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.

Engineers create a huge range of products and systems it isn’t worth trying to list them. For Allan Alcorn his creation and legacy: Pong, the world’s first popular video game. 

Allan was a young electrical engineer when he was hired by Atari. He created a game designed to be so simple that ‘any drunk in any bar could play’.

Allan made the trip to Melbourne to visit Game On, a cool exhibition about of the history of video games at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) – featuring 125+ playable arcade and console games. He thinks himself ‘extremely lucky to have been in the right place at the right time at the start of an industry.’ 

Engineering, who knows what you’ll create. I’m sure Allan didn’t plan on changing home entertainment history with a simple 2D tennis game.

Read a news piece from the Sydney Morning Herald or learn more about Game On.

Two fourth-year University of Queensland students have made PNG their place of work as part of the university’s Professional Engineering Placement Scholarship program. 

David Shaw and Adam Brown will work at New Britain Palm Oil Limited where they will apply work conducted as part of their research projects related to the company.

The projects involves optimising the operation of a screw press that extracts oil from the palm fruit and improving the efficiency of steam emissions, reducing costs. 

‘Things are so different to Australia, so we had to adapt to a totally different way of working,’ David said. 

The UQ press page is here.

West Australian Education and Training Minister Mark McGowan announced an $11 million pilot program to support science and maths teachers.

The program involves former teachers and university lecturers being brought in to mentor new teachers and provide guidance. The program aids to reduce the drop-out rate of teachers to avoid shortages. 

“With new graduates straight out of university, they are very well educated and know a lot about their field but they often need a little bit of help in managing students and working out what is the best techniques are for educating students,” Mr McGowan said.

The program will be available to all first-year teachers in physics, chemistry and mathematics.

The full story from the WA News is here.

The 2008 National Science Week grants have been announced and Scinema, a science film and multimedia festival has been a recipient. 

This grant means that scientific films, dramas, documentaries and short films will be shown at over 150 locations during National Science Week from August 16 to 24. Last time the festival was screened to over 10,000 people around the country.

Scinema (pronounced with a long ‘i’ ) will play in venues in New Zealand and the UK and is a partnership between CSIRO, Cosmos Magazine and the National Museum of Australia. 

Sounds like a top initiative and a great event. Learn more at www.csiro.au/scinema.

EngVibe is full of opportunities at the moment. The latest comes from the National Press Club of Australia who has just announced a new journalism award for Aussie journos. The award is sponsored by Engineering Australia and aims to widen understanding and raise the profile of engineering as a profession as well as encourage the media to acknowledge the engineering profession.

As their press release says, Engineers Australia and the National Press Club hope that this growing awareness to prompt young Australians considering their career options to realise the exciting and important opportunities available to them in this profession.

The award is open to all journalists including freelance journos who have been resident in Australia and working as journalists between 1 July 07 and 30 June 08. Applications close Monday, 30 June 08 with the award to be presented in Australian Engineering Week at the National Press Club.

Suggested topics include water policy, climate change, infrastructure, education, engineering skills shortages and research and development.

For more info visit www.npc.org.au.

Engineers Australia magazine is inviting submissions for a national photo competition about engineering. The competition is open to engineers and non-engineers (including photographers) and has a cash prize of $1000. The broad theme is engineering and is designed to encapsulate the essence of engineering and can include:

·        The benefits of engineering to society

·        The human face of engineering

·        Inspiring and exciting work that engineers do

·        An engineering failure

Photos can be monochrome, colour, electronic or film and must have been taken after 1 Jan 2005. Computer graphics are not eligible. Residents working in Australia or Australians working abroad are eligible and the photo can be of subjects outside Australia.

The winner will be selected by Engineers Australia magazine and the winner will be announced in National Engineering Week. A selection of the top photos will be published in the August edition of the magazine. 

Deadline for entries is Fri 13 June. 

Submission for electronic photos is via email to dgeorg@engineersmedia.com.au or sent on CD/DVD/Print to Dietrich Georg, Engineers Media, PO Box 588, Crows Nest 1585. For more info, contact the email address above or call (02) 9438 1533.

Thirty three designs from young Australian engineers and designers have made the shortlist for the 2008 Australian Design Awards – Dyson Student Awards.

James Dyson, the man after whom the awards are named has this take on engineers and designers. ‘Design is not just about how something looks, but how it works. I don’t see a difference between a designer and an engineer, and I don’t want to see a difference. A designer should be both.’ – James Dyson.

The products which made the final round are a great collection of designs and innovation. They include a backpack for motorcyclists which lights up in low light conditions, a window louvre system which incorporates solar panels, a sink which incorporates a water recycling unit and a pen which converts text into digital and can send SMS – D:Scribe.

The finalists will be announced March 25 with the final winner being awarded on May 30.

Good luck to designers. Read more from the Sydney Morning Herald or from the Australian Design Awards site.