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November 2011
From the Executive Director
We’ve seen it play out in different ways all around us: globalization. The breaking of geographic borders is impacting how we work, how we lead our lives, and how we think.

October 2011
From the President
ASME is co-chairing Engineers Week 2012 and is looking forward to enthusiastic participation from our members.

September 2011
From the Executive Director
Data also shows that more and more of the young men and women who are entering school are studying mechanical engineering.

August 2011
From the Executive Director
Vision, creativity and decisiveness are three traits that define successful designers, regardless of whether they head companies or design products developing countries.

July 2011
From the Executive Director
As Engineering for Change surpasses its 5,000th registered user, two important organizations have joined the E4C coalition as Leadership Sponsors –-ASCE and SWE.

From the President
In her column this month, ASME's new president, Vickie Rockwell, calls for risk champions, as ASME looks into complex systems failures.

June 2011
From the Executive Director
Thanks to the strong commitment of our volunteer and staff teams, the Society has made great strides in influencing the conversation around our three strategic initiatives.

From the President
In this month's column, ASME President Robert T. Simmons looks back on a productive year as the leader of the Society.

May 2011
From the Executive Director
Norm Augustine earlier this year remarked that in a global, knowledge-driven economy, there is a direct correlation between engineering education and innovation.

April 2011
From the President
Lately, it seems that many of the stories making the front pages have drawn attention to developments in technical matters that affect all of us.

March 2011
Avram Bar-Cohen's 'No Guts, No Glory' Video Presentation
ASME Fellow Prof. Avram Bar-Cohen discusses the implications for global competitiveness in the need for research into thermal management

Project Crowdsourcing Enters Phase II
We’ve received numerous insightful ideas for articles from readers around the world, reaching us through postings on MEmagazineBlog.org, e-mail, and even old-school letters written on paper.

February 2011
What We Have Here, Is a Failure to Communicate
How not to use Power Point: The way most speakers use PowerPoint can make their presentations worse rather than better.

November 2010
Unwritten Laws Stay in Print
The recent series of three articles on “The Unwritten Laws of Engineering” is based on a book of the same title that is one of the most popular texts published by ASME Press.

Study Measures Human-Induced Stresses on World’s Fresh Water Supply
Human practices threaten the security of fresh water systems that supply nearly 80 percent of the world's population, according to a study by Rivers in Crisis.

Seeing Six Sigma
Walking among digital designs saves U.S. Army researchers many manufacturing steps.

August 2010
All Things Springs: Resources Online
In the course of preparing two articles for September, we found two Web sites that aim to be encyclopedic in their offerings of information about springs.

Which Spring to Choose: Coiled Wire vs. Machined, a Comparison
There is an alternative in machined springs. They cost more than wire wound springs, but where the application calls for it, machined springs can put unique properties to work.

July 2010
Biomass Attributes, Handling, and Processing Issues for Large Power Plants
Biomass is a resource that can be substituted for coal, in varying degrees for existing pulverized coal (PC) plants. New, large power plants are being designed to utilize biomass as the primary fuel.

Engineering Firms Among Top Employers for the Class of 2010
Engineers ranked with accounting and the retail/wholesale trade at the top of a list of fields hiring bachelor’s degree graduates from the class of 2010, according to a new survey.

June 2010
A Wide Shield Against Destructive Hazards
Chemists working for the U.S. Armed Forces report that a new hydrogen peroxide-based decontaminant has proved highly effective against a wide range of weapons of mass destruction.

May 2010
The Economy's Uneven Effect on Energy
Data compiled by the Energy Information Agency shows that some parts of the energy industry—and certain parts of the economy—were hit harder by the Great Recession than others.

Graduating Engineers Command the Highest Salaries
Engineering accounts for eight of the 10 most highly paid degrees, according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers' Winter 2010 Salary Survey.

March 2010
The Case of the Fractured Hitch: A Study in Metallurgical Failure Analysis
The failure of parts or assemblies can affect the delivery of goods, result in costly repairs and down time, and jeopardize the safety of people.

Can Nanotechnology Make for Greener Aerospace?
With the advent of nanotechnology, it may be possible to create almost perfect materials that can both save money and increase passenger safety.

February 2010
Students: Sign Up Now for the 2010 ASME Student Mechanism and Robot Design Competition
Graduate and undergraduate engineering students have until April 2 to enter the 2010 ASME Student Mechanism and Robot Design Competition.

Study Seeks to Identify Issues That Drive women Out of Engineering
Researchers are conducting a research study asking women in engineering schools and jobs about their experiences in the field, chiefly to learn why so many leave engineering.

Sustainable Design Trend Watch Survey Results
More than 4,000 practicing engineers and engineering students recently voiced their views on the subject of sustainable engineering in the second annual Sustainable Design Trend Watch Survey.

Without Role Models, Students Opting Out of Manufacturing, Trades
America has always been a nation of hands-on tinkerers, but many American teenagers and adults are turned off by working with their hands, according to a pair of surveys.

January 2010
Trends in Design Safety
The world around us constantly changes. Such a professional disruption is now occurring to engineers in terms of design safety, including newly enacted regulation of substances deemed hazardous.

December 2009
Special Issues of ASME Technical Journals
ASME's technical publishing unit published a number of special issues of its journals in the second half of 2009.

November 2009
Existing Technologies Can Contribute to Nation’s Energy Goals
The Obama administration’s New Energy for America plan has set the ambitious goal to reduce greenhouse gases by 80 percent by 2050.

Can Seawater Raise a Crop of Jet Fuel?
A new study may give the oil-rich Middle East options for a new type of cultivation and also make it the potential provider of a different and renewable source of energy.

September 2009
Why Didn't I Think of That?
Obvious inventions: Inventions someone could have thought up years earlier

August 2009
Green Energy a Leader in Job Growth
Jobs in the emerging green energy economy in the United States grew 9.1 percent annually between 1998 and 2007, compared with 3.7 percent for all jobs.

July 2009
Remote Control Bowling
Bowling ball manufacturer 900global has developed a remote control bowling ball that changes the game of bowling into a life-size video game.

Timing Issues Critical to New Product Development
Two intellectual property lawyers give a step-by-step roadmap of how to go market with a product quickly, while minimizing the cost of protecting your intellectual property rights.

Robots Take Wing
The autonomous AirPenguins do more than just fly.

June 2009
Rules for Conducting Boiler Tests: The Paper That Became the First ASME Code
"Rules for Conducting Boiler Tests," from 1884 is the paper that became the first ASME code. The code set standard procedures for conducting boiler tests.

"Report on a Standard Method" from 1885 Transactions of ASME
"Report on a Standard Method", from the 1885 Transactions of ASME, contains a further stage in the development of the first ASME standard.

May 2009
Efficiency by the Numbers
When policy makers sketch out future energy scenarios, they too often overlook the best technology we have.

To Harness the Seas
The ocean has been long recognized as an efficient stowage of solar energy. The portion of the solar energy absorbed by the ocean is initially thermal in nature.

April 2009
The Three Laws of Force Application for Baseball Pitchers
Mike Marshall analyzes the pitching method that he developed during his 14-year career in Major League baseball.

Engineering Baseball
Major league baseball is big business and its major assets, the star players, are well compensated. But these assets also represent the greatest liability for team owners.

March 2009
Thoughts on Sustainability
ASME and Autodesk recently polled engineers and students on the influence that the issue of sustainability is having on their work or education. Here are some responses, arranged by theme.

Why Engineering is Moving Offshore
Offshoring and Globalization: While the numbers are hard to pin down, there is no doubt that more and more engineering is moving abroad from the United States.

February 2009
Enhancing Your Engineering Career
What distinguishes a technical person and enables him to move up in management are his people and communication skills, says James R. Hutton, a long-time executive in the petroleum industry.

January 2009
Winboni Does Windows
Winboni, a battery-powered window-washing robot developed by a student team from Michigan State University, won the 2008 ASME Student Design Competition.

Solar Black
A research team from RPI has demonstrated an anti-reflective coating that absorbs almost all the light falling on it, no matter the angle.

ASME Report Examines New Trends in Engineering
Virtual design environments and collaborative work structures are exerting a strong positive influence on the engineering profession, according to the 2007-2008 ASME annual report.

December 2008
A Retired Mechanical Engineer Looks at Lessons Learned
Raymond J. Wojcik, a P.E., ASME Life Member and retired supervising engineer for Newark, N.J., shares the lessons he learned over during his 44-year career.

November 2008
Prototype Medical Device Wins 2008 ASME IShow
A team from MIT won the top prize at the ASME Innovation Showcase last month with a device called Robopsy, designed to simplify biopsies for lung cancer patients.

A Search Engine for Product Design That Clicks
This article proposes a method to mine data from the World Wide Web to discover customer and expert reviews of products and services that can be used to create a transactional database.

October 2008
A Summit of Global Proportions
ASME President Thomas M. Barlow considers the implications for the profession contained in a recently published report from last April's Global Summit on the Future of Mechanical Engineering.

Four New ASME Draft Standards Get a Trial Run
ASME is developing four new standards involving the assessment of energy efficiency in various process systems and is making the drafts available for trial testing.

A Procurement Process for Capital Equipment
Large investments of a company's money involve risk, so they must be approached rationally—and methodically.

September 2008
Mechanical Engineering: The Ever- Evolving—and Growing—Profession
Three years have passed since an article called “Mechanical Engineering — The Ever-Evolving Profession” was published by Mechanical Engineering Online.

U.S. Manufacturing: Snapshots of a Work in Progress
Manufacturing jobs have declined even as total U.S. employment has risen.

Maintenance and the Bottom Line
Going lean increases profits, as long as the manufacturer maintains a reliable plant.

August 2008
Large-Scale Disasters as Dynamical Systems
Storm, famine, conflict, or flood—extreme events require analysis and planning that advanced engineering can provide.

July 2008
Test Tube Steaks
Some researchers are trying to grow meat in vats rather than on the hoof. But how far are bioengineers from making a collection of muscle cells pass for a sirloin?

Regulating Medical Devices: Two Views of the Balance of Risk and Benefits
The healthy human body is an efficient, robust system. Of course, it is not always healthy. Sometimes parts break or wear out, or the immune system doesn’t block out an occasional infection.

June 2008
The Missing Grand Challenge
To recruit and inspire the people who will invent the future, we have to raise the public's perception of engineering.

May 2008
Fueling the Global Economy
Workforce Issues and Partnerships in Mechanical Engineering

April 2008
The Art of the Quick and Complex
They call it rapid manufacturing, and its progress has been slow, though steady, in gaining the acceptance of industry.

March 2008
Tips To Attract Entry Level Mechanical Engineers
If you read the newspaper or listen to the news, you know how competitive today's job market is. This is especially true for the engineering field.

So You Need to Hire a Consultant?
Any company, small or large, should staff itself with the people it needs to manage ordinary operations, allowing for normal growth.

February 2008
The Driver's Only Human ...
Future advances in traffic safety will have to take that into account, the experts say.

Human Factors: To Compete or Cooperate?
Human factors engineering is a major issue in the process industries—big enough that there are now two separate organizations on the case.

January 2008
Raising Baby Engineer
My husband and I began debating long ago how to maximize the odds that our children will grow up to be engineers.

Demystifying Science For Kids
A basic skill for engineers had its first impulse in mankind’s earliest expressions; then it passed through the hands of the masters.

December 2007
Rethinking the High-Rise Elevator
Two ASME task groups are studying possible revisions to the standards that could change the way people move through large structures during emergencies.

November 2007
Students of Enterprise
A new ASME program aims to advance and reward the innovative and entrepreneurial strengths of young engineers.

September 2007
The Beep Heard 'Round the World
From the clear, cool October sky 50 autumns ago came a sound that couldn't have been less monumental.

Preparing Engineering Students to Work in a "Flat" World
Last summer, three students from Worcester Polytechnic Institute spent seven weeks at Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST) in China working on various senior design projects.

July 2007
Selling Your Business: How the Process Works
One of the first business sales we ever worked on was a $30 million a year lighting distributor.

March 2007
Power to the Engineers
Halvor Snellingen of France’s Nexans S.A. devised a system to monitor the robot using video and acoustic and other sensors, as well as to control it to within 10 or 20 centimeters.

February 2007
Speeding Automobile NVH Analysis
Wave-based substructuring and modal projection provide simulation accuracy in a fraction of the time.

December 2006
Compressor Applications: Metal-Polymer Vs. Traditional Bearings
Compressor operation relies heavily on the mixture of refrigerant and lubricant in refrigeration and air conditioning systems.

November 2006
So, You Need to Hire a Consultant?
As an engineer or manager, you undoubtedly have met many situations in which you’ve had a need for a particular skill or field of expertise, but didn’t have it on hand.

June 2006
Solenoid Valves and the Human Genome
This article takes a look at engineers who are expanding the role of the solenoid valve.

May 2006
Engineering Product Redevelopment
This article, by by Sam Burd and Pete Tormey, explores the dramatic benefits gained from product redevelopment.

March 2006
Proof of Fermat's Last Theorem
Andrew H. Warren originally submitted this paper to the American Mathematical Society in 1991. Although it was not rejected — no flaws were found — the referees could not grasp the key concept.

December 2005
Really Throwing It
A model of a medieval weapon sets a school record.

November 2005
Inventive Leadership
"Inventive Leadership," by Ephraim Suhir, which asks the question, "Can a good engineer become a successful entrepreneur?"

October 2005
Global Trends and Best Practices in Mechatronics Product Lifecycle Management
A white paper by Don Vossler and Vikram Dutt of UGS Corp. examining the convergence of mechanical, electrical/electronics and embedded software, or mechatronics.

September 2005
Computational Fluid Dynamics: A Powerful Marine Design Tool
Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is a powerful marine design tool capable of accurately predicting complex flow phenomena.

August 2005
Mechanical Engineering—The Ever-Evolving Profession
An essay by Avram Bar-Cohen that explains why mechanical engineering is not only alive and well, but also critical to the competitiveness of the United States in the 21st century.

Fourier—the Father of Modern Engineering
An online companion piece to Eugene F. Adiutori's article "Fourier," which ran in the August issue of the print magazine.

June 2005
Are CHP Systems Ready for Commercial Buildings?
This piece discusses the role that widespread use of combined cooling, heating, and power (CHP) technologies for buildings could play in providing relief for the power grid.

More Speed, Less Weight
John Mazurkiewicz, product and marketing manager at Baldor Electric, discusses how servo motors improve machine performance.

May 2005
A Foot in the Door
Associate professor Ron Rorrer, tells you how to get that first engineering job—and keep it!

March 2005
Outsourcing—Good or Evil?
Exporting jobs and industries can have long-term effects on a nation's wealth.

January 2005
Early Warnings — Diagnostics and Prognostics in Aero Engines
Raising the Level of Aviation Safety Through Non-Intrusive Detection of Cracks in Blades and Disks.

September 2004
Heads and Hands — Real-World Problem Solving
A report from the National Academies' engineering arm in Washington D.C., says that education should adopt a "new vision" for the future to reflect changes in industry and commerce.

Mistakes, Fixes, and Better Mousetraps
What makes an engineer "good"?

October 2003
The Widening Gap Between Academia and The Practicing Engineer
A mathematical expression does not mean that it is based on correct, relevant assumptions, or that it encompasses all of the existing parameters which are capable to affect a given event or process.

September 2003
Making Little Things Count
Because it had the right skills and software, an engineering firm was able to conclude its design analysis and verification of a refinery expansion project on time, despite stringent deadlines.

August 2003
New Patent Protection In Key European Markets
A significant new form of European Patent protection has recently become available: the Registered Community Design (RCD).

Engineering — What You Don't Necessarily Learn in School
12 vital aspects in engineering that are usually learned after graduation but can make the difference between success and failure in one's engineering career.

July 2003
Virtual Reality Helps Convert Fluid Analysis Results into Solutions
Even people who are familiar with interpreting analysis results can gain insights that make it possible to understand the root causes of observed problems and plan design changes in much less time.

The Ammonia Economy
This article, by Prof. Vito Agosta, discusses the advantages of employing ammonia instead of hydrogen to meet society's energy needs in the future.

June 2003
Now Is the Time to Invest in PLM
A commentary by SmarTeam's Avichay Nissenbaum on product lifecycle management (PLM), an area that many manufacturers are eyeing during these troubled economic times.

May 2003
Building Better Cars
The Ergonomics and Safety Research Institute at Loughborough University in England was instrumental in helping Ford develop the Third Age Suit.

The Discovery Channel Explores 'Extreme Engineering'
During the months of May and June, the Discovery Channel will present a new series, "Extreme Engineering," which takes a look at the world's largest construction projects.

April 2003
Computer Simulation Helps Reduce Touch Temperatures in New Printer
ASME member Francisco Zirilli's case study of how engineers at Xerox Corp. used computer simulation to ensure customer safety by reducing touch temperatures in a new color printer.

The Da Vinci-Euler-Bernoulli Beam Theory?
ASME member Roberto Ballarini's article on Leonardo da Vinci's fundamental contributions to solid mechanics, fluid mechanics and mechanical design — as detailed in Codex Madrid I.

From Gas Turbines to Tornadoes
Joseph Hamrick's article on how studying flow behavior may lead to a better understanding of how tornadoes are formed.

March 2003
Statement of Interest
A slightly modified version of a "Statement of Interest," by Robert E. Uhrig, which was submitted to the DOE Climate Change Technology Program Office.

Extended Written Remarks on Nanotechnology
Testimony of R. Stanley Williams, HP Fellow, Hewlett-Packard Laboratories, on behalf of the Hewlett-Packard Co. before the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Science, Technology and Space.

New Product Development — the Soul of the Enterprise
The "next big thing" that is emerging now with manufacturers of consumer products and industrial products are enterprise processes for new product development.

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