Dutch kindergarden students pedaling their bus to school

Dutch Kids Pedal Their Own Bus To School

They have sold 25 of the busses so far for $15,000 each.

Related: Sports Engineering – Germany Looking to Kindergarten for Engineering Future – Engineering a Better World: Bike Corn-Sheller

I wish they provided data for the larger companies, but they don’t. They show a breakdown of 9,461 (CEO or founders) with a business undergraduate major and 9,334 with an engineering degree. For those with advanced degrees 3,337 have an engineering master’s or doctorate and 1,016 have an MBA.

In the latest (2008) data I have for S&P 500 CEO’s 22% were engineers. Engineers seem to make up under 5% of college graduates (based on my eyeballing of this Dept. of Education data). Business meanwhile seems to make up about 20% of the majors.

See more posts looking at science and engineering careers: Future Prospects for Engineers – Engineering Again Dominates The Highest Paying College Majors – Science and Engineering in Global Economics – Career Prospect for Engineers Continues to Look Positive

Ship a riding sled of bubbles. Image from: CFD Predictions of Bubbly Flow around an Energy-saving Ship with Mitsubishi Air Lubrication System

Mitsubishi completed the conceptual design of a new container ship; this eco-ship achieves a 25% decrease in CO2 emissions over existing ships. Three, of these ships, with the Mitsubishi Air Lubrication System (MALS), are being built now (they should be completed in 2014).

In addition to blowers to create air bubbles under the vessel bottom, the three grain carriers will also feature a newly designed bow shape that will reduce wave-making resistances. For propulsion, the ship adopts a system to effectively convert the main engine power into propulsion power by positioning fins forward of the propellers and placing particular grooves in the propeller boss cap.

Using “eco-ships” to substantially reduce CO2 emissions from maritime transport

Related: Sails for Modern Cargo Ships – Eco-Vehicle Student Competition

A disease-fighting protein in our teardrops has been tethered to a tiny transistor, enabling UC Irvine scientists to discover exactly how it destroys dangerous bacteria. The research could prove critical to long-term work aimed at diagnosing cancers and other illnesses in their very early stages.

Ever since Nobel laureate Alexander Fleming found that human tears contain antiseptic proteins called lysozymes about a century ago, scientists have tried to solve the mystery of how they could relentlessly wipe out far larger bacteria. It turns out that lysozymes have jaws that latch on and chomp through rows of cell walls like someone hungrily devouring an ear of corn.

“Those jaws chew apart the walls of the bacteria that are trying to get into your eyes and infect them,” said molecular biologist and chemistry professor Gregory Weiss, who co-led the project with associate professor of physics & astronomy Philip Collins.

The researchers decoded the protein’s behavior by building one of the world’s smallest transistors – 25 times smaller than similar circuitry in laptop computers or smartphones. Individual lysozymes were glued to the live wire, and their eating activities were monitored.

“Our circuits are molecule-sized microphones,” Collins said. “It’s just like a stethoscope listening to your heart, except we’re listening to a single molecule of protein.”

It took years for the UCI scientists to assemble the transistor and attach single-molecule teardrop proteins. The scientists hope the same novel technology can be used to detect cancerous molecules. It could take a decade to figure out but would be well worth it, said Weiss, who lost his father to lung cancer.

“If we can detect single molecules associated with cancer, then that means we’d be able to detect it very, very early,” Weiss said. “That would be very exciting, because we know that if we treat cancer early, it will be much more successful, patients will be cured much faster, and costs will be much less.”

The project was sponsored by the National Cancer Institute and the National Science Foundation. Co-authors of the Science paper are Yongki Choi, Issa Moody, Patrick Sims, Steven Hunt, Brad Corso and Israel Perez.

Related: full press release – Why ‘Licking Your Wounds’ Works – How Bleach Kills Bacteria – Algorithmic Self-Assembly

This is an update on our previous post: sOccket: Power Through Play. This year, Soccket, 3,000 balls are scheduled to be put into use around the world. The college students (all women, by the way) that came up with this idea (harnessing the kenetic energy created while kicking a football [soccer ball] around to power a batter to use for lighting) are continuing to test and develop the product.

That ball has to be able to survive dusty, wet and harsh conditions and continue to provide power. The new, production version of the football powers a water sterilizer, fan, and provides up to 24 hours of LED light. It also can’t be deflated (a side affect of a design that is able to survive the rough environments, I believe).

I love to see engineers focusing on providing solutions for the billions of people that need simple solutions. Creating the next iPhone innovations is also cool, but the impact of meeting the needs of those largely ignored today, is often even greater.

The sOccket inventors also have a talent for publicity, which is always useful for entrepreneurs.

Related: Water Pump Merry-go-Round – Water and Electricity for All – High School Team Developing Clean Water Solutions – Smokeless Stove Uses 80% Less Fuel

We really need to find administrators that will reduce administrative staffing levels and costs. Let some schools continue on the ego driven spiraling costs, but let us at least find some who will focus on reducing education costs and providing good education at reasonable costs. For engineering, more than maybe any other discipline, I can excuse some of the costs. But given the universal failure to manage costs I think the failure to manage costs is the primary issue (the extra demands for spending on engineering education, I understand).

The failure to stop the lavish spending has greatly increased the demand for online education. Given the unreasonable cost increases for traditional education many are priced out of considering that option. Given how unable schools have proven to be at providing good education for reasonable rates the last few decades it is reasonable to assume online education will continue to gain popularity. I don’t see the top tier schools facing much competition from online efforts (even if some students are drawn away there are plenty wanting to upgrade their school choice at whatever the cost – as the administrators know as they continue to drive up costs).

One danger is that online education is hardly a proved commodity yet. Both in terms of what you learn and the acceptance and desirability of degrees. So right now students are having to make guesses that are more challenging with online programs than the traditional choices. US News and World Report has selected 3 online engineering master’s programs for the honor roll.

• Auburn University
• Lawrence Technological University
• University of Wisconsin–Madison

Related: Engineering Education in the 21st Century – How the Practice and Instruction of Engineering Must Change – Global Engineering Education Study

This is a very cool engineering solution. Wheeled locomotion is very efficient on the right terrain. This transformation lets the robot switch to climb stairs and handle rough terrain very nicely. A team of mechanical engineers at National Taiwan University built this energy-efficient leg-wheel hybrid mobile robot. From their description:

Related: Big Dog, The Robotic Dog (2008) – Robots That Start as Babies Master Walking Faster Than Those That Start as Adults – Self Re-assembling Robots – Soft Morphing Robot (soft tissue)

• Bacteriophages: The Most Common Life-Like Form on Earth (2008)
• Encouraging Curiosity in Kids – my only 2011 post included in this list (and one I am proud of, actually)

My mom with a group of Malaysia kids apparently intent on learning something. I am there, but not visible in this photo. Photo by my father.

• Science Toys You Can Make With Your Kids (2005)
• Monitor-Merrimac Memorial Bridge and Underwater Tunnel (2008) – which is also currently experiencing one of those huge spikes driven by somewhere on facebook
• Top Countries for Science and Math Education: Finland, Hong Kong and Kore (2010)
• Understanding the Evolution of Human Beings by Country (2008)
• Albert Einstein, Marylin Monroe Hybrid Image (2009)
• Loan Forgiveness Program for Engineering Students – sadly the loan forgiveness program was not funded. A smart country would agree to fund it for students that agree to work in their country for say 5 years. The reverse brain drain is happening and will increase (but the USA still attracts so many experts that we gain overall, but in the 1970′s those we lost to other countries was insignificant). It is no longer insignificant and, I believe it will continue to grow.
• S&P 500 CEO’s: Engineers Stay at the Top (2009) – actually an older years post is more popular (but really shouldn’t be – I would wager this is due to a search engine failure to deliver the most useful page)
• CERN Pressure Test Failure (2007), my guess is this is actually a search fault, that lots of people find when wanting to learn about various things at CERN (Higgs boson etc.).
• The Engineer That Made Your Cat a Photographer (2007)
• Massive Gorilla Population Found in the Congo (2008)
• Ministry of Silly Walks (2005) – I didn’t just include a list of the posts with the most views, I applied some editorial judgement to include some more interesting posts and fun ones (like this one) that are surprisingly popular (even if they are not quite at the top of the list).

Related: Some of my favorite Curious Cat Science and Engineering Blog posts (maybe a few of these can make it to the most popular post for 2012)

Anybots allow remote presence today. They can be rented for just $600 a month. You can purchase your own for just $15,000.

The newest version, just unveiled at a CES has a much bigger screen (which seems very wise to me).

This is another example of robots making it into real use. While I am sure few workplaces are ready for this jump today, 10 or 20 years from now a telepresence robot (that can do much more) is likely I think to be significantly used. Not only will functionality increase, prices will drop dramatically: as the wonderful combination so often happens with technology. There is a great deal of effort going into making commercial viable “personal” robots. I think these efforts will make significant inroads in the next 10-20 years.

My old office wouldn’t have been willing to pay $15,000 but one of our developers looked into creating his own (after he moved and was working remotely). He hasn’t quite gotten it done yet, but may at some point.

Related: Managing By Rolling Around (I like how the robot owner used the robot to have his mother attend his wedding (and dressed up the robot) – Robot Finds Lost Shoppers and Provides Directions – New Yorkers Help Robot Find Its Way in the Big City – Toyota Partner Robots