Category Archives: Engineering

A Life-changing Gift

A nice human interest story, A life-changing gift:

All children have dreams. Many boys dream of growing up and becoming prime minister, a pilot, a doctor or an astronaut. For young Anusorn Pinsuwan, however, he didn’t dream that much. ”I just wanted to study. Then I could dare to dream of being something else, like an engineer or a teacher. But I didn’t think I could make my dreams come true as I didn’t have the money to study,” said Anusorn, now 25. ”But, at least, we shouldn’t sabotage our own dreams. We should give ourselves a chance.”

One of his dreams has been achieved, thanks to the support of the Bangkok Post readers, through a Bangkok Post Foundation scholarship. After excelling at Rajamangala University of Technology, Tak campus, he secured a place at King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology, North Bangkok, studying civil engineering. He graduated in 2005, and his first job offer from a private construction company followed shortly.

Science and Engineering Internships

Externs.com is another curious cat web site: an internship directory. It is getting late to try and find an internship for the summer but if you are still looking you can find science internships and engineering internships via that site.

The list of companies includes: Google, Intel, NASA, Dell, NIST, Scripps Research Institute, US Navy, National Cancer Institute, Microsoft and the International Crane Foundation. If you have any internship positions you would like included you may suggest an addition.

Engineering Quiet, Efficient Planes

Fly Silent, Fly Cheap by Jeffrey Winters, Mechanical Engineering magazine:

In all, the design changes would amount to a startling reduction in the amount of sound produced on takeoff and landing. The Cambridge-MIT team estimates that a landing SAX-40 would create less than 65 decibels of noise at the perimeter of the airport—about the same level as background noise. Transformed in this way, airplanes would be relatively neutral parts of the urban environment, rather than nuisances.

But there’s a side benefit: fuel efficiency. The same design elements that cut back on noise also reduce fuel consumption. With less energy lost to creating turbulence, more power would be devoted to moving passengers.

NSF Cafe Scientifique: Arlington, Virgina

Cafe Scientifique NSF. Where: The Front Page, 4201 Wilson Blvd, Arlington, Virginia (Ballston Metro stop). 6:30PM-8:00PM presentation, followed by Q&A: The “Shocking” Science Behind Electric Cars:

Science makes many things possible, including alternative fuels and modes of personal transportation… Goldstein and Garlow are the President and VP of the DC area Electric Vehicle Association. They will discuss the science behind electric cars, such as fuel cells and battery technology, and some of the issues surrounding their use and acceptance. And, they will bring actual cars to touch and explore, including the MIT entry into the 1994 Tour de Sol, an electric car that is solar-powered, and an all-electric Toyota RAV4.
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Cafe Scientifique flourished first in the U.K. as a way for the public and scientists to mingle and discuss science issues in an informal setting. At least 35 cafÃ©s now exist in the U.S.

I hope to make it this month.

Engineering Activities: for 9-12 Year Olds

Design Squad Activity page:

Unleash your kids’ ingenuity and get them thinking like engineers with these 10 DESIGN SQUAD challenges. Designed for 9-12 year olds, each challenge has step-by-step instructions and age-appropriate explanations of the main idea.

European Innovation Scoreboard

European Innovation Scoreboard (pdf)

The US and Japan are still ahead of the EU25 in terms of innovation performance, but the innovation gap between the EU25 and Japan, and in particular with the US is decreasing (see Figure II). The EU25 has improved its relative performance compared to the US in S&E graduates, tertiary education, business R&D, early-stage venture capital, medium-high and high-tech manufacturing employment, EPO patents, USPTO patents and community trademarks. The EU has improved its relative performance compared to Japan mostly in S&E graduates and broadband penetration rate.
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Sweden, Switzerland, Finland, Denmark, Japan and Germany are the innovation leaders, with SII scores well above that of the EU25 and the other countries…
The US, UK, Iceland, France, Netherlands, Belgium, Austria and Ireland are the innovation followers, with SII scores below those of the innovation leaders but above that of the EU25 and the other countries.

NSF Summer Institute on Nano Mechanics and Materials

NSF Summer Institute on Nano Mechanics and Materials is offering short courses this summer, one at Northwestern and one at UCLA. NSF fellowships are available to professors, high-school science teachers, post-docs and Ph.D. candidates from US universities. The fellowship consists of full tuition plus a travel allowance, if applicable. Apply by April 1, 2007. I really like that the NSF provides funds to help people attend this type of thing.

The objectives of the NSF Summer Institute on Nano Mechanics and Materials are:

* To identify and promote important areas of nanotechnology, and to create new areas o focus which will augment current nanotechnology research and development by universities, industries and government.
* To train future and practicing engineers, scientists and educators in the emerging areas of nanotechnology, nano-mechanics, and nano-materials.
* To exchange new ideas, disseminate knowledge and provide valuable networking opportunities for researchers and leaders in the field.

The short courses offered by the Institute provide fundamentals and recent new developments in selected areas of nanotechnology. The material is presented at a level accessible to BS graduates of science and engineering programs. Emphasis is on techniques and theory recently developed that are not available in texts or standard university courses.

Atom-thick Carbon Transistor

Atom-thick carbon transistor could succeed silicon by Tom Simonite:

Transistors more than four times smaller than the tiniest silicon ones – and potentially more efficient – can be made using sheets of carbon just one-tenth of a nanometre thick, research shows. Unlike other experimental nanoscopic transistors, the new components require neither complex manufacturing nor cryogenic cooling.

The transistors are made of graphene, a sheet of carbon atoms in a flat honeycomb arrangement. Graphene makes graphite when stacked in layers, and carbon nanotubes when rolled into a tube. Graphene also conducts electricity faster than most materials since electrons can travel through in straight lines between atoms without being scattered. This could ultimately mean faster, more efficient electronic components that also require less power.

Editorial: Engineers of the Future

Engineers of the future:

Technology education programs at all grade levels seek to afford students opportunities to tinker, to discover how things work, and to explore the designed world. At the elementary school level, students may learn about simple machines designed for specific tasks or about the basics of electricity by actually building simple circuits. In middle school, students may explore concepts in more detail, perhaps by designing and building a model of a bridge or a gliding aircraft. In high school, students may have opportunities to design an affordable home, take something apart to see how it works, or design and build a robot that would be used for a rescue mission or some other specific purpose. All of these experiences are related to the processes of engineering.

This is the type of learning that can enhance a future engineer’s experience, but also the type that cannot be included in the typical upper grade level math or science classroom for one main reason: math and science teachers generally do not have the time and may not have the interest or expertise needed for in-depth study of technology.

The editorial makes a good point. As import and primary science and math education are they are not enough. Effort to create an environment where students can experiment and use their hands and minds to solve problems is incredibly valuable. Teaching in this way is not as simple as it might seem, see example below for some ideas and resources that can help create these type of learning institutions.

Examples: Middle School Engineers – k-12 Engineering Education – Engineering is Elementary – Colorado Science Teacher of the Year – Building minds by building robots – Leadership Initiatives for Teaching and Technology – Engineering Education Program for k-12 – Project Lead The Way – k-12 science and engineering posts

Medical Study: Antioxidant Supplements Don’t Extend Life

Antioxidant Supplements Don’t Extend Life Span, Study Finds

Representatives of the vitamin industry, as well as some other researchers, disputed the findings, criticizing the study for, among other things, including people who were already sick. People tend to take vitamins to stay healthy, they said.

“There’s a large body of data that shows that antioxidant supplementation is beneficial,” said Andrew Shao of the Council for Responsible Nutrition, an industry group. “The message to the average consumer is: Don’t pay attention to this. This doesn’t apply to you. You can go ahead and continue taking your antioxidant supplements in addition to the other things you do in your life to stay healthy.”

But Gluud and his colleagues defended the findings, saying that the study used careful methods developed by the internationally respected Cochrane Collaboration, an independent nonprofit effort to methodically assess medical claims. The analysis included many large studies involving healthy people, and the increased risk was clear after accounting for factors that could confuse the findings, Gluud said.