Modern Data Centers — Just Add Water?
It’s no secret that data centers are becoming more important with the rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and applications like ChatGPT. These AI platforms can use ten times the electricity of a standard internet search. All this requires lots more electricity (which is becoming another issue) and that means lots of cooling. At many data […]
PE EXAM TIP – Make the Reference Handbook Your Own
Mechanical Engineers, for better or worse, the NCEES Reference Handbook will be your only reference during the PE Exam, so becoming as familiar as possible with what is in it and how to find what you need should be top priority. You don’t need to know where everything is, but you should be very familiar […]
With DTC, Practice Makes Perfect
Poor time management during the exam. That is the most common reason our participants say kept them from passing the exam. With the clock ticking, especially on the CBT format exam, it’s easy to get thrown off your exam-day plan, waste time on difficult problems, realize the clock is running out, and panic. But it […]
Cooling Load Fudge Factors Can Foul Up Actual Efficiency
It is well-known and common practice for HVAC engineers to overdesign or apply a fudge factor to their cooling load calculations in order to size a cooling system. A Steven Winters Associates analyst looked at the load calculations, the installed cooling system size, and actual performance data for a number of buildings. The maximum cooling […]
Tetra Pods (Simple Shape for a Complex Problem)
My wife is an avid gardener; however, she picks up on many of the things in my world of engineering. She has heard me say the Bernoulli Equation enough that she plans to name our next cat “Bernoulli.” Last week, she was checking her smartphone news feed and noticed an article about “tetra pods”, not […]
Fuel Out of Thin Air?
About 90% of the world’s vehicles operate on gasoline, which of course is a fossil fuel created from processing petroleum. Recently Aircela, on a roof-top in Manhattan, demonstrated that gasoline can also be conjured from thin air. No, it isn’t magic but implementation of physics discovered by Klaus Lackner. The device captures carbon dioxide from […]
On Professional Engineers Day – What’s Your Dream?
Dreams are our most powerful motivators, and I contend that engineering is the profession of dreams. The standards set to become a licensed professional engineer are high, as they should be, and as they have been for over a hundred years. Passing the PE exam, along with other educational and experience credentials, are the standards […]
Achieve Your Extraordinary. Become a PE.
You have achieved a lot in your career as an engineer, but you know that you are capable of more. Getting your P.E. license will open up a world of possibilities for you to achieve the extraordinary. And we can help you make those possibilities a reality with our 20-Week Reviews for the Mechanical PE […]
So What Should We Learn in School?
An ASME SmartBrief article by Cathy Cecere titled “What Engineers Learn Doesn’t Always Match What Employers Need” presented the findings of an engineering education team in the Department of Engineering Education at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. The team examined over 26,000 job descriptions for engineering positions, with almost 20% being positions for mechanical […]
PE EXAM TIP – Have Only One Way to Work a Problem
There is a wealth of information out there on how to solve PE Exam problems. For any given class of problems, you can find many solution approaches. You may have even thought of additional, and quite valid, approaches on your own. However, seeking out a number of approaches has a troublesome downside. All you need […]
