Do you have bright ideas? Ideas for inventions that change society or, at least, make life easier for somebody? Perhaps we all do sometimes, but we don’t often make the idea a reality. Recently, in Britain, there was a competition called British Designers for Tomorrow. The competition encouraged young people to carry out their bright ideas. There were two groups in the contest: Group One was for schoolchildren under 16; Group Two was for schoolchildren over 16. And there were eleven prize-winners altogether.

Neil Hunt, one of the prize-winners, was called “Sunshine Superman” by one newspaper writing about his design. It’s important, when people study the weather, to be able to record sunshine accurately. We need to know how many hours of sunshine we have and how strong it is. Most sunshine recorders only record direct sunlight. Neil’s is more accurate and this is very important for research into ways of using solar power. With his prize of ￡100, Neil plans to carry on inventing.

You can do so much with animation. Look at Simon West’s idea for animated road signs. He uses pictures which appear to move as you go nearer to or farther from them. This isn’t a new idea. But it is new to use these pictures on road signs. “We found that people were more likely to see moving signs,” said Simon. So now, you can really see rocks falling, trains moving, horses galloping or a car falling over the edge of a cliff. Quite a warning!

The ideas in the competition were so inventive that we are surprised that British industry doesn’t ask more schoolchildren for suggestions. Perhaps this will be the start of “pupil power”!

  Forms for the suggestions are to be kept inside the box. When employees fill out a form, they should clearly state which situation they are trying to improve, list all pertinent data, and then offer a solution, stating how the company would benefit. Forms will then be collected each month by the department heads, who will pass them on to the plant manager. Where necessary, the plant manager will consult with the respective departments to gather any relevant data. If applicable, the matter will then be passed on to the finance department for approval. A bonus will be paid to employees for any suggestions that are adopted. The amount of the bonus will be commensurate with the savings to the company.

       On September 11th, 2001, tragedy struck the city of New York when terrorists crashed airplanes into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in lower Manhattan. From the ashes of those iconic buildings, however, would rise a new city landmark – the glimmering One World Trade Center.                      Construction on 1 WTC began in April of 2006, but it wasn’t until May of 2015 that the doors were finally open to the public. This was due to the numerous challenges facing architects, engineers, and construction crews while they worked on the project. First and foremost were the cleanup efforts in and around the area where the twin towers came down. This is the site that would come to be known as Ground Zero. This alone took eight long months.

     After the cleanup, architects and engineers had to put their heads together to determine how they would make this new structure fit in with the infrastructure that was already in place. Beneath the site there were already train and subway tracks to take into consideration, all at different depths. To make things even more complicated, construction of 1 WTC could not interrupt train or a subway service. This meant they would have to work around the train and subway tunnels. It wasn’t easy, but after analyzing everything that was there underground in four dimensions, the team was able to figure it out.

    Yet another challenge was the sheer size of the building, and how to put together its massive beams and columns, some weighing as much as 72.5 metric tons. In order to get this done, two of the largest cranes ever used in the history of New York City had to be brought in to lift them up.

    The result of all this time, planning, and effort is one of the safest and strongest towers ever built. In the end, the estimated price tag for the building was US$3.9 billion. However, for many New Yorkers, seeing a new tower rise up where the twin towers once stood is something no one can put a price on.