The Future of Engineers

Written by: Adam Tarrant

          From a recent state of profession report from The Engineers Australia, it states that home-grown engineers have dropped significantly within its nation and can lead to some serious risks. The students studying math and science in Australia's high school and college courses have decreased in recent years, which will lead to a “broken pipeline of future engineers” (The Sydney Morning Herald). 

          There could be a few reasons as to why this decline of engineers is occurring. For starters, the school’s teachers and professors could have a negative effect on these student’s passion for the profession; the curriculum could be outdated or not effective. 

          

          Secondly, the recruiting and propaganda for these engineering programs could be lacking in drawing in these aspiring students. 

          If Australia wants to be considered a modern and current nation, they should strive to reverse the steady decline in engineers in the next couple of years or they will be facing some real problems in the future.

source: The Sydney Morning Herald

Smart phone app

Written by Seungyeon Lee


There are countless technology/systems that engineers have developed. One of them is a cancer-detecting smartphone app. Below is the photo of the cancer-detecting smartphone app.

Researchers from Washington State University have used prism, ELISA plate to make a smartphone app that would detect cancer. It is said that it could detect cancer with 99% of accuracy. 

How it works is really fantastic! There are 96 micro prism array and a 3D printed cradle which holds a phone with a camera. Then, the diagnostician uses the rig to take samples from the patient. Those samples will be put in the assay plate and the light from the camera will be shining the sample through the prism and the diagnostician would use an app to analyze the light from each patient's well in the ELISA plate by its color, and the color of the ELISA would tell the result. 

It sounds really cool and I would love to try it too. It is also cool that a smartphone app could be made to help a human's health. I think engineers should devise more ideas that would help human life like what this smartphone app did.

"ExtremeTech is the Web's top destination for news and analysis of emerging science and technology trends, and important software, hardware, and gadgets." ExtremeTech. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Apr. 2017.

Autonomous Vehicles

Written by: Adam Tarrant

          Modern technology is ever changing in today’s world. Although there are very little companies using these vehicles, the world anticipates autonomous driving cars to be sold to the public in the future. It’s no surprise people are excited about this invention, easing the stress of driving, especially in heavy travelled areas. 

          On the other hand, there may be some downfalls of this hardly researched technology. My first question is what will happen if the car malfunctions? Can the rider manually take over the vehicle? There are many cases in which technology has malfunctioned, while it was promised it wouldn’t have. This is a small issue in my mind because we see thousands of human-error motor vehicle accidents every day. This self-driving car very well might cut down on these accidents. 

          Also, if the cars were to be used in cities with high pedestrian levels, will the cars be able to avoid people that are walking across the street or will the world need to create structures that will keep the pedestrians and cars separate? Would we have to create fenced sidewalks? Raised roadways? These are things that not everyone is thinking about that could change our present roads and structures. 

          Engineers will be more needed than ever, struggling to keep up with the ever-changing environment we see today.

source: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/mar/19/self-driving-cars-will-change-cities

Mythbusters

By Callaghan TysonMayer

Purdue engineering majors recently wrote a journal article about common myths about engineering students. The authors identified 7 myths they have heard about themselves, as engineering majors and broke them down as to why they are inaccurate.

1. The first, is that engineering students all love math and science. This is not true because a lot of future engineers just like the idea of hands-on applications that have a set outcome. 
2. Engineers sit at a computer all day. This is extremely false, because most of the work engineers do is in the field, working hands-on with team members on real physical projects. 
3. Engineers aren't very creative. If this were true, it would make everything much more difficult because engineers have to come up with different solutions to problems in the field. Often, it is an engineers job to create a completely new way of doing something, and to recreate the process for better efficiency. 
4. Engineers don't have good communication skills. This was a focus of one of the lectures we had for our EGR100 class this semester. Professor Morgan spent 2 weeks explaining the importance of communication in our field because a lot of what engineers do is done in teams, so you have to be able to communicate with your team members.
5. Engineers only work on significant projects. This isn't completely accurate because there are instances where engineers are checking up on codes and making sure everything is done correctly, which is a significant job, but what is insignificant?
6. Engineers don't have fun or diverse interests. In my opinion, there are so many different branches within the field and they all vary by a lot. Everyone has different interests with different ideas of fun.
7. Women aren't engineers. This isn't very hard to disprove, since the field is actually almost evenly gendered now and 3 of the 4 engineers that run this blog are women. 

Source: https://www.purdue.edu/futureengineers/Counselors%20and%20Teachers/Myths%20vs.%20Facts%20Engineering.html 

Chemical Engineering Safety Measures

written by Yiran Li

Chemical industry is a diverse industry and its products are omnipresent. The modern technology in developing these tailor made chemicals has been quite successful. As with any industry setting, safety is a major concern for the firm to run properly. The major hazards encountered in the operation of the plant in the chemical industries are toxic and corrosive chemicals release, fires, explosions, falls and faulty mechanised equipments. (NPTEL) Also, the design engineer must be aware of these hazards and must make every attempt to present a design which needs to be protective of the environment and of human health. Environmental issues must be considered not only within the context of chemical production but also during other stages of a chemical's life cycle, such as transportation, use by customers, recycling activities, and ultimate disposal.

Chemical engineers need to analysis potential hazards and take corrective measures to improve the safety of the process. The entire approach can be summarized as follows:

1.  Identify the hazards:“ what can possibly go wrong ”

2.  Evaluate the hazards:“ what are all the causes and how bad it can be ”

3.  Control the hazards:“ what should be done about it ”

Even though chemical industries take major precautions in ensuring the safety of their employees, the chemical processes that chemical engineers design and implement are not always safe. Occasionally, unexpected releases of toxic, reactive, and/or flammable liquids and gases ensue. A substantial amount of chemical engineering firms work together with the non-profit membership organization like CCPS, AIChE, or other private and government programs.

Reference 

http://www.exponent.com/chemical_engineering_process_safety/

http://www.truity.com/career-profile/chemical-engineer

http://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/careers/college-to-career/chemistry-careers/chemical-engineering.html

Prompt 7 : Contemplating Controversy

Written by : Seungyeon Lee

Common pros about chemical engineering

1. Sources made of chemically are essential in human life.
Sources such as, oil, chemical materials, are essential in human life that it is impossible for us to live without them. People these days are very dependent on those chemical materials or energy sources like crude oil and coal. 

2. Chemical energy sources are easy to deal with and efficient. 
While other energy sources are hard to combust itself, chemical energy can combust itself easily. Combustion depends on the oxygen. Especially chemical energy sources has the highest efficiency of combustion which can allow to combust efficiently while other resources would not. Therefore, chemical energy can also be used for vehicle engine since it holds great amount of efficiency when used, which can save the energy than other sources.

3. It helps society and environment. 
Chemical energy is not only making products that are useful to people, they nowadays consider the environment so that when producing several products those won't harm environment too much.

Common cons about chemical engineering

1. It affects the environment. 
When producing materials, it pollutes the air and affects the environment. According to GreenGarbage blog, chemical energy is derived from organic materials. Therefore,  it is more likely that the organic materials contributes to environment pollution.

2. It comes with a high cost. 
Another disadvantage about chemical engineering is that most of the product they produce cost a lot of money. For example, nuclear power plants needs five to ten years to be produced. Therefore, it needs a lot of time and money to be proceeded and to be made.

3. They are non-replaceable.
Most sources made with chemical energy cannot be reused. Not only it is hard to dispose of properly, but also since it cannot be reused, it will be just remained as a waste. Therefore, even though things produced are essential for human's daily life, it is same as producing the waste that is hard to be replaced with any other thing than remaining itself as a trash.

Works cited : Greengarageblogadmin. "11 Core Advantages and Disadvantages of Chemical Energy." Green Garage. N.p., 10 June 2015. Web. 24 Mar.2017.

Challenges Chemical Engineers in US face

Written by Seungyeon Lee

There is no doubt that the field of engineering faces problems. For example there are several problems that chemical engineers face. 

First, is competition; China is not only the biggest competitor with U.S. but also with all other countries. It is because manufacturing chemicals in China is much cheaper than any other country, and the output generated from China is at least double the size of most other countries' outputs. This enlarged production rate makes China the biggest manufacturing country. 

Second, environmental issues; whenever chemical engineers produce something, wastes are produced as well. These wastes often cause damage to the environment. Although there are strict laws to protect this issue, it is the engineer's job to minimize harmful waste. Therefore, it is important to figure out the ways they can produce the same thing in environmentally friendly ways.