The other day, I was having a dialogue with a middle aged gal who wanted to continue her education to ensure she’d be viably employable well into the future. The already well-educated woman worked the BioTech Sector but realized that she shouldn’t have all her eggs in one basket, and rightfully so if you study the rapidly changing job needs in our economy today. Let’s talk.
What did she decide to study to augment her current skill set? A “statistic (business statistics help online) based engineering course” and I thought to myself; is this a wise choice? Yes it is, and I’ll explain why. I explained to her that; it sure sounds like an intriguing class especially considering our tiring infrastructure here in the US. I read an interesting piece the other evening on sensors embedded in concrete structures to warn of potential future failures with regards to structural integrity – especially good for bridges, tunnels, dams, skyscrapers, etc.
Incidentally, I’ve been impressed with some of the engineering classes where students have to build a bridge – miniature one – using paper and balsa wood, where it must hold up to 25 lbs. at the apex, I think those types of classes are fun too.
What is interesting to me about a stats based industrial engineering class is that one day Artificial Intelligence will make all the decisions of when to repair and replace sections, parts, etc, based on previous failures, which is kind of what they do now for GE jet engine overhauls on airliners. So far the data is a great predictor of future failure give or take the random volcanic ash atmospheric debris intake during operations. That last sentence deserves a reference: Nature; Volume 520, April 2015, page 133, “Test the Effects of Ash on Jet Engines – To test the safety of flying during an eruption, the airline industry cannot just rely on advances in volcanic monitoring and prediction says Mathew Watson.”
In a way it will be just like IBMs Watson looking at all variables of a given patient and determining a diagnosis which will be superior to human diagnosis. So for instance, putting in data for an industrial engineered infrastructure component, you could use the data for harmonic resonance, RPM if any, moisture, weather, quality of metal, weight loads, flexing, etc. and know pretty much within a low probability of error when it will fail and thus, build it accordingly for its useful life + safety error. Like we do on rocket components, aircraft carriers, hydroelectric power plants, etc.
It seems smart to study how things work or don’t and use those laws of physics to help design the next generation of biotech, or use bio-mimicry to help industrial design things the other way – reverse engineering sort of.
If we look at nano-devices in the body, those small units will mimic and have the same sorts of challenges as large industrial engineered components – pressure, temperature, degradation, corrosion, etc.. Indeed, at a large BioTech firm they must build large systems and design and engineer things for their projects. Perfect for someone working with facility concepts at a BioTech Corporation – having this knowledge of course makes her an important person for project management as the firm expands, but also helps for her next project or conceptual thinking endeavor too.