Component Three

Provide a forecast of what the workforce demand would be over a five-year period to produce and market your team�s technical application or process. Include the impact such production would have on the marketplace.

In America, the demand for raw, natural resources is high. Catering to both the U.S. and nations across the globe, we are obligated to deliver these items in a timely fashion and with maximum efficiency. Given these aspects of trade, we are faced with challenges in providing the best possible source of transportation that will not only be beneficial in a monetary sense, but will also have positive environmental impacts. What better candidate than barges?

Fact: "Barges safely and efficiently move fully 15 percent of our nation�s freight for less than 2 percent of the total bill"� and "move more than 800 million tons of cargo each year!"

The following chart shows the major markets impacted by the barge industry on the Mississippi River and Illinois Waterway during 2000.

The employment of barges is fundamental in our prosperous economy and our competitive force in the global market. In fact, as depicted in the subsequent graphs below, the entire barge industry has grown from moving 667 million tons in 1980 to moving 811 million tons in the year 2000.

The aid of our apparatus will prove to make a more productive and booming market. These two following diagrams show, in short, the extrapolation of corn and soybeans for the years to come as well as previous ones. This is in concurrence with our predictions.

Fact: "A study by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers notes that traffic on the Upper Mississippi River will steadily increase between the years 2000 and 2050 growing by about 63 percent over those years. The same forecast predicts an average growth rate of 2 percent per year on the Upper Mississippi River during the remainder of the 1990s."

The North American market for the carbon material industry is projected to increase in sales from $639 million from the present to about $878 million in 2011. In total, the North American Market�s carbon industry as a whole increased by 6.6%. reaching $2.2 billion in 2011. Based on an increase in North America's carbon industry, we believe our product will spur additional demand, increase profits and the growth of the industry, because it will incourage other developers to use carbon fiber in non-traditional applications. The graph below shows the predicted increase in North America's market for advanced structural carbon materials.

Give two examples of undergraduate or graduate degree programs in science or engineering that directly relate to your team's NCT technical application. For each program, be sure to include the following:
   the URL address of the institution,
   the department (for example, chemical engineering, electronic engineering) where the program is offered, and
   a brief description of the program of study.

The United States Naval Academy houses a whole host of maritime courses that are aimed at the engineering aspect of maritime activity. In addition to their core curriculum of: engineering, natural sciences, humanities and social sciences, professional and leadership skills, which is aimed at teaching the skills required to create competent officers for the Marine Corp and the Navy, they offer courses that range from the basics of ship design to advanced material mechanics.

• Principles of Ship Performance and Naval Architecture
• Ship Structures, Hydrostatics and Stability
• Naval Materials Science and Engineering
• Ship Design
• Navigation and Piloting

A major goal of the Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering program is:

You will be an engineer, a naval architect, and an individual who is capable of finding viable economical and technical solutions to a variety of complex and open-ended engineering problems. Such as: How to safely and efficiently move a variety of cargoes across the world�s oceans (cruise liners, tankers, containerships, heavy lift ships, tug-barge units, etc.).

The USNA�s courses would be vital for one interested in the modification, production, or repair of our technology.

The Maine Maritime Academy specializes in educating individuals in the feild of pioloting and maintaining maritime vessels. Their merchant marine acadmey trains persons in two aspects of maritime service, that of pioliting a vessel or servicing and maintaining a vessel. The Maine Maritime acadmey strives to continue to provide the highest quality maritime, engineering, engineering technology, marine science, and logistics education with facilities and laboratories that are at the leading edge of technological innovation. Listed below are courses that one intrested in pioloting a vessel using our device would benefit from taking:

• Marine Engineering Fundamentals
• Intro to Marine Transportation
• Ship Handling
• Seamanship
• Navigation

The Department of Mechanical Engineering at the Massachusettes Institute of Technology offers programs in Ocean Science and Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, and Ocean Engineering.

• Acoustics and Sensing
• Structural Mechanics
• Sonar, Radar, and Seismic Signal Processing
• Marine Hydrodynamics
• Design and Manufacturing
• System Dynamics and Control
• Hydrodynamics

The above listed courses focus in on the technical sensing component of our device. These background provided in these courses would be vital to operating, future refinements, and troubleshooting our device.

The University of Illinois is one of our countries top schools. Ranked as one of the top 50 national universities as well as one of the top 10 public national universities 2005 U.S. News and World Report College Guide, this university offers courses in practically any field. Attending this college has secured futures for several our alumni and still active students. Ninety-five percent of Illinois seniors who seek employment have jobs within nine months of graduation, and 40 percent have them before their senior year ends.

For our particular purpose our project will require someone very familiar in the field of material engineering. It would be best that the student have both an undergraduate and graduate degree. To receive a degree in material engineering undergraduate students must take part in degree related courses. These courses will involve several math and science. These include course in:

• Material strength
• Structural analysis
• Properties of materials
• Materials for manufacturing
• Water resources engineering
• Graduate courses include:
• Structural dynamics

http://www.uic.edu/depts/grad/programs/cme.shtml
http://www.uic.edu/depts/enga/welcome/curriculum/UGCat_Civil_2005-07.htm
http://www.uic.edu/depts/cme/index.htm
http://www.uic.edu/ucat/courses/CME
http://www.uic.edu/ucat/courses/CEMM ( picture image)

Develop an idea for a new science and/or engineering degree program that might emerge given the advancements in scientific knowledge that the team has identified. Provide a title and 100-word description of this new degree program.

Our research will hopefully instill a better understanding of the mechanics and materials involved in marine transportation to people interested in it. We have developed a comprehensive degree program for those who wish to seek further education in this particular field; that field being marine technology. The degree program, the MTSMP (Marine Technology and Sciences and Material Processes) goes as follows:

Year One

1. Basic Hydromechanics
2. Electricity and Electronics
3. Hydrodynamics
4. Naval Materials
5. Intro: Mechanical Engineering
6. *Fluid Mechanics
7. *Advanced Chemistry
8. *Marine Engines
9. *Environmental Systems
10. *Basic Hydrography

Year Two

1. Advanced Hydromechanics
2. Mechanical Engineering
3. Electricity and Electronics II
4. Advanced Chemistry
5. *Hydrodynamics II
6. *Advanced Hydrography
7. *Fluid Mechanics II
8. *Advanced Naval Materials
9. * Environmental Systems II
10. * Marine Engines II

*=elective