Freshman Engineering Student Seismometer
Design Project
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| Winning Design! |
Recent Updates
See the winning designs at:
http://www.jclahr.com/science/psn/epics/
“Undergraduate Engineering Students Investigate
Inexpensive Seismometer Design" Eos Trans, AGU v84, no. 18,
p166
Available on line to AGU members at: http://www.agu.org/pubs/eos.html
At the Colorado School of Mines (CSM), as part of
the required Engineering Practices Introductory Course Sequence
(EPICS), every 2002-2003 freshman (450 total) is participating in
the design and construction of a seismometer capable of recording
earthquakes at teleseismic distances (thousands of kilometers).
These students are tasked with doing this at a market cost of less
than $150, or more than a factor of two less than any comparable
commercially available seismometer. To begin to grasp design basics,
the students shown above are building and testing simple table-top
seismometers. Consultants for the project are IRIS Education and
Outreach Committee members John Lahr (U.S Geological Survey),and
Tom Boyd,(CSM Department of Geophysics). IRIS is sponsoring this
project with small cash awards for design winners and equipment
loans for use in testing the prototypes being built by students.
Will any of these budding engineers be able to create such an instrument
at so little a cost? We'll have to wait and see. Maybe one of these
students will someday design and build the next generation of research
seismometers!
Contributed by Tom Boyd
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