16. Ocean Engineering

Ocean engineers design the ships, submersibles and submarines that are used in exploring the ocean. They also design stationary platforms for drilling or mining and technology for harnessing energy from the ocean.

Some new areas with scope for fundamental research include:

Wave Energy: To produce power, the motion of waves, tides and currents are used to drive turbine generators similar to those found in hydropower plants.

Navigation, research and defence: Mine Detection, Mine Avoidance, Diver Management, Obstacle Avoidance for Submarines, Dredge Surveys, Pipeline Installation & Burial, Fisheries Research, Shallow Water Research, Marine Mammal Research.

Offshore structure which include the likes of flood prevention, drilling rigs and offshore bridges (segmental like 7 mile in florida).

Coastal engineering has become an increasingly important part of ocean engineering. With more and more people living or working at or near the world’s coasts, problems associated with coastal development, such as pollution and waste disposal, will require the expertise and innovation of coastal engineers.

Thermal Energy: On an average day, 23 million square miles of tropical seas absorb an amount of solar radiation equal in heat content to about 250 billion barrels of oil. If less than one tenth of one percent of this stored solar energy could be converted into electric power, it would supply more than 20 times the total amount of electricity consumed in the United States on any given day. one-

Other areas: Sonar technology including active sonar technologies, corrosion resistance, underwater acoustics,  ROV technologies, underwater habitats, personal and military submersibles (luxury subs), underwater (or partial) homes, new rig designs, ship and submarine design.

Future: The oil industry, military, and marine navigation fields require ocean engineering skills, and each of these sectors directly impacts our lifestyle in some way, be it a source of energy, transportation, or our nation’s defense.

From a US Navy Captain (ME from TAMU)…….

I am a captain in the US Navy and serve as director of the Navy Ocean Facilities Program, located at Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Washington Navy Yard, DC. My command includes about 500 Navy officers and enlisted personnel as well as civilians and contractors, and we are responsible for the Navy’s waterfront, underwater construction, and all fixed ocean and seafloor systems. These facilities are worth over $9 billion. We build and maintain waterfront structures (piers, wharves, etc.), but we also build things on the ocean bottom. To do that, we invent and discover new ways to work deep in the ocean (ROV’s, AUV’s, new materials that will last longer in the ocean environment, new procedures to minimize a divers exposure, better ways to anchor and fasten things on the ocean bottom, new ways to locate items on or beneath the seafloor, etc.). This takes teams of all disciplines (marine geologists, marine chemists, hydrodynamicists, marine biologists and a bunch of very skilled technicians). Before this tour, I have had many other jobs that gave me the training and background to be the senior Navy Ocean Engineer. I did a tour of duty with the Naval Medical Research Institute at Bethesda, MD. My job there was to maintain an extreme hyperbaric facility so we could simulate diving to depths of over 1000 feet of seawater (fsw). We studied the effects of temperature on divers, how the immense pressure at 1000fsw affects the human body, and how to better work at those depths. We developed new breathing apparatus for divers and created new and improved dive tables. I did a tour with the Naval Sea Systems Command, where I helped to develop new tools for divers to use (ROV’s, hydraulic tools, hand tools, etc.). The focus was on ship maintenance and repair — to be able to do more and more in the water so that we could avoid having to bring a ship into dry-dock. I also did three tours at Port Hueneme, CA. One was with the Naval Construction Training Command, where we teach enlisted personnel how to inspect, maintain, repair and construct waterfront and fixed ocean facilities world wide. Another was with the Underwater Construction Teams, combat units that provide waterfront and underwater construction. We traveled all over the Pacific and the world, performing contingency (wartime) construction, humanitarian assistance (earthquake relief), and civil actions (building channels to remote islands so the island natives could get their fishing boats out during low tide). We also went to the Arctic, where we established a camp and performed diving operations under the ice cap. In almost all our jobs, we used very sophisticated bathymetric and hydrographic equipment to study the water column and seafloor. The other tour was with the Naval Facilities Engineering Service Center, which is our research and technology center of expertise for ocean engineering. It is there that the next generation of bathymetric, hydrographic and geotechnical tools, equipment and procedures are developed, tested and then issued to the Navy and the commercial sector for use. I have also completed the Navy’s Deep Sea Diving School and undergone advance training in saturation diving (staying within a hyperbaric environment for days and weeks at a time). I have had training in tactics for land warfare in support of the Navy’s expeditionary construction force (Seabees). Further, I have demonstrated competency in the knowledge, handling, running and maneuvering of naval ships, in peacetime and within a tactical environment. I have also jumped out of perfectly good airplanes and completed the training and performed the required jumps for free fall parachuting. With all these tours and my training, and a lifetime in or on the water, I have over 250,000 minutes of bottom time diving all over the world, in depths to 1000fsw. And each time I enter the water it is like the first I am full of awe and wonderment of how magnificent the ocean is. It is the best place in the world to have an office and a job as it is always changing, always challenging and always rewarding. Sources: http://www.whoi.edu/

Some good courses in Ocean Engineering are at:

MIT
Texas A&M University, College Station
US Naval Academy, Annapolis
University of Rhode Island
University of Delaware
Australian Maritime College
National nstitute of Oceanography, India

more information: http://oceanengineering.blogspot.com/

Suggested reading: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocean_engineering

Source: multiple

15. Textile Engineering

Where others see a dying industry, textile students see exciting opportunities brought about by technology. They stress that textiles are more than just clothing: Companies are developing fabrics stronger than Kevlar, which is used in body armor and bulletproof vests. Others are improving medical uses of textiles, such as composite materials used in artificial hearts and replacement joints.

Even on the clothing side, technology is driving changes such as faster looms, water-free dyeing techniques and new fabrics, such as artificial leathers and imitation denim.

On the front line of this new technology are Carolinas schools such as N.C. State and Clemson University. There, undergraduate students are being schooled in high-tech processes that, some say, are vital to preserving a domestic industry that still accounts for tens of thousands of jobs in the Carolinas and Georgia. Today’s students will be tomorrow’s textile leaders, they say. Though it is true that there have been huge job shifts over the last few decades from the developed nations to the developing economies, technology should help USA regain the lost edge. At the same time the dearth of good research in India might lead to the fall of this once fine course. So the need of the hour is to bring in new technology into the country and try and curb the rapid wealth erosion of big textile units in India. Increased focus on technology and exports should be the way for Indians 

“You’ve got to have new people with new ideas and new skills if you’re going to survive and compete,” said Blan Godfrey, dean of N.C. State’s College of Textiles. “You’re not going to make cheap white towels. There’s somebody else who can do it (overseas) with 20-cent-an-hour labor.”

Changes in the industry

Even those most optimistic about the industry’s prospects acknowledge that the past few years have been rough.

Mills have shut down, and companies have folded. Others are struggling financially.

In the past five years, employment in textiles in the Carolinas has shrunk by 77,000 jobs, or nearly one-third, according to figures from the employment security commissions in North Carolina and South Carolina.

Last month, Greensboro-based Burlington Industries Inc. – once the world’s largest textile company – filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Kannapolis-based Pillowtex, one of the nation’s top home-furnishings makers, filed for Chapter 11 protection last year.

Those two and other large textile companies in the Carolinas – including VF Corp., Unifi Inc., Guilford Mills and Cone Mills Corp. – have announced hundreds of layoffs in recent months.

Industry officials blame many factors. Free trade with Mexico and other countries has made cheap labor abroad appealing. New, automated machines eliminate the need for certain workers. The success of discount retailers such as Wal-Mart has suppressed prices.

While confident in the industry’s long-term outlook, some students admit that recent cutbacks are unsettling.

“It’s become more touchy lately, especially hearing a big company like Burlington declaring bankruptcy,” said Tim Cherry, an N.C. State senior from Gastonia (now passed out).

Still, those in the industry say there are plenty of quiet success stories. The media, they say, have done a poor job of spreading the good news.

They point to companies such as 3Tex Inc. in Cary, near Raleigh, which makes super-strong fabrics and composites using a three-dimensional loom, and to Polymer Group Inc., based in North Charleston, S.C., which is the world’s third-largest producer of engineered fabrics, known as nonwovens.

Even old-time textile companies say they’ll continue to prosper.

“There are companies that are doing well that are going to remain leaders in their industry,” said Reid Baker, human resources director with Parkdale Mills Inc. in Gastonia, which hires about a half-dozen recent college graduates a year. “Certainly a student should not be discouraged because of the press or the economic situation.”

Textile college recruiters say the recent layoffs have made recruiting more difficult, because parents especially are wary of their children entering dead-end careers. But the layoffs, they stress, are mostly mill workers – not the high-tech or managerial spots for which college students prepare.

Classes for the future

N.C. State’s College of Textiles, home to 850 undergraduates, has the traditional textile machines in its basement. But now, students are learning to use looms and other equipment with an eye toward futuristic-sounding products.

In a textile engineering design class one afternoon last month, about 50 students heard Professor Tim Clapp stress that products must look appealing and be easy to use – not just functional, as engineers prefer.

Groups of students then listed products they’re designing for a class project: a sleep suit for babies that monitors breathing, to head off sudden infant death syndrome; a knee brace for athletes that measures the knee’s angle, to speed recovery from injuries; a garment that measures pressure for the bedridden, to prevent bedsores.

In a studio on the other side of the building, students design sundresses and other garments with the help of a three-dimensional body scanner, which transmits instant body measurements to a computer.

“These are all things we wouldn’t do very many years ago,” said Traci May-Plumlee, a textile design professor, as she explained the uses of a laser printer-like machine that makes prototype designs on fabric.

Graduate students and professors are pioneering research that could transform the industry. Last year, the College of Textiles spent more than $10 million on research – more than twice as much as 10 years ago, largely because of closer relationships with businesses.

One professor is studying how to make fibers from crushed crab shells or from the slime of hagfish, an eel-like creature that dwells on the sea floor.

Another is experimenting with ways to make cotton fabric water-resistant.

One researcher, collaborating with companies, has nearly perfected a way to dye fabric without using water – a process that, if developed, could save dye houses hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in utility costs.

N.C. State and Clemson are the only universities in the Carolinas with four-year programs that give students a background in the science of textiles.

Other universities, such as UNC Greensboro and East Carolina University, offer programs in textile design and marketing. Community colleges also offer classes in textile technology.

Promising careers

Textile college students are finding success in the job market.

Of the 156 textiles students who graduated from N.C. State last May, 95 percent have found work. About half went to work for textile companies, a quarter went into non-textile employment, and the rest headed to graduate school or are still looking.

Starting salaries are impressive, as well. The average textile engineer in the class of 2001 earns about $48,000 – about the same as other engineers graduating from N.C. State. The average student graduating with a degree in textile management or textile technology makes nearly $38,000 annually.

Those figures are well above national averages for students graduating with degrees in fields such as English ($30,700), nursing ($34,700) and psychology ($29,900), and about equal to national averages for business majors ($37,900), according to a spring 2001 survey by the National Association of Colleges and Employers.

At Clemson, which has about 125 students studying textiles, students graduate with skills to succeed in many areas, says Professor Clarence Rogers, who teaches yarn manufacturing.                                                          

“We’re problem solvers,” he said. “If you can solve problems in my area of yarn manufacturing, you can solve problems in any area.”

Many textile companies, such as Parkdale Mills and Fort Mill, S.C.-based Springs Industries, place recent graduates into yearlong management programs, after which they become supervisors at plants and perhaps eventually plant managers and upper-level managers.

Others, such as Milliken & Co. of Spartanburg hire recent graduates throughout the company. Milliken hires about 200 graduates a year.

“The need for textile engineers and textile technology majors is great,” said company spokesman Richard Dillard. “They’re particularly valued, and we’re always looking for talent.”

Some students, such as Cox, became interested in textiles through family members who work in the industry. Cox spent a summer internship at Spencer’s Inc. in Mount Airy, a children’s clothing maker where he studied the company’s cost system. He says he now looks forward to a career in textile engineering.

But others are like Cheryl Soule, a sophomore from Gibsonville, who first found out about textiles from an N.C. State recruiter.

She said she was drawn by the strong job placement, the high salaries and the flexibility her textile management degree will offer.

“You can do just about anything with textiles,” she said.

Soule is also studying Chinese and earning a second, interdisciplinary degree focusing on the Pacific Rim. She thinks she might like to go into international business, probably in textiles.

With new technologies, the future for textile students – and for the industry – is bright, says Joe Cunning, executive director of the National Textile Center in Wilmington, Del., which administers federal research money for textiles.

“If you’re interested in having an exciting career in a financially rewarding area,” he said, “this is it.”

Some possible opportunities for candidates in India include:

In textile engineering Career paths include process engineering, research and development, production control, technical sales, quality control and corporate management through the production supervisory route. Graduates with textile chemistry find careers in dyeing and finishing, technical services, research and development, quality control, product development, polymer science and environmental control. Most graduates of the with textile management program initially enter management trainee programs which can ultimately lead to plant or corporate management. Other career options include technical sales, industrial engineering, product development, marketing, customer relations, human resources, and cost and inventory control.

Some good courses in Textile Engineering are at:

Georgia Institute of Technology
North Carolina State University
Auburn University
Clemson University
Minho University, Portugal
Technical University, Liberec (TUL), Czech Republic
Clariant Switzerland
Gent University, Belgium
Itech, France
Manchester University, U.K
Leeds University, U.K
The Society of Dyers and Colourist, Bradford
College of Communication under University of London
IIT Delhi

Source: multiple

suggested reading (links and engineer profile): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Textile_engineering