WSU Mechanical Engineering Freshman Kacie Salmon drew inspiration from our four lab research themes of hydrogen cooling, storage, energy, and properties to develop this poster:
Each column contains a hydrogen riddle. Feel free to e-mail me your riddle answers: jacob.leachman@wsu.edu
Kacie’s going to be great!
And to celebrate, here’s a para-orthohydrogen tree ornament (note the spin direction of the nuclei). Have a safe break everyone! 🙂
University of Tennessee Professor Matthew Mench reviewed the recent history of hydrogen research in Foreign Affairs, “High Hopes for Hydrogen: Fuel Cells and the Future of Energy.”
Most folks know the history of George W. Bush’s push to develop the hydrogen fuel cell car around 2004. Today we have the Toyota Mirai, Hyundai Tucson, and Honda Clarity to thank for making the dream a reality. This all came in spite of Barrack Obama’s dismantling of the US hydrogen research infrastructure in 2009. Steven Chu, the lead of the Department of Energy at the time famously said “four miracles are needed for the hydrogen economy… … » More …
The best coach I had for reference letters was P.K. Northcutt II, the head of IT at the University of Idaho College of Engineering. I asked P.K. for a reference letter once and almost had an early-life crisis (it was needed). P.K. is not a professor, engineer, or someone in any position of rank or power. Despite that he was able to write — while teaching me how to write — phenomenal reference letters. At the very least, reviewers had to be impressed by my awareness to select exceptionally good letter writers.
So you want me to write you a reference letter? Start here:
I only … » More …
This just in…
Connecticut Senator Richard Blumenthal’s resolution passed on September 29th 2015 designating today, 10/08, as National Hydrogen Fuel Cell Day! Hydrogen’s atomic weight is 1.00794 atomic mass units. When rounded we arrive at 1.008. More information on today’s celebration is here: http://www.hydrogenfuelcellday.org/
Some thoughts from the Department of Energy to consider today include:
More than 215 FCEVs traveled 6 million miles in more than 500,000 trips, and 31 FCEV fueling stations completed more than 52,000 refuelings.
Over the past few months, Hyundai and Toyota both introduced their FCEVs, on track with the plans for early commercialization by 2015. Several … » More …
Compressed gas bottle safety is important! Follow these simple rules to ensure your gas bottle stays a container – not a rocket.
Bottles should be chained at all times to prevent them from tipping over.
Steel caps need to be on bottles when not in use – especially for transportation.
Transport gas bottles on bottle carts.
Always use pressure relief devices when attaching high pressure bottles to systems.
Ensure lines are depressurized and bottle valve is shut before disconnecting the bottle from a system – even when the bottle is “empty”.
Flammable gas bottles should always be grounded before … » More …
“Tell me and I’ll forget. Show me and I may remember. Involve me and I’ll understand.” ~Lao Tze
A traditional engineering homework assignment wants you to tell us the answer. Need proof? Look at a calculator and see how hard it is to plot a function or curve. Calculators are typewriters and should have vanished long ago. Asking someone to tell us an answer is much easier than plotting a trend or curve. Plotting requires spatial awareness of the physical interplay of operators within your mathematical function. Explaining plots shows us that we understand why trends appear.
Showing by theory is essential in complex systems … » More …
The difference is subtle:
and one is used to define the other —
— but from a design standpoint the difference is essential. Where conformance must follow an algorithm, compliance can follow a desire, wish, or even yes, a rule or process. Dr. Chuck has a great piece on how companies tend to follow a design progression from mystery –> heuristic –> algorithm. We emphasize heuristic’s over algorithms in ME 316 because we tend to engineer things that are … » More …
Buyer from Aerospace Company A walks into a room of potential suppliers and says, “The only thing I care about is how cheap you can meet spec.”
Builder from Aerospace Company B walks in later and says, “We want to be able to rely on you and you to rely on us. What’s the price you need to be able to provide reliable parts that keep us competitive for the long haul?”
Being the builder is about much more than buying parts, managing a budget, and building components. You’re building confidence in your suppliers, sponsors, and team-members that can’t be bought. You’re building relationships that … » More …
A ritual hazing practice in many organizations (including department meetings) is to ask the newest person in the room to “take the minutes”, “secretary” is too loaded of a term now, so we call them a recorder:
12 years ago I thought I was novel for typing meeting minutes in an e-mail window in real time and sending to the team at the close of the meeting. After awhile though I realized that nobody went back and read the minutes. Thank goodness they didn’t! My recording was sloppy relative to the free audio recorder apps on most cellphones nowadays.
… » More …