Call for near-future hard sci-fi Novel reviewers


Dear Engineerstories followers,

I have interests in engineering, and in creative writing. I am presently writing a near future hard sci-fi placed in 2055. I’m looking for reviewers who are willing to read each chapter as they are developed (one at a time, perhaps once per month) and provide critique and suggestions for improvement. Each chapter will be around 3000 words and take less than 30 minutes to read and provide comments. Please contact me (comment this post) if I can put you on my reviewers list. I hope it will be in educational, entertaining and inspiring experience to read these chapters. It certainly is satisfying for me to research and write them.

Thank you,

Ken Hardman

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Pocket Prototyping


Dear Engineering Stories followers, It has been a great #engineering#career so far including my #coaching of about 20 teams in 20 years at the local university. I’ve noticed a few things over the years that could help newer engineers be more successful, and I offer ‘Pocket #Prototyping‘ pointers in this article in the BYU Design Review. Please read it and then share it with your colleagues (and ask them to share it), especially with those just getting started in engineering and #design who need #mentoring. Thanks, Ken

Pocket Prototyping, BYU Design Review

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#EngineerClips – “Drone Vacuum” Jan. 6, 2023


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#EngineerClips – “Power Ski” – March 18, 2022


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Rescue on Angel’s Landing – a near future fictional story by Ken Hardman


exploring heavy-lift drones, semi-autonomous control, bio-medical engineering, materials science, robotics, smartphone technology, tactile sensing, anatomical recognition, noise suppression, emergency 3D printing, inflight drone re-fueling, drone swarm weather sensing, power regeneration, and animal voice recognition.

STEM Magazine, February 2022, page 28 – 32, “Check it out!”

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#EngineerClips – “Drawn to Write” – by Ken Hardman (Feb. 27, 2022)


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#EngineerClips – ‘Elevator App’ by Ken Hardman


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#EngineerClips – “High-Speed Chairs”


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#EngineerClips – Bathing with Bottles


by Kenneth Hardman

“Jake!” Mom calls out from the bathroom.

“Ya, Mom?”

“Why is there a case of bottled water in my bathtub?”

“It’s an engineering experiment, for my middle-school science class.”

“An engineering exp…?” Mom pauses, then slowly inquires. “Let me guess, you are… trying to optimize… water cooling by…”

Jake enters the room. “No. It’s a water conservation experiment.”

“So…” Mom scratches her head. “You are re-using bath water by putting it in the bottles?”

“No, Mom.” Jake exhales a puff of air. “The water bottles displace, or reduce the water needed for the bath. You get the same deep soak with two gallons less fresh water using thirty-two, 8 ounce bottles.”

Mom now squinting, and still scratching her head. “Thirty-two? Do I have to sit on the bottles?”

“Of course not. Thanks to Archimedes’, the small air bubble in each bottle keeps it buoyant, barely breaking the water surface. They’re small enough that they should move around easily in the bath.”

“Oh!” Mom gets it, thinking through the process. “Who’s Archimedes’? Never mind. So, do I have to tell my friends that I bathe with plastic bottles?”

“Look,” Jake walks to the tub and picks up a bottle. “In addition to satisfaction helping the planet, you get drinking water storage, waste water reduction, less guilt from taking a 30 gallon bath instead of a 15 gallon shower, and reduced land fill, all by giving up your pride. And! If you get thirsty while bathing, well, they’ve never been opened; just grab a bottle. Oh, and did I mention the free reading material? The labels are waterproof.”

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Gift Engineering Stories to your young colleagues or friends


Do you know an engineering student, or recent graduate of engineering? Gift the book, “Engineering Stories,” to them to let them experience engineering right now and give them a head start in understanding what it’s like to work on a real project with a real engineering team. Order, “Engineering Stories,” at the following link.

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