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GLORIA GALLOWAY
From Tuesday's Globe and Mail
March 17, 2009 at 3:57 AM EDT
KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN — Simon Engler is a restless scientist whose desire for military action may ultimately save the lives of Canadians in Afghanistan.
Sapper Engler studied astrophysics and mathematics at St. Mary's University in Nova Scotia and computational physics in the University of Amsterdam prior to joining the military.
But "[I was] sitting behind a computer when there was a war going on. So I said, 'Hey, I will just join up for a few years and get to play soldier and maybe see war and come back,' " he said last week during an interview in the technology-filled crate on the Kandahar Air Field that serves as his part-time office.
Sapper Engler, a 31-year-old Calgary man, found himself driving with his fellow soldiers in armoured vehicles over the dusty roads of Kandahar, where every bump could trigger an explosive device. He also found that, while military life offered its share of excitement, he was bored when he was away from his computers for too long.
Blessed with both smarts and a healthy sense of self preservation, Sapper Engler decided even before coming to the war zone, that he needed to make the trips less dangerous. He set out to create a robot that, when perfected, will be able to roll over the Afghan terrain and look for objects planted by the enemy.
"Every day that we go out, I have to get out of the vehicle and walk to an object and make sure it's not dangerous and then come back in," he explained.
"I thought, if we have something simple to go up and look for us, we don't have to get out of the vehicle and we can still assess the situation. So I came up with this design and built it over the past six months."
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GLORIA GALLOWAY
From Tuesday's Globe and Mail
March 17, 2009 at 3:57 AM EDT
KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN — Simon Engler is a restless scientist whose desire for military action may ultimately save the lives of Canadians in Afghanistan.
Sapper Engler studied astrophysics and mathematics at St. Mary's University in Nova Scotia and computational physics in the University of Amsterdam prior to joining the military.
But "[I was] sitting behind a computer when there was a war going on. So I said, 'Hey, I will just join up for a few years and get to play soldier and maybe see war and come back,' " he said last week during an interview in the technology-filled crate on the Kandahar Air Field that serves as his part-time office.
Sapper Engler, a 31-year-old Calgary man, found himself driving with his fellow soldiers in armoured vehicles over the dusty roads of Kandahar, where every bump could trigger an explosive device. He also found that, while military life offered its share of excitement, he was bored when he was away from his computers for too long.
Blessed with both smarts and a healthy sense of self preservation, Sapper Engler decided even before coming to the war zone, that he needed to make the trips less dangerous. He set out to create a robot that, when perfected, will be able to roll over the Afghan terrain and look for objects planted by the enemy.
"Every day that we go out, I have to get out of the vehicle and walk to an object and make sure it's not dangerous and then come back in," he explained.
"I thought, if we have something simple to go up and look for us, we don't have to get out of the vehicle and we can still assess the situation. So I came up with this design and built it over the past six months."
More on link