scholarly journals THE ENGINEERING DESIGN COMPETENCY

Author(s):  
Jorge Angeles ◽  
Ron Britton ◽  
Liuchen Chang ◽  
Franҫois Charron ◽  
Peter Gregson ◽  
...  

There is increasing global competition for better product and process functionality, higher quality, lower costs, and other considerations including energy and environmental challenges. This trend requires that Canadian industry be more innovative and responsive in order to stay competitive internationally. The Canadian capability in Engineering Design is at the core of our ability to achieve this goal. At both the undergraduate and graduate levels, we must improve the capability and capacity of engineering graduates so that they are capable of leading innovation, and converting research results into value-added products and services. This paper addresses the engineering design competency, identifies needs in engineering design training, and describes directions for the design content in engineering education programs.

Author(s):  
Jeremy Smith ◽  
Paul Compston ◽  
Sally Male ◽  
Caroline Baillie ◽  
Jennifer Turner

Service-learning is a common component of many humanitarian engineering education programs.  Students engage with external organisations and communities, often spending time intensively, on projects linked to their studies.  To help prepare students for substantial service-learning initiatives a dedicated humanitarian engineering course was developed.  To better represent service-learning and enable a greater variety of teaching and learning activities, the course was delivered over five weeks using intensive mode teaching.  This enabled a portion of the class to be involved with a two-week scaffolded immersive international experience running in parallel to the campus delivery.  Threshold concept and capability theory was used to evaluate the course and identify what elements of the course supported or hindered development of student thresholds.  Results identified the main student threshold to be the ability to take account of social factors in engineering design and the activities enabled by the intensive mode teaching were among the strongest contributions to the achievement of this threshold, in particular elements of the international experience.  This highlights the opportunities for intensive mode teaching in supporting activities related to service-learning.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
pp. 1943
Author(s):  
Dejan Ravšelj ◽  
Aleksander Aristovnik

Research and development (R&D) investment is widely recognised as one of the crucial elements of generating the competitive advantage of contemporary companies. At the same time, it is also considered to represent one of the key determinants of overall sustainable development. Global competition, which is becoming increasingly harsh and forces companies to provide value-added products, processes and services, constitutes a reason why R&D investment is indispensable in contemporary business operations as they facilitate keeping the companies’ position in the market in terms of their competitiveness. The main aim of this paper is therefore to examine the impact of R&D expenditures on corporate performance. Using a multiple regression analysis, two different panel datasets covering Slovenian and world R&D companies are analysed. This gives a unique opportunity to obtain comprehensive and interesting findings, representing the main originality and value of the paper. The empirical results reveal that R&D expenditures are not effective in the short-term period and bring certain benefits in the long-term period. The findings of this paper provide several important theoretical and practical implications.


Author(s):  
Elif Haykır Hobikoğlu ◽  
Müjgan Hacıoğlu Deniz

Generally cluster aims to make all firms and corporates which belong to the same logistic chain to be professional about a specific area. Specifically cluster makes easier for corporates to be in front of their rivals by increasing efficiency, using advantages of geographical closeness and also with high specialization and providing important opportunities for high value-added products. Cluster policies have provided more efficient areas by means of highly competent regions for their firms. In this study, we have searched and analyzed the pre-requisite conditions for clusters and reasons behind them, the relationship between competition-venue and between innovation and clusters, also important actors in the process of cluster development. We have also explained the theoretical framework behind the concept of cluster and focus on the efficiency of clustering policies. In this framework, we try to put optimum samples of cluster policies both in Turkey and the globe. Under the global competition and within the era of research and knowledge, it is so crucial for firms to pay attention for importance of clusters and their role in benefiting form advantages of cluster policies. As a result, we can say that nation states today need to develop a multi-dimensional and mutual-influential national cluster policies in order to provide more appropriate manufacturing environment and innovative human capital for their national firms. Our study explains the reasons of this opinion by taking consideration of the realities of countries and some major industries with a number of real specific examples.


2007 ◽  
Vol 539-543 ◽  
pp. 4143-4148
Author(s):  
Balbir Singh ◽  
D. Rai

Thermomechanical controlled processing of concrete reinforcement bars, comprising quenching and autotempering, produces a microstructural gradient across the diameter - tempered martensite near to the surface, bainite and/or degenerated pearlite in the intermediate layers and pearlite-ferrite within the core. Since martensite is the strength controlling phase in steels, its fractional thickness in TMCP bars have beeen correlated to tensile properties. The developed empirical model, helped in revealing that upto a fractional rim of about 20%, volume fraction of ferrite-pearlite predominantly influenced the YS, UTS and % elongation, whereas at higher fractions, martensite found to control these properties.


2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (5) ◽  
pp. 1681-1684
Author(s):  
Georgi Toskov ◽  
Ana Yaneva ◽  
Stanko Stankov ◽  
Hafize Fidan

The European Commission defines the bioeconomy as "the production of renewable biological resources and the conversion of these resources and waste streams into value added products, such as food, feed, bio-based products and bioenergy. Its sectors and industries have strong innovation potential due to their use of a wide range of sciences, enabling and industrial technologies, along with local and implied knowledge." The Bulgarian food industry faces a lot of challenges on the local and national level, which have direct influence on the structure of the production companies. Most of the enterprises from the food sector produce under foreign brands in order to be flexible partners to the large Bulgarian retail chains. The small companies from the food sector are not able to develop as an independent competitive producer on the territory of their local markets. This kind of companies rarely has a working strategy for positioning on new markets. In order to consolidate their already built positions for long period of time, the producers are trying to optimize their operations in a short term. However, the unclear vision of the companies for the business segment does not allow them to fully develop. Tourism in Bulgaria is a significant contributor to the country's economy.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (7) ◽  
pp. 3726-3731
Author(s):  
Fenghui Ye ◽  
Jinghui Gao ◽  
Yilin Chen ◽  
Yunming Fang

Electroreduction of CO2 into value-added products is a promising technique in which the structure of the catalyst plays a crucial role.


2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 55
Author(s):  
María Florencia Eberhardt ◽  
José Matías Irazoqui ◽  
Ariel Fernando Amadio

Stabilization ponds are a common treatment technology for wastewater generated by dairy industries. Large proportions of cheese whey are thrown into these ponds, creating an environmental problem because of the large volume produced and the high biological and chemical oxygen demands. Due to its composition, mainly lactose and proteins, it can be considered as a raw material for value-added products, through physicochemical or enzymatic treatments. β-Galactosidases (EC 3.2.1.23) are lactose modifying enzymes that can transform lactose in free monomers, glucose and galactose, or galactooligosacharides. Here, the identification of novel genes encoding β-galactosidases, identified via whole-genome shotgun sequencing of the metagenome of dairy industries stabilization ponds is reported. The genes were selected based on the conservation of catalytic domains, comparing against the CAZy database, and focusing on families with β-galactosidases activity (GH1, GH2 and GH42). A total of 394 candidate genes were found, all belonging to bacterial species. From these candidates, 12 were selected to be cloned and expressed. A total of six enzymes were expressed, and five cleaved efficiently ortho-nitrophenyl-β-galactoside and lactose. The activity levels of one of these novel β-galactosidase was higher than other enzymes reported from functional metagenomics screening and higher than the only enzyme reported from sequence-based metagenomics. A group of novel mesophilic β-galactosidases from diary stabilization ponds’ metagenomes was successfully identified, cloned and expressed. These novel enzymes provide alternatives for the production of value-added products from dairy industries’ by-products.


Dairy ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 202-217
Author(s):  
Michele Manoni ◽  
Donata Cattaneo ◽  
Sharon Mazzoleni ◽  
Carlotta Giromini ◽  
Antonella Baldi ◽  
...  

Milk lipids are composed of milk fat globules (MFGs) surrounded by the milk fat globule membrane (MFGM). MFGM protects MFGs from coalescence and enzymatic degradation. The milk lipid fraction is a “natural solvent” for macronutrients such as phospholipids, proteins and cholesterol, and micronutrients such as minerals and vitamins. The research focused largely on the polar lipids of MFGM, given their wide bioactive properties. In this review we discussed (i) the composition of MFGM proteome and its variations among species and phases of lactation and (ii) the micronutrient content of human and cow’s milk lipid fraction. The major MFGM proteins are shared among species, but the molecular function and protein expression of MFGM proteins vary among species and phases of lactation. The main minerals in the milk lipid fraction are iron, zinc, copper and calcium, whereas the major vitamins are vitamin A, β-carotene, riboflavin and α-tocopherol. The update and the combination of this knowledge could lead to the exploitation of the MFGM proteome and the milk lipid fraction at nutritional, biological or technological levels. An example is the design of innovative and value-added products, such as MFGM-supplemented infant formulas.


2021 ◽  
Vol 93 ◽  
pp. 107278
Author(s):  
Jhonattan Miranda ◽  
Christelle Navarrete ◽  
Julieta Noguez ◽  
José-Martin Molina-Espinosa ◽  
María-Soledad Ramírez-Montoya ◽  
...  

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