engineering

LSU College of Engineering has completed their capital campaign to improve and expand their engineering college three months ahead of schedule. The campaign brought in more than the $100 million partnership goal needed for renovations and an addition to their engineering offerings.

Vanderbilt University has been awarded a National Science Foundation grant to create a new outreach program to train graduate and undergraduate students to become representatives in engineering education for students in middle and high schools.

67 new members and 11 foreign associates were elected into the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) earlier this week. The NAE, founded in 1964, is a nonprofit institute that provides engineering independent advice to federal government on matters involving engineering and technology.

Up until now there’s been much emphasis on designing to make a product “idiot proof”. This has provided some benefit, but what Usability Engineering is reminding us is that it is the designers who are sometimes viewed as idiots by the users. It is the users who are the experts (in usability).

The reliable operation of complex electronic communications, control and armament systems in extreme environments demands stringent design criteria and careful validation. Severe shock, vibration, heat, humidity and airborne contaminants are common in land, sea and air platforms.

The new center at the Grand Valley State University in Michigan is pairing engineering students with local companies to assist in developing and testing new products that will eventually enter the market.

A 5-year pilot project at the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) College of Engineering that introduced a new freshman seminar course called Just in Time Math (JITM) has shown improvements in retention rate and grade point average in students who took the class.