How would you feel about having your product launched into space?

That is exactly what Dr. Martin Castillo from Queensland University of Technology’s science and engineering faculty has to look forward to. Dr. Castillo is a researcher for the university’s micro-gravity drop tower and has partnered with the United States Air Force to fund research in the development of ZBLAN glass.

This special glass will also be the first QUT project to be launched into space.

ZBLAN glass is the most stable fluoride glass known and is most commonly used to make into optical fiber. The advantage of ZBLAN over other glass, such as silica, is superior infrared transmittance.

According to Castillo, the glass contains a variety of heavy metals that upon cooling “create internal stresses which lead to crystallization of the material, an undesired property for glass.”

‘True ZBLAN glass fibers can only be made in the absence of gravity,” Castillo said.

Working with the material in space allows for the absence of gravity and the ability to overcome the crystallization issues.

The Importance of ZBLAN Glass

We live in a telecommunications whirlwind. However fast our connections are now, we are always looking for faster, better, stronger products and networks.

The glass could revolutionize the way we make fibers for telecommunications and medical imaging tools. Dr. Castillo has found that there is little to no signal loss occurring within the material.

“Signals would be able to be transmitted over much greater distances than in current silicate glass fibers,” he said. “The result of this is potentially eliminating power consuming amplifiers and repeaters while significantly increasing bandwidth.

The glass has been made in several places, but no one has yet figured out how to form it into a fiber.

Dr. Castillo will first conduct research at QUT’s micro-gravity drop tower in an experiment that will see the glass undergo ~2.1 seconds of microgravity over a 21.3 meter drop inside a drag shield.

Dr Castillo, who has previously worked for space programs in the United States and Japan, will then board NASA’s parabolic flight plane, dubbed the ‘vomit comet’, before launching the project into space via a USAF suborbital satellite by mid next year.

“In order to stay at the leading edge of the synthesis of specialized glass, all traditional methods have to be abandoned,” Dr Castillo said.

Are you ready to find your dream engineering job? Contact The Talley Group today!

Not even the Jetsons had one of these.

German and Japanese researchers have created a new robot that not only has a human face but can replicate realistic human expressions.

The new “Mask-bot” has a smooth, featureless face, onto which its creators can project any number of realistic human expressions. It can use any 2-D photo of a human face to create a lively 3-D face of its own, one that is capable of looking happy or sad, quiet or loud. It can also become a human avatar by projecting real-time video of a person’s face onto itself during teleconferences, or perhaps helping distant family or friends connect.

“Mask-bot will influence the way in which we humans communicate with robots in the future,” said Gordon Cheng, a neuroscientist at the Institute for Cognitive Systems at Technical University Munich in Germany.

Mask-bot doesn’t quite avoid the “uncanny valley” feeling caused by faces that only look partially human. Still, projecting realistic faces may be much easier compared with creating a fully robotic face that would require many motors to simulate different facial expressions.

This type of robot builds on a concept pioneered by Walt Disney, who created exhibits in his “Haunted Mansion” ride by projecting the scary faces of actors onto featureless busts from the front. Instead, Mask-bot researchers installed a small, strong projector inside the robot head that beams a human face onto the back of the mask.

The most immediate use of Mask-bot could arise during video conferences, where the device could be used as an alternative to having people watch one another on screens. “With Mask-bot, you can create a realistic replica of a person that actually sits and speaks with you at the conference table,” said Takaaki Kuratate, an engineer at Technical University Munich. “You can use a generic mask for male and female, or you can provide a custom-made mask for each person.”

Mask-bot can create its own face based on computer algorithms that select the best facial expressions from real human faces recorded through motion capture. And it can already speak anything typed by a keyboard in English and Japanese, with German next on the list. Emotion software helps lend the expression and voice nuances to indicate emotions.

But making Mask-bot the face for a semi-intelligent robot remains tricky, because it can’t yet interact normally through human conversation. It remains limited to certain responses based on fixed programming.

That has not stopped the German-Japanese team from pushing ahead. They are already planning their next-generation robot, which would have a mask, projector and computer control system all in one package.

And as for more personal usage? “These systems could soon be used as companions for older people who spend a lot of time on their own,” Kuratate suggested.

Mask-bot is the result of collaboration with AIST, the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology in Japan.

While some companies still sort through piles of resumes,  and referrals still rank as the top means by which to bring on new talent, more and more companies are realizing that social media is now an important tool for identifying potential talent. If you’re looking for the perfect hire, there’s a good chance you’ll be able to find that person through a social media platform.

By engaging in social media sites like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, employers can target the talent they need and allow potential employees to learn valuable information about their businesses in a more transparent way than ever before.

Here are 5 tips for using social media to find potential hires:

1. Understand Their Demographics

Keep in mind the demographics of the most popular social media sites so you can target the right candidates. On LinkedIn, where users create online resumes within their profiles, users tend to be professionals with higher incomes. A high percentage of users are 55 and older. Twitter has the most diverse group of users in terms of race, income level and occupation, and Facebook’s demographics are starting to mirror the demographics of the U.S. The fastest-growing demographic on Facebook is women aged 55 and older.

2. Create a Centralized Platform

Create two pages on Facebook: a page for your business and a separate page strictly for recruitment purposes. This second page can serve as a centralized platform for your social media efforts. On your LinkedIn and Twitter profiles, direct job-related inquiries back to your Facebook recruitment page, where potential hires can see videos, photos, job postings and other information about your company. There are some applications that allow candidates to apply for a position through a social media site. If you’d rather receive applications through your company’s Web site, make sure you post a link that takes candidates directly to that page.

3. Be Proactive

Finding the right talent for your business isn’t just about screening people out based on the content you don’t like on their profiles. Screen people in, instead.

LinkedIn has an “Advanced” search box that allows you to search profiles based on keywords, industry, company and other criterion. If you want to go beyond LinkedIn’s free basic account, it offers three levels of paid accounts that provide features like organizing candidates’ profiles into folders and seeing more search results.

Facebook and Twitter have simpler search functions than LinkedIn, but you can find potential candidates by typing in the name of an industry, job title or university into the search bars.

4. Build Trust

Social media bridges the gap between the employer and the potential employee, giving candidates the opportunity to learn more about the employer and its brand.

Listen to what your audience is saying about you online. If you understand what people are saying, you’re going to be able to respond better to their questions. Establish user-to-user trust instead of just brand-to-user trust.

5. Allocate Time and Resources

Social media should only make up about 15% to 20% of your hiring efforts – whichever makes the most sense for your business. Social media shouldn’t replace traditional recruitment but should be a supplement.

A good rule of thumb is that if you have five employees who you trust to help with recruitment, ask each person to take 10 minutes a day on social media sites to hunt for potential candidates.

Is social media just a fad?

While social media is a fad that could pass with developments in future technology, what’s not a fad is the fact that social media has created a marketplace where employees can have a real discussion with future employers, instead of a static one. That more transparent avenue of communication is the evolution in recruiting that’s here to stay.

In August 2010, Chilean President Sebastian Piñera officially confirmed rumors that the 33 miners trapped in the depths of a San José mine were alive and well — in a refuge chamber almost a half mile underground. The news brought relief and joy to the miners’ families, but it also presented a difficult challenge: figuring out the best way to rescue the miners as soon as possible, which would involve technical and human challenges no one had faced before. Several options were considered, including drilling a rescue shaft with a raise borer, a machine designed to cut mine ventilation shafts.

But Chilean government authorities and the group of professionals in charge of the rescue did not rule out alternate solutions. Soon, two more ideas were suggested. One included widening an existing pilot hole using a water drilling rig; the other called for using oil field drilling technology with an oil-drilling rig. The three options were named Plans A, B and C, respectively.

In the end, Plan B was the first to reach the target.

The professionals, technicians and operators at Geotec Boyles Bros., an experienced drilling company already working at the San José mine, came up with Option B. They determined that their approach had one major advantage: By using one of the existing pilot holes, it was almost guaranteed further boring would connect with the target, unlike the other two methods.

Executives at Geotec contacted two nearby copper miners to ask if their drill rigs could be used for the task of widening the shaft. These companies also funded the project and provided a team of technical personnel led by three geologists.

Geotec also made the critical decision to use large-diameter air hammers instead of tricone bits to sink the hole faster and brought in four specialists from its U.S. affiliate, Layne Christensen.

On August 26, Geotec put Plan B into action, first ensuring the pilot hole was oriented as accurately as possible to reach the area of the underground workshop. In order to avoid flooding the space in which the survivors were living, the team drilled without downhole motors to direct the drill string, as this technology uses large quantities of water. Instead, rigid bars were introduced into the hole to guide the drill.

The miners provided information indicating where the drill had broken through, and the Geotec team began the second stage of the operation. Using the newly completed hole as a guide, they wanted to widen it to 28 inches, the diameter necessary to allow passage of a rescue capsule. They brought in a larger capacity machine typically used to drill deep water wells.

Advancing at a rate of 65 feet per day, the new rig had the advantage of using a previously drilled hole to facilitate the first stage of its job: drilling a 12-inch diameter bore. The team then had to figure out how to widen the shaft, an unprecedented challenge for the drill. It normally had the capacity to lift 130,000 pounds. The engineers from Schramm and Geotec performed an engineering study that showed them how to modify the hydraulic pressure to reach a capacity of 170,000 pounds.

The initial team coordination meeting was held at Geotec on September 5, and the Plan B drill team was ready to begin the following day. Over the next 33 days, Geotec’s operations were far from trouble-free. Four days in, drilling came to a halt when the nose of the hammer bit broke. The final 130 feet meant drilling through particularly hard and abrasive rock, forcing rig operators to fine-tune the drill several times.

On Saturday, October 9, the Plan B drill rig finally reached the underground workshop, creating the avenue of escape that would allow the rescue of the 33 miners to begin.

Who were the real heroes here? The trapped miners, or the engineering professionals who designed and accomplished their rescue?

In 1947, the earliest year for which there are reliable statistics, 0.3% of all engineers in the United States were women. By 1983, a little more than a decade after Congress had passed the Equal Employment Opportunity Act, the percentage was up to 5.8%. By the end of the millennium, after engineering colleges had spent millions of dollars making special efforts to woo and retain women students, the figure had almost doubled, to 10.6%.

According to 2001 Current Population Survey (CPS) data, one out of ten employed engineers was a woman, while two of ten employed engineering technologists and technicians were women. Among engineering specialties, industrial, chemical, and metallurgical/materials engineers were the only occupations in which women saw higher representation than the overall percent of total women engineers. Women made up 17 percent of all industrial engineers, 12 percent of metallurgical/metal engineers, and 11.5 percent of chemical engineers. Among all other engineering specialties–aerospace, mining, petroleum, nuclear, agricultural, civil, electrical or electronic, mechanical, marine, or naval architects–women represented fewer than 11 percent.

Now, more than 70 colleges and universities have programs geared toward females. There are major trade associations for female engineers, including the Society for Women Engineers,  the Women in Engineering branch of IEEE and the Women in Engineering ProActive Network (WEPAN), all of which work towards the promotion of women in the engineering field.

For years, though, researchers have struggled to understand why so many women leave careers in engineering. Theories run the gamut, from family-unfriendly work schedules to innate differences between the genders. A new paper by McGill University economist Jennifer Hunt offers a well-researched explanation: women leave engineering jobs when they feel disgruntled about pay and the chance of promotion. In other words, they leave for the same reasons men do.

Hunt combed through data collected by the National Science Foundation in 1993 and 2003 on some 200,000 college graduates. Her first finding was that about 21% of all graduates surveyed were working in a field unrelated to their highest college degree. That proportion held steady for both men and women. Yet in engineering, there was a gap: about 10% of male engineers were working in an unrelated field, while some 13% of female engineers were. Women who became engineers disproportionately left for other sectors. Why?

Hunt analyzed surveys that allowed respondents to indicate why they were working outside their field, suggesting options such as working conditions, pay, promotion opportunities, job location and family-related reasons. As it turned out, more than 60% of the women who left engineering did so because of dissatisfaction with pay and promotion opportunities. More women than men left engineering for family-related reasons, but that gender gap was no different than what Hunt found in non-engineering professions. “It doesn’t have anything to do with the nature of the work,” says Hunt.

The question now becomes why women engineers feel gypped when it comes to pay and promotion. Hunt ran a slew of statistical tests to see if she could detect any patterns. She did. Women also left fields such as financial management and economics at higher than expected rates. The commonality? Like engineering, those sectors are male-dominated. Some 74% of financial-management degree holders in the survey sample were male. Men made up 73% of economics graduates. And to take one example from engineering, some 83% of mechanical engineering grads were male.

How, exactly, being in a majority-male environment leads women to leave for reasons related to pay and promotion is unclear. Hunt’s study did not formally evaluate possible root causes.

Nonetheless, she concludes that making engineering jobs more family-friendly — by offering flexible work schedules, say — isn’t the solution. If we desire to keep women working as engineers, then the focus should be on creating work environments where women feel more able to climb the career ladder.

By Judy Talley

I am a person of habit.  If at all possible, I like to start my morning slowly with a tall mug of freshly brewed Kona coffee and the newspaper.

I’ve read that newspapers are going the way of the wing-window on the automobile.  This is evidenced by the fact that each day my local paper becomes thinner and thinner, and the news becomes less news and more commentary.  But, that is the topic of another blog.   As long as there is a puzzle section, I will pay my monthly subscription, and shuffle out to the street each morning, rain or shine, (and in Seattle there is lots of rain) to find my paper.  Why?  Because, I am a self-confessed SUDOKU junkie – and there is a SUDOKU puzzle in the newspaper every day.

For my readers who don’t play SUDOKU yet, and I emphasize, “yet”, it is a superb game of logic!  The newspaper version is easiest on Monday, presumably because one needs a break on Monday, and steadily becomes more difficult as the week progresses.  By Friday the SUDOKU is virtually impossible to solve without writing hints in the blocks which will be erased as the answer becomes evident. 

When I first started doing SUDOKU, I tried to do them in pen, as I often do crosswords.  What a disaster!  What a marked-over mess!  So, out of desperation, I sharpened up some # 2′s.  Very quickly I remembered why I had given up the pencil as an inferior writing instument at some early time in my scholastic history.  They were never sharp enough, often seemed too light to read easily, and the erasers smudged on the newsprint. 

I must have grumbled loudly; because, one day my husband, bless his heart, surprised me with an entire pack of disposable Papermate Sharpwriter #2 Mechanical Pencils.  Now, I know my Engineer readers will be stunned at this revelation; but, I honestly had rarely used a mechanical pencil.  I have a vague memory of using my Father’s once or twice as a young child, as he was a mechanical pencil devotee, but gave up pencils altogether, except for sketching, by the time I was seven or so. 

Imagine my surprise when I took the Sharpwriter in my hand.  The weight, diameter, balance and texture of the Sharpwriter #2 seemed -  perfect, absolutely – PERFECT.  No ridges!  The graphite was just the desired texture – not too thin, not to thick, and the eraser easily capable of cleaning up all of my numerical hints on newsprint with ease!  There was even a clip to slip over ones pocket-protector – if one was a pocket-protector kind of guy or gal!  Of course, I don’t need a pocket-protector in my robe and pajamas.  I fell in love!

I have five of these pencils sitting next to me on my desk as I write.  I pick one up and turn it over in my hand – and there it is – the piece d’ resistance, the cherry on top, the cream in my breve latte!  “U.S.A.” is stamped boldly and proudly on the side! 

Who designed this wonderful tool?  I imagine a group of Engineers sitting in small gray cubicles, in close proximity to one another, making design decisions.  “What type of graphite should we use? John, you do the study on that.”  “What diameter should the pencil barrel be?  Carol, you come up with the specs on that.”  “What kind of casing material shall we use – light yet sturdy?  Jeff, your specialty is plastics.  Bring us back a recommendation.”  “What kind of eraser material – soft and clean?  Darrell, you spend more time erasing than anyone else – you take the eraser.”  I can see it all so clearly. Kaizen!

Did anyone win a design award for the Sharpwriter?  They should have.   

 Someone once said, “It’s the simple things in life” that make us happy!  Yes. But let us never forget. So many of those simple things, the ones that just work the way they’re supposed to, have engineering thought and engineering skill behind them; or like designer Darrell,  just have lots of experience – erasing.

Sad but true, it’s often the case that the longer people are unemployed, the more trouble they have finding new work. And if you let it, long-term unemployment can ruin not only your sense of self-worth, but your well-being.

While the engineering field has not fared as badly as some others in this recent recession, job growth has been, and looks to remain, disappointingly slow. But there are jobs out there.

If you have been out of work for awhile, it may be time to revamp and refresh your job search – and your attitude. Let’s start by analyzing what you’ve been doing, then discuss what you should be doing.

1. How many hours a week do you spend looking for a job?

You should spend 20 to 30 hours a week looking for a new position, slightly less if you are working part-time or volunteering (more on that later). If you’re not devoting a good chunk of your time to the job search, you’ll go too long between interviews

2. How wisely do you spend your job search time?

Are you answering ads you’re truly qualified for, asking people in your personal and professional network for leads and/or cold-calling hiring managers and desirable employers? Or are you needlessly revising your resume yet again, or responding to job ads you’re not fully qualified for, just to apply for something? It’s better to spend your time talking to colleagues or potential connections, and chasing down a few strong leads and tailoring your resume to them, than applying to everything you see.

3. Are you looking in the right places? Have you been targeting too narrow a niche or too high-level a job?

Perhaps you need to widen your search or bring it down a notch or two. If you truly want a job in engineering, you may have a to make a lateral move or work in a less specialized position.

4. Have you had several interviews but no job offers? Or no interviews at all?

Getting an interview means your resume has to make it through the first round, but screening is likely being done by a computer. Make sure your resume is formatted properly and contains the right keywords.

If interviews aren’t leading to offers, brush up on your interview skills. Often, you can do a mock interview with a career counselor, and possibly have it videotaped and critiqued, through your state’s unemployment department.

While you’re looking, keep the following 5 tips in mind:

Keep Networking! Spend time keeping up with old friends and making new ones, in real life and on social media sites such as LinkedIn. Nearly a third of hires are found through referrals.

Call Your Last Employer. Many companies cut too many employees and find themselves struggling now. See if you can pick up some freelance or contract work from your former place of employment, where they know you and your work.

Use Your Downtime Wisely. You may not find paid work, but always be working on something meaningful . Volunteer for a non-profit or a favorite charity. Pitch an adult unpaid internship to an employer. Show potential employers that you have a lot to offer.

Act Hopeful (even if you don’t feel it). It’s an obvious challenge for someone who has been dealing with unemployment for months or years. But studies show that a positive attitude is closely correlated with success at finding a job.

International news for oil and gas professionals

Buccaneer Energy Ltd., Sydney, has signed a contract with Alaska Pipeline Co. and Enstar Natural Gas Co. to sell natural gas from Kenai Loop field onshore Cook Inlet.