Macro to Nano One Guy s Mildly Uninformed Take on the Roles and Responsibilities of an Engineer in the 21st Century and a Brief Overview of His Own Path to Purdue and His Professional Life Thereafter Jeffrey F Rhoads School of Mechanical Engineering Birck Nanotechnology Center and Ray W Herrick Laboratories Purdue University September 10 2009 The Macro My Take on the Professional Engineer s Role in Society What is a Professional Engineer 3 What is a Professional Engineer A license a measure of technical understanding or an scientific and ethical responsibility 4 Great Philosopher With Knowledge Comes Responsibility 5 Great Philosopher With Knowledge Comes Responsibility Uncle Ben 6 Physics for Future Presidents Paraphrasing Politics won t necessarily solve problems but physics and engineering can and likely will Scientists and Engineers have an obligation to help solve key problems and to provide an unbiased point of view 7 Physics for Future Presidents Key Problems NAE Grand Challenges Make solar energy economical Provide energy from fusion Develop carbon sequestration methods Manage the nitrogen cycle Provide access to clean water Restore and improve urban infrastructure Advance health informatics Engineer better medicines Reverse engineer the brain Prevent nuclear terror Secure cyberspace Enhance virtual reality Advance personalized learning Engineer the tools of scientific discovery 8 Physics for Future Presidents Energy Example Facts Coal is 20x cheaper than gasoline for the same energy Muller 2008 Gasoline has 1000 times as much energy as an equal weight of flashlight batteries Muller 2008 A square mile of sunlight with current solar cells would provide as much peak power as a nuclear power plant Muller 2008 At 100 per barrel the U S can supply all of its own oil needs for centuries to come since coal can be converted to oil The reason we still are importing oil is that we have not built factories Fischer Tropsch to convert coal to oil but Germany and South Africa already have Muller 2008 Efficient use of energy has improved steadily at 1 per year with a burst of 4 during the oil crisis If we improve energy use at 2 per year then by the end of the century everyone on the Earth including all the developing nations could be living at the current European standard of living and yet the total world energy use would be less than at present Muller 2008 9 Physics for Future Presidents Energy Example Can politics be completely removed Policy implications Conclusions Is there a technical answer suitable for most 10 Physics for Future Presidents Nuclear Terrorism Example Fact Purified uranium is hard to get but easy to design into a bomb Plutonium is relatively easy to get but hard to make into a bomb So different kinds of nuclear bombs are difficult to make but for different reasons Terrorists are unlikely to be able to make one the bigger danger is that they could buy one Muller 2008 Policy implications Space Example Fact The rocket that won the X Prize for launching astronauts into space would need 25x more energy to launch the same astronauts into orbit or 50x more to get the astronauts to the Moon Muller 2008 Policy implications 11 Physics for Future Presidents Take Away Message Without the input of ethical and informed scientists and engineers the grand challenges are unlikely to be solved 12 The Nano and now for something completely different Who Am I and How Did I Get Here 14 Who Am I and How Did I Get Here Born Charlotte Michigan Population 8389 Education What do playing a tuba having an interest in politics owning a small bookstore and mechanical engineering have in common Michigan State University BSME 2002 MSME 2004 and Ph D 2007 The Magic of the Classroom 15 What Do I Do Teaching ME 263 Introduction to Mechanical Engineering Design Innovation ME 274 Basic Mechanics II ME 297 Roller Coaster Dynamics ME 375 System Modeling and Analysis ME 597 Mechanics of MEMS and NEMS Student Mentoring Undergraduate and Graduate Service Purdue ASME Student Design Competition Micro Nanosystems Committee 16 What Do I Do ASME Student Design Competition 17 What Do I Do Research Dynamics and Vibration of MEMS NEMS Nonlinear System Supply Chain Dynamics The Beer Game Application Space Chem Bio Sensors Electromechanical Amplifiers Signal Filters Vibration Attenuators 18 What Do I Do Carbon Nanotube Resonators 19 What Do I Do Transmission dB MEMS based Bandpass Signal Filters 0 Passband Stopband Stopband 20 What Do I Do MEMS based Bandpass Signal Filters 21 What Do I Do Gas Phase Chemical Sensors Picogram 22 What Do I Do Gas Phase Chemical Sensors 1 5 mm 23 How Does it Fit In Some of the Grand Challenges Provide access to clean water Restore and improve urban infrastructure Advance health informatics Reverse engineer the brain Prevent nuclear terror Advance personalized learning Engineer the tools of scientific discovery More Importantly I m Working with My Colleagues to Train some of the Finest Engineers of the 21st Century 24 My 2 Get Involved Educational opportunities Yes Classes Yikes Research opportunities SURF ME 497 Global opportunities GEARE Professional activities ASME SAE Service activities EWB 25 My 2 Think Big A Swiss patent clerk changed the scope of science and engineering in the 20th century Engineering in the 21st century is still yet to be defined Bet on Energy Bioengineering and maybe Nanotechnology 26 My 2 Proceed with Professionalism Think and Act Ethically Don t be afraid to say I Don t Know Don t be afraid of the hard answer 27 Acknowledgments Newton said If I have seen further than others it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants My Giants Faculty students and colleagues at Michigan State University and Purdue University Family and Friends More than a few well informed authors 28 Burning Questions 29