ASME TechCast

Mechanical Engineering magazine’s October/November cover story dives into the engineering feats and solutions that brought NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope to its current home, orbiting the sun about 1 million miles away from Earth. Author Lina Zeldovich shares some insights behind the story, how it came together, and pieces that didn't make the story's final cut.

This podcast discusses the seller-doer business development model and its importance in the engineering industry. It explores the significance of client experience, using Amazon as a prime example. The evolving expectations of clients and the need for emerging leaders to develop interpersonal and communication skills are highlighted. The connection between client experience and the success of seller-doers is emphasized.

Virginia Tech's Theo Lim looks for solutions to urban heat islands.

Photovoltaic solar panels are becoming increasingly inexpensive, but there are many sunny surfaces where adding them is not feasible. Veeral Hardev, vice president for corporate strategy at Ubiquitous Energy, talks about his company’s quest to make transparent PV cells that can be applied to window glass.

Being a project manager is more than getting tasks done and ensuring your team does the same. Learn the skills needed and the steps necessary to move from engineer on a project to PM of the team.

Heat pumps, which use the outside as a source—or sink—for heat, are a familiar environmental control technology in many homes. Kathy Hannun, founder and president of Dandelion Energy, a company that makes household geothermal heat pump systems, discusses the efficiency advantages and engineering challenges of drawing heat from the ground.

As advanced manufacturing continues to thrive, the ties among academia, industry, and government must be fostered to ensure the next generation of engineering students enter the workforce fully prepared to tackle the technologies awaiting them. In this episode of ASME TechCast, Kathryn Jablokow, a professor at Penn State, and Tom Kurfess, a professor at Georgia Tech, discuss technology readiness levels and strategies for educators and industry in partnering to prepare engineers for the future. Jablokow and Kurfess are both members of ASME's board of governors and members of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine Study Committee. Both helped author “Infusing Advanced Manufacturing into Undergraduate Engineering Education,” a report that examines advanced manufacturing techniques for the defense industry and explores how undergraduate engineering programs can better develop advanced manufacturing capabilities in the workforce. 

Kyle Saleeby and Gabriela Ciocarlie of the Cybersecurity Manufacturing Innovation Institute talk about standing up cyber protection throughout the manufacturing supply chain.

ASME sat down to talk with Reid Tolley, founding partner of Talent Matters, an assessment, analytics, and leadership development firm. In this episode he covered how the behavioral assessment, job suitability tool Harrison Assessments differs from personality testing. Tolley explained that the tool can accurately measures how well suited a person is with a specific job and if they score a 75 percent or better, people are three times more likely to enjoy the job, excel at it, and try to excel at it. Since 2012, Tolley has helped leaders of engineering firms and other organizations with talent acquisition and retention, company culture, succession planning, onboarding new talent, and more. Find him at Talent Matters.

Industry 4.0 is a suite of digitally enabled technologies that combine embedded sensors, new kinds of materials, models as digital twins, and cutting edge computing to change the way that companies think about their product and facilities and even their customers. The idea of adopting these advanced manufacturing technologies can be daunting to small companies that have had success with traditional processes. Pavan Muzumdar, chief operating officer at Automation Alley, a nonprofit Industry 4.0 knowledge center based in Troy, Mich., discusses how 3D printing and other Industry 4.0 technologies are transforming small manufacturers.