Academic literature on the topic 'Engineers with degrees'

The innovative ability of an individual is only partly inherent. With an appropriate balance of education, training and experience, this ability can be developed. This paper describes a new research degree – the Engineering Doctorate – which can provide this balance. The basic principles of the EngD are described, as are the benefits and industrial relevance of the programme. Its main features are a requirement for innovation in the application of knowledge to industrial business and a high level of flexibility. It is also shown to be suitable for engineers at all career stages from fresh graduate to director level.

A national survey was conducted to compare the background and career characteristics of men and women engineers differing in the number of years since they completed their BS degrees (0–5, 6–10, 11–15, and 16–20 years). The parents of women engineers were more likely to have college degrees and to be employed in professional positions than were the parents of men engineers. Women engineers were less likely to be married and were more likely to be childless than were the men. Both men and women were influenced by courses and work-related factors in their decisions to pursue engineering, but men made their career decisions sooner than women. Although men and women reported comparable levels of technical responsibility in their present jobs, gender differences favoring men were found for supervisory responsibility and salary among those with more than five years of experience, with the gap between men and women increasing with experience. Men with 16–20 years of experience and all four degree cohorts of women endorsed the opinion that there are better opportunities for men than women in engineering.

Factor analysis indicates that two factors account for significant variations in job-related satisfaction among scientists and engineers. Economic factor consists of job salary, job benefits and job security. Non-economic factor includes responsibility, intellectual challenge, contribution to society, independence, upward mobility, and location. The influence of these factors on overall job satisfaction is different for different individuals. The authors' analysis indicates that scientists and engineers whose job satisfaction is influenced by economic factors include non-U.S. citizens, males, individuals under the age of 30, individuals with Master's degrees or higher, computer and mathematical scientists, individuals working for established businesses and individuals with high job satisfaction. On the other hand, scientists and engineers whose job satisfaction is impacted by non-economic factors include U.S. citizens, females, individuals with Bachelor's degrees, individuals over the age of 30, and scientists and engineers working for start-ups.

Engineers, being hands-on experts, need to produce technical documents that are convincing to colleagues, executives, and clients. This study analyzes different technical documents written by engineers and offers instruction on how to approach the task of technical writing. The quantitative part of the study involved gathering statistics on the types of documents most frequently written by engineers and the importance engineers assign to technical writing in their career. The study participants consisted of 60 engineers selected through a snowball sampling method. Data was collected through the use of a questionnaire. The results of the data are presented in frequencies and percentages. An analysis of the data reveals that engineers currently practicing in Saudi Arabia believe writing to be important in their field. In total, 66.7% believe writing to be “very important,” whereas the remaining 33.3% believe it to be “important”; none of the respondents believe writing to be only “slightly important” or “not important.” When asked whether their background education in the engineering field adequately prepared them for writing on the job, only 30 (50%) were confident of their writing abilities following their engineering degrees. The other 30 (50%), although they found their skills in technical writing to be useful, were not confident of its adequacy in the workplace. Given the option of selecting more than one answer, respondents recorded the following frequencies for the type of writing they usually do at work: 40 out of 60 respondents (6.7%) stated that they frequently write interim or progress reports; 30 (50%) stated that they write final or recommendation reports. However, only 10 (16.7%) of the respondents revealed that they often write more focused reports, such laboratory reports. Engineers also write a fair number of non-report documents, including memos, emails, and logbook entries.

This article discusses about engineers who are relying on mechanical simulations to improve their understanding of loading and operating conditions with high-rise escalators gain in popularity. To model an escalator design’s steps for dynamic analysis, LG engineers simplified the mechanical system by applying the drive directly to the upper terminal gear and the driving pulley without the motor. To model an escalator’s continuous elastic handrail, LG engineers divided it into 127 discrete rigid bodies, resulting in a total of 381 independent degrees of freedom. Two friction contact elements for each handrail body are applied to prevent rotational motion of the handrail. LG Industrial Systems managers decided to expand the number of engineers at the company with access to the simulation model. They assigned LG engineers to work with Computer Aided Design Software, Inc. (CADSI), of Coralville, Iowa analysts to develop a front end to DADS that simplifies the process of developing a custom escalator model.

This paper contributes to the continuing debate on the curriculum for undergraduate software engineering degrees. It describes the rationale for and content of the new honours programme in Software Engineering Management at the Dorset Institute. The well documented problems which persist in the software engineering industry are, we believe, largely attributable to the inappropriate education of software engineers. An alternative approach to the education of undergraduate software engineers is outlined; one which is based upon the concept of ‘software as a product’.

A technique for the selection of dynamic degrees of freedom (DDOF) of large, complex structures for dynamic analysis is described and the formulation of Ritz basis vectors for static condensation and component mode synthesis is presented. Generally, the selection of DDOF is left to the judgment of engineers. For large, complex structures, however, a danger of poor or improper selection of DDOF exists. An improper selection may result in singularity of the eigenvalue problem, or in missing some of the lower frequencies. This technique can be used to select the DDOF to reduce the size of large eigenproblems and to select the DDOF to eliminate the singularities of the assembled eigenproblem of component mode synthesis. The execution of this technique is discussed in this paper. Examples are given for using this technique in conjunction with a general purpose finite element computer program GENSAM[1].

This article outlines the challenges for automobile engineers in designing electric-drive vehicles. Understanding the way noise travels differently through an electric-drive vehicle is one of the main challenges for engineers as they design this new generation of vehicles. Moreover, bodies and chassis are evolving away from traditional sheet metal to more exotic materials, and consequently, the whole production process is being re-engineered. The power density of even the best battery is small when compared to the chemical energy in an identical volume of gasoline. Hence, electric vehicles (EVs) can at most eke out only around 100 miles per charge. Overcoming that challenge is the subject of decades-long research projects. The lithium-ion batteries found in most EVs generate so much heat in use that they require their own cooling systems. Temperatures of all cells within the battery pack also must be held within a few degrees of each other, lest internal current loops form that may slash battery life. Some other issues include cost, service life, and safety.