Activity developed by The Tech museum of innovation in San Jose, California. Click HERE for PDF of activity. Click HERE for PDF of engineering design process worksheet for bobsled activity adapted by the Museum of Science, Boston’s Engineering is Elementary.

Summary

Students in grades 3 to 12 explore the effects of gravity, friction, and air resistance upon acceleration by using the engineering design process to design, build, and test their own bobsleds with the aim of reducing run times with each attempt.

Grade level: 3-12

Time: Three 30-45 minute sessions

Learning objectives

After doing this activity, students should be able to:

• Demonstrate their knowledge of potential and kinetic energy
• Iterate on a design that decreases run times by reducing friction and drag
• Explain design considerations based on concepts of aerodynamics, acceleration, velocity, and terminal velocity
• Use the design process to meet an engineering challenge

Learning standards

Next Generation Science Standards

Engineering Design:

• Grades 3-5, ETS1-1, ETS1-2, ETS1-3;
• Grades 6-8: MS-ETS1-1, MS-ETS1-2, MS-ETS1-3, MS-ETS1-4;  Develop a model to describe that when the arrangement of objects interacting at a distance changes, different amounts of potential energy are stored in the system; Construct, use, and present arguments to support the claim that when the motion energy of an object changes, energy is transferred to or from the object. Define the criteria and constraints of a design problem with sufficient precision to ensure a successful solution.
• Grades 9-12: HS-ETS1.1- 1.3  Analyze a major global challenge, design a solution given qualitative and quantitative criteria and constratins, and evaluate and improve solutions.

Physical Science: Grade 3: 3-PS2-1; Grade 4: Physical Science 4-PS3-1 and 4-PS3-4; Grade 5: 5-PS2-1; Grades 6-8: MS-PS2-2, MS-PS3-1, MS-PS3-2, and MS-PS3-5; High School: HS-PS2-1, HS-PS2-6, HS-PS3-2, and HS-PS3-3

Common Core Language Arts

Speaking and Listening: Grade 3: SL.3.1b-d, SL.3.3, SL.3.4a; Grade 4: SL.4.1b-d, SL.4.4a; Grade 5: SL.5.1b-d, SL.5.4; Grade 6: SL.6.1b-d; Grade 7: SL.7.1b-d; Grade 8: SL.8.1b-d; Grade 9-10: SL.9-10.1b-d Grade 11-12: SL.11-12.1.b-d

Engineering Connection

Have you been in a car when the driver slammed on the brakes and the car skidded or started to chatter?  That vibration is caused by the anti-lock brake system (ABS). Engineers know that a non-skidding wheel has more traction than a skidding wheel, so they designed a braking system that prevents the brakes from locking up, which can cause a vehicle to slide. By not skidding, the static friction is maximized and the driver can stop the car quickly without loss of control.

There’s lots of engineering in bobsleds, from the aerodynamic body made of sturdy but lightweight carbon fiber materials to the

Engineers also are developing plastic bobsled tracks that not only mimic the same low-friction surface as ice when lightly lubricated with water but also heal themselves after the blade passes over. Another advantage: Plastic tracks make bobsled competitions possible year ’round, even in warm places, and reduce the environmental impact. They also cost less than today’s ice versions: around $5 million versus nearly $100 million.

The tracks, which are being studied by Jan-Anders Mansson, a professor of materials and chemical engineering at Purdue University, and software engineering Josh Dustin, are expected to premier at the 2020 Youth Olympic Games in Switzerland.

Materials

Materials can be limiting or inspirational to students! Have a wide variety of materials to promote a diversity of solutions.

“Recycled items” are really useful: 

• Old mouse pads
• Wood scraps
• Boxes
• Cardboard tubes
• Strawberry baskets

Class Supplies to Share

• Plastic Drinking Straws
• Craft Sticks
• Wooden Skewers
• Toothpicks
• Paper Clips
• Twist Ties
• Rubber Bands
• Pipe Cleaners
• Masking Tape
• Scissors
• Cardstock
• Cardboard

Testing Supplies

• Stopwatch
• Scale
• Rain Gutters (race track)
• Wood blocks (braces for the rain gutters)

Procedure

Before the activity

Make a multiple-lane bobsled course out of plastic rain gutters. Mark the start and finish lines with a dark marker, and brace the lanes with a wooden block.

Session 1: (30-45 minutes)

1. Introduce the Challenge: Design and build a bobsled using the provided materials to race down the rain gutter track.

2. Introduce the Constraints: • Each bobsled must weigh 8 grams or less. • Bobsleds must be able to fit behind the black line on the racetrack. • You must use only the materials provided. • Everyone on the team must be included (2-4 engineers).

3. Build: Give students about 20 minutes to build. Instructor should ask open-ended questions to help guide students through the design process, but should also allow students space to tinker.

4. Demonstration: Have students demonstrate their bobsled designs. If students have not completed their device, or their device did not function as expected, ask them how the device would have worked.

5. Reflection: Have each group of students explain their design strategy and how their bobsled uses energy, forces, and motion to complete the track.

The instructor should ask leading questions to get at the science behind the designs. For example: When the bobsled reaches the bottom of the track and stops, what kind of energy does it have? Potential? Kinetic?

What kind of energy does the bobsled have if it is only halfway down the track? How would a heavier bobsled affect the run? How would surface area affect your bobsled? How does shape affect your bobsled? Questions about specific design choices: Why did you use a…? What does the… do? How did you solve…?

Session 2: Directed Instruction (30-45 minutes)  

1. Questions for teaching points:

How would you describe the energy associated with your bobsled? • What would happen if you make your bobsled heavier? • What would happen if more of your bobsled were in contact with the track? • Is it possible to achieve a faster run-time just by changing the shape of your bobsled?

2. Friction: When things rub against each other, they generate friction. Materials that slide down the track more easily have less friction, less energy is lost, and so the track time is faster.

Demonstration Ideas: Have students rub their hands together. Do they feel the heat? That is the energy from the movement of their hands being converted to thermal energy (i.e. heat) through friction. Potential energy that becomes heat cannot become motion. Low friction means less energy is lost to heat, leaving more energy for motion; therefore, the bobsled goes faster. o Get a paperclip and a rubber band. Ask which one they think will go faster down the track. Drop the paperclip in one track and the rubber band in the other. The paperclip will slide down the track while the rubber band will stick at the top. Which one has higher friction? The rubber band. Things with more friction are “stickier.” Kids seem to have an innate understanding that sticky things don’t move well.

Questions: How does material choice affect the bobsled’s race time?  How does surface are affect the bobsled’s race time?

3 Aerodynamics: Air resistance, or air friction. When something moves through air, the air molecules rub against the object and create air friction. Friction slows an object down. Air friction is one form of drag. The larger the area hitting the air, the greater the number of air molecules hitting the object at any moment in time, and more friction is created. More friction means the object slows down more. This is why a parachute works.

Demonstration: Get two pieces of paper. Reduce the surface area of one piece by crumpling it up. Drop the two pieces of paper. The crumpled paper will hit the ground first. Gravity accelerates the two objects toward the earth at the same rate. The crumpled paper goes faster because there is a smaller surface for the air to hit, which means less air friction, which means it loses less speed.

Additionally: The other factor that affects air resistance is the object’s velocity. If an object can pass through more air space in a given amount of time, it will collide with more air molecules than the same object with a slower velocity. The more air molecules it hits, the more air friction is created and the more speed is lost.

Questions: How does shape affect a bobsled’s run time? What shapes are more effective? o What other vehicles make design considerations based on aerodynamics? What shapes do these vehicles utilize?

4. Terminal Velocity: Acceleration due to gravity = Deceleration due to air resistance. As an object falls it will continue to speed up. As it speeds up the force due to air resistance will increase. That force is accelerating the object in the opposite direction of its movement, or causing it to decelerate. When the force of air resistance matches the force of gravity, the object is being accelerated and decelerated at the same rate. That means there is no acceleration at all. It doesn’t mean the object stops falling. It just stops falling faster.

Demonstrations: Get a stack of cards (index or playing). Rubber band the stack together except for one card. Point out the bottom of the stack of cards and the single card have the same surface area that will hit the air when they are dropped. Hold the stack of cards and the single card at the same height and drop them. The stack of cards will hit the ground first. This is because the stack of cards has more mass so it takes longer to reach the speed that will create enough air resistance to counteract the acceleration due to gravity. If you dropped the single card and the stack in a vacuum they would fall at the same rate.

Get an empty matchbox and a matchbox full of pennies. Slide them both down the track. The matchboxes have the same profile to affect their aerodynamics. Because the box with the pennies is heavier, it will slide down the track faster.

Questions:  How does terminal velocity affect the bobsleds? NOTE: We want our bobsled to accelerate as long as possible so it reaches a high speed. Gravity will speed the bobsled up. Air resistance and friction will slow it down. Eventually, gravity will balance air resistance and friction and stop acceleration. This will be your terminal velocity. The bobsled cannot go faster than this. We want to delay reaching terminal velocity as much as possible so the bobsled accelerates as long as possible. A heavier bobsled will create a larger gravitational force (to create the same acceleration). It will take more air resistance to counteract the larger force of gravity in a heavy object. The more air resistance you need, the faster the object must be going to create it, the longer the bobsled must accelerate to reach that speed. This is why we want to add weight to our bobsleds. 

Session 3: Bobsled Redesign and Reflection (30-45 minutes)

1. Introduce the Challenge: Redesign and build a bobsled using the provided materials to race down the rain gutter track in order to decrease the initial run time.

2. Reintroduce the Constraints: • Each bobsled must weigh 8 grams or less. • Bobsleds must be able to fit behind the black line on the racetrack. • You must use only the materials provided. • Everyone on the team must be included (2-4 engineers).

3. Build: Give students about 20 minutes to build. Instructor should ask open-ended questions to help guide students through the design process, but should also allow students space to tinker.

4. Demonstration: Have students demonstrate their bobsled designs. If students have not completed their device, or their device did not function as expected, ask them how the device would have worked.

5. Reflection: Have each group of students explain their design strategy and how their bobsled uses energy, force, and motion to complete the track. The instructor should ask leading questions to get at the science behind the designs.

Questions: How did you change your original design? What affect did this/these change(s) have upon the performance of your bobsled? Did you do anything specific to increase the aerodynamics of your bobsled? Did you do anything specific to help your bobsled accelerate longer (i.e. decrease friction, delay terminal velocity by adding weight and increasing aerodynamics)? If you had more time what would you add, change, or do differently? o If you had another opportunity to redesign, do you feel you could make your bobsled run even faster?

Nigeria is sending its first bobsled team to the Pyeongchang Olympics. Jamaica’s 1988 bobsled team, subject of the movie Cool Runnings, says its debut at the Calgary Olympics was an even crazier experience than depicted in the film.

Resources

How Bobsledding Works An article by “How Stuff Works” on bobsledding provides information on the rules of the sport, technical information about courses and sleds, and the physics of how everything works.

Aerodynamics An article posted to “Live Science” that explains the basics of aerodynamics as it applies to a variety of vehicles.

Engineering Faster and Safer Bobsleds A National Science Foundation video explaining the engineering challenges associated with making sleds faster and tracks safer. The video is narrated by Michael Scully, of BMW DesignWorks USA, and mechanical engineer Mont Hubbard, professor emeritus at the University of California, Davis.

PhET Interactive Simulations. Interactive simulations for science and math from the University of Colorado, Boulder, includes an interactive skatepark (or snowboard half-pipe) graphing simulation that lets students manipulate a ramp in order to discover force, energy, and work.

Science of the Winter Olympics: Banking on Speed. National Science Foundation and NBCLearn video explains how the U.S. Men’s Bobsled Team hopes to win gold for the first time in decades at the Vancouver Olympics with the help of scientists, phyiologists, physicist George Tuthill of Plymouth State University, and bobsled designer Bob Cuneo.

Video of going down bobsled track. From Pyeongchang 2018 Olympic Bobsleigh official site.

Related activities

Energy Skate Park (grades 9-11) TeachEngineering hands-on activity in which students experiment with an online virtual laboratory set at a skate park. They make predictions of graphs before they use the simulation to create graphs of energy vs. time under different conditions. This simulation experimentation strengths their comprehension of conservation of energy solely between gravitational potential energy and kinetic energy,

Riding the Gravity Wave (grades 5-7) Students write a biographical sketch of an artist or athlete who lives on the edge, riding the gravity wave, to better understand how these artists and athletes work with gravity and manage risk. Note: The literacy activities for the Mechanics unit are based on physical themes that have broad application to our experience in the world — concepts of rhythm, balance, spin, gravity, levity, inertia, momentum, friction, stress and tension.

Sliders (grades 7-9) TeachEngineering hands-on activity helps middle-school students understand static and kinetic friction and the equation that governs them. They also measure the coefficient of static friction experimentally.

Sliders (Grades 9-11) TeachEngineering hands-on activity helos high school students understand static and kinetic friction and the equation that governs them. They also measure the coefficient of static friction experimentally.

Trash Sliders (Grades 6-9) University of Virginia engineering professor Larry Richards developed this hands on engineering design challenge to help students learn the fundamentals of engineering design, sustainability, suspension systems, and the physics of forces and motion while expressing their creativity by building a vehicle out of recycled trash that is capable of transporting liquid over rough terrain with as little spillage as possible.

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Children’s literature is full of memorable wildlife adventure stories, from Ring of Bright Water – Gavin Maxwell’s classic about his pet otters in remote Scotland – to Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings’ The Yearling, Jack London’s White Fang and The Call of the Wild, and Sterling North’s chronicle of his rural Wisconsin childhood and raising a raccoon named Rascal.

Now comes Beauty and the Beak, possibly the first true wildlife rescue story in which engineering plays a prominent role. Deborah Lee Rose and coauthor Janie Veltkamp, a raptor biologist who led the rescue effort, trace the journey of Beauty, an eagle whose top beak has been shot off by a poacher, from her early life in the Alaskan wilds to her arrival at Veltkamp’s Birds of Prey Northwest center in Idaho to being outfitted with a 3-D printed prosthetic — with the help of a mechanical engineer, veterinarian, and dentist.

[April 2020 update: Veltkamp reads the book aloud on this YouTube video.]

To accompany the book, which won the national American Association for the Advancement of Science /Subaru SB&F Prize for Excellence in Science Books, there is a free, downloadable education guide with standards-based, hands-on activities about Beauty’s engineered beak, including Go Fish: Engineering a Prosthetic Tail [grades 6-8] and other wildlife prosthetic lessons created by the Museum of Science, Boston Engineering is Elementary. It is downloadable on the authors’ websites: www.birdsofpreynorthwest.org and www.deborahleerose.com. 

The book also dovetails with the Standards for the Professional Development of K-12 Teachers developed by ASEE’s Precollege Division, notably:

A6-2: Participants identify the types of engineers who would work on a team addressing a particular design challenge in a professional setting. Participants research the represented fields (i.e. professions, projects, research areas) on which such engineers currently work.

A7-1:Engage participants in comparing engineering with non-engineering content areas (e.g., mathematics, science, social studies, English language arts, the arts, technology education);

A10-1: Provide opportunities for participants to explore the work of engineers and their contributions to society;

C2-1: Engage participants in engineering design challenges that require horizontal integration with non-engineering content (e.g., mathematics, science, social studies, English language arts, the arts, technology education);

C3-1: Draw attention to the way in which engineering design and problem solving reinforce skills (e.g., 21st century skills such as creativity, communication, critical thinking, and collaboration) and practices (e.g., modeling, data analysis, and presentation) that are relevant to many fields.

Read the 3D Print.com article about Beauty and Jane Veltkamp’s work.

Beauty and the Beak: How Science, Technology, and a 3D-Printed Beak Rescued a Bald Eagle.

• Deborah Lee Rose and Jane Veltkamp
• 40 pages
• Persnickety Press

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Curling is the Henny Youngman of Olympic sports – it gets little respect outside of the small circle of fans and players who revel in an icy version of shuffleboard… played with heavy “stones” that look like kettles and brooms that look like Swiffers.

But even this venerable game has been touched by technology. In this case, an engineered “SmartBroom” that has changed how athletes train and play.  The New York Times (2/6/18) reports on its development by two Canadian engineers, Andrew Flemming and Geoff Fowler, who brainstormed over beer and tinkered in obscurity for months to come up with a high-tech training device. They soldered. They printed three-dimensional models in their basements.

The “SmartBroom” that emerged could help determine who takes home a medal at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea. 

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From 360-degree cameras that show what a player sees to “green” stadiums that feature solar panels and reclaimed water systems, the Super Bowl offers plenty of engineering feats to cheer about. Engage your students with eGFI’s roster of hands-on design activities, videos about forces, motion, and other gridiron-related science concepts, and feature articles about STEM and football.

Activities

Design a Super Dome [Grades 3-12]

Student teams learn about construction and engineering design by building a domed structure with an internal frame that is strong enough to support 120 grams of coins or candy on top. They present their domes to the class and complete reflections on the lessons learned.

Naked Egg Drop [Grades 3-6]

Paris of students experience the engineering design process by building and modifying devices to protect and catch a “naked” egg as it is dropped from increasing heights. The activity scales up to district or regional egg drop competitions.

Construct a Space Helmet [Grades 5-8]

Students in grades 5-8 learn about inertia and momentum as they design and construct a padded space helmet for egg astronauts. They test the strength of their construction and evaluate their results.

Punting and Projectile Motion [Grades 5-8]

Students use a hands-on activity, an online video from “Science of NFL Football,” and a computer simulation project to learn about projectile motion and how variables affect a projectile’s range and time in the air. Students apply what they learn from the simulations to analyze punting strategies in different situations.

 Safety Gear & Helmets [Grades 5-8]

Students learn the basic engineering issues related to helmet design, specifically, the physics of collisions and the biomechanical considerations of design. They then will identify and solve a design challenges, create a poster representation of their solutions, and present them their peers. They also learn about the dangers of not wearing a helmet in certain sports, and explore the reasons that people do not wear helmets.

Torque in Daily Life [Grades 5-8]

Students are introduced to the concept of torque through a short NBC Learn video on the science of the NFL, demonstrations, and a lab activity. Students learn how to calculate torque and determine how it is used in simple machines, everyday life, and in sports.

  Egg Drop [Grades 5-12]

The egg drop is a fun and dramatic way to get students involved in engineering design. After a discussion of safety features, students experiment packaging an egg to produce a design that will allow it to fall from a considerable height without cracking.

Video Resources

Science of NFL Football 

The 10-part video series Science of the NFL, created by NBC Learn and the National Science Foundation, features contributions from football players and scientists, and is aimed at teaching students concepts such as nutrition, kinematics, and projectile motion. It includes accompanying activities to get students thinking about the science and engineering behind forward passes, touch-downs and powerful field goal kicks.

I’m an Engineer and a Football Player Dartmouth linebacker Lucas Hussey, who graduated with an engineering degree  ’11 Th’12 on his experience with playing football while majoring in engineering and the advantages of Dartmouth’s fifth-year Bachelor of Engineering program. Hussey is a member of the Phi Beta Kappa honor society and was a semifinalist for the William V. Campbell Trophy, which is given to the best football scholar-athlete in the country.

I’m an Engineer and an NFL Player. Vernon Harris, a 2016 graduate of Dartmouth’s Thayer School of Engineering who was drafted by the Kansas City Chiefs, talks about balancing his studies with playing pro-level football.

Atlanta Falcons’ high-tech stadium. Time lapse video

Minnesota Vikings US Bank Stadium time-lapse construction. YouTube video includes interviews with engineers who designed the electrical systems. A shorter NFL official video shows a time lapse of the construction phased.

eGFI Features

Engineering Football Safety In the movie Concussion, Will Smith plays a Pittsburgh pathologist who uncovers a link between  concussions and brain damage in pro football players. Engineers can’t change behavior. But they can design better helmets and other gear to reduce injuries. Some engineering students even play the game!

Student’s Invention Could Prevent Concussions. Brigham Young University engineering student Jake Merrell has created a “smart foam” that could be placed inside the helmets of football players to measure the impact of hits to the head, and could help prevent concussions while players are int the game.

 Thankful Engineering What does engineering have to do with Thanksgiving? Plenty, including football broadcasting technology and meatless Tofurkey, among other holiday delights.

Articles

Building a Super Bowl. Berkeley Engineer Nov. 1, 2013 feature on the University of California, Berkeley engineering talent that went into building Levi’s Stadium, the National Football League’s first LEED Gold certified stadium.

The Cameras That’ll Make the Super Bowl Way More Interesting This Year. Wired’s Jan. 27, 2016 feature looks at the souped up Sky Cams, new Eye 360 replay camera that can provide a first-person view of any player on the field, and other wizardry – like the pylon cam that Marcus Mariota’s dive took out in the 2015 NFL video, above – that debuted at Super Bowl 50.

Carnegie Mellon University’s Football Engineering group uses machine learning, communications, and other technologies to improve the viewing experience, scouting, and refereeing of American football.

Engineering student Chase Roullier balanced studies with football to make 2017 Minnesota Vikings try out.

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National Youth Science Camp

Level: Graduating High School Seniors
Deadline: Feb. 28, 2018
Where: Camp Pocahontas, near Bartow, W.V.
Dates: June 27 – July 21, 2018
Cost: Free, including travel to and from the camp and visit to Washington, D.C. 

Click HERE to apply.

The National Youth Science Camp (NYSC), one of the country’s premier science education programs, offers graduating high school seniors from around the country and world a month of outdoor adventure and hands-on projects in the beautiful woods near Bartow, W.V., all travel costs and camp fees paid.

A typical day might include a morning lecture from a guest scientist, small-group, hands-on science seminars, and lots of hiking, caving, art projects, and fun discussions on topics from why engineered systems fail to origami. There also are trips to the National Radio Astronomy Observatory and to Washington, D.C., just five hours by car, where recent keynote speakers have included astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson and National Institute of Health director Francis Collins.

This article on the 2016 camp describes the camp activities… like the visit to Einstein’s statue at the National Academies of Science in Washington:

Each state and country conducts its own competition to select two delegates to represent them at the camp. NYSC alumni include astronauts, members of Congress, Nobel Prize winners, and business leaders.

See a short video of Mateo Duque, from Colombia, describe his time at the 2011 NYSC.

Applications must be completed online (except for students in Florida, Georgia, and Massachusetts) and are due  February 28, 2018. Click HERE to apply. (Students will need to set up an account) and for answers to frequently asked questions. 

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They sweep floors in the press center, guide travelers at the airport, swim in fish tanks, and even relay the Olympic torch. In South Korea, host of the 2018 Winter Games, robots are as much on display as the athletes. So are such high-tech advances as ultrafast 5G networks, first-person skater’s perspectives with KT Corp.’s “time slice” mobile app, and self-driving buses.

That’s because intelligent machines and infrastructure are considered key to achieving a healthier, safer, and happier future for the country’s 51 million residents.

South Korea has long been a leader in robotics, deploying ‘bots as teachers, service staff, and manufacturing workers. An airport cleaning robot developed by LG, for instance, uses mapping and obstacle-avoidance technology to calculate the most efficient pathways for keeping the corridors gleaming. DRC-HUBO, a humanoid robot developed by the Korean Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, won the 2015 Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA) Robotics Challenge. On December 11, it was the second bearer of the Olympic torch.

Despite their novelty – and pubic appeal – robots aren’t always ready for prime time. TheK5, deployed as a security patrol in a District of Columbia office complex, suffered a career-ending fall when it plunged into the lobby’s water fountain last summer. And even DRC-HUBO had to be helped back to its feet when it stumbled trying to pass the Olympic torch to the next carrier.

“In our view, artificial intelligence, robots and related solutions are not just new gadgets, but key technologies to support humans,” Jae-myoung Hong, senior engineer in LG’s Smart Solutions Division, told the BBC. “In some cases, robots may perform jobs that are too dangerous or too complicated for regular workers.”

Technology also is at the heart of current efforts to build “ubiquitous cities” – where sensor-studded buildings and ultrafast Internet connections mean no one has to wait in the rain for a bus, circle the parking garage in search of a spot, or fume in frustration while downloading a movie. A February 2013 ASEE Prism feature detailed the experimental smart city within historic Suwon that was being pioneered by SungKyunKwan (SKKU) and its new Department of u-City Design and Engineering. 

Olympics fans can expect to see further advances when Japan, also a robotics world leader, hosts the 2020 Olympics. The country hopes to ready an  entire “robot village” to assist visitors and athletes. Translation apps already are undergoing pilot tests, as ASEE’s Prism magazine reported in a December 2016 feature entitled “Lip Service.” And Fujitsu aims to unveil a 3-D sensory system that can help score gymnastics.

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In his day job, Mike Rogals is an electrical engineer at Control Technologies Inc. in Williston, Vermont, where he works on climate-control and energy systems for buildings throughout New England and New York.

During the winter, however, the University of Vermont graduate trains full time at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Lake Placid, N.Y., and has been traveling the world as a member of the USA Men’s Skeleton National Team. As he told NBC5 News, he even designed his own sled! (Click HERE for video.)

Rogals, who started sliding six years ago, finished second at the 2014 U.S. National Championships and ranked 5th in the United States and 48th in the world in the 2016-2017 season. He was one of six athletes representing the United States this fall at the Intercontinental Cup tour but fell short of earning a berth on the three-man  2018 Olympic team competing at PyeongChang, South Korea, in mid-February.  

The sport, which debuted at the Salt Lake City Winter Games in 2002, is “pretty rough on your body,” says Rogals. “It actually feels kind of like a small car crash every run.”

In addition to training, which includes daily workouts at the gym, Rogals has had to develop a champion’s mind-set. “The last few weeks of sliding have been crazy,” he wrote on his Facebook page in October, after being named to the International Cup team. “I’ve had personal records, good times, and great adventures. I’ve also had two of my best friends for the past 5 years and a guy I’ve looked up to for 8 years retire from sliding after the last USA Team Trials race on Tuesday. It’s a sobering reminder that in order for me to achieve my goals in sliding, I will have to essentially end the dreams of some of the people I like best in this world.” He concluded: “The only thing I can do now is to take advantage of the opportunities that I have earned, and do my best to represent my country and teammates this season on tour.”

Of the Olympics, he told NBC5 News in December: “It may or may not work out in the end, but the cool thing about chasing a lofty dream is that I’ll never feel like I was wasting my time or have any future regrets about not seeing it through.”

Rogals is not the only engineer to pursue Olympic dreams.

Team USA’s Pyeongchang roster includes Erin Jackson, 25, the first African-American woman to secure a spot on the long-track speed skating team and a former roller-derby professional skater. She also made history for the speed with which she qualified: four months after she took up the sport, she came in third in the 500-meter contest at the 2018 U.S. Olympic Speed Skating Trial. The Florida native graduated with honors in materials science engineering from the University of Florida and hopes to pursue graduate studies, according to  NBC Sports.

Her teammate, Maame Biney, an 18-year-old high school senior, made national news when she qualified in speedskating for her first Olympic team at the December 2017 track trials. [The video went viral and was watched more than five million times on Facebook.] Originally from Ghana, Biney is the first black woman to make the Olympic speed skating team and the second-ever African-born athlete to represent the U.S. in the Winter Olympics. She’s keeping up with her high school studies online and plans to apply to chemical engineering programs for college.

And Dartmouth College, which has sent students or alumni to every Winter Olympics since the games began in 1924, has a strong presence at PyeongChang Games. Chief among them: David Chodounsky, 34, a two-time Olympian. The NCAA and world tour slalom champion graduated in 2008 with a double degree in engineering and geology. The photo, below, shows him racing at the 2017 World Championships in St. Moritz.

The Olympics have seen other engineers compete. American-born shot-putter Stephen Mozia, who competed for Nigeria at the 2016 Rio Games, has a degree in engineering from Cornell University. Stanford engineering grad Fencer Alex Massialis, a Stanford mechanical engineering grad, took home a silver medal in foil from Rio and a bronze in team foil, while Stanford engineering and management science major Maya DiRado won four medals – including two gold – in swimming.

Though they’re not elite athletes, plenty of engineers have been involved over the years in designing and building the Olympic venues, such as Sochi – reportedly one of the most ambitious projects in Olympic history of the Games.

New Jersey Institute of Technology created a civil engineering infographic on the $51 billion it cost to build and host the 2014 Russian Games.

And South Korea’s prowess in heavy construction, robotics, and advanced telecommunications is very much in evidence at the Pyeongchang Games.

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Bronze bells inspire a merger of engineering and music.

When “The Victors” peals from the 55-bell carillon high inside the University of Michigan’s Burton Tower, it’s likely many students below can hum the famous fight song as they stroll. One group, though, also understands the engineering and skilled labor behind the resonant tones, having sculpted and poured metal to make carillon bells, used a computer program to pre-tune the bells, and worked with lathing equipment to finesse the shape and achieve a particular sound.

All these techniques were incorporated into the freshman course Shaping the Sound of Bronze. Team-taught by professors from engineering, music, art, and design, and cross-listed in several departments, it is one of a number of ways teachers have found to present engineering concepts through the arts.

Fashioning metal into music allows students to experience “a real die-hard design problem where effectively they have to work together in teams and get their hands dirty,” says Gregory Wakefield, an associate professor in electrical engineering and computer science and one of the instructors who introduced the course in the fall of 2010. But Shaping the Sound offers more than hands-on harmony.

An expert in signal processing and the physics of sound, Wakefield is always looking for ways to hook engineering students into a deeper understanding of Fourier mathematics. “Being a musician myself, I gravitate toward examples from the audio world,” he says. The course gives engineering students “a gut-level understanding of how this stuff works, so when they have to sit down and work the math problems, they have a better sense of why it matters.”

Wakefield created a modeling program to help students understand how changing the shape of the bell would affect the sound. “Fourier allows us to mathematically represent the sound in a way that we tend to hear it – the punch line being that we could then work with the students to create synthesized versions of their bells,” he says. Students could change the sound of their synthesized bells on the computer, in effect pre-tune them, and then go and physically remove the predicted amount of metal from the bell. “We are able to teach the students how objects make sounds, how resonance works, how if you push a shape in different ways, it’s going to sound differently,” says Wakefield. “It makes a lot of sense to them because they can relate it to what they are hearing. Fourier is a little abstract.”

In the process of putting this unique course together, Wakefield not only introduced his students to Fourier, but he and his university colleagues essentially modeled for their students one vital goal for the class: learning to create and design in multidisciplinary teams that include artists, musicians, and engineers. In fact, the idea for the course came from music professor and university carillonneur Steven Ball, who wanted his own students to gain a much deeper understanding of the carillon. “It really requires all the students to cross-pollinate with the other two disciplines and remain sensitive to what the other two disciplines have to say about it,” he says.

For engineering students, “there are wonderful things that artists and musicians can bring to the table in understanding how to design,” adds Wakefield. In this course, students relied upon the expertise and well-trained ear of Ball to make sure the bells sounded great, and the strategies of art and design professor Lou Marinaro to make sure the bronze was poured correctly. They thus learned an important lesson in addressing customers’ needs. “Ultimately the user will develop an affinity toward your product if it has been designed to meet their aesthetic tastes,” Wakefield says.

Click HERE to read the full version of this article, written by Alice Daniel, which appeared in the December 2011 issue of the American Society for Engineering Education’s Prism magazine.

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Spend a day introducing a girl to engineering. Coach or mentor a Future City team. Make slime and other cool stuff.

DiscoverE’s 67th annual Engineers Week is Feb. 18 – 24, 2017 and there are plenty of local events and hands-on activities – including Discover Engineering Family Fun Day at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C., Feb. 17 – to raise awareness of what engineers do and how their work makes the world a healthier, safer place.

This year’s theme is Engineers: Inspiring Wonder.  It dovetails on last year’s Dream Big theme, which coincided with the premiere of DREAM BIG: Engineering Our World, a spectacular big-screen odyssey from classic Roman arches to village bridges, towering skyscrapers, and the International Space Station.

Want to participate but don’t know how to start? Self-guided tutorials with PowerPoint slides and frequently asked questions help educators and volunteers lead kids through a successful engineering experience.

Now in its third year, Global Day on April  4 brings together the international community to give students around the world a chance to experience engineering.

Looking for a way to make engineering come to life in your classroom? DiscoverE has a searchable library of free engineering and technology videos, hands-on activities (including 30 activities related to the DREAM BIG film), and other resources. Also check out ideas – and a free toolkit – for introducing engineering on Girl Day, which takes place Feb. 22, 2018.

Other sources for eWeek activities include Engineering is Elementary, the Museum of Science, Boston’s program. Download a poster showing the EiE Engineering Design Process, or try such fun, hands-on engineering activities as “Guess the Technology,” “Technology Tag,” “Tower Power,” and “Wind-Powered Vehicles.” There’s also an app that let’s you load EiE’s “Technology Flashcards” on your iPhone

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