. The undergraduate level focuses on training in a series of high-quality applications capable of not only being competent in the management and marketing of the production site but also in the design, development, and operation of engineering projects. Talent: to achieve this training goal, the in-depth cooperation between schools and enterprises has become the key. In order to achieve the undergraduate-level training goals of the "Excellence Program," various local colleges and universities have adopted the method of school-enterprise cooperation, combined with their own school positioning, trying to explore a training path suitable for their own development. This research takes China's local application-oriented universities as the research object and uses the literature method to sort out and summarize the status quo of the school-enterprise cooperation in training outstanding engineers in China's local application-oriented universities. Select two different application-oriented universities located in areas with large economic development gaps, analyze their common problems, and try to put forward countermeasures and suggestions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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

Background: Over the past two decades, state policies and industrial associations have challenged engineering educators to expand the training of future engineers beyond technical competencies to the broader domain of professional skills development, with one key aspect being engineering leadership. Purpose: This study adopted the four capabilities (4‐Cap) model, which views leadership as a set of four capabilities—sensemaking, relating, visioning, and inventing—as a conceptual framework to explore and operationalize the core skills and attributes required for engineers in a Chinese industrial context. Method: A qualitative study was conducted through semistructured interviews with 23 practicing engineers from different industries (e.g., IT, automobile) and various types of companies (e.g., state‐owned companies, foreign‐invested enterprises) in China. Using a thematic analysis approach, themes relating to engineering leadership within and beyond the 4‐Cap model were reported. Results: Qualitatively, more themes emerged for the dimension of inventing than for the other dimensions. The themes and patterns suggested the central role of inventing, which predominantly represented an innovative process of design‐oriented problem‐solving and project management closely associated with themes in the other dimensions. Therefore, the 4‐Cap model was revisited and revised by highlighting the core construct of inventing. Conclusion: This study enriches the current understanding of engineering leadership, especially in a Chinese industrial context. The results emphasize the importance of design, problem‐solving, and the social component in the daily work of engineering professionals. Suggestions for educational practices and future research, along with a call for more empirical data on engineering leadership in China and from a global context, are proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The long-awaited Plaque Unveiling Ceremony for the 2020 and 2021 B Outstanding Structure Award b winners finally took place in China, after the Covid-19 lockdown and associated restrictions. At 55km, Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge (HZMB) is the world's longest sea-crossing link and consists of reclamations, artificial islands, immersed tunnels, marine viaducts and cable-stay bridges. [Extracted from the article]

Copyright of Transformations in Business & Economics is the property of Vilnius University and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Managers, research administrators, and policy makers need a greater understanding of the factors that drive employment preferences of foreign science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) doctoral graduates of U.S. universities. To address this need, the authors report the results of a large multischool conjoint survey of return-migration preferences among U.S. STEM doctoral students from China. The survey presents the respondents with potential job offers and yields individual-level estimates of each respondent's indirect utility of a job as a function of location, job status, and salary. The authors use a delayed follow-up choice task to demonstrate stability of the preference estimates both over time and across response modalities. The estimated preferences imply that Chinese doctoral graduates tend to remain in the United States because of a large salary disparity between the two countries rather than because of an inherent preference for locating in the United States. Given these estimated preferences, the authors conduct several policy-relevant, counterfactual simulations of return-migration choice and outline effective targeting and positioning strategy for attracting Chinese STEM talent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2016, Davis and Zhang surveyed 71 Chinese engineers to investigate the claim that the concept of "profession" may have a far wider range than the term. They concluded that China seems to have a profession of engineering (as Davis has long defined "profession") even though the Chinese still lacked an exact translation of the English term. In part, the survey reported here simply continues the work of Davis and Zhang. It confirms their result using a much larger, better educated, demographically different pool of 229 Chinese engineers. But, in part too, it does something else. It investigates the concept professional competence—the perceived knowledge, skill, and judgment that those surveyed attribute to themselves and other engineers. The article has four parts. The first part describes the basics of the survey (who was interviewed, how, when, and so on). The second part describes some important features of the survey's questions, explaining how the questions closely track both the concept of profession and the concept of professional competence. The third part reports and interprets the results relevant to the presence or absence of the concepts of profession and professional competence. The fourth part reports the conclusions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 2004, Nanyan Cao and some other scholars have implicitly or explicitly claimed that engineering ethics in China is importantly different from engineering ethics in the United States. The evidence for that claim relies on examination of official documents or certain large features of Chinese society (for example, millennia of Taoism, Confucianism, or Buddhism). Though neither is an uncommon approach to studying engineering ethics in China, neither actually studies engineering practice in China. This article does--or at least gets much closer. The authors have asked almost two hundred (Mainland) Chinese engineers about what they do and why they do it. The responses suggest that Chinese engineers, or at least those surveyed, think about engineering ethics much as American engineers do. The responses also suggest that much more empirical work needs to be done before we can claim to understand either the similarities or differences between engineering ethics in China and engineering ethics in "the West." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE) is one of the most important engineering institutions for Chinese engineers. The formal establishment of CAE, from its original conception in 1978 to its final birth in 1994, took almost 20 years. At present it has been in existence for two decades. Both the former decades-long emergence and the latter decades-long operation of CAE can be interpreted in terms of an interaction between expertise and politics. To understand the CAE's origins and operation, this paper will first examine how 'engineering' and 'engineer' have slightly different meanings in the historical and cultural context of China than in the West. Then it will focus on the decades-long creation of the CAE. In the 1970s, the proposal for a Chinese engineering academy was initiated by scientist and engineer members of the Chinese Academy of Science, as a result of both domestic and international influences. Through the 1980s and 90s, a few politicians jointly with those scientists and engineers made a crucial contribution to the founding of the CAE. Finally, the article offers an account of CAE's structure and operation during the first twenty years of its existence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Corporate R&D engineers, being usually the initiators of a patent, are important contributors to the patenting performance of their employers. Hence, patenting motives of R&D engineers encompass an interesting and promising research field. However, the literature on patenting motivation of the engineers in the corporate context is scarce. We apply self-determination theory on human motivation to investigate patenting motives of a sample of local R&D engineers in China employed by a European-based multi-national corporation. Factor analysis reveals four groups of motives: "reward and recognition", "reputation and promotion", "making a contribution" and "interest and sense of achievement". The results of multiple hierarchical regression show the influence of working climate on "making a contribution" and "interest and sense of achievement" motivation factors. Implications for patent management are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is presented in remembrance of Professor Mamoru Kawaguchi. He has won a great deal of recognition in China and could be cited as a great engineer. Three projects that have been realized successfully in Tianjin—that is, Yingbin Tower, Tianjin Museum, and Yongle Bridge—are presented. As an inspiring teacher, his remarkable personal quality can be found in three events held in China. The article concludes with his activities in conducting a technical tour of 2016 International Association for Shells and Spatial Structures Symposium and interview of a TV film in 2018. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Beijing municipal highway administration started to collect pavement condition data on its major expressways since 2006. It is advised in the Chinese practice standard that data collection shall be conducted on annual basis. However, pavement data are usually collected at different seasons of the year, which may cause significant seasonal variations in the observed condition. Moreover, for some reasons, data are missing for some of the pavement sections at certain years, which could bring up difficulties in performance model estimation and inference. These concerns have been simply neglected in past practice. This study proposed an unevenly spaced dynamic panel data model to investigate the seasonal patterns of a performance indicator called Ride Quality Index (RQI). A quasi-differencing approach was adopted for the estimation. Data collected from the 5th Ring Road of Beijing were used in the case study. It was found that RQI data collected during the fall season are expected to be lower than that collected during the spring or summer seasons. Findings from this research would be helpful to pavement engineers in using unevenly spaced pavement condition data for future condition estimation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aiming to solve the safety problems of high-speed railway operation and management, one new method is urgently needed to construct on the basis of the rough set theory and the uncertainty measurement theory. The method should carefully consider every factor of high-speed railway operation that realizes the measurement indexes of its safety operation. After analyzing the factors that influence high-speed railway safety operation in detail, a rough measurement model is finally constructed to describe the operation process. Based on the above considerations, this paper redistricts the safety influence factors of high-speed railway operation as 16 measurement indexes which include staff index, vehicle index, equipment index and environment. And the paper also provides another reasonable and effective theoretical method to solve the safety problems of multiple attribute measurement in high-speed railway operation. As while as analyzing the operation data of 10 pivotal railway lines in China, this paper respectively uses the rough set-based measurement model and value function model (one model for calculating the safety value) for calculating the operation safety value. The calculation result shows that the curve of safety value with the proposed method has smaller error and greater stability than the value function method’s, which verifies the feasibility and effectiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article describes China's century-long concern with the professional ethics of engineers, especially a succession of codes of engineering ethics going back at least to 1933. This description is the result both of our own archival research and of "philosophical history," the application of concepts from the philosophy of professions to the facts historians (or we) have discovered. Engineers, historians, social scientists, and philosophers of technology, as well as students of professional ethics, should find this description interesting. It certainly provides a reason to wonder whether those who write about codes of professional ethics as if they were an Anglo-American export unlikely to put down roots elsewhere might have overlooked many early codes outside English-speaking countries. While code writers in China plainly learned from Western codes, the Chinese codes were not mere copies of their Western counterparts. Indeed, the Chinese codes sometimes differed inventively from Western codes in form (for example, being wholly positive) or content (for example, protecting local culture). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gender differences in science and engineering (S&E) have been studied in various countries. Most of these studies find that women are underrepresented in the S&E workforce and publish less than their male peers. The factors that contribute to gender differences in experience and performance in S&E careers can vary from one country to another, yet they remain underexplored. This paper is among the first to systematically compare gender differences in the publication productivity of academic scientists and engineers with doctoral degrees in the U.S. and China. Findings from negative binomial regressions show that women publish less than their male counterparts in science but not in engineering in the U.S. In China, women do not differ from men in publication productivity in science but publish more than their male counterparts in engineering. In addition, we find that some background variables affect men's and women's publication productivity differently. The findings are analyzed in the context of the different cultures of the two fields (science vs. engineering) and of the two countries (the U.S. and China). Limitations and policy implications are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines prospects for personal success and upward social mobility in China in the 1980s. Distinct advantages enjoyed by those in scientific and engineering careers; Political factors that help shape career choice, including Communist Party membership as an asset.

Orion Engineered Carbons has begun constructing its second plant in China for speciality and high-performance carbon black, expanding the company's production capacity in one of the world's fastest-growing markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Engineering ethics is generated from the research on ethical issues caused by engineering activities. The development of engineering ethics in China was compared with that of European countries and the United States. Problems such as non-standard evaluation of registered engineers, weak ethical awareness, and lack of scientific understanding in engineering activities were discussed. Establishing and improving the system of registered engineers, strengthening education in engineering ethics, and promoting public participation will be the only way for the development of engineering ethics in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the discursive realisation of on-site problem-solving encounters in a large international construction project in Hong Kong. Specifically, the analyses focus on professional English as a lingua franca interactions between the engineers from Japan who are full-time employees of the company heading the joint venture, and contracted Hong-Kongese foremen and engineers. A combination of methods and several data sources are used to interpret the interlocutors' communications and relationships, and show how certain items, for instance problem , issue and if , as well as evaluative items such as metaphors and idioms, index discursive practices and patterns during problem solving. These data sources include fully transcribed spoken interactions, interviews with the participants and expert informants, and researcher field notes. The results shed light on the key intertextual role the contract plays in the context of construction industry problem solving, the various bodies that are involved in addressing complex problems, and the importance of the foreman and on-site engineer relationship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Continuous learning for professionals such as engineers has undergone sea changes around the world in the past few decades. This paper explores some of these changes in China. It starts by examining the learning experiences of five engineers and the training policies in three companies with different types of ownership. It shows three major learning pathways for engineers: shadowing, title and license-related learning, and further education. Associated with these learning pathways are issues such as differential training support from companies, tensions between the pursuit for professional standardization and experiential knowing, and gendered streaming. The paper further traces the changing institutional relations that work in concert to shape companies' investments in training and engineers' motivations for learning. Specifically, it maps the traditional vocational title system, the newly adopted practice licensure systems, as well as governmental sectoral regulations. The study pinpoints not only the pervasive power of state regulation, but also the profession's desire for internationalization or to 'connect rails' with the engineering educational and professional regulation systems in the West. Within this context, continuous development has increasingly become a professional mandate for engineers in China. It has also given rise to issues such as commodification of professional licences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the past three decades, China has become a major contributor to science and technology. China now employs an increasingly large labor force of scientists and engineers at relatively high earnings and produces more science and engineering degrees than the United States at all levels, particularly bachelor's. China's research and development expenditure has been rising. Research output in China has been sharply increasing since 2002, making China the second largest producer of scientific papers after the United States. The quality of research by Chinese scientists has also been improving steadily. However, China's rise in science also faces serious difficulties, partly attributable to its rigid, top-down administrative system, with allegations of scientific misconduct trending upward. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses several amendments to the Lifts and Escalators (Safety) Ordinance (Cap 327) (LESO) in Hong Kong as of April 2013. A lift accident which occurred in 2008 at the 35-storey Shin Hga House in Hong Kong is addressed, along with safety certifications and maintenance requirements for lifts and escalators under the LESO. Public consultation and the Building Services Operation and Maintenance Executives Society (BSOMES) are also examined.