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This paper addresses the role of engineering PhD education and its relationship to innovation and technology, and the need to reconsider how we educate PhD engineers. Much of the effort on engineering education in the last two decades focused on undergraduate education with a few exceptions that relate to master degree programs. Doctoral education in engineering prepares the next generation faculty, researchers, and technology leaders and warrants our attention. Whilst current education has been largely responsible for technological advances, there is a need for a new model of engineering PhD education that prepares renaissance engineers. This paper focuses on the doctoral education and its role in the USA; however, the issues addressed are universal among the countries that offer PhD degrees in engineering. (Contains 3 tables and 28 notes.)

Examines the role of engineers and their responsibilities in society, especially after the events of September 11, 2001. Suggests the need for a renaissance in engineering education and recommends cultivating a new generation of renaissance engineers based on the recognition of individual talent and customizing education accordingly. (Author/YDS)

This paper describes a measurement system designed to determine the hysteresis that develops between two surfaces as a result of small-amplitude tangential relative motion. Hysteresis is determined by measuring the tangential force and relative displacement of the contacting surfaces as they oscillate. These measurements also produce values of contact parameters such as friction coefficient and tangential contact stiffness. Although these parameters depend on the tribological properties, most of them also exhibit strong sensitivity to measurement errors. The measurement system described here avoids or at least reduces many of the measurement artifacts. This paper validates the measurement system by analyzing and estimating potential errors and describes corrections to systematic errors where possible.

Topographies of engineering surfaces normally have both random and periodic components, designated as surface roughness and waviness. True contacts between two such surfaces develop between the peaks, or asperities, on each surface. The waviness of the surfaces determines the spatial distribution of true contacts over the interface such that true contacts on wavy surfaces occur at and near the wave crests. This paper presents a computational method for analysis of contact between two rough wavy surfaces for which the nominal contact area may be arbitrarily large. The model used here combines local deflection of a contact point due only to the force acting on it with the non-local deflection of the same point due to forces at all other points of the surfaces. Using a three-stage loop similar to multi-level substructuring in finite element analysis and a nested iterative approach, the proposed method calculates the true contact area for a large number of asperity contacts, O([10.sup.3]). Results of calculations show how contact parameters change with external load and also demonstrate the validity of the method. [DOI: 10.1115/1.1467082]

In this paper, the combined effects of compressibility and fluid inertia in a squeeze film are considered. The governing equations are derived using an integral method for a one-dimensional case, initially considering a combination of Couette and Poiseuille flows. Numerical and experimental results are obtained for the case of a pure squeeze film between flat circular disks. Influence of the film geometry was examined by considering a cavity on the surface of one of the disks. The numerical solutions are obtained by use of the Crank-Nicholson method with Lax modification. Comparison of the numerical results for pressure in the film with the experimental results show good agreement. The inertia of the fluid is found to significantly influence the pressure waveform in the film by altering the phase of the pressure developed in the film with respect to the oscillating disk. It is shown that these phase changes lead to 'resonances' in the mean bearing force. The results also show that the mean bearing force can be superambient or subambient depending on the squeeze number. Both the damping and the bearing force show a 'jump' at a critical squeeze number. Damping due to the fluid layer is shown to be amplitude-dependent.