April Meeting
--Thursday, April 19, 2012
NEO Science Fair Awards and Curta: The first
pocket calculator ever!
Science Fair Winners
This month's program will feature the Northeastern Ohio Science Fair winners
and their projects as well as a presentation on Curta, the first pocket
calculator. Representing the ISA Cleveland Section, Herb Harpster, David Grigger
and John Mihevic had the opportunity to judge the Northeastern Ohio Science Fair
at Cleveland State University. We guarantee you'll be impressed at the caliber
of these students and the ingenuity and hard work they put into their projects.
Their projects will be available for review before the meeting. At this program
you will be encouraged as you get a glimpse of some special people who are the
future of our country.
About the Award Winners
Clea Newman-
12th grade
Laurel High
School, Shaker Hts., OH
“The Perfect
Water Fountain”
Christopher
Johnstone - 9th grade
Hudson High
School, Hudson , OH
“Design of
Lightweight Rocketry Using Electrolysis”
Sam :Luria -
7th grade
Beechwood
Middle School, Beechwood, OH
“The Safety
Sensor”
Curta: The first (and finest) pocket calculator ever!
Imagine growing up in Vienna, Austria, in the very beginnings of the
Twentieth Century as the son of a father who owned and operated a factory
building mechanical calculators. By the age of 8, Curt Herzstark, aptly dubbed
the “miracle child,” was demonstrating the use of sewing-machine-sized
mechanical calculators, weighing in at 35 pounds, at trade shows. By the time he
was in his mid 30’s, he had invented a four-function (add, subtract, multiply,
and divide), hand-held device less than 4 inches high, weighing in at less than
8 ounces. What started out as a conceptual vision only in his “mind’ eye,” moved
to fully detailed mechanical drawings done in his spare time in a Nazi
concentration camp, to the first prototype that worked “out of the box,” and on
to mass production of over 140,000 units. He had invented and built the “most
ingenious calculating machine ever to grace an engineer’s hand.” This is the
story of invention, war, deception, and triumph. It will take you back to the
roots of understanding simple mathematics. It will dazzle you with remarkable
drawings and photographs inside and outside of this amazing machine. And it will
demonstrate the power of design that begins with the end-product and works out
the way to get there.
The Speaker: Doug Rothenberg
Doug Rothenberg has a broad background in academia, industrial process control,
and consulting. He is the author of Alarm Management for Process Control, the
leading reference book in this field. He has several patents in instrumentation
and automatic controls and was recently awarded one in alarm management. He is
the recipient of the 2005 Cleveland Technical Society’s Educator Award. Doug has
a bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Virginia Polytechnic
Institute, a Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Case Institute of
Technology, and a Ph.D. in Systems Engineering from Case Western Reserve
University. He taught engineering at Case Western Reserve University and worked
for Sohio and then later BP. Currently Doug runs a small engineering consulting
firm specializing in alarm management, control room operator display design, and
operational safety.
Location:
Sterle's
Slovenian Country House (Polka music plays on web site)
1401 East 55th Street
Cleveland, OH 44103
Dinner Menu
Soup and Salad, Wienerschnitzel, Roast Pork, Chicken Breast, Vegetable,
Potato, Sauerkraut Coffee and Strudel
When: Thursday, April 19, 2012
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