Vibrating Wind Turbine Generator

Hello Future Engineer,

You may have seen many a type of wind turbine, and a common feature must have been that somehow wind energy caused rotation of the shaft that was coupled to a generator. The rotor of the generator rotates in a magnetic (or an electromagnetic) field, thus generating electricity. Of course, there is more physics to it, but I will spare you the details to continue on to something more interesting.

Shawn Frayne came up with a vibrating wind turbine, one that does not require any rotating parts. It works on the principle of aeroelasticity (von Karman vortex shedding causing the structure shedding vortices to vibrate), wherein vibration of the conducting membrane in a magnetic field generates electricity. In case if you wonder about benefit of this idea, please click on his name above and find out!

There is one apparent drawback to this device in that eventually metal fatigue will cause the membrane to fail. But that is easy to fix compared to a broken solar electric panel.

From Super Soaker Squirt Gun to Affordable Solar Power

Hello Future Engineer,

You may have never heard of Lonnie Johnson, who invented the super-soaker squirt gun. You can read about his invention here. But today I am going to tell you of his another breakthrough that might make solar power affordable for all of us. It involves using thermodynamics (instead of solar cells/photovoltaics) to harness solar power efficiently. I will now leave you to read about it on his website.

You may also derive inspiration from learning about his childhood as an African American in Alabama in 60s. This is to be found in the article published in The Atlantic Monthly.

Coffee "powered" robotic gripper

Hello Future Engineer,

You may have read my post favoring simple solutions earlier. IEEE Spectrum magazine recently published an article about robotic gripper (think of your palm and fingers as gripping mechanism) that was made out of balloon and filled with ground coffee. You can read (and watch video clips of the same) by clicking here.

Great minds favor simplicity (but not triviality).

For other interesting articles, please be sure to visit the Inver Hills Community College's library. The library started subscription to IEEE Spectrum (the flagship magazine of IEEE) since Jan 2010.

Inver Thrills in Associated Press news brief

Its official! Inver Hills Community College's rocketry team is making news. You can read all about it here.

Google Lunar X Prize

Hello Future Engineer,

I invite you to browse the website for Google Lunar X prize. Several teams are participating in this venture with interesting ideas of getting back to the moon, and the one that I know a bit more about is the Rocket City Pioneers. In particular, I had the good fortune to share the dinner table with Tim Pickens who is also the leader of the Rocket City Pioneers team (along with my students Caleb Boe and Bryan Sullivan, and Dr. John Gregory at Alabama Space Grant Consortium).

Reminds me of a dialogue from the movie, Forrest Gump, "Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you gonna get!"

Self-steering cars and Google

Hello Future Engineer,

It seems that what can be imagined is easily realizable in span of a decade. When I was a graduate student (about 7-8 years ago), I remember reading an article about self-steering cars in a magazine. The article was about innovations possible in near future.

During my previous employment at the University of Delaware, I had known about a research program in computer science/electrical engrg dept about robotic cars that would self-steer/navigate thru hilly terrain. In about two years, Google has taken that research (not just from U of D, but many others who were also funded by DARPA) and taken it a step further.

You can read more about the Google's support of this venture here.

Scientist wins Nobel Prize using Scotch Tape

Hello Future Engineer,

Sometimes you don't need all the high tech equipment to be able to accomplish something profound. A scientist used Scotch tape to demonstrate creation of thin layer of graphene using a Scotch tape...and won Nobel Prize for it! You can read more about it at here.

This reminds me of telling you about the KISS principle put forth by Kelly Johnson (inventor/designer of a few legendary aircrafts namely U-2, SR-71).

KISS == Keep It Simple, Stupid!