It’s hard to believe that a simple website could be used to power a home in India, save the environment in Kenya and assist engineering students at the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), but that’s exactly what happened after Nial McCabe’s model steam engine site launched.
“It started ten years ago, almost as a hobby,” says McCabe, Professor of Mechanical Engineering Technology at CCM. “I sat down and took some work that I had already done and put it together on a website.” What he assembled was do-it-yourself plans for various types of miniature steam engines. He uses the site as part of his curriculum, but also posts the plans so that teachers and students at technical schools, vocational schools and community colleges can learn from building the small projects.
Global Appeal
So far, the site has had more than one and a half million visitors with about 250 tech fans from India, Australia, Scotland, Kenya and many other countries.