Australian Ian Thorpe may have been making all the headline news at the Olympics. But a fellow Aussie, Brian Thomas, drew a standing-room-only crowd of middle and high school educators at NIWeek (Aug. 17-19), to talk about another major international competition—for a little bit younger but no less intense set. The teachers listened raptly as he described how the only 10 students in a tiny middle school 100 km inland in the Australian Outback made it all the way to the RoboCup Junior International Competition (http://rbi.ims.ca/3855-549) in Lisbon in July. That's no small feat, given that the program, in which students build robots to compete in a soccer-like tournament, has expanded in just five years to include some 1,000 Australian teams of four to five students each. This year, the Aussies vied with some 20,000 students from 29 countries worldwide, including China, Iran, and the U.S., for a chance at the gold. Some 175 by-invitation-only educators from around the world attended this special event here focusing on ROBOLAB, a robot development kit that combines LEGO bricks and a version of NI's LabVIEW graphical development software (http://rbi.ims.ca/3855-550). Designed to introduce basic engineering concepts to kids of all ages, the wildly popular kit that was first introduced 14 years ago is making its way into classrooms around the world—thanks to events like the RoboCup Junior Competition. Like the U.S., Australia is facing a shortage of engineering graduates to fill technical positions in the future. Thomas sees the competition as a way to expose kids to science and technology in a fun and meaningful way. "For a lot of kids, math and science courses are dull and uninspiring. We're finding RoboCup is turning them around, even getting them thinking about pursuing a degree in engineering."
By experimenting with the photovoltaic reaction in solar cells, researchers at MIT have made a breakthrough in energy efficiency that significantly pushes the boundaries of current commercial cells on the market.
In a world that's going green, industrial operations have a problem: Their processes involve materials that are potentially toxic, flammable, corrosive, or reactive. If improperly managed, this can precipitate dangerous health and environmental consequences.
With LEDs dropping in price virtually every year, automakers have begun employing them, not only on luxury vehicles, but on entry-level models, as well.
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A quick look into the merger of two powerhouse 3D printing OEMs and the new leader in rapid prototyping solutions, Stratasys. The industrial revolution is now led by 3D printing and engineers are given the opportunity to fully maximize their design capabilities, reduce their time-to-market and functionally test prototypes cheaper, faster and easier. Bruce Bradshaw, Director of Marketing in North America, will explore the large product offering and variety of materials that will help CAD designers articulate their product design with actual, physical prototypes. This broadcast will dive deep into technical information including application specific stories from real world customers and their experiences with 3D printing. 3D Printing is
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