Learn paper folding and create your own fun and unique greeting cards! We’ll be working on special Valentine’s cards, but you can take what you learn and make special cards for every occasion! It will be held February 12th at 2:30 pm in the Engineering Library Creative Space!
Deanne Wortman, Program Manager, NEXUS of Engineering and the Arts, Engineering Student Services, will be teaching the art of paper folding and helping you create your own special card!
We are happy to collaborate with the Engineering Technology Center, NEXUS and the Department of Music to present some exciting workshops!
The workshops will be held on Tuesdays from 2:30 to 3:30 p.m. See our website for class information and links to register! They are FREE, but registration is limited – so be sure to register today!!
February 12th: Valentine’s Day Pop-up Cards – Deanne Wortman
Want to impress your friends and family with fun and unique greeting cards? Learn about paper folding to create a pop-up cards with lights and sounds.
February 19th:Standards: Guides and Regulations for Building and Testing – Kari Kozak
Introduction to standards and specifications. Learn how to access a wide variety of standards including ASTM, ISO, ADA, NFPA (Fluid), and the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations. Featuring a new database, TechStreet, to gain electronic access to these standards and more. Taught by Kari Kozak, Head, Lichtenberger Engineering Library.
Soldering is one of the most fundamental skills needed to dabble in the world of electronics. The two go together like peas and carrots. And, although it is possible to learn about, and build, electronics without needing to pick up a soldering iron, you’ll soon discover that a whole new world is opened with this one simple skill.
Basic introduction to what a patent is and how to complete patents searches. Patents provide inventor exclusive rights to products they produce and also give great detailed information on certain products and methods. Taught by Kari Kozak, Head, Lichtenberger Engineering Library.
March 12th: Effective Poster Design – Sarah Livesay
The Research Open House will be held on April 11th, and this workshop will help you make your poster presentation more effective. Learn to think about the prospective audience, poster content, and design considerations in a poster layout.
April 2nd: Arduino Piano (Plug and Play) – Jeremy Roszell & Jean-Francois Charles
Learn to create a mini piano! Learn all the steps to make your own mini piano using an Arduino and circuit board. This lightweight keyboard allows you to play an octave worth of notes using capacitive touch, no strings or hammers required! This class will walk through the basic programming and ways to personalize the keyboard. Taught by Jeremy Roszell, Engineering Electronics Shop & Jean-Francois Charles, School of Music.
April 9th: Creating Citations Quickly & Easily with Endnote – Marina Zhang
Introduction to an online citation management system that is free for everyone at the University of Iowa. It helps you to manage all your references for a paper (or many papers) as well as create the incite citations and bibliographies in a wide variety of formatting styles. Taught by Marina Zhang, Engineering & Informatics Librarian, Lichtenberger Engineering Library.
The web version of Endnote Basic will be taught: not the full client version.
April 16th: Using OpenRefine for cleaning up spreadsheet data – Brian Westra
OpenRefine is a free tool for reviewing and cleaning up spreadsheet or tabular data. Save yourself a lot of time by using OpenRefine to identify and fix problems in your tabular data. Automated functions easily and quickly handle common problems, such as splitting cells that contain multiple data values, detecting duplicates and typos, standardizing date formats, and trimming extra spaces from cells. OpenRefine also keeps track of all your steps, so you can easily reuse them or undo them if necessary.
April 23rd: 3D Scanning: Tips & Tricks – Kari Kozak
Want to make a 3D scan? Need some help figuring out how to get started? This class will take you through the basics of the three scanners that the Engineering Library has available for check and learn to make a 3D scan of yourself!
We want you to stay safe and warm, therefore we will be closing at 6 pm on Tuesday, January 29th, will be closed all day Wednesday, January 30th, and will reopen at 10:30 am on Thursday, January 31st.
We are pleased to announce the winners of this year’s Creative Kick-Start Program!
Kick-Start, a program which was developed by the Engineering Library and the Engineering Technology Centers, awards $500 to 10 projects which are submitted by engineering students. Undergrad and graduate students are eligible to submit proposals for prototyping a new project or finishing a current project. The funds for the Creative Kick-Start program have generously been provided by the Engineering Technology Centers.
Twenty-seven students are involved in the 10 winning entries. Each project has to have a sponsor and this year there are 10 faculty/staff who are sponsoring projects.
Meet the winners!
Olivia Laux, Kaylin Slinskey, Lucinda Williamson, Jared McClung and Bryan Williams are working on an Air Chair. Their goal is to design a product which will reduce damage to wheelchairs during commercial air travel. The Asonus Tech (Alerting Device) is being developed by Adam Hoffman and Philip Abangan. Their small, wearable device will alert the user – via vibration – of important noises in the surrounding environment. Sounds would include doorbells, fire alarms, etc. Body Betty, an interactive toy designed to educate children about anatomy using a doll and a fun app, is the goal of Caroline Chelsvig and Emily Leibold.
The Car Turbo Jet Engine will be designed by Greg Beaver and Walker Jarvie – and will take a turbocharger from a car and turn it into a jet engine. A wearable self-defense device called the Kineta uses voltage to shock the perpetrator. It is being developed by Ashley Mathews.
Theodore Simmons and Miguel Camarena want to design A Lyapunov-Based Control System for Path-Following WIPs. Their design will be a novel control algorithm and electromechanical system for path-following wheeled inverted pendulum (WIP) robots.
James Cory, Jayme Waite, Dakota Striet, Cecily Calcopietro, and Isaak Moore will create the Optoshoulder – equipment and methods for proper, prone bilateral execution of prone Y’s, prone I’s, and prone T’s exercise for shoulder injury patients. The Patient Table is being designed by Elizabeth LeMar to create a table that can be placed on a hospital bed, allowing patients to have access to a table that moves with their bodies, making activities much easier.
Emma Tokuyama and Daniel Kelly will be working to create a Rocket Bike – a regular bicycle converted into an electric bicycle. The end result will be a fast, cheap, and environmentally friendly way for students to get around. The Root Canal Pal will be a device designed to stimulate large nerve fibers in the facial area. It will mask the brain’s perception of pain and work in tandem with existing local anesthetic administration. Ethan Slater, Colin Zwifel, Annie Cahill, Shao Yan Zhang, and Nina VanDerZanden will be working on this project.
Congratulations to these winners! We’re looking forward to watching these projects develop!
For more information about the Creative Kick-Start Program click here.
The application Review Committee members are Kari Kozak (Head, Lichtenberger Engineering Library), Jeff Nock (Entrepreneur in Residence/Lecturer, John Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Center), Spencer Stumpf (Inventions Manager, UI Research Foundation), and Danny Tang (Chief Technology Officer, College of Engineering).
Are you finding that you are having trouble concentrating when you try and study in your room? Too many distractions? The couch and TV or gaming system just too close? Or that nice, soft, comfy bed? Stop in – we have extended hours!
Extended Hours
Sunday, December 9th: 2:00 p.m. to Midnight
Monday, December 10th through Thursday, December 13th: 8:30 a.m. to Midnight
Friday, December 14th: 8:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.
Saturday and Sunday, December 16th and 17th: Closed
And, to help you stay awake and focused – we’ll be providing FREE coffee, hot chocolate, and hot cider throughout the week (while supplies last!!)
Please bring your own mug – Mother Earth will thank you!
Don’t forget our Tool Library!! We have laptops, iPads, chargers, cables, computer mice (mices?) and tools, tools, and more tools! Check out the Tool Library website and then stop at the front desk to check out what you need!
We have plenty of space for both individual and group study. We have 2 group study pods with white boards, and pod 1 has MediaScape®. Instructions for reserving the study pods are here on our webpage.
The Creative Space is also available for group or individual study! We have two 4-person collaboration tables with 43 inch (4K) quad monitors, 4 modeling stations, and 5 dry erase boards! There is room to spread out and work collaboratively on that final project!
Our lower level of the library is a dedicated quiet space! We have study carrels (with lights & electrical outlets) easy chairs, bean bag chairs, and gamer chairs. We have new easy chairs with side tables with power outlets and small movable tables! You’ll be able to find the perfect spot to focus and concentrate.
Most of us have a drawer, somewhere in our house, which contains all sorts of odds and ends. In my house it was always the “miscellaneous” drawer, others call it a “junk” drawer. Whatever you call it, I bet you have duct tape and rubber bands shoved in it – and maybe some glue sticks, a cork or two, craft sticks, straws, etc…. Did you ever just look in that drawer and say “wow, I could make a catapult with this stuff!”? You may not have been thinking that, but you could! And with some heavy-duty shipping boxes – you could make a bedroom set. Really.
Check out our new exhibit – The Duct Tape and Rubber Band Engineer – and see just some of the cool things that can be made!!
Duct Tape & Rubber Band Mania Exhibit!
Duct tape can be used for lots more things that taping your favorite shoes back together or holding the fender on your car while rubber bands have a lot more uses than holding your hair back or holding a bunch of pens or pencils together.
Okay. You’ve got duct tape and rubber bands from your junk drawer. Now what? Pick out a project! A “Rubber Band Rocket” is pretty simple (simple enough that I did it!) and a good way to start your tinkering. From there you can move on to the more complex “PVC Slingshot Rifle,” (a project James took on!). You can make the “Pyramid Catapult” (which I did, with James’ help) or make an “Enhanced Mousetrap Catapult,” (which none of us tried!). There are also instructions for a “Floating Arm Trebuchet,” a “da Vinci Catapult,” a “Robot Arm,” and “Hydraulic Fighting Robots,” for more serious tinkerers! All projects come with a list of items needed (and possible alternatives) with clear written and pictorial instructions!
Check out this video of a simple rubber band rocket!
Never tackled a duct tape project before? Never fear, Akiyama starts out with the basics. Beginning with ripping and cutting! He lists recommended tools to have on hand and gives a guide to choosing the correct duct tape for each project. (Did you know the original tape was made with “. . . cotton ‘duck’ canvas, embedded with glue.”)? The types of tape which are best used for each project are also listed. Sadly, using the lighter, decorative duct tape isn’t what you want to use when making your chair or bed frame. (although, putting your own decorative touches on after it is built is encouraged!)
Akiyama also takes you through taping techniques, including surface preparation and the best way to get the maximum adhesion. Making a duct tape sheet is important when using tape as fabric and he explains step-by-step and with full-color photographs.
Just 2 ducks (get it?) hanging out, studying and resting on their cardboard & duct tape furniture!
Next step: furniture!! The first piece of furniture is a desk chair. The list of materials needed includes (but isn’t limited to) heavy duty, double-thick cardboard, white glue, and ruler (and don’t forget the duct tape!). There are detailed instructions and drawings explaining the process – and suggestions for tinkering and making it your own! Once you get that under your belt, move on to making a desk to go with your chair. Again there is a parts list, detailed instructions and detailed drawings. Want to make all your furniture for your space? Besides the desk and chair, there are instructions for a dresser (with working drawers!), and a bed frame! Voilà! You have furnished your bedroom! Hard to believe? Check out our exhibit and see the mini-sized furniture!
How about those things you use a lot – some every day! A backpack? Messenger bag? Heavy duty toolbox? Here’s a picture of great toolbox that James built using pink & black duct tape! (part of the PVC Slingshot Rifle can be seen in front of the tool box!)
Like to kayak? There really are step-by-step instructions explaining how to build a kayak that, if properly constructed, will hold around 200 pounds in still water. You might want to test it in shallow water first! How about a lovely garden swing, just right for two people? That’s right, Akiyama shows you how! Need a hammock, too? Instructions, complete with how to create the ribbing with duct tape!
Stop by and see the exhibit and the fun things you can make with simple household items!
(My favorite is the rubber band rockets – quick, easy to make, safe
& fun to see whose rocket will fly the furthest!)
(just don’t aim it any people or animals!)
Resources:
Akiyama, Lance. 2017. Duct tape engineer : the book of big, bigger, and epic duct tape projects : from backpacks to kayaks, writing desks to rocket launchers. Beverly, Massachusetts : Rockport Publishers. Engineering Library TT869.7 .A45 2017
Akiyama, Lance. 2016. Rubber band engineering : build slingshot-powered rockets, rubber band rifles, unconventional catapults, and more guerrilla gadgets from household hardware. Beverly, Massachusetts: Rockport Publishers. Engineering Library TS1920 .A35 2016
Presented by The Lichtenberger Engineering Library, College of Engineering, the Graduate College
and the Hanson Center for Technical Communication!
December 17th & 18th, 2018
Open to current engineering and computer science graduate students, Thesis Boot Camp is the perfect opportunity to set aside time dedicated to making progress on your dissertation or master’s thesis! Along with a comfortable, quiet working environment, writing and research support, breakfast, snacks and lunches, the workshop offers students community and motivation in that final push towards the completion of their dissertation or thesis.
Several optional workshops are also scheduled. They include help with editing, formatting, and creating citations among others! Throughout the entire 2 days 1-on-1 support is provided by writing facilitators, liaison librarians, and members from the graduate college to provide assistance when you need it.
Boot Camp targets current engineering and computer science graduate students at both the PhD and Masters level, who are currently writing their thesis / dissertation. Participants will benefit from the structured time, space, professional advising and peer support of the program.
What else do you need to know? Both days begin at 8:30 a.m. and end at 5:00 p.m. – please plan to stay for the entire 2 days. It’s FREE, but is limited to 30 participants. Registration deadline is Friday, December 7th, at 11:59 p.m. It will be held in the Student Commons and in the Lichtenberger Library. Breakfasts, lunches, and snacks are included! And coffee! Lots of coffee!
More information and a draft of the schedule go here. The registration form is available here.
Mark your calendars and register today!!
Individuals with disabilities are encouraged to attend all University of Iowa-sponsored events. If you are a person with a disability who requires a reasonable accommodation in order to participate in this program, please contact (Kari Kozak, Head, Lichtenberger Engineering Library) in advance at (319-335-6046).
Banned Book Week – typically held the last week in September – was launched in 1982 – in order to bring attention to a surge of challenges that schools, bookstores and libraries were getting. The purpose of this week is to highlight the value of free and open access to information and the freedom to read. Banned Books Week brings the entire book community together – librarians, booksellers, publishers, journalists, teachers, and readers.
You may have heard both the terms”banned books,” and “challenged books.” There is a difference between the two terms. A challenged book is an attempt to remove or restrict materials – either by a group or an individual who objects to the material. It does not mean a person or group simply expresses their point of view, but actively attempts to remove the material from circulation. Because banning a book is the actual removal of the materials, the access of others is restricted. Put simply, a challenge is an attempt to remove or restrict materials and banning is the actual removal of those materials.
According to the ALA, books are usually challenged with good intentions – protecting others (usually children) from ideas and information which may be difficult. Over the years many different types of groups, and people, have challenged books. ALA has a list of the Top 10 Most Challenged Books. ALA believes that for every reported challenge, four or five go unreported. In 2016 there were 323 challenges recorded by the Office of Intellectual Freedom. Surveys indicate that between 82 and 97% of book challenges go unreported and receive no media coverage.
The good news is that in a majority of cases the books still remain available. This is due in part to the awareness that Banned Books Week brings to this issue!
New books are added to the challenged and banned lists every year – and some never make it off the list (Catcher in the Rye and To Kill a Mockingbird are two examples). Many of the banned books are novels, but a number of science books have also been challenged.
Many classic books have been banned. According to the Office for Intellectual Freedom, at least 46 of the Radcliffe Publishing Course Top 100 Novels of the 20th Century have been the target of ban attempts. Click here to see which books these are and learn the reasons for which they are banned or challenged.
Here are a few of the many books related to Engineering and Science which have been banned at one time or another:
Any writing or discussion demonstrating the heliocentric nature of the universe was banned in 17th Century Europe.
Writings by physicist and astronomer Galileo Galilei were banned and he was charged and convicted of heresy by the Inquisition in 1632 for writing, Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems.
Books and teaching materials on Darwinian evolution theory, including The Illustrated Origin of Species by Charles Darwin were banned in schools in Tennessee following the Butler Act of 1925.
The Golden Book of Chemistry Experiments, written in 1960 by Robert Brent and illustrated by Harry Lazarus was banned in the United States for being too accurate in its scientific initiative.
Books and materials on Mendelian genetics have been banned from publication in Soviet-era USSR
Baron, Dennis. Webster’s banned for too much sex. Jan. 25, 2010. The Web of Language.
The 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990-2000 and Challenges by Initiator, Institution, Type and Year. 2018. ALA. American Library Association.
Other Resources:
25 Banned Books That You Should Read Today. March 2011. Learn.org
Chambers, Robert. 1846. Vestiges of the natural history of creation. E-Book available through The University of Iowa Libraries.
For more information on the challenge/ban of Winnie-the-Pooh: Researching Banned or Challenged Books: Ban Pooh? LibGuides. American Library Association Aug. 7, 2017.
When we think of women in aviation, we often think of Amelia Earhart. But have you heard of Harriet Quimby, Lores Bonney, Fay Gillis Wells?
Amelia Earheart took her first plane ride in 1920 and began flying lessons in 1921 – buying her first plane that same year. Harriet Quimby was a newspaper reporter/writer and was assigned to cover an airshow in 1910, and she was hooked. On May 11, 1911 – one day before her 36th birthday, she entered flight school. In 1931 Lores Bonney set a new Australian record for a one-day flight by a woman. In 1933 she was the first woman to fly from Australia to England. In 1928 Fay Gillis jumped from a disabled plane in flight, making her the first woman to join the Caterpillar Club – a group composed of pilots who have made life-saving jumps with silk parachutes. Betty Skelton-Frankman won the International Feminine Aerobatic championship in 1948, 1949, and 1950. She was best known for the trick “inverted ribbon cut,” (she flew upside down, 10 feet off the ground, through a ribbon tied between two poles)!
In 1994 Patrice Clarke-Washington was the only African American woman flying with the rank of captain for a major airline. Jean Ross Howard-Phelan is the 13th woman in the world to receive a helicopter’s pilot license. She learned to fly in 1954. Florence Parlett actively flew until she was 83 years old and has operated the Annapolis Flying Service at Lee Airport in Edgewater, Maryland.
In 1993 at age 11, Victoria Van Meter flew across the ocean and then did it again the following year. A flight instructor was required to be with her on both flights because she didn’t meet the age limit to fly alone.
These women, and so many others, laid the groundwork for women to pursue their love of flying in a variety of aviation careers.
Lori Love: crop duster in California.
Madge Minton: joined the WASPs (World War II Women Airforce Service Pilots) and flew fighter planes across the country to various military bases.
Susan Still: 3rd woman trained in combat aircraft for attack missions.
Suzanne Asbury-Oliver: skywriter for Pepsi in 1980.
Evie Washington: flight instructor for the Civil Air Patrol.
Mary Edna Fraser: uses aerial photography to inspire her silk batik artwork. She doesn’t have a pilot’s license, but will take off, land, and maneuver the aircraft into position.
Ellen Paneok: Native American Eskimo pilot – delivering supplies and mail to remote Alaskan villages.
Mayte Greco: Cuban American pilot and founding member of Brothers to the Rescue (Hermanos al Rescate), an organization of pilots who fly search and rescue operations over the ocean between Florid and Cuba searching for Cuban exiles in rafts.
They also paved the way for the participation of women in NASA and space exploration. In the beginning they were “human computers,” then aeronautical engineers, and then astronauts.
Katherine Johnson, Mary Jackson, Dorothy Vaughan, Kathryn Peddrew, Sue Wilder, Eunice Smith and Barbara Holley: African American women mathematicians, worked at NASA during the Civil Rights era. “Human computers.”
Shannon Lucid: one of the original core of women astronauts; in 1997 she held the record for the longest time in space for an American (188 days on board the Russian space station Mir).
Mary Ellen Weber: mission specialist on board space shuttle Discovery in June of 1995.
Vickie Gutierrez: Aerospace Engineering. Began working for NASA in 2002.
Rosalind Cylar: Attorney and advisor in the Office of chief counsel at NASA’s Marshall space Flight Center.
Courtney Ritz: Is blind and works at the Goddard Space Flight Center since 2002. She is the Web Accessibility Coordinator.
In September 2017, astronaut Peggy Whiton broke NASA’s record for the longest time spent in space – 665 days! She also holds other records – the record for the oldest woman to go to space (57 years old); women’s record for the longest amount of time doing spacewalks – 53 hours & 22 minutes; and the first woman commander of the space station. On her latest mission she traveled 122.2 million miles and went orbited Earth 4,623 times. She was born in Mt. Ayr, Iowa.
All of these women – from the pioneering aviators to the pioneering women in aeronautics – have helped clear the way for this generation, and future generations, to fulfill their dreams of flying!
Girls in Aviation Day is sponsored by Women in Aviation International. Women in Aviation International (WAI) hold events are being held world-wide and include one in Dubuque, IA, which is sponsored by the WAI University of Dubuque Chapter. Contact Polly Kadolph for more information.
Resources:
Michele Wehrwein Albion, editor. 2015. The quotable Amelia Earhart. Albuquerque : University of New Mexico. Engineering Library TL540.E3 A3 2015
Russo, Carolyn. 1997. Women and flight : portraits of contemporary women pilots. Washington, D.C. : National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution, Boston : Bulfinch Press. Engineering Library FOLIO TL539 .R87 1997
Winters, Kathleen C. 2010. Amelia Earhart : the turbulent life of an American icon. New York : Palgrave Macmillan. Engineering Library TL540.E3 W57 2010
Holt, Nathalia. 2016. Rise of the rocket girls : the women who propelled us, from missiles to the moon to Mars. New York : Little, Brown, and Company. Engineering Library TL862.J48 H65 2016
Eschner, Kat. June 16, 2017. Meet the Rogue Women Astronauts of the 1960s Who Never Flew : But they passed the same tests the male astronauts did – and, yes, in high heels. SMARTNEWS : Keeping you current. Smithsonian Institution.
Riley, Ricky. June 29, 2016. This Black NASA Mathematician Was the Reason Many Astronauts Came Home – Their Life Depended on Her Calculations.Atlanta Black Star.
NASA Langley to dedicate building in honor of Katherine Johnson.
NASA Women of Stem. August 3, 2017. National Aeronautics and Space Administration. NASA.
Gallentine, Jay. 2016. Infinity beckoned : adventuring through the inner solar system, 1969-1989. Lincoln : University of Nebraska Press. Engineering Library TL795.3 .G355 2016
Hey students! Are you interested in giving your idea, project, or invention a kick-start? Want to make that project a reality?
Registration is now open for the Kick-Start program! The Engineering Library, along with, the Engineering Electronic Shop (EES), Engineering Machine Shop (EMS), are pleased to once again present the Creative Kick-Start program! Applications will be accepted through October 26th.
The program is designed so engineering students (undergraduate and graduate) may request funding to pay for prototyping and/or finishing projects – using the services offered through EES, EMS, and the Library Creative Space,
There will be ten $500 awards!!How exciting is that!?
Five 3D printers available in the Engineering Electronics Shop (EES)
Since there will only be 10 awards, this is a competitive process! Make sure you check the Kick-Start webpage to get complete details and get your application in soon!
Briefly, any graduate or undergraduate engineering student may apply for a Kick-Start award. You come up with an idea, find a faculty or staff sponsor, complete an online application form, attend an in-person workshop (approximately an hour), and present your project in April!
There are a few requirements which include (but aren’t limited to) keeping receipts and a record of all expenses (a budget spreadsheet template will be be provided). A post-project survey of the Kick-Start program will also be required.
You are strongly encouraged to visit the Hanson Center for Technical Communication for assistance with writing your proposal before it is submitted. We also suggest you fill out a hackaday.io page and use it to post regular, substantial updates on the status of your project. Each update should include photos – of your project, notes or sketches – and text explaining your progress. Invite a university photographer to take photos while you are working on your project (contact info will be provided later).
There are a few restrictions, one of which is you may not already be receiving funding for this project from any other source. There can only be one idea per submission and a student may only be the primary investigator on one Kick-Start per year. Students may be co-investigators on more than one project. Be sure to check the Kick-Start webpage for more information.
So what else do you need to know?
Creative Kick-Start Innovation Kit!
The idea for the project is yours, and may be a finished product or a prototype. You maintain ownership of your idea and anything you build during the project. For inspiration check out United Nations Global Problems. A team may work on the project together, but one student must be designated as the primary investigator. A primary investigator may be a co-investigator on another project.
You may keep any materials you purchase for your project, but tools purchased should be returned to the Creative Space for use by future makers. There are many tools in the Tool Library which are available to check out. Knowing what items must be returned can be a gray area, so please direct any questions about what should be returned to lib-engineering@uiowa.edu. The $500 award may only be used in EES and EMS for materials, tools, and labor, etc. Any unused funds will revert back to the program and will go toward helping another future maker build their idea.
You are required to have a sponsor who will review the requirements of the Kick-Start program and review your application before it is submitted. The sponsorship officially ends with the presentation in April, but the sponsor and student are free to continue to work on the project if they so choose.
Remember that ‘failure’ is part of the creative process. The important thing is you learn from these failures and therefore are better prepared for future projects. You will still be required to present your project in April – your presentation can deal with what went wrong, how it could be fixed, what you would do differently, what you learned. As Elon Musk said, “Failure is an option here. If things are not failing, you are not innovating enough.”
Ellis mitre band saw in the Engineering Machine shop (EMS).
There are so many resources to help you complete your project! Our Creative Space is a great place to begin! Two collaboration tables, each with a quad-screen monitor will help your team work together to imagine your project. There are 4 modeling stations with the high-powered software you need. 3D cameras, a 4400 Dell computer with a video card, Leap Motion controllers and an Oculus Rift virtual reality headset and controllers can help you manipulate your project in virtual reality (check the Tool Library resources!). EES and EMS have the equipment you need to take your project from virtual reality to reality! EES provides circuit board fabrication, dye sublimation printing, PC board prototypes, laser cutting and etching and 3D printing (among other things!). EMS has sheet metal tools, power hand tools, computer controlled machine tools (among other things!) Staff in both EMS and EES are happy to answer questions and provide guidance!
The funds for this project are generously provided by the Engineering Technology Centers.
Application Review Committee is Kari Kozak (Head, Lichtenberger Engineering Library), Jeff Nock (Entrepreneur in Residence/Lecturer, John Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Center), Spencer Stumpf (Inventions Manager, UI Research Foundation), and Danny Tang (Chief Technology Officer, College of Engineering).
3D Modeling an Abdominal Aortic AneurysmPrecision Landing System for Autonomous Aircraft
Here are two of the groups who received Kick-Start awards last year! You could be an award winner, too! Get your application in before Oct. 20th and start making your vision a reality!
We look forward to seeing your projects and working with you to make them a reality!
