Articles: Energy
Organic Photovoltaics - Forecasts for the Next Decade
Today there are multiple devices available for harnessing solar energy. Each device offers a different set of characteristics. Wafer-based devices consist of mono or...
News
NASA Mission Sends Unmanned Aircraft Over Hurricanes
Beginning this summer, and over the next several years, NASA will be sending unmanned aircraft dubbed "severe storm sentinels" above stormy skies to help researchers and forecasters uncover information about hurricane formation and intensity changes. The Hurricane and Severe Storm Sentinel...
News
Engineers Model the Complexities of Hypersonic Flight
A multiyear collaboration among Stanford engineering departments uses some of the world's fastest supercomputers to model the complexities of hypersonic flight. Someday, their work may lead to planes that fly at many times the speed of sound.
News
NASA Supersonic Airliner Would Reduce Sonic Boom
Aeronautical innovators at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Virginia are one step closer to confidently crafting a viable commercial airliner that can fly faster than the speed of sound, yet produce a sonic boom that is quiet enough not to bother anyone on the ground below. Wind tunnel tests of...
News
Robot Equipped with New Tactile Sensor
A robot was equipped with a new type of tactile sensor built to mimic the human fingertip. Imitating human strategies, it also used a newly designed algorithm to make decisions about how to explore the outside world.
Capable of other human sensations, the sensor can also tell where and in which direction...
News
Researchers Create Pavement Crack Detection and Sealing System
Sealing cracks in roadways ensures a road’s structural integrity and extends the time between major repaving projects, but conventional manual crack sealing operations expose workers to dangerous traffic and cover a limited amount of roadway each day.
To address these challenges,...
Question of the Week
Will wireless bracelet monitors be a useful way to assess student engagement?
Creators of an experimental bracelet, the Galvanic Skin Response monitor, want to use their device to assess student engagement in the classroom, and then use that information to inform teaching methods. The wireless-sensor technology, worn by a student, analyzes...
News
Metallic Nanocrystals Self-Assemble for Next-Gen Antennas and Lenses
Researchers at the University of California, San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering have developed a technique that enables metallic nanocrystals to self-assemble into larger, complex materials for next-generation antennas and lenses. The metal nanocrystals are cube-shaped and,...
News
Spintronic Device Uses Thin-Film Organic Semiconductor
University of Utah physicists have developed an inexpensive, highly accurate magnetic field sensor for scientific and possibly consumer uses. The magnetic-sensing thin film, an organic semiconductor polymer named MEH-PPV, measures magnetic fields accurately with a drop of "plastic...
Blog
Fantasy Camp for Engineers
You’ve no doubt heard about fantasy camps that give ordinary, everyday people the opportunity to step out of their routine 9-to-5 lives and live out their dreams for a few days in the company of those who have done it – and in some cases are still doing it – at the professional level. There are baseball fantasy...
News: Transportation
Low-Platinum Electrocatalysts for Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles
Tune in for a live webcast from the U.S. Department of Energy on June 19th, from 12-1 p.m. EDT. Electrocatalysts developed by Brookhaven National Laboratory's (BNL) scientists use...
News
Algorithm Allows Robots and Humans to Work Side by Side
MIT researchers have devised an algorithm that enables a robot to quickly learn an individual’s preference for a certain task, and adapt accordingly to help complete the task. The group is using the algorithm in simulations to train robots and humans to work together.
The researchers...
Tech Needs
Oxygen Barrier Materials for Improving Food/Beverage Shelf Life
An organization would like to increase the oxygen barrier in thermoplastic elastomers by an order of magnitude or more to preserve the shelf life of food/beverages. This organization is seeking an order-of-magnitude improvement in oxygen blocking, without a substantial increase in...
Question of the Week
Do you trust a V2V car to prevent accidents?
A recent transportation conference demonstrated a possible advancement in automotive safety: cars that communicate with each other and warn drivers of impending collisions. Later this summer, the government will begin a year-long test involving nearly 3,000 vehicles. The vehicles will be equipped to...
News: Energy
Coaxial Nanocable Could Aid in Energy Storage
Researchers at Rice University have created a coaxial cable that is about a thousand times smaller than a human hair and has higher capacitance than previously reported microcapacitors. The...
News: Energy
Underwater Solar Cells?
Scientists at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, Electronics Science and Technology Division, have developed high-band-gap solar cells capable of producing sufficient power to operate electronic sensor systems at water depths of 9 meters.
News
Metal Oxides Hold the Key to Cheap, Green Energy
Harnessing the energy of sunlight can be as simple as tuning the optical and electronic properties of metal oxides at the atomic level by making an artificial crystal or super-lattice “sandwich,” according to Binghamton University researcher Louis Piper. “Metal oxides are cheap, abundant,...
News
Quantum Dots Brighten the Future of Lighting
With the age of the incandescent light bulb fading rapidly, the holy grail of the lighting industry is to develop a highly efficient form of solid-state lighting that produces high-quality white light. One of the few alternative technologies that produce pure white light is white-light quantum dots...
News: Materials
Detecting Contaminants in Water
Many organic contaminants in the air and in drinking water need to be detected at very low-level concentrations. Research published by the laboratory of Prashant V. Kamat, the John A. Zahm Professor of Science...
News
Slingshot-Driven Device Stops High-Velocity Projectiles
Team CADET at Rice University have developed a slingshot-driven device that stops high-velocity projectiles without destroying them. Currently, the Air Force simulates deceleration by firing cannons into walls. The strategy is expensive and the sensor module and target are typically...
Question of the Week
Would you wear "electric clothes?"
Wake Forest University physicists have developed a "Power Felt" fabric that doubles as a spare outlet. When used to line a shirt, for example, it converts subtle differences in temperature into electricity. The technology could be used to power up devices, including MP3 players and cell phone batteries. ...
News
Floating Robots Could Help Military Monitor Water Supply
Engineers from the University of California, Berkeley, sent a fleet of 100 smartphone-equipped floating robots down the Sacramento River to demonstrate the next generation of water monitoring technology, promising to transform the way government agencies monitor one of the state’s most...
News
Engineer Designs Improved Hand Grenade
As far as the design of the basic hand grenade goes, "The basic technology is almost 100 years old," said Richard Lauch, a Picatinny Arsenal engineer. Lauch, who served in the U.S. Marine Corps, has been on a mission to modernize the hand grenade so that it is safer as well as easier to use and cheaper to...
News
Army Scientists Develop Portable Renewable-Energy Microgrids
Soldiers stationed in remote combat outposts face logistics and safety challenges to power their radios, laptops and GPS units. U.S. Army scientists are researching methods to harness the Sun and wind to ease the burdens associated with transporting fossil fuels to dangerous areas
News
Prototype Device Translates Sign Language
Thanks to a group of University of Houston students, the hearing impaired may soon have an easier time communicating with those who do not understand sign language. During the past semester, students in UH’s engineering technology and industrial design programs teamed up to develop the concept and...
Who's Who: Aerospace
Who's Who at NASA: Jack Vieira, Range Project Manager
In March of 2012, NASA successfully launched five rockets from its Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. The launch was part of NASA's Anomalous Transport Rocket Experiment, or ATREX, which will help scientists better understand the jet stream. Jack Vieira, range project manager for the ATREX...
Briefs: Software
iGlobe Interactive Visualization and Analysis of Spatial Data
iGlobe is open-source software built on NASA World Wind virtual globe technology. iGlobe provides a growing set of tools for weather science, climate research, and agricultural analysis. Up until now, these types of sophisticated tools have been developed in isolation by national...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Broad-Bandwidth FPGA-Based Digital Polyphase Spectrometer
With present concern for ecological sustainability ever increasing, it is desirable to model the composition of Earth’s upper atmosphere accurately with regards to certain helpful...
Briefs: Software
Small Aircraft Data Distribution System
The CARVE Small Aircraft Data Distribution System acquires the aircraft location and attitude data that is required by the various programs running on a distributed network. This system distributes the data it acquires to the data acquisition programs for inclusion in their data files.
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