The 7.0 Magnitude Earthquake in Haiti struck a highly populated region of this impoverished Caribbean island approximately 17 km from the capital city of Port-au-Prince. Hundreds of thousands died,  many more injured, many buildings were  destroyed or seriously damaged, infrastructures collapsed and millions became homeless and without food and water.

The Haiti earthquake created a level of human tragedy that makes it difficult to examine, but it is imperative that we learn everything we can from this disaster. What lessons will engineers find in the ruins? What role will engineers have in restoring the country? Can engineers limit the structural and societal damages of similar, future catastrophes around the world?

Two weeks after the Haiti earthquake, Eduardo Fierro, president of Bertero, Fierro, Perry, Engineering, Inc., gave a talk at the University of California at  Berkeley with a summary of his engineering team’s analysis of the quality of the construction. He was funded by the UC Berkeley’s Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center. He cited structural damage to a combination of lack of education and sound infrastructure policies in Haiti. “Many of the buildings were broken down …” he said. “The smell was getting to be really bad from decaying bodies … The part that really got to me was that humans were in the street, bloated, like animals.”   “You can learn what worked and what didn’t work,” he said. Fierro said the combination of lack of attention to detail, poor building materials, lack of reinforcement and the density of construction are what brought down the Haitian capitol of Port-Au-Prince. In some cases people built on soft soil, using mud and sand for construction. As Fierro pointed out, “This was not an earthquake disaster, [This] was caused by people that didn’t know how to use codes . . . These were the people that caused the tragedy.” Fiero cites poor detailing, lack of rebar, poorly constructed columns, bad concrete and inappropriate buildings on soft soil.

I expect more details of sloppy construction and poor policies will emerge from the evaluation of the rubble from the Haiti earthquake. The preliminary results also raise questions about Engineering ethics on the part of construction companies involved in the severely damaged buildings.

Another critical question is: How can engineering technology be applied to solve current and future problems in Haiti? As the news unfolded about the Haiti earthquake on the evening of January 12th, I was horrified by the thought that one of my doctoral students was there, Jessica Vechakal, along with another UC Berkeley student, Ryan Stanley, to work on an extension of a community-based service learning design project they had developed originally for Africa. Their goal was to transform carbonized agricultural waste into charcoal briquettes that could  be used for cooking fuel. This kind of fuel would reduce deforestation in wood-fuel dependent areas such as Haiti as well as providing a business opportunity for this impoverished nation. I cried in relief when we were able to get hold of Jessica  by cell phone and internet. She and Ryan decided to stay as long as they could at the request of the United Nations to help build human-powered ambulances based on another one of Jessica’s designs in Zambia. Other examples of technology to the rescue are the solar suitcase devices designed to provide hospitals with solar energy and emergency housing from cargo containers. Jessica has agreed to work with my senior product design class this year on the sustainable emergency housing using cargo containers this semester in a joint project with Clemson University. I hope this will be a good example of a community-based service learning design project for the class.

For more information, see the Engineering Pathway’s resources on earthquakes and seismic hazards. For related educational resources, visit the Civil Engineering Education, Geological Engineering Education, Construction Engineering Education, or Architectural Engineering Education community sites.

The American Institute of Biological Sciences (AIBS), a BEN Pathway partner, is offering a new webinar services program to serve the biology profession. Their hosted webinars will address cutting-edge topics in public policy, biology education, and public programs. Member societies and organizations can partner with AIBS to sponsor webinars about topics of interest to their members. See the upcoming schedule of webinars at http://www.aibs.org/events/webinar/

The next webinar on the AIBS schedule takes place on March 25, 2010, from 3 - 4:30 PM (Eastern time), for high school biology teachers and faculty teaching introductory bioscience courses:

Using Issues to Illustrate Real World Biology - March 25, 2010

Can issue-based activities make science come alive for students? How do issues reflect our changing world? Do issues illustrate how the process of science works? In the first part of the web seminar, participants will explore how to use the peer-reviewed, bilingual web site (English and Spanish), ActionBioscience.org, to incorporate issues into their teaching and extend the site’s resources to activities that examine the process of science. The site’s articles are organized into major subject themes that are of pressing scientific and societal impact. Its current emphases are biodiversity, the environment, evolution, biotechnology, and genomics; a “new frontiers” section encompasses a variety of other topics at science’s growing points, and an education section addresses advances in teaching.

In part two, discussion will focus on how to teach with issues and cases in ways that foster critical thinking and make connections to students’ daily lives. Join Oksana Hlodan, Editor-in-chief of ActionBioscience.org, an education resource of the American Institute of Biological Sciences, who along with a guest college teacher, will guide this reflection on teaching and learning with issues. Worksheets and resource lists will be provided. This webinar is designed for high school biology teachers and educators of college introductory bioscience courses.

For more information and to register, visit: http://www.aibs.org/events/webinar/using-issues-to-illustrate-real-world-biology.html

Today in History - January 24, 1984 - Apple Computer unveils the Macintosh personal computer. Apple introduced “the Mac” through its famous “1984″ television commercial that was played at the 1984 Super Bowl. The imagery pitted Apple’s new generation of the people’s personal computer against the Orwellian IBM. The Mac was an innovation breakthrough in computer design with the introduction of the mouse and a graphical user interface at a relatively low price.  It was first sold with only a 400kb floppy drive to load the operating system and files, with no hard drive. Less than 50,000 units were sold after its introduction because of the limited memory and radical features. Sales got a big boost when the LaserWriter printer was introduced along with third party publishing software. The early Mac users provided an enthusiastic customer base of early adopters who formed community groups, participated in early testing and developed third part software using Apple’s user-friendly developer’s kit. My husband and I each bought one of the first offerings and have upgraded to new Apple models ever since. The summer of 1984 I accepted a faculty position at the University of California at Berkeley and my husband became an Apple developer and created software for astronomy enthusiasts.

A decade earlier on April 1, 1976, the Apple Computer Company was formed and released the Apple I computer, the first computer with a single circuit board. There was no assembly line as each Apple I was hand-built by Steve Wozniak in Steve Jobs’ parents’ home and required further assembly by the purchaser, including providing AC input voltages, wiring an ASCII keyboard to a DIP connector and wiring the video output pins to a monitor or to an RF modulator if a TV was used. Steve Wozniak showed the first one to the Homebrew Computer Club to get sales going. He had to sell his Volkswagen bus to help keep the company afloat.

Steve Wozniak designed the Apple II personal computer that was released on April 16, 1977, featuring a central processing unit (CPU), keyboard, floppy disk drive, and a $1,300 price tag. The Apple II launched the personal computer revolution. He left Apple in 1981 and went back to the University of California at Berkeley and finished his degree in electrical engineering and computer science there. Since then, he has been involved in various business and philanthropic ventures, including improving computer capabilities in schools.

So how do you build the first personal computer? Wozniak says when he teaches Personal Computer 101 he asks students to go to the Apple I Owners Club, founded in 1977 by Joe Torzewski. The site contains over 120 pages detailing the Apple I computer. It shows you what it was like to actually buy and assemble one. If you’ve never seen an Apple I, check this site out and see how the personal computer revolution began. Want to know more, read Wozniak’s book: iWoz: Computer Geek to Cult Icon: How I Invented the Personal Computer, Co-founded Apple, and Had Fun Doing It.

Check out the Engineering Pathway’s educational resources on Apple computers and history of computing. For more educational resources, see our electrical engineering education, computer science education and computer engineering education community pages. The Engineering Pathway also hosts Engineering Education communities in all ABET-accredited disciplines.

Today in History - January 23, 1996 - The first version of the Java programming language is released. Java was developed independently of the Web, starting in 1991 with a small group of Sun engineers called the “Green Team”. Their vision was that the next wave in computing was the union of digital consumer devices and computers. James Gosling led the team and worked around the clock to release this first version originally called Oak. The Green Team’s first demonstration of their new language was for an interactive, hand-held home-entertainment controller that was originally targeted at the digital cable television industry. The worked focused on business models and end users. They subscribed to what Bill Joy called “Hammer Technology”: taking a bunch of existing stuff and hammering it together. Learning by doing. We built things you can hold and use. This is why we chose as deliverables a set of working prototypes and a business plan.”

Alas it was technology ahead of its time and it didn’t take off immediately. Coincidentally, however, the World Wide Web was also being launched and the Green Team saw its potential  and announced in 1995 that the new Netscape Navigator internet browser would incorporate Java technology. The Java language is now the major programming language for the Web and for many other applications, including robotics, mechatronics, and embedded computing.

I highly recommend that interested readers watch the video introduced by Scott McNealy at the 2009 JavaOne general session. James Gosling narrates this humorous Gospel of Java According to James.

For more information, see the Engineering Pathway’s resources on the Java programming language and the history of computing. For related educational resources, visit the Computer Science Education, Information Systems Education, Information Technology Education, Computer Engineering Education or Software Engineering Education disciplinary communities.

The 2009 Premier Award for Excellence in Engineering Education Courseware was awarded today to two groups for the courseware SIMSE submitted by Emily Navarro and colleagues, and CATME/Team-Maker submitted by Matthew Ohland and colleagues.

The award was presented at the Premier Award Ceremony at the Frontiers in Education Conference, held this year in in San Antonio, Texas. The award-winning courseware was distributed on CD ROM at the FIE Conference and is also available online.This year’s panel of judges comprised a diverse cross-section of experts in engineering education and interactive media. Sponsors of the award program are John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Microsoft Research, Autodesk  and TechSmith.

SimSE is a game-based educational software engineering simulation environment that allows students to practice “virtual” software engineering processes in a graphical, interactive and fun setting. The direct, graphical feedback enables students to learn the complex cause and effect relationships underlying software engineering processes. During the game, the student takes on the role of the project manager and directs engineers to perform typical process tasks. SimSE helps bridge the gap between the conceptual knowledge about software engineering that is presented in lecture but that often times is not fully explored or practiced in assignments or projects. SimSE includes a customizable modeling environment that allows instructors to create new scenarios, application domains, organizations and cultures. SimSE has been used worldwide and has been found to be an educationally effective tool that increases students’ understanding of software engineering process concepts. Professor Emily Navarro was joined by professor André van der Hoek, both from the University of California at Irvine, in developing this award winning courseware.

The Comprehensive Assessment of Team Member Effectiveness (CATME)/Team-Maker is an integrated and well-tested system that helps manage teams in engineering courses. Team-Maker is a tool for forming teams using instructors’ criteria, which helps instructors save time and effort in creating balanced teams. The Comprehensive Assessment of Team Member Effectiveness (CATME) collects and analyzes self and peer evaluations of team members’ contributions, which provides faculty the feedback they need to manage teams in the classroom. CATME also provides students with tools that help them perform well on a team by providing incentives to contribute to the team, feedback about their performance, and suggests steps to improve their performance. CATME/Team-Maker are built upon a sound theory of teamwork that has been well tested both in terms of validity and reliability, and have been demonstrated to help students learn and perform better. Matthew W. Ohland, Purdue University was joined by a team of developers in accepting the award including: Lisa G. Bullard and Richard M. Felder, North Carolina State University; Cynthia J. Finelli, University of Michigan; Richard A. Layton, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology; Misty L. Loughry, Georgia Southern University; Hal R. Pomeranz, Deer Run Associates and Douglas G. Schmucker, Zahl-Ford, Inc.,

The Premier Award competition, hosted by the NEEDS/Engineering Pathway digital libraries, is open to a wide range of submissions of “high-quality, non-commercial courseware designed to enhance engineering education.”  More details on the Premier Award and current and previous winners can be found on the Engineering Pathway at: http://www.engineeringpathway.org/ep/premier/

The Engineering Pathway is a portal to high-quality teaching and learning resources in applied science and math, engineering, computer science/information technology and engineering technology, for use by K-12 and university educators and students. Engineering Pathway is the engineering education “wing” of the National Science Digital Library (NSDL).