Raymond E. Floyd

RFID in Animal-Tracking Applications

From the first patents covering radio-frequency identification (RFID) (#3,914,762 in 1975), the application of RFID for tracking animals has seen millions of tags applied on, or in, a variety of animals. A number of countries have implemented mandatory tagging of domestic animals, such as New Zealand requiring all licensed dogs, with the exception of farm dogs, be tagged. Similarly, Northern Ireland and Israel have requirements for all dogs to be tagged. Australia and the United States have established national livestock or animal identification systems, with the emphasis on farm animal identification. Japan requires all dogs and cats imported into the country to be chipped. The International Standards Organization (ISO) has developed two standards, ISO-11784 Radio Frequency Identification for Animals- Code Structure and ISO- 11785 Radio Frequency Identification for Animals-Technical Concept, as standards for RFID use in animal tracking.

A Legal Primer for the Digital Age

According to Herrington, “If you are in the target audience for the text, you will find that it covers issues in the legal areas that you encounter, or are most likely to encounter, in your everyday workplace activities, including contract, agency, business organization, and intellectual property law” (p. 1). As with any single text, the question arises, how much depth can a single book provide on such complex issues? I believe the author has made a reasonable presentation, especially in the contract, agency, and business organization areas.

RFID in Transportation

Radio-frequency identification (RFID) has existed for a number of years, with some in the industry believing that the industry had its start during World War II with the advent of the Identification Friend or Foe (IFF) method of identifying allied aircraft. In that system, a transponder within the aircraft detected the signal from the shore-based radar systems and responded with a specific encoded signal as a return. While this may have been the impetus of RFID, the first commercial applications had to wait on advancing technology developments to enable success.

Career Paths: Technical or Management?

The new engineer hired into a companys engineering organization can expect to enter at a low level and then work his/her way up through a progression of increasing levels of responsibility according to his/her ability and performance. Unless the graduate is one of those extremely rare individuals who has the drive, the in-depth knowledge, a very large bank account balance or sponsor, and a novel new concept to market, most will enter at the lowest level in the particular corporate defined engineering structure. Typical titles would be junior engineer or associate engineer.

Ethics for Engineers

Ethics generally refers to a field of philosophy describing a social system in which morals are applied, where there may be written standards or codes that belong to a group. As an example, the IEEE has written a code of ethics for its membership, where the code expands on the expectations of the society and the responsibilities placed on the membership as being good community citizens. Another example is offered by the Society of Manufacturing Engineers, where their code of ethics can be found in the Canons of Professional Conduct, another list of expectations of the membership on behalf of the society. The National Society of Professional Engineers also offers a code of ethics, one that has been implemented by states as a code of ethics for licensed engineers. In this case, the violation of the code can result in revocation of the engineers professional license.

Chef, Cook, or Bottle Washer? [Career Consultation]

You have studied hard, working long hours to conquer mathematics, physics, electronics, and all the other courses required, and now you are an engineer. Congratulations, you have worked hard to reach this new plateau, but the question now is, will you be a chef, cook, or bottle washer? Perhaps the analogy is not too clear, so some additional comments may help you decide on your future path.

A case for engineering beyond specialization

This paper discusses about engineering beyond specialization. It is well for many young engineers to approach their training with an open mind about what they will learn and decide if specialization is meant for them.

Standards and You [Catching Rays]

There are literally dozens of standards associations worldwide (almost every nation has some type of regulating unit for standards). Some relate only to national equipment requirements, while several are recognized on a global basis, where their standards must be adhered to for product acceptance. Unfortunately, most engineering students will get, at best, limited exposure to standards during their academic experience. If discussed at all, the topic will most often be covered as part of the capstone project during their senior year of college. One of the requirements for ABET accreditation of engineering programs is that engineering standards be covered in some manner, but the depth of the coverage is not prescribed. Regardless of the particular field of engineering the student pursues, there will be standards that apply. Whether a person is designing a new television or planning an installation of an air-conditioning system, he or she must adhere to standards.

Inter-department cooperation can spell success

At Northwest College the Physical Science Division has joined with the Humanities Division to help students become more proficient technical communications writers. The journey began when Professor Dr. Renee Dechert, who is responsible for the Technical Writing class in the Humanities Division, decided that she needed more real world projects to challenge the students in the technical writing class offered as part of the curriculum by the English Department. She could provide the approach, the structure, the references, and the style, but did not have insight into what subjects could provide the engineering students with a technical research challenge for a capstone project for the course. She contacted the Physical Science Division who provided two real world scenarios for the technical writing students.

Not Happy? Move On

Over the past 50 years, a number of papers have been published in an attempt to determine what factors make an employee happy and satisfied versus those factors that lead to dissatisfaction and poor performance. Perhaps the two most prominent authors are Frederick Hertzberg and Abraham Maslow. While Maslow first published his hierarchy of needs, Herzberg extended that work, developing his own needs model. The two models compare quite closely, with minor differences in the words used to define the separate levels of an individuals feeling of satisfaction on the job.