The federal financing of large-scale engineering projects
Abstract The financial condition of the federal government can not be a source of comfort to the managers of large-scale projects. On the one hand, a gradual absorption of the large deficits into a growing economy increases the financial risks of large projects. On the other hand, the significant cuts in federal spending are likely to fall disproportionately on these same projects. As a result strategic thinking about such ventures will need to include: a) financial mechanisms that place greater reliance on private resources, states and localities and, with that reliance, allow greater non-federal participation in project design and management; b) the way that the financial structure of a large-scale project can build and nurture the coalition of interests essential for its survival; c) the concept that a large scale project is a provider of services, rather than an object of intrinsic value; and d) meshing the financial and technological characteristics of a macro-engineering project with these new realities.
INFRASTRUCTURE REVOLVING FUNDS: A FIRST REVIEW
This paper examines eight alternative financial configurations for a National Infrastructure Fund (NIF). While these cases can be helpful in comparing different financial structures, they are less suitable for predicting the outcome of particular options because they rely on 30-year projections of economic conditions, and take no account of loan defaults either by the state infrastructure funds or by individual projects. A NIF would typically be financed with a federal loan or grant and, in turn, would make loans for particular infrastructure projects, presumably at below-market interest rates. Under most options, a pool of permanent capital could be created to be used for future infrastructure loans. As a result, the NIF represents a significant change from current infrastructure programs. An important similarity between existing government programs and any NIF proposal, however, is the economic cost both place on society. While a revolving fund does not reduce the cost of financing public investments, the share of these costs to be borne by federal and state and local governments can vary widely, as shown by the case studies we have examined. Three major conclusions can be drawn from these case studies. Charging interest on NIF funds lent for projects would increase the number of projects that could be built for any given level of federal expenditure. Charging interest on federal funds provided to the NIF would reduce federal costs significantly, but would aslo reduce the fund available for project investment. (There would be very little change in the ratio of projects built per federal dollar.) As federal costs are reduced, state and local costs would increase at any level of project investment. (Author)
New approach to vision-based BGA package inspection
Ball grid array (BGA) techniques have developed very fast due to the advantages of more I/O ports, small size, and so on. In this paper, a vision-based algorithm for BGA package inspection is proposed to accurately estimate center and diameters of solder-balls of BGA packages, so that defects of BGA packages, such as missing or extra balls, oversize or undersize balls, over-height or under-height balls, and pitch can be detected for ensuring the quality of BGA packages.