HUAAN ZHANG

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Huaan Zhang is brilliant.  He has degrees in optical and in electrical engineering.  He's designed control systems for the engines of giant tractors and magnetic read heads to gather teensy bits of data.  He's helped increase the storage capacity of disc drives by four orders of magnitude, from hundreds of megabytes up to a few terabytes.  Huaan well deserves the highest praise you can give an engineer:  his stuff really works!

Amy and Huaan Zhang work on
the robot control tower

So what does he do for fun?   Well, for one thing, he builds robots for The Works.  The first two robots he made were instant, enormous hits in the museum.  Huaan and his daughter Amy spent many Saturdays at The Works helping enthralled kids test drive the machines.  With an engineer's eye for improvement, Huaan sstreamlined the robot, created a durable control tower, added in foam blocks for a maneuvering challenge and redesigned the claw.  Fellow engineers from Seagate constructed a large, purple pen to house the robots.  Amy named the machines "Zucchini" and "Pickle" and they remain a popular highlight for our young visitors.

Huaan and Amy also coach a team of kids at The Works in the First Leo League robotics competition.  This year's team, the NXT Generation, met weekly for four months to design, build and program a Lego robot and to research a presentation of global warming.  With the kids' hard work and Huaan's patient and encouraging direction, the team advanced to the State competition, where they placed in the top ten in Robot Design, Performance, Programming, Teamwork and Research.

Huaan's efforts and expertise have given thousands of young people a personal, hands-on experience with robotics.

"This is so important," he says, with a quiet smile lighting his face.  "I just want kids to have a chance to experience and appreciate engineering."   Thanks to you Huaan Zhang, they do.

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SCOTT MAZAR

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 This profile originally published in The Works' newsletter of autumn 2006.

On President’s Day 1994, Scott Mazar walked into The Works carrying George Washington’s head.   

The head, made from Legos, sat on a sensor controlled mechanism that turned the head to face you as you walked in front of it.  This was The Works’ very first exhibit,  Tracker.  Now with a colorful bug-like creature replacing George’s head, Tracker has greeted over 100,000 visitors to The Works.

Scott is the mastermind behind both Tracker and the inner works of the Light Harp, two perennial favorites. 

How does he do it?  In part, it’s his eclectic background.  Scott is equally adept in both theoretical and practical worlds — and sports a sense of humor to bridge the divide.  “The way you think the world works isn’t necessarily the way it’s going to cooperate with you,”  he notes wryly.

One reflection of this versatility is his elegant and playful use of materials;  the electrical commutator in Tracker is a piece of model railroad track, and the beam splitters in the Light Harp are microscope cover slides.

Where did he come by his talents?  “Ever since I could remember, I loved to take things apart,” Scott explains.  “I asked my Dad to get me a TV to tear apart, and he did.  I dug in and I realized about half way through that I’d never heard of anyone who made a living tearing things apart;  I had to learn how to put them together, too.”  

“My Dad let me do things even when he knew it would probably take longer that way.  He fostered my interest in electronics.  And he made me feel competent.  He also provided free rein in his basement woodshop — except for drilling holes.”

Scott has carried this tradition of direct experience instilling confidence on to his own children.   His son James, who was permitted to back Scott’s truck out of the driveway at the tender age of 6, is now a capable 15 year old who builds robots for The Works.

In addition to his day job at Transoma Medical and his loving family, Scott maintains one of the most interesting basements on this planet.  His favorite new acquisition?  An interferometric microscope, accurate down to 30 nanometers.  

Kudos, and many thanks to Scott Mazar, valued volunteer.

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RAY MCDONALD

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This profile originally appeared in the Spring 2008 issue of The Works newsletter.

On his first visit to The Works, Ray McDonald was hardly halfway through the museum when the earthquake machine in the classroom broke.   Ray offered to take a look and wound up fixing the thing, to the delight of a roomful of kids who wanted to “shake test” the towers they were building.

That was just the beginning.  Since then, Ray has rewired, readjusted, redesigned or rebuilt many exhibits at The Works.  For instance, he created the new, vastly improved finish line on our popular Race Track exhibit, complete with optical sensors to track each start and finish, plus custom electronics to display the run time down to the millisecond.  Ray has also encouraged and inspired many kids to try Tech Take Apart and other hands-on projects at The Works.  Thank you, Ray, for keeping the exhibits going and the kids thinking.

In his own childhood, in the small town of Salix, Iowa, Ray dismantled junk his dad brought home for him – a carburetor, a windup mechanism, and (treasure of treasures) a two cylinder Maytag gasoline engine.   As a teen, he started a TV and radio repair business.  After completing a degree in Electrical Engineering at South Dakota State University, Ray ran communication networks, designed test equipment, invented patentable parts of pacemakers and implantable drug pumps, and launched a rapid prototyping business.

What’s next?   Ray says he is 89% through creating a brand new exhibit for The Works, a digital decoder lock that makes a kid-pleasing game out of binary encoding.  Also there are plans to use joy sticks to digitize the light controllers on the stage lighting exhibit.  That project is 35 % done.   He aims to complete those soon, because he and his wife Fran are looking forward to two very special events in May – the births of their first two grandchildren!  

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BOW

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This profile originally appeared in the Spring 2007 issue of The Works' newsletter.

Mechanical engineer, artist, educator, innovator, Willis (Bow) Bowman is probably the closest you’ll come to a Renaissance man in modern Minneapolis.  His house is filled with handcrafted delights ranging from a skyscraper-under-glass coffee table with a crank-driven jogger on top to giant masks to a low slung, fine wood glider chair.   A pump-driven stream winds into the back yard, where there’s a pond with giant goldfish, 15 foot domed herb garden, rock cairns and a huge, pumpkin-flinging trebuchet.  In his packed basement are the machine tools of the trade, where he builds amazing prototypes for work and play.

You should see what he builds!  Giant mechanical puppets for parades, tiny mechanisms for medical device companies, a mechanical frog powered by a bicycle, a graceful commissioned bridge, a cherry wood harp with a fluted column.  Each item is wholly unique; Bow’s great gift and greatest delight is to envision and build one-of-a-kind pieces that combine mechanism, fine art and fine crafting.  We’re fortunate to have several of Bow’s creations at The Works:  three dynamic sculptures called “Grateful Gears” built to honor The Works donors, and a new exhibit called “Gear Up.”  In this elegant and whimsical contraption, visitors turn cranks attached to a variety of gear pairs, and are rewarded with shaking dice, a plinking xylophone, a whirling whirligig and a memorable lesson in mechanical advantage.  Think “Mouse Trap” enhanced and you’ll understand why this is popular with kids.

We invited Bow to share his inspiration with the next generation and he approached this new project with his customary enthusiasm and innovation. This summer, lucky 9 to 12-year-olds can take Bow’s Tech Challenge camp, and learn to think outside the box from a real master as they tackle spinning, spanning, flinging and rescue missions.   Thank you for elegant exhibits and ongoing inspiration, valued volunteer Bow Bowman!

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BETTY GRANT: Asking the Right Questions

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This profile originally appeared in the fall 2008 edition of The Works' newsletter.

From an early age, Betty Grant could focus on the goal at hand and figure out what it would take to accomplish it.  For instance, on her first day in elementary school, Betty stared at her teary classmates with consternation and some specific, though silent, advice.  “Pull yourselves together, and quick, because we are here to learn to read and we can’t do that if you are crying all over the place.”

Betty’s lively interests and clear, pragmatic vision have enabled her to have an impact on an eclectic range of pursuits and places.  She majored in French and mathematics in her native North Carolina, trained (briefly) as a Cobol programmer in Hartford, managed national database accounts for Unisys, and opened a regional sales office for Cullinet.  She has also launched an executive recruitment firm and toured ______  countries including Columbia, France, Vietnam and Morocco.  She now volunteers her time translating language and culture for Spanish speaking Minnesotans and serves on three non-profit Boards, including The Works. 

Betty joined The Works Board of Trustees shortly before the organization faced the unexpected blow of abruptly loosing the lease on our Southdale site. Betty and a few other brave Board members sorted candidly through constraints and opportunities, then patiently pieced together the strategy, money and moxie to re-open The Works at the Edina Community Center.  Under Betty’s leadership, the Board then set the strategy and processes that have led to solvency, success and huge growth for The Works.

Betty is matter of fact about all these accomplishments.    “I like thinking about the big picture, “  she says, “and I know how to ask the right questions.” 

p.s.  Betty is also an avid bicyclist.

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