WORLD’S FIRST ENGINEERING NEWS FOR YOUNG BADASS ENGINEERS
AUGUST 2016 ISSUE NO. 006
RIO OLYMPICS:
TRENDING STORIES: Artificial Intelligence: Science
THE ENGINEERING BEHIND THE LARGEST SPORTING EVENT
Are You Tesla The Engineer or Edison The Businessman?
More stories about the Rio Olympics inside
An Engineer, A Lawyer and A Banker Walk Into a Bar
Horrible Engineering Bosses Top 5 Hardest Subjects In Chemical Engineering
GINEERSNOW TEAM Ems Bagatsing
Sales & Marketing Director Ems@LincolnMartin.com
Robert Bagatsing
Editor-In-Chief editor@GineersNow.com
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Senior Editor-At-Large
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Engr. Dion Greg Reyes
Senior Editor Asia-Pacific Senior Editor South Asia
Therese Matheren Senior Editor North America
Goran Ćulibrk
Charity Bagatsing Senior Editor North America Junior Editor
Engr. Cielo Panda Junior Editor
Raymond Gerard del Valle Junior Editor
Abhishek Tarafder
Lauren Lloyd Del Mundo
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Engr. Emmanuel Stalling Contibutor North America
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Note
As soon as the doors closed and the tv stations left London after all the winners of the London Olympics were announced last 2012, people started looking forward to what exciting things Rio Olympics will bring us this 2016. With only a few days left, we can see from major international and local news how athletes from all over the world are preparing for another big event - a once-in-a-lifetime chance to bring glory to one’s country. One exciting thing about the Rio Olympics is the integration of sports engineering to all the games and developments in the event itself. From making it possible to develop an area that would unite people from all over the world together in one place to training athletes with latest technology, it’s an exciting time for everyone - the athletes, the trainers, the audience, the organizers and the engineers. Here at GineersNow, we are constantly updating ourselves with the latest news and feature
stories that can affect the entire sports world. From the constant evolution of different gadgets and equipment that can help transform someone into the perfect athlete, we want to find out which product of engineering and technology can help master one’s field in sports. While our focus in this month’s issue is the engineering behind the Rio Olympics, we have also compiled the best feature stories that will help all the young engineers out there in their careers. Being engineers ourselves, we know what it feels like to struggle inside the office. These feature stories will guide you on your way to the top of the corporate and field world. So sit back, grab your favorite drink and enjoy reading this month’s issue filled with action and life-changing advices. We’ve collected the best sports and office stories for the month of August just for you. Lastly, may your favorite Olympic team win in this year’s epic sports event.
CONTENTS PAGE
06 09 10 14 18 23 24 26 28 39 47
TITLE DUBAI SOON TO HAVE ANOTHER LANDMARK STADIUM WORLD’S FASTEST GOLF HOLE RECORDED
HOW WILL THE WORLD’S FIRST EVER CYBORG OLYMPICS LOOK LIKE?
THROUGH A PREY’S POINT OF VIEW IN FALCONRY COVER STORY
RIO OLYMPICS: THE ENGINEERING BEHIND THE LARGEST SPORTING EVENT A TECH AND SOCIAL MEDIA PREVIEW OF THE RIO 2016 OLYMPICS THE HOME OF THE RIO OLYMPIC GAMES 2016: THE MARACAÑA STADIUM GETTY IMAGES’ 1.5 MILLION PHOTOS GAMEPLAN FOR THE 2016 RIO OLYMPICS GADGETS YOU SHOULD BRING TO THE RIO 2016 OLYMPICS
NIKE'S BEST SHOES EVER!
MERCEDES-BENZ UNVEILS HIGH TECH, SPORTS CARINSPIRED GOLF CART
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48 62 64 66 68 70 72 77 82 84 86
TITLE NBA GETS NEW LED SHOT CLOCK
ARE YOU TESLA THE ENGINEER OR EDISON THE BUSINESSMAN? WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU FAIL A CHEMICAL ENGINEERING SUBJECT ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: SCIENCE FICTION OR REALITY? TOP 5 HARDEST SUBJECTS IN CHEMICAL ENGINEERING AN ENGINEER, A LAWYER AND A BANKER WALK INTO A BAR HORRIBLE ENGINEERING BOSSES THE ENGINEER WHO SAYS "I DON'T KNOW" HAS BETTER DECISION MAKING SKILLS THE HABITS OF HAPPY SUCCESSFUL ENGINEERS BEFORE QUITTING THAT ENGINEERING JOB, DO THIS THINGS ENGINEERS MUST DO DURING THE WEEKEND
DUBAI SOON TO HAVE ANOTHER LANDMARK STADIUM His Highness Shaikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, was informed and updated about the model pilot design of the Mohammed bin Rashid Stadium which will accommodate 60,000 people. The cost of the stadium is around Dh 3Billion and it will be situated on the site of Dubai Sports Club at Al Aweer area in Dubai.
The Stadium will add a new appealing landmark to Dubai. It’s shape is like a half-ball lifted on foundations. It is fully air-conditioned and complies with the required standards and specifications of the World Football governing body (FIFA). According to Mattar Al Tayer in his briefing “Out of tens international companies working in the field of sports buildings design worldwide, Perkins + Will, the global engineering and architectural
consultant has been chosen to execute the mega stadium which takes in more than 60,000 spectators , 8941 seats for VIP's terraces and 6688 seats for the below terraces. The stadium will include sport buildings, exercise pitch, sports training hall and car parking lots that take as many as 5000 motor vehicles, sports museum spreading on an area of 1500 square meters, multi-purpose hall spanning on 3500 square meters area. “
Photos by: Emirates 247
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AUGUST 2016 Sports Engineering and Other Special Features
WORLD’S FIRST DRONE RACE USING BRAINCONTROLLED INTERFACE
The competitors wore black headsets with arm-like sensors stretched over their foreheads. They stare at cubes floating on their computer screens as their assigned drones prepare for take-off. Once the announcer hollers "Three, two, one ... GO!", the racers concentrate on pushing the cubes, the drones start up, rise and start buzzing through the air. Others had a difficult time moving the drones, while others zoomed across the finish line. This competition was considered as the world’s first drone race that involves a brain-controlled interface (BCI). 16 pilots used willpower—or brain power to drive drones through a 10-yard dash at an indoor basketball court at the University of Florida this past weekend. The Associated Press recorded the event, and the organizers hope to make this an annual inter-collegiate event, and they plan to involve dynamic moves and challenges and a trophy for the winner. According to Chris Crawford, a PhD student in human-centered computing. “With events like this, we're popularizing the use of BCI instead of it being stuck in the research lab.” "BCI was a technology that was geared specifically for medical purposes, and in order to expand this to the general public, we actually have to embrace these consumer brand devices and push them to the limit." Photo by: Deccan Chronicle
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THE WORLD’S MOST LUXURIOUS FOOTBALL STADIUM According to FootballsTopTen, an online sports publisher, The Pancho Arena in Felcsut ranks number 1 in their list of top ten luxury football stadiums in the world.
Photo by: sefutbol
The Pancho Arena was named after the Hungarian and football legend Ferenc Puskas. The luxurious stadium was designed by Hungarian architect Imre Makovets, and was opened in 2014. The Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban grew up in the village where the stadium was built, and is known for his love of football. Despite the fact that the stadium has a larger capacity than the village it is built in, we cannot deny that the Pancho Arena is truly beautiful. Its wooden interior and lighting make for a perfect place to play and watch football. Photo by: HungarianAmbiance
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AUGUST 2016 Sports Engineering and Other Special Features
Photo by: Hungarian Spectrum
WORLD’S FASTEST GOLF HOLE RECORDED Everyone knows that golf is a sport that requires an estimate of exerted force by the swing amid the wind resistance and weather conditions. This is why it’s questionable how the new record holders of the world’s fastest golf hole managed to do it. French golfers Raphael Jacquelin, Alex Levy, Romain Wattel, and Gregory Havret are names to be remembered in golf history as they successfully scored birdie, going from tee to green, in just 34.8 seconds. It is the fastest hole record in the world. Under the record rules, each of the four golfers played a stroke to score birdie on the par-5 fourth at the Valderrama Golf Club in Spain. It is also in the record rules that the hole should be 500 yards or longer to count, and they met that rule. The question now is how did they do it? Perhaps it is because of constant practice and a good estimate of their swings plus the cooperative weather. It’s also possible that they engineered their way to the new world record, measuring the projectile given all the necessary factors.
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HOW WILL THE WORLD’S FIRST EVER CYBORG OLYMPICS LOOK LIKE? An Olympics which will involve persons with disabilities called Cybathlon is pending to take place in Zurich, Switzerland in October 2016. It will be some sort of robots versus robots, but will only involve those with prostheses, metal limbs, and latest assistive technologies.
Photo by: Cybathlon
Spectators can expect to watch athletes who tackle flights of stairs in the new wheel chairs and also move around proving their speed and skills with their modern prostheses. There will also be races for athletes with powered arm and leg prostheses, for those wearing a robotic exoskeleton and for powered wheelchairs. Cyclists using electrical muscle stimulation and even a braincomputer interface race may be watched on the October 8 event. Robert Riener, the event organizer said, “It’s less about force and speed, and more about control of the body and the device.” This idea led them to name the athletes as ‘pilots.’
Photo by: TheVerge
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AUGUST 2016 Sports Engineering and Other Special Features
Cybathlon aims to provide a platform for the development of novel assistive technologies that are useful for daily life, according to their event website. There will be 80 teams to watch out for.
Photo by: Neurogadget Photo by: Sports-961
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Racing enthusiasts without legs can now enjoy the sport they love thanks to this genius invention of a go-kart. Students of Kennesaw State University Greg Newman and Jonathan Beck developed a go-kart especially fit for disabled individuals who do not have legs. Both students, who are members of KSU’s motorsports team, were given an assignment to build a go-kart that stays out from the conventional acceleration and braking systems: to use hands instead of the foot. They were asked to build the go-kart by the staff at Andretti Indoor Karting and Games on Roswell Road in Marietta.
A GO-KART FOR THE DISABLED DEVELOPED
Senior mechatronics major Beck who has been in the team for four years said that the challenge was mainly on how to mechanically control the brakes. But they managed to create a system of having a hand control that can be easily connected to the go-karts when needed and detached when not. A prototype will be finished by the pair in time for the Andretti Karting this month.
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Photo by: Kelly J. Huff via Marietta Daily Journal
IMAXSHIFT: TAKING SPIN CLASSES TO A NEW WORLD
Photo by: NYMag
“Lose Yourself. Re-imagine indoor cycling. Immerse yourself in a ride that’s intense, emotional, spiritual, performance-driven and altogether epic. Cycle through the solar system, soar over the coasts of Hawaii, or pedal to the beat with music reactive visuals – all from your seat.” –IMAXshift Website Photo by: WTSP
Soon, the world’s first IMAX spin class will be tested in Brooklyn, this will let indoor cyclists feel like they are pedalling into different places: solar systems, forests, and other scenes. This spin class is called the “IMAXshift” and the duration will be 45-minutes long. The class will be taking place in a
studio in Brooklyn, and they will be incorporating a large screen technology that is similar to those used in movie theaters. By combining indoor cycling and awesome audio-video effects, participants of this fitness class will be able to have a completely immersed experience as they cycle through the solar system or go through the forest. The matching music also helps add depth to the visuals for a more believable effect. As of now the class is limited to groups of 50 riders in Brooklyn, but will be expanded to other locations if this idea is successful.
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THROUGH A PREY’S POINT OF VIEW IN FALCONRY
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AUGUST 2016 Sports Engineering and Other Special Features
Before there were skyscrapers and high-class offices that rose above the grounds of Dubai, you’ll find its men enjoying a traditional sports of falconry. As ancient and traditional as it is, only few people of foreign blood are accepted into this sport known for its majestic falcons. One of these men is Peter Bergh. He’s a tour operator and trainer that has been working on his skills for more than ten years. Now, Bergh plays side by side with the sport’s elite in Dubai. To make the sport more interesting, he’s mixing it up with drones. Working together with creators of drone racing, they’ve modified drones just to give the viewers a glimpse of what it’s like being the prey. By tinkering with different cameras with super fast aircraft, developed quadcopters are smaller and look like the meat a falcon lays its eyes on. According to Bergh: “Over the years we’ve progressively changed the cameras, gone smaller, adapted and modified aeroplanes to fit these cameras, and some of the footage we’re achieving is radical and we can now put ourselves in the prey’s perspective.” He added: “Filming it and capturing the style, the flight the aggression, the movement of the body of the birds - it’s fascinating. The technology of the cameras is improving everyday, so the future looks really bright.”
Photo by: slate
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THE WORLD’S SMALLEST CARS GEAR UP FOR THE WORLD’S FIRST NANO-GRAND PRIX
Photo by: Futura-Science
The world’s smallest cars which are built to a jaw-dropping small scale of billionths of a meter, are getting ready for the world’s first nano-grand prix. These cars aren’t simply molecules put together, the cars are complete with chassis, two axles and four freely rotating wheels. They are so small that they have to be monitored by special high-resolution microscope.
The entries will be propelled across a custom-built gold surface by using an electric current which is supplied by the tip of a scanning electron microscope. The track is kept cold, -268 degrees, and in a vacuum. The race will involve trials to see which nano-car is the fastest.
Of course, these cars—and the race won’t be seen by the naked eye. But these nano cars from five teams will be viewable with the use of special instruments, known as tunnelling microscopes which are developed especially for the grand prix to be held in October at the French city of Toulouse.
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Photo by: Nanoqed
CHALLENGE YOUR RUNNING TIME WITH THIS RACEABLE TECH ROBOT “Everyone runs faster when there’s something to beat. But how do you beat a record when you can’t see it?” These words create just the right amount of intrigue at the start of Puma’s new technology ad. If you run track alone, you might have problems in accurately checking your time to see how well you’ve improved. Well, that’s now a worry of the past with this new creation by Puma. The Puma Beatbot is any runner’s most welcome companion. It’s a line-tracing robot that you can place beside you on the field to “run” along with you. The operations are simple: set the distance of your run and the time you want to achieve then start the bot from your phone. It works by following the line on the track with its 9 infrared sensors and it counts wheel revolutions to gauge the speed and distance. Challenge your time, your rival’s time, or even Usain Bolt’s time. This robot not only races you, it helps you train for speed.
Photo by: Dmarge
WHY IS MICHAEL JORDAN CRYING? Photo by: opencourtbasketball
Photo by: oreganlive
Michael Jordan has always been and always be a sports icon. But aside from being regarded as one of the best basketball players in the history, Jordan has made its way into being an internet meme--a tearyfaced emotional guy. In the world of sports, losing teams and defeated players are seen in the internet world as people with Jordan's meme. It could even be in losing mascots, losing fans, or even losing coaches. But where and how did this meme start? Back in 2009 when Jordan was about to be placed on Basketball's Hall Of Fame, he first delivered a heart-felt speech that is overwhelmed with emotions. Then internet happened. So after some years, a photo of Jordan's crying face was transformed into what is now a sad sports meme. AUGUST 2016 Sports Engineering and Other Special Features
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COVER STORY
RIO OLYMPICS THE ENGINEERING BEHIND THE LARGEST SPORTING EVENT 18
AUGUST 2016 Sports Engineering and Other Special Features
Photo by: bp.blogspot AUGUST 2016 Sports Engineering and Other Special Features
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COVER STORY
Photo by: Rio 2016 Growing up, we’ve all watched the Olympics as different athletes compete in different games to bring honor and fame to their countries. We’ve been exposed to different heartfelt stories about how these athletes started from the bottom and now, they’re going to be representing their coun-tries. But have you ever thought about the engineering behind the Olympics? How did the engi-neers made all of this happen? What are the technologies behind this global competition and how are these changing our lives? We have to admit it. A lot has changed since the first games that were originally held in ancient Greece. The first Olympic games held happened around 3,000 years ago and then revived during the late 19th century. When the even was revived in 1896 in Athens, Greece,
around 280 partici-pants from thirteen nations were present. It came a long way since then. With the most advanced technology held inside hi-tech establishments, more than 11,000 athletes represent more than 200 countries in this prestigious sporting event.
What was once a simple sporting event for a few people to look forward to has now become a global event everybody is obsessed with. As for the others who just want to join the bandwagon, they find it easy to love since the Olympics has the capability
As soon as you turn on the TV or check your social media accounts, you find yourself filled with the latest news on the Rio Olympics. It’s about to start and everyone’s just dying to find out which teams would bring home gold medals to their countries. Friends are starting to bet on their teams while local news stations start to add feature stories about the rookie who’s about to join the Olym-pics for the first time. People would start comparing the Olympic events throughout the years and how it has changed. Photo by: Rio 2016
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AUGUST 2016 Sports Engineering and Other Special Features
to change the way we see the world. However, let’s not forget what makes the Olympics a global phenomenon is the technology behind the sports and people involved. Using today’s technology, everyone is able to connect
with each other. Athletes can share their journey to the Rio Olympics through social media easier. With just one snap, they can tweet it to the rest of the world and gain the fame and support they need. Coaches can inform sponsors about what exactly makes their teams worth the millions of dollars spent for their journey. Multi-billion companies easily use the internet (specifically social media) to search for the next big thing in sports. They hire the best researchers and engineers to come up with a better technology to help athletes perform better or break world records. Startup tech companies are even offering their groundbreaking wearable technologies for athletes to try and use in their training. As for the fans and the rest of the world, technology can help
us connect with everyone else. We can cheer or fight other fans with just a simple post on Twitter. We can update our friends with just a simple “share” on Facebook. We can keep up with our favorite athletes’ stories with every post on Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram and Facebook. As soon as the game’s over, we can get the re-sults from different media companies. Let’s not forget to mention all the gadgets available in the market right now. Whatever we’re inter-ested in, they have the latest devices that allow us to experience what it feels like to be a worldclass athlete. Engineering has found a way to make normal people train the way these profession-al athletes do. That’s how amazing today’s engineers are - they’ve accomplished ways to make us feel like we’re part of the
Photo by: Rio 2016
Photo by: Rio 2016 AUGUST 2016 Sports Engineering and Other Special Features
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COVER STORY Rio Olympics. They’ve even found a way for us to be just like the mem-bers of different Olympic teams. Now let’s talk about the innovative developments made since the London Olympics. It’s been four years and everybody is excited to see what’s new this coming Rio Olympics. For different games, the organizers and engineers working behind the Rio Olympics have something new to offer. According the the official Olympic organizers, it’ll be a brand new experience for both the athlete and spectator as it will feature “state-of-the-art technologies”. For volleyball and beach volleyball, we’ll be seeing athletes use video reviews to call out a referee for giving a bad call. Replays can be shown on huge screens where another referee can decide on the fate of the game. Now that may lead to a lot of drama for the fans. While swimmers can now use digital lap counters that automati-cally update the lap count of every swimmer.
For the canoe sprint and rowing, fans will surely love the new GPS technology which allows them to easily follow the athletes as they row their way to that gold medal. According to Sebastian Cuattrin, the rowing manager of Rio 2016, “It totally changes the experience for the audience. The big screen will make it possible to see the different tactics used by different teams, in particular when there is a change of speed." Let’s head to the Shooting event. While electronic targets are no longer new since it’s been used since the Beijing Olympics (2008), organizers are introducing an upgraded scoring system that re-places the acoustic system with laser technology. Radio-frequency identification tags will also be used to inform organizers where every weapon can be found any time of the day. As for weightlift-ing, audiences can easily watch the weightlifter’s every moment using a camera dolly. According to Eduardo Villanova, technological operations manager for
weightlifting of Rio 2016, "We will be able to capture full movements. Normally you need to take it from the side or from the front. We've got all angles covered.” Another sport with an interesting feature is archery. Rio 2016 will allow athletes and spectators to know the accurate details of where the arrows hit - with an accuracy of 0.2 mm. Another cool feature they’re adding? We get to check the athlete’s heart rates in real time. With all of these new features waiting to make Rio 2016 the best Olympic event yet, companies are ready to capture every important angle at different times. Getty Images, the official photo agency of Rio 2016, is planning to use a brand new technology involving robots to never miss the most important shots of the game. Expect a lot of cool photos and full 360 degree views videos and pictures - that will become “trending” in social media. Lastly, given today’s need
to merge technology that’s not only good in the advancement of hu-manity but also one that’s good for the environment. Rio 2016 is working with Atos, its official IT partner, that aims to minimize the carbon footprint of the event itself. The technology provided passed when it was tested for natural disasters and cyber security attacks. As Michele Hyron, the company’s chief integrator for Rio 2016, confidently said in an interview, “Our team is very well prepared.” With thousands of people flooding the games everyday and millions of fans waiting for updates all over the globe, there’s a lot of pressure for the people behind the games. Athletes are training harder for the last few days before the games officially starts and everybody else is waiting for the fun to start. Bets are already made and the most advanced technology were already set-up just to make this event the best one yet. Through engineering, the Olympics has made it possible for people all over the globe to connect easily.
Photo by: Rio 2016
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A TECH AND SOCIAL MEDIA PREVIEW OF THE RIO 2016 OLYMPICS By Cielo Panda
The Rio 2016 Olympic Games are just around the corner, and for us sports-loving, data gathering techies, it’s time to get our geek on. Here is a tech and social media preview of we can expect in the Rio 2016 Olympics. Social Media In the technological world we live in today, almost everything is connected to the internet and for us millennials— everyone is connected to social media. How many emails and
notifications do you receive on a daily basis? How many do you think a gigantic event like the Olympics would send and receive? Here’s an estimate, they have over 15,000 email accounts being created, 16,000 mobiles being provided, 15,000 landlines being used and over 16,000 walkie-talkies are on hand. The Olympic Games will certainly have intense communications. Aside from these, here’s
some social media trivia. Ever wondered which athletes have been talked about most on Twitter during last year’s Olympics? The Top 10 most tweeted about individuals last Olympics are: Usain Bolt, Michael Phelps, Tom Daley, Ryan Lochte, Gabby Douglas, Andy Murray, Kobe Byrant, Yohan Blake, Lee Chong Wei, and LeBron James. Every one of them received over 1 million tweets with Usain Bolt receiving over 74,000 tweets per minute for both his 100m and 200m sprints! Apps As for the tech that is going to be used in the event, spectators can expect secondscreen applications, which gives them the ability to see their favorite sports in a new way. This will be great for
spectators who love to see stats, since they will be able to see information about anyone participating in the event. They can also see previous record holders, and collect data. We will also see other apps such as 3D mapping; apps to increase the ‘Olympic experience’; performance tracking apps for athletes to help their muscular performance and reduce fatigue; and various high tech customer consumables. With all these in store, Rio Olympics 2016 is sure to be a tech-packed and awesome event that all sports-tech lovers around the world will enjoy. Photo by: Rio 2016 AUGUST 2016
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Photo by GettyImages
THE HOME OF THE RIO OLYMPIC GAMES 2016: THE MARACAÑA STADIUM The world’s best of the best players and athletes will gather in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil come August 5 for the opening of the Rio Olympic Games 2016. To prove might and athleticism, they will compete against each other, after vigorous training, and go after the coveted gold medals in the most prestigious sports event in the world. This year’s host city Rio will deliver the Games of the XXXI Olympiad until August 21.
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The opening and closing ceremonies will be celebrated in the largest stadium in South America found in Rio, which is the Estádio Jornalista Mário Filho, commonly called Estádio do Maracaña, or simply Maracaña stadium. This iconic stadium has been a majestic soccer temple that has been a go-to place for soccer fans especially in the region.
AUGUST 2016 Sports Engineering and Other Special Features
The Maracaña Stadium Constructed in August 1948 primarily for the 1950 World Cup, the Maracaña stadium is home of many of the greatest soccer achievements. According to its website, the stadium has hosted the largest audience in the history of soccer (Brazil - Paraguay, 1969, about 200 thousand people), the thousandth goal by Pelé (1969), the 1950 World Cup and the Pan American Games in 2007, in addition to unforgettable shows by names like Frank Sinatra, Madonna, Paul McCartney and the Rolling Stones.
Photo by grohe
since, the stadium was renovated a few more times to cater to the growing demand of soccer spectators and sports events. No wonder that this is the chosen location for the 2016 Olympics, as it has been revamped at its best form after being chosen to host the 2014 World Cup. As a result, the stadium’s bottom tier was rebuilt, the stadium had a new roof, and the capacity got to 79,000 seats.
Although opened in 1950, it wasn’t until 1965 that the full construction of the original project ended. Ever
Photo by trekity
It’s accessible to the capital city of Brazil. It lies towards the east of Rio, about 5 kilometers from downtown Rio. The stadium is also not so far from the beach areas, and only 12 kilometers north from Copacabana and Ipanema – a perfect setup if Olympics 2016 spectators want to take a dip.
Will you be joining the Rio 2016 event? Check out a preview of what you will be seeing inside the Maracaña Stadium.
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Getty Images’ 1.5 Million Photos Gameplan for The 2016 Rio Olympics
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AUGUST 2016 Sports Engineering and Other Special Features
We are done with the days where Getty Images would carry hundreds of canisters of film to Kodak to get them all developed. Being the Official Photographic Partner of the Games for more than 25 years now, Getty Images is up for some serious, not to mention faster, business of providing us the greatest moments in the 2016 Rio Olympics. Captured photos by this esteemed photo agency of the Games will be transmitted to the media clients within 120 seconds of the shot being taken, at least for the key moments. But photographers have committed to produce more than 3,000 images per day collectively, uploading them later to the Getty Images website. By the end of the Olympics, Getty Images targets to produce 1.5 million images from the event. Getty Images also installed 100 kilometers of fiber optic cables to connect all the venues to the Getty Images office housed at the Olympics press center. Moreover, part of Getty’s gameplan is to replicate the company’s executions during the London Games in 2012, including robotic cameras, which has full flexibility; and 3D and interactive format photography, which will enable readers to have an interactive 360-degree Olympics environment at the comforts of their own home. Photo by: gettyimages
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GADGETS YOU SHOULD BRING TO THE RIO 2016 OLYMPICS By Cielo Panda By now, there will be many who will be travelling to South America for the Rio 2016 Olympics which will begin in August 5, and will end on August 21, 2016. As a traveller who wants to witness this awesome worldwide event, one should always be prepared. Aside from clothes and necessities, what gadgets should one bring to this event?
Smartphone Basics first! It’s very important to have this on the top of your gadget list to bring along. It is an essential and important planning tool. The smartphone will be your major communication device, and it will also connect you to your favorite Social media apps like Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. After all, these social media apps are where most big news can be found nowadays—and the Olympics 2016 is definitely BIG news. Photo by CNet
Binoculars The Olympics is sure to be packed with action, and we’ll all want a closer glimpse. Getting tickets for the front row is difficult and really pricey, and some events happen in a large stadium wherein you can’t really see much up close no matter where you sit, so the best way to get a close sight of the event is by using a pair of binoculars. Photo by Amazon
Photo by TravelandLeisure
Camera Brazil is known for its colorful sceneries, eye-catching outfits and cheerful people. You’ll surely want to capture all of these aside from the Olympic events. Make sure to bring extra batteries and other accessories. Also, don’t forget to get a good camera case that’s easy to carry around while you’re sightseeing. Photo by DigitalPicture
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Electrical Adapter The official standard socket in Brazil is the type N socket and plug. In some parts of Brazil, an electrical outlet lets you use plugs with two round pins and also American-style plugs. Unfortunately, this isn’t common. So it’s important to get an adapter that will match the standard in Brazil. Photo by Amazon
VPN Connection In the United States, the only way to watch the Olympics is to see it on television and only customers with a cable subscription can use this service. To be able to bypass this restriction you can use a VPN service, like the Private Internet Access to create a proxy that will allow you to stream the games. Photo by Engadget
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Photo by: CBSNewYork
THE ENGINEERING BEHIND 2008 BEIJING OLYMPICS’ BIRD’S NEST
The Beijing National Stadium is more than meets the eye. There is an interesting engineering story behind this iconic landmark other than holding the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2008 Olympics Games, which went on from 8 August to 24 August. Called Bird’s Nest because of its architectural design of twisting steel webs as its roof, the stadium has become a landmark building with its superb qualities. It has a gross volume of 3 million cubic meters, which is now considered as the world’s largest enclosed space. The Beijing National Stadium is also dubbed as the world’s largest steel structure having 26 kilometers of unwrapped steel used in construction. But before the stadium got to its feats, the overall design was a struggle. Its designers, Herzog & De Meuron Architekten, Arup Sport and the China Architecture Design
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and Research Group, took quite a while before realizing the perfect design to put Beijing’s holding of the 2008 Olympics on the map. As seen now, the 91,000-seat stadium boasts of the Chinese art and culture. It can be seen through its enormous saddleshaped elliptic steel main structure, weighing 42,000 tons. The circular shape of the stadium is said to represent heaven but changed to a bird’s nest instead with an inspiration from Chinese-style crazed pottery. Other than the stadium’s aesthetic, the designers focused on optimum Olympic viewing experience by laying out comfortable seats and strategized placement for the spectators. The audience are properly shaded too with the series of cantilevered trusses that also support the roof. Seismic provisions, which is a design able to withstand earthquakes, are also noted
Photo by: China Daily
Photo by: SmithsonianMag
by the designers since the stadium stands along an active seismic zone. Being an Olympic stadium, Bird’s Nest had to conform to a lot of sports standards. It followed track widths, location of the long and high jump pits, and of course the football field, as set by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the International Amateur Athletics Federation (IAAF). Moreover, the 8,000-square meter football field has enough space for the underground pipes of the geothermal heat pump (GHP) system, which enables collection of ground-source energy. In winter, the system absorbs the heat from the soil and helps heating the stadium, while in summer the coldness from the soil is stored which cools the stadium. Not only that, there is a technology in the Beijing National Stadium called computational fluid dynamics which calculates temperature and airflow speed at each angle of the structure. This system is used to optimize ventilation facilities accordingly. All these are a product of requirements from the National Stadium Company to create a bold, stand-out, world-class stadium that can are built with flexibility for other use.
Photo by: AllPostersImages
The stadium extends 333 meters from north to south and 294 meters from east to west, standing 69.2 meters. Its construction began in December 2003 by the Beijing Mechanical Construction Company for earthwork and foundation, with CITIC Internationals Contracting Inc as the major construction contractor. The sports arena was finished early in 2008. The entire construction of the National Stadium entailed US$ 396.1 million, which 42% was raised by the China International Trust and Investment Corporation (CITIC) consortium and the remaining 58% by the Beijing Municipal Government.
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VISA UNVEILS THE RIO OLYMPIC RING It might be a hassle for some athletes to bring a lot of extra baggage when they’re at the venue for the Rio Olympics coming August 2016. Bringing a wallet or a purse isn’t exactly an option especially when you have all your training goods packed in your bag and there’s really no more room to fit anything else in. And when you’ve finished training and just want to buy something to fill your stomach or a cool drink to quench your thirst. This is where Visa’s new NFC ring comes into play.
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With the Near Field Communication technology, athletes only need to bring the ring and nothing else to pay for any merchandise they need during the 2016 Rio Olympics. A ring is very small and compact and is also the universal symbol of the Olympics which is why Visa chose to unveil the technology on this perfect event.
Photo by: Metro UK
Engineered Textile Made for Rowers in 2016 Rio Olympics Might be Life-Savers By Dion Gteg Reyes
With researchers finding drugresistant bacteria in the host city of the 2016 Olympics, some of the world’s best athletes convening in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil are exposed to a level of risk. To answer this, a textile engineer from Philadelphia University developed anti-microbial suits as an extra measure of safety. Mark Sunderland will perhaps save a few athletes with his ingenious design. He created a unisuit for rowers that will not hamper the athlete’s performance being lightweight and seamless. The suit has an anti-microbial finish, knitted into the suits. Producing such textile doesn’t produce more than one gram of waste, making this an eco-friendly garment.
The provider of these special unisuits is Philadelphia-based Boathouse Sports, whose founder is former Olympic rower John Strotbeck III. Among the first to try and fit this suit is Chierika Ukogo, who was born in the said state and will compete as Nigeria’s first ever Olympic rower. She describes the suits to be perfectly fit that she ‘can’t even feel it.’ She will wear the green suit. The blue and white unisuits will be worn by athletes coming from the United States. Its maker warned though that this shouldn’t be treated as a medical device, and just an added layer of protection to the rowers.
Photos by Unitsuit3
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THIS LED EMBEDDED JUMP ROPE ENHANCES YOUR WORKOUT the users. In the United States, this jump rope costs $89.99. If you wish to have other colors: Gold, Black, and Chrome, you can purchase them directly from the Tangram website and Best Buy.
Photos by Nordicsemi
Add some tech into your cardio workout with this awesome new gadget—the Tangram Smart Rope. This rope uses magnetic sensors which are attached to ball bearings in the handle to count each of your jumps. In turn, it sends this information to its pair Smart Gym Pro app on your iPhone or Apple Watch. This jump rope also has 23 embedded LEDS on the rope itself which flashes a thousand times per minute to create an animated effect in mid-air while working out. The Smart Rope can be bought at Apple retail and online stores, and will be available in white color. It has four sizes: S, M, L, XL, so it will meet varying heights of
Photos by youtube
Photos by TheGrommet
Photo by: SurfReport
THIS POOL GIVES SURFERS THE PERFECT WAVES
Photo by: Surfermag
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AUGUST 2016 Sports Engineering and Other Special Features
If you’re a surfer, you’d always want to search for the beaches with the perfect waves. Finding one is a surfer’s dream come true but one doesn’t always get it. Even if they expect to get one in a specific season and sometimes they end up feeling disappointed when it doesn’t happen. So world surfing champion, Kelly Slater, decided to take matters into his own hands. For ten years, he and his team has developed a man-made wave pool to give him the perfect wave he needs to show off his awesome surfing skills. According to Slater, this
wave pool wouldn’t be possible to create if they attempted to a few years ago. However, no one really knows where his company, Kelly Slater Wave Company, built this wave pool. The only idea people have is that it’s 100 miles from the coast in an undisclosed location. No need to search for the perfect waves or check the weather reports with this one. With the perfect weather and wind direction, Slater and his team can surf anytime they want. But that’s the thing: only he and a chosen few know where it is.
ENGINEERED: THE TOP 9 BALLS IN SPORTS By Dion Gteg Reyes People love to play a lot with balls. That’s an unintended pun, but that statement is true being a huge majority of the sports involve balls. There’s not a day in sports channels that the word ball is not mentioned because sports and games involving such are that prevalent. Although popularity of such ball sports varies from country to country, here are 9, in an arguable order, of the most widely used balls in the world of sports: Volleyball It is that sport that is one of the most anticipated especially in the Olympics. Famous brands for volleyballs are Tachikara, Molten and Mikasa, which are made of rubber bladder, cloth layer, and leather panels in its inner, second, and outer layers respectively. It approximately weighs 10 oz. with a 25.6 to 26.4 diameter. The Cricket Ball Made from a core of cork, with a layer of tightly wound string and a cover of leather, the cricket ball is a more solid version of the baseball. The most popular cricket ball is that of Kookaburra, which produces different sizes of cricket balls according to age and gender. Ping Pong Ball Ping pong balls or table tennis balls are filled with air that smells like the material celluloid, which is a colorless flammable material composed of nitrocellulose and camphor. This explains why this ball, among the smallest in sports, can easily be burned. Golf Ball This ball is one of the few balls that has evolved over the years. Originally, it is composed of wood, which was in the 17th century. It is now made of titanium compounds and hybrid materials, with a mass no more than 1.62 oz. Football Often attributed as American football, this sport has a nonspherical ball made of leather. It is actually a prolate spheroid. Such is used with the related sports Rugby and Australian football.
Basketball Usually Molten, Spalding, Wilson or Baden, basketballs are made of synthetic rubber, real rubber or leather. Its inside has a bladder, which is a balloon-like structure that holds air, and the carcass. The former is made of butyl rubber while the latter consists of treads of nylon and polyester. Its circumference varies from 72-74 cm for women and 75-76 for men. Tennis Ball This ball is covered with felt made from nylon and wool with pressurized gas on the inside. It is a hollow, twopiece rubber shell, usually 2.5 inches in diameter and fluorescent yellow. The first tennis balls were composed of leather and cloth filled with rags or horsehair. The Baseball Used for the sport baseball, obviously, the baseball features a rubber of cork center, with a yarn wrap. According to the official baseball rules, it should have the two strips of white horsehide or cowhide, tightly stitched together. It is approximately 9 to 9.25 inches. The Soccer Ball Perhaps the most famous among these balls, the soccer ball is composed of multiple layers of lining of polyester or cotton blend. This gives the ball its strength, structure and bounce. There is also a bladder inside the ball holding the air, made of latex rubber or butyl. Soccer balls are among those that have most evolved. Photos by askaboutsports
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CAN COCONUT WATER REPLACE SPORTS ENERGY DRINKS?
Photo by Mercola
Most athletes and busy people like engineers, nurses, and even students rely on sports energy drinks to be able to be productive in their routines. Unfortunately, while sports energy drinks do work, they are artificial. So is there a more natural alternative for energy drinks? Yes—Coconut water. Pure coconut water is loaded
with lots of electrolytes, like sodium which is the one that is most lost from our body when we sweat. According to a study published in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, coconut water replenishes our bodily fluids just as well as sports drinks and even better than water. It is only the flavor of the sports drinks that attracts the masses.
According to sports nutritionist Nancy Clark, MS, RD and author of Nancy Clarks Sports Nutrition Guidebook, coconut water won’t rehydrate the body unless you can drink plenty of it. If one can tolerate large amounts of this, it could help in keeping you hydrated.
Photo by SBsportlive
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AUGUST 2016 Sports Engineering and Other Special Features
THE ONLY SHOE ENGINEERED TO WRAP AND FIT ANY FEET If you want to get your friends or family member a shoe as a gift but doesn’t know his or her shoe size, it doesn’t matter if you just buy this athletic footwear suited to any kind of feet. And we have a Japanese designer and Italian shoemaker to thank for it. The Furoshiki series, created by Masaya Hashimoto with Vibram, is a shoe collection that features soles that wrap anyone’s feet like a burrito. It folds around the feet without a need for laces, with the upper constructed with stretch fabric. Its simple hook and loop system allows for a quick, easy fit, flexible to any size of feet. The innovative shoes are lightweight, also providing comfort on any surface with the unique design of the sole.
This might be the perfect footwear for travelers who will find this easy to pack and will already skip wearing socks to their comfort. Fashion wise, it wouldn’t be a problem as well because of the wide variety of designs in the collection. Vibram explained that this concept is derived from the Japanese custom of packaging items by wrapping them in cloth fabric. The company thought of using the same system to the feet, making the Furoshiki the first and only sole on the market that wraps around the entire foot. Photo by: Vibram
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Photo by scoop
EQUIMÈTRE: A WEARABLE DEVICE TO MONITOR RACEHORSES' HEALTH Horse-racing is a dangerous sport. There are more than 150 horses in UK are killed each year, and thousands are injured. In the US, around 500 are killed every year. With this in mind, Arioneo—a start up in Paris, France has developed a wearable device that monitors the health of the horses during a race. The new device is called Equimètre, and it is designed to reduce the number of fatalities as well as prevent injury. This will also help trainers to monitor the horse’s performance. The devices sensor fits into the horse’s girth. It records physiological data like temperature and heart
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rate, as well as respiratory rate and the animal’s acceleration and speed. The Equimètre monitors other environmental conditions like humidity, and the trainer can check all these through an app. There are already existing racehorse smart devices that do this. But Equimètre runs the data through algorithms which compare them with past performance data. “A trainer’s eye is very important and we do not want to replace their expertise,” says Valentin Rapin, the Arioneo co-founder “but this tool will give trainers information they don’t have today.”
NIKE'S BEST SHOES EVER! Almost 30 years ago, after Back to the Future became a box office success, its producers approached Nike Inc. innovator Tinker Hatfield to create a futuristic pair of sneakers for the second installment in the trilogy, which resulted in what is now a pop culture icon. Over 15 years later, Nike released 1,500 replicas of the shoes. They lit up, but didn’t lace. Last year however, on the date that
Doc Brown and Marty McFly traveled to the future to in the movie – 21 October 2015 – Nike sent actor Michael J. Fox a pair of actual selflacing sneakers, which must have been a massive blast from the past. Since then, Nike has been teasing a commercial release of the self-lacing pair-- the Nike HyperAdapt 1.0. It has lights, a futuristic design, and – wait for it – the laces tighten when your heel hits a sensor inside the shoe. The
awesome Nike HyperAdapt 1.0 will be available ONLY to members of Nike + beginning Holiday 2016 in three colors. The current design has buttons on the side that lets you adjust the tightness of the shoe, but Hatfield is promising that in the future, the shoe itself will know if you need it tight or with a little wiggle room. Hold on to your pink hoverboards, people, your shoes are about to get way smarter. Photo by: complex
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ENGINEERING STUDENTS INVENT AUTOMOBILE FOR COMPETITION Photo by TheNational
Engineering students from universities all over the world will gather at Rochester, New York to show their design and engineering skills in the 40th Annual Mini Baja Competition. For the first time, 25 student from the School of Engineering will be representing Fairfield at the event.
hill climbs, finish four hour endurance tests and other strenuous events.
This competition is run by the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE). It will test each team’s mini baja, a dune buggy-like vehicle. The bajas will be tested on their capability to get through
Building these cars are not only difficult, but are pricey as well. Building a mini baja would cost around $10,000. Luckily for the team members, the University agreed to cover the costs.
The SAE is a globally active professional association and standards organization for engineering professionals in different industries ranging from aerospace, automotive and also commercial vehicles.
Photo by LSU
Photo by UAEInteract
GLOBAL HYBRID ELECTRIC CAR CHALLENGE FEATURES STUDENTS' CREATIONS A 300-kilometer race track tested the abilities of student-built electric cars in the Global Hybrid Electric Car Challenge held at Al Forsan International Sports Resort, Abu Dhabi. Students who came from UAE, Egypt, Kuwait and Qatar universities joined the competition with hopes of winning and launching their careers as engineers and car enthusiasts. Racers were required to design their vehicle by only using US$6,000 and more than the speed, the efficiency of the cars were tested. UAEU Electrical Engineering student Alaaddin Al Khuzai said in an interview that to get the edge, and to get a leg-up on the competition, they’ve decided to make
Photo by NIUToday 40
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their build as lightweight as possible. While some teams installed generators to supplement the energy used while moving and chose energy efficiency over weight, some teams opted to put them in several pit stops. Last 2015, the first place in the race was awarded to an all-female team from Qatar University. Event director Dr. Fahad Almaskari believes that in doing the race, students are receiving support to develop solutions for the next generation of electric cars. He also said that it is an exciting opportunity to not only build innovation capacity across the Middle East but also to invest in a sustainable future for the youth.
THIS ROBOT CAN BEAT YOU AT BADMINTON A group of students and professors from the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China developed a robot that can play the sport badminton just like any amateur player. This robot uses cameras, motion sensors and a special navigation system. It was named the Robomintoner, and was created for competition. The UESTC team was given a task to create a badminton-playing bot for
the Asia-Pacific Robocon 2015, wherein the robots would compete against each other in doubles matches. According to Huang Xi, a student from the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, "We were the only team who made this robot fullyautomated. We are in the business of making clever devices. We might as well make it fully intelligent,"
This robot has become very popular in China. It played ceremonial matches against Dong Jiong, an Olympic medal winning badminton player. Recently, it competed against table tennis champion Wang Liqin. Photo by prog3
NEUROSTIMULATING HEADPHONES IMPROVES ATHLETES’ TRAINING Dan Chao, cofounder and CEO of startup Halo Neuroscience, released neurostimulating headphones called “Halo Sport”. The arch of these headphones contain two electrodes that deliver a very small amount of electric current to the user’s head, aimed at the neurons in the motor cortex, which the brain region that coordinates movement. This mild stimulation is called transcranial direct
current stimulation. It makes it “slightly easier for the neurons to fire,” Chao said. Theoretically, this should cause them to form more new connections. According to Chao, the company’s research data suggests this effect can be used to help athletes to get more out of their training.
more or less likely to fire, and have produced some promising evidence that this technology could be used to help improve cognition, aid in stroke recovery, and improve motor skills. Photo by technologyReview
Research shows that such mild stimulations can indeed make neurons
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THE WORLD'S FIRST 'HUMAN ARTIFICIAL GILLS', A FAUX?
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Triton is an 'oxygen respirator that allows its users to breathe underwater for up to 45 minutes at a maximum depth of 15 feet' developed by Korean designer Jeabyun Yeon. With a fully charged battery, it promises a supply of breathable air without the need to resurface from the water. It is suppose to work because of the microporous hollow fiber (MPHF, with thread holes smaller than the molecules of the water) built inside the apparatus. The MPHF, together with a micro compressor allows the oxygen molecules to be extracted and remain inside while the water molecules go out.
air displaced between an inhale and exhale action of the lungs, an average human breathes about 500 milliliters of air per breathe-with 5% of the pure oxygen being absorbed by the body (air is 21% oxygen when inhaled, and 16% when exhaled). That 5% oxygen would be 25 milliliters (which is also 0.0011 mol or 35.52 milligrams by stoichiometry) of oxygen gas. To obtain that, Triton would need to work on a hundred percent efficiency and filter about 6 liters of well-oxygenated surface ocean water per breathe. But how many breathes would a person need to take per dive?
However skeptics can't help but raise a lot of questions regarding this 'concept gadget'. Let's just say that based on the volume of
If an average swimmer would take 15 breathes per minute, that would leave the Triton with 90 L (almost 24 gallons) of filtered
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water just to supply the amount of oxygen needed. How can that much water go through and out the gadget by just relying on the swimming and suction? No, definitely a pump way bigger than the Triton would be needed to do that. Yeon's vision is good, but unless a nanopump or nanoopen-circuit Scuba system and closed-circuit nanorebreather is developed and incorporated inside the Triton, it is impossible to generate that much of oxygen, air at a right amount of pressure into its users.
Photo by: indiegogo
Photo by: Arstechnica
‘BONER KAYAK’ SOUNDS LIKE AN EXCITING RIDE, AND IT ACTUALLY IS
It is highly likely that there won’t be ads for the Boner Kayak in the English-speaking world at least for the foreseeable future. Nonetheless, you’ve got to admit that it is a beautiful kayak. The design is sweet enough to appeal to any kayak enthusiast irrespective of the language barrier or the unusual name. The Boner Kayak is the creation of one Hans Boner, a Swiss inventor. However, once you take a look at the kayak, the name will be the last thing in your mind. It features a modular design that allows the kayak to be broken down into 3 parts. These pieces can be slotted together to make it easier to carry. Broken down, the kayak can be stuffed inside
the backseat of your car. No more do you have to indulge in a bit of exercise trying to get the damn kayak attached to the roof of the car. Of course, modular kayaks by themselves are nothing out of the ordinary. There are quite a few of them these days. However, what makes the Boner Kayak stand out is that it eschews plastic, the popular construction material for modular kayaks. Instead, it opts for fiberglass and wood. That makes the kayak look like a classy work of art when floating across the waters. When assembled, the kayak will give you a high seat along with a comfortable support for the knees.
There are even foot rests that can be adjusted as per your needs. Pretty nifty, right? You even get locking hatches to store items. The storage in front has a capacity of 55 liters and 75 liters in the one at the back. Quite useful for those tranquil overnight trips. When broken down, you can use the wheel attachment provided to carry it wherever you want, even to the very edge of the waters. Moreover, it can be assembled in just 3 minutes without any tools whatsoever. Kayaking is now extra convenient because of this innovation. Photo by: woodz
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MASTER’S STUDENT INVENTS MONITORING SYSTEM FOR CAMELS Camel racing has been a part of UAE’s rich heritage and sports history. It is considered to be cultural tradition across their lands for centuries. The sport, similar to horse racing, is an event for betting and is also a tourist attraction. But despite the sport’s popularity, Saeed Alnofeli, a Master’s student from the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology believes that there are some aspects of the sport that need improvement. “I found some challenges in the camel racing industry, including a poor understanding of the camel’s health and how to improve camels’ racing performance, which is what motivated my research,” Alnofeli said. By incorporating the latest technological advances in
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computer science and signal processing in his research, Alnofeli was able to create a camel monitoring system. Knowing the potential commercial applications of Alnofeli’s innovation, Masdar Institute has filed a provisional patent with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) for the innovative camel monitoring system. This invention was based on Alnofeli’s thesis research entitled “Customer Driven Product Development Process for Camel Monitoring System.” The research focuses on optimizing monitoring systems for camel training, which can help improve camel training and racing.
Photo by: Wamda
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BOXING GETS ENGINEERED WITH THIS WEARABLE SENSOR If you’ve ever been inside a boxing gym, you’ll see athletes training in a whole lot of ways. Some might be hitting the bags while some might be sparring up in the ring but did do you know that all that training is planned in a room far from all those equipment? Coaches plan training regimens by watching how their athletes fight and what better way to do that than in the video room. Hours and hours are spent in this room to study how their fighters could improve on specific fields. This is what drove Hykso into creating a sensor that does all that. Hykso gather’s data from a fighter’s punches like speed,
frequency, and accuracy which could help in formulating a regimen to create an optimal training experience for the winning condition. There are some factors like “time between attacks” that can be measured accurately with Hysko and could determine a win or lose situation. Fighters in the Rio Olympics are already using the technology to drive results for the fight ahead.
Photo by: Hykso
THE LARGEST SPORTS ARENA IN THE WORLD IS IN NORTH KOREA
It’s common knowledge that North Korea is the kind of Korea that is way too exclusive, that there is little knowledge on the whereabouts of the country including its engineering and architectural state. But when one has gained access of the country through city tours, one can appreciate the superb infrastructure and tall buildings, including the sports arena that is considered to be the largest in the world in terms of capacity. The May Day Stadium is indeed one of North Korea’s hidden gems. Built in 1989 as a response to Seoul’s Olympic Stadium with their then conflict, it emerged as the country’s host of many soccer matches, athletic competitions, and the famous annual Arirang, or Mass Games, events. This is where the North Koreans also perform gymnastics and colorful dance performances while on the bleachers.
Photo by BusinessInsider
History was made in this arena for having the largest pay-perview event for professional wrestling way back in 1995. Notably, it also was the stage of a public execution of generals plotting against dictator Kim Jong Il in 1992. It took two and a half years for this arena to be completed, in time for the 13th World Festival of Youth and Students. But in 2014, it was remodelled to optimize its use.
Photo by flickr
Photo by Listabuzz
This national stadium of North Korea, found in Pyongyang that lies adjacent the Taedong River, can accommodate up to 150,000 people seated. Its total floor space is over 200,000 square meters, with an exterior that resembles that of a parachute or a magnolia flower – depending on perspective. But it’s intended to be the said flower with 16 petals, each of which are all steel covering 60 meters inside the stadium and 40 meters out. The roof covers 94,000 square meters, doubling the figure of the previous record holder King Fahd Stadium in Riyadh. This stadium wouldn’t be standing now if it weren’t for the leadership of Kim II Sung, who led the country from 1972 to 1994. Performances are held every Arirang ceremony to pay tribute to its country’s founder.
Photo by: Telegraph
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Cool Hi-Tech Jet For The Rich Athlete
When you’re filthy rich, you get to travel in style. First class seats and hi-tech modes of transportations are made available in just a snap of your finger. That’s exactly how famous athletes live their lives for sure. Now, a Russian company has made it available for athletes to fly in this new hi-tech jet! Sukhoi, an aircraft company, is giving athletes the option to fly first class in its latest jet, the SportJet. Of course it will be every athlete’s dream to fly in it. Why? Because it allows them to
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train while they’re flying on the way to their next game. The public can get a glimpse of the hi-tech jet during the Rio Olympics. The jet provides its users equipment to train while other equipment are available for data and analysis of the players. Four different zones are also present in the jet: a zone for coaches, players, the medical team and the staff. Aside from gadgets available for the players in each seat,
AUGUST 2016 Sports Engineering and Other Special Features
there’s also a massage table, a 4K resolution screen and a smart toilet available. The jet can also make a team feel at home since it can change colors depending on the team’s color and individualized seats with their respective numbers. Sukhoi plans to start production of SportJet by 2017 and make it available for the rich athletes by 2018. The company wants Russian teams to be its first customers.
Photo by: Sukhoi Via Sport Techie
MERCEDESBENZ UNVEILS HIGH TECH, SPORTS CARINSPIRED GOLF CART
If you want to drive around the golf course in style and have the cash for it, then this may be for you. Mercedes-Benz has unveiled a hightech golf cart that looks similar to a sports car! 3 years ago, they asked fans to submit ideas for a “golf cart of the future”, and this futuristic golf cart has been the company’s response. This golf cart was designed by the automaker and its project partner, golf cart designer Garia. The cart has a 10.1 inch tablet installed, which displays its current speed and power consumption, as well as the controls of the vehicle. You can tap on the screen to change driving modes, wherein you can choose between sport or eco. You can also switch the headlights, heater, AC and wipers with the tablet. It also displays your vehicle's position on the app of the golf course and provides you access to different programs like weather apps. Other than the tablet, the golf cart also has integrated Hi-Fi Bluetooth speakers and a fridge. In the future, Mercedes intends to add smartphone integration to their futuristic golf cart. Photo by: Ecomento
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Photo by: Tissot
NBA GETS NEW LED SHOT CLOCK 48
AUGUST 2016 Sports Engineering and Other Special Features
If there’s anything about the NBA that has been left behind despite it being the leader in digital technologies in major pro leagues, it is the shot clock. But now that is also about to change. In collaboration with Swiss watchmaker Tissot, the NBA shot clock will have a major upgrade. It will now be made of transparent LED glass which will enable those seated behind the shot clock to watch the game unimpeded. Although the new shot clock looks a little too
fragile, it has been tested to be durable during dunks and hard hits. A spare shot clock is ready in cases it will be broken. This technology comes with an automatic data transfer to any location in the area, like the video board, press box, or broadcast trucks. All NBA arenas will have the exact same shot clock, a first in the league. Eighty-seven shot clocks will be issued to the NBA stadium with three for each.
THIS AI PERSONAL TRAINER HELPS YOU BE A BETTER RUNNER
Did you want to become a runner just to get fit and healthy? You might be one now but would you prefer to have a trainer to help you achieve your running goals? There’s a new artificial intelligence program that’s designed to be your personal trainer! Get ready for Vi. It’s a Kickstarter campaign that aimed to reach a goal of $100,000 and surprisingly, it reached that amount in just 90 minutes as soon as it was introduced last June. The money raised for the project was even doubled in just 24 hours after the campaign started. Just goes to show that people are eager to have their own personal trainer. So what does one get in this AI personal trainer? It has real-time insights and can guide you throughout your workout. It even motivates you to improve and do better. Vi recognizes commands and questions as well - responding to questions such as “how’s my heart rate?” The personal trainer was designed to be sweat proof and non-slip so that you don’t have to worry about losing it along the way.
Photos by Sport Techie
While it is still recommended for runners, the developers are currently working on making it available for swimmers and bikers. Vi is developed by LifeBEAM, a wearable tech company that has clients like NASA and US Air Force. AUGUST 2016 Sports Engineering and Other Special Features
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THE PHYSICS BEHIND THESE AMAZING FOOTBALL CURLS Photo by: benditsoccer
By Dion Gteg Reyes
Avid football fans distinguish Beckham and Maradona with their curls on the inside of the soccer cleat. There are also Eder, Nelinho, and Roberto Carlos with their curls on the outside. These impressive curls are what we call in physics as the Magnus Effect. Not air bending. The Magnus Effect is so called after the scientist, German physicist and chemist Heinrich Gustav Magnus, who discovered it in a laboratory through an experiment in 1853. It is the sideforce on a sphere that is both rotating and moving forward, diverting its directions from its principal flight path. An object, in this case the football, spinning through a fluid stays away from its straight path when there are pressure differences developed from the changing velocity caused by the spinning body. This effect is best explained by a topic in fluid mechanics called the Bernoulli’s theorem, which states that fluid pressure decreases at points where the speed of the fluid increases. Such explains why a
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spinning football drags some of the air around with it. Imagine this explanation from the view of the football: there is air rushing on all sides, but on different directions. The drag of the side of the ball turning into the air slows downs the airflow; while the other side speeds up the airflow. When a soccer player kicks the ball the right, the ball spins counter-clockwise with the Magnus effect acting left, thus curving also left, and vice versa. This causes a deviation several feet from the original trajectory. This creates the spin or the curl that famous footballers have mastered over time, which goes to their score card. The football players use this air-bending skill to score as this is less predictable for the goalie to act upon. Of course this isn’t exclusive to only soccer football but to other ball games as well.
AUGUST 2016 Sports Engineering and Other Special Features
BAT PERFORMANCE IN BASEBALL AND SOFTBALL CAN BE ENGINEERED By Dion Gteg Reyes Most sports haven’t essentially changed over the years. Standards are always as they were when the sport started, and such is the case in baseball and softball. The bat and the ball have been the same, which enabled the field of engineering make better understandings of the relationship between the bat and the ball. Further, this has lead to better bat performance. Yup, bat performance in baseball and softball can be engineered. There are two ways that this can be measured: elasticity and stiffness. Both are dependent on repeated tests. Every time a ball is in a play, there are three important factors to be considered to in measuring bat performance. They are the speed of the pitch (vp), the speed of the bat (vb), and the collision efficiency (ea). The collision efficient is readily computed as the ratio of the ball’s rebound speed to the ball’s inbound speed.
Photo by: usatoday
Given these three factors, the speed of a hit ball in play can be computed using the following formula, which will set as the standard in comparing tests: vh = vp ea + vb (1 + ea). This is one measure of the accuracy of baseball and softball players. There are digital models that simplify bat performance, which further ranks the players according to their accuracies. Moreover, this serves as basis in studying the opponent’s abilities as batters and pitchers. Who says baseball and softball are sports that are merely miss and hit?
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5 AWESOME GADGETS TO IMPROVE YOUR SPORTS GAME By Cielo Panda Technology has been constantly improving in the field of sports engineering. To be able to help create better athletes, sports tech has evolved from evershrinking sensors to deep learning gadgets. Here, we present to you five sport gadgets according to TIME that can give you data to help you raise your game.
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Adidas MiCoach Smart Ball
This is more than just an average ball, it is a training device that connects to smartphones and tablets to give you tutorials to help you master the pitch. It generates various data like how hard the ball was struck, impact points, and even the spin. Photo by: Bless This Stuff
FWD Powershot
This is a Bluetooth-connected hockey stick-topping sensor that can calculate the speed of the stick, its swing angle, weight transfer and other helpful analytics. It’s Android and iOS-compatible and it easily slips inside the top of a stick’s shaft. It’s only 35 grams, so the weight is more or less negligible. It can remember 5,000 shots so better get’em. Photo by: Creativitech
Game Golf Live
This golf shot-tracking system will surely make your game of golf more enjoyable. It captures your stats in real-time. It is Android and iOS compatible. It consists of a waistband worn tracking device and 18 NFC tags for inserting into the handle of your club. With this, you can measure fairway accuracy and shot dispersion, calculate club performance, and you’ll be able to count putts as well. Photo by: Golf Week
Jolt Sensor
This is very useful for sports that could lead to brain injuries like tackle football. This sensor can be clipped onto a headband or tucked into a helmet and synced with Android or iOS apps via Bluetooth to monitor strong hits. It has a range of up to 200 yards, so worried parents and coaches can keep track of their player’s health. Photo by: Hit Consultant
Peloton Bike
This is a web-connected stationary bike that you’ll surely want to use for your cardio sessions. It has a 21.5 inch HD touchscreen, Wi-Fi, and a neodymium rare earth magnet resistance system. This can connect you to different live classes or archived workouts to push you to your limits— and you won’t have to leave home. Photo by: Lulu and Lattes AUGUST 2016 Sports Engineering and Other Special Features
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Which Type of Sports Drink Should You Buy? Of course we are all re familiar with Powerade, Gatorade, Monster, and Red Bull as sports drinks that enhance endurance and strength for physical activities as they put it on their commercials. While they all belong to one category as sports drinks, there are actually three kinds of sports drinks engineered with different levels of carbohydrates. Such are hypotonic, isotonic and hypertonic drinks. Isotonic drinks Isotonic drinks are drinks that generally contain between 4g and 8g of sugar per 100 ml, and have about the same osmotic pressure as bodily fluids. An isotonic drink is taken up by the body about as quickly as water, and is perfect to quench thirst and provide energy just as equally. This is the drink for those who play endurance sports. Photo by SportSister
Hypertonic drinks Hypotonic drinks This contains less than 4g of sugar (carbohydrates) per 100 ml, with low osmotic pressure. Hypotonic drinks are primarily to quench thirst, giving athletes very little energy. This is ideal for recreational sports that are not so strenuous. Photo by BiotechUSA
Among the three, hypertonic drinks contain the most sugar which is more than 8g per 100 ml. This also has greater osmotic pressure, which are higher than bodily fluids. The main purpose of this kind of drink is to supply energy rather than quench thirst, which only comes secondary. Hypertonic drinks are ideally taken 30 to 60 before sports/training/exertion and immediately after such. This will also work for less strenuous but long duration exertions like studying, driving, gaming, etc. Photo by BevIndustry
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Photo by 5-a-side
Here is a graphic explanation by 5-a-side to understand better the three kinds of sports drinks.
THESE BROTHERS BUILT A ROBOT TO TEACH PEOPLE HOW TO PLAY PING PONG The Chen brothers were competitive when it came to ping pong. Playing the game at a very young age, Alexander and Harrison were able to master each other’s moves and eventually became really good at the game. However, both had to move away to study in different places and found it difficult to find someone who had the same passion that they had for the sport. So they decided to build a robot that can turn casual ping pong players to pros! They first started out with a prototype made out of a garbage can. Every summer and winter breaks, they used what they learned in college to improve the robot they’re working on. On their 8th and final prototype, they have seemed for the Kickstarter community to help them produce and sell their Trainerbot to the public.
Trainerbot is an app-enabled ping pong robot and can help anyone boost their skills in playing ping pong. It’s compatible with Android or iOS devices so anyone has access to this device. Players can play it anywhere - from their own homes to their offices (during break time of course). It really wouldn’t be a problem carrying it around since it is only 1.2kg and has a travel-size dimensions of 16x32cm. It only costs $329 - with 1 unit, 30 ping pong balls and 1 power supply. The Chen brothers aimed to reach its $80k goal and plans to produce the first batch of units by the end of the years. People seem to love the idea of a robot teaching them how to play ping pong. Over $218k was raised! The backers of the project will be receiving their units in February and March 2017.
Photos by: Trainerbot Via Kickstarter
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Photo by Hello Giggles
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Photo by: Trainerbot Via Kickstarter
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COMPUTERS WILL WRITE MINOR LEAGUE GAMES NEWS SOON Baseball game writers may be in danger of losing their jobs when computers will do the writing for big companies. The Associated Press has recently announced that stories written about the minor league games will be written by computers with the help of natural language algorithm company, Automated Insights. The data these computers will use will be coming from the information given by the Major League Baseball Advanced Media (MLBAM). With the help of this technology, around 142 uncovered teams will be able to enjoy a little publicity from this coverage. As expected, the stories written will be very straightforward but it gets the job done. Unlike humans, these computer-written stories don’t have the sarcasm, the wit and the humor
human writers can give to make a story enjoyable. As for the other sports, these computers may have a hard time writing them since computers rely completely on the data which isn’t exactly easy to get from other games. Baseball is a data-driven game, which makes it possible for computers to write the stories. For the other sports writers out there, you don’t have to worry about losing your jobs to machines. These computers are not as advanced as we expect them to be. Also, we believe that people would still prefer a news article with a little bit of a commentary on the side.
Photo by qz.com
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How Has Technology Changed The Sports Industry Technology has played an important role in shaping our lives and improving every industry present at the moment. When you look at it, technology has opened new doors and made way for new industries to operate in our society. From business to sports, there’s always something engineers have contributed that provided us with the technology to help us live more efficiently. Now, let’s focus on sports. How has technology shaped today’s athletes? From a more detailed assessment on an athlete’s body to gadgets that allow them to move faster and play better, technology is important in today’s sports industry. These are the ways technology changed the sports industry. With the 2016 Olympics in Rio coming up very soon, more people are excited to watch the games because of the coverage social media can offer to us. Facebook, Twitter and even Instagram can update us on who’s winning and what games are coming up. Everybody can easily replay the games and save it for later viewing.
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As for the athletes, they can easily reach out to their fans and ask for their support. These athletes can easily connect with their audience, so big companies can easily hire them to endorse their brands. That’s the impact social media has on the sports industry. Everything’s easier to achieve: connection and coverage. Another way technology played a huge role in today’s sports industry is the ticket-buying. In the past, sports fans have to endure long lines outside stadiums just to buy tickets for their favorite games. Now, you can easily buy one online. With just a few clicks on your desktop or mobile phones, you are now ready for the best game you’ll ever see. Lastly, technology has shaped the way athletes are being trained now. This involves the consideration of their safety and welfare. Trainers use the latest gadgets available to improve any athletes’ skill. Every now and then, when an athlete gets into an accident, today’s technology has the right tools to help them heal from it and maybe even help them improve their abilities to become the very best in the game. Photo by De-Facto
Practice, Practice, Practice: The Secret to Efficient Engineering Problem Solving When you are already faced with the exam with utmost practice up your sleeves, you wouldn’t have a hard time finishing it, even getting a high score. Familiarity of the problems presented is key, paired with the speed in solving and the ability to work with a calculator. And all of that can be done through practice, practice, practice.
Photo by markvanderpool.naiwe
Engineering is a body of knowledge that deals with a lot of calculations and analysis. It is a world that mixes words with numbers and applies math and physics in solving real-life problems. Those already in the field know this too well having been able to survive tons of gruelling exams in college that involve extensive problem solving. Even until one takes the professional or licensure exam, he or she should be equipped with problem solving skills. Only few calculations are done with engineering work unless you are in the field of design, research, and development. More than the engineering professionals, engineering students experience this difficulty
in handling problems with calculations and analysis. So what is the secret to survive such? It’s fairly simple: practice, practice, practice. The old adage “practice makes perfect” doesn’t only apply to sports but to learning engineering as well. Solving problems over and over again makes you better at it. Invest more time on this rather than merely staring at the problems (that’s not solving!). The more problems you solve as a preparation to a quiz or an exam, the more proficient you become in dealing with any kind of engineering problem. It becomes a bit easier for you to decipher future engineering problems having been exposed to different kind of problems by mental exercise.
Photo by chemistry.about
Photo by thelifematics
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ARE YOU TESLA THE ENGINEER OR EDISON THE BUSINESSMAN? by Margaret Banford
While stories of the TeslaEdison controversy have been exaggerated over time, especially when it came to the Nobel Prize both men were alleged to have refused because it had been offered to the other, there are some seeds of truth to the rumors. Tesla and Edison were very different men, with Tesla being much more focused on his inventions and engineering work, to the detriment of any financial concerns. Edison, on the other hand, was highly focused on selling his designs and inventions, and focused on the financial side of any given situation. The stories involving both Tesla and Edison, including the infamous generator story (briefly: Tesla came to work for Edison soon after arriving in America. He came to Edison with news of a flaw in the (admittedly faulty) generator design, and was told that if he managed to fix it, Edison would personally pay him fifty thousand dollars. Having fixed the problem, Tesla came to Edison and asked for his money, only to be informed that Edison had been joking), show that while both men may have shared a similar skill set and range of interests, they approached life from completely different directions. This is not necessarily a bad thing – overspecialize and you breed in weakness, after all – but the story of the difficulties Tesla and Edison had when working together are a testament to the power of teamwork. Both men accomplished so much apart – what could they have done together?
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Everybody has their own area of expertise, even (or perhaps especially) people who are working in the same field. In the same vein, some people may be more focused on the bigger picture of what they are doing, while others can only
focus on smaller details. While Tesla’s ideas around alternating current allowed him to power generators and lightbulbs, the lightbulb as invented by Edison worked – it was just not a good fit with the direct current voltage system that he favored. Similarly, to go back to the most well-known difference between Edison and Tesla, while Tesla managed to get lightbulbs to work, it was Edison who distributed them. His business acumen, while it may have been motivated by personal gain, brought them into the wider public consciousness, allowing lightbulbs to spread, and lighting systems to gradually change into the precursors of the ones we know today. All this is to say that teamwork is important, and traits are not necessarily bad. Without teamwork, progress becomes much harder, because everyone is working away on things which, naturally, are geared towards their own personal strengths. Teamwork allows us to pool those strengths, and working in common means that tasks become easier. The combined expertise of Tesla and Edison gave us lightbulbs – Edison created the lightbulb, Tesla discovered that it worked more efficiently when supplied with electricity via alternating current. Tesla was able to work with alternating current to the degree that he did because he was entirely focused on the invention side of his work. Edison was on track to supply America with his lightbulbs and lighting methods, because he knew how to advertise his products and inventions. If the two had continued to work together, the invention of the lightbulb could have profited them both, but instead, because they had already parted company by this point, Edison was no longer credited with supplying light to
Photo by: youtube his country, and Tesla ended up penniless because of actions outside his own control. Teamwork also allows everybody involved in a project to be recognized for their work. Unlike Tesla, who gave up the money he was rightfully owed in unpaid royalties when Westinghouse was caught up in financial difficulties, a team which utilizes all aspects of its members’ skills will be able to ensure that everyone is properly appreciated and credited for the work they have done, and will continue to do for the team in the future. Biographers of Tesla tend to vilify Edison for his supposed
Photo by: diffen
focus on profit (conveniently forgetting that he was a celebrated inventor in his own right, as seen by the fact that he created the lightbulb). What is forgotten is that having a solid business sense – being able to sell what you create – is not necessarily a bad thing. Tesla’s work arguably only became as famous and widelyused as it is today through his collaboration with other people who had a head for business. Teamwork allows everyone working on a project to be valued for the work they do, rather than simply the people who have the ability to move the product into the public consciousness.
About the Author: Margaret Banford, when not writing, spends her time reading and playing several musical instruments. She is also a fair baker and the CEO of C.M. Cornes, Birmingham UK. AUGUST 2016 Sports Engineering and Other Special Features
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WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU FAIL A CHEMICAL ENGINEERING SUBJECT By Afsana Alam There are many ways students can come to terms with failing a subject. Here, it’s basically about what happened after that failure and how I coped with it. ‘Professor, it was the stress. I was tensed and the information was all over the place. I was afraid I wasn’t going to complete the paper.’ ‘I understand, but, your answers on the paper is telling me that you still haven’t learned the basics of this subject. I don’t think you are ready yet.’ That’s when I knew. That’s when I knew I was going to have to repeat that damned subject and being an ass kisser wasn’t going to help. Well, that was my first time in her office and there wasn’t much on my paper to argue for. But, I still desperately tried to convince her to just give me that passing grade. I tried all sorts of bullcrap to convince her; it was due to the stress the questions were going over my head, the concepts were all over my mind, the time wasn’t enough,etc. However, it looked like the more I spoke, the more certain she became about my understanding of the subject and the more hopeless I became of passing it. ‘Afsana, wake up! She posted the grades online, wake up’. I saw the message and rushed to check my grade. Failure was confirmed for me, since I heard it directly from the horse’s mouth, but I guess I just
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overlooked it. As a student, I was still expecting her to just let me through to the next phase. I went online, saw the failing letter and that was it. My confidence became like that of Humpty-Dumpty’s fate, broken and couldn’t be put together again. Not passing the subject was disheartening in itself, but the fact that it was my very first Chemical Engineering subject, added more fuel to the fire. That fact alone threw me into a pool of doubts and I started questioning myself. Well, before reaching that phase of sanity, I had to overcome some rough hurdles. Myself. I cried like how Luffy cried for his brother Ace when he died in the anime One Piece. Loud and clear, I was all over the damn place—the feeling was that devastating. ‘The first subject of the field and I failed it?’,’ Should I just quit?’,’ Stupid woman! What would you lose if you would have given me the passing grade?’, ‘You had to fail me! Have you ever asked yourself why students fail your class?’. I drowned in negativity and sometimes even Googled inspirational quotes to get me back up. The quotes didn’t help much really, but, thanks to time, over-eating and animes, which really helped me in getting out of the negativity. Eventually, I came to terms with the failure and tried to move on. Not so fast! The parents! My mom was fine, but my dad wasn’t! For them, failing a subject is like blasphemy! I remember the expression my dad gave me. It was like he was deeply
staring into my soul and was about to rip it apart into an atom’s size. It was hard for him to accept it, because according to him, ‘Students no matter how bad he/she does in a subject, can never fail it. They will somehow pass it.’ I could see my life as an engineering student coming to an end, but, my other subjects’ grade held onto my dad. After he went through my other grades, it finally enlightened upon him that overall, I wasn’t a bad Chemical engineering student. He saw that I was doing great in my other subjects and my license as a Chemical engineering student was fortunately saved from cancellation. It took them time, but, they eventually understood. The next semester began and I found myself crazily wanting Harry Potter’s invisibility cloak, to avoid people and to sneakily enter the class of that damned subject. I entered the class and my friend says to me, ‘Yea, me too.’ At that instant, the feeling of embarrassment was masked by this overwhelming feeling of happiness. Turned out, my friends too were on the same boat with me. Honestly, it’s a great feeling to know that it’s not only you, but, even your friends are next level geniuses. But, was it only the subject? The subject does indeed have a habit to throw the students into a dark abyss. The concepts were new and different, so it was sort of difficult for many of us to understand and absorb them. However, that wasn’t the only reason we had to repeat the subject. Looking at so many students repeating the class, disclosed a rather undeniable fact—the Professor sucked. Unfortunately, she was partially at fault for not being able to get us geniuses around the concepts clearly.
Am I not smart enough? Will I just be a terrible Chemical Engineering student if I continue? It was my first Chemical Engineering subject, so I had to ask myself, ‘Was it the right major for me?’. I remember my Professor telling me, ‘Never evaluate yourself based on 1-2 subjects. Look at your overall performance and then determine if it’s the right major for you or not.’ Regardless of that, my confidence was still shaken up and I still questioned as to why I didn’t get it the first time. The subject and the Professor were the minor reasons, but, the major reason for my failure was because I sucked at it. I remember I used to just brush through the questions and instead of solving them, I used to directly jump onto the solutions. I couldn’t grasp the concepts, because I slacked off. I kept piling everything up till the end. This was my major mistake. I forgot that I was doing Engineering, that too, Chemical Engineering. The revelation came in too late, but, failing a subject doesn’t determine a student’s success or failure. Failure is not bad, rather, it’s a displeasing way to reflect upon ourselves and our methods. Therefore, we as engineering students, should try to understand that failure is a temporary phase and that success is just around the corner. Never let 1-2 subjects determine whether you are a successful student or a failure. It’s not the subjects, rather, it’s your motivation, your perseverance and your attitude that determine your successes and failures. So, never doubt yourself, always look ahead and remember, you are a Chemical Engineering student; you are a survivor.
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ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: SCIENCE FICTION OR REALITY? By Emmanuel Stalling
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When you hear the term “artificial intelligence”, you probably think of the 2001 Spielberg film, the agents in The Matrix, or even timetraveling robots with Austrian accents and shotguns. The concept can be divided into two very broad meanings. The first is the blanket definition applied by those outside the fields of computer engineering and robotics, which includes a machine or program’s ability to absorb data, take its meaning, and adjust its behavior according to ideal outcomes. The second definition, the one that really matters, is more scientific. “Intelligence” in the term has much deeper implications than absorbing information and changing behaviors. It contains human concepts like cognition, reasoning, and selfawareness. It applies to the aforementioned science fiction themes like machine sentience, wherein robots and programs move beyond their original
programming and learn of their own volition for their own reasons. I know, scary. Below, we’ll discuss the current climate of A.I. development, and how far we have to go before the machines rise up to eliminate their human creators from existence. Challenges of Artificial Intelligence These are the main obstacles in the way of true artificial intelligence, not just the kind that stops your computercontrolled squad mates from running into walls in Call of Duty games. Natural Language Processing Every time we ask our Android mobiles or iPhones for directions and get an answer, we are seeing fundamental A.I. at work. This is a large part of artificial intelligence called natural language processing (NLP). When we think of the robots from movies who
Photo by: eng-cs obey commands and carry on discussions like human, it begins with NLP, which has seen tremendous advances from the days of the early Turing tests. When machines are able to understand the nuances of speech like different dialects of the same language, emotional inflections, and most importantly, sarcasm, we’ll be on the way to creating the type of machines that can replace us at work and eventually use our body heat for fuel.
only it deals specifically with visuals. We’ve seen it in action in such applications as Google Goggles and more recently, with the self-driven cars that will eventually replace Uber drivers. Progress toward practical application could still be considered experimental, so there’s some time before the advanced facial recognition seen in film. The Future of Artificial Intelligence
Abstract Reference Human vanity dictates that for intelligence to exist, an entity must perceive the world as we do, and much of our experiences are based on the abstract. Abstract activities like music, painting, poetry, and literary prose are all full of non-literal concepts, and teaching a machine to understand these themes still eludes programmers. You can program a robot correlate two items with similar values, but not to understand the power of metaphors as a vessel of abbreviated communication. Until we can show machines not to take everything literally, they will always be a threat to our continued existence.
We’re still a long way from bartending androids, but we’ve already seen the three challenges above answered in real-life scenarios. In fact, it’s not unreasonable to conclude that digital virtual assistants and bot programs will be used exclusively by modern companies within the next decade. That is, once manufactures stop trying to make robots “lifelike” and taking us into the uncanny valley. Conglomerates like Google and Microsoft are already committing a tremendous amount of resources toward research and development, which means we may even get to see the electronic harbingers of our extinction in this lifetime.
Optical Recognition The final step before the machines know precisely how to target humanity is granting them the ability to teach them how to recognize abstract shapes. This ties into the previous entry on this list,
This guest post was written by Emmanuel Stalling, software engineer, technical writer, online philosopher, aspiring novelist, part-time ninja, and fan of hard science fiction. Follow Emmanuel on Twitter @ The_UnseenOne.
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TOP 5 HARDEST SUBJECTS IN CHEMICAL ENGINEERING
old, some are new to the students, therefore it has a fair distribution of difficulty level throughout (which is somewhat high). Basically, it involves concepts of physics, which involves some maths. However, it’s not the math part, it’s the physics part, which makes the students go crazy.
By Afsana Alam
Chemical Engineering is a difficult major to begin with, however, there are a few courses that make the major even worse. Well, here are a few of the subjects, that me and some of my friends had the toughest time with. Principles of Chemical Engineering I: In a battle between students and subjects, this subject will be the first and the most dangerous enemy to deal with. This subject basically reminded me of the Shadow King from X-men for its special ability to feed off of student’s hatred. The more it progresses, the worse it gets! It starts off easy, like every other subject, with recurring materials and equations. However, somewhere in between, new concepts start to seep in and take over the entire subject. More than approaching the concept, the questions are more difficult to approach. They are long and include a lot of information, which eventually make the students lose their track. As a student myself, I have seen other good students who barely passed the subject and students who didn’t pass it for maybe 2-3 consecutive semesters. Not being able to pass it
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is absolutely normal, because this subject itself is abnormal. Therefore, take time with this subject. It’s hard, it’s new, it’s different overall. Practice all sorts of questions, if possible from various other books. Remember, the answer is in the question itself, so read the questions carefully. They are long, painful and have a lot of information, therefore, write down each of them. This will lead to some other hidden information, which may eventually turn out to be the trump card for the students.
After passing this subject, I felt like I could pass any subject in Chemical Engineering; the feeling was that overwhelming. With this subject, the student always needs to be upto-date. In the sense, students have to study this subject every day, because the chapters are long and the concepts are difficult to grasp. Basically, it’s trying to aim for our head. Therefore, the only defense, we students have is to attack it. Question the concepts and clear even the minutest doubt you have about the concepts.
Thermodynamics I:
Fluid Mechanics:
This subject by far was the worst subject for me after Principles 1. They are the huge fortified walls on the battlefield, throwing heaps of arrows at the students from nowhere. The ability of this subject to confuse the students is absolutely next level. The entire idea of Thermodynamics 1 is the ideal gases concepts. These concepts are like Mystique from X-men, they keep changing, taking on different faces!
This subject will be the bombard cannon on the battlefield, because it will go straight for the head, no pain no gain style. It’s a very difficult, but an interesting subject, because it forces the students to think about the concepts in a whole new perspective. Some concepts are
Students need to practice a lot of questions to understand where to use the ideal gas equations. The best part was that we didn’t have to memorize the equations. We even had to deal with theory questions, which also sometimes made us wonder, ‘Why I am doing what I
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to another answer, one question led to several other questions for us students. The answers were long, but it was a step-by-step process.
and Heat Transfer. Well, it’s basically like Juggernaut, crushing the students and their hopes of ever passing it.
We had to know some of the derived equations, which were the key to answering the questions. For me it was difficult, because I didn’t know my information clearly and because
It’s more like the agony of Thermodynamics recurring 10 times fold. It mainly involves studying the rate laws and how to derive them. Basically, Physical Chemistry I tells us if a reaction is feasible, Physical Chemistry II involves studying the kinetics of an equation and how that reaction will happen.
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am doing?’. This subject was really frustrating, because we had to get used to applying these hideous looking equations; like we already didn’t have enough of those. The thing is, this subject forces, literally kicks the students out of their comfort zone. So, we had to know where these equations came from and why they are being applied only in particular situations. Therefore, know the equations, their conditions and where they should be applied. Practice, practice, practice. Logic, along with practice, will definitely make the student perfect for this enemy.
Mass Transfer: On the battlefield, these will be the Trebuchets, which will bombard the students with huge fire balls of questions. Heat transfer and mass transfer use different terminologies, but are very similar concept-wise. For example, I had my heat class right before the mass class, and in the beginning, it felt like we were doing one subject with two different names. However, starting from the middle, we had to deal with questions that just couldn’t be answered with one or two equations. We needed to know the steps, one answer led
If students find rate laws from Chemistry interesting, then it will be a rather enjoyable subject for them.
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of that I didn’t understand what was happening in the question. Also, I suck at memorizing equations. The questions are bound to confuse the students, because they are just never ending. Like Principles 1, the questions are long and contain a lot of information. Therefore, again, take your time with the questions. The concepts aren’t difficult to grasp, its just the questions that take time to understand.
Physical Chemistry II: Well, this subject was for us to understand what happens to the chemicals on a molecular and atomic level. As my friends say, Physical Chemistry is the combination of major subjects like Thermodynamics
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However, Chemistry is not something students are really fond of, especially after what we went through in Organic Chemistry I. Therefore, the thing with this subject is to not slack off. Hating it is one thing, but we still got to pass it. So, know the basics, and as I said practice and logic. These will definitely be some useful tools to beat down this subject to a pulp.
About the author: Afsana Alam is a chemical engineering student at American University of Sharjah. She is a broke blogger and a huge fan of animes.
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An Engineer, A Lawyer and A Banker Walk Into a Bar by Amanda Pelletier The lawyer impatiently flags down the old man behind the worn wooden bar and orders three bourbons on the rocks. At first they talk about family, mutual friends, how their stocks are faring, and who’s going to win the world series. Since college, the engineer, the lawyer and the banker find the time to get together a few times a year. Once they have their first drink in hand, they start in on debating the best way to solve pressing environmental issues. Seeing as the lawyer bought the drinks, he feels fit to throw his opinion out first. As he loosens his light pink silk tie he tells them, “If the government held polluters accountable for emissions with tighter policies it would reduce further pollution and slow the rise of the world’s oceans.” Listening quietly while sipping bourbon from the edge of his glass, the engineer reminds his friends in their suits, “It’s difficult to tell where emissions come from. They are carried on the wind across state and international borders and it’s mostly past generations that made the majority of the emissions affecting us now.” A young woman sits a few bar stools away and orders a mojito and flashes the three men a curious glance.
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Ice cubes clink against the banker’s perfectly-aligned white teeth as he swallows the last of his bourbon. He adds that, “Policy ought to be paired with taxation on emissions to create a financial incentive to reduce future warming”. He slicks back his thinning hair and adds, “It’s all about the money”. Turning to the banker, the engineer says, “It’s unfair to tax upcoming urbanization in poor regions. How are they to get ahead with steep tax burdens not applied to other nations during their industrial revolution and urbanization stages? Slowing their economic growth would only stifle their ability to use more environmentally friendly methods to generate energy and add to the long-term use of coal.” “Instead of policy,” the engineer tells them, “we could make current transportation systems more efficient and slow the progress of greenhouse gas release. Massive gas exchange units that work on the same principal as trees could be constructed to cycle carbon dioxide into oxygen as the wind passes through them. The same structures could double as wind turbines or be lined with solar panels to reduce dependence on oil and coal fired plants.” A few bar stools down, the young woman nods in agreement with the engineer. While bragging with increasing volume and decreasing pronunciation about their individual skills and capabilities, they had quickly drained their first round of drinks. The banker waves at the old man and orders three citrus vodka cocktails on his tab. The second round rapidly expands their already oversized egos, throwing fuel on the heated debate. The lawyer starts raving about how “International policies for building something like that would have to be in place to ensure the construction would go forward on schedule and meet regulations. It would benefit the international community but if conflict broke out in the region it was built…” he rattled on with self-righteous grandeur, until the banker butts in to ask “Who’ll pay for such a huge construction project? If we taxed emission we could use an international pool to fund the project.”
Photo by theodysseyonline Taking another careful sip from his glass as to not dampen his thick mustache, the engineer tells the men in suits “It doesn’t matter where it’s built, as long as the conditions are prime for the physics and science behind the machine to work. If it works like it should and benefits everyone, then it would be important for all nations to preserve.” From behind his gold-rimmed spectacles, the banker reminds his friend the engineer, its bankers that find investors for venture capital projects, and without men like him pipe dreams like giant gas sucking trees wouldn’t float. He points out that if they were to side with environmentalists, then Big Oil would back out, and he adds, with an awkwardly close lean toward the engineer in his dark denim jeans and half buttoned dress shirt, bring their money out with them. “Big Oil would back it,” the engineer speaks frankly, over his raving friends “because it would fix their emissions issues. Hell, they’d install one on every oil rig and that would decrease ocean acidification as the gas was fixed into water molecules circulated in machinery installed on the rig’s base. They could suck up emissions, slow sea level rise and reverse ocean acidification. No taxes or policy needed, just sell Big Oil on the idea and hand them the schematics.” The engineer allows the suits to banter and debate amongst themselves as he quietly slides down the bar next to the woman with the empty glass. She is studying environmental engineering at the local university and wants to hear more about this oil rig idea. He orders her another her mojito and asks if she’d like to see the skyscraper being retrofitted for rooftop solar with a massive crane four blocks up near his hotel—there is a killer view from his room. Ready to order third round, the banker and the lawyer set their empty cocktail glasses on the bar and look around for their friend; it’s the engineer’s turn to buy. They turn to catch a glimpse of the engineer as he slips out the door while discussing the complexities of climate change and sea level rise with a pretty young woman by his side who turns and smiles back at them.
Photo by whiskeyriff
About the Author: Amanda is a homesteading tech nerd working from her rural home as a freelance writer, graphic designer, and educational program coordinator.
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HORRIBLE ENGINEERING BOSSES By Patricia Eldridge
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Imagine yourself in the shoes of Jason Bateman (but as an engineer) in the movie Horrible Bosses. You have to work your bum off from sunrise to sunset (and longer), be shouted at for being just a couple minutes late, not be awarded the credit and praise you deserve for your tireless work, and see the promotion you are due go to someone else who does not deserve it in the slightest. Worst of all – your boss is a complete and utter nightmare.
by numerous engineers. A terrible boss results in a highly uninteresting work environment, which severely hampers motivation, productivity and progression. Not only is it bad for the company, but it is also bad for the employees and their bosses as well. While money, working hours and workplace locations are some of the factors behind engineers quitting jobs, the more common factor is having a horrible boss. Most engineers quit their bosses, not their jobs.
Many of the instances mentioned above are commonly experienced
Engineers are well justified most of the time in deserting their
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bosses, too. Ponder this – your boss is uninspiring, has zero leadership skills and is unable to guide you and your peers. Would you like to put in any effort for this person? Of course not. Some of the most common behaviors which make engineers lose faith in their bosses are yelling, addressing others with foul language (profanity), socializing excessively and taking credit for someone else’s work. In a study conducted by Gallup, 30% of more than 350,000 participants said that they were merely ‘engaged’ in their jobs. This means that 70% employees are not performing to their full capacity. This results in an estimated $450 billion lost in U.S. productivity. The number alone shows just how significant the importance of having a capable manager is. In another study performed by Gallup, 12% of more than 7,000 respondents said that they were perfectly happy with their bosses. They opted to go for the highest agreement rating, embodied by the statement ‘I feel I can approach my manager with any type of question’. Respondents who chose this answer were very progressive in their work, and happier at work than their more dissatisfied counterparts. This shows just how imperative it is to have a manager who offers openness to their staffers. Being a boss is never easy. Managing all of the employees in itself is tough enough as it is, and making tough decisions and knowing that the consequences of those decisions will rest on their shoulders give bosses a headache more often than not. Hence, the candidates considered to be promoted to the rank of manager must be evaluated carefully. Higher authorities must choose someone who has a
strong will, steely determination and command respect from subordinates. This is asking a lot of one individual, but choosing the right person will ensure that the company is set for comfortable times ahead. Conversely, choosing an incorrect person as the leader of the pack will result in performances going downhill. As an old saying goes, it is never too late to learn. Bosses can try reaching out to their dissatisfied employees, discuss about their problems and figure out a solution. For example, if a manager has six happy engineers out of 10, then he/she can try to inspire and motivate the four dissatisfied engineers – two at a time, if needed – and raise spirits. This would result in better relations between the employer and employee, and significantly improve working conditions and results. Moreover, managers can try and improve themselves for the sake of the better coordination with their engineers. At the end of the day, it comes down to the happiness and satisfaction of the employees. Just as a king cannot have a peaceful kingdom with unhappy people, similarly a manager must know how to keep engineers content. Having motivated engineers will result in better productivity, and propel the company forwards. What bosses need to understand is that dominating their authority on their members of staff does not bode well – instead they should focus on becoming positive role models for their subordinates. After all, employees want a boss to be an inspiring leader, not a strict gym trainer. About the Author: Patricia took her MBA in London, UK. She's a model, actress, blogger and a copywriter.
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7 Financial Goals Millennial Engineers Should Achieve Before Hitting 30 It’s awesome to be an independent adult! You’re young, and energetic and ready for the world ahead of you. And since we’re adults, we have to understand and deal with the different challenges in the world. Just like Uncle Ben said, “With great power, comes great responsibility.” In this age, it’s important that we have total control over our finances, here are 7 financial goals you should achieve before hitting the age of 30.
#1
#2
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Zero or Decreasing Debt Photo by blog.portfolium
As much as possible be debt free, but if you still are, then work out an action plan to get out of debt. Being an adult working and thinking about a lot of things is stressful enough, don’t add more stress by thinking about debts.
#3
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A Job/Business that Pays for your Daily Expenses You’re way past the age for getting weekly allowances from your parents. Go get a good job that will pay for all your daily needs. Instead of being supported, you should be the one supporting. Learn to be financially independent. #3 Savings Worth 3 times your Monthly Expenses Life is not predictable, we all know this by now. Accidents, emergencies, and other unforeseen events could happen. So it’s important to have some savings that could help you through this time.
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#4
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#6
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A growing Retirement Fund Wouldn’t it be nice to grow old and not need to work? So it’s important to have a growing retirement fund.
#5
A Failed Business
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Failed businesses, big or small, are battle scars that teaches us new lessons and help us become better at what we do. Having done this teaches you that you got out of your comfort zone and took some risks.
#7
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A Splurge Account This account is a little spoil for you. You work hard for your salary, so you have to reward yourself and play hard as well. Separate a certain amount from your paycheck to spend on yourself. A Financial Mentor Having a financial mentor is important, so he/ she could guide you about your finances every now and then. If you’re not comfortable getting one, then you could download/ purchase some financial books and go to some finance seminars.
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How Engineers Should Deal with Lingering Office Politics
All engineers in the field have experienced at one point in their career that they have to deal with what professionals call as office politics. It doesn’t necessarily mean office gossip, but yes, mostly that’s what it is. Sometimes it could be an issue of a co-engineer spreading lies about you or others that will make him appear as the good guy, and sabotages others’ work to get himself ahead. There’s also that co-engineer who takes credit for everyone else’s work. And that one manipulative engineer who uses flattery to the higher ups and the subordinates to see him or her as the one who excels. Such engineers are total suckers, aren’t they? While those kinds of people cannot be removed in any engineering company or workplace, how does an engineer deal with such? The approach to this varies depending upon the kind of politics it propagates – the endpoint is that you should always win them over. In any office politics situation, always the best response is to practice tact. When a coengineer blurts out something negative – “wow, my foreman is a dickhead,” or “office engineer Michelle just won’t shut up about her weekly dates” – it is wise to shrug it off by changing the topic. You can always say, “I’m sorry you feel that way” without being offensive to the one who is trying to involve you into the issue. When that coworker persists with his unnecessary feelings, be as diplomatic as possible by proceeding with your work. That will kill the conversation naturally.
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At times when your insensitive co-engineers take the aggressive route – “shit Gary, your idea is so brilliant this should be mine,” or “is this your report Adam? this is terrible” – the approach that will work best is confrontational. It takes lots of balls to do this, but that kind of attitude, if not faced with equal or more action, will continue. You don’t have to be rude back in doing this. All it needs is a formal, neat conversation of the other ends’ issues. Speak to the person first with utmost respect and curiosity. Don’t forget to document the exchanges in case it won’t go well, so that you have proof. Never go below the belt by attacking the person as you will only be dragged with him or her to the manager or human resources office when the issue goes at an uncontrollable rate. Settle this kind of politics at its core, and that is to explain to the banterer that his or her actions are unfit for pleasant engineering work. Office politics are not entirely negative either, as an engineer can also enhance connections with co-workers. That’s also office politics. You can volunteer to stay late or offer to work with another engineer, even it’s out of your required work. That way the people at your office will be pleased and will have one less issue with you, at least. Take note that disengaging from office politics is not the answer. Excellent engineers in the field know it that they have to effectively participate in such issues. Like them, you will have to deal with each one – negative or positive – you just need to know how to convert it to your advantage. Photo by gabblin
The Engineer Who Says "I Dont Know" Has Better Decision Making Skills Engineers at work are faced with so many problems that range from paper works to field work, may it be managerial or technical. Each time an engineer makes the decision to each problem, he or she should look for the most sound solution. And to this, experts say that you should not rush to it by saying “I already know.” An experiment done by Mark Chussil, founder and CEO of Advanced Competitive Strategies, revealed that overconfidence is the best way to ruin your chances for making a good decision. He wrote, "When you think you know the answer, you sincerely believe it's a waste of time to keep looking for it.” This kind of thinking eliminates time to think more of better solutions. He also shared that those who simply said they didn’t know enough to make a decision were more likely to have positive outcomes. Another
conclusion was that those who were confident about an immediate solution when presented with a problem were less successful. What engineers can draw from this experiment is to take time in formulating decisions. Saying “I don’t know,” or “I don’t know yet” is simply buying more time to really think about a strategic and competitive solution. You can ask other engineers at work to consult rather than thinking on your own because newsflash: you don’t always hold the right answers.
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WHAT ENGINEERS SHOULD DO TO BE LIKED IN THE WORKPLACE Working as an engineer is not always a one-man team. There will be collaborations with other engineers, especially in other departments and levels of the company you are working in. Engineers are required to interact with each other as part of the work.
until you make it. But you need to communicate effectively at work. You also have to be liked by your co-workers in order to survive. And studies show a sure-fire solution how to do just that: you are more likeable when you listen attentively and give undivided attention.
If you are the kind of engineer that doesn’t want to socialize, in short an introverted engineer, fake it
In a book called Getting What You Want and Resolving Conflict Sooner, it states that, “simply gazing steadily and warmly at that person, nodding at times and reiterating what you heard will activate an empathic, mirror-neuron response in both of you.” This wires our neurons that improve not only the communication
with others but a relationship with them. When the other end seems to get a response that we are listening, it will set an impression that we care about them. This is also true when we give the other end undivided attention. A Harvard Business Review post tells that, “giving and receiving undivided attention, even briefly, is the least that one individual can do for another — and sometimes the most. And yet, attending to others doesn’t just help them — it helps us, by evoking responses that help the listener feel cared for, useful, and connected to the larger world.” In short, if you are an engineer and want to be liked in your workplace, make others feel engaged with you by listening and giving undivided attention.
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HOW TO DEAL WITH THE ENGINEER WHO HAS BODY ODOR It’s a good day and you’re in the middle of finally solving that problem you need to discuss with your clients. You’re the boss in your section and so far, no one’s suing anyone inside the office. The day is starting to look good until one of the people who work under you asks for a little bit of your time. You ask her to close the door so that you both can have your privacy. She hesitates to tell you what she came in for until she finally complains about the other engineer who has a terrible case of body odor. Of course you tell her you’re going to look into this and thank her for approaching you first instead of embarrassing that engineer. Now, you are left with this responsibility to inform that engineer about the issue and admit it, it’s one of the most awkward things to do at work. But before you do, you must check it yourself. Does that engineer really have a body odor issue or is the complainant having an off day? In case the claim is true, this is where the awkward but necessary part happens.
It is advisable to talk to that engineer at the end of the day to avoid distracting him/her at work after talking about the issue. Discuss it in a private corner where no one else can hear it to avoid embarrassing him/ her. As soon as you are alone with that engineer, just be completely honest about the observation YOU made. Don’t mention someone else complained about him/her to avoid any conflict. Get straight to the point but be kind to the engineer. Remind the engineer the importance of good hygiene inside the work place so that he/she will see how urgent this issue must be resolved. Also, ask if this is a medical condition. If the engineer says yes, assure him/her that you’ll be more understanding of the condition.If not, the engineer should find a way to work on this. Keep in mind that sometimes, these smells are results of one’s diet so reminding everyone to be a little more tolerant with each other will also help keep the peace inside. Photo by inc
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HOW ENGINEERS CAN CORRECT A BAD FIRST IMPRESSION The truth about first impressions is that we only have one in each experience with other people. When we get hired as engineers, people in our workplace have their fair share of first impressions depending on how we move and interact with them initially. It can either be a bad or good first impression that cements us of their perspective towards the newbies.
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While a good first impression put us in a position that we were liked in the company at the start, a bad first impression – an incident of pressure, nervousness, wrong approach and distraction – already left a mark among others. So how do we correct that?
#2 Interact with the others in any way you could. A study from Harvard tells that it usually takes eight subsequent positive encounters for another person to change his or her negative opinion about you. To have more chances in having that eight straight incidents, all you have to do is interact with them more and do your best not to mess it up.
#3 Try the honest route by making it up them with an invite.
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While this takes a lot of balls to do, this confrontational approach may just work. Simply asking for a lunch together or watching a movie in the theater will yield a better response that you are better than your bad first impression. Talk it out with them if you can.
#1
#4
Realize that first impressions… are just first impressions.
Ask them for advice – on anything.
Think as well of how your bad impressions about others might change over the course of time.
Adam Grant, a Wharton School professor, says that asking for advice is a smart way to be influential. He said, “Asking for advice encouraged greater cooperation and information sharing, turning a potentially contentious negotiation into a win-win deal.”
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THE HABITS OF HAPPY SUCCESSFUL ENGINEERS By Cielo Panda
The everyday routine jobs of engineer can be stressful and tiring, but we still work our butts off because we want to be successful engineers in the future. Unfortunately, we sometimes tend to work too much, to the point that we aren’t really happy with what we’re doing anymore. So how can we be able to become successful engineers and be happy at the same time? Here are 10 habits that happy successful engineers practice.
#3 Don't wait for an apology to forgive Sometimes it’s better not to expect an apology, and just forgive. Being able to forgive someone that may not deserve it releases you of any negative relationship burden. If they give an apology then, that’s awesome. If not, then just forgive them and learn from this experience. Photo by: Spin.atomicobject
#1 Cherish learning in success or failure They see failures as an opportunity to try something new, and better. Photo by: TheGlassAcademy
#4 Listen to understand, not to respond
#2 They assume positive intent of others Happy and successful engineers avoid interpreting the motive of others as ill-intent. They simply assume positive intent. Photo by: OurBusinessLadder
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Listening to understand and develop a habit of asking at least 2 questions of clarity before giving your point of view. By doing so, you will have a wider outlook of the topic and you’ll be able to collaborate better. Photo by: forbes
#5 Live an attitude of gratitude
#8 Seek the adventure
Be grateful for what you have in your life.
Find a challenge and get out of your comfort zone. It will train you for different adversities you may encounter in the future.
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Photo by: webgranth
#6 Discover the positive Always find the positive light in everything, even in problems. Photo by: texasSharon
#9 Avoid judgment ou don’t know the story behind others’ behavior. They may have rational reasons. It’s important to avoid being judgemental. Photo by: civiljustice
#7 Embrace the child within Bring out the child in you and be curious, discover new things and learn from them. Photo by: adventuretimeWikia
#10 Don't compare yourself to others Just do your best at what you do! Stop comparing yourself to others. The only one you should compare yourself to is who you are today, and how you can better yourself for the future! Photo by: popsugar
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BEFORE QUITTING THAT ENGINEERING JOB, DO THIS There will come a point at your engineering career that you are more than ready to leave the job. You’ve already made the resignation letter and all you have to do is place it on top of your boss’ desk. But before you make that big decision in your career, consider these questions first:
Are the things that make you want to quit permanent frustrations?
There can be situations in your engineering workplace that can be shrugged off and not worth pulling the trigger of quitting the job. It might be just be a petty incident, disagreement, or mistake that can be easily forgiven. Take note: there will always be problems encountered anywhere you will work, maybe even bigger than what you are facing right now. Photo by: tanveerNaseer
Have you considered taking a break?
Sometimes it’s just a matter of a fresh start by taking a short leave at work. Relax and go to a vacation to have a renewed mind when you get back. This shift of perspective cannot undermined and will ultimately have that resignation letter shredded.
Did you consider the big picture?
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If you indeed turn in that resignation, and say it was accepted, what does that make of you? A jobless engineer. Are you ready to have that kind of title or that phase in your career where you just lie down at home and wait for another job opening? Think of that first.
Have you saved enough?
Quitting your job would mean you will have no source of income for quite a while, in case you do not realize that. You still have to pay your monthly bills and maybe have family members to support. This is a great factor since you don’t want to be broke while being unemployed. Photo by: medicaldaily
Do you think of the consequences of a resume gap?
Your future employers will notice about the multitude of companies you went into and I’m sure they will ask why you left each time. Every time you quit a job there has to be a valid reason that the HR of your next companies will understand.
Are you comfortable with uncertainty?
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This question perhaps hits you so much when there is no job waiting after your resign. Would you be able to not overthink about having no job? Are you sure of the future that lies ahead of you when you quit?
If these kinds of questions didn’t even bother you at all, or managed to think of the answers with strong convictions, you might be ready to quit that job. Otherwise, just stay until you are really ready to leave.
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Photo by: thelofquistproject
Photo by: relatably
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WHY ENGINEERS MUST LEARN HOW TO WRITE BETTER Engineers were trained to build, create and develop anything that could help the public live better lives. That’s basically what engineering schools taught them in their years of learning engineering science and major subjects. If there’s one skill engineers didn’t really learn in college, it’s to write better. Writing is crucial in an engineer’s career since it allows one to relay a message properly in the office, to clients or with the public. Here are reasons why it’s important for every engineer to learn how to write better: It’s part of an engineer’s job to respond to emails and letters. One problem an engineer encounters is his/her lack of ability to express the important point of the message clearly. Learning to write better will certainly improve one’s efficiency, persuasiveness and approachability in any kind of exchanges. Today’s young engineers have a very fast thinking process. They can easily think of really good ideas, however, they have problems when it comes to delivering it to their colleagues and
bosses. Writing allows them to slow down their thoughts, review what they write about and gives them a chance to write more precisely and give a polished product. One thing an engineer forgets when writing a report or paper for a work report is the audience. We have our own jargons which not everybody understands. When we train ourselves to write better, we will be able to learn to consider the audience of our work. Once they read your work, they won’t have a hard time picking up the point of your work. It’s obvious that when we learn how to write better as engineers, we will be able to express out thoughts better. This also affects our ability to give speeches in public. We all know that this is something a lot of engineers have trouble with aside from writing. A clearer thought process through writing will train us to better at conversing with other people - may it be with public speeches or just a conversation between you and your boss. Being able to write down and present our ideas will give us the opportunity to see our own thoughts from an
outside perspective. We can later on criticize our work and find more ways on how to improve it. Being an engineer requires a lot of research since working on projects and reports requires one to learn the latest trends in engineering and technology. They will have to search for more information about the topic they are working on. This will allow them to learn more about their specialty on the process. The more an engineer reads, the more new information they’ll learn and this could help them with their careers. A lot of young engineers nowadays have trouble expressing their thoughts and ideas to their colleagues and potential clients. May it be from the reports to be submitted to the presentation of projects, engineers find it difficult to concisely relay their thoughts to their audience. Taking the time to write their thoughts on paper would allow them to train their selves to leave the clutter out of the thought process. Eventually, as these young engineers learn how to write better, they will be able to write more concisely.
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THINGS ENGINEERS MUST DO DURING THE WEEKEND
It’s been a very tiring week and for most engineers, all we want is to just relax on the weekend. We just want to sleep the entire day and just be in our beds if given the choice. However, some of us still want to make the most out of the free time we’re given two days a week. So if you’re one of those engineers who want to achieve something, here are things you should do during the weekend.
Make plans weekend. Photo by: imgflip
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for
the
You don’t have to do anything extravaganza but you should have a general idea on what to do during the weekend. How about
running some errands that you can never accomplish during the weekday?
Spend time with those who matter to you.
We’re always so busy during the weekdays that we never get to talk to the people we love. Better catch up on them during the weekend. It’ll leave you feeling happy after. Making plans with them will also give you something to look forward to during work.
Disconnect from your gadgets.
You’ve been glued to your phone and other gadgets for the past five days, you have to detach yourself
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from it during the weekend. Clear your mind from all the clutter you normally get from checking your email.
Learn to have fun.
It’s what the weekends are for. Have fun!
Don’t sleep the whole day.
This is a mistake we normally do every Saturday and Sunday. We sleep the whole day and as soon as Monday comes in, we start to panic for not doing things we could have done during the two days off work.
Don’t spend all your money on the weekend.
It always pays to save money
so don’t spend all your money on your activities during the weekend. Find events or do something you like that can be done for free (or at a minimum cost).
guilty of. We bring work to our homes and slave the days away. We need to start thinking of not doing any work at all. Working during free time is just toxic for us.
Learn to reflect.
Just relax. Learn to breathe in and breathe out.
Take a few minutes to reflect on yourself, on your career and on your life in general. Figure out if you’re okay with the path you’re taking, if you need to do something more to improve or if you need a change of scenery in your life. This will allow you to focus on important things instead of doing petty stuff for the brand new week.
Avoid doing work.
Learn to relax and de-stress. This helps you feel refreshed and ready for the new week ahead of you.
Plan the ahead.
new
week
On Sunday nights, don’t forget to plan the week ahead of you. This will help you achieve goals easier.
This is what we’re most
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10 IMPORTANT JOB INTERVIEW QUESTIONS FOR ENGINEERS (AND HOW TO ANSWER THEM) By Raymond Gerard del Valle Okay, so you’re a big shot in college. You are consistently on the Dean’s list, and you have never had a grade below above-average. You graduate with honors, and believe that the life ahead of you will be a bed of roses. Okay, so you’re a qualified engineer. You are a consistent performer, and have experience in handling critical functions. Unfortunately, you find yourself in between jobs now. But you are not worried because with your previous record, companies will sure be more than willing to hire you. You apply for jobs, and because you have a stellar academic/professional record, you get called for interviews. You didn’t get selected for the first
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job you applied for. Understandable, firsttime jitters. You didn’t get the second one. Okay, third times a charm. But, you flunked the third time. What’s wrong? The truth is, even if you have a flawless record and a smashing CV, you still have to ace the job interview, or at times interviews, in order to get the job you want. Most applicants take interviews for granted, and thus fail to prepare for them. It is not at all bad to “be yourself” and give an extemporaneous interview, but job interview questions are not asked just for the heck of it. They have underlying meanings, and the interviewer dishes them out to extract answers essential to the position you are applying for. So, in short, it is not advisable to answer just because.
Here are 10 important job interview questions dissected and explained. 1. When did you start looking for a job? Have there been any
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offers so far? The interviewer here is trying to find a reason why you are not currently employed. He or she is trying to figure out if it is a question of timing, employability or personal choice. You have to explain that the reason you are still unemployed is because you are waiting for the “right job” – an opportunity that matches your qualifications and experience, and a position in which you can maximize your potential.
2. What do you like most/ least about engineering? The
interviewer is looking into your general attitude towards work. It is advisable to concentrate on the positives, keeping in mind the requirements and responsibilities of the job you are applying for.
3. Where do you see yourself 5 years from now? With this question,
the interviewer is trying to gauge whether you have a vision of growing into the position, and therefore not move jobs too soon. You should be able to provide a realistic career path, and emphasize that your intention is to master the demands of every position you will hold within the company.
4. What would you consider to be your greatest success in using your engineering skills to solve a problem? The interviewer wants
to know how you can explain your achievements, and how well you apply your problem-solving skills to surmount real-life obstacles. Here, make your examples as concrete as possible. The choice is yours – select the one that puts you in the best possible light.
5. What engineering skill/s have you developed in the past year?
As an engineer, it is important that you are always updated with the latest methods and technologies in the industry. With this question, the interviewer is trying to find out if you have the initiative to improve on your industry knowledge and skills. Here, make sure you mention skills that are relevant to the job you are applying
for. Also, don’t forget to emphasize that though you are not the master of everything, you are always ready and willing to learn.
6. What do you get out of engineering that you couldn’t get in other functions in other industries?
This questions basically means: “Why pursue this industry?” Here, you can talk about your engineering achievements that further drive your interest in the industry, or you can talk about aspects of engineering work that stimulates you. Don’t forget to relate them to the position you are applying for.
7. How were you able to help in the success of your last project?
The interviewer is essentially trying to find out how you work with and contribute to a team. It is opportune to mention your creative thinking, effective communication or attention to detail. You are also welcome to provide an example.
8. What was the load like in your previous work? This question should
tell you that the company is expecting you to handle a considerably heavy workload. Don’t forget: In talking about your previous jobs workload (or your University subject load), do not complain and do not sound overwhelmed. This is your chance to highlight your efficiency, and your time and work management skills.
9. What to you are the characteristics of a successful engineer? The
interviewer is looking into your values. You can choose around three or four traits and explain why in your opinion they are important. Perhaps a good way to tackle this is to use a real person as an example – say a manager or a colleague. Explain how their positive traits contributed to their success. Also, explain how you have learned from working with them.
10. How were you able to handle a difficult client? As an engineer, you
work with clients day-in and day-out. Thus, it is important that you are emotionally stable and are able to amicably work with them, even through trying times. Make sure you emphasize that you listen to your clients, and that you work with them throughout the projects. But clarify that despite this, you took the responsibility of providing an effective solution, and that you took ownership of the project. There! We hope that these job interview tips can help you in your present or future job search. By the way, now that you have an idea on how to handle these interview questions, you should feel confident in applying for relevant positions. If you are ready to jump ship, then try to apply for these engineering job opportunities (click here)
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Photo by: productivitymeetings
Meeting Mistakes Every Engineer Must Avoid Everyday, engineers attend meetings to discuss important matters about their work. From settling the accounts with potential clients to debating which project to pursue and updating their boss about their work, it’s impossible to avoid meetings at work. But what if the engineer starts to climb up the office ladder? What if he/she needs to lead meetings and require updates from the people working for him/her? These meetings can play a crucial role in the company’s productivity so an engineer must avoid these common meeting mistakes to achieve the success they need:
Meetings start late It’s never a good idea to start the meeting late. Wasted time means wasted possibilities to get things done outside the meeting. You could have sealed the deal with a client instead of waiting for the meeting to start 15 minutes later. Your
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AUGUST 2016 Sports Engineering and Other Special Features
colleagues could have finished the papers and reports needed to deliver to your clients. The next time you hold a meeting, make sure everyone’s present on time.
Wrong people present in the meeting Don’t invite everyone in the office to the meeting. Check your agenda and know which ones need to report to you during the meeting and which ones don’t. Inviting everyone would only waste everyone’s time.
Photo by: memegenerator
Photo by: workplacedivaBlogspot
Forgetting to discuss the important issues Focus on the important issues you need to decide on always. When trivial things start to pop up during the meeting, quickly shift the discussion to the important matters needed to be resolved. Always consider everyone’s time. You don’t need to discuss during the meeting who will bring the important guest to where he is staying during his company visit. Nope, you don’t have to.
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Meetings scheduled at the wrong time Try to find out when it’s usually productive for everyone to work and let them do their work that time. Set the schedule for the meeting when it’s convenient for everyone.
Wrong people lead the meetings. Make sure that the ones who know how to make the right decisions for the important matters are present. Make sure they are able to speak up as well. Sometimes the loud and overconfident colleagues dominate the meeting while the quiet ones are left to sit and listen. Make sure you’re able to facilitate the discussion in the meeting well.
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