Friday 28 October 2016

ENGINEERING AND ENGINEERING TECHNOLOGY


Engineering and engineering technology are separate but closely related professional areas that differ in:
·         Curricular Focus – Engineering programs often focus on theory and conceptual design, while engineering technology programs usually focus on application and implementation. Engineering programs typically require additional, higher-level mathematics, including multiple semesters of calculus and calculus-based theoretical science courses, while engineering technology programs typically focus on algebra, trigonometry, applied calculus, and other courses that are more practical than theoretical in nature.
·         Career Paths – Graduates from engineering programs are called engineers and often pursue entry-level work involving conceptual design or research and development. Many continue to graduate-level work in engineering. Graduates of four-year engineering technology programs are called technologists, while graduates of two-year engineering technology programs are called technicians. These professionals are most likely to enter positions in sectors such as construction, manufacturing, product design, testing, systems monitoring, evaluation and control, diagnosis, maintenance, technical services, sales and project management. Those who pursue further study often consider systems engineering, facilities management, or business administration.
·         In Kenya, engineering and engineering technology programs are reviewed and accredited by two separate accreditation bodies; the Engineers Board of Kenya (EBK) and the Kenya Engineering Technologists Board (KETB). The functions and mandate of KETB and EBK are contained in the laws of Kenya; The Engineering Technology Act No. 23 of 2016 and The Engineers Act No. 3 of 2012 respectively.


Friday 21 October 2016

Companies NEED Employees on Social Media

3 Reasons Why Companies NEED Employees on Social Media

1. It can help you weed out disengaged employees.
When you encourage your company to engage on social media, you’ll quickly (and clearly) see which employees are sharing company stories with their social following, and which ones aren’t.
“It could be a red flag that they are potentially unhappy in their job,” wrote LinkedIn Influencer J.T. O’Donnell.“Which means, it’s a chance for you and your management team to find out why.”
2. It can improve your employee referral program.
People are always more motivated to do something when there is an incentive. Reward the employees who passionately promote and brag about company to their friends by making it easier for them to get referral credit.
“One way to make it work better is to give employees a way to share referral links and get credit for promoting your company on their social channels,” said O’Donnell.
3. It will remind employees why you’re a good employer.
Having access to great stories about your Talent Brand not only gives employees a reason to brag, but it also reminds them what makes their company such a great place to work. That means, this strategy not only attracts new talent to your company, but it also helps retain the talent you already have – Sounds like a win-win to me!


Trust and Fear Vs Individual Growth!

Trust and Fear Vs Individual Growth!
Published on October 4, 2016

Key to understanding life at work is to understand the relationship between power, fear and trust; many Organizations are run through fear. Trust is a strong fuel source for any organization, but it is hard for some leaders to build and hard to maintain trust. It is easier and faster to lead a team through fear than to build trust into a workplace.
To build trust, you have to know yourself and you have to tell the truth about things that many leaders and your peers don’t like to talk about. You have to talk about the air quality and the feelings of the people around you — as well as your own feelings. You have to be able to talk about your fears, and that is something that too many leaders cannot or will not do.
Fear is another power source that we have to understand. Many organizations run almost completely on fear. Their employees are motivated mostly by the understanding that if they don’t do what they’re expected to do, "they’ll get fired."bare minimum level.
Everybody knows their place in the organizational chart, and they know that one of their principal responsibilities is to keep their boss from getting upset with them. Staying on your manager’s good side is a very different mission with breaking down whatever barriers that stand between your company and its goals!
Pleasing the boss is such a fundamental responsibility that it can dwarf a person’s ability to do real job to their capacity. This is a problem in large and small organizations. Managers who don’t feel powerful in themselves use the power of their position to force people to bend to their will.
Management jobs come with a built-in level of power and control. This is one reason so many unequipped-for-leadership people end up in management positions. They seek those positions for the power of the job title and use them to suppress potential staff.
The petty bureaucratic power that a manager wields by virtue of his or her job title seems to fill the hole in the fearful manager’s stomach. When you see managers throwing their weight around and treating employees badly, it’s because they don’t feel good about themselves. Some managers are so fearful that they see every competent person around them as a threat. If you succeed too well, you could threaten the manager’s power or his or her ability to control you. A fearful manager wouldn’t like that.
Your boss can get spooked easily. You’ll know that your manager is on edge is when you see their efforts to block your forward motion, their words and actions intended to make you feel bad about yourself or their willingness to criticize you in front of other people.
These are all techniques fearful managers use to keep your flame from growing. If your flame kept growing and you started to feel really powerful, you might do or say something that would challenge your boss — and for a fearful manager, that would be a disaster to him!
Real power is not in a job title. It’s in a person, or on a team. Fake power is the kind that other people bestow on you. Real power is something you grow in yourself, step by step, as you find your backbone and use your voice.
Here are five signs your boss is freaked out by your competence and/or confidence.
 1. When you have a great idea at work, your boss either stomps on the idea or steals it and calls it his or her own idea.
2. Your boss tries to restrict your access to higher-level leaders and people in other departments. Your boss tells you to funnel all communications through him or her, rather than directly.
3. Your boss used to compliment and acknowledge your good work, but now he or she seems to find fault with everything you do. Other people in your workplace praise you — but your boss never does!
4. You and your manager used to strategize and make plans together. Now you are shut out and can hardly get access to your boss.
5. Your manager takes away your highest-impact and highest-visibility projects and gives them to other people.
Don’t feel bad if you recognize yourself in this list — many people including me have walked the same path! Keep your cool. Don’t twist yourself into funny shapes trying to assuage your boss’s fears. It won’t work.
At the same time, don’t engage with him or her and don’t get into battles. Your best path undoubtedly lies elsewhere. While you’re working at your current job, keep in mind that you will always run into barking dogs on your path. You don’t have to stop and bark back at all of them!

LINK


Top 5 Signs You Should Quit Your Job

For several decades, it was normal to hear that someone would stay at a company for their entire career. An employee that stayed with an employer for more than 20 years was not uncommon. Now a day, we have seen a definite shift in the movement of employees from one job to the next. Some may point to a lack of loyalty from both the employer and the employee, and yet others may say that the online age has created more opportunity and aggressive recruiting. Regardless of the root cause of this phenomenon, it cannot be argued that most employees will change several jobs in their lifetime. However, many people may be afraid or fearful to leave their current position even when all of the warning signs are present. Here are the top 5 signs you should leave your job.
1) You Hate Going to Work
You may think this would be an obvious statement but you would be shocked at the number of people that I have encountered that continue to go to their job but dreading going there every day. When I worked at a coffee shop for several years serving customers, I would hear the groans about the "Monday blues" and how Wednesday was "hump day". I never understood this attitude because I was fortunate enough to work at a job that I loved and the people always made it a great experience. One of the best words of wisdom I had from a mentor was to always find a job where you enjoyed the people and purpose almost above all things. If you find yourself hating the company and going into work, it's a very good sign you should start looking elsewhere. A constant complaint that I have heard when doing career consulting is that the person loves the people they work with but hate their boss or the company. Once again, if the direction, purpose or integrity of the company does not match your beliefs or values, it is a good sign that it is time to leave.
2) You Don't Respect Your Boss or They Don't Respect You
We've all had times when we have disagreed with our bosses. One of the best bosses I have ever had was probably one that I argued with the most. There were times where we would be so upset at each other, I felt I would quit on the spot several times and likewise, he probably wanted to fire me several times. However, at the end of the day, I knew that he was just pushing me to be a better leader and to stretch me. When he asked me to take a promotion, I was shocked but he let me know that he respected me and thought I would be the best person for the job. Funny thing is that during this entire time, I never spoke bad about him even though I was upset at him. There is a clear distinction between liking and respecting your leader. Respect allows for disagreements, differences of opinions and frustration but the recipient will always feel like they have a voice in the matter. Disrespect occurs when one gets shut down and believes that they have no say in any issue and are constantly made to feel as though they are lower than someone else.
3) You Find Yourself Searching for Jobs Constantly
Looking for another job or position in a company is completely normal. Everyone gets the urge to "see what is out there" and even go for an interview now and then. In fact, I have told all of the managers that have worked for me in the past to go and interview with another company 2 times per year. The reason for asking them to do this was to get a sense of what other companies were offering, make sure that they were keeping their interview skills relevant and lastly to ensure that they were pushing themselves to be better. If another company was going to pay them more and give them a better opportunity, I wanted to have them take it. However, if you find yourself constantly doing this and searching more than a couple of times per month, it may be a good time to get some help from a recruiter or career consultant so that you can leave your job quicker. One woman that I helped out recently was struggling with this very problem. One of the exercises I had her adopt was to focus her career path and strategically apply for 2 jobs/week rather than doing blanket resume applications. Sure enough, she was able to find another job that suited her better and currently loves her new position!
4) You are Envious When Others Leave
Most of us will be happy when we hear of a fellow peer or employee that has accepted a position at another job or company. If we are honest with ourselves, we have all had times when we have felt a bit envious as well. Perhaps we've been in a position for a long time and we may have even outperformed this certain individual only to find that they have "passed" us on the career ladder. Be careful with this sign as it may lead to potential bitterness in your performance and I have witnessed some great employees hit a slump because of this. Remember that you are not entitled to anything and that no one is stopping you from leaving yourself. The best thing to do when you see this sign is to either realize you want to stay and will do your best or to leave yourself.
5) You Experience Issues Away from Work
The greatest sign you should leave your job is that you experience issues away from your workplace. Perhaps you are not sleeping well, are showing increasing signs of stress that is beginning to affect your health, your family and your social life. When work becomes so engulfing that it takes away from these important aspects of life, it is time to walk away. One of the most courageous friends that I know is a longtime friend that studied hard to become a lawyer. She was very successful in her practice and was very good at her job but she had lost an immense amount of weight and dealt with so many stressful aspects of her career. One day, she let me know that she quit her field completely. Today, she is creating furniture and working at other jobs and is amazing at both! She smiles constantly and is a different person! I know that financial obligations and pressures contribute to people having a hard time with being able to leave but ask yourself if you lose your health, family, faith and friends, what profit have you really made? When a palliative nurse recorded the top 5 regrets of the dying, she listed them as:
1. I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.
2. I wish I hadn’t worked so hard.
3. I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings.
4. I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.
5. I wish that I had let myself be happier.

Perhaps you have been or know someone that has been contemplating leaving their role. See if these signs exist and if most of them do, it is probably a good sign it is time to take the next step. Please comment and share as I would love to hear any stories or thoughts as we navigate through this journey together!

The 8 Tremendous Ways to Develop a Growth Mindset

The 8 Tremendous Ways to Develop a Growth Mindset

The truth is having a fixed mindset as the name implies, increases the limitations you have in your life.
Optimists believe the glass is half full whilst pessimists believe it's empty. The same can be said for those with a fixed mindset vs a growth mindset.
The expert in mindset is Dr. Carol S. Dweck, a Stanford University psychologist. Dweck tells us that those with a fixed mindset firmly believe that intellect is static whilst those with a growth mindset strongly affirm that intellect evolves.
In Dweck's book: 'Mindset - Changing the way you think to fulfill your potential'. She explains the differences between the lives of those with a fixed mindset and growth mindset.
Developing A Growth Mindset
One's mindset stems from our own set of powerful beliefs. Thankfully, beliefs can be changed when they no longer serve us or enable us to achieve our goals.
After decades of research on the mindset, Dweck explains that:
'The view you adopt for yourself profoundly affects the way you lead your life'.
I would like to share with you the 8 tremendous techniques for developing a growth mindset.
1. Create A New Compelling Belief
Create a new compelling belief by believing your talents and skills can be honed by applying oneself.
It is your consistent effort and enjoyment of one's chosen path in life that illuminates the road to mastery.
2. View Failure In A Different Light
Failure is the time to apply extra effort to significantly improve your results. Failure is what you do and understanding what you can learn from it. Remember, it is not who you are as a human being.
This quote says it all perfectly, Jackie Joyner-Kersee, a track and field athlete and Olympic gold medalist explains:
'I derive just as much happiness from the process as from the results. I don't mind losing as long as I see improvement...If I lose, I just back to the track and work some more'.
3. Sky Rocket Your Self-Awareness
Become acutely aware of your many gifts and talents. Fully comprehend your key strengths and weaknesses.
Ask others for feedback such as your closest friends, family members, boss and colleagues as they can offer slightly different views and give you an overall perspective on what to focus on and areas for development.
4. Become A Curious Learner
Act like a child does on a daily basis, live in wonderment and discover the beauty of life. Decide today, to continually focus on learning and growing.
Begin by asking more questions and being more curious about everyone you meet, the journey they have been on and what they can teach you.
For every person I have met, every experience I have had teaches me about the world, myself and others. It is one of the many delights within this world for the unquenchable thirst for knowledge helps me to move forward with undeniable gusto, unbounding love and provides the deepest sense of appreciation for those who have touched my heart.
5. Challenges Are Your New Best Friend
As in life, it is the never ending mountain ranges like the highest mountain in the world, Mauna Kea.
When one chooses to climb the mountain, they must overcome the insurmountable challenges in order to get to the top. They choose to risk their life, help others in their journey, and become indestructible in body and mind.
Those with a growth mindset excel with challenges. Challenges propel them forward towards their goals, it is the fuel that inevitably helps them rise to the top.
It is all about learning and taking positive action time and time again. No matter how far they fall, they continue to get back up to begin playing the game once more.
6. Love Takes You To The Top
Those with a growth mindset whom naturally love what they do, rise to the top more organically.
With some of them having no aspirations to go there, it is purely a spin-off from doing what they absolutely love and continuing to do so with all of their heart and soul even when faced with adversity and challenges.
7. Tenacity That Ignites
The tenacity forms part of their character and is an essential ingredient in becoming unstoppable. Giving up is not part of their vocabulary, they have a goal and won't stop until they arrive.
Their tenacity is an essential ingredient to one's success, without it one will falter, slip and inevitably fall to the lowest levels. This is what separates a novice from a champion.
Champions simply keep going, the man whom immediately springs to mind and defied all odds to become a 3 time Formula One Winner - Austrian born Andreas Nikolaus Lauda. Rush is one of my favorite movies for this very reason.
8. Massively Inspired By Others
Those with a growth mindset love to see others reach the echelons of success.
This add more fuel to their blazing fire that is alight within and helps them continue their journey. Watching others succeed liberates their soul as to the possibilities of life.
Their genuine happiness and excitement for others unwittingly attracts and returns success back to them. For one can never receive what they resent.
The bottom line is like all wonderful things in life it takes time just as day moves into night, the moon shines bright and the stars light up the sky.
In similar fashion, developing a growth mindset is based on your willingness and commitment to change your most powerful beliefs to wake up to become a new, better version of yourself. It is now your time to make that decision, so you can lead an incredible life tomorrow.


Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS) - the unstoppable future of aviation and its impact on ATSEP

Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS) - the unstoppable future of aviation and its impact on ATSEP
Carlos Viegas IFATSEA - SESAR SJU Liason

As all who read last year’s instalment in this ATSEP magazine will remember, it was promised that a second instalment would bring into focus the introduction
to the subject of RPAS then made. The time spanning these two articles has been well spent; at the time for example when we spoke of the need to have mandatory detect and avoid systems and software on all small RPAS and very especially the line of sight variety, the response at the time was: “too heavy, too expensive…not possible!”. Today all are unanimous; yes, it is absolutely necessary and unavoidable. This can be used to gage the extreme speed at which the RPAS are being understood and their unstoppable potential is being made clear. But…as always the aeronautical community and its institutions need to have a cool collective head and look further down the time line to be able to regulate adequately, this is no easy task because the regulator for the first time is put at the door of an as yet unseen scenario:  ...the regulator from now on needs to be proactive in the case of RPAS but also in all other highly automated ATM systems. Tradition dictated that regulation would come into force in a scenario of well-known variables which were not foreseen to change in the near future… ...that was until we all started to think of new highly automated ATM systems deployment. Then we realized that today change in ATM is possible and demanded at a breakneck speed, so the regulator needs to adapt its regulated strategy too and deployment needs to give the regulator feedback on issues found in change management so that regulation may be reviewed, this is an endless
cycle from now on. Another issue of concern…and this might be odd coming from an engineer, who is above all a concerned human being, we cannot let ourselves be driven by our capability to produce new and cheap solutions…with no time to test them thoroughly and certainly no time to evaluate what are the consequences of a huge paradigm shift: integrating an ever increasing number of RPAS in non-segregated airspace. The economic appeal is easy to see but the initial investment to guarantee safety and security to all RPAS in their access to non-segregated airspace is not trivial as is the method in which this takes place.
As yet no clear answers come up on how the communications, telemetry and payload of RPAS that take off from platforms not situated at airports are controlled or logged. Recent documents state that the operator of the RPAS is responsible…. Well yes, we know that! it would always be so. Probably the most important question would be: does he care? Plug and Fly springs to mind as a solution to the communications and telemetry part but the payload issue is clearly very different and more complex. Small RPAS cannot be seen isolated from the universe in which they fly, the dimensions of these, while small, interacts with huge and passenger carrying airliners and as such represent a huge potential to disrupt safe and secure passenger carrier operations. This is of course only true if proper regulatory measures are not put in place before they take to the skies in droves. The Impact on ATSEP roles and responsibilities:
This depends hugely on how and what technologies are used to integrate the digital communication network that will serve all the air systems. If these are integrated with other highly automated ATM systems in a future SMC, then the ATSEP have their work cut out for sure. The monitoring and control of this network as well as its systems health management is critical to maintain the RPAS operating safely and predictably. This is true only for the small systems

foreseen to fly below approach level because above that the RPAS will have to take off and land in airports due to their dimension and this means that they will use the same systems that the manned aircraft use. In both case it is however very important to retain the fact that the criticality of the ground systems that the ATSEP monitor and control is of a very much higher level than is true today.

AIRCRAFT SAFETY IN CYBER RISK ENVIRONMENT

PLANE SAFE? CYBER ISSUES
By Jeremy Wagstaff
Security researcher Chris Roberts made headlines last month when he was hauled off a plane in New York by the FBI and accused of hacking into flight controls via his underseat entertainment unit. Other security researchers say Roberts - who was quoted by the FBI as saying he once caused "a sideways movement of the plane during a flight" - has helped draw attention to a wider issue: that the aviation industry has not kept pace with the threat hackers pose to increasingly computer-connected airplanes. Through his lawyer, Roberts said his only interest had been to "improve aircraft security. "This is going to drive change. It will force the hand of organizations (in the aviation industry)," says Jonathan Butts, a former US Air Force researcher who now runs a company working on IT security issues in aviation and other industries. As the aviation industry adopts communication protocols similar to those used on the Internet to connect cockpits, cabins and ground controls, it leaves itself open to the vulnerabilities bedeviling other industries - from finance to oil and gas to medicine.
More worrying than people like Roberts, said Mark Gazit, CEO of Israel-based security company ThetaRay, are the hackers probing aircraft systems on the quiet. His team found Internet forum users claiming to have hacked, for example, into cabin food menus, ordering free drinks and meals. That may sound harmless enough, but Gazit has seen a similar pattern of trivial exploits evolve into more serious breaches in other industries. "It always starts this way," he says.
Anxious Airlines
The red flags raised by Roberts' case are already worrying some airlines, says Ralf Cabos, a Singapore-based specialist in inflight entertainment systems. One airline official at a recent trade show, he said, feared the growing trend of offering inflight WiFi allowed hackers to gain remote access to the plane. Another senior executive demanded that before discussing any sale, vendors must prove their inflight entertainment systems do not connect to critical flight controls. Panasonic Corp and Thales SA, whose inflight entertainment units Roberts allegedly compromised, declined to answer detailed questions on their systems, but both said they take security seriously and their devices were certified as secure. Airplane maker Boeing Co says that while such systems do have communication links, "the design isolates them from other systems on planes performing critical and essential functions." European rival Airbus said its aircraft are designed to be protected from "any potential threats coming from the In-Flight- Entertainment System, be it from Wi-Fi or compromised seat electronic boxes." Steve Jackson, head of security at Qantas Airways Ltd, said the airline's "extremely stringent security measures" would be "more than enough to mitigate any attempt at remote interference with aircraft systems."
Circumventing
But experts question whether such systems can be completely isolated. An April report by the U.S. General Accountability Office quoted four cybersecurity experts as saying firewalls "could be hacked like any other software and circumvented," giving access to cockpit avionics - the machinery that pilots use to fly the plane. That itself reflects doubts about how well an industry used to focusing on physical safety understands cybersecurity, where the threat is less clear and constantly changing. The U.S. National Research Council this month issued a report on aviation communication systems saying that while the Federal Aviation Administration, the U.S. regulator, realized cybersecurity was an issue, it "has not been fully integrated into the agency's thinking, planning and efforts." The chairman of the research team, Steven Bellovin of Columbia University, said the implications were worrying, not just for communication systems but for the computers running an aircraft. "The conclusion we came to was they just didn't understand software security, so why would I think they understand software avionics?" he said in an interview.
Slow Response
This, security researchers say, can be seen in the slow response to their concerns.
The International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) last year highlighted long-known vulnerabilities in a new aircraft positioning communication system, ADS-B, and called for a working group to be set up to tackle them. Researchers like Haines have shown that ADS-B, a replacement for radar and other air traffic control systems, could allow a hacker to remotely give wrong or misleading information to pilots and air traffic controllers. And that's just the start. Aviation security consultant Butts said his company, QED Secure Solutions, had identified vulnerabilities in ADS-B components that could give an attacker access to critical parts of a plane. But since presenting his findings to vendors,
manufacturers and the industry's security community six months ago he's had little or no response. "This is just the tip of the iceberg," he says.


Passenger plane lands at the wrong airport after pilots ignore their cockpit equipment

By Hazel Plushtravel writer 
12 OCTOBER 2016 • 12:56PM

The pilots of an Indonesian passenger plane landed at the wrong airport, ignoring their cockpit systems which they thought were faulty – only to find that their own navigational skills were wrong.
The captain and first officer of the Sriwijaya Air flight thought that they had spotted their destination airport from the air, so disregarded the information provided by the cockpit equipment, and landed at the airfield – but quickly realised that it was the wrong airport.
Flight SJ-21 had departed from the city of Medan, on the east coast of North Sumatra, and was scheduled to arrive in Minangkabau International Airport in Padang in Western Sumatra. However, the plane’s 96 passengers were forced to disembark at Tabing Airport, a military airfield which hadn’t been used by commercial aircraft since 2005.
The incident occurred in 2012, but the final National Transportation Safety Committee report has only just been published this week.
According to the report, the pilots called up Minangkabau International air traffic control to request a landing on runway 33. The control tower gave the go-ahead, and the pilots reported that they had the runway in their sights and would make a visual approach. On landing, they called the tower to confirm that they had arrived – but Minangkabau’s controllers saw that no plane had landed on runway 33.
The pilots called the tower to confirm that they had arrived – but the air traffic controllers saw that no plane had landed
The pilot [then] reported to Minang tower that they had landed at Tabing Airfield,” the report states. “Referred to the information provided by the pilot, the Minang Tower verified and realized that there was no aircraft on runway 33. The Minang Tower then coordinated with the Tabing Airfield authority and the district manager of the aircraft operator.”
But this wasn’t the first time Tabing Airport had been mistaken for Minangkabau International Airport. The two airports are just eight miles apart, and the official airport information “plate” – a map and chart with landing and departure instructions, which every pilot must carry – warns that Tabing “can be mistaken for Minangkabau.” However, the pilots maintain that the instruction on their plate “was not clearly readable”.
Neither of the pilots had flown to Minangkabau before, and the report stated that the unclear information given by the landing chart may also have reduced “the pilot awareness to the adjacent airport with similar runway direction and dimension”.
Since the incident the aircraft operator has issued six safety actions and the airport operator has issued two measures to improve safety. In addition, the National Transportation Safety Committee has issued the aircraft operator, air navigation provider and the Directorate General of Civil Aviation with air safety recommendations.
Telegraph Travel has contacted Sriwijaya Air for additional comments on the incident.