It might not seem consequential now, but in 1863, Scientific American weighed in on a pressing technological issue: the standardization of screw threads in U.S. machine shops. Given standard-size threads — the ridges running around screws and bolts — screws missing from machinery could be replaced with hardware from any producer. But without a standard, fixing industrial […]
STEM
SOS Students Pitch Ideas to Solve Air Force Issues Using Artificial Intelligence
Air University’s Squadron Officer School students pitched their initial ideas on how to better certain processes within the Air Force to Col. Wayne Straw, the school’s commandant, and a panel of subject matter experts, May 31, at Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama. The ideas pitched were a part of the SOS elective Think Tank, which […]
I Became an Engineer: Because of the Society of Women in Engineering and a Little Entropy
***Editor’s Note: The “I Became an Engineer” blog runs every Friday. To share your story email jennifer.delaosa@advantagebizmarketing.com*** This week’s story comes from ECN reader Nadine Dytko-Madsen, global product manager, Molex LLC. To all the readers who are outliers, or have randomly found engineering, I hope my story resonates with you. I have always been an individual who was […]
Problem Solvers by Design
Rats on campus, disruptive noise pollution, and costly deep-sea research seem to have nothing in common—except that they could all be solved using an engineering design approach. Students in the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences course Engineering Problem Solving and Design Project (ES 96) did just that, applying their engineering know-how, in collaboration […]
Soft, Social Robot Brings Coziness to Homes — and Classrooms
A new social robot that can be customized with handcrafted material, such as wood and wool, brings simplicity and fun to home robotics — and will soon be used to help teach math to fourth graders. Guy Hoffman, assistant professor in the Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Cornell University, envisioned robots built […]
Fueling Passion in Tech at the 2019 IEEE Women in Engineering Conference
The IEEE Women in Engineering International Leadership Conference (WIE ILC) is a STEM-packed event that launched five years ago, bringing together women in tech-oriented roles. According to IEEE WIE ILC, the event “provides professional women in technology, whether in industry, academia, or government, the opportunity to create communities that fuel innovation, facilitate knowledge sharing, and […]
I Became an Engineer: Because of a How-To Craft Podcast
***Editor’s Note: The “I Became an Engineer” blog runs every Friday. To share your story email jennifer.delaosa@advantagebizmarketing.com*** This week’s story comes from ECN reader La Vesha Parker, senior software engineer & tech lead, Etsy; Speaker, IEEE WIE ILC. Like many middle schoolers living in the 2000s, I got an iPod for Christmas in 2006. I initially assumed it […]
Air Force Leaders Strengthen Community Ties, Engage Students at JB Andrews Air & Space Expo
To bolster the long-standing bond between Joint Base Andrews and the local community, Air Force senior leaders interacted with local science, technology, engineering and mathematics students at the JB Andrews Air & Space Expo May 10. Secretary of the Air Force Heather Wilson delivered opening remarks for this year’s biennial three-day event, which focused on JB Andrews’ partnership […]
In Robotics Classes, Armenian Teens Dream of High-Tech Future
In a sleek classroom in Yerevan, the capital of Armenia, one of the poorest post-Soviet republics, 14-year-old Nazeli Ter-Petrosyan peers at the screen of her Apple Mac. During a computer programming course offered at the high-tech Tumo school, Ter-Petrosyan and her classmates learn how to digitise medieval texts. “I’m developing a programme to enable artificial […]
Robots Shoot for the Moon in MIT’s Annual 2.007 Competition
In their historic lunar mission 50 years ago, Apollo 11 astronauts Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong collected and returned to Earth more than 48 pounds of lunar material, including 50 moon rocks that researchers have been analyzing intensely ever since. If they’d only had help from some MIT robots, the astronauts might have been able […]