At EngVibe we like bridges. Previously we showed the World’s Longest Bridges, today we are showing the most picturesque.

Neatorama has a post about the 10 Most Beautiful Bridges in the World, I strongly suggest you check it out by clicking here. (Pictured is the Khaju Bridge, Iran)

EngVibe is all about the positive – cool engineering jobs, fun projects and Pong. Today though I thought I’d present a humorous, but somewhat accurate, piece about the less fun side of studying engineering – this article is from Aaron Rowe (Wired Blog Network):

For many students, earning a degree in engineering is less than enjoyable and far from what they expected. Here are our biggest complaints about the educational rite of passage. Of course, they are sweeping generalizations. Feel free to disagree. 

5. Awful Textbooks
Thick, dry, black and white manuscripts are rarely a source of inspiration and sometimes can cause loads of confusion. Often, the text is poorly written and interrupted by lengthy equations with symbols that are different from those used by the professor during lectures.

4. Professors are Rarely Encouraging
During each class, a professor that would rather be tending to his research will waltz up to a blackboard or overhead projector and scribble out equations for an hour without uttering a single sentence to create some excitement.  

3. Dearth of Quality Counseling
College students may not have a sense for how to build their resume and they might be clueless about the variety of career opportunities that await them. Unfortunately, some academic advisers do little more than post fliers about internships and hand out a checklist of classes to take. They should make some projections about the future job market, learn about the interests of each young scholar, and offer them tailored advice for how to best prepare themselves.

2. Other Disciplines Have Inflated Grades
Brilliant engineering students may earn surprisingly low grades while slackers in other departments score straight As for writing book reports and throwing together papers about their favorite zombie films.

Some professors view undergraduate education as a type of natural selection, but their analogy is flawed. Many of the brightest students may struggle while mediocre scholars can earn top scores because they have a larger group of supportive friends to or more time to dedicate to studying.  

1. Every Assignment Feels the Same
Nearly every homework assignment and test question is a math problem. Only a few courses require creativity or offer hands-on experience.

Here is a great site which shows some great feats in civil engineering. These bridges are from around the world and are up to 38 kilometres long.

Cool stuff – read more here.

In a similar vein to the engineering policy guide for the Rudd/Howard election (see here), Popular Mechanics has created a science and technology election guide for the 08 elections.

The guide lists 11 presidential candidates and their policies relating to eight key issues; Automotive, Digital/Technology, Energy/Climate, Environment, Gun Control, Infrastructure, and Science/Education.

Five Democrat (Biden, Clinton, Edwards, Obama, Richardson) and six Republican (Giuliani, Huckabee, McCain, Paul, Romney, Thompson) candidates are included.

Check it here.

If you like that, you might also be interested in Digg The Candidates.

This site was submitted to us: www.CookingForEngineers.com tagline: ‘Have an analytical mind? Like to cook? This is the site to read!’

The site is more at a ‘for dummies’ than a ‘for engineers’ level. Can engineers cook; if you can, perhaps try elsewhere.

Like most organisations, we like to keep up with the current trends. My Grandmother tells me this new ‘facebook’ thing is the latest and greatest, so I figured we should get in on it.

Since there are no groups currently similar to Australian Engineering Students and Professionals, the EngVibe group goes by that name. We would like you to use the new group to give us feedback and to spread the vibe to others. Besides, not all the groups you join can be related to Chuck Norris, Borat or ‘Last one to post wins’.

Tell your engie buddies- invite early and invite often. The group is here.

Not news, not useful but remarkably catchy. This is a song by US band ‘Pharmasseuse’. See the clip on YouTube here. Recommended.

Inspiring people to consider engineering as a career is one of the key aims of EngVibe. Well, this article should certainly do the trick.

WebUrbanist has a piece on 7 Engineering Wonders of the Modern World; all of which are record breaking achievements in construction. The list includes the Venice Tide Barrier Project (world’s largest flood protection project), Bailong Elevator (over 1,000 foot external elevator), Millau Viaduct (world’s tallest bridge), Langeled Pipeline (longest underwater gas pipeline), Three Gorgest Dam (world’s largest hydroelectric dam), the Big Dig in Boston, Massachusetts (America’s largest and most expensive construction project) and Toshka Project (a project to turn half a million acres of desert into arable land).

The scope, cost and impact of these projects is amazing and shows off some of the high end projects that engineers are involved in. Each of them is mind boggling in magnitude.

I strongly encourage you to check out the site, which features some spectacular photos and a description of each of the projects. The site is available by clicking here.

Engineers Australia have created a page which summarises the policies from the various parties in this year’s election campaign that affect engineers.

The key areas are higher education funding, climate change (including renewable energies), broadband infrastructure and skills shortages.

Previously a survey of engineers was conducted (also by Engineers Australia) to determined the highest priority issues. The results were water management (51.8%), climate change (36.9%), infrastructure (35.7%), engineering education (31.1%), and skills shortages (19.1%).

The other areas identified as important to engineers were research and development, manufacturing, broadband and trade policy.

The website is available at engineersaustralia.typepad.com/election .