'The Engineer' Continues to Dominate

What are some stereotypes that people have about engineers? Lanky… Unathletic…Tech junkies. Not true. We don’t want to be labeled with these misdirected adjectives. One person who is helping to change the minds of those so quick to judge is the recently-crowned interim heavyweight champion of the Ultimate Fighting Championships mixed-martial arts circuit, Shane Carwin, who works as an engineer for his full-time job.

Carwin, standing 6’2 and weighing in at a whopping 265 lbs., defeated Frank Mir in the first round on Saturday night when he unloaded with an assault that began with two left uppercuts. The final result was an unconscious Mir, who had a look on his face like “what in the wacky wide world of sports just happened to me?” The win marks another addition to Carwin’s already perfect record which now stands at 12-0.

The UFC is comprised of fighters that come from a wide array of disciplines; Karate, Jiu-Jitsu, and wrestling are some of the more common types, with some fighters being trained in multiple styles. Mr. Carwin is a prime example of this with his college heavyweight wrestling championship and training in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. But what separates Shane from his opponents is not just his dominating ability, but the simple fact that fighting is his part-time job.

Believe it or not, he received a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Colorado School of Mines, and is married with a child. This got me thinking. Why couldn’t UNT implement a mixed-martial arts training course into the curriculum? If he can do it, we can do it. We could get Dr. Traum to teach the course too. Alright that’s just not gonna happen, but you can’t deny that it’s a good idea. Shane Carwin just goes to show that anyone from any walk of life has the ability to be an engineer.

 

 

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...Shane Carwin vs Dr. Traum...hey it could happen.

The Art of the Hustle

“C’mon, big money! Big money!”…“Seven Hundred.”…”M.”…”Three M’s!” These are the all too familiar words spoken between Pat Sajak and a contestant on the timeless classic Wheel of Fortune game show. The lucky few who get to participate and encounter such a situation have the potential to win 2100$ if they can guess the puzzle. But not everyone is fortunate enough to showcase their skills on TV, especially not college students. We must find a more tangible way of earning money.

Anyone who has been a college student knows that getting money can be a struggle at times. That’s why we have to get creative. No, don’t rob a bank. Here are the top three money-making activities that I have found via intense deliberation with my peers:

1) Find a random part-time job: Of course it is not required that the job be random. It should be part-time however. This allows enough time to keep up with coursework. Fortunately, UNT has a great system called the Eagle Network that assists students with finding on-campus, as well as off-campus jobs.
2) Donating plasma: This is probably the most controversial of the three tactics, but nevertheless can be a reliable source of income if done regularly; approximately 180$/month reliable. Although not for the faint of heart due to the enormous needle used to extract said plasma, it is not a time consuming form of income, not to mention the fact that you potentially save a life with every donation.
3) Selling back textbooks at the end of the semester: Don’t show your parents this article. And don’t be surprised if you get back far less than half of what you originally paid for the book, but still when looking for a good time after the completion of finals, this can be a quick and effective strategy.

Let’s be honest, none of these is a desirable way to make a living, but for the purposes of a busy college student can actually work quite well. I would suggest pursuing these tactics in the order listed here. If 1) is unavailable, go to 2), etc. There’s no rule saying you can’t do all three, unless your parents tell you not to sell your books back. If you still choose to you could see yourself on the receiving end of the instrument depicted below:

There are many ways to make money if you put your mind to it. If you are lucky enough and smart enough, you could engineer and patent the solar-heated carport I mentioned in a previous blog. You’ll have to beat me to it though. Bring it on people :)

Return of the Engineer

It’s Sunday night and school is set to commence this week. I struggle to awake from my Playstation 3 induced coma so that I can focus on the tasks at hand for a week that follows what was an incredibly relaxing spring break. Unfortunately I have a lab report due tomorrow which erases any possibility of easing my way back into the normal routine so to speak. This lab report encompasses two separate labs actually: Velocity Measurements in a Wind Tunnel and Analyzing of Flow Over a Cylinder. For these two experiments we used, surprise surprise, a wind tunnel located in one of the many lab rooms at Disco Park. Disco Park is the cool name for Discovery Park, but I would not be surprised if many of you challenged this claim. I’ve also heard people call it “The Park”, which may be slightly cooler than Disco, but I’ll leave that decision up to you.

Maybe the decision would be easier if each were used in a sentence: “Yeah man, I’m at The Park studying for my test”, or “What are you doing tonight? I’m going to Disco Park, where all my Saturday Night Fever dreams come true.” Alright, I’m gonna make the decision right now: neither name is acceptable, stop trying to be cool.

This week also promises new and exciting material in my courses. For example, in my Heat Transfer class, I know we will begin to study the phenomenon of multi-dimensional heat flow behavior. I look forward to this because we all know that heat doesn’t just move in one direction, which is what the entire first half of the course taught. Above all, I look forward to the second half of what is my final semester as a junior. Hopefully my morning coffee will help with the walking coma syndrome I currently possess. I’m sure that it will. Thank you Folgers.

Spring Break 2010

It’s spring break this week. Instead of planning my trip to Cinemark Movies 14 I’m left with the thought of how I am I going to measure the amount of heat transfer from a light bulb to a body of water. Why? It’s a project in one of my classes this semester. The light bulb is powered by a 9V battery, and is encased in an insulated container along with a small pool of water that has a thermocouple in it. Right away I encounter some issues with this because finding a light bulb that is compatible with 9V is difficult.

My group wired two 4.8V light bulbs in series. This way the battery would be giving 4.5V to each bulb. We tried heating 50ml of water with the bulbs, but we couldn’t get a significant amount of temperature change because the lights weren’t getting hot enough. When I say significant I mean measureable. The power output of the bulbs was too low.

One requirement of our project is to measure the energy content in the 9V battery we are using in the experiment. The amount of Joules. Yes the battery is full of priceless, shiny Joules of energy. No not rubies or diamonds. The unfortunate truth is that a unit of energy itself is undetectable to the human eye. This leaves many scholars to question the concept of energy.

In order for us to measure the energy content of the battery we have to have a measureable amount of temperature change in the water. To achieve this we replaced our two series-connected light bulbs with one 12V car headlight bulb. We were now getting about a 1 degree change in celcius in ten minutes, but now the battery stops powering the bulb after about 25 minutes, while the battery itself still has charge in it. So how do we now determine the amount of charge that still remains?

We are required to use a 9V battery for the project. We have decided to measure the energy content via a different experiment, but the teacher might not approve. If anyone has any tips on how to wire this circuit so that we can get enough power out of the light bulbs to heat the water quickly, while at the same time draining the battery fully, please email me at studentjournalist1@gmail.com

Mean Green Basketball Win!

For those of you who regularly follow my blog, which is probably about two people, you remember my prediction for the fate of the UNT Men’s Basketball team. If I remember correctly, it was back in December when I prophesized their current state. This past week, UNT knocked off Denver in the semifinals of the Sun Belt Conference championships, led by Tristan Thompson’s 19 point output. The very next night, UNT again was victorious over Troy, this time led by Eric Tramiel, who had 20 points and 10 rebounds. The wins sealed UNT’s second conference championship, and more importantly second NCAA tournament bid in the last four years. The team also set a record with 24 wins this season.

The NCAA tournament, also known as March Madness, welcomes only the top 65 Division I teams in the nation. The tournament is single elimination, and UNT still has yet to find out who they will face in the first round. Last time they were in the tournament, they faced No. 1 seeded Memphis in the first round, which resulted in an early exit for the Mean Green.

I highly recommend supporting the team by watching their first round game. I know a lot of the bars near campus will have it on their televisions. Put on some green and get crazy for the home team! This is another huge step for UNT in improving their athletic program. The University also has plans to build a new football stadium, which will be ready for the 2011 season. Being a sports fan, I like to see these strides within the athletic program.

My prediction for the Mean Green in this year’s tournament? I could easily say championship all the way baby, but I’m gonna be realistic and say that they will make it to the Sweet 16. This would be a huge boost for the university’s reputation. This Sunday the team will be at the Pourhouse Bar and Restaurant in Denton to watch the tournament selection show where they will find out who they play in the first round.

Power Output: The Energy Flow Rate

As my studies continue here at UNT, I notice myself beginning to think more like an engineer. This time I really mean it. The other day I calculated the power output of my body. The calculations were pretty messy, but it was worth it just to get a quantitative comparison of my body to an electric motor. The calculation itself is quite easy actually, just messy.

When I go to the gym, I typically ride the stationary bike for about 30 minutes. Sometimes I run on the treadmill, but the type of activity here is unimportant. What I want to highlight is the area on exercise equipment that displays the amount of calories you have burned during a workout. I typically burn around 300-400 calories every 30 minutes, depending on the type of exercise, sometimes it’s more, but for the purposes of this discussion we’ll say it’s 400.

In my studies, I learned that the calorie is a unit of energy. Energy is what makes everything work. Energy manifests itself in several different forms. Electricity, heat, magnetism, and mechanical work are the simplest forms of energy. The calorie is just one of many different ways to quantify these said forms of energy. Calories can also be expressed in a unit called Joules. There are approximately 4.18 Joules in 1 calorie. A unit of power called the watt is commonly used to quantify power, and watts are a measure of the amount of Joules per second. So I figured that if I simply took my total amount of calories burned in thirty minutes, multiplied by 4.18, and then divided by the number of seconds in thirty minutes that I would have my body’s power output during my workout. The numbers were staggering.


400 times 4.18 is 1672. That’s the number of Joules. 1672 divided by 1800, which is the number of seconds in thirty minutes, is 0.928. My body’s power output is only 0.928 Watts. You gotta be kidding me! To compare, a common light bulb runs at about 40 Watts, more than forty times my body’s power output. And to think, I could only keep that pace for thirty minutes, light bulbs can last for years.

These kinds of calculations humble me. The capability that we now have to harness energy is astounding. You can clearly see that the human body is no match to the power output of an electric motor. We even measured a quarter-sized motor in my lab class that ran at around 1- 1.5 Watts, and as long as the motor has power it will continue to run assuming no friction or other unforeseen electrical problem. At that power output, my body could probably only run for about an hour. I wonder if there is any way to battery power a human…

Arnold figured it out.

Spring Brings New Societies

Several students were honored last week by being welcomed into the recently created Energy Engineering Honor Society. The society seeks students who excel within the Mechanical and Energy Engineering program. This is a huge step for the people involved, as well as the University of North Texas College of Engineering as a whole because it marks the first society of its kind.

Several names have been discussed, but the most promising Greek name currently is Sigma Sigma Pi. ΣΣΠ which currently has 13 members, but the hopes for the future are that the society will catch fire nationally. Although this society identifies itself with Greek letters, it is not a fraternity. The society is co-ed, and there are no harmful hazing rituals that take place for initiation.

The Energy Engineering Honor Society, made up of juniors and seniors, hopes to be a provider of tutoring for underclassmen. This is just one example of the many philanthropic deeds that the society plans to accomplish in the future. Another example would be to attend high school math competitions in order to judge and proctor the participants.

All future members will be required to complete a minimum amount of hours of charity work in order to gain membership, but the exact amount has not yet been decided. The creation of the society is a direct result of the creative mind of Dr. Matt Traum, assistant professor within the MEE program. Dr. Traum selected the first members, and has high hopes for the program. Being a member of several honor societies himself greatly increases the chances of the society’s success and expansion.

It goes without saying that membership in a society such as Sigma Sigma Pi greatly improves one’s resume; however, this is not the sole goal of the founding members. We seek to improve the MEE program as a whole by providing guidance to underclassmen, working closely with faculty, and seeking new areas of research. One can only speculate what is to come from the society, but personally I predict good things.