As college students, we spend a vast majority of our time doing something we shouldn’t: browsing YouTube. I am one of the worst offenders of this, spending hours of my precious free time – and most of the time that I should be working – wandering through links until I realize I have no idea where I started (honestly, sometimes it gets worse than Wikipedia). Throughout my journeys I have collected an array of channel subscriptions for all sorts of hobbies and activities. I’m here today to share the fruits of my labor with you. Allow me to show you some of my favorite YouTube content creators for technology, computers, D.I.Y. hobbies, and SCIENCE!
William Osman
The Mad Scientist of Mechanical Engineering
William Osman takes problems that never needed solving and makes it his personal goal to find their solutions. Questions such as Can you make pancakes with lasers?, How do you make a ham and cheese sandwich in the likeness of Vin Diesel?, and Can an exercise bike make you fat? fall before the might of his engineering prowess. His tools consist of a homemade 80W laser bandsaw, 3D CAD Modeling software, a bunch of old discarded plywood/plastic/metal, and an unhealthy amount of cat-themed pieces of flair. William has a rather haphazard style of filming, full of semi-focused shots and smash cuts. Somehow, it all fits rather well alongside his cluttered work space and go-with-the-flow attitude. If you’re looking for the closest thing you’ll find to a mad scientist in real life, give William’s channel a shot!
Sufficiently Advanced
The D.I.Y. Wizard
Comic book and video game geeks, hold on to your pants! Allen Pan has set his channel’s sights on creating technology that is sufficiently advanced to be virtually indistinguishable from magic. His videos bring some of your favorite comic book and video game abilities to life. He makes use of micro-controllers to create infra-red and voice-activated systems, and give his projects a sense of lifelike magic. He also makes use of chemical composites like Hemacite to make a sword out of blood, and Pykrete to make a sword out of ice. If you’re looking for a good video to start with, I recommend checking out his ocarina-controlled smart home.
Linus Tech Tips
The Technology Guru
If you think you know about computers, think again. Linus Tech Tips is a channel that features the cutting, and sometimes bleeding, edge of computing technology coming to the consumer market. While mostly focused around gaming, Linus and his crew hone in on the technological capabilities of CPUs and GPUs heading to market. There are all sorts of videos, but they are mainly focused on product reviews and PC builds. However, if you make your way over to Linus’ second channel, Techquickie, you’ll find a host of videos explaining how software and hardware work to make our lives easier. If you’re looking for cool PC videos, you can check out their Fallout Bomb PC build; or, if you’re more of a gearhead, you can check out their recent Pixel 2 review.
Numberphile
Making Math Fun
Now, I know what you’re thinking. “Math? Oh, golly goodness gracious, Tommy! I don’t wanna learn about math!” Well, let me tell you that this is not an ordinary math channel. Numberphile takes all the boring parts of math and throws them out the window. The mathematicians featured on this channel discuss four-dimensional shapes, how we unwittingly use math to eat pizza, and the game of life. These mathematicians take very high-level concepts and make them understandable in layman’s terms. If you take the time to watch these videos, I promise that you’ll find a new appreciation for math – at least the fun math, anyways.