Tag: physical sciences
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Maryland Utility to Purchase Solar Contest Winning House
The electric utility company Pepco says it will purchase the WaterShed house that won the 2011 Solar Decathlon contest in October. The house was built by faculty and students at the University of Maryland in College Park, its current location. The 2011 Solar Decathlon pitted 20 teams representing institutions in the U.S., Canada, Europe, and…
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Nanotech Paint Devised to Monitor for Structural Damage
Researcher engineers at University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, U.K. have developed a type of paint that can help detect early signs of structural damage in bridges or buildings. Because this “smart paint” can be applied like any other paint and requires little maintenance, it costs a small fraction of traditional instrument-based sensors. Strathclyde civil engineering…
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Medical Sensor Powered by Music Vibrations Developed
Engineers at Purdue University in Indiana have developed a miniature medical sensor that can be powered by vibrations from music played nearby, with the deep bass of rap music found most effective. The research conducted in the lab of Babak Ziaie, professor of electrical and computer engineering and biomedical engineering, will be presented at the…
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Grant to Fund New Program Logic for Flight Data Integration
A grant from the U.S. Air Force to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York will fund development of computer logic to help create safer and more efficient flight technology. The $100,00 grant was awarded to computer scientist Carlos Varela of Rensselaer’s Data Science Research Center, who is also a licensed pilot (pictured right). Varela’s…
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Lab Discovers Material to Help Process Spent Nuclear Fuel
Research chemists at Sandia National Lab in Albuquerque have developed a new material that can capture and remove volatile radioactive gas from spent nuclear fuel. The team led by Tina Nenoff (pictured right) published their findings recently in the Journal of the American Chemical Society; paid subscription required. The Sandia researchers, with colleagues from Argonne…
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Grant to Develop Virtual Reality Job Service for Disabled
The University of Hawaii in Manoa was awarded a $425,000 grant by the Kessler Foundation to develop a virtual reality (VR) employment orientation and support center using Second Life as a platform for people with disabilities and employers. The university’s College of Education Center on Disability Studies (CDS) will receive a Kessler Signature Employment Grant…
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Soap Developed with Magnetic Properties
Researchers at University of Bristol in the U.K. and Institut Laue-Langevin in Grenoble, France have developed a soap with iron salts that can be controlled by magnets. The discovery is expected to lead to products useful in cleaning up oil spills at sea, which can be better captured and removed after use than currently available…
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Report: Asia Closing Gap in U.S. R&D Leadership
National Science Foundation’s new report on global research and development (R&D) trends, Science and Engineering Indicators 2012, shows in the last decade, U.S. leadership in research and development has come under severe challenge from China and other countries in Asia. The report from NSF’s policy-making body, the National Science Board, shows between 1999 and 2009,…
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University, Company Partner to Combat Counterfeit Chips
The College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering (CNSE) of the University at Albany and Applied DNA Sciences Inc. in Stony Brook, New York will collaborate on nanotechnology-based solutions to prevent counterfeiting of computer chips. The partnership will focus on new methods for depositing DNA on nanoelectronics wafers and computer chips for authentication. This collaboration in…
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Faster, Cheaper Thermoelectric Materials Process Developed
Engineers and materials scientists at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York have discovered new methods to create nanomaterials for more efficient refrigerators and cooling systems with no refrigerants or moving parts. The research is described in a paper published online in the journal Nature Materials (paid subscription required), and the authors have started commercializing…