Pictured are James Folmar, 1986 graduate and director of Boeing’s H-47 operations, left; Mark Sharer, director of development for the College of Engineering; Steven Glusman, 1981 graduate and director of advanced vertical lift; Dean Amr Elnashai; and Bill Grauer, manager of the wind tunnel facility the group was photographed at.

Penn State Engineering Dean Amr Elnashai’s travels took him to the Philadelphia on July 17 as he visited Boeing’s manufacturing facility in Ridley Park.

The plant is the manufacturing home for the H-47 Chinook helicopter and the V-22 Osprey.

In addition to touring the Chinook assembly area and wind tunnel facility, Elnashai had lunch with a number of Penn State graduates employed by Boeing.

National Geographic show host David Rees, left, dicusses a shovel experiment with Andris Frievalds, professor of industrial engineering. In the “Going Deep With David Rees” segment, the two measured the workload, which is the pounds of dirt Rees was able to move with each shovel compared to his physical exertion, oxygen and heart rate. (Photo credit: National Geographic)

Dig a hole. Sounds easy enough.

Or is it?

That’ll be the topic of an upcoming episode of “Going Deep With David Ress” on the National Geographic channel. The show focuses on teaching viewers how to do things they think they already know and explores the science and history behind seemingly mundane tasks.

Andris Freivalds, professor of industrial engineering, will be a guest on the show and conduct an experiment with David Ress where the two will compare the weight of dirt that can be moved with the amount of physical exertion.

“How to Dig a Hole” will air at 10 p.m. on July 21 and again at 10 p.m. on July 25. More on the episode can be found at: http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/going-deep-with-david-rees/episodes/how-to-dig-a-hole/.

A girl gets some hands-on experience in the art of origami during the Discovery Space’s day camp focused on science, technology, engineering and mathematics for girls. (Photo credit: Curtis Chan)

So what does origami have to do with engineering?

That’s the question posed to girls ages 6 through 8 during this week’s Exciting Endeavors day camp hosted by Discovery Space of Central Pennsylvania.

The half-day camp is designed to expose girls to career opportunities in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

The camp’s unit on origami was led by Mary Frecker, professor of mechanical engineering, and Rebecca Strzelec, professor of visual arts at Penn State Altoona, with help from college and high school student volunteers.

For the girls, it was an eye-opening lesson on the intersection of art and engineering. They learned how engineers use origami’s folding principles to design everything from stents that are inserted into the body to help open a blocked blood vessel to tires for Mars rovers that can greatly expand and contract, making it easier for the vehicle to explore planetary surfaces.

The point, Frecker said, is to show the girls how engineers team with artists to solve problems and develop designs.

Mark Sharer, director of development in the College of Engineering, left; Amr Elnashai, dean of engineering; and Jeffrey Croft, Boeing’s director of engineering for Systems LCPT-787 Program, stand in front of an engine for the company’s 787 Dreamliner aircraft.

Engineering Dean Amr Elnashai was in the Pacific Northwest this week, visiting with alumni and Penn State industry partners, including Boeing.

The dean ventured to the firm’s Seattle manufacturing facility and was giving a special behind-the-scenes tour by Jeffrey Croft (’81 CompSci), director of engineering for Systems LCPT-787 Program in the company’s commercial airplanes division.

Work by a team led by Qiming Zhang, distinguished professor of electrical engineering, was recently featured on the cover of the journal Advanced Functional Materials.

The work, “Giant Electrocaloric Response Over A Broad Temperature Range in Modified BaTiO₃ Ceramics,” was published in the journal’s March 5 issue.

Zhang’s team discovered a class of ferroelectric ceramics that exhibit giant electrocaloric effect (ECE) near room temperature. ECE is the electric field induced temperature change in insulation materials which have the promise of high efficiency electric coolers with compact size for on-chip cooling as we as for air conditioning and refrigeration.

However, the very small ECE observed in the past presents the effect to be attractive for practical applications.

The cover image shows a device simulation of a flat panel chip-scale cooler, employing the ECE materials developed.

The entire paper can be view online at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/adfm.201302386/abstract.

Engineering Ambassador Brad Wile makes adjustments to an interactional robotic system that can be controlled by students.

By Sabriana Pimental and Vanessa Cardy

The Engineering Ambassadors for the Penn State College of Engineering are educating State College youth on engineering and science through their senior design project — an interactional robotic system that can be controlled by students.

The goal of Engineering Ambassadors is to inspire middle and high school students to challenge conventional ideas about science and engineering through leadership.

The Ambassadors have been focused on creating more interactive projects that resonate better with younger students.

The robotic system was developed as part of a senior design class in mechanical engineering.

“Working with middle and high school students is one of the most enjoyable things about being an Engineering Ambassador, as most students of a young age do not have much exposure to aspects of engineering,” said Mike Coia, one of the Ambassadors. “This allows us the opportunity to show them what engineers can do and what their careers consist of.”

The project originates from enrollment in ME 440W: Mechanical Engineering Senior Design class. Students of the class are partnered with the Learning Factory, an organization dedicated to providing engineering students with practical hands-on experience through industry-sponsored design projects.

“Using the Learning Factory has helped us expand our array of activities and demos to more complicated mechanisms,” said Coia. “Being able to assemble and fabricate parts and systems in the Learning Factory allows us the convenience to continue these types of projects.”

The robotic arms are an idea developed by the Engineering Ambassadors and an activity that can be used in a middle or high school science fair environment. The purpose of the robotic arms is to capitalize on children’s interest in robots and show their use in today’s society.

The robotic arms will use six standard servo motors to allow a person to move the arm to an exact point in 3-D space. The servo motor will be connected to an Arduino motor controller. The arms will have six degrees of ample range of motion and freedom for the given workspace. They will be constructed out of acrylic to provide low-cost manufacturing ease and durability.

“Having access to the Learning Factory helps us make a more robust design,” said Ambassador Brad Wile. “They have tools, such as the laser cutter, that help make our robots easier to manufacture.”

The Ambassadors will utilize the arms to allow students play games and compete with each other. The students will use a PlayStation 2 controller that can be interfaced with the Arduino microcontroller to move each of the servos on the robot.

They will be presenting their project at the College of Engineering Design Showcase on May 1 in the Bryce Jordan Center.

Pimental and Cardy are students in Penn State’s College of Communications and account associates with the student-run Happy Valley Communications.

Though engineers and doctors have been hard at work developing breakthroughs such as artificial limbs and therapies for spinal cord injuries, one of the greatest challenges is designing the neural interfaces themselves — the bridge between the body’s nervous system and the medical device.

A paper reviewing the state of the art in biomaterials for neural interfaces is featured on the cover of the journal Advanced Materials.

As part of this effort, a team of Penn State engineers underwent an exhaustive review of the current state of the art in the organic and inorganic biomaterials utilized in neural interfaces.

The team’s paper looks at current microelectrode technologies, advancements in electroactive nanomaterials and the technical and scientific challenges in using nanomaterials to create long-lasting, functional neural interfaces.

The authors include Pouria Fattahi, graduate student in chemical engineering; Guang Yang, graduate student in bioengineering; Gloria Kim, graduate student in bioengineering; and Mohammad Reza Abidian, assistant professor of biomedical engineering, materials science and chemistry.

The result, “A Review of Organic and Inorganic Biomaterials for Neural Interfaces,” is the cover story in the latest issue of Advanced Materials, published on March 26.

The Penn State team’s paper can be found online at: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/adma.201304496/abstract.