Tea and Crumpets: A Summer in Science

Date: 19.7.13 Time: 18:11 Location: Cornell University Computer and information science was presented by Professor Walker White.  Computer and information science covers many fields, including computer science, information science, artificial intelligence, and information technology.  Just as other engineering fields like to use their hands and physical materials to solve problems, computer scientists prefer to find ways to solve daily problems with computers.  They also look for places where computers could replace humans, saving time, cost, and error.  These are incredibly important replacements, especially in large corporations, as they could save millions of dollars each year. Information scientists work to alleviate the problems between humans and technology.  If they are improving the usability of software for understanding the data collection of certain websites, information scientists must understand the public's view on certain systems in order ...

Date: 18.7.13 Time: 8:00 Location: School of Engineering, Cornell University The penultimate day at Cornell began with a lecture by Professor Teresa Jordan, who works in the department of earth sciences.  Earth sciences is exactly what you would think, it is the study of the materials on our planet, such as soil, rock, oceans, and the atmosphere.  Within these materials, the scientists look at the history, determining where they came from and how they were changed by the weather and living beings of that time.  You could almost say that earth science is a more historical division of engineering. During the presentation, Professor Jordan focused on the innovations in geothermal energy.  Geothermal energy works by harnessing heat from the ground and using it to control the temperature of buildings.  While currently expensive compared to burning fossil fuels, this is a very "green" way of heating structures.  Earth science engineers are currently worki...

Date: 17.7.13 Time: 12:00 Location: College of Engineering, Cornell University Systems operations is similar to organizing on a large scale. Operations engineers work generally in large companies, determining how much of a product to order and distribute to the regional stores for sale. This is incredibly important, as shipping and holding too much inventory in the regional warehouses is costly. However, lack of inventory because items are on back order may also result in lost sales.  Operations engineers are needed in many places, including car companies, governments, hospitals, and any company that has products that need to be distributed. Operations research also works with statistics, to determine optimal pricing.  For example, airlines raise ticket prices as the flight date approaches, realizing that later demand is more urgent.  This is the kind of work systems engineers do, studying human behavior and determining ways to maximize profit.  The f...

Date: 17.7.13 Time: 8:00 Location: Cornell University Wednesday began with a presentation on Material Science.  Material science is the division of engineering that tests the materials other divisions are able to use to create their structures.  Materials engineers work to find where and when things fail.  For example, they will determine the maximum weight a cement column could hold, and how it would stand up against weather and time.  It is said that engineers as a whole are generally very behind-the-scenes, and materials engineers are the behind-the-scenes of the engineering world.  Their work is crucial to the development and work of other engineering divisions. Carbon Nanotubes At Cornell, materials science is being approached on the molecular level.  Many substances act differently once reduced to itty bitty parts, and knowing these differences allows us to better understand these materials. Using processes such as scanning tunneling m...

Date: 16.7.13 Time: 10:30 Location: Cornell University The second lecture of the second day of Catalyst Academy was given by Professor John C Belina and it was on Electrical and Computer Engineering.  This field of engineering covers designing computer systems, integrated circuits, enhancing virtual reality, and secure cyberspace.  Just as biomaterials is the hot portion of biomedical engineering, cloud computing is a very lucrative portion of computer engineering. There are three major school subjects that feed into electrical engineering.  The first is physics, which is used to work with circuits, semiconductor devices, and optical systems.  Next comes computer class, which would make sense considering it is computer engineering.  Finally, math is incredibly important for electrical engineering as it is used to generate information, and manipulate systems or networks. Cloud computing is most definitely the newest and fastest growing part of electri...

Date: 16.7.13 Time: 8:30 Location: Engineering School, Cornell University Tuesday began with a lecture by Professor Hernandez regarding biomedical engineering.  Biomedical engineering works to improve the field of medicine by creating machines and materials that are more reliable or durable than their human counterparts. Ekso Bionics walking aid Biomaterials is an incredibly lucrative field within biomedical engineering.  Biomaterials include artificial bones, and drug delivery systems.  Other hot fields study the response of cells to certain stimuli, and mechanical properties of cells or human tissue.  This type of engineering is the future of medicine, as projects like creating artificial organs will eliminate the need for some of the more conventional medicine practices. I have experience with biomedical engineering, as it was the topic of RoboElite's presentation during the 2010-2011 FIRST robotics season.  We built a robotic leg brace, not too d...

Date: 15.7.13 Time: 11:00 Location: Cornell School of Engineering, Cornell University Our second lecture was given by Professor Hollister regarding his work with civil engineering.  Civil engineering was the first engineering major offered when Cornell first opened in 1868 and has continues to be an integral part of the engineering school.  Civil engineering deals with the design, construction, and infrastructure management of the buildings we work and live in every day.  Civil and environmental engineering were grouped together because Professor Hollister focuses on combining creating interesting buildings with ones that are also environmentally responsible. Civil engineering has to not only focus on the actual building, but correspond with transportation engineers to bring people to and from the structure, water resource systems engineers who will handle bringing safe, clean water to the structure, and engineering managers.  These are the most crucial b...

Date: 15.7.13 Time: 8:30 Location: Olin Hall, Cornell School of Engineering, Cornell University This morning we attended our first lecture, given by Professor Rozana Zia regarding chemical and biomolecular engineering.  Biomolecular engineering deals with cell and protein engineering, virus fusion kinetics, nanotechnology, and has a strong focus on fluid dynamics.  Bioengineers do both microscopic research, similar to that of a biologist or microbiologist, as well as macroscopic work such as how to move shampoo through a three mile pipe at Johnson and Johnson. Some of the graduate students working in the Zia Lab presented the work they were doing.  This work Atomic layer deposition included synthetic engineering, where they engineer cells to display or hide certain characteristics in order to manipulate and control them, flexible technology, where one student is working to find out how to make flexible display screens using atomic layer deposition, RNA engineer...

Today I began my first day at Cornell's Catalyst Academy.  Catalyst Academy is an engineering program run by the diversity programs in engineering department of Cornell University.  High School students apply during the school year, and of the many applicants, 45 are chosen to attend the week-long program.  Every day begins with two, two-hour lectures from prominent Cornell professors explaining more about their individual fields.  This was followed by four hours of research for our final group projects. The lectures were incredibly helpful, as they each gave some insight into the different engineering fields, as well as gave specific information regarding the engineering majors offered at Cornell.  It was interesting to find out how far the umbrella of engineering spans as well as the amount of commingling among the different fields. The research project focused on creating an environmentally and economically conscious house.  Using Arduino the ...