A semi-serious presentation by Bob Melville: IEEE Senior Member, inventor, amateur machinist, free thinker and collector of bad puns.
He will present a series of practical problems with somewhat surprising (and simple) solutions. Examples:
1. Can you give an accurate estimate of the number of fish in a large lake without killing the fish or draining the lake?
2. How do you measure the area of a lake drawn on a map, even if the map is not available in digital form?
3. How do you deliver electrical power to a horizontal platform that is rotating continuously in one direction without the use of slip-rings?
The premise of his talk is that techniques for creative problem solving can — at least to some extent — be learned and taught. Examples will be taken from several domains: mechanical engineering, optics, mathematics, and magic.
Speaker(s): Robert “Bob” Melville,
Agenda:
17:30 Talk
18:10 Questions
18:20 Discussions with a glass of wine
Room: MED 0 1418, Bldg: MED Auditorium Adrien Palaz, EPFL Lausanne, Ecublens, Switzerland, Switzerland, 1015
