The space shuttle: a case of subjective engineering

Article Abstract:

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) former head of reliability and safety Will Willoughby has said that statistics have no place in engineering. Instead, emphasis should be placed on design. NASA's manager of the two-year-old risk program, Benjamin Buchbinder, maintains that probabilistic risk analysis looks at the interactions of subsystems and ascertains the effects of human activity and environmental conditions and can detect common cause failures. The NASA risk program was begun in response to the Jan 28, 1986 Challenger accident that killed seven astronauts. Risk assessments must be conducted independent of normal engineering analyses. Unfortunately NASA does not have a history of statistical data due to its former policy based on the idea that such information was not relevant. Quantitative risk assessment is a new policy for NASA.

Space research and technology, Risk management, United States. National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Disaster planning, Statistical Analysis, Failure Analysis, Failure Prediction, Risk Analysis

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'90s employment: some bad news, but some good

Article Abstract:

Job security for electrical engineers (EEs) remains soft in North America, however firms with fewer than 1000 employees are still growing. In the US, employees are viewed by companies as expendable commodities, and even companies that have maintained a policy of no mass dismissals during hard times have been encouraging people to leave. In France, there is a shortage of EEs. India needs them as well. The largest long-term reduction in employees in the US has been in the telecommunications industry, with the breakup of AT&T in 1984. Approximately 150,000 jobs were discontinued over a period of seven years. In contrast, software engineers are in demand all over the world.

Electronic computers, Prepackaged software, Engineering services, Employment, Hardware, Telecommunications, Trends, Software Design, International

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