Top 5 STEM This Week

Click to learn about MenloHacks, 3D printed airplanes, smart scalpels, and more. Creative commons image from ESA.

By Lauren Yang

Juniors Niky Arora, Jasmyn Alviter, and Nikhil Singhal share a laugh while coding their app. Photo courtesy of Megan Tung.

1. MenloHacks: Menlo’s first ever hackathon
Approximately 100 hackers attended Menlo’s first-ever hackathon, called MenloHacks, from April 16-17. Participants came from Menlo as well as the surrounding community. A hackathon is where coders build, code, and develop a project in a designated time period. The first place winner of the hackathon was Uberscheduler, an app that automatically schedules future and recurring Uber rides. Menlo teams CitizStudy won best beginner hack and most entrepreneurial hack; another Menlo team, called STEMinism won punniest project sponsored by Domain.com.

Aerospace engineers are utilizing 3D metal printers to create better airplanes. 3D metal printers work much like plastic 3D printers, which are shown above, do. Creative commons image from Jonathan Juursema.

2. 3D printers make airplanes really take off
The mass manufacturing of 3D metal printers have allowed plane manufacturers to construct lighter airplanes. Companies like GE have utilized this type of 3D printer to create everything from jet engine components to satellite and rocket parts. 3D printing metal is much like 3D printing plastic — an object is created by laying down layer by layer of material based on computerized instructions. Read more here.

Watch Schaft’s robot perform a variety of tasks. Video from mehdi_san.

3. This is what a future household robot may look like
Schaft, a Japanese robotics company owned by Alphabet, previously known as Google, developed a bipedal robot capable of carrying heavy objects, climbing stairs, and stabilizing itself after stepping on a tube. Some believe that Schaft’s robot gives us a glimpse of what household robots might look like in the future. Read more here.

A new scalpel, shown above, can detect brain tumors. Creative commons image from Marvin 101. — A new scalpel can detect brain tumors, shown above. Creative commons image from Marvin 101.

4. Intelligent scalpel may save lives
A scalpel that can quickly detect normal brain tissue from brain tumors has the potential to save lives. The scalpel, designed by scientist David Uribe, has a small sphere on one end that can differentiate tissue once swept across a sample. Currently, doctors have to manually determine from sight and touch if a tissue section is normal or tumorous. With this scalpel, surgeons will be able to save time and potentially save a life. Read more here.

A new experiment suggests that space colonization is possible. Creative commons image by NASA.

5. Space colonies now a possibility
An experiment conducted on SJ-10, a Chinese microgravity satellite, concluded that mammals are able to develop normally in zero-gravity situations. The experiment took 6,000 mouse embryos to space to monitor if they matured normally. These results suggest that space colonization is possible for humans since mammal reproduction is feasible. Read more here.

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