Come look through our windows!
The engineering lab is filled with student teams busy at design.
Ninth graders are designing circuits that integrate sensors with the Arduino micro controller. They have learned to code. They designed automatic Chanukias, Shofar blowing music boxes, button controlled lights, games, pianos, dimmers, alarms and more.
Tenth graders researched and presented the engineering aspects of the biological systems. They designed autonomous robots using ultrasonic distance sensors, motors controlled with h-Bridges, scales using strain gauges and op amps and stopwatches using stepper motors and LCD screens. They investigated gait using physmo software and designed engineering components on Tinkercad for our 3D printer. Their 3D designs are hanging from our windows.
All students are also learning about new engineering technology through the technical articles they report on once a month and through our engineering lecture series which includes inventors, entrepreneurs, doctors, patent attorneys, scientists and engineers. 
As a follow up, Dr. Abraham Knoll showed us how new technology has changed the management of kidney stones and brought some of the actual instruments used in robotic surgeryStay tuned. More to come!
We are especially proud of all our engineering elective graduates who have chosen to pursue an engineering education by applying to the top engineering schools in the country. Congratulations to our students who got in early: Ronit Langer- MIT, Andrew Levine – Penn Engineering, Bezalel Pittinsky- Cooper Union, Tzvi Besser – Columbia Engineering
Our former engineering students are never far from the lab. So many of them come during their free time to work with the current 9th and 10th graders and to see what’s cooking in the 3D printer.
As part of their senior elective, Ronit and Amitai Cohen, are working with 10th grader, Bracha Getter and 9th grader Ray Katz on a project they call “kosher STEM”. They plan to create an electronic key swipe that will use proximity sensors and a circuit that never opens but gets rerouted to the lock when the sensor is within range. This system will avoid the problems of shabbat by using Grama, indirect causation, and Me’niat Haminah, lack of involvement (because you would wear the proximity sensor). They hope to spend time in the lab this spring bringing it to life.
Tsipora Stone, another former engineering student is helping us launch a Girls Who Code Club. Tsipora attended a summer immersion program and is sharing her experience with us. We have been assigned an instructor and will be launching the program next week with twenty of our girls. The national organization works to inspire, educate, and equip girls with the computing skills to pursue 21st century opportunities. http://girlswhocode.com/about-us/.
Two of our tenth grade engineering students, Daniel Koenig and David Lifschitz, will be attending an entrepreneurial trip to Israel over winter vacation with CIJE, the Center for Initiatives in Jewish Education, supporters of our program. They will experience Start Up Nation first hand and attend workshops at the Technion. I look forward to hearing about their experience and hope to participate with additional students next year. If anyone is interested in an extensive entrepreneurial summer program in Israel see http://www.jewishjourney.co.il/FeaturedTripID.aspx?FeaturedTripId=2