Category Archives: Engineering

Micro-Wind Turbines for Home Use

Hong Kong Inventors Unveil New Micro-Wind Turbines Suitable for City Dwellers

“Let’s say if you have good conditions, five, six meters [of wind] per second, if you are a family with one kid you need most probably three, four square meters of that then you can most probably cover at least 60, 70 percent of your [energy] needs.” The technology can also help power bigger buildings. Administrators at Hong Kong’s Sea School, a secondary school offering basic seaman training, will install the new micro wind-turbines on its roof in April.

Gambarota says his biggest dream is to see his invention being used in developing countries. He says energy generated by micro wind turbines can be used to pump water, for example, saving women and girls from having to walk for miles to rivers and lakes to fetch it.

Information from Motorwave. Very cool idea though still early (they are meant only to provide electricity for immediate use at this time – no way to sell excess power to the grid or battery backup yet).

Toyota iUnit

The Toyota iUnit personal transport. Time named it a Best Inventions 2005. I can’t find much new on the progress made since then.

Engineering Job Sites

Find engineering jobs:

Internet Engineering Center
Dice Engineering
Jobs at Google
EngineeringJobs.net
icerecruit – UK Institution of Civil Engineers
American Society Of Mechanical Engineers: Jobs
Career Builder: Engineering Jobs
UK Engineering Recruitment
Postdoc Jobs

Neuroengineers Use Light to Silence Overactive Neurons

MIT neuroengineers’ pulsing light silences overactive neurons:

The work takes advantage of a gene called halorhodopsin found in a bacterium that grows in extremely salty water, such as the Great Salt Lake in Utah. In the bacterium, Natronomas pharaonis, the gene codes for a protein that serves as a light-activated chloride pump, which helps the bacterium make energy.

When neurons are engineered to express the halorhodopsin gene, the researchers can inhibit their activity by shining yellow light on them. Light activates the chloride pumps, which drive chloride ions into the neurons, lowering their voltage and silencing their firing.
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The group also plans to use the new method to study neural circuits. Last year, Boyden devised a technique to stimulate neurons by shining blue light on them, so with blue and yellow light the researchers can now exert exquisite control over the stimulation and inhibition of individual neurons. Learning more about the neural circuits involved in epilepsy could help scientists develop devices that can predict when a seizure is about to occur, allowing treatment (either shock or light) to be administered only when necessary, Boyden said.

USC Innovation Institute Reinventing Itself

USC innovation institute reinventing itself:

Established in 2004, the institute was originally designed to help advance engineering after USC alumnus and venture capitalist Mark Stevens and his wife, Mary, donated $22 million to the campus unit.
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In the spirit of innovation, Provost C.L. Max Nikias also announced he wants to develop in the next year a minor in innovation for all doctoral students, regardless of their discipline. “I want innovation to be the signature for the USC PhD diploma,” Nikias said. To oversee the institute’s new effort, USC officials last year recruited Krisztina Holly, a former director of an innovation center at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
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If one of USC’s 33,000 students has an idea, he or she should contact the institute that is housed in the Andrew and Erna Viterbi School of Engineering and speak with an innovator developer to determine if the idea has merit.

Open Access Science Education Journal

Science in School is an open access journal focused on science education published quarterly.

Science in School aims to promote inspiring science teaching by encouraging communication between teachers, scientists, science teachers and everyone else involved in European science education. Science in School addresses science teaching both across Europe and across disciplines: highlighting the best in teaching and cutting-edge research. It covers not only biology, physics and chemistry, but also maths, earth sciences, engineering and medicine, focusing on interdisciplinary work.

The contents include teaching materials; cutting-edge science; education projects; interviews with young scientists and inspiring teachers; European education news; reviews of books and other resources; and European events for teachers.

The latest issue includes: Silky, stretchy and stronger than steel by Giovanna Cicognani and Montserrat Capellas (on spider silk), A fresh look at light: build your own spectrometer by Mark Tiele Westra, Fair enough? Balanced considerations for future science-fair organisers by Eva Amsen and Fusion in the Universe: we are all stardust by Henri Boffin and Douglas Pierce-Price.

Engineering Students Design Innovative Hand Dryer

Engineering students design innovative hand dryer:

Two engineering students at the University of Iceland have designed an innovative hand dryer, which is powered by hot water and uses only ten percent of the energy that conventional hand dryers need.
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The students’ instructor, Thorsteinn Ingi SigfÃºsson, a professor in physics, got the idea for the hand dryer. The students received a grant from The Icelandic Student Innovation Fund to develop his idea.
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The water goes through a process of metabolism when it comes in touch with a special heating element inside the hand dryer and changes into air, which is blown out of the hand dryer with a fan, as described by one of the designers, Hildigunnur JÃ³nsdÃ³ttir.

The sub-$1,000 UAV Project

The sub-$1,000 UAV project by Chris Anderson:

This summer my project will be to come up with a set of resources and instructions that will allow regular non-engineer people (and kids) to put together a drone for less than $1,000 that has most if not all of the functionality of this $10,000 beauty. The DraganFlyer autonomous helicopter platform shown above starts at just $2,400, and these guys seem to have made good progress on the essentials of a $500 helicopter UAV

Very cool. Hopefully we can post an update on the progress.

Albatross is an open source unpiloted aerial vehicles (UAVs) project (March 21st, 2007: “unfortunately this project has to be put on hold… We are seeking opportunities to combine our work to date with other ongoing UAV research and projects, before it becomes hopelessly obsolete”). Paparazzi is an open source project for an autopilot system.

Swiss dig world’s Longest Tunnel

Swiss dig world’s longest tunnel:

As long ago as 1994, the Swiss voted in a nationwide referendum to put all freight crossing their country onto the railways. Naturally, such an ambitious plan was not going to happen overnight, but now the project dubbed the engineering feat of the 21st Century is slowly taking shape.

Deep beneath the Alps, the Swiss are building a high-speed rail link between Zurich and Milan. It will include, at 57 kilometres (35 miles), the world’s longest tunnel. A key feature of the project, which is new to alpine transport, is the fact that the entire railway line will stay at the same altitude of 500 metres (1,650ft) above sea level.
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In fact the price tag for the entire rail link has soared from about $8bn (Â£4bn) to almost $15bn and final completion is unlikely to be before 2018.

Boeing CEO’s Speech to Engineering Students

Boeing CEO offers UM students advice about careers, innovation:

He explained the reality, as it applies to the corporate world today, is that innovation is a team sport, not a solo sport. It (innovation) depends on a culture of technical sharing and openness to others not a reclusive environment, innovation can and should occur in all areas of the business, incremental doesn’t mean insignificant, eureka moments are rare, and in a business environment, creativity cannot exist without discipline.

“It takes people working together across different groups, disciplines, and organizational arms to make it happen,” Mr. McNerney said. “It also takes real leadership to charter the course and (inspire) people to reach for the highest level of performance supported by a never ending focus on integrity.”

According to McNerney business has become focused on measuring value practically, which causes engineering-based companies like Boeing to innovate more frequently than they invent all-new products.