April 8, 2003
In "You Can Make It On Your Own," Alan meets scientists whose love for tinkering with machines could have an amazing impact on the world we live in. What's it take to be an inventor? FRONTIERS spoke with four remarkable student scientists to find out.

As part of the legendary MIT engineering class - known on campus as "2.007" - sophomores design and build machines that went head to head on a giant seesaw. Will Lark (right) designed a remote-controlled car 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.

As a fourth year student, Justin Hlavin (right), presided over Virginia Tech's Human-powered Sub Team. Together, the team designed, built and operated the fast and sleek "Phantom III," which Hlavin piloted to victory in an annual international competition, which Hlavin first learned of in a previous episode of FRONTIERS.

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 at Florida Atlantic University, Rainard is an Ocean Engineering major and working on an entry in an upcoming walking-robot competition.

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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.

	Logan shows Alan Alda Scuba-Doo, his entry in the human-powered sub race.

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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