“Engineering or Art – Why Not Both”, an article Tom Van Laan, CEO of CloudCalc, was published in the Winter 2015 Journal of SEAoT, the Structural Engineers Association of Texas.
Here Comes Santa Claus: The Ultimate Gift List for Structural Engineers
Up on the housetop, click, click, click…
Well readers, it’s that time of year again – the annual wracking of the brain for Christmas/Hanukkah gift ideas for family, friends, and the co-worker whose name you drew in the office gift exchange. Every year the decision gets more difficult. A chia pet? A fruit cake? A calendar with pictures of cute cats/dogs/ducks? A zucchini spiralizer? An ice scraper?
But I bring good news: this year shopping will be a breeze, if you have a structural engineer on your list. Why? Because in my role as a full service blogger I have done all your work for you, assembling the Ultimate Gift List for Structural Engineers. No more wondering, no more worry, no more brain-wracking, just perfect gifts for any structural engineer! (But before proceeding, I recommend that anyone shopping for an engineer first review the professional ethics guidelines regarding what types of gifts that engineer may accept.)
Continue reading
Crashing and the Cloud: Lessons Learned!
“We have very good news”, said the tech rep over the phone.
“Great, it’s about time I got some good news regarding a computer,” I thought. Lately it seemed like the tech gods had been conspiring against me.
“The good news is that the repair will be completely covered under the manufacturer’s warranty. Of course due to the extensive problems, we will have to send it back to the factory. If things go well, we expect the repair to take approximately ten business days. With 2 days shipping each way, you should expect a call from us in about 14 business days.” Continue reading
26.2: The Engineering of Marathon Running
With 50,000 runners stepping with 475-lb force
3 times per second, it’ll be time to fix the roads!
Huff…owww…puff…ouch…pant. Just nine miles to go this morning…that’s just 18,000 steps…
I am writing this entry from New York City, where the 45th NYC Marathon will take place this Sunday. On that date, 50,000 hardy souls will run 26.2 miles through the streets of NYC’s 5 boroughs. For some of these 50,000, a marathon is a regular event (for example, 69 year old Larry Macon set a record by running 239 marathons in 2013). For others, it will be a first time try – which may end up being the first of many (who knows, maybe there’s a future Larry Macon in the bunch), or it might simply be a onetime only thing, meant to check off one more item on a bucket list. Continue reading
Article by CloudCalc CEO Featured in the SEAoT Journal
“One Engineer Remembers the World Trade Center”, an article Tom Van Laan, CEO of CloudCalc, was published in the Fall Journal of SEAoT, the Structural Engineers Association of Texas. Continue reading
What I did on my Summer Vacation
Travel, Structural Engineering, and Tech Startups!
With school starting this week in many parts of the United States, at this moment millions of students are completing the traditional first homework assignment of the school year: writing an essay entitled “What I did on my Summer Vacation”. During my childhood, this exercise was always considered to be the best way to transition us kids from the lazing, fun-loving, carefree boys and girls of summer to the laser-focused, hardworking achievers of the other nine months of the year. What better way was there to get me to slide back into work mode, than thinking about the hours I spent scavenging through the neighbors’ trash, looking for parts to build a go kart (summer before sixth grade)? Or recapping all the time spent researching, via trial and error, the optimal grass-mud mix for sunbaked bricks, as I tried to build a full-scale replica of a Sumerian ziggurat in my back yard (summer before fifth grade)? Continue reading
Structural Engineering of the Future!
2062, a Structural Engineering Utopia
When I was young, everybody knew what the future held. Much as an earlier era had had Jules Verne’s novels to show them space travel and undersea living, we had The Jetsons every Sunday night on ABC-TV in 1962-1963. Here our future world was clearly laid out for us — there would be robots to do 99% of our work; all buildings would be high on stilts, above the clouds; every person, place, and thing would be named after something related to outer space; and of course we would have jetpacks. Yes it’s true that The Jetsons didn’t get everything right. For example, teenage Judy Jetson was often shown confiding her secrets to her robotic diary, while in reality adolescents of today’s “future” are much more likely to broadcast their secrets onto the internet – one small detail that the show missed completely. Continue reading
Of Live Load and “Love Load”, Bridges, Bats, and Locks
Parisian bridge collapses under the weight of love
A $24.4 million dollar traffic fine, an 80,000 pound live load that takes off (literally) for 30 minutes every evening, and a structure that stands up well in the face of war, but collapses in the face of love…what do they all have in common? They all relate to bridges, and the unanticipated loads that they may have to endure.
We know that the job of the engineer is not only to design a structure that safely withstands its anticipated loads, but likewise to accurately anticipate those loads. A good design may go for naught if it doesn’t suitably consider the possibility of every load that it may eventually experience. Continue reading
The Statue of Liberty: the World’s First Skyscraper?
The Statue of Liberty, once the tallest structure in New York City,
surrounded by its taller descendants
Happy July 4, everybody! In the United States, this is a day to celebrate our nation’s independence, and give thanks for the centuries of freedom that we have enjoyed since our founding on July 4, 1776. There is no greater symbol of that freedom, than the Statue of Liberty (official title: “Liberty Enlightening the World”) – the glorious structure that since 1886 has welcomed millions of immigrants, many of whom were fleeing repression in their native lands.
Growing up in New Jersey, I saw the Statue of Liberty often. Catching that first glimpse of it while driving down the New Jersey Turnpike or while heading into New York to witness yet another Mets’ baseball loss was always an exciting moment, and today when I fly into New York it still is. To me (and many others) the statue is both beautiful art and one of the greatest symbols of all that is right with this country. But as a structural engineer I have another reason to get a lump in my throat when I see it — did you know that the Statue of Liberty may well have been the world’s first skyscraper? Continue reading
I’m a Truss Me! Wizard, There has to be a Twist…
Tilt! #@$&%* Another truss bites the dust…
Oh hello out there! I guess I haven’t been around much lately here at the blog; I’ve been a little…busy. I’ve been spending a lot of time recently…honing my engineering skills…solving difficult challenges…trying just a little harder to come up with the optimal design…I know I need to take some time off to get this blog article written, but it seems there’s always one more tweak that might improve the situation…I’ve got something important that I’m almost done with.
By the way, have you ever tried the Truss Me! app? Continue reading
Engineering and the Cloud 