The National Academy of Engineering, in 2003, published A Century of Innovation: Twenty Engineering Achievements that Transformed our Lives, which showcased the greatest engineering achievements of the 20^th century.

Here are the top 20:

1.         Electrification
2.         Automobile
3.         Airplane
4.         Water Supply and Distribution
5.         Electronics
6.         Radio and Television
7.         Agricultural Mechanization
8.         Computers
9.         Telephone
10.       Air Conditioning and Refrigeration
11.       Highways
12.       Spacecraft
13.       Internet
14.       Imaging
15.       Household Appliances
16.       Health Technologies
17.       Petroleum and Petrochemical Technologies
18.       Laser and Fiber Optics
19.       Nuclear Technologies
20.       High-performance Materials

You’ll see that the benefits were largely universal, affecting people across the globe and at all economic levels. The technologies were diverse and depended on timely parallel accomplishments in science, mathematics and medicine.  And, the devices that enabled all these innovations were made in such quantity and quality that they were affordable and relatively universally available.

We can’t really know what engineers will achieve between now and 2101, but one engineer is willing to guess.

Inspired by the NAE’s book, engineer and Senior Intel Fellow Eugene S. Meieran, decided to make a list of predictions. Over the course of several years, he mentioned the list in presentations at universities, conferences, and industrial seminars, and took suggestions from other professionals.

Without further ado, here are the areas where Meieran believes the greatest achievements will happen in the next 88 years:

1. Energy conservation
2. Resource protection
3. Food and water production and distribution
4. Waste management
5. Education and learning
6. Medicine and prolonging life
7. Security and counter-terrorism
8. New technology
9. Genetics and cloning
10. Global communication
11. Traffic and population logistics
12. Knowledge sharing
13. Integrated electronic environment
14. Globalization
15. AI, interfaces and robotics
16. Weather prediction and control
17. Sustainable development
18. Entertainment
19. Space exploration
20. “Virtualization” and VR
21. Preservation of history
22. Preservation of species

What do you think? Is Meieran right on the money, or not even close?

Budget woes in several states led to at least four schools closing down physics or physics-related majors back in 2010. Because of shortfalls in revenue, state boards of education were forced to scrutinize the academic programs offered at schools and universities under their purview.

Back then, Northwestern State University in Natchitoches, Louisiana was forced to drop eight degree programs including its physics major and its physics education major. Missouri had to cut out the physics major at Northwest Missouri State University. Missouri State University in Springfield was able to keep its physics major but had to eliminate its engineering physics bachelor’s degree. North Arizona State University in Flagstaff, AZ similarly had to eliminate its engineering physics bachelor’s degree along with its “physics and math” major.

Now it’s Texas’ turn.

Seven public universities in Texas, our second largest state, are being told they have to phase out their physics undergraduate degrees, with three more being put on two-year probation. In an attempt to make the system more efficient, the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) reviewed all of its public university’s undergraduate programs that produced a small number of graduates, and recommended a number for termination.

Physics programs at Midwestern State, Prairie View A&M, Tarleton State, Texas Southern, University of Texas-Brownsville and West Texas A&M are all losing their undergraduate physics programs. Current students can finish out their degree, but no new physics students can be accepted. Texas A&M Commerce, the University of Texas-Pan American and Texas Tech are all on two-year probation.

Why? Low enrollment and an even lower number of graduates. And according to the American Physical Society, a professional society of physicists, if the same 25-students-in-5-years standard were applied nationally, 526 of about 760 programs would be shuttered. In other words, close to 70% of the nation’s physics degree programs would be cut.

Those who teach at the college level say addressing the enrollment problem requires more qualified physics teachers in secondary education to increase enthusiasm for the subject among younger students. But it seems like this measure is just going to perpetuate the downward spiral.

Texas passed a law requiring that all high school students to take physics classes, starting in 2005. But now there will be fewer universities to produce high school physics teachers–and there’s already a shortage of physics teachers.

Florida may be the next state to follow Texas’ example. Texas’ plans are being watched by officials in other states who need to reduce higher-education budgets, and Florida governor Rick Scott has publicly voiced an interest in similar measures. Could your state be next?

By: JP Bruner

2012 is here and we are off to the races. Business is brisk with more openings in December than ever surging momentum into January. Aerospace, Energy, and Manufacturing are all up. See our most recent open jobs here: http://www.jobs.thetalleygroup.com

Wishing every one a prosperous and happy new year!

Somewhere near the end of your engineering degree program, you’ll have to decide whether to get your Professional Engineer (PE) license. You’ll have to decide whether you’re willing to put in the time: studying for and taking the Fundamentals of Engineering exam; putting in roughly 4 years as an   Engineer-in-Training (EIT) ; then studying for and taking the Principles and Practice of Engineering (PE) exam

It takes a lot of time and effort to get  a PE license. Is it worth it? Read the following 6 facts and see if they help you make up your mind:

1. Your PE License Sets You Apart

The PE license demonstrates that you have the equivalent of a 4-year engineering degree, four or more years of progressive experience and a multidisciplinary understanding of physical and engineering principles. It shows that you have met all the standards required of the profession. For fields where the PE is preferred but usually not required, it gives you another opportunity to stand out.

2. Your PE License Generally Means a Higher Salary

According to the National Society of Professional Engineers’ 2010 Engineering Income & Salary Survey, the median salary of engineers without a PE license was $94,000, whereas the median salary of engineers with a PE license was $99,000 — a difference of about 5 percent.

3. A PE License Can Make a Difference in the Hiring Process

If a company has to choose between two qualified applicants, one with a PE license (or an EIT working toward his license) and one without, which one do you think it will choose? Companies typically hire based upon which candidate they believe will bring the most benefit to the company.

4. A PE License Gives You the Ability to Sign and Seal Plans and Drawings

Only a licensed engineer can submit plans and drawings, and be in charge of work in the private sector. These requirements lead to more responsibility for the licensed PE, and thus greater career potential.

5. You Can Only Officially Call Yourself an Engineer If You Have a PE License

If you don’t have a PE license, you—or your company—can’t officially call yourself an engineer in official documents, such as business cards, letterheads and resumes.

6. Having a PE License Means You Can Work Anywhere in the Country

Since the FE and PE exams are standardized nationally, you can work as a professional engineer if you transfer to another state. You would need to register with the board of engineering in your new state, and your new state may have additional requirements, but you can use your PE license throughout the US.  And with the engineering profession now operating in an international environment, licensing may be required to work in, or for, other countries.  You’ll be prepared if your career moves in this direction.

The website of the National Society of Professional Engineers might best summarize the situation: “Licensure is the mark of a professional. It’s a standard recognized by employers and their clients, by governments and by the public as an assurance of dedication, skill and quality.”

So, what do you think is the wise choice?

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.

Researchers from Purdue and Harvard universities have created a new type of transistor made from a material that could replace silicon and have a 3-D structure instead of conventional flat computer chips.

The approach could enable engineers to build faster, more compact and efficient integrated circuits and lighter laptops that generate less heat than current models. The transistors contain tiny nanowires made not of silicon, like conventional transistors, but from a material called indium-gallium-arsenide. Indium-gallium-arsenide is the same compound recently used in a high-performing solar cell.

Computers implementing these new 3-D transistors will be able to run faster— and should also weigh less and generate less heat than their present-day flat-transistor-using counterparts.

Transistors contain critical components called gates, which enable the devices to switch on and off and to direct the flow of electrical current. In today’s chips, the length of these gates is about 45 nanometers, or billionths of a meter. However, in 2012, the industry will introduce silicon-based 3-D transistors having a gate length of 22 nanometers.

Their new and improved shorter gates are made from dielectric-coated silicon nanowires, and it is estimated that such gates could be further shortened to about 14 nanometers within a few years. In order to go any shorter, however, a material is needed that can move electrons faster than silicon is able to.

Studies of the indium-gallium-arsenide gates suggest that they should be able to move electrons five times faster than silicon gates, allowing for gate lengths in the neighborhood of just 10 nanometers.

At any length below 14 nanometers, the silicon dioxide insulating layer currently used on transistor gates no longer works properly, allowing the electrical charge to leak out.

The production process for the 3-D indium-gallium-arsenide transistors could be easily implemented into existing manufacturing processes, the scientists report, so adoption of the technology on a wide scale ought to be feasible.

Next year, if you buy a computer, it will have the 22-nanometer gate length and 3-D silicon transistors.

These 11 iPad engineering applications are a mix of utilities and CAD and automation tools.

If you search Apple’s App Store, you’ll see a lot of low-hanging technical fruit. There is a plethora of engineering unit conversion programs. There are a few of particular interest to mechanical and industrial engineers. There are also many apps of value only to captive users of a particular vendor’s products, so the following includes some with widespread user bases.

• TurboViewer X

This native viewer for the ubiquitous DWG CAD file format supports both 2D and 3D renditions. Usability features include pan and zoom. Files can be accessed via ftp or Dropbox.

• Autodesk CAD WS

Lets users view DWG-formated CAD files on their iPad, iPhone, or iPod Touch. Drawings can also be annotated and revised in the field. Local versions of the drawings are accessible in absence of a WiFi connection. DXF files also handled. Experience the freedom of taking your designs with you — wherever you go.

• Nastran

The old warhorse of finite element analysis (FEA) apps has come to the iPad, albeit only in introductory form thus far. Here are two side-by-side screens highlighting the apps’ ability to analyze flat plates and blocks. (It can also do cylinders and tubes.)

• Engineering Unit Conversion

This app from ActiveMinds Software Ltd. goes well beyond the usual English-to-metric conversions and tackles compressibility, density, conductivity, and volume flow. Plus, it’s received positive reviews. The one downside is that it’s really an iPhone app, though it runs fine on the iPad.

• Rockwell Automation Small System Sketcher

Keyed to Rockwell’s Kinetix product line, this app lets users configure a small automation system, including picking a controller, assigning a network, adding HMI and IO, and configuring drives. When complete, it’ll email you the system drawing and Bill of Material.

• Siemens Sirius eAssistance DocuFinder

Access to product information on the Sirius family of control components, including relays, contacts, and breakers.

• Teamcenter Mobility

Siemens gets a two-fer in this list. This one supports iPad access to its PLM app. Files can be imported into Teamcenter, and objects submitted to workflow.

• GaugeFinder

This utility offers access to a database of standard thickness and diameter values for wire, steel, and tubing.

• powerOne Financial Calculator

Remember Hewlett-Packard’s RPN calculators? They’re not dead, just reborn in iPad form via this engineering-calculator app from Infinity Softworks. It’s also got templates and a standard algebraic mode.

• Compressible Fluid Flow Calculator

One of many number-crunching apps available on iTunes. It’s intended to handle isentropic flows, heat addition, and ducts flows. The constraint is that gas properties are assumed to be constant.

• HVAC Professional

Complete formulas and charts for ventilation pros.

Today’s nuclear power plants create heat from by splitting an enriched form of uranium in a sustained chain reaction. The heat is then converted to steam to generate electricity.

A Bellevue, WA-based company, backed by Bill Gates, is attempting to make the leap to the next generation of nuclear power technology. TerraPower has created a traveling wave reactor that will convert the depleted uranium into a heavier, less stable form that can be used in a chain reaction to create electricity.

The company envisions a reactor with a cylinder-shaped core of nuclear fuel where, once started, will burn continuously for more than 40 years without the need for refueling.

A company executive said TerraPower intends to start construction of a plant in 2015 and have its first plant operating in the 2020s. During a talk on nuclear power financing last month, TerraPower project manager Tyler Ellis said the company is seeking to work with individual countries on adopting this technology as part of each nation’s overall energy strategy.

Gates recently disclosed that he brought up TerraPower’s fourth-generation nuclear power technology with government officials at the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology during a visit to China.

TerraPower then announced that the company has visited energy experts in the U.S., France, India, Japan, Korea and Russia, but that “there were no deals to at this time” though they are seeing interest from a number of countries.

“Demand is high for nuclear energy technology that converts low-level waste into fuel without reprocessing and sustainably meets global electricity needs. So our conversations continue with many countries that have active nuclear programs. All these nations have some form of advanced fast reactor research facilities and programs.

The nature of TerraPower’s nuclear power design–and the multi-year pace of nuclear power development in general–means that these discussions are long term in nature.

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?

A deepwater wildcat in the western Black Sea off Romania has discovered an accumulation initially pegged at 1.5 to 3 trillion cu ft of gas whose commerciality isn’t assured, press reports said Wednesday.

Crude oil costs and taxes are still bigger influences than refinery production and product exports in gasoline price increases, American Petroleum Institute Chief Economist John C. Felmy said.

Mitsubishi Corp. agreed to pay Talisman Energy Inc. $280 million for a stake in nine natural gas blocks in Papua New Guinea's onshore Western Province, subject to approvals by government and joint venture partners.

A Royal Dutch Shell PLC subsidiary has offered to buy Cove Energy PLC for $1.6 billion in a move that would mark Shell’s entry into Mozambique and Kenya. Cove also has holdings in Tanzania where Shell already has a presence.

Connacher Oil & Gas Ltd., Calgary, which last month disclosed a strategic review following key management changes, has delayed the planned expansion of its Alberta oil sands production project and named an interim chief executive officer (OGJ Online, Jan. 20, 2012).

Another refinery designed to produce diesel from Bakken crude oil is in prospect in the Williston basin.

The front-month contract for crude oil soared above $106/bbl in a late rally Feb. 21 in the New York market before closing slightly lower. Natural gas fell, however, ending a two-session resurgence.

Magellan Midstream Partners LP extended by a week the binding open season to solicit commitments from shippers to transport crude oil from Crane, Tex., to the partnership’s East Houston terminal for further delivery to the Houston and Texas City-area refineries through Magellan’s distribution system.

Statoil has let a contract to Technip for work on what it calls the world’s first subsea natural gas compression facility, to be installed in Asgard area in the Norwegian Sea.