Social media has gained quite a foothold in the employment sector, and if you’re not yet using this medium to search for new hires, you could be missing out on some of today’s top talent. One of the best places to find candidates for engineering positions is LinkedIn.

Unlike Facebook and Twitter, LinkedIn is geared more towards professionals and is designed for networking and more recently, has upped its offerings for both job seekers and employers to help bring them together.

If your company doesn’t already have a LinkedIn profile, that is the first step to complete. It should be fully fleshed out and contain the names of your principals, information about your company and your achievements, and lastly, the available positions within your organization.

Once you’ve got that set-up, the next step is to include a posting in LinkedIn’s job board. This posting can stand alone, or link to your profile page for more information. Consider broadening the locality of your job posting to increase interest among candidates.

Now that you’ve laid the groundwork, the next step is to begin using the service to network with other companies and job seekers. You can also become involved in the message boards that are available through this service.

Get your name out there and candidates will want to learn more about your company and the positions you are currently hiring for. While this process does require a little extra effort, it will not only help create interest in your job openings, but it will help increase interest overall in your company and broaden your current social networking efforts.

One thing to remember with LinkedIn is that etiquette truly does matter. If you take part in the discussions on the boards there, try to provide useful and helpful information and become a part of the community. Those who are simply there for the benefits are generally looked down upon. It’s better to become as active as you can and reap the benefits that come from that.

A team of researchers at IBM announced a groundbreaking new development in microchips. Dubbed the “optochip,” this new creation can transfer 1 terabit of information in one second. To put this into perspective, that’s the equivalent of 500 high definition movies being transferred in just 60 seconds.

This is a huge development in information technology and has the power to completely revolutionize the industry. Social networking sites, video sharing sites and other services that rely on being able to transfer massive amounts of data in a small period of time can all benefit from this new creation.

Unlike previous types of chips that rely on traditional means of transferring data, the Optochip uses optical transmission. The future of this type of technology is very bright and it is conceivable that within the next few years, the Optochip could be improved to be even faster, as difficult as that may be to believe right now.

“Reaching the one trillion bit per second mark with the Holey Optochip marks IBM’s latest milestone to develop chip-scale transceivers that can handle the volume of traffic in the era of big data,” commented Clint Schow, an IBM researcher involved in the creation of the prototype. “We have been actively pursuing higher levels of integration, power efficiency and performance for all the optical components through packaging and circuit innovations. We aim to improve on the technology for commercialization in the next decade with the collaboration of manufacturing partners.”

The team plans to present their findings and discuss more about their prototype during the Optical Fiber Communication Conference held in Los Angeles.

Thanks to a collaboration between the University of Southampton and the University of Cambridge, exciting new developments have emerged in the study of how heat effects materials. With equipment on loan from Mettler-Toledo, the research team was able to observe exactly what happens when semiconductors are heated very rapidly, as much as 10,000 degrees C a second.

The research found that materials such as crystal react quite differently from glass or silicon and they admitted that the behavior they found with rapid heating was not at all what they expected.

According to Professor Dan Hewak from the University of Southampton, “We have been studying novel glasses and phase change materials for two decades here at the Optoelectronics Research Centre. However, our understanding of what happens when these materials are heated, that is, their crystallization and melting behaviours, has been limited to heating rates of about 10 degrees C per minute using conventional thermal analysis. In reality, in the memory devices we fabricate, heating rates are millions of times faster and it is reasonable to expect that in order to improve these devices, an understanding of their properties at the same heating rates they will be used is needed.”

What does this mean for the rest of us? These studies will impact the way that memory devices are created. By understanding how heat effects different materials, researchers are well on their way to creating faster and more power memory capabilities for smart phones, tablets, and other small electronics. Not only will this understanding impact the speed of these devices, but also how much power they consume, leading perhaps to smart phones that will no longer suck down battery lives at high speeds.

Previous experiments in this field revealed much, but it was not until the team was able to heat these materials at such incredibly high speeds, with just a difference in degrees at each stage, that they were able to unlock the mystery of how these different materials are affected.

Typically, the term portfolio is associated with artistic professions, whether digital or analog. However, it is becoming increasingly important for engineers to build their own portfolio to assist them in their job search.

Having a professionally done portfolio can help you gain the edge in this incredibly competitive field and let your future employers know just how talented you are. It’s one thing to read about your achievements on paper, it’s quite another to see it in visual form. So far, creating a portfolio seems to be one of the best kept secrets in the engineering field, but the tide is turning. If you want to land that dream job and stay in the top of your field, there has never been a better time to put together your own portfolio.

Since it’s difficult to create a physical portfolio of your accomplishments, doing it online is the best solution for an engineer. You can create your own website that showcases your abilities and what you have accomplished and then share the URL during the application process. For interviews, consider bringing a tablet with your portfolio loaded right on it so you can instantly share it with your interviewers.

It is also useful to create a brief narrative to describe each page of your portfolio. You don’t need to go into too much detail, but include your part in the creative process, how you solved difficult issues and what it took to get from point A to point Z in the project. This will illustrate your problem solving and creative abilities.

Focus on a few of your most stellar designs or ideas to avoid overloading your interviewer. This will give them an idea of your fitness as a candidate and will show them that while you aren’t afraid to talk about your successes, you’re not going for overkill either.

Make sure to edit your portfolio just as you would your resume. It needs to be pitch perfect and stunning to catch an interviewer’s eye.

Cloud computing has revolutionized numerous sectors and it’s only natural that it would soon impact the engineering world. Autodesk PLM 360 is the newest release from Autodesk and its poised to take center stage.

Unlike traditional CAD software which is platform specific, Autodesk PLM 360 runs cross-platform, and that’s not all it can do. This newest release functions as a multi-tenant program, allowing numerous installations across several workstations. These installations will auto-update, removing the risks of using out-of-date software and missing important patches.

According to the company, Autodesk PLM 360 will ship with nearly 140 applications, each designed to facilitate product creation from its initial phases right down to replication and model creation. With this new application, companies will have access to numerous tools that will not only make the design process easier and more effective, but it will also make product creation more accurate and much simpler.

“Our savior was the cloud — it became real, apparent, and workable, and it led to the idea that we can now build something from the ground up that’s dramatically different from the rest of the market, which is what we needed to have,” said Buzz Kross, Autodesk’s senior vice president of design, lifecycle, and simulation.

Now that Autodesk has released this new version, the race will be on to develop more cloud based auto CAD applications to compete. However, few have the market share that Autodesk has captured, or the ability to create custom applications that truly serve the engineering world.

While a cloud based CAD program has long been anticipated, Autodesk has shown that they not only still have command of the market but that they truly care about what’s important to developers and engineers.

Not so long ago, replicators were a fixture of science fiction, a dream and nothing more. As 3D printing technology advances however, we are nearing an age where replicating many things is entirely possible. In fact, this technology is advancing to the point where the average Joe has access to a 3D printer and can easily manufacture spare parts, or little tools.

3D printing has gone well beyond its early stages in the 1980’s when printers were incredibly expensive, the materials quite limited, and access restricted only to the most advanced companies. Now, we are facing a situation where 3D printing has moved beyond the fanciful into the commonplace, and the implications could be staggering.

Imagine a world where just about anybody could create what they needed, on the spot, so long as they had the proper materials and their own 3D printer. What would this do to manufacturing companies? Although this may still be a ways off into the future, if we do not begin preparing for this eventuality soon, we may get left behind.

Replicating simple items such as hand tools, small car parts and common items is already quite possible. Although access to the materials needed for these items is still somewhat limited, this is changing quickly. As the prices for 3D printers drop below $1000, more people will begin realizing the benefits of being able to create just what they need, when they need it.

How can companies prepare themselves for this eventuality? As always, rather than fear new technology, it is best to embrace it and find a way to make it work for you. Patents may become more important than ever for many items, and it may become necessary to facilitate replication rather than stand against it and let your competitors take over.

While we’re still quite a few years away from mass production of replicated items, the time to learn how to deal with this eventuality is right now.

Typically, 3D prototyping is limited to certain materials, and you may not be able to create an exact model due to these limitations. Another common issue facing manufacturing and prototyping companies is the inability to find software that works with the materials they want to use in the model or concept phase.

3D Prototyping, an Australian company, recently announced an exciting new change in this field that will allow companies to create more accurate prototypes, across a variety of different materials. One such material that this company’s applications will work on is ABS, which is prized for its ability to create a model that can chromed, painted or even vacuum metalized.

In addition to ABS, 3D Prototyping also offers printers that will work with varieties of Nylon, including Nylon 66 and Glass Filled Nylon. This means that you can create fully functional, flexible and highly detailed models that are exact replicas, without having to compromise.

Companies  now have the ability to create a rapid prototype, on a material that offers a variety of options for producing a finished model. The new printers from 3D Prototyping also offer the ability to create models with a variety of different features such as raised text, 3D color, mapping and annotations and detailed labels and maps.

In addition to their comprehensive line of printers, 3D Prototyping has also developed specialized 3D scanners that allow you to quickly and easily convert an existing CAD design into model form. You can also utilize these scanners to help you spot potential trouble spots, edit them on the fly, and then continue with the production of your model.

Thanks to 3D Prototyping’s advances, companies now have a choice when it comes to making high quality, realistic models that can be used immediately, without compromising on detail, design or functionality.

A recent survey conducted by PwC is raising concern in the engineering sector about the possibility of mineral shortages impacting production. Metal minerals are heavily relied on by companies involved in the automotive, energy and utilities, and renewable energy sectors and these are the companies that are going to be impacted first.

It is estimated that within 5 years, if not sooner, these companies may feel the pinch and may not be able to access the materials they need to continue production. Sectors in aviation and high-tech fields have a little bit longer before they are impacted, with estimates putting the shortages coming into effect by 2016.

The report released by PwC stated in part, “Although some Asia Pacific countries, especially China, have abundant reserves of scarce minerals and metals, the expected impact of scarcity on companies in these countries over the next five years is still substantial. The risk of scarcity across all sectors is expected to rise significantly, leading to supply instability and potential disruptions in the next five years but this will also create opportunities for competitive advantage.”

What does this mean for engineering companies and other sectors that are looking at potential shortages? Right now, it is vital to begin developing alternative materials that can be substituted. Other solutions include sourcing new deposits of minerals that can be readily accessed if and when the shortage does occur.

While 73% of the companies that responded to PwC’s survey feel somewhat confident that they can weather these shortages, it is clear that the time to take action is now. Geopolitical strife is adding to the issue, and some reserves that are accessible now may not be accessible in the future. While governments are aware of this growing issue, no serious steps are currently being taken to ensure the future of these minerals and of the companies that rely on them for production of vital and necessary materials.

Objet, a leader in 3D printing systems, announced a new 3D material that they have developed, which will make thermal testing possible. The new material, called RGD525, has been designed to simulate high temperature performance for engineering plastics, without compromising the stability of the product.

According to Zehavit Reisin of Objet, “In function applications, Objet’s strategy has been first to enhance our capabilities in the rapid prototyping side. Correct fit and form are required for making models. But we’ve also wanted to get into function applications by introducing new materials that approach engineering plastics. These materials must possess both high temperature resistance and high toughness. In functional product design testing, the prototypes must function like the final product, as well as look and feel like it.”

The deflection temperature for RGD525 is between 145 and 153 degrees Fahrenheit and then once the material has been treated, this goes up to between 167 and 176 degrees Fahrenheit. RGD525, according to Reisin, will allow companies to test new materials effectively through simulation, rather than just by creating replicas.

RGD525 can be used with the company’s printer models Connex500 and Eden500V 3D with additional platforms scheduled to be added later in 2012. In addition, the company states that RGD525 can be printed at the same time as Objet Tango line, allowing for the simulation of overmoulded parts that are commonly used in automotive and defense applications.

This isn’t the only new material that Objet debuted this year. Earlier, they announced the development of a material called RGD5160-DM. This material is designed for use in cellphones, engine parts and electrical casings and is unique for its durability as well as its heat resistance. The company recently debuted this material with a new prototype for a dashboard for the European company StreetScooter. The entire dashboard contained more than 20 3D printed parts.

Small businesses have begun leading the curve when it comes to employment, accounting for 64% of the new jobs over the past ten years. However positive these numbers may be, when it comes to recruiting college graduates, it’s easy for small business owners to feel as though they’ve been swept under the rug.
How can a small business compete on the same level as a large corporation when it comes to attracting today’s best talent? The answers may surprise you.
1. Make it easier to get hired. Large corporations typically have an extensive, and from the position of the job seeker, painful hiring process. Get the jump on your competition by streamlining your process. This approach allows small businesses to outmaneuver bigger companies and helps you nail down the right candidates in much less time.
2. Look beyond the top schools. Sure, Harvard and Stanford may be big schools, but bigger isn’t always better when it comes to finding the right talent. Don’t be afraid to approach smaller schools that often get overlooked by high powered companies. You just might find a few diamonds in the rough.
3. Find the bright side. Not everyone wants to work for a huge, nameless corporation. Today’s candidates want to feel as though they are part of a company and that’s where small businesses can really shine. Showcase the size of your organization and highlight the benefits of working for a small business, such as having a larger role in decision making processes, the chance for quicker advancement and less competition for promotions. Many of today’s students are willing to take less money in exchange for a higher potential and a better working environment.
4. Get creative. Find unique ways to attract candidates to your company during hiring fairs. The more inventive you are, the better your chances will be of finding candidates. This is particularly important for businesses in a creative field. Be nimble and think outside the hiring box. You’ll attract more candidates and you’ll level the playing field.