Marshmallow Challenge

Sean Lee, Israel, Chase, and I competed against the class in a marshmallow challenge in which we had to create the highest free standing structure with the marshmallow on top. We had twenty pieces of raw pasta, a foot of tape, a marshmallow, and a piece of string. In the beginning, we made a long and drawn out structure that would have worked if we had more time and more supplies, would have worked, but in the end, we made two triangular bases taped together with pasta bundled at the top. We did not use the string at all, but we used all of the pasta and tape, but we didn't even use the tape. In the very end, our structure stood at about 25-26 centimeters tall, winning the challenge as the Rise Against Plastic team.

TED Challenge 2012

1) What is the TED organization about?

The TED organization is about the spreading of useful ideas and knowledge intended to educate and introduce a variety of useful topics to everyone. TED stands for Technology, Engineering, and Design.

2) What is the purpose of their website and how does the functionality of their site support that?

The purpose of the sight is to offer free knowledge and inspiration from the world's most inspired thinkers. The functionality of the website supports it by uploading thousands of videos and speeches by thinkers, free, of course, and easy to access, displaying various videos as soon as you load the page.

3) As Engineers and Problem Solvers, which topic areas (the choices from the "Show talks related to:" section on the sidebar) are of most interest to us? Justify your answer.

I believe that the most interesting areas to engineers are the design, technology, and global issues tabs because we use design to come up with solutions to problems, technology to arrange what constraints and what we can do with them, and global problems because some of the problems may need engineers to come up with a solution to them.

4) Based on your previous answer, what are 3 talks (videos) on the site that appear like they would be of most interest to you as an Engineer/Problem Solver? Justify your choices.

Pranav Mistry: The thrilling potential of SixthSense technology, this talk solved the problem of humans being distant from our technology, how it is nothing like us, so Pranav created a solution where we use our bodies and surroundings to enact with this new technology, currently hung around our necks.

Eben Bayer: Are mushrooms the new plastic?, Eben Bayer is a very Eco-friendly man, and he has his own company that takes an organic (really -- it's based on mycelium, a living, growing organism) adhesive that turns agriwaste into a foam-like material for packaging and insulation. He proposes that instead of our widespread use of plastic, we can use mushrooms, combined with other organic compounds, and make a safe to use plastic.

Klaus Stadlmann: The world’s smallest 3D printer, this man, Klaus, actually decided to invent the world's smallest 3-D printer when his laser printer broke while attempting to print off his thesis for his Vienna Technical University PhD.

5) Each student will watch a unique video (clear your choice with me... first come, first served!). Watch the video. Embed the video in your blog post and create a bulletized outline of the key issues presented in the talk.

http://www.ted.com/talks/pranav_mistry_the_thrilling_potential_of_sixthsense_technology.html

• Humans are too distant from technology
• Need a way to enact better with technology
• Use our bodies and motions to enact with new technology

6) How could you get involved in the field/technology/issue you chose to hear about? What experience/skills/training/education would you need to learn to get involved with this field?

I believe that to get involved with the technology advancement, I would need the education and skills of the engineering of the product, to know it well, inside and out. I would also need a lot of experience with robotics, like maybe a prostetic limb that the person could control, and then advance from there.

2.3.1a Miniature Train

Almost Spring Break 2012, and in class we have been constructing a miniature train in our CAD Inventor software programs.
Here are my sketches for the train body, stack, hitch magnet, hitch peg, wheel, axle peg, linkage arm, linkage peg, and cow catcher assemblies of the train, I still need to assemble them all together and create the straight track piece, but that can wait until after Break.

Egg Drop Challenge

My partner, Sean Lee, and I, competed against the class last week in the Second Annual Egg Drop Challenge. We used an awesome elevator design, which involved a plank that leaned over the edge, taped it down and added counterbalances to the other side, so it would not fall, hurting someone. It also involved a long piece of string, a small cardboard box, more rocks, a ton of dominoes, a lot of duct tape, and socks. We used the box as a container for the egg, and inside we had a sock as a cushion on the bottom of the egg, and we used the other sock for a top cushion. We used some of the dominoes inside the box with the egg in order to create more weight in the box. On the other side, we used duct tape to make a counterbalance with rocks, slightly heavier, probably 10-15 grams more, than the box with the egg. We used the string to attach the two parts (the box with the egg/counterbalance) and then we let it go on the plank, and it slowly, safely, and surely lowered down to the ground without the egg breaking. We earned a lot of achievements, listed below.

Achievements:

• Brainstorming:
• Create a sketch of one possible solution.
• Create a sketch of another possible solution.
• Create a sketch of a third possible solution.
• Use a decision matrix

	Size	Weight	Safety	Speed (slow)	Accuracy	Total
Parachute	1	1	3	3	2	9
Elevator	3	3	1	1	1	9
Wings and Parachute	2	2	2	2	3	11

• Material Preparation:
• Generate a list of materials required for build day
• Document a plan to ensure materials are brought in on block day
• Sean Lee will bring in the egg, cardboard box, foam/bubble wrap, and masking tape. I will bring in the wood plank, rocks/counterbalances, and the long string
• Size:
• Your materials fit inside a printer paper box
• Weight:
• Your materials weigh less than 500 grams
• Drop Accuracy:
•  You hit the butcher paper!
• You hit inside the third ring!
• You hit inside the second ring!
• You hit inside the first ring!
• You hit the Bullseye!
• Drop Time:
• Your solution takes more than 2 seconds to hit the target!
• Your solution takes more than 3 seconds to hit the target!
• Your solution takes more than 4 seconds to hit the target!
• Your solution takes more than 5 seconds to hit the target!
• Egg Resilience:
• Your egg didn't break in any way! (awarded three times)
• Your egg didn't break in any way! (awarded three times)
• Your egg didn't break in any way! (awarded three times)
• Calculations:
• Used arithmetic to calculate the amount of weight needed for the counterbalance
• Used geometry in the size and measurements in the box
• Used algebra to find out how long it would take for the box to reach the ground
• Other:
• Helped set up the Bullseys

In Total: 24 Achievements

Here is our product in action:

The Truth

Awesome problem flow chart

Khan Academy

I watched the Khan Academy video about the events and summarizing of World War II and the Vietnam War.
http://www.khanacademy.org/humanities---other/history/v/us-history-overview-3---wwii-to-vietnam
That is the link to the 15 minute long video

Sustain:

I really enjoyed this video because of its great historical content. It accurately and quickly summarizes major happenings in between World War II and the Vietnam War. If we were learning this in our regular history class, it might have taken one 50 minute period to cover the topics. On Khan Academy, the topics were covered in less than 15 minutes and I understood the subject to the fullest.

Change:

The only thing I would change about this video is that I would put in a little bit more words and space the information out a little bit more, because all of the major event were cramped into a little space.

I believe that the "flipping the classroom" paradigm is great and it should be applied in schools nowadays because, as I said, I learned a lot about the events between the wars in a small amount of time.

2.1.6 CAD Sketches

We are currently working on creating objects by replicating them from a piece of paper into Inventor.

We were asked to make six sketches.