It seems that the unifying characteristic that defines engineers across the board is: problem solving. No matter what particular field of focus or technical expertise, whether it is design, drawings, manufacturing, production or maintenance, an engineer will typically be the go-to problem solver.
So, when a panel of experts compiles a list of Engineering's Grand Challenges, it is a way for society as a whole to call on engineers to solve the greatest problems of our time. Although, in this sense, these engineers, or technological architects, will include inventors, researchers, high school students, hackers and just about anybody that is willing to learn, think up novel solutions and work ideas into real, usable products.
One of the popular categories of the Grand Challenges is solar energy. Recent discovery in this field addresses the issue of cleaning solar panels in hot, dusty climates where such technology is likely to be deployed in earnest. Originally developed for use on mars, self-cleaning solar panels uses an alternating electric current on the surface of panels to sweep charged dust particles across the surface. [TR] Ultimately, this sort of rethinking is directly in tune with the goals of the Grand Challenge: innovative solutions.
Sorry, but I could not prevent the video from starting automatically.
The categories for the Grand Challenges are:
Make solar energy economical
Manage the nitrogen cycle
Advance health informatics
Prevent nuclear terror
Advance personalized learning
Provide energy from fusion
Provide access to clean water
Engineer better medicines
Secure cyberspace
Engineer the tools of scientific discovery
Develop carbon sequestration methods
Restore and improve urban infrastructure
Reverse-engineer the brain
Enhance virtual reality
Each of these is discussed in greater detail on the Grand Challenges website. They feature interesting comments, media and links to additional resources. Although the site does not satisfy as a one-stop shop for finding out where the cutting edge research is happening for these fields or how to get involved, it is a great source of inspiration! Find out more at: http://www.engineeringchallenges.org/cms/challenges.aspx.
There are many other avenues beyond the three covered in this series through which you can help engineer a better world. The worst thing to do is nothing. Do some research. Join or organize a team. Register for a project. Or, just spread the word. Thanks for reading!
I recently wrote about the excitement revolving around solar-powered vehicles and autonomous vehicles. Another recent mention of the future of vehicles in the news has been the Progressive Automotive X PRIZE race whose winners were announced on September 16, 2010. The essence of the X PRIZE is unrivaled innovation spurred by competition within small teams. This was indeed the case with the recent winner Very Light Car, a four-passenger vehicle by Edison2 which recorded an impressive 102.5 MPGe (Miles Per Gallon Gasoline equivalent) X Prize
The X PRIZE Foundation is a non-profit organization rooted in the belief that dedicated teams in pursuit of a prize can revolutionize the world and benefit humanity. The idea is that "an X PRIZE incites innovation by tapping into our competitive and entrepreneurial spirits." - http://www.xprize.org/x-prizes/overview . The original X PRIZE, renamed the Ansari X PRIZE, was awarded to Mojave Aerospace Ventures' SpaceShipOne on October 4, 2004 in the amount of US $10 million.
Winning this prize was no easy fit. As described on the website, the winner must launch a spacecraft capable of carrying three (3) passengers to 100km above the Earth's surface and repeat this, within two weeks. SpaceShipOne did just that! Also, by successfully completing this momentous spaceflight without significant government assistance, a new industry of private spaceflight was ignited, flames of which are just now being seen [LAT].
Now, don't be gloom if you missed your shot at the Ansari X PRIZE, there are two other active prizes. Here are all of them so far:
Ansari X PRIZE - $10,000,000 (Won by SpaceShipOne) - Carry 3 people to 100km above the Earth's surface twice within 2 weeks.
Progressive Automotive X PRIZE - $10,000,000 ($5m Won by Very Light Car) - 100MPGe production-capable car that is also safe, affordable and desirable for consumers.
Archon Genomics X PRIZE - $10,000,000 - Sequence 100 human genomes in 10 days for less than $10k per genome.
Google Lunar X PRIZE - $30,000,000 - Safely land a robot on the moon which subsequently travels 500m on the lunar surface while sending images and data back to Earth. Hurry, deadline for registration is December 31, 2010!
There are also several other X Prizes coming down the pipeline, so keep a look out and start getting your team ready today. Learn more about future X Prizes here: http://www.xprize.org/future-x-prizes.
If the humanitarian aspect is more in tune with your aspirations, then the United Nations' Millenium Development Goals might be your niche. Otherwise, if you're looking to innovate on the very leading edge of engineering and technology in almost all aspects of society, take a look at the Grand Challenges for Engineering as compiled by the National Academy of Engineering. These Grand Challenges comprise the greatest impedances to social advancement at the time when the panel of experts was convened to compile the resource. They serve as a benchmark for the leading edge in technology and the trailing edge in social development producing an inspirational perspective of how far we've come, yet how much more we are facing right now. It is a call to action for engineers and all other members of society, sitting idly by while the world spins is no longer acceptable. It is vital that we contribute our time, talent, education and innovation in whatever ways we can - the Grand Challenges are a good way to start exploring. Click here to continue reading >>
. The General Assembly of the United Nations in New York wrapped up today [AP] with stern rhetoric regarding the need for novel, sustained action beyond rhetoric on the part of delegates. Ultimately though, failed talks on war, nuclear proliferation and the irreverent provocations of Iran's President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, are in stark contrast to the only significant take-away from the assembly: reaffirmation ofanti-poverty efforts through the Millennium Development Goals.
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) The United Nations convened for the Millennium Summit in September 2000 and committed to a fifteen-year deadline for combating extreme poverty and the myriad preventable health issues facing women and children across the developing world. The Millennium Development Goals are eight (8) definite milestones toward the elimination of such poverty and disease by 2015 and improving the general welfare of the global human society:
End Poverty and Hunger
Universal Education
Gender Equality
Child Health
Maternal Health
Combat HIV/AIDS
Environmental Sustainability
Global Partnership
These are lofty goals indeed, but the UN is an organization steep in such radical idealism, without which, the gloom and hopelessness of reality can not be dispelled. Ultimately though, the MDG's are a challenge to policy-makers, non-profit organizations and citizens of both the developing and the developed world to seriously tackle such monolithic problems with innovation and determination.
Fast forward to this past week, the UN summit manages to secure US $40 billion over the next five years to specifically address the portions of the MDGs regarding Women's and Children's Health. Although the pledged amount alone is not sufficient to solve any of these problems entirely, it is an encouraging reminder of the dedication of the international community to fulfill it's promises to the developing world. To find out more, visit the gateway for the efforts at: http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/.
Now, if you're looking for other big ideas on how to improve the state of our world, look no further than the X PRIZE! The X Prizes are a distinct and widely recognizable avenue of innovation and technological development. Click here to continue reading >>
Mechanical Bike
I've been doing a lot of work on my sister's bike recently and pretty much merged the parts of my older bike into it. After replacing a few parts and several failed attempts to tune the brakes, I finished today and went on a much anticipated victory lap around our neighborhood. Now, I put a lot of effort into this Frankenstein of a bike just to get it moving (and stopping) well, so I have much respect for a guy that can make a bike run on the sun. That's right, a solar bike!
Solar Electric Bike
Hama Zero's Fujin is an electric bike which can charge it's batteries using sunlight. It runs up to 45mph, which is suitable for most roads and should be able to complete a 30-mi trip with just a 9-hour bath in the sun. In the video below, the creator of the bike, Mr. Yamawaki, discusses the bike and the inspiration for reducing it's rolling friction.
The reason such technology is so interesting to me is more than just amazement at the workmanship that it takes, but also it's influence on and statement about the current industry of solar energy: On The Go!
Mobile Energy Sparks Imagination
It seems that everywhere you look, solar energy is taking to the streets, the skies, and even in space! There seems to be a general shift in the design paradigm at the fringes of engineering and technology. While the production industry is focused on improved efficiency and lowering costs, the design side is looking to meet non-traditional needs to renew excitement about the technology. Sure when we hear news about full scale photovoltaic plants being built, concentrating solar power generators and even government rebates for home installations, we get excited. But what really ignites the imagination is news about solar briefcases for third-world healthcare and stuff like this: Solar power on a bike. Wow!
Solar On The Move
I don't know why such technology strikes a deep harmonious tune with me. Maybe it's the stark contrast to oil spills, atmospheric pollution and exploding oil rigs. It could also be the faint dream of perpetually available, free energy - a beautiful, though fanciful dream indeed. Nontheless, I chose to put together a quick mock-up of solar vehicles that I have heard about recently in the news:
Solar car's are not brand new, but a nod from the White House gives the impression that these achievements are nothing to be sneezed at.
Solar Plane - Solar Impulse
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10550430 [+VIDEO]
Heard about this guy, Bertrand Piccard, and his plan to fly without fuel sometime last year, so it was almost surreal when I heard his plane completed a 26-hour flight! Flying through day and night without a single drop of fuel is the amazing brand of inspiration that can effect a true paradigm shift regarding solar power.
http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/solar-sail-spacecraft-100902.html
Solar panels have indeed been used in space for decades now, but never has the power of the sun been harnessed to provide thrust anywhere. IKAROS, a Japanese probe, recently demonstrated that it has actually gained thrust from the incidence of light from the sun alone. That, is AWESOME! So, not only can you utilize sunlight in photovoltaics and solar thermal applications, you can also propel a craft with sunlight using a solar sail.
It seems that though it is difficult to predict the realistic potential for solar energy to expand in the energy market without financial incentives (carbon tax, etc), the imaginative potential for it's use is vast and seemingly limitless.
-- I'm sorry if the collection of articles seems somewhat incongruent. I did not go hunting for these articles, I just ran across them through my regular news consumption (various blogs and podcast references).
As the much-anticipated Pikes Peak Challenge for the autonomous vehicle by Stanford University approaches, I decided to take a look back at Odin and some research I did on the Victor Tango team and the DARPA urban challenge.
The Challenge
The Defense Advance Research Projects Agency is an arm of USDOD which has been birthplace for some of the greatest developments in technology of the late 20th Century, including the internet! DARPA had the first Grand Challenge in 2004 which featured a 150-mile road race with the most successful competitor reaching 7.38 mi. The second competition, held in 2005 featured a 132-mile off-road race was finished by five competitors and paved way for the Urban Challenge which was held in 2007.
Awesome-O
Last year, for my Introduction to Robotics course, my partner and I were tasked to research an application of robotics of our choice. Being an autonomous vehicle fanatic, I essentially did all the research myself and let him take care of compiling the presentation. After selecting to study the third-place finalist, Odin, I shot an e-mail over to the professor in charge of the project who replied with two papers: one about navigation, the other about driving. I had previously learned a lot about path-following and simple algorithms from our very own autonomous vehicle:
Awesome-O - Our maze-solving robot
However, the two papers that I read exposed me to an impressively familiar combination of hardware and software tools used to produce an hierarchy of functionality that was much more reliable and drove full-scale vehicles.
Odin | Boss
The Victor Tango team of Virginia Tech utilized a slew of LabVIEW and NI software and interfaces to work with the many sensors, controllers and other instruments to achieve autonomy. The navigation paper describes a state machine architecture which identifies objects, sets goals and maneuvers around obstacles to reach a set destination. The following video from Wired provides an idea of what it takes for the competition champion, Boss (Tartan Racing), although I'm not sure what the flux capacitor is used for. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lULl63ERek0
How can you get a car to drive all by itself?
Basically, the vehicle first receives instructions about where it needs to go and possibly how it should get there. It is also supplied with information regarding where it can or cannot go including some areas where some behaviors are restricted i.e. passing. By utilizing various combinations of instruments (LIDAR, RADAR, Differential GPS, INS, and various Optical Cameras), they are able to create a very accurate model of where the vehicle is and what is in its immediate (and sometimes distant) environment. From there, the software is able to 'make decisions' about how to behave and what exactly to do. Once an action decision is made, it is then carried out usually through drive-by-wire interface to the throttle, steering, shifting, and braking systems. The end result is an autonomous, driverless vehicle which can robustly reach a set destination irregardless of obstacles and the behavior of other vehicles. The whole is indeed greater than the sum of its parts:
Commercialization
The Urban Challenge was in 2007 and a lot really has happened since then. Most notable might be the commercial adoption of several autonomous features for parking and accident avoidance in luxury vehicles although this trend began way back in 1999 with the Japanese Nissan Cima. However, these commercial vehicles certainly have their limitations as well:
Shelley to Speed up Pikes Peak!
After winning the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge with Stanley and placing second in the 2007 Urban Challenge with Junior, the Stanford Racing Team is betting against all the odds and limitations to brave the arduous Pikes Peak race next month (September 2010) with Shelley, an Audi TTS, named after "Michèle Mouton, the first female driver to win the uphill climb." - http://news.stanford.edu/news/2010/february1/shelley-pikes-peak-020310.html
"Unlike Stanley and Junior, who sense the road with radars and cameras, Shelley will follow a GPS trail from start to finish. The trick will be to stay on the road at race speeds while sliding around the corners."
Although the vehicle is not quite as autonomous as its predecessor, it is facing a daunting challenge and intends on doing so at ridiculous speeds. "If anything goes wrong on the summit, someone on the team can flip the "kill switch," Shelley's only remote control feature."
Excitement and Anticipation I can't wait to see this car in action! Nerves are already on edge, media is starting to get excited and it's going to be a true spectacle to behold! If I can, I will try to go see it live. However, I still can't find a source which states the exact date in September that the timed race will be held. Now, if you're like me and can't wait, check out Shelley as she makes final preparations for the race:
Further reading:
Check out the August 12 Scientific American article -
If you would like a copy of the technical Virginia Tech publications, send me a message @fadeyifemi and I will connect you to my source.
Thanks for reading, hope this contributed a little to your Engineering Genius. Interested in more tech news, check out the T3CH H3LP blog I came across a little while back.
After much consternation and mayhem, it seems that public attention and media coverage on the gulf coast has finally waned somewhat. However, one of the scientists I work with asked me: As an engineer, what do you think of the whole situation with the oil spill? Now, talk about a loaded question. Luckily, I had read through the SPE and ASME releases and had been fairly updated on the situation due to the incessant media coverage through TV, blogs, podcasts and more.
Avoiding the Blowout
My very limited understanding of the situation is that the blowout preventers may have malfunctioned for several different reasons and it is likely that it is not just the result of a single fault.
Taken from Mechanical Engineering magazine by ASME
Oil and natural gas in formation are under a lot of pressure. Well drilling operations will usually stop short of puncturing the reservoir and instead the well is cemented until production. In the case of an overpressurefrom reservoir forcing fluid up the pipe during drilling, blowout preventers are installed in order to seal off the drill pipe. Blowout preventers are hydraulic-powered shear rams which are meant to crush the drill pipe and form a seal.
In the Macondo blowout, the 450-ton, ten-year-old Cameron blowout preventer valves failed to function properly. The blowout preventer’s shear rams designed to cut through the drill pipe and seal it also failed to function. As a result, large volumes of oil and gas reached the rig floor and resulted in an explosion, loss of life, and sinking of the drilling rig. The continued escape of large volumes of hydrocarbons has created the massive oil spill that began hit the Louisiana coast in mid-May.
The possible reasons for this failure are numerous, but the few listed in Mechanical Engineering magazine include:
Age - Although not a specific failure mode, ageing may contribute to wear and tear that may have not been identified during maintenance but lead to catastrophic failure.
Modifications - I don't understand what modifications were done, but these may have introduced elements that do not have a predictable effect on system safety.
Valve-failure - leakage of hydraulic fluid may have been sufficient to cause failure
Drill Pipe - thicker than standard drill pipe required for use at such depths under water may have been beyond the power of the blowout preventer shear rams.
Such issues are ultimately preventable but it was the combination of failures in critical systems that doomed the Deepwater Horizon.
Spilling Blame
Now, just as the Mechanical Engineering article suggests, I agree that it is much too early to parcel out blame for the gulf disaster. However, when pressed to make the judgement call I had to provide a somewhat reasonable assessment.
I feel that ultimately, BP owns the well and essentially is responsible for the entire operation, although, separate components of the project were contracted to Transocean (drilling) and Halliburton (cementing). The faulty blowout preventer was likely a product under the supervision Transocean which faults them directly for the failure of the device. Such failure, however, is bound to happen when the predominant atmosphere regarding safety is lax and the focus has shifted to profitability.
Taken from Mechanical Engineering magazine by ASME
Large oil companies, in order to meet unwavering consumer demand for their products, are driven economically to produce and do so with minimal delays, especially when bureaucratic delays plague efforts to drill off the coast of the US. In meeting these challenges however, oil companies seem to have blatantly chosen to abandon safety in favor of the bottom line: Some continually push for access to greater drilling resources behind a ruse that it can be done safely and and reliably. Meanwhile, countless offshore rigs and wells continuously leak oil into the ocean at a mind-blowing rate although most can be prevented with better management, maintenance and replacement of aged equipment. What this disaster has shown me is that though the technology behind finding and producing oil and gas is growing at an amazing rate, it is ultimately the individuals and the cultures surrounding the technology that will chart the course for safety in the future.
There needs to be vigilant dedication to safety in all industries and at all levels
Industry-leaders need to consider the global implications of each project in addressing operational strategies and in selecting contractors
Public relations is a relationship, not just multi-million dollar ad campaigns. It is a dedication to safety in the product or service that is provided. It should start with engineering, not marketing.
So, this is not a time for blame. It is a time to remember that lives were lost as a result of ultimately preventable failures. It is a call to action and a call to change. This disaster has revealed major weaknesses in the strategies and technologies of the oil and gas industry. Action must be taken to improve awareness and dedication to safety and changes must be made to address the weaknesses in technology and response strategies in order to restore public confidence in off-shore drilling and petroleum engineering.
If you are interested in finding out more about deepwater drilling and the Macondo well blowout, download the TechStuff Oil Drilling podcast, and read the Avoiding the Blowout feature in Mechanical Engineering and the somewhat superfluous FAQ on drilling and the spill from SPE. To find the Oil drilling podcast online, in the widget below, click Podcasts then select Oil Drilling Tech from the list.
Yeah, not a very tough riddle, but it's an original! I might try to write another someday soon.
For this week's challenge, head over to Fantastic Contraption and see how far you can get! I got to level 8 and could go further with more time. It is a really fun game but they have recently added ad-support which you will need to skip and live with - I wish they hadn't added so many ads.
Ubiquitous / Wearable Computers have been around for quite a while but they have seemed far too fanciful to me. However, i changed my mind the other day when I came across this Becoming Cyborg blog through two other tech blogs. Now, this is a very attractive wearable computer:
Sleek and comfortable -looking design uses a Beagleboard mini computer and
features an iPhone for internet access.
It looks like he went through several iterations to arrive at this current model, the older models actually just worked with the iPhone as the computer and a different wearable display. Evolution:
Evolution of the concept from bulky iPhone display to wearable Unix computer.
But 'wearability' is not why I'm interested in these designs. I wanted to explore ubiquitous computing and natural interfaces. So ultimately, I'm curious about how computers can expand access to information without obscuring interaction with the real world. I'll refer to this as Integrated Personal Computing till I find a better word. Other similar terms you will find are pervasive computing and embedded computing. However, I think pervasive is more closely related to ubiquitous computing in that it refers to computing everywhere and in everything. Whereas, embedded computing would be more pertinent if the computer were somehow implanted or indistinguishable from the user or in the case of microcontrollers and other dedicated processors inside other devices. I feel that integrated personal computers will ultimately be realized as full-featured computers that are inconspicuous and feature natural user input.
Some wearable computers aren't much more so than my BlackBerry. They're both lightweight, can strap to my body, I enter input with my fingers and get output from a display. Advantage of the wearable display is hands-free viewing, which can be incredibly useful in certain situations. Also, when in the field, processing power almost linearly correlates with productivity. I can't take work out in the field if the computer can't run the software that I need or worse, if I end up staring at this half the time:
A few applications of wearable computing:
Bluntly pragmatic wearable computer
Older implementation of a wearable display
Military application
Emergency Services
Telepresence - sort of an odd idea, read the description here
Head-mounted displays come in many different shapes and sizes depending on the application. The Myvu brand of head-mounted displays is on par with the sleekest and most lightweight available today. The video below describes how to use a particular head-mounted display which also serves as input for a game.
Another crack at a head-mounted display:
This blog explains some concerns about wearable computing
Aside from the display portion of the user-interface is the user input. This versatility of input may ultimately affect how well an integrated personal computer can be utilized in the real world. Eye-tracking technology may offer accessibility for people with disabilities by utilizing eye-movements for input. This technology may also find future applicability to integrated personal computing as it allows hands-free user interface.
Though not technically hands-free, the KITTY input device utilizes a novel input mechanism which may be inconspicuous enough for textual input in most applications.
KITTY integrated input device acts as a virtual keyboard
Motorola shows off a speech-operated computer that may offer a solution for hands-free input. The technology for speech recognition and command has improved significantly over the years, but as seen in the video, still has the glitches and annoyances that prove cumbersome at times.
The iPod Shuffle is a dedicated music player and not in any sense an open-ended computer. However, the speech output of the system is an impressive tool that may find use in other applications as well.
The Zypad, a product of Eurotech is a wrist-wearable computer that claims to be lightweight, ergonomic, yet full-featured. However, if you take a look at the specifications, with a 400mHz processor, 128mb RAM and 4 hours of battery life, you might be better off buying an iPhone 4 with an arm-band and strapping it to your wrist. I like the concept a lot, but the processing power seems dismal for most applications except stripped-down or dedicated software. These devices may possibly be useful in healthcare or for emergency response but they do not seem ruggedized enough to last very long.
Zypad wearable computer
Mobile devices at the forefront of computing power are much closer to integration on another front: augmented reality. Augmented reality seems to me a balance on the spectrum of virtual reality which supplements information from the real world with digital information. Here are some examples:
There is obviously much more to these ideas than is covered in this short exploration of mine. If you want to find out more about integrated personal computing? Check out the blogs listed above and the following sources:
Turns out there might have been a problem with the 'fun' cipher from last week - I think they wrote it down wrong and it turned out making no sense. If you have any ideas, let me know, otherwise, I'll find some other challenge for the next update.
After completely laying waste to the grip gear-shift and both tires on my brother's bike, I made repeated promises that I would fix it, if I just had the right Allen wrench [hex key] to open the gear-shift. And if I couldn't fix it, I would run down to a bike shop and have it repaired.
So, the real kick-in-the-pants motivation to get this done came when my mom asked me to fix the kitchen garbage disposal. After emptying the disposal and resetting the power supply, I realized the allen wrench set is exactly what I was waiting for to fix the bike. So off I was, on a mission with a tool, to take the main gear-shift apart - I felt at one with the universe, and everything would work out. No kidding, this moment really was zen-like.
I pull the gear-shift off the handle bar, tension the gear-shift cable and poke around the pieces of plastic inside the case. After some fiddling, I find the plastic shift-ratchet piece has been popped loose (by my gnarly handling while riding).
Long story short, I move the shift-ratchet back, return the gear-shift and the handle-bar grip to their rightful places then replace both tire inner tubes (after a quick trip to Wal-Mart). The bike is FIXED! So I take my brother's renewed Schwinn out for a test run towards DIA, but on my way back: POP! The rear tire is flat again. Now sad, annoyed and defeated, I walk the bike home and fix up the rear tire with another inner tube. My earlier enthusiasm and inner peace are displaced by disappointment and extremely sore knees. What a blow!
When I have the right tools, solving a problem becomes a joyous, exciting undertaking. But when I don't have the right tool, and the problem continually repeats itself, I get overwhelmed, disappointed and annoyed.
Lesson learned: before getting annoyed with a problem, take a good look at the tools you have access to. Now I'm looking for a more permanent prevention for flat tires - slime is mostly ineffective, so I need another tool. Any suggestions?
Have some free time? Probably not. But anyway, below is an interesting cipher puzzle I found at the library. I'll post my answer later (Not sure if it's the right answer).
