Engineering Design

Design doesn't have to complicated, which is why this guide to human-centered design shows that usability is just as important as aesthetics. Even the smartest among us can feel inept as we fail to figure out which light switch or oven burner to turn on, or whether to push, pull, or slide a door...

The battle with the Iron Legion has left The Last Horizon battered and broken, drifting in space. Varic needs an exceptional engineer to fix his ship, and there’s only one person for the job: Mell, the master Aether technician. But first, they have to break her out of prison. Mell has been captured by the Advocates, a group of superpowered vigilantes who dominate their corner of the galaxy. They are led by Starhammer, an invincible champion with a personal obsession with Mell.

How did a simple design error cause one of the great disasters of the 1980s - the collapse of the walkways at the Kansas City Hyatt Regency Hotel? What made the graceful and innovative Tacoma Narrows Bridge twist apart in a mild wind in 1940? How did an oversized waterlily inspire the magnificent Crystal Palace, the crowning achievement of Victorian architecture and engineering? These are some of the failures and successes that Henry Petroski, author of the acclaimed The Pencil, examines in this engaging, wonderfully literate book.

Managing people is difficult wherever you work. But in the tech industry, where management is also a technical discipline, the learning curve can be brutal - especially when there are few tools, texts, and frameworks to help you. In this practical guide, author Camille Fournier (tech lead turned CTO) takes you through each stage in the journey from engineer to technical manager. 

It’s been over a year since The Day. Morgan and his companions have fought to stay alive and he finally managed to get to his parents and bring them back. Their situation is getting better every day, but there are still challenges ahead of them. With a desire to return to a normal life on everyone’s mind, the group starts taking steps to do just that. Thinking bigger they tackle some major projects that will provide valuable resources. However, there are others out there making plans for them as well.

Recent breakthroughs in AI have not only increased demand for AI products, they've also lowered the barriers to entry for those who want to build AI products. The model-as-a-service approach has transformed AI from an esoteric discipline into a powerful development tool that anyone can use. Everyone, including those with minimal or no prior AI experience, can now leverage AI models to build applications. In this book, author Chip Huyen discusses AI engineering: the process of building applications with readily available foundation models.

Built To Last, the defining management study of the nineties, showed how great companies triumph over time and how long-term sustained performance can be engineered into the DNA of an enterprise from the very beginning. But what about companies that are not born with great DNA? How can good...

Most of us take the supply of electricity for granted. This booklet gives simple explanation of what is electricity and how it reaches your home. Concepts such as AC and DC current and a few simple electrical components and their functions are explained. Mathematical expressions are totally avoided.

Entering the world of engineering and STEM isn’t just for “brainiacs". Anyone can succeed in this arena, but it does require dedication and attention to critical skills. In this book about how to start your science and engineering career, author and engineer Jake Ryland shares seven practical steps for good grades and continued success in the world of engineering. Drawing from his own experience as a struggling student, Ryland emphasizes the importance of a proper foundation and avoiding common pitfalls.

Data projects are an intrinsic part of an organization's technical ecosystem, but data engineers in many companies continue to work on problems that others have already solved. This hands-on guide shows you how to provide valuable data by focusing on various aspects of data engineering, including data ingestion, data quality, idempotency, and more.

Data is at the center of many challenges in system design today. Difficult issues such as scalability, consistency, reliability, efficiency, and maintainability need to be resolved. In addition, there's an overwhelming variety of systems, including relational databases, NoSQL datastores, data...

Construction Engineering Drawings: A Practical Guide to Plans, Sections, and Structural Details Master the skills to read, interpret, and create construction drawings with this hands-on training guide. Whether you're a student, intern, field technician, or design professional, this comprehensive resource walks you through the core drawing types used in structural and civil engineering projects. From foundation layouts and framing plans to slab detailing and structural calculations, each chapter provides clear explanations, step-by-step breakdowns, and real-world examples. Full-color ...

John Roebling was one of the 19th century's most brilliant engineers, ingenious inventors, successful manufacturers, and fascinating personalities. Raised in a German backwater amid the war-torn chaos of the Napoleonic Wars, he immigrated to the US in 1831, where he became wealthy and acclaimed, eventually receiving a carte-blanche contract to build one of the 19th century's most stupendous and daring works of engineering: a gigantic suspension bridge to span the East River between New York and Brooklyn. 

For years Charlie Burrell and his wife, Isabella Tree, farmed Knepp Castle Estate and struggled to turn a profit. By 2000, with the farm facing bankruptcy, they decided to try something radical. They would restore Knepp’s 3,500 acres to the wild. Using herds of free-roaming animals to mimic the actions of the megafauna of the past, they hoped to bring nature back to their depleted land. But what would the neighbors say, in the manicured countryside of modern England where a blade of grass out of place is considered an affront?

Most engineers are preparing for yesterday's interviews. This book prepares you for today's. Generative AI system design is now a core expectation at top tech companies — not a bonus skill. If you're walking into a system design interview in 2026 without knowing how to architect LLM-powered systems, RAG pipelines, and vector search at scale, you're already behind. This book closes that gap — fast. What You'll Learn A battle-tested framework for approaching any GenAI system design question How LLMs, RAG, embeddings, vector databases, and prompt engineering actually work in production How...

The American public's introduction to nuclear technology was manifested in destruction and death. With Hiroshima and the Cold War still ringing in our ears, our perception of all things nuclear is seen through the lens of weapons development. Nuclear power is full of mind-bending theories, deep secrets, and the misdirection of public consciousness - some deliberate, some accidental. The result of this fixation on bombs and fallout is that the development of a non-polluting, renewable energy source stands frozen in time.

You never knew that theoretical physics could be so simple! In this exciting and significant audiobook, Andrew Thomas reveals how all unifications in physics have been based on incredibly simple ideas.

When 25-year-old Harry Walker was killed by a bear in Yellowstone Park in 1972, the civil trial prompted by his death became a proxy for bigger questions about American wilderness management that had been boiling for a century. At immediate issue was whether the Park Service should have done more to keep bears away from humans, but what was revealed as the trial unfolded was just how fruitless our efforts to regulate nature in the parks had always been.

Designing a power substation is not just selecting equipment or drawing a one-line diagram. A complete substation design requires the engineer to coordinate electrical ratings, protection zones, grounding, physical layout, control wiring, communications, SCADA, and documentation into one buildable system. Practical Electrical Power Substation Design by Example is a step-by-step training manual built around one complete worked project: A full 115/13.8 kV ring bus distribution substation (2 × 50 MVA transformers) developed from concept through one-line, protection, grounding, GA layout, ...

AI agents are no longer experimental—they are becoming core building blocks of modern software systems. From document analysis and workflow automation to enterprise decision support, AI agents now operate at the intersection of reasoning, data, and action. Building AI Agents Using Modern Platforms and Frameworks is a practical, architecture-first guide to designing, implementing, and scaling AI agent systems across today’s most widely used tools and platforms. Rather than focusing on a single vendor or framework, this book teaches you how to think like an AI agent architect. You will ...