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Multinational automaker Stellantis is making a big hiring push for low-wage engineers in Brazil, India, Mexico, and Morocco after laying off 400 Americans in its engineering, software, and technology departments in March. On March 22, Stellantis executives announced that 400 salaried engineering and software employees in Auburn Hills, Michigan, would be laid off to cut costs. An industry insider told Automotive News that Stellantis is making gradual layoffs in the United States to avoid WARN Act disclosures. Following layoffs of its American employees, Stellantis executives are looking to hire engineers for a fraction of the cost by hiring in Brazil,...

The Chinese embassy "strongly" condemned the terror attack on the convoy carrying 23 Chinese engineers in Balochistan and warned Pakistan to take effective measures to prevent similar incidents from happening again. China further demanded a thorough investigation into the attack and severely punish the perpetrators. "The Chinese Embassy in Pakistan strongly condemns this terrorist act.The Embassy and the Consulate General in Karachi launched emergency response immediately, requesting the Pakistani authorities to conduct a thorough investigation on the attack, severely punish the perpetrators, take practical and effective measures to prevent similar incidents from happening again," the Chinese Embassy in Pakistan said...

The completion of the Fern Hollow Bridge construction in under a year and at a cost of $25 million is truly a feat that should be applauded by one and all. But it also points out the utter failure of our government to function on an expeditious and cost-conscious manner daily (“Editorial: Fern Hollow failure,” Jan. 29). Tom Wolf declared at the bridge opening ceremony, “This is the power of government that works for the people.” “Under normal circumstances this bridge would have taken 5 years to complete,” said Kate Thomson of the United States Department of Transportation. “This is...

Wearable sensors are evolving from watches and electrodes to bendable devices that provide far more precise biometric measurements and comfort for users. Now, an international team of researchers has taken the evolution one step further by printing sensors directly on human skin without the use of heat. Led by Huanyu "Larry" Cheng, Dorothy Quiggle Career Development Professor in the Penn State Department of Engineering Science and Mechanics, the team published their results in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces. Cheng and his colleagues previously developed flexible printed circuit boards for use in wearable sensors, but printing directly on skin has been...

TAIPEI, Taiwan—U.S. memory chipmaker Micron scored a major legal victory after a local court found two of its former employees guilty of passing trade secrets to a Chinese company.Two engineers at Taiwanese contract chipmaker United Microelectronics Corp. (UMC) leaked technology from their former employer and used the trade secrets in a cooperation project with Chinese state-owned semiconductor manufacturer Fujian Jinhua Integrated Circuit, the court ruled. Their supervisor was also convicted for his involvement in the scheme.The district court in central Taiwan’s Taichung City on June 12 sentenced the three UMC staff to prison for 4 1/2 to 6 1/2...

The lead contractor for a Mississippi River bridge is involved in a now-public feud with the state of Iowa over whether the bridge is buildable. The I-74 bridge is meant to replace a bridge on the same location connecting Moline, Ill, and Bettendorf, Iowa. Known as the Iowa-Illinois Memorial Bridge, the bridge is a pair of suspension bridges located near the geographic center of the Quad Cities. The original bridge was designed by engineer Ralph Modjeski. The first span opened in 1935 as a toll bridge. In 1961, an identical twin span, built from the same blueprint, opened to facilitate...

Employer branding specialist Universum has released its 2019 rankings for the most attractive employers in the United States. Based on the firm’s findings, which were tabulated from a survey of tens of thousands of students from hundreds of universities, it appears that two of Elon Musk’s companies, SpaceX and Tesla, are perceived by engineering students as the best employers in the country. SpaceX, Elon Musk’s private space company, was dubbed by engineering students as the No. 1 employer they wish to work for, dethroning NASA, which topped last year’s rankings. Among the respondents of Universum’s survey, 20.7% of engineering students...

Hat Tip: Alan Cooperman Understanding Engineers #1 Two engineering students were biking across a university campus when one said, "Where did you get such a great bike?" Birth of an engineer The second engineer replied, "Well, I was walking along yesterday, minding my own business, when a beautiful woman rode up on this bike, threw it to the ground, took off all her clothes and said, "Take what you want." The first engineer nodded approvingly and said, "Good choice: The clothes probably wouldn't have fit you anyway." Understanding Engineers #2 To the optimist, the glass is half-full. To the pessimist,...

No one disputes this Australian state’s need to upgrade its rail-transit fleet after 40 years of service. The New South Wales regional train system in and around Sydney operates with a variety of trains, the oldest rolling stock – called V-sets – and newer XPT longer-distance carriers. After four decades, purchasing 512 new carriages at a cost of $2.3 billion had become a necessity. And with the purchase, commuters can look forward to mobile-phone charging stations, accessible toilets and more space for bike racks and luggage. All good … except for one rather major problem. The new trains are too...

Those who would like to soften the hard sciences may think that they are building metaphorical bridges but you might not want to drive over the physical bridges they construct. "Alas, the world we engineers envisioned as young students is not quite as simple and straightforward as we had wished because a phalanx of social justice warriors, ideologues, egalitarians, and opportunistic careerists has ensconced itself in America's college and universities," Indrek Wichman, an engineering professor at Michigan State writes in a column distributed by The James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal. "The destruction they have caused in the humanities...

Delaware River Turnpike Bridge to Reopen Late Tonight Crossing was closed for seven weeks as fractured truss member was repaired. Officials from the PA Turnpike Commission (PTC) and the New Jersey Turnpike Authority (NJTA) today announced that they expect to reopen the jointly owned Delaware River Bridge sometime late tonight. The 1.25-mile-long bridge, which carries traffic between the two states, first closed Jan. 20 when a complete fracture was discovered in the superstructure beneath the westbound lanes on the Pennsylvania side in Bristol Township, Bucks County. “Many people were greatly inconvenienced by this closure over the last seven weeks, and...

Joe Sutter, who was dubbed “Father of the 747” by the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, has died at age 95. As the former chief engineer of Boeing’s 747, Sutter is credited with leading the birth of the first widebody airliner, which ushered in the globe-shrinking age of mass air travel.

Add one more investment to the list of CalPERS’ controversial investments: a privately run state highway. The retirement fund recently purchased 10 percent of Indiana Toll Road Concession Co. The firm runs a 157-mile stretch of highway that runs across northern Indiana from Illinois to Ohio. California’s state engineers’ union says it’s a horrible investment that sinks government employees’ money into a project that, ironically, is hostile to government employees. The toll-road company is the first of what fund managers anticipate will be more investments in infrastructure and transportation projects as the $291 billion system broadens its reach into those...

Engineers who design computerized products and services seem to have an almost fanatical determination to avoid using plain English. It is understandable when complicated processes require complicated operations. But when the very simplest things are designed with needless complications or murky instructions, that is something else. For example, like all sorts of other devices, computers and computerized products and services have to be turned on and off. And everybody knows what the words "on" and "off" mean. But how often have you seen a computer or a computerized product or service that used the words "on" or "off"? These simple...

WOLFSBURG, Germany—Two top Volkswagen engineers who found they couldn’t deliver as promised a clean diesel engine for the U.S. market are at the center of a company probe into the installation of engine software designed to fool regulators, according to people familiar with the matter. The two men, Ulrich Hackenberg, Audi ’s chief engineer, and Wolfgang Hatz, developer of Porsche’s winning Formula One engines, were among the engineers suspended in the investigation of the emissions cheating scandal that sank the company’s market value by 43% since Sept. 18 and triggered a world-wide recall to refit the engines to meet clear-air...

While we constantly analyze short-term data, the industry has a longer-term problem. And it is not related to what lies below the ground. There is a retirement tidal wave that could wash over the oil and gas industry over the next few years. The seeds of this crisis were planted in the late 1980’s after the last major oil bust. Oil prices crashed after Saudi Arabia became fed up with losing market share, and beginning around 1986, it pumped flat out in order to force out other producers. The price of oil crashed and a lot of US drillers cut...

FORT BRAGG, N.C. (WTVD) -- More than 100 Fort Bragg soldiers will join the fight to keep the Ebola virus from spreading. Friday, the Pentagon announced that about 120 Fort Bragg troops will deploy to Africa on a humanitarian aid mission. The soldiers are engineers. They repair and replace roads and bridges, and build new structures. Military support personnel from the 44th Medical Brigade are also going, as well as a company of Military Police. A Pentagon spokesman says the troops will help support medical efforts and security in Africa. "We are not treating patients," said Pentagon Press Secretary Rear...

[SNIP] All of which brings us to the latest popular lament among pundits, politicians, and even some in the business world: the perceived lack of engineers and/or ‘STEM’ (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) graduates. President Obama has said “We need more engineers,” so has Hillary Clinton, and then Lockheed Martin executive Stephanie Hill recently stated that “we’ll lose” if we don’t produce at least 1 million more ‘STEM’ grads. About all the handwringing, readers can relax. Indeed, there’s nothing to this story or alleged shortage. Price signals work. They always do, and they do because one of the underlying purposes...

Indian engineering education is draped in a cloth that needs a proper wash! While scanning the list of alumni of IIT recently, I came across a few names that have peppered the leaves of successful men’s list but their contributions are far away in foreign lands. While combing through the facts I found that most of these elite men do not reside in their own land, and a major chunk is holding high profiles in the Unites States of America.

Years ago I spotted someone walking out of a store who looked just like a Metalunan from "This Island Earth" of which the best known one was Exeter. He had the same high bulging forehead with white hair and thick bushy white eyebrows. I really wanted to yell out, "Hey, how ya' doin', Exeter?" but I decided to spare him the embarrassment. Okay, so what I want to know is this: Is there anybody who looks like one of the Engineers from the movie "Prometheus?" They would have to have shaved heads and really pale skin. Out of over...