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Goodbye, Farewell, So Long…..For Now!

Posted by Ketton (Team UV) on July 9, 2015
Posted in: Blog. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

Photo Credit: thumbs.dreamstime.com

Well looks like the time has come to say farewell.  This has definitely been a fun ride here at TeamUV.org and I can definitely say I will not forget it.  I honestly want to thank everyone who has supported us this entire trip whether it be reading our post, donating, commenting, or any kind of support you have given us.  I just hope that we were able to shed some light on all of the interesting items that people just like us have created in the STEM field.  We all have learned a lot from the beginning of this project (SHIELA-D) up til the end (DORY) and that experience is something that we will never forget.

You know, anyone can put up an article.  But when you put up an article and see that people are coming to the site, reading it, and leaving comments, it is such a great feeling and once again I want to thank everyone who supported us no matter how small or large.  As for the “For Now” part, I will be putting up articles for Engineering A Future for a little while so feel free to come, kick back, and read some more articles!

From the coolest guy in the group…..You Rock!

Hoverboard Is Finally Here?!

Posted by Ketton (Team UV) on July 5, 2015
Posted in: Open Mind. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment
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Hoverboard. Photo Credit: wonderfulengineering.com

As many of you are aware, we are in the transitioning phase of this website as we close out TeamUV.org and transition to EngineeringAFuture.com over the next two months, so this will be Ketton’s last Open Mind post here at Team UV, but not to fear, there is still one week of posts left here and the same types of articles will be carried over onto EAF (Engineering A Future), so without further ado, please enjoy the following:

We have been yearning for the hoverboard technology ever since it premiered in series like Back to the Future and Real Adventures of Johnny Quest.  But, due to the complexity of the underlying technology, no hoverboards have yet been able to accommodate a real person during flight.  It has largely been agreed that the future hoverboard’s levitation effect will come from the application of electromagnetic levitation rather than any propulsion.  But in addition to the electromagnetism, the new board also uses liquid Nitrogen in some capacity.  The new attempt at the hoverboard is called Slide and it can lift itself off the ground and carry a person.  Not enough technical details regarding the board of our dreams are available, and the sole source of information is a video released by the Tokyo branch of Lexus, the company behind this invention.  The project is a part of the Amazing in Motion campaign by the Lexus company that has produced an 11 foot tall android, a swarm of quadcopters and mannequins performing in Kuala Lumpur.

We see in the video (below) how a young man is getting off from his boring regular board and then moves towards the Slider board.  It really seems to be levitating in thin air.  It seems to be a remarkable feat of engineering and a long-awaited ride for us.  Due to the brand image of Lexus, it is unlikely that it is an edited video.  The video is real but to see an actual hoverboard is mesmerizing.  I bet there are many technical difficulties to overcome before we can actually see it.  There had been an attempt of making a working hoverboard before as Kickstarter attracted the Hendo hoverboard that could levitate and move across a floor of some conductive material to create a secondary field.

The Lexus spokesperson told the media that there won’t be any disclosure of information before the end of the month when the board could be unveiled for the cameras.  However, we cannot help but feel suspicious about the whole thing.  The electromagnetic levitation requires a particular type of surface to float on.  In the video, the guy appears to be doing so on concrete, which doesn’t seem to make sense.  Maybe there is a secret to the smoking sides of the hoverboard.  They must contribute towards its function in some aspect.

Check out the video below and see what all the fuss is about!

Why Is There a Tiny Hole in Airplane Windows?

Posted by Ketton (Team UV) on June 30, 2015
Posted in: Well Read. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , . 4 Comments
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Breather hole in an airplane window. Photo Credit: interestingengineering.com

As many of you are aware, we are in the transitioning phase of this website as we close out TeamUV.org and transition to EngineeringAFuture.com over the next two months, so this will be Ketton’s last Well Read post here at Team UV, but not to fear, there are still two months of posts left here and the same types of articles will be carried over onto EAF (Engineering A Future), so without further ado, please enjoy the following:

Before we go any further into the purpose of the “breather hole”, we will first check out how a window in a pressurized passenger cabin is set up.  As shown in the Boeing 737 maintenance manual (the most widely produced jet airliner in aviation history), the window structure consists of three layers of acrylic – a tough, transparent and flexible resin – although only two of them have an actual structural function.

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Airplane window configuration. Photo Credit: interestingengineering.com

These structural layers are the intermediate and outer ones – while the inner layer (called “scratch pane”) only serves as a buffer between the passengers and the structure of the window itself.  These layers prevent the cabin from reaching the external pressures that, depending on altitude, are too low for the vital functions of the human body.

Basically, the primary structural window guarantees the cabin remains at a constant pressure equivalent to an altitude of 7,000 feet, which is still quite acceptable for the body.  However, in most cases, only the last acrylic layer is responsible for ensuring such conditions; the intermediate layer is just there for extra safety.  Having said that, let us get back to the mysterious little hole.

As can be noted in the diagram shown above, the breather hole is located in the middle layer of the window.  This little puncture acts as a bleed valve ensuring that the pressure between the last two layers and the cabin always remains the same.  This is necessary as a way of preserving the middle layer (the extra safety one) so it is only exposed to severe pressure differences in cases of emergency – that is, if the last layer the window is fractured in some way.

The breather hole also serves to prevent freezing and fogging between the outer layers of the window.  Of course, that doesn’t always work since it is not rare to find photographs showing some frost on the windows.

Medical Device That Can Deliver Medicine One Molecule at a Time

Posted by Ketton (Team UV) on May 19, 2015
Posted in: Well Read. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

 

Implantable ion drug pump. Photo Credit: http://www.popularmechanics.com

The device shown above is smaller than your finger and it might be the future of devices to treat a fractured spine, pinched nerve, or neurological disorder like epilepsy.  Oh…did I mention that it was implantable!?

A team of engineers and medical researchers in Sweden has just designed a pinpoint-accurate implantable drug pump.  It delivers medicine with such precision that it requires only 1 percent of the drugs doctors would otherwise need to deploy.  As it demonstrated in tests on seven rats, the tiny pump can attach directly to the spine (at the root of a nerve) and inject its medicine molecule by molecule.

The technology is based on a compact but complicated piece of laboratory equipment called an ion pump.  To put it simply, as electric current enters the ion pump one electron at a time, medicine is flung out the other end one molecule at a time.  One caveat: Because of this setup, only medicines that can be electrically charged can be used with the pump.  But that includes more pain medicines than you might think, including morphine and other opiates.  In their study, Jonsson and her colleagues experimented with gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA).  This chemical essentially puts the brakes on nerves, reducing pain, but it stops being produced where the nerves are broken.  Jonsson’s approach was to use her new drug pump to simply put more GABA back into the broken part of the spine.

With any other drug pump this would be ineffective if not insane—the GABA would simply travel throughout the spine at leisure, wreaking widespread havoc and disrupting the nervous system.  But, with the ion pump’s pinpoint precision, Jonsson could inject incredibly small amount of GABA right where they needed it, without the risk of major damage.  And it worked.  When the scientists gave the test rats a common pain-response test (essentially poking their paws, and seeing how much force was needed for them to retract their arms) the rats with drug-pumps could on average withstand 5 times more force.

Jonsson is emphatic that her medical device is still in the research phase, and a real ion drug pump may be years away.  Scaling up the pump to the size required for human needs might not be too big of an issue, but for this experiment, the researchers had their rats implanted with the pumps for three days only.  The shell of the pump would likely need to be changed for longer-term use, she says.  Regardless, drug pumps like Jonsson’s may hold the promise of future biomedical devices designed to assuage nerve pain and treat neurological diseases.

Wall Climbing Robot That Can Carry 100 Times Its Own Weight!

Posted by Ketton (Team UV) on May 10, 2015
Posted in: Open Mind. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

UTug robot with a weight attached. Photo Credit: slashgear.com

Stanford engineers are getting ready to reveal their new tiny robot that perhaps should have the name Superman as it is extremely strong.  The reveal is taking place at the International Conference on Robotics and Automation which is held in Seattle.  The small robot can not only carry many times its own weight, it can do this while climbing up a wall.

This is the smallest robot to have been created at Stanford.  One of their robots is able to carry 500 milligrams while its own body weight is just 20 milligrams.  It may only be carrying a paperclip but bear in mind that the robot itself is so tiny that it had to be assembled underneath a microscope.  UTug is the even more powerful as it can drag weights of up to 2,000 times heavier than its own body weight.  It weighs just 12 grams (~0.03 lb) and can carry around 24 kilograms (~52.9 lb).  This is the equivalent to a human being walking around dragging a blue whale behind them.

The incredible strength of the robots is due to powerful motors and superb traction.  The engineers working on the robots gave them feet that take inspiration from that of a gecko.  The feet have an adhesive surface which has tiny rubber spikes that allow the robot to stick to the surface.  If downward pressure is applied, the spikes are able to bend, this gives them increased surface area and therefore high adhesion.  As soon as the robot lifts its foot the spikes straighten out.  The locomotion of the robot means that it moves slow and one foot has to stay planted to anchor the weight of the robot.  The designers behind the robot believe that the robot will come in handy in construction to carry items that are heavy and which need to be hauled around.

Body Armor Made from a Liquid That Hardens When Hit by a Bullet

Posted by Ketton (Team UV) on April 14, 2015
Posted in: Well Read. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , . 2 Comments

Shear Thickening Fluid (STF) body armor. Photo Credit: ep.yimg.com

A Polish company, Mortax Institute, is in the business of producing body armor systems and is currently working on a liquid based armor that is capable of hardening upon impact.  This liquid in question is known as Shear-Thickening Fluid (STF) and can harden at any temperature instantaneously when impacted with a bullet.  The liquid armor is capable of providing protection from high-speed projectiles and can also disperse the energy over a larger area.  Test performers of the STF for Moratex said “This viscosity increases thanks to the subordination of the particles in the liquid structure, therefore they form a barrier against an external penetrating factor.”  The ballistic tests that were carried out have proven that it is resistant to a large and diverse range of projectiles.

The liquid armor’s capability of stopping inbound projectile when combined with the low indentation of its surface creates a safety level that is far higher when compared with the conventional solutions that rely on Kevlar.  If a protective vest is fitted to the body, then a four centimeter deep deflection may cause injury to the sternum, sternum fracture, myocardial infarction, or lethal damage to the spleen.  Thanks to the properties of the liquid, and to the proper formation of the insert, it’s possible to eliminate near one hundred percent of this threat because of the reduced the deflection from four centimeters to one centimeter.

The team working on this innovative approach to body armor is hopeful that this technology will find applications other than in body armor.  I fully agree that this STF, if fully developed, can have a huge impact in the world we live in today.

17 Year Old Girl’s Device Purifies Water and Generates Energy!

Posted by Ketton (Team UV) on April 9, 2015
Posted in: Presentations. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment
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Cynthia Lam’s H2prO device. Photo Credit: InterestingEngineering.com

This girl is definitely going places.  Inventions to help improve the quality of life in a renewable and sustainable approach has been the main efforts of many scientists and engineers today.  A participant in Google’s Science Fair, Cynthia Lam, developed a system known as H2prO that purifies water while simultaneously generating energy.  In the images above; the upper portion is used for purification of water, while the bottom part is used for hydrogen generation which is connected to a fuel cell and the base unit for filtration of water.

Cynthia’s device uses titanium to separate the pollutants from the water.  With the addition of oxidizing substances (methanol, glycerol, and EDTA) this mixture increases the production of hydrogen, which is used as fuel and to make the decomposition more efficient.  Tests show that the H2prO has a 90% efficiency in the removal of organic pollutants, and the entire process can happen in only two hours.  Unfortunately, the system is still unstable (even with such a satisfactory production of photocatalyic hydrogen) so data regarding energy production is slim to none.  However, Cynthia is not giving up yet and plans to finalize her design to help many people in developing countries!