"Heroes of Engineering" Comic Series Makes National News (2/01/05)

ASME's effort to bring the wonders of engineering to elementary and middle-school student via a comic strip series got the attention of The New York Times.

A story about the "Heroes of Engineering" series, which appears in today's section of Science Times, described the mechanical engineering characters that are featured in the new series as "more down-to-earth action heroes."

Vincent Wilczynski, an ASME member who is a co-creator of the comic strip series, said in a story about the launch that appeared Jan. 27 in ASME NEWS Late-breaking, that "the goal of the comics is to create a fun online medium that could teach young people about what engineers do and how, through their creative genius, they have made our world a better place to live."

Wilczynski, who is vice president of ASME's Board on Pre-College Education and a professor of mechanical engineering at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in New London, Conn., came up with the idea for the comic strip series with Ron Spellman, a Coast Guard petty officer.

"We hope that the colorful and fun-to-read comics will help inspire the next generation of engineer and inventors," Wilczynski said.

The first of 12 installments of the "Heroes of Engineering" series is available at http://anniversary.asme.org and www.asmenews.org/latebrk/latebrk.html.

Each installment will cover a decade in engineering history. Each story line is being reviewed by J. Lawrence Lee, P.E., an ASME Fellow, to ensure historical accuracy. Lee is an engineer-historian at the Historic American Engineering Record, a branch of the U.S. National Parks Service. He also is a former chair of the ASME History and Heritage Committee.

---

Companies Explore Low-Cost Ways to Monitor Industrial Machinery

Inexpensive, energy-saving ways to monitor industrial equipment is being explored by three companies with funding by the U.S. government.

In the spring of 2004, the Department of Energy earmarked $18 million in energy conservation funding to be used in the development of distributed wireless multisensor technologies.

Since then, Eaton Corp., GE's Global Research arm in Niskayuna, N.Y., and Honeywell Inc. have been examining different components of the process.

Eaton, of Cleveland, Ohio, is exploring how data from electrical distribution gear can be collected in a wireless format. GE Global Research is examining wireless motor monitoring. Honeywell, based in Minneapolis, is reviewing wireless process control.

All are wrapping up the first phases of a three-year project that will conclude with the development of demonstration systems for their targeted areas. To learn more about this project, read the story "Cheaper Watches" in the February issue of Mechanical Engineering magazine or visit www.memagazine.org.




go to the Late-Breaking News archive