Engineering

Posted by Susan Kristoff

Last week I wrote an article on financing an engineering education. It turns out that paying for school is getting even harder. The Massachusetts Educational Financing Authority (MEFA), who provided over $500 million in student loans last year, would not be issuing any loans this school year due to lack of financing. It seems that the credit crunch has extended to the student loan market, and students will have to find other sources to pay their tuition bills.

Since many engineering schools are private schools, their tuitions are far higher than state schools, and it takes more loans and grants to fill the gaps. As someone who has only recently paid off her student loans (ten years after graduation), I would hate to be in the shoes of students who are not only stressing out about their classes and projects, but how to pay for it all in the first place.

If any of you readers have any ideas about sources for student loans and grants, especially those specifically for engineering students, please let me know so I can share them here.

Posted by Susan Kristoff

As reported in the July 31, 2008 issue of Science, researchers at MIT have developed a method that uses electricity generated from solar energy to create hydrogen and oxygen gasses from water. The gasses can be stored as needed, then used in fuel cells to generate electricity whenever it is needed.

The downside of solar power is that it can only be generated during the day. Energy storage for solar power, as well as other renewable energy sources, has been a perplexing challenge in bringing alternative power into the mainstream.

Daniel Nocera and Matthew Kanan of MIT created a process, inspired by photosynthesis, that uses non-toxic materials to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. These materials include cobalt, phosphate and platinum, which are far safer than the materials used in traditional electrolyzers.

Energy storage has been the key sticking point in the arena of alternative power. It is refreshing to see that this research is being performed (sponsored by the National Science Foundation and the Chesonis Family Foundation), and that successful breakthroughs are being reported. It is work like this that will help reduce the cost and accessibility of electricity both in industrialized nations and in remote third world villages.

Posted by Susan Kristoff

Do you have a soldering iron on your desk? When something you own doesn't work, do you take it apart and fix it? Do you salivate over the idea of hacking new electronic products to do your bidding? Make Magazine is the publication for geeks, hackers, hardcore do-it-yourselfers, and probably MacGyver if he wasn't a fictional character.

The magazine and its richly complementary website are chock full of ideas, tutorials, and examples of reader accomplishments. Some projects are amazing, some are useful, some are wacky, and some are downright silly. But the point is to show that people have the ability to make things and fix things, traits that have been declining since the mid-20th century when every self-respecting man had a full toolbox, and perhaps some metal working equipment in his garage.

The site also hosts podcasts, video clips, and a community forum for tinkerers to get together and share ideas. To all you engineers out there, get off your theory and get your hands dirty! The satisfaction of creating something with your hands is such a satisfying experience, and Make Magazine is bringing that experience to life.

Make Magazine website

Posted by Susan Kristoff

It seems ironic that an oilman is bringing more attention to wind power as an energy source than environmentalists and politicians have in recent years. T. Boone Pickens recently announced his plan for taking advantage of the wind conditions in the central US and dramatically reducing America's dependence on oil. While wind farms are currently in place in locations throughout the US, PIcken's vision includes an integrated, nationwide system.

The concept is to replace 20% of the electricity generated by natural gas in the US with wind-generated electricity by building large wind farms in the Great Plains, from Texas north through the Dakotas. Our natural gas resources can then be redirected to fueling natural gas-powered vehicles, reducing our dependence on oil. Pickens is already putting his money where his mouth is. His company Mesa Power is already constructing what will be the largest wind farm in the world in Pampa, Texas.

Pickens claims that "building new wind generation facilities and better utilizing our natural gas resources can replace more than one-third of our foreign oil imports in 10 years." He also claims that many jobs can be created in the US for the manufacture and installation of wind turbines.

Of course, there are challenges. The central US lacks the power transmission infrastructure to transmit electricity from potential wind farm locations to population centers on the coasts. While a wind component in our energy policy would have low costs over time, a massive initial investment is required to plan, build, and install the wind farms and associated power transmission.

Despite the potential challenges, it is a "breath of fresh air" to hear someone like Pickens talking about making wind power a significant portion of our energy portfolio.

Sources

PickensPlan website

"Questions for T. Boone Pickens", CNN SciTech Blog, July 10, 2008.

Posted by Susan Kristoff

Engineering is a diverse profession with several discrete disciplines and many sub-disciplines. Engineering @ Suite101.com is focusing on engineering basics during the month of July. Here is a summary of the recent content that we have on this subject:

Engineering 101: The Basics

Mechanical Engineering 101

Chemical Engineering 101

Electrical Engineering 101

Civil Engineering 101

Look for additional engineering basics articles later this month!

Posted by Susan Kristoff

File this under the "why didn't I think of that?" topic. A researcher at MIT in Cambridge, MA, is combining thin film solar power technology with interior decorating to create energy harvesting textiles that could be used in the home as curtains, wall coverings, or on the exterior of the home to generate electricity.

Sheila Kennedy is an architect and professor at MIT, and she has developed prototype curtains that incorporate thin-film solar cell technology. Thin film solar cells are currently not as efficient as their silicon cousins, but can be manufactured quickly using techniques not much different than newspaper printing.

Curtains are only the tip of the iceberg in terms of home useage. Sheets of material could be rolled out onto a roof, or incorporated into awnings or shades.

Kennedy plans to incorporate small rechargable batteries into the hem of the curtains, and envisions that someday appliances could be directly attached to the textiles rather than plugged into a wall socket.

Kennedy's textile technology is currently on display at the Vitra Design Museum in Essen, Germany, in a prototype home called the Soft House.

Source: "Capture Power with your Curtains", CNN website, July 1, 2008.

Posted by Susan Kristoff

Sensors are used by engineers to evaluate the characteristics or behavior of objects or systems. Engineering @ Suite101.com is focusing on sensors during the month of June. Here is a summary of the recent content that we have on this subject:

• An Introduction to Sensors
• An Introduction to Strain Gauges
• Strain Gauge Installation Methods
• An Introduction to Accelerometers
• An Introduction to Optical Sensors
• Characteristics of Sensors

Don't forget to check back all month for new content on sensors!

Posted by Susan Kristoff

Last week, the Phoenix Mars Lander descended successfully to the surface of Mars, the first probe to land on it's legs since the Viking missions. NASA's mission crew had every right to be nervous, since 55% of recent missions to Mars ended in failure. Mission Control breathed a deep sigh of relief when the lander beamed back pictures of it's surroundings near Mars' north pole.

Phoenix certainly lives up to it's name. The guts of the probe were originally from the Mars Surveyor probe that was supposed to follow the Mars Polar Lander to the red planet. When the Polar Lander crashed in 1999, the Mars Surveyor program was shelved. The systems engineers pulled out the old probe to rework it into the Phoenix Mars Lander. Their goal was to learn from the mistakes of the previous Mars missions, and fortunately, or unfortunately, they had a lot of data to guide them. It seem that NASA engineers have learned from their mistakes and unforseen circumstances of previous launches, for the Phoenix Lander has been so far a success.

While most industries don't operate on the multi-year (or multi-decade) time scale that NASA does, we can learn from our experiences and apply what we know to create better products and services. George Santayana penned the famous quote, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." While this quote is in reference to history, it also applies to engineering.

Posted by Susan Kristoff

As we near the end of May, we've seen oil prices continue to skyrocket. Attention has turned to alternative energy sources as a way to reduce reliance on oil for generating electricity. For the month of May I have put a spotlight on content in Engineering @ Suite101 that covers the techologies behind renewable energy. Here is a summary of the recent content that we have on this subject:

Solar Power Topics:

An Introduction to Solar Energy

Generating Power from Solar Energy

Solar Antennae that Generate Power

How Nanotech Solar Cells Work



Wind Power Topics:

Wind Power Used for 2000 Years

Generating Power from Wind Energy



Other Renewable Energy Sources:

The Basics of Geothermal Power

Hydroelectric Power Generation

Posted by Susan Kristoff

As reported on the Wired Gadget Lab blog, scientists at HP Labs have announced the creation of the world’s first memristor, an electric circuit component that has been theorized for several decades, but until now has not been fabricated.

A memristor is one of four basic electrical circuit components, joining the resistor, capacitor, and inductor. The memristor, short for “memory resistor” was first theorized by student Leon Chua in the early 1970s. He developed mathematical equations to represent the memristor, which Chua believed would balance the functions of the other three types of circuit elements.

But what is a memristor? Chua defined the element as a resistor whose resistance level was based on the amount of charge that had passed through the memristor previously. A memristor would retain its resistance level even after power had been shut down.

The HP Labs team used nano-fabrication processes to create an array of 17 memristors The memristor is composed of two layers of titanium dioxide, each with a slightly different resistivity. As electric current is passed through the memristors, the overall resistance of the device changes because the boundary between the layers of titanium dioxide moves.

Chua observed that the memristor had qualities not unlike neurons in the brain. HP scientists agree that memristors could advance neuronal computing. In addition, because memristors retain their resistance when powered down, they could be used to develop new computer memory devices that could retain the specific state of a computer when the power is shut off.

Obviously, this technology is still in its infancy and additional research and development is required before the memristor appears in consumer and industrial products.

Sources:

Gardiner, Bryan, "Scientists Create First Memristor", Wired Gadget Lab Blog, April 30, 2008.

Chua, Leon O, "Memristor—The Missing Circuit Element", IEEE Transactions on Circuit Theory CT-18 (5): 507-519, September 1971.