March Madness: Robot Mania!

Artificial intelligence (AI) has been making waves across a variety of industries in recent times. From virtual assistants like Siri and Alexa to self-driving cars and image recognition, AI has already begun to transform our daily lives in countless ways. But what exactly is AI, and why is it so important?

- Henry Salgado, STEM Education Technology Lead for the Science Mill

A New Class of Robots

How Artificial Intelligence is changing the landscape of robotics.

At its core, AI involves creating intelligent machines that can perform tasks that would typically require human intelligence. These tasks could be anything from natural language processing and decision-making to complex problem-solving and pattern recognition. With the help of AI, machines can learn and adapt on their own, making them more useful, versatile, and efficient.

One area where AI has the potential to make a huge impact is in the field of robotics. By using AI to create smarter and more adaptable machines, we can push the boundaries of what's possible in fields ranging from manufacturing to healthcare.

During my internship at the Savannah River National Lab, I had the chance to work on a project that exemplified the power of AI in robotics. I was tasked with building an energy-efficient insect robot that utilized machine learning to optimize its movement. This involved everything from selecting and sourcing electrical components to reading data sheets, soldering, and programming the robot to function seamlessly.

Blog Contributor: Henry Salgado

The real magic of the robot came from the fact that the input readings from its ultrasonic sensor were processed through an artificial neural network. This resulted in optimized energy consumption and movement that was more closely aligned with the behavior of insects in the natural world.

For those who are unfamiliar with neural networks, they are essentially a type of AI that mimics the structure and function of the human brain. Neural networks are made up of interconnected nodes or neurons that process and transmit information in a way that is similar to how our brains work.

By utilizing AI and neural networks in our robotics projects, we can create machines that are capable of learning from their environment and adjusting their behavior to better accomplish their tasks. This can lead to more efficient and effective robots that are able to adapt to changing conditions and make decisions in real-time.

Overall, my experience in robotics at Savannah River National Lab taught me a great deal about the power of AI and its potential to transform the world. By harnessing the latest technologies and techniques, we can create machines that are more intelligent, more efficient, and more adaptable than ever before. Whether it's in the field of robotics or any other industry, the possibilities for AI are truly endless.

March Career Spotlight:

Steve Xiao, Engineer at Savannah River National Laboratory

DIY Activity:

Google’s Teachable Machine

February Focus: Engineering

Last summer, I was invited to participate in the NHERI Summer Institute at UTSA. This summer program teams up educators with natural hazards engineers to develop grants and educational activities to get students interested in this field. Natural Hazards are the extreme events that cause natural disasters. Engineers and researchers from across the country are constantly working together to monitor, simulate, test, and safeguard communities from natural hazards as they develop. This article will go over the different types of natural hazards, and engineers in the field will share the research and work that they are doing.

- John Espinoza, STEM Education Specialist at the Science Mill

Engineering for Natural Hazards

A natural hazard is an extreme event that occurs naturally and causes great harm to local communities and ecosystems. If not properly managed, these local disasters can have global consequences. There are 3 broad categories of Natural Hazards:

  • Geological Hazards - These are natural disasters caused by the shifting of plate tectonics, and include earthquakes and volcano eruptions

  • Meteorological Hazards - These hazards are driven by weather and climate patterns. Temperature and wind are the biggest factors in developing these hazards. Examples include hurricanes, freezing rain, hot/cold waves, and tornadoes.

  • Hydrological Hazards - These hazards are caused by disruptions in natural water processes. These types of hazards can range from floods, tsunamis, droughts, and mudslides. Hydrological hazards cause extensive damage to agriculture.

A special fourth category of Natural Hazards is Biological Hazards. These hazards are caused by biological processes and mainly include the sudden rise and spread of deadly diseases and viruses. Because of its relationship to the human body, these types of hazards are not typically listed with the three above and instead are placed in discussions of medicine and public health.

When studying natural hazards, it’s important to remember that sometimes one event or natural disaster can trigger another. For example, an earthquake in a hilly or mountainous area may trigger landslides or mudslides, or a hurricane may destroy a sea wall that causes flooding in a coastal community. The cascading events and natural disaster systems that can form from one extreme event requires an interdisciplinary approach to mitigate damage when they strike, so who’s responsible for studying natural hazards?

NHERI is a coalition of universities and research institutes across the country that simulate different natural hazards to better study and prepare for them.

The national group consists of 11 different universities:

The NHERI coalition groups are making huge discoveries in the world of preparing for and predicting Natural Hazards such as earthquakes, tsunamis, tornadoes, hurricanes, flooding, and more.

At the University of Texas, Mobile Field Shakers have been developed to test the resilience of existing infrastructure such as buildings and bridges to see how well they can withstand earthquakes. The mobile shakers work by replicating seismic waves at ground level.

At Florida International University, researchers created the “Wall of Wind” which uses 12 large-scale fans and high-end sprinkler systems to simulate category-5 hurricanes.

At Oregon State University, the O.H. Hinsdale Wave Research Laboratory conducts experiments to research the impact of waves, tsunamis, and flooding on coastal communities.

These are just some of the few research projects happening around the country that look to protect our communities from natural hazards and natural disasters.

To find out more about the work of NHERI, visit HERE.

INTERESTED IN A CAREER STUDYING NATURAL HAZARDS?

Many people from different backgrounds and disciplines work across NHERI to study natural hazards engineering.

  • Structural and Civil Engineers are the most common type of professionals that work in these sites, but natural hazards research includes work from other disciplines.

  • Ecologists work with natural hazards research to study the effects natural hazards have on ecosystems at the local and global scale.

  • Sociologists and psychiatrists also work together to study how humans emotionally and mentally respond to these traumatic events.

DIY Activity: EARTHQUAKE TABLE

Now it’s your turn to be a structural engineer by DESIGNING your own earthquake table and creating a structure that can withstand an earthquake!

Winter Spotlight: What is Happening with the Weather?

Weather is the one science that affects everyone.  No matter who you are, where you live or your level of income, weather can make a good day great or a bad day worse. Many of us take weather forecasting, and the people who work in this field, for granted. Although much of weather forecasting is computer modeling, it takes an educated person to sift through the models and evaluate what each is saying.  Understanding the basics of weather and its forecasting can be the difference between safely avoiding it or struggling to survive it.

- Jeff Wheatcraft, Director of STEM Education Growth for the Science Mill

What is happening with the weather?

We’ve all heard the saying “If you don’t like the weather, just wait a minute.” While each area of the country has a different take on this common colloquialism, we’ve all noticed how the extreme weather events and drastic weather changes have been increasing or seemingly so in recent years.

By: Amber Middlebrook, Director of Education Partnerships for the Science Mill

Much of our weather here in Texas is actually created by the moisture return or return flow of hot moist air rushing to land from the Gulf of Mexico. Our resident storm chaser and science teacher, Jeff Wheatcraft tells me that moisture is one of the “main ingredients in severe weather.” As cold air from the northwest travels across the panhandle it meets with warm moist air coming in from the gulf. These collisions of hot and cold air create winds! This type of convection pattern is created as the light and energetic warm air mixes with the denser, cold air. This convection pattern transfers heat and moisture energy to the cooler cells. The Hadley cells or tropical convection currents actually drive the global convection weather patterns. [source] This warm air mixing with cool air can also create tornadic activity and strong wind gales. While Texas has 3 cities - Corpus Christi, Lubbock and Amarillo - in the top 10 windiest cities in the USA, it’s no surprise that Texas averages the most tornadoes a year with a yearly average around 151 annually. [source]

These winds help place the Texas panhandle in Tornado Alley but did you know that the eastern part of Texas is also in another tornado zone? Dixie Alley expands from eastern Texas across the lower Mississippi River Valley through Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee and into northern South Carolina and western North Carolina. [source] 

“Current research indicates that due to climate change the frequency of tornadic activity is increasing within the Dixie Alley while decreasing in the infamous Tornado Alley. Tornadoes in this region can be spawned year round and often occur at night when people are asleep. The Dixie Alley sadly has a higher death rate. Part of the increased death rate is due to terrain obscuring funnel clouds, rain wrapped tornadoes and rising population.” [source]

Climate change has increased the average temperature of the Gulf of Mexico and all oceans which means these large bodies of water that control much of our weather patterns (remember those Hadley Cells from earlier) are now warmer during the winter months. These higher temperatures increase the warm, moist air that is wicked away from the surface of the Gulf and spread over both Tornado and Dixie Alleys providing  the perfect ingredients for year round storm surges. Increased tornadic conditions gave rise to powerful storms like the December 10th, 2021 long track tornado over the Tennessee River Valley. Dixie Alley runs the broader risk of extreme weather in Winter and Spring as well as increased opportunity to be hit by strong hurricanes in the fall due to being located along the gulf coast line.  Hurricanes are also being intensified by the effects of global warming due to climate change. As our gulf continues to get warmer, we are likely to experience more year-round extreme weather, tornadic events and erratic hurricane development that will certainly impact all those living in the expanding areas of both Dixie and Tornado Alleys. 

Severe weather outbreaks are chased, tracked and recorded by all kinds of meteorologists. The scale of meteorology ranges from microscale, mesoscale, synoptic scale all the way to a global scale. Microscale meteorology is concerned with small geographic areas, quick occurrences, and processes such as those between soils, plants and groundwater which includes a great deal of chemical analysis. Mesoscale meteorology looks at the convection phenomena across an area of up to 1000 kilometers  (620 miles). [source] Moving up to the synoptic scale shows the high and low pressure areas and large scale weather systems that you can see on the nightly forecast. [source] Finally, global scale meteorology investigates the shifting of warm, moist air from the tropics to the arctic poles and is effectively tracking thermal energy distribution across the globe. [source] Meteorology is one of the most electrifying and adrenaline-inducing branches of science concerned with the study of the components of the atmosphere and the phenomena that is created in patterns of weather and climate. [source]

Weather impacts us beyond just being able to appropriately dress for the day. Weather, or the “temporary conditions of the atmosphere,” impacts our activities, our ability to travel, our ability to live in certain areas, and can affect how we feel about the day. [source]  There is so much more to meteorology than forecasting weather. Meteorologists look at long-term patterns in weather and climate, attempt to foresee the impacts on humans and animal habitats, investigate the factors creating these patterns or extreme events and yes some even give us our weekly weather forecasts. There are all kinds of opportunities to use amazing scientific equipment to collect atmospheric data on scale from micro to global that will help us better understand weather patterns, investigate the impacts of climate change and hopefully help us discover mitigation and adaptation strategies to combat climate change!

Career Spotlight: Eunice Foote

Eunice Foote was a scientist, inventor, and women’s rights activist from the mid-1800’s.

In 1856, she demonstrated the absorption of heat by CO2 and water vapor which is the first documented discussion on greenhouse gasses. She hypothesized that changing the amounts of CO2 in the atmosphere would have the ability to change the climate. Foote’s discoveries were the building blocks for what we now call the Greenhouse Effect. As she was a woman, and not a member of the Association for the Advancement of Science, she had to have a male colleague present her papers. 

Find out more about Eunice Foote HERE.

Weather Prediction and Storm Chasing

Here is a way to try predicting the weather and “chasing” storms from the comfort of your home or classroom.

October Spotlight: The Physics of Wind

Teaching Physics to 8th grade students was fun and uniquely challenging.  The standards addressed on this topic were counterintuitive but ones that they experienced on a regular basis.  How do you teach that all objects are acted upon equally by gravity?  What about the fact that, when turning in a car, you are not pushing into the door, but the car is prohibiting you from continuing on a straight path?  What seems to be innately familiar, in many instances, are incorrect.  At the Science Mill, we dabble in these gray areas all the time, and help students make sense of the world around them.   

-Jeff Wheatcraft, Science Mill Director of STEM Education Growth

The Physics of Wind

Did you know that air is a fluid? It behaves just like water, flowing over and around objects. When we feel the wind, we are feeling the motion of the fluid (air) around us. Physicists and engineers have studied and harnessed these fluid dynamics for technology like airplanes and wind turbines. Let’s look at airplanes, and the number one question people have about airplanes - How do planes fly? Why, magic, of course! Just kidding. The key physics term you need to know here is LIFT.

What is lift? “Lift is a mechanical force generated by a solid (e.g. an airplane) moving through a fluid (e.g. air)... It directly opposes the weight (the force of gravity) of an airplane and holds the airplane in the air”. This applies to water craft moving through water as well as aircraft moving through the air. Lift can only be generated if there is motion; that’s why pilots have to get the plane moving down the runway, with an engine, before leaving the ground. The curved shape and slightly inclined angle of plane wings are what causes the pressure on top of the wing to be less than the pressure on the bottom, which results in an upward lift force. The balance of all of the forces on an airplane: forward thrust from the engines, backward drag from the air, downward gravity (weight), and upward lift, results in the plane moving at a constant velocity through the air toward your destination. 

What about the physics of renewable wind energy? You may have heard the terms “windmill” or “wind turbine” used interchangeably, but they are different technologies! Windmills are an older technology that did just as its name suggests: use wind to operate a grain mill, which produced flour and other grain products. Windmills were also used to pump water to cities and houses. Modern renewable wind energy comes from much taller and much larger Wind Turbines: “The energy in the wind turns two or three propeller-like blades around a rotor… which spins a generator to create electricity.” Just like the wings of an airplane, lift is generated on the turbine blades as the wind (fluid) moves the air around the turbine blades. In extremely high winds, wind turbines have safety controls to prevent the propeller blades from spinning too fast; rotor speeds that are too high can cause damage to wind turbines.

Check out our interview below with Sarah Green, a Senior Project Manager and Aerospace Engineer, who works in the wind energy industry and used to build and launch satellites in college!

References:

The Physics of Windmill Design 

How do Airplanes Fly?

How a Wind Turbine Works | DoE

What is Lift? | Glenn Research Center 

Ask Smithsonian: What is Wind? 

What's the Difference Between a Windmill and a Wind Turbine?

Meet Sarah Green, PMP

Senior Project Manager for Wind Turbine Manufacturer - Siemans Gamesa

  • What was your journey into your current field?

    • I studied aerospace engineering at Texas A&M University, which got me interested in both traditional aerospace areas like aircraft and spacecraft, as well as different aero technology like wind turbines. While in college I also worked at a research lab called AggieSat that collaborates with NASA to design, launch, and track satellites. It was a fantastic opportunity to both learn satellite design and see how the space industry works outside of the college setting. I started at my current company as an engineer in training after I graduated from college. In that role I performed maintenance on operational wind turbines in the field and then explored rotations in back office groups to understand how the different departments work together. Since that position, I've held a variety of roles in the company, always in the technical realm, sometimes doing engineering work and more recently moving into technical project management like my current role.

  • How did you initially become interested in STEM?

    • My family has always been very STEM-oriented; I'm related to school teachers, engineers, veterinarians, and self-proclaimed tech/space nerds. Curiosity in science was always a part of my life growing up and something I'm very thankful to have been exposed to since I was young.

  • What other career opportunities are there in this field?

    • Wind energy is a fascinating industry with a lot of career opportunities throughout the turbine life cycle. From designing to building to maintaining wind turbines, there's many innovative roles that wind energy has to offer. The US is also in the process of expanding further into offshore wind so that will be a particularly exciting part of the business to watch in the coming years.

  • What is something people may not know about the wind turbine industry?

    • Wind energy is a truly global industry, so in many roles, you get to meet colleagues from different countries and cultures which is a very fun part of the job. Tackling climate change is a global challenge, so it's really wonderful to feel invested in a world-wide effort to improve our planet.

  • What would you say right now to your 10-year-old self?

    • Keep being a bookworm and learning as much as possible about the world around you, there's so many things to explore out there!

  • Tell us about your favorite teacher

    • This has to be a tie between my high school orchestra director and my Latin teacher, which maybe seems odd, but actually they had some very key similarities. They were both so very knowledgeable in their respective fields and that expertise really instilled a love of learning in all their students. They were very passionate about seeing their students succeed and they always knew the most impactful and fun ways to teach.

DIY Flying Machines

Students will work with partners in order to create and improve the design for their own flying machines!

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