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The Engineering Disciplines

The number of engineering disciplines is not static. Many disciplines spawn additional

sub-disciplines.

Let’s focus on the major disciplines!

Engineering Disciplines §  Aerospace §  Agricultural §  Architectural §  Biomedical §  Biological §  Chemical §  Civil §  Computer

§  Electrical §  Environmental §  Industrial §  Manufacturing §  Materials §  Mechanical §  Nuclear §  Petroleum §  Software

Aerospace Engineering

Aerospace engineers design and develop technology for commercial aviation, the

national defense, and space exploration. In 1990, aerospace engineers helped

launch the Hubble Space Telescope, an orbiting instrument that allows us to see 10

times farther than we have ever seen before.

ASEE

They design, develop, and test aircraft, spacecraft, satellites, and

missiles and supervise the manufacturing of these products.

Aerospace engineers who work

with aircraft are considered aeronautical engineers, and those working specifically with spacecraft

are considered astronautical engineers.

Repairing cracked shuttle tiles.

Boeing Jets – working on better Fuel efficiency and longer range.

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Aerospace Engineering Employers

§ Boeing § NASA § Lockheed Martin § Space Systems / Loral

Lockheed Martin F16 Falcon Flying over Iraq

Boeing Fighter Jet from 1932

Agricultural Engineering

§  Agricultural engineers design farm and food processing equipment; construct crop storage and livestock buildings; and develop systems for drainage, irrigation, and waste disposal.

§  Sometimes agricultural engineers work in labs like EPCOT's Land Pavilion, where they experiment with promising indoor farming techniques such as hydroponics—the science of growing plants in fluids without dirt.

ASEE

harvesters, transporters

Precision agriculture utilizing GPS, remote sensing and computerized field equipment.

control of vibration, noise, air quality, heating, cooling within machinery.

Environmental controllers for poultry, swine, beef, aquaculture, plants

Agricultural Engineering Employers

§ Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) § Cargill § DuPont § US Department of Agriculture

Architectural Engineering

Working alongside architects, architectural engineers focus on the safety, cost, and construction methods of designing a building. For example, as the US population grows in the Southwest, more and more architectural engineers are investigating new ways to build on land where there is only sand and sagebrush.

ASEE (This is very related to Structural & Civil Engineering)

Biomedical Engineering

§ Biomedical Engineers develop devices and procedures that solve medical and health-related problems.

§ Biomedical Engineers work with medical professionals to develop medical instruments, monitoring equipment, artificial organs, and prosthetic devices.

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Computers for Blood analysis

Laser Systems for Corrective eye surgery.

Ultrasound Imaging Equipment Implantable Hip Joints

Biological Engineering

§  Bioengineering combines biology and engineering.

§  Biological Engineers understand how biological systems operate and develop effective biology-based technologies for applications across a wide spectrum of societal needs including breakthroughs in diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of disease, in design of novel materials, devices, and processes, and in enhancing environmental health.

Biological and Agricultural Engineering Programs at UC Davis Aquaculture Engineering

Ecological Systems Engineering Energy Systems Engineering Environmental Engineering Food Engineering Forest and Fiber Engineering Health and Safety Engineering Machine Systems Engineering Postharvest Engineering Sensor and Control Engineering Soil and Water Engineering

In the early 1950s California's tomato industry was threatened because of the lack of laborers to harvest the crops. In response, the UC Davis agricultural engineering department developed the mechanical tomato

harvester. Unfortunately, this machine crushed the tomatoes.

The vegetable crops department came to the rescue by breeding a firmer-skinned tomato - also known as the square tomato

Several genetically engineered varieties of tomatoes have been

developed in the US and approved for commercialization,

For a variety of reasons these GE tomatoes are no longer marketed

Chemical Engineering •  Chemical Engineers often take chemical reactions and scale them

up to a large manufacturing process. They focus on the production of products formed through a chemical reaction. This is sometimes called Process Engineering.

•  Chemical engineering involves the processing and treating of liquids and gases. For example, some chemical engineers are studying ways to desalinate seawater—stripping it of salt to make the water safe to drink.

•  Many chemical engineers work with petroleum and plastics.

•  The term "environmental engineering" also applies to certain areas of chemical engineering, such as pollution control.

Chemical Engineers are employed to do:

•  Food Processing •  Beverage making and bottling •  Environmental Analysis •  Making of Cosmetics, Perfumes, and

Flavorings •  Pharmaceutical production •  Petroleum and Plastics processing

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Kelco, San Diego Manufacturer of Biopolymers from Sea Kelp

Petroleum Extraction and Processing

Pollution Control

Chemical Engr Employers

§ Dow Chemical § DuPont § Proctor and Gamble § Monsanto §  Johnson & Johnson § Merck § General Mills

Civil Engineering

One of the largest branches of engineering, civil engineering is a field that deals with buildings, bridges, dams, roads, and other ‘public works’ structures . Civil engineers plan, design, and supervise the construction of facilities such as high-rise buildings, airports, water treatment centers, and sanitation plants.

Flood waters compromise levee Near New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina.

Historic Preservation Grand Central Terminal New York City

Rebuilding Oklahoma City after the bombings. Buildings are blast resistant and employ sustainable Construction.

Oklahoma City Federal Bldg.

William J. Clinton Presidential Center Little Rock, AK

Architecture can be both industrial as well as inviting to people. Architecture can effect people’s moods, productivity, and energy.

A translucent concrete material contains glass optical fibers that transmit light through the entire length of the block. It can bring sunlight through a wall.

New Compositions make Concrete more versatile.

SACRED SURFACES. The modern church Dives in Misericordia located in Rome, is made from a self-cleaning concrete that breaks down atmospheric pollutants that would otherwise darken the surface over time.

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Ductal – an ultra high performance concrete developed by Lafarge. The high strength fibers make the material self reinforcing. The Material can be used to make very thin structures with out the need for conventional steel reinforcement. The concrete will bend like metal before breaking.

Japan

Juscelino Kubitschek Bridge Brazilian Wave Arch

Tacoma Narrows Bridge, 1940 Wind created resonant vibrations. Now computer modeling and wind tunnels are used to test the rigidity of the road decks.

Computer & Software Engineering

Computer engineers deal with all aspects of computer systems including design, construction, and operation. Some computer engineers specialize in areas like digital systems, operating systems, computer networks, and software.

Computer Engineering

§ Hardware and Chip Design § Development of Software Applications §  Integrating components together, i.e.

device driver software § Project Management – teams located in

multiple places § Chip Fabrication § Test and Quality Assurance (QA)

Computer Engineer Employers §  Cisco §  Sun §  Intel §  Microsoft §  Oracle §  IBM §  Apple §  Google §  Yahoo §  Wireless service Providers – cell phone services §  Manufacturers of hand-held devices. §  GIS/GPS businesses. §  eBay and Amazon §  Self employed

Open Source software Invites lots of developers to create new applications Using Languages such as JAVA.

Global Positioning Unit

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Electrical Engineering

The discipline that employs the largest number of engineers, covers everything related to electrical devices, systems, and the use of electricity.

Electrical engineers work on power plants, computers, and other electrical devices.

Electrical Engineering (non-computer)

§  Control systems in car §  Satellites Communications §  Cell phones §  Power Plants §  Circuit boards §  Appliances §  TVs, DVDs, §  Medical Instruments §  Recording Equipment §  Synthesizers §  Amplification equipment §  Lighting §  Hardware for networking §  Firmware (low level coding) §  Custom Chips §  Aviation Controls §  Electronic monitoring and tagging (dog tags)

Radomes – Antenna protection

These are cell phone towers?

Environmental Engineering

Environmental engineers assist with the development of water distribution systems, recycling methods, sewage treatment plants, and other pollution prevention and control systems in the water, air, and land. Environmental engineers constantly seek new ways to reduce air pollution and pesticides.

Environmental Engineers work on:

§  Acid Rain and how to avoid it §  Clean Energy §  Energy Star Program §  Public policy compliance – title 45 §  Indoor air quality §  Site Clean up §  Recycling and waste minimization. §  EPA Projects (Environmental Protection Agency)

EPA employs over 9000 engineers.

Industrial Engineering

Industrial engineers organize the people, information, energy, materials, and machines involved in the production process. They are concerned with plant design and management, quality control, and the human factors of engineering.

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Industrial Engineering specialties:

§ management engineer - Combining knowledge of the business and the facilities.

§ ergonomist – modify a process to reduce worker injury.

§ operations analyst - devising systems to increase effectiveness of an operation.

§ Quality engineer – devise systems to service customers efficiently.

Industrial Engineers might do: §  Designing the admissions procedure at a hospital §  Converting a major production line to JIT §  Representing a company in the design and construction of a new

manufacturing plant §  Performing motion and time studies §  Developing prototype units for the cellular phone car adapter market §  Simulation modeling §  Developing a hardware protection program for spacecraft §  Developing a supplier quality program §  Implementing lean manufacturing concepts §  Developing and launching a complete material handling system for a new

automobile §  Developing the conceptual layout of a dockyard and ship repair maintenance

facility §  Working on a design project to make a medical device to treat sleep apnea §  Representing manufacturing and purchasing issues on a design team

Manufacturing Engineering

Manufacturing engineers design tools and equipment and work with all aspects of manufacturing—from production control and materials handling to mechanization and automation.

Materials Engineering Metallurgical and materials engineers extract, process, refine, combine, and manufacture natural substances to create new materials that meet specifications that could not be met with raw materials. Example: Materials that are: stronger, resist corrosion, lighter, inert, elastic, sticky, insulate, invisible, etc.

Metallurgical engineers work with metal only. Teams of metallurgy and materials engineers created the US Air Force's "stealth" technology that makes a fighter plane's surface nearly invisible to radar.

Nylon - 1931

Teflon-1938

Neoprene- 1931

Pyrex - 1924

Liquid Crystal Displays 1968

Transistors replace Vacuum tubes

Biomimicry Lead to the Invention of Velcro - 1948

Ultrasuede and Gortex

Glass fibers

Nanotechnolgy includes the many techniques used to create structures at a size scale below 100 nm

Biomimicry is the application of methods and systems found in nature to the study and design of engineering systems and modern technology

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Rain forests worldwide cover approximately 6% of Earth's surface, and yet scientists believe they contain 50% of the world's plant and animal species—an impressive ratio. In common parlance, tropical rain forests are not only the planet's land-based centers of biodiversity—where most species live—they also contribute to the maintenance of the world’s climate by regulating rainfall and storing enormous amounts of carbon.

Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation

The Amazon Rainforest – nature’s laboratory for new Discoveries. Mechanical Engineering

Mechanical engineers use mechanics and energy principles to design machines such as tools, engines. Machines, motors, and other devices.

Many mechanical engineers work in the areas of air-conditioning and refrigeration, automotives, manufacturing, welding, robotics, and mechatronics.

They study materials, heat and energy transfer, manufacturing technologies

A mechanical engineer designs anything that uses mechanical motion

Computer Modeling

Prototyping

Robotics

Underwater Vehicle

Consumer & Baby products

Food Handling

What is Mechatronics?

§ The Fusion of Mechanical Engineering, electronics, and computing.

§ Usually requires cross-disciplinary training. § Looks like robotics § Automate and Improve production The elements of Mechatronics systems include sensors, actuators, microcontrollers (or microprocessors) and real-time control software. The actuators are mainly high precision electric motors and solenoids. Any of a large number of sensor types are used, including light, acceleration, weight, color, temperature and image.

Stepper Motor Stair climbing robot

Nuclear Engineering

Nuclear engineers design, develop, and control plants that use nuclear energy for fuel and medical purposes. Some nuclear engineers are busy working on a nuclear-powered spacecraft that will travel to Mars.

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Examples of Nuclear Engineering

§  Food irradiation has been systematically evaluated by the Food and Agriculture Organization which concluded that treating raw meat and poultry with irradiation eliminates disease-causing bacteria commonly found such as E. coli and Salmonella and poses no toxicological hazards at typically used doses.

§  Domestic sources of radioisotopes are needed

to adequately sustain the growing needs of our medical and healthcare communities.

Problems inherent with fossil fuels are avoided with energy production using hydrogen. Per unit of fuel, hydrogen fuel cells in vehicles are about twice as efficient as combustion energies. Unlike conventional engines, fuel cells emit only water vapor and heat. Only nuclear energy can produce hydrogen on large enough scales to meet future demand while avoiding the release of greenhouse gases. These battery-like devices inside hydrogen vehicles convert hydrogen and oxygen into water, in the process producing electricity and heat that can power a motor.