(Image: University of Cincinnati.)

Advancing your career as an engineer can be difficult. With all the changes happening across industries, technologies and even in the ways we work, taking that next step along your career path can seem uncertain or even perilous. How do you know the right move to make to ensure your continued success?

An undergraduate engineering degree is among the most valuable there is, but in a highly competitive market, it may not be enough to take you where you want to go. That’s why many engineers find themselves going back to school for master’s degrees, gaining the knowledge and credentials to become leaders in their respective fields. However, there’s more than one way to enhance your professional standing and it’s important to make sure you choose the right degree for your ambitions.

Master of Engineering versus Master of Science in Engineering

When it comes to deciding which master’s degree to pursue—a Master of Engineering (MEng) or a Master of Science in Engineering (MSE)—the key question to ask is where you want your degree to take you. Are you more interested in pure research and maybe even attaining a doctoral degree, or would you rather take on more of a leadership role?

Engineers sometimes worry that taking on additional degrees will actually make it more difficult to advance their careers, either because a post-graduate degree will price them out of the market in the eyes of many companies or because the number of organizations looking for engineers with their level of narrow domain expertise is so much smaller than those looking for engineers with a more generalized background. Of course, if you’re considering a career in academia, an MSE is definitely the way to go. However, if you see yourself working more in management (you might even be doing that already), an MEng may be a better fit.

What’s the actual difference between the degrees themselves? Eugene Rutz, associate dean for graduate studies in the College of Engineering and Applied Science at the University of Cincinnati, explains it this way:

“When we started the Master of Engineering program about 20 years ago, we looked at our Master of Science program, which had a thesis-based option and a coursework-based option. We took that second option and reformulated it to focus on the practice of engineering rather than research.”

Eugene Rutz, associate dean of graduate studies in the College of Engineering and Applied Science at the University of Cincinnati. (Image: University of Cincinnati.)

For most master’s degrees in engineering, the technical coursework is the same: whether you take an MSE in mechanical engineering or an MEng in mechanical engineering, you’ll be learning the same technical skills. The difference typically lies in what the MEng students do in place of a thesis. “Instead of taking credit hours for a thesis, our students take extra courses that are related to professional skills,” says Rutz. “If you’re going to work in a corporate setting and you know something about project management, about teamwork and communication, then you’re going to be a better contributor.”

Master of Engineering Programs

Since the coursework is usually the same, MEng degrees tend to fall under the same subdisciplines as MSE degrees. For example, the University of Cincinnati offers three online MEng programs:

• Electrical Engineering
• Mechanical Engineering
• Robotics & Intelligent Autonomous Systems

While these subdisciplines tend to be very broad, encompassing everything from aircraft to air conditioners, Rutz notes that what makes the University of Cincinnati’s programs unique is their future-facing focus. “Both the electrical and mechanical degrees are focused around Industry 4.0—the idea that big data, ubiquitous sensors, analytics and artificial intelligence are informing design and manufacturing. If we can equip working engineers with skills in those areas, they’ll be able to help their organizations be prepared for that shift.”

The same future-facing approach applies to the Robotics & Intelligent Autonomous Systems program, as the latter includes drones, mobile robots and collaborative robots (a.k.a. cobots). “Automation makes us more competitive,” says Rutz, “but it doesn’t eliminate the need for people who know how to use autonomous systems to improve processes in all kinds of industry.”

According to Rutz, this emphasis on preparing working engineers to thrive in ever-changing industries is what makes the University of Cincinnati’s MEng programs the only ones of their kind in North America. “I looked around and I did not find any other degrees in the United States that were focused that way. There are some in Europe and Southeast Asia, but not many. Of course, there are plenty of schools with good programs that offer five flavors of mechanical engineering online, but that’s not us.” Instead, the University of Cincinnati’s online programs focus on preparing working professionals for where their industries are heading.

That means teaching students about the challenges as well as the opportunities. As any experienced engineer knows, there’s a considerable gulf between the marketing language around Industry 4.0 and the pragmatic realities of implementing automation or data analytics into a real production environment. Artificial intelligence is an especially germane example of this, given the current hype surrounding large language models, such as ChatGPT.

“Being a good engineer means being able to adapt to using new tools,” says Rutz. “The demand for engineers who understand how to use machine learning is something we’re seeing more and more, so we want to be able to equip our students to handle those kinds of tasks.”

Succeeding in a Master of Engineering Program

Anything worth doing is worth doing well, and the keys to doing well in a MEng program are ensuring a good fit between your knowledge and experience and what the program has to offer, as well as taking advantage of the available support and resources for students. In the case of the University of Cincinnati’s online programs, that includes virtual office hours as well as tutoring, counseling and practically any other service available to students on campus.

“We have someone who works specifically with our Master of Engineering students on job opportunities,” says Rutz. “Although most of our students in the online space are already working and not necessarily looking to change careers, with the program being industry-focused, we want to ensure our students are prepared for that.”

(Image: University of Cincinnati.)

As far as finding the right fit goes, all three of the University of Cincinnati’s online MEng programs offer the flexibility working professionals need to continue their education. Students can enroll in the Spring, Summer or Fall semesters, and the programs can be completed in as few as 18 months. “If you’re interested in the program and capable of doing the coursework, we’d be happy to admit you,” says Rutz. “These programs aren’t meant to be competitive for the applicants—the goal is just to provide opportunities for those who are interested.”

Master of Engineering or Master of Science in Engineering: Which is Right for You?

The simplest way to decide whether to pursue a MSE or MEng is to ask yourself whether you’re more interested in theory or practice. If your ideal day involves research on the cutting edge, working in a lab or lecturing students, it’s a safe bet that you’d be happier with a Master of Science in Engineering. On the other hand, if you’d rather be working with other people on building things and making a practical difference in your industry as a leader, go with the MEng.

One final question you may be asking: Which one pays better?

According to Rutz, the two degrees are relatively similar in terms of both salary and career advancement. “What we can say is that, with the MSE, if an industry needs your expertise, they’ll come looking for you. But industries also need good, productive engineers that work well with others, and that’s what the MEng gives you.”

To learn more about the University of Cincinnati’s online Master of Engineering, visit the program website.

The post Become An Industry Leader with a Master of Engineering appeared first on Engineering.com.

Most engineers start out young: whether that means building bridges and dams in the backyard using sticks and scrap wood, or taking apart a radio or a toaster and (hopefully) putting them back together again just to see how they work. For many, the love of all things science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) is a lifelong commitment—from the classroom to the boardroom.

If you’re over 30 and working in STEM, the odds are good that somewhere in your house (or your parents’ house) is a bin filled with old school projects: essays, lab notes, presentation boards—all the breadcrumbs that lead from your earliest days as a budding engineer or scientist right up to graduation and beyond. Depending on how far you go, that might include newspaper clippings and—who knows—maybe a patent or two as well. Anyone who sits down with all this stuff could piece together a lot about you and your career. Of course, they’d have to find it first.

How many science fair projects have ended up in the trash after an overzealous spring cleaning?

That was probably the fate of the wind tunnel I made in high school.

But just think of all those kids who turned their high school science fair projects into real-world applications; in some cases, these projects might even form the basis for a start-up company. (It happens more often than you’d expect.) With the right project development and virtual display platform, you could preserve a record of the STEM project from the sharing of its earliest inspiration, building a portfolio for a future career and possibly all the way to a commercial product.

Celebrating the lifecycle of a project is the big idea behind engineering.com‘s ProjectBoard Platform, the place for STEM minds to develop and display their projects. “ProjectBoard aims to bring communities together from the earliest of ideation to the polished presentation of a project,” explains Lauren Baldesarra, Chief Product Officer and Co-founder of ProjectBoard. “The platform is specially designed to help visually communicate and organize that (sometimes messy) process.”

Lauren Baldesarra, Chief Product Officer and Co-founder of ProjectBoard.

That’s one reason major organizations are using ProjectBoard today.

Projects on ProjectBoard

The Ohio Academy of Science is redefining all of its in-classroom project reviews and event programs by using ProjectBoard to provide equality and access to pre-collegiate students across the state.

In Canada, Youth Science Canada uses the platform for its national science fair and all affiliated fairs, with laudable projects such as this one about using algorithms to determine an asteroid’s physical properties and gauge the success of deflecting it from a very bright thirteen-year-old.

Globally, the platform hosts the virtual companion to the Olympics of Science Fairs: The Society for Science’s International Science and Engineering Fair. This event includes outstanding projects, such as this modelling of glioblastoma multiforme tumor growth and this year’s winner, a new system for detecting exoplanets.

For big, highly customized experiences such as these, the ProjectBoard team works closely with partners to create something special and unique for their community. Of course, not everyone who’s running STEM project programs has the budget or the specific requirements for such a bespoke approach.

Enter ProjectBoard+

The new self-serve version of ProjectBoard enables anyone to build a virtual complement to an existing in-person event or host a completely virtual project showcase. “We’ve heard loud and clear that many communities that want to use ProjectBoard don’t have the budget or time that others may be able to dedicate,” Baldesarra explains. “So, with ProjectBoard+ we have a free version for anyone that will grow the playing field to include those STEM voices that may not have had a stage before.”

Managing costs is an important part of this equation, but so is is the commitment to technical accessibility for those that might not be as tech-savvy. “That is extremely important to us,” explains Baldesarra. “ That our community can build a branded experience, manage project submissions and then showcase and share those projects as easy as possible. If it’s complicated or convoluted, no one will use it!”

Fortunately, for anyone who takes a tour of the platform, the ease of creating a ProjectBoard+ Project Showcase should become apparent almost immediately. From the moment you log in, there are only a few steps between you and having a live event that you can invite anyone to join. Setting up the essential components, including design elements and a custom URL, takes as little as 15 minutes.

Once you launch your event, you can invite others simply by sending them the URL and getting them to register on the platform to start a project submission. You can also go back and change virtually every aspect of your event once it’s live, with the exceptions of the URL and the project template.

“The Project template library allows you to choose which type of showcase you’d like to host, and what components participants need to complete before they submit their project.” says Baldesarra. “It’s personalized, so whether you’re a local science fair organizer, a large corporation doing a company-wide employee brainstorm or a teacher in a classroom doing a project review, there are project templates ready for you to use.”

The platform is currently in a research preview, with key existing users trying it out and providing feedback. According to Baldesarra, the goal is to stress-test the platform as well as gather user insights to refine its basic features before launching in late-September.

After that, the ProjectBoard team will continue to add new features, such as project categories, tools for judging projects and additional functionalities for sponsorships. In the long-term, ProjectBoard+ will support the continued development of the platform’s original vision. “We’ve always had a very simple mission,” says Baldesarra. “We want to build the world’s largest STEM community and connect them with like-minds to solve the world’s greatest problems through the projects they do. That’s the real value of ProjectBoard and ProjectBoard+… and we’re just getting started!”

Visit https://projectboard.world/ or contact the ProjectBoard team at https://projectboard.world/contact to learn more.

The post No Great Idea Left Behind: Projectboard Aims To Expand the Playing Field in STEM appeared first on Engineering.com.

I didn’t win, and that was 25 years ago. Science fairs have come a long way since then.

My little engineering project pales in comparison to the submissions for this year’s edition of the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF), an annual event that hosts more than 1,500 high school students from around the world. ISEF alumni include Nobel Prize winners, MacArthur Fellows and even a prominent U.S. congresswoman with the initials A.O.C.

As I recall, the prize at my science fair was tickets to a science museum and a gift card worth a couple hundred dollars. Compare that to the grand prizes at ISEF: one $75,000 and two $50,000 college scholarships.

Such big prize money might shock old timers, but it seems wholly merited given the quality of the projects presented at ISEF 2023. Bionic inchworms for inspecting power lines, self-assembling robots for inventory management and a low-cost device for cutting air conditioner energy consumption are just a few of this year’s winning entries.

There are literally dozens of submissions from ISEF 2023 that have the potential to revolutionize science and engineering—as do their creators—but let’s focus on the three winners outlined above.

The Inchworm Robot with Skateboard

Image: ISEF/Yuyang Wang

Our first project is a wonderful example of two of the core principles of robotics design: biomimicry and iteration.

Submitted by Yuyang Wang from Shaghai Pinghe Bilingual School in China, the winner of the Engineering Technology: Statics & Dynamics category is a robot designed to emulate the movements of caterpillars and inchworms.

While they certainly aren’t the speediest of creatures, these animals are uniquely capable of travelling along sticks, threads and other structures consisting of thin, elongated parts. A robot with similar capabilities could be useful for surveying high-risk environments such as overhead power lines or suspension bridges.

What’s particularly admirable about this submission is the amount of refinement that went into the robot’s design. The first two generations were designed to move along wires via a combination of servos and friction control on the robot’s legs. These were able to crawl along straight sticks ranging from 6 mm to 10 mm in diameter at speeds of approximately 3.9 mm/s.

The third- and fourth-generation robots were designed to mimic inchworms even more closely via a tandem servo structure that allows them to traverse curved structures, avoid obstacles and move along multiple lines simultaneously. As a result, the fourth-generation robots can move along sticks ranging from 15 mm to 30 mm in diameter.

The project also earned Wang a special ISEF prize, the Craig R. Barrett Award for Innovation.

Self-Assembling Modular Robots

Image:ISEF/Yik Chun “John” Peng

Yik Chun “John” Peng from Shanghai American School – Puxi Campus in China won the Embedded Systems category with his self-assembling modular robotic system. The project’s goal was to produce a system of modules that had multiple degrees of freedom, wheel-based locomotion and the ability to carry loads without compromising mobility, all while serving as the building blocks for larger, more effective robots.

The robotic modules were constructed from laser-cut wood and 3D-printed polylactic acid (PLA) and driven by 298:1 micro gear motors that transfer movement to the side connectors, which also function as wheels. The modules connect to each other using 12V electromagnets. The robots also have Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity, enabling them to be controlled via AprilTags (think simplified QR codes) combined with computer vision and proportional–integral–derivative (PID) controllers.

The modular robotic system was put through validation tests for speed in different assembly configurations, as well as its ability to transport cargo and the strength of the connections between individual modules.

Power Saving Device for Air Conditioners

Image:ISEF/Eugene Chen

Compared to robotics, a device for saving power on air conditioners might sound underwhelming, but a closer look reveals why this was the winning submission in the Energy: Sustainable Materials and Design category. Developed by Eugene Chen of Shanghai High School International Division in China, this project started from a practically Newtonian observation: water dripping down from a bank of air conditioners.

“That sparked my curiosity,” says Chen in his submission video. “After I got home, some research showed me that air conditioners use more than 20 percent of the power they consume to create this condensation of water.”

Combine that with the fact that air conditioning accounts for around 10 percent of global electricity consumption and the potential impact of this project becomes clear.

The device is powered by the airflow from the air conditioner cooling fan, which drives a propeller to power a micro air pump that produces compressed gas. The gas and water from condensation are mixed and sprayed onto the condenser with a Venturi nozzle, which lowers the temperature of the refrigerant in the condenser. This reduces the workload on the condenser, thereby cutting its energy consumption.

According to Chen’s calculations, the low cost (roughly $10 per unit) combined with the ease of installation (users can attach the device to a window AC unit from the inside) means that these devices could reduce global electricity consumption by one percent, if they were installed everywhere.

For his work, Chen also earned this year’s Peggy Scripps Award for Science Communication at ISEF.

More Incredible Submissions from ISEF 2023

The three projects outlined above are just a few of the submissions from this year’s Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair. From new designs for rocket nozzles to decentralized drone swarms, to metal-organic frameworks for capturing sulfur dioxide, there are so many projects created by the next generation of engineers and scientists that can give hope and inspiration to the current one.

Check out all the 2023 Finalist Projects right here on ProjectBoard.

Correction notice: Although asteroids have been named in honor of ISEF winners, an earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that the practice is still in place.

The post These ISEF Winners Offer Hope for the Future of Engineering appeared first on Engineering.com.

Training for artificial intelligence (AI) engineers differs widely, indicating that norms and requirements are still in the process of being set. Generally, AI engineers have the job of designing, deploying and maintaining AI models to ensure operations in different fields are efficient and safe. This requires a background in machine learning (ML), statistics and programming. An AI engineer must know what data to collect, as well as how to utilize ML libraries like scikit-learn.

One of the common features of AI engineering-related academic and professional certification programs is the opportunity to apply skills learned in courses to specific problems. For example, an AI program may give a student a chance to design a method to cope with memory limitations of IoT-enabled devices like drones. Requirements to complete AI engineering-related professional certificate programs offered by IBM, MIT, Duke University and John Hopkins University typically include the ability to program in Python and possessing a good understanding of linear algebra and probability.

One of the first academic programs in AI engineering, a Master of Science in AI Engineering (MSAIE) at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), showcases how universities are deepening and diversifying coursework in this area of study. Simultaneously, researchers in AI engineering at CMU’s Software Engineering Institute (SEI) are demonstrating through projects how to apply knowledge in AI engineering.

Students train according to their interest

CMU currently offers the MSAIE program at its primary campus in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. CMU-Africa, the university’s African campus in Kigali, Rwanda, offers a comparable degree, the Master of Science in Engineering Artificial Intelligence (MSEAI). The Kigali program, which is more generalized, is designed for students who intend to work in African countries.

“African countries do not have the technology infrastructure of Western countries. The students in the Kigali program are learning how to create and implement AI algorithms in areas where there are limited resources such as limited power. One of the focuses of the program is getting technology more widely distributed,” says Shelley Anna, the associate dean for faculty and graduate affairs and strategic initiatives at CMU’s College of Engineering.

The Kigali program started in the academic year 2021-2022 and has seen an enrollment of 21 students each year. The Pittsburgh campus has seen an enrollment of 33 students in the academic year 2022-2023. Its students are spread out across seven disciplines of engineering: biomedical, chemical, civil and environmental, electrical and computer science, information security, materials science and mechanical. Nine of the Pittsburgh students are in mechanical engineering. Seven each are in chemical and civil and environmental engineering. Other disciplines of engineering have between three to five students. The Pittsburgh program lasts between three and four semesters, depending on the discipline.

Most of the students in the Pittsburgh program have a B.S. in an engineering field. A student is not required to continue on in the same discipline of engineering in which they earned their undergraduate degree. In the first three semesters, all Pittsburgh students take required core courses, including Introduction to Machine Learning for Engineers, Systems and Toolchains for AI Engineers, Introduction to Deep Learning for Engineers and Trustworthy and Ethical AI Engineering.

The Pittsburgh students are encouraged to get summer internships. They also get exposure to the corporate world when professors partner with companies regarding class projects. Typically, companies will suggest or co-develop projects for students with the professor. Employers are already expressing interest in the Pittsburgh program’s first class of graduates.

(Image courtesy of CMU.)

“This is because graduates from the Pittsburgh program are determining how AI algorithms can improve operations in engineering systems like chemical plants. Their classes are showing them what possibilities and constraints exist for their discipline,” says Anna.

A number of the Pittsburgh students will have the opportunity to work on class projects. A project may involve applying AI algorithms to the student’s engineering discipline. There are currently opportunities to do research on additive manufacturing, development and securing of wireless edge networks, and refinement of autonomous physical systems like autonomous vehicles.

In the future, CMU hopes to connect the AI engineering graduate students in Kigali and Pittsburgh. Recently, the two groups were in contact in mid-April, when the Pittsburgh campus hosted approximately 25 students from the Kigali campus.

Current professionals perform interdisciplinary work

At CMU’s Software Engineering Institute, researchers and engineers in the AI division explore methods and practices to advance AI engineering. Their goals are to help establish AI engineering as a discipline and meet the needs of the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD). The DoD has been the Institute’s primary source of funding since 1984. The SEI is one of 42 federally funded research and development centers (FFRDCs) in the U.S.

An FFRDC is a nonprofit, public-private partnership that performs research for the U.S. government. Ten FFRDCs are sponsored by the DoD. This explains why the Institute’s research centers on projects such as heightening cybersecurity, improving systems engineering for DoD agencies, and applying AI algorithms to increase safety for U.S. troops.

“AI engineering’s applications for DoD include use cases such as predictive maintenance, threat detection and battlefield healthcare,” says Carrie Gardner, an AI researcher at the Software Engineering Institute and a team lead in the Institute’s AI division.

Researchers in AI engineering also assist the DoD in other areas such as exploring next-generation software architectures, AI-optimized hardware design and test and evaluation standards. In 2020, SEI researchers provided feedback on two technology development programs at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). SEI researchers helped improve tools and designs for microelectronics production by sharing their input on efforts in DARPA’s Domain-Specific System on Chip (DSSoC) program and Software Defined Hardware (SDH) program.

Researchers in the AI division at the SEI have graduate degrees in a range of disciplines, including computer science, information science and electrical and computer engineering. The SEI conducts applied research and system implementation prototyping to surface practices, methods and tools for rigorous AI engineering standards.

“The realm of tasks for AI engineering at the SEI is wide. Researchers may investigate a fundamental challenge of AI implementation, such as patterns for auditing and interpreting AI output. Engineers may design, develop and field prototype AI systems – testing the readiness of technology implementations. Together, researchers and engineers surface resources to advance the state of practice for AI engineering,” says Gardner.

Work on DoD-sponsored projects may be sensitive. Yet the SEI’s mission includes transitioning research to the public.

“SEI researchers try to share as much as possible when it is appropriate. We write articles for peer reviewed journals, present at academic and DoD-related conferences, and give talks to CMU students and the public on topics like next generation architectural concerns for AI systems,” says Gardner.

The majority of researchers at the SEI are not CMU faculty members, and SEI researchers do not typically teach MSAIE classes. In addition, the SEI has a limited number of student interns. The interns are selected from a number of college programs in addition to the MSAIE program.

Yet the SEI is making efforts to establish AI engineering as an engineering discipline, much as it did for software engineering, starting in the 1980s, says Richard Lynch, manager of public relations for the SEI.

“We’ve published white papers on our three pillars of AI engineering. These are that AI should be human-centered, scalable, robust and secure. We’re also interested in how to develop an AI-capable workforce,” says Lynch.

SEI researchers’ close communication with DoD agencies has led to a shared understanding that paths to gain knowledge, skills and abilities in AI engineering include on-the-job training. For example, soldiers can use AI-enabled systems to identify threats on the battlefield. In order to perform such work, they must first learn how data collection will affect the outcomes of the system’s object detectors.

One of the phenomena that is bringing together students and professionals in AI engineering is the recent public conversation about generative AI. Generative AI is defined as algorithms that create new content like images and video in response to prompts.

“News about what generative AI is sharing makes it possible for us to hear from people at different skill levels, in different disciplines. The conversation is attracting people to the field. It’s also getting future and current AI engineers to discuss how we can comply with existing ethics rules and address new concerns,” says Gardner.

The post Defining the Role of an AI Engineer appeared first on Engineering.com.

(Image Source: FIRST)

Although some studies have indicated an overall increase in the number of students pursuing degrees related to technology in North America, there remain serious gaps in participation from important demographic groups. To address the chronic shortage of capable technical workers in North America, increasing participation in technology-related careers is critical.

One way to promote science and technology is by encouraging students to participate in a variety of current STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) activities that are available, such as science and engineering fairs and robotics competitions. These activities stimulate curiosity and provide young people with a unique opportunity to research, learn, experiment and develop the skills necessary to pursue careers in science and technology.

Being challenged with practical problems teaches students to not only apply their theoretical knowledge but to also develop critical skills as they gain exposure to the latest technology. With proper guidance, students can develop a passion for engineering, making science fairs and other competitions a valuable part the academic journey.

Tournaments

In Canada, the Ontario Provincial Championship of the VEX Robotics tournament ran on the weekend of March 4, 2023 at the Niagara Falls Convention Centre. Students from all over Ontario competed by building and programming autonomous robots to complete various tasks while overcoming a variety of obstacles. Watching the students compete always provides a great insight into the future engineering and technology leaders of the up-and-coming generation.

Another popular competition along the same lines as VEX is the global FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) for grades 9 to 12 and FIRST Lego League (FLL) for grades 4 to 8. Both include local and international events where teams build and program robots to perform specific tasks on a game field.  A notable difference is that  the younger FLL Teams are expected to build and program their robots without major adult involvement (aside from some supervision and mentoring).

Skills Ontario, a program funded by both the federal and provincial governments, provides another opportunity for youth to be exposed to skilled trades and technology. Skills Ontario sends winning teams to WorldSkills. Along with general technology, students are encouraged and empowered to explore careers in skilled trades and are also given assistance in getting a start in those areas in the form of tools and resources. Skills Ontario has close links with many industry partners, which gives students access to potential co-op, temporary or permanent job opportunities.

All these competitions require students to apply their knowledge of engineering, programming, and controls to design and build a functional  machine or device. They are required to work as a team to coordinate and optimize the performance, gaining hands-on experience designing and building complex systems. This experience is invaluable for potential engineers, as they must have a deep understanding of many different complex systems, how they work and how to design and optimize these systems.

Science Fairs

Before computers, programming and robotics were main-stage events, science and engineering fairs and other similar competitions have always been an integral part of the academic journey. They offer a unique opportunity for young students to apply their theoretical knowledge to practical problems. In schools, students learn the fundamental theories of engineering, programming, and control techniques, however, it can be challenging to see how these theories are applied in the real world.

Application:

Participating in science fairs and other technical competitions can give young students a distinct advantage when studying to be an engineer. These include (but are not limited to):

• Applying theoretical knowledge to practical problems
• Developing critical skills
• Access to the latest technology and tools
• Building networks and gaining exposure to industry professionals
• Developing passion for controls engineering

The post How to Build an Engineer appeared first on Engineering.com.

Where do you go if you want to master digital transformation?

As the pace of digital transformation accelerates, engineers need ways to keep up. Thankfully, there’s no shortage of options for learning how. Online course providers such as edX, Coursera and LinkedIn Learning offer digital transformation courses for little to no cost. For a higher fee, you can earn a certificate from Yale, Stanford, MIT, Cornell, UC Berkeley, Waterloo and other prestigious schools through their online digital transformation programs.

Online may seem a fitting setting in which to learn about digital transformation, but it’s not the only way. Highly-ranked ESCP Business School offers a full-time, in-person master’s degree program in digital transformation to prepare graduates for the increasingly digital future.

Engineering.com spoke with Aurélie Cnop, scientific director of ESCP’s Master of Science in Digital Transformation Management and Leadership program, who revealed some of the many things engineers could benefit from learning about digital transformation.

Aurélie Cnop, scientific director of ESCP’s Master’s in Digital Transformation Management and Leadership program. (Source: ESCP Business School.)

The Many Manifestations of Digital Transformation

ESCP Business School (École Supérieure de Commerce de Paris) was founded in Paris in 1819 and now has campuses across Europe. Recognizing that technology was rapidly changing the nature of business, ESCP launched the Digital Transformation Master’s program in 2019. Cnop told engineering.com that around half of the approximately 120 graduates of the program so far have been engineers.

One of the main lessons for these graduates is that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to digital transformation. Cnop says that digital transformation differs across industries depending on their specific technologies, processes, products and services. Digital transformation presents a unique set of opportunities and benefits to each industry.

“In engineering, digital transformation can involve the use of CAD and simulation tools to improve the design and development process,” Cnop says. “This can lead to more efficient and cost-effective product development, as well as the ability to quickly iterate and test different design options. Additionally, digital-twin technology can be used to virtually model and test products and systems before they are built, which can help to identify and address potential issues early on in the development process.”

Cnop continues: “In manufacturing, digital transformation can involve the use of automation and robotics to improve efficiency, reduce costs and increase quality. For example, Industry 4.0 technologies such as IoT, AI and big data analytics can be used to optimize manufacturing processes and improve supply chain management. Additionally, digital twins can be used to simulate and optimize production lines, and to monitor and improve the performance of industrial equipment.”

The different manifestations of digital transformation mean that courses like ESCP’s master’s program must draw from a wide range of viewpoints. Cnop says that ESCP liaises with sponsors in industry and specialized consulting companies to compile its curriculum. It also relies on its expert professors, many of whom have founded their own tech companies and served senior positions in industry-leading organizations, according to Cnop.

“Teaching digital transformation can involve several different approaches, depending on the specific audience and goals of the training,” says Cnop.“Some key considerations include providing a compelling overview of the key technologies and concepts involved in digital transformation, such as cloud computing, big data and artificial intelligence, but also using real-world examples. It is specifically important to provide hands-on activities for students to have opportunities to work with digital technologies and tools in a hands-on setting, such as through workshops or group projects.”

The Counter-Intuitive Obstacle to Digital Transformation

Digital transformation may seem like a technical endeavour—just another engineering problem—but in Cnop’s view, that’s an incomplete picture.

“In a fast-changing marketplace characterised by the drive towards Industry 4.0, digital transformation demands a new way of working and not just new technology,” Cnop says. “Just as essential as technological know-how is leadership.”

This is one of the most important facts that Cnop hopes students will learn. Understanding the technology alone is not enough for engineers to succeed in forming and executing digital-transformation strategies.

“Counter-intuitively, perhaps, the biggest challenges of digital transformation often center around organizational and cultural changes,” says Cnop. “For example, companies may struggle to adapt their existing processes and systems to new digital technologies, or they may have difficulty getting employees to adopt new digital tools and workflows.”

In a world where so much has been digitized, one thing remains stubbornly analog: people.

“That’s why you’ll not only learn about machine learning, robotics and big data during [our program], but also about emotional intelligence, creative thinking and other soft and digital skills that are essential for a forward-thinking leader,” Cnop says.

3 Key Points About Digital Transformation for Engineers

ESCP’s master’s program runs full-time for 18 months, split evenly between on-campus studies and professional development. If you can’t take on a full-time program in digital transformation, or even the lesser commitment of an online course, it’s still worth noting the areas where your knowledge may be lacking. Digital transformation has many dimensions, and you don’t want any blind spots getting in the way of your company’s success.

In Cnop’s view, engineers must understand three things about digital transformation. The first: digital transformation entails a complete structural overhaul rather than a mere technological upgrade.

The second key point for engineers is that data is at the heart of digital transformation.

“To successfully implement digital technologies, companies will need to focus on organizational changes and data management. Digital technologies generate a large amount of data, so companies will need to develop the capability to collect, store and analyze this data,” Cnop says.

Finally, engineers must guard against the risks of digital transformation.

“Cybersecurity is paramount,” Cnop warns. “Engineering companies should ensure they have robust cybersecurity measures in place to protect their systems and data.”

The post The School of Transformation appeared first on Engineering.com.

Born in India, Balakrishnan earned a Bachelor of Technology degree in Electronics and Communication Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology Madras. He moved to the U.S. to pursue graduate studies at Stanford, where he obtained a master’s degree in electrical engineering in 1989, followed in 1992 by a master’s degree in statistics and a doctorate in electrical engineering. After two years of post-doctoral research at several institutions, in 1994 Balakrishnan joined the engineering faculty at Purdue University. During his time at Purdue, he served in several leadership roles, including associate dean of research for the college of engineering, and head of the electrical and computer engineering school.

Balakrishnan left Purdue in 2018, when he was appointed the dean of Case.

Among his primary research interests is the application of convex optimization to such engineering applications as robotics, signal processing and control systems. For his work in the latter, he was named a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) in 2012.

Venkataramanan “Ragu” Balakrishnan, Dean of the Case School of Engineering. (Source: Case Western Reserve University.)

The original transcript has been edited for clarity and brevity.

ENGINEERING.COM: What excites you most in the areas of computer engineering and computer science right now?

BALAKRISHNAN: We are at a point in technological evolution when memory and computation are plentiful and cheap. There has also been a veritable explosion in the availability of data. And the third big development is the rise of AI and machine learning, which allows you to apply large amounts of computation to large amounts of data to come up with insights that are simply amazing. That’s a revolution in the making we’re watching right now.

It brings us to the question of what the role of engineers is now. We will still solve problems, but we have to adapt quickly and use these new tools to solve what’s coming next. From an educator’s perspective, it challenges us as to what we should teach.

What do you think today’s engineers need to learn more about if they want to be successful?

The first thing that comes to mind is that engineers need to understand how to manipulate data and interpret the results.  In fact, data literacy is not just for engineers, but for the entire student body. I would say that there should be a layer of basic data literacy for everybody, and then you can add a second layer of slightly more advanced data literacy for engineers, who can do a little bit more with it. And if you’re a computer scientist, then you go all the way, full bore.  In any case, I think data sciences and analytics have become essential skills for all engineers. In the old days, who would do machine learning? The computer scientist. But we’ve hired a number of faculty over the past few years who use artificial intelligence as a companion in their own technical fields to come up with new insights and results that they could not have achieved before.

Technology is changing rapidly, and the rate of that change is increasing. So, everything is happening so fast that it is not a smart strategy to only be a specialist in one area. Of course, you should be able to dive deep and solve problems in one area. But you should be also able to go one level up in the hierarchy and look at the broader picture, take the lessons learned and the expertise gained in one particular application, and then translate it to other applications. You’d better be able to move around, or you run the risk of being stuck—perhaps even without a job.

You have a strong interest in the pedagogy of engineering. What do you believe are the best opportunities to improve how the discipline is taught?

I find it interesting to think about this in the context of how education has evolved. A long time ago, there was the Socratic method with a teacher and a few students.  With the democratization of education, we had to scale up and become more efficient, so we came up with the notion of the classroom, with one teacher, many students and parallel content delivery. I’m dating myself here, but along came videotapes and people thought, if a lecture is on videotape, you just don’t have to go to class anymore. That didn’t quite happen. Now you have Coursera and EdX and so on – on any topic you pick, there is a beautiful lecture available on the web.

So the idea of using the classroom purely for content-delivery is dead, if all you are doing is giving a lecture that’s perhaps available in a better form elsewhere. So, the question is what does a classroom experience bring that’s beyond just content delivery?  How do you leverage the classroom to get the maximum bang for the buck? People have tried many things, including flipped classrooms [a blended-learning model in which student devote in-class time to live problem solving and watch lectures online outside of class]. In any case, I’d say reinventing the classroom is an experiment in progress.

A second big challenge, especially in engineering, is making learning an interactive, collaborative experience, including hands-on activities. You can talk about data and artificial intelligence all you want, but in the end, engineers build things. They fix things. So how do you bring the hands-on experience into the curriculum early? How do you make sure students understand what happens when people work together in teams? Another challenge is the boundary condition of time. If a degree program is four years long, what do you change in order to fit these new things in?

What’s one way you’ve tried to address any of the challenges you just identified?

At the top of the list would be a new first-year course that we started specifically to address the fact that there was no hands-on introduction to engineering for our first-year students. Most engineering programs start by teaching basic math and science in a classroom. But the fun of doing engineering is lost in all of that.

In our new first-year course, students discover the fun of engineering by working in teams on short two-week modules taken from the various disciplines of engineering. This course also serves to educate students on what each discipline of engineering is like, and the interplay between them. They also learn a few hands-on skills like 3D printing and the like. And we include some fun competitions. Here’s an example: we give the students radio-controlled cars, but they have to design the wheels on their own, 3D-print their design, and then navigate an obstacle course with the cars.  We give them open-ended problems like this which are often hard.  Part of what we want to highlight is that it’s okay to fail because you learn something every time you fail.

We rolled out the course to the entire incoming class [of about 500 students] in fall of 2022. That’s one thing – you did ask for just one – I can say I am very proud of.

What’s the role of senior administrators or academics such as yourself in improving diversity, equity and inclusion within engineering education?

I’d start with education. People need to be aware of why diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) are important. And of course, it’s an economic case as well as one of fairness and equity. Anybody would agree that the more talent you have around the table, the more smart people you’re able to attract to your profession, the better the outcomes are going to be. So, we need to make engineering attractive for everybody.  This is easy to say but can be harder to do because we all have unconscious or implicit biases. One thing we have been doing, not only from my level but from the university level, is to sensitize faculty and staff to this notion of bias and things around that. So education and training are important.

Second, role models are important, and we have been working on improving diversity among the faculty. How? Well, faculty hiring is done by search committees, and search committees tend to reflect the current composition of the faculty. So we have intentionally diversified our search committees, instituting processes for that. We hired 18 faculty over the past couple of years, and fully half of them are from underrepresented groups, including six women and three African American men.

The third component is resources. If you intentionally allocate resources towards enriching the diversity of your faculty, then you can get critical mass. Once that happens, things actually catch fire.

And what about DEI initiatives aimed at the student body?

On the student side, things get a little tricky because there is a pipeline problem. It’s a challenge we cannot fight alone, but we can play a big role in helping.

There is a leak at the front of the pipeline. I’m talking about middle school and the elementary grades. There are economic inequities. I don’t want to be political, but in the U.S., there is inequity in funding education because funding tends to be local – there is no standardization. So, if you live in an affluent suburb, the high schools and elementary schools tend to be much better funded and have much better teachers and so on than under-resourced schools do. These inequities are a kind of hole that causes a leak.

So we try hard to compete to bring in the most diverse class at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.  When students come into a university, a source of the leak could be that they don’t see a critical mass of other students like them. They feel isolated. We fight hard against it, but unless we are able to address the inclusion aspect of DEI, it all becomes a challenge.  We do have university-wide as well as engineering-wide activities to promote inclusion.

The leaders of a lot of big U.S. technology companies are of South Asian descent. Does that make things a little bit easier for students of South Asian descent compared to, say, African-American students who see relatively few Black technology CEOs?

Absolutely. But what gets forgotten is the inherent advantages that people like me or [Microsoft CEO] Satya Nadella had, because we came to the United States from privilege, which most people don’t understand. People look at a foreign graduate student and say, oh, poor guy. Well, I came to the U.S. with a lot of inherent advantages that I enjoyed growing up in India.

All of the Indian CEOs serve as great role models for people of Indian descent. It’s great to have these people, and it does help a lot. It’s a tragedy that there isn’t a similarly high level of presence for underserved groups like African-Americans, and if you ask why, it goes back to missing privilege.

What do young people need to know before committing themselves to four years of engineering school?

Engineers change the world, to put it very in a grandiose way. Or to put it more mundanely, we solve practical problems.  We use creativity, we use logic and we actually make problem-solving a science. What I mean is that when we solve a problem, the approach we use is systematic, and works not only for the specific problem we solved, but can also be broadened and generalized so that we can address other similar problems and beyond.  And if it doesn’t sound glamorous, I’d say the results speak for themselves.  Anything you can think of over the past couple of hundred years or so that has changed the way we live – transportation, communication, healthcare, etc. – probably has engineering playing a lead or strong supporting role in it.  In fact, it’s hard to think of advances where engineers did not have a role to play.  Engineering is a great profession to be in!

So, if you’re wondering whether engineering is right for you, the first thing you need to ask yourself is, “Do I like solving problems? Do I want to contribute and make a difference?” Creativity is a big part of all of this, so do you have a creative spark in you?

But you should also be comfortable with the quantitative side of things, and to be able to think somewhat abstractly with mathematical representations of real-life systems. In other words, you need the ability to understand the world via mathematical and scientific models.

Another aspect is that most solutions these days require the coming together of multiple disciplines, so do you like working in teams? Do you communicate well?

If these things sound like fun, then be an engineer.

What would be your key message to someone graduating today?

We promised that you’d be equipped with skills to change the world. Here’s your chance. If there is a time in your life when you can take risks and stretch yourself, this is it. Starting out as a fresh graduate, you don’t have much to lose by taking risks and trying cool things. So go ahead and be idealistic, because if there’s ever a time in anyone’s life to be idealistic, it’s now.

What’s your pitch to prospective students of the Case Western Reserve University School of Engineering?

First, Case Western Reserve is a comprehensive university. We have a great medical school along with other schools outside of engineering. At the same time, we’re not very big. We have a small-school feel with rich opportunities for exploration and collaboration beyond the engineering school. We have students majoring in interesting combinations, such as macromolecular engineering and dance – there is actually a student who did that.

Second, our faculty are outstanding researchers, and given the small-school feel, there are wonderful opportunities for undergraduate research. As a student, you can jump right into the cutting edge on a lot of applications.

The third thing I would say is that we also have some of the world’s best co-curricular opportunities. We have something called Think Box, which is a unique innovation ecosystem that provides opportunities for students to work in design teams having fun with competitions like Baja Car. We also provide students with a framework and support for translating ideas into products. We teach them entrepreneurship. There are all kinds of resources available for this.

Last but not least, we are an urban university located in University Circle [a Cleveland neighborhood dense with cultural attractions and home to a large medical complex]. Because of that, there are all these opportunities to do even more interesting things, collaborating with the surrounding community and the hospital system. For all these reasons, I think Case is a great place for engineering.

The post Do Engineering Schools Still Need Classrooms? appeared first on Engineering.com.

A chemical engineer by training, Bonnecaze is an internationally recognized expert in rheology and a leading authority on modeling and simulation for nanomanufacturing. He is a co-founding director of the Nanomanufacturing Systems Center (NASCENT), a National Science Foundation-backed research center dedicated to developing nanoscale manufacturing processes, materials and more. His involvement in NASCENT planted the seeds of SandBox Semiconductor Inc., which he launched with one of his PhD students in 2016 to create tools that accelerate process development in advanced manufacturing.

Bonnecaze became Cockrell’s dean in June 2022 after nearly 30 years on the engineering faculty of UT Austin. He has won numerous awards for his teaching and research, including the National Science Foundation’s Young Investigator Award.

Roger Bonnecaze, Dean of the Cockrell School of Engineering (Source: University of Texas at Austin)

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The original transcript has been edited for clarity and brevity.

Engineering.com: According to the mission statement of the Cockrell School of Engineering, one of the school’s priorities is to foster entrepreneurship. Why?

Bonnecaze: “Our goal is to create students who are fearless and entrepreneurial in their mindset. What I mean by fearless is not reckless, but that they’re willing to consider very hard problems and are not daunted by them and will figure out a way to address them. They may not have the expertise on their own, but they understand that they can form a team, et cetera. And the entrepreneurial aspect is not just in spinning out startup companies, but in having an entrepreneurial mindset – looking for interesting problems that are important to solve, and then figuring out interesting, innovative solutions. That’s important for a student to be successful in engineering, whether they start their own company or work for a Fortune 500 company.

Were students as interested in entrepreneurship when you started teaching nearly 30 years ago?

No. There’s definitely been a shift in students’ interest in both engineering and entrepreneurship. Students in high school are more interested in engineering now than they were 30 years ago. And the typical thinking back then was that when you graduated, you would work for an established company or become a professor. Relatively few said, “Oh, I’m going to start a business.” Now, many more students think that starting their own business or joining a startup is a viable path. I attribute both things to the increased presence of engineering and startups in the media.

You have a startup of your own, SandBox Semiconductor, which you co-founded with Meghali Chopra, one of your former graduate students. How did that come about?

Meghali was a PhD student and was involved in the Nanomanufacturing Systems Center (NASCENT), which is a National Science Foundation-funded engineering research center (ERC) at UT Austin. A lot of companies are involved in ERCs like NASCENT, where I spoke with several chip toolmakers – the people who make the tools to make microchips. I was very surprised to learn that they don’t use simulations or modeling for etch-recipe development. They take a trial-and-error approach. I told Meghali that I think there’s an opportunity for us to try something different, and the core of her PhD was how to use models, even if you don’t know all the parameters in the model, to guide your experiments so that you can do them more efficiently and come up with etch recipes more quickly.

What have you learned from the experience of launching a company?

There are now several employees at Sandbox, so my current role is to give technological advice on how to proceed in certain product-development lines. But when it was just Meghali and me, we were involved in the whole process of getting the company launched.

One of the best experiences associated with that was the National Science Foundation I-Corps (Innovation Corps) program that I took part in. It’s a startup entrepreneur bootcamp that lasts seven weeks. One of the key teachings of the program is what they call customer discovery, which is basically where you go to the people you think would be your customers, listen to what their needs are and determine whether your business idea is aligned with those needs. This was an eye-opening experience because it helped us understand more clearly our value proposition to these companies and who our potential customers are. It also helped us understand the importance of customer discovery in starting up a new business.

To be honest with you, now I think about customer discovery whenever I think about launching new programs at the Cockrell School of Engineering. When people pitch new programs to me, I’ll ask them: Who will be served by these programs? What’s the need that’s being filled? What would be the overall benefit in the long term?

For sure, one of the classic mistakes made by budding entrepreneurs is to develop products before identifying a market need – the so-called “solution looking for a problem.”

Actually, another thing that came out of my experience with I-Corps program is that I now tell all faculty to participate in the program if they have the opportunity. They should do it even if they decide that their idea isn’t commercializable and they shouldn’t form a startup, because the experience changes your perspective on how your research might be perceived by an industry and even how to pick research problems if your goal is to spin out a company.

Apart from being more interested in entrepreneurship, what differences have you noticed between today’s engineering students and those you taught early in your career?

The biggest change is simply that there are a lot more women and a lot more students from historically underrepresented groups in engineering. That’s been great because they bring different life experiences and perspectives, which has been shown over and over to improve engineering product, and also because we want to bring all the intellectual capital possible into the engineering field.

The other thing that I’ve noticed is that students now are much more multidisciplinary in their thinking. There’s a lot more interest in pursuing minors or certificates that broaden their skill sets. So, for instance, they’re not getting their degree just in mechanical engineering, but also getting a minor in materials science or business.

These days, engineers are constantly being thrust into multidisciplinary teams, so it’s good to bring multiple skill sets to the table and to understanding how the skill sets of others might affect how you think about and solve problems.

Within this interdisciplinary trend, is there a noticeable number of students who are interested in subjects outside of the applied sciences and business? Are they also taking minors in ethics, philosophy or any other areas that might help them bring a more holistic perspective to their engineering work?

Yes! At the University of Texas we have something called the Plan II program, which essentially is a minor in liberal arts. Many of our engineering students participate in that program.

We also have some undergraduate programs that all students must take in their first semester or two. They’re meant to broaden the student’s perspective on things outside of their home departments. For the most part they’re not technical classes, and almost all the engineering students choose very non-technical classes.

How do you think the engineer of the future will be different from the engineer of today in terms of their skills, aptitudes or interests?

All engineering students will need to have facility with data, being able to understand data, to manage data and to extract value out of data efficiently. The goal isn’t to make everybody a data scientist, but engineers will need to use artificial intelligence, machine learning, et cetera to achieve whatever their specific project goals are.

Related to that is what I’ll call human-machine interaction in engineering, process development, product development, design and so on. You’ll take advantage of computers not just in the traditional way – such as for simulation, CAD drawings and that kind of thing – but also thinking about computers or even robots as a partner who helps you advance toward your technological goals. Don’t ask me to predict when that’s going to happen, but I feel that it’s coming, and I already see it developing in some areas. 

What’s an underappreciated challenge faced by the engineering profession?

Honestly, we don’t have enough engineers for all the engineering work that needs to be done.

I’m going to sound biased when I say that an engineering education prepares students to think about problems in a unique way. They understand how to break problems down and to embrace data, which is valuable in areas well beyond engineering – dare I say politics, for instance. I’ve always said that an engineering degree is a great degree to get because, fundamentally, what we’re teaching people is how to solve difficult problems. And there is never a shortage of difficult problems that society faces.

What’s your elevatory pitch for the Cockrell School of Engineering?

What I think makes the Cockrell School of Engineering great is the people, facilities and opportunities that we offer our students.

We have world-class faculty who are teaching the vast majority of classes to our students. In terms of facilities, we have two brand-new buildings, and a third one is under design and will be completed in four years. In terms of opportunities, we have excellent career services, internship opportunities, opportunities to develop startup companies or guide students in how to develop startup companies, and a world-class makerspace where students can prototype and learn how to create new products for technological applications.

In May 2022, you were named Dean of Cockrell after about 10 months in an interim role. What’s your vision for the school and what changes do you want to make?

In a nutshell, my vision for the Cockrell School of Engineering is to be the most impactful public school of engineering in the U.S.

How are we going to get there? It’s really about picking challenging societal problems to address. It’s about providing an education that creates fearless entrepreneurial students. And it’s about creating an environment in which faculty, staff and students can all grow and become the best versions of themselves.

Read the first installment in our Dean’s List series, featuring Ian Robertson of the University of Wisconsin–Madison’s College of Engineering, in The Engineer of the Future is a Data Miner.

The post The Fearless Entrepreneurs of Engineering’s Next Generation appeared first on Engineering.com.

(Image courtesy of PPI, A Kaplan Company.)

As the end of one year approaches, countless professionals are setting their goals for next year and devising a plan to achieve them. For the engineers among them, one of the most common objectives will be to overcome one of two key obstacles on the path to full engineering licensure: the Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) exam, and Principles and Practice of Engineering (PE) exam.

By passing the FE exam, an engineer earns what in most U.S. states is called the Engineer-in-Training (EIT) designation. An EIT can work as an engineer and begin earning the several years of professional experience required to take the PE exam, which is the final obstacle on the road to full licensure as a professional engineer. Sounds simple but preparing oneself to take either exam requires a hard work and dedication. PPI, a Kaplan Company, a major provider of exam preparatory courses and materials, recommends studying three hours a day over 12-14 weeks for the FE exam, and a total of 200-300 hours over 5-7 months for the PE exam. While this might seem like an enormous commitment, “the time spent now in preparation for your exam will give many years of benefits in one’s career,” says Arthur Chianello, P.E., an instructor of civil engineering instructor at PPI, a Kaplan Company and the Water Resource Manager for the City of Bakersfield, Calif. Chianello, who started his career as a mechanical engineer before obtaining a master’s degree in civil engineering, has helped hundreds of students prepare for the FE civil exam. Here, he offers his best advice on preparing for the FE and PE exams.

Make a Plan and Stick to It

The first step to getting ready for either exam is simply to become familiar with the exam’s contents. Download the exam reference handbooks from the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying (NCEES) and review the various knowledge areas to be covered by the exam for your particular discipline. The exam specification outline, in concert with the NCEES reference handbook, can be used to “create a study schedule that is practical and achievable,” says Chianello.

One of the big benefits of enrolling in an exam prep course, like those offered by PPI, is the study guide you’ll receive. PPI’s guide includes reading materials, diagnostic exams, flashcards, and homework quizzes that follow the structure of the exam. It takes a lot of the guesswork out of determining what to study and when, as it’s all been organized for you.

When developing your study plan, or deciding when to register for a prep course, work backwards from your exam date to “make sure that you scheduled your exam close to when you finish your studying, so that everything will be fresh in your mind,” advises Chianello.

NCEES Reference Handbook

In addition to learning the exam specifications, familiarizing yourself with the NCEES handbook is another crucial step in exam preparation. “When you’re solving a homework problem, taking a quiz or a practice exam, have your NCEES reference handbook next to you and be able to locate equations, formulas and tables within that book,” says Chianello. Why? Because the handbook is the only piece of reference material you’ll be allowed to consult during the exam. A good understanding of the handbook and knowing where to find information will reduce time spent searching useful content, which in turn will maximize the time you have to answer the exam questions.

Identify Your Strengths and Weaknesses

Both the FE and PE exams cover a wide range of subject matter. Even with several years of job experience, there may be areas with which you are less familiar or that you might not practice regularly in your professional role. “If you just focus on your strengths, that may not give you enough points,” says Chianello. “You need to be thorough when you do your review work problems and seek advice to answer any questions that may come up for that particular problem or concept.” Diagnostic exams, which are included with a PPI prep course, allow you to identify the knowledge areas in which you’ll benefit from more study. You can then adjust your studies to focus on your weaker knowledge areas and ensure you have a well-rounded understanding of the content to improve your chances of success.

Practice, Practice, Practice

In addition to the diagnostic exams, there are also practice exams you can take as often as you’d like. Chianello advises taking practice tests frequently during your exam prep. The exams are written in the specific cadence of the actual exam with equations following the exam format. “Taking practice tests will familiarize you with the phrasing of the questions and the overall format of the exam,” notes Chianello. The practice exams can also be timed, allowing you to exercise time management, a vital factor when it comes to answering all the questions successfully on exam day.

Time Management

It’s important to be aware of the time you spend on each question as you study, as this will train you to manage your time effectively during the actual exam. Based on the number of questions and length of the exams, you will have an average of three minutes to complete each question on the FE exam and six minutes per question on the PE exam. “When you’re taking the test, the goal is to manage your time,” says Chianello. “A lot of people say they’ve run out of time, and they didn’t finish answering all the problems. Flag the problems that are taking too much time and come back to them later, after you’ve completed the problems that you’re more familiar with.”

Not Your Average Textbook

The PPI exam review books, which are provided as part of PPI prep courses, follow the same format as the NCEES handbook, identify equations that match the format of the exam, and include a succinct description of each formula and its applications. Chianello advises candidates to “obtain an engineering review book that includes background information, relevant equations, quantitative examples, and practice problems.” This is not your average textbook; the PPI exam review books are intended to help the reader soak up as much knowledge and understanding of the content as possible. In fact, Chianello still refers regularly to his review for help in his professional role because the information is easy to access and understand.

Study Buddies

Having completed your engineering degree and studied for several exams, you’re likely aware of your study style. “If you’re one who likes to study alone, then identify a quiet study space that could be at home, at work, or in the library,” Chianello recommends. “But it’s important to have a space that minimizes distractions. Or if you prefer to study in a group, finding a study group is helpful and can also help you work with others on the same problems to discuss solutions and concepts.”

Preparing to take the FE or PE exam is a lofty goal for the new year, but with the right amount of preparation, it’s an achievable goal. The large amount of knowledge required to pass the exam can be overwhelming but understanding the exam structure and using a correlating study guide will allow you to focus on a specific subject-matter area each time you study. The wealth of resources and combined knowledge that come with a PPI prep course will ensure you have the tools to understand the exam content and greatly improve your chances of passing the exam.

To learn more about the exam preparation courses and resources offered, visit PPI, a Kaplan Company.

The post How to Prepare for the FE and PE Exams appeared first on Engineering.com.

About 37 percent of the population is still without internet. (Image courtesy of Bigstock).

The first announcement in question was Atos’ European report, produced by Coleman Parkes Research, which outlines how the Cloud can help organizations reach net zero. The second was Qualcomm’s Report, which talks about how 5G technologies close the digital divide. How can these seemingly unrelated announcements create an ecosystem that can make the engineering industry greener and more equitable? Let’s dig into each separately and bring it all together in the end.

Closing the Digital Divide Can Fill in the Engineering Skills Gap

As of 2021, the International Telecommunication Union’s Facts and Figures report said that 63 percent of the world’s population is online—an increase of 17 percent, or 800 million people since 2019. Though it’s clear we still have some ways to go to close the digital divide—for example, the whopping 37 percent of the population still without the internet—for those 800 million people who gained access to the internet, and thus cloud technologies, it was life changing.

Over the past few years, various affordable engineering tools have been made available to users through their internet browser. Examples include Onshape for CAD, SimScale and OnScale for FEA and CFD simulations and Rescale for high-performance computing. Additionally, many tutorials on learning how to use those tools have popped up on video sharing and educational websites such as YouTube and Coursera. In short, when more people gain access to the internet, they also gain access to engineering tools and skills.

This isn’t simply hypothetical. According to Forbes, Ali-shah Jivraj’s family lost its business empire to the 1972 ethnic cleansings in Uganda. In the 1980’s, his family returned to Uganda and started to rebuild the life they once had. Then in 2006, Jivraj had a chance meeting with an electrician who repaired the family television. With that electrician’s help, Jivraj learned the trade and created Royal Electronics, a company that was making over $15 million by 2015. The business model was simple: source affordable and broken parts, fix them as needed, and use them to build high quality electronics such as televisions, DVD players and more. The result is that Royal pays a fraction of the cost for its supplies, and can undercut the rest of the market without losing product quality or profits.

Jivraj was lucky to have startup capital from his family, but it was that one chance meeting that sparked the education needed to build a potential company. Now imagine the potential of those 800 million people gaining access to affordable cloud-based engineering tools and training material. Not only will many of these individuals learn the engineering profession, potentially closing much of the current skills gap, but they might also become entrepreneurs like Jivraj.

According to Qualcomm’s report, 5G Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) can close the digital divide by 2032 if it is fully deployed. As a result, the global GDP will increase by $3.3 trillion and middle- and low-income economies could grow by five percent or more. Additionally, another 850 million people will have gained access to the internet from their homes for the first time. What engineering breakthroughs might they soon bring to the table?

“Qualcomm 5G technology has the potential to close the digital divide and create transformational change, particularly for disadvantaged and underserved populations,” said Kirti Gupta, Vice President, Technology & Economic Strategy, Qualcomm Incorporated in the release. “As a leader in advanced 5G solutions, it is our responsibility to ensure the world understands the importance and potential of this technology. With everyone pulling in the same direction, the world will benefit greatly from the widespread implementation of 5G mobile and FWA technology.”

Of course, along with this new access to engineering tools and information, these new internet citizens will also need the financial ability and stability to do something with them. One of the biggest threats to that stability is climate change, which the UN has reported will significantly impact poorer nations more than those with large economies.

This brings us to the other news from Atos, which talks about the environmental impact the Cloud can have on global warming.

How the Cloud Fits into the Engineering Industry’s Path to Zero Emissions

According to the Atos report, technology is an important part of decarbonization. About 58 percent of companies that digitize their operations say they are more successful in their green initiatives. This is because cloud-enabled technologies such as AI, machine learning, IoT and data analytics help organizations find more efficient ways to operate.

Diane Galbe, Senior Executive Vice President in charge of Sustainability & Net Zero Transformation Practice at Atos said, “The research clearly shows that decarbonization is now a priority for all businesses, and with the amount of data proliferating, not only within an organization but also between them, effective data management and cloud integration are becoming increasingly important. The power of digital in decarbonization cannot be underestimated. As the survey shows, there is a demand for more digitalization and measurement to support decarbonization objectives.”

An example of cloud technologies making an organization greener would be the use of predictive analytics to prevent a machine malfunction. Predicting when the machine will go down and planning for it ahead of time means that downtime, energy costs and consumption can all be reduced. In fact, according to the report, half of the businesses that migrate legacy systems to the cloud have seen measurable carbon reduction.

Christopher Wellise, Director of Sustainability at AWS, said about the report, “What is so interesting about this research is that business leaders who have already engaged cloud services think they are more successful in delivering carbon reductions. The data provided in the report backs up this view, as it shows that cloud offers nearly any company or public body a less carbon-intensive way of managing their IT. The other fascinating insight here is that 7 in 10 business leaders see the cloud as accelerating their journey to net zero emissions by two years or more.”

Some might argue that this isn’t really going green, as it only shifts IT emissions from the company onto cloud providers. There is some truth in that, and similar arguments have been made about electric vehicles. However, just like with electric vehicles, by culminating all the carbon usage into one location—a powerplant for cars, or the cloud provider for IT—it simplifies the process to reduce carbon emissions overall. Instead of thousands of cars or company IT resources becoming more efficient, only one organization needs to reduce its carbon impact. And once that company reduces its carbon impact, global impacts are greatly reduced overall.

The Cloud’s Feedback Loop for a Greener more Equitable Engineering Industry

The Cloud isn’t a silver bullet that can solve climate change or the digital divide. However, in the examples above, it’s clear that the Cloud creates ecosystems that are taking steps in the right direction to solve both problems. What’s more interesting is that each step towards these ecosystems feeds back on itself.

Going back to those 800 million people gaining access to the internet for the first time. Many of these individuals will become local entrepreneurs that will hire local talent. These companies will already start with most of their processes on the Cloud because that’s where the entrepreneur and their employees learned to operate. As a result, their carbon footprint will already be lower than a company that has yet to make the jump onto the Cloud. This means that though the number of skilled individuals increases, their impact on the environment will be lower compared to others around the world.

Additionally, like Jivraj’s electronics company, many of these budding companies will have an environmental spin. The goal of these organizations will be to bootstrap their way to success, which is why access to the Internet and the Cloud are so beneficial in the first place. Naturally, many will gravitate to a business model like that of Royal Electronics where they can take something cheap or abundant, such as broken electronic parts, and make them into something of high quality that can then be sold for below traditional market price while still turning a profit. In other words, many of these companies will be recycling, reducing and reusing their way to successful business models.

To sum it all up, the more people who learn the engineering trade via the internet and the Cloud, the more environmental the profession becomes and the more effectively we can build up countries around the world without increasing environmental impacts. In addition, this all leads to more people who can fill the skills gaps that are rampant in the engineering community.

Will the cloud solve the engineering industry’s lack of expertise problem? No, but it is going to enable a lot of people to become experts who would never have had such an opportunity before. Will it make the engineering industry green? No, but it will get us one step closer to a sustainable future—and that’s the future I want to live in.

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