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CHARLI Dances Gangnam Style

  As you may have heard, RoMeLa has recently contributed to the proliferation of America’s… [more]

CHARLI Dances Gangnam Style CHARLI Dances Gangnam Style

CES: 3D Printers, 2012 vs 2013

This year, 3D Systems was showing off their latest model of consumer-level 3D printer, the CubeX Trio.… [more]

CES: 3D Printers, 2012 vs 2013 CES: 3D Printers, 2012 vs 2013

CES Booths on the Show Floor

Lots of great products popping up on the show floor at CES!  Check out videos of some of them below,… [more]

CES Booths on the Show Floor CES Booths on the Show Floor

CES Press Conferences

Have you been keeping up to date with all of the latest technology and consumer electronics news coming… [more]

CES Press Conferences CES Press Conferences

Alumni Corner: The Downfall of STEM

Has it ever paid to be smart? Even if you're just answering the question in terms of book smarts,… [more]

Alumni Corner: The Downfall of STEM Alumni Corner: The Downfall of STEM

CHARLI Dances Gangnam Style

 

As you may have heard, RoMeLa has recently contributed to the proliferation of America’s favorite Korean pop sensation. On October 19th last year, RoMeLaVT uploaded a video of CHARLI-2 dancing to Psy’s Gangnam Style.

CHARLI appears more coordinated and seems to have more rhythm than some humans. Every movement goes on the beat, and although the dance is over before the song, the result is undeniably charming. For one, two signature moves from the original music video – lasso-twirling and horse-riding – are incorporated. Second, CHARLI occasionally dances like a happy baby, bouncing up and down on its legs. The finale in particular is adorable: CHARLI blows kisses and takes a bow.

If anything, the performance demonstrates CHARLI’s coordination, balance, and versatility, as well as the programming skills of the RoMeLa students.

The video now has over one million views. Although this is not CHARLI’s greatest accomplishment, nor RoMeLa’s greatest technological feat, the video has probably led to greater publicity for the robot, the lab, and Virginia Tech.

CHARLI-2 was named the “2011 Best Invention of the Year” by Time magazine and won numerous awards at RoboCup 2011. He is currently being treated as a preliminary robot for the Navy’s future Shipboard Autonomous Firefighting Robot project.

Avery Nelson is a Sophomore in Materials Science & Engineering.

CES: 3D Printers, 2012 vs 2013

This year, 3D Systems was showing off their latest model of consumer-level 3D printer, the CubeX Trio. The most recent model features a modular upgrade system, allowing for up to three printer heads to be operating simultaneously. They also showed off the previous generation of printer (featured in last year’s Engineers’ Forum post-CES wrap up), recently upgraded to include support for PLA plastics. Check out the videos of both these printers in action below!

CES Booths on the Show Floor

Lots of great products popping up on the show floor at CES!  Check out videos of some of them below, and find out even more in our upcoming print edition!

CES Press Conferences

Have you been keeping up to date with all of the latest technology and consumer electronics news coming out of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, NV this week? Videos with clips from three of the press conferences are below!

Click on the thumbnail to see the video!

Check back soon for even more!

Alumni Corner: The Downfall of STEM

Has it ever paid to be smart?

Even if you’re just answering the question in terms of book smarts, the correct answer is still yes. Yes it has and in more ways than just money. If you’re smart enough you get the college experience, you have a better quality of life, you live longer, you’re wanted abroad as well as domestically; in general, you get to have the cake and eat it, too. But it never really seems to be that way, does it? Specifically from a viewpoint of the STEM fields (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math), does our investment in our technical education and our lifetime commitment to learning and wondrous scientific feats really justify the meager end?

Don’t get me wrong: we’re pretty well off in the scheme of things. Most college educated individuals live a comfortable middle class lifestyle and, in the recent scheme of global economic strife, the STEM fields in particular have watched their Liberal Arts brethren attend top tier universities and come out the other end jobless with tends of thousands of dollars of debt; meanwhile, an engineer is practically guaranteed a job after graduation. Continue reading Alumni Corner: The Downfall of STEM

Interview with Leigh-Ann Krometis

The Department of Biological System Engineering (BSE) recently hired Leigh-Anne Krometis as an assistant professor. After being fortunate enough to be in one of Dr. Krometis’ Water Resources classes last semester, I had the privilege to interview her about her current research, as well as her educational background.

Dr. Krometis first visited Virginia Tech when she was 16 years old and immediately fell in love with the beautiful campus. After happily arriving as a freshman Hokie two years later, she decided to study engineering. This wasn’t a tough decision, as she was already very interested in applied math and science, and her father was himself a proud engineer. She explained her decision to study BSE by stating, “I was a bit of a doe-eyed ‘save the world’ type and I was attracted by the systems/watershed-scale curriculum”. After completing her bachelors, she decided to continue her journey at Virginia Tech by enrolling in Masters of BSE program. During her Masters, she became fascinated by microorganisms and disease ecology, which led to a study of  the link between environmental degradation and human health risk.

Continue reading Interview with Leigh-Ann Krometis

Introduction

Engineers’ Forum is Virginia Tech’s interdisciplinary student-staffed engineering magazine. Since 1981, we have continuously engaged students, faculty, and engineering professionals in Blacksburg and throughout Virginia. Readers anticipate our issues for the latest updates and articles regarding the achievements and initiatives of the Virginia Tech community and the engineering world beyond. Issues are published four times per year.

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