5/99 mechanical engineering: editorial

editorial

Redefined by Our Own Ingenuity Life Cycles

By
John G. Falcioni, Editor-in-Chief

Technological breakthroughs occur in all shapes, sizes, and, of course, levels of importance. Some are significant, some less so. In this month's issue, we look at ways that sensing devices are improving processes and controls.

In "Seeking the Finer Light", Senior Editor Michael Valenti looks at how an Austrian company creates images of complex structures without conventional surveying techniques. Engineers at the firm developed an imaging scanner that generates 240,000 laser measurement points within 30 seconds. The scanner is used in settings where there's a need for three-dimensional measurement applications too complex for traditional theodolites to survey, such as shipyards, quarries, and vineyards.

In "Recording Oil's Vital Signs", Associate Editor John DeGaspari discusses how on-board sensing devices can monitor the quality of automobile engine oil, thereby protecting against premature lubrication failure and avoiding the waste of unnecessary oil changes.

Sensors, semiconductors, lasers, and other instruments have been integrated into our world in applicat- ions and products that have a direct impact on life and death—and, of course, on all the more trivial matters in between.

From our children's PlayStation games, to such instruments as cystoscopes that detect the health of internal organs like the prostate, to guidance lasers used in critical military weaponry, our lives have been redefined by our own ingenuity.

"In every human culture, the hand and brain work together to create a civilization," wrote Freeman J. Dy-son, professor emeritus of physics at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N.J., in an article titled, "Miracles of Rare Device," in the March/April issue of The Sciences.

Centuries ago, he went on, European craftsmen built sailing ships to explore new continents. Today's scientists and engineers are the modern-day equivalents of those shipbuilders. They are "technological artisans constructing devices that will usher us into the new millennium."

As the advances of yesteryear led to today's great innovations, the unsung researchers working in labs throughout the world are developing the instrumentation that will guide our lives in the future as well as those of later generations.

There are only a relative few whose names most of us recognize as major achievers, or those who have brought about major change. Frequently, however, it is those whose names we include in the articles of this magazine whom the world should, if not recognize altogether, at least acknowledge more readily.

A recent Harris poll shows that engineers are not widely recognized by the general population for the achievements they have made, or the developments and projects they have steered. Most people, according to the poll, don't recognize the overall enhancements engineers make to everyday life.

Just as life-long learning is a key element in maintaining engineering prowess, so too is life-long teaching an important responsibility that must be observed by all engineers.

Unabashedly educating the world about the universe of engineering will attract new talent to the pool of bright and articulate young engineers, setting them up to become the technological artisans of the new millennium.

Email your comments or questions to: falcionij@asme.org