RENO — Mechanical engineering student Brett Barlow is mixing pleasure with work as he learns how to make skis. The University of Nevada, Reno senior will soon take advantage of his season pass to Northstar to test out the skis. If the skis perform on the slopes like they do in the lab, a patent could soon be in the future for Barlow and a few other students he’s collaborating with to enhance a skier’s experience.

“Playing with my work is fun,” Barlow said. “The hard part is capturing the data to optimize the best (ski) design.”

Barlow and a group of other mechanical engineering majors are designing two new types of skis using nanotechnology at UNR. With the direction of Kam Leang, assistant professor in the engineering department, students are using materials as small as one-billionth of a meter to create particle dampers that will improve ski traction on icy slopes and possibly create skis that fold in half to make them easier to transport.

“This will get them thinking about nanotechnology,” Leang said, referring to other useful applications, such as airplane wings and wind turbines, that incorporate materials measured on the microscopic level.

The students have a ski press in the basement of the Palmer Engineering building at UNR on which they mold the skis. First, they layer fiberglass on shaped wood and attach a metal honeycomb filled with small metal particles that rattle around and absorb vibrations made when the ski rubs against hard-packed snow or ice. The skis are put through a stress test on a “shaker” table that simulates the up-and-down vibration created when skiing. The students have been provided with materials by Moment Skis, a local manufacturer of ski products.

Barlow said the students have been applying cheap but effective methods in producing the vibration-absorbing honeycomb, which is embedded in the fiberglass at the front of the ski. First they tested putting 1-millimeter steel shot particles in an Altoids can but found the particles clumped together, which disrupted the vibration absorption. Then they came up with the honeycomb idea, which so far has reduced vibrations by 64 percent.

Brian Kenton, a graduate student and a teacher’s assistant, moved from New York to Tahoe and has worked in carpentry and mountain bikes for fun. He’s built skis out of his own garage for about four years and is excited about this new prototype.

“I’ve never put some in a particle damper,” he said. “It should definitely have a different feel.”

The students now have a year to patent their project if they choose and are considering pitching the nanotechnology-enhanced skis to local ski shops and potentially to larger companies, Leang said.