183-Quality Project Management
4 $90.00
Course Objectives: This continuing education course is written specifically for professional engineers with the objective of relating to and enhancing the practice of engineering.
Course Description:
This course is about improving the quality for managing project work in an organization whether you are an engineer, senior manager or professional project manager. In the ideal project world, project managers are well-trained professionals and assigned to a project at the beginning of the project. In the real project world, many projects are small and assigned to engineers and managers with less than professional project management training at any time in the life of the project.
For the engineer, senior manager or professional project manager the quality for managing project work should improve significantly by combining seven key tools with a basic feature from statistical process control, the control chart. The seven key tools, called The Seven Icons©, are presented in this course and will demonstrate how they can be used to improve planning and controlling project work.
The Seven Icons© are organized and connected in a structure that is easy to remember. The icon terms serve as a common language between managers, team members, and their bosses. This feature becomes most important when considering that practically everyone in an organization is involved in some kind of project work. Having an effective way of remembering and applying key tools to project work will improve communications throughout the organization and ultimately improve the quality for managing project work.
At the end of the course is a set of questions that highlights the take-aways for the reader to remember and use for improving the quality for managing projects in their organization.
218-Managing Project Risk
3 $67.50
Course Objectives: This continuing education course is written specifically for professional engineers with the objective of relating to and enhancing the practice of engineering.
Course Description:
This course is about managing project risk in an organization whether you are an engineer, senior manager or professional project manager. In the project world, managing risk is critical because every decision, every action taken contains some element of risk. Risk cannot be eliminated. Risk can only be controlled and accepted if the decision or action needs to be made. Understanding this concept becomes important when considering that practically everyone in an organization is involved in some kind of project work and makes decisions involving risk.
In the ideal project world, project managers are trained in project risk management. 1In the real project world, many projects are small and assigned to engineers and managers with less than formal risk management training. Managing risks become critical to achieving project cost and schedule targets. This course presents three basic principles for managing project risk, namely, identify, quantify, and control. However, managing project risk still depends on experience and skill of the engineer or manager to identify, quantify and control the risk in order to manage it.
At the end of the course is a set of questions that highlights the take-aways for the reader to remember and use for managing project risk in their organization.
1Project Management Institute, PMBOK — GUIDE Fifth Edition 2013 Project Risk Management, Chapter 11
196-Structural Concepts for Non-Structural Engineers
3 $67.50
Course Objectives: This continuing education course is written specifically for professional engineers with the objective of relating to and enhancing the practice of engineering.
Course Description:
Structural Concepts for Non-Structural Engineers is a course designed to promote understanding of why structures work the way that they do, and why they are designed the way that they are.
It is a course for people that do not have a heavy background in structural design, such as Electrical Engineers, Mechanical (HVAC) Engineers, and Architects.
It is, perhaps, a review for people who have studied structures in college, but have not been seriously involved with it since.
201-Electrical Engineering Fundamentals for Non-Electrical Engineers
4 $90.00
Course Objectives: This continuing education course is written specifically for professional engineers with the objective of relating to and enhancing the practice of engineering.
Course Description:
Electrical Engineering Fundamentals for Non-Electrical Engineers is a course designed to promote an understanding of the fundamentals of electricity. The course covers the differences between Alternating Current (AC) and Direct Current (DC) power sources by explaining the behavior of the voltage and current for both types of sources. The fundamental circuit building blocks including resistors, capacitors and inductors are covered including their behavior in series and parallel circuits as well as transient analysis. The course covers Ohm's law and Kirchoff's Laws and their application to performing circuit analysis. This course also includes a brief introduction to imaginary numbers and phasors as related to current, voltage, and impedance.
It is designed as a course for engineers that either have not had a substantial amount of electrical training or it has been some time since receiving that training. The course offers easy to read graphs, real world examples, and sample problems to promote understanding.
228-What Every Engineer Should Know About Fire Protection
3 $67.50
Course Objectives: This continuing education course is written specifically for professional engineers with the objective of relating to and enhancing the practice of engineering.
Course Description:
This course provides a basic familiarity with the essentials of fire protection, and in particular, focused on sprinkler systems. The National Fire Protection Association Chapter 13 is the most followed guide for the installation of sprinklers. This course covers the essential thoughts and theories for the necessity of fire sprinkler protection, and how the building fuel load strongly influences the amount of required protection. It then discusses how best to meet that need using different components that make up a complete and operational fire protection system.
The course design gives a broad overview of fire protection and touches on many subjects without going to great in-depth levels. It is intended for engineers who need to interact with fire protection professionals, or facility maintenance engineers and management who desire a good working background knowledge of fire protection. It will not teach the complicated calculations and methodologies for designing fire protection systems. Forthcoming courses plan to address that topic in more detail.
186-Intellectual Property and Patents for the Professional Engineer
4 $90.00
Course Objectives: This continuing education course is written specifically for professional engineers with the objective of relating to and enhancing the practice of engineering.
Course Description:
This course is organized with an introduction to the general practice of the engineering arts with emphasis on the facets that are specific to the profession of the Registered Professional Engineer. A similar emphasis on and distinctions of the general forms of intellectual property is introduced with particular emphasis on the United States Patent Office and issued patents; such as are likely to be associated with the practice of the Professional Engineer. Some practical considerations are developed as apply to the practice of Professional Engineering.
This course has been produced by two practicing Professional Engineers. One author, Dr. Raymond L. Barrett, Jr., PhD, PE has many years of engineering experience and is an author of books, articles, and courses, as well as an inventor with 36 issued US patents as a named inventor. Similarly, Luis Figarella, PE also has over 20 years of experience as a practicing engineer and Patent Agent and is an author of books, articles, and courses, as well as an inventor with 14 issued US patents as a named inventor, and over 35 issued/allowed US Patents for his clients.
Due to the nature of the course, the materials presented in this course were extensively obtained from referenced public sources with links to those sources conveniently provided. On completion of the course the terms should be clear, many of the issues as well as an introduction to the processes and procedures needed to identify intellectual property issues and protect the rights of the owner of the identified intellectual property should be clearer. The course is presented as an overview and is not a substitute for competent legal advice in any particular cases.
208-Future Highways - Automated Vehicles
4 $29.95
Course Objectives: This continuing education course is written specifically for professional engineers with the objective of relating to and enhancing the practice of engineering.
Course Description:
It has been approximately 100 years since the motorized vehicle replaced the horse and buggy. The future of highway transportation is now undergoing another major revolution as engineers across numerous disciplines (transportation, automotive, technology, etc.) work towards moving the responsibility of driving the automobile from human to machine, see figure. The development of cars driven completely without aid by a human driver (i.e., driverless cars), commonly referred to as 'automated' vehicles, will certainly give more appropriate meaning to the term 'auto'-mobile.
Example of a future highway
Source: USDOT
In this course, you will learn about:
- the terminology being used in the field of automated highway vehicles,
- examples of government legislation being implemented to facilitate the future of automated vehicles,
- the technologies being used in automated vehicles,
- automated vehicle engineering research and standards under development, and
- potential impacts of automated vehicles on traffic flow and roadway design.
226-Introduction to Thermal Imaging
2 $17.95
Course Objectives: This continuing education course is written specifically for professional engineers with the objective of relating to and enhancing the practice of engineering.
Course Description:
Modern day technology allows us to see in the dark. Thermal imaging is the technology that identifies and records images that are not visible by the human eye by using specialized equipment. These images represent the infrared radiation emitted by the object.
This course will provide a background on the discovery of infrared energy and an overview of the electromagnetic spectrum. It will define key terms and concepts related to thermal imaging. It will explain the types of thermal imaging equipment and night vision technologies.
Traditionally used in military and security operations, thermal imaging has expanded to other industries. Examples will be provided for the application of thermal imaging in the manufacturing and healthcare industries as well as building inspections. Finally, this course will distinguish between the levels of professional certifications for thermographers.
203-What Every Engineer Should Know About Structures - Part A - Statics Fundamentals
4 $90.00
Course Objectives: This continuing education course is written specifically for professional engineers with the objective of relating to and enhancing the practice of engineering.
Course Description:
Written in an easy to understand style, the course What Every Engineer Should Know About Structures Part A — Statics Fundamentals focuses on presenting simplified methods of calculations, and the presentation of intuitive methods for the understanding and solving of basic statics problems. Statics is fundamental to the field of engineering mechanics — including structural analysis and design. Included among the many topics covered are loads and forces on members; how to deal with uniformly varying distributed loads; solving equilibrium equations using an intuitive and simple method where up equals down and left equals right; and simplifying assumptions to determine the forces necessary to keep an extension ladder from sliding down a wall. Many example problems are worked with simple and easy to understand diagrams. Newton's three laws of motion are presented and reduced to two for use in statics.
This course is not a design course. However the methods and techniques presented can be used to determine the forces in many common structures including storage shelves in the garage, the support forces of an NFL player's bench, and drifting snow loads on a porch roof.
Anyone who has taken high school trig and algebra can complete this course.
What Every Engineer should Know About Structures Part B — Statics Applications, the second in a series, continues on with a look at how the fundamentals are applied to solving real-life statics problems. Included are sections on reactions; friction; forces in truss members; forces in cables used to support traffic lights hanging over intersections; and the huge mechanical advantages gained by using pulleys and sheaves.
Optional Supplemental Material
Basic Trigonometry, Significant Figures, and Rounding — A Quick Review is a zero credit course intended for those who might find themselves a bit rusty and would like a quick refresher. The information in the course is useful for application to the solution of structural problems especially in the fields of statics and strength of materials.
This course is free and can be downloaded here.
The trigonometry review includes demonstrating - through the use of several example problems — the use of the basic trigonometric functions including: the sine, cosine and tangent and their inverse; the Pythagorean Theorem; the Sum of the Angles; the Law of Sines; and the Law of Cosines. The significant figures and rounding review includes a discussion of the precision and validity of an answer, along with rules and guidelines for using the appropriate number of significant figures, and for rounding answers appropriately.
207-What Every Engineer Should Know About Structures - Part B - Statics Applications
4 $90.00
Course Objectives: This continuing education course is written specifically for professional engineers with the objective of relating to and enhancing the practice of engineering.
Course Description:
Written in an easy to understand style, the course What Every Engineer Should Know About Structures Part B — Statics Applications is a logical extension of the previous course in the series, What Every Engineer should Know About Structures Part A — Statics Fundamentals.
Where the first course in the series, "Part A — Statics Fundamentals", presented the fundamental principles of statics including nomenclature, definitions, Newton's Laws, and procedural methods, this course, "Part B — Statics Applications", applies the principles learned to real-life problems.
The course is divided into five sections. Included are sections on calculating reactions for beams, trusses, and frames; determining forces in truss members; calculating the different forces is a single cable supporting point and distributed loads; presenting the basics of friction; and understanding the principles of sheaves and pulleys.
Statics is fundamental to the field of engineering mechanics — including structural analysis and design. Included among the many topics covered are discussions of the uncertainties of design loads, why utility linemen are careful to sight along a line when making a final hook-up, and why simplifications in stating a statics problem is an acceptable and common practice. Many example problems are worked with simple and easy to understand diagrams and calculations.
This course is not a design course. However the methods and techniques presented can be used to determine the forces in many common structures including metal building frames, traffic light suspension cables, and multi-line hoisting systems, as well as to determine the minimum lean angle of an extension ladder as limited by friction.
Anyone who has completed the first course in this series can complete this course.
Basic Trigonometry, Significant Figures, and Rounding — A Quick Review is a zero credit course intended for those who might find themselves a bit rusty and would like a quick refresher. The information in the course is useful for application to the solution of structural problems especially in the fields of statics and strength of materials.
This course is free and can be downloaded by clicking the link below.
/authors/123Glon/TRIG.pdf
The trigonometry review includes demonstrating - through the use of several example problems — the use of the basic trigonometric functions including: the sine, cosine and tangent and their inverse; the Pythagorean Theorem; the Sum of the Angles; the Law of Sines; and the Law of Cosines. The significant figures and rounding review includes a discussion of the precision and validity of an answer, along with rules and guidelines for using the appropriate number of significant figures, and for rounding answers appropriately.
261-What Every Engineer Should Know About Structures - Part C - Axial Strength of Materials
4 $90.00
Course Objectives: This continuing education course is written specifically for professional engineers with the objective of relating to and enhancing the practice of engineering.
Course Description:
Written in an easy to understand style, the course What Every Engineer Should Know About Structures - Part C – Axial Strength of Materials is the third course in the series of courses in the
field of study called engineering mechanics. This course focuses on presenting simplified methods of calculations, and the presentation of intuitive methods for the understanding and solving of basic problems. The
course contains 18 solved example problems to illustrate the principles discussed.
This Course Includes:
- stress and strain in a member, and their relationship, including material properties such as Hooke's Law and modulus of elasticity;
- axial loads in tension and compression, including deformation;
- shear stresses, including shear modulus of elasticity, single and double shear, and punching shear;
- design stresses and factors of safety;
- temperature deformation and thermal stresses, and;
- cross sectional properties of structural members including determining the centroid of a cross section.
The first two courses in the series, called Statics, focused on solving problems related to the exterior (or externally) applied loads on a stationary body - a body at rest. It is expected that
you have a good background in the study of Statics. If you are not familiar with statics, consider taking the two SunCam courses titled What Every Engineer Should Know About Structures Part A – Statics
Fundamentals and What Every Engineer Should Know About Structures Part B – Statics Applications.
Significant Figures, Rounding, and the Solution of a Statics Problem – A Quick Review is a zero credit course intended for those who might find themselves a bit rusty and would like a quick refresher.
The information in the course is useful for application to the solution of structural problems especially in the fields of statics and strength of materials. This course is free and can be downloaded at: Statistics PDF.
274-What Every Engineer Should Know About Structures - Part D - Bending Strength Of Materials
4 $90.00
Course Objectives: This continuing education course is written specifically for professional engineers with the objective of relating to and enhancing the practice of engineering.
Course Description:
Written in an easy to understand style, the course What Every Engineer Should Know About Structures - Part D - Bending Strength of Materials is the
fourth course in the series of courses in the field of study called engineering mechanics. This course focuses on presenting intuitive methods for the understanding of basic principles of forces
and stresses in beams. And solutions to basic problems with simplified methods of calculations. The course contains 19 solved example problems and additional drawings to illustrate the principles discussed.
Part D Includes:
- Cross sectional properties of structural members including defining and determining the Moment of Inertia and Section Modulus of a cross section.
- Torsional stresses and deformations of rods and shafts.
- Shear and bending moment diagrams of beams.
- Bending stresses in loaded beams.
- Shear stresses in loaded beams.
The first two courses in the series, titled What Every Engineer Should Know About Structures - Part A – Statics Fundamentals and What Every Engineer
Should Know About Structures - Part B – Statics Applications focused on solving problems related to the exterior (or externally) applied loads on a stationary body - a body at rest. The third course in the series,
titled What Every Engineer Should Know About Structures - Part C – Axial Strength of Materials, focuses on what happens inside a structural member, including stresses
and strains, axial deformation, factors of safety, thermal deformations, and properties of cross sectional areas.
It is expected that you have a good background in the material covered in the three previous courses. If you do not, consider taking the three SunCam courses for Part A, Part B, and Part C.
Loads, Supports, and Assumptions – A Quick Review is a zero credit course intended for those who might find themselves a bit rusty and would like a quick
refresher. The information in the course is useful for application to the solution of structural problems especially in the fields of statics and strength of materials. This quick review course is free and can be downloaded:
Supports PDF.
182-Feedback Control System Fundamentals
4 $29.95
Course Objectives: This continuing education course is written specifically for professional engineers with the objective of relating to and enhancing the practice of engineering.
Course Description:
This course discusses many fundamental concepts associated with classical feedback control theory. Feedback control measures the state of a physical system or device with a sensing system. The measured state is fed-back and compared to a desired state and the error used by a controller to reduce the difference between the actual and desired states. An example of a feedback control system is the central heating and air conditioning system for a home, or building. A thermostat or temperature sensor is the feedback sensor that measures the room temperature and compares it to the desired temperature or set point, calculating a difference or error. If the temperature is less than the set point, the error is used by the controller to force more heat into the room. When the set point is reached, the error is zero or below an error threshold and the controller will stop heating the room. Another example is the speed control in most of today's automobiles. The speed of the vehicle is measured and compared to a desired speed. Based on the difference between actual speed and the set point, acceleration or braking is applied to the automobile drive to null the error and maintain the desired speed.
Classical control deals directly with the differential equations that describe the dynamics of a plant or process. These equations are transformed into frequency dependent transfer functions. The transfer function is the ratio of two frequency dependent polynomials whose roots describe the response of the plant in a frequency domain. The controller or compensator shapes the closed feedback loop response, given the plant response, to achieve the control performance objectives. Classical feedback control design and analysis tends to require a good foundation in mathematics, however the purpose of this course is not to dwell on the math, although examples are provided, but to provide the basic design and analysis concepts.
The topics covered begin with a description of the basic block diagram in section 2. The relationships between time and frequency domain representations of the block diagram elements are discussed in section 3 followed by the key feedback relationships derived from the block diagram algebra in section 4. Control loop stability and methods to determine stability margins are described in section 5 followed by a discussion of specifying control loop performance in section 6. A couple of control loop design methods are provided in section 7. The basic theory is then applied to two examples; a home heating system in section 8 and motion control applications in section 9. Converting to a digital sample data controller is discussed in section 10; as related to the motion control example in section 9.
246-Compressed Air Systems for Forest Products Facilities
3 $67.50
Course Objectives: This continuing education course is written specifically for professional engineers with the objective of relating to and enhancing the practice of engineering.
Course Description:
Many manufacturing facilities use large quantities of compressed air. In designing such facilities, the Consulting Engineer will often be required assemble a bid package for the compressed air system. To do this, he must determine the Scope of Work, then size the equipment and write specifications. The purpose of this course is to provide instruction on completing these steps. The course is written for design of materials-handling facilities that do not require large amounts of instrument air, but rather use compressed air for power, cleaning and other unit operations. Specifically, it is written from perspective of the authors' experience in designing forest products manufacturing facilities.
On completing this course, the student should be able to:
- Calculate the basic compressed air requirements of the process.
- Calculate the design compressed air requirement for the plant.
- Determine the equipment supply requirements.
- Name some advantages of rotary screw compressors over reciprocating compressors.
- Describe the functions of an aftercooler.
- Name two types of dryers commonly used in forest products manufacture.
- Describe three types of regeneration systems for desiccant dryers.
- Name three purposes for compressed air receivers.
- Estimate the required size of compressed air receiver.
- Discuss the need for an oil/water separator with the client.
- Calculate the expected oil concentration in the condensate leaving the aftercooler.
249-Bulk Silos for Biomass Facilities
1 $22.50
Course Objectives: This continuing education course is written specifically for professional engineers with the objective of relating to and enhancing the practice of engineering.
Course Description:
Bulk silos are an essential part of most biomass and some forest products facilities. They are used for intermediate storage of partially processed raw material and storage of final product. The purpose of this course is to familiarize the engineer with the use of these silos, so that he can adequately specify them and provide for them in a plant layout.
On completing this course, the student should be able to:
- Determine the volume and weight storage requirements.
- Understand choices of different wall materials and constructions.
- Specify accessories that will be needed, including fire protection requirements and explosion protection.
- Understand the concept of "aspect ratio" of a silo.
- Understand the need for "mass flow" from a silo.
- Understand the difference between screw reclaim and passive reclaim.
- Estimate the working volume, height and diameter of a silo for a proposed application.
250-Project Management Through Client Management
4 $90.00
Course Objectives: This continuing education course is written specifically for professional engineers with the objective of relating to and enhancing the practice of engineering.
Course Description:
This course is intended to provide professionals with a different perspective in Project Management by addressing the Client’s needs in a Project Manager. The course will discuss the attributes that Clients expect and demand from the Professional that will be managing the project development.
The course will start with assessing the client, the project, and the professional's qualifications. This is followed by discussions of some of the client’s expectations, contracts, communications, relationships, and more. So many professionals fall short of what a client is looking for because the professional is focused on the technical aspects of the design and lose sight of the overall project development. This course is for all of those that honestly want to be a truly effective Project Manager for their Client and their company.
Detailed course outline with timeline
- 7 Minutes – Contents and Introduction
- 25 Minutes – Assessments
- 14 Minutes – Expectations
- 23 Minutes – Cheap Fast Good
- 11 Minutes – Contracts
- 18 Minutes – Schedule
- 24 Minutes – Communications
- 12 Minutes – Responsiveness
- 11 Minutes – Relationships
- 12 Minutes – Roles
- 14 Minutes – Multiple Clients
- 18 Minutes – Invoices
- 11 Minutes – Summary
- 40 Minutes - The Test
This course is an introduction on how to manage a project through managing the client.
Have you ever met a Project Manager that stated publicly that he's not a good project manager? Of course not! Every Project Manager believes he is a good manager. Part of being a good Project Manager includes working with the Client in the concept development, design, permitting, and construction process. Not working effectively with the Client in any one of these stages will pretty much eliminate you from future work with this Client. This course is for all of those that honestly want to be a truly effective Project Manager for their Client and their company.
267-Biomass Process Flow Calculations
1 $22.50
Course Objectives: This continuing education course is written specifically for professional engineers with the objective of relating to and enhancing the practice of engineering.
Course Description:
Process flow calculations are an essential part of any biomass project. They provide an aid in firming-up the basic process, sizing equipment and estimating the project. The calculations however are complicated by the fact the certain variables such as daily operating hours, bulk density and moisture content vary as the material progresses through stages of the process. This course presents a methodical approach that can render the calculations relatively simple and minimize opportunities for errors in complex projects.
On completing this course, the student should be able to:
- Understand the difference between block flow diagrams and process flow diagrams.
- Understand the basic methodology for performing process flow calculations.
- Understand the need for storage volume calculations as part of the process flow calculation procedure.
- Understand how to predict fuel requirement to a dryer.
- Understand how to calculate annual uptime rates.
- Understand the difference between dry basis and wet basis moisture contents and how to convert between them.
- Understand the advantage of working with "oven-dry" bulk density.
- Understand the considerations involved in selecting design factors.
275-What Every Engineer Should Know About Engineering Probability and Statistics I
5 $112.50
Course Objectives: This continuing education course is written specifically for professional engineers with the objective of relating to and enhancing the practice of engineering.
Course Description:
The concept of probabilistic design is quite pervasive across the engineering disciplines because of its implication on engineering design decisions. Typically, assumptions and simplification of
engineering and other related natural processes are often idealistic and do not consider uncertainties inherent in those processes and phenomenon (be they mechanical, chemical, electrical, biological,
etc). There is also the tendency to assume that the situation is either deterministic or qualitative or both. Under certain circumstances such assumptions may suffice. However, in the realm
of engineering design, such assumptions and simplifications are not acceptable as uncertainties are unavoidable in almost all engineering analyses and design activities. Thus, any recommendations that are
formulated without proper identification and assessment of the inherent risks and uncertainties would not only be invalid but would paint a wrong picture of the situation under consideration.
The purpose of this course therefore is to present the fundamental concepts of probability and statistics from the perspective of engineering practice. As part of the learning objective, the course would demonstrate:
- The role of probability and statistics in engineering design decisions, and
- The concepts of variability
Additionally, the student will be able to:
- Develop an appreciation of the notion of events, the sample space and the real line.
- Understand the notion of enumeration and counting techniques that are applicable in probability and statistics analyses.
- Explore the meaning of density and mass functions with respect to their relationship to random variables.
- Discover some of the common discrete and continuous distributions that are employed in describing engineering problem situations and scenarios
276-What Every Engineer Should Know About Engineering Probability and Statistics II
5 $112.50
Course Objectives: This continuing education course is written specifically for professional engineers with the objective of relating to and enhancing the practice of engineering.
Course Description:
The concept of probabilistic design is quite pervasive across all engineering disciplines because of its implication on engineering design decisions. Quite often because of the complexity of the processes and the difficulty in explicating the inherent relationships, assumptions about engineering and other related natural processes are simplified and so do not consider uncertainties inherent in those processes and phenomenon. Safety factors and safety margins have often been employed to overcome the need for probabilistic designs. Under certain circumstances such assumptions may suffice. However, in the realm of engineering design, such assumptions and simplifications may not be acceptable as uncertainties are unavoidable in almost all engineering analyses and design activities. Therefore any recommendation developed without proper identification and assessment of the inherent risks and uncertainties would not only be invalid but would paint an unrealistic and unrepresentative picture and thus could jeopardize public safety.
This second course in the series focuses on an important area of engineering analyses and design, namely Statistical Inference. Statistical Inference is about how we analyze data and use the information to make decisions about a given engineering problem. The process of explicating the complexities of the data to yield information that would eventually be used to make design or mission decisions is known as inference or more appropriately Statistical Inference. If we examine the relationship between the population and the sample (as we did in the first course) we note that there is sort of a symbiotic (parent-population, offspring-sample) relationship between the two. Probability deals with the population with its parameters (parent values) while Statistical Inference deals with the sample and its statistic (values computed from the sample and used to estimate the population or universe parameters). The following areas would be covered in the course but not necessarily in the order shown:
- The Point Estimates for the Mean and the variance.
- The Central Limit Theorem (CLT) and its role in estimating parameters of a population.
- Sampling distributions for means and variances with variance both known and unknown
- Sampling distribution for two means & two variances with variance known and unknown
- Point Estimator, Interval Estimators and Tests of Hypothesis
- Error of estimation and the effect on sample size (n).
- Type I and Type II errors and the effect on ample size n
- Confidence Intervals for one means and one variances
- Confidence Intervals for two means and two variances
Due to the nature of the materials, a significant number of numerical examples have been included to provide better insight into the materials presented. At the end, the engineer should feel well equipped to explore the important area of Statistical Inference and what it offers with regards to Engineering design decisions.
283-What Every Engineer Should Know About the Design and Analysis of Engineering Experiments I
5 $112.50
Course Objectives: This continuing education course is written specifically for professional engineers with the objective of relating to and enhancing the practice of engineering.
Course Description:
Design of experiment is an activity that every Engineer should take very seriously. Engineers are called upon every day to make decisions regarding programs, processes and systems that have
significant implications on the safety and well-being of society, be they chemical processes, the environment, infrastructure, machinery and equipment, and others. And while Engineers are known for sound
and fact based judgment, those laudable qualities and characteristics may not be enough and may not serve them well in certain circumstances. This is especially true when they are called upon to make decisions
regarding variables and factors whose underlying distributions are stochastic and thus have uncertain, albeit questionable, predictability. Handling these situations requires an understanding of
the formal schemes and structures necessary to deal with variability, bias, and randomness.
This is the first of a two-course sequence in this subject area. As the prerequisite to the second course, it provides the Engineer with the rudimentary, but necessary, toolkit
needed to plan, design and analyze basic engineering experiments and to make recommendations about design and operational decisions. It sets the stage for the second course, where more robust and higher
level designs are explored, including Factorial designs, Fractional designs, Nested designs, Confounding schemes and Regression Analysis. The second course also addresses a fundamental problem of design,
namely cost and resource utilization, and also the all important issue of missing values. While the two courses are not strictly about mathematics and statistics, they do utilize those subject matters to
further elucidate how to plan, design, and analyze engineering experiments. Some of the areas covered in this course include:
- The Role of Experiments in the Engineering Design Process
- The Role of Statistics and Probability in Engineering Design
- Purpose and Nature of Planned Experiments
- Important Issues in Planned Experiments
- The Effects of Changes in the Independent Variables
- The Effect of Noise in An Experiment
- Restrictions on Randomization
- Single Factor Experiments including Model Analysis
- Randomized Block Designs
- Latin and Other Designs
- Incomplete Block Designs
285-What Every Engineer Should Know About the Design and Analysis of Engineering Experiments II
5 $112.50
Course Objectives: This continuing education course is written specifically for professional engineers with the objective of relating to and enhancing the practice of engineering.
Course Description:
Design of experiment is an activity that every Engineer should take very seriously. Engineers are called upon everyday to make decisions regarding programs, processes and systems that have significant implications on the safety and well being of society, be they chemical processes, the environment, infrastructure, machinery and equipment,
and others. Engineers are known for sound and fact based judgment but while those qualities and characteristics are laudable, they may not be enough and may not serve them well. This is especially true when they are called upon to make decisions regarding variables and factors whose
underlying distributions are stochastic and thus have uncertain and questionable predictability. Handling these situations requires an understanding of the formal schemes and structures necessary to deal with variability, bias, and randomness.
This second course, in the two-course sequence, focuses on some of the more practical issues that engineers encounter during the design and analysis of experiments. This course focuses on more robust and higher level designs such as Factorial designs, Confounding Schemes Fractional
designs, Fixed and Random factors, Expected Mean Squares, Nested or Hierarchical designs, and Regression Analysis. The course also addresses, with realistic examples, some of the common problem in design of experiments, namely, missing data or missing values. It also provides practical justification for confounding, which arises due to the physical limitation as it relates to acquiring all the needed data.
It addresses the issue of cost and resource utilization where fractional factorial designs are used because the cost to run full higher order designs is prohibitive. The course has a very practical bent and while there are theoretical foundations undergirding the material, the course itself utilizes basic arithmetic for computation and analysis. Some of the areas covered in the course include:
- The Role of Experiments in the Engineering Design Process
- Missing Values for Randomized Block and Latin Designs
- Factorial Designs for 2f and 3f
- Confounding Schemes for 2f and 3f
- Fractional Factorial Designs for 2f and 3f
- Modeling of Fixed and Random Effects and Expected Mean Square (EMS)
- Nested/Hierarchical Designs
- Regression Analysis
290-What Every Engineer Should Know About Reliability I
4 $90.00
Course Objectives: This continuing education course is written specifically for professional engineers with the objective of relating to and enhancing the practice of engineering.
Course Description:
Reliability Engineering is concerned with the design, implementation, and prediction of the life profiles of a system or component using a disciplined analysis approach that has strong roots in statistics, mathematics and engineering. Given a system, subsystem or component, one of the major challenges of the discipline is to understand the inherent failure mechanisms that govern the system and the development of the appropriate analytical scheme to determine the system's life profiles. The problem becomes even more acute given the phenomenon of aging and related transient phenomenon as well as the practical realities of little or no data. Today, these challenges still persist especially as companies try to shorten the time to market in order to gain market share.
This first in a two-course sequence has examined some of the basic issues related to reliability such as:
- Understand the various viewpoints of reliability, especially the engineering design viewpoint.
- The use of nonparametric approach to estimate the reliability and hazard function functions
- Understand the performance measures used to characterize reliability.
- Appropriate reliability based intervention strategies that lead to optimally maintained system.
- Availability, Maintainability and related Performability measures.
Under these broad themes, the topics to be covered include:
- Reliability Models
- Static Reliability
- Reliability Improvement
- Reparable Systems-Availability Models
- System Redesign
- Maintenance
The second sequence will focus on the all important area of dependency analysis, interference theory, data analysis and testing.
293-What Every Engineer Should Know About Reliability II
4 $90.00
Course Objectives: This continuing education course is written specifically for professional engineers with the objective of relating to and enhancing the practice of engineering.
Course Description:
Reliability Engineering is concerned with the design, implementation, and prediction of the life profiles of a system or component—using a disciplined analysis approach that has strong roots in statistics, mathematics and engineering. Given a system, subsystem or component, one of the major challenges of the discipline is to understand the inherent failure mechanisms that govern the system and the development of the appropriate analytical scheme to determine the system's life profiles. The problem becomes even more acute given the phenomenon of aging and related transient phenomenon, as well as the practical realities of little or no data. Today, these challenges still persist especially as companies try to shorten the time to market in order to gain market share.
This second in a two-course sequence has examined some more practical issues related testing and parameter estimation as well as some topology or configurations that are practical and realistic but have not received enough attention.
Some of the issues addressed include:
- Understand the various viewpoints of reliability, especially the engineering design viewpoint.
- The use of nonparametric approach to estimate the reliability and hazard function functions
- Understand the performance measures used to characterize reliability.
- Appropriate reliability based intervention strategies that lead to optimally maintained system.
- Availability, Maintainability and related Performability measures.
Under these broad themes, the topics to be covered include:
- Reliability Models
- Static Reliability
- Reliability Improvement
- Reparable Systems-Availability Models
- System Redesign
- Maintenance
The second sequence will focus on the all important area of dependency analysis, interference theory, data analysis and testing.
291-Proportional, Integral, and Derivative Controller Design Part 1
4 $29.95
Course Objectives: This continuing education course is written specifically for professional engineers with the objective of relating to and enhancing the practice of engineering.
Course Description:
In this course, the design and application of Proportional plus Integral plus Derivative (PID) controller’s is discussed. Some familiarity with feedback control may help in providing a better understanding of the course material. PID control is a technique used extensively in feedback control systems. Its origins date back to the 19th century, being used for governor speed control, and since then in numerous applications with a wide variety of actuators and sensors. The controller is simple structure; being the sum of three terms as the name implies. The PID structure provides for a fairly wide range of tuning adjustment in a feedback control loop, especially for relatively simple processes. A PID uses the error, it’s integral and derivative to derive a control signal driving the error to a null state. The controller can be structured in many configurations; P-only, PI, PD, PID, plus others to be discussed. PID control is central to most process control systems; but can also be found in numerous applications other than process control ranging from positioning control loops to pointing, tracking and platform stabilization control loops. The PID can also be integrated with higher level control strategies such as model predictive control, adaptive controllers and fuzzy logic control described in Part 2 of the course.
Starting with an introduction in section 1.0, topics covered are a description of the basic feedback control loop block diagram in section 2 and how the PID relates to the control loop. The relationships between time and frequency domain representations of the block diagram elements are discussed in section 3 followed by the key feedback relationships derived from the block diagram algebra in section 4. The PID control algorithm is described in section 5 which includes the frequency domain characterization of the PID (5.1), the effect of each PID term has on response (5.2) and finally different forms of the PID used in actual applications. In section 6 a discussion of specifying control loop performance is presented. PID control loop design methods are provided in section 7. The basic theory is applied to an example; a home heating system, in section 8.
292-Proportional, Integral, and Derivative Controller Design Part 2
4 $29.95
Course Objectives: This continuing education course is written specifically for professional engineers with the objective of relating to and enhancing the practice of engineering.
Course Description:
As discussed in Part 1, PID controllers are used in many control applications; possibly the most common form of feedback control compensation. The versatility of the PID may reside is a fairly simple control structure, easy to implement in software or hardware, offering loop gain adjustment, an integrator to reduce or null servo error, and the phase lead of a derivative improve loop stability or act as a predictive element. This PID structure provides for a fairly wide range of tuning adjustment in a feedback control loop, especially for relatively simple processes. The controller can be configured in many configurations; P-only, PI, PD, PID, plus others are discussed. This part of the course focusses on the digital implementation of the PID controller and its implementation with higher level control strategies; adaptive controllers and fuzzy logic control.
Starting with an introduction in section 1.0, topics covered are a summary of the basic feedback control loop block diagram relationships in section 2. The PID control algorithm, as presented in Part 1, is summarized in section 3 followed by the digital implementation of the PID within the constraints of a sampled control system. The building temperature control example, used in Part 1, is analyzed again in section 4.0 but now using a digital PI controller. Section 5.0 provides another example for a motion control application using a digital PD controller. Finally section 6.0 describes implementation of the PID within a model reference adaptive control (MRAC) architecture and also configured with a fuzzy logic controller (FLC).
297-What Every Engineer Should Know About Statistical Process/Quality Control I
5 $112.50
Course Objectives: This continuing education course is written specifically for professional engineers with the objective of relating to and enhancing the practice of engineering.
Course Description:
The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) defines Quality Assurance (QA) as "All of those planned or systematic actions necessary to provide adequate confidence that an item will perform satisfactorily in service". A more operational definition of quality is the one that defines as: "Fitness for Use" This points to the inescapable fact that it is the customer rather the producer or manufacturer that determines what quality is or should be.
There is a tendency to think of quality as a recent development or phenomenon. However, the basic idea of making a quality product with high degree of uniformity has been around for as long as man has made a product the idea that statistics may be instrumental in assuring the quality of manufactured products goes as far back as the advent of modern production. The widespread use of statistical methods in problems of quality control is even more recent. Many problems encountered in the manufacturing or of product and services and the associated supply chains exhibit process characteristics and as such are amenable to statistical treatment or analysis. Statistical Process/Quality control refer to three special techniques:
- Process/Qualitycontrol,
- Acceptance control,
- Parameter design and the establishment of tolerances.
The course places emphases on the significance of process control rather than inspection as a means of reducing rework and nonconformance. Many experts agree that inspection (especially human inspection) does not add value to quality and thus is a necessary but non-value adding activity.
This first in a two-course sequence will focus on Process/Quality control with emphasis on:
- Historical review of Statistical Process/Quality Control
- Cost of Quality (Cost of Poor Quality)
- Quality Auditing Process
- The difference between Quality of Design and Quality of conformance
- Differences and similarities between SQC and SPC
- Total Quality Management (TQM)
- The Three Gurus of TQM
- Lean Six Sigma
- Off-line Control and On-Line Control
- Shewhart Control Charts--Interpreting Shewhart Control Charts
- Process Capability Evaluation
The second course will focus on acceptance sampling and will explore some of the Military and Commercial Standards that have been developed to aid acceptance control.
315-Introduction to Electrical Theory and DC Circuits
4 $90.00
Course Objectives: This continuing education course is written specifically for professional engineers with the objective of relating to and enhancing the practice of engineering.
Course Description:
It is important for any engineer to have a fundamental knowledge of electrical circuits. This course provides an introduction to electrical theory and DC circuits. The content can be used to introduce yourself to these topics or can serve as a general review. No previous knowledge of electrical theory is required for this course.
Many applicational example problems are provided for general theory and for DC circuits. Circuits are analyzed in several arrangements including series, parallel, and a combination of series and parallel arrangements. Basic problems are presented first that cover key electrical concepts such as Coulomb's law, resistance, Ohm's law, and power. Series and parallel arrangements are discussed based on developing equivalent resistance for the circuit. More complex analysis tools like voltage divider rule, current divider rule, and Kirchoff's laws are also used.
323-What every Engineer should know about Power Engineering fundamentals
3 $67.50
Course Objectives: This continuing education course is written specifically for professional engineers with the objective of relating to and enhancing the practice of engineering.
Course Description:
Want to know more about Transformers, and not the kind in the movies? Electrical power is utilized for just about everything in the world. Without electricity, we could not function as a technical society. Electrical equipment can be seen everywhere, be it your house, office, stores or along the roads. What happens when you lose power at your house? Do you every wonder how things are powered up? Ever wonder what the big green humming box is near your offices front door? Do you want to know what a panelboard, circuit breaker, conductor or conduit is? This course will provide some fundamentals of electrical power engineering.
At the conclusion of this course, the student will:
- Understand about the major equipment for electrical power equipment.
- Learn more about residential electrical equipment.
- Learn about conduits and conductors and other electrical equipment seen around construction sites and residential houses
- Learn power equipment names seen in the consulting industry
- Learn what major power equipment looks like
- Learn about electrical construction tips
345- What Every Engineer Should Know about Statistical Process/Quality Control II
5 $112.50
Course Objectives: This continuing education course is written specifically for professional engineers with the objective of relating to and enhancing the practice of engineering.
Course Description:
The focus of this course is to provide an understanding of the principles of Quality Assurance with a focus on Design for Robustness, Quality Loss, Loss Function Computation, and Acceptance control as well as current definitions, terminologies, inherent assumptions that are applicable in industry and as required by the US Government. It also introduces the student to the relevant Military Standards and other Government publications used in the industry. The course also further develops the concepts of system design, parameter design, and tolerance design, as the foundational elements of Robust Product Design. It also goes into a detailed analysis of the use of MIL-STAD-1916 and MIL-HDBK-1916 in establishing attribute-based Acceptance Sampling plans. The course is replete with numerical examples on the computation of the probability of acceptance (Pa) and other important parameters for single, double and multiple sampling plans including; the Average Outgoing Quality (AOQ), the Average Outgoing Quality Limit (AOQL), the Average Total Inspection (ATI), as well as the Average Sampling Number (ASN).
The course is concept based and uses basic arithmetic to develop the fundamental aspects of the techniques. The topics covered include:
- Designing for Robustness
System Design, Parameter Design, Tolerance Design, Process Capability (Cp, Cpk) and Process Performance (Pp, Ppk), Process Errors, Quality Loss, and Loss Function
- Acceptance Control
Lot Acceptance Sampling Plans (LASP):
Single sampling plans (SSP), Double sampling plans (DSP), Multiple sampling plans (MSP), Sequential Sampling Plans (SSP), Skip Lot Sampling Plans (SLSP), Operating Characteristics Curves (OC Curves), AOQ Curve
- MIL- STD-1916 and MIL-HDBK-1916
Requirements and Applicability of MIL-STD-1916 and MIL-SHDBK-1916
Preferred sampling plans
Determination of sampling plan: Verification Level (VL), Code Letter (CL)
Sampling of lots or batches
Disposition of nonconforming product
348-An Overview of Computer Aided Design and Finite Element Analysis
4 $90.00
Course Objectives: This continuing education course is written specifically for professional engineers with the objective of relating to and enhancing the practice of engineering.
Course Description:
NOTE: This is a course in Computer Aided Design (CAD) for professional engineers, not a course in the related subject of Computer Aided Drafting.
Computer aided design (CAD) is the use of computer software to assist the design engineer in the overall creation and analysis of parts and assemblies. Finite element analysis (FEA) is a numerical method used to determine approximate solutions of physical problems. Proper use and integration of CAD and FEA can greatly improve efficiency of the design process.
This course provides a general overview of methods and applications of computer aided design and finite element analysis to expose the reader to the many design features of solid modeling software. The intent of the course is to explain ways computer aided design can improve the overall design process and allow for easier design changes. The course will explain how to properly use computer aided design and finite element analysis methods to optimization designs and have greater confidence in how a design will function. General knowledge of solid modeling software is helpful for this course but not required. Though this course discusses the general concepts of solid modeling, the course does not teach concepts of computer aided drafting. General understanding of the equations of stress and strain would be beneficial for understanding the applications of FEA.
The information provided in this course is not limited to any single software package. This course does not focus on teaching any single solid modeling software package and does not provide step-by-step tutorials of CAD or FEA. Information is presented in a way to develop concepts of computer aided design and finite element analysis that can be applied to any solid modeling software. Illustrative examples of CAD procedures are given using Solidworks and Inventor, though the concepts would apply to any software package. The same software packages are used to illustrate the concepts of FEA, yet the concepts can be transferred to other FEA software.
349-Engineering Economics Made Easier with MS Excel
5 $112.50
Course Objectives: This continuing education course is written specifically for professional engineers with the objective of relating to and enhancing the practice of engineering.
Course Description:
When we submit engineering proposals, we often have to overcome a number of physical limitations in order to come up with the "best" way of solving a problem.But we should also ask ourselves, "Is this the most economical way of solving the problem?"
We must be able to speak both our "technical language" and the "language of managers" (paraphrasing slightly from quality guru Joseph Juran). Managers are concerned with the bottom line and want to ensure that resources are being used in the best way possible.As engineers, we too have a similar responsibility as we protect the welfare of the public.
The field of engineering economics, formerly known as engineering economy, estimates the costs and potential savings of proposals, and then determines if the proposals make "money-sense". Because the value of money today is not the same as money in the future, we must account for the time value of money, and calculate the proposal's "net present value" based on a rate of return desired by the organization.
Back in those engineering economy days, we often would have to go to tables of numbers and look up the correct "factors" to use to calculate present values and future values. We would have to "interpolate" from the tables if we were to use an interest rate of 7.5% (because the tables skipped from 7% to 8%).It was difficult to "back into" a rate of return for a proposal, or to estimate how long it may take to recoup an investment based on a desired rate of return. (Dare I mention slide rules?)
When you take this course, you will see that MS Excel has quite a few functions that will speed through calculations involving present value, future value, annuities, rates of return, and others. Woven throughout the course are engineering, business, and personal illustrations to help you better relate to the time value of money and the rate of return.
Engineering economics is not easy.But after completing this course, you should be able to see how Excel can make it "easier".
The FREE Microsoft Excel® spreadsheet that accompanies this course will be available for download after purchase. You will need Excel version 1997 or later to open the file.
356-Industrial and Systems Engineering - The Fundamentals
4 $90.00
Course Objectives: This continuing education course is written specifically for professional engineers with the objective of relating to and enhancing the practice of engineering.
Course Description:
This course presents principles and practices of Industrial and Systems Engineering (IISE) . The focus of IISE is Operations, namely; Operations Analysis and Design, Operations Control, and Continuous Improvement. IISE practices use science, mathematics, and engineering methods to analyze, design, and improve complex systems and operations. And, because these systems are so large and complex, IISE principles involve knowledge and skills in a wide variety of disciplines; require a broad systems perspective and the ability to work well with people.
A course about Industrial Engineering would not be complete without a brief description of why and how the profession began. The origins of Industrial Engineering began in the early 1900 as part of the scientific management movement. The definition of Industrial Engineering is:
Industrial Engineering is concerned with the design, improvement, and installation of integrated systems of people, material, information, equipment, and energy. It draws upon specialized knowledge and skills in the mathematical, physical and social sciences together with the principles and methods of engineering analysis and design to specify, predict and evaluate the results to be obtained from such systems.
Accordingly, Industrial Engineering emerged as the foundation for connecting engineering methods and economics to set quality and cost standards for delivering goods and services in business and industry. Industrial Engineers apply their knowledge and skills to set operations process standards through the use of planning, design, statistical analysis, methods engineering, interpersonal communications, quality control, computer simulation, and problem solving. At the end of the course is a set of questions that highlights the take-aways for the reader to remember and use for solving operations and systems problems in their organization.
353-Introduction to Arduino
4 $29.95
Course Objectives: This continuing education course is written specifically for professional engineers with the objective of relating to and enhancing the practice of engineering.
Course Description:
Have you ever had an idea for an electronic device but did not have the toolset to implement the idea? Enter Arduino, a programmable electronics platform that lowered the barrier of entry for making things. Anyone can pick up programming for Arduino, as it was originally intended for non-technical people. For engineers it is a great tool for quickly creating a prototype.
This class will introduce the basics of Arduino development and give you the foundation for building your ideas. Some experience programming is helpful, as Arduino uses C++, but do not worry if you have not done much programming before.
362-Python Programming for Engineers - Part 1: Expressions, Data Types, Variables and Strings
5 $112.50
New Course
Course Objectives: This course presents introduction to the Python programming language. This course presents the concepts of expressions, data types, variables, strings, lists, tuples, dictionaries and sets, and how they are applied in the Python programming language. Upon completion of this course learners will be able to use Python to perform engineering calculations, manage data, and build desktop applications.
Course Description:
This course is the first of a series on the Python programming language. The course presents a general overview
of computers and computer programming, followed by an introduction to the Python programming language. The course presents
applications
for developing and testing Python programs.
363-Python Programming for Engineers - Part 2: Branching and Looping, Functions and Error Handling
5 $112.50
New Course
Course Objectives: This course presents introduction to the Python programming language. This course presents the concepts of conditional statements, looping structures, functions, modules, input and out (I/O) functions, file handling, and error handling techniques, and how they are applied in the Python programming language. Upon completion of this course learners will be able to use Python to build computer programs that manage large data sets, automate complex and repetitive engineering calculations and implement algorithms.
Course Description:
This course is
the second of a series on the Python
programming language. This
course presents techniques and programming structures of the Python programming language for
automating complex, repetitive tasks and implementing algorithms. This course
presents techniques for troubleshooting and debugging Python
programs.
