Today in History – March 31, 1889 – Eiffel Tower opens. The 300m Eiffel Tower was commissioned to commemorate the French Revolution. Amazingly, all of the elements were prepared in Gustav Eiffel’s factory located at Levallois-Perret on the outskirts of Paris. There were 18,000 pieces used to construct the Tower. Each piece was designed and produced with an accuracy of a tenth of a millimetre. The construction crew of 150 to 300 workers assembled the tower on site like a gigantic erector set. The foundation work began in January 1887 and was completed in five months. The tower was assembled twenty-one months later on March 31, 1889. Eiffel received his decoration from the Legion of Honour on the narrow platform at the top.”

Eiffel’s accomplishments over a century ago are amazing considering the technology of his time. Yet there is still a lesson for us today in the benefits of lean construction techniques, an approach that maximizes value to the customer and minimizes waste.

For more information, see the Engineering Pathway‘s resources on the Eiffel Tower and Construction Engineering. For related educational resources, visit the Civil Engineering Education, Construction Engineering Education, or Architectural Engineering Education community sites.

Also today in 1966, the U.S.S.R. launches first lunar orbiter.

Today in History – March 14, 1927 – First female engineer in ASCE. Elsie Eaves was the first woman in the US to be elected as a full member to the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE).

When ASCE was founded in 1852, its membership was restricted to men, a policy which eventually led to a sexual discrimination lawsuit filed in 1916 by Nora Stanton Blatch DeForest, the granddaughter of women’s rights advocate Elizabeth Cady Stanton. DeForest was an engineering graduate of Cornell University and was admitted to junior membership in ASCE in 1905. In 1915, when she no longer qualified as a junior member as she had surpassed the legal age limit per the ASCE bylaws, DeForest applied for associate membership. ASCE turned down her request for an associate membership and terminated her membership. DeForest filed a lawsuit. The case was tried in the New York Supreme Court, but the court ruled in favor of the Society, citing its status as a private organization. it would be another 11 years later, in 1927, Elsie Eaves became the first woman to be admitted as a regular member of ASCE.

It would be yet another 76 more years before a woman was elected president of ASCE – me. Becoming an engineer was not easy then and still has its obstacles today. While excited as a teen about the prospects of becoming an engineer, the same obstacles that I faced then, still face young women today and typically appear from those young women consult: guidance counselors – “no aptitude for engineering”; math teacher – “you’ll flunk out”; and parents/teachers – “isn’t that a man’s job?” Despite these negative responses which I expect girls may continue to receive, remembering the words of my mother, “You can do anything and don’t accept that it can’t be done”, led me to fulfill my dream and become the first woman President of ASCE in its 152-year history. I want to stress that discouragements only mean opportunities for you to show the world what you can really do.

It was my personal story that led to another dream – to have a book published that would tell the stories of past and present women engineers which could serve as role models to young girls. The ASCE Task Force Committee on Women in Civil Engineering that I chaired in 1999, worked diligently for two years researching names of over 150 prominent women engineers. But it was not until I became ASCE President five years later, that I had the opportunity to discuss the task committee’s work with other major Engineering society Presidents – who for the first time in history were all women. These discussions led to the “birth” of the Extra Ordinary Women’s Project Coalition. The Coalition began work on this book and other tools that will inow in print informs girls, guidance counselors, teachers and parents as to why engineering is an exciting career. The project is communicating to the public the benefits of engineering and the role that engineers serve in improving the quality of life. I hope that you enjoy reading the stories in this book as much as I have and that it will inspire you or someone you know to choose engineering as a rewarding career. Phase 2 of the project is now underway with a large coalition looking at how to assemble and create resources to address the problem. Information about the program can be viewed at www.engineeryoulife.org website. The Engineer section is hosted by the National Academy of Engineering (NAE). As we move forward to shatter the glass ceilings, I we cannot venture alone and that we must build on the foundations that others have built. As I am reminded by what Sir Issac Newton once said: “If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants”.

See the Engineering Pathway’s educational resources on women in engineering. For curricular resources, visit the Civil Engineering community sites.

Also on this day in 1794, Eli Whitney patented the cotton gin. The story of the invention of the cotton gin is intriguing as some have claimed that the original idea came from African American slaves who could not patent at the time. And major features of the design were suggested by his sponsor and land lady, Catherine Greene at a time when women were not allowed to patent either.

The 7.0 Magnitude Earthquake in Haiti struck a highly populated region of this impoverished Caribbean island approximately 17 km from the capital city of Port-au-Prince. Hundreds of thousands died,  many more injured, many buildings were  destroyed or seriously damaged, infrastructures collapsed and millions became homeless and without food and water.

The Haiti earthquake created a level of human tragedy that makes it difficult to examine, but it is imperative that we learn everything we can from this disaster. What lessons will engineers find in the ruins? What role will engineers have in restoring the country? Can engineers limit the structural and societal damages of similar, future catastrophes around the world?

Two weeks after the Haiti earthquake, Eduardo Fierro, president of Bertero, Fierro, Perry, Engineering, Inc., gave a talk at the University of California at  Berkeley with a summary of his engineering team’s analysis of the quality of the construction. He was funded by the UC Berkeley’s Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center. He cited structural damage to a combination of lack of education and sound infrastructure policies in Haiti. “Many of the buildings were broken down …” he said. “The smell was getting to be really bad from decaying bodies … The part that really got to me was that humans were in the street, bloated, like animals.”   “You can learn what worked and what didn’t work,” he said. Fierro said the combination of lack of attention to detail, poor building materials, lack of reinforcement and the density of construction are what brought down the Haitian capitol of Port-Au-Prince. In some cases people built on soft soil, using mud and sand for construction. As Fierro pointed out, “This was not an earthquake disaster, [This] was caused by people that didn’t know how to use codes . . . These were the people that caused the tragedy.” Fiero cites poor detailing, lack of rebar, poorly constructed columns, bad concrete and inappropriate buildings on soft soil.

I expect more details of sloppy construction and poor policies will emerge from the evaluation of the rubble from the Haiti earthquake. The preliminary results also raise questions about Engineering ethics on the part of construction companies involved in the severely damaged buildings.

Another critical question is: How can engineering technology be applied to solve current and future problems in Haiti? As the news unfolded about the Haiti earthquake on the evening of January 12th, I was horrified by the thought that one of my doctoral students was there, Jessica Vechakal, along with another UC Berkeley student, Ryan Stanley, to work on an extension of a community-based service learning design project they had developed originally for Africa. Their goal was to transform carbonized agricultural waste into charcoal briquettes that could  be used for cooking fuel. This kind of fuel would reduce deforestation in wood-fuel dependent areas such as Haiti as well as providing a business opportunity for this impoverished nation. I cried in relief when we were able to get hold of Jessica  by cell phone and internet. She and Ryan decided to stay as long as they could at the request of the United Nations to help build human-powered ambulances based on another one of Jessica’s designs in Zambia. Other examples of technology to the rescue are the solar suitcase devices designed to provide hospitals with solar energy and emergency housing from cargo containers. Jessica has agreed to work with my senior product design class this year on the sustainable emergency housing using cargo containers this semester in a joint project with Clemson University. I hope this will be a good example of a community-based service learning design project for the class.

For more information, see the Engineering Pathway‘s resources on earthquakes and seismic hazards. For related educational resources, visit the Civil Engineering Education, Geological Engineering Education, Construction Engineering Education, or Architectural Engineering Education community sites.

Today in History- January 15, 1955 – first solar-heated and radiation-cooled house in the United States. Respect for the powers of the sun has been a critical part of building design since humans first built shelters for protection from the environment. I grew up in the American Southwest and recall that adobe buildings were designed to cool in the summer and retain heat in the winter through appropriate use of thermal mass, windows and passive air circulation systems. Solar water heating was used in Florida, California, and the Southwest as early as the 1920s but never took off as a viable commercial industry.

Raymond W. Bliss (6 Oct 1915 – 7 Nov 2004) is credited with building the first integrated solar heating and radiation cooling house in Tucson, Arizona in 1955. Built at a cost of approxiamately $4,000 for labor and materials, the house used a large slanted slab of steel and glass that captured heat from the sun, which was ducted into the house. Summer cooling used the same ducts and associated fans and controls.

For more information, see the Engineering Pathway‘s resources on solar energy, green and sustainable building design and architectural engineering. Curricular resources can be found on the Architectural Engineering Education Community site.

Today in History – January 12, 2010 – 7.0 Magnitude Earthquake in Haiti. The earthquake struck a highly populated region of this impoverished Caribbean island approximately 17 km from the capital city of Port-au-Prince. Hundreds of thousands died,  many more injured, many buildings were destroyed or seriously damaged, infrastructures collapsed and millions became homeless and without food.

The Haiti earthquake created a level of human tragedy that makes it difficult to examine, but it is imperative that we learn everything we can from this disaster. What lessons will engineers find in the ruins? What role will engineers have in restoring the country? Can engineers limit the structural and societal damages of similar, future catastrophes around the world?

Another critical question is: How can engineering technology be applied to solve current and future problems in Haiti? As the news unfolded about the Haiti earthquake on the evening of January 12th, I was horrified by the thought that one of my doctoral students was there, along with another UC Berkeley student, to work on one of her socially-responsible design projects. Their goal of their project was to transform carbonized agricultural waste into charcoal briquettes that could  be used for cooking fuel. This kind of fuel would reduce deforestation in wood-fuel dependent areas such as Haiti as well as providing a business opportunity for this impoverished nation. I cried in relief when we were able to get hold of her by cell phone and internet. She and her colleague decided to stay as long as they could at the request of the United Nations to help build human-powered ambulances based on another one of her designs in Zambia.

For more information, see the Engineering Pathway‘s resources on earthquakes and seismic hazards. For related educational resources, visit the Civil Engineering Education, Geological Engineering Education, Construction Engineering Education, or Architectural Engineering Education community sites.

Also on this date the Space Shuttle Columbia carries the first Hispanic astronaut into space.

City Hall station, southern terminus of the
9.1-mile system when it opened on October 27, 1904.
The station, in disrepair, is still under City Hall Park.

William Barclay Parsons, Chief Engineer of the Rapid Transit Commission until the subway opened in 1904, was very vocal about the social implications of engineering. In a March 1905 address at Purdue University, “Rapid Transit in Great Cities,” he argued that large-scale engineering projects of the day required “something more in the way of a foundation than an enthusiastic dream; there is needed from the beginning the cold analytical methods of a trained and educated mind.” That educated mind, however, would be “concerned not only with calculations, but will also have to study men and their needs, questions of industrial demand, the law of finance, and much in regard to legislation.” Even in the early 1900’s, Parsons foresaw the important relationship between engineering and society—good perspective to have as he left the just-opened NYC Subway system to serve on the Isthmanian Canal Commission in Panama.

By 1940, the city itself had purchased all of the subway lines as well as the elevated lines, eventually creating the Metropolitan Transit Authority. Air-conditioned cars were not in use until July 19, 1967, when they were introduced on the “F” line. Air conditioning units were added through retrofitting until new subway cars came with the feature installed in 1983.

The use of the transit system is estimated to keep approximately 700,000 cars out of New York City’s central business district daily, saving 400 million pounds of soot, carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, and other toxic substances from entering the air each year. The NYC subway system has been a leader in deploying clean technologies—NYC Transit signed a charter on “Sustainable Development in Mobility” on Earth Day (April 21) in 2004. This will come as no surprise to those who have live or work in New York City or have friends there—it’s hard to find a City-dweller who even owns a car. By not having a car, residents more than save the money needed to cover the cost of riding NYC Transit as well as the occasional taxi cab. The system’s Environmental Management System meets ISO 14001 standards, including improved and enhanced environmental performance, pollution prevention and resource conservation, increased efficiency and cost reduction, and employee awareness of environmental issues and responsibilities.

The Stillwell Terminal at Coney Island station in Brooklyn sports
a 60,000-square-foot photovoltaic roof that produces 250 kW.

The Roosevelt Avenue-74th Street Station in Queens is the point of entry into the subway system for many who fly into LaGuardia—it’s a short ride on the Q33 bus to get there from the airport. That station produces 65 kW of power—in addition to a roof system, thin-film solar panels are installed on the elevated subway platform.

The Roosevelt Avenue-74th Street Station
Roof Solar Panel System is part of a system
that produces 65kW.

The latest in power-reducing measures in the NYC Subway are
“New Millennium Trains” that have regenerative braking.
These cars are currently in use on the 2, 4, 5, 6, L, and N lines.

In addition to the benefits to commuters and reducing the environmental impact of transportation into New York City, the infrastructure of the NYC subway is a useful conduit for emergency services. After the destruction of the World Trade Center in 2001, the transit system brought 3,500 employees and enough heavy equipment to cover five city blocks to the affected area within hours. The rubble from the disaster buried over ¼ mile of the #1 and #9 line between Liberty and Barclay Streets and took just over a year to clear.

New York City Subway provided 1.563 billion rides in 2007 and was fourth in the world in ridership behind Tokyo, Moscow, and Seoul. A significant amount of history and lore about the NYC Subway system is found at www.nycsubway.org, including behind-the-scenes look at the technology of the system. Poetry inspired by an NYC Subway station is also available.

For more information see the Engineering Pathway’s curricular resources on subways and tunnels. Or visit the Civil Engineering Education, Engineering Mechanics Education, Mechanical Engineering Education or the Engineering Science Education disciplinary communities.

Today in History- October 21, 1824 – Portland cement is patented by Joseph Aspdin, a stone mason in Yorkshire, England (UK patent No. 5022). He made it by burning finely pulverized lime and clay at high temperatures in kilns and grinding the mixture into a powder. This hydraulic cement would then harden with the addition of water. The result was a manufactured counterpart to ancient (27 BC) Roman cement made from lime and volcanic ash. He named his invention “Portland cement” as it resembled the high quality building  stone quarried on the Isle of Portland off the British coast.

See the Engineering Pathway’s educational resources on Portland cement and concrete or visit the Civil Engineering Education, Construction Engineering Education or the Architectural Engineering Education community sites.

Have you developed courseware – interactive websites, simulations, tutorials, case studies, software environments or tools – designed to enhance engineering education? We want to see it! Submissions due July 17, 2009.

The Premier Award for Excellence in Engineering Education Courseware, hosted by the Engineering Pathway, is open to a wide range of submissions of high-quality, engaging, non-commercial learning innovations designed to enhance engineering education. Submissions for 2009 are due by July 17, 2009, and the Premier Courseware of 2009 will be announced at the Frontiers In Education Conference to be held October 18-21 in San Antonio, Texas. More details on the Premier Award and current and previous winners can be found on the Engineering Pathway at: http://www.engineeringpathway.org/premier/.

Check out our prior Premier Award winners. The 2008 Premier Award for Excellence in Engineering Education Courseware was awarded to Richard Anderson, Ruth Anderson, Natalie Linnell, Craig Prince and members of the development team from the University of Washington for Classroom Presenter.

Classroom Presenter is a Tablet PC-based interaction system that supports the sharing of digital ink on slides between instructors and students. Classroom Presenter enables the flexible delivery of lecture content and can increase student engagement and understanding of material. When used as a presentation tool, Classroom Presenter allows the integration of digital ink and electronic slides, making it possible to combine the advantages of whiteboard style and slide-based presentation. The ability to link the instructor and student devices, and to send information back and forth provides a mechanism for introducing active learning into the classroom and creates additional feedback channels.

Richard Anderson is a professor of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Washington and also serves as Associate Chair of educational programs. He won the 2007 UW Faculty Innovator for Teaching Award. Ruth Anderson teaches Computer Science at the University of Washington.  Natalie Linnell and Craig Prince are both PhD students at University of Washington working on educational technology with Richard Anderson.

The Engineering Pathway (www.engineeringpathway.org) is a portal to high-quality teaching and learning resources in applied science and math, engineering, computer science/information technology and engineering technology, for use by K-12 and university educators and students. Engineering Pathway is the engineering education “wing” of the National Science Digital Library (NSDL) at www.nsdl.org.

The Engineering Pathway also hosts Engineering Education communities in all ABET-accredited computing and engineering disciplines as well as emerging new interdisciplinary communities.

Today in History- January 15, 1955 – first solar-heated and radiation-cooled house in the United States. Respect for the powers of the sun has been a critical part of building design since humans first built shelters for protection from the environment. I grew up in the American Southwest and recall that adobe buildings were designed to cool in the summer and retain heat in the winter through appropriate use of thermal mass, windows and passive air circulation systems. Solar water heating was used in Florida, California, and the Southwest as early as the 1920s but never took off as a viable commercial industry.

Raymond W. Bliss (6 Oct 1915 – 7 Nov 2004) is credited with building the first integrated solar heating and radiation cooling house in Tucson, Arizona in 1955. Built at a cost of approxiamately $4,000 for labor and materials, the house used a large slanted slab of steel and glass that captured heat from the sun, which was ducted into the house. Summer cooling used the same ducts and associated fans and controls.

For more information, see the Engineering Pathway‘s resources on solar energy, green and sustainable building design and architectural engineering. Curricular resources can be found on the Architectural Engineering Education Community site.

City Hall station, southern terminus of the
9.1-mile system when it opened on October 27, 1904.
The station, in disrepair, is still under City Hall Park.

William Barclay Parsons, Chief Engineer of the Rapid Transit Commission until the subway opened in 1904, was very vocal about the social implications of engineering. In a March 1905 address at Purdue University, “Rapid Transit in Great Cities,” he argued that large-scale engineering projects of the day required “something more in the way of a foundation than an enthusiastic dream; there is needed from the beginning the cold analytical methods of a trained and educated mind.” That educated mind, however, would be “concerned not only with calculations, but will also have to study men and their needs, questions of industrial demand, the law of finance, and much in regard to legislation.” Even in the early 1900’s, Parsons foresaw the important relationship between engineering and society—good perspective to have as he left the just-opened NYC Subway system to serve on the Isthmanian Canal Commission in Panama.

By 1940, the city itself had purchased all of the subway lines as well as the elevated lines, eventually creating the Metropolitan Transit Authority. Air-conditioned cars were not in use until July 19, 1967, when they were introduced on the “F” line. Air conditioning units were added through retrofitting until new subway cars came with the feature installed in 1983.

The use of the transit system is estimated to keep approximately 700,000 cars out of New York City’s central business district daily, saving 400 million pounds of soot, carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, and other toxic substances from entering the air each year. The NYC subway system has been a leader in deploying clean technologies—NYC Transit signed a charter on “Sustainable Development in Mobility” on Earth Day (April 21) in 2004. This will come as no surprise to those who have live or work in New York City or have friends there—it’s hard to find a City-dweller who even owns a car. By not having a car, residents more than save the money needed to cover the cost of riding NYC Transit as well as the occasional taxi cab. The system’s Environmental Management System meets ISO 14001 standards, including improved and enhanced environmental performance, pollution prevention and resource conservation, increased efficiency and cost reduction, and employee awareness of environmental issues and responsibilities.

The Stillwell Terminal at Coney Island station in Brooklyn sports
a 60,000-square-foot photovoltaic roof that produces 250 kW.

The Roosevelt Avenue-74th Street Station in Queens is the point of entry into the subway system for many who fly into LaGuardia—it’s a short ride on the Q33 bus to get there from the airport. That station produces 65 kW of power—in addition to a roof system, thin-film solar panels are installed on the elevated subway platform.

The Roosevelt Avenue-74th Street Station
Roof Solar Panel System is part of a system
that produces 65kW.

The latest in power-reducing measures in the NYC Subway are
“New Millennium Trains” that have regenerative braking.
These cars are currently in use on the 2, 4, 5, 6, L, and N lines.

In addition to the benefits to commuters and reducing the environmental impact of transportation into New York City, the infrastructure of the NYC subway is a useful conduit for emergency services. After the destruction of the World Trade Center in 2001, the transit system brought 3,500 employees and enough heavy equipment to cover five city blocks to the affected area within hours. The rubble from the disaster buried over ¼ mile of the #1 and #9 line between Liberty and Barclay Streets and took just over a year to clear.

New York City Subway provided 1.563 billion rides in 2007 and was fourth in the world in ridership behind Tokyo, Moscow, and Seoul. A significant amount of history and lore about the NYC Subway system is found at www.nycsubway.org, including behind-the-scenes look at the technology of the system. Poetry inspired by an NYC Subway station is also available.

For more information see the Engineering Pathway’s curricular resources on subways and tunnels. Or visit the Civil Engineering Education, Engineering Mechanics Education, Mechanical Engineering Education or the Engineering Science Education disciplinary communities.