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 […]

***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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

***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 […]

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 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 […]