I think the president's recent SOTU message and all the talk about the need to promote STEM education just highlights how much opportunity there is for engineers, yet how important staying trained on the latest technologies is to American's future.
Good point. Add to that the fact that every time I take a look at the unemployement percentages and wanted adds I see opportunities for engineers. I think young people reading this should feel pretty positive about the chances of finding a job come May. However, don't let that keep you from learning a new skill or two.
A tax refund and the President's State of the Union address last night where he talked up American innovation and keyed in on what needs to be done in terms of jobs reskilling could be just the right impetus for someone to decide to outfit themselves with the latest technology, hoping to better position themselves to solve some of these pressing engineering-related challenges.
And if one didn't get what they want for Christmas, a well timed tax refund could be easily invested in one of these little gems to improve ones' performance. I do love to hear about the new cool stuff.
Point taken, William. I know a lot of the stuff on the list was pricer and most likely beyond the budgets of most people buying for CAD jockeys. I was really looking to have some fun highlighting some of the cooler, abeit, pricey technologies that are out there that might impact the design process.
While SolidWorks 2012 is undoubtedly a great version and a good value, it is a bit to expensive to be in most folks gift giving lists. It took a lot of selling to get an employer to purchase it, and they did make quite a point about how expensive it was. Of course, that organization was also cheap on pens and paper, so it was to be expected, I suppose.
But it was an interesting list, so thanks for the article.
Well done guide. I didn't get any of these for Christmas, though if I had a choice I'd pick the Planar's SD2620W stereoscopic LCD wide-screen display. There's more good stuff (that I also didn't get) in the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show Preview Slideshow.
I like the continuing effort to bring more and more to the CAD users. And as the market understands which of these higher priced solutions are being purchased I think the industry identifies which solution they can bring down in price for the more conservative engineers. Let's face it, some companies won't spend $300 on a fancy mouse but a dedicated designer might spend $100 on himself if it will make his job easier.
Absolutely, cloud providers have a secure infrastructure that few companies, especially smaller ones, can rival. It's more a matter of getting familiar with the model and feeling comfortable. Some companies, particularly those in highly regulated industries like health care and finance, also have restrictions on where data can reside, thus the multi-tenant nature of cloud services and the fact they have no control over where and what servers are processing rules out the model for them.
You're right about performance being an issue. Somebody else's system can go down leaving you stuck. I've seen that before. Yet in sales situation, I've heard cloud people start asking questions about the security and reliability of the in-house system, with questions such as "Tell us about your firewall." And of course, the customer has nothing compared to what the cloud company can offer.
Andrew Morris designed a circuit that could detect a stroke victim's groan and convert the sound into a signal so caregivers would know when help was needed.
New disc magnet motors fit into the design trend of stepping up to closed loop performance while maintaining the cost advantage of stepper motor technology.
At the Design News webinar on June 27, learn all about aluminum extrusion: designing the right shape so it costs the least, is simplest to manufacture, and best fits the application's structural requirements.
On April 21, NASA launched a novel project, putting into orbit three satellites that employ an off-the-shelf commercial smartphone as the control system.
From Dell / Intel® New Paradigms in Design Work Scott Hamilton, vertical market strategist for Dell Precision workstations, 5/2/2013 5
Early in my career, I worked as a draftsman and remember the days of drawing on vellum with numbered pencils and Mylar with plastic lead. This was a fun experience in the sense that I ...
I've been using workstations for more than 10 years and love finding ways to get more performance from my system. With demanding professional applications that require more power each ...
A lasting memory from my first job as an engineer in an auto assembly plant is standing on hard concrete at six in the morning, vending-machine coffee clutched in hand, listening to ...
For industrial control applications, or even a simple assembly line, that machine can go almost 24/7 without a break. But what happens when the task is a little more complex? That’s where the “smart” machine would come in. The smart machine is one that has some simple (or complex in some cases) processing capability to be able to adapt to changing conditions. Such machines are suited for a host of applications, including automotive, aerospace, defense, medical, computers and electronics, telecommunications, consumer goods, and so on. This radio show will show what’s possible with smart machines, and what tradeoffs need to be made to implement such a solution.
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