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Technology in Society

John Andrew, P.E.


Course Outline

This 6 PDH course includes basic elements of technology in our society today that are applications of: industrial, chemical, mechanical, electrical, and production engineering disciplines. The focus is on developing new; product, process, and quality solutions. Technology is the source of much prosperity and offers a bright new future for those nations that embrace it. The possibility of growing new organs from a few skin cells is nearby.  The emerging hydrogen economy promises to replace gasoline in fuel cell driving cars and other vehicles is already a reality.

Major topics are:

1-SCIENCE
2-TECHNOLOGY
3-ENGINEERING
4-ETHICS
5-CULTURAL DIVERSITY
6-ENVIRONMENT
7-GLOBALIZATION

The course includes a multiple-choice quiz at the end, which is designed to enhance the understanding of the course materials.

Learning Objective

At the conclusion of this course the student will understand the following summaries:

Intended Audience

The information will be especially useful to students, entrepreneurs, engineers, and innovators who want to update their knowledge base concerning some of the most important elements of technology in society today.

Benefit to Attendees

Attendee of this course will be encouraged to look ahead to and participate in the possibilities of new technologies in his or her engineering discipline.

Course Introduction

The market place for industrial products today demands innovation, improved designs, high reliability, quality, and low prices. This means rapid prototyping and production systems that are agile and able to change more rapidly. The basic components of innovation in technology are outlined in the course.

Course Content

In this lesson, you are required to study the following course content in PDF format:

Technology in Society

Please click on the above underlined hypertext to view, download or print the document for your study. Because of the large file size, we recommend that you first save the file to your computer by right clicking the mouse and choosing "Save Target As ...", and then open the file in Adobe Acrobat Reader. If you still experience any difficulty in downloading or opening this file, you may need to close some applications or reboot your computer to free up some memory.

Course Summary

A brief and to the point summary of basic technology is provided in these notes that will provide information that can be applied to real world applications.

Related Links

1. The United States Patent and Trademark Office Home Page at www.uspto.gov provides links to information about all aspects pertaining to invention patents.
2. Summary list of inventions:  http://inventors.about.com/od/astartinventions/a/FamousInvention.htm
3. The National Science Foundation:  http://www.nsf.gov/about/glance.jsp
4. DARPA is the central research and development organization: http://www.darpa.mil/
5. Environmental Protection Agency: http://www.epa.gov/newsroom/newsreleases.htm

Quiz

Once you finish studying the above course content, you need to take a quiz to obtain the PDH credits.

Take a Quiz


DISCLAIMER: The materials contained in the online course are not intended as a representation or warranty on the part of PDH Center or any other person/organization named herein. The materials are for general information only. They are not a substitute for competent professional advice. Application of this information to a specific project should be reviewed by a registered architect and/or professional engineer/surveyor. Anyone making use of the information set forth herein does so at their own risk and assumes any and all resulting liability arising therefrom.