Skills development and recoding in engineering analysis and simulation : Industry needs

The EASIT2 project (Engineering Analysis and Simulation Innovation Transfer), funded under the European Union Lifelong Learning Programme, has the major goal to contribute to the competitiveness and quality of engineering, design and manufacturing in Europe through identifying the generic competencies that users of engineering analysis and simulation systems must possess. This competency framework will include a comprehensive Educational Base, a web-based interface compatible with other staff development systems, with links to associated resource material that engineers and analysts can use to develop and track their competencies. The project will also deliver an integrated Registered Analyst (RA) Scheme to provide recognition of achievement of these competencies. In order to help ensure that the deliverables of this project meet industry needs, a survey was undertaken and this paper summarises the findings of this survey. The survey comprised of an online questionnaire and was completed by 1094 respondents from 50 different countries. A large majority of respondents thought a system to define analyst skills and provide links to appropriate training resources would be useful. There was also strong support for a form of professional qualification in engineering analysis. The advantages to industry that these project deliverables would bring include incentives for staff development, marketing power and enhanced subcontractor qualification and internal resource management. The survey also provided a valuable insight into the current state of the engineering analysis and simulation industry. The most significant barriers to the effective use of engineering analysis were identified as recruitment of suitably qualified and experienced staff and a lack of analysis skills. “Pressure of work” was also identified as the most significant reason why organisations fail to get the most out of engineering analysis software. The findings of this survey are now being used in the development of the project deliverables to ensure that they meet the needs of industry as much as possible

State Power Plant Siting: a Sketch of the Main Features of a Possible Approach

Work on various phases of power plant technology and siting has been underway within the Environmental Quality Laboratory (EQL) at the California Institute of Technology for some time. Of particular relevance to this memorandum, a good deal of effort has been devoted to institutional aspects of the siting process. Our purpose in what follows is to draw from our past work -- and from the discussions and work of others -- a sketch of the major outlines of one possible approach to power plant siting for the state. We hope in doing so to give our present views about the issues and how they might rationally be resolved, not so much to convince as to inform, stimulate fruitful ideas, and help provide the basis for constructive debate. We ourselves are not necessarily wedded to any of the discussion that follows; we find our own minds changing from time to time as we study the problem further or confront sound suggestions from others. Part I of this memorandum briefly outlines the major features of what we see as a fruitful approach to the siting problem. Sections A through E of Part I describe some elements of the approach; Section F sketches the actual siting decision process we suggest, and in doing so shows how the elements play into the process. Section G comments briefly on a suggested role for judicial review. In Part II we attempt to reduce our ideas to a fairly precise outline for a state siting statute, and to deal with certain matters of detail not covered in Part I. Section A of Part II introduces the statutory outline by summarizing each of its provisions; Section B sets forth the outline itself. The Appendix to this memorandum depicts our suggested approach in time-line fashion; it should be helpful in reading and understanding the proposal

Some Features of the Fort Dodge Gypsum

During the prosecution of field study of the gypsum for the Iowa Geological Survey the writer found immediately beneath the gypsum in several places a basal conglomerate which has not heretofore been described in reports on the region. The locality where this conglomerate is best developed is in a ravine on the west side of Des Moines River opposite Two Mile creek about three miles south of Fort Dodge. The Fort Dodge, Des Moines and Southern railway extends along this ravine and has exposed the conglomerate in some of its cuttings

The Clarinda Oil Prospect

Work has been prosecuted on an oil prospect about six miles south of Clarinda since November of 1928. A part of the record of strata is given in volume XXXIII of the reports of the Iowa Geological Survey. Since the publication of that report the well has been deepened somewhat. A description of the strata penetrated will be given and comparison will be made with the new well at Greenfield to the north and with the oil prospect at Nebraska City to the west

Some Fundamental Concepts of Earth History

We have been accustomed to think, most of us, that in the early days of the world\u27s geologic history Nature manifested herself in forms different from those with which we are familiar; that God, the supreme Power of the universe, employed other types of energy than those by means of which He works today. And these conceptions have been fostered and influenced very largely, consciously or unconsciously, by our religions and theological training

The History of Boyer Valley

One of the largest streams of the Missouri slope in Iowa, and one of much importance in its influence on topography is Boyer River. This streams takes its rise in the Kansan uplands south of Storm Lake, flows a little east of south across Sac county past the town of Wall Lake where it turns abruptly southwest. In this direction it crosses Crawford County, which it divides into practically equal parts. In its course across Crawford county Boyer valley is of the normal mature type but in southern Sac there opens into the valley from the northeast a broad sag which extends southwestward from Wall Lake. Digitate alluvial plains also extend several miles up the valley of the Boyer above the mouth of this sag and up the valleys of two tributaries from the eastern flank of the high ridge east of Odebolt. The flat undrained sag, although it is two or three times as wide as Boyer valley at Herring or Boyer, is nevertheless a direct continuation of it. On the other hand the present course of Boyer River north of the sag is out of line and out of harmony with the valley below

The Pleistocene of Capitol Hill

The Pleistocene exposures on Capitol Hill at Des Moines have become classic through the studies made by McGee and Call which demonstrated the presence of glacial drift overlying loess. The results of these studies were published in the American Journal of Science, Volume 24, 1882, pp. 202-223