Biofuels derived from renewable sources can be produced in large quantities and can reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but only if they are made from certain sources, according to a new article by a team of scientists and policy experts that included several Princeton researchers.

“The world needs to replace fossil fuels with renewable energy, but recent research findings have thrown the emerging biofuels industry into a quandary,” said David Tilman of the University of Minnesota, a noted ecologist and lead author of the paper. “We met to seek solutions. We found that the next generation of biofuels can be highly beneficial if produced properly.”

The paper coincides with climate change policy debates in the U.S. Congress and tackles land use issues that have generated much controversy in recent years. Specifically, it addresses concerns that clearing land to grow biofuel crops or to grow food crops displaced by biofuel crops can release more greenhouse gases than petroleum use. Titled “Beneficial Biofuels—The Food, Energy and Environment Trilemma,” the paper will appear in the July 17 issue of the journal Science.

Robert Socolow, a Princeton professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, said that through careful scientific reasoning the authors of the paper discovered accounting rules to determine which strategies for generating biofuels were promising and which were not.

“It is essential that legislation take the best science into account, even when that requires acknowledging and undoing earlier mistakes,” Socolow said. “Future carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere will tell us when we’re kidding ourselves about what actually works. For carbon management, the atmosphere is the ultimate accountant.”

To balance biofuel production, food security and emissions reduction, the authors conclude that the biofuels industry must focus on five major sources of renewable biomass, the raw materials used to generate biofuels:

• Perennial plants grown on degraded lands abandoned from agricultural use
• Crop residues
• Sustainably harvested wood and forest residues
• Double crops and mixed cropping systems
• Municipal and industrial wastes

These sources can provide considerable amounts of biomass, at least 500 million tons per year, which could produce enough fuel to meet a significant amount of the U.S. demand for transportation fuels without releasing substantial carbon dioxide through changes in land use, the authors concluded. The researchers called for biofuels production to transition away from using food crops such as corn to generate fuels and toward the more sustainable sources they identified, which can be produced with much less impact on the environment.

Eric Larson, a researcher at Princeton Environmental Institute (PEI), said the new paper recognizes that converting farmland to grow a biofuel crop typically releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. For instance, growing corn produces a significant amount of greenhouse gases through the use of fertilizers and tractor fuel, and processing corn into ethanol requires burning fuels for heat. Some of those emissions would be offset by the carbon the corn absorbs from the atmosphere as it grows, so there would still be some emissions benefit compared to using petroleum-based fuels.

However, forests in other countries would probably be cleared to grow food corn to replace corn from U.S. farms used for fuel, a so-called “indirect land use impact” of biofuels. The researchers calculated it could take up to a century or more for such a tradeoff to result in a net reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, because cutting down forests and tilling freshly cleared land releases greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

“You have to consider the whole life cycle of producing biofuels and the repercussions of converting new land to biomass production,” said Robert Williams, a senior research at PEI. “In the petroleum industry they talk about the life cycle efficiency in terms of ‘well to wheels.’ Now we’re talking ‘field to wheels.’”

The discussions that led to the new paper began in June 2008 at a workshop on biofuels and food hosted by the Carbon Mitigation Initiative, a Princeton center headed by Socolow and Stephen Pacala, the Frederick D. Petrie Professor in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and director of the Princeton Environmental Institute. The group included 11 experts from various backgrounds who exchanged views about the sustainability of biofuels, food and the environment. The other authors of the paper were Tim Searchinger of Princeton; Jason Hill and Jonathan Foley of the University of Minnesota; Lee Lynd of Dartmouth; John Reilly of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; and Chris Somerville of the University of California-Berkeley.

“This group included both skeptics and enthusiasts for biofuels, and there was a lot of back and forth,” Williams said. “Everybody involved had deep knowledge in aspects of the question. The discussion was guided by past research, and we spent a lot of time framing the scientific issues in ways useful for policymakers.”

Foley, the director of the University of Minnesota’s Institute on the Environment, said the consensus reached by the various authors of the article was remarkable. “Technology experts, energy systems analysts, climatologists, ecologists and policy experts all agreed: Biofuels ‘done right’ have a bright future in solving our energy and environmental challenges,” he said. “Both new and existing biofuel strategies have the potential for being among the green energy solutions we need today.”

You wouldn’t fly on a commercial jet plane unless you were confident that the pilot had logged some serious time in a flight simulator, preparing for every eventuality. Someday it may be just as inconceivable to undergo delicate surgery without assurances that your doctor has taken a few practice runs on a three-dimensional, interactive simulation of your own anatomy. Researchers at Stanford University are hastening that day by developing a training technology that allows doctors to rehearse surgical procedures before the patient reaches the operating room.

The demonstration project, called the Stanford Rhino¬logical Virtual Surgical Environment (VSE), uses a haptic interface—mechanical feedback that simulates the sense of touch—developed by SensAble Technologies of Woburn, Massachusetts. The VSE system combines that interface with a set of detailed CT scans, taken before the operation, to create a digital “body double” of the patient. Using the patient’s own scans in the simulation could greatly assist doctors performing surgery near critical parts such as the optic nerve and carotid artery, where damage could cause permanent debilitation or death. In such operations, knowing the precise quirks of an individual’s anatomy is crucial to a successful outcome.

Kenneth Salisbury, a professor in Stanford’s departments of computer science and surgery, says that tactile feedback combined with the personalized information gives the VSE system a big advantage over current medical training simulations that use virtual surgery. “Existing systems allow you to move surrogate instruments around, watch how they look on the screen, and learn to make movements in the correct direction,” he says, adding, “It starts to get more interesting when you add the feeling and the reaction of tissue.”

The Stanford team has developed an enhanced haptic interface that can re-create essentially all of the physical challenges a surgeon would encounter in a procedure. From a clinical point of view, though, plastic training mannequins will probably always be useful. “It’s the same with an airplane,” Salisbury says. “You want a simulated plane that looks and feels like the one you’ll be flying.” Clinical trials of the VSE system are slated to take place over the next couple years.

HOW IT WORKS

A haptic-feedback device (A) operates in a way analogous to the graphics card in your computer monitor, but instead of creating an image, it renders the feeling of a physical object—in this case bone, cartilage, or a tumor. “Rather than controlling red, green, and blue pixels that are visible to the eye, the device controls the three-dimensional forces felt by the hand,” says Daniel Chen, chief technology officer at SensAble Technologies.

To create models of patients’ sinuses, multiple two-dimensional scans were taken of their sinus cavities to create a composite 3-D display (B) that is viewable on a standard PC. From the same data, physical mass, friction, and compliance properties are assigned to the anatomical parts within the sinus. The virtual sinus is then engaged by the haptics device, an armlike series of joints containing lightweight motors connected to an endoscope-tipped stylus (C). The device contains optical encoders that link the stylus’s movements with the image on the screen.

When the encoders sense that you have “bumped” into something, they signal the device to engage its motors so they respond with appropriate force. When a surgeon grazes the wall of the virtual nose, he or she will feel soft resistance; if the surgeon presses harder, the resistance will increase to mimic the feel of the underlying cartilage or bone.

Otherwise known as “The Lost Leonardo”, The Battle of Anghiari was an uncompleted work by Leonardo Da Vinci believed to be in Hall of 500 in the Palazzo Vecchio, Florence. The painting commissioned in 1504 by Piero Soderini, one of the heads of Republic of Florence, depicts the Republic’s victory in the plains of Anghiari. Da Vinci swiftly started work on the painting, hanging up a large cartoon depicting a violent clash between horses with their horsemen lock in battle.

In 1505, Da Vinci started painting what was to be his largest work. However, disaster plagued it from the start. The bad weather during painting caused the cartoon to be torn. Further, when he tried applying oil colors on the wall, the paint began to drip. In a last ditch effort to save the painting, Da Vinci use lighted braziers to speed the paint’s drying process. This caused the paint to drip down further. Only the lower part was able to be saved while the upper part’s color intermingled. Da Vinci then abandoned the painting.

It stood for about half a century in Hall of 500 where it was widely admired. Many including Raphael, one of the masters during the Renaissance came and copied it. Giorgio Vasari, an Italian painter and art historian during the Renaissance, was breathless in his admiration. “It would be impossible to express the inventiveness of Leonardo’s design for the soldiers’ uniforms, which he sketched in all their variety, or the crests of the helmets and other ornaments, not to mention the incredible skill he demonstrated in the shape and features of the horses, which Leonardo, better than any other master, created with their boldness, muscles and graceful beauty.”

Then it vanished. When the Republic fell to the Medici, the hall was enlarged and Vasari was commissioned to cover the walls with murals of military victories by the Medicis. The once legendary painting was then largely forgotten, only admired through Peter Paul Rubens copy in the Paris Lourve and lamented by art historians.

In 1975, Seracini after graduating from University of California, San Diego joined the Leonardo Project to determine the existence of Da Vinci’s mural. There, hidden in Vasari’s mural was a soldier holding a waved flag with the words Cerca Trova - He who seeks, finds. This Seracini believes confirms what many has long suspected - that Vasari instead of destroying the mural, he hid it.

Imaging technologies in the 1970s was not powerful enough to see what was behind the walls. Only in 2000, with the financial backing of philanthropist Loel Guinness was Seracini able to resume work. Using multispectral imaging technology, Seracini and a group of scientists carefully analyzed the room using laser, infrared and ultraviolet cameras. From the data obtained, they were able to map out the original room before the reconstruction by Vasari. And by using 16th century blueprints of the room, they were able to pinpoint the exact location where the painting was drawn which coincidentally enough is behind the Vasari mural with the cryptic words. Through their research, they discovered a thin layer of air behind the brick wall, giving the possible indication that Vasari’s painting was build over the original wall.

The next challenge was figuring out a way to “see” through the wall with Vasari’s painting without destroying it. The idea was to beam neutrons and construct an image of the painting by the particles it reflect. With help of the research community, Seracini developed devices that can detect neutrons reflected by hydrogen atoms that exist in the organic materials used in Da Vinci’s painting which does not exist in Vasari’s water based fresco mural. Another device is able to detect the gamma rays produced in the collisions between neutrons and the inorganic materials exist in the pigments of the paint.

In 2003, the team led by Seracini was dismayed to find their search suspended by the local authorities. In 2006, Guinness was able to get a documentary about the search aired on British TV. This led to an increase international interest in the project and with the new non-invasive technology available, allowed the Italian government to give their permission. Testings are now done to fine tune the devices before they are used on the delicate paintings.

The finding of the painting will be a small step in art history, but regardless of the outcome, the research is a great leap in applying science in analyzing art.

A couple of the high school students hover around the 2007 world-champion formula car, and their interest in the vehicle is reminiscent of Mantovano’s high school days. The Chicago, Illinois, native spent a lot of time in his school auto shop and even started a high-mileage vehicle club to design and build a fuel-efficient car.
“I really wanted to continue that type of extracurricular activity in college, so that’s how I started looking at different universities,” Mantovano says.

During Mantovano’s senior year in high school, the UW-Madison Formula SAE team ranked third in the world, and Mantovano was impressed. After touring the auto shop and meeting some of the students, he thought UW-Madison was the place for him.

As a freshman, Mantovano joined the Formula SAE team; student members design, build and race a formula-style car for a collegiate competition sponsored by the Society of Automotive Engineers.
In May 2007, Mantovano’s sophomore year, the team traveled to Romeo, Michigan, and claimed the world championship for the first time in UW-Madison history. Afterward, team membership skyrocketed to more than 100 students, and Mantovano, who had been the group leader’s “right-hand man,” found himself mentoring newer members.
 During the 2007-2008 school year, Mantovano was the powertrain group leader. He says the team has evolved substantially since his freshman year: Team leaders are more focused on training new members, and Mantovano says their self-sufficiency lets him focus on designing the powertrain system and testing engine parts.

Team dedication is evident in the amount of time members spend in the shop. “It’s like a job,” Mantovano says.

In the fall semester, he works on the car 20 hours a week; the time commitment jumps to almost 50 hours a week in the spring months before competition. “People don’t understand how I do it. I work twice a week, take four or five classes, and I’m at the gym right when it opens—I’m always running around,” says Mantovano with a laugh. “It’s worth it—it definitely pays off,” he adds. “You get what you put into the team. The more time you put in, the more you get out of it.”
Mantovano credits his family for the discipline it takes to balance all of his responsibilities. Both of his parents are originally from Italy, and Mantovano speaks fluent Italian. “They grew up pretty disciplined themselves, and some of that rubbed off on me,” he says.

His family is also the source of his passion for all things automotive. “When I was 5 years old, we used to go to Florida to visit my uncle. He’d have a few Ferrari model cars running around, so I’d play with them and take them apart, but try not to crash them because they’re kind of expensive,” Mantovano says.
His father, an avionics technician who originally aspired to be an engineer, taught Mantovano how to be hands-on around the house and in the garage. The result, Mantovano says, is that he’s a “fixer.”
His experience has led to several internships. In summer 2007, he worked at Goodyear in Akron, Ohio, on massive off-road tires that stand 12 feet tall. This summer, he’ll move to Iowa to work for John Deere on powertrains and engine control. In the fall, he’ll switch tracks and work on jet engine turbines for GE Aviation.

In the future, Mantovano says he would like to own his own company. He’s earning a business certificate at UW-Madison with that goal in mind. “If I could work for Ferrari, that’d be my dream job,” he adds.
In addition to his vehicle experiences, Mantovano has helped Assistant Dean for Engineering General Resources Don Woolston give presentations to prospective engineering students. After the presentations, Mantovano leads the students and their families on a tour of the engineering campus.
“I show them the shop as the last part because a lot of students want to see the hands-on stuff, and the shop is an easy way to give them a good representation of what students can get involved in here,” he says.

Involvement, in the end, is what Mantovano stresses to prospective students. “When you come to college, no matter what you do, get involved. Do something you love,” he says. “If it weren’t for my involvement in the organizations I’m in, I wouldn’t be where I’m at today.”

The above “paradox of plurality” which starts as a philosophical debate has extended to the twentieth century and continued gnawing on Physicists’ mind. For as long as it remains unsolved, the assumption that space or time composes of single points and that mathematics correlates seamlessly with physical facts are, startlingly, unfounded. A seemingly easy resolution is to say, well, space is after all composed of small “atoms” and not infinitely divisible. But this would turn the whole foundation of modern science topsy-turvy. We have to rest our mind, uneasily, on the recourse of set theory which dismisses the number of “space points” as super-denumerable in number and hence, undefined in their summation.

However, recent strides in Physics has concluded, to our utter amazement, that there is indeed a “rock bottom” to everything, be it space or time. “We’ve long suspected that space-time had to be quantized,” said Dr. Steven B. Giddings, a theorist at the University of California at Santa Barbara. “Recent developments have led to some exciting new proposals about how to make these ideas more concrete1.” Strong evidences of granularity of space and time are seen from recent attempts to unify general relativity, Einstein’s theory of gravity and quantum mechanics into a single, harmonious theory named superstring theory. Modern atomic theory has determined the quantization of energy since Planck’s time, yet the nature of space-time (which is in fact, linked with each other through gravity) continues in its dangling status. It is interestingly, also Planck who suspects that there is in fact a fundamental length in everything and he could prove it if he could somehow manipulate and combine gravitational constant, Planck’s constant and the speed of light in a way that their dimensions cancel each other. But mathematics alone surely does not suffice.

Physicists who believe in super-string theory2 have then sought to achieve the unification by coupling them mathematically and testing them experimentally to achieve a state at which different couplings have the same strength. Sadly, the mass scale required for this “experimental” unifications is way too high than existing particle accelerators. Yet, physicists are now taking a new detour: “Proton decay,” another hypothetical phenomenon which if experimentally observed, would corroborate superstring theory has been actively tested. Besides these thwarted experimental attempts, strong implications of minimal length could also be derived from Heisenberg uncertainty principle, the “non-commutative’ property of which would be adequately explained by granularity of space-time.

The theory of granularity of everything is by no means conclusive. Indeed, it would seem incredibly odd if our universe is in the force of a giant computer screen! But this is not to dismiss the idea as simply false since it does not accommodate our aesthetic and intuitive sense. Modern science is still continuing its quest to reach the heart of this ancient paradox of, “everything”.

References:

1 “How is the Universe Built? Grain by grain” –GEORGE JOHNSON, The New York Times

2 The Official Superstring Theory Web Site - www.superstringtheory.com

After a long wait, I would like to welcome you back to Technizzel.com. I can tell you from this point on we will have new and refreshing articles about the forthcoming technology and new information Age. This will be the spot to check for the most up to date news around the world as well as the research going around college campuses nationwide. If you want to know what is going to happen in the future or understand the technology of today, our articles will hold the answers to your questions.

We will be adding a few layout changes as time progresses, so please bare with us at site adapts and becomes more user friendly. We hope to add more members to our writing team as we reach out to more campuses and inevitably, more students. I encourage all of you to spread the word about Technizzel and our mission statement to change the perspective on the stereotypes of engineering. We are here to show that science is cool and math is fun, and together, these fields will make revolutionary steps towards bettering our future.

Please follow us on Twitter as well, as we will start to tell you guys when we post something really cool or let you know what projects outside of the blog we are doing. We have appreciated all the feedback in the past, and I hope you all continue to leave us comments and suggestions for how to improve the site.

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The students waved back across the tribal office parking lot and headed inside to discuss the details of their first long-term domestic project. Until now, the UW-Madison EWB chapter has focused on international projects in Rwanda, El Salvador, Haiti and Kenya.

EWB is a nonprofit organization that designs and implements sustainable engineering projects for communities, the vast majority of which are in foreign countries.

“Working closely with a Wisconsin community is as important as working in an exotic foreign location,” says civil and environmental engineering graduate student Alison Sanders, who is the project co-manager with civil and environmental engineering undergraduate Matthew McLaughlin. “We’re also getting a valuable experience in learning federal engineering design codes as well as learning the reservation’s own laws.”

Sanders and McLaughlin, along with mechanical engineering undergraduate Gavin Weir, civil and environmental engineering graduate student David Blodgett and civil and environmental engineering professor Kenneth Potter, met with Funk and tribal members from Aug. 1-4 to begin three projects related to flooding and stormwater infrastructure. The projects are long term, since EWB requires its chapters to commit to a community for at least five years.

The Red Cliff reservation wraps around 14 miles of the northernmost peninsula of mainland Wisconsin. The shoreline has a view of the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore and the clear waters of Lake Superior, known as “Anishanaabeg-gichigami” in the Ojibwe language (Chippewa is the anglicized term for Ojibwe).

Unfortunately, the scenic setting has not translated into economic prosperity for Red Cliff residents. The modest homes and community buildings on the reservation, which is home to approximately 1,500 people, stand in contrast with those in nearby Bayfield, Wis.

“Many Native American communities were decades behind comparably sized non-Indian communities in terms of basic water and sewer infrastructure,” says Funk. “Generally, quality of life in some parts of the reservation is not as good as it could be, and we hope EWB can help the tribe develop creative, low-cost solutions.”

One task for UW-Madison EWB will be to find a practical way to prevent flooding in a new community cemetery, which is located downhill of a wetland. Dry land suitable for development is often scarce on reservations in northern Wisconsin, and the tribe has discussed options for years. EWB members will evaluate the current plans to redirect water away from the site and try to turn those plans into a practical solution.

The students spent a hot and sunny afternoon surveying the cemetery with surveying equipment borrowed from the civil and environmental engineering department. They also toured a subdivision plagued by seasonal flooding and the future site of another housing project that currently consists of a bumpy dirt road cutting through a thick patch of forest. Funk hopes the students can design a stormwater management system for the new development, and the students plan to return in the fall to survey the site after the leaves have fallen.

Connecting with the community was also a trip priority. Students spoke with a tribal elder, who explained the tribe’s history and the relationship between the Ojibwe Tribes and the United States. Sanders and Blodgett met with the tribal council on the final evening of the trip and were featured on the local television station.

“We are really excited to be working with the Red Cliff Tribe,” says Sanders. “Not only is it a great learning experience for student engineers to apply their knowledge to real-world problems, but this collaboration provides a unique personal experience and cultural awareness.”

Red Cliff is not the only tribal community that will benefit from UW-Madison EWB efforts by. Throughout the spring, Sanders and McLaughlin were in touch with multiple Lake Superior Chippewa communities. They selected Red Cliff as the UW-Madison project, but they didn’t neglect the others: Sanders and McLaughlin coordinated with the EWB chapters at UW-Platteville and Indiana University-Purdue University, Indianapolis, which will work with Lac Vieux Desert. Michigan Technological Institute will pick up projects with Keweenaw Bay.

“I’m very appreciate of the effort and attitude of the group,” Funk says. “Beyond the practical help, I’m looking forward to the energy, enthusiasm and inspiration of the UW-Madison EWB chapter.”

            Some may suggest theories of steroids, but Speedo has its own theory. For once the technology to sponsor faster and better is not from a gadget, but from the twisting of polymers and amalgamation of materials. From the recent past to the live Olympics, Speedo has created a suit not only partially responsible for winning races but for breaking world records. From Phelps’ quest to seize 8 gold medals, Eamon Simmons’ victory in the 100m freestyle, to Kitajima’s crushing win in the breaststroke, the suit seems to be the common factor towards swim success.

            The LZR Racer suit is used by the best in the world, and perhaps by the end of the article, we will see why. There is a team of aspects that works together to promote the sleek and triumphing design of the suit. First is called the LZR pulse, which is pretty much the swimsuit itself. The ‘pulse’ is ultra light and water repelling that was created to “reduce muscle oscillation and skin vibration through powerful compression” according to Speedo.com, which further adds that its suit decreases drag speed as well. That of course, is step one in the handbook for breaking world records.

            The LZR panels are located all over the suit, which are ultra thin and low drag panels that promote a streamlined shape for the swimmer. The internal Core Stabiliser is located at the hips and is designed to act like a corset that enforces the swimmer to maintain the best body shape throughout the water in a race. Further contributing to the infamous streamline position, are the bonded seams throughout the suit; the LZR Racer suit is the first suit with ultrasonically welded seams that provides a smooth and flexible surface. And last of all the facets is the three dimensional three-piece pattern that optimizes the shape of the swimmer.

            For avid swimmers, the suit has 5% less drag and is 4% faster than the FastSkin FS Pro along with being 5% better in oxygen efficiency in comparison to most normal suits. Such stats and material technology have attracted swimmers across the globe, including those previously mentioned, newcomers to the Olympics, Katie Hoff and Alaine Bernard, and many others. Michael Phelps further corroborates the success of the suit by saying, “Whether it’s the extra 100^th to win the gold medal or to break a world record, I’m confident knowing that I’m wearing the fastest suit known.” His teammate Ryan Lochte commented on the feel of the suit as well: “It feels amazing. It feels like you’re sliding through the water. It feels really tight on you and it feels real slick!”

            The development of the suit took place in Speedo’s AquaLab, a heaven for engineers in some sense. According to Speedo.com, “Aqualab works with world class experts from diverse industries including aerospace, engineering and medicine.” With all the talk of how the suit reduces drag significantly, Speedo justifies such findings with its coalition with NASA. It tested over 60 different materials in NASA’s famous wind tunnels to see which resulted in the least amount of negative drag. Water flume testing was also conducted- a test that provides an indication in regards to wind flow and patterns. At the University of Otago in New Zealand, tests were conducted through a range of competitive swimming velocities which produced results about the net drag on a swimmer. The experts responsible for handling these records involved biomechanics- a field mixing both human and the machine elements of the world. In regards to Lochte’s comment, the AquaLab had conducted 3D scan of a typical swimmer’s body to target the compression and streamline aspect of the suit.

            With all the research done, Speedo was left with one more hurdle before it could release its aquatic epiphany to the elite of the sport: Performance testing. Among a myriad of tests performed, the important ones that assessed start times, flexibility, turning, free swimming, and drag, were the ones the mattered most to swimmers. The results, of course, can be seen by the quotes of the most renowned swimmers of our time.

            Speedo has definitely out-engineered itself this time, contributing to the dazzling races unfolding in the 29^th Olympics. With records being smashed left and right, we do not need to credit illegal drugs but perhaps to a swimsuit beyond its time. Not only is the LZR Racer just any swimsuit, it is the fastest! Computational fluid dynamics along with the typical engineering mind can be held primarily responsible for jumpstarting a league of new race times.  This field is used to “predict how existing and new product designs will behave in real-world environments, [and] has been used to evaluate the friction, pressure and fluid flow characteristics around swimmers.” By recognizing where drag occurs most along the human body, Speedo can build its suits to minimize the drag in these areas. Since 1992, Speedo has been trying to show the swimming world that your best is an evolving term, and as long as we apply our engineering expertise, we can always find room to be better.

For more information and see athlete feedback as well as videos on development of the suit, check out Speedo80.com .

Civil and environmental engineering students Jonathan Blanchard , Kevin Orner and David Tengler receive a plaque from five communities in Ecuador that will benefit from a new water pipeline the students implemented in June. (large image)

“I’ve got a project for you,” University of Wisconsin-Madison Civil and Environmental Engineering Professor Peter Bosscher told Jonathan Blanchard and Kevin Orner in August 2007, during one of the trio’s weekly gatherings at Bosscher’s home.

Blanchard and Orner, civil and environmental engineering students who graduated in May 2008, listened as their mentor described a design to fix a water pipeline serving five small communities in central Ecuador.

“The day he told us, we said, ‘Yes, we’ll do it.’ We went home and started putting together a proposal that week,” says Orner.

Along with fellow civil and environmental engineering student David Tengler, Blanchard and Orner tackled the project for their senior design capstone project, a requirement for all civil and environmental engineering seniors.

The result is a 10 km-long system of PVC pipes that provides equal amounts of water to the villages of Larca Cunga, Agualongo, Panecillo, Yambiro and San Juan Loma.

Water equity is a major improvement: Before the project, the communities furthest from the mountain spring could only draw water for one hour late at night while the communities closest to the source drew an estimated 100 gallons per person per day.

“We all felt privileged to do a project that influences people’s lives in such a positive way,” says Tengler.

Implemented in Ecuador in June 2008, the project is also a meaningful tribute to a mentor who lived to serve others. Bosscher died in November 2007 after a battle with kidney cancer.

“We’ve been so tremendously influenced by Peter and we want to keep remembering what he’s taught us,” says Blanchard. “The pipeline, which has been dubbed the Peter Bosscher Memorial Waterway, is a living memorial because it will keep providing abundant water for years to come.”

The idea for the pipeline redesign originally came from researchers at the UW-Madison Center for Global Health, who noticed local struggles with water access while conducting a field study in Ecuador. Sensing that an engineering solution was necessary, Curtis Johnson, a professor emeritus of pharmacy and medicine, invited Bosscher to survey the system. Lori DiPrete Brown, the Center for Global Health assistant director, worked with Bosscher in the field and stayed connected with the community. She also oriented the students.

Bosscher was the advisor for the UW-Madison chapter of Engineers Without Borders, a nonprofit organization that designs and implements sustainable engineering projects in foreign countries. Blanchard, Orner and Tengler were active members of EWB—Blanchard and Orner even led a project to construct a sewer pipeline in El Salvador in January 2008.

Their EWB connections also led them to Tom Siebers, a civil and environmental alumnus and retired engineer who acted as a resource and mentor for the students.

“I enjoyed it tremendously,” says Siebers. “You can purchase a vacation to another country, but you only see it from a distance. This enabled us to live and work with people who could touch you and be touched by you.”

Other alumni and industry contacts were involved with the project by way of funding. The Civil and Environmental Visiting Committee financed the project, which cost $12,500.

“The board saw a legitimate need and saw the passion of the students,” says Civil and Environmental Engineering Professor and Chair Jeffrey Russell. “When our alumni and industry partners are asked to help, they respond, especially when you articulate how your plan is going to make a difference.”

In March 2008, Orner and Tengler traveled to Ecuador during their spring break to meet community members and gather field data. After tweaking the design for the rest of the semester, the three students and Siebers returned to Ecuador to implement the project from May 27 to June 10.

Prior to the group’s arrival, the communities gathered to excavate the pipeline trenches. The Ecuadorian tradition of gathering together to work for the good of the community is known as a minga.

“There were women with year-old babies on their back willing to climb a kilometer uphill in bare feet to lay pipe,” recalls Orner. “That was just business as usual.”

The project had three components. First, new pipe with a wider diameter than that of the existing pipe was laid to increase the flow to the system. Next, the team added a pressure release box to prevent pipes from bursting at the low end of the system. Additionally, they installed water meters and valves to regulate the system.

Though the students originally thought two minga sessions would be enough to complete the project, they ended up working every day for the two-week trip. On the final day, the communities threw a celebration to thank the students for their work. The festivities included speeches, dancing and a basket of potatoes served with five roasted guinea pigs on top.

The communities also gave the students a plaque, which will hang in the civil and environmental engineering department office—a small reminder of the project its legacy.

“Peter’s view of the role of an engineering education is it can and should be relevant and significant in a global world. He thought about big challenges and how he could make a difference,” says Russell.

Tengler now works for Hunzinger Construction Co. in Brookfield, Wisconsin. Blanchard and Orner will continue a career in humanitarian-based engineering as graduate students in the Peace Corps Master’s International program at the University of South Florida, Tampa.

“It’s one thing to talk about globalization and making a difference. It’s another thing entirely to do it,” says Russell.

For Tengler, the experience illustrated the power of an engineering education to help people.

“If other students have this kind of opportunity, it would create a whole new class of civil engineers,” he says. “You don’t realize the potential of your education until you actually start doing things.”

In May 2007, the UW-Madison Formula SAE Racing Team battled 129 schools from 11 countries and won the prestigious SAE Foundation Cup, pictured with team member Gianluca Mantovano. (large image)

Gianluca Mantovano’s favorite part of the tours he gives prospective students is what he calls the “grand finale.” It’s a look at the Myers Student Automotive Center in the Engineering Centers Building—home to the six University of Wisconsin-Madison vehicle teams and a major part of Mantovano’s daily life.

“This is the team I’m on,” the mechanical engineering student tells nine high school students and their families, gesturing at the Formula SAE car engine Mantovano tests.

A couple of the high school students hover around the 2007 world-champion formula car, and their interest in the vehicle is reminiscent of Mantovano’s high school days. The Chicago, Illinois, native spent a lot of time in his school auto shop and even started a high-mileage vehicle club to design and build a fuel-efficient car.

“I really wanted to continue that type of extracurricular activity in college, so that’s how I started looking at different universities,” Mantovano says.

During Mantovano’s senior year in high school, the UW-Madison Formula SAE team ranked third in the world, and Mantovano was impressed. After touring the auto shop and meeting some of the students, he thought UW-Madison was the place for him.

As a freshman, Mantovano joined the Formula SAE team; student members design, build and race a formula-style car for a collegiate competition sponsored by the Society of Automotive Engineers.

In May 2007, Mantovano’s sophomore year, the team traveled to Romeo, Michigan, and claimed the world championship for the first time in UW-Madison history. Afterward, team membership skyrocketed to more than 100 students, and Mantovano, who had been the group leader’s “right-hand man,” found himself mentoring newer members.
 During the 2007-2008 school year, Mantovano was the powertrain group leader. He says the team has evolved substantially since his freshman year: Team leaders are more focused on training new members, and Mantovano says their self-sufficiency lets him focus on designing the powertrain system and testing engine parts.

Team dedication is evident in the amount of time members spend in the shop. “It’s like a job,” Mantovano says.

Gianluca Mantovano’s passion for race cars led to a scholarship from Castrol, which he traveled to California to receive. While there, he toured drag racer John Force’s garage and poses here with a drag car engine. (large image)

In the fall semester, he works on the car 20 hours a week; the time commitment jumps to almost 50 hours a week in the spring months before competition. “People don’t understand how I do it. I work twice a week, take four or five classes, and I’m at the gym right when it opens—I’m always running around,” says Mantovano with a laugh. “It’s worth it—it definitely pays off,” he adds. “You get what you put into the team. The more time you put in, the more you get out of it.”

Mantovano credits his family for the discipline it takes to balance all of his responsibilities. Both of his parents are originally from Italy, and Mantovano speaks fluent Italian. “They grew up pretty disciplined themselves, and some of that rubbed off on me,” he says.

His family is also the source of his passion for all things automotive. “When I was 5 years old, we used to go to Florida to visit my uncle. He’d have a few Ferrari model cars running around, so I’d play with them and take them apart, but try not to crash them because they’re kind of expensive,” Mantovano says.

His father, an avionics technician who originally aspired to be an engineer, taught Mantovano how to be hands-on around the house and in the garage. The result, Mantovano says, is that he’s a “fixer.”

His experience has led to several internships. In summer 2007, he worked at Goodyear in Akron, Ohio, on massive off-road tires that stand 12 feet tall. This summer, he’ll move to Iowa to work for John Deere on powertrains and engine control. In the fall, he’ll switch tracks and work on jet engine turbines for GE Aviation.

In the future, Mantovano says he would like to own his own company. He’s earning a business certificate at UW-Madison with that goal in mind. “If I could work for Ferrari, that’d be my dream job,” he adds.

In addition to his vehicle experiences, Mantovano has helped Assistant Dean for Engineering General Resources Don Woolston give presentations to prospective engineering students. After the presentations, Mantovano leads the students and their families on a tour of the engineering campus.

“I show them the shop as the last part because a lot of students want to see the hands-on stuff, and the shop is an easy way to give them a good representation of what students can get involved in here,” he says.

Involvement, in the end, is what Mantovano stresses to prospective students. “When you come to college, no matter what you do, get involved. Do something you love,” he says. “If it weren’t for my involvement in the organizations I’m in, I wouldn’t be where I’m at today.”