Tuesday, June 23, 2009

The World Without Engineers

What will the world might look like if there were no engineers like civil engineers, electronic engineers, mechanical engineers, etc. You may download from the website of Agilent Technologies' Educators Corner a poster or screensaver on "The World Without Engineers." Here is my favorite - The World Without Computer Engineers.

Indeed, the advancements and innovations in computers have changed our ways of computing and data prcessing. In my case, I experienced using some of the computing tools shown in the image above. I still remember when I was a kid, my father taught me how to use the abacus. During my high school days, we were taught how to use the slide rule in our chemistry class. Then the scientific calculator was born just before I graduated in high school. During my college years, we used computer cards in our computer programming classes using the FORTRAN language. Then I also used a programmable calculator using BASIC language. My first computer was an Apple Computer whose memory is in kB. Today, we have computers which are fast and with almost unlimited memory space in terabytes.

Saturday, June 13, 2009

The Little DVD of Civilisation

Take a look at at the amazing ways civil engineers overcome the challenges of creating and maintaining our infrastructure for us, and for future generations. This video, "The Little DVD of Civilisation", which was created by the Institution of Civil Engineers promotes the importance of how civil engineers build the quality of life like supplying clean and safe drinking water in Ethiopia, reducing flooding in London, construction of man-made island for the new airport in Hong Kong, development of sustainable housing community and preserving historical structures like Leaning Tower of Pisa. Civil engineers play various specialized roles in creating a safe and sustainable built and natural environment. Watch this video because "when you understand civil engineering, you see the world differently."

Thursday, June 4, 2009

Play BEAT THE QUAKE

What precautions should you do to protect people from harm and reduce damages to property in case an earthquake occurs? Test your knowledge on earthquake preparedness and safety by visiting http://www.dropcoverholdon.org/ and play "Beat the Quake." In this game, you are challenged to make your home a safe place during an earthquake. You click on each object shown in the room and you choose an option on how to secure it. But you must hurry, because the earthquake may happen any time. After the quake, you will see how the objects responded to your design. This is both fun and educational especially to kids. Are you ready to play "Beat the Quake"?