His father’s words about bringing light to the family farm inspired Ahmed Almansour to study electrical engineering.

Here is the University of British Columbia student’s story, written for the blog competition that forms the first assignment in instructor Annette Berndt’s Technical Communication course.

My father and I used to go to our farm once a month from the time I was 6 years old.

Our farm was about 80 km away from the house where we lived in the city. Back then, the farm had no electricity and we had to go home as soon as the sun set because of the darkness. The farm was very far from the road, so providing electricity was expensive.

I always asked my father why we did not have lights in the farm and his reply was: “When you grow up, you will bring light to the place.”

My father’s words have always been the inspiration to keep me strong and persistent as I work toward achieving my dream of becoming an electrical engineer.

NASA shows the Earth at night from space:

Can you imagine life without electricity? Life would be hard and miserable, since almost all new technologies need power to work.

Still, people in some poor countries live in darkness and are in need of very basic electrical equipment.  Because of poverty, they have to use some old ways to warm their homes in winter and find their way while walking in the darkness.

Seeing people suffer hardships makes me think of ways to improve their lives. Studying electrical engineering will help you figure out a solution to this problem.

Generating electricity is the process of transferring energy from electric-power utilities through strong cables, which can stay stable for decades. Houses and buildings are then connected to those power sources.  This process requires planning and designing, and that is why we need electrical engineers.  Maybe you’d like to join us!

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Count NASA engineers among the soccer fans following the 2014 FIFA World Cup tournament in Brazil this summer. They’re not only students of “the beautiful game” but also of the technologies that give players their edge.

Take the Brazuca ball developed by Adidas for this year’s tournament , which NASA engineers tested in a wind tunnel and water channel with fluorescent dye to explore its aerodynamic properties.

Air doesn’t flow smoothly around a sphere. As Rabi Mehta, chief of the Experimental Aero-Physics branch at NASA’s Ames Reserach Center in California explains, “there is a thin layer of air that forms near the ball’s surface called the boundary layer and it is the state and behavior of that layer that is critical to the performance of the ball.”  A ball’s roundness, surface roughness, and materials all determine its aerodynamics.

Traditional soccer balls have 32 hexagonal panels – but as NPR reported,  there are no rules determining the number of panels. In 2006, Adidas started making rounder World Cup footballs with fewer panels. The Jabulani used in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa had just eight.

Players noticed the difference immediately. The Jabulani curved unpredictably, or knuckled, when kicked with little or no spin.  Strikers loved it, but the ball’s erratic swerves meant trouble for goalkeepers.

The smoother a ball’s surface, the higher the speed at which it knuckles. Tests in NASA’s wind tunnel and a 17-inch water channel, which uses florescent dye dispensed into the fluid flow under black lights, shows that the speed of greatest knuckling for a traditional ball is around 30 miles per hour. The typical World Cup kicking speed is about 50 to 55 mph, precisely the speed of the Jabulani’s greatest knuckling.

The six-panel Brazuca’s rougher surface reduces the critical knuckling speed to about 30 mph, NASA’s engineers found.  So it should have a more predictable flight path at typical striking speeds. Predicted Mehta: “It is more stable in flight and will handle more like a traditional 32-panel ball.”

Photo credits: NASA Ames Reseach Center

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In the man-against-machine smackdown, humans remain ahead. But for how long?

John Henry, the legendary “steel drivin’ man” of the famous folk song, died with a hammer in his hand trying to beat a steam-driven rail-laying machine.

Now comes World Table Tennis champion Timo Boll, matching wits against “the fastest robot on Earth.” Built by Kuka, a German robotics company, the 114-pound, six-axis Agilus arm quickly racked up a 6-0 lead. But Boll, currently the fifth best player in the world, ultimately prevailed.

His secret? Strategically placed, impossible to reach shots.

Are you faster than Timo? Find out by playing against him in Kuka’s online game.

In a rematch, Timo and the Agilus robotic arm squared off over musical glasses.

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Guest author Guy Wilkins is an engineering student at the University of British Columbia. He created this post for senior instructor Annette Berndt’s technical writing class.

Hate playing scales or doing fitness drills? In the not-so-distant future, the hours of repetitive practice necessary to learn a musical instrument, new sport, or dance may be a relic of the past.

Lara Boyd, a researcher at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, believes a promising new technology called magnetic brain stimulation could cut the practice time required to learn a new motor skill. The idea involves putting on a “thinking cap” that focuses magnetic fields on the brain to “warm it up” for learning. The magnetic fields, created by passing electrical current through wires in the thinking cap, aid the neurons (brain cells) in making new connections.

The region of the brain that is ‘warmed’ is called the premotor cortex, an area responsible for management of motor control neurons in the motor cortex.  Boyd discovered that after 30 minutes of magnetic brain stimulation, test subjects traced a pattern on a computer significantly faster than those that were not receiving stimulation. Her study could have considerable impact on stroke victims, who require new connections between motor neurons to replace those to dead neurons. The study’s positive results have spurred Boyd to magnetically stimulate other areas of the brain. Just imagine the possibilities!

Magnetic brain stimulation also has shown promise in treating depression and addiction.

Watch Boyd’s YouTube lecture on magnetic brain stimulation and stroke victims.

Watch a BBC broadcast of how magnetic brain stimulation works:

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Engineers often seek ways to improve something that really bugs them. For Missouri high school seniors Tyler Richards and Jonathan Thompson, that something was the watery, yucky glop that first squirts from the bottle and ruins an otherwise delicious burger or hot dog.

The quest for a better ketchup dispenser became their engineering-class project.

First, the pair researched ketchup-themed patents to make sure their invention didn’t already exist, reports Fast Company and Popular Science. Finding none, they then sketched out dozens of potential design solutions before selecting one nicknamed the “mushroom” to prototype on the school’s 3-D printer.

The plastic device, which fits just under the cap inside the bottle, works like an upside-down umbrella. When the bottle is squeezed, the round base traps the watery layer while the thicker ketchup gets pushed up and out.

Richards and Thompson say they have no plans to market their  mushroom device. Which means diners must rely on the old-fashioned way of ensuring thick ketchup: Shake the bottle before squeezing.

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