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Quality control in engineering calculations using Units

No more engineers? Understanding Australia’s engineering skills shortage

Engineering Calculation Template – Detailed Guide

 are vital for engineers working in any field, from 

. They provide a common platform for engineers to perform their calculations, reducing the risk of errors and inconsistencies. With 

 becoming the norm and modern projects becoming larger in scale and more complex, quality engineering allows for designers to work at greater efficiencies and ensure a high-quality design output.

For a long time, engineers had to perform hand calculations to solve problems without the aid of technology. Even for smaller projects and tasks, this can be a long, arduous process. Calculating by hand is time-consuming and prone to human error. Luckily, technology has advanced to a point where computers can do much manual work for us.

Nowadays, engineers often turn towards spreadsheets and CAD tools to aid with design. These computer applications allow engineers to visualise and calculate complex pieces of work at much greater efficiency. 

 have also greatly assisted in performing the finite element method in civil engineering, with large structures being broken down in smaller computable parts. With the increased uptake of these tools, it is important for engineers to be upskilled in their familiarity with digital software. As such, competency levels can cause a barrier for engineers to utilise these tools fully.

 come in. They’re pre-programmed math equation solvers in templates that provide a standardised approach to solving problems, reducing the risk of human error. The immediate answer that comes into many people’s minds would be spreadsheets. Templates with all relevant formulas and charts coded into the spreadsheets allow engineers to input values and receive the immediate values they seek. Some templates can also integrate with CAD and BIM tools, making it easy for engineers to visualise their calculations' effects and simulate the designs' performance under different conditions. Engineering calculation templates can take what hand calculation and finite analysis can do and automate it. We’ll dive into that a bit deeper in the upcoming section.

How engineering calculation templates help to calculate better

Building and running engineering calculations from scratch is extremely complicated. Engineers would have to follow pages upon pages of regulatory and compliance codes to determine the correct approach, boundary conditions and formulas for designing a system. Imagine each engineer doing the same thing for multiple projects of similar nature. That's a hell of a lot of added time, effort and risk.

 is the increase in standardisation that they provide. A single verified template for an engineering design such as a concrete beam would provide engineers with an accurate tool to calculate the properties of a specific concrete beam. Using multiple engineers would eliminate the room for error in multiple projects or elements if each engineer were to design the element by themselves. Work standardisation also allows engineers to collaborate and cross-check their work against each other, as their works are all built upon the same benchmark.

Another benefit of engineering calculation templates is their integration with 3D drawing tools. Many templates are designed to be used in conjunction with 3D modelling software, making it possible to perform complex calculations without leaving the design environment. With other tools such as Building Information Modelling (BIM) and Digital Twins ready to be integrated with calculation templates, Engineers can receive immediate feedback on their work as they can visualise the performance of their designs, as mentioned in the previous section. This can result in a more streamlined workflow, reducing the time it takes to complete calculations and making it easier for engineers to work together on a project.

As no needs for each engineer are the same, engineering calculation templates are created with the ability of customisation. Engineers can make a copy of the template and perform tweaks that suit the needs of their project. As such, instead of performing alternative calculations, they can take a template that follows much of the already desired features.

How CalcTree does engineering calculation templates

, we recognise the need for engineers to save time on their calculations without compromising quality. Our platform enables engineers to access engineering calculation 

 from various disciplines, such as structural, mechanical and electrical. These templates can assist in calculating small tasks, such as determining the moment of inertia for a section to more complicated tasks, such as designing an RC column.

access a database where they can find just about anything they need to design their project

. The calculation templates not only perform the calculations for you but are also accompanied by step-by-step explanations and intermediate values to help engineers better understand the design and calculation processes.

Once engineers finish their calculations, they can also upload their calculation template onto the 

 platform for others to access. With verified templates on the platform, engineers don’t have to worry about human error or not understanding what goes into their calculations.

Know about modes of calculations and how engineering calculator help to calculate better. Click here to know more in detail.

Engineering Calculation Template Guide - CalcTree

Evolving national priorities and a growing push for clean energy transitions have increased the demand for engineering skills across all industries. Sustainable objectives are just the beginning. New technologies and the 

 - renewables, nuclear, and space- all rely on an extensive, upskilled, and diverse engineering workforce.

So why are we talking about all of this? Australia is experiencing what could be its worst engineering skills shortage ever. Nearly all sectors and industries require more engineers, with more than 50,000 spots needing to be filled over the next few years [1]. Engineering skills shortages in Australia are nothing new; it's been a problem since the 1980s. What's different this time is the scale of the impact on the economy, disruption to supply chains, inflation, and the sheer number of sectors needing engineers.

Resolving engineering skills shortages clearly requires intervention. This article will summarise a comprehensive inventory of initiatives that can strengthen the workforce. Collaboration between all levels of government, education sectors, industry, and professional associations is needed to nip these systemic challenges in the bud. 

Skills shortages, particularly in industries that require engineering, can lead to longer project timelines, higher project costs, and lower national productivity. Knowing how we got here in the first place is an important first step in addressing these looming challenges.    

The growing demand for engineering skills comes at a moment in time when Australia has a vast infrastructure pipeline and a growing interest in time-critical ventures like the transition to net zero. Yet the skills shortage has never been more prevalent. Here are some of the factors that define the current situation:

Covid-19, the subsequent closure of international borders, and an almost all-out halt of the arrival of skilled migrants in Australia have played a massive part in driving this shortage. But there's a lot more going on than just that. According to Engineers Australia's 

'Strengthening the Engineering Workforce'

 report, 'structural and systemic reasons explain why the engineering workforce supply channels are not keeping pace with demand.' The National Skills Commission predicts that occupations in STEM will increase by 13% over five years as Australia's domestic supply of trained engineers continues to decline persistently [2]. 

Fewer students starting engineering degrees, combined with low completion rates and a high dropout rate, create a chronic skills shortage in engineering. Only a quarter of engineering students finish their degrees on time, and just half of those who commence engineering degrees graduate with an engineering qualification. This is not only the case in Australia; the US and the UK are also experiencing an increase in demand for engineers despite producing relatively low levels of engineers compared to other OECD countries.

Closed borders and net negative migration to Australia because of the pandemic was a heavy blow to Australia's skills supply channel, but it is only partly to blame. The impacts of the pandemic only exposed a skills issue that was already prevalent.

58% of the engineering workforce in Australia is born overseas, an indicator that Australia has faced persistent and long-term domestic supply challenges. The logical next step would be to increase the number of skilled migrant engineers. Yet only 40% of skilled migrant engineers in Australia are employed in an engineering role, indicating a serious lack of support for overseas workers to find work in Australia that is congruent with their experience and qualifications [1]. 

Research has shown that even when overseas-born engineers find work in the industry, they often have roles that are not 'not commensurate with their skill or experience level' [1]. Migrants face many boundaries, from a lack of local knowledge and experience to issues with working rights and visas, difficulties in addressing certification queries, and a misconception of soft skills because of perceived cultural differences.

A consistent reliance on skilled migrant workers shows Australia faces a domestic supply challenge. Australia is the third lowest producer of engineers as a proportion of all graduates in the OECD. There has been a sizable decline in young Australians choosing to study tertiary engineering degrees. Adding insult to injury, the Australian Mathematics Sciences Institute (AMSI) has 

that the number of Australian school students choosing to study intermediate and higher-level mathematics and other engineering prerequisites is at an all-time low [3]. 

Even those that graduate with a tertiary qualification in engineering, only around 60% continue to work in that profession. So, the engineering skills shortage will probably worsen before it gets better. And it will require long-term commitment, collaboration, and action by the government, industries, and the education sector.

Another key issue is representation. While the engineering professions are the biggest employer of the STEM disciplines, it has the smallest female representation. 16% of engineering students are female, 13% of qualified engineers in Australia are female, and only 11.2% of the engineering workforce is female [1]. These statistics show the inadequate efforts to make engineering an appealing vocation for all. Even worse, it's indicative of an inability to retain and nurture talent.

According to Engineers Australia, there is a significant lack of positive perceptions about the engineering profession; it's consistently seen as being 'too complex' or male-dominated. Further, a significant barrier to encouraging students to study engineering or being retained as professionals result from non-inclusive work cultures and inequalities in opportunity. Over 2/3 of female engineers report having left their engineering roles due to this.

According to a recent survey of women outside engineering, over 90% said they didn't even consider engineering or barely considered it. The most cited reasons were the fact that there was a lack of awareness of what the profession is and what engineers do. It's clear engineering has a severe PR issue. Increasing awareness of engineering as a fulfilling and impactful career choice among students and the teachers and parents that influence them should be a major focal point to encourage equal participation in the profession, boost and empower the role of women and alleviate the skills shortage.

How to strengthen the engineering workforce

Australia's shortage of engineers requires comprehensive action that not only boosts the pipeline of prospective engineers but also retains talent in the workforce. Below, we'll summarise some of the actions that the government, industry bodies, and the tertiary education sector can take to alleviate current skill supply shortages.

Government policies and incentives can go a long way to strengthen the engineering workforce. The OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) has shown that Australian schools' performance in mathematics and science has been declining since 2003 [4]. All levels of government can work to increase Australia's teaching capability in STEM subjects. Government can provide resources and financial support to schools to encourage young people to choose to study maths and science. 

In tertiary settings, the government can provide financial support to engineering students to encourage and help students finish their studies in a minimum timeframe. Further, providing Commonwealth Supported Places (CPS) for engineering master's qualifications to help upskill engineers in the workforce in emerging and evolving sectors.

The government can incentivize organizations and contractors to establish comprehensive and well-developed graduate and internship schemes in the industry. It could also directly offer these internships or graduate programs in government agencies that require engineering capabilities.

The government can also enhance Australia's migration program. Attracting migrants with specific skills and experience to work and gain employment in their respective fields through increased sponsorship programs and opportunities. The government should provide clear and credible information on employment pathways to skilled migrants and start initiatives to help overseas workers develop local knowledge and the soft skills required in the industry.

The AEC industry plays a big role in helping to retain engineers in the workforce. The industry's primary approach should consider the 'train to retain' concept. As is the case in any industry, to retain talent, they need a reason to stay. Providing visibility in career pathways, engagement, opportunities for self-direction, upskilling, and re-skilling is vital for retention. Also, where there is great demand and little supply, raising salaries to ensure good talent is retained in highly skilled areas is important in strengthening the existing workforce and incentivizing newcomers into the industry.

Larger companies requiring engineering skills should also aim to have a developed graduate scheme to provide graduates with rotational experience and upskill new cohorts of graduates while helping newcomers to the sector find their calling. Even smaller companies and startups should offer more internships. Pressures on businesses drive employers to find ways to get value from hires sooner. A way to get value sooner is to bridge the gap between theoretical knowledge and career skills through internships. This is something we believe in at 

Further, companies should invest in international students who complete their studies in Australia, providing pathways for them to transition into sponsored roles that eventually lead to permanent migration. Even with government objectives to enhance domestic capabilities, skilled migrants still make up a bulk of the labour force, and systems should support them.

Increasing the supply of engineers entering the workforce is another part of the skills shortage solution. Building a skilled workforce of engineers must begin early in students' education. The awareness of engineering, the disciplines it covers, and how it contributes to society should have its roots in early education by providing the resources, engagement, and grounding of STEM in school. 

, the country's difficulty in developing engineers domestically is greatly a result of a reduction in Year 12 maths and science participation. Maths and science in high school can be quite intimidating. Often students who do poorly do not choose these subjects in their final year of school when they become prerequisites for tertiary engineering studies. This is a crucial point of domestic supply loss, so more needs to be done to entice students to the profession. This can be done by raising awareness of the skills and prospective career opportunities among teachers, students, parents, and career advisors.

Boosting the pipelines of engineers certainly doesn't end in primary and secondary education. Even at the tertiary level, a considerable number of university students either take longer to complete their degree or do not complete their degree in engineering at all. Exploring and offering innovative pathways to obtain engineering qualifications should be a consideration at a tertiary level. 

Remember, students that begin studying for a degree in engineering should have the skills to finish it, yet the completion rate is 50%; new approaches should be on the table—contacting students who withdraw from their course to determine what kinds of support, if any, could be an appropriate method to retain them in their studies and gain an understanding of the motivators behind these decisions. Universities should also help students find and secure graduate program employment opportunities by working with industry and government.

All over the world, infrastructure projects from airports, schools, and highways to power systems are affected by the shortage of skilled technicians and engineers. This will only be exacerbated by the growing need for multidisciplinary engineers required in new fields, particularly in renewable technologies and robotics and the general digitalization of the industry. 

More and more countries and organizations are committing to the tenets of the UN sustainability goals, and engineering professions offer a vital lever by which to achieve these goals. Without a consistent pipeline of talent with the right skills, it will become harder to realize these objectives. 

 and labor challenges should start now. It would require effective cooperation between all levels of government, agencies, industry, and the education sector.

Explore the challenges and solutions to Australia's engineering skills shortage as the demand for engineers rises. Learn in detail here.

Are skilled migrants the solution to Australia's engineer shortage? - CalcTree

In engineering practice, we work with measurements representing real-world quantities like distance, time, and force. To quantify these measurements, we assign units to a value. This article aims to compare two approaches to engineering calculations involving units of measurement and explain why one approach is superior.

The first approach: handling units outside calculations

Let's calculate the distance travelled by a car at 100 km/hr in 37 minutes: 

If we use a hand calculator, we must remember that hand calculators only accept numbers and do not understand units. Therefore, we should extract numbers from the quantities when inputting them into the calculator (for example, 100 x 37). After obtaining the calculator's result, we must interpret the unit separately. For instance, if the result is 100 x 37 = 3700, we will need to convert it into a relevant unit of distance.

Spreadsheets are another common calculation tool that requires explicit unit guidelines for inputs and outputs. Authors must provide guidance about the expected input units and intended output units inside a spreadsheet.

The hand calculator example will require a unit conversion applied to the result to be useful. However, as the calculations become more complex and involves multiple steps, handling the units separately from the numbers becomes a cumbersome task prone to errors. In a lot of engineering cases, units might also be factored as part of the equation too, i.e. changing 

, which can also add to the complexity of the calculation. 

A better approach: Unit-aware calculations

If a calculation tool can work with quantities, there will be no need for additional care about units when using the tool. For example, most sophisticated technical computing software like MathCAD, Maple, or CalcTree can perform calculations on quantities, that is, values 



With a unit-aware calculation tool, in our example of travelling distance, we can create a calculation that takes a speed measurement in any speed unit and a duration measurement in any time unit and then multiplies them to obtain a distance measurement. The result's unit is derived automatically.


Unit-aware calculation tools can identify operations that don't make sense, for example, adding one meter to one second:


With such ability, unit-aware tools can assist in two distinct ways with quality control of engineering calculations: 1) ensuring that the units of the inputs are as intended, and 2) dimensional analysis compliance. 

Ensuring that the units of the inputs are right

As a simple example, if you set up a calculation to add one meter to a given input distance in a unit-aware tool, you can be confident that: 

With unit-aware calculation tools, every operation must adhere to dimensional analysis requirements. For instance, if a variable is omitted from an expression, leading to a change in the term's unit in the equation, the dimensional compatibility of terms will be violated. The tool will be able to detect this issue.

In engineering calculations, units can be likened to data types in software engineering. Just as in typed programming languages, where you can't assign a string value to a variable of integer type, in unit-aware calculations, you can't use a mismatching quantity in an expression that expects a specific quantity type. 

Previously, units were treated as formatting for numbers, and the calculations were not unit-aware. We have released a significant update for the CalcTree application that enables unit-aware calculation across math expressions and Python scripts.

We were among the first to witness the unit quality control in action. We had a calculation template for calculating the neutral axis of a reinforced concrete beam. After updating the Python, we immediately encountered this error in the Python code: 

We detected a mismatch in one of the expressions inside the Python script. We immediately located the corresponding line and fixed it! 

You can learn more about how you can use Units of measurement in your Python scripts in CalcTree here:  

Here, we calculate the energy needed to displace an object by a distance 

. You can try adjusting the Displacement and Force values using different units: 

 You can use any unit for force (F) and any unit for displacement (D): 

if you use an incompatible unit, you will receive a unit mismatch error:

, the app you're reading this one is a calculation management platform. You can sign-up and build hosted, shareable web apps (complete with an API and a web publishing module) with tools like Python and Spreadsheets. Learn more 

In engineering practice, we work with measurements representing real-world quantities like distance, time, and force