Comments for Design Impact

Comment on Engineering Week 2010 by UWAFT

UWAFT — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 05:28:54 +0000

At University of Waterloo, Canada, we had a similar event called Go Eng Girl! It is an educational event where Grade 7-10 girls across the province of Ontario visit local universities to learn the wonderful opportunities of engineering. Our team, University of Waterloo Alternative Fuels Team (UWAFT), was featured in the showcase information fair.
UWAFT designs, builds and markets the hydrogen vehicles of the future. Partnering with General Motors, the Department of Energy, we compete with 18 other notable schools across North America with the dream of building the next EcoCAR. So join us as we get ready to drive the clean vehicles of tomorrow.

Find out more about the competition: http://greengarageblog.org/
Want to know more about UWAFT? http://www.uwaft.com/

Comment on Extreme Efficiency: Secrets Behind Miserly Solar Cars Part III (Tires) by Michael

Michael — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 04:30:45 +0000

Thank you, James! I contacted NGM and found out all the info from them, as well as from some other teams. Now we just need to decide on wheels!

Comment on Extreme Efficiency: Secrets Behind Miserly Solar Cars Part III (Tires) by James

James — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 16:02:20 +0000

@Michael: Several years ago when I was involved with solar racing we bought our Bridgestone Ecopias through NGM (www.ngmcorp.com). I’m not sure if they are still a distributor. Have you tried contacting other teams to see how they obtain their tires? In my experience most teams are very helpful; they like to see another team get up and running. Have you contacted anyone at ASC (americansolarchallenge.org)?

Comment on Extreme Efficiency: Secrets Behind Miserly Solar Cars Part III (Tires) by Michael

Michael — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 21:34:20 +0000

I am with the Georgia Institute of Technology Solar Jackets, a burgeoning solar racing team. We are trying to locate tires to use for our vehicle. Do you know any specifics about the brand/model of these tires and where to purchase them? We have contacted Michelin (Radials), Bridgestone (Ecopia EP80), and Dunlap (SolarMax D850), but keep getting directed around and are still waiting for a response.

Thanks.

Comment on Engineering Education for the Rest of Us by James

James — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 16:45:48 +0000

Here is something related:

http://www.wired.com/underwire/2010/01/physics-of-superheroes/

A professor using superheroes to teach physics.

Comment on Next Generation Vehicle Control, Collision Avoidance, and Link to Sustainability by Rory kaiser

Rory kaiser — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 17:39:10 +0000

It would be hard for me to trust a system like this initially. If there were a good balance of intervention intensity and or a user defined set of parameters then I believe the system could be very successful. One thing I believe would go a long ways in collision avoidance is a system which can actively interpret the drivers awareness level and use this in conjunction perhaps with secondary hazard sensors. This system would analyze things like; Are the drivers eyes on the road? Is the driver impaired by some sort of drugs? Is the driver drowsy? Did the driver look both ways before crossing traffic? Then reacting accordingly based on the findings. Many collisions could be avoided if the driver were focused on there intended path. Shutting the vehicle down if the driver is impaired is not a bad idea. Intervention intensity should be increased if the drivers eyes are looking toward the floor or away from hazards. Also maybe an audible alert to driver that they are not paying attention.

Comment on David MacKay on Energy by Free Power

Free Power — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 00:58:08 +0000

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to comment on this post. It was very insightful. It may also serve as interest to you to know that some of the topics that have been mentioned here I will take to the CHOGM (Commonwealth Heads Of Government Meeting) being currently held in my country where the issues of climate change as well as alternative forms of energy will greatly discussed at the People Forum

Kevin Castle

Comment on 18 Minutes by Milessio

Milessio — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 15:08:48 +0000

Why does a CAR day include walking children to school?

& as walking 1/2 mile takes approx 7-8mins, is it worth going by bike?

Comment on 18 Minutes by Barb Chamberlain

Barb Chamberlain — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 19:36:18 +0000

I encourage others to make this comparison–it’s one of the things I use to talk up bike commuting to people who think it takes longer.

My kids no longer need my assistance to get to school, but my work has a number of out-of-office meetings so that may make up for it in complications.

I live in Spokane, WA. I’m a 100% bike commuter till it’s too slippery, then I switch to the bus. My daily roundtrip is only 5 miles; with typical meeting schedules I can end up doing 7-10 total; unusual days might add a 20-mile roundtrip for a meeting, which would skew the time factor in favor of the car.

Bike Day:
- Fill panniers w/my stuff (any clothing changes, lunch, phone etc)
- Bike to work (2.5 miles/approx 9 minutes, mostly downhill w/some traffic sprints)
- Lock bike to rack, go into office
- Remove outerwear, change into work shoes (or change all clothing if I really dressed for the cold)

Total elapsed time approx 15 min. (slightly longer if I take the bike into our indoor sheltered bike parking due to weather conditions, because I have to get through the locked door and lift the bike up high to hang it on the rack)

Car Day:
- Round up personal items & find purse to put them into, because usually I leave some things in my pannier ready to go.
- Drive to work. This may include extra wait time because I don’t have a dedicated lane that lets me bypass left-turning vehicles. On my bike I can keep going past, because my route has a bike lane for most of its length.
- Park somewhere in the lot, which involves circling to find a spot.
- Walk to building (guaranteed to be a longer walk than bike rack, since that’s right next to the building entrance)
- Remove outerwear.

Total elapsed time: At least 15 min.

Bike Day: Additional effort to go to meetings in downtown core:
- Hang pannier on bike w/my stuff for meeting
- Use binder clip or rubber band to contain right pant leg.
- Ride to meeting 1/2 mi. away (my pedals are clip-in one side, regular on the other, so I don’t have to change shoes)
- Lock bike to rack or parking meter in front of destination.
- Arrive at meeting.

Total elapsed time approx 7 min.

Car Day: Additional effort to go to meetings in downtown core:
- Remember where I parked my car in the lot.
- Walk to car.
- Drive to meeting 1/2 mi. away.
- Circle until I find a parking spot.
- Realize I don’t usually carry parking meter change because I don’t need it on my bike.
- Sprint into meeting destination, beg change from others in the meeting, sprint back to car.
- Plug meter.
- Walk at brisk pace back to meeting.

Total elapsed time: Completely variable depending on location of parking spot and availability of spare change (which I admittedly DO try to carry in the car, but I use it so seldom there’s no guarantee). ALWAYS, always longer than 7 min.

Additional variable cost: $15 parking ticket.

I’ll take my bike, thank you very much.

Oh, and my transit alternative? There’s a stop on the road that goes past my building, and the central transit plaza is in the heart of downtown, right across the street from one of my main destinations for meetings. 7 minutes start to finish.

@BarbChamberlain
@Bike2WrkSpokane

Comment on Baby Steps, or War-Time Effort? by Tammy Markee-Mayas

Tammy Markee-Mayas — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 01:21:57 +0000

Well hello there!

First, we’re very flattered that you found us so early - our site only officially launched on July 2nd of this year (stop by and see our new look and growing content - we no longer look like a blog).

Additionally, we would like to respond to your post that Baby Steps focus “on small personal changes runs the risk of mollifying us, satisfying our desires to do something, and thereby distracting us from paying attention to the bigger picture,” it is certainly not our intention to “mollify” anyone. It is our intent to bring the truly BIG picture to light … we hope to rekindle/awaken the passion for nature, to nurture a feeling of global responsibility, and to inspire everyone to embrace new (sustainable) ideas/practices and incorporate as many new habits as possible into their daily lives and decisions. We have to start somewhere … most people can’t jump from A-Z … it takes steps; personally, we have been on our journey for five years, and while we’re not perfect, we do as much as we can every day and we do more as soon as we learn about it - our site wants to reduce that “learning curve” for as many entities as possible.

And we also started our site in baby steps … it has been four years in the making and is still slow-going. We invest hours of research before I finally post a topic AND I also work full-time, my wife is a full-time student (Civil Engineer Technician program - she’ll be working on some great, sustainable projects in the very near future - become our friend and see her as an intern - http://www.facebook.com/p.php?i=100000233535212&k=Z6E3Y5UXV24B4CFJPB63QTS2VUKB532&r), and we raise an active, ambitious, and fun-loving eight-year-old!

In closing, we’d like to thank you for stopping by and invite you to come back often as we add sustainable suggestions that range from what goes on your table, to sustainable hobbies, travel, home designs, and new holiday traditions, to “green” investments … and everything in between.

Cheers,
Tammy and Lu-Venus
PS - try updating to “ReCaptcha” - then your spam-busting has an added benefit of digitally preserving old text/documents - with no additional effort from your users.