Category Archives: Engineering

Proposal to Triple NSF GFRP Awards and the Size of the Awards by 33%

Hillary Clinton’s Innovation Agenda (press release from the campaign):

Triple the number of NSF fellowships and increase the size of each award by 33 percent. At present, the NSF offers approximately 1,000 fellowships per year. This number is not much changed from the 1960s, although the number of college students graduating with science and engineering degrees has grown three fold. The NSF fellowship is the key financial resource for science and engineering graduate students. Hillary will increase the number of fellowships to 3,000 per year. She will also increase each award from $30,000 to $40,000 per year (simultaneously, she will increase the NSF award to each recipient’s school from $10,500 per recipient to $14,000 per recipient to help cover educational costs).

That sounds great to me. I have talked about this before: Increasing American Fellowship Support for Scientists and Engineers. I work for ASEE on the IT systems in support of the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Operation Center (the ASEE portion of the program) and other engineering fellowship programs). This blog is my own and is not affiliated with ASEE.

The proposed legislation on Graduate Scholar Awards in Science, Technology, Engineering, or Math also has a similar aim and commitment. Here is a post from 2005 on similar proposals. As I mentioned in The Innovation Agenda, 2005 while I agree with this spending I also believe what I said then:

Currently the United States has over $8,000,000,000,000 (that is over $8 trillion – see current count) in debt (increasing by over $400 Billion a year). That brings every person’s share to over $27,000. Given that, it seems reckless to just add spending without either cutting something else or increasing taxes and I don’t see those details in the innovation agenda.

The debt now? Over $9,000,000,000,000 (increasing more than $1.4 billion a day for the last year). More on Washington taxing future generations to pay for what we spend today.

Popular Mechanics 2007 Breakthrough Award: the Windbelt

Shawn Frayne’s Windbelt Wins Popular Mechanics 2007 Breakthrough Award

Frayne’s device consists of a flat, taut membrane that flutters within its housing as air passes through it. At each end of the membrane are magnets that oscillate between metal coils as the band flutters, effectively creating an electric charge. According to the 28-year-old Frayne, prototypes of the Windbelt have generated 40 milliwatts in 10-mph slivers of wind, making his device 10 to 30 times as efficient as the best microturbines.
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Frayne, now based in Mountain View, Calif., gathered a variety of lessons while studying at MIT, especially under the tutelage of Amy Smith (a 2004 MacArthur fellow) in her “D-Lab” class. In this design lab, Frayne learned the politics of delivering technology to poor nations, as well as the technical aspects of mechanical engineering.

I blogged on Amy Smith another blog awhile back: Engineering a Better World (which includes a great web video). Read about 9 more Breakthrough awards.

2007 Solar Decathlon of Homes

Solar Home on National Mall

The National Mall in Washington DC is hosting the 2007 Solar Decathlon of Homes. The link show many photos of homes and interesting information. The event opened to the public today.

The Department of Energy’s Solar Decathlon is a international competition in which 20 university-led teams compete to design, build, and operate the most attractive, effective, and energy-efficient solar-powered house. Every college or university interested in participating wrote a proposal describing how they would organize a team, design and build a house, and raise the funds necessary to have a successful entry. The 20 best proposals were selected and awarded $100,000 dollars from the United States Department of Energy.

The photo shows the Kansas Project Solar House (Kansas State University and University of Kansas) and the Washington Monument in the background.

via: Solar Decathlon Heats Up

Science and Engineering Fellowship Applications Open Now

Some of the science and engineering fellowship applications that are currently open:

2007 Nobel Prize in Chemistry

Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2007

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry for 2007 is awarded for groundbreaking studies in surface chemistry. This science is important for the chemical industry and can help us to understand such varied processes as why iron rusts, how fuel cells function and how the catalysts in our cars work. Chemical reactions on catalytic surfaces play a vital role in many industrial operations, such as the production of artificial fertilizers. Surface chemistry can even explain the destruction of the ozone layer, as vital steps in the reaction actually take place on the surfaces of small crystals of ice in the stratosphere. The semiconductor industry is yet another area that depends on knowledge of surface chemistry.

It was thanks to processes developed in the semiconductor industry that the modern science of surface chemistry began to emerge in the 1960s. Gerhard Ertl was one of the first to see the potential of these new techniques. Step by step he has created a methodology for surface chemistry by demonstrating how different experimental procedures can be used to provide a complete picture of a surface reaction. This science requires advanced high-vacuum experimental equipment as the aim is to observe how individual layers of atoms and molecules behave on the extremely pure surface of a metal, for instance.

UW Concrete Canoe Team Victorious in the Netherlands

Concrete Canoe Team victorious in the Netherlands

The University of Wisconsin-Madison Concrete Canoe Team dominated the 30th annual Dutch Concrete Canoe Challenge Sept. 7–9 in the Netherlands. The team took first place overall, with victories in five out of the six race categories. The team’s 20-foot, 176-pound canoe, Descendent, also won the construction and innovation categories for its design and use of environmentally sound concrete.

Eight members of the UW-Madison team and their advisor, Civil and Environmental Engineering Associate Professor Chin H. Wu, traveled to Amsterdam for the competition, also known as the Beton Kano Race. The team was invited to compete after winning the U.S. national championship for the fifth consecutive time in June. The UW-Madison team was one of 12 participating teams, most of which hailed from the Netherlands or Germany.

Engineering Education Future at Imperial College

Imperial outlines vision for new era in engineering education

“We want to ensure that the engineering graduate of the future is better equipped to take a leading role in identifying issues and designing solutions to local, national and global challenges affecting society and the world around us, without compromising their technical education,”
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Capitalising on these global issues could also have major financial benefits for UK industry claimed the Science and Innovation Minister, Ian Pearson. He said tackling climate change and the effects of population growth could generate at least GBP 700 billion globally by 2015. He said it was an opportunity that British engineers should capitalise on, while helping to mitigate the most damaging features of climate change.

Engineering Efficient Vehicles

Read the Cal Poly Supermileage blog to track the progress of the California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo eco-vehicle team. There goal is to achieve the best gas mileage possible using a gas powered, 3 wheeled, fully faired vehicle. At the Eco-Vehicle Student Competition they achieved 1902.7 mpg. The blog also posts on interesting related matters. A great example of students learning about engineering by doing engineering.

Robotics Engineering Degree

Robotics Engineering Degree at Worcester Polytechnic Institute:

WPI has established the nation’s first undergraduate Robotics Engineering degree program to teach people like you. This unique, innovative program was built from the ground-up with future Robotics professionals in mind. In this program, you’ll develop a proficiency for mechanical, electrical and computer engineering which will teach you to build the robot’s body. You’ll also become proficient in computer science, which will help you control the robot’s behavior.

In this program, you will be building robots during your first year of study. You will not find this hands-on approach to Robotics anywhere else but WPI.
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Students graduating from the Robotics Engineering program will have many options for future employment across a wide range of industries including national defense and security, elder care, automation of household tasks, customized manufacturing, and interactive entertainment. New England is home to a strong and growing Robotics industry. Massachusetts alone boasts over 150 companies, institutions and research labs in the Robotics sector, employing more than 1,500 people.

Interesting. via: eContent. Related: Toyota Robots – Tour the Carnegie Mellon Robotics Lab – Applied Engineering Education – Best Research University Rankings – 2007

$1 Million Grant for National Engineering Education Initiative

Motorola Supports National Engineering Education Initiative with $1 Million Grant

The Motorola Foundation today announced $1 million in support of the National Academy Foundation’s (NAF) Academy of Engineering initiative, which will help create 110 academies in high schools across the country to inspire young people to study science and engineering. In collaboration with Project Lead the Way and the National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering, NAF’s Academy of Engineering initiative will ultimately prepare students for careers in engineering to meet a growing market demand.
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According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, jobs requiring science, engineering, or technical training will increase 24 percent to 6.3 million between 2004 and 2014, creating greater demand for critical thinkers fluent in technology. Yet over the past decade, the NAF has seen declining enrollment and graduation rates in post-secondary engineering programs that can be largely attributed to fewer high school students showing an interest in engineering and technology.