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WINNING THE RAT RACE
The term 'rat race' has been described as a "seemingly pointless or endless pursuit". The work of today's research scientist is hardly pointless but one aspect of the work, while not endless, was a tedious pursuit. We are describing the work of researchers charged with the task of observing and documenting the behavior of mice in lab settings. The job was to watch and score lengthy video recordings of the creature's every move. That was until Jessie Brodkin came up with an idea that he has described as "thinking inside the box".
Brodkin's creation is The Behavioral Spectrometer
( http://behavioralinstruments.com), a humane device that captures everything your mouse does without having to watch and score hours of video recordings. Brodkin found Sigma Design Company and its team of mechanical design engineers for the job. Sigma designed, tested and now manufactures this 'mouse house', The Behavioral Spectrometer, right here in NJ. The job required advanced engineering analysis and skills to incorporate LED lighting, vibrations sensors, and isolation dampers. It has the capability of using advanced video and vibration analysis to record the most detailed description of mouse behavior ever.
Brodkin's 'made in NJ' product has met with huge success in the research and pharmaceutical world. The Behavioral Spectrometer is used by Rutgers University's Department of Neuroscience and Cell Biology, Pfizer, and other global R&D laboratories for the development of new treatments and drugs. The latest 4 systems were just shipped to a R&D laboratory in Austria. To read customer articles and references:
This is another success story showing Sigma Design Company's ability to provide manufacturing engineering and product development services to people like you. Sigma Design is your single source engineering and manufacturing resource for new products and specialty machinery.
Please contact us about your next project!
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ENGINEERS BREW CLUB
The Engineers Brew Club (EBC), which launched last summer, has already produced over 65 gallons of beer. We spend our evenings talking a lot about how a good beer is about both brewer skill and system efficiency. While certain characteristics of the beer can be predicted by the formula, it is the beer maker's ability to control the process variables that affect the outcome. At EBC we are working to not only make good beer but to create an efficient system- as we do with all Sigma projects.
In our six months we've brewed a Session Ale, a Baltic Porter, and the George Washington Porter. In our opinion, our best beer to date was the Baltic Porter so that will be our entry for the event. Our exclusive, all grain formula uses six types of malt and two types of hops. It is currently in its three step lagering process to develop its distinctive flavor.
The term lagering refers to the process of temperature controlled fermentation and aging that beer undergoes at cold temperatures. How long to lager is subject to debate, depending on the beer style. In five+ weeks the beer will be kegged and carbonated, just in time to submit our samples to the judges on February 14th!
Wish us luck!
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