Freshman Engineering Student Seismometer Design Project

Winning Design!

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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