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May
21, 2002
In"Games
Machines Play," Alan meets the young minds behind an array
of good ideas:
 In
the human-powered submarine contest, Justin Hlavin
(right), a fourth year student at Virginia Tech, piloted the
sleek Phantom III. Hlavin first learned of Virginia
Tech's Human-powered Sub Team in a previous episode of FRONTIERS.
Now the team's president, Hlavin oversaw the design, production
and operation of "Phantom III," from beginning to end.
 Also
competing in the human-powered submarine contest, eighteen-year-old
high school student Logan Rainard (left) of Maryland
teamed up with his neighbor, teacher Ed
Leibolt, to create Scuba-Doo. The sub placed second
overall and was one of only two subs to complete all of its
runs. Now a freshman at Florida Atlantic University, Rainard
is an Ocean Engineering major and working on an entry in an
upcoming walking-robot competition.
 As
part of the legendary MIT engineering class - known on campus
as "2.007" - sophomores design and build machines that compete
in an annual contest. In this year's match, the machines battled
on a giant seesaw - whomever's side was lower at the buzzer
won the match. Student Will Lark (right) designed a
remote-controlled car to launch from his machine, along with
telescoping rods. Driving the car away drew the beam down,
while the rods provided even greater leverage. Will made it
to the semi-finals, where he was finally out-maneuvered by
the winning design - a piston that pushed the opponent's side
up for the win.
Sarah
Mendelowitz (left), meanwhile, deployed a carpet-grabbing
claw from her machine, then winched the beam down to the floor.
Although, Sarah's strong claw took her far, she too fell prey
to the all-powerful piston.
FRONTIERS
asked each of these young engineers about the origins of their
ideas and what it means to be an inventor.
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FRONTIERS:
How early did you think about studying engineering?
JUSTIN:
Since I was young, I've participated in different types of
engineering competitions. I took second place in the egg drop
contest when I was in elementary school. I won the state science
fair testing water. I never knew anything else but engineering.
My mother's an engineer, my father's an engineer, and my grandfather's
an engineer. It's been ingrained in me since day one.
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Logan
shows Alan Alda Scuba-Doo, his entry in the human-powered
sub race.
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LOGAN:
I always made stuff. My family's into building stuff. There
are engineers, builders and architects on both sides. My parents
let me build stuff in the garage when I was a little kid.
I built hundreds and hundreds of model airplanes and rockets.
When I started kayaking, I started modifying kayaks, working
with fiberglass.
WILL:
I was always the kid who played with Lego's. I grew up pretty
involved in math and science. I used to do well in those types
of subjects - I knew I wanted to do something with that. What
I was looking at initially was architecture or civil engineering.
SARAH:
I was always into woodworking since I was in third or fourth
grade and I built models a lot, cars and planes. I had an
erector set. My parents encouraged it. 
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