Industrial engineer Behrokh Khoshnevis’ contour crafting process will be on display at the California Science Center April 7-14, as part of an exhibit of semifinalists in the Modern Marvels Invent Now® Challenge.
Apple Computer founder Steve Wozniak will officially open the Science Center run of the show April 7 at 9:30 a.m.
Khoshnevis’ robotic house building process is one of 25 semifinalists in the competition, which takes its name from the History Channel program that showcases past inventors and their work.
A panel of judges that included inventors, technologists and experts from the National Inventors Hall of Fame and the History Channel selected the semifinalists from nearly 4,300 submissions across the country.
“These semifinalists represent the dreamers in America who have the tenacity to pursue their ideas in order to make an impact on the way all of us live – just like their predecessors Ben Franklin and Thomas Edison,” said Judy Klein-Frimer, co-creator of the event for the History Channel.
“Professor Khoshnevis is our department’s resident Edison,” said James Moore, chair of the USC Viterbi School Daniel J. Epstein Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering. “Rather than being satisfied with just pushing around theorems, Behrokh blends a refined technological intuition, patient trial and error, and superhuman persistence to generate break-through after breakthrough.
“His work is innovative and has intrinsic appeal, because it gives all of us a chance to enjoy the experience of imagination,” Moore said.
Khoshnevis also is working with the USC Viterbi School’s Information Sciences Institute on the project.
One of the entries will be named 2006 Marvel of the Year on the “Modern Marvels” series, which airs Wednesdays at 10 p.m. The winner will receive a $25,000 grant. Visitors to the exhibits will have a chance to vote on entries.
Contour crafting is based on a well-known technology called “rapid prototyping,” also known as “desktop manufacturing.”
In rapid prototyping, machines comparable to ink jet printers have heads that spray special plastics rather than ink, which build up three-dimensional structures, layer by layer. But the size of the items “printed out” by the technology is small – 8 to 12 inches maximum, but usually much smaller.
Besides the History Channel and the National Inventors Hall of Fame Foundation, other sponsors for the competition include Time magazine, the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the American Society of Civil Engineers, DeLorme Publishing Inc., the Intellectual Property Owners Association and the Licensing Executives Society.
The California Science Center is located in Exposition Park at 700 State Drive, Los Angeles. It is open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is free.
After leaving the California Science Center, the exhibit will move to the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago (April 20-30), the Museum of Science in Boston (May 5-14) and Vanderbilt Hall in Grand Central Terminal in New York City (May 22-27). The exposition then will travel to the National Inventors Hall of Fame in Akron, Ohio, where it will be on display through August.
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