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Toyota has a knack for cultivating engineering talent
Toyota established a two-year internship program for recent engineering graduates at schools like the University of Michigan, Michigan State University, Lawrence Technological University and the University of Wisconsin. At the end of the two-year period, the automaker and the employee reach a mutual decision about whether the employee should continue working there.
Bruce Brownlee, senior executive administrator for external affairs for the Toyota Planning Center at the Toyota Technical Center, has said the company generated a “large pipeline” for engineering talent by leveraging the internship program.
Related: Engineering Internships - Toyota Engineering Development Process - Toyota Robots - Toyota k-12 Science Grants - Toyota Production System (TPS) management blog posts

NSF Launches Third Generation of Engineering Research Centers with Awards Totaling $92.5 Million. Each of the 5 sites will receive will use $18.5 million over five-years. Each center has international university partners and partners in industry.
The NSF Engineering Research Center for Biorenewable Chemicals (CBiRC), based at Iowa State University, seeks to transform the existing petrochemical-based chemical industry to one based on renewable materials.
The NSF Engineering Research Center for Future Renewable Electric Energy Delivery and Management (FREEDM) Systems, based at North Carolina State University, will conduct research to transform the nation’s power grid into an efficient network that integrates alternative energy generation and new storage methods with existing power sources.
The NSF ERC for Integrated Access Networks (CIAN), based at the University of Arizona, will conduct research to create transformative technologies for optical access networks that offer dramatically improved performance and expanded capabilities.
The NSF ERC for Revolutionizing Metallic Biomaterials, based at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, aims to transform current medial and surgical treatments by creating “smart” implants for craniofacial, dental, orthopedic and cardiovascular interventions.
The NSF Smart Lighting ERC, based at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, aims to create new solid-state lighting technologies to enable rapid biological imaging, novel modes of communication, efficient displays and safer transportation.
Photo: Alex Huang will lead direct the research of ways to integrate renewable energy sources into the nation’s power grid at North Carolina State University.
Related: $75 Million for 5 New Engineering Research Centers - NSF Awards $50 Million for Collaborative Plant Biology Project - Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers - posts related to the United States National Science Foundation
Ok, there really isn’t much new since I posted that holographic TV is getting closer. But won’t it be cool when I can have one in my house? And you might need to plan for it in your new house addition
Also, with the economic news lately a good distraction might be useful - Holographic television to become reality
Dr Nasser Peyghambarian, chair of photonics and lasers at the university’s Optical Sciences department, told CNN that scientists have broken a barrier by making the first updatable three-dimensional displays with memory.
“This is a prerequisite for any type of moving holographic technology. The way it works presently is not suitable for 3-D images,” he said. The researchers produced displays that can be erased and rewritten in a matter of minutes.
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According to Peyghambarian, they could be constructed as a screen on the wall (like flat panel displays) that shows 3-D images, with all the image writing lasers behind the wall; or it could be like a horizontal panel on a table with holographic writing apparatus underneath.
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Peyghambarian is also optimistic that the technology could reach the market within five to ten years. He said progress towards a final product should be made much more quickly now that a rewriting method had been found.
However, it is fair to say not everyone is as positive about this prospect as Peyghambarian. Justin Lawrence, a lecturer in Electronic Engineering at Bangor University in Wales, told CNN that small steps are being made on technology like 3-D holograms, but, he can’t see it being ready for the market in the next ten years.
I would have to say I am with those that think this might take a bit longer to be in place. But I would be glad to be wrong.
Related: Video Goggles - Open Source for LEGO Mindstorms - posts on cool gadgets - Awesome Cat Cam

More appropriate technology from MIT’s D-Lab.
D-Lab-developed device makes corn processing more efficient
The basic concept for the maize-sheller was first developed in Guatemala by an NGO called MayaPedal, and then refined by Wu last semester as a class project in D-Lab: Design, a class taught by Department of Mechanical Engineering Senior Lecturer Amy Smith. Now, thanks to Wu’s efforts, the technology is beginning to make its way around the world.
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Thus, the owner of a bicycle, with a small extra investment, can travel from village to village to carry out a variety of useful tasks. A simple bike thereby becomes an ongoing source of income.
Wu refined the corn-sheller system, which was originally designed as a permanent installation that required a bicycle dedicated solely to that purpose, to make it an add-on, like Kiwia’s tools, that could be easily bolted onto an ordinary bike and removed easily.
Photo shows the prototype of the attachment. Engineering that makes a significant difference in people’s lives (especially those that need it the most) is even cooler than the latest high tech gizmos in my opinion. And those new gizmos are cool.
Related: Design for the Unwealthiest 90 Percent - Appropriate Technology posts - Water Pump Merry-go-Round - Nepalese Entrepreneur Success - Tumaini Cycles blog (by

Cool invention helps tired players bounce back
It’s also a proven athletic performance enhancer - billed as better than steroids without any ill effects.
“We use the Glove primarily for health reasons,” said Dan Garza, the 49ers’ medical director. “But outside of sports, it has potential for a lot of exciting things. This technology is a much more effective way of cooling the core temperature than what we would typically do - misting, fanning, cold towels, fluids.”
The Glove works by cooling the body from inside out, rather than conventional approaches that cool from outside in. The device creates an airtight seal around the wrist, pulls blood into the palm of the hand and cools it before returning it to the heart and to overheated muscles and organs. The palm is the ideal place for rapid cooling because blood flow increases to the hands (and feet and face) as body temperature rises.
“These are natural mammalian radiators,” said Dennis Grahn, who invented the device with Stanford colleague Craig Heller.
Cool, you can buy your own for only $2,000
(The Glove used to be called Core Control) High resolution image. Related: Research on Reducing Hamstring Injuries - The Science of the Football Swerve - Randomization in Sports - posts on science and athletics
Kenji Hiranabe talks about Toyota’s development process (webcast). Kenji shares a presentation he attended earlier this year by Nobuaki Katayama, a former Chief Engineer at Toyota, and the lessons he learned from him.
The webcast takes awhile to get going. If you are impatient you might want to start at the 6 minute mark. Some thoughts from the talk:
The webcast includes a nice (though short) discussion of agile management in software development and lean manufacturing (the different situation of manufacturing versus software development). Kenji Hiranabe has also translated several agile and lean books into Japanese including Implementing Lean Software Development.
Related: Kenji Hiranabe’s blog - Marissa Mayer Webcast on Google Innovation - Honda Engineering - Engineering Innovation in Manufacturing and the Economy

We first posted on Yves Rossy’s personal jetpack in 2006. Now he is preparing to fly over the English channel with this jetwings.
When the plane is at 8,000ft, he will fire up the four little jet engines attached to the underside of the wing and then jump out. In the plane, the wingtips are always folded or Yves would not fit through the door. Once in the open air, he will pull a cord and the two spring-loaded ends will snap open to give him a full wing span of just over eight feet.
He will open up his engines, dive for a few seconds to pick up a speed of around 200mph and then level out at around 5,000ft before flying in a straight line at roughly 115mph to England. As long as the wind is not above 10mph in the opposite direction, he should have enough juice to get him to Kent.
There, he will pull his parachute ripcords and drop safely on to Blighty’s fair shores.
Related: photo from Yves Rossy web site - AlienFly RC Mosquito Helicopter - Engineering Quiet, Efficient Planes - Megaflood Created the English Channel
How do they do it?
Well, there’s a rope. There’s a pulley. And the rope and the pulley work a contraption made out of a pipe. The whole gizmo is based on the brilliant insight that objects fall at the same rate regardless of mass. A Tuscan by the name of Galileo came up with it about 400 years ago; if he were alive, he’d call it cutting edge. And there’s the beauty of it: It’s sophisticated, yes, but only because it’s simple.
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Garrett Brown revolutionized the movie business 38 years ago when he invented the Steadicam, a mechanical arm for cameramen that smooths away the jerkiness of hand-held shots. Much later, he came up with the Skycam, which rides a web of wires above the heads of football players. In between, Mr. Brown, 66 years old, got his one-line brief from NBC: “They wanted a camera,” he says, “that stayed with divers, including going underwater with them.”
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The falling camera rides a rail on the inside of the pipe. A glass strip runs along the pipe’s full length; the camera takes its picture through the glass. From the diving platform to the water line, the glass is smoky. Below the line, it’s clear, so the camera need not adjust its exposure as it streaks into underwater darkness.
The pipe is caulked. The camera drops through air. “It doesn’t splash into the water,” Mr. Brown said. “That would look horrible.”
The appropriate use of technology is great to see. Applying knowledge well is a key to good engineering.
Related: Using Cameras Monitoring To Aid Conservation Efforts - How Do Wii Game Controllers Work? - Bigger Impact: 15 to 18 mpg or 50 to 100 mpg? - Awesome Cat Cam
Steve Wozniak, Apple co-founder is a great engineer and full of wonderful quotes for engineers to take to heart. The autobiography of the Woz is certainly a good read for any engineer. Woz urges engineers to follow their hearts
Related: Interview of Steve Wozniak - Programmers at Work - The Woz Speaks - Curious Cat Science and Engineering books
The webcast shows a train transferring passengers without stopping. Essentially passenger modules are picked up and dropped off at each station. Looks pretty cool and would seem to require somewhat complex engineering - which can be a problem as complexity allows for more things to go wrong. Still it looks pretty cool. The sound is not in English but you can see what the idea is.
Inventor rolls out efficient non-stop train system
via: trains that pick you up without stopping
Related: Extreme Engineering - MIT Hosts Student Vehicle Design Summit - Designing Cities for People, Rather than Cars
If all is well the CPU starts running. In a multi-processor or multi-core system one CPU is dynamically chosen to be the bootstrap processor (BSP) that runs all of the BIOS and kernel initialization code. The remaining processors, called application processors (AP) at this point, remain halted until later on when they are explicitly activated by the kernel. Intel CPUs have been evolving over the years but they’re fully backwards compatible, so modern CPUs can behave like the original 1978 Intel 8086, which is exactly what they do after power up. In this primitive power up state the processor is in real mode with memory paging disabled. This is like ancient MS-DOS where only 1 MB of memory can be addressed and any code can write to any place in memory - there’s no notion of protection or privilege.
Related: Harvard Course on Understanding Computers and the Internet - Programming Ruby - Babbage Difference Engine In Lego
Quakes lakes risk ’slurry tsunami’
Related: Quake Lifts Island Ten Feet Out of Ocean - Civil Engineers: USA Infrastructure Needs Improvement - China’s Technology Savvy Leadership - Megaflood Created the English Channel

Larry Page on how to change the world
I think it’s everybody who cares about making progress in the world. Let’s say there are 10,000 people working on these things. If we make that 100,000, we’ll probably get 10 times the progress.
Posts on Google engineering: Larry Page and Sergey Brin Interview Webcast - Google Investing Huge Sums in Renewable Energy - Marissa Mayer Webcast Google Innovation - High-efficiency Power Supplies
Progressive Automotive X PRIZE
Related: Lunar Landers X-Prize - $10 Million for Science Solutions - Engineering More Sustainable Vehicles (Challenge X)

Jules Verne predicted cars would run on air. The Air Car is making that a reality. The car is powered by compressed air which certainly seems like an interesting idea. Air car ready for production:
The car is said to have a driving range of 125 miles so by my calculation it would cost about 1.6 cents per mile. A car that gets 31 mpg would use 4 gallons to go 124 miles. At $3 a gallon for gas, the cost is $12 for fuel or about 9.7 cents per mile. I didn’t notice anything about maintenance costs. I don’t see any reason why the Air Car would cost more to maintain than a normal car.
The air car was named one of Time magazine’s best inventions of the 2007.
Five-seat concept car runs on air
Related: The History of Compressed Air Vehicles - Car Elevator (for parking) - Electric Automobiles - VW Phaeton manufacturing plant
Yale Lab Engineers Virus That Can Kill Deadly Brain Tumors
Each year 200,000 people in the United States are diagnosed with a brain tumor, and metastatic tumors and glioblastomas make up a large part of these tumors. There currently is no cure for these types of tumors, and they generally result in death within months.
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“Three days after inoculation, the tumors were completely or almost completely infected with the virus and the tumor cells were dying or dead,” van den Pol said. “We were able to target different types of cancer cells. Within the same time frame, normal mouse brain cells or normal human brain cells transplanted into mice were spared. This underlines the virus’ potential therapeutic value against multiple types of brain cancers.”
Pretty cool. Too bad these press releases never quite live up to the initial promise. Still this one is very cool, if it can succeed in helping even a small percentage of people it will be a great breakthrough. It is also just cool - using a virus to kill tumors - how cool is that?
Related: What are viruses? - Using Bacteria to Carry Nanoparticles Into Cells - Cancer Cure, Not so Fast - Cancer cell ‘executioner’ found - Cancer Deaths not a Declining Trend - Using Viruses to Construct Electrodes and More
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