Joel enjoys paintball, swimming, and reading. He also likes architectural and automotive drawing. His ideal future career combines engineering and business because "this combination can lead to a very successful career."
A phenomenon known as fuel sloshing, in which fuel splashes forcefully against the side of a tank, may contribute to SUV rollovers and other vehicle accidents. Joel wondered why fuel sloshing happens and how it might be controlled. He hypothesized that the size and shape of the fuel tank, the amount of fuel in a tank, and the speed and maneuvers of a vehicle contribute to fuel sloshing.
Joel filled several rectangular and cylindrical containers with water at different depths to simulate fuel and tested how much the water sloshed with various movements. He found that sloshing increases with depth and decreases with the size of the container. Joel also discovered that putting floating balls and devices called baffles in each tank decreased sloshing frequency.
