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In this research brief, we present our methods research on beginning to define engineering judgment. Judgment is critical to the field of engineering. However, when asked to define engineering judgment, engineers, including faculty, often cannot readily do so. Although judgment is a common term, it has been an elusive notion. This elusiveness may be due to the many conceptions of engineering judgment found in the literature. Unfortunately, given the lack of an agreed-upon, concrete definition for engineering judgment that integrates the various conceptions, its assessment relative to the formation of engineers has been limited. In this research brief, we describe our process to begin the development of an expert, consensus-driven definition for engineering judgment using the Delphi technique and the various conceptions for engineering judgment in the literature. A working or preliminary definition, which is being used to develop assessment and instructional materials for engineering judgment, is presented. 

In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in the use of highly nonlinear solitary waves (HNSWs) for nondestructive evaluation and structural health monitoring applications. HNSWs are mechanical waves that can form and travel in highly nonlinear systems, such as granular particles in Hertzian contact. The easiest setup consists of a built-in transducer in drypoint contact with the structure or material to be inspected/monitored. The transducer is made of a monoperiodic array of spherical particles that enables the excitation and detection of the solitary waves. The transducer is wired to a data acquisition system that controls the functionality of the transducer and stores the time series for post-processing. In this paper, the design and testing of a wireless unit that enables the remote control of a transducer without the need to connect it to sophisticated test equipment are presented. Comparative tests and analyses between the measurements obtained with the newly designed wireless unit and the conventional wired configuration are provided. The results are corroborated by an analytical model that predicts the dynamic interaction between solitary waves and materials with different modulus. The advantages and limitations of the proposed wireless platform are given along with some suggestions for future developments.