Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
Revolutionary
technology
The History of
Engineering
Exploring the Origins of
Everyday Objects
CYborg
Beetles
Remote-controlled Mechanical Insects
6 The HIstory Of
technology
Technological Innovations that
You Won’t Find in the
History Books
Various Authors
content
3 Letter from the Editor
Jennifer Nordhauser
4 Wheel Technology
Cyrus Iqbal
14 VECTORtainment
Matt Leos
15 E-Week Report
Michael Rodriguez
15 Vector Calendar
George Song
2 Vector Magazine | April 2011 | Revolutionary Technology
1
2
Revolutionary Change
Have you ever wondered how the wheel to the modern invention of Editor-in-Chief
much engineering went into the de- the “cyborg beetle.” Jennifer Nordhauser
velopment of the pop tab on the top We also invited writers from Pro-
of a can of soda? Or what goes into fessor Randi Voss’s technical commu- Copy Editor
the weave of a Kleenex tissue? Or even nications classes to send in their essays Lucy Xie
about how much the wheel means to the from their History of Technology pa-
functionality of society? per assignment, wherein each student Vectortainment Editor
Broadly speaking, probably not. examined the history of a single piece Matt Leos
These common low-tech elements of of technology that people would nor-
Distribution Chair
our world can easily go unnoticed as we mally find uninteresting or would take
Cyrus Iqbal
focus on the things that require more of for granted. Summaries of these papers
our technological attention, like com- can be found in the printed version of IT Manager
puters or cell phones. this issue, but for the full text and more George Song
It’s easy to take a lot of technology in-depth histories, go to the new-and-
for granted, especially since it’s designed improved Vector website.
to be seamlessly integrated into our The history of the Vector magazine Staff
lives. The engineering that goes into all itself has recently attracted more inter- Charlotte Friedley
of the inorganic - and even some organic est from the engineering community, Spencer Heilner
- elements of our lives is what drives us especially since the Vector staff has Jerry Lin
forward and allows our society to work begun a project to catalogue the Vec- Michael Rodriguez
efficiently and economically, whether tor archives in the SEC office. Kevin Yuan
it’s through the implementation of corn Ultimately, we hope to make all of
syrup as a sweetener or the use of the the past issues accessible online to il-
Contributors
sewing machine to piece together cloth- lustrate the evolution of the Cockrell Christopher Albert
ing. School of Engineering student body Dalton Dinderman
At UT, so many of the technolo- through print and the development of Morgan Grebe
gies that have made our lives easier are the Vector periodical itself. Darlene King
ingrained in our lives as students, and Also, as always, if you would like to Chris McLennon
throughout the university’s history, tech- be involved in the creation of Vec- Renee Mocha
nological elements have been built into tor’s history, send us an article discuss- Mara Sweeney
our campus as ways to increase student ing a technology that you think is too Whitney Wong
resources and productivity while not frequently overlooked, or submit an ar- Susan Zurbuch
taking away from the money available ticle in response to something you have
for our education. Recycled plastics, found interesting within these pages.
efficient heating and cooling systems, We look forward to hearing what you
and more compact fluorescent light have to say!
bulbs have been used all over campus, Otherwise, enjoy this issue of Vec-
and these technologies do not stand out tor, and the next time you open a can
enough to be noticed despite the revo- of soda, take a moment to appreciate
lutionary changes in energy or materials the time and work that went into the Online
costs that they have caused. tiny fizz of pressure released due to the sec.engr.utexas.edu/vector
This issue of Vector focuses on these simplicity of the pop tab cap. scribd.com/VectorStaff
revolutionary technological changes in Email: vector@sec.engr.utexas.edu
history, spanning from the invention of
Jen Nordhauser, Editor-in-Chief
vector@sec.engr.utexas.edu
Opinions expressed in Vector
magazine do not necessarily
reflect the views of the Student
Vector Magazine | April 2011 | Engineering Council, the Cockrell
Revolutionary Technology 3
School of Engineering, or the
33
University of Texas at Austin.
The Wheel Comes Full Circle
An obvious advantage the wheel changed the way we experience and lis-
gave early civilization was the ability to ten to our favorite tracks. The original
transport heavy objects from one place iPods all came with their unmistakable
to another, allowing for huts and villages click wheel, which allowed us to flip
to be built. However, many overlook and cycle through our music, change
another crucial asset derived from the volume, adjust equalizer settings, etc.
wheel—the ability to relocate and move Windmills, an important source of re-
farther inland. newable energy, operate off the same
Because water was and still is es- design implemented by early wheel-
sential to life, early humans tried to live and-axle systems.
From today’s tablet comput-
as close to a source of water as possible. Even the latest fashions depend
ers and 4G wireless networks to
But using the pottery wheel, they could on designers’ usage of a special kind of
quad-core processors and video manufacture jars and bottles to store and wheel: the color wheel. This innovative
calling, we often look back at our transport water and thus not necessarily use of the wheel allows for colors to be
predecessors from centuries ago have to live near it. matched and aligned in an aesthetically
and wonder how exactly they were As time progressed, the wheel was pleasing manner, the product of which
able to lead satisfying, let alone ef- not just used independently, but in tan- stimulates consumer spending and bol-
ficient, lifestyles. dem with an axle and a second wheel, sters the economy.
However, it was our ancestral in- to create wagons and carriages. Not We see that the wheel has come
novations that allowed for us to enjoy only could goods and crops be trans- a long a way since its circa 3500 BC
the plethora of advanced technology ported, but culture and ideas. Thus, it inception, but it doesn’t stop there.
we use today. At the very heart of these is not a stretch to claim that the wheel NASA engineers are working on a way
past breakthroughs lies one central in- has helped humanity to come full circle, to increase the performance of the fly-
vention, arguably the most important if you will, and understand and adopt wheel, a wheel that transfers energy to
of them all: the wheel. Here, we take other cultures’ methods of living. run a machine. If made successfully, the
a quick look at what the wheel did for Today, we often only associate cars efficiency of outer-space operations will
our precursors, discuss how the wheel and bicycles with wheels and do not soar, allowing for leaps in our knowl-
impacts our lives today, and get a sneak fully understand their monumental im- edge of the solar system and surround-
peek into an exciting future develop- pact on our lives. Almost every college ing planets.
ment involving wheels. student enjoys music, and the wheel - Cyrus Iqbal
- When a displaced disaster victim shows up at the pharmacy across town or across country, they can be confident that
they are receiving the right medicine – if Initiate’s probabilistic algorithms are at work in the pharmacy’s systems.
- When law enforcement has the technology to enable safe sharing of information, it is probably Initiate’s Entity Resolution platform
is helping them “connect the dots” to catch a terrorist.
- And, when you show up your favorite book store and they know who you are and what you want, Wow! Initiate software
might just be behind that too.
Initiate Systems is hiring entry-level Associate Software Engineers and Associate Technical Support Engineers
in our Austin, TX office. Apply online at http://cns.utexas.edu/careers/career-services/erecruiting for College of Natural Sciences
and http://www.engr.utexas.edu/ecac/yourcareer for the Cockrell School of Engineering.
www.initiatesystems.com
The
History
of
Technology
Reflections on our technological past
Advances in modern These seemingly instantaneous leaps into the future in truth can require years
technology appear if not decades to develop, even in the most mundane and unnoticible engineered
elements of our day-to-day lives. To celebrate the baby steps that a few of these
to occur faster than
elements took to become what they are to us now, a few engineering students sub-
a blink of an eye, too mitted their papers on under-appreciated elements of technology to Vector.
quickly for most of The full body of these papers can be found on the Vector website, and summaries
us to notice. of what they wrote about a few engineered objects can be found on the following
pages. We thank them for their contributions to this issue.
- Jen Nordhauser
6 Vector Magazine | April 2011 | Revolutionary Technology
A History of: Dog Food
Supermarkets were extrusion food manufacturing to of meats. If euthanized pets
invented in 1930, and develop dog food. The extrusion are included in the food, the
became widespread by process includes pushing mush title or ingredient list usually
1950. This ushered in through a cylinder with small holes includes the phrase “meat
a new era of modern- at the end. The high pressure push- meal.” It is the ruthless search
ization. By this time, ing towards the holes smashes the for cheaper and faster pro-
the human percep- mush down and forces it out the duction like this that causes
tion of dogs had com- holes while the low pressure on the legal
pletely morphed into other side pulls the piece out and trouble for dog
the perception of dogs causes it to expand. This process led food manufacturers.
as pets. The increased to cheaper and faster production, When an
emotional attachment because each kibble was now bigger industry is so
towards dogs made it but made with fewer products. intertwined in all things dog, it is hard
easy for manufactur- There are few regulations in to know what to believe.
- Written by Darlene King, Edited by George Song
e
ers to sell dog food. In place regarding the use
addition, dog food was
actually cheaper and
is s u
xT
more convenient than The famous Kleenex
feeding the dog fam- brand facial tissue, which was manufac-
ily food that needed to
ne
shortages. day the “facial tissue.” In the early 1920’s, Kimberly-Clark was
In 1957, Pu- working on a project called Kotex, the “sanitary pad” for women. Due
:K
rina discov- to the fact that advertisers were putting such a private matter into the
ered how to public eye was uncomfortable for women at the time, thus the lack of en-
y of
use thusiasm for the product led to a surplus in product material that was ideal
for Kleenex facial tissue.
Kleenex facial tissues were first advertised as disposable cleansing tissue in
A Histor
Vector
Vector
Vector
Vector
24
Sunday
Where were YOU during
E-Week?
30
23
As always, the annual E-Week competition between
the many student organizations in engineering was an
Saturday
absolutely insane week. We laughed... we cried... we
laughed again... and we found out just how far we
were willing to go in order to make fools of ourselves
in the names of our respective student organizations.
29
22
Pi Sigma Pi/SHPE/NSBE:
personators (all male, of course) throughout the week,
ran into a Miley Cyrus impersonator, and watched an
Friday
entire banana cream pie spontaneously disappear into
Crawfish Boil
Good Friday
a competitor during the Pi Sigma Pi pie eating contest.
Besides the almost fanatical devotion of many of
the student orgs to the competition, the cunning of
several organizations went far beyond that of previous
April 2011
28
years. One organization managed to hijack a filming 21
Thursday
- 6pm
IEEE
27
20
UTSVT - 5pm
AEI - 6:15pm
ASME - 6pm
BOLT - 6pm
ASCE - 6pm
mallows as our squirrel cheeks could hold, two student
SPE - 6:30
organizations reigned supreme!
In the Large Student Organization Division, The
American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME)
AWWA/WEF NSBE - 6:30pm
ESW - 7pm
- 8pm
25
18
Meeting - 6pm
Night - 6pm
Night - 6pm
- Michael Rodriguez