Linear and Curvilinear Guided Technology Lecture at UC Berkeley

GUEST LECTURE Students at UC Berkeley in Mechanical Engineering got to hear from working engineers this week — ours, to be specific! Senior Project Engineer Ariel Oriel and our Vice President of Engineering, Ali Jabbari, spoke to a class of engineering students about linear and curvilinear motion technologies.

Ariel, who's been with Bishop-Wisecarver for more than 10 years, opened the lecture with a conversation about our company history and a general overview of motion guidance technology. He explained the different types of guidance systems, pointing out their pros and cons, benefits, uses and options. What are the best linear guides? That depends on your specifications, he explained.



Why were we there? Within a month's time, the students have to assemble a classroom project using motion control products. So the lecture was aimed at helping them better understand the technologies available and how to determine what kind is best suited for certain application types.

"Basically, we help you figure out how to move from point A to point B," Ariel said during the lecture on Tuesday, April 3. "There is a whole world of linear guides ... you should first become familiar with what's out there."

During his presentation, students examined and passed around a few show n' tell demos — we brought with us a lead screw driven LoPro linear guide, a belt driven low profile linear slide and a ball screw driven linear actuator version. Ariel also described the traits and application uses of chain-driven, motorized and electrically driven linear guide systems.



Ali's portion of the lecture dove into more granular details, including calculation examples. Several students asked questions pertaining to their upcoming projects.

"It's good for them to hear from people who do this for a living because they get a lot of theory in class," said UC Berkeley Adjunct Professor George Anwar, a former classmate and colleague of Ali's. "This shows them the more practical side."

INTERNSHIPS The lecture turned into an informal recruitment for our about-to-launch internship program — oh yes, a sneak peek at something big! Students who took time to speak with Ali and Ariel after class asked many questions about our internship program, which we plan to launch this summer. For more about the upcoming internships [ click here ]