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Friday, August 13, 2010

How to Start a Drafting Service

A drafting service provides 2D and 3D design, drawings and blueprints using Computer-Aided Design (CAD) and other drafting software. A drafting service can be started with relatively low start-up costs from a home office . The local Small Business Association can provide valuable assistance in getting a drafting service business off the ground.

Things You'll Need:
• Office or store
• CAD software
• Printer and plotter
• Fax
• Phone
• Miscellaneous office supplies

Step 1
Draw up a business plan that outlines one-year and five-year goals for the business. The business plan will include an outline of how the business will operate, who will provide the service, a budget and marketing plan. Include the name of the business in the plan as well as the business site.

Step 2
Determine how many employees the business will begin with. Start with yourself if it is a sole proprietorship.

Step 3
Calculate the finances that are needed to start up a drafting business. Seek out sources of financing to begin the business and keep it going.

Step 4
Determine how much equipment is needed to start the business. In general, a phone, fax, computer, printer and plotter are needed.

Step 5
Determine which CAD software will be used for the business. CAD software is updated on a regular basis. Check to see what version of CAD software is the most recent release. Determine what types of drafting projects can be completed by the business. What areas of drafting will be focused on?

Step 6
Create a marketing plan and produce marketing materials for the business. Consider various marketing strategies to get the word out about the business.

Step 7
Open the business and prioritize projects as they come in. Complete each project in a timely manner to ensure repeat customers and nice word-of-mouth marketing.

ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING

Electrical engineering is a profession that uses science, technology, and problem-solving skills to design, construct, and maintain products, services, and information systems. Electrical engineering is the historical name for what is now called electrical, electronics, and computer engineering.


Job responsibilities include specification, design, development, and implementation of products or systems, as well as research to create new ideas. This role provides a number of challenges ranging from problem identification and the selection of appropriate technical solutions, materials, test equipment, and procedures, to the manufacture and production of safe, economical, high-performance products and services.

A Bachelor of Science degree in engineering with a specialty in electrical engineering serves as a starting point for careers in many other diverse fields, ranging from business to law, medicine, and politics, since the problem-solving skills acquired in an electrical engineering program provide an extraordinarily valuable asset. The same skill enables one to achieve leadership roles in one's community and in professional circles outside the workplace.

Cable grounding and ground loops

In instrumentation circuits, grounding performs a different function than in electrical power wiring circuits. Electrical power wiring grounds are primarily for safety, to prevent electrical shock by providing a barrier between high potential wires and personnel. Electrical grounds also carry a portion of the current in many installations. For electrical purposes, any proper ground is a good ground for protection.


Instrumentation circuits use grounds for shielding and protecting the sensitive instrumentation equipment from accidentally measuring noise and stray electromagnetic fields as part of the signal being analyzed. In instrumentation, the only proper ground is one that has no ground loops, which is, there exists one, and only one, path to ground from any grounded point in the instrumentation ground system. This is often referred to as a ground tree, as it has the characteristic structure of a tree with no limbs crossing or touching. Instrumentation circuits also have all their wires encased in a shield to protect them from electromagnetic pickup. The shield should never be allowed to come into contact with conduit walls or junction boxes; otherwise an inadvertent ground loop will be created.

When ground loops exist in instrumentation circuits, they allow currents to flow through the ground system. Any time there is a loop circuit in instrumentation wiring, current will be induced in that wire by any of the many sources of electromagnetic fields found around industrial equipment. These loop currents flowing in the shield will cause electromagnetic coupling into the vibration measurement circuit. Power lines, motor stator fields, motor rotor fields, and radio frequency equipment are the normal sources within industrial installations.

All on-line monitoring systems and other permanently connected instrumentation systems have their own connection to the plant instrumentation ground. Instrumentation grounds should never be used for electrical power circuit grounding. If used, they will generally result in compromising the integrity of the instrumentation ground and inducing noise into the entire instrumentation system. The best cabling to use for vibration monitoring installations is shielded, twisted pair. These cables have two conductors that are twisted around each other for the length of the cable. The conductors are twisted creating alternating wire loops, which when exposed to magnetic fields cancel the induced currents in the wires, reducing magnetic pickup. This same technique is used by the telecommunication industry for telephone wiring. High voltage power transmission lines are also twisted for similar reasons.

Instrumentation shields used in vibration monitoring systems should be connected only at one end of the cable run. A shield connected at the data acquisition equipment end of the cable, while being isolated at the sensor end of the connection.
Another grounding possibility for the instrumentation wiring would be to ground the shield at the sensor end of the cable. Do not connect the shield to the ground at the data acquisition equipment if the sensor end of the cable is grounded.

Types of cables

The optimum cable to use for permanently installed vibration sensors is shielded, twisted pair. Shielded, twisted pair cable is also generally used in wiring plant instrumentation for process controls. It provides two wires for the power/signal of the vibration sensors and also the circuit common connection for completing the instrumentation circuit. Around the outside of this twisted pair is the shield. Braided shield is the optimum type of shielding for vibration sensors, as it has slightly better low frequency shielding capabilities over a foil type of shield. Foil is often used where RF shielding is necessary. Coaxial cable is sometimes used for temporary or portable applications.
Coaxial cable should never be used in permanent installations through conduit or other enclosed cable runs where the cable must be pulled. If the cable jacket insulation is ever pulled off, the shield can contact a piece of grounded conduit or tray and will immediately cause a ground loop. Since the coaxial shield is actually part of the sensing circuit, the noise pickup in the vibration measurement equipment will be severe. The most prominent frequency picked up will be the power line frequency and it will likely swap the vibration signal and render all data as useless.

When wiring permanently mounted sensors through junction boxes, always carry the shield through the box without connecting ground. The shield must remain isolated from any ground connection between either end of the sensor circuit. The only ground connection should occur at either the sensor or the measurement equipment.

Thursday, August 12, 2010

Nuclear Engineering: Medicine Applications

Nuclear Engineering focuses on solving several of the world's most important grand-challenge problems. The last three years have seen much happen for Nuclear Engineering.


Nuclear Engineering is all about devising how to use radioactive materials in manufacturing, agriculture, medicine, power generation, and many other ways, perhaps the most important being in medicine, where over 1/3 of all procedures in the United States use nuclear techniques.

In nuclear medicine, small amounts of radioactive materials called radiopharmaceuticals are used for diagnosis and therapy. Radiopharmaceuticals are medicinal products that are radioactive when used in patients. They are used in specialised hospital departments, primarily for diagnostic purposes. Nuclear processes are used to provide images inside the human body, to detect and measure biochemical processes, and to provide therapy. The radiation from the radiopharmaceutical makes it possible to photograph the distribution of the medicinal product throughout the body. The radiation is usually very low, lower than the level of radiation from X-ray investigations.

A major event in 2000 was the FDA approval of the first Monte-Carlo code for use by doctors to design radiation therapy for cancer. Based on nuclear reactor design methods, this new tool now allows doctors to take detailed magnetic resonance imaging data (another nuclear technique) and predict with great accuracy how to deposit precisely enough radiation to kill cancer tumours without damaging surrounding tissue. Previous crude calculation methods often forced doctors to cause damage to substantial amounts of healthy tissue, or to miss completely killing tumours.

The use of radiopharmaceuticals is expected to increase rapidly as new diagnostic methods are developed. Nuclear medicine is being considered for use in infection imaging, neurology and other fields. At this time, most therapeutic radiopharmaceuticals involve the treatment of cancer. On-going research is being conducted to expand nuclear medicines to treat other diseases as well.

Nuclear diagnostic testing can be performed on almost every organ of the body. There are currently over 100 nuclear medical exams, with more being developed. Some of these include brain scans, bone scans, cardiac stress tests and thyroid studies. Prior to the test, the radiopharmaceutical is administered to the patient orally, intravenously, or by inhalation. The radioactive material is short-lived, and either converts to a non-radioactive substance, or passes quickly through the body.

Advancements in nuclear medicine technology is expected to represent a key strategic factor in opening up new clinical opportunities for radiopharmaceutical agents. Growth in Radiopharmaceuticals market will be based on the development of new products, and robust demand for cardiology procedures, sales of oncology products, in particular, FDG for PET imaging. Establishment as well as expansion of FDG-PET reimbursement to all cancer types and also for non-oncology applications is expected to further boost the demand for radiopharmaceuticals.

Gravatom is a leading provider of solutions and equipment for radiopharmaceutical processing in UK. They specify, design, manufacture, install and validate process equipment and integrated containment technologies.

They offer a disciplined approach to the application of current good practice to comply with GMP, radiopharmaceutical, safety, health and environmental regulations.

Their expertise derives from more than 30 years’ experience of containment and handling solutions.

Employability Skills

“The objective of this article is to explore the work related skills required in the industry and how to work effectively and efficiently in teams in real work life”

Session Contents

 What is employability?

 Employability skills categories;

 Preferred employability skills and attitudes;

 Role of professional bodies;

 Equal opportunities and Diversity;

 Quality Assurance;

 Team work;

 Communication;

 Time Management.

 Top 10 employability skills;

 Opportunities for electrical Engineers; and


Employability

Definition:
"...the combination of factors, processes & skill sets which enable people to progress towards or get into employment, to stay in employment and to move on in the workplace."

Employment refers to having a job, whilst Employability, or being employable, refers to the qualities needed to maintain employment and progress in the workplace.’

                                                                   Education

                                                   Developing employability skills

                  Team work   Quality Assurance    Time Management    Communication Skills

                                                                CV Writing

                                                Identifying potential employers

                                                          Application submittal

                                                                    Interview

                                                                       JOB

                                                             Career Progression


Employability Skill Categories

"Employability skills are the attributes of employees, other than technical competence, that make them an
asset to the employer.

• Academic skills;

• Inter-personal skills; and

• Team work skills.

So what are employability skills?

“Ultimately the skills that make you employable”

Preferred Employability Skills and Aptitudes
Top 10 competencies sought by employers

1. Flexibility, adaptability and the capacity to cope with and manage change (88%)

2. Self-motivation and drive (88%)

3. Analytical ability and decision making

4. C(7o5m%m) unication and interpersonal skills

5. (T7e5a%m)working ability and skills (63%)

6. Organisation, planning and prioritisation

7. Cabuislittoiemse (r5 f0o%cu)s and service orientation

8. A(2b5il%ity) to innovate (25%)

9. Mental and physical resilience (25%)

10. Leadership ability (25%)

Top 10 Employability Skills
Communicate in writing
Communicate face to face
Can identify problems
Can think creatively
Can solve problems logically
Respect other peoples views and contributions
Be puntual and manage time
Adaptable - can change direction
Willing to ask questions to avoid mistakes
Have a positive outlook

Interview tip:
Think of two examples from the above skills that can make an employer impressed


Equal Opportunity and Diversity

• Advantages of understanding and working with other cultures, ethnic groups, religions,languages;

•No bias with any particular group, equal opportunities as long as can deliver as expected;

• Current world trends are into diversity of cultures, borderless world, multi-cultural multiskills as planet Earth becomes smaller with more efficient transportation eg air travel, and global communication technology capability ensures communication are within easy each; Very crucial to be adaptable, resourceful, flexible.

Quality Assurance

• Employees are expected to perform work as per described in work scope;

• Quality of work covers having the right attitude and aptitude to perform work, meet deadlines, project
delivery, completing design/assignments, completing projects within time frame and resources allocated;

• Some projects have liquidated damages for delayed completion!!

Team Dynamics and Group Working

 Current trends towards working with multidisciplinary teams, so it is crucial to keep an open mind, open attitude;

• Matrix organisation = reporting to different superiors, to own department head, and project manager if assigned to project and responsible for different work scope and project objective. This is normal!!


Importance of Effective Communication Skills

 Verbal communication

Written communication

“Distinct advantages with having language diversity in career advancement, getting employed, getting promoted”

Time Management

• Do not waste your own time, your employer’s time, client’s time;

• It is a reflection of (or lack of ) respect for other people’s time;

• Quality assurance aspect i.e. time wasted = resources wasted. This can impact on your employer’s operations, profitability, reputation if deadlines are missed due to wastage of time;

• Observing punctuality in meetings = very crucial. Some cultures are very particular about punctuality e.g.
Japanese, Germans;

• some employers interpret poor time management as sign of poor culture, poor work ethics, poor attitude.


Role of Professional Bodies

- BEM Board of Engineers

- IEM Institute of Engineers Malaysia

- IET Institution of Engineering and Technology (UK)

- IEAust Institute of Engineers Australia

- IEEE Institute of Electronic Electrical Engineers (US)

-Professional Engineer (PE)

r-eCchoagrntietrioend bEyn gpieneeresr sa n(CdE inngd)ustry of engineering knowledge, competence, maturity,resourcefulness and creativity.


Typical Example of An Employer’s Requirements

A design & brand consultation agency, looking for AE position

-Good verbal, written and interpersonal communication skills, both in written English & B. Malaysia;

-A team player with good time management;

-Meticulous;

-Positive attitude & independent personality;

-Able to work independently with minimum supervision;

-Good computer literacy – Words, Excel, Power point; and

- Possess own mode of transportation.

Can you recognize 5 of your skills with the above job ad?

Online Employability Skill Assessment Test:
http://www.jobsetc.ca/toolbox/checklists/employability.jsp?lang=e

Real workplace -Facts

 Getting into the right organization is only the beginning!

 One needs to hone the employability skills continuously to stay in job and to progress in career

 The workplace is getting competitive day by day!

 Employability does not end after getting a job!

The Opportunities for Electrical Engineers

 Maintenance engineer;

 Construction & Commissioning engineer;

 Consulting Engineers;

(HSE/Reliability/Optimization/Quality/ITES/)

 Design Engineers;

 Engineering college Lecturers;

 Research & Development;

 Inspection Engineers;

 Marketing Engineers;

and last but not the least;

 HR / Administration / Business Managers.