Engineering Magazines

Simply put, Search Engine Marketing or SEM is the fastest, most powerful, highly-targeted, most dynamic, highly-measurable and most cost-effective marketing strategy that can give your business the power to reach potential customers anywhere in the world anytime for a little as USD $0.05 cost per customer acquisition or even for free!

Search Engine Marketing or SEM is about making sure that your Web site appears on the top 20 of search results every time potential customers search for whatever products and/or services that you offer on any of the major Search Engines including Google, Yahoo and MSN which collectively accounts for over 90% of all Search Engine originating traffic.

There are of course other smaller Search Engines that focus on niche industries such as Kayak (www.kayak.com Travel Search Engine) and country-specific Search Engines like Baidu (www.baidu.com) which is very popular in China.

How Popular Are Search Engines?

A study last November 2005 finds that the number of people who use Internet Search Engines to find information has jumped over the last year, claiming a solid No. 2 spot behind e-mail as the most popular activity online. In the year 2003, 250 million searches were made daily on Google alone!

How Does It Work?

On the Internet, whenever somebody wants to find something, they use Search Engines. As spam continues to lessen the effectiveness of email as a marketing tool, Search Engine Marketing is fast becoming the marketing strategy of choice for companies who want to reach a global audience 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, either for free or for as little as USD $0.05 per visitor. As the Internet becomes more and more a part of our everyday lives, the greater their role becomes in helping businesses connect with their customers at that crucial point in their buying decision process (when they are searching for it).

Right now, there are probably people… potential customers who are looking for whatever products or services you are offering on any or all of the major Search Engines. When potential customers type in the keywords that they are searching for and press that “Search” button, do they find you or your competitors instead?

How can you get your business to appear on Search Engines?

Of course, you first must have a Web site. If you don’t have one, get one designed by someone who has a decent understanding of Search Engine Optimization. I’ve come across business Web sites that are so badly designed from an SEM perspective that you can’t even find it even if you search for the company name or business name itself! Even worse, their sites are designed in a way that prevents instead of facilitates their visitors to transact with them.

There are basically 2 ways for you to get your Web site to appear on Search Engines. You either get it listed on the “organic” or natural search results by doing Search Engine Optimization (SEO) or you launch a Pay Per Click Campaign (PPC) for the keywords you want your Web site to appear for. Ideally, you should be doing both because a PPC campaign can start driving highly-qualified traffic to your Web site almost instantly while you wait for your SEO campaign to gain momentum and get your Web site within the top 20 of the SERPs (Search Engine Results Page), otherwise known as “organic” or “natural” search results, which can take months to happen.

What Is Search Engine Optimization?

To get your Web site to appear on the SERPs you need to launch an SEO campaign. The main problem with SEO is that it can be very difficult and take anywhere from several months to over 1 year before you can achieve good rankings and appear within the top 20 rankings or top 2 pages of the organic search results which is all the results that most people are willing to see before they make a decision and choose what Web site to ultimately visit and do business with. Getting your Web site listed in the top 20 results is going to be a constant battle, especially if you are in a highly competitive industry and your competitors are also actively doing the same thing.

How your Web site is designed determines in great part how well its Search Engine rankings will be. Do you adore that lovely Flash animation on your home page? Loose it! Search Engines can’t see that Flash animation and they rely almost exclusively on text to determine the relevance and consequently, the ranking of every Web page.

What Is A Pay Per Click Campaign?

Pay Per Click or PPC campaigns are basically ads (Sponsored Links) that appear alongside the organic search results whenever someone uses a Search Engine to search for anything that he’s interested in. The reason why it’s called Pay Per Click is because you spend only when somebody actually “clicks” on your PPC ad and not every time somebody sees it. These ads are controlled and are made to appear only every time specific “keywords” are searched for. The level of control an advertiser has over his PPC campaign is so high that he can control exactly how and who gets to see his PPC ads and most importantly, how much he spends for it. For as little as USD $0.05 per click on Google and USD $0.10 on Yahoo and MSN, you can start driving highly-qualified visitors to your Web site.

What Are Its Advantages Over Traditional Marketing Mediums?

While you may get an increase in sales when you put out an ad on TV, radio or print, it is almost impossible to track how well your sales were influenced “directly” by your ads. With Search Engine Marketing, you would know exactly how much you are spending and how much actual revenue you are getting for each cent that you spend for it. You can even know where your customers are coming from using Web Analytics such as the popular and free Google Analytics.

The ability to control your marketing expenditure, track your campaign’s performance, identify and target your market, a truly global reach, measurable results and being able to make changes to your campaign on the fly makes Search Engine Marketing far superior to traditional marketing medium.

How Effective Is Search Engine Marketing?

It is not impossible to convert 50% of your Search Engine originating traffic. The real beauty of Search Engine Marketing is that it allows your customers to find you instead of you trying to find them.

How much does it cost?

The cost of any Search Engine Marketing campaign depends greatly on the scope and extent of it. The more keywords and the broader the audience you want to target, the more it’s going to cost but the greater the benefit would be. Maybe the more important question is… “How much is it costing your business by not doing Search Engine Marketing?”

The motorcycle is not just a machine and motorcycling is not just another form of transport. It is more of a cult activity, more of a brotherhood, a subculture.

Riding a motorcycle connects you with the Earth and wind – it reconciles your soul with nature, and this is something you can never ever experience in a car because all a car does is shut you up and make you feel boxed in. The various subcultures that motorcycling has spawned are cruising, street racing, Motocross racing, stunt driving, to name a few.

Close your eyes and let your imagination fly – imagine yourself biking up the mountains in a sleek, rugged machine, imagine yourself racing at breakneck speeds at a sports rally, imagine yourself all rugged and macho as you race to work on your supercool city bike, and imagine the wind caress your face as the splendid sights pass you by!

Yes, biking is truly a wonderful activity, and if you have not experienced its thrills and spills, then it’s time to make motorcycling a part of your life by latching on to a BMW beauty.

BMW motorcycles are an integral part of the biking scene. In case you are not aware, before World War I BMW was involved in manufacturing airplane engines. After the war, the German Air Force was banned and, consequently, there was zero demand for airplane engines. It was because of this that BMW first diversified into manufacturing agricultural machinery, toolboxes and brakes – but this did not satisfy their engineering talent and in 1923 the first BMW motorcycle – the R32 – was born. And, since then, there has been no looking back. Today, BMW is a big name in the commercial, emergency, utility and leisure motorcycle industry.

BMW’s range of bikes is designed for every motor biking pleasure you can ever think of. Their Enduro range of bikes is very aggressively engineered to blaze through extremely demanding situations – ride on any track on these lightweights!

Select a bike from their Tour range if you want to tour the states, swallowing up the roads as you go. As you would have guessed, the BMW Tour range is built for the long haul.

BMW’s Sport bikes are a bunch of lean, mean, nimble machines that roar with raw power every time you fire their cylinders up – guess it’s time to hit the dirt road with these shapely beauties.

Finally, BMW’s Urban range allows you to adopt a scorched pavement policy, burning up the city roads as you maneuver and zip down the roads on them.

Whatever your motorcycling application – be it entering a contest, zipping to work, becoming a bike enthusiast, starting a brotherhood or a mobike cult, touring off to the countryside, or whatever – remember, there is a motorcycle waiting for you.

 

A new Car for any home is like the addition of a new member to the family and owners take great pride and great pains to maintain the beauty and upkeep of the Car. Although a Car seems like a single object, it is in fact made up of thousands of parts, big and small. None of them is less important than another and all parts work in tandem together to make up a whole unit of a single Car. But as time goes by, the Cars start to age just like any other thing in this world. The truth is that with usage over the years, the Car itself and Car parts, including the Car Engine, start wearing down due to the wear and tear, and daily usage.

 

The Car Engine and Car parts start wearing down after a few years of driving a Car, and if the use of the Car is heavy, they may even start wearing down in a few months. The only option in this situation is to replace the Car Engine and Parts with new ones. Car Engines and Car parts can last longer with regular maintenance and servicing, and you may not have to spend as much on replacing the engine/parts if you are careful and stick to a proper schedule of maintenance and servicing. There are hundreds of parts that suffer wear and tear due to heavy usage and some of these parts are more prone to wearing down than others. Some of the parts of a Car that suffer heavy wear and tear are the Car Engine, Brakes and brake liners, Carburetor, Belts, Air Filter, starter, Clutch, gearbox, ignition coil, oil filter, spark plugs, etc.

 

The Car Engine is the heart of a Car and is made up of many hundreds of parts and components, although it looks like a single unit. A problem with a single component could stall the car. A problem with the engine or any other car part leads to inefficient use of the cars potential. Some of the parts are more important and crucial, not only for the smooth running of the car, but also for the safety of the driver and passengers of the car. One such part or unit of the Car is the Brake system. The braking system of a car is the most important unit or part of a Car. Without a proper braking system or worn out brakes, a Car is dangerous not only for its passengers, but also pedestrians and other cars. A speeding car with improper braking system or worn out brakes, can quickly turn into a deadly projectile and cause irreparable damage, if the brakes fail. Therefore, t braking system of a car must be in top condition and be maintained and checked regularly for wear and tear of the brake disks, brake liners, and brake oil.

 

Just like the braking system of a Car, there are other crucial and important Car parts, which should be taken care of and serviced, maintained, or replaced on a regular basis. The Car Engine, which is the heart of the Car should be serviced and maintained regularly to ensure a long life for the Car. If a Car Engine is not working properly even after servicing and maintenance, it should be replaced as quickly as possible. A properly serviced and maintained Car is a friend in deed and will never fail you in times of critical medical emergencies, or family outings, and will always be at your service. A well maintained Car with properly serviced, maintained Car parts and Car Engine is a life long friend.

Aaron Lucas

Ashlyn C Williams

1101-001

12/10/08

What is Automotive Design and Engineering?

The art of designing a car or a truck is nothing short of a miracle.  In this piece I am looking at personal motor vehicles, those that are made with both form and function in mind.  This, to some people, is a very daunting task.  The amount of perfection that people demand in today’s market is almost unfair but somehow all of the engineers and designers can keep up.  People want a vehicle that can reach at least one hundred and thirty miles an hour, zero wind noise, twenty five miles to the gallon minimum, and a sleek attractive body to top it all off.  All the engineers and designers are the people with the amazing minds that create these amazing pieces of art.  What they do is what I want in this piece.  (Fujimoto, 3-24)

            To understand the reason for this paper, you need to know a little bit more about me.  I know this is unconventional but it’s the only way that this paper will make any sense as to why some one would ever want to investigate such a vast field.  Also, why stick to convention if you really want to live.  I am a first year mechanical engineering student at UNC Charlotte.  After I get my bachelors degree in mechanical engineering I hope to get masters in business administration.  With all this work I hope to become the head of automotive design for any car company.  (GM Announces, par.1)

            There is a distinct difference between designers and engineers.  The designers are the people that draw the fancy little pictures of what everyone wants a car to be; big wheels, big engines, and radical lines that could never be made on mass scale for consumer consumption (with today’s technology).  The engineers are the people that take that design and make it doable.  In short the designers are Van Gogh and engineers are Leonardo De Vinci.  Meaning that even though what the designers create is beautiful and simply amazing it has no real purpose and can’t be produced or even function on a custom scale.  Engineers make beautiful things that work like so many of Leonardo De Vinci’s inventions.  (Bob Boniface, par.7)

            There are many aspects of designing a vehicle and designers do play a major part in some of them, mainly in the ascetic aspects of it.  Two of the areas that they have the most say in are the exterior and interior of the car.  But both have to fit the engineer’s numbers for tolerances and so forth.  With the Exterior there are three things that have to be heavily considered besides the obvious safety of passengers and pedestrians and that is aerodynamics, ergonomics, and styling.  Aerodynamics is a highly refined science that vies for position with the other key vehicle design considerations, styling and ergonomics.  (Fujimoto, 223-230)

Early aerodynamics started as more of an art then a science.  Fish were one of the first things to really inspire an aero dynamic design. This is also were the “teardrop” approach evolved from.  But most of the early developments were based on trial and error.  Today there are definite basic principals that every designer and engineer follow to create an aerodynamically efficient vehicle.  Some of the basics are that the underbody should be as smooth as possible.  There should be no sharp angles and the front windscreen should be raked as much as possible.  The front end should start at a low stagnation line and curve up in a continuous line.  That is just a taste of the basic principals but the general idea is to make everything line and contour flow as best it can.  The more interruptions the more drag so if things like door handles and mirrors can flow better or even disappear then designers will jump on it.  (Car Design Online, Aerodynamics, par.1-2)

The interior, unlike aerodynamics, has relatively few things to be held back by.  An interior number one has to fit inside the body of the car and safely hold the passengers in their seats with seat belts and in case of a crash airbags to further protect them.  After that budget and ergonomics are the biggest things that a designer has to worry about.  With an endless list of materials to choose from all with different properties this is one of the biggest factors in designing an interior.  Also one needs to consider how many people can comfortably be sat in the space given.  But ergonomics is not to be forgotten.  People vary dramatically in size and proportion around the world.  And standardizing the production process is the biggest factor of keeping the cost of cars down.  So the main parts of the passenger’s arrangement are adjustable, today more than ever.  Today’s seats can adjust in at least 6 different ways and the streering wheels are no longer just tilting but telescoping as well.  This is were the wheel doesn’t just go up and down like it has but can move in and out to allow the steering wheel to be set to your specific wants.  But things like the gauges and stereo controls are not adjustable in production cars.  In some concept cars they are experimenting with adjustable gauges that would adjust with your height that would be read by a sensor near the sun visor. (Car Design Online, Ergonomics, par. 2-3)

For Engineers there job in creating this vehicle are all the parts that one can’t see but are crucial for the car to work, things such as the engine and transmission.  The engine of the car is an infinitely complex piece of engineering.  Today’s cars, normally, use one of three engines, piston with gas, piston with diesel, or the rotary engine.  The two piston engines are almost exactly the same except for how they combust their fuel.  Gas engines use spark plugs while diesel engines use pure pressure to cause spontaneous combustion.  Though some will use glow plugs (heating element) to help the process along.  Both of these engines have many moving parts that have to work in perfect unison for it to do what it has to do.  Things like springs, belts and pumps can break at any time.  That’s where the rotary motor comes in.  Also known as the Wankel engine after its creator Felix Wankel.  It has an oval like housing with a rounded triangle or epitrochoid shape inside it that rotates around the oval.  It has vastly less moving parts and so is both smaller and lighter.  But it has its disadvantages as well.  While it is more reliable in the short run it wears out much faster then a piston engine and is not as efficient as a piston engine.  So the largest automobile use for this type of engine is for racing but the automobile maker Mazda still has a major investment in personal vehicles with rotary engines.  (Fujimoto, 85-88)

Another unseen component that plays a major part in a vehicles success is the chaise and suspension.  For both there are acceptable variations depending on the application.  The differences for both are directly related.  The Stiffer either the suspension or chaise is the better the vehicle will handle but the worse the ride of the car will feel.  This is because vibrations travel through solids much better then non-solids.  When you have a softer suspension and chaise then the ride will be very comfortable but the body of the car will roll and this shifting weight will throw the handling of the car right out the window.  All of these things are variables that an engineer has to consider when working with the designer to make a great vehicle.  (Fujimoto, 99-105)

To get in this industry where perfection is demanded is not an easy task either.  For the engineers there is a lot of school time involved.  Some have compared getting an engineering degree to pre med for doctors.  With the countless amount of math classes that one has to take just to get his bachelors.  The natural talent that is needed to become an engineer is usually apparent.  Though it is not needed it is usually only those that posses it that make it through all the schooling to a great job.  Most engineers are at least good at math but one of the dead give a ways is the undying need to know how things work.  And to get up to the higher levels of the corporate engineer, like any other job not much helps more then having some good connections.  (GM Announces, par. 2)

With designers it takes a bit less schooling but a lot more natural talent.  The drawings that they have to do for their original design are phenomenal and are almost identical to the end product and have to be.  One example is Bob Boniface he started off his career as an accountant with a Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology and economics from Vanderbilt.  But drew cars in the evenings.  He was eventually talked back into going back to school to College of Creative Studies in Detroit, Michigan and graduated with a bachelor of fine arts. He started at Daimler Chrysler but is now with GM working with Chevrolet concept vehicles.  (Bob Bonifice, par. 1-5)

Another successful designer that I would like to mention, to get an idea of what it takes to become a designer, is Bryan Nesbitt.  His father took him to the campus of the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California when he was 12 because he said that he could see his talent.  After studying architecture and industrial design at Georgia Institute of Technology he went to the school that his father took him to and graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in industrial design.  He also interned at Daimler Chrysler and was later hired by them in 1994 and designed them the PT Cruiser.  In April 2001 he joined General Motors as Chief Designer for Chevrolet. In January 2002, he was appointed Executive Director, Design, Body-Frame Integral Architectures, for all of GM’s North American Brands.  Then in February 2004 was named Executive director of GM Europe Design.  Which means that he is responsible for all Opel, Saab, and Vauxhall design activities.  So as you can see it takes some schooling but a lot of talent.  (Bryan Nesbit, par. 1-10)

When personal motor vehicles first came along back with Henry Ford and others the only way to plan out the design was to draw it out.  There have been many innovations since then.  Some low tech and others mind bogglingly high tech.  One thing that a lot of designers do today well before production is make clay models.  There are several stages to producing a clay model.  First, the scale of the model is determined by using drawings and sketches.  They then make a rig based on these dimensions and they will scale it to be either smaller then the actual size or to the exact actual size of the vehicle.  They put the clay on the form that is part of the rig, a foam core to reduce the amount of the expensive and heavy clay that they have to use.  When it comes to shaping it there used to be only one way to go about it.  That was by hand, manually carving out the model using system of 10-lines. These are the reference points that they use to transfer from the drawings to the model.  From there the designers can either strictly follow their drawings or use templates or they can begin to experiment and develop the form freely.  That’s the beauty of using clay; it can always be reworked and adjusted in tangible form.  (Car Design Online, Modeling, par. 1-3)

In today’s technological world laboring over the clay for weeks is unnecessary.  With today’s technology most of the designing can be done on computers with CAD.  CAD stands for ‘Computer Aided Design.’  These designs done on the computer can give you automatic measurements and can be sent to machines that can recreate them with no manual work.  This technology has even brought clay modeling forward.  Instead of the designers having to carve the entire clay model them selves taking weeks a machine can give the rough out line and then designers can come back and prefect it and change it all they want.  And with the giant leaps with materials they don’t even have to use clay any more to make large three-dimensional models.  After the designers are happy with what the have done in CAD and have made any changes to a clay model and then put that new information into the computer they can make a machine mill down a block of high density foam into a exact replica of the vehicle.  (Car Design Online, Modeling, par. 4)

The Future of design most defiantly lies in computers.  The things we see in the movies are not that far off.  For those who have seen the new movie “Iron man” (2008) when you see him using holograms to make his suit and move it around before he produced it that is a example of were the industry could be in a couple years (Paramount Pictures).  If we ever do reach that point then we may not need to use materials at all before production.  But it’s going to be hard to replace the ability to truly feel what you are working on (Car Design Online, Modeling, par. 4-5).

All of these major tasks have to be completed before a vehicle can even be considered for production.  The way that this paper was worded might have let on that there are only a few people that work on a vehicle at a time but in reality there are full teams of engineers and designers that all have to work one vehicle.  And even with these large teams creating an entirely new vehicle can take years.  And to become one of these few it takes much more then just schooling or talent, it takes determination and patience.  As it does to create one of these works of art.  (Car Body Design, Manufacturing Processes, par. 1-3)

The true importance of this has come painfully apparent over the last couple of months.  The big three of Detroit, General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler, are begging congress to bail them out of their swift fall from being a big as they once were.  This is a perfect example of the free market system; the company with the better product started small but found its way on top of the former big dogs.  I am of course talking about the two big boys from Japan, Toyota and Honda who are now on top of all of Detroit’s big three.  (Fitzgibbons, Patrick, par. 1-2)

There are some very distinct reasons for this.  One of the biggest ones is the rise in energy costs.  The Japanese cars more often then not are more efficient on gas then the American cars.  Also Japan was the first to really capitalize on the Hybrid cars, leaving America to play catch up with their well-established models.  Another big factor was the sub-par quality that was produced back in the 80’s.  The Japanese cars would last a good ten years if you kept the general maintenance up but American cars were falling apart left and right.  (Webster, Larry, par. 2, 5)

That is where I thought that the designers and engineers should have stepped in and made sure that the products that these companies were putting out were any good.  Because now, even though the quality of these cars has stepped up they still carry around the label that their cars are low quality, “Perception trails reality.”  (Webster, Larry, par. 5) For years the Japanese have been making a better product and now the big three are paying for it.  And now they are going to have to do something big to come back to the status that they used to hold, if they can at all.  (Fitzgibbons, Patrick, par. 35)

Aaron Lucas

Ashlyn C Williams

1101-001

12/10/08

Work Cited Page

·      Fujimoto, Takahiro. The Evolution of a Manufacturing System at Toyota. Oxford, NY: Oxford University Press, 1999.

·      “Bob Boniface.” Car Body Design: Automotive Design & Engineering, 24 September 2008.

·      “Bryan Nesbit.” Car Body Design: Automotive Design & Engineering, 6 March 2007.

·      “GM Announces Design Executive Appointments.” Car Body Design: Automotive Design & Engineering, 2 May 2007.

·      Car Design Online: Dedicated to Automotive Design Information, 23 October 2008.

·      Fitzgibbons, Patrick.  “U.S. auto execs plead for Congress to fund bailout.” Reuters, 18 Nov. 2008

·      Webster, Larry.  “GM in Crisis-5 Reasons Why America’s Largest Car Company Teeters on the Edge.”  Popular Mechanics, 18 Nov. 2008



By: Aaron Lucas

About the Author:

I am a first year student at UNC Charlotte