ENGINEERING APPLICATIONS OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

By

Engr. Professor Abel Olajide Olorunnisola, Ph.D., F.M.S.N., M.N.S.E., R.Engr.

(COREN)
Department of Agricultural & Environmental Engineering
University of Ibadan
e-mail: abelolorunnisola@yahoo.com

What is Information Technology?

Information technology (IT) is the acquisition, processing, storage and dissemination of
vocal, pictorial, textual and numerical information by a microelectronics-based combination
of computing and telecommunications. The term in its modern sense first appeared in a 1958
article published in the Harvard Business Review. IT spans a wide variety of areas that
include but are not limited to things such as processes, computer software, information
systems, computer hardware, programming languages, and data constructs. In short, anything
that renders data, information or perceived knowledge in any visual format whatsoever, via
any multimedia distribution mechanism, is considered part of the domain space known as
Information Technology (IT). In order to perform the complex functions required of IT today,
one would need computers, servers, database management systems, and cryptography. The
backbone of IT is, therefore, the computer.

What is a Computer?
A computer is a programmable machine. The two principal characteristics of a computer are:

• It responds to a specific set of instructions in a well-defined manner.

• It can execute a pre-recorded list of instructions (a program).

Modern computers are electronic and digital. The actual machinery -- wires, transistors, and
circuits -- is called hardware; the instructions and data are called software.

All general-purpose computers require the following temporarily, data and programs.

• Mass storage device: Allows a computer to permanently retain large amounts of

data. Common mass storage devices include disk drives and tape drives.

• Input device: Usually a keyboard and mouse, the input device is the conduit through
which data and instructions enter a computer.

• Output device: A display screen, printer, or other device that lets you see what the
computer has accomplished.

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 A Personal Computer

• Central Processing Unit (CPU): The heart of the computer, this is the component
that actually executes instructions.

Basic Information Technology Skills

Some of the typical IT skills at the moment are:

Computer Networking : Computer Networking deals with communication between

computer systems or devices. A computer network is any set of computers or devices
connected to each other with the ability to exchange data. Examples of different networks
are:

• Local area network (LAN)

• Wide area network (WAN)
• Wireless LANs (WLAN)
• Wireless WANs (WWAN)

Information Security : Information security refers to protecting information and information

systems from unauthorized access, use, disclosure, disruption, modification, or destruction.
The goals of information security include protecting the confidentiality, integrity and
availability of information. All organizations, including governments and private businesses,
gather and store a great deal of confidential information about their employees, customers,
products, research, and financial operations. Most of this information is collected, processed
and stored electronically and transmitted across networks to other computers. Protecting
confidential information is a business requirement, and in many cases also an ethical and
legal requirement. For the individual, information security has a significant effect on privacy
and identity theft.

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The field of information security has grown significantly in recent years. The major areas for
specialization include Information Systems Auditing, Business Continuity Planning and
Digital Forensics Science, among others. There are also specific information security
technical certifications.

Information Technology Governance: Information Technology Governance (IT

Governance) is a subset of Corporate Governance focused on information technology (IT)
systems performance and risk management. IT governance implies a system in which all
stakeholders have input into the information technology decision making process. This
prevents IT from independently making decisions that can affect the outcome of the entire
organization.

Information Technology Infrastructure Library: The Information Technology

Infrastructure Library (ITIL) is a set of concepts and techniques for managing information
technology (IT) infrastructure, development, and operations. ITIL is the most widely
accepted approach to IT service management in the world. ITIL provides a cohesive set of
best practices, drawn from the public and private sectors internationally.

ITIL consists of a series of books giving guidance on the provision of quality IT services, and
on the accommodation and environmental facilities needed to support IT. ITIL has been
developed in recognition of organizations' growing dependency on IT and embodies best
practices for IT Service Management.

Benefits of ITIL: By providing a systematic approach to the management of IT service, ITIL

can help an enterprise in the following ways:

• reduced costs
• improved IT services through the use of proven best practice processes
• improved customer satisfaction through a more professional approach to service
delivery
• standards and guidance
• improved productivity
• improved use of skills and experience
• improved delivery of third party services through the specification of ITIL or ISO
20000 as the standard for service delivery in services procurements.

Business Intelligence: Business Intelligence (BI) is the ways in which we store and use
business information. It encompasses the technologies, applications, and means for
collecting, integrating, analyzing, and presenting business data. Using data that have been
stored in a data warehouse, software applications are able to use this data to report past
business information as well as predict future business information, including trends, threats,
opportunities and patterns. Some of the currently popular enterprise level systems, which can
manage information about all of the business functions and systems, are sold and
implemented by Oracle, SAP, IBM, and Hewlett Packard (HP).

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Unix: Unix is a computer Operating System (OS) used most commonly in servers and
workstations. Unix was originally released by Bell Labs to various government and
educational institutions. This popularity led to the adaptation of Unix by many start up
companies; as a result, Unix helped fuel the growth of the internet in the 1990s. A system is
termed UNIX only if it complies fully with (and is certified by) the Single Unix Specification
(SUS) standards. Similar systems that do not comply fully or are not certified are termed
“Unix-like” operating systems. Examples of popular Unix-like systems include Linux and
Xenix.

Linux : Linux is a Unix-like computer Operating System (OS) that uses the Linux kernel.
Linux started out as a personal computer system used by individuals, and has since gained the
support of several large corporations. It is nowb used mostly as a server operating system.
Linux is a prime example of open-source development, which means that the source code is
available freely for anyone to use.

Uses of Information Technology in Engineering Practice

Information Technology is used in different ways for preparing, producing, reproducing and
circulating technical reports. The global trend in engineering practice today is the use of IT
for interactive activities. Details of how these activities are carried out are presented in the
following sections.

1. Project Management: A Project Manager is responsible for managing the resources of

large projects, making sure a project is completed within a certain set of restraints. These
restraints usually involve time, money, people and materials. The project must then be
completed to a certain level of quality. Project Managers usually use Project Management
Software to help keep track of resources and project deliverables (or outputs). This
software helps document the project objectives, status, time lines and expected outcomes.
Current popular project management software products include:

• Microsoft Project
• 24Seven Office
• OmniPlan
• AtTask

2. Data acquisition
Data acquisition (abbreviated DAQ) is the process of sampling of real world physical
conditions and conversion of the resulting samples into digital numeric values that can be
manipulated by a computer. Data acquisition and data acquisition systems (abbreviated with
the acronym DAS) typically involves the conversion of analog waveforms into digital values
for processing. The components of data acquisition systems include:

• Sensors that convert physical parameters to electrical signals.

• Signal conditioning circuitry to convert sensor signals into a form that can be
converted to digital values.
• Analog-to-digital converters, which convert conditioned sensor signals to digital
values.

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Data acquisition applications are controlled by software programs developed using various
general purpose programming languages such as BASIC, C, Fortran, Java, Lisp, Pascal.
COMEDI is an open source API (application program Interface) used by applications to
access and control the data acquisition hardware. Using COMEDI allows the same programs
to run on different operating systems, like Linux and Windows. Specialized software tools
used for building large scale data acquisition systems include EPICS. Graphical programming
environments include ladder logic, Visual C++, Visual Basic, MATLAB and LabVIEW.

3. Word Processing
Word processing involves using a computer to create, edit, and print documents. Of all
computer applications, word processing is the most common. To perform word processing,
you need a computer, a special program called a word processor, and a printer. A word
processor enables you to create a document, store it electronically on a disk, display it on a
screen, modify it by entering commands and characters from the keyboard, and print it on a
printer.

The great advantage of word processing over using a typewriter is that you can make changes
without retyping the entire document. If you make a typing mistake, you simply back up the
cursor and correct your mistake. If you want to delete a paragraph, you simply remove it,
without leaving a trace. It is equally easy to insert a word, sentence, or paragraph in the
middle of a document. Word processors also make it easy to move sections of text from one
place to another within a document, or between documents. When you have made all the
changes you want, you can send the file to a printer to get a hardcopy.

4. Data Pro!cessing
Computer data processing is any process that uses a computer program to enter data and
summarise, analyse or otherwise convert data into usable information. The process may be
automated and run on a computer. It involves recording, analysing, sorting, summarising,
calculating, disseminating and storing data. Because data are most useful when well-
presented and actually informative, data-processing systems are often referred to as
information systems. Nevertheless, the terms are roughly synonymous, performing similar
conversions; data-processing systems typically manipulate raw data into information, and
likewise information systems typically take raw data as input to produce information as
output.
Practically all naturally occurring processes can be viewed as examples of data processing
systems where "observable" information in the form of pressure, light, etc. are converted by
human observers into electrical signals in the nervous system as the senses we recognize as
touch, sound, and vision. Even the interaction of non-living systems may be viewed in this
way as rudimentary information processing systems. Conventional usage of the terms data
processing and information systems restricts their use to refer to the algorithmic derivations,
logical deductions, and statistical calculations that recur perennially in general business
environments, rather than in the more expansive sense of all conversions of real-world
measurements into real-world information in, say, an organic biological system or even a
scientific or engineering system. Past and current Spreadsheet packages include:

• Lotus 123
• MatLab
• Minitab

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 • Mathcad
• SPSS
• Microsoft Excel – Most popular

5. Computer graphics

Typically, the term computer graphics refers to several different things:

• the representation and manipulation of image data by a computer

• the various technologies used to create and manipulate images
• the images so produced, and
• the sub-field of computer science which studies methods for digitally synthesizing
and manipulating visual content, see study of computer graphics

Today, computers and computer-generated images touch many aspects of engineering

practice. A well-constructed graph can present complex statistics in a form that is easier to
understand and interpret. In the media such graphs are used to illustrate papers, reports and
other presentation material.

Many powerful tools have been developed to visualize data. Computer generated imagery can
be categorized into several different types: 2D, 3D, 5D, and animated graphics. As
technology has improved, 3D computer graphics have become more common, but 2D
computer graphics are still widely used. Computer graphics has emerged as a sub-field of
computer science which studies methods for digitally synthesizing and manipulating visual
content. Over the past decade, other specialized fields have been developed like information
visualization, and scientific visualization more concerned with "the visualization of three
dimensional phenomena (architectural, meteorological, medical, biological, etc.), where the
emphasis is on realistic renderings of volumes, surfaces, illumination sources, and so forth,
perhaps with a dynamic (time) component".

Generating graphical images with the computer entails

• creating such images from the scratch

• Importing pre-existing images from other computer files
• Scanning pre-existing photographs and artworks.

Utilizing this computer facility in technical report preparation minimizes production time
while enhancing production quality. Packages used in computer graphics include the
following:

• Adobe Photoshop
• Page maker
• Adobe illustrator
• Flash
• AutoCad

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6. PowerPoint presentation
Microsoft PowerPoint is a presentation program by Microsoft. It is part of the Microsoft
Office suite, and runs on Microsoft Windows and Apple's Mac OS X operating system.
PowerPoint is used by business people, educators, students, and trainers. PowerPoint
presentations consist of a number of individual pages or "slides". The "slide" analogy is a
reference to the slide projector, a device that can be seen as obsolete, within the context of
widespread use of PowerPoint and other presentation software. Slides may contain text,
graphics, movies, and other objects, which may be arranged freely on the slide. PowerPoint,
however, facilitates the use of a consistent style in a presentation using a template or "Slide
Master".

The presentation can be printed, displayed live on a computer, or navigated through at the
command of the presenter. For larger audiences the computer display is often projected using
a video projector. Slides can also form the basis of webcasts.

PowerPoint provides three types of movements:

1. Entrance, emphasis, and exit of elements on a slide itself are controlled by what
PowerPoint calls Custom Animations
2. Transitions, on the other hand are movements between slides. These can be animated
in a variety of ways
3. Custom animation can be used to create small story boards by animating pictures to
enter, exit or move

Beginning with Microsoft Office 2003, Microsoft revised the branding to emphasize
PowerPoint's place within the office suite, calling it Microsoft Office PowerPoint instead of
just Microsoft PowerPoint. The current versions are Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007 for
Windows and 2008 for Mac. In late 2009, Microsoft released the beta version of Microsoft
PowerPoint 2010.

7. Emailing
Email, also sometimes written as e-mail, is simply the shortened form of electronic mail, a
protocol for receiving, sending, and storing electronic messages. Email has gained popularity
with the spread of the Internet. In many cases, email has become the preferred method of
communication.

The influence of email cannot be overstated. The United States Postal Service, for example,
notes that it handles 212 billion pieces of mail per year. Many sources have nearly that many
emails being sent back and forth every single day. In other words, email handles more than
300 times the amount of mail of the largest postal system in the world.

There are many different email applications available, some of which cost money to use
while others are free. In addition to accessing electronic mail through email client software,
Webmail has also become very popular. Most email service providers offer this as an
additional benefit, where the user can access their mailbox over the Internet. Some email
services are specifically designed using the World Wide Web as its primary interface. These
sites have become very popular, as they usually offer individuals a chance to open an email
account at no charge.

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 Common email management software include:
• Eudora
• Outlook Express
• Hotmail
• Yahoo
• Gmail

8. Web Browsing using the Internet for Information Gathering and Warehousing
The internet is computer based global information system. It is composed of many
interconnected computer networks. Each network may link thousands of computers
enabling them to share information. The internet has brought a transformation in many
aspects of life. It is one of the biggest contributors in making the world into a global
village. Use of internet has grown tremendously since it was introduced. It is mostly
because of its flexibility. Nowadays one can access the internet easily. Most people have
computers in their homes but even the ones who don’t can always go to cyber cafes where
this service is provided. The internet developed from software called the ARPANET which
the U.S military had developed. It was only restrict to military personnel and the people
who developed it. Only after it was privatized was it allowed to be used commercially.

The internet has developed to give many benefits to mankind. The access to information
being one of the most important. Students, researchers, office workers, consultants and
others can now have access to libraries around the world. Some charge a fee but most
provide free services. Before people had to spend hours and hours in the libraries but now
at the touch of a button people have a huge database in front of them. The internet has
brought new opportunities to government, business and education. It is used for various
processes such as distribution of information and internal communication.
Common Internet browsing software include:
• Netscape
• Internet Explorer

Apart from using the web to gather information, it is also used to warehouse information. This is
done by developing and maintaining websites. A website (also spelled Web site) is a collection of
related web pages, images, videos or other digital assets that are addressed relative to a common
Uniform Resource Locator (URL), often consisting of only the domain name, or the IP address, and
the root path in an Internet Protocol-based network. A web site is hosted on at least one web server,
accessible via a network such as the Internet or a private local area network. A web page, on the
other hand, is a document, typically written in plain text interspersed with formatting instructions
of Hypertext Markup Language (HTML, XHTML). A web page may incorporate elements from
other websites with suitable markup anchors.

Examples of dramatic transformation in communication and commerce led by web development

include e-commerce. Online auction sites such as eBay have changed the way consumers consume
and purchase goods and services. Online resellers such as Amazon.com and Buy.com (among
many, many others) have transformed the shopping and bargain hunting experience for many
consumers. Another good example of transformative communication led by web development is
the blog. In addition, web development has moved to a new phase of Internet communication.
Computer web sites are no longer simply tools for work or commerce but used most for
communication. Websites such as Facebook and Twitter provide users a platform to freely

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communicate. This new form of web communication is also changing e-commerce through the
number of hits and online advertisement.

Bibliography
Olorunnisola, .O. 2004, Introduction to Technical Report Writing. Foresight Educational
Publishers, Ibadan, ISBN 978-062-565-5, 90pp.
http://www.exampleessays.com/viewpaper/32010.html Site visited 24/5/2010
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technical_report Site visited 24/5/2010
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_developmenthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technical_report
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