Learn to create furniture, bags, outdoor items, and more using duct tape and simple tools and materials, with no special engineering skills needed. Start with duct tape basics that will aid in assembly: Learn cutting and tearing methods and taping techniques (yes, there's more to it than slapping it down). Discover how to make sturdy duct tape sheets that can be cut and shaped. Using easily accessible tools and supplies like a utility knife and heavy-duty cardboard boxes, try your hand at making a desk and desk chair. Grab some foam and make a backpack, or create a custom hammock. Build a geodesic dome, and go truly epic with a giant pyramid catapult. Every project includes step-by-step instructions and clear diagrams and photos. Don't miss Lance Akiyama's tips and suggestions for supplies, project variations, and material substitutions. Follow the solid construction techniques and you'll ensure that these DIY projects will become favorite classroom activities and family projects. Among the projects are: A lightweight bed frame and full-size dresser with working drawers Outdoor pieces like a hammock and garden swing A heavy-duty toolbox with pockets galore, and a stylish two-color messenger bag Ballistics, including a slingshot A kayak! These projects are real, they work, and are super fun. Roll up your sleeves and let the engineering begin!

It is a known fact of the universe that duct tape can fix anything. If it’s broken, just add duct tape! For generations this has been the case, and now thanks to Instructables.com, there’s one more thing duct tape can fix—boredom! Duct tape has come a long way since being a simple metallic roll that you’d find in your grandparent’s basement. Walk into any craft or DIY store and you’ll have your senses bombarded with all sorts of colors and patterns, like argyle, zebra print, and even penguins! And unlike fancy origami paper or glitter, duct tape is inexpensive and lasts forever. Only in this all-in-one Instructables collection can you find some of the most unique duct tape projects that will make you the coolest person you know. Everybody will be talking about your duct tape art, with projects including: The classic duct tape wallet A dapper duct tape bow tie A fabulous duct tape clutch Duct tape lilies for your valentine And so many more! Making paper snowflakes and beaded bracelets are so twentieth century; the future is here and it’s made from duct tape. Impress your friends, entertain guests, keep your creative juices flowing, and save tons of money on Christmas presents all at the same time! With A Kid’s Guide to Awesome Duct Tape Projects, you’ll be the talk of the town before you even know it.

Peter Seibel interviews 15 of the most interesting computer programmers alive today in Coders at Work, offering a companion volume to Apress’s highly acclaimed best-seller Founders at Work by Jessica Livingston. As the words “at work” suggest, Peter Seibel focuses on how his interviewees tackle the day-to-day work of programming, while revealing much more, like how they became great programmers, how they recognize programming talent in others, and what kinds of problems they find most interesting. Hundreds of people have suggested names of programmers to interview on the Coders at Work web site: www.codersatwork.com. The complete list was 284 names. Having digested everyone’s feedback, we selected 15 folks who’ve been kind enough to agree to be interviewed: Frances Allen: Pioneer in optimizing compilers, first woman to win the Turing Award (2006) and first female IBM fellow Joe Armstrong: Inventor of Erlang Joshua Bloch: Author of the Java collections framework, now at Google Bernie Cosell: One of the main software guys behind the original ARPANET IMPs and a master debugger Douglas Crockford: JSON founder, JavaScript architect at Yahoo! L. Peter Deutsch: Author of Ghostscript, implementer of Smalltalk-80 at Xerox PARC and Lisp 1.5 on PDP-1 Brendan Eich: Inventor of JavaScript, CTO of the Mozilla Corporation Brad Fitzpatrick: Writer of LiveJournal, OpenID, memcached, and Perlbal Dan Ingalls: Smalltalk implementor and designer Simon Peyton Jones: Coinventor of Haskell and lead designer of Glasgow Haskell Compiler Donald Knuth: Author of The Art of Computer Programming and creator of TeX Peter Norvig: Director of Research at Google and author of the standard text on AI Guy Steele: Coinventor of Scheme and part of the Common Lisp Gang of Five, currently working on Fortress Ken Thompson: Inventor of UNIX Jamie Zawinski: Author of XEmacs and early Netscape/Mozilla hacker

Did you know that duct tape can turn any item of clothing into rainwear? That duct tape over a computer screen will keep your kids from surfing naughty sites on the Web? That a perfect solution for those easy-to-lose TV remotes is to duct tape them to your arm? (Not only won't you lose it, you'll never have to relinquish control over it, either!) But can you also believe that Jim and Tim's creative ideas for duct tape spawned not just one bestselling book, but three, plus a calendar? And now the ultimate collection? With two-thirds of the material drawn from their previous books and calendars and one-third all-new, The Jumbo Duct Tape Book is pure nuttiness to the nth degree. The premise is right there, on page one: "One rule can get you through life. It if ain't stuck and it's supposed to be, duct tape it." But of course it's the interpretation that counts-like duct taping the gas pedal for cruise control, or duct taping marbles to your pressure points for instant reflexology. And then there's bending the rule-transforming sneakers into golf shoes by punching nails through duct tape and taping it to the soles, saving energy by taping all switches in the off position. Plus cosmetic dentistry (use white tape for the "The Mask" look, silver for the metal-mouth bad guy look), cell phone safety (tape phone to side of head while driving so hands stay on wheel), home decorating (use duct tape for easy drapery tie-backs). You can even convert the book to a "hard cover" by taping a piece of 1/4 inch sheet of plate steel to the front and back covers. It'll last for years!

In its new pocket-size format with a rubber-band closure, Rubber Band Engineer: All-Ballistic Pocket Edition is a fun-filled book of backyard projects that's perfect for gifting. Shooting far, flying high, and delivering way more exciting results than expected are the goals of the gadgets in Rubber Band Engineer: All-Ballistic Pocket Edition. Discover unexpected ways to turn common materials into crafty contraptions that range from surprisingly simple to curiously complex. Through vivid color photos, you'll be guided to create slingshot rockets, unique catapults, improvised darts, and a clever crossbow. Whether you build one or all 10 of these designs, you'll feel like an ingenious engineer when you're through. Best of all, you don't need to be an experienced tinkerer to make any of the projects! All you need are household tools and materials, such as paper clips, pencils, paint stirrers, and ice pop sticks. Oh, and rubber bands. Lots of rubber bands. Grab your glue gun, pull out your pliers, track down your tape, and get started on the challenging, fun, and rewarding journey toward becoming a rubber band engineer.

Rockport Publishing's creative engineering extraordinaire, Lance Akiyama, returns again with The Zoom, Fly, Bolt, Blast STEAM Handbook, featuring 18 STEAM projects to get kids doing, thinking, and building! There is new emphasis in education to introduce STEM and STEAM to children earlier in life, often in elementary school. Just take a look atschools' shifting curricula, the explosion of maker spaces around the country, and demand by parents to have their children engaged with STEAM acitivities. The Zoom, Fly, Bolt, Blast STEAM Handbook gives parents and kids ages 6 to 10 a selection of 18 engaging projects to build together. And when they're finished, they'll have personalized creations that fly, race, and blast off! Make an automaton, a pneumatic machine, a suspension bridge, a flexible hand, a crash-test car, a (working) vacuum cleaner, and a dozen more ingenious, kid-tested projects. This project book is the latest title by Rockport's creative-engineering rockstar, Lance Akiyama, (who you may remember from Rubber Band Engineer, Duct Tape Engineer, and Launchers, Lobbers, and Rockets Engineer) and was made in cooperation with Galileo Learning. Galileo Learning operates over 70 innovation camps in Chicagoland and California, where Lance proudly works as a curriculum developer. Galileo's curriculum is rigorously developed by a small team of project-based learning experts, including former classroom teachers, Stanford University grads, entrepreneurs, artists, and makers. Each project idea is created to support Galileo's mission of developing innovators who envision and create a better world.

In over 200 delightful short essays Bill captures the creativity and impact of engineers. He talks of their spectacular achievements - jets, satellites, skyscrapers, and fiber optics - but draws his deepest insights from the everyday, the quotidian. He finds beauty, elegance and meaning in Ferris wheels, Tupperware, Slinkys, mood rings, waterless urinals and Velcro. Delivered originally on public radio between 1999 and 2006, each essay is a small slice of the world created by engineers. The essays also illuminate and inform about the important topics of our day by showing how intertwined engineering and technology are with terrorism, security, intellectual property and our cultural legacy.

Ken and his EngiNerds crew return in another nutty and nerdy adventure as they face down an alien to save the planet! Alien invasion? At the end of Revenge of the EngiNerds an alien appeared, and it turns out he’s the real deal. He explains he was sent to Earth as an envoy to scope things out for a planned massive, futuristic billboard—which will mean demolishing the planet! Here? On Earth? In their town? Not if the EngiNerds have anything to say about it. Time to save the day and the planet!

Cardboard is everywhere! For creative kids aged 9 to 14, it’s the perfect eco-friendly building material, and Cardboard Box Engineering is the perfect guide to get them started on inventive tinkering. A working kaleidoscope, a marble roller coaster, a robotic hand, and a wind-powered tractor with cardboard gears are just some of the ingenious projects developed by Jonathan Adolph, author of the best-selling Mason Jar Science. Working with simple household tools, kids can follow the step-by-step photographic instructions to exercise their design smarts, expand their 3-D thinking, and learn the basics of physics and engineering with activities that have real-life applications.

A Revolution Is Coming. It Isn't What You Think.This book tells the improbable stories of Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering, a small startup in Needham, Massachusetts, with aspirations to be a beacon to engineering education everywhere, and the iFoundry incubator at the University of Illinois, an unfunded pilot program with aspirations to change engineering at a large public university that wasn't particularly interested in changing. That either one survived is story enough, but what they found out together changes the course of education transformation forever: - How joy, trust, openness, and connec- tion are the keys to unleashing young, courageous engineers.- How engineers educated in narrow technical terms with a fixed mindset need an education that actively engages six minds-analytical, design, people, linguistic, body, and mindful- using a growth mindset.- How emotion and culture are the crucial elements of change, not content, curriculum, and pedagogy.- How four technologies of trust are well established and widely available to promote more rapid academic change.- How all stakeholders can join together in a movement of open innovation to accelerate collaborative disruption of the status quo.Read this book and get a glimpse inside the coming revolution in engineering. Feel the engaging stories in this book and understand the depth of change that is coming. Use this book to help select, shape, demand, and create educational experiences aligned with the creative imperative of the twenty-first century.