Some engineers just can’t wait until they graduate to start innovating. Here’s one recent example: After watching a man with a speech impairment struggle to make a supermarket cashier understand him, three Ukrainian computer science students, who call themselves the QuadSquad, designed gloves fitted with 15 sensors that can understand the hand and finger gestures used in sign language. Via a Bluetooth connection, the decoded movements are sent to a software program that translates the data into sound, allowing a synthesizer to voice the translation and broadcast it from a smartphone’s speakers. Earlier this year, QuadSquad beat out 350 students from 75 countries to win Microsoft’s $25,000 prize, the Imagine Cup. The EnableTalk, as the device is called, runs by a battery that can be recharged by a built-in solar cell or a USB port. QuadSquad hopes to sell it for around $75. For millions of people worldwide with speech or hearing impairments, EnableTalk could be a communications bonanza.
Tokyo’s new 2,080-foot Sky Tree, the world’s tallest broadcast tower, is projected to draw 32 million visitors a year. But tourists won’t see one of its most striking features – a design intended to survive severe earthquakes and catastrophic winds.
Engineers began by studying soil formation as deep as 1.8 miles and taking meteorological measurements using a radiosonde balloon. The structure itself has a tripod base anchored with rootlike walled spikes plunging 330 feet. Above the ground, designers drew inspiration from the central column in Japan’s earthquake-resistant five-story pagodas, some of which have stood for more than 1,300 years. Adapting the design for the Sky Tree, they decoupled the core from the outer steel structure, with energy-absorbing oil dampers in between. The upper part of the column acts as a balancing weight against swaying. The end result, proclaims a paper by Thomas Bock of Munich Technical University, is “one of the safest buildings ever built.”
What do Jack-O-Lanterns have to do with engineering? Plenty, if you’re among the scores who participate in the pumpkin drops and launch contests that many engineering schools host around Halloween! There’s even an annual World Championship Punkin Chunkin’ contest in Delaware that attracts kids and adults alike.
Behind these fun events lies some serious engineering, physics, and math. Catapults and trebuchets, for example, are versions of the simple lever – which works like a see-saw to hurl America’s signature yellow gourd for hundreds of feet. Improving a launcher’s aim and distance requires knowing something about vectors and the force of gravity.
Pumpkin smashes offer a great way to apply classroom lessons to a real-world engineering challenge – and have a blast doing it. Happy Halloween!
Pumpkin Launch hosted by the University of Rochester’s chapter of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers
Sure, engineers build bridges, protect the environment, and tackle other big problems to make the world a better place. But they design fun things, too!
Consider the Popinator, a fully automated, voice activated popcorn-launching machine. Created by an electrical engineer at kettlecorn maker Popcorn Indiana, the device fires a puffy morsel when it hears the word “pop.” Because each piece is a different shape and size, pinpointing the source of the sound and adjusting the aim to deliver popcorn to a mouth represents some very sophisticated engineering. The Popinator, which shoots up to 15 feet, has been a huge hit at the company’s headquarters.
