Post on 21-Dec-2015
A Successful Career in Engineering(In Theory)
Tim DehneBSEE Rice University 1987
Senior VP of R&DNational Instruments
Geoffrey C. Orsak, NI Week 2004
Engineers = Leaders
• Fact: 17% of Fortune 500 CEO’s have a business degree
•Fact: 20% have an engineering degree
Source: US News and World Reports
Leadership Traits of Engineers
• Intelligent•Problem solvers•Creative•Persistent•Thorough•Logical•Practical
What job functions need engineers?
•Product development•Design validation•Manufacturing•Technical Sales•Product Marketing•Applications support•Any role
Two Basic Paths in Product Development
• Technical Track– Deep technical competence– Mentor– Tackle the hardest technical challenges
• Management Track– Motivate people– Streamline processes– Make business decisions
Geoffrey C. Orsak, NI Week 2004
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
Arthur C. Clarke
850 books
1 USB Memory Stick
2/3 of a ton4oz
AM/FM Stereo
DVD+RW
PC/WWW/EmailNavigation
Cellular Phone
Satellite Car Alarm/Radio
Games
Remote Diagnostics
PDA
CD+RW
Today’s Designs– Converging Complexity
How do you get off to a great start?
• Stay on top of the latest technology– Learning never stops
• Work hard• Meet your commitments/deadlines
– Just like you did in school!• Be a contributing member of the team• Be curious• Ask questions• Sign up for needed tasks
Key Aspects to a Design
• Sound design and simulation• Prototype verification• Break the design• Test, test, test• Minimize costs• Packaging/usability• Manufacturability• Test
How do you continue to grow?
• Stay on the leading edge of technology• Keep a watchful eye on your industry• Become more well-rounded
– Global perspective– Communication skills– Project management– Systems perspective
Bachelor's Degrees conferred by Degree Granting Institutions in the US
0
10000
20000
30000
40000
50000
60000
70000
80000
90000
1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005
Academic Year
# E
ng
ine
eri
ng
De
gre
es
Aw
ard
ed
Series1
Source: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Educational Statistics,Higher Education General Information Survey (HEGIS)
Engineering Graduates Comparison
Country GraduatesChina 300,000India 200,000Japan 103,300Russia 90,700US 63,300Germany 25,500France 22,800UK 22,000
Source – NSF: Science and Engineering Indicators 2004*Data for China and India are estimates
Product Development Process
Modeling,Modeling,DesignDesign
Modeling,Modeling,DesignDesign
Verification/Verification/PrototypePrototype
Verification/Verification/PrototypePrototype ValidationValidationValidationValidation ManufacturingManufacturingManufacturingManufacturingAnalysis,Analysis,
SimulationSimulation
Analysis,Analysis,SimulationSimulation
“97% of design engineers support their designs all the way throughout the manufacturing phase” - Cahners Research, 2001
“ The shuttle Columbia was doomed in part because NASA relied on flawed computer simulations and mathematical formulas
that failed to accurately predict damage… ”
“ …experts say, they should have performed tests on shuttle components… ”
Columbia Accident Investigation Board findings as summarized by Alan Levin and Traci Watson, USA Today
Emphasis by author
The Need for Validating Simulations with Test Data
Geoffrey C. Orsak, NI Week 2004
Machine Vision
Typical Manufacturing Line
Motion Control
Operator Interface
Discrete Control Temperature
Control
Geoffrey C. Orsak, NI Week 2004
Typical Measurement and Automation Applications
Body & Chassis AudioEngine
Durability
Tire & Brake SafetyEmissions Electronics
Keypad
LCD
Sound
Acoustics
RFSignal
Battery
Audio Sound ElectronicsPower Supply
Video SignalDisk Drive
From the touch screen user interface, physicians can
select spot sizes, pattern types, spot density and
number of spots.
Laser Photocoagulation
Visica2 Treatment System– Cryogenically freezes benign breast
tumors using ultrasound– Eliminates need for surgery– CompactRIO and LabVIEW
used to design, prototype, and deploy a control system
Sanarus Medical, Inc.
™
Parallel Architectures Drive Performance
1,000
10,000
100,000
1,000,000
10,000,000
100,000,000
1,000,000,000
1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010
Clock Speed (kHz) Transistor Count
Intel QX6700 Quad-Core Processor
•Pair of Core 2 dies in single package•2.66 GHz CPU speed
Faster processors Multicore processors
“To fully exploit the power of processors working in parallel...new software must deal
with the problem of concurrency."
– Bill Gates, Microsoft
There’s a Small Catch…
“But a parallel programming model…will not emerge for five to 10 years,
according to experts from Microsoft Corp."
– Rick Merritt, EE Times
15 Global Challenges Facing Humanity
World Federation of United Nations Associations - Millennium Project
What Others are Saying
“We find with energy and greenhouse gases, if you start to measure, people reduce the usage,” says Linda Fisher, the
chief sustainability officer at DuPont. Measuring is not a simple task, but once a company has a proper baseline it
can see what can be changed. - Excerpt from “A Change in Climate”, published in the
January issue of the Economist
“What gets measured gets managed”- Excerpt from Green to Gold authored by Daniel Esty and
Andrew Winston
Green EngineeringDefinition:
Green Engineering is the use of measurement and control techniques to design, develop, and improve products and
technologies resulting in environmental and economic benefits
NI Enabling Technologies:• High-Speed and High-Resolution Measurements
• Advanced Analysis and Signal Processing• High-Speed and Advanced Control
• Embedded System Technology
Green Engineering Areas• Renewable Power Generation• Power Monitoring• Environmental Monitoring• Optimizing the Efficiency of Existing Machines and Automation Systems
• Development and Test of Environmentally Beneficial Products and Technologies
Siemens Power Generation - Denmark
• One of the premier companies in the international power generation sector
• Supply wind turbine generators with rotor diameters up to 107 meters (350 ft)
• Use PXI, LabVIEW, and LabVIEW Real-Time and to develop and test the control algorithms embedded in the turbines
Thermomax Tests Evacuated Tube Solar Collectors
• Challenge: Test equipment for efficient and economical conversion of solar radiation into thermal energy.
• Solution: Two PC-based, fully automated test systems.
• Products: FieldPoint, Motion Control, LabVIEW DSC
• Green Benefits: The new facilities have significantly reduced the time and cost of product development, making it possible to perform tests all year round, using the solar simulator.
Control of a Permanent Magnet Linear Generator for Ocean Wave Energy• Challenge: Interest in wave energy conversion devices is rapidly growing worldwide
for the potential to harness a sustainable and renewable energy source. Due to the oscillatory nature of ocean waves, the power generated from a permanent magnet linear generator (PMLG) for ocean wave energy conversion is pulsed and left unconditioned, is not easily used or stored.
• Solution: With an active rectifier topology, the real and reactive power from the PMLG is fully controllable. Using a novel three-phase active rectifier topology and force controller with a dc-dc converter for bus voltage regulation the energy can be stored.
• Products: CompactRIO, LabVIEW FPGA
• Green Benefits: A working design of a three-phase active rectifier and controller was implemented and prototyped with a CompactRIO system.
Full paper available at: http://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/dspace/bitstream/1957/5921/1/Novel+Control+of+a+Permanent+Ma
Virginia Tech Wins ChallengeX 2006 Hybrid Vehicle Competition with cRIO
• Challenge: Develop methods for reducing total energy consumption and emissions in a crossover vehicle while maintaining or exceeding vehicle utility and performance
• Solution: A high-level control strategy for the hybrid vehicles implemented and prototyped with LabVIEW FPGA & CompactRIO.
• Result: VT reduced well-to-wheels petroleum use by 74% for Year 2 Win
• Products: LabVIEW, Simulation Interface Toolkit, LabVIEW Real-Time, CompactRIO
• Green Benefit: A three-year engineering competition to improve fuel efficiency and performance at a lower cost for future GM vehicles.
Steel Mill Reactor Monitoring
• One of the largest consumers of electricity in the US
• Optimizing Existing Melting Process using:– Advanced Power Analysis– FPGA-based protection circuit– Datalogging
• Used CompactRIO for advanced control and integrated it with existing PLC system
• Prevents the over melting of scrap steel (waste electricity)
• Maximize the efficient use of electrical energy and rapidly change control methods to reduce power flicker
T&O Stelectric Reduces Pesticide Use with NI Vision
• To keep the Danish railroad tracks weed free, herbicides were sprayed on 100% of the railroad tracks
• NI Vision systems were outfitted on the weed spraying wagon to identify weeds and limit pesticide spraying to those areas
• Green Benefit– Reduced herbicide usage by 50%– Automated the reporting of pesticide
use to comply with environmental regulations
Environmental Sensor Networks: Monitoring Global Change
• Monitoring interactive phenomena– Atmosphere, Water, Soil, and Ecosystems
• Characteristic spatiotemporal diversity
C H2O Light Q
46
Mercury Emissions Stack MonitorApplication• Reliable mercury emissions sampling system for
coal fired power plants• Developed as monitoring system approved by
EPA
Benefits• Expanded memory and performance • Automated interface
Technical Key• Flexible, real-time software architecture
“The success of the project was due to the processing and automation power of the cFP-2120, as well as the ease of use derived from integrating
the PDA Control System. ”
From Kindergarten to Rocket Science
LEGO Mindstorms NXT“the smartest, coolest toy
of the year”
CERN Large Hadron Collider“the most powerful instrument
on earth”
“To do for embedded what the PC did for the desktop.”
Graphical System Design
National Instruments Vision Evolved
Complex instrumentationRF
DigitalDistributed
Industrial controlRT/FPGA systemsElectronic devicesC code generation
Real-time measurementsEmbedded monitoringHardware in the loop
Virtual Instrumentation Embedded Systems
Customer-Defined PC-Based Measurement and
Automation SolutionsTraditional Vendor-Defined
Instruments
What is Virtual Instrumentation?
Processor
RAM
Real-TimeOS
Display
PowerSupply
Hard Disk
Geoffrey C. Orsak, NI Week 2004
Engineering Feats were Rock Festivals…
25,000 New Yorkers paraded for 16 hours when the first cablegram was sent from America to Europe.
• 200,000 people celebrated a week-long fiesta when the Golden Gate Bridge was opened in 1937
32,000,000 visitors came to see the 1000 foot Eiffel Tower in 1889
Geoffrey C. Orsak, NI Week 2004
Engineers used to be Rock Stars
Wright brothers Thomas Edison Henry Ford
The World Needs Engineers
• Intelligence•Problem solvers•Creativity•Persistence•Thoroughness•Logical•Practical
“Clearly it is now possible for more people than ever to collaborate and compete in real time … on a more equal footing than any time in the history of
the world – using computers, e-mail, networks, teleconferencing, and dynamic new software.”
- T. Friedman, The World is Flat