LEARNING WITH PROTOS

 

LEARNING WITH PROTOS

Being an engineer have so many times played with efficiency curves, characteristic curves, stress-strain curves etc in due increasing the retention of my knowledge every time. A few seconds ago I was just thinking why I don’t do something to let children provide an opportunity to shoot out their LEARNING CURVES!!!

In this real battle of BRAINSTORM we can let us our new generation learn technology and physical phenomenon through prototypes developed by little efforts of engineers that can provide opportunity for kids to understand scientific things and even a golden chance for engineering students to learn more by developing prototypes for different phenomenon. 

It would be my pleasure to share one of my prototypes for letting others to understand what I am trying to say. This prototype works on the simple concept of noise cancellation through superposition; so basically it’s a prototype circuit of a simple noise cancellation device.

This device uses the simple phenomena of superposition of waves that when two or more sound waves from different sources are present at the sound waves are180° out of shift, the sum of the waveforms would be zero. They would cancel out each other and ultimately there would be no sound. Basically sound is a compression wave in air so the wave first compresses to an amount greater than normal air pressure; so adding the positive and negative pressure will ultimately give you the normal air pressure.
You can develop prototype of such a simple active noise cancellation device. All you need to do is to follow the circuit as shown bellow.
In this circuit we use a step down transformer to reduce 240V to 12V. Oscillator provides us with the pure-tone (simplest periodic sound) sound which is fed to the first speaker. Oscillator is further connected to Audio-inverter like 741 operational amplifier which inverts the sound and the shift of the sound is decided by using adjuster attached with the inverter. This inverted sound is further amplified and fed to the second speaker. When we switch on the device and rotate adjuster to give a 180° shift then no sound would be heard but you can feel the vibrations by putting your finger on any of the speaker.
To teach anyone anything let that person to think and move one by CREATING CUROSITIES. If engineers unlock their minds and also work out on these miniature things then it can offer a chance for them to think and invent new things and would definitely provide an opportunity to young learners understands and things and intriguing them towards technology.

HERO'S FOUNTAIN

HERO’S FOUNTAIN

Don’t you think that our ancestors were smarter than us that designed the stuffs with no electrical cord or batteries or obvious energy input of any kind? Hero’s fountain that can spout and spray gracefully is an obvious example of it. At first, the fountain looks like a perpetual motion machine. With time, however, and careful observation, a transfer of water can be noticed from a higher reservoir to a lower one, revealing the fountain to be nothing more than an elaborate siphon.

How to build it?

It's quite simple to build a hero's fountain from common household.

Things You Need:

(3) 16.9 FL OZ Water bottles 

(1) 9″ length of tubing

(1) 11″ length of tubing

(1) 15″ length of tubing

Small amount of clay (Play-Doh) 

Scissors

Drill (hand or electric powered)

5/32″ drill bit (slightly smaller than the tubing diameter)

Method 

 Step 1:

Cut (1) of the bottles in half as pictured. Keep the bottom of the bottle, you can use it to fill the fountain when we are all done.

 

Step 2:

You are going to need (2) holes in each cap. Start by drilling the (2) holes in (1) cap, use a piece of scrap wood to support the cap. When you are done with the first cap, use it as a guide to drill (2) holes into the top of the remaining (2) caps. You can place the caps top-to-top when drilling the holes. Now you should have (3) caps, each with (2) holes drilled in about the same location.

Step 3:

Take one of the caps and use it as a guide to drill (2) holes in the bottom of one of the remaining intact bottles. This will end up being bottle {b} as in the diagram below.

 

 Step 4:

Connect the tubing as in the below diagram. All connections should be airtight. If you used the 5/32 drill bit they should be. If not, just add a small amount of clay (Play-Doh) to seal the openings around the tubing. I had to seal the area between bottle {a} & {b}. You can see it in the first picture. The other connections didn’t leak and I did not use any clay.

 

Step 5:

Now all you have to do is fill bottle {b} with water and screw the whole system together. To start your fountain, add water to the upper bottle {a}. Enjoy your homemade Heron’s Fountain.

 

Mechanical Arms to Help in Surgery

Most of the time man need a helping hand and no matter it’s of a robot!!

A mechanical arm as it is defined is a robotic, usually programmable, with similar functions to a human arm. The links of such a manipulator are connected by joints allowing either rotational motion (such as in an articulated robot) or translational (linear) displacement.

Surgeons in the US have pioneered the use of a mechanical arm laden with sensors to track the positions of their surgical instruments while they operate on patients' brains. The sensor arm allows them to watch their manoeuvres live in three dimensions on a video monitor. This system and other robotic devices developed or under development by companies such as Computer Motion (Santa Barbara, CA) and Integrated Surgical Systems (Davis, CA) have the potential to revolutionize surgery and the operating room. They provide surgeons with the precision and dexterity necessary to perform complex, minimally invasive surgical (MIS) procedures.

James Zinreich and colleagues at Johns Hopkins Medical Institution in Baltimore have used the sensor arm successfully in five operations to remove deepseated brain tumours, and they are now adapting the system for sinus surgery.
In the US, 38 million people suffer chronic inflammation of the nasal cavity and paranasal sinuses. Although sinus surgery using a fibre-optic endoscope inserted through the nostril to see inside the sinus has become commonplace, the small size of the endoscope restricts the surgeon's field of view to between 1 and 2 centimetres.

 

Manufacturers believe that their products will broaden the scope and increase the effectiveness of MIS; improve patient outcomes; and create a safer, more efficient, and more cost-effective operating room. It is the vision of these companies that robotic systems will one day be applicable to all surgical specialties, although it is too early to tell the full extent to which they'll be used.

Surgical robotics manufacturers working toward FDA approval of their devices are encouraged by Intuitive Surgical's recent FDA approval. "The future looks bright," says Yulun Wang, MD, founder and chief technical officer of Computer Motion. "This approval sends a positive signal to industry, and there are tremendous opportunities."

Scope of Mechanical Engineering

Scope Of Mechanical Engineering

Mechanical engineering is one of the oldest branches of engineering. It is also referred to as the ‘mother’ branch of engineering. Another appealing feature of mechanical engineering is that the application base of this field of study is extremely broad and diverse. Almost all inventions during the ancient period and a vast majority in the modern era are direct contributions of one or the other application of mechanics.

Traditionally, mechanical engineers have to deal with concepts such as mechanics, thermodynamics, robotics, kinematics, structural analysis, fluid mechanics and many others. These concepts are applied in the process of designing state-of-the-art manufacturing units, different types of motor vehicles, aircraft and aerospace parts and a vast assortment of industrial machinery. Mechanical engineers also contribute in the development of various engines, power plant equipment, heating and cooling systems and other simple and complex machinery. Mechanical engineers not only design new mechanical systems but they are also responsible for testing, maintaining and manufacturing them.

 Career Paths

Generally recognized as the engineering discipline that offers the broadest choice of technical career paths, Mechanical Engineering can lead you in paths other majors cannot. Mechanical engineers work in all facets of industry developing technologies for nearly every product we use.There is a wide scope for mechanical engineering worldwide.mechanical engineers are the second highest employed engineers among all others with only 7% unemployed whereas any normal engineering stream would have around 15% unemployed engineers worldwide. We have the automobile industry,oil and gas production companies,aeronautical field,cement industries,design sector,chemical industries,heavy machinery sector,information technology,defense and above all the booming construction field always waiting on for mechanical engineers with lucrative pays and packages.

SALARY

The average salary for mechanical engineers in the USA is $69,850, of which the top 10 percent earn a salary of around $104,900, and the bottom 10 percent earn an average salary of around $45,170. Mechanical engineers with a bachelors degree can expect to earn a starting salary of approximately $54,128, whilst those with a masters degree have an average starting salary of approximately $62,978, and those with a doctorate degree have a starting salary of $72,763 on average.