Category: Engineering

Zero-Day exploits and Cyber Weapons

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Analyze the significance of the STUXNET malicious code events in Iran, and the significance of the Dragonfly malicious code currently found in the US and Europe (Do not dwell on describing the effects, instead describe the significance).
Analyze the effects of the global market for sale of ZDEs. Can the proliferation of ZDEs and cyberweapons be controlled or managed by a treaty similar to the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty? Is it possible to keep a count of cyber weapons the same way we can monitor nations to count their nuclear weapons? Explain your answer.
Describe the characteristics and possible effects on computer equipment and businesses due to a cyberattack using Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) or Microwave Directed Energy. Compare those characteristics and effects on computers to the traditional effects that are commonly associated with a malicious code cyberattack. Look up the costs for various commercial EMP devices found for sale on the Internet.

 

 

 

 

Engineering question

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“Laser diodes can create lasting conditions when pumped with electrical current at the diode junctions.”

What “lasting conditions” are you referring to? What is “pumped” electrical current?

 

 

Here is an example of operational details explained at the technical level I am expecting from engineering students:

Laser diodes have an intrinsic (un-doped silicon or germanium) layer sandwiched in between the P and N doped regions. The boundaries between the intrinsic region and the P and N regions are reflective like a mirror.

When the electrons and holes recombine in the intrinsic region during forward current through the diode, the energy lost by that recombination is emitted in the form of a photon. These photons collide with other incoming electrons, which produces even more photons. Each emitted photon bounces back and forth between the two reflective boundaries, which concentrates and guides them until they emerge as coherent light. A lens further focuses the beam.

 

 

Engineering disciplines

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Write a 1-2 page research paper that identifies 3 engineering disciplines that interest you and should be growing and/or hiring in the next 5 years. At least 1 of the engineering disciplines must be outside of the 4 major branches (Chemical, Civil, Electrical, & Mechanical Engineering). You should present data with references that support your claims that each discipline presented will be growing and/or hiring. The paper should meet the following guidelines:
● Have a title, your name, and the submission date at the top of the document
● Have at least 200 words in the body of the document
● Have captions for any data displayed in tables and figures; those captions should include a table or figure number as well as a description of what data is being shown
● Have at least 2 citations (in any format you choose) that contain the author, date, title, and publisher/link information

Cybersecurity Training programs

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For your initial post, discuss the two topics below.
Training:
Describe Cybersecurity Training programs at your own organization (frequency, use of automation, certification after finishing, etc). How is cybersecurity training at your organization designed to successfully overcome resistance to changing users’ poor cybersecurity habits? (Just talk about Air Force Cyber Awareness Training.)
2. Should cybersecurity training be designed to correspond to different categories for individual roles and responsibilities in an organization? Explain your answer.

 

 

Motivations Of Threat Actors

Posted on | by Brian Leakey

For your initial post, discuss all points in the two topics below. Respond to posts from other students.
Motivations of Threat Actors –
Analyze motivations to threat actors that can be influenced by (1) Patriotism or Regional Hegemony, (2) widespread national economic poverty, and (3) world view as a political or social activist. What kinds of targets do each of these influences lead hackers to direct their cyberattacks towards?
Analyze the influence of anonymity on Cyber Bullying and Cyber Stalking.

Financial engineering

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1-

1. Financial engineering has been disparaged as nothing more than paper shuffling. Critics argue that resources used for rearranging wealth ( that is, bundling and unbundling financial assets) might be better spent on creating wealth ( that is, creating real assets). Evaluate this criticism. Are any benefits realized by creating an array of derivative securities from various primary securities?

2. What are the differences between equity and fixed- income securities? ( LO 1- 5)

3. What is the difference between a primary asset and a derivative asset? ( LO 1- 1)

4. What is the difference between asset allocation and security selection? ( LO 1- 4)

5. What are the differences between real and financial assets? ( LO 1- 2)

6. How does investment banking differ from commercial banking? ( LO 1- 5)

7. For each transaction, identify the real and/ or financial assets that trade hands. Are any financial assets created or destroyed in the transaction? ( LO 1- 2)
a. Toyota takes out a bank loan to finance the construction of a new factory.
b. Toyota pays off its loan.
c. Toyota uses $ 10 million of cash on hand to purchase additional inventory of spare auto parts.

8. Suppose that in a wave of pessimism, housing prices fall by 10% across the entire economy. (LO 1-2)
a. Has the stock of real assets of the economy changed?
b. Are individuals less wealthy?
c. Can you reconcile your answers to ( a ) and ( b )?

9. The average rate of return on investments in large stocks has outpaced that on investments in
Treasury bills by about 7% since 1926. Why, then, does anyone invest in Treasury bills?

 

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1. A municipal bond carries a coupon of 6 ¾ % and is trading at par. What is the equivalent taxable yield to a taxpayer in a combined federal plus state 34% tax bracket?

2. The coupon rate on a tax- exempt bond is 5.6%, and the rate on a taxable bond is 8%. Both bonds sell at par. At what tax bracket marginal tax rate) would an investor be indifferent between the two bonds?

3
Why do most professionals consider the Wilshire 5000 a better index of the performance of the broad stock market than the Dow Jones Industrial Average? ( LO 2- 2)

4. What is meant by the LIBOR rate? The Federal funds rate? TED Spread? ( LO 2- 1)

5. Why are corporations more apt to hold preferred stock than are other potential investors? (LO 2-1)

6. A municipal bond carries a coupon rate of 6 ¾ % and is trading at par. What would be the equivalent taxable yield of this bond to a taxpayer in a 35% tax bracket? ( LO 2- 1)

7. Suppose that short- term municipal bonds currently offer yields of 4%, while comparable taxable bonds pay 5%. Which gives you the higher after- tax yield if your tax bracket is: ( LO 2- 1)
a. Zero
b. 10%
c. 20%
d. 30%

8. Consider the three stocks in the following table. Pt represents price at time t, and Q t represents shares outstanding at time t. Stock C splits two- for- one in the last period. ( LO 2- 2)

P0 Q0 P1 Q1 P2 Q2
A 90 100 95 100 95 100
B 50 200 45 200 45 200
C 100 200 110 200 55 400

a. Calculate the rate of return on a price- weighted index of the three stocks for the first period ( t = 0 to t = 1).
b. What must happen to the divisor for the price- weighted index in year 2?
c. Calculate the rate of return of the price- weighted index for the second period ( t= 1 to t=2)

9. Using the data in the previous problem, calculate the first- period rates of return on the following indexes of the three stocks: ( LO 2- 2)
a. A market value– weighted index
b. An equally weighted index

10. Find the after-tax return to a corporation that buys a share of preferred stock at $40, sells it at year-end at $40, and receives a $4 year-end dividend. The firm is in the 30% tax bracket. (for the purpose of exercise, assume 70% exclusion in dividend for tax purpose)

11. Preferred stock yields often are lower than yields on bonds of the same quality because of: ( LO 2- 1)
a. Marketability
b. Risk
c. Taxation
d. Call protection

Part C
• What are overall investment process and some key elements involved in the investment process
• What are the differences in financial and real assets and the major components of the investment process
• Explain various financial instruments available to the potential investor
• How to perform after tax yields calculation
• What are the various market indexes and price weighted index divisor

 

Identifying yield and selectivity variation in competitive reactions

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One of your clients is at the preliminary design stage for the manufacture of isopropyltoluene (IP). They have already decided that the chemical reaction that they plan to use is the alkylation of toluene (To) by propene (Pr), and their feasibility study indicates that this is best undertaken in the gas phase at 200 °C, in a tubular reactor. The Client has also identified that the major side reaction is dimerization of Pr to yield methylpentene (MP), and that other minor side reactions are possible.
Although the Client has not allowed their feasibility study to be shared, they have provided an indication of some factors they would like to be considered (given below in red), so that an assessment can be made on how the yield and selectivity of the primary reaction varies with the conversion of propene (ranging from 10% to 40%).
Notes from Client • Mole ratio of To/Pr > 1. • Reactor needs to be fed by a mixture of To, Pr and and inert species in the mole ratio 5 : 1 : 10. • At an operating temperature of 200 °C, the rate constant for the reaction to To with Pr is five times larger that of the dimerization of Pr.
Notes from Team Leader • Is there an ideal reactor that can be used to approximate the tubular reactor?