The Nevada Sagebrush

Gabe Herz, a 25-year-old mechanical engineering major and undergraduate research assistant, checks an extensionometer in the lab. Photo by Brian Bolton/Nevada Sagebrush

Gabe Herz

Age: 25
Major: Mechanical engineering
What he does: Herz is helping research a device called the extensionometer, which can provide data to help rescue searchers.

Gabe Herz, a 25-year-old mechanical engineering major, began rock climbing about a year ago. When he heard about an undergraduate research scholarship through an e-mail from Associate Professor Eric Wang at the College of Engineering, he saw it as an opportunity to research dynamic safety ropes and bring his passion for climbing into his education.

His interest in ropes isn’t purely for recreational use. He hopes that the device he’s helping to research, the extensionometer, can provide data to help rescue searchers.

According to Michael Collopy, the director of the Office of Undergraduate Research, that is exactly what the scholarship is for.

The office’s intention is to get students to team up with faculty mentors and develop ideas for research projects they are really interested in, and also to give students a chance to work with those faculty mentors in the labs or field on their project, regardless of their discipline.

One of the coolest things about the program, Herz said, is that as an undergrad he gets two mentors to work with. He likes the 2:1 ratio much better than one professor for 30 students.

“It’s real,” Wang said about the research scholarship program. “You can take as many math and science and engineering classes that you want and do the homework and do the projects. Nothing really drives it home like doing a project where they are responsible.”

Herz’s device, the self-contained rope extensionometer, will measure how much stretch is in the rope. The rope stretches and the amount of force it experiences is calculated.

“A lot of information is known at the anchor point where the rope is and on the climber’s side and at the belayer’s side (the person that holds the rope),” Herz said. “Not a whole lot of information is known about what force the rope experiences in-between those points.”

Herz believes that rope manufacturers who want to collect data or other researchers will probably use the extensionometer.

“The main difference between what people have done and what we are doing is that it is completely self-contained and you’ll be able to take it out (to do field research),” Herz said.

According to Wang, they are hoping to get enough data to fly out to Salt Lake City where Herz can pitch the device to Black Diamond, a sporting goods store that specializes in climbing and skiing, to get additional funding.

“I’m learning how to juggle projects,” Herz said. “I’m involved in a lot of different projects right now but the thing is, that’s very similar to what an engineer does in the real world.”

Kathy Gordon can be reached at news@nevadasagebrush.com.

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