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Feb 19, 2019 | 04:33 am
Dear Colleagues,Surely, the KISS principle is one of the most useful engineering tools we have in our armory (KISS means Keep it Simple Stupid, for those who have forgotten). This should be applied to our writing so that it is simple and easy to understand.But this principle is often forgotten. Perhaps, the overriding consideration we mistakenly have is to impress our audience with lots of gigantic words. I believe it is a privilege when someone is reading your communications. Therefore, you should ensure you respond appropriately to make it as easy as possible to understand what you are endeavoring to get across.Spource: AZ QuotesEngineering Professionals Most of the communications that engineering professionals write are to colleagues – in my opinion – and this results in the use of lots of technology gobbledygook. Obviously one doesn’t want to descend to childish levels and treat one’s audience like complete orangutans with overly[…]
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Feb 18, 2019 | 01:21 am
Gorataone is a graduate from the Engineering Institute of Technology; he has an Advanced Diploma of Industrial Automation. He is also a married man with three children; we congratulate him for ably juggling full time work, a family and his studies!His career in the engineering world began at the Debswana Diamond mine in Botswana. While at the mine he became a control and instrumentation technician and, within the coal-fired plants, he worked with a 33MW pulverized boiler and 600MW fluidized circulating air boiler. His daily responsibilities included the calibration, troubleshooting and maintenance of process equipment. Naturally he was also involved in the safety of the plant at all times too.The qualification from EIT gave him the skills to progress in the mine: from working in the process control and instrumentation departments he has now moved to the access control and surveillance departments.“The main reason I chose this course was to[…]
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Feb 14, 2019 | 05:49 am
The prototype of the world's longest aircraft is being retired, with new aircraft innovation promised to hit the market soon.The aircraft in question was the Airlander 10: a weirdly shaped plane-airship/blimp that showed what the future of air travel could look like. Needless to say, it does not look like your regular Airbus.It was the product of Hybrid Air Vehicles (HAV), a company based in Virginia in the United States. The company surprisingly obtained the Civil Aviation Authority's (CAA) approval and are now confident that they can build their final prototype and take it to the skies in 2020.Source: AirlanderSocial media was not kind to the shape of the aircraft, with some calling it ‘the flying bum.'The prototype — which looks like it flew out of a science fiction novel — went through its fair share of trial and error. The prototype crashed nose-first in 2016 on its maiden flight.[…]
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Feb 14, 2019 | 05:39 am
India's most famous civil engineer, Sir Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya, once said: ‘Work is worship.'Gustave Eiffel, the French civil engineer responsible for the Eiffel Tower, said: “Can one think that because we are engineers, beauty does not preoccupy us or that we do not try to build beautiful, as well as solid and long lasting structures? Aren’t the genuine functions of strength always in keeping with unwritten conditions of harmony? Besides, there is an attraction, a special charm in the colossal to which ordinary theories of art do not apply.”Marvels of civil engineering are evident throughout history. Even today, humans are trying to push the boundaries of what is possible.However, what exactly draws prospective engineers to the civil engineering profession? Why do civil engineers do what they do? How can they improve the world in the future?The Civil Engineering Contractors Association, a construction organization in the United Kingdom, wants to answer those[…]
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Feb 14, 2019 | 05:26 am
In January 2019, the Consumer Electronics Show kicked off in Las Vegas, Nevada. And it seems mechanical engineering, propped up by artificial intelligence, is the talk of the town.Mercedes-Benz rolled their latest marvel of mechanical engineering out on the floor, touting some impressive artificially intelligent add-ons. The car’s name is the 2020 Mercedes-Benz CLA 250 Coupe, and the AI software is called MBUX (Mercedes-Benz user experience).The company’s presentation kicked off calling the CLA ‘The most bling-bling gadget’ at the expo. You can even talk to the car by calling out the words, “Hey Mercedes,” and follow it up with a command you want the car to perform - like rolling up the windows. It also has hand gesture recognition.Source: Mercedes-BenzThere are also semi-autonomous features that help the car drive; further propelling the car industry into a self-driving future. Moving to an artificially intelligent car, empowered by software, is a watershed[…]
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Feb 13, 2019 | 05:38 am
Pearlitic steel, or pearlite, is one of the most durable materials in the world. This microstructure occurs in steel and can be made into steel wire.You might have seen these wires bundled together into ropes for suspension bridges or steel cords for tire reinforcement. They are also prevalent in piano wires. Kanazawa University students in Japan have been studying its atomic structure and have made a few first-time discoveries. They hope the atomic properties present in pearlite could be applied to newer materials to ensure bridges and buildings sustain less damage during earthquakes.In their published findings, titled ‘Proposed engineering method could help make buildings and bridges safer,' the researchers report that they were able to ascertain the distance between locations in nanolayer interfaces in pearlite. The university’s news website writes:“Perlite is made of alternating nanolayers of cementite and ferrite. The cementite helps make it strong, while the ferrite helps make it[…]
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Feb 13, 2019 | 02:14 am
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has been working on nano-electrofuel (NEF) flow batteries for electric aviation.This means they could eventually power aircraft with non-explosive liquid rechargeable batteries.The development of these flow batteries is being done by the Armstrong Flight Research Center's Aqueous Quick-Charging Battery Integration for Flight Research (Aquifer) within NASA. The aerospace company has always been innovative in the flow battery space — they invented a functioning flow battery back in the 1970s.NASA says the flow batteries they are developing will have a higher energy density than solid lithium-ion batteries. However, there is a debate as to whether liquid batteries are better than solid-state batteries, particularly when it comes to electric vehicles. Liquid vs. solid-stateLithium-ion batteries are made up of liquid electrolyte solutions that utilize an anode and cathode system. A solid-state electrolyte results in a smaller battery with a higher energy density, using a lithium metal anode.In the[…]
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Feb 7, 2019 | 08:07 am
The World Economic Forum is inviting other industrial companies to study nine world-leading smart factories they have identified as having the latest in automation technology.Not surprisingly, these ‘manufacturing lighthouses' as the WEF call them, utilize the Industrial Internet of Things, and in their opinion show the most promise in Fourth Industrial Revolution implementation.WEF are helping build seven more to join the other nine already in existence.Factories are becoming far more automated with communications and networking technologies that can integrate with modern day smartphones and remote technologies. The world has witnessed the advent of 4G in the last few years, which transformed the speed of access to the internet and created interconnected networks within factories.But 4G's successor is here, and it is unsurprisingly called 5G. The technology is boasting more bandwidth and faster speeds.However, rolling it out across the world is going to take the building of some new infrastructure.Nonetheless, many[…]
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Feb 7, 2019 | 03:43 am
Artificial Intelligence may be the key to empowering rural education and ensuring a future where no students get left behind.At least that's what venture capitalist Kai-Fu Lee believes.The momentum behind Artificial Intelligence does not seem to be slowing down. Some of the biggest companies in the world are utilizing it: Google, Amazon, Facebook, Tesla.According to Kai-Fu Lee, the best place to capitalize on AI is China. It's there that he is known as the Oracle of AI. He is also a former employee of Google, Apple, and Microsoft.Source: CBS NewsSpeaking to CBS' 60 minutes, he said most people around the world have no idea how quickly AI is advancing."I believe it's going to change the world more than anything in the history of mankind. More than electricity.”He has funded 140 AI start-ups. His Beijing venture capital firm has supported approximately ten one-billion-dollar companies.In 2017, China's technology markets received half of[…]
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Feb 7, 2019 | 00:52 am
The Engineering Institute of Technology visited Kathmandu in Nepal, meeting with students and families in the area to encourage ongoing engineering education and skills development. Nepal is a landlocked country in South Asia and is located mainly in the Himalayas. It has an estimated population of 26.4 million people. It is the 48th largest country by population in the world.In December, the Nepali Times published an article entitled: The Science of Learning. It highlighted the need for Nepalese schools to ‘add STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics)-based instruction to prepare the country for the future.’The country wants to prioritize STEM education, so graduates with a good grasp of technologies can use their skills to improve Nepal. Experts are asking for government strategies to be implemented urgently, to better STEM education.EIT wants to meet those STEM-empowered school leavers the minute they journey into higher education. EIT International Education Agent Coordinator, Caroline Mackay,[…]
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Feb 7, 2019 | 00:31 am
The Australian government is favouring universities and neglecting the vocational training sector. This is according to recent reports issued by the Australian Industry Group (AI Group). They charge the government with funding bias.The AI Group says that tertiary education is “seriously unbalanced, has no coherent policy and lacks a universal funding framework”.Source: AI GroupAI Group chief executive Innes Willox indicated that funding for qualifications heavily favours universities. He says that the vocational educational training funding has “fallen off a cliff”.AI Group reported that spending on universities ‘went from $17 billion in 2006 to $25.9 billion in 2016’, whereas spending on vocational training has been reduced from ‘$5.9 billion to $5.7 billion’. Willox has previously said:“It’s a case of different but unequal. There is a perception that the training sector is ‘lower’ than the university system because of the status of the jobs the sector serves. If the Australian economy is[…]
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Feb 6, 2019 | 07:59 am
In 2002, Fortunate Nyamidembo began pursuing a career in the engineering industry. By 2005, he had graduated with a National Certificate in Electrical Power Engineering and acquired a Trade Test Certificate.He also obtained a Certificate of Compliance to become a Wireman License holder. Recently, he graduated with an Advanced Diploma of Applied Electrical Engineering through the Engineering Institute of Technology (EIT).He has recently experienced a period of transition within his career: he has departed the textiles industry and moved onto engineering design and manufacturing in Road Tanker Manufacturing. Reflecting on his varied career thus far, he said:“In my 13 year career, I have enjoyed the test of engineering in vast areas and got opportunities to collaborate with local and overseas technicians and engineers to tackle the job tasks. I worked for various sectors from textiles, manufacturing, steel processing, installation projects and even designing. Things I got involved with range from[…]
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Feb 6, 2019 | 06:25 am
Oyama Khanyisile Vundla is a 24-year old young woman from a township named Madadeni in KwaZulu-Natal province in South Africa. She recently graduated from the Engineering Institute of Technology, acquiring an Advanced Diploma of Civil and Structural Engineering.A middle child, Oyama has two brothers, but was raised by her grandmother after her mother died. She says that her grandmother was dubious about her wanting to become an engineer.“She had her doubts that I would make it in an industry so dominated by men. Because of that, I had to work had and prove her wrong,” Oyama said.Oyama graduated from high school in 2012, immediately enrolling in Civil Engineering studies at South West Gauteng College - a technical and vocational training college.“I have always had an interest in construction work, wanting to know how the buildings and structures are erected and assembled,” she said. In the trenches In 2015, whilst doing her[…]
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Feb 6, 2019 | 06:16 am
David Beeson is a former metallurgical engineer who discovered a passion for process control, despite his initial misgivings when still an undergraduate student; he found it a difficult and confusing subject at university. Now he has a blossoming career in the field and ensures he stays abreast of changes in the industry by pursuing professional development.In fact David has recently graduated from the Engineering Institute of Technology, with a Master of Engineering in Industrial Automation - big-time professional development!David programming a PLC out in the field - a nice change from the office or a freezing cold server roomHe provides a brief insight into the work he does:"I am currently working as a process control engineer at a small but capable company that provides process control solution design, installation and commissioning services to the mineral processing industry."David became familiar with furnaces and the molten metal as a metallurgical engineer, but[…]
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Feb 1, 2019 | 06:29 am
Dear ColleaguesIt is always hard to know genuinely how well or badly you are doing in your job when you try and get honest opinions from those around you. Especially if you are leading a team. The last thing on their mind is for a team member to give you an honest appraisal of how you are doing. In case it damages their position or irritates you. Thus you will often hear that you are tracking extraordinarily well and are the epitomy of success. Often this is very far from the truth.Thus a few strategies are sketched out below to get some good hard honest feedback on how you are performing. Often extraordinarily painful but ….one can’t hide from the brutal truth. And once you have key information about deficiencies (and indeed, great things you do or have done); you can work on improving on these problems. Actionable solid feedback[…]
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Dear Colleagues,Surely, the KISS principle is one of the most useful engineering tools we have in our armory (KISS means Keep it Simple Stupid, for those who have forgotten). This should be applied to our writing so that it is[…]
Gorataone is a graduate from the Engineering Institute of Technology; he has an Advanced Diploma of Industrial Automation. He is also a married man with three children; we congratulate him for ably juggling full time work, a family and his[…]
The prototype of the world's longest aircraft is being retired, with new aircraft innovation promised to hit the market soon.The aircraft in question was the Airlander 10: a weirdly shaped plane-airship/blimp that showed what the future of air travel could[…]
India's most famous civil engineer, Sir Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya, once said: ‘Work is worship.'Gustave Eiffel, the French civil engineer responsible for the Eiffel Tower, said: “Can one think that because we are engineers, beauty does not preoccupy us or that we[…]
In January 2019, the Consumer Electronics Show kicked off in Las Vegas, Nevada. And it seems mechanical engineering, propped up by artificial intelligence, is the talk of the town.Mercedes-Benz rolled their latest marvel of mechanical engineering out on the floor,[…]
Pearlitic steel, or pearlite, is one of the most durable materials in the world. This microstructure occurs in steel and can be made into steel wire.You might have seen these wires bundled together into ropes for suspension bridges or steel[…]
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has been working on nano-electrofuel (NEF) flow batteries for electric aviation.This means they could eventually power aircraft with non-explosive liquid rechargeable batteries.The development of these flow batteries is being done by the Armstrong Flight[…]
The World Economic Forum is inviting other industrial companies to study nine world-leading smart factories they have identified as having the latest in automation technology.Not surprisingly, these ‘manufacturing lighthouses' as the WEF call them, utilize the Industrial Internet of Things,[…]
Artificial Intelligence may be the key to empowering rural education and ensuring a future where no students get left behind.At least that's what venture capitalist Kai-Fu Lee believes.The momentum behind Artificial Intelligence does not seem to be slowing down. Some[…]
The Engineering Institute of Technology visited Kathmandu in Nepal, meeting with students and families in the area to encourage ongoing engineering education and skills development. Nepal is a landlocked country in South Asia and is located mainly in the Himalayas.[…]
