In this paper, design of a recumbent bicycle for loading cargo is introduced as an application example of practical engineering. This device consists of a main frame due to the main load, an occupant seat considering the human body structural condition, a steering device(handle), a power transmission device (gear/chain, pedal, and crank), and a braking device (disk brake). In order to design and manufacture of the device, various subjects learned during the school year are reviewed and practiced. In particular, by designing the shape considering the load acting on the recumbent and the structural conditions of the human body, it is possible to understand the detailed mechanical mechanism as well as the understanding for the basic design. Through this case study, students can develop and enhance their creativity and practical skills for related industries by designing and manufacturing a real recumbent bike and, if necessary, industrializing these skills.

We investigate two abnormal CME-Storm pairs that occurred on 2014 September 10 - 12 and 2015 March 15 - 17, respectively. The first one was a moderate geomagnetic storm (Dstmin  -75 nT) driven by the X1.6 high speed flare-associated CME (1267 km s−1) in AR 12158 (N14E02) near solar disk center. The other was a very intense geomagnetic storm (Dstmin  -223 nT) caused by a CME with moderate speed (719 km s−1) and associated with a filament eruption accompanied by a weak flare (C9.1) in AR 12297 (S17W38). Both CMEs have large direction parameters facing the Earth and southward magnetic field orientation in their solar source region. In this study, we inspect the structure of Interplanetary Flux Ropes (IFRs) at the Earth estimated by using the torus fitting technique assuming self-similar expansion. As results, we find that the moderate storm on 2014 September 12 was caused by small-scale southward magnetic fields in the sheath region ahead of the IFR. The Earth traversed the portion of the IFR where only the northward fields are observed. Meanwhile, in case of the 2015 March 17 storm, our IFR analysis revealed that the Earth passed the very portion where only the southward magnetic fields are observed throughout the passage. The resultant southward magnetic field with long- duration is the main cause of the intense storm. We suggest that 3D magnetic field geometry of an IFR at the IFR-Earth encounter is important and the strength of a geomagnetic storm is strongly affected by the relative location of the Earth with respect to the IFR structure.

This study aimed to develop the movable bed cultivating system for strawberry cultivation that enables to increase crop yield and save labor through high-density cultivation. In comparison with a conventional raised-bed system, the best feature of the system is a culture bed moving freely, left, right, up and down. This system consists of four devices; longitudinally- and laterally-moving device, nutrient solution supply device, and a control device. A comparative study showed that there was no significant difference on strawberry growth between a conventional raised bed and the movable bed cultivation systems. In addition, the change of growing environment to high-density cultivation did not influence strawberry growth, which proved the applicability of the movable bed cultivation system. Additional finding of this study showed that about 1.7 times more plants can be planted in movable beds. High-density cultivating using movable beds enables to plant more strawberry within the same cultivated area, which eventually contribute to reduce energy consumption per strawberry.