Young Engineer Sam Etherington

According to an article, a young entrepreneur/engineering named Sam Etherington has been shortlisted for entry into the engineering hall of fame for the UK. Sam is only 24 years old and is the youngest to ever be considered for the award.

Others included on the list are Sir James Dyson, Apple’s Sir Jonathan Ive, Tim Morgan and David Gow. Mr. Etherington couldn’t believe he was nominated at such a young age. Being considered among the other people he said is a huge honor. He literally had to pinch himself because he couldn’t believe it was true.

Of the five candidates one will be included on the current 10 member list in the hall of fame.

Sam Etherington is being acknowledged for his multi-axis wave convertor. The idea came to him as he was out kite surfing while being pounded by wave after wave. He felt first hand how powerful the waves were and he decided at that instance that he wanted to harness that energy in an efficient way.

He is the founder of the company Renewable Wave Power and has been successful proving his technology on a small scale. He believes that if he were to win this coveted award it would help him raise more funding to build a new prototype and to get to the next level as a business.

Sam Etherington thinks engineers don’t get nearly the amount of attention they deserve. Nowadays all that people care about are the end users, not the people who enabled that person to do what they are doing. Sam brought up the point of a runner. They might go out and win a huge race, but did you consider the shoes that helped that person win the race? Engineers make other people successful.

Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

Perhaps we should all take notice of what Bill and Melinda Gates are doing with their foundation. To date they have put forth more than $28 billion to various charities and organizations looking to make advances in technology. Who would have thought the richest man in the world would also be the most generous? Although, for three years he was considered the second richest man in the world to Carlos Slim. Now in the year 2014 he is right back where he has been for so long at number one.

The Bill and Melinda Gates foundation has put nearly $1 billion to the Gavi Alliance, which develops vaccines for terrible diseases. They have also donated $750,000,000 over the course of 175 months to the Rotary Foundation. Rotary is trying to eradicate polio. The foundation has also put millions upon millions of dollars toward finding treatment and a cure for AIDS.

It seems like Bill Gates understand that he has a lot of money and can make a huge difference with it for the greater good of humanity. With that much money you can change the lives of so many. Helping find cures for diseases is his ultimate goal. How great would it feel to know that your generous donations helped find a cure for some of the most terrible diseases on the planet? Bill Gates and his foundation are a huge help for so many.

Building Up and Branching Out

Architecture has been dominated by men for pretty much all of its existence. However, these days there are some determined women to put their mark on the profession as well. The architecture world is beginning to take shape with both men and women alike producing fantastic works. But still there are few women recognized for their outstanding work.

The founders of Amici Productions LLC, Alice Shure and Janice Stanton, decided to help do something about it. They have begun working on a new documentary called “Making Space” which is a visual representation of the changes in architecture and how women currently in the field are affecting future architects for generations to come.

Stanton and Shure decided to form their documentary around some of the best in the business. They interviewed over 30 architects and decided upon five game-changing women that they call “rising stars.” As the documentary is being produced here is an early look at the five talented women selected to show their skills from the foundations to the film room according to a Huffington Post article.

1. Anabelle Selldorf

Anabelle Selldorf, founder of Selldorf Architects in New York was born in Germany. She specializes in interior design and architecture and is known for working on the Neu Galerie in New York and renovating buildings such as the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World and the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute.

2. Odile Decq

Decq has been selected for her accomplishments of winning Motorway Bridge for the A14 competition in Nanterre. She was a co-founder of ODBC, a French firm. However she began working alone in 1998 and has designed an extension for Rome’s Contemporary Art Museum as well as the Restaurant L’Opera at Opera Garnier in 2011.

3. Farshid Moussavi

Born in Iran and raised in England Moussavi is the director of Farshid Moussavi Architecture based in London. She has built the International Terminal in Yokohama in Japan and more recent work has included the Museum of Contemporary Art in Cleveland, Ohio.

4. Kathryn Gustafson

Gustafson works as a landscape architect in Seattle, WA. Primarily working on sculptured landscapes uniquely designed by her she mostly works on public places such as parks and gardens. Some work completed by Gustafson has been Arlene Kogod Courtyard at the Smithsonian as well as The Lurie Garden of Millenium Park in Chicago.

5. Marianne McKenna

Born in Montreal, Canada, McKenna is a founding partner at KPMB where she has led institutions such as: the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto, the Royal Conservatory TELUS Centre for Performance and Learning and the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

German Engineers Putting Blemish on Reputation?

According to an article, German engineers are struggling to keep their heads above water as problems are continuing to arise in multiple cities throughout the country in regards to major architectural developments. Recently the public has been feeling worried and slighted as budget costs rise and time is being added on to projects all across the country.

In Hamburg, The Elbe Philharmonic Hall situated in Europe’s second largest port has been a very real image of these worries by local Germans. With a budget of approximately $325 million and a deadline to be completed by 2010 the still unfinished building has now been re-budgeted to now be finished by 2017 with a cost of an estimated $1 billion, assuming everything goes to plan.

History has shown Germany to be an export powerhouse with companies such as BMW solidifying these claims. However, with a series of engineering failures the country’s reputation for efficiency and speed may now be negatively affected.

There are other areas in Germany struggling to swim as well. The Berlin-Brandenburg Airport, originally budgeted to cost $1.6 billion and completed by 2007 has already cost over $4.3 billion with no sign of an opening date in the near future due to issues with the fire safety system that no expert has been able to fix.

Stuttgart, with plans to complete a underground, high-speed railway has already taken their budget from $6 billion to over $8.8 billion which is only preliminary as local opposition and unthinkable engineering woes put the ending cost up in the air.

Many people are not so sure the Germany’s engineers are truly the ones at fault. Some have the politicians directly to blame. It’s not difficult to see this side. Many state officials have lowered budget estimates and moved up project completion dates in order to receive approval for the projects and therefore votes. With the combination of budget and completion missteps it is understandable for the engineering failures.

It appears to many that the issue is not one of engineering but one of management as contractors and politicians have wrestled back and forth on deadlines, budget, and working conditions.

Those in Hamburg are still optimistic that the amount of money put into the Elbe Philharmonic Hall will be worth it. With an evergoing art and performance culture locals press on to see it finished. Being the Birthplace of Felix Mendelsohn and Johannes Brahms tradition has been rooted in Hamburg for centuries. With such a history and tradition it appears Hamburg residents will simply wait. Regardless the cost.

Engineer Degrees Continuing to Grow

If you’re thinking about going to college for engineering, you’re certainly not alone.

According to an article posted on USNews.com, science and engineering degrees in the United States grew last year at a rate twice as fast as any other field.

The author writes that from 2009 to 2013, science and engineering degrees grew by 19 percent, compared to a 9 percent growth among other disciplines, this according to numbers from produced by the National Student Clearinghouse.

“In some cases it might be institutional initiatives, in some cases it might be different kinds of policy levers, but I think the growth has been such that it’s not just a coincidence,” Lead Researcher Jason DeWitt told reporters. “I think students have been responding to the call for more STEM students.”

Included in the study, the author writes, are the fields of earth, atmospheric and ocean sciences, physical sciences, mathematics and computer science, engineering, and biological and agricultural sciences. Social sciences and psychology were also included, the article mentioned, because those disciplines fall under the National Science Foundation’s classification of science.

The article goes on to say that by the year 2020, nearly all new job postings will require some form of higher education, and about engineering and science positions will have grown by about 25%. Some numbers even suggest that by that time, there will be a much greater number of jobs than students qualified to fill them.

Researchers say current growth patterns are unprecedented in recent history, according to the author. In fact, the growth in degrees over the last 5 years averaged out to about 4.5%, whereas the average annual growth over the previous 30 years was only 2.4%.

The article also goes on to discuss age and gender trends within science and engineering students, but overall, Dewitt calls this a period of “accelerated growth.” So if you’re thinking about getting into engineering, now’s the time to do it.

Science and Engineering Through Sailing

Not all scientific learning happens in the classroom. In fact, sometimes it comes in the form of heavy waves and a pair of sails.

A recent Forbes article highlights the Community Boating Center in Providence, RI, who, several years ago, partnered with the Providence After School Alliance to teach kids about math, science, and boating.

“All sailing is really about science and math. You’re immersed in it, whether you recognize it or not,” John O’Flaherty, the program’s director, told Forbes.

According to the article, O’Flaherty and the After School Alliance put together a summer program for middle-schoolers which consists of two days in the classroom and two more out on the water. “We added a very under-toned dash of science to the sailing,” O’Flaherty said. “The next day in class, the teacher used the on-water experience as a springboard for discussion of the science behind it.”

The author writes that the students responded much more to the classroom work when they were invested in the outcome of their learning. Evidently, the prospect of the boat outing enhanced their attentiveness. O’Flaherty attributes it to the “magic of sailing.”

“If you learn the lessons,” he told the author, “you get to harness these invisible forces—wind, currents, tides—and use them to go fast, which is fun and exciting.”

O’Flaherty, the article goes on to say, wasn’t satisfied with just one small program. He connected with US Sailing representative Jessica Servis, who helped develop a curriculum that later became known as REACH.

“Sailing is like sticking kids in a real-life interactive lab every day,” Servis told Forbes. “Everyone knew it had a great STEM connection, but there was no curriculum that spoke to teachers and schools, met education frameworks, and could be implemented by a community-sailing center.”

After three years of development, the REACH program launched in 2012, and now serves as a model for similar programs all across the country.

Web Engineer Chris Fry

Twitter’s IPO isn’t the only thing they’re making headlines for this week

An article published in the Business Insider says that Twitter offered Chris Fry, their Senior VP of Technology, $10 million worth of stock, which, the author writes, makes him the second most highly paid person in the company, falling short only of CEO Dick Costolo.

Fry was able to cash in on his engineering skills, the author writes, and it helped him make out with a big payday. BI cites former colleagues of Fry’s as referring to him as a “10x” engineer. What’s this mean? It means he does 10 times the work of a typical engineer. Pretty impressive, especially when you consider he’s only been with Twitter for about a year.

The article goes on to say that Fry holds 10 different patents, as well as a Ph.D. in cognitive science…. which probably didn’t hurt him when it came to the hiring process.

He has experience managing hundreds of engineers spread over multiple departments, which, the author writes, is invaluable to a company like twitter who are largely dependant on an innovative engineering team to attract new users and in turn drive revenue.

His real competitive advantage, however, lies not with his coding ability, but with his ability to work with people. In working with SalesForce, the article said, Fry gained valuable experience learning to lead and motivate some of the most talented engineers in the business, especially in a fast-paced environment of growth.

And growth is the name of the game for Twitter, the author argues. On the eve of their IPO, he speculates that Fry’s big stock bonus may be an incentive for him to stick around with the company for the foreseeable future.

Moral of the story? If you can pair your technical talents with a knack for working with people, you may end up like Chris Fry: with a big paycheck on the way.

Spanish Architecture Hurting With Economy

Spanish children dreaming of elaborate, gorgeous buildings, are being woken up by a rough economy.

According to an article published in the Christian Science Monitor, budding Spanish professionals may have to consider options other than architecture in the near future.

In the 1990’s, buildings like Norman Foster’s Torre de Collserola and I.M. Pei’s World Trade Center (located in Barcelona), and Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim Museum of Bilbao inspired young architects to dream big dreams, the article argues. They also proved that successful architects could be, well, very successful.

Now’s Spain’s unemployment level sits at roughly 25%. Funding for public works programs, like government buildings, has been all but cut off, and architects are running for their lives, the author says.

When the Guggenheim opened in the late 1990’s, she writes, the world’s perception of Spain changed from one of desolation and emptiness to amazement. International tourism skyrocketed and as a result, the building bred it’s own phrase: “The Guggenheim Effect.”

But since the crash of the real estate market in 2008, Spanish housing prices are down 30%, the CS Monitor says. Opposite the Guggenheim effect came the symbolism of huge, half-finished public works projects; empty concert halls and abandoned airports are not uncommon sights.

Housing starts, according to the article, are down from 800,000 annually pre-recession to 80,000, and as a result, 42% of Spaniards trained as architects are out of work. But this shock to the system provides an opportunity.

The author suggests that Spanish architecture is shifting toward environmental consciousness, instead of chasing the Guggenheim dream at all costs.

Rafael de La-Hoz, an award-winning architect in Madrid who has constructed edifices both in Spain and internationally, told reporters, “Good architecture means working together with a city, to create a better city, not just one amazing building."

California High Speed Rail Project Slows Down Once Again

It looks as though high speed rail in California is going to move just a little bit slower.

The San Jose Mercury News recently published an article citing a delay in the start to construction on the groundbreaking project.  According to the Mercury, rails officials said in a statement released to the press that construction would be delayed a “few months,” on top of what has already become more than a year of setbacks.

Among some of the signs for delay, the author writes, are a lack of equipment (bulldozers, heavy machinery, etc…), an uncertainty about finished designs, workers yet to be hired, and a pair of pending lawsuits that could cause even further problems for rail authority CEO Jeff Morales.

The project has been marred in controversy since it was approved, at a $10 billion cost, by voters five years ago, the article says.  Some critics, like the project’s former chairman Quentin Kopp, are dubious as to it’s success.  Kopp told the Mercury News, “The future of this plan is in doubt… I don’t know how (the state) could even mention starting construction with pending litigation. It’s irresponsible.”

Morales, however, remains confident that state will meet a September 2017 deadline to spend $3 billion in federal money allocated for the program.  Though critics insist a start date is non-existent, Morales feels quite the opposite.  According to the article, Morales told reporters the real genesis of the project occurred 14 months ago, when construction of the first 130 miles from Merced to Bakersfield was authorized by the state legislature.

The two cases pending against the project are set to occur soon.  One will head to trial in the next week to determine the rail authority will be penalized for violated two ballot measure points when lobbying for the project, and the other brought forth by the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, as well as a number of other plaintiffs, to shut down the rail line altogether.

Wind Turbines On Lake Erie a Reasonable Solution

A recent article on Cleveland.com talks about six wind turbines that are being planned for use on Lake Erie. One of the main concerns is the ice that forms on the lake during the winter month. Many critics believe the ice would certainly destroy any turbine that is erected. An international engineering firm recently reported that they would not need steel or concrete foundations for the turbines but would only need a similar set up to a turbine that is constructed on land. This would include a large diameter pole that would be driven 80 feet into sand, clay and glacial material before being fixed on top of the shale bedrock. Each turbine would have “proven technology that would protect it from crushing ice floes that critics have predicted would destroy any freshwater wind turbines.” The turbine towers could also have a positive impact on fishing and could help push oxygen into some of the lakes dead zones.

Construction of the turbines are scheduled to begin in spring 2017.