Monthly Archives: January 2014

Sandy

Super Storm Sandy

Sandy was a super storm that devastated the northeast region of the United States. This blog will begin by introducing Sandy, it will then follow by stating facts about the storm, whether climate change is the cause of the storm, and finally my humble opinion on the matter.

“Hurricane Sandy, a late-season post-tropical cyclone, swept through the Caribbean and up the East Coast of the United States in late October 2012. The storm left dozens dead, thousands homeless and millions without power. Total damage is expected to be in the billions of dollars.” Being that I was born and raised in Massachusetts, I have family that resides in areas affected by Sandy. Therefore, the research I have conducted was of great interest to me. As I read Superstorm Sandy: Facts about the Frankenstorm , written by Tim Sharp on November 27, 2012, I was amazed at some of the statistics.

Statistics:

149 Deaths
Deaths in New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Connecticut, Virginia, North Carolina, Canada, Caribbean, and Haiti.
$20 Billion in property damage
$30 Billion in lost business

Because of how recent the storm is we should all still have memories of how the media covered it, and the magnitude of the storm. The stats above truly are representative of how large, vast, and mighty Sandy truly was. Many Americans are still recovering their loses; not to mention the families of the victims of the storm.

The picture above is depicts Sandy as she begins to gain strength and head towards the northeast coast of the United States.

There are many scientists who believe there is a direct correlation between global warming/climate change and storms such as Sandy. Mark Fischetti a well-respected blogger/scientist wrote an article expressing his opinion on the matter. Did Climate Change Cause Hurricane Sandy? Expresses Mark’s opinion on the matter. “Here’s where climate change comes in. The atmospheric pattern that sent the Jet Stream south is colloquially known as a “blocking high”—a big pressure center stuck over the very northern Atlantic Ocean and southern Arctic Ocean. And what led to that? A climate phenomenon called the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO)—essentially, the state of atmospheric pressure in that region”. What scientist seem to be putting together are variables caused by the climate change, that contribute to the strength of storms.

For example:

Oceans have warmed, which directly contributes to the energy source from which storms such as Sandy strengthen.
Our warmer atmosphere is retaining more moisture, the moisture is then drawn into more frequent and large storms.

What I found interesting about this article is the facts presented in regards to insurance agencies. Insurance agencies are beginning to take into account climate change.

According to the press release that accompanied the report, “Nowhere in the world is the rising number of natural catastrophes more evident than in North America.” … While many factors have contributed to this trend, including an increase in the number of people living in flood-prone areas, the report identified global warming as one of the major culprits: “Climate change particularly affects formation of heat-waves, droughts, intense precipitation events, and in the long run most probably also tropical cyclone intensity.”

As you can view in the graph above, there is a direct correlation between extreme climate and natural disasters. This graph helps add to the credibility of the scientist who believe global warming is having a negative impact on our planet. Information on how much of an impact climate change is having on storms is still up for debate. Scientists are still trying to prove their theory. Although difficult, I believe in the near future there will be concrete evidence supporting their theory.

Below is a list of videos you can watch to understand the severity of Sandy.

Sources:

http://www.livescience.com/24380-hurricane-sandy-status-data.html

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/2012/10/30/did-climate-change-cause-hurricane-sandy/

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/10/29/21215983-superstorm-sandy-anniversary-one-year-later-thousands-still-not-home?lite

LEGO + Education

LEGO MINDSTORMS

I would like to begin my blog by apologizing to my classmates for not attending last week’s class. This blog will be a descriptive summary of LEGO as a company, LEGO Robotics as a product, and the capabilities of robotics integrated with education.

Founded in 1932 by Ole Kirk Kristiansen, the family owned business is now in the hands of the founder’s grandchild. Their products have thus far passed the test of time. LEGO brick is what most of their customers are familiar with and is the reason LEGO has been named twice – “Toy of the Century”. LEGO employees strongly believe in their product:

The interlocking principle with its tubes makes it unique, and offers unlimited building possibilities. It’s just a matter of getting the imagination going and letting a wealth of creative ideas emerge through play”.

The thought of creative ideas emerging through play sinks well with me. I am sure a majority of us at one point let our imagination run wild while playing with LEGO blocks.

Before I begin explaining LEGO Robotics, I would like to share this information with you guys. In class we have discussed sustainability, “going green”, and the green house effect, LEGO has an entire page filled with Sustainability Cases;Cases that represent recent actions they have taken to help improve, and raise awareness of the ongoing global warming problem.

Sustainability%20Cases

LEGO Robotics – “LEGO Mindstorms is a line of Lego Group products combining programmable bricks with electric motors, sensors, Lego bricks, and Lego Technic pieces (such as gears, axles, beams, and pneumatic parts) to build robots and other automated or interactive systems”

The picture above is the packaging in which LEGO Mindstorms is sold. To the left of the package is a book on many functions or possibilities for the robot.

To summarize, LEGO Robotics is a tool that can be used by professors in order to explain engineering and inspire students. LEGO has gone as far as providing teachers with guides on how to most effectively use their products. LEGO provides a hand -book describing:

What purposes might Robotics serve in the classroom?
For what grade levels is Robotics Appropriate?
Who can teach Lego Robotics?
Why are Robotics activities satisfying?
What are the instructional goals and advantages of LEGO Robotics?

LEGO hopes to capture the interest of students by assuring students are asking themselves: “What type of robot will I create? What will I make it do? How will I design and program it to retrieve a ball?”

As for LEGO and learning, I believe LEGO sparks the interest in students to continue and pursue an engineering path. The product in the classroom initially intrigues students. Students then continue to pursue their interest outside of the classroom. There are social media channels solely dedicated to LEGO. Enthusiasts depend on each other to continue and grow their knowledge base.

Please watch some of the videos below.

LEGO Enthusiasts:

The link I provide above is a funny TED talk describing how LEGO becomes almost a lifestyle.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLpBLPQNkz4

The Link above is a first look at how passionate LEGO enthusiasts are. A young male describes his passion for LEGO.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8IxF5q7NdWE

The link above gives a glimpse of a LEGO convention.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBf1BIdJT4Q

I found this youtube link extremely interesting because the enthusiast is a 5-7 year old boy. He is explaining his current project and I am impressed with his ability to explain what he has learned.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q61NdisQj0A&list=PLAwVqAfcVZAa2Rex6w86n3C-dc4atJCTZ

Finally, if you’d like to see how much time and creativity LEGOs can consume and nurture please watch this short LEGO movie.

In conclusion, I believe LEGOs role in education will continue to expand in the future. If you take a look at the last link under REFERENCES you will find a very useful LEGO learning tool. This tool in form of a “quiz”, that can help test what you may know about LEGO.

REFERENCES:

http://aboutus.lego.com/en-us/lego-group/the_lego_history

Sustainability%20Cases

http://quizlet.com/1291285/lego-robotics-flash-cards/

Energy Grid Blog #1

It is without a doubt that the need for energy is now greater than ever. The demand for energy is growing on a daily basis, as countries continue to develop and global population continues to increase our understanding of the “Grid” should grow. By the end of this blog you should clearly be able to understand what the Energy Grid is, how the infrastructure works, and pros/cons involved.

During our class discussion I was astonished when I was told it took 10^15 BTU to run the global economy. On top of the already ridiculous demand, demand continues to grow by 2% every year as the appetite countries continue to develop. Without getting into the global demand lets take a look at how the grid works.

Please click on the link below and take a minute to watch the video. Thank you!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dZjohZPIqE#t=128

Lets now try and recap what we just learned by watching the video. The Grid lives in the now, meaning it continuously adjusts to the demand. Although our households do not consume a ton of electricity, in order for electricity to travel long distances high voltage is required (230,000 – 250,000 volts).

Key points:

3 main interconnections (Western interconnection, Eastern Interconnection, and Texas Interconnection)
Nikola Tesla discovery ALTERNATING CURRENT helps make the grid possible
Transformers are the key to lower the voltages

For class purposes we will disregard any opinion presented towards the end of the video.

Know that we understand the infrastructure of the energy grid and how it works lets try and understand both the pros and cons of our current infrastructure. I would love to hear your opinion concerning this matter, please feel free to comment and discuss. First lets list some of the known commodities the grid currently presents us with.

After researching the pros and cons I found that it’s fairly difficult to find detailed pros. It seems like we have used the system for so long that the only real benefit it provides us with is comfort. Americans do not really worry or are informed on how the grid works. We know it’s there and it’s reliable, besides the reliability and comfort we have no economic benefit. The cons clearly outweigh the pros.

“A typical coal-fired electrical plant might be 38% efficient, so a little more than one-third of the chemical energy content of the fuel is ultimately converted to usable electricity. In other words, as much as 62% of the original energy fails to find its way to the electrical grid. Once electricity leaves the plant, further losses occur during delivery. Finally, it reaches an incandescent light bulb where it heats a thin wire filament until the metal glows, wasting still more energy as heat. The resulting light contains only about 2% of the energy content of the coal used to produce it. Swap that bulb for a compact fluorescent and the efficiency rises to around 5% – better, but still a small fraction of the original”.

Our grid is very inefficient, partly because the equipment is outdated. It’s easy to suggest an update of equipment but the cost of upgrading the grid is enormous.

The con that stood out the most is the inefficiency; I would not care for old equipment if the grid were as efficient as currently possible. That is not the case there are many brilliant ideas that I believe will help improve our energy grid.

Luckily there are companies currently working on improving our grid. National Grid has a vision to “ to deploy Smart Grid technology in order to optimize the flow of green energy resources, enhance the performance of the electric distribution grid, and provide customers with the ability to make informed decisions about how they use energy”.

I believe the Smart Grid is the future!

References:

http://energy.gov/articles/top-9-things-you-didnt-know-about-americas-power-grid

http://www.nationalgridus.com/energy/

http://www.nap.edu/reports/energy/sources.html