K-WIDE: Synthesizing the Entrepreneurial Mindset and Engineering Design

It's winter break at Bucknell University and 23 first and second year engineers are tackling the National Academy of Engineering Grand Challenge, Restoring and Improving Urban Infrastructure. They have immersed themselves for 130 hours over 10 days, for no credit, and no pay. Their interdisciplinary teams have been challenged to identify their own problem. They will brainstorm possible solutions, and pick one to build. Then using all of the resources of the college, they build, refine and build some more. At the end of the tenth day there are six new products that will restore or improve urban infrastructure. They range from a simple addition to subway trains that would reduce noise levels by 20 dB, to miniature waterwheels that could be installed all around a city to capture energy from running water, to a playground swing instrumented to charge mobile devices.