In Person with “Olli,” Your New Autonomous Vehicle Valet
Olli is a 3D-printed autonomous vehicle designed to help ease the traffic and congestion of dense urban areas. This year at the International Manufacturing and Technology Show (IMTS) 2016, Local Motors...
View ArticleHow Can Henry Ford Help Modern Manufacturing?
Workers on a Ford assembly line, circa 1913. (Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons) Doing more with less is a common phrase in industry today. It seems like everyone is doing the work of two or three people...
View ArticleTaking a Human-Centric Approach to Design
You’ve definitely heard the term “user-friendly” before. In working to provide “user friendliness,” an engineer tries to make the product work exactly as an end user thinks it should. Being...
View ArticleOSU Buckeye Bullet Hits 341 mph
The all-electric Venture Buckeye Bullet 3, a student engineering project at Ohio State University, set a new world’s land speed record for electric vehicles of 341.4 mph, breaking the previous record...
View ArticleIs Engineering Employment in Danger or Is It Being Redefined?
In this year’s Machine Design Salary and Career Report coming out in October, we captured some impressive numbers for engineering salaries. According to our survey, since 2014 our readers have seen an...
View ArticleIs Engineering Employment in Danger or Is It Being Redefined?
In this year’s Machine Design Salary and Career Report coming out in October, we captured some impressive numbers for engineering salaries. According to our survey, since 2014 our readers have seen an...
View ArticleA Search for Humanitarian Projects at Engineering Colleges
Engineering students from Ohio State University build wheelchair ramps for people in the community who need one, but could not afford it. Engineering students at colleges across the U.S. are getting...
View ArticleDriverless Trains and Planes First, then Automobiles
There's a lot of buzz these days about driverless cars, with several companies currently testing the technologies that could be used to make them a widespread reality. But surely there are other...
View ArticleScience and Art, Two Worlds Apart
In the United States, the recent presidential debates covered topics like healthcare, retirement, education, and military involvement on foreign soil. While the economy seems to be the underlying tone...
View ArticleIs NASA a Waste of Money?
We spend a lot of money on NASA, but many say we don’t have the money for space exploration. Should we be spending money on space exploration when we have a crumbling infrastructure, banks too big to...
View Article6 Smart Tools for DIY Projects
George Mallory was asked, “Why did you want to climb Mount Everest?" He responded, “Because it’s there." Oftentimes, when new technology comes out, people may wonder, “Why does this exist?” or “Who...
View ArticleApps from NIST: They’re Free, but Obscure
Here are some free apps developed by engineers and researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). âNanolithography Toolbox: This platform-independent software package gives...
View ArticleChecking Out the Forbes 30 under 30
Every year Forbes publishes its 30 people under 30 years of age in manufacturing and industry who are making some big moves. Forbes claims it has an acceptance rate of less than 4%, which makes this...
View Article9 Myths about Solar Panels
Many homeowners don’t think solar power is for them. The technology isn’t ready, or their location isn’t right, or maybe they plan on moving soon. The folks at Solar Authority, a website that helps...
View Article3 Myths about Manual and Automatic Transmissions
(Image courtesy of Thinkstock) Auto enthusiasts, seemingly a dying breed, have long argued that manual transmissions, or stick shifts (though some of you might remember shifters on the steering column...
View ArticleFIRST Robotics Dives into the World of STEAMworks
Steam power was one of the great inventions to come out of the Industrial Revolution. Prior to the early 1800s, water and wind were the main sources of industrial power. But by 1815, you had steam...
View Article4 Steps for a More Intelligent Future
I recently read an article by David Hopkins titled, “How a TV Sitcom Triggered the Downfall of Western Civilization,” in which he writes about the long-running show “Friends” and how the characters...
View ArticleThe 54th R&D 100 Awards Honor Inventions & Innovations
Have your products won an Oscar recently?
View ArticleFord Reincarnates the GT Supercar
Two years ago, the new Ford GT was a sleek and shiny concept car that consumers didn’t know would eventually reach production. Before that, 2005 through 2006, one of its namesakes was already a...
View ArticleThe Pacific Design & Manufacturing Show Is Bringing the Future to You
The future is closer than ever and the Pacific Design Here at Machine Design, we talk about “Smart Manufacturing” quite a bit. It goes by other names like the Internet of Things (IoT), Industrial IoT...
View ArticleThe World of Design & Manufacturing Under One Roof
If you are unfamiliar with this six-shows-in-one event, not only is it big, but it has great speakers such as Jamie Hyneman, a one-time cast member of TV’s Mythbusters. On the show floor, you can talk...
View ArticleJamie Hyneman “Busts” into the Pacific Design Show
Jamie Hyneman Walking down so many aisles with robot arms inspecting motors and fully integrated lines, the Pacific Design & Manufacturing Show is a bit like a candy store for engineers. To make...
View ArticleGovernment-Funded Engineering Projects: What Could Go Wrong?
It’s not as if the government can’t do anything right. After all, even a blind pig can find an acorn once in a while, as my father used to say. But finding worthwhile engineering projects and funding...
View ArticleDo Mechanical Engineers Need Programming to Survive?
Education is generally not moving quickly enough to keep up with technology. While materials and processes may not change as quickly, the machines doing the work are evolving very rapidly. Math is a...
View ArticleGermany’s Lessons in Windpower
About 15 years ago, Germany embarked on an ambitious plan to re-engineer how it got its electricity. Its goals were noble, but that alone hardly guarantees success. Let’s take a look at those goals and...
View Article9 Myths about Animal Experimentation for Biomedical Research
Computer simulation is making great strides in helping biomedical researchers explore how the human body functions and what can be done to help it when it undergoes trauma or disease, as my colleague...
View ArticleIn the Engineering School Bracket Challenge, Round 2 Is On!
If you haven’t been paying attention, this year’s Engineering School Bracket Contest from Machine Design, Electronic Design, and several other sister publications is already well underway. This year’s...
View ArticleEngineering School Bracket Challenge: Round 2 Results; Round 3 is Underway!
Sixteen engineering schools went head-to-head in Round 2. The field is now down to eight, and voting for Round 3 has just opened. But first, here’s a quick rundown of the second round: Purdue’s...
View ArticleThe Final Round of the Engineering School Bracket Championship
The Engineering School Bracket Challenge started with 32 top-notch engineering colleges but in the previous round of voting, the fourth round took it down to the top two—MIT and Purdue. They will go...
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