Professional Documents
Culture Documents
lost ngers
Global Gas
Turbine News
Freezing
in place
THE MAGAZINE OF ASME
SPLIT
DECISIONS
Eiciencies
improve when
the engineer and
project manager
see eye to eye.
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35 PATENT TROLLS
Even those who make and sell nothing
are devising new ways to make money
from U.S. patent laws.
By Kirk Teska
39 EVERYDAY FINGERS
Prosthetic limbs have been around a long
time; but until Dan Didrick came along,
working articial ngers didnt exist.
By Jean Thilmany
Focus on Plant Engineering
42 ALTERNATIVE MEASURES
When instruments cant reach the pump,
theres another way to go with the ow.
By Ray Beebe
44 A FREEZE IN TIME
An ASME post-construction standard leads
a renery maintenance team through an
unfamiliar but efcient repair.
By Jaan Taagepera and Nathan Tyson
48 A PUMP WAR STORY:
BACK TO BASICS
By Gary Wamsley
72 INPUT OUTPUT
Awards Show Off Robot Advances
By Alan S. Brown
2 MECHANICAL ENGINEERING | August 2011
features
d
e
p
a
r
t
m
e
n
t
s
6 Editorial
8 Letters
12 News & Notes
16 Washington Window
18 Global Window
20 Computing
23 Software Exchange
24 Tech Focus
Fluid Handling & Fluid Power
61 ME Bookshelf
62 New Products
64 Resource File
67 Positions Open
69 Ad Index
70 ASME News
Focus on
Engineering Management
30 SERVING
TWO MASTERS
It takes judgment and thought to
balance the ethical engineer and
capable project manager.
By Brian Porter
O
N
T
H
E
C
O
V
E
R
08 11
VOLUME 133/NO.8
Special supplement
IGTIS GLOBAL GAS
TURBINE NEWS
4960
/uqusl 2O11
0|obu| 0us 7urbine News
Reliance
Super-E
e
d
i
t
o
r
i
a
l
BUILDING COLLABORATION
CONGRATULATIONS! YOURE
HIRED. Now youre in charge of a
large engineering team. Its the job
you always wanted.
You hold an engineering degree
from a good school, and you have 15
years of excellent appraisals under
your belt. Youre a good engineer,
and youve had plenty of experience
on how not to manage from all those
boneheaded bosses youve had along
the way. The ones you swore had no
clue how to manage people.
The H.R. manager who gave you
the good news about the 18 percent
raise that comes with the job tells
you the rst thing youve got to do is
focus on getting the technical team
and the project management folks
to see eye-to-eye. Upper manage-
ment, she says, is afraid of another
Deepwater Horizon thinga new
catchphrase in todays engineering
reality for a failed system.
Good luck, dont mess up, she
says as you leave her o ce.
Managing people, under the best
of circumstances, is hard enough,
but navigating between those
concerned with safety and those on
the other side of the oor who push
for e ciency is even harder. Over
the past 50 years, engineers have
realized they must balance budgets
and meet business demands, says
Brian Porter, who we commissioned
to write this months cover story,
Serving Two Masters. The require-
ments to meet technical needs such
as specications, public safety, and
reliability, and the business require-
ments such as budget and schedule
are frequently conicting in na-
ture, even when they theoretically
serve one another, Porter says.
Getting workers to collaborate
eectively is part science, part art,
and part voodoo.
A recent Harvard Business Review
article stresses that getting every-
one on your team to share a purpose
does not come simply from a corpo-
rate statement, or even from a single
charismatic leader. It comes from a
combination of often intangible ele-
ments that create a long-lasting and
eective work culture.
One way to do that is to collabo-
rate at all levels of the enterprise.
You cant expect people on your
team to get along if you dont engage
in similar behavior yourself.
The HBR article recounts the story
of Microsofts ill-fated tablet com-
puter that could have preempted
Apples iPad by more than a decade
if it hadnt been for internal com-
peting divisions at Microsoft that
conspired to kill the project. Micro-
soft had not learned to collaborate
with itself.
Certainly inciting collaborative
behaviors among workers is saddled
with many complex dimensions
that include personal convictions,
cultural values, and the particular
enterprises operating norms. But
when it comes to complex systems,
Demands to sacrice performance
are out of the question, Porter says.
Learn from the past; use it today,
for a successful future.
Now that youve been on the job a
few months you realize that managing
teams isnt as easy you thought. You
also realize the importance of collabo-
ration in the process. Not to put more
pressure on you, but the stakes are
high. Failure is not an option.
6 MECHANICAL ENGINEERING | August 2011
Editor-in-Chief
John G. Falcioni
Executive Editor
Harry Hutchinson
Associate Editors
Alan S. Brown, Jean Thilmany,
Jeffrey Winters
Electronic Publishing Editor
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and Publishing Development
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Online
www.memagazine.org
(212) 591-7783; fax (212) 591-7841
E-mail: memag@asme.org
The American Society of Mechanical Engineers
President Victoria A. Rockwell
President-Nominee Marc W. Goldsmith
Past President Robert T. Simmons
Governors Richard C. Benson, Betty L. Bowersox,
Julio Guerrero, Said Jahanmir, Robert N. Pangborn,
Thomas D. Pestorius, Edmund J. Seiders, J. Robert
Sims Jr., Charla K. Wise
Executive Director
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Deputy Executive Director
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Secretary and Treasurer
Wilbur J. Marner
Assistant Secretary
Warren R. Leonard
Senior Vice Presidents
Centers Clark McCarrell
Standards & Certication Kenneth R. Balkey
Institutes Dilip R. Ballal
Knowledge & Community Thomas G. Libertiny
Strategic Management Stacey Swisher Harnetty
ME Editorial Advisory Board
Robert E. Nickell, Chairman; Harry Armen;
Leroy S. Fletcher; Richard J. Goldstein;
Thomas G. Libertiny
For reprints, contact
Edward Kane, (866) 879-9144, ext.131
edk@fosterprinting.com
Opinions expressed in Mechanical Engineering
magazine do not necessarily reect the views of ASME.
John G. Falcioni, Editor-in-Chief
falcionijasme.org
twitter.com/johnfalcioni
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me.hotims.com/34756-05 or circle 05
JOHUNL`V\YWLYJLW[PVUVM
>
THlS lS NOT THE SOClAL PART OF THE PROJECT.
G||dd|ng |s a |one|y o0s|ness. Eve|yoody o0ts o|ess0|e on yo0 to
gene|ate mes|es q0|c||y and acc0|ate|y, o0t |t's 0o to yo0 a|one
to get |t done. We've oeen |n t|e mes||ng o0s|ness fo| a |ong t|me,
and o0| exoe||enced tec|n|ca| s0ooo|t staff |s stand|ng oy to o|ov|de
yo0 w|t| oe|sona|, o|ofess|ona| s0ooo|t. Yo0'|e not a|one anymo|e.
Ca|| 0s fo| a f|ee eva|0at|on. We'|e |eady to |e|o. POlNTWlSE.
Re//ab/e Peop/e, Re//ab/e Too/s, Re//ab/e CFD Mesh/ng.
To/ / Free [800} 4PTWlSE www.po/ nIw/ se.com
8 MECHANICAL ENGINEERING | August 2011
letters
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saxenas@asme.org
To the Editor: I enjoyed and agree with some
of the points and suggestions made in the ar-
ticle Has the U.S. Lost Its Technical Edge?
(May). We as a country have probably not
done our best to promote science, technology,
engineering, and mathematics (STEMor
should it be STEAM?). Perhaps we have lost
our steam.
STEM education at the middle school levels
can only help. However, I believe there are other factors being overlooked.
One of the most inuential factors in young teens lack of interest in STEM-
related programs is the media and public interest in rock stars, celebrities,
athletes, and Wall Street tycoons.
It appears to be more than just interest; its closer to worship. And the com-
mon denominator is money and ashquite intoxicating to middle school
teens or even old engineers.
As a teeny bopper would you want to be Justin Bieber or Joe Engineer? The
rock stars, etc. get recognition, respect, status, and reward.
What does Joe Engineer get? If anything, Joe Engineer gets a bad rap when
a pipeline blows up, or an oil rig spews oil, or even when commuter trains col-
lide. Ive managed a few multi-disciplined engineering groups, and its been
my observation that for the most part engineers feel they lack respect, rec-
ognition, status, and reward within their companies and with the general
public. They feel this way because thats the way it is.
So, if we want to home grow technical talent, we must at least match the
status that engineers and scientists receive in other countries. A tough task.
RUSSEL KOELSCH, P.E.
FOUNTAIN VALLEY, CALIF.
To the Editor: In reply to Delores Etters piece in the May issue, I will certain-
ly laud herand othersdesire to advance technical careers and help America
keep its technological edge. I love my job as a mechanical engineer and tell my
wife that most days I go to work and play; thats how much fun I have at work.
Yet missing in all this is the demand-side. Kids are not stupid. They look at
factories closing all around them. They go to stores and see Made in X, with
X not being U.S.A. They watch the news, and hear of more and more jobs being
sent overseas where the labor rates are cheaper.
A recent issue of another engineering magazine had several letters from en-
gineers discussing the lack of respect they received in their positions, and all
strongly discouraged engineering as a profession.
And while I dont get no respect is a comedic line, the universal head-
nodding at the antics of the Pointy-Haired Boss in virtually every Dilbert
cartoon points to a serious problem with management bred in business
schools, with no knowledge of the actual product and a belief that people are
but talent or human capital, and completely interchangeable and ex-
pendable assets.
STEM careers are rewarding, but nobody can deny that achieving academic
success in these elds is dicult. There is a lot of work, and a lot of classes.
Engineer vs. Rock Star
MESHING
JOHUNL`V\YWLYJLW[PVUVM
>
THlS lS NOT THE SOClAL PART OF THE PROJECT.
G||dd|ng |s a |one|y o0s|ness. Eve|yoody o0ts o|ess0|e on yo0 to
gene|ate mes|es q0|c||y and acc0|ate|y, o0t |t's 0o to yo0 a|one
to get |t done. We've oeen |n t|e mes||ng o0s|ness fo| a |ong t|me,
and o0| exoe||enced tec|n|ca| s0ooo|t staff |s stand|ng oy to o|ov|de
yo0 w|t| oe|sona|, o|ofess|ona| s0ooo|t. Yo0'|e not a|one anymo|e.
Ca|| 0s fo| a f|ee eva|0at|on. We'|e |eady to |e|o. POlNTWlSE.
Re//ab/e Peop/e, Re//ab/e Too/s, Re//ab/e CFD Mesh/ng.
To/ / Free [800} 4PTWlSE www.po/ nIw/ se.com
me.hotims.com/34756-06 or circle 06
10 MECHANICAL ENGINEERING | August 2011
COOLING WITH GAS
To the Editor: The author of Remov-
ing Heat From a Reactor in Shutdown
(May) writes as if light water reactors
were the only reactors in the world.
Indeed most of the worlds 442 reactors
are LWRsbut not all. Britains historic
Magnox and AGR reactors, along with
the high-temperature gas reactor in the
U.S. are not. LWR evolved from the U.S.
Navy submarine program of Admiral
Rickover. LWR technology today re-
mains nearly the same as in the 1950s
when it was designed: very high power
density, low heat capacity metal clad
fuel in a xed geometry maintained by
zirconium alloy under xed tempera-
ture limits. As temperatures rise, the
alloy changes phase and loses strength,
becoming reactive with its water cool-
ant, H
2
O. That reaction created the free
hydrogen that combusted at Fukushi-
ma, and was also problematic at Three
Mile Island.
Although compact and comparatively
cheap in contrast with other technolo-
gies, the LWR has one fundamental
weaknessmetal clad fuel. Indeed, at
both Three Mile Island and Fukushima
Dai-ichi, the two principal variantsthe
pressurized water reactor and boiling
water reactorboth suered cata-
strophic failures. Economic losses that
resulted from undercooling following
shutdown caused as much anguish as
nuclear meltdown fears to their owners
and nanciers. Other reactor types dont
have these limitations. For example,
the high-temperature gas reactor has a
nonreactive coolant (helium), high heat
capacity core (graphite), and ceramic
fuel particle coating analogous to clad-
ding. The structural graphite heat sink
performs well at very high temperatures
compared with metal cores. These reac-
tors are not as susceptible as LWRs to
loss of cooling events, and retain ssion
products better in unpredictable sce-
narios like Fukushima.
Perhaps one positive aspect of Fuku-
shima will be that the worlds reactor
designers reconsider non-metal core
reactor designs. They oer much dier-
ent and potentially safer performance
in unpredictable beyond design basis
events.
J.K. AUGUST, P.E.
ARVADA, COLO.
Editors note: The author chairs the
American Nuclear Societys Committee 28
on gas reactors.
ACID AND MERCURY
To the Editor: I was shocked that Dmit-
ry Paramonov (Some Aspects of the
Fight Against Climate Change, ASME
Nuclear Engineering Division News,
May) would say in his article on climate
change as it relates to the consump-
tion of fossil fuels: ... consequences of
global warming are not necessarily bad
for all countries or social groups. Two
things he failed to consider in making
that statement were ocean acidication
caused by CO
2
absorption, and mercury
that is often emitted along with CO
2
from
coal-red plants.
Both of these things will increasingly
and negatively impact the quantity and
quality of food we are able to harvest
from ocean sources, not to mention the
rivers and pristine streams that are ex-
hibiting increased mercury levels as well.
Thus it is doubtful that anyone on this
Earth will ultimately be immune from
the consequences of global warming as it
relates to the burning of fossil fuels.
BOB BALHISER
HELENA, MONT.
Letters to the Editor
Mechanical Engineering
Three Park Avenue
New York, NY 10016-5990
fax: (212) 591-7841
e-mail: memagasme.org
The editors reserve the right to edit letters for clarity,
style, and length. We regret that unpublished letters
cannot be acknowledged or returned.
letters to
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Mechanical Engineering welcomes
comments from our readers.
Letters can be typewritten or
e-mailed, and must include the
authors full name, address, and
telephone number. Address your
submission to:
+
With companies so eager to send those
jobs overseas, why would a rational per-
son examining a future career invest so
much for such a risky proposition?
Make engineering jobs more secure,
more respected, and create technical
career paths for those not interested
in management, and you will see more
people interested in STEM careers.
DAVID HUNT, P.E.
NASHUA, N.H.
FROM WHALES TO OWLS
To the Editor: I genuinely enjoyed read-
ing From Whales to Fans (May). Alan
Brown did a wonderful job following
the evolution from inspiration to mar-
ket. Its valuable for younger readers to
observe that great ideas may take years
to make their way into production, and
that to do so takes persistence, drive,
and an ability to sell your ideas.
I do however have one small point to
add with regards to the history of the
disciplines understanding of such lead-
ing edge features. Although it is perhaps
somewhat obscure, Paul T. Soderman
produced a rather comprehensive study
(NASA TM X-2643) of the eects of
leading edge features in the 7-foot x
10-foot wind tunnel at NASA Ames at
Reynolds numbers of 1 million and 2.3
million. It would appear that the study
was originally inspired by the desire
to reduce the acoustic signature of the
wing passing through the air, and many
of the leading edge features rather
strongly resembled owl feather leading
edge combs.
I do not oer up this reference to deni-
grate in any manner the tenacity or ex-
tent of the work of Dr. Fish and his col-
leagues, which I have admired for years.
None of the leading edge features tested
by Soderman resembled the sinusoidal
and three-dimensional nature of whale
n tubercles and their abstractions
tested by Dr. Fish and his colleagues.
I simply believe that the evolution of
the idea and the history of such lead-
ing edge features had been so well ex-
pressed in the story that it would have
been a shame not to mention the exten-
sive work done by Soderman at NASA
Ames back in 1972.
AARON ALTMAN
DAYTON, OHIO
>>
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me.hotims.com/34756-07 or circle 07
T
he U.S. Department of Energy
in June selected six projects to
split some $7.5 million to work
on advanced designs for wind
turbine drive trains.
Among the companies receiving awards
is GE Global Research, which will design
and test a 10 MW direct-drive generator
employing low-temperature supercon-
ductor technology, and Advanced Mag-
net Lab of Palm Bay, Fla., which is devel-
oping a new drivetrain coil conguration.
Another company receiving an award,
Clipper Windpower of Carpinteria,
Calif., will be testing a drivetrain design
intended to increase serviceability.
Any advances that make turbines more
reliable and e cient will help drive down
costs of wind power.
Other organizations receiving DOE
funds are Boulder Wind Power of Colo-
rado, Dehlsen Associates of Santa Bar-
bara, Calif., and the National Renewable
Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colo.
While the DOE program is aimed at
developing American manufacturers
of wind turbine technology, interna-
tional companies are already deploying
some advanced turbines of their own.
In June, Siemens installed the rst
prototype of its new direct-drive wind
turbine.
The SWT-6.0-120, which was
deployed in Hvsre, Denmark, fea-
tures a rotor 120 meters in diameter
and is rated at 6 MW.
The new turbine design, which is
intended for use in oshore wind farms,
is less massive than other turbines of
similar power, weighing in at just 350
metric tons. The hope is that a lighter
nacelle will enable the turbines to be
installed on thinner towers, reducing the
cost of construction.
Siemens plans to install other proto-
type wind turbines for testing over the
next couple of years. If all goes according
to plans, the advanced turbines could
begin production in 2014.
JEFFREY WINTERS
12 MECHANICAL ENGINEERING | August 2011
Next-Generation Wind Gets a Boost
NEWS&NOTES
S
I
E
M
E
N
S
A
new report from the National
Research Council recom-
mends that regulations
covering offshore wind farms
focus on performance goals rather than
prescriptive rules in order to accom-
modate future innovation. The recom-
mendations cover structural integrity,
environmental performance, and power
generation.
U.S. Department of the Interiors
Bureau of Ocean Energy Management,
Regulation, and Enforcement, which
regulates offshore wind farms, asked
the NRC to develop the recommenda-
tions. The resulting report is Structural
Integrity of Offshore Wind Turbines: Over-
sight of Design, Fabrication, and Installa-
tion. It draws on the offshore experience
of European wind farms and U.S. oil,
gas, and marine industries.
The committee found that offshore
wind farms pose signicantly lower
risks to safety and the environment
because they are unmanned and do not
handle hazardous substances. There-
fore, they do not require as stringent a
regulatory approach as other offshore
industries. The committee calls for
industry to propose specic standards,
guidelines, and recommended prac-
tices to meet the bureaus performance
requirements.
Industry can build on the procedures
pioneered in Europe, where more than
800 offshore turbines are connected to
the grid.
The United States operates some of
the worlds largest wind farms. Most sit
astride the wind belt that stretches from
Texas to the Dakotas. While land there
is cheap, the cost of building transmis-
sion lines to urban centers is high.
Offshore facilities, located where winds
are higher and more consistent, would
sit relatively close to major population
centers and existing transmission lines.
The Cape Wind project, the rst
offshore facility to win U.S. approval,
suggests what is coming. The 468 MW
farm will consist of 130 wind turbines.
Each tower will rise 258 feet tall, and the
blades will rise 440 feet above the water
surface. The farm will lie just off Cape
Cod in Massachusetts.
In addition to suggesting the Bureau of
Ocean Energy set performance targets
and allow industry to set standards, the
report recommends that certied third-
party evaluators review project propos-
als. One reason is that the bureau lacks
the workforce and expertise to take on
that role. ALAN S. BROWN
Study Proposes Goal-Driven Regulations for Oshore Wind
Installing the rotor
on Siemens new turbine
me.hotims.com/34756-08 or circle 08
August 2011 | MECHANICAL ENGINEERING 13
One Global
Code Symbol
ASME is taking steps to replace its
current 28 separate product certi-
cation marks with a single certi-
cation mark.
The primary reason for the change is
the global success of ASME Standards
and Certication programs. There are 28
ASME code symbol stamps in use by vari-
ous certied companies in 75 countries.
Having them use a single certication
mark will greatly help ASME monitor its
trademark around the world.
The new mark was introduced in the
2011 Addenda to the Boiler and Pres-
sure Vessel Code published in July. Cer-
tied companies may request and use
the new mark immediately, and they will
have the option of using the old marks
until Jan. 1, 2013.
After that date, the
new certication
mark becomes
mandatory and
the old stamps are
to be returned to
ASME.
The new mark.
J
ust as we receive feedback about
the world through more than just
our eyes and ngers, so tooone
daywill robots.
Scientists at Technical University of
Munich in Germany are developing
an articial skin for robots that they
said will provide important tactile
feedback about its world to the robot
to supplement perceptions formed by
camera eyes, infrared scanners, and
gripping hands.
The sense of touch gives robots one
more sense on which to rely as they
nd their way around a room or new
environment, said Philip Mittendorfer,
a scientist who is helping develop the
articial skin at the universitys Insti-
tute of Cognitive Systems.
As with human skin, the way the
articial skin is touched could lead the
robot to retreat when it hits an object
or cause it to use its machine vision to
search for the source of contact, he said.
Retreating or looking for the source
of contact is especially important for
robots that work as helper machines for
people who live in constantly changing
environments, even if that environment
is their own apartment.
The centerpiece of the robotic skin
which is actually a series of plates worn
by the robotis a circuit board about
the size of a penny. Each board contains
four infrared sensors.
We thus simulate light touch, Mit-
tendorfer said. This corresponds to our
own sense of the ne hairs on our skin
being gently stroked.
The articial skin also contains six
temperature sensors and an accelerom-
eter that allows the robot to register the
Sensitive Skin for Robots
Continued on page 15
Innovation distinguishes between
a leader and a follower.
- Steve Jobs
As the leading manufacturer of OEM pumps
and compressors, our innovation in design and
technology has helped our customers create
new innovative products and become leaders
in their marketplace.
For more information on
how Thomas innovation
can help you lead
your industry, go to
gd-thomas.com/me8.
Improving lives through innovation
TM
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NEWS & NOTES
Spatial Corp. of Broomeld, Colo., has
released its Convergence Geometric
Modeler, a 3-D geometry kernel that of-
fers a consistent interface, foundation-
based tolerant modeling to maintain
geometrical and topological precision,
and large-model capacity. /// West-
port Innovations Inc., a developer of
alternative-fuel engine technologies,
has entered into an agreement with
General Motors to develop natural
gas engine controls, emissions, and
performance strategies for light-duty
vehicles. Westport said it plans to open
a technical center in Michigan. The
company has about 15 employees in
Farmington Hills, Mich., and plans to
expand there as demand grows for
natural alternative-fuel vehicles.
BRI EFLY NOTED
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T
he ASME standard Hydraulic
Turbines and Pump-Turbines has
been published in a new edition,
PTC 18-2011, which includes
updated test techniques for continuous
performance improvement.
It denes methods for measuring
ow rate, head, and power, from which
eciency may be determined. It also
species requirements for pretest
arrangements, types of instrumenta-
tion, methods of measurement, testing
procedures, methods of calculation, and
contents of test reports.
The standard, which replaces the 2002
edition, also includes revised illustra-
tions and new tables. Some older test
methods, such as the volumetric and
pressure-time Gibson ow-measure-
ment method, have been deleted.
PTC 18-2011 Hydraulic Turbines and
Pump-Turbines is available for pur-
chase online at www.asme.org. The
price is $140.
Grid-Positive College
A community college in northern
California believes that it has be-
come the rst college in the United
states to become grid-positive. That
is, it expects the value of the electricity
it generates to exceed the cost of the
electricity it consumes.
The school, Butte College, is in Oroville.
The campus has 25,000 solar panels,
which are expected to generate more
than 6.5 million kilowatt-hours of elec-
tricity a year.
Michael Miller, the director of facilities
planning and management for the Butte-
Glenn Community College District,
which runs the college, said the installa-
tion cost about $24 million after rebates.
The system will generate electricity
during the day, when rates are at their
highest. Excess electricity will be sent
to the grid, and the college will receive
credit for that power at the day rate.
The evening rate is about half the cost
of electricity during the day. When the
sun goes down, the college will draw
electricity from the grid, but the total
cost will likely be lower than the credit it
earned during the day.
movement of individual limbs and in
that way determine what body parts it
has just moved.
We try to pack many dierent
sensory modalities into the smallest of
spaces, Mittendorfer said. In addition,
it is easy to expand the circuit boards to
later include other sensors
For the machine to have detection
ability, the signals from the sensors
must be processed by the central com-
puter that controls the robot, he added.
Only a small piece of skin is currently
complete. But the principle has already
been demonstrated to work, Mittendor-
fers supervisor, Gordon Cheng, said.
The scientists will place the plates that
constitute the skin together to form a
honeycomb-like, planar structure to be
donned by the robot.
This will be a machine that notices
when you tap it on the back. Even in the
dark, Cheng said.
JEAN THILMANY
Editors note: Prosthetic ngers covered by
articial skin are the subject of the feature,
Everyday Fingers, on page 39 of this issue.
Test Code Updated for Hydro Turbines
Sensitive Skin
Continued from page 13
August 2011 | MECHANICAL ENGINEERING 15
T
he Bureau of Ocean Energy
Management, Regulation, and
Enforcement said it is mak-
ing improvements in the oil
and gas permit application process.
Improvements include publication
of a permit application checklist to
assist oshore oil and gas operators in
submitting complete applications to
drill, the implementation of complete-
ness checks by bureau personnel before
signicant sta time is spent reviewing
an application, and the development of
clear permit review priorities that will
expedite agency reviews.
According to the U.S. Energy Infor-
mation Administration, oil production
in the Gulf of Mexico has been rising.
In 2010, nearly 600 million barrels of
oil were produced, the highest level in
three decades.
There are currently 24 permits pend-
ing and 18 permits have been returned
to operators with requests for additional
information, particularly information
regarding containment. The proposed
changes may reduce the number of per-
mits returned to operators.
Exxon Mobil announced in June that
it had identied a substantial oil and gas
source in 7,000 feet of water, and about
230 miles from the nearest shoreline in
the Gulf of Mexico.
Two bills, S.512 and S.1067, before
the Senate Energy and Natural
Resources Committee seek to
establish research programs to reduce
the cost of nuclear plants by using small
reactors.
Advocates of small modular reac-
tors, designed to generate less than
300 MW, believe they can reduce the
costs of nuclear plant construction.
The committee has received testimony
from proponents who said that modular
construction techniques will permit plant
subassemblies to be built which can be
delivered and assembled on site.
Costs are a major issue in large nuclear
plants. The cost of a nuclear power plant
with a 2,000 MW capacity can exceed $14
billion.
The Committee also received testimony
on S.937, which includes a number of
provisions that would seek to increase
the use of transportation fuels that are
not petroleum based. While there was
agreement that diversifying the nations
transportation fuels would be a clear
benet to both national and economic
security, there were concerns raised that
some of the bills provisions might have
high environmental costs.
16 MECHANICAL ENGINEERING | August 2011
Agency to Expedite Oshore Drilling Applications
Senate Votes to End Ethanol Credit
WASHINGTON
WINDOW
WHITE HOUSE WEIGHS
IN ON THE SMART GRID
The White House has released
a 108-page report, A Policy
Framework for the 21st Century
Grid: Enabling Our Secure
Energy Future, which species
various smart grid initiatives.
The report was prepared by
the National Science and
Technology Council.
The initiatives include $250
million in loans for smart-grid
technology deployment.
The report is aimed at closely
monitoring and guiding energy
policy. It also clearly explains
where the newly budgeted
federal dollars will be going and
what the administration hopes
to achieve.
The policy report aims to set up
a framework for implementing
that technology eciently, secur-
ing the connected power grid
from cyber threats, and creating
an energy framework that will
put more control in the hands of
consumers using energy.
Senate Bills Back Modular Reactors
This section was compiled by ASME Govern-
ment Relations. Links to more information at
http://bit.ly/MEWashingtonWindow
T
he Senate has voted 73-27 to
adopt an amendment to the
Economic Development Revital-
ization Act of 2011 that eec-
tively repeals the $5 billion blenders tax
credit enjoyed by industry as part of the
nations ethanol mandate.
The amendment was introduced by
Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Tom
Coburn (R-OK). The 73 votes sent a
powerful message that the days of big
subsidies for ethanol are coming to a
close, Sen. Feinstein said. We must be
serious about addressing the debt and
decit, and this is a good rst step.
The amendment would eliminate both
the 45-cents-per-gallon tax credit that
reners get for blending ethanol in gaso-
line, as well as the 54-cents-per-gallon
tari on imported ethanol.
Ethanol also is mandated by provi-
sions contained in the Energy Indepen-
dence and Security Act (P.L. 110-140).
The law mandates that 36 billion
gallons of biofuels must be in use by the
country by 2022. The House has not yet
followed suit, although House Appro-
priators did manage to successfully
adopt an amendment to the scal year
2012 agriculture appropriations bill,
H.R. 2112, by a vote of 283-128, which
would prohibit the use of funds for the
construction of an ethanol blender
pump or an ethanol storage facility.
.6
2
5
.8
1
3
E
X
H
A
U
S
T
1
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2
5
3
0
me.hotims.com/34756-10 or circle10
C
rops consume large
amounts of water, so is
there enough to meet
future demand or will
supplies run out? ... Of the 110,000 km
3
of rain that falls annually on the earths
surface, 36 percent ends up in the sea;
forestry, grazing lands, and sheries, and
biodiversity consume 57 percent; towns,
cities, and industry use just 0.1 percent
(11 km
3
); while agriculture consumes 7
percent (7,130 km
3
). Some 22 percent of
agricultures water consumption (1,570
km
3
) is blue waterwater withdrawn
from rivers, streams, and groundwater for
irrigation purposes. Most of agricultures
water consumption (5,560 km
3
) is green
waterwater available to crops from
rainfall stored in the soil root zone.
Predicting future water demand is
fraught with difculties. Forecasts made
less than 10 years ago have already been
proved inaccurate because no one accu-
rately predicted the rise in energy prices
nor the world recession and the impact
these factors would have on food prices.
The impacts of climate change are now
only beginning to unfold as are the stress-
es of population growth and water scar-
city. But the simple answer to the question
isyes we have enough water but only if
we act now to improve how water is used,
particularly in agriculture which is the
main consumer. What is certain is that the
future of food security and water security
are inextricably connected.
If water usage continues at the present
rate, global water consumption will almost
double by 2050. However, a more optimis-
tic assessment suggests it may rise from
7,130 km
3
to 8,515 km
3
/yr by 2050. This is
not only based on predictions of population
increase but also on improving socioeco-
nomic conditions and nutritionboth of
which demand more water. The greatest
change over the past 30 years has been
the shift away from starch-based diets to
meat, eggs, and dairy products to a point
were livestock products account for about
45 percent of the global water embedded
in food products.
From Water for Food: Innovative
water management technologies for
food security and poverty alleviation,
United Nations Conference on Trade and
Development, Current Studies on Science,
Technology, and Innovation, No. 4.
18 MECHANICAL ENGINEERING | August 2011
Looking at Water: Is There Enough?
GLOBAL
WINDOW
This report was prepared in part by ASME's Asia Pacic LLC ofce.
The Finance Minister of China, Xie
Xuren, told a session of the National
Peoples Congress that the country's
central government expenditures
exceeded revenue in 2010 by the equiva-
lent of about $123.5 billion U.S., accord-
ing to a report by Xinhua, the ocial
news agency of the Peoples Republic of
China. According to Xinhua, Xie said the
decit was about $7.7 billion less than
the annual budget.
Xie reported the gures during the 21st
session of the Standing Committee of the
11th National Peoples Congress.
He said revenues totaled more than
$655 billion, about $277 billion more
than the budgetary gure, and expendi-
tures reached nearly $780 billion, $128
million more than the budgetary gure.
The total central scal expenditure
included about $246 billion of central
government spending, and more than
$498 billion of tax rebates and transfer
payments to local governments, Xie said.
Chinas Government in the Red for 2010
C
hinas current account surplus,
a measure of the countrys for-
eign trade, reached the equiva-
lent of $29.8 billion U.S. in the
rst quarter of this year, an 18 percent
decrease from the quarter a year earlier,
according to the State Administration
of Foreign Exchange. This includes sur-
plus in commodity trade worth $20.8
billion, a service trade decit worth
$10.2 billion, a revenue surplus worth
$7.6 billion, and a current transfers
surplus worth $11.6 billion.
The surpluses under the current and
capital and nancial accounts raised
Chinas international reserve assets
by $141.2 billion in the quarter, and
$138 billion of that was kept as foreign
exchange reserves.
By the end of March, Chinas foreign
exchange reserves had reached $3,040
billion, up 24.4 percent from a year ear-
lier, according to gures from Chinas
central bank.
Chinas Account Surplus in First Quarter Reaches $29.8 Billion
BRI EFLY NOTED
Tang Rongyao, director of Chinas
State Electricity Regulatory Com-
mission, said that the provincial grids
in ten provinces, including Beijing,
Shanghai, Hebei, Jiangsu and Zheji-
ang, are experiencing power supply
tensions. The vice general manager of
the State Grid Corp. of China, Shuai
Junqing, predicted that electricity
shortages will reach 30 million kW in
peak periods, the highest shortages
ever recorded. /// Li Canrong, assis-
tant to Chinas Minister of Commerce,
said that Chinas export situation will
remain complicated this year. He said
that China should accelerate the trans-
formation of the foreign trade develop-
ment model, promote internationaliza-
tion of strategic emerging industries,
and entirely improve the quality and
benets of international trade.
Choos rom
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Choos rom
3C oirnt
matrials
incluoing /PS,
Nylon, PC, Dlrin,
PEEK, ULTEM,
aluminum
ano brass.
Choos rom
hunoros o
nginring-
grao rsins,
incluoing HDPE,
Polypropyln,
/PS/PC,
/ctal, PPT,
Polycarbonat,
Nylon 66,
Polyamio
ano LPDE.
2C Proto Labs, lnc. lSO 9CC:2CC8 Crtino
Ral parts. Rally ast.
Simply uploao your
3D C/D mool,
ano choos th
bst option or
your nos.
ln|ction Moloing in -5 oays.
Pst or C-C,CCC+ parts.
Prico rom $495.
CNC Machining in -3 oays.
Pst or -C parts.
Prico rom $95.
lt's easy to work with
Proto Labs.
Choos CNC machining or in|ction
moloing, whichvr is bst or your
pro|ct. Uploao your C/D mool ano
rciv an automato, intractiv
uot in hours. Onc approvo, our
clustr computing tchnology ano
automato manuacturing systms
will olivr ral parts using ral
matrials in as littl as on oay.
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rust your r Protogami! Entr coo MEC.
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Check out our
video design tips!
A
n Australian industrial design rm,
Design+Industry, recently gave shape to
what a client hopes could be the next big
thing in automobiles: a three-wheel, high-
performance vehicle. Design+Industry
designed it with the help of 3-D modeling,
painting, and rendering software.
Strike Motors Australia, an automotive
company, asked Design+Industry to turn its concept for a
three-wheel vehicle into a commercially manufacturable
automobile. The result is Trike, a half-car, half-motorcycle
that seats two people and combines quick acceleration
with ride stability and cornering capability, said Ben Car-
roll, industrial designer at Design+Industry.
Design+Industry designers took the specs for the car and
used the creative tools and modeling and rendering capa-
bilities in the software package modo 501 from Luxology of
Mountain View, Calif. Their aim was to create a design that
would appeal to car enthusiasts and style-minded drivers,
and catch the attention of bystanders with a sleek, futuris-
tic design, Carroll said.
We began using modo when clients started requesting
features we were not able to provide with the visualization
software we were using at the time, Carroll said.
W
hether its a software
developer, manufac-
turer, or food pro-
ducer, businesses of
all stripes are looking to implement
sustainability standards. But what
standards should they adopt?
To help, researchers at the National
Institute of Standards and Technology,
in Gaithersburg, Md., have adapted the
so-called Zachman framework, a for-
mal approach developed in the 1980s
to dene organizational structures and
to classify and organize specications
and data accordingly, said Rachuri
Sudarsan, a lead researcher for the
project and a NIST computer scientist.
Recently, the Zachman framework
has been used to describe and catego-
rize complex health-care and cyber
security standards. But NIST research-
ers have prototyped an adapted frame-
work to help organizations of all types
sort through the welter of choices and
evaluate and implement sustainability
standards most appropriate for them,
Sudarsan said.
Business leaders can call upon the
customized framework to view sustain-
ability standards from their particu-
lar business perspective. Complex
standards are broken down into six
different levels of detailfrom the con-
textual view used by planners down to
discrete data levelsand distilled into
categories to answer six questions:
what, how, when, who, where, and why.
Results are arranged in a 36-cell
matrix, Sudarsan said.
NIST is pilot testing the framework on
its new Sustainability Standards Portal
at www.mel.nist.gov/msid/SSP/.
Many incentives motivate businesses
to improve sustainability efforts. These
range from concerns like cutting costs
and reducing scrap, to compliance with
regulatory and customer requirements,
to corporate citizenship. But businesses
must be able to identify applicable
standards across entire lifecycles of
products, processes, and services,
Sudarsan said. NIST intends the frame-
work to help leaders identify gaps and
overlaps in sustainability strategies.
How Sustainable?
20 MECHANICAL ENGINEERING | August 2011
COMPUTING
This section was written by
Associate Editor Jean Thilmany.
Three-Wheeling
D
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m The Trike, designed by a rm of industrial engineers in Australia
with the help of rendering software, seats two people and combines
the benets of car and motorcycle.
m Software from NIST helps businesses
evaluate sustainability standards.
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August 2011 | MECHANICAL ENGINEERING 21
Brainy Antennas
Just as too many cooks spoil the broth, too many users
may interrupt the Wi-Fi signal.
To ease signal interference, researchers in the new
Smart Antenna and Radio Laboratory at Gonzaga Uni-
versity in Spokane, Wash., are investigating reliable high-
bandwidth wireless communications via Wi-Fi.
The researchers aim to overcome wireless signal inter-
ference caused when many users try to communicate
simultaneously over the 2.4 GHz band used for wireless
communication, said Steven Schennum, an engineering
professor at the university, who helms the research.
The smart technologies developed by the team will
allow antennas to focus on one user signal at a time. For
example, for a Wi-Fi user working on a laptop with a weak
or cross-polarized signal, a smart antenna system would
use algorithms to optimize the signal to that individual
laptop.
Software from Ansys Inc. of Canonsburg, Pa., will
enable the university to test the performance of antenna
designs virtually, to reduce time and costs associated
with build-and-test methods, Schennum said.
Were creating a state-of-the art anechoic chamber for
testing our physical antenna prototypes, but even the
best antenna test chambers are limited in their size and
shape, the performance of their absorptive materials, and
the range of frequencies they can accommodate, Schen-
num said. By simulating electromagnetic elds and cur-
rents in a virtual environment using Ansys software, we
can test the performance of our antenna designs for any
location, plane, or geometryand over a limitless range
of frequenciesbefore moving to the prototype stage.
The new laboratory was funded with the help of a nearly
$1.2 million award from the National Science Foundation.
R
esearchers from the RAND Corp. have come up
with a new way to analyze opinions culled from a
large group of experts and laypeople to aid com-
plex decision-making.
Expert panels have long been used to pursue research
across a broad area of policy, said Siddhartha
Dalal, a lead researcher on the project and
chief technology o cer at RAND, a nonprot
research organization in Santa Monica, Calif.
This new system allows expert panels to be
done online in a robust way that resembles
face-to-face meetings, but with lower costs and
easier analysis of the information gathered.
The online system and its associated method could
have applications within public policy, health care,
nance, and marketing, where expert panels are fre-
quently used to help solve problems or predict an unknown
future, Dalal said.
The system, called ExpertLens, incorporates elements of
well-known forecasting approaches.
Options for gathering opinions usually include convening
meetings of experts where opinions are expressed face to face
(the nominal group technique), organizing panels of experts
who share their opinions without meeting in person (the Del-
phi method), and putting out an open call for input to a large
community of people (the crowdsourcing method), he added.
Each of the approaches has certain strengths and
weaknesses, he said. Face-to-face meetings
can be expensive and di cult to organize.
In addition, such eorts usually are lim-
ited to small groups of people with narrow
areas of specialization and can become
dominated by a small number of strong
personalities.
While crowdsourcing methods can reach
large groups of people online, they also can be inef-
cient and unfocused unless there is clear direction and input
is monitored, Dalal said.
ExpertLens leverages the advantages of both Delphi method
and the nominal group technique. It also uses modied
principles of crowdsourcing to oer a means to elicit opinions
from a broad and diverse pool of experts who are in dierent
locations, Dalal said.
In general, in the rst phase of an ExpertLens process par-
ticipants answer a series of questions. In the second phase,
What Do You Think?
Continued on Page 22
me.hotims.com/34756-12 or circle 12
R
esearchers at North Carolina
State University in Raleigh
have developed a new way to
use multi-core chips, which
they said will help computers more
eciently process models of biological
systems.
Computer models of biological sys-
tems have many uses, from predicting
potential side eects of new
drugs to understanding the
ability of plants to adjust to
climate change, said Cranos
Williams, an assistant profes-
sor of electrical engineering at
the university and a research-
er on the project.
The new technique has improved
the eciency of algorithms used to
run models of biological systems
more than seven-fold, creating more
realistic models that can account for
uncertainty and biological variation,
according to Williams.
Developing models for living
things is challenging because, unlike
machines, biological systems can have
a signicant amount of uncertainty
and variation, he said.
When developing a model of a
biological system, you have to use
techniques that account for that
uncertainty, and those techniques
require a lot of computational power,
Williams said. That means using
powerful computers. Those comput-
ers are expensive, and access to them
can be limited.
Our goal was to develop software
that enables scientists to run biologi-
cal models on conventional computers
by using their multi-core chips more
eciently, he said.
The brain of a computer chip is its
central processing unit, or core. Most
personal computers now use chips
that have between four and eight
cores. However, most programs only
operate in one core at a time. For a
program to use all the cores, it must
be broken down into separate threads
so that each core can execute a dier-
ent part of the program simultane-
ously, Williams said.
The process of breaking down a
program into threads is called paral-
lelization, which allows computers to
run programs very quickly.
In order to parallelize algorithms for
models of biological systems, Wil-
liamss research team created a way
for information to pass back and forth
among the cores on a single chip.
We used threads to create locks
that control access to shared data,
Williams said. This allows all of the
cores on the chip to work together to
solve a unied problem.
The researchers tested the approach
by running three models through
chips that utilized one core, as well as
chips that used the new technique to
utilize two, four, and eight cores. In all
three models, the chip that used
eight cores ran at least 7.5 times
faster than the chip that used
only one core.
This approach allows us to
build complex models that better
reect the true characteristics
of the biological process, and do
it in a more computationally ecient
way, Williams said.
In order to understand biological
systems, we will need to use increas-
ingly complex models to address the
uncertainty and variation inherent in
those systems.
Ultimately, the researchers want to
see if this approach can be scaled up
for use on supercomputers and wheth-
er it can be modied to take advantage
of the many cores that are available
on graphics processing units used in
many machines, Williams said.
22 MECHANICAL ENGINEERING | August 2011
COMPUTING
BRI EFLY NOTED
Structural engineering software developer, CSC, of Chicago, has released an update
of its structural calculation software, Tedds. The update provides compatibility with
Word 2010. /// Design Science of Long Beach, Calif., has released MathType 6.7 for
Macintosh, featuring support for Microsoft Ofce 2011 and Mac OS X Lion. The appli-
cation helps communicate math on the Web and in print. /// Skew Matrix Software
LLC of Louisville, Colo., has upgraded its OpenSceneGraph, which powers 3-D graph-
ics rendering in visualization, simulation, virtual reality, and other 3-D applications.
/// The recently released SimulationX CAD interface from ITI Group of Dresden,
Germany, allows assemblies to be imported into Creo Elements/Pro CAD software
from PTC of Needham, Mass. /// NEi Software of Westminster, Calif., has released
an embedded Nastran solution for Creo Parametric, also from PTC. The software
allows engineers to perform nite element analysis using Nastran technology within
the Creo environment.
Quicker at the Core in Parallel
What Do
You Think?
they review the groups responses and
discuss their answers using online
discussion boards. In the third phase,
participants re-answer phase one ques-
tions based on the information
they received during the
feedback and discussion
in the second phase,
Dalal added.
The online nature of
ExpertLens allows the results to be
rapidly compiled and the ndings to be
analyzed quickly, said Dmitry Khodya-
kov, another ExpertLens developer
and an associate behavioral and social
scientist at RAND.
(SwRI
) is recruiting
for the following position located in our San Antonio, TX office.
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University is the largest government-funded tertiary
institution in Hong Kong in terms of student number. It offers programmes at
Doctorate, Masters, Bachelors degrees and Higher Diploma levels. It has a
full-time academic staff strength of around 1,200. The total consolidated
expenditure budget of the University is in excess of HK$4 billion per year.
DEPARTMENT OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING
The Department of Mechanical Engineering is one of the ve academic units in the
Faculty of Engineering. It offers a wide range of programmes, at both
undergraduate and postgraduate levels, over a large spectrum of topics including
product analysis and design, environmental technology and transportation, aerospace
and aviation, design and manufacturing, computer aided engineering design, etc. To
underpin teaching, the Department is presently engaged in the following research areas:
combustion and pollution control, uid-structure interactions, materials and mechanics,
sound and vibration, and product design and development. Please visit the website at
http://www.me.polyu.edu.hk for more information about the Department.
Assistant Professor in Thermodynamics and Energy Utilization
The appointee will be required to (a) teach at undergraduate and postgraduate
levels; (b) conduct research that leads to publications in top-tier refereed journals
and awards of research grants; (c) engage in scholarly research/consultancy; and
(d) undertake academic and departmental administrative duties.
Applicants should have (a) a PhD degree in a relevant discipline plus several years of
teaching/research/practical experience; (b) solid research and publication record or
strong potential to publish in top-tier refereed journals; (c) strong commitment to
excellence in teaching and research; and (d) competence in teaching subjects such as
Thermodynamics, Heat Transfer and Energy Technology.
Remuneration and Conditions of Service
Salary offered will be commensurate with qualications and experience. Initial
appointment will be made on a xed-term gratuity-bearing contract.
Re-engagement thereafter is subject to mutual agreement. Remuneration
package will be highly competitive. Applicants should state their current and
expected salary in the application.
Application
Please submit application form via email to hrstaff@polyu.edu.hk; by fax at
(852) 2364 2166; or by mail to Human Resources Ofce, 13/F, Li Ka Shing
Tower, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong
Kong. If you would like to provide a separate curriculum vitae, please still complete
the application form which will help speed up the recruitment process. Application
forms can be obtained via the above channels or downloaded from
http://www.polyu.edu.hk/hro/job.htm. Recruitment will continue until the
position is lled. Details of the Universitys Personal Information Collection
Statement for recruitment can be found at http://www.polyu.edu.hk/hro/jobpics.htm.
ics and systems and design, who can comple-
ment existing strengths within the department.
(Refer to webpage http://www.engr.uky.edu/
ME/ for more details). The department is rapidly
growing, centrally located to the automotive and
aerospace industries and housed in the new
Ralph G. Anderson Building with state of the
art computational facilities, research labs and
classrooms. Opportunities for multi-disciplinary
research exist with a number of college-affiliated
centers and institutes.To apply for a position in
any of the four technical areas a UK Academic
Prole must be submitted to http://www.uky.edu/
HR/UKjobs/ using the corresponding job num-
ber as follows: manufacturing systems and pro-
cesses, job# SM536332; heat transfer and uid
mechanics, job# SM536337; computational me-
chanics, job# SM536340; systems and design,
job# SM536331. If you have any questions, con-
tact Human Resources, phone (859)257-9555
(option 2), or email ukjobs@email.uky.edu. The
application deadline is September 30, 2011 and
applications will be reviewed on a continuing
basis beginning October 1, 2011; the application
deadline may be extended as needed. Upon offer
of employment, successful applicants for certain
positions must undergo a national background
check as required by University of Kentucky Hu-
man Resources. The University of Kentucky is
an equal opportunity employer and encourages
applications from minorities and women.
68 MECHANICAL ENGINEERING | August 2011
POSITIONSOPEN POSITIONSOPEN
DIRECTOR, NATIONAL GAS MACHINERY
LABORATORY AND FACULTY POSITION
KANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY The KSU Na-
tional Gas Machinery Laboratory (NGML) con-
ducts research and testing programs related to
large-bore and medium size industrial internal
combustion (IC) engines with full-scale labora-
tory facilities to support these activities. The Di-
rector has overall administrative responsibility
for NGML including development and conduct
of funded research programs and services. The
Director is a member of the Mechanical and
Nuclear Engineering Faculty and holds a ten-
ured or tenure track appointment with rank com-
mensurate with qualications. The Director is a
full member of the faculty, supervises graduate
students, and teaches courses related to her or
his expertise. A detailed position description may
be found at: www.ngml.ksu.edu Requirements for
the position include:
Ph.D. in mechanical engineering or
closely aligned eld
Experience in the areas of engines,
turbo machinery, or other elds related to
the gas pipeline industry
Demonstrated research record and
record of extramural funding
Demonstrated ability of supervision,
research leadership, and research
program development
Demonstrated ability to provide
quality instruction
Applications and nominations should be directed
to NGML Director Search, Engineering Experi-
ment Station, 1048 Rathbone Hall, Manhattan, KS
66506-5202 or sent by e-mail to <janr@ksu.edu>
with NGML Director Search in the title line. Ap-
plications should include a resume, a two-page
maximum cover letter summarizing the candi-
dates qualications, and contact information for
ve professional references. Initial review of ap-
plications will begin on September 1, 2011 and
will continue until the position is lled. Kansas
State University is an equal opportunity em-
ployer. Kansas State University actively seeks
diversity among its employees. A background
check is required.
THE MECHANICAL AND AEROSPACE ENGI-
NEERING DEPARTMENT (MAE) AT THE UNI-
VERSITY OF MIAMI (UM) invites applications
and nominations for tenure-track positions at any
professorial level in all areas of mechanical and
aerospace engineering, with the emphasis on
aerodynamics, energy, and biomechanics. MAE
is seeking candidates with a strong record of
scholarship with a focus on obtaining external
funding, a demonstrated excellence in graduate
and undergraduate teaching, and a thoughtful
commitment to university and professional ser-
vice. For a senior-level appointment, a proven
record of extramural funding support is required.
A Ph.D. in mechanical engineering, aerospace
engineering, or a related discipline and one year
work related experience is required prior to the
appointment. Salary: Competitive. Qualied ap-
plicants should mail (a) a letter of interest, (b) a
resume and (c) at least three (3) references to:
Dr. Shihab Asfour, Associate Dean for Academ-
ics, College of Engineering, University of Miami
1251 Memorial Drive, McArthur Engineering
Bldg., Room 247, Coral Gables, FL 33146. The
University of Miami offers competitive salaries
and a comprehensive benets package includ-
ing medical and dental benets, tuition remis-
sion, vacation, paid holidays and much more.
The University of Miami is an Equal Opportu-
nity/Affirmative Action Employer.
FACULTY POSITION IN HYBRID ELECTRIC
VEHICLES: MECHANICAL ENGINEERING-
ENGINEERING MECHANCIS DEPARTMENT.
World-Class Research with Outstanding Col-
leagues: Michigan Technological Universitys
ME-EM department invites applications for a
tenure-track faculty position at the Assistant
POSITIONSOPEN
Professor level. Outstanding applications with
experience at the Associate Professor and Pro-
fessor levels will also be considered. Applicants
for the position must have earned doctorates in
Mechanical Engineering, or a closely related
eld that contributes to the strategic initiatives
of the department. ME-EM seek to attract ex-
ceptional candidates whose interests and ca-
pabilities align with recent initiatives in energy,
specically those with a research thrust in hybrid
vehicle technologies such as powertrain sys-
tems and their components. This faculty position
leverages existing and expanding facilities and
a multidisciplinary undergraduate and graduate
program (http://www.doe.mtu.edu/hybrid_ve-
hicle_engineering). Available facilities include
vehicle and powertrain component laboratories
along with a mobile HEV lab for education and
research. Successful candidates are expected
to create and sustain an active research pro-
gram, advise graduate students and develop
and teach courses at the undergraduate and
graduate levels. Michigan Tech is a state insti-
tution dedicated to both teaching and research,
with an excellent reputation in engineering edu-
cation and research. For 2011, the US News &
World Report ranked the ME-EM Departments
Graduate Program 48th among doctoral-grant-
ing mechanical engineering departments in the
U.S. For 2008 the Undergraduate Program was
ranked 22nd among doctoral-granting mechani-
cal engineering departments in the U.S. In the
NSF Research Expenditure rankings for FY2008
the ME-EM Department ranked 18th among all
ME departments in the U.S. at $12.695 million.
The Spring 2011 graduate student enrollment
was 267, of which 103 are PhD students. The
ME-EM Department and Michigan Tech encour-
ages minority and female applicants. Michigan
Tech is an ADVANCE institution, one of a limited
number of universities in receipt of NSF funds
in support of our commitment to increase di-
versity and the participation and advancement
of women in STEM. Michigan Tech has a Dual
Career Assistance Program (DCAP), which fa-
cilitates the hiring of partners. The website for
our DCAP is http://www.dual.mtu.edu/. Lake Su-
perior is just a few miles from campus and the
surrounding area is perfect for four seasons of
outdoor activities. For full consideration, applica-
tions should be received by November 1, 2011;
however, applications will be considered until
the position is lled. Applicants should submit a
vita, teaching and research interest statement,
names and contact information of three refer-
ences, experience with diversity issues, diverse
students, working in multicultural environments,
and copies of three publications to: William W.
Predebon, Chair, Department of ME-EM, Michi-
gan Technological University, 1400 Townsend
Drive, Houghton, MI 49931-1295 (www.me.mtu.
edu). Only complete application packages are
guaranteed full consideration. Michigan Techno-
logical University is an Equal Opportunity Edu-
cational Institution/Equal Opportunity Employer.
In addition to the present search, a search to
ll ten growth positions in Transportation and
Water are under way and qualied candidates
are encouraged to send a separate application,
following the How to Apply guidelines at www.
mtu.edu/sfhi. Visit www.me.mtu.edu for more in-
formation about the ME-EM Department.
THE DEPARTMENT OF MECHANICAL EN-
GINEERING AT THE UNIVERSITY OF KEN-
TUCKY invites applications for multiple tenured/
tenure-track faculty positions at the Lexington
campus beginning spring or fall semesters 2012.
These positions require a Ph.D. in mechanical
engineering or a closely related discipline and
a commitment to excellence in research, teach-
ing and professional service. Preference will be
given to those at the assistant and associate
professor ranks, and to those in the targeted
areas of manufacturing systems and processes,
heat transfer and uid mechanics (CFD and
experimental uids), computational mechan-
National Sun Yat-Sen
University Department
of Mechanical and
Electro-Mechanical
Engineering
FACULTY RECRUITMENT
Faculty Opening: Several Assistant
Professors, Associate Professors, and
Professors from August 2012.
Specialties: Mechanical and
Electro-Mechanical Engineering.
Application Process: The following
documents are needed:
Curriculum Vita (including studying and
working experiences, specialties, teaching
interests, and research interests)
One hardcopy of degree certication
Grade reports of both undergraduate and
graduate program
One piece of representative work of SCIE
(including accepted ones)
At least one piece of referable work of
SCIE (including accepted ones)
List of publications
One hardcopy of ID (both sides)
Please submit to: Dr. Der-Min Tsay,
Chairman of Department of Mechanical and
Electro-Mechanical Engineering, National
Sun Yat-Sen University, No. 70, Lien-Hai
Rd, Kaohsiung 80424, Taiwan.
Application Deadline: August 15, 2011
Further Information: please contact:
Phone: 886-7-525-2000 ext: 4202
FAX: 886-7-525-4299
E-mail: ctchang@staff.nsysu.edu.tw
Website: e13.nsysu.edu.tw/
www.nsysu.edu.tw
August 2011 | MECHANICAL ENGINEERING 69
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V
ictoria A. Rockwell assumed her role as President
of ASME in June during the ASME Annual Meet-
ing held in Dallas. Rockwell is the 130th person in
the history of the society to take on that role.
During her inaugural comments, made during the Presi-
dents Dinner, Rockwell expressed enthusiasm for the
future of ASME. She said that the contributions of the Soci-
etys membership can make a dierence in the world.
These are exciting and dynamic times for ASME, Rock-
well said. The only thing that can hold us back is our lack of
imagination, drive, and focus.
Our mission a rms our desire to serve our diverse global
communities by advancing and applying engineering knowl-
edge for improving quality of life and communicating the
excitement of engineering, she said.
Rockwell has been an active member of ASME for more
than 30 years, and she has held a variety of Society leadership
positions, including a term on the Board of Governors from
2006 to 2008 and as senior vice president of the Strategic
Management Sector. A strong advocate of engineering educa-
tion, she also served on the ASME Council on Engineering
Education and on the Board of Pre-college Education.
Rockwell stated that ASME has at its core continuing edu-
cation and professional development, and that the Societys
publications, conferences, and courses keep ASME mem-
bers current as existing technologies expand and evolve,
and new technologies emerge.
I have great condence that our profession will take the
lead in shaping our worlds future through engineering
innovation and determination, Rockwell said. More than
any other profession, engineers have the opportunity to
improve the lives of billions of people. I see ASME making a
world of dierence.
70 MECHANICAL ENGINEERING | August 2011
ASMENEWS
Rockwell Becomes ASME President
Compiled from ASME Public Information dispatches.
The ASME Nominating Committee
named Marc W. Goldsmith
president-nominee. Goldsmiths
nomination and that of several other
ASME ofcers were announced at the
Annual Meeting.
Goldsmith is president of Marc
Goldsmith & Associates LLC. He is a
registered Professional Engineer in
California and holds a Master of Science
degree in nuclear engineering from
Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Goldsmith, an ASME Fellow, has
served in a number of leadership
positions during his 24 years with
ASME, including a term on the Board
of Governors from 2007 to 2010
and terms as chair of the General
Management Board of the ASME
Innovative Technologies Institute and
vice president of the Center for Public
Awareness. He is also a recipient of the
ASME Dedicated Service Award.
ASME also recognized incoming
Society ofcers and standing committee
chairs who began their terms in
June 2011:
Members-at-Large
on the Board of Governors
Betty Bowersox
Julio Guerrero
Charla Wise
Senior Vice President,
Standards & Certication
Ken Balkey
Vice Presidents
Robert Pangborn,
Committee on Governance