Videos for Engineers Archive - 11

OK, this is unique. "The Nano Song" is performed here by UC Berkeley students Ryan Miyakawa (music) and Glory Liu (song). Sure, it is a bit goofy to you and me, but maybe it serves its stated purpose of introducing nanotechnology into mainstream parlance. Warning, some props are not what they might seem.

6/23/2009

There have been many headlines lately about the shrinking number of women in engineering. Tufts University's "Nerd Girls" are working to break the stigmas and stereotypes of women in engineering. "We are a growing, global movement which celebrates smart-girl individuality that's revolutionizing our future. We want to encourage other girls to change their world through Science, Technology, Engineering and Math, while embracing their feminine power." Things They Believe: Brains are beautiful. Geek is Chic. Smart is sexy. Not either/or.

5/26/2009

As if we needed another example of sheer governmental idiocy, here is a cell phone video shot by someone in NYC yesterday as the backup Air Force One 747 flew low over Manhattan while being escorted by an F-16 fighter. The White House wanted a new photo of the presidential transport with the Statue of Liberty in the background (carbon footprint?). Watch the panicked response of Nyers. Terrorists (aka those who cause man-made disasters) are getting a good laugh at this.

4/28/2009

Just how secure (or not secure) is RFID? Listen to Mythbusters' Adam Savage's tale of what happened when they decided to do a story on RFID, and why, so says he, there never will be an RFID episode. It is a good example of how financial sponsors influence what information will or will not be presented to the public. There were 210 comments on the video when this was posted.

6/30/2009

Wally Wallington reminds me of my father-in-law. Both guys can move mountains single-handedly, using simple levers, pulleys, and a lot of innate knowledge about how to move immensely heavy things from point A to point B. Mr. Wallington, a retired carpenter, erected this 22,000 lb concrete pillar as a demonstration of how monuments such as Stonehenge could have been built 4,500 years ago.

6/2/2009

Proving once again the capability of determined individuals, auto body repairman Steve Eves, designed, built and launched this 1/10th scale Saturn V rocket. On April 25, 2009, the 36-foot-tall, 1600-lb "model," powered by 9 rocket motors producing 8000 lbs of thrust, experienced an absolutely flawless launch and recovery. Incredibly, the gigantic 1st stage landed standing up! More often than not, large projects like this fail to execute - usually due to a recovery system malfunction.

5/5/2009

You know times are not very good when cable news networks are doing reports on the benefits of high tech pawn shops. This shop in NYC specializes in iPods, cell phones, camcorders, video games, etc. It definitely does not look like the typical kind of pawn shop I've seen where shelves are full of dusty, 1970s era stereos, jewelry that looks like it came from your grandmother's bureau, and beat-up rifles on the wall. One thing the two types of shops do have in common: they are likely filled with stolen goods.

7/7/2009

SolidWorks has a funny set of videos called, "3 Dudes Gone 3D." In the words of the promo poster subtitle: "CAD brought them together. A cramped trailer might tear them apart." Stephen, Kish, and Bob exemplify what a typical SolidWorks environment is like - kind of the mechanical analogy of AWR's MWO, Zeland's IE3D-SI, or ACS's LINC2. The shorts are a great marketing scheme - they even sell ringtones.

6/9/2009

By now, most people have seen photos of the world's first computer mouse, designed by Douglas Engelbart. It was made of wood and had one button. Here is a demonstration video made on December 9, 1968, during a public debut at the Fall Joint Computer Conference (FJCC). The NLS computer it interfaced with was part of the fledgling Arpanet, which evolved into today's Internet.

5/12/2009

D, C, A, AA, and AAA battery cells have been around for nearly a century. Now we have T cells, where the T is for tree. Work being done by MIT uses probes buried in trees and the ground to generate a power source based on the pH differences. Open circuit voltage ranges between 50 mV and 200 mV. Using a connected mesh and some circuitry, these networks are targeting forest fire detection and prediction that can be deployed in high risk areas. Short bursts of info will be sent periodically wirelessly.

7/14/2009

CubeSats have been around for a few years now. CubeSat Project was developed by Cal Poly and Stanford University's Space Systems Development Lab. It creates affordable launch opportunities for university research.  The 10x10x10cm, 1 kg cubes are stuffed into a spring-loaded deployment tube that ejects them once in orbit.  CubeSat Kits can be purchased for around $8k to get you started. Launches cost around $50k. Workshops are available.

6/16/2009

"Our rock stars aren't like your rock stars." That is the theme of Intel's latest series of commercials - ingenious, IMHO. My favorite stars Ajay Bhatt, co-inventor of the USB. Another is a scenario only someone who has "been there" searching for a die can fully appreciate.

5/19/2009