News
In this modern age, we are constantly surrounded by batteries. From TV remotes to hand-held radios, you probably use batteries more than you realize. The lithium-ion battery industry is worth $23 billion alone and is expected to grow to nearly $100 billion by 2025.
Battery technologies have been evolving since their initial creation as our needs have continued to grow. However, as our future is looking increasingly electric, engineers and scientists are now focusing on manufacturing new eco-friendly battery technology on a scale we have never seen before.
The most positive alternative seen so far is aluminum-based batteries, being both light-weight, cheaper to make, and abundant in resources. However, there has been a consistent struggle in making aluminum batteries that compare to the energy content of lithium batteries. As far back as 2015, Stanford University researchers were mentioning that all that’s holding aluminum batteries back was the cathode material that would help increase voltage and energy density.
However, that might be all about to change. In 2019, researchers say an upgraded type of aluminum battery may soon make its debut. The Chalmers University of Technology and the National Institute of Chemistry in Slovenia have worked on a concept for a new aluminum battery they think could revolutionize the battery storage industry.
Their proposal includes replacing the graphite on the battery’s cathode with a carbon-based molecule named anthraquinone. This organic nanostructured replacement will assist the battery’s ability to absorb electrons during operation.
“Because the new cathode material makes it possible to use a more appropriate charge-carrier, the batteries can make better usage of aluminum’s potential,” says Chalmers researcher Niklas Lindahl.
“Now, we are continuing the work by looking for an even better electrolyte. The current version contains chlorine - we want to get rid of that.”
With a better electrolyte, the battery will allow ions to move between the electrodes, which will unlock the higher energy density in the aluminum battery. Therefore, developing the aluminum battery is still a work in progress, but researchers think they are closer than ever.
“The material costs and environmental impacts that we envisage from our new concept are much lower than what we see today, making them feasible for large scale usages, such as solar cell parks, or storage of wind energy,” says Professor Patrik Johansson from the Department of Physics at Chalmers University.
“Additionally, our new battery concept has twice the energy density compared with the aluminum batteries that are ‘state of the art’ today.”
The researchers’ idea is to make the aluminum battery four times as energy-dense as its lithium alternative. For applications such as electric vehicles, the added battery capacity will mean less charging required between trips.
On whether or not aluminum-ion batteries could one day replace lithium-ion, Johansson concluded, “Of course, we hope that they can. But above all, they can be complementary, ensuring that lithium-ion batteries are only used where strictly necessary.
“There remains work to do with the electrolyte and with developing better charging mechanisms, but aluminum is, in principle, a significantly better charge carrier than lithium. Furthermore, the batteries have the potential to be significantly less environmentally harmful”.
Works Cited
Leisegang, et al. “The Aluminum-Ion Battery: A Sustainable and Seminal Concept?” Frontiers, Frontiers, 2 Apr. 2019, www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fchem.2019.00268/full.
“A New Concept for More Sustainable Batteries.” Chalmers, www.chalmers.se/en/departments/physics/news/Pages/A-new-concept-could-make-more-environmentally-friendly-batteries-possible-.aspx.
It’s a question more commonly asked of architects rather than engineers, how can nature inspire the design of structures? However, designing with or around the environment is becoming a common trend amidst the structural engineering industry. A newly constructed walkway in Denmark has nature as its main focus, and it is turning engineering heads.
High above the tree line at Camp Adventure in Copenhagen, a 45-meter high tower seemingly spirals into the sky above. At the top, an observer can enjoy a 360-degree view of the treetops of the Gisselfeld Klosters Forest in Denmark. The project was completed by Danish architecture firm EFFEKT and masterminded by a Danish NAVY seal named Jesper Mathiesen, who runs Camp Adventure.
A feat of engineering, the structure is a fourteen-story tower that features a spiraling walkway inside leading to the top. The structure is made entirely of weathering steel. The benefit of these steel alloys is that there is no need for painting as it has a natural rust appearance. The walkway within the structure consists of oak, which helps the structure blend in with the trees.
If viewed from far away, the tower has an hourglass shape, which Tue Foged, lead architect from EFFEKT, says is an intentional design that endeavors to respect the existing trees in the forest.
“Nature provides the real experience. We just made it more accessible and offered a series of new and alternative perspectives,” says Foged.
“The tower is shaped to enhance the experience of the visitor, shunning the typical cylindrical shape in favor of a curved profile with a slender waist and enlarged base and crown. This allows for better contact to the forest canopy moving up through the tower.”
The tower, which opened in March 2019, is an example of how structural engineering as an industry is looking back to nature for inspiration. However, this isn’t the first time designing with nature has occurred within the engineering industry. A decade prior, the New York High Line opened with a walkway through the natural environment of its own.
Structural reuse and reintegration
The High Line serves as an example of nature reclaiming its territory inside the concrete jungle. It’s a project that shows that structural engineering can have a secondary use.
The High Line is a 1.45 mile-long elevated linear park, greenway, and rail-trail that runs above a former railroad. It is a spur on the west side of Manhattan on the New York Central Railroad.
Over two hundred species of plants are spread out as vegetation on the former railroad in Manhattan. The High Line last utilized for railroad activities in the 1980s. The initial intention was to demolish the railway, but BuroHappold Engineering and Field Operations worked to reuse and re-integrate the line for its new purpose it serves today.
BuroHappold constructed two structures on the railway. One structure was named the Flyover, which was an elevated steel walkway engineered to appear as a levitating floor. The second structure was called the Cutout: which was a steel mesh deck providing views to the street below.
The High Line is now a park that the public can enjoy and where they can get a new feel for the city that they live in. Once a source of noise as the trains drove by, it is now a tranquil resting space.
The industrial past is now fused into the future-focused metropolis. With views of the Hudson River and the general cityscape, it is a popular destination in New York City. Encapsulating both New York’s heritage and future, while abiding by green construction imperatives, structural engineers have managed to work with the industrial past and bring it into an eco-friendly future.
Works Cited
CBS News. “A Spiraling Walk above the Trees.” CBS News, CBS Interactive, 6 Oct. 2019, www.cbsnews.com/news/camp-adventure-in-denmark-a-spiraling-walk-above-the-trees/.
Frearson, Amy. “EFFEKT Completes Spiralling Camp Adventure Tower in Midst of a Danish Forest.” Dezeen, Dezeen, 15 May 2019, www.dezeen.com/2019/05/12/camp-adventure-tower-effekt-denmark-forest/.
Engineers are the all-encompassing link to most of the world’s observable built environment. They are the backbone of functioning systems all across the globe. They keep the lights on, the water flowing, the robots in sync, the planes in the sky, and much more. So, should you pursue a career in engineering?
Working engineers today will tell you that it is a rewarding career with problem-solving at its core. However, people should get into the engineering industry because they want to further humanity’s progress. Engineering's purpose has long existed to invent new ways of doing things and to continuously increase efficiency. The many technological contributions of engineers throughout human history have transformed the world in which we live.
John Browne was the chairman of L Energy and chief executive officer of BP from 1995 to 2007. That period was known as the ‘golden period of expansion and diversification’ for BP. He received praise for directing the oil company’s attention to alternative renewable sources of energy. He was also the President of the Royal Academy of Engineering from 2006 to 2011.
He is a keen author who makes sense of the engineering world for prospective engineers, encouraging them to make the world a better place through their work. He has just released a new book titled: ‘Make, Think, Imagine: Engineering the Future of Civilization.’ He reckons that humans’ interaction with everyday technology is awakening the engineer hidden inside them. A section of his book reads:
“There is an engineer in every one of us, but we, fortunately, do not require the skills or expertise of a professional engineer to tap into this aspect of our nature — contemporary technologies, such as the Internet and smartphones, give all of us access to an engineering mindset. Now, more than ever, we can use these technologies to solve the world’s problems and shape the society in which we live.”
Engineering is a profession that has traditionally attracted those with an affinity for maths and science. However, the tide is slowly turning to involve more humanities-inspired approaches to engineering.
Bringing new technologies into the world
Engineering has recently been defined as solutions-based problem-solving to replace and automate some of the more repetitive tasks humans engage in. For instance, autonomous vehicles are something many an engineering company wishes it could perfect — that is their idea of progress. However, getting to a finished product has not been easy for engineers.
“Progress is not delivered with an instruction manual spelling out the safe and responsible use of new inventions,” Browne writes.
“Engineering is instead like a game of cat and mouse, in which innovators must continuously act to ensure that the intended consequences of their efforts outweigh the unintended ones.
“Engineered solutions will never be perfect first time because mistakes and misuse are inevitable, and every step forward has risks. Autonomous vehicles will create a revolution inconvenience but, unless properly designed and tested, could kill more people than human drivers currently do.”
Technological progress, while a noble engineering intention, must be first be tested out in a controlled environment so that we can know whether it is feasible. And once its viability can be proven, it needs to be marketed to society and governments at large to show its something the world needs.
Therefore, engineers have to become entrepreneurial. Engineering programs have typically ignored the business side of engineering, but now engineers are seeing that they need to become salespeople of their own innovations to convince the world they need the solution.
“Engineering naturally led me into business, since I realized that no solution was complete unless it resulted in something practical that humanity wanted,” writes Browne.
“Thomas Edison apparently said that ‘anything that won’t sell, I don’t want to invent. Its sale is proof of utility, and utility is success. Engineering is like a head with two sets of eyes: one looks to the fruits of discovery, the other looks to the demands of commerce and customers.”
Being an engineer in the modern world is a balancing act that involves becoming a multifaceted and as skilled as possible. With technology rapidly advancing and automation creeping into industry, an engineer who was eligibe to thrive in the previous industrial revolutions, may not be prepared for the fourth industrial revolution. Hence, engineers must prepare themselves for the new civilization that is already being transformed by the digital revolution and the call to make the world a more environmentally friendly place.
Specialized Engineering Education
The Engineering Institute of Technology delivers engineering programs that are designed by an international body of industry experts, ensuring our students graduate with cutting-edge skills that are valued by employers around the world. Our vocational programs and higher education degrees are accredited by the Australian Government, and we have programs that are recognized under three international engineering accords. Together with our sister organization IDC Technologies, we have trained over 500,000 engineers, technicians, and technologists globally over the last 30 years.
We deliver programs for a range of different levels, from professional development to diplomas and degrees. They are offered across a variety of fields such as industrial automation, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, civil and structural engineering, industrial data communications, electronic engineering, and engineering management.
We deliver our online and on-campus programs via a unique methodology that makes use of live and interactive webinars, an international pool of expert lecturers, dedicated learning support officers, and state-of-the-art technologies such as hands-on workshops, remote laboratories, and simulation software. Whether you are studying online or on-campus in Australia, our supportive blended learning model and small class sizes allow you to advance your technical knowledge and remain engaged in your studies while forming global networks and balancing life and work commitments.
Works Cited
Bloomberg.com, Bloomberg, www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-09-16/engineers-are-the-reason-many-of-us-are-alive
Browne, John. “Make, Think, Imagine: Engineering the Future of Civilization.” Amazon, Pegasus Books, 2019, www.amazon.com/Make-Think-Imagine-Engineering-Civilization/dp/1643132121.
“Careers in Engineering - A Beginner's Guide.” The Engineer, 18 Sept. 2019, www.theengineer.co.uk/careers-engineering-first-steps/
Technological advancements are changing the landscape of the engineering industry by creating gaps in practical knowledge. As a result, engineers need to educate themselves continuously to keep up with these innovations. This is especially crucial for those working in multidisciplinary engineering companies.
Micro-credentials are the key to helping graduates stay up-to-date with new technologies across the industry. The continued industrialization of the world is creating incredible opportunities in the engineering industry.
It also means that educational institutions need to stay on top of these changes so they can provide appropriate training. It is no longer about just delivering major qualifications, such as degrees and diplomas — it is about providing professional development to engineers in every stage of their careers.
As the industry changes and areas such as automation and cybersecurity become so much more critical, qualified engineers need flexible and high-quality short courses that hone in on these specific areas.
Engineering professionals see digital technologies that can interface with the Internet of Things, and general automation technologies, changing the face of their workplaces rapidly. These engineering professionals are seeking to build on their skillset while honoring their initial qualifications.
The Engineering Institute of Technology (EIT) delivers several professional development courses across different engineering industries. All of these courses are designed by an international body of industry experts, ensuring our students develop cutting-edge skills that are valued by employers around the world. They are kept up-to-date to remain current with rapidly changing technology.
We have a unique delivery model that makes use of live and interactive webinars, an international pool of expert lecturers, dedicated learning support officers, and state-of-the-art technologies such as remote and virtual laboratories, and simulation software. Because we deliver these courses via the Internet, already qualified engineers can gain professional development and form global networks, while balancing life and work commitments. The courses help engineers gain new knowledge in three months, supplementing the skills they already have.
Works Cited
“The Surge in Micro Credentials.” Australian Financial Review, 22 May 2019, www.afr.com/news/policy/health/the-surge-in-micro-credentials-20190521-p51po4.
Dominique Mutombo Hoyi is an Engineering Institute of Technology graduate from the Democratic Republic of Congo who is living in South Africa. He was EIT’s Outstanding Student Award Runner-Up for 2017. We caught up with him to find out what he is studying now and to see how his career is maturing with the qualifications he has earned so far.
Dominique studied the 52708WA - Advanced Diploma of Industrial Automation from March 2016 to October 2017. He is currently busy with his Bachelor of Science (Industrial Automation Engineering) with us.
He chose to study automation because he wanted to gain the kinds of skills needed for the process control field and instrumentation industry. When he got a job as a process control system engineer, he realized that he was missing the kinds of hands-on training that his job required. So, he began studying with EIT.
He notes that the advanced diploma helped him better his design skills and familiarize himself with control systems.
Dominique is now working as an Automation Technician at Power Plant Electrical Technologies in Nelspruit in South Africa.
“I am currently in the primary industry, which involves getting raw materials for processes such as mining, farming, and fishing,” he said.
“We are installing, testing, commissioning, upgrading, and maintaining industries like power generating plants, refineries, paper industries, water treatment plants, and mines.”
He spends his time working with technologies like programmable logic controllers (PLCs), variable speed drives, protection relays, and instrumentation and control equipment. Every day there is a new problem to solve or a fault to find, and sometimes he even has to oversee small to medium construction projects. He is also expected to complete technical surveys on electrical, control and instrumentation systems.
Dominique says the course content covered in our Bachelor of Science (Industrial Automation Engineering) has helped him a lot within his job.
As Dominique nears the end of his degree, he envisions the continuation of a fruitful career in the automation space.
“My future vision in my current position is to become a great senior process control and automation engineer; then later, I can join the engineering management within a well-known organization. The project engineers I work with are inspiring — they can solve complex problems in networking, control, power circuits.”
Dear Colleagues
No matter how good you are as a presenter, I am sure you have been in that horrible situation when you can see your audience fast losing interest in your presentation - from furtive looks out of the windows, whispered interchanges, more intensive glances at phones or simply walking out on you - sometimes with not even a muttered excuse. You start feeling desperate at your critical information being ignored and simply lost. You may be passionate about your topic – but sometimes, your audience is bored.
There are a few simple techniques (perhaps, tricks?) that I have used to reclaim my audience and to re-invigorate the presentation. There is at least one positive – you are aware of this drop-off in interest - unlike many presenters who continue droning on and on and essentially wasting their presentation.
The first one is the quickest
The first technique is the quickest to implement. Come out from behind the comfortable podium or central position you are occupying and move to the edge of your stage. I even move into the audience and stand behind them. You do need to be comfortable with your presentation and be happy not to have your notes freely available, though, as it is hard to carry these around when you are dynamically moving around the room. Your audience will often be surprised by this maneuver and start focussing on you - in case you walk up close to them and ask them an awkward question.
Change the Pace
Change the pace at which you are presenting. If you are presenting fast - slow down and perhaps drop your voice to a whisper. Ask rhetorical questions that you answer after a short silence. The audience will start reconnecting with you as they are uncertain about this change in presentation speed and keen not to lose out.
Throw a Bone out to your would-be listeners
Throw open to the audience a problem which someone can attempt to answer. This is somewhat higher risk as you could lose control, so you may need to be quick to reclaim ground or guide the person solving your problem. The audience will become more interested as they may end up having to join in and there is someone different talking.
A Story is an Age-Old Favourite
Finally, telling the audience an anecdote or story always tends to galvanize their interest. The important point is to be sensitive to your audience and to ensure their time isn't wasted by your message being lost.
Perhaps, Alfred Hitchcock was referring to ensuring good connectivity with your audience with his comment: Always make your audience suffer as much as possible?
Good luck with your next presentation.
Yours in engineering learning,
Steve
Climate change remains one of the biggest problems our world has ever faced, and there are no signs that it will drastically improve any time soon. So engineers and scientists are coming together to investigate a controversial technique to prevent an environmental catastrophe.
Geoengineering may seem like something from a far-fetched science fiction film, with ideas ranging from mirrors in the ocean to reflect sunlight away from earth to space sunshades. However, engineers are now investigating the notion of releasing millions of tons of sulfur dioxide into the stratosphere as a potential solution to reducing the effects of climate change. The idea behind this is the particles will reflect sunlight away from earth and therefore cool the planet.
The notion originated from the eruption of Mount Pinatubo in 1991. This volcano in the Philippines erupted, spewing fifteen to seventeen million tons of white ash and sulfates up to ten kilometers into the sky. Fifteen months later, scientists combing over the data realized the particle cloud had shielded the area from the sun, with temperatures dropping by 0.6 degrees Celsius.
The idea is that aircraft will spray sulfate particulates into the lower stratosphere at 60,000 feet. The process would theoretically be equal to a volcano ejecting sulfates into the sky during an eruption. The sulfur dioxide shot up into the stratosphere forms sulfuric acid drops, which then rotate around the globe for 48 months, and successfully hinder sunlight from penetrating it. The result could be a one-degree temperature drop, which would reverse the global temperature rise of the last century.
This technique, known as stratospheric aerosol injection, is considered radical and opposed by many as they believe the effects of intentionally modifying the climate could be worse than climate change itself. In fact, in 2018, the Global Challenges Foundation published a report on major threats against humanity — and solar geoengineering was listed as one of these, as was catastrophic climate change.
At the Paris Climate Conference in 2015, governments around the world acknowledged that something needed to be done to accelerate anti-global warming effects. They set out several targets, including keeping the global temperature rise this century well below two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. The deal was ratified in 2016; however, the issue remains that governments across the world are realizing they are still not on track to achieving the initial targets set out in the Paris Agreement.
This is why some scientists see geoengineering as a legitimate solution to saving our planet. The Global Challenges Foundation report explains the appeal and the risks.
“Solar geoengineering is the only known technique for quickly stopping or even reversing the rise in global temperatures. Although it does not solve the root cause of climate change, it could be used to reduce the length or the magnitude of a temperature overshoot (beyond the Paris goal) during the transition period needed for massive decarbonization at the global level or provide insurance against a potential ‘climate emergency.’
“However, we don’t know enough about the risks and potential benefits of the technology, and it carries considerable risks – in particular, it may destabilize local and global climate, as well as various elements of the global ecosystem. In addition, a sudden termination of solar geoengineering would lead to rapid and severe global warming, with no time for natural and social systems to adapt.”
The reality is that carbon emissions must be reduced urgently because things will only get worse. The report states that if the temperatures increased by three degrees Celsius, most of Bangladesh and Florida would drown. Other coastal cities would also be flooded, which would then create hundreds of thousands of climate refugees across the world.
As a result, a team of scientists at Harvard University is hoping to implement the first in situ geoengineering experiment to determine whether it is a viable solution. However, they are facing critics who worry that once we start experimenting with these radical ideas, we will be heading down a slippery slope.
To appease those with fears about the result of this experiment, Harvard University has put together an advisory committee to ensure that appropriate steps are taken to mitigate health and environmental risk and ensure they operate transparently.
Scientists first proposed the experiment in 2014. It will see researchers launch a scientific balloon with sensors and propellers 20 kilometers above the earth. They will release between 100 grams and two kilograms of calcium carbonate particles in a kilometer-long plume. This is limestone dust and is less likely to deplete the ozone layer than sulfates.
The balloon will fly through the plume, and its sensors will measure how far the particles scatter, how they interact with other compounds in the atmosphere, and how much light they reflect.
The project’s principal investigator Frank Keutsch explained in a statement that they hope this experiment will inform the feasibility of geoengineering.
“If anything, I’m concerned that the current climate models make solar geoengineering look too good. If we want to be able to predict how large-scale geoengineering would disrupt the ozone layer, or the exchange of air between the troposphere and stratosphere, we need more real-world observations.”
The Carnegie Climate Governance Initiative’s Janos Pasztor is one scientist who has concerns about geoengineering experiments. Such worries include the technology affecting ocean circulation, biodiversity, disease patterns, agriculture, and causing extreme weather.
The Union of Concerned Scientists' climate and energy program’s Shuchi Talati, echoed these sentiments.
"We don't know what the regional impacts will be," Dr Talati said.
"There have been different modeling papers showing different things."
The other major issue is that a global thermostat will need be set to determine a particular global thermal temperature, creating winners and losers. While one region might experience favorable rainfall to help its agricultural industry thrive, another nation might experience devastating drought. There are now fears surrounding security risks, because who gets to control this global thermostat and what happens if it gets breached or hacked?
Mr Pasztor argues that because this technology is cheap enough to be accessible to virtually every country, the fact that it is ungoverned could have horrific political consequences.
"Imagine a situation where China unilaterally goes ahead, and a couple of years later the monsoon fails in India, and lots of people starve, “ he said.
"Even if you cannot link the failure of the monsoon to the stratospheric aerosol injection activity, people in India might think it's because of the Chinese."
Mr Pasztor helped advise on the Paris Agreement and emphasized that geoengineering should not be used to replace cutting emissions, but as insurance in case we do not meet our temperature goals. Other scientists fear that an overreliance on geoengineering will undermine efforts to reduce greenhouse gases.
In a previous news article, we covered what engineers could do to help save the planet. These other geoengineering solutions included marine cloud brightening that would see naval ships spraying salt particles into the air, in turn brightening the clouds hanging over the sea. The brightened clouds would also deflect the sun off the earth.
Many of these advents of carbon mitigation and climate geoengineering have certain checks and balances that slow the process of their implementation. And that is perhaps a good thing. Attempting to engineer the climate raises ethical and political issues. Not to mention, scientists must conduct the experiments in the safest possible ways. However, it is encouraging to see that scientists and engineers are rising to the occasion to combat oncoming climate events that could save thousands, if not millions of lives.
Works Cited
Salleh, Anna. “A Planet-Sized Sunshade? It Sounds Far-Fetched, but Some Scientists Are Seriously Considering It.” ABC News, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 24 July 2019, www.abc.net.au/news/science/2019-07-24/climate-hacking-to-avoid-a-global-warming-apocalypse/11300460
Temple, James. “Geoengineering Is Very Controversial. How Can You Do Experiments? Harvard Has Some Ideas.” MIT Technology Review, MIT Technology Review, 29 July 2019, www.technologyreview.com/s/614025/geoengineering-experiment-harvard-creates-governance-committee-climate-change
As conserving finite resources becomes an increasing priority, scientists have been consistently successful in discovering alternate renewable energies. One of these alternatives is solar energy. Solar panels absorb powerful rays from the sun and convert them into power resources, which are used in both residential and commercial areas.
However, solar panels still suffer from a list of setbacks that offset their usefulness. One of these ailments is overheating. When solar panels are exposed to too high temperatures, their efficiency and performance is hindered.
Electrical engineers are now busy trying to figure out how to overcome the heating problem and retain efficiency. Researchers at Rice University in Texas think that they may have found the answer. The solution involves capturing the thermal photons that the solar panels release.
Junichiro Kono of Rice’s Brown School of Engineering explains:
“Thermal photons are just photons emitted from a hot body. If you look at something hot with an infrared camera, you see it glow. The camera is capturing these thermally excited photons.”
Solar panels essentially have nowhere to send excess photons, which is why researchers want to reroute the extra heat and convert it into more electricity. Gururaj Naik, an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at Rice University, told PV Magazine, “Any hot surface emits light as thermal radiation.
“The problem is thermal radiation is broadband, while the conversion of light to electricity is efficient only if the emission is in a narrow band. By squeezing all the wasted thermal energy into a small spectral region, we can turn it into electricity very efficiently. The theoretical prediction is that we can achieve 80% efficiency.”
The engineers have created a device that will direct the photons emitted as heat into the narrower band. It utilizes ‘a film of carbon nanotubes,’ which forces the electrons to move in one direction. The researchers say the device can operate at a maximum temperature of 700 degrees Celsius.
They compiled a report entitled ‘Macroscopically Aligned Carbon Nanotubes as a ‘Refractory Platform for Hyperbolic Thermal Emitters’ published in the journal ACS Photonics. The research is only in its beginning phases; however, the engineers are optimistic that panels will soon run at four times the efficiency.
Works Cited
Hutchins, Mark. “Harnessing Heat for 80% Theoretical Efficiency.” Pv Magazine International, 29 July 2019, www.pv-magazine.com/2019/07/29/harnessing-heat-for-80-theoretical-efficiency
“Macroscopically Aligned Carbon Nanotubes as a Refractory Platform for Hyperbolic Thermal Emitters.” ACS Photonics, pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acsphotonics.9b00452
Ishmael Muumbe is a two-time, verging on three-time, Engineering Institute of Technology graduate. He studied both his 52708WA - Advanced Diploma of Industrial Automation and 52726WA - Advanced Diploma of Applied Electrical Engineering through EIT after having moved from Zimbabwe to New Zealand to train as an electrician.
Now a technologist, Ishmael is working within the mines in Western Australia and is embarking on a journey of furthering his skills and education in the electrical engineering world. Ishmael’s story is one of looking for opportunity wherever one can find it, and balancing studies, work, and family life.
Ishmael finished high school at Ascot High in Gweru, a city located in central Zimbabwe. At school, he found that he had an affinity for science subjects. After graduation, he had the chance to do an apprenticeship at a Zimbabwean Alloys Chrome Ore smelter plant in Gweru. There he trained as an Electrical Apprentice.
With the expertise that he acquired from working at the plant, Ishmael decided to explore getting electrician jobs in Zimbabwe. Soon, he was working as an electrician.
For a couple of years, he worked as an electrician, but as he kept working, Zimbabwe began suffering a reversal of economic fortunes. Ishmael consequently decided to relocate to New Zealand to seek greener pastures where he would better be able to develop his skill set. Soon, he found himself in a new country with a rapidly advancing technological industry.
He said, “coming from a third world country, I realized that the technology in electrical engineering was so dynamic and to keep up, I had to further my education. That was not going to be an easy task — finding studies that I could do while working full-time and while providing for my family.”
Ishmael began researching distance learning institutions that could assist with growing his knowledge while gaining the practical experience he was hoping to acquire through working in New Zealand. Soon, he stumbled upon an institution that fit his needs: the Engineering Institute of Technology.
He enrolled for the 52708WA - Advanced Diploma of Industrial Automation and followed that up with a 52726WA - Advanced Diploma of Applied Electrical Engineering. The two qualifications have equipped him with the skills necessary to deal with the automation making its way into the electrical engineering industry.
He then took advantage of the mining boom in Western Australia. He currently works in the mines for Fortescue Metals Group in the Pilbara region in WA. His daily responsibilities include service, repair, and maintenance of the electrical mining processing plant. This consists of all of the crushers, conveyor systems, and all associated automated equipment.
“Studying online has made me manage my life in a great way. I enjoy work life, family time, and study time at the same time. It’s not always easy to study online though. One must develop great time management skills, especially to ensure you stay on top of your studies.”
Ishmael says he would encourage any young person to pursue a job in science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM) industries due to engineering’s role as the backbone of technological innovations.
“The studies I have completed with EIT have made me appreciate and understand how electrical engineering and automation merge,” he concluded.
Ishmael has enrolled for the Bachelor of Science (Electrical Engineering) with EIT, which he will be starting in early 2020.
In August, the Engineering Institute of Technology (EIT) went to Namibia in southwest Africa to meet with prospective and already working engineers. While there, we hosted a seminar about the trends in the engineering industries that are transforming Africa.
The development of skills amongst young people in Namibia is vital. Therefore, EIT visited the Namibian University of Science and Technology (NUST). We were invited by the Dean of Engineering, Dr Samuel John, to share with the faculty of engineering students what EIT is doing to provide engineers with further tertiary education and training.
In the presentation, David Gadjus, EIT’s International Education Manager for the regions of Africa and South America, shared several pathways to gaining higher education, training, and continued professional development through our institution.
Gadjus says the students were interested to learn about EIT’s online delivery methodologies. Online distance learning is rapidly becoming something students in Africa are becoming interested, since networking technologies have advanced on the continent. Now, mobile internet technologies are becoming the norm, and more students are wondering how they can gain knowledge through online means.
“Many potential students are unable to attend full-time or part-time classes due to family or work commitments. Some also work at remote sites and do not have access to physical education institutes.”
EIT then hosted a seminar at the Protea Hotel Furstenhof in the center of Namibia’s capital Windhoek. David was joined by EIT lecturer Deon Reynders who presented on the technical aspects of the engineering knowledge that comes along with enrolling in EIT courses.
“There were so many people who came to attend that we had to arrange more chairs to accommodate everyone. We had some of our current online students who came, keen to stay updated with what is happening with EIT. We had some prospective future students who enquired about our online and on-campus programs. We even had representatives from the Engineering Council of Namibia, including the Vice President.”
The attendees were seemingly most interested in the area of study catering most to the fourth industrial revolution: Industrial Automation. EIT delivers accredited advanced diplomas, bachelor's degrees, and master’s degrees in Industrial Automation. The prospective students were naturally curious as to what jobs they could apply to when graduating through the Industrial Automation courses. EIT recommends that practitioners involved in the following industries would benefit greatly from pursuing the Industrial Automation qualifications:
- Electrical engineers and electricians
- Maintenance Engineers and Supervisors
- Energy Management Consultants
- Automation and Process Engineers
- Design Engineers
- Project Managers
- Instrument Fitters and Instrumentation Engineers
- Consulting Engineers
- Production Managers
- Chemical and Mechanical Engineers
- Instrument and Process Control Technicians
One of EIT’s Namibian students, Festus Tawii, was also in attendance at the seminar. He told the crowds gathered about his positive experience of studying with EIT. Festus currently works with the country’s energy utility Nampower.
Festus is currently studying the 52726WA - Advanced Diploma of Applied Electrical Engineering at EIT. He told the attendees that he was utilizing the knowledge he was gaining in his course in his day to day job in the energy sector.
All in all, EIT is seeing record numbers of seminar attendees in the Southern African regions. The attendance numbers prove that the hunger for the skills of the future and the mastering of rapidly advancing technological industries are in high demand. EIT is looking forward to returning to Namibia and collaborating with educational institutions on the ground to both strengthen their education sector and open students’ eyes to the possibilities and opportunities they can access that could transform their engineering careers.
While solar and wind energy seem to be the primary sustainable energy sources mentioned in the media, tidal energy is actually more predictable. Tides can be timed in perpetuity throughout the year, whereas predicting when the wind will blow and when the sun will shine is far harder.
In a world-first, a data center in Scotland will set the bar for tidal arrays in the future. Renewable energy technology developer Simec Atlantis has turbines capturing the natural flow of water between Scotland’s northeast coast and the uninhabited island of Stroma.
There are reports that Amazon, Google, and Microsoft are interested in utilizing the technology for their data, as well. With all of the data crunching these kinds of companies do, large data centers are necessary. The issue is how much power these data centers need to use to keep our favorite websites and services up and running. Therefore, it makes sense to power them in a renewable way.
Tim Cornelius, CEO of SIMEC Atlantis Energy, said, “data is being touted as the new oil. It is arguably becoming the world’s most valuable resource, and the amount of data requiring storage is increasing at a staggering pace. However, data centres are undeniably power hungry, and the clients of data centre operators are rightly demanding power be sourced from renewable and sustainable sources.”
SIMEC Atlantis’ tidal energy site will be in Caithness in Scotland. It is expected to be the biggest tidal energy project globally once opened in 2024. However, SIMEC Atlantis northeast will not confirm which ‘world-leading data center operators’ they are talking to and signing deals with.
The company leases parts of the seabed off Scotland’s northern coast. They will be installing forty new turbines on the seabed, which will be adding 80MW to the capacity they already have installed. In 2010, the company was granted the option to develop a tidal stream project that would be given license to install up to 398MW of capacity.
They currently have the first phase — MeyGen Phase 1A — operational, which saw the deployment of four 1.5MW turbines. On their website they describe the complexities of their world-leading tidal turbines:
“Each turbine is located on an individual foundation between 250 and 350 tonnes coupled with six ballast blocks weighing 1,200 tonnes, that provide horizontal stability over the lifetime of the turbine. Each turbine has a dedicated subsea array cable laid directly on the seabed and brought ashore via a horizontal directionally drilled borehole within the foreshore bedrock.”
The MayGen array has the potential to influence electrical engineering industries all across the globe and get tidal energy powering critical infrastructure in sectors that make the world turn. Electrical engineers can also sleep easy knowing that new jobs will be opening in the renewable energy industry soon. The CEO of SIMEC Atlantis, Tim Cornelius said:
“At MeyGen we have many of the ingredients to provide clean power to the data center, including a large grid connection agreement, proximity to international fiber-optic connection and persistent cool weather. We also believe that Scotland can play a key role in the global data center industry thanks to its ready access to clean energy and we are eager to play our part at Atlantis to turn this potential into reality.”
EIT offers a range of electrical engineering programs - find out more!
Works Cited
Gardner, Elliot. “Talking Tidal as MeyGen Kicks into Gear.” Power Technology | Energy News and Market Analysis, 27 June 2018, www.power-technology.com/features/talking-tidal-meygen-kicks-gear/.
Thomas, Allister. “Plans for 'World's First' Ocean-Powered Data Centre in Scotland - News for the Oil and Gas Sector.” Energy Voice, 9 Sept. 2019, www.energyvoice.com/otherenergy/207276/plans-for-worlds-first-ocean-powered-data-centre-in-scotland/.
In Southern Africa, aging infrastructure and shortages of much-needed resources are stifling the electrical engineering sector. Powering countries south of the equator is a topic much in focus in the last few years. Both Zimbabwe and South Africa have been seeing a need to balance power loads and load shed at their public energy utilities. However, Zimbabwean companies are starting to get smart with how they manage their power outages.
Econet Wireless Zimbabwe, the largest provider of telecommunications services in Zimbabwe, have resorted to contemporary solutions to their modern-day problems. If Econet’s servers go down, the country suffers economically.
Telecommunications currently plays a vital role in the economy of Zimbabwe. Many people in the country are doing transactions via mobile means. The country is currently experiencing a shortage of physical paper money, and so the transactions are done digitally.
To further exacerbate the problem, in May, Zimbabwe began load-shedding after the government announced it was undergoing power shortfalls due to aging power stations and heavy usage occurring in the winter months. According to reports, the power in Zimbabwe can be switched off for 18 hours a day.
Without Econet’s service, according to Bloomberg, 6.7 million people would be without a way to pay for groceries or tip waiters.
Luckily, southern African born Elon Musk’s company, Tesla Inc, has engineered the kinds of technology that can keep the lights on for the African country and companies. Econet, with the assistance of Distributed Power Africa, have installed 520 Powerwall batteries across the telecommunications company’s 1,300 base stations around the country.
Powerwalls are lithium-ion batteries that can be charged up via photovoltaic solar panels.
Norman Moyo, the chief executive officer of Distributed Power Africa said, “telecommunications have become the lifeblood of the economy. If the telecom network is down in Zimbabwe, you can’t do any transactions.”
Distributed Power Africa is looking at rolling out similar projects to other African countries that are struggling to keep their national grids working. Tesla has been shipping their Powerwall technology out to regions that lose access to electricity to try and keep the lights on for crucial infrastructure.
Before the arrival of the Powerwalls in Zimbabwe, Econet’s base stations were utilizing Diesel generators as backup power when the national grid went down. However, fuel shortages soon arose in the troubled country.
The batteries, costing US $6,500 each can power the service provider’s base stations for ten hours without help from the national grid. Backup generators and the arrays of solar panels can pick up the rest of the hours of the day when the sun is shining, granted there is an 18-hour power outage in the area. In the evening, the Powerwall can kick in and keep the base stations running.
The Powerwall was initially designed for the powering of homes in peak power usage times, but their usefulness in business has also been realized. In the United States, some companies are utilizing the much bigger Tesla engineered Powerpacks — they are essentially many stacked Powerwalls that can power an entire building and its infrastructure.
Engineers around the world are called to familiarize themselves with the battery technologies so that they can one day restore power to the regions that need it. Lithium-ion batteries are changing the way things are powered down south, but more needs to be done to bring traditional electric systems to use carbon-neutral technologies such as the Tesla Powerwall.
In neighboring South Africa, Twitter-ers are asking Elon Musk how long it might be before the country sees Tesla Motors’ vehicles being exported to the southern parts of the continent. Responding to a question on Twitter on the 29th of August, Elon Musk said he would love to bring the vehicle to South Africa, but import duties were far too high — especially for electric vehicles. Something the government has promised to change.
There seems to be a demand for the new electric ways of powering several industries in the southern hemisphere. Zimbabwe utilizing lithium-ion batteries to power their businesses is a huge leap forward and is indicative that African countries are rapidly surging towards a decarbonated, fourth industrial revolution future. Engineers are going to have to study the many facets of this new electrical engineering world they have been waiting to meet.
EIT offers a range of electrical engineering programs - find out more!
Works Cited
Bloomberg.com, Bloomberg, www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-09-01/tesla-batteries-are-keeping-zimbabwe-s-economy-running.
Sguazzin, Antony. “How Zimbabwe Is Banking on Tesla.” BusinessLIVE, Business Day, www.businesslive.co.za/bd/companies/2019-09-02-how-zimbabwe-is-banking-on-tesla/.
Mechanical engineers have, for a long time, been using the natural world as inspiration for robot design. However, the latest soft-robot that is taking inspired by nature might creep some people out. What started as an inadvertent thought from a mechanical engineering student has turned into a real robot. And it is in the shape of a leech.
This collaborative research project will unsurprisingly be called the ‘LEeCH’ (Longitudinally Extensible Continuum-robot inspired by Hirudinea). Hirudinea is a subclass of parasitic or predatory worms found in nature that belong to the phylum Annelida.
The original idea for the robot came from a Doctoral student in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the Toyohashi University of Technology. He said, “I came up with the idea in the bathroom of my house. The shower hose went wild as if it had a life when I inadvertently turned on the faucet at maximum. Then an idea occurred to me that if I could manipulate a hose, I might be able to make a robot with the dynamic movement of a living creature.”
The researchers wanted to mimic a leech’s flexibility. The longitudinal muscles are what they are most interested in. The elongating and retracting of the body for the purpose of movement got the researchers designing something that could potentially be as flexible in the future.
The collaboration involves Dr. Tomoaki Mashimo, Associated Professor of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the Toyohashi University of Technology and Dr Fumiya Iida, Reader in Robotics at the Department of Engineering at the University of Cambridge.
However, if you assumed the robot was completely fleshed out and built with the most cutting edge materials, you would be wrong. The robot is fabricated out of suction cups and shower hoses. But, it is the 3 actuators that do the important work:
Immediately upon seeing what the first draft robot is capable of doing, the potential future uses of these robots become clear. Dr. Fumiya Iida explains, “climbing robots have a wide range of potential applications, including building inspection, maintenance, construction, and search and rescue tasks.
“Climbing robotics is still a challenging research field both theoretically and practically, but together, we have made significant contribution to advanced this field by creating a robot, inspired by leeches that can transition from one surface to another and can climb a vertical wall -- without any constraints.”
According to New Atlas, the leech-like climbing technique — which involves scaling a wall and transferring to the other side of a wall — is a world-first for robots. Climbing robots would be sought out by several engineering industries that desire constant oversight of their machinery even in those hardest to reach areas.
There is more work to do on refining the robot, however. The researchers intend to make the robot’s movement smoother. This means changing how stiff the tubes are by lubricating the inside of the cavity with liquids. The engineers can also work on making the robot much softer and more flexible so that the robot can reach its full potential and one day be used in those countless engineering sectors. And it all started with a shower hose, and a mechanical engineer’s imagination - with a little help from nature too.
EIT offers a number of programs related to mechanical engineering - find out more!
Works Cited
EurekAlert. “壁登りロボットの概要.” EurekAlert!, www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-05/tuot-iba051019.php.
Manufacturers are seeking ways to make their global supply chains more flexible. Luckily for them, wireless Internet of Things technologies are empowering these factories and making processes more efficient than ever before. Ericsson, a giant in automation technology engineering, reported that “IoT connections are set to pass the 4 billion mark by 2024.”
In Ericsson’s blog entitled ‘The future of manufacturing is smart, secure and stable,’ they outline that companies with production lines are trying their best to integrate the Industrial Internet of Things technologies, and the market is heating up with competitiveness.
Essentially, manufacturers who create the most novel interconnected system in their factories, underpinned by Industrial Internet of Things technologies, will get more work done and generate more profits due to the efficiency of their operations. That requires the fastest interconnectivity technology available to the market.
This is where 5G wireless internet technology comes in. 5G promises faster speeds and unparalleled latency for factory-connected equipment, making the technology a bone of contention in global politics — especially in the case of the ongoing trade war between the United States and China. The global rollout of 5G technologies is happening — and fast. For instance, Chinese telecom Huawei’s aim is to ‘build a fully connected, intelligent world.’
Ericsson has published their findings in their Mobility Report. The report casts industry projections while analyzing the latest trends in the mobile data industry with regards to 5G, IoT, fixed wireless access and more. In the report, the graph relating to countries’ uptake of cellular IoT connections, shows that North-East Asia is expected to continue growing the number of operations IoT connections well into 2024.
In the United Kingdom, as the government prepares to separate from the European Union, fiber internet technology and 5G connectivity are going to be a vital mechanism of their efforts to transform factories in the country to enter the market and keep the economy strong.
The UK government is ensuring that even the most rural parts of the country are receiving high masts connecting the areas with 5G technology so that they can begin digitally revolutionizing markets in those regions. On top of that, online education and training is something that rural Britons can also start to pursue from where they are based. The power of mobile internet connectivity can affect many levels of society within any given geographic area.
Broadband service provider EE, in the United Kingdom, have been trying to educate the general populace about the benefits of 5G and how the speeds are equipped to transform several industries in the country:
Companies race to deploy 5G technologies
A survey by research firm Gartner reports that two-thirds of organizations are looking to have their 5G setups deployed by 2020. Organizations are also trying to ensure that they get their entire manufacturing setups with 5G readiness. Gartner reports that 59 percent of organizations surveyed are looking to implement 5G-capable networks by next year.
Sylvian Fabre, a senior researcher at Gartner said, “the figure for IoT communications is surprising, given that other proven and cost-effective alternatives, such as Narrowband IoT over 4G and low-power wide-area solutions, already exist for wireless IoT connectivity.
“However, 5G is uniquely positioned to deliver a high density of connected endpoints -- up to 1 million sensors per square kilometer.”
Manufacturers benefit massively from the ‘high density of connected endpoints’. An entire network of interconnected sensors that take about a millisecond to interface with each other is something that will empower the autonomy of manufacturing systems. Delays in manufacturing plants may be a thing of the past with 5G.
With 5G being normalized rapidly, prospective engineering students should be familiarizing themselves with 5G and the telecommunications technologies surrounding it, because once they graduate, they will likely see the technology in their future workplace. The more and more engineering industries that utilize these technologies, the closer the supply chain gets to being revolutionized through smart-manufacturing.
EIT offers a variety of courses in the industrial automation sector - find out more.
Works Cited
“Ericsson Mobility Report: Read the Latest Report.” Ericsson.com, 30 Aug. 2019, www.ericsson.com/en/mobility-report.
“Gartner Survey Reveals Two-Thirds of Organizations Intend to Deploy 5G by 2020.” Gartner, www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2018-12-18-gartner-survey-reveals-two-thirds-of-organizations-in.
Engineers are collaborating on a project to strengthen energy storage technologies through the use of 3D printers. This project is also highlighting the importance of 3D printing in electrical engineering.
Researchers at the University of Manchester have developed a unique way to convert 2D materials into electrodes that can be stored in devices such as supercapacitors. This requires turning a clay-like substance known as MXene into an ink, which once dried, can conduct electricity.
In 2011, engineers from Drexel University in the United States created MXene. It consists of carbon atoms and transition metals. This substance has two properties which make it particularly useful; it is hydrophilic, which means it can be turned into an ink, and it is conducive for electricity. This means it is more suitable for energy storage than other 2D clays.
MXene has been derived from graphene, the world’s first 2D material which was a better conductor than copper, but one million times thinner than human hair, stronger than steel, transparent, and flexible. The discovery of graphene opened the door for scientists to experiment by creating other 2D inks, each with differing properties.
However, to make effective use of these properties, the inks need to be integrated into devices and structures.
Drexel College of Engineering Professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Dr Yury Gogotsisaid, “so far only limited success has been achieved with conductive inks in both fine-resolution printing and high charge storage devices.
“But our findings show that all-MXene printed micro-supercapacitors, made with an advanced inkjet printer, are an order of magnitude greater than existing energy storage devices made from other conductive inks.”
University of Manchester researchers have done just that. They put MXene through their 3D printer and showed how they could make the most of the compound.
Team leader Suelen Barg said, “We demonstrate that large MXene flakes, spanning a few atoms thick, and water can be independently used to formulate inks with very specific viscoelastic behavior for printing.
“These inks can be directly 3D printed into freestanding architectures over 20 layers tall.
“Due to the excellent electrical conductivity of MXene, we can employ our inks to directly 3-D print current collector-free supercapacitors.
“The unique rheological properties combined with the sustainability of the approach open many opportunities to explore, especially in energy storage and applications requiring the functional properties of 2-D MXene in customized 3-D architectures."
University of Manchester researchers said 3D printed MXene electrodes could have significant use in supercapacitors. The supercapacitors could store power and weigh less than what is already in energy storage devices today. In future, this could help electric vehicles, solar panel energy storage batteries, smartphones, and other electronic devices deal with electrical charges much more efficiently and expand the energy storage capabilities.
Ph.D. students from the University, Wenji and Jae, said, “additive manufacturing offers one possible method of building customized, multi-materials energy devices, demonstrating the capability to capture MXene’s potential for usage in energy applications.
“We hope this research will open avenues to fully unlock the potential of MXene for use in this field.”
EIT offers a range of electrical engineering courses - find out more!
Works Cited
Greenwood, Matthew. “Engineers Use 3D Printing to Turn 2D Materials into Electrodes.” Engineering.com, www.engineering.com/DesignerEdge/DesignerEdgeArticles/ArticleID/19430/Engineers-Use-3D-Printing-to-Turn-2D-Materials-into-Electrodes.aspx.
The ability to code in the python language is becoming an increasingly sought-after skill, particularly in the engineering field. In industries underpinned by computer programming, this skill is critical for data analysis and visualizations, artificial intelligence and machine learning, and automation.
Knowledge of python is pertinent with traditional engineering tasks changing across disciplines, as computing technologies transform the way engineers do their jobs. Coding is becoming a much sought-after skill by employers around the world.
In 2016, Burning Glass Technologies suggested that seven million job openings in 2015 were in occupations which valued coding skills. Their report, titled ‘Beyond Point and Click: The Expanding Demand for Coding Skills,’ also predicted that by 2030, 500 billion devices would be connected to the Internet of Things. Therefore, the job openings which value coding skills will likely rise to levels unforeseen back in 2015.
“We live in a digital world. Our phones, our cars, our banks, and our hospitals - nearly aspect of our lives - depend on computer code,” the report stated.
“As a result, coding or computer programming, is becoming a core skill requirement for many well-paying jobs. Coding skills are in-demand across a broad range of careers, not just for programmers.
“The ability not only to use but also to program software is often required of business people who work with data, of designers and marketers who create websites, of engineers who build products and technologies, and of scientists who conduct research.”
With python’s abilities to disseminate and crunch data, the language makes the perfect candidate for overseeing industrial environments. In such settings, you could have many software and hardware elements that need to be controlled in unison. For example, python allows engineers to implement open source SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) systems that can perfectly sync an industrial project.
The coding language can handle large data sets that engineers can develop algorithms around, to meet the ends they require for their setups. Therefore, it is a particularly useful language in machine learning realms. Machine learning focuses on developing systems that can warp and transform around the injection of data into a system — and learn from it. It is being utilized in several industries, which are looking to automate some of their more repetitive tasks to free up their workers and direct them towards more productive tasks.
Python can also be used to actively teach a machine what to look for in a set of input and output data. This alerts personnel when a system breakdown has occurred or when part of a system requires maintenance. In the machine learning world, this is referred to as supervised learning.
Unsupervised learning involves a machine learning from the input data of hundreds of similar projects and putting together a python-activated algorithm that can find and classify the data you want the machine to learn from in your system.
Python is convenient for engineers due to an extensive library of available pre-written code that can quickly be expanded on and implemented within a system. There are over 14,000 python packages available for download, making it a more accessible language than some of the alternatives that need to be coded from scratch. Python also takes up less space than alternative programming languages.
The standardization of the language is what is making some of the biggest businesses all around the world (JP Morgan, IBM, and more) utilize python on their websites and inside their enterprises. Consequently, engineers are being asked to understand more and more of the programmed backend of the companies they are working within. No longer can one set of skills suffice.
The Engineering Institute of Technology is hosting two three-month-long live, online professional development courses in python programming. One of them focuses on python programming and its application within the different engineering fields. The second course looks at how advanced python programming can be used within machine learning algorithms.
Works Cited
“Real-Time Job Market Analytics Software.” Burning Glass Technologies, www.burning-glass.com/.
“Why Engineers Are Learning Python.” LinkedIn, www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-engineers-learning-python-koen-van-viegen.
A railway line near Aldershot in the United Kingdom is set to become the first railway line directly powered by a photovoltaic solar farm.
A 30kW pilot-scheme is currently paving the starting point of the project with renewable energy powering the signaling and lights on Network Rail’s Wessex route.
Whilst there is nothing new about solar panel technology keeping the lights on at train stations, Network Rail’s Aldershot project is the first time a solar array will bypass the electricity grid to plug directly into a railway’s “traction” system.
This groundbreaking solar movement is part of the Network Rail’s plans to completely avoid running trains on diesel. The benefits of this movement include the reduction of air pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, and costs.
It was climate advocacy group 10:10 Climate Action and Imperial College London that got the ball rolling on powering UK railways with solar PV. Their campaign, named Riding Sunbeams, estimates that solar could power 20% of the Merseyrail network in Liverpool, as well as 15% of commuter routes in Kent, Sussex, and Wessex. Their website says:
“Direct solar supply of solar power to rail traction systems has never been done. But it has huge potential - from metros, trams, and railways in the UK and around the world. After extensive feasibility work and research, we’re almost ready to connect the first pilot solar panels to the railway.”
The Department of Transport in the United Kingdom, who backed the project, is keenly awaiting the results of the project’s results - they hope that the straight-solar process could be rolled out to other train stations around the country. They also hope this technology might extend to the tube and tram networks as well.
The directors of Riding Sunbeams say that technology could also transform railway industries in countries that rely heavily on trains. The Guardian reports that India ‘already has 250 trains powered by solar panels attached directly to the roof of the train, but it plans to develop its own trackside solar farms’.
The move would also open up employment opportunities for electrical engineers in the UK who can assist with rolling out the solar arrays for all train stations across the nation. Leo Murray, the director of the Riding Sunbeams project told media:
“Matchmaking the UK’s biggest electricity user, the railways, with the nation’s favorite energy source, solar power, looks like the start of the perfect relationship.”
“Helping to get the railways off fossil fuels in this way will cut running costs and benefit local communities at the same time as helping to tackle the climate crisis.”
Works Cited
Ambrose, Jillian. “Rail Line in Hampshire Is World's First to Be Powered by Solar Farm.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 23 Aug. 2019, www.theguardian.com/business/2019/aug/22/rail-line-in-hampshire-is-worlds-first-to-be-powered-by-solar-farm.
Griffin, Esther. “Taking Solar Railways off the Drawing Board onto the Tracks - 10:10 Climate Action.” 10, 10:10 Climate Action, 8 Mar. 2019, 1010uk.org/articles/taking-solar-railways-off-the-drawing-board-onto-the-tracks.
In 2016, France announced an exciting plan that would hopefully power 5 million homes with electricity. The plan entailed paving over 1000 kilometers of road with photovoltaic panels, generating around 790kWh every day. However, what was supposed to the first step of a revolutionary development ended up being a bitter disappointment.
One kilometer and eight million dollars later, the issues of the road were already piling up.
The solar panels suffered immense wear and tear, to the point where some were completely shattered from the pressure of traveling cars. Some sections also failed to work to their full potential when moving dirt had covered the panels. Their horizontal position on the road also meant they were not directly facing the sun for many hours of the day, adding up to be incredibly inefficient.
The road also generated a strange noise, which forced traffic officials to change the speed limit of the paneled road to 70 kilometers per hour.
Now that the experiment is over, the government’s idea of rolling out 1,000 kilometers of the solar road has ground to a sudden halt. With all of the issues that have dogged the road, the electricity output of the solar road has been abysmal.
Alain Pelleray, a senior regional officer in the department of Orne in Normandy told media:
“As time went on, we realized that on an economic and financial level, in terms of producing electricity, it was a failure.”
The initial projection was that the roadside solar panels would, from December 2016 to March 2019, generate 624MWh (megawatt hours) but it the final results didn’t even make it halfway with the road only generating 229MWh. The plan was to sell the electricity to state-owned power company EDF with an expected 35,000 dollar profit –however, they only sold 13,000 dollars.
Nonetheless, Pelleray says much has been learned from the project and they are looking forward to continuing the experimentation with solar roads. Pelleray said:
“We have no regrets, the department did not spend anything on this and we are talking about applied research. In terms of renown, we hit the jackpot. We’ve had visits by Korean and Chinese tourists and industrialists.”
It is also back to the drawing board for the manufacturer of the panels, Colas, to solve the complications associated with the panels themselves. Colas Group’s Wattway panels were tipped to be the most promising solar roadway technology manufacturers, and they now have to rethink the entirety of their panel engineering. Colas is reportedly working on hundreds of small solar experiments to in an effort to determine how to capture the most sun as possible.
In another part of the world, Chinese industrialists are witnessing their own problems with solar roadways. In 2018, China opened a ‘solar highway’ in Jinan which was said to be longest solar roadway in the world at the time of its opening.
The first issue was vandals stealing portions of the road, and the second was passing vehicles causing layers of damage to the road. The Chinese used a glass-based photovoltaic panel (covered with a layer of concrete) that splintered when heavy items fell from trucks onto the highway. The fractures in the panels got worse when passing vehicles dragged bits of glass down the highway.
The hurdles the solar roads have faced now represent an opportunity for engineers. Engineers can now apply what they have learned and look for ways to strengthen the photovoltaic solar panels.
Works Cited
“China's 'Solar Highway' Was a Victim of Bad Design, Not Thieves.” South China Morning Post, 16 Apr. 2018, www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/2131241/chinas-solar-highway-was-victim-heavy-traffic-and-bad-design-not.
Jakarta Post. “France to Try Again with Solar Road Plan.” The Jakarta Post, www.thejakartapost.com/life/2019/07/25/france-to-try-again-with-solar-road-plan.html.
Engineers will always be required to design, build and maintain - everything from infrastructure to highly complex systems which run the world’s industries. But as new technologies emerge and disrupt it is critical that engineers skill themselves to remain relevant today and into the future. Many traditional educational institutions struggle to respond to market demand, but EIT has gained momentum as one of the only colleges in the world specializing in delivering industry-driven, applied engineering education. It is no wonder that in July 2019 EIT celebrated the milestone of achieving over 250,000 visitors to its website in 1 month; this represents the largest month in website traffic for the organization since its inception.
Internationally, engineers are the cornerstone of society; they facilitate commercial and industrial applications that meet societal and consumer needs. Increasingly, however, the modern engineer requires multi-disciplinary engineering skill and knowledge to secure future employment.
The World Economic Forum suggests that engineers need to be retrained for the 21st century, an era defined by a sharp rise in computing technologies resulting in automation. They say that, ‘technology has surpassed technological education’.
Miguel Milano, the President of Salesforce, writing for WEF said, “at least 133 million new roles generated as a result of the new division of labor between humans, machines and algorithms may emerge globally by 2022, according to the World Economic Forum. There will also be strong demand for technical skills like programming and app development, along with skills that computers can’t easily master such as creative thinking, problem-solving and negotiating.”
Not only are computing technologies transforming the industrial automation and data & communications industries, but new forms of powering our planet are also transforming the electrical engineering world. And this is aside from their impact on the civil & structural, energy, mining, oil and gas industries.
The Engineering Institute of Technology’s vision is to provide students - throughout the world - with measurable and significant gains in their places of work and in their careers. The college mandate is to provide cutting-edge engineering education to enable graduates to achieve success in the evolving engineering roles of today and tomorrow.
The Engineering Institute of Technology (EIT) emerged in 2008 from the extensive and global foundation established by its sister company IDC Technologies. Since 1991, IDC’s portfolio of 300 industry-targeted professional development courses has been attended by over 500,000 engineering professionals worldwide, with clients such as NASA, UN, Rolls Royce, Rio Tinto and BHP. EIT built on this platform by designing accredited vocational qualifications across the engineering disciplines. Subsequently, and to provide students with seamless academic pathways, in 2014 EIT became a nationally registered Higher Education Provider.
In the higher education space, EIT offers an extensive range of engineering BSc and Master Degrees (with nested graduate diplomas). A professional doctorate, still under development, will soon be added.
In achieving the status of Commonwealth Register of Institutions and Courses for Overseas Students (CRICOS), EIT was able to progress its strategic priority of delivering higher education engineering programs to students on campus in Australia, in 2018. In line with these priorities and market demand, the organization opened a second campus in Melbourne in February 2019.
EIT’s unique online and blended delivery methodologies enable the college to reach students worldwide, but they also assist graduates to become highly skilled practitioners. Two essential components of this approach involve human resources: EIT’s lecturers are subject-specialists, who are industry experts and globally-based, and EIT’s dedicated Learning Support Officers nurture students through to graduation.
State-of-the-art online tools and technologies further facilitate EIT’s online and blended platforms of learning. They include 24/7 access to hands-on remote and virtual laboratories, simulations, a comprehensive student Learning Management System, invigilation software, and a web and video conferencing system which supports live and interactive sessions.
EIT’s innovative online learning approach is critical to students who are working; they can acquire quality education without accessing a campus or having their studies interfere with their responsibilities at work. One of EIT’s Master graduates based in Uganda commented, “It allowed me to gain knowledge in the most flexible way possible for a busy full-time employee. I was able to study without my employer feeling my absence. My class had experienced students in the automation field who could share real work experiences.”
EIT has graduates in 141 countries, including Australia, South Africa, Nigeria, Botswana, Namibia, United Kingdom, United States, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Canada, New Zealand, Ghana, Saudi Arabia, Papua New Guinea, United Arab Emirates, and Ireland.
EIT facilitates life-long learning: there are seamless academic pathways (from diplomas through to master degrees), and for those looking to up-skill or attain skills across the engineering discipline, EIT offers targeted vocational qualifications and professional certificate courses.
In the last decade, EIT has seen immense growth and celebrated a milestone this July; it achieved over 250,000 visitors to its website in a single month. EIT Dean, Dr. Steve Mackay explains, “We are committed to staying ahead of the curve and we look forward to continuing to deliver cutting edge applied engineering education that provides our students the keys to unlocking and maintaining a successful engineering career.”
Works Cited
Garcia, Paulo, and Carleton University. “We Must Retrain Engineers for the 21st Century – Here's How.” World Economic Forum, www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/02/how-to-train-21st-century-engineers-for-tech-discoveries/.
Milano, Miguel, and Salesforce. “The Digital Skills Gap Is Widening Fast. Here's How to Bridge It.” World Economic Forum, www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/03/the-digital-skills-gap-is-widening-fast-heres-how-to-bridge-it/.
Shkumbuzo Khoza is an EIT graduate from South Africa.
He first began his career in the engineering when he graduated from Evander College, studying his N2 through to his N6 certificate. This meant that he had successfully obtained a national technical certificate with special focus on electro-mechatronic engineering, certifying him as a millwright.
Shkumbuzo tried to get a millwright learnership but was unfortunately not successful in doing so. However, he vowed not to give up and would keep looking for avenues to develop his career.
He then succeeded in obtaining a learnership from the country’s energy parastatal Eskom. There, he became a plant controller and discovered his passion for the electrical engineering field. In 2009, he partook in a trade test where he was declared competent on his first try.
He was then hired by a company named MCB Switchboards where he dabbled in electric panel building and wiring. The job provided many learning opportunities for Shkumbuzo. He said
“I gained a lot of experience working from different companies such as Sasol, Vodacom, fertilizer and food industries - where I am today.”
In 2013, Shkumbuzo decided to get his wireman’s license. But, he wanted to continue advancing in his career. In 2016, he joined the Engineering Institute of Technology where he enrolled in our 52726WA - Advanced Diploma of Electrical Engineering (Power Distribution).
“The course helped me understand most of the stuff that was happening in the world when it came to the electrical world of technology. I learned about high voltage and protection systems,” Shkumbuzo said. “I would like to say thank you to EIT for the powerful course that has helped me shine.”
Shkumbuzo hopes to continue his academic journey and pursue a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering to ensure that he keeps building on his already busy career.
Jacques Esterhuizen is an Engineering Institute of Technology graduate from South Africa, who earned his 52810WA - Advanced Diploma of Mechanical Engineering in 2017.
“I was always interested in engineering from a very young age. I would disassemble and assemble equipment all the time. My father was an electrician, a superintendent and building contractor — he was the one to expose me to the industry.”
After completing high school, Jacques went on to the University of Stellenbosch and completed a four-year Bachelor of Engineering (with Honors) in Electronic Engineering in 1992. Soon after, he began working in the water industry and was exposed to the automation technology involved.
“I installed and maintained SCADA, telemetry, PLC, and automation systems. I integrated and interfaced to pumps, valves, blowers, disinfection units, dosing, compressors, and instrumentation to provide monitoring and control solutions to operational staff, maintenance teams, and management.”
What he had learned equipped him so he could fill a position in the city council in 2005. He worked on the “optimization and improvement of screenings, compactors, grid removal, aeration, sludge treatment, and drying and pumping systems” at the city council.
After many years with the city council, he became an engineering consultant in 2015. Seeing technological developments occur in the engineering world throughout his career, Jacques decided to further his studies to become a reliable practitioner in two engineering disciplines.
He decided to pursue mechanical engineering and began his research to find a program that suited his needs.
“I felt it was important to know and understand the intricacies of mechanical equipment, especially when interfacing to it to provide automated solutions. I already had field experience, but theory was as important. The challenge was to study during full-time employment.”
That is where the Engineering Institute of Technology came in. He decided that while he worked as a consulting engineer, he would study via EIT’s innovative online platform.
“Another reason for selecting EIT was the program structure which included AC motors and drives, HVAC, process plants and piping, energy, efficiency, renewable energy systems, industrial automation, measurement and control systems, and project management. Those modules were a great value to my career, and I could apply the knowledge in my work.”
After graduating with the Engineering Institute of Technology, Jacques noted that his work and his abilities as an engineering consultant strengthened.
“I am currently involved in the design, construction management, and supervision of many HVAC, building, pump station, telecommunications, and renewable energy projects.
“I am responsible for managing various building, construction, and engineering projects.
“The knowledge gained from studying at EIT and the University of Stellenbosch, combined with practical experience, proves valuable in my career as an engineer and project manager.”
Jacques summarizes his time with EIT by outlining three elements he has gained since graduating: improved skills, capabilities, and confidence levels.
Gaston Kausa is an Engineering Institute of Technology graduate from Zambia who earned his 52724WA - Advanced Diploma in Civil and Structural Engineering. He felt an instant connection to engineering when in high school he was introduced to the technical drawing subject.
“I fell in love with the subject,” he said. “From then on, my mind was made up that my career was going to be in the engineering industry.
What followed was a lifetime of acquiring skills and qualifications to validate his love for engineering and transform him into the professional he is today. Today, he is a member of the Engineering Institute of Zambia.
Gaston’s working life began with a job as a surveyor at Zambia Consolidated Copper Mines in 1985.
Throughout his career, he has worked as Chief Surveyor at many infrastructure projects in Zambia and Namibia.
Since 1990, he has worked on a total of 15 separate projects filling roles such as land survey assistant, surveyor (sometimes being the senior on-site), chief draughtsman, chief surveyor, site manager, sub-contractor, and project surveyor.
He has operated as a surveyor for key industries from Namibian and Zambian mines, to railways, main roadways, parking lots, and bridge projects.
He recently chose to do the Advanced Diploma course through EIT because he had his eyes set on practising as a Civil Engineer.
“As a surveyor, I have been working closely with civil engineers for a long time,” he said.
“Over the years, I have acquired a lot of civil engineering knowledge through practical experience. This course enables me to practice as a civil engineer and utilize the knowledge I have acquired over the years. It has advanced my understanding of the best industry practice and enabled me to perform more complex tasks in design and construction.”
He is currently working in the construction industry, employed as a surveyor engineer for consultancy services. In this role, he oversees the design, tender documentation, and supervision of the construction of the Kazungula Bridge Project.
Upon completion, the bridge will form a 923-meter-long link between Kazungula in Zambia and Kasane in Botswana. It is to be completed in the last quarter of 2020.
Adding to the arsenal of skills Gaston already possessed, studying through EIT further augmented his understanding of the civil engineering industry.
Gaston had already amassed considerable geological draughting and mine surveying qualifications from the Zambia Institute of Technology and the Copperbelt University respectively between 1983 and 1998. In 2008, as automation really began creeping into industry, Gaston studied a certificate in AutoCAD at Intec College in Cape Town, South Africa.
“Technological advancement has been the most fascinating development in the construction industry. From Computer-Aided Design software to drone technology, the industry has seen massive transformation in terms of efficiency and speed of delivery of projects.”
While he would like to continue his education in the future, he is absolutely happy with the progress that he has made so far in his studies.
“Things are looking bright. I am beginning to appreciate my job more and hope to be a practising civil engineer after registration with the relevant authorities. I expect a big leap in my career when I combine my vast experience with my new qualifications from my new qualification from EIT.”
Gaston says that in five years, he would love to be in a more senior construction management role and be a construction industry expert that can implement successful end-to-end project management.
Fortune Chipeta was born and raised in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. He earned his 52708WA - Advanced Diploma in Industrial Automation with the Engineering Institute of Technology between 2014 and 2015. The Advanced Diploma is now one of many qualifications Fortune has amassed across his engineering career.
Fortune loves the world of engineering, particularly in the electrical realm. However, he was quick to discover that automation was revolutionizing the industry he had always adored. He is now working towards that dream of being an engineer in the exact cross-section where electrical engineering and automation meet. He says:
“I love making and implementing practical solutions to everyday problems and electricity and technology fascinates me.”
After graduating from high school, he enrolled for a National Certificate in Electrical Power Engineering at Westgate Industrial Training College. A straight-A student in high school, Fortune passed the 3-year course with distinctions in 2004. During that time he was posted out for a one-year industrial attachment at Bulawayo Cold Storage Company. He says:
“It was during this time working on the then state-of-the-art abattoir that I fell in love with industrial controls and electrical systems.”
In 2005, Fortune enrolled for a full-time National Diploma in Electrical Power Engineering at Bulawayo Polytechnic College. It was there that he furthered his knowledge of industrial electronics, digital electronics and control systems.
Fortune then made the move to live in South Africa, finding a job in the construction industry as an installation electrical on commercial building sites. He said:
“This was a very enlightening period in my career as I totally deviated from my dream of a future in electrical, but I gained exposure in home automation systems. In 2009, I got an opportunity at a steel company as an industrial electrician and was back into an industrial environment”.
Change of fortune
Fortune had reached a crossroads. He was gaining practical knowledge but still wanted to future-proof his career. Suddenly, the answer became clear. He said:
“In 2014 I heard of the Engineering Institute of Technology from a friend. It was a good solution to my hectic professional life. Naturally, I enrolled for the Advanced Diploma in Industrial Automation as that’s what I was passionate about”.
Fortune is currently employed as an Industrial Electrician and Automation Technician. His daily responsibilities include factory maintenance and electrical projects. He assists and leads a 12 man team who provide solutions to any problems that may arise whilst perform the aforementioned tasks.
As Fortune continues to work hard at furthering his career, he tries to display the best version of himself in the workplace so others can learn from him. He concluded:
“After EIT, everything is much easier to understand now and solutions to challenges come effortlessly. Now my employers marvel at the ease with which my professional abilities have improved. I am definitely aiming to be the best there is in Industrial Automation and be able to inspire young industrial technicians.”
The Netherlands is a country well known for its intricate landscape of canals, tulip fields, windmills and cycling routes. But did you know that the country has been in a defiant war against water since the early 17th century?
The Netherlands relationship with water is complicated, to say the least. Nearly a quarter of the country lies below sea level and another half sits less than a metre above, putting the country’s entire existence under constant attack from the elements. Consequently, the country has fallen victim to a number of serious floods over time.
A defining landmark in the country’s history in the North Sea flood of 1953. After a heavy storm on the night of 31 January 1953, citizens of the Netherlands woke up to large areas of the country completely underwater. The devastating floods claimed 1,835 lives and forced the emergency evacuation of over 70,000 more. The total damage from the floods was estimated to be over 800 million dollars.
The catastrophic flooding led to multiple in-depth government reviews of events and how they could be prevented, ultimately leading to the developed water defences the Netherlands possesses today. The country’s highly symbolic systems of windmills, canals, ditches, dikes, dams and dunes aren’t just for Instagram aesthetics or utility, but actually a fully-functioning security strategy against mother nature.
One of the largest physical defences the country uses against rising water levels is a device called the Maeslantkering. This enormous piece of machinery is effectively a set of doors that blocks off the ocean when sea levels rise too high. Would you believe that this contraption is almost as long as the Eiffel Tower if it was laying on its side?
Acting as the final piece of the Delta Works, a construction program started by the Dutch government after the catastrophic floods of 1953, the Maeslantkering automatically closes when threatened by floodwaters. It is one of the largest moving structures on Earth, rivalling the Green Bank Telescope in the United States and the Bagger 288 excavator in Germany.
Whilst it sounds bleak, the pressure of the situation has put Dutch engineers at the top of their game. It’s no surprise that they are world leaders in flood protection, storm surge barriers and other water management technologies that are constantly emulated around the world.
As the risk of climate change continues to increase and sea levels rise, the Netherlands future is increasingly uncertain however engineers are constantly working hard towards engineering innovative solutions such as parking garages that can serve as emergency reservoirs.
The Netherlands’ flood defence network is robust and broadly supported. More than 300 institutions, organizations and boards work together to devise comprehensive plans, continually assessing their effectiveness and keeping residents informed of their progress.
Works Cited
Hall, Alexander. “The North Sea Flood of 1953.” Environment & Society Portal, Arcadia (2013), no. 5. Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society. https://doi.org/10.5282/rcc/5181
The new paradigm that exists in the modern engineering industry is the replacing of fossil fuel burning machinery with renewable, zero-emissions technologies. There is a growing public call for the re-engineering of automobiles, aircraft, trains and more, to power them in more renewable ways. Mechanical engineering and electrical engineering are coming together to ‘reinvent-the-wheel’ and design new technologies that produce zero emissions.
New Zealand’s Ports of Auckland authority says that they will be debuting the world’s first all-electric tugboat. Ports of Auckland have been dedicated to finding alternatively powered vessels for quite some time. Tony Gibson, the chief executive officer of Ports of Auckland said in a press release:
“In 2016 we set ourselves the goal of being zero-emission by 2040. We set this goal because we recognize that urgent action is needed on climate change, and we wanted to be part of the solution. However, setting the goal created a tough challenge. We have a lot of heavy equipment, like tugs, and in 2016 there were no zero-emission options.”
The RSD-E Tug 2513 tugboat, unfortunately for Auckland Ports, was not available in 2016. However, Dutch shipbuilder Damen will be delivering their new tugboat to them in 2021. The tugboat will be just as powerful as the diesel tugboats that they have been using for years.
Damen was already engineering tugboat diesel-electric hybrids that Auckland Ports were utilizing but encouraged the company to work on an all-electric version. Damen design and proposal engineer Tugs Marc Baken said:
“We looked into the request and we saw that it was technically possible. The next step was to consider the feasibility of full electrical operation from a business perspective.”
What they had to do was look to battery technologies. They looked to what batteries were already on the market. They purchased those batteries and tested them out on crafts to see if they could test the efficiencies compared to the diesel alternatives.
They also found that the charging stations for the tugboats would be efficient. The tugboat will be utilizing a 1.5MW charger that will charge the tugboat up in only two hours. Seemingly, the technology is ready to deploy and could become a norm in the industry.
Damen says the batteries are stringed together so that if one battery fails, the next battery picks up the heavy lifting. Two 1000kW generators are on-board as well in case an electrical failure occurs - or if the tugboat has to tow something that is significantly bigger than what it usually tows. Damen wants to ensure people their all-electric with generators fitted in case of emergency is not a hybrid - they are confident the batteries will be able to power the tugboat at the same output as a diesel vessel.
Damen sales manager for the Asia Pacific region, Sjoerd de Bruin, said that the new tugboat will complete the green sustainability aims New Zealand has been aiming to achieve. He said:
“The RSD-E Tug 2513 completes the cycle of sustainability, being not only clean on emissions, but also in its source of power. This is great news for the region and also for other ports around the world with green ambitions. Ports of Auckland have taken a bold step in pioneering the use of fully electric harbor tugs and it is an honor to work with them on this project. This aligns neatly with our mission of reforming the maritime industry. We are not only building a tug, we are using disruptive technology to help serve the energy transition.”
A future with flying cars might be closer than you think. On 5 August 2019, Japanese electronics firm NEC revealed their prototype for a giant drone, developed with their partner Cartivator.
Their electric Vertical Take-Off and Landing (eVTOL) aircraft weighs around 330 pounds and is equipped with four propellers. During a recent trial, the aircraft was able to lift itself 10 feet in the air and fly 65 feet before landing safely on the ground again. The whole trial lasted just less than a minute.
Last year, the Japanese Government announced a country-wide initiative for companies to build eVTOLs with driverless capabilities. They have granted Cartivator permission for outdoor flights, and the company plans to start mass-producing these in 2026.
Speaking to Bloomberg, leader of the project at NEC, Kouji Okada, said, “Japan is a densely populated country and that means flying cars could greatly alleviate the burden on road traffic.
“We are positioning ourselves as an enabler for air mobility, providing location data and building communications infrastructure for flying cars.”
Electric vehicles are essential, as they produce far fewer carbon emissions than regular cars.
Japan is not the only country making headway with this technology.
In June, Uber announced that test flights for their ridesharing service would begin in 2020. Melbourne Australia will be the first city outside the US to test the service, joining other pilot cities Dallas, Texas and Los Angeles, California.
“Australian governments have adopted a forward-looking approach to ridesharing and future transport technology,” said Uber’s general manager for Australia, New Zealand, and North Asia, Susan Anderson.
“This, coupled with Melbourne’s unique demographic and geospatial factors, and culture of innovation and technology, make Melbourne the perfect third launch city for Uber Air. We will see other Australian cities following soon after.”
They have also joined hands with a company named Jaunt Air Mobility to make the Uber Air dream a reality. The eVTOL resembles a helicopter which Uber Air is banking on to make their mobility plans possible.
Uber Elevate Director of Engineering, Mark Moore, said in a press statement, “Jaunt Air Mobility has assembled a highly talented team of experienced engineers with a long history of designing and certifying eVTOL vehicles.
Martin Peryea, Jaunt’s Chief Technology Officer, has led many helicopter development programs as a chief engineer and brings invaluable to developing low noise, reliable, and safe aircraft.
“I look forward to seeing what our teams accomplish together as we aim to accelerate Jaunt’s commercialization efforts.”
According to Inverse, there are now 120 eVTOL projects being tested worldwide. While there are still barriers to overcome, they predict limited commercial flights will be up and running within the next five-to-ten years.
Homelessness is a global issue on the rise with a new estimate of 1.2 billion people worldwide lacking access to safe and secure housing at any given time. However, a construction-technology startup is proposing to build 3D-printed homes in 24 hours and for under $4,000, a new and possible solution to homelessness.
CEO of Fuseproject, designer Yves Behar has revealed plans to build 3D-printed houses for an impoverished farming community in Latin America. Fuseproject, has teamed up with non-profit organisation, New Story, to bring the project to life.
On the Fuseproject website, their mission is laid out:
“It is our belief that designers, builders and technology innovators have the potential to bring unprecedented speed and scale to housing design that can elevate the lives of some of the most impoverished populations around the globe. 3D printing, in particular, offers a new and powerful tool for realizing this potential and driving this mission forward.”
The 55-square-metre houses will be printed with portable, autonomous printers which use a robotic gantry system to pipe concrete over the designated print area. Their inbuilt industrial control software follows the print instruction and works through both the day and night without the need for extensive labour.
The house will be one part of a greater 120-square-metre property that includes a covered outdoor kitchen and dining room, and gardens free for resident use.
The design of the houses was also made with the difficult climate in mind. The houses feature a large curved roof that extends beyond the front and the back of the house to act as a buffer against the heavy rainfall. Perforated concrete blocks will also run along the top of the walls to allow for a natural ventilation system.
The companies plan to work collaboratively into the future towards a goal of having built an entire community of the 3D homes by 2020.
“We feel it’s our responsibility to challenge traditional methods. Linear methods will never reach the billion-plus people who need safe homes,” says Brett Hagler, CEO of New Story.
“Challenging our assumptions, iterating based on data, and taking calculated risks on innovative ideas will allow us to reach more families with the best possible solutions, exponentially faster.”
Technology company ICON has provided portable, autonomous printers to create the houses. This technology produces nearly no waste.
The printer uses a robotic gantry system that pipes concrete (or as they call it ‘ICON Lavacrete’) over the print area. Industrial control autonomously follows the print instructions and works without the need for extensive labor. ICON says the entire setup is the first digital-native approach to building construction.
The printer can also function in low-light conditions thanks to onboard LED lighting. Thus, the printer can be utilized even after hours — providing even further evidence that this form of construction offers incredible value for the construction company.
Works Cited
“Yves Béhar Teams with Tech-Infused Charity for World's First 3D Printed Community.” Archinect, archinect.com/news/article/150135707/yves-b-har-teams-with-tech-infused-charity-for-world-s-first-3d-printed-community.
“Fuseproject.” Fuseproject, fuseproject.com/.
The industrial sectors of the engineering world are currently amidst a period of incredible progress. With the introduction of more automated processes than ever before, the industry is becoming increasingly efficient and requiring less physical manpower.
However, the digital transformation of the industry does come with its downsides. When integrated with technology, vital industry hardware becomes connected to the internet, which makes the chances of corruption far more likely.
Fortinet is an American multinational company that develops cybersecurity software in the engineering sector. They recently released a report entitled the ‘2019 Operational Technology Security Trends Report’, which examined troublesome cyber-attacks, specifically targeting supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) and industrial control systems (ICS) systems.
In the report, Fortinet says that two-thirds of global operation technology is connected to an interconnected network. 32% of the systems are connected to the public internet, and the other 32% connected through a gateway into the enterprise. Fortinet writes, “This gateway is sometimes as innocuous as a single PC that is separately connected both to the OT system and the internet.’
Those systems are directly vulnerable to attacks. The report also found that in 2018 exploits ‘increased in volume and prevalence’ for almost every ICS/SCADA vendor. Meaning, hackers were attempting to find vulnerabilities in ICS and SCADA systems. Once vulnerabilities are found, it is up to companies to ‘patch’ the particular vulnerabilities.
Just recently in July 2019, security researchers published a list of 11 vulnerabilities that needed urgent attention by cybersecurity specialists - they aptly named the vulnerabilities the Urgent11.
Larry O’ Brien, vice president of the ARC Advisory Group - a leading technology research and advisory firm for industry wrote:
“Cybersecurity is playing an increasingly important role in process safety systems. This became apparent with the cyber-attack on safety systems late in 2017 that ultimately ended in the safe shutdown of a Middle Eastern petrochemical facility. Attacks on safety systems have the potential to cause real harm in the physical world, so it’s important that ICS/SCADA cybersecurity policy include rational approaches to process safety systems.”
Lessons are being learned every year, but it seems that businesses will have to invest in cybersecurity at a more rapid rate due to the quick nature in which new exploits arise. The engineering industry needs to learn how to secure their systems from the hacker-types who are technically gifted enough to discover those loopholes.
INSINIA, a company specializing in cybersecurity for enterprise and industry in December 2018 spoke about the hacking of industrial control systems at the Security BSides London conference. They presented a lecture entitled: ‘Hacking SCADA: How We Attacked a Company and Lost them £1.6M with Only 4 Lines of Code’.
The group developed a ‘weaponized’ Arduino micro-controller that could scan a network and shut down components in an interconnected setup, powered by only four lines of code. They showed how easy it could be to take down an industrial setup in minutes.
The group says that in their research of certain companies running industrial control systems, some were found to be using Windows 7, and in some cases even Windows 98 as operating systems. The issues being that older operating systems can be vulnerable to backdoor attacks that are unlikely to be patched as new operating systems have made their way to market.
The onus seems to be on the engineers of companies to source enterprise-level systems with apt cyber-security to combat the denial-of-service attacks hackers attempt to exact on SCADA and industrial control systems.
Works Cited
“Deliver Secure Digital Transformation.” Fortinet, www.fortinet.com/.
Leyden, John. “Pwned with '4 Lines of Code': Researchers Warn SCADA Systems Are Still Hopelessly Insecure.” The Register® - Biting the Hand That Feeds IT, The Register, 20 June 2018, www.theregister.co.uk/2018/06/18/physically_hacking_scada_infosec/.
The proud capital of Western Australia, Perth is a city of immense advancement and evolution. Nestled on the banks of the beautiful Swan River, the city is bustling with new urban developments which are putting Perth amongst the top travel destinations of the world.
The benefits of the last decade’s resources boom have flowed into every aspect of Perth living with the city experiencing growth in all corners of life. From the brand new Elizabeth Quay to the upcoming opening of the revamped Museum of Western Australia, Perth is becoming home to its very own myriad of engineering feats.
1. Optus Stadium
One of the newest additions to Perth’s horizon, Optus Stadium is a multi-purpose 60,000 seat world-class venue. Delivering an exceptional atmosphere and experience no matter the sport, the stadium utilized specialists from Perth, Sydney, Adelaide, Melbourne, Brisbane, Singapore, and London to engineer the sporting marvel.
One of the stadiums’ key features is its climate conditions roof. The stadiums’ structural engineers developed a stunning and efficient roof solution that was made of continuous fabric, free of movement joints, and even integrated with lighting.
It’s no wonder the stadium recently took out the award for the most beautiful sporting facility in the world.
2. RAC Arena
This neo-futuristic entertainment area is found at the heart of Perth's CBD. With its geometric facade, the intense project demanded close collaboration between several teams to bring the arena to life.
With key features including a retractable roof that can open and close in less than 15 minutes, five-level tiered seating and corporate suites, RAC Arena is a unique and wonderfully complex venue to admire from both within and afar.
Since its opening in 2012, approximately 3 million people have visited the Area for 350+ major events.
3. Canning Dam
The Canning Dam and reservoir provide a major freshwater resource for Perth. It is well known for its innovative structural and hydraulic design that was at the forefront of concrete gravity dam design at the time of construction in the late 1930s. Inflow into the Canning Reservoir is estimated to be 22 gigalitres and has a storage capacity of 90.352 gigalitres.
Not only is Canning Dam a benchmark site in the history of Perth's development but is an engineering masterpiece of its time, complete with a curved concrete wall and the use of International Stripped Classical detailing on the gatehouse piers.
Did you know that during its constructions, bulk handling of cement was used for the first time in Australia? This was instead of the usage of bagged cement, which was the standard practice of the day.
Did you know that it is open for visitors to walk across during the day? You can even make it a day trip with picnic areas and bushwalking trails surrounding the area.
4. City of Perth Library
Did you know that the new City of Perth Library is the first major civic building to be built since the Perth Concert Hall nearly 40 years ago?! This magnificent building is revealed across seven levels with authentic ceiling artwork, gardens, and auditorium.
The library has a circular design that is complemented by a series of glass facades and stone-clad columns. The intermittent vertical cladding that decorates the outside of the building is orientated to draw in natural light.
One of the most advanced aspects of the building is its’ built-in mechanical systems. The library features underfloor air distribution through the main library collection levels, forming part of the greater sustainability initiatives for the building.
5. Matagarup Bridge
The Matagarup Bridge is a pedestrian bridge crossing over the Swan River. It’s an incredible feat of engineering, design and West Australian workmanship.
The challenge of the construction was the long period of over-water construction. The building of the bridge required parts of the river to be completely closed for more than two months. Transport Minister, Rita Saffioti, said: “This project has been one of the most technically difficult constructions ever undertaken in Western Australia and the local workforce has embraced the challenge and done an outstanding job.”
Designed to look like two flying swans, the bridge is now a symbol of innovation along the Perth city skyline and is a spectacular gateway to the new Optus Stadium.
6. Mills Park
Did you know that in suburban Perth, a team of engineers has been setting Australian-first standards for environmentally friendly projects? The Mills Park Centre in Gosnells is the first as-built rated 6 Star Green Star public building in Australia.
This mixed-use community facility has multiple environmentally-friendly features, including carbon-friendly materials and the inclusion of Bubbledeck, a construction approach that requires less structural support and building materials overall.
The city’s Director of Infrastructure, Dave Harris says the project has exceeded all initial expectations.
“Our administration building was the first five-star green star public building in WA and now Mills Park is the first six-star green star designation for a public building for both design and construction in Australia, I really couldn’t have planned for anything better.”
7. Western Australia Museum 2020 and Central Energy Plan
Cutting-edge technology is currently being used to redevelop the Western Australia Museum, which finds its home in the Perth Cultural Centre. The $359.9 million project will be nearly four times the size of its predecessor. It will also encompass a $17.1 million research centre.
The project is a mammoth task for engineers. Challenges have included the restoration of four heritage buildings which made up part of the previous museum and meeting the need to heavily load the new museum’s cores to the equivalent of a 30-story building.
The construction is also including a Central Energy Plant which will service the entirety of the Perth Cultural Centre. It will reduce energy use and Co2 emissions in the Perth Cultural Centre by 30-40% by 2020.
Most technologies have something in common: heat generation. For example, engines, electronics, light bulbs, and machinery all create thermal radiation while running.
Any heat not utilized is wasted energy. Imagine re-using that thermal radiation and turning it into something that benefits the technology itself.
One engineer has found a way to use his ‘wasted’ energy. He has created a device that takes such wasted energy and pumps it back into the original technology.
University of Utah mechanical engineering associate professor Mathieu Francoeur and his team have produced what is known as a ‘Near-Field Radiative Heat Transfer Device.’ Their device purportedly surpasses what is known as the blackbody limit.
A blackbody limit is the maximum amount of heat that can be emitted from an object. Francoeur said, “Nobody can emit more radiation than the blackbody limit. But when we go to the nanoscale, you can.”
The researchers put together a 5mm-by-5mm chip that had two silicon wafers with a nanoscopic gap between them. The proximity of the silicon wafers allowed the researchers to test how much more functional electricity could be generated to power the original object. The closer the wafers were, the more electricity they generate.
Francoeur suggests that further development of the chip means laptops could enjoy 50% more battery life, and photovoltaic solar panels could produce more electricity. The other benefit is that heat-emitting technologies would run at cooler temperatures, preserving their lifespans.
“You put the heat back into the system as electricity,” he said.
“Right now, we’re just dumping it into the atmosphere. It’s heating up your room, for example, and then you use your AC to cool your room, which wastes more energy.”
Works Cited
“Beat the Heat.” UNews, unews.utah.edu/beat-the-heat/.
Uofunews. “Beat the Heat.” EurekAlert!, www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-07/uou-bth070819.php.
Amazon is moving forward with a plan to launch thousands of satellites into space in order to bring reliable broadband internet service to rural areas across the globe.
Amazon subsidiary Kuiper Systems has applied with the United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to launch more than 3,000 satellites into space under the name Project Kuiper.
The application states, “The effective implementation of global broadband services requires more than the design, construction, and deployment of the technologically advanced satellite system, low-cost customer terminals, and gateways. It also requires worldwide terrestrial network infrastructure and customer operations capabilities.”
“The Kuiper system will help bridge gaps in coverage by complementing the efforts of terrestrial fixed and mobile careers and reaching some of the most remote and hard-to-reach areas - where it is often geographically difficult of cost-prohibitive for terrestrial service providers to operate today.”
Kuiper Systems Chief Executive Officer is Rajeev Badyal — SpaceX’s former vice president. Interestingly enough, SpaceX launched 60 satellites into orbit on 23 May 2019. Their satellites are also intended to provide internet service worldwide.
The name of SpaceX’s project is Starlink — and they are cleared to launch a total of 11,943 satellites. Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk says the plan is to launch 60 satellites at a time. He predicts they will achieve global coverage after 24 launches.
It would appear that these companies are involved in a satellite space race.
Amazon Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos said the internet satellites are a long-term project. For engineers, the project presents an incredible opportunity
While astronomers are worried that more satellites in space may begin obscuring some of the star systems they study, educators that do not have their eyes on the skies are thinking an interconnected world means more opportunities for education and training.
With more people connected to the internet globally, the chance for online education and training will naturally follow. Those in rural areas who cannot afford to move to a city for university could benefit from earning tertiary degrees through online means. Low-cost communication technologies and low-cost internet service provided by satellites could transform multiple careers around the world.
Works Cited
Brodkin, Jon. “Amazon Plans Nationwide Broadband-with Both Home and Mobile Service.” Ars Technica, 8 July 2019, arstechnica.com/information-technology/2019/07/amazon-follows-spacex-into-satellite-broadband-asks-fcc-to-ok-launch-plan/.
On a chilly winter’s day on the 23rd of July, the Engineering Institute of Technology (EIT) hosted the ‘Hot Trends in Engineering, Job Prospects & Troubleshooting Tips’ seminar in Johannesburg.
EIT’s Dean of Engineering, Dr Steve Mackay, visited South Africa to speak to an enthusiastic crowd of engineers, technologists, artisans, future students and general professionals about the trends occurring in the engineering industry as a consequence of the fourth industrial revolution.
These trends are altering engineering education and training. Prospective engineers must meet the challenge of staying ahead of the curve, and seasoned engineers must play catch-up with the changing industries.
Dr Mackay told the crowd, “you are here to find out how to skill yourself, improve yourself, and constantly refine yourself. Automation is going to accelerate. At the same time, the world is hyper-connected. We are doing everything on our phones these days. It is a quickly changing world.”
Dr Mackay delved into how the traditional STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) was lacking a vital ‘E’ which is seemingly missing in engineering graduates around the world. When asking the crowd what the missing ‘E’ might be, suggestions included ‘Ethics,’ and ‘Environment’ which the Dean agreed with, but ultimately defined the other missing ‘E’ as Entrepreneurship.
“There is downward pressure on jobs in developing countries like South Africa,” he said.
“The skills required to prosper are changing, but students have to take initiative as well. There is nothing like experience. My father used to say that no matter how good a design engineer you are, you are nothing until the first electrician picks up a screwdriver on a project that you designed.”
Dr Mackay concluded by saying that universities and colleges are in a period of transformation because of the trends that have arisen due to technological advancement. Qualifications and curricula of the past seem to be slinking into obscurity. Institutions will have to ensure their students have both work experience and theoretical knowledge.
“In the next ten years, universities will be judged on how many of their graduates ended up getting jobs,” he said.
The EIT Ambassador of the Year 2018, Tatenda Nherera shared his experience at EIT with the crowd. Tatenda is an EIT graduate who obtained his 52684WA - Advanced Diploma in Electrical and Instrumentation (E&I) Engineering for Gas and Oil Facilities and Bachelor of Science (Industrial Automation) with EIT.
“In my course, I could remain employed and still study part-time,” he said.
“The studies gave me more meaningful skills, and help me to contribute to my community, where engineering skills like mine are very scarce.
“After finishing my studies, I went to the Engineering Council of South Africa (ECSA) and asked them to examine my results from EIT. They granted me the title of Candidate Technician based on my results.”
To conclude the seminar, EIT’s International Education Manager for the regions of Africa and South America, David Gadjus, took to the podium to highlight the different pathways prospective engineers could take to unlock their engineering careers.
“We run our programs online, but we also have two campuses in Perth and Melbourne where you can relocate to, to come and study,” he said.
“Some of our qualifications are internationally endorsed, and covered by the Sydney Accord, the Washington Accord or the Dublin Accord.”
He also explained the many short courses that EIT delivers for engineering practitioners. These, Gadjus said, might expose technologists and engineers to new engineering industries, or further develop their skills in the industry they are employed in.
The seminar proved massively successful in summing up the general feeling among engineers in South Africa; new skills are required to meet the needs of the fourth industrial revolution as repetitive jobs are being phased out.
New engineering trends are creating new engineering jobs, and EIT is at the forefront of providing higher education for students in this ‘new world.’
On 22 July, Dr. Steve Mackay, Dean of Engineering at Engineering Institute of Technology (EIT), spent the day at the Tshwane University of Technology (TUT), in Pretoria, South Africa. Engineering staff from universities around the country had gathered for a seminar.
Steve was delighted to also welcome two Engineering Council of South Africa (ECSA) representatives, the President, Mr Cyril Vuyani Gamede and Mr Edmund Nxumalo, Executive Research, Policy and Standards (ERPS).
The universities in South Africa often reach capacity and are obliged to turn large numbers of students away. An online option would allow them to be more inclusive and it could better serve students who live remotely.
Since 2008, EIT has employed a live, interactive online platform of learning, to reach students in over 140 countries around the world. It was the technical tools which underpin this approach to learning that were showcased by Steve, and his colleague from EIT’s IT Department, James Mackay.
The web-conferencing software — which enables the live, interactive sessions — and the student learning management system were both demonstrated.
They also presented the EIT-designed proctoring software. Without this form of invigilation, it would be impossible to check the veracity of examinations completed by students online; it has proved itself even more eagle-eyed than human invigilators.
Another critical aspect of the platform scrutinised closely by all attendees, were the virtual and remote laboratories which connect to real equipment. These practical applications make online education a truly viable approach to learning in engineering.
Simona Capparella comes from a family of engineers in Italy. From a young age she was destined to follow in her father’s footsteps and work her way up to being a reliable, dynamic female engineer.
“My father is a very respected engineer in my hometown, he was a teacher and started a career as a design engineer in Italy in 1990,” she said.
“Both my father and uncle were electrical systems teachers. They were the people who encouraged me to study engineering, and instilled a great love for this subject in me.”
Today, she is a senior electrical engineer in the building services industry. It has been quite the journey to get where she is today.
At the age of 16, Simona enrolled in an engineering high school in Italy where she studied electrical systems.
In 2008, she acquired an Honors degree in Safety and Protection Engineering in Rome, where she mainly studied Chemical Processes Engineering and Fire Protection Engineering.
Upon completion, she moved on to her master’s degree and began working as an electrical designer in the building services industry with her father, who mentored her in the profession.
“I earned my master’s degree in Safety and Protection Engineering with a focus on Safety in Electrical systems in 2012,” she said.
“I then started a second master’s degree in 2013 in Electrical Power systems.
“In 2015, before finishing my master’s, I decided to move to the United Kingdom to expand my engineering knowledge and work on international high profile projects.”
Her move saw her lending her skills to projects in Oxfordshire. She got an offer to work as electrical designer at ISIS Neutron and Muon Source, one of the most famous neutron spallation research centers in the world.
During that time, she enrolled in the EIT Professional Certificate of Competency in Substation Design (Control and Protection) while weighing up her career options.
“I wanted to work in a commercial environment,” she said.
“At the time I wasn’t sure whether I would like to go back to the building services industry or start a new career in the power systems sector.
“Either way, I felt that in order for me to be more competitive in the market as a professional I would need to deepen my knowledge of substations, and in particular, earthing systems — which is a topic that has always fascinated me.
“The best way to achieve this was to attend an EIT course. Completing the EIT course definitely boosted my prestige as an electrical engineer.”
Two years ago, Simona decided to apply her electrical engineering skills to the building services industry.
She is currently working in Manchester in the United Kingdom at a company named BDP. It is a major multidisciplinary practice, of architects and engineers, which works in several building services sectors.
The qualification from EIT gave her CV the push it needed to rise above the rest.
“I believe that the EIT Substation course gave my CV a certain visibility in the pool, and helped me during the selection process for my current job”
She is also a contributor to the STEM Ambassador Programme in the United Kingdom, a position which she uses to encourage young people to pursue engineering careers.
EIT is thrilled to have been part of her journey and wishes in both her current and future endeavor.
Lonwabo Busakwe is an Engineering Institute of Technology graduate. He is working in the Renewable Energy industry, particularly within the wind turbines space with a company named Nordex and Acciona Windpower. He completed his 52726WA - Advanced Diploma of Applied Electrical Engineering (Power Industry) with EIT.
His daily responsibilities include the service and maintenance of the wind turbines, the troubleshooting of electrical and mechanical faults, checking the SCADA systems, and generally working with electrical software tools.
Renewable Energy is a relatively new area of expertise for South Africa. The country’s energy sector is largely made up of coal power plants — which makes up 70 percent of the country’s mix.
Experts are calling for independent renewable energy power producers to flood the energy sector to teach and train South Africans in the way of new clean forms of energy.
Seeing an opportunity, Lonwabo sought out the Engineering Institute of Technology. He wanted to grow his skill set so that he would be prepared for the oncoming energy revolution in the country.
“For me, engineering is one of the career paths I liked most,” he said. As a result, Lonwabo has also begun studying EIT’s 52764WA – Graduate Certificate in Renewable Energy Technology.
“It brings out the best in me. I enjoy solving technical problems and thinking strategically.
“The Renewable Energy Industry is new in South Africa, so it’s very challenging and interesting to me. I am learning a lot of new engineering concepts.”
Lonwabo encourages young South Africans to follow in his footsteps and study a diploma or degree that can help them elevate themselves and help power South Africa. Lonowabo is now considering pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering.
In the meantime he has acquired a Post Graduate Diploma in Project Management. He is currently busy with his master’s degree in project management with only one module outstanding.
“The Advanced Diploma of Electrical Engineering has changed my life a lot, now I have the confidence within the electrical engineering industry because of the new skill set I have gained from EIT. My career is very promising and it looks so bright with this international qualification which I have obtained.”
Machine learning and artificial intelligence could be the key to simplifying project management.
As it stands, engineering project management is an arduous process. Many factors need to be considered, including project lifecycle, scheduling, costs, and quality management.
However, engineers in the Silicon Valley are coming to the rescue. Tara.ai is a project management platform that aims to enable product teams to be on time and budget. The company has just raised US $10 million in capital to continue its development.
A report by global management consulting company McKinsey, discovered that US $66 billion was “lost” across 5000 separate projects. This was due to them exceeding their lifecycles, poor planning, and the wasteful expenditure on the wrong kind of talent. Now one of McKinsey’s ex-employees, Iba Masood, is a co-founder of Tara.ai.
One of the more interesting features of Tara.ai is the recruitment section, which ensures the right people are working on each project.
“We realized that recruiting was actually the final decision you make, not the first, and we wanted to be involved earlier in the decision-making process,” Masood told Techcrunch.
“We saw a much bigger opportunity looking not at the people, but at the whole project.”
Once team members have been recruited for a project, Tara.ai can recommend the right people for each specific task.
On their website, the company explains, “with Tara.ai, you know the right person for the right task. Integrations create dynamic profiles for team members such as engineers and designers, so they can be easily recommended for tasks and objectives.”
This means the responsibility falls on the engineers to ensure their CV stands out when they are applying for jobs.
Steve Mackay, the Dean of Engineering at the Engineering Institute of Technology, gives the following advice: “First of all, ensure your CV is designed for the particular job you are applying for. Most people think they can use a generic resume because they have to apply for lots of jobs. This is not advisable. Be specific! Focus on the job you really want. Your CV should also include business strengths and business wins.”
It’s important to note that while certain platforms can guide you through each project, machine learning and AI are still no match for a competent human project manager. The individual in charge of managing the project still needs to be driven and competent to ensure the project runs smoothly.
This is why the Engineering Institute of Technology offers an interactive three-month online course that specializes in helping students develop the required leadership and management skills to successfully oversee a project.
Project managers do not have to wait for the software that leverages the team’s time and expertise. Streamlined project management tools are already in existence. Cloud-based software communications and project management platforms like Slack or Atlassian Jira are helping projects move along efficiently across the globe.
Tara.ai is hoping that they can take it even further.
Works Cited
Lunden, Ingrid, and Ingrid Lunden. “Tara.ai, Which Uses Machine Learning to Spec out and Manage Engineering Projects, Nabs $10M.” TechCrunch, TechCrunch, 1 July 2019, techcrunch.com/2019/07/01/tara-ai-which-uses-machine-learning-to-spec-out-and-manage-engineering-projects-nabs-10m/
Ronil Shama is a recent Engineering Institute of Technology graduate. He earned his 52708WA - Advanced Diploma in Industrial Automation, adding qualifications to his CV and growing his skill set. He knew he needed to study Industrial Automation because he saw the face of the mining industry - the industry he has spent his entire career in - changing.
He started his career back in 1996 in Fiji where he was studying Electrical & Electronics Engineering at the Fiji Institute of Technology. During that time, with mining being an integral part of the Fijian economy, he was working with Emperor Gold Mining Company at the Vatukoula mine as a shift electrician.
In 2003, he went to work for Highway Electrical Limited in New Zealand where he filled a position as an electrician. In 2007, another career opportunity reared its head, which saw Ronil going to Mount Isa in Australia. There, he worked for Xstrata mine under Downer on a few projects.
He is currently working for Rio Tinto at the Ranger Mine in the Northern Territory. His daily responsibilities include preventative maintenance, preventing breakdowns, power generation and distribution, and project safety. He also works to improve the plant and make it more efficient, while coaching peers and supporting the engineering teams at the plant in general. Where he works, they have been mining Uranium in the middle of the National Kakadu Park for a couple of decades.
Ronil saw how technology began flowing into his workplaces in recent decades, and reckoned that he needed to stay abreast of the technologies flowing into the industry. He said:
“In order to study plants, their capabilities and their technologies, one needs to have a better understanding about systems. Hence, it was a no brainer to pick this course to advance and improve my understanding about such technologies.”
As automation has made its way into the mining sector, Ronil has been surprised by the technology that has come with it. However, he says that the newer and the older technologies work in tandem. Thus, Ronil has to be well acquainted with the old, and figure out how to control the new. He said:
“Our power station is 40 years old and we still have relay logics incorporated with Rockwell PLCs still operating our plant. We have DCs, PLC 5, Modbus, and newer Micrologix 500 systems in place. We have old and new technology combined to get optimum results. Technology has advanced so much in the last twenty years. It is fascinating as well as challenging for me to acquaint myself with new and old technology at the same time. Mastering these together helps me to achieve great output and results.”
Ronil has just signed up to the 52764WA - Graduate Certificate in Renewable Energy through the Engineering Institute of Technology. He is setting his sights on being a fully licensed engineer and furthering his career. He said:
“If I manage to complete my graduate certificate in renewable technologies, I can work as an engineer in renewable sectors given my experience in the heavy industrial and power generation field.”
Festus Tawii was born and raised in Namibia. He is currently working for his country as a DC technician at NamPower, Namibia’s power utility. He is also currently studying with the Engineering Institute of Technology.
Festus’ story is one that speaks of rising above the odds and achieving success no matter the circumstances. He said, “I always wanted to be an electrical engineer, but did not have the finances to become one.
“My mother and my father could not afford for me and my older brother to both study. They helped my brother financially, but I had to take a vocational training route with help from a government bursary.”
He went to study general electrical courses at the Namibian Institute of Technology. Because of the practical nature of the technical vocational qualification, the institute sent Festus out on a six-month job attachment. A job attachment provides the tertiary student with the opportunity to combine what is being taught in the qualification with actual work experience.
Festus was an apprentice at a few companies before he settled at NamPower, Namibia’s national power utility. He takes pride in his role as a DC Technician at NamPower because the utility keeps the lights on for its citizens.
His daily work sees him providing assistance with the standby and storage protection equipment, ensuring that it is deployed when needed. This equipment is used to keep the power stations running if there is an electricity trip or outage.
Festus is currently studying the 52726WA - Advanced Diploma of Applied Electrical Engineering at the Engineering Institute of Technology, completing his modules whilst working at NamPower. He also seems to be setting an example for his colleagues.
“My colleagues became very interested in what I was studying,” he said.
“I showed them what it was all about and now eight of my colleagues are enrolling with EIT. I am convinced that it will help everyone develop their knowledge and skills, and get them better positions in the workplace.”
Festus sees himself in a senior managerial role one day but knows there are more qualifications to acquire before he achieves this. Apart from the eight colleagues, Festus has already influenced, he recommends that more young people look to institutions like EIT that can help them succeed in their careers.
However, he says that not everyone follows the same path. He says that the government might not always be gracious enough to award a bursary to someone and that there are many pathways to success.
“There are steps that a person can take as I did. Starting with vocational jobs and studies, and then upskilling yourself with the money you have made. You need to start somewhere. Even if you are starting from scratch, you must keep your head up and keep going.”
By now, I’m sure you’ve all heard plenty about the fourth industrial revolution (i4.0) and how technology has the potential to create jobs we previously never dreamed about.
Some commentators have taken a pessimistic view on its potential impact on jobs, with the Australian governments’ productivity commission estimating 40% of jobs could be digitally disrupted in the next 10-15 years.
Interestingly, the Australian Industrial Transformation Institute estimates the level of disruption to be much lower at 5-10%.
However, a joint report from JP Morgan and the Institute for Public Policy Research discusses how such figures only take into consideration disruption to current jobs and not the creation of new jobs.
Report contributor Diane Coyle from the University of Manchester suggests, “Technological progress accounts for the vast majority of long-term economic growth, [so] we should welcome automation.
“Investment in new capital will enhance labor productivity and ultimately improve living standards.
“As citizens of aging countries with slow population growth and a lackluster productivity record, Europeans should be embracing the robots: we will need them to pay our pensions and perhaps even to care for us.”
Taking this a step further, the Future of Jobs Survey 2018 from the World Economic Forum (WEF) indicates that automation could lead to a net gain of 50 million jobs globally. They estimate that while 75 million jobs may be displaced by advances in technology, another 133 million new roles could be created.
It is important to note what these jobs are likely to be.
The WEF’s report goes on to list jobs that are likely to remain stable, and the fields in which more jobs are expected to be created in by 2022.
Job roles that should experience growth are; process automation specialists, innovation professionals, big data specialists, AI and Machine Learning specialists, robotic specialists and engineers, digital transformation specialists, big data analysts, e-commerce, marketing and social media specialists, and IT specialists.
The WEF predicts the top skills required by 2022 will include analytical thinking, innovation, problem-solving, creativity, technology design and programming, critical thinking, leadership, systems analysis, and emotional intelligence.
This means developing both hard (technical) skills and soft skills is imperative for future-proofing yourself to keep up with the changing workforce.
On the other hand, it is expected that skills such as manual dexterity, financial management, reading, writing and mathematics, personnel management, time management, and quality control, will become increasingly redundant as technology begins to automate these processes.
In response, the WEF suggests it is important that engineers start focusing on upskilling in areas that will be at the forefront of the future workforce; “Workers with in-demand skills ready for augmentation may see their wages and job quality increase considerably.
“Conversely, even if automation only affects a subset of the tasks within their job role, workers lacking appropriate skills to adapt to new technologies and move on to higher value tasks may see their wages and job quality suppressed by technology steadily eroding the value of their job, as it encroaches on the tasks required to perform it.”
Researchers from Edith Cowan University and Flinders University have collaborated on an article in The Conversation, where they discuss the jobs of the future. The article suggests the vocational education and training (VET) sector needs to increase its collaboration between industry, educators, and governments to ensure students graduate with relevant skills.
More interestingly, they write that educational institutes need, “responsiveness and flexibility in delivering skills, from formal qualifications to micro-credentials or non-formal education to reflect the needs of rapidly changing technologies.”
The Engineering Institute of Technology (EIT) has been at the forefront of engaging industry to create technologically relevant qualifications and professional development courses that ensure students graduate with the skills required to succeed in the workforce.
EIT’s Dean of Engineering Steve Mackay emphatically believes that automation will preserve the engineer, as long as he or she takes part in meaningful professional development.
“The most important message is that you should commit to continuous professional development,” he said.
“Look for the job demands of the country you are based in and be open to opportunities to learn and skill up. Every country needs particular engineering skills - in fact - every town has its own particular demands.”
You can learn more about EIT’s professional development courses and our school of industrial automation on our website. Our interactive, online delivery mode means you can gain new skills and knowledge from anywhere in the world while working full-time.
Offshore wind turbines have continued to face a glaring problem ever since their conception: their maintenance being a dangerous endeavor any engineer involved.
A number of occupational health and safety measures must be put in place to protect these engineers, which ultimately means more money needs to be spent by the companies building the turbines.
When turbine blades require maintenance, engineers are tethered to the wind turbine by ropes, they then walk out on the turbine and access the blades. This is naturally a highly dangerous operation. For the energy company, the downtime of a turbine is also a costly exercise.
However, automation is beginning to creep into the industry to save both lives and save money. The world’s first autonomous robotic inspection and repair solution for offshore wind farms has been announced and the numbers are looking positive. The pilot project is to cost roughly $7 million dollars and is expected to help cut costs of the wind farm by nearly $50 million dollars throughout its lifetime.
It’s called the MIMRee (Multi-Platform Inspection, Maintenance and Repair in Extreme Environments) project. It employs cutting edge technology to analyze wind farms like no human crew would have been able to do before.
The solution includes utilizing drones, which are deployed to analyze and scan the turbine blades. These are deployed off an autonomous vessel that scans the wind turbines on approach. Based on the repairs needed, the drones carry robot repairers to the affected blades so they can begin the repair process.
There are also underwater robots that can be used to maintain and repair the submerged portions of the wind turbines. The robots that companies such as Innovate UK and their affiliates are considering using are named Autonomous Aquatic Inspection and Intervention (A2I2) robots.
The key objectives of the UK-funded automotive project were put together in 2018, and now engineers are working to meet them. The objectives were outlined in project notes, which were released to the public, and said the use of robots will:
- Remove the need to send humans offshore to carry out wind turbine blade IMR (Inspection, Maintenance & Repair) tasks
- Remove the need to shut wind turbines down to carry out blade inspections
- Reduce the risk of using autonomous vehicles offshore to carry out IMR tasks in real-world operating conditions.
- Establish the business case for using autonomous vehicles for blade IMR.
- Develop a roadmap for transferring the MIMRee system to other relevant industries.
Dr Sara Bernardini of Royal Holloway from the University of London told BIM+:
“We will be working closely with a group of offshore wind technicians to create personas for the robots and map the tasks that will turn a human-led mission into an autonomous operation. Testing and consultation with technicians will be crucial to designing the interface for remote monitoring and intervention and understanding how to deal with the unexpected in a mission.”
Works Cited
“Project to Develop World's First Robotic Wind Farm Repair and Inspection Solution.” BIM , www.bimplus.co.uk/news/project-aims-develop-worlds-first-robotic-wind-far/.
It appears capitalism plus mechanical engineering equals food deliveries, with Uber set to deliver McDonald’s via drones in California later this year.
Uber Elevate is the department responsible for this — its focus is on developing aerial delivery and transport technologies.
According to their website, “The Uber Elevate team is working toward transforming the world through aerial ridesharing at scale. Imagine soaring above congested ground traffic. With Uber Air, this future is closer than you think. Uber is developing shared air transportation - planned for 2023 - between suburbs and cities, and ultimately within cities.”
However, the department has faced some setbacks. They predicted that they would have a ridesharing service ready to go by 2021, but at this stage, the commercial release won’t be until at least 2023.
Despite this, they have already begun implementing these technologies in collaboration with the Uber Eats side of the business. The company was cleared by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in San Diego to deliver food via drone technologies.
They have since announced they will deliver meals from McDonald’s and two other local restaurants in San Diego via drones.
So, how will this work? Staff at the restaurant will load the order onto an Uber Eats drone. The drone will fly the food to a staging location, where it will be collected by a courier and driven the final kilometre to the customer.
Eventually, the company plans to have the drone land on top of Uber Eats delivery cars, using an identifying QR code.
The reason behind this new endeavour is to maintain fast delivery times in dense urban environments. Uber will still be utilizing couriers for the last leg of these deliveries to negate the problems associated with home deliveries in built-up areas. According to Uber Elevate’s head of flight operations Luke Fischer, 68% of the world’s population expected to live in such areas by 2050.
“We don’t need to get drones direct to our customer, we just have to get it close,” he said.
“There have been many attempts at drone delivery: landing on mailboxes and in backyards with parachutes attached.
“But we run into the same problems with those. It simply doesn’t work in dense urban environments where people don’t have backyards, don’t have drone capable mailboxes and don’t have backyards for parachutes.”
Uber has already tested some deliveries from McDonald’s to the San Diego State University campus, using an off-the-shelf AR200 drone.
The company has now built a custom drone specifically for food delivery to be debuted later this year.
“Our goal is to expand Uber Eats drone delivery so we can provide more options to more people at the tap of a button,” said Fischer.
“We believe that Uber is uniquely positioned to take on this challenge as we’re able to leverage the Uber Eats network of restaurant partners and delivery partners as well as the aviation experience and technology of Uber Elevate.”
Works Cited
Dickey, Megan Rose, and Megan Rose Dickey. “Uber Adds Another Air Taxi Vehicle Partner to the Mix.” TechCrunch, TechCrunch, 11 June 2019, techcrunch.com/2019/06/11/uber-adds-another-air-taxi-vehicle-partner-to-the-mix/.
Rapier, Graham. “Uber Says It Will Deliver McDonald's Meals via Drones in San Diego as Soon as This Year.” Business Insider, Business Insider, 12 June 2019, www.businessinsider.com/uber-eats-drones-will-deliver-mcdonalds-in-san-diego-2019-6?IR=T.
Engineers are no strangers to technological advancement. The advent of the computer has rapidly transformed the world, and engineers are constantly driving the growth of technology. Development of computers has now reached levels once thought impossible; the automation of virtually every industry perceivable.
The breakaway success of computers was observed by the co-founder of Intel Gordon Moore. He made a prediction back in 1965 that from that year onwards, the number of transistors on integrated chips inside computers would double every year. As transistors were getting smaller, he envisioned more and more being added to the internal chip.
In 1975, he revised his initial prediction. The new prediction was that the transistors would continue to double and that their cost would halve every two years. This prediction became known as Moore’s Law because every two years his prediction rang true.
What Moore eventually learned was that the reality of development would far surpass what he had ever imagined. He observed incredible technological leaps from the 1960s and onwards that would make computers increasingly faster and more efficient.
Think about the smartphone — in Moore’s day that was merely a twinkle in engineer’s eyes. By the time the iPhone 6 was released to the world in 2014, the proprietary A8 chip inside the smartphone was made of up 2 billion transistors.
Fast forward to 2018, and the most premium of Apple’s iPhone X range has 10 billion transistors on its A12 chipset. As of 2017, the largest transistor count in a commercially available single-chip processor was 19.2 billion.
The issue that Intel faces in the short term is that at some point transistors might be too small to be scientifically useful. In 2019 Intel said the company could only keep shrinking the transistors for another 5 years from that year on before they would reach the dead-end. After some delays in the manufacturing process of their new chip, Intel is beginning to roll out their 10-nanometer transistor processors in the latter half of 2019.
And as the transistors get smaller, the creation of them is beginning to cost more. Intel says making the chips smaller and sticking to the two year time frame set by Moore is becoming too stringent of a deadline and is essentially causing Moore’s Law to come undone.
However, it seems that Moore’s Law is ending at a time when a quantum leap in computing is needed. With more automation being required in industries, computing is going to need a new dawn. Computers as we know them will need to change from being glorified calculators, into artificially intelligent, sentient machines.
Artificial intelligence
Engineers and scientists are hard at work putting together true artificial intelligence. Engineers are being tasked to build something that can learn, something that has its own human-like neural network.
The task is so big, novel approaches to the microprocessor are needed. Intel and others are investing over AU $18 million into startups that specialize in experimenting with the newer chip technologies that could lead to a new computing revolution. A startup named Untether AI is one of those companies. They reportedly have a new chip that can transfer data 1,000 times quicker than conventional chips that are being utilized for AI.
The opportunities that the future computers present, is becoming realized by industries in the fourth industrial revolution. And the benefit of new, novel processors will unlock a new computing future that will benefit business and humans in general. Untether AI’s focus is on their website - they write:
“Future devices will sense and make sense of the real world environment around them. They will do that by leveraging AI technology. To make that possible, processors have to handle the neural nets that make up AI with extreme efficiency. Devices that can react naturally to your spoken word and your slightest gesture are coming. To be able to accurately interpret the meaning, neural nets will run right on the device without draining your battery or overheating the device.”
Works Cited
Knight, Will. “Intel Buys into an AI Chip That Can Transfer Data 1,000 Times Faster.” MIT Technology Review, MIT Technology Review, 23 Apr. 2019,
www.technologyreview.com/f/613258/intel-buys-into-an-ai-chip-that-can-transfer-data-1000-times-faster/.
“Untether AI.” Untether AI, untether.ai/.
Bicycle-sharing companies are rapidly seeing a drop-off in customer interest.
At least three bike-sharing businesses have recently stopped operating in the United Kingdom. The companies themselves, some of them from China, are starting to cease operations in their home countries as well.
oBike was a Singaporean bicycle-sharing company that kicked off their operations in 2017 in several countries. Unfortunately, in 2018, the parent company of oBike filed for insolvency.
Another bicycle-sharing company that saw a substantive reduction in operations in 2018 was the Beijing-based company, Ofo.
oBike has subsequently pulled out of Singapore (and other countries), leaving much of their bicycle stock behind.
But the engineering technology left behind from unsustainable businesses can be efficiently utilized by someone else.
That’s where budding Myanmar-born entrepreneur Mike Than Tun Win comes in. He had an idea about what the bicycles could be used for once the bicycle-sharing businesses were closed down.
“What if these bicycles could be distributed to poor students in villages so they can cycle to school?” he said.
“I thought if we could just reduce the time they take, they could spend more time studying, gain more knowledge and increase their chances of getting out of poverty.”
He began a movement called LessWalk in March of 2019. He figured that if Ofo and oBike auctioned their bicycles off after ceasing operation, he could purchase them at a fraction of the cost.
He travelled to China and saw incredibly sized ‘graveyards’ of bicycles from the bicycle-sharing companies — some had never even been used before.
“Seeing the graveyards in China was really the tipping point for me,” he said.
“I was stunned when I saw so many bicycles, 30,000 to 50,000 of them just piled up. It’s astonishing because some bicycles were in good condition, their brake pads were brand new, and some were hardly used.
“To think that these bicycles would be dismantled and sold for around [$8 to $10] to the recycling companies, I just thought it was quite wasteful as the bicycle originally costs so much more to make.”
To date, he has bought 10,000 bicycles. He also made a deal with the Ministry of Education in Myanmar who will help distribute the bicycles to the villagers for free. Soon, more sponsors jumped on board to assist with buying more bicycles for Mike to refurbish and modify.
Mike intends to fit an extra seat onto the bicycles, so one bike rider could transport a passenger too. He says that it would greatly help children and their siblings from the villages.
LessWalk is showing what could be possible if the world adopted a circular economy. If more engineering companies could subscribe to some of its principles, there could be more life-changing technology for all. The theory sets out an economic system aimed at minimizing waste and making the most of resources.
Thanks to Mike Than Tun Win, what was destined for the trash heap became an opportunity to re-utilize technology and give it a second life. As LessWalk puts it, a first world problem has become a third-world opportunity. The result has been a wonderful act of charity that is going a long way and improving the lives of the people in Myanmar.
Works Cited
“Entrepreneur Buys Unused OBike and Ofo Bicycles to Donate to Poor Children in Myanmar.” TODAYonline, 4 June 2019, www.todayonline.com/singapore/entrepreneur-buys-unused-obike-and-ofo-bicycles-donate-poor-children-myanmar.
“Turning Bike Sharing Problem into Opportunity.” Lesswalk, www.lesswalk.org/.
Troublesome civil engineering anomalies in Australia’s New South Wales are generating some bad press for the region. The news is that some recently constructed residential skyscrapers may not have been constructed according to national standards.
The figurative alarm bells began ringing for Australians on Christmas Eve in 2018. Sydney Olympic Park was evacuated once cracks were discovered in the Opal Tower, making residents fear that the building was on the verge of collapse. Construction of the Opal Tower was only completed in early 2018.
The New South Wales government then opened a commission into the Sydney Opal Tower. What they found was that the building was overall structurally sound, but horizontal beams were not strong enough and did not comply with national standards. On top of that, design and construction failures were evident. Lower strength concrete on the fourth level of the building was also flagged by the commission.
The unfortunate consequence of the evacuation of the building and the commission’s report is that some residents will not be returning. According to News.com.au, 200 of the 400 units remain empty, with some residents saying they will be permanently staying away.
The engineers brought in by the commission have instructed the government to create a database of registered engineers who would not cut corners and stick to NSW building standards in hopes that a future disaster can be prevented.
On Friday the 14th of June 2019, another building was evacuated. This time, it was the Mascot Towers in Sydney, a twelve-year-old 131-apartment block. Engineers ordered the evacuation due to cracks which had formed, indicating that an emergency repair was needed.
Documents uncovered from the Owners Corporation at the Mascot Towers revealed that there were concerns about the structural integrity of the building months ago.
This story seems to be echoing what is happening globally in select civil engineering companies. Engineers Australia said Opal Tower and Mascot Towers serve as evidence that changes in legislation are needed in the building and construction sector.
The cutting of corners is being exposed worldwide. Structural engineers are cognizant of the failures that occurred at Grenfell Tower in the United Kingdom and are looking to prevent further catastrophes of a similar kind. Sticking to strict building codes is imperative.
However, data from the University of South Wales’ City Futures Research Centre generated in 2015 revealed that 85% of new apartment buildings built since 2000 in New South Wales had construction defects. It seems there is more work to do to enforce transparency and due process into the construction industry.
Works Cited
Charlie Moore For Daily Mail Australia. “'This Is so Dodgy': David Koch Slams the Government over Mascot Towers.” Daily Mail Online, Associated Newspapers, 17 June 2019, www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7151609/This-dodgy-David-Koch-slams-government-Mascot-Towers.html.
“Hundreds Still Homeless at 'under Designed' Opal Tower.” News.com.au, 25 Feb. 2019, www.news.com.au/finance/business/other-industries/opal-tower-report-blames-damage-on-multiple-design-and-construction-faults/news-story/4ce37fc18ebe986aab19217ddadc124a.
Researchers at Cornell University have taken engineering inspired by nature to a whole new level.
In a newly published study in the Nature Journal, the researchers detail how they engineered a silicone fish-like robot with a circulation system powered by a liquid battery — or as they like to call it, ‘blood’. Their study’s name is: ‘Electrolytic vascular systems for energy-dense robots’.
Designing robots in this fashion helps engineers learn how soft, flexible robots perform in different environments. Robert Shepherd, an associate professor at Cornell’s Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering speaking to Popular Mechanics said, “I thought of this robot when I was at a workshop about avian-inspired aircraft.
“Some of the examples from biology included the Bar-tailed Godwit, which can fly for a week or more at a time without stopping.
“The blood in our bodies also performs multiple functions — delivering energy and removing waste, and it is simultaneously pumped by our heart and powers our hearts. The completion of this story arc was matching the blood concept with the mechanics of the hydraulically powered soft robots my lab makes.”
The engineers are experimenting with Redox Flow battery technology. These batteries are a type of electrochemical cell where energy is provided by two chemical components contained within the system that are dissolved in liquids and separated by a membrane. The engineers hope the robot can inspire other applications for soft-robots powered by the flow batteries.
The engineers managed to hydraulically pump the chemicals throughout the robot, maintaining its shape, but helping it move as well. The robot can run for 36 hours before needing to recharge, in part thanks to the battery fluid that not only acts as a hydraulic fluid but also energizes a pump that moves the fins, allowing the fish to ‘swim’.
The authors of the study are hoping that their findings in this fishy experiment eventually lead to reforms in modern robots and their energy storage systems. They write, “Modern robots lack the multifunctional interconnected systems found in living organisms and are consequently unable to reproduce their efficiency and autonomy.
“Energy-storage systems are among the most crucial limitations to robot autonomy, but their size, weight, material and design constraints can be re-examined in the context of multifunctional, bio-inspired applications.”
And so, the engineers worked to pack as much as they could into the thin 40-centimetre soft casing. The team has successfully cut down on the weight that other batteries would have added to their fish robot. They note in their journal that there are still some kinks to work out. However, if they can encourage the powering of robots in more flexible and lightweight sources, their contribution will be invaluable.
Works Cited
Hernandez, Daisy. “This Robotic Fish Is Powered by a 'Blood' Battery.” Popular Mechanics, Popular Mechanics, 21 June 2019, www.popularmechanics.com/science/a28120444/robotic-fish-blood-battery/.
Lu, Donna. “Robotic Fish Powered by Electronic Blood Can Swim for 36 Hours.” New Scientist, www.newscientist.com/article/2207175-robotic-fish-powered-by-electronic-blood-can-swim-for-36-hours/.
Kenya is becoming a hotspot for engineering innovation. Keen future engineers have been busy inventing, whilst simultaneously trying to get qualified in their country. They are doing this in the hope of benefitting Kenya’s future and working to solve its societal problems.
Roy Allela, a Kenyan software engineer, was inspired by his deaf niece to create something that would help him communicate with her better. He named the gloves Sign-IO, a wearable technology that can translate sign language for those who do not understand it. And now he is at work trying to make it more available for the broader public.
On his personal website, he wrote, “I have a background in Microprocessor Technology and I love doing moonshot projects with an interest in Machine Learning, Deep learning and the Internet of Things.”
His project won the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) grand prize in 2017. Engineers from the USA and India were also present, but it was Kenya that reigned supreme. The glove was also the runner-up at the Royal Academy of Engineering Leaders in Innovation Fellowship in London. It is now in the running for the awarding of the home-based Africa Prize for Engineering.
Allela is refining the portability of his gloves and is continuing to update it as he goes along so he can create the best, most market-ready prototype. The glove is built on the back of Intel’s Edison, which allows it to be mapped via what is called a Support Vector Machine. The machines implement machine learning algorithms that can learn and store the sign language used inside the glove.
The glove has five flex sensors mounted on each finger which Allela says ‘quantifies how much a finger is bent’. An Android companion app running a text-to-speech engine picks up the gestures being processed and vocalizes what the person is saying.
Allela’s niece has been his test subject for the gloves. Speaking to This Is Africa he said, “My niece wears the gloves, pairs them with her phone or mine, then starts signing.
“I’m able to understand what she is saying. People speak at different speeds and it’s the same with people who sign — some are really fast, others are slow. So we integrated that into the mobile applications so that it’s comfortable for anyone to use.”
Allela hopes that the gloves will help fight stigmas attached to the deaf community. And he says that he has tried to make the gloves look as cool as possible so kids will not be bullied for wearing them. He aims to have at least two pairs of gloves in every special-needs school in Kenya, according to This Is Africa.
Works Cited
Admin, ~. Roy Allela, www.royallela.com/iot/sign-language-glove/.
HBO’s latest drama, Chernobyl, recently concluded its short 5 episode run, drawing global attention to one of the biggest engineering failures of human history. Before the finale of the TV show aired, the show was enjoying the number one spot on the IMBD television show rating list, making it one of the most highly rated television programs of all time.
The captivating series gave a window into the 1986 crisis, constantly reaffirming the severity of the disaster with every passing episode. Olesksiy Breus, one of the original engineers at Chernobyl, said the TV show did manage to portray the explosion and the effects of radiation on the body accurately.
Nonetheless, the television series dramatizes the supposed complicity of the Russian government in the nuclear disaster. The showrunners charge the government with putting cronies in positions that should have been watchdogs over the nuclear reactors and charges the government with buying cheap nuclear reactor technology in order to save money.
The show points to the RBMK reactors, a class of graphite-moderated nuclear power reactors that were designed by the Soviet Union, as the key to the problem at Chernobyl. They portray the behaviour of the reactor at low energy levels and a mishandled safety test as the cause of the disaster.
However, Russian government sources dismissed the TV show as a reliable retelling of what went wrong at Chernobyl. Russian television producers are now allegedly preparing to make their own TV show with their own spin on the events.
HBO’s Chernobyl seems to have done what it was setting out to do; revive the discussion of the safety of nuclear energy. Hesamedin Ashena, a presidential adviser from the Center for Strategic Studies in Iran tweeted about the Chernobyl television series saying:
“What is the cost of lies? Those in politics and government could learn from that mind-boggling question.”
Henry Fountain, a science writer on the Climate desk of the New York Times, who toured the Chernobyl plant in 2014, writes about the Chernobyl TV show in his article ‘Plenty of Fantasy in HBO’s Chernobyl, but the Truth Is Real’:
“For the mini-series gets a basic truth right - that the Chernobyl disaster was more about lies, deceit and a rotting political system than it was about bad engineering or abysmal management and training or, for that matter, about whether nuclear power is inherently good or bad.”
On social media, people have been pointing out other engineering failures and requesting that they are made into TV dramas, to show what could happen if other dangerous technologies go unchecked and unregulated.
Indian social media users began sharing a 2014 film named ‘Bhopal: A Prayer for Rain’. The movie focuses on the Bhopal Gas Tragedy. It is one of the biggest industrial disasters in modern history that occurred on December 1984. It was a gas leak incident at the Union Carbide India Limited pesticide plant which saw over 500,000 people exposed to a highly toxic gas called methyl isocyanate (MIC). The death toll was estimated to be over 3,000 people. A government affidavit in 2006 stated that the leak caused 558,125 injuries including 38,478 partial injuries.
The cause of the disaster is still a topic of debate in the country, and so, citizens are asking for a heavily researched and dramatic television show that could ignite a real conversation about the consequences that led to disaster. Engineering television dramas could become a welcome trend as the golden age of television continues its slow march.
Works Cited
“Chernobyl - Season 1.” HBO, 4 June 2019, www.hbo.com/chernobyl/season-1.
Fountain, Henry. “Plenty of Fantasy in HBO's 'Chernobyl,' but the Truth Is Real.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 2 June 2019, www.nytimes.com/2019/06/02/arts/television/chernobyl-hbo.html.
“Russia to Make Its Own Show about Chernobyl That Implicates the US.” BBC News, BBC, 7 June 2019, www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-48559289.
Abraham Lincoln was a politician, statesman and a lawyer — most well-known for being President of the United States. But did you know he also had a knack for engineering?
He lived a momentous life between 1809 and 1865. During his tenure as President, Lincoln led the nation through the American Civil War, built up the Republican Party and issued the Emancipation Proclamation which declared slaves within the Confederacy forever free.
However, it wasn’t until 1997 that it was discovered, surprisingly, that he had also patented a technology. Almost two decades before the Civil War, he invented a technology that would assist with ‘Buoying Vessels over Shoals’.
Shoals, also known as sandbanks, can obstruct a marine vessel’s journey — and this is exactly the problem that Lincoln wanted to solve. He had the idea to create a mechanism that could ensure buoyancy, to such an extent that the boat might clear the obstacle in its way.
Published in 1860, Lincoln’s autobiography recalls his teenage years. In 1828, Lincoln was offered a job by a landowner James Gentry. He was given the job to take a flatboat stocked with meats and other foods down the Mississippi River to get to New Orleans.
Weighed down by its cargo, the boat struggled to undertake any journey without getting significantly slowed down or stuck completely. Cargo would then have to be taken out of the boat to make it lighter and pushed to get it going again.
In 1831, he continued taking trips down rivers with flatboats, this time for wealthy store owner Denton Offut. It was on these trips along the difficult-to-navigate Sangamon River, that Lincoln noted how challenging sandbars were. And so, he began dreaming up how to steer over the shoals without the boat coming to a stop or needing its cargo removed.
Lincoln was well versed in law and sometimes acted as a patent attorney. Therefore, he knew that in the future he could file a patent - for his bright idea that could help future sailors beat the sandbars.
His patent included fitting a boat’s hull with waterproof fabric bladders (or adjustable buoyant air chambers) that the travellers on the ship would inflate with air to increase buoyancy. It was filed years later in 1849.
Lincoln recruited a mechanic in Springfield to make a model of the patent so he could test the feasibility of the transportation technology. But the technology was never to be realized. Politics proceeded to take over Lincolns priorities.
William H. Herndon, a law partner of Lincoln’s at the time, had his doubts about the device. He has been quoted saying:
“Occasionally he would bring the model into the office, and while whittling on it would descant on its merits and the revolution it was destined to work in steamboat navigation. Although I regarded the thing as impracticable, I said nothing, probably out of respect for Lincoln’s well-known reputation as a boatman.”
Works Cited
“Abraham Lincoln's Patent.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 4 May 2019, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Lincoln's_patent#Lincoln's_reflections_on_patents.
Edwards, Owen. “Abraham Lincoln Is the Only President Ever to Have a Patent.” Smithsonian.com, Smithsonian Institution, 1 Oct. 2006, www.smithsonianmag.com/history/abraham-lincoln-only-president-have-patent-131184751/.
Industrial automation technologies have been commonplace in the aerospace industry for some time. This innovation is now starting to be seen inside aircraft, and within the aircraft manufacturing industry, airports, and ground support equipment.
Aurrigo is a UK-based company developing the world’s first automated dolly. A dolly is used at most airports around the world to transport baggage and cargo. The company utilizes driverless technology and has been testing its innovations out in Britain.
It was the International Airlines Group (IAG) that asked Aurrigo to get their engineers working on automating ground equipment, in hopes that they could roll out the technology worldwide.
Utilizing their wealth of knowledge in LIDAR and GPS technology, Aurrigo went to work. After some developing and designing, the company has rolled out a prototype that is now wheeling around Terminal 5 at Heathrow Airport in London.
Director of Operations at Aurrigo Richard Fairchild in the official press announcement of the dolly innovation said, “Until you have seen it first-hand, it’s difficult to explain how big an operation it is moving bags around an airport.
“In Terminal 5 alone, BA operates around 900 dollies. The current method is to have one manually driven tug towing three dollies behind. It can’t move until they are all full, which means there are a lot of empty dollies waiting around.
“What IAG wanted to do was look at an alternative solution and that’s where we came in, using the knowledge gained from our hugely successful Pod Zero passenger-carrying vehicle to turn a standard dolly into a self-driving vehicle capable of moving bags from the baggage hall to the aircraft stand.”
In the Bristol area, Aurrigo is testing out the autonomous Pod Zero passenger carrier pod. The company showed what the very first implementations of driverless technologies could be — in this video they are transporting the elderly to and from.
David Keene, Chief Executive Officer of Aurrigo, about the dollies utilizing the driverless technology at Heathrow, said: “This is another fantastic example of British innovation and engineering and I’m delighted that our team has again delivered — this time for a new application.
“Our driverless pods are now in operation all around the world and the work with IAG and BA shows how similar technology can be used in a completely different industry to deliver significant results.”
In this case, industrial automation is making the entire process of transporting cargo and baggage at airports even more efficient than it was before.
For engineers, automating cargo-carrying shows that the things they design for one industry can be embedded into other industries and make a big impact. And that’s why industrial automation is a subject that all engineers should be upskilling themselves with.
Works Cited
“Aurrigo Delivers Autonomous 'Baggage' Solution for Heathrow.” Aurrigo, 25 June 2019, aurrigo.com/news/2019/06/aurrigo-delivers-autonomous-baggage-solution-for-heathrow/.
The world’s first 360-degree infinity pool will be fitted into the roof of a London Skyscraper.
Those brave enough to swim will have death-defying views as they float 220 meters above the city. Designs show that the pool will feature four clear walls and a transparent floor, so visitors to the hotel below will be able to look up and see both the swimmers and the sky.
UK-based pool manufacturer Compass Pools is behind the Infinity London project. They have designed the pool to be made out of cast acrylic, rather than glass, as this material transmits light at a similar wavelength to water. The idea is that the pool will look crystal clear.
At night, it will be lit up with twinkling lights, to make the building look like a sparkling jewel-topped torch.
Those brave enough to swim atop the 55-storey building will have uninterrupted views over London. The question is; how will swimmers get in and out of the pool?
That is a feat of engineering itself, and it relies on a rotating James Bond-esque staircase beneath the pool.
“Normally a simple ladder would suffice, but we didn’t want stairs on the outside of the building or in the pool as it would spoil the view — and obviously you don’t want 600,000 litres of water draining through the building either,” said Compass Pools’ technical director Alex Kemsley.
“The solution is based on the door of a submarine, coupled with a rotating spiral staircase which rises from the pool floor when someone wants to get in or out — the absolute cutting edge of swimming pool and building design and a little bit James Bond to boot.”
This rising staircase isn’t depicted in designs, so it still remains to be seen exactly how this will work.
The company has also designed a sustainable heating system, to keep the pool at a comfortable temperature. This involves recycling waste energy from the skyscraper’s air conditioning system. The hot gas produced as a by-product of creating cold air to pump throughout the building will be run through a heat exchanger to keep the pool water warm.
The design features even more technological advancements. A Programmable Logic Controller will ensure the entire system and its sensors are working in harmony.
To assuage the fears of those who think a swimming pool atop a skyscraper is a scary idea, the company says they will fit the pool with an anemometer. This will measure wind speeds at the top of the skyscraper to ensure swimmers have a good idea of what the conditions for swimming are like.
The system will also monitor the water levels and use the wind speed data to ensure water does not get displaced and splash onto the street below.
But, if you are reading this and drafting an email to your boss in hopes that you may get an infinity pool built atop your own office block, slam on the brakes. A 360-degree infinity pool is something tougher to build on already existing constructions.
“Architects often come to us to design rooftop infinity pools, but rarely do we get a say in the building design because the pool is usually an afterthought,” said Kemsley.
“But on this project, we actually started with the pool design and essentially said, ‘how do we put a building underneath this?’
“When we designed the pool, we wanted an uninterrupted view, both above and below the water.”
The location of Infinity London is yet to be determined. However, construction is expected to begin in 2020 once partners and contractors are confirmed. A five-star international hotel will occupy the top floors of the skyscraper and the pool will be used by their guests.
Blog - Steve Mackay
EIT's Technical Director, Steve Mackay, enjoys keeping his blog up-to-date with useful tips and current industry matters for his fellow colleagues. He has a loyal and expanding following base reaching over 300,000 people around the world.
Student Stories
In this section you have the opportunity to read and listen to EIT students talking about the reality of the programs. Discussions are wide-ranging and include information about the study commitment required, the value of the qualification in their careers, the relevance of the subject matter, future pathways, and more. They provide valuable feedback for you to take into account before you decide to join one of our programs.
Career Information
Latest career information including industry research, podcasts, blogs, life hacks and general information about how you can make the most out of your career.
Education
Here you will find out more about the latest trends and developments within education worldwide, along with some helpful articles regarding study tips and keeping on track with your studies.
Developments
The latest innovation and inventions from the world of engineering can be found here. Learn about advances in technology and how they can make a real difference within your industry.
Announcements
Keep up to date with the latest announcements from the Engineering Institute of Technology. In this section you can read more about new courses, new recognition from professional bodies, our Excellence in Teaching Award, upcoming free webinars and much more.
Monthly Update
We understand that you may not have time to read all the articles that we post, so our monthly update gives you access to some fascinating articles which cover the best of the months news in a compact format.