ENGINEERING AROUND THE WORLD
Nimbus, a solar electric car
2-ROBOTIC ENGINEERING
1-SUSTAINABLE ENGINEERING year’s competition was the vehicle that travelled the longest distance, rather than the fastest. Nimbus surprised everyone by beating the runner-up by more than 100 miles. Source: Massachusetts Institute Technology (MIT) https://bit.ly/3Bbu4yw
© MIT
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Nimbus is a solar-powered electric car designed and built by a team of engineering students at MIT. This year, the team has won the American Solar Challenge race, covering a distance of 1109 miles and maintaining an average speed of 38.4 miles per hour. The winner of this
The robot that imitates a mantis shrimp The power of a mantis shrimp is enough to knock a crab’s leg off or break a snail’s shell with just one punch. This incredibly fast movement has fascinated biologists for a long time because the mechanism is so difficult to explain. A team of engineers at Harvard University have created a robot that imitates the animal’s movements. The robot has been used to study the actions of the mantis shrimp, and it revealed that the mechanism is that of a spring, discharging stored-up energy. The research opens the door to the design of small but powerful robotic devices. Source: University of Harvard https://bit.ly/3yn1rwK
3-ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING
© University of Harvard
A group of engineers at the Princeton University is taking part in an initiative costing 30 million dollars to prepare a commercially viable system of fusion energy. They are developing highefficiency power amplifiers to control the operation of the fusion energy systems. Fusion power stations release energy by fusing atoms instead of splitting them, as nuclear energy does now. To do this, they will need a variety of rapid and powerful
© Princeton University
Generating electricity
efficient electric drivers to control the plasma. Source: Princeton University https://bit.ly/3Bhcz02
.CAT 1. ENGINYERIA SOSTENIBLE Un equip d’estudiants d’enginyeria de l’Institut Tecnològic de Massachusetts (MIT) ha dissenyat i construït un cotxe elèctric solar al qual han anomenat Nimbus. Aquest vehicle ha aconseguit guanyar la carrera American Solar Challenge; enguany el campió era qui recorria més distància, i ha superat en 100 milles el subcampió. 44
Theknos Novembre-desembre 2021
2. ENGINYERIA ROBÒTICA S’ha d’aprendre de la natura. Això és el que ha fet un equip d’enginyers de la Universitat Harvard, que ha dissenyat i construït un robot que imita la mantis per poder estudiar els seus moviments d’atac. La investigació ha revelat que la mantis fa moviments secs, ràpids i poderosos similars al mecanisme d’una molla quan s’allibera del pestell.
3. ENGINYERIA ELÈCTRICA Una nova generació d’energia elèctrica pot estar cada cop més a prop. Un grup d’enginyers de la Universitat de Princeton col·labora en un projecte per preparar el sistema d’energia de fusió comercialment viable. Desenvoluparan, entre altres elements, amplificadors de potència d’alta eficiència per controlar el funcionament d’aquesta nova tecnologia.
