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Opportunities like this happen when you become a member of a professional organization. And there are student clubs in most engineering disciplines at the university level.
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
SOMETHING TO LOOK FORWARD TO - - - AFTER YOU GRADUATE FROM E-SCHOOL
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Opportunities like this happen when you become a member of a professional organization. And there are student clubs in most engineering disciplines at the university level.
Friday, January 30, 2009
New Dam caused Earthquake?
My dad sent me a link to a story that falls in the range of "things a civil engineer might not normally worry about" - an analysis that suggests the major earthquake in China last year was triggered by the additional weight of water behind a new dam.
The story is in an on-line USA-Today blog called "ScienceFair". It refers to a new article the in the journal "Science", which is in the FSU Dirac Science Library if it is not in our TCC library. A quick search indicates it is in the 16 January 2009 issue, on page 322. The article is only available to subscribers or at a library.
The story is in an on-line USA-Today blog called "ScienceFair". It refers to a new article the in the journal "Science", which is in the FSU Dirac Science Library if it is not in our TCC library. A quick search indicates it is in the 16 January 2009 issue, on page 322. The article is only available to subscribers or at a library.
Thursday, January 15, 2009
TV Programming Note
This morning's newspaper reports that the National Geographic Channel will carry a one-hour program about the I-35 bridge replacement in Minneapolis, Minnesota, that was led by Tallahassee's world famous Figg Engineering Group. It will follow this "design build" project from concept to completion, offering invaluable insight to any future civil engineers in the club.
The business side is interesting as well. By completing the project three months ahead of schedule, the engineers and contractors shared in a substantial (up to $27 million) bonus - although much of that bonus paid for overtime needed to finish early.
The program originally airs at 8 PM today, Thursday 1/15. National Geographic Channel is on Tallahassee Comcast digital 109 and HD 413.
It will be rerun at 11 PM the same day and is also scheduled for 1/22 at 4 PM.
Some of you might find this article about engineering the bridge, from Popular Mechanics, interesting.
The business side is interesting as well. By completing the project three months ahead of schedule, the engineers and contractors shared in a substantial (up to $27 million) bonus - although much of that bonus paid for overtime needed to finish early.
The program originally airs at 8 PM today, Thursday 1/15. National Geographic Channel is on Tallahassee Comcast digital 109 and HD 413.
It will be rerun at 11 PM the same day and is also scheduled for 1/22 at 4 PM.
Some of you might find this article about engineering the bridge, from Popular Mechanics, interesting.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Software Engineering: 25 worst coding errors
The National Security Agency (NSA), has released its "top 25" list of coding errors that will produce software vulnerable to attack. (See this article from the BBC for an overview.) Anyone serious about developing computer software should take a look at this story and the related links.
If crypto history interests you, the very first set of NSA documents ever put on the World Wide Web concerned the VENONA project, a hand (not computer) break into Soviet ciphers used after 1943. It was responsible for identifying the Rosenbergs and others responsible for sending US atomic secrets to the Soviets, although this fact was not known until many decades after the Rosenbergs were tried and executed for espionage.
If computer-based crypto history interests you, the NSA has a page indexing various articles that include ones about work during WW II breaking German codes with computers. More recent work is not so public. Yet.
If crypto history interests you, the very first set of NSA documents ever put on the World Wide Web concerned the VENONA project, a hand (not computer) break into Soviet ciphers used after 1943. It was responsible for identifying the Rosenbergs and others responsible for sending US atomic secrets to the Soviets, although this fact was not known until many decades after the Rosenbergs were tried and executed for espionage.
If computer-based crypto history interests you, the NSA has a page indexing various articles that include ones about work during WW II breaking German codes with computers. More recent work is not so public. Yet.
Friday, January 9, 2009
Engineering Club meeting on Friday
The first club meeting of 2009 will be Friday afternoon, January 16, probably at 2:30 or 3:00. We have some important club business to take care of, plus planning for this year's meetings. One thing I would like to do is invite some faculty and students from FSU to talk about your options when you transfer and what you have to prepare for when you leave TCC.
UPDATE: The meeting will be in classroom SM 124. SM260 is in use.
The other thing we have to do is thank Doug Jones for all he has done for the club. His official retirement party is that same night. If you want to know what he might do after he retires, check out this video that my dad got from his brother:
What an engineer does after he retires.
It is awesome.
UPDATE: The meeting will be in classroom SM 124. SM260 is in use.
The other thing we have to do is thank Doug Jones for all he has done for the club. His official retirement party is that same night. If you want to know what he might do after he retires, check out this video that my dad got from his brother:
What an engineer does after he retires.
It is awesome.
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Concrete can last forever
Check out this photo of a concrete bridge built in 1926 that has been submerged behind a dam since 1952. (Details about the ghost town and the maintenance work being done on the earthen dam used to supply water to the Santa Clara area are in this article from the Mercury News in San Jose, California.)
My dad made two observations about this bridge:
Concrete is made from Portland cement, sand and gravel, and water along with various chemicals and other additions to suit a specific purpose. The water and cement form a hydrate that glues together the rocky "aggregate" material. Concrete actually gets stronger over a period of decades before slowly weakening. (There are many examples of concrete Roman structures that are 1800 years old.) It loves being in fresh water, but anything that likes to remove water (particularly salt) will attack it and weaken it prematurely. Concrete bridges along the gulf, like ones up north where salt is used to de-ice roads, have a hard life. This bridge has had an easy one.
Ran into one of my former students a year or two ago, and he was finishing up his degree in Civil Engineering with a advanced course in concrete. If civil engineering interests you, get a start by reading what Wiki has to say about concrete. That appears to be a high quality, very detailed article including information about newly developed types of concrete that are still in the research stage.
My dad made two observations about this bridge:
- It is very similar to bridges my grandfather designed when they were building the first highways in Michigan in the early 20s
- Concrete in fresh water simply cures and gets stronger. This bridge not only looks like new (having been washed by an artificial lake every day), it is stronger than new.
Concrete is made from Portland cement, sand and gravel, and water along with various chemicals and other additions to suit a specific purpose. The water and cement form a hydrate that glues together the rocky "aggregate" material. Concrete actually gets stronger over a period of decades before slowly weakening. (There are many examples of concrete Roman structures that are 1800 years old.) It loves being in fresh water, but anything that likes to remove water (particularly salt) will attack it and weaken it prematurely. Concrete bridges along the gulf, like ones up north where salt is used to de-ice roads, have a hard life. This bridge has had an easy one.
Ran into one of my former students a year or two ago, and he was finishing up his degree in Civil Engineering with a advanced course in concrete. If civil engineering interests you, get a start by reading what Wiki has to say about concrete. That appears to be a high quality, very detailed article including information about newly developed types of concrete that are still in the research stage.
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Video of fatal NC bridge collapse
The collapse starts at about 2:39 into this video. For details, read the news article from StarNews Online.
You need to be looking at the very top of the picture. The pre-stressed concrete girder that fell is the second from the left. The left-most girder was being placed by the crane at the time. It's too bad that the camera is looking down at the crane at this moment, because a change in the shadows between the girders makes it seem like the failure started at the top plate of the girder. If you look closely around 2:39 and 2:40, it would appear that some material breaks off and falls before the entire girder falls.
It would have helped a lot to see the entire girder during the failure, but forensic work will probably identify the point of failure and its cause. Did the new girder bump the previous one, or was there a manufacturing or design flaw? We will find out in a few months.
You need to be looking at the very top of the picture. The pre-stressed concrete girder that fell is the second from the left. The left-most girder was being placed by the crane at the time. It's too bad that the camera is looking down at the crane at this moment, because a change in the shadows between the girders makes it seem like the failure started at the top plate of the girder. If you look closely around 2:39 and 2:40, it would appear that some material breaks off and falls before the entire girder falls.
It would have helped a lot to see the entire girder during the failure, but forensic work will probably identify the point of failure and its cause. Did the new girder bump the previous one, or was there a manufacturing or design flaw? We will find out in a few months.
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