An empirical ethnographic survey of engineers using interviews and field observations in Australia provides evidence that coordinating technical work of other people by gaining their willing cooperation is a major aspect of engineering practice. Technical coordination in the context of this study means working with and influencing other people so they conscientiously perform necessary work to a mutually agreed schedule. While coordination seems to be non‐technical, analysis provides evidence supporting the critical importance of technical expertise. Coordination usually involves one‐on‐one relationships with superiors, clients, peers, subordinates, and outsiders. Coordinating the work of other people seems to be important from the start of an engineering career.
Engineering education only provides limited informal coordination skill development and current accreditation criteria may not reflect this aspect of engineering. This paper suggests ways in which students can learn coordination, and describes some of the author's experiences in applying this research.
The concept of isogeometric analysis, whereby the parametric functions that are used to describe CAD geometry are also used to approximate the unknown fields in a numerical discretisation, has progressed rapidly in recent years. This paper advances the field further by outlining an isogeometric Boundary Element Method (IGABEM) that only requires a representation of the geometry of the domain for analysis, fitting neatly with the boundary representation provided completely by CAD. The method circumvents the requirement to generate a boundary mesh representing a significant step in reducing the gap between engineering design and analysis. The current paper focuses on implementation details of 2D IGABEM for elastostatic analysis with particular attention paid towards the differences over conventional boundary element implementations. Examples of Matlab R code are given whenever possible to aid understanding of the techniques used.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.