Engineering snacks to whet your appetite
Posted by John Hunter on May 27th, 2010 | No Comments »
Getting clean water is a huge issue for billions of people each day. This is a well known issue that engineers and others have attempted to address. While much has been done, much is left to be done. Such a large and critical issue requires many people to help implement and maintain solutions.
Related: Water, sanitation and hygiene links to health – The PlayPump System – High School Inventor Teams @ MIT – Engineering a Better World – Water and Electricity for All
Filed under Global, Society | Tags: appropriate technology, engineering, making a difference, mechanical engineering
Posted by John Hunter on May 12th, 2010 | No Comments »
National Lab Day Promotional Video
Today, scientists, engineers, technologists, and mathematicians from across the country will team up with K–12 schools for project-based learning experiences for National Lab Day. National Lab Day is a long-term program/collaboration between STEM professionals and K–12 classroom teachers.
A coalition of educators, science and engineering associations, philanthropies and other organizations today announced the launch of National Lab Day, a new grassroots initiative designed to reinvigorate science and math education in the nation’s schools and after-school programs and lead to increased U.S. competitiveness.
President Obama applauded the education initiative and others in a speech at the White House. “Lifting American students from the middle to the top of the pack in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) achievement over the next decade will not be attained by government alone,” he said. “I applaud the substantial commitments made today by the leaders of companies, universities, foundations, non-profits and organizations representing millions of scientists, engineers and teachers from across the country.”
National Lab Day aims to inspire a wave of future innovators and foster U.S. competitiveness by improving the quality STEM education in America. A collaboration between government and more than 200 public and private-sector-organizations, National Lab Day will connect students in grades 6-12 to hands-on learning experiences and promote tinkering in laboratory settings.
National Lab Day will promote hands-on learning throughout the year and culminate each year with special events the first week of May. Volunteer science and technology professionals and educators will work together with students to improve America’s science labs and offer inquiry-based STEM experiences in classrooms, learning labs, and after-school programs.
“We wouldn’t
teach football from a textbook,” said John P. Holdren, President Obama’s science advisor. “It is even more important that America’s youth have the opportunity to learn math and science by doing. The President and I strongly support efforts to raise the level of project-based learning, to help cultivate the next generation of doers and makers.”
Jack D. Hidary, chairman of National Lab Day,
praised President Obama’s announcement. “Our children deserve a world class science and math education that includes exciting, hands-on lab experiences,” said Hidary. “Whether you are a Nobel-prize winning scientist, a Mythbusters fan, a tinkerer or a parent, you can help bring students the enjoyment of learning through real challenges.”
The National Lab Day website will automatically match volunteers to requests from educators to participate on the basis of geography and interests. The website also provides resources and ideas for hands-on learning experiments and invites the public to suggest new materials.
Read the rest of this entry »
Filed under Education, Society, The National Interest, Work | Tags: engineering, engineering education, k-12, science, Society
Posted by John Hunter on January 6th, 2010 | No Comments »
Charlotte Watson
Charlotte Watson, CFO, served ASEE for 17 years with integrity, style and grace. She lost her fierce battle with cancer January 2, 2010, and we lost more. We lost a stalwart friend, an insightful manager, and a loyal leader. The loss of Charlotte has meant that we are all poorer — bereft of her guidance and humor and courage. We will miss her every day.
A life celebration will be held in honor of Charlotte Watson on Saturday, January 9th.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to:
Driving Miss Darby Foundation, Inc. PO Box 634 Millersville, MD 21108 or Gilchrist Hospice Care 11311 McCormick Rd, Suite 350 Hunt Valley, MD 21031
Filed under Society | Tags: ASEE, engineering, Society
Posted by John Hunter on May 15th, 2009 | 1 Comment »
A team of students from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute will be spending part of the summer designing and starting to build solar-powered pasteurization systems for communities in rural Peru.
The group of engineers, led by Assistant Professor Lupita D. Montoya, was one of four student teams nationally to win a highly competitive Summer Engineering Experience in Development (SEED) grant from nonprofit volunteer organization Engineers for a Sustainable World (ESW).
The project aims to help the Langui and Canas community in southern Peru by developing affordable, solar-powered pasteurization equipment. Many families in the region have dairy cows and produce milk, yogurt, and cheeses on a small scale, but cannot obtain certification to market these products because they lack proper sanitation equipment. The new pasteurization systems will allow these families to meet governmental regulations and begin selling their dairy products and earning additional income.
“Currently farmers make dairy products for personal consumption and trade with neighbors. During our first trip people told us that they were looking to sell products beyond their town but needed certification,” said team member Tara Clancy, an environmental engineering major at Rensselaer who graduates this week. “Obtaining certification will enable farmers to strengthen their economic independence, but they won’t be able to be certified without direct access to water, energy, and sanitary facilities. That’s where we can start to implement appropriate technologies.”
This summer, Montoya, Rensselaer mechanical engineering doctoral student Erin Lennox, and rising junior Anna Cyganowski will volunteer their time in Langui and Lima, Peru. Along with working on the design and engineering of pasteurization devices, they will partner with students from the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú (PUCP) to investigate the social and economic aspects of creating a dairy enterprise. This effort will include examining how the community currently produces dairy products, looking into local manufacturing regulations, and studying the local marketplace. The student team also plans to work with microfinance experts in Peru to make small loans to families to purchase the equipment and improve facilities. A student supported by the Office of the Vice Provost for Entrepreneurship at Rensselaer will also join this team.
Lennox said. “It will be exciting and challenging for us to apply our engineering know-how to help them attain this important goal.”
“It’s rewarding to be involved with a real-world project and know that your hard work can have a direct positive impact on not just one person, but an entire community,” Cyganowski said.
The project builds on past humanitarian engineering work by Montoya to challenge students to develop new, affordable technologies to help improve the quality of life in rural Peru. These student innovations are currently installed or housed in the project flagship Ecological Home for the Andes, which serves as a community training site in Langui and aims to showcase the technologies for nearby communities.
Founded in 2001, the ESW is “an engaged technical community with the vision of changing the world through engineering education, innovation, and practical action,” and seeks to stimulate and foster an increased and more diverse community of engineers, as well as infuse sustainability into the practice and studies of every engineer.
Read: Engineering a Better World – High School Inventor Teams @ MIT – Engineers Without Borders – Kiva Fellows Blog: Nepalese Entrepreneur Success – The PlayPump System
Filed under Education, How Things Work, Society | Tags: career, Entrepreneurship, Environmental Engineering, funding, mechanical engineering
Posted by John Hunter on November 26th, 2008 | 1 Comment »
| Mapping the bottom of Sandy Hook Bay |
Rutgers scientists use unmanned vessel to comb sea bottom
Today, REMUS was directed to map several acres of the bay near Fort Hancock and a nearby cove to observe fish habitats. The Jacques Cousteau National Estuarine Research Reserve, headquartered in Tuckerton and managed by Rutgers, decided to use the event as a teaching experience by inviting students from Neptune Middle School, the Marine Academy of Technology and Environmental Science (MATES) in Manahawkin and the Marine Academy of Science and Technology (MAST) at Sandy Hook.
The students watched as Joe Dobarro, director of underwater operations at Rutgers, and Rose Petrecca, director of marine operations at the university, stood in the frigid bay to launch REMUS [Remote Environmental Monitoring Units]. Then, Douglas Levin, habitat specialist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, took them inside to help them build a prototype from PVC pipe, plastic cosmetic containers, computer fans and stereo speaker wire.
Ana Rubio, Emily Millaway and Amie Wuchter, all 11-year-old sixth graders at Neptune Middle School, thought they had theirs working until Levin pointed out their operating switches didn’t correspond to the appropriate propellers. Their MATES mentor, Priya Uppal, 15, of Bayville, encouraged them to make some changes.
Amie said she initially was intimidated by the task. But her opinion changed halfway through the project. “Now that I’m doing it, it’s not as hard as I thought it would be,” she said.
Related: Students Learn Technology and Science of Extreme Ocean Environments at Underwater Robot Competition – Fun with Physics – Engineering a Better World
Filed under Education, Society | Tags: Education, k-12
Posted by Sheri on September 22nd, 2008 | No Comments »
Last week representatives from Drexel University were able to join ASEE for a brown bag luncheon seminar in which they discussed their outreach efforts to K-12 students and the global engineering community. When discussing their ENGR 280: Introduction to Global Engineering they mentioned briefly a film they show students in the class. The film, 2 Million Minuets is a documentary that follows 6 high school students, two in the United States, two in China and two in India through the two million minutes they spend in high school. The main intention of the film is to show how students in each society use this time to prepare themselves for the future. The resulting documentary depicts the American education system as “broken” and shows top American high school students as slackers in comparison to their global peers.
However, the portrayal of students in this film is stereotypical. The American honor student is a pretty blond who wants to join a sorority in college, while the Chinese student wears an over sized sweater and is shown diligently practicing violin. The students are not representative of all American, Chinese and Indian students in the world but rather examples carefully picked to make a point. Yet, even if the film had fewer extremes the message is clear, the American education system lets students off easy and as a result they are not as well prepared to compete with in a global society.
The video above is only a trailer (and as much as I dislike over-dramatized trailers) I could not find the whole length film online. The film is out on video and a DVD can be ordered on the 2 Million Minutes website.
Filed under Education, Global, Society
Posted by Sheri on September 8th, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Kate McAlpine raps about the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), a particle accelerator designed to recreate the conditions of the universe after the big bang. The European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), created LHC with the hope that a peak of the early universe will be the beginning of really understanding it.
While LHC is helping physicists understand god’s particle, Kate’s rap video is helping the general public comprehend the LHC. She attributes her rapping style to “nerd core“, an underground version of hip-hop. Just the thing a physics teacher needs.
What a great way to transfer meaning about what to me is a complicated idea. It makes me think that this would be a great activity for students to do – explain a process as a rap, act it out and post it to YouTube. Share it with the world and help students everywhere gain understanding of concepts and enjoy it at the same time.
Thanks to Kate and the LHC, being a nerd is cool (again)! Hurry up and get your nerd core t-shirt, while supplies last!
Filed under Society
Posted by Sheri on August 28th, 2008 | No Comments »
How Buildings Learn: What Happens After They’re Built is a three hour television series which originally aired on the BBC in 1997. It is based on the book of the same name by Stewart Brand, a scientist, artist and veteran of the environmental movement. Brand is also the creator of the well known The Whole Earth Catalog and the Long Now Foundation.
The television series features Brand explaining how different buildings were or were not built to withstand time and change. He looks at how buildings adjust to having new residents with new needs for the space. Buildings that provide people unique spaces that can be individualized and adapted to fit a varity of specific needs, demonstrate how buildings learn.
Filed under Society
Posted by Dylan on August 20th, 2008 | No Comments »
As future generations turn through the pages of books at the Monroe Street Library in Madison, Wisconsin, they will have the students of Mike Oliva’s “Special Topics in Engineering” class to thank. Earlier in the year, in response to rising energy costs and a budget shortfall, library officials suggested closing or reducing the open hours at the nearly 50 year-old library. Enter Oliva’s University of Wisconsin engineering class.
The students looked at the building, and found numerous areas where energy efficiency could be improved, ranging from fluorescent light bulbs and double pane windows to placing insulation in the walls. The improvements would result in savings as high as $900 a year, and would save even more in coming years, as energy prices are expected to soar to even higher levels. UW Engineering Students Design Plan to Save Library
Filed under Education, Society | Tags: green engineering
Posted by Sheri on August 15th, 2008 | No Comments »
New York University Tisch School of Art Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP) is the art department of tomorrow. It is made up of a living community of technologists, theorists, engineers, designers, and artists. Together they create alternative media projects that encompass creative design and artistic technology. There are many examples on their website of the types of projects these students create but here is an ideas of what to exspect. A inDOOR Energy Harvester, which makes use of peoples everyday actions to generate and store electricity and a solar bikini that “cools your beer and charges your ipod.”
Filed under Education, Society
