Have you ever been in a car driving down a street with stoplights at every intersection…and you feel like you’re hitting every red light? This is a situation engineers and city planners try to avoid when programming how traffic lights will change from green to yellow to red. Many factors are involved, including the traffic patterns at certain times of day, distance between stoplights and the speed limit. This set of problems demonstrates some of the ideas civil engineers consider when planning for traffic patterns.

The work systems engineers do overlaps with, supports and influences numerous fields of engineering and data science, making it a great example of how collaborative engineering can be! One example is the work systems engineers do with software engineers and security engineers to protect and authenticate data effectively and efficiently manage complex systems. This set of problems explores basic cryptology, which is the foundation for encryption practices that keep everything from email accounts to voting machines to national security communications secure.

From toys, analog clocks and powered wheelchairs to lawnmowers, cars and rockets, gears and motors are part of many of the tools mechanical engineers create that make life safer and more convenient. This set of problems is provided by Unmanned Vehicle Systems International Foundation (AUVSI) and explores how gears and motors work together in mechanical engineering projects.

Biomedical engineers play a vital role in medical advances and innovations that improve our health and save lives. One application of their work is advancing research into specialized care for patients. This set of problems looks at a recent biomedical invention—artificial hearts for people who suffer from certain forms of heart disease.

From tiny microchips and electronics to the electricity that powers our homes, electrical engineers’ work makes our fast-paced, plugged-in lives possible. This set of problems explores Ohm’s law, named after the German physicist and mathematician Georg Ohm, whose work was influential in electrical circuitry.