Engineering Courses at Coalport Technical College, Blackstock

All courses are taught at Coalport Technical College, Blackstock and can be studied full-time or part-time. The minimum qualification for a place on a Level 2 course is four GCSEs (General certificate of secondary education) or a Level 1 Certificate.

LEVEL 1 Certificate in Engineering

This course teaches basic, key skills. It is suitable for students who left school early or have no qualifications. Selection will be based on the applicant ’s work experience and an interview.

LEVEL 2 Certificate in Electrical and Electronic Engineering

This course prepares students for jobs in radio and electronic |welding.

LEVEL 2 Certificate in Fabrication

This course prepares students for jobs in welding sheetmetal work, and general engineering.

LEVEL 2 Certificate in Mechanical Engineering

This course prepares students for a wide range of jobs including machining, fitting, tool-making, CAD (computere assisted design) and CAM (computere assisted modeling)

For more information please visit our website or return this form to the departmental secretary.

 

Vocabulary

4. Complete the definitions (1-6) below with the words from the text.

1. An                 is a person who wants a job or a place on a course.

2. An ______ is a formal meeting.

3. To ______ is to make something ready.

4. ______ are ways of sending information, news, etc. from one place to another.

5. ______ is joining metal by heating.

6. ______ means putting machinery in place.

Get real

5. Use the Internet to find college information or contact a college in your area and ask for leaflets about their courses. Is the information helpful? How do you get more details or apply for a course?

Text 6

1. Read the text. Use the dictionary if necessary. Do the translation of the text.

The 21^st century Engineer By Joseph Bordogna U. S. National Science Foundation

What does a 21st century engineer need to know? To attempt an answer, let’s briefly examine some of the new capabilities that are shaping the future of engineering: terascale, nanoscale, complexity, cognition, and holism.

Because science and technology are transforming forces, it will be these emerging fields, the unpredicted territories, that will change and expand our capabilities as engineers and innovators. Reasonable people will argue about whether or not these are the right ones, but they seem an appropriate starting point.

Terascale. This new capability takes us three orders of magnitude beyond present general-purpose and generally accessible computing capabilities. In the past, our system architectures could handle hundred of processors. Now we are working with systems of l0000 processors. In a very short time, we’ll be connecting millions of systems and billions of "information appliances" to the Internet, crossing that boundary of one trillion operations per second will launch us towards new frontiers.

For example, the protein-folding problem, the Holy Grail of computational biology, has withstood countless attacks, undertaken by many bright minds and argumented by years of scientific supercomputer time. On current systems, the simulation of a millisecond of protein folding the longest undertaken to date requires two months. In the real world, typical protein folding times are 20 ms. That means some 4O months of processor time are needed to run a full-scale simulation on current systems. With new terascale systems, we may be able to reduce this time one thousand -fold. That means one day instead of three years.

Nanoscale. This advance will take us three orders of magnitude below the size of most of today's human-made devices. Nanostructures are at the confluence of the down smallest of human-made devices and the large molecules of living systems, letting us imagine connecting machines of living cells. Nanotechnology lets us manipulate matter one atom or molecule at a time. It could lead to amazing breakthroughs- for example, to molecular computers that could store the equivalent of the U.S. Library of Congress in a device we could wear.

Complexity. Mitch Waldrop writes in his book “Complexity, about a point " where the components of a system never quite lock into place and yet never quite dissolve into turbulence, either..." If we look at science and engineering, we discern this zone of transformation at many places.

For example, researchers are trying to wed polymers to silicon-a marriage of opposites, because plastics are chaotic chains while silicon consists of orderly crystals. The resulting electronic devices would have marvelous flexibility, be less expensive to make, and, therefore, empower more people. Again, it comes down to managing order or disorder, all at once. Perhaps there ought to be a term for it-how about "chaotic engineering"?

Cognition. The dictionary defines cognition as " the mental process or facility by which knowledge is acquired». Because of new knowledge, methods and tools, I believe we are on the verge of a cognition revolution that may dwarf the information revolution. We are poised for many exciting new discoveries in this area. These breakthroughs will lay the foundation for progress in many areas of national importance, from teaching children how to read to understanding learning processes; from building human-like computers and robots to designing networks and system capable of cognition.

Holism. According to the dictionary, again, holism is "the concept that an entity is greater than merely the sum of its parts». It refers to new capabilities to put things together- how to integrate seemingly disparate things into a great whole. This includes social as well as physical and virtual engineering systems. I believe the hallmark of the modern engineer is the ability to see connections among seemingly disparate components, and to integrate them in ways that exceed the sum of their respective capacities.

All told, progress in these areas – tera, nano, complexity, cognition, and holism-will lay out the capacity for an integrated design field far beyond what is imaginable with today's technology.

Taken together, this means that the 21st century engineers will need to be astute makers, trusted innovators, agents of change, master integrators, enterprise enablers, technology stewards, and knowledge handlers. They will need more than first -rate technical and scientific skills. They will need to embrace complex systems and the issues they present, and reach the right decisions about how huge amounts of time, money, people, knowledge, and technology are tasked to a common end.

IEEE SPECTRUM. January 2OO1

 

2. Tell your teacher or your partner what you have learnt about engineering.

UNIT 2. ROBOTS

· Focus: The types and uses of modern robots

· Grammar focus:The Infinitive(revision),The Complex Object

· Skills focus: Reading for specific information to know about the modern types of robots, the fields they are used in, developing speaking skills

TEXT A

Vocabulary

to manipulate                – манипулировать; умело обращаться, управлять

precise way                   – точный способ

joint                               – соединение, место соединения; паз, шарнир

pneumatic motor           – пневмодвигатель

actuator                         – исполнительный механизм; привод, уп-равляющее устройство

gripper                           – захват, захватывающее приспособление, захватное устройство

end effector                  – рабочий орган (робота)

infrared controls            – инфракрасные элементы управления

to transmit information – передавать информацию

to adjust movements     – корректировать движения, приспосабливать, приводить в соответствие

preset order                   – заранее установленный порядок

manual manipulator      – манипулятор с ручным управлением

fixed-sequence robot    – робот с фиксированной последовательностью движений

variable-sequence robot – робот с изменяемой последовательностью движений

playback robot              – робот с воспроизведением программы (вводимой с внешнего носителя)

numerically-controlled robot – робот с числовым программным управлением

punched paper tape       – перфорированная бумажная лента, бумажная перфолента

intelligent robot             – интеллектуальный робот

sensing device               – датчик, чувствительный элемент

analytical capability      – аналитическая способность

robotic arm                    – манипулятор, рука робота

planetary rover              – планетарный вездеход, ровер, мобильный аппарат

remotely-operated vehicle – дистанционно-управляемое транспортное средство, (тж. летательный аппарат)

space probe                   – космическая исследовательская ракета

hazardous material        – опасный, взрывчатый материал

Artificial Intelligence     – искусственный интеллект

 

Before you start

1. Work in pairs. Try to write a definition of the word “robot”.

 

Reading

2. Robots are widely-used in all fields of our life. Read part one of the text Robots, androids, AI and

· compare your definition of a robot with the definition given in it;

· complete the article with words from the text.

ACTION ROBOT TO COPY BRAIN Scientists at Aberystwyth University are working on a machine which they hope will recognize objects with cameras that will work as (1)…………., and retrieve objects with an arm that will be its (2)…………….. Although the arm will have (3)…………… that will link its muscles and an electric motor that will be the (4)…………., this new (5)…………… won’t move like a human, i.e. won’t be like the (6)…………... of science-fiction films: forget Star Wars’ C3PO. It will be desk based: no walking, or climbing stairs. The team hopes to discover how the brain performs ‘multi-tasking’ and to use that information to develop the (7)………….. ………….. to create a robot that can think for itself.

3. Read part two of the text and match the category of a robot with its characteristics.

 

1. variable-sequence robot   2. intelligent robot     3. manual manipulator     4. fixed-sequence robot   5. numerically-controlled robot     6. playback robot

a. moves from one position to another according to numerical instructions; b. carries out hand-and-arm functions to hold and move objects, remotely controlled by a person; c. performs operations in a preset order but can be easily reprogrammed for a different sequence of them; d. repeats a sequence of movements and operations first ‘taught’ by manual manipulator and stored in the robot’s memory unit; e. can decide its course of action on the basis of its sensing devices and analytical capability; f. performs a series of operations in a preset order, always in the same series of locations in space.

 

4. Read part three of the text and speak on the diagram using given key words.

 

5. Read part four of the text and answer the following questions:

1. What does “Artificial Intelligence” mean?

2. What can androids do? How do they look like?

3. What can androids “learn” from the environment?

4. What is the function of the expert systems?

5. What is the purpose of designing neural networks?

6. What do neural networks use to imitate the functions of brain cells?

Robots, androids, AI

Robots and automata

A robot is a computer-programmed machine that performs actions, manipulates objects, etc. in a precise and, in many cases, repetitive way.

Robots, may be automata, or man-like machines, whose basic components are similar to a human body.

· They have mechanical links, joints, which connect their movable parts.

· Their heart and muscles are the electric or pneumatic motors or systems, the actuators, which create the movement.

· Robots also have hands, usually tools or grippers, called end effectors.

· They may be equipped with cameras or infrared controls, sensors, which transmit information to the central system in order to locate objects or adjust movements.

· Finally, robots depend on a computer system, the brain that directs the actions.

Categories of robots

There are six categories of robots: (1) the manual manipulator, remotely controlled by a person, which carries out hand-and-arm functions to hold and move objects; (2) the fixed - sequence robot, which performs a series of operations in a preset order, always in the same series of locations in space; (3) the variable-sequence robot, which operates in the same manner as a fixed-sequence robot but can easily be reprogrammed for a different sequence of operations; (4) the playback robot, which repeats a sequence of movements and operations that are first “taught” by manual movement of a manipulator and stored in the robot’s memory unit; (5) the numerically-controlled robot, which moves from one position to another according to numerical instructions in such forms as punched paper tapes or cards; and (6) the intelligent robot, an advanced type that can decide its course of action on the basis of its sensing devices and analytical capability.

Uses of robots

The word robot comes from robota, meaning compulsory labour in Czech; similarly, robots are helpful in activities which are too dangerous, too boring or too precise for human beings.

Robots in industry

Robotic arms, telescopic or bending arms, are widely used in the automobile industry to paint, weld and assemble car parts. Robots are used
in electronic assembly of microchips where precision of movements is essential.

Robots and health

Surgical robots, which help human surgeons, are programmed to assist in very delicate microsurgery operations or mimic the surgeons’ movements in telesurgery operations.

Robots and space

Planetary rovers, remotely-operated vehicles, and space probes, unpiloted spaceships, are used to explore space.

Robots and safety

Mobile robots, vehicles controlled by human operators, are used for defusing bombs and handling hazardous materials.

Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the science that tries to recreate the human thought process and build machines that perform tasks that normally require human intelligence. It has several applications.

Androids are anthropomorphic robots designed to look and behave like a human being. Most androids can walk, talk and understand human speech. Some react to gestures and voice inflection. Some “learn” from the environment: they store information and adapt their behaviour according to a previous experience.

Expert systems is the term given to computer software that mimics human reasoning, by using a set of rules to analyze data and reach conclusions. Some expert systems help doctors diagnose illnesses based on symptoms.

Neural networks are a new concept in computer programming, designed to replicate the human ability to handle ambiguity by learning from trial and error. They use silicon neurons to imitate the functions of brain cells and usually involve a great number of processors working at the same time.

 

Writing and Speaking

6. Make a list of other uses of robots at home and at work.

7. Design a robot to do a dangerous or boring job for you. Draw a rough sketch, make notes about how it works and present your ideas to the class.

 

Speaking

8. Speak on the advantages and disadvantages of using different types of robots.