You Don’t Want to Miss These Top 2023 Picks—Again

Moving toward 2024, mechanical engineers face new challenges in the office, greater answerability at work sites, and ever-present obstacles of material and technology limitations.

Covering these challenges offers common themes, such as sustainability and autonomous machines, as well as uplifting stories of productivity and professionalism. From articles to blogs, to podcasts and videos, the following are the most popular items published so far in 2023.
 

Space and Earth

 
One particularly challenging task for engineers is providing artificial gravity to those who live and work in space. Thousands of readers checked out “Space Station Could Bring Weight to the Weightless.” The most read article tells the story of a new start-up reaching back to an old solution and attempting to launch a four-module space station called Pioneer Station.

The form of Pioneer is instantly recognizable to anyone familiar with the history of human space exploration. These stations would be wheels rotating a few times a minute. “You have to go from the center out to the rim that’s rotating fast enough to give significant artificial gravity,” said Tom Spilker, co-founder of Orbital Assembly Corp. and a former scientist and engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where he spent over 20 years sending vessels into space. “And once you are in that artificial gravity system, it will be much more similar to being on Earth.”

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Back on our planet, autonomous machines take up much of the conversation and among those talking are engineers who envision self-driving cars and trucks. You already share the road with this innovation as developers prove the technology. The top Q&A of the first half of 2023 featured the CTO of Kodiak Robotics, “Andreas Wendel on Self-Driving Trucks.”

Wendel explained that a highway environment is much more structured and good for a set route for self-driving vehicles. “We still have to deal with, of course, vehicles... We actually see pedestrians on the highway pretty regularly, but there are fewer cases where a pedestrian would just carelessly cross the highway,” he explained.
 

Climate solutions

Hydrogen is among the solutions being proposed for reducing or eliminating greenhouse gas emissions. The most read blog of 2023, “Hydrogen is Working to Find its Place in Efforts to Combat Climate Change,” offers a quick rundown of the state of the fuel that powers trains, ships, and vehicles. Among the innovations are a German rail line that is moving from diesel locomotives to a hydrogen counterpart, developed by France’s Alstom.

“No doubt, developers still have much work to do in making hydrogen mainstream. But the benefits will be great,” the blog concluded and added a recent analysis by McKinsey & Co. that found that total hydrogen demand can reach up to 660 million tons by 2050, abating more than 20 percent of global emissions.

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Meanwhile, a video that presented liquified carbon being mineralized at the only concrete block manufacturer in New York City is currently the most watched in 2023. In “Sequestering Carbon in Concrete Block,” a startup captured one pound of carbon in every 30 blocks, permanently removing it from the atmosphere. This block is then used throughout the city, which helped drive a circular economy and supported a greener environment. 

And any solution has problems. The infographic, “Electric Vehicles Need Imported Minerals,” was the most viewed and examined electric vehicles that may be designed and assembled in the U.S. (or other NAFTA countries), but are limited by the resources needed to produce them. The image outlined data from the U.S. Geological Survey and tells the story of largely imported minerals.

Career information

Finally, MEs need to know how to work with a variety of tools and programs to succeed. The most read listicle of 2023, “10 Tools that Every Mechanical Engineer Should Know,” offered a quick look at a wide range of tools for MEs and their projects that can make their jobs easier and more efficient.

It is not a surprise that 3D printers made the list. MEs are sold on this tool to develop prototypes or fabricate replacement parts for equipment or jigs and part-holders. “3D printing enhances prototype development by saving time, improving design, reducing iterations, and optimizing inventory,” the listicle concluded.

Tools that get work done more quickly may be the best solution for helping busy engineers. Yet, many are experiencing what the World Health Organization (WHO) officially recognized as a medical syndrome. Listen as engineer, consultant, and author Peter Atherton talked about “Burnout and Mechanical Engineers” during the top podcast of 2023. 

Atherton explained that burnout comes as a result of “chronic and unmanaged stress” and that it affects the industry's highest achievers. What makes MEs susceptible are these professionals are “those most dedicated to the projects, most dedicated to the organization, and most dedicated to the clients.”

Finally, the most popular quiz, “Mechanical Engineering Compensation,” examined at how much mechanical engineers earn, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The median average wage of an ME is above the national average at a bit more than $96,000 and the survey found that more MEs work in Michigan than in any other state in the country. 

Cathy Cecere is membership content program manager.