{"id":752,"date":"2009-11-23T14:50:57","date_gmt":"2009-11-23T19:50:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/example.org\/from-tinkering-to-engineering"},"modified":"2009-11-23T14:50:57","modified_gmt":"2009-11-23T19:50:57","slug":"from-tinkering-to-engineering","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/solidworksblog\/2009\/11\/from-tinkering-to-engineering.html","title":{"rendered":"How do you change the world? Tinker with it."},"content":{"rendered":"

It was with some excitement that I recently read an
\narticle in The Wall Street Journal<\/a> stating that \u201ctinkering is making a comeback.\u201d
\nThat piece was followed a few days later by a similar one
\nfrom National Public Radio<\/a>. A bit closer to home, there have been over
\n130,000 downloads this year for the SolidWorks Student Design Kit. And here\u2019s
\nan interesting fact\u2013the number of high school students downloading the SDK, an early indicator of
\ntrends, is greater in volume than graduate school
\nstudents.
<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Here's a real-world example. Recent MIT graduate Greg Schroll is taking tinkering to new
\nheights, inventing a spherical robot that can do the unthinkable \u2013 roll uphill
\nand over steps.
\nIf you\u2019re a reader of Popular Mechanics, you may recall that Greg was recognized
\nas one of the 10 Most Brilliant Innovators of 2009<\/a>.\u201d<\/span>
<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/object><\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/span>These days it may be cooler to have a sub-$500 milling
\nmachine in your dorm room than that old electric guitar. So, why the renewed
\ninterest in engineering? What I hear from the schools is that today\u2019s students
\nwant to change the world for the better\u2013be it alternate forms of energy or
\nnew means of transportation. And they know that today\u2019s problems won\u2019t be
\nsolved by the politicians; rather, they will be solved by the engineer\u2013now
\naffectionately tagged as \u201cthe tinkerer.\u201d  <\/p>\n

If you're a student or a teacher, I'd love to hear what you think.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It was with some excitement that I recently read an article in The Wall Street Journal stating that \u201ctinkering is making a comeback.\u201d That piece was followed a few days later by a similar one from National Public Radio. A<\/p>\n... Continued<\/a>","protected":false},"author":93,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[452,19],"class_list":["post-752","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-education","tag-education-2","tag-solidworks-2"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/solidworksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/752","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/solidworksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/solidworksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/solidworksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/93"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/solidworksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=752"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/solidworksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/752\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/solidworksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/solidworksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/solidworksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}