Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 5, 1992 TAG: 9203050474
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: S-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BETSY BIESENBACH
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
They live in a comfortable home overlooking the valley. They go to public school. They love sports, especially lacrosse; and they all play musical instruments, although rarely together, much to their mother's disappointment.
What makes them different is how they spend their spare time. All of them are interested in science, and the two middle boys - Shawn, 16, and David, 14 - have been doing research into brain-bending subjects such as superconductors, smart materials and robotics.
The eldest, Andrew, 21, is a student at Virginia Tech, where he is majoring in chemistry. He also is in the Corps of Cadets and plays trombone in the Corps' marching band, the Highty-Tighties.
The youngest, Daniel, 12, is a student at Addison Middle School, where he is involved in a self-directed program. Like Shawn, he is interested in superconductors, said their dad.
In January, Shawn, a Patrick Henry High School student who attends Governor's School there, and David, a student at Madison Middle School, were involved in their schools' science fairs.
For Shawn, selecting a project was easy. He's been researching superconductors with Virginia Tech instructors for the past two years. Superconductors, materials that allow current to pass through them with little or no resistance, use little energy and are expected to be in widespread use once they are perfected.
Shawn's idea was to combine superconductors and new composite materials to create a system that will cancel out vibrations produced by wind resistance against airplane bodies. Eliminating the vibrations will cut down on metal fatigue, he said, and hopefully help prevent major airline disasters.
His project, most of which was on computer, won first place at the Governor's School Science Fair on Feb. 1.
David, who is interested in robotics, said his ideas just "kind of come to me."
For his science fair project, David created a computer program that operates a robotic arm that could be used in the manufacture of printed circuit boards. He built a working model to demonstrate that robots can build the boards faster than humans.
As an added feature, the model has a hamburger flipper, which David designed as part of an automated fast-food kitchen project.
In this case, however, David discovered that putting together a hamburger is something people can do faster, his father said.
Although David's project was impressive, using a real robotic arm and working plastic models, David did not do well at the science fair. For the second year in a row, his project was accidentally tampered with before the judging and was eliminated.
The boys first contacted Virginia Tech researchers when Shawn was 14 and David was 13. They were encouraged by Andrew, who was already a student there.
"Ol' Gutsy," as Shawn's father calls him, read an article about superconductors, and with no prior experience in the field, aside from taking apart watches and clocks, wrote a letter to the materials engineering school at Virginia Tech, outlining some ideas he had and asking to participate in research.
"They were pretty cool about it," Shawn said. Despite his youth, he was taken seriously from the beginning, probably, he said, because many of Tech's instructors have gifted children themselves.
The next year, David tried his luck with the industrial engineering department's robotics lab and was welcomed there, too. Although he is still in middle school, he participated in a workshop for undergraduate students last summer.
Both boys say their work has changed their lives. Before moving to Roanoke in 1988, the family lived in Fairfax County.
"I don't know what would have happened if I had stayed there," Shawn said. The boys attended large schools where they felt they were not allowed to explore their interests, and where other children made fun of them.
Shawn is small for his age, wears glasses and has mild dyslexia. When he is tired, he said, he reverses letters and numbers, but because of his problem, he is also able to play both parts of a piano piece with either hand.
David was struck by a car at age 5 and has some residual neurological effects. He also had problems with his ears and was deaf for the first few years he went to school. Roger said he believes difficulties with language skills made both boys "take off in science and math" at an early age.
Today they are happy and active. They make good grades in school and play sports. They are both in the band and have plenty of friends.
Shawn said their work at Virginia Tech provides the stimulation they felt was missing before they came to Roanoke.
But their talents are pretty much taken for granted at home. Roger, a retired Army colonel, worked in computer science and military intelligence. Charlotte, the daughter of one of the first pioneers in industrial automation, wanted to become an engineer herself, but was discouraged from it by her father, who thought the field was unsuitable for women. Instead, she majored in merchandising at Ohio State University. But she takes the opportunity to poke around in the labs at Tech while acting as the boys' "official chauffeur," she said.
"We've always encouraged them to go out and do the things they want to do," Roger said.
Shawn, who also plays the French horn, would like to study music, but understands that job opportunities are limited. He wants to earn his doctorate and work for NASA. He'd like to be an astronaut, he said, but his eyesight may prevent that.
David's dream is to someday design a "Robocop," an artificial intelligence machine that will help other people. On a more practical level, he'd like to work on automation in industry, like his grandfather. He hopes his work in robotics will free human beings from tedious jobs to allow them to pursue more worthwhile activities.
by CNB