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Scope of nanotechnology widens in 2018
Bill Becken EngineeringThere's miniaturization, and then there's nanotechnology. Global markets are growing and multiplying for both. But it's the point of nanotech to effect desired technical solutions and outcomes with ever-smaller — much, much smaller — building blocks of materials.
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Can Trump sell apprenticeship programs to America?
R.V. Scheide ManufacturingChances are that more Americans are familiar with "The Apprentice," the reality TV show formerly starring the current president of the United States, than they are with apprenticeship programs. Today, graduates from such programs constitute just 0.2 percent of the labor force.
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Bridging the manufacturing skills gap: A work in progress
R.V. Scheide ManufacturingFor more than a decade, labor market specialists have been warning that the United States is not training the required number of students in science, technology, engineering and math to remain competitive in the digitized global economy. But where exactly these shortages exist and how exactly to do address them remain unanswered questions.
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Demanding E&E developments from CES 2018
Don Rosato EngineeringThe annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) — just held Jan. 9-12 in Las Vegas — is the world's top technology exhibition highlighting major new electrical and electronic developments. Continuous change is always the main feature of the electrical and electronics industries. Whether in the consumer electronics or telecommunications sector, companies must constantly evolve to remain competitive in the global marketplace.
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K-12 schools: The need for computational thinking
Bambi Majumdar EducationAs we race toward tech-based education, it has become imperative that students not only become familiar with emerging technologies but also internalize them. One way to ensure that they do so is to move beyond limited coding exercises and start learning computational thinking.
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4 causes of failure for medical devices
Emmet McMahan EngineeringMaterials are one of the most common causes of failure in medical devices, especially for plastic. Records show that material failure is responsible for 30 to 40 percent of all FDA recalls on medical devices.
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Building America
Marc Cheves Construction & Building MaterialsDuring a downturn in the early 1990s, I had to lay off an excellent career instrument man. He was one of many who were shown the door in that dark time. But what made it even worse for this particular individual was the fact that it was the second time the company had laid him off. The first was after another earlier downturn.
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Ocado’s robots are changing the grocery industry
Bambi Majumdar Distribution & WarehousingOcado's robotic lab has generated a lot of interest in the food retail industry. The UK-based online grocer has set the stage for the future of grocery shopping with the robotic innovations in its automated fulfillment center.
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MIT researchers convert emissions into fuel
Scott E. Rupp Natural ResourcesScientists may have discovered a means by which they can transform emissions back into fuel, essentially using waste discharge to power our transportation needs, possibly in the not-too-distant future. The findings of the research were published in the journal ChemSusChem.
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More questions than answers
Wendy Lathrop Construction & Building MaterialsSome of the messages that find their way to me by email (and sometimes by phone) pose questions that are far more complicated than the inquirer anticipates. Recently, a brief, two-sentence question (couched in an only slightly longer message) required me to write many paragraphs to describe and explain all the variables involved that precluded me from giving a solid answer. Incidentally, I also asked that I not be given more information since I didn't have time to research and respond to all those specifics, and some of it would be beyond my expertise.
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