David Zarrin: Reinventing Motion, Motors and Turbines

What's This?

By Intel2014-04-28 15:46:36 UTC

Fear of flying — or rather, the fear of starting to fly and encountering an issue that unceremoniously ceases said flight — is the most ubiquitous and understandable phobia known to man. We’ve all heard how air travel is the safest form of transportation, yet the images and lore surrounding plane crashes have settled into our consciousness and rattled our nerves. When David Zarrin, a teen engineering prodigy from Saratoga, California, dedicated his engineering prowess to the development of a safer generation of jet engines, giants of the science world took note. Could the garage-based tinkering of a teenager truly take the edge off one of our most universal fears? With the right encouragement and Intel-powered technology at his fingertips, there’s no one better suited for the job than Zarrin.

“This engine would be able to survive a blow strike,” says Zarrin, now a freshman mechanical engineering student at UC Berkeley. Zarrin’s safer turbojet engine can switch from a Continuous Combustion Engine (CCE) to Pulse Detonation Engine (PDE) mode in flight, allowing it to operate with failed turbines and tolerate flameout failures. “A lot of plane accidents are caused by ingestion of birds, ice, precipitation and volcanic ash, and results in engine flameout or turbine failure. I was inspired to work on this following the plane crash in the Hudson River (U.S. Airways Flight 1549) that took place back in 2009. If that plane had been outfitted with this kind of engine, it wouldn’t have crashed.”

Taking on an issue such as jet engine failure sounds ambitious, yet David’s been devouring such quandaries for his whole life. “I think my first discovery was in sixth grade, when I realized that catapults are more efficient with wheels than without — which sounds counterintuitive,” he says. “In seventh grade, I started doing projects on laser beams, because I was really into the whole spy gear thing, and I started working on ways that audio can be transferred through the laser beam.”

In eighth grade, he won first place and the distinction of “project of the year” at his state science fair. “I came up with a boat destabilizer, after my dad told me a story about throwing up on his honeymoon cruise.” That big win lit a fire within David; his ambitions and self-confidence grew. “I designed this new type of bicycle with a continuously variable transmission. It won first place in the International category at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) that year. In tenth grade, he devised an indoor navigation system that can detect others’ location using sound waves. In eleventh grade, it was an internal combustion rotary engine that takes its cues from the way the human leg runs. (He is an accomplished cross-country runner).

Needless to say, Zarrin takes his electronics seriously, and he leans on Intel processing power to see his projects through. “My garage is my lab, and I use SolidWorks (3D CAD software) to create objects and dimension them precisely,” he says. “I also use a lot of Photoshop and Soundbooth for audio testing. It’s really convenient to have a portable device like an Intel-powered tablet that can support Solidworks. Most small laptops won’t do a great job with the kind of programs I run, but the Intel Core processor does a good job at supporting my work.”

Strong support comes not only from Zarrin’s processor. His family is his best support of all. “My two older sisters are very smart — one’s at Princeton, and the other is graduating UPENN,” he says. “My parents are glad that I have a hands-on hobby and enjoy building things.”

Meanwhile, he’s thrilled to be among other enthusiastic engineers at Berkeley. “I’m glad to have found a community at the same level as I am with building projects. I’m on the electric car team with grad students, which I would love to make a more major role with in the next year or two.”

His big goal: a Nobel-winning invention in bio-mechanical engineering. “If I’m sitting in class and not interested in the subject, I’ll think about this stuff,” he admits. “I’ll be using CAD to design a new internal combustion engine.”

Did we or did we not say that — with the proper motivation and technology — this is the right kid to take on the future on our behalf?

Topics: