Design

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.

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).

A new type of battery that could change the way electricity is stored on the grid is being developed by a team of Harvard scientists and engineers. The new battery technology will make renewable energy sources more economical and reliable than current technology.

To many people, Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) is only experienced as a shock when touching a metal doorknob after walking across a carpeted floor or after sliding across a car seat. However, static electricity and ESD has been a serious industrial problem for centuries. As early as the 1400s, European and Caribbean military forts were using static control procedures and devices trying to prevent inadvertent electrostatic discharge ignition of gunpowder stores.