Aiming higher

Scott McCafferty
October 13th, 2007.

Michael Jordan and I share a very similar life experience, but vastly different career paths. Like Mike, I was cut from my high school basketball team not once, but for three consecutive years. Finally, as a senior in high school, I earned the right to wear a high school basketball uniform as a member of the varsity squad. Unfortunately, my playing time mostly consisted of assisting in lopsided games where we won by 20 or more points. My final stat line was scoring a total of 8 points my senior season. While we all know what Jordan accomplished in the NBA and college ranks, my basketball career went onto greatness by playing college intramurals and recreation league games. In my mind, though, I was still like Mike.

My senior basketball season taught me one of my most valuable life lessons. I set the goal to make the high school team, and did everything possible to prepare myself, but I never re-evaluated my goal to go beyond simply making the team. I never set another goal of playing in the game. (more…)

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Notes from the floor

Leslie Langnau
October 01st, 2007.

One of the advantages editors have at a show is the opportunity to see the industry as a whole. By focusing on the bigger picture, rather than on one company, one product, or one aspect of an industry, we hope to provide information that may help you in your decision making.

–Many conversations with exhibitors at the National Design Show in Chicago last week (Sept 25-27) revolved around “green,” or “sustainable” design, the terms now being used to describe products that minimally affect the planet from “cradle to grave.” U.S. exhibitors see the move towards such practice on the horizon, but few have made large efforts in that direction.

While “green” is desirable, some question whether you can really develop such products. For example, one term used in the designing community is “carbon neutral.” As Dr. Gerhard Antony, President of Neugart noted, “how do you determine the carbon effect of your product, especially when you factor in the manufacturing process, not just the design of the product itself? U.S. industry is at the beginning of this trend and has a long way to go to answer such questions. But it is something designers will be facing if they are not already facing it in product design. (more…)

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Engineering is more than a choice–it’s a passion

John Gyorki
October 01st, 2007.

Recently, many engineering, science, and technology magazines have lamented about an apparent shortage of high school students enrolling in engineering schools and colleges. The writers frequently cite the enormous numbers of engineers graduating in foreign countries compared to the much lower numbers in the US. Their conclusions imply an alarming increase of imported foreign engineers and more manufacturing moving overseas, which result in a severe shortage of high-technology jobs for young Americans. Furthermore, some of the arguments suggest that the young people prefer higher paying jobs that do not require as much intense study as engineering. (more…)

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Failure is not a parameter

Leslie Langnau
September 01st, 2007.

One of my favorite movies is Apollo 13. This movie details the events that led to the successful return of our astronauts after a crippling explosion damaged the spacecraft’s Service Module two days after launch. For me, the best parts of the movie were about how the NASA astronauts and Mission Control personnel “worked the problem” to bring the astronauts home. Flight Director Gene Kranz is widely viewed as the originator of the phrase “work the problem.” The movie brilliantly showed how those engineers and scientists explored various engineering challenges and how they managed and solved those challenges.

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Stress on the job

John Gyorki
August 01st, 2007.

As an editor and writer, I have the opportunity to interview many engineers in a wide variety of engineering disciplines. I usually make an appointment a few days ahead to set up an interview date and time. But over the past two years or so, I have noticed that more technologists have less time in their schedules for interviews, even when I promise to take less than 20 minutes. In fact, one engineer recently told me that he would “love” to talk to me, but he had no less than 45 items on his to-do list that he deemed were more important. Often, I have to reschedule interviews several times; some never happen. (more…)

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