As students everywhere return to school, the luckiest are heading for caves and rocket firing ranges instead of lecture halls
Posted 09.09.2009 at 11:08 am
5 Comments
That's a Hyundai?: A concept fuel-cell car designed by then–college senior Dong Tran Dong Tran/College for Creative Studies
So You Want to...Resurrect Detroit?
Where: Transportation Design Program, College for Creative Studies, Detroit, Michigan
What You’ll Learn: How to prototype the future of transportation
Job Prospects: Auto designer, mass-transit designer
Typical Assignment: Create a car that could be built in the year 2020
Chasing a degree in the auto industry might seem a little backward right now, but CCS is the place where companies from Hyundai to Fiat sponsor projects for their most forward-looking concepts. It also places more designers in the industry than any other institution; alums include heads of design at divisions of Toyota, GM, Nissan and Mercedes-Benz.
Last year, when Hyundai challenged seniors to come up with green cars of the future, Dong Tran designed a particularly ambitious vehicle: an aerodynamic hydrogen-fueled car with wheels like wind turbines. A hydrogen fuel cell powers four independent hub-mounted electric motors, cooled by air drawn in through the center of the rims as the wheels rotate. “The cooler the better,” Tran says. “Dissipating heat prolongs life span and increases efficiency.”
Tran rendered his concept car using 3-D modeling programs, but students often build scale prototypes as well. This year, the school added a new master’s program in transportation design, one of only a few in the country, that will combine business classes with design.
single page Want to learn more about breakthroughs in electronics, medicine, nanotech, and more?
Subscribe to Popular Science today, for less than $1 per issue!
Subscribe to Popular Science today, for less than $1 per issue!
5 Comments
To comment, please Login.
|
|
|
|
|
|
July 2013: The Future Of Flight
The incredible innovations, like drone swarms and perpetual flight, bringing aviation into the world of tomorrow. Plus: today's greatest sci-fi writers predict the future, the science behind the summer's biggest blockbusters, a Doctor Who-themed DIY 'bot, the organs you can do without, and much more.
.jpg)
Popular on Popsci
Most Commented
Science
- What Happens To Women When They're Denied Abortions?
- How Will Police Regulate Stoned Driving?
- How I Survived A Week Without Food
- Infographic: This Is What's Causing Climate Change
- Same-Sex Marriage Doesn't Affect Opposite-Sex Marriage Rates, Study Finds
- The Energy Fix: Engineering Triumphs Over Wave And Tidal Forces
- 8 Awesome Things We Learned About Bill Nye From His Reddit AMA
- How Not To Be A Dad: The Latest Science Of Male Birth Control
- In Ancient Ice, Clues That Scientists Are Underestimating Future Sea Levels
- Only 5 Percent Of People Wash Their Hands Correctly
Most Emailed
Science
- The Greatest Heists In History [Infographic]
- A Cocktail Scientist Debunks Myths About Ice Cubes
- What Makes You Want To Click This?
- 10 Spectacular Bees Native To The U.S.
- 10 Spectacular Bees Native To The U.S.
- Photo Gallery: New Exhibit Explores Dazzling Beauty Of Space Photography
- Exhibit Explores The Dazzling Beauty Of Space Photography
- Before Directing 'District 9,' Neill Blomkamp Illustrated For Popular Science
- First Known Four-Quark Particle Pops Up In Japanese Collider
- Director Neill Blomkamp's Illustrations For Popular Science
Most Viewed
Science
- The Greatest Heists In History [Infographic]
- A Cocktail Scientist Debunks Myths About Ice Cubes
- What Makes You Want To Click This?
- 10 Spectacular Bees Native To The U.S.
- 10 Spectacular Bees Native To The U.S.
- Exhibit Explores The Dazzling Beauty Of Space Photography
- Photo Gallery: New Exhibit Explores Dazzling Beauty Of Space Photography
- Before Directing 'District 9,' Neill Blomkamp Illustrated For Popular Science
- First Known Four-Quark Particle Pops Up In Japanese Collider
- Director Neill Blomkamp's Illustrations For Popular Science
Online Content Director: Suzanne LaBarre | Email
Senior Editor: Paul Adams | Email
Associate Editor: Dan Nosowitz | Email
Assistant Editor: Colin Lecher | Email
Assistant Editor: Rose Pastore | Email
Contributing Writers:
Kelsey D. Atherton | Email
Francie Diep | Email
Shaunacy Ferro | Email
Today on PopSci.com
.JPG)
Copyright © 2012 Popular Science
A Bonnier Corporation Company. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.
I love your desisn.
ALIEN NATION
Re: So You Want to...Fire Big Rockets?
Regulation of hobby rockets is NOT dependent on the altitude they fly to.
A model rocket weighs 1.5kg or less and is made of light weight material like balsa wood, paper, and plastic.
A model rocket motor contains 62.5g of propellant or less and a total impulse of 160 newton/seconds or less.
There is no maximum altitude or maximum speed except those imposed by the laws of physics. Super-sonic flights are possible and altitude records for F and G class rockets exceed 2 kilometers.
For the straigt scoop on model rocketry see the National Associatio of Rocketry web site at http://www.nar.org
Rick
At my school you get to go caving in grade 7. the only thing different are the caves are really tight and you practically have to crawl through.
At my school you get to go caving in grade 7. the only thing different are the caves are really tight and you practically have to crawl through.
abier: It is clearly stated that the rockets produced by UAH are NOT hobby rockets, making most of your points mute regardless.
Whenever an object of the scale of these rockets is launched, a permit is required. Otherwise we wouldn't pay for one. A model rocket has a MASS (not weight) of 1.5kg or less, perhaps this is why no permit is required for you.
Total impulse is measured by newton*seconds and is the integration of force over a given time. Units of newton/second correspond to a dimension of power*(1/distance) which has no name assigned to it that I can recall. Not saying it doesn't have a name, I just can't recall one.
And btw if you want your rockets to go supersonic without dissintegrating then you will have to get rid of those goofy wings featured in the rocket in your photo, unless your rocket is made of some VERY nice material. Check out this years USLI competition, as they plan to go supersonic for a short duration.
Please refrain on attempting to take away from our success. Or at least get your units right during your attempts.