We are explorers.

“One small step for a man; one giant leap for mankind”, Neil Armstrong’s words still resonates with all mankind who wish to be travel through space. However, almost 50 year later first human being set foot on moon, just 12 people have walked on the moon and none since 1972. No one has travelled any further than the moon.

After NASA’s shuttle program was retired in 2011, commercial space tourism has been one of the solution to keep going with the space exploration activities. SpaceX, a privately founded in 2002 by CEO and Chief Designer Elon Musk is planning to fly two paying passengers around the moon in 2018. Blue Origin founded by Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon, planning to send first customers flights on short trips to space in 2018. Virgin Galactic founded by Richard Branson is also planning to give passengers ride aboard SpaceShipTwo, a spaceplane designed to carry six passengers and two pilots. These private companies contribute and continue man kind’s space exploration efforts.

The idea of space travel give rise to significant safety concerns as everyone could imagine. A notable setback in commercial space travel took place on October 31, 2014, when Virgin Galactic’s spaceship violently crashed, killing a test pilot. Being the first into the unknown is never safe but taking all precautions to be prepared gives us the possibility to advance beyond our limits.

At PBC we find inspiration from previous explorers to explore all the possibilities in the work we do. Exploring all the way we can do better, continuously learning and improving all we do.

Sources:

https://bigpictureeducation.com/short-history-human-space-travel

https://www.thesun.co.uk/tech/3470209/virgin-galactic-cost-fly-space-richard-branson-spaceline-launch/

http://fortune.com/2017/08/24/spacex-spacesuit-elon-musk-design-space/

https://www.space.com/36267-blue-origin-space-capsule-interior-sneak-peek.html

Automotive Milestone

Dieselgate and the Death of Innovation

Friday, September 18, 2015. The US EPA issues a notice of violation of the Clear Air Act to the Volkswagen Group. This was the beginning of ‘Dieselgate’. Volkswagen was found to have intentionally cheated emissions testing to meet the US standards. The auto giant was eventually fined $2.8 billion by the US government. Skip forward to late 2016 and Audi announces it is withdrawing from the World Endurance Championship (WEC), which includes the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Dieselgate had blown a massive hole in the VW Group’s budget and Audi’s Le Mans stake, no longer being profitable, was axed.

Audi competed at Le Mans for 18 years between 1999 and 2016 and was on the podium for every single one of those races, including 13 victories. Not in all my memory has a sporting team been so devastatingly dominant for so many consecutive years. Porsche, the winningest team at Le Mans, returned prototype racing in 2014 and subsequently won in 2015 to 2017. Then, just over a month after their 19th Le Mans win in July 2017, Porsche announced they would be withdrawing from the WEC.

This wasn’t so much of a surprise though. Prototype racing had been playing with hybrid racing since 2012. However, in later years, electrical faults have been wreaking havoc and retirements on the race. Toyota had showed dominance in 2016 and lead for much of the race but, still in search of their first win at Le Mans, their car gave out on the last lap of the 24-hour race (no joke). Porsche ploughed through electrical issues every year since its return in 2014. It was not a surprise that they’d had enough.

So, why am I telling you this story?

Well, for over eighty years Le Mans has been the event, the race, the place, where manufacturers come to test their new innovations. Audi, Peugeot, Toyota, Nissan, Ferrari, Volvo, BMW. Porsche, Aston Martin, Chevrolet, McLaren, Mazda… they have all built their road car empires on the lessons learnt at Le Mans. Engines, suspension, aerodynamics, brakes… this technology is developed and tested at Le Mans (and the Nürburgring too, admittedly). So, the collapse of prototype racing at Le Mans, largely thanks to Volkswagen’s Dieselgate, will likely mark the decline in new technologies from the German cars.

Toyota remains and hopefully Mazda and Nissan return too. The future of the innovation lies where it has for decades… Japan.

The views expressed in this article are those of only of the author, Phillip Hamilton, not PBC itself.

Learning from past events.

In July 1981, the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Kansas City, Missouri hosted a large party in the atrium area of the hotel. During this event, a pair of suspended walkways on the 2nd and 4th floors collapsed leading to 216 injured and 114 dead. Following investigation, the cause was determined to be resulting from a seemingly minor change in the original design of the walkways proposed by the fabricator and approved by the structural engineering without due process.

The original design had the 2nd and 4th floor walkways supported by box girders suspended from a single pair of hanger rods passing through the 4th and 2nd floors and retained by nuts and washers. Each floor is independently loading the hanging rods. The proposed change split the hanger rods in two sets where the 4th floor was hung on the first set and the 2nd floor suspended from the 4th floor girders. This resulted in the 4th floor nuts and washers supporting the weight of the 2nd floor below.

This loaded the nuts and girders with at least twice its designed loading and subsequently, with a large crowd and live loading, the box girders split, slipped over the nuts and washers to the crowd below.

A good analogy is to consider two people hanging on a rope. In the first case each person is gripping onto the rope but in the second one person is gripping the ankles of the other. There is still the same amount of loading on the rope but the second case is much more precarious.

This seemingly minor change had a catastrophic result which would have been picked up by the engineers had they performed a review of the design or calculations.

As the general public, we don’t have a choice but to trust the constructed environment in which we live is safe and sound. When we as engineers sign off on a design we take on the responsibility for its safety. But to err is human so it is essential that we develop processes to catch the mistakes and reduce this risk.

The views expressed in this article are those of only of the author, Nadav Cohen, not PBC itself.

Energy Milestone

The Importance of Energy Storage in Delivering a Sustainable Future

Australia’s dependency on fossil fuels is often criticised – why do we rely on coal and natural gas to provide 91 % of the power to our country? Shouldn’t we be like Iceland, who use fossil fuels for less than 0.2 % of their power (relying on geothermal and hydroelectric), or Denmark, who can pull 39 % of their energy from the wind? How should we move forward as our resources are depleted, and we become starved for energy?

An oft-quoted answer is solar power. We are the sunburnt country – a dry climate and convenient latitude allow us many hours of high powered sunlight, to be harnessed by everything from rooftop panels to solar farms. Which is fantastic, right up until it’s cloudy. Or night. Or winter.

Inconsistent power supplies cannot meet the demands of a consistent society. It is not acceptable for the lights to go out when it is overcast. The elevator cannot stop working after sundown. We need some method of storing this energy – and to the surprise of many this simply doesn’t exist.

The current best method of storing electricity is through hydroelectric dams. When we have excess energy, we pump water up a hill. Then, when we are low on energy, we run the water back down, spin some turbines and supplement the grid. Pumped height storage is surprisingly efficient (over 70 %), however due to the huge infrastructure requirements, and geographical locations being a long way from the city, this only works in certain circumstances.

This problem can be solved with batteries. Batteries can store this excess energy when it is available, and release it when it is not. They are unlikely to achieve the same efficiency as hydro – but they are not geographically restricted, and can be installed without huge infrastructure commitments. Powerful batteries are the keystone in the arch of electricity generation, and as the technology develops we will see the harnessed capability of renewables explode.

If Tesla is able to bring their 100 MW array to South Australia – it will inspire confidence in this new technology. Implementing this will allow the development of renewable infrastructure around South Australia with incredible increases in efficiency, and push the energy policy of the world into the future.

Welcome Cyndy!

PBC is proud and excited to welcome a new addition to the team this week. Cyndy Reddy is our newest fire safety engineer. With a background in research and development, and a degree in materials engineering, she has a keen interest in finding ways to improve safety outcomes with the latest technologies.

Cyndy’s journey to PBC started a year ago, when she decided that she’d like to move into the building services space. Cyndy ultimately chose PBC because of our fun and innovative culture.

“From my first interview, I realised that PBC had a different mindset. It was such a fun atmosphere. Fire safety is all about protecting people, so what we’re doing is serious, but at PBC it was clear that I’d have the freedom to be creative and work on projects that challenge me, and that felt important,” Cyndy said.

So far, Cyndy is kicking goals in her new position, and our director Will couldn’t be more thrilled with her performance.

“Cyndy stands for everything that we value at PBC. She is constantly looking at things from a different perspective and loves a new challenge. She impressed us from the moment we met her, so I’m excited to have her on board,” Will said.

Cyndy is just one of many new recruits we’re hoping to add to the PBC team in 2018. For more information on our open positions, click here.

Diversity in STEM and Engineering – Why we LOVE it at PBC.

So, the more Engineers we have coming through universities the more innovation we’ll have. Sounds great. More of that please.

But our Engineering tribe – well, we have a look don’t we? Historically we were a rung up from the boiler suit types and Engineering has been known as ‘old, white, male and dry’, we’re being kind. When we look at the ABS stats it’s no wonder.

Men make up the overwhelming majority, 92% of those with higher level qualifications in Engineering, and when we look broader to STEM, 71% of people who work in STEM are born overseas. So, there is in fact a cultural diversity that is taking place in STEM and in Engineering, but it’s not enough.

Diversity is considered critical in industries where innovation is key – namely STEM and Engineering. The more diverse we are as an industry the more innovative we’ll be.

While we all want the best person for the job, the right skill set, the right culture fit, maybe our industry should also add a diversity filter into our hiring practices. Especially when we know how important diversity can be for engagement and the bottom line for business and industry. But without a compelling argument it won’t happen.

So here are 4 reasons to achieve diversity:

1. Diversity Broadens Our Vision:  One-sided perspectives smother innovation. Diverse teams give us a yin and yang, a renegade and a traditionalist. By bouncing ideas, and having various perceptions we can come to some robust decision making.
2. It Strengthens Capabilities: According to the Australian Government Workplace Gender Equality agency, businesses that value diversity “are better able to attract and retain high performers and improve operational performance.” Errr yes please!
3. It Drives Customer Satisfaction: We are all virtual, businesses can sell to customers everywhere and at any time. If businesses want to keep up must adapt to diverse client and customer demographic. If your employees don’t mirror that they are disconnected. 
4. Diversity Improves the Bottom Line:  Diverse businesses are more profitable. BANG! 

What’s your experience of diversity in Engineering? Or lack thereof?

Sources:

Australian Bureau of Statistics

http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Lookup/by%20Subject/4250.0.55.005~2010%E2%80%9311~Main%20Features~Demographic%20characteristics~5 

Diversity Council of Australia

https://www.dca.org.au/

Workplace Gender Equality Agency

https://www.wgea.gov.au/