Prof. Fu speaking with fellow engineers at the NAE Beckman Center. |
Earlier this month, I spoke about medical device security at the annual "Frontiers of Engineering" event held by the National Academy of Engineering. All the talks were captivating and intellectually stimulating, including topics such as the James Webb Space Telescope, nanostructured metamaterials, and forecasting natural disasters.
One of the more memorable talks was by Jeremy Banik of the Air Force Research Laboratory who demonstrated a high strain composite mechanism by unrolling an innocent looking 1 ft long Carbon Storable Tubular Extendible Member into a sturdy 20+ ft pole. The pole automatically unfurls and makes a rather loud snap as it zips itself up. It's designed for deployment in space where payloads that fit the geometry of a rocket must expand to carry out large-diameter space missions. The audience asked if TSA had ever tried opening the roll, and the answer is no, but it would be tubular, dude.
Carbon Storable Tubular Extendible Member. Photo from Jeremy Banik.
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