Developing research skills for civil engineers: A library contribution

A course-integrated programme of library instruction has been developed for the School of Civil Engineering at the Queensland University of Technology, Australia; library instruction being one of the means selected to improve the research efforts of fourth year project students. The programme has been developed through consultation between the Civil Engineering Research Project Coordinator and the Civil Engineering Reference Librarian. Its aims are derived from those established for the fourth year research projects. Attention is focussed on the nature of the programme and the impact of instruction on fourth year research project students. Students who had received extended library instruction were compared with students from the previous year. Evidence suggests that the instruction has improved the information seeking behaviour of the students and their literature reviews.

The “Engineers without Borders” Challenge : does it engage Australian and New Zealand students with sustainability?

This paper explores the rationale, experience and impact of thirteen Australia and New Zealand universities that have integrated the Engineers Without Borders (EWB) challenge into their first year engineering curriculum. EWB is a national competition for university students, who work in teams to develop conceptual designs for real sustainable development projects across the globe. This project investigated “what works and what doesn’t” in engineering curriculum renewal, utilising content analysis, multiple in-depth interviews with students and staff (coordinators, lecturers, tutors) and observation. EWB comprises between 25 to 100% of the total assessment items. This paper specifically focuses on student’s experience of EWB, documenting how the project teaches sustainability and systems-thinking approaches, engages students with different cultures, and fosters teamwork, new ways of thinking and communication skills. We identify key benefits and challenges of EWB, as well as mechanisms and contexts that foster student engagement and learning outcomes.

How do you ‘teach’ sustainability to engineers? introducing the engineering sustainable solutions program

Environmental engineers are increasingly being required to have knowledge about sustainability in their professional careers. Accreditation mechanisms for including sustainability in degree program requirements exist and are gradually being implemented by Engineers Australia. However, true integration of sustainability material into higher and vocational education curricula is still low, particularly outside the environmental engineering degree programs. In addition to environmental engineering, it is crucial for engineering across the specialisations, to be exposed to sustainability concepts and theories. This paper will demonstrate how sustainability as a ‘critical literacy’ can be designed for teaching within mainstream engineering education, using a current Australian project as a case study. The project demonstrates that sustainability education for all engineers is not only possible, but that there is international interest in collaborating in such an educational initiative. A pilot trial of the Introductory Module was undertaken in Semester 1 2004 and Version 2 trials are now proceeding with a number of universities and organisations nationally and internationally. Further modules are currently being developed in collaboration with Engineers Australia and UNESCO. The program is a finalist in the 2005 Banksia Awards (Category 11, Environmental Leadership Education and Training).

Complete and competent engineers : a coaching model to developing holistic graduates

The growing gap between engineering practice and engineering has been identified at the level of certain essential skills needed among practising engineers but not developed through the current education system. Coaching approach to learning and teaching has been proven to be an effective way to develop people in the workplace. A pilot coaching program is proposed to engineering students at Queensland University of Technology to enable holistic growth in order to better integrate them to the work force and society at large. The success measures and insights gained will be published on completion of the program. It is hoped that the outcomes of this study will better inform curriculum design and development in the engineering disciplines towards better transition between engineering education and engineering practice.

What do young Australian engineers want? Strategies to attract this talent to less glamorous industries

Chapters in Book 1 of this two-volume set explored literature pertaining to the shortage of engineers in Australia, the ageing engineering workforce, issues of skilled migration, and career development and pathways. The companion chapter to this one in Book 1 explored attraction and image issues of certain industries that required a pipeline of engineers. This chapter will reflect on our research with final-year engineering students in Australian universities and TAFE colleges regarding their career aspirations, industries and/or organisations that they identify as attractive employers, and their perceptions of a low-profile industry, namely the Australian rail industry. This chapter will also discuss specific, evidence-based strategies and activities to enhance the image and attraction of low-profile industries.

On the topic of competency and excellence of our graduate engineers

Problem solving is an essential element of civil engineering education. It has been I observed that students are best able to understand civil engineering theory when there is a ' practical application of it. Teaching theory alone has led to lower levels of comprehension and motivation and a correspondingly higher rate of failure and "drop-out". This paper analyses the effectiveness of introducing practical design projects at an early stage within a civil engineering undergraduate program at Queensland University of Technology. In two of the essential basic subjects, Engineering Mechanics and Steel Structures, model projects which simulate realistic engineering exercises were introduced. Students were required to work in small groups to analyse, design and build the lightest I most efficient model bridges made of specific materials such as spaghetti, drinking straw, paddle pop sticks and balsa wood and steel columns for a given design loading/target capacity. The paper traces the success of the teaching strategy at each stage from its introduction through to the final student and staff evaluation.

Using DNA as a drug : challenges and opportunities for process engineers

The maturing of the biotechnology industry and a focus on productivity has seen a shift from discovery science to small-scale bench-top research to higher productivity, large scale production. Health companies are aggressively expanding their biopharmaceutical interests, an expansion which is facilitated by biochemical and bioprocess engineering. An area of continuous growth is vaccines. Vaccination will be a key intervention in the case of an influenza pandemic. The global manufacturing capacity for fast turn around vaccines is currently woefully inadequate at around 300 million shots. As the prevention of epidemics requires > 80 % vaccination, in theory the world should currently be aiming for the ability to produce around 5.3 billion vaccines. Presented is a production method for the creation of a fast turn around DNA vaccine. A DNA vaccine could have a production time scale of as little as two weeks. This process has been harnessed into a pilot scale production system for the creation of a pre-clinical grade malaria vaccine in a collaborative project with the Coppel Lab, Department of Microbiology, Monash University. In particular, improvements to the fermentation, chromatography and delivery stages will be discussed. Consideration will then be given as to how the fermentation stage affects the mid and downstream processing stages.

A neurofuzzy approach to future intelligent driver support systems

This paper reviews a variety of advanced signal processing algorithms that have been developed at the University of Southampton as part of the Prometheus (PROgraMme for European Traffic flow with Highest Efficiency and Unprecedented Safety) research programme to achieve an intelligent driver warning system (IDWS). The IDWS includes: visual detection of both generic obstacles and other vehicles, together with their tracking and identification, estimates of time to collision and behavioural modelling of drivers for a variety of scenarios. These application areas are used to show the applicability of neurofuzzy techniques to the wide range of problems required to support an IDWS, and for future fully autonomous vehicles.

Innovation in energy efficiency education for engineers

Energy efficiency as a concept has gained significant attention over the last few decades, as governments and industries around the world have grappled with issues such as rapid population growth and expanding needs for energy, the cost of supplying infrastructure for growing spikes in peak demand, the finite nature of fossil based energy reserves, and managing transition timeframes for expanding renewable energy supplies. Over the last decade in particular, there has been significant growth in understanding the complexity and interconnectedness of these issues, and the centrality of energy efficiency to the engineering profession. Furthermore, there has been a realisation amongst various government departments and education providers that associated knowledge and skill sets to achieve energy efficiency goals are not being sufficiently developed in vocational or higher education. Within this context, this poster discusses the emergence of a national energy efficiency education agenda in Australia, to support embedding such knowledge throughout the engineering curriculum, and throughout career pathways. In particular, the posterprovides insights into the national priorities for capacity building in Australia, and how this is influencing the engineering education community, from undergraduate education through to postgraduate studies and professional development. The poster is intended to assist in raising awareness about the central role of energy efficiency within engineering, significant initiatives by major government, professional, and training organisations, and the increasing availability of high quality energy efficiency engineering education resources. The authors acknowledge the support for and contributions to this poster by the federal Department of Resources, Energy and Tourism, through members of the national Energy Efficiency Advisory Group for engineering education.

Scenario planning and emerging global trends for the future of roads and automobile transport

Roads and road infrastructure will be faced with multiple challenges over the coming decades – challenges that in many ways bear little resemblance to those previously faced - and as such will require new approaches. The opportunity exists to transform the way road infrastructure is conceived and constructed, as a key part of the process of assisting society to respond to climate change and reduce other environmental pressures. Innovations in road construction, use and management in order to manage these changes can now be seen. Scenario planning is one tool that can take into account emerging challenges, develop or adopt new approaches, and thus help this transformation to occur. The paper explores scenario planning methodologies, global innovations and trends in road construction and maintenance and the findings from stakeholder workshops in Brisbane and Perth. It highlights key opportunities for road agencies to use scenarios to enable planning that, in the face of future uncertainties, facilitates appropriate responses.

Group portrait, 50th Anniversary of the Saxony-Anhalt chapter of German Engineers; Bernburg Portraits Groups

Caption: Zur Erinnerung an das fuenfzigjaehrige Gruendungsfest Saechsisch Anhaltinischen Bezirksvereins Deutscher Ingenieure am 11. und 12. Mai 1912 in Bernburg.

Semi-active vibration isolation using a near-zero-spring-rate device:steady state analysis of a single-degree-of-freedom model

A vibration isolator is described which incorporates a near-zero-spring-rate device within its operating range. The device is an assembly of a vertical spring in parallel with two inclined springs. A low spring rate is achieved by combining the equivalent stiffness in the vertical direction of the inclined springs with the stiffness of the vertical central spring. It is shown that there is a relation between the geometry and the stiffness of the individual springs that results in a low spring rate. Computer simulation studies of a single-degree-of-freedom model for harmonic base input show that the performance of the proposed scheme is superior to that of the passive schemes with linear springs and skyhook damping configuration. The response curves show that, for small to large amplitudes of base disturbance, the system goes into resonance at low frequencies of excitation. Thus, it is possible to achieve very good isolation over a wide low-frequency band. Also, the damper force requirements for the proposed scheme are much lower than for the damper force of a skyhook configuration or a conventional linear spring with a semi-active damper.

DTC Technique for Induction Machine based Integrated Starter-Generator of an Automobile

This paper mainly concentrates on the application of the direct torque control (DTC) technique for the induction machine based integrated startergenerator (ISG) for automobile applications. It also discusses in brief about the higher DC bus voltage requirements in the automobiles i.e. present 14V system vs. 42V system to meet the power requirements, modes of operation of ISG, electric machine and the drive selection for the ISG,description of DTC technique, simulation and experimental results, and implementation.

Induction reheating of A356.2 aluminum alloy and thixocasting as automobile component

The development work for producing an automobile component by thixocasting using A356.2 alloy was introduced. As the first step, the alloy was electromagnetically stirred and solidified to produce a billet with non-dendritic microstructure. The microstructure depended on several process parameters such as stirring intensity, stirring frequency, cooling rate, and melt initial superheat. Through a series of computational studies and controlled experiments, a set of process parameters were identified to produce the best microstructures. Reheating of a billet with non-dendritic microstructure to a semisolid temperature was the next step for thixo-casting of the components. The reheating process was characterized for various reheating cycles using a vertical-type reheating machine. The induction heating cycle was optimized to obtain a near-uniform temperature distribution in radial as well as axial direction of the billet, and the heating was continued until the liquid fraction reached about 50%. These parameters were determined with the help of a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model of die filling and solidification of the semisolid alloy. The heated billets were subsequently thixo-cast into automobile components using a real-time controlled die casting machine. The results show that the castings are near net shape, free from porosity, good surface finish and have superior mechanical properties compared to those produced by conventional die casting processes using the same alloy.