Working Microbarbershop and Microchessboard Win Sandia Design Awards
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| Audience/Grade: | College Freshman-Professional Development |
| Discipline(s): |
Ceramic Engineering Electrical Engineering MEMS/NEMS Materials Engineering Mechanical Engineering Nanotechnology |
| Special Topic(s): |
Student Competitions |
| Learning Resource Type: |
Reference - Article/Document |
| Media Type: |
Video |
| Author(s): |
Rebecca Boyle |
| Description: | Popular Science article with images and a link to the student's final report on the Sandia National Laboratories student competition. Excerpt: "The world's tiniest chess board and a pea-sized barber shop are the winners of a microelectromechanical systems design contest at Sandia National Laboratories. The microbarbershop can cut a single hair, and the chess board -- about the diameter of four human hairs -- comes with a full set of minuscule chess pieces. Students at the University of Utah built the barbershop to convey the scale of MEMS devices. It comes with a micro-gripper and cutter that can grasp a strand of human hair and trim it. It also has a micro-hair-dryer and micro-mirror "for examining the quality of the cut," the students write in a paper about their design (PDF). Students at Texas Tech designed the chess set, which comes with micro-chess pieces scored with the design of traditional chess figures. Each piece has tiny stubs that allow a micro-robotic arm to move them among the squares." Image caption: Microbarbershop A microbarbershop designed by University of Utah students won a design award from Sandia National Laboratories. It includes a micro-cutter, micro-mirror and a neon lion. Sandia National Laboratories. |
| Rating: |
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| Related Resources | |
| Keywords: | nanotechnology Sandia MEMS |
| Usage Tip | |
| Related ABET Criteria: |
(c) Design a system, component, or process |
| Use of Resource: |
Student competitions can provide an engaging learning experience. "The microbarbershop has lessons that go beyond its entertainment value, according to its designers. The mirror demonstrates the optical properties of MEMS, leading to discussions of how they can be used in telecommunications and projection systems, for instance. The hair dryer illustrates how MEMS can produce heat and manipulate air using micro-heaters and fans, and that's applicable to how MEMS work in ink-jet printers and air-flow sensors." |
| Difficulty: |
Medium |
| Interactivity Level: |
Low |
| Version Info | |
| Publication Date: | June 2010 |
| Platform/Format: |
WWW |
| Cost: |
Free |
| Download URL: | http://www.popsci.com/gadgets/article/2010-06/microbarbershop-mic |
| Metadata: |
IEEE LOM Record |
| Collection: |
NEEDS
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