Project engineering

About: Project engineering is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 609 publications have been published within this topic receiving 8869 citations.

Experiences in managing the Prometheus Project

Abstract: Congress authorized NASA's Prometheus Project in February 2003, with the first Prometheus mission slated to explore the icy moons of Jupiter. The Project had two major objectives: (1) to develop a nuclear reactor that would provide unprecedented levels of power and show that it could be processed safely and operated reliably in space for long-duration, deep-space exploration and (2) to explore the three icy moons of Jupiter - Callisto, Ganymede, and Europa - and return science data that would meet the scientific goals as set forth in the Decadal Survey Report of the National Academy of Sciences. Early in project planning, it was determined that the development of the Prometheus nuclear powered spaceship would be complex and require the intellectual knowledge residing at numerous organizations across the country. In addition, because of the complex nature of the project and the multiple partners, approaches beyond those successfully used to manage a typical JPL project would be needed. This paper, describes the key experiences in managing Prometheus which should prove useful for future projects of similar scope and magnitude.

Model choosing method based-on variation coefficient and its application to project management of petrochemical engineering construction

Abstract: This paper provides a review of the related literatures on decision making indexes and methods for project management mode selection, and analyses the characteristics of petrochemical project construction, and further makes the comparison among the common management modes for petrochemical project at present and designs the corresponding mode selection indexes. A method of management mode selection for petrochemical project construction is presented, in which the index weight is determined based on variation coefficient method. Finally, an illustration is given through a case.

Progress update on the US Photovoltaic Manufacturing Technology project

Abstract: The Photovoltaic Manufacturing Technology (PVMaT) project is helping the US photovoltaic (PV) industry extend its world leadership role in manufacturing and stimulate the commercial development of PV modules and systems. Initiated in 1990, PVMaT is being carried out in several directed and staggered phases to support industry's continued progress. Thirteen subcontracts awarded in FY 1996 under Phase 4A emphasize improvement and cost reduction in the manufacture of full-system PV products. Areas of work in Phase 4A included, but were not limited to, issues such as improving module-manufacturing processes; system and system-component packaging, integration, manufacturing and assembly; product manufacturing flexibility; and balance-of-system development with the goal of product manufacturing improvements. These Phase 4A, product-driven manufacturing research and development (R&D) activities are now completing their second phase. Progress under these Phase 4A and remaining Phase 2B subcontracts from the earlier PVMaT solicitation are summarized in this paper. Evaluations of the success of this project have been carried out in FY 1995 and late FY 1996. This paper examines the 1997 cost/capacity data that have been collected from active PVMaT manufacturers.

Best Practice Implementation Strategies of Community Based Village Hydro Power Projects for Sustainable Operation

Abstract: Development partners of South Asian and African countries have identified off-grid hydro power project development as an important area of project financing. Standard practice of project execution cannot be adopted for community based projects due to their inherent nature of ensuring sustainability. This paper gives an insight into implementation modalities depending on the nature of the country and social structure of the community, which will help to formulate the best strategy for project implementation and financing, while ensuring the successful completion of the project and sustainable economy after commissioning of the project. Based on the success and failed stories in project implementation in Sri Lanka and Rwanda, authors have identified nine important variables as inputs to the model, and those variables will be given a numeric value after having done a thorough social survey of the village communities and the country as a whole. Depending on the significance of those variables, the derived values are multiplied by a scale factor and finally a cost function is obtained. Further the values are plotted in a spider network constructed from nine variables. The decision to adopt the best implementation model and financing mechanism can be decided by the final output of the cost function and template of the spider network formed by nine variables. Since such an exercise has never been attempted before, this paper will be a good start for further research, as success or failure of a big amount of fund disbursement for hundreds of community based projects in a country or a region highly depend on the modalities for project execution, measures for sustainability and financing mechanism.

Forensic ECBS: the way forward

Abstract: Forensic systems engineering is the discipline investigating the history of IT failures. It therefore focuses on the post-mortem analysis and study of project disasters. This focus group report explains the context and rationale for forensic engineering, highlighting the need for a professional discipline of ECBS (engineering of computer-based systems). It makes a case for the dissemination of failure histories by drawing on the accompanying case report of the Melbourne Ambulance Service despatch system.