Engineering in the News November 2009

Excerpts from Illinois in the News, a daily service provided by the University of Illinois News Bureau. This collection of November excerpts focuses on engineering topics and faculty contacted for their expertise by print and broadcast reporters around the world.

SELF-HEALING PLASTIC
Forbes (Nov. 30) -- Scott White, a U of I professor of aerospace engineering, and his fellow researchers at Illinois have developed a plastic embedded with tiny capsules containing a polymer healing agent.

RIBOSOME DYNAMICS
AZoOptics (Sydney, Nov. 24) -- In two recent and other upcoming studies, U. of I. physics professor Klaus Schulten and his colleagues are using the computer as a microscope to get a clearer picture of the dynamics of the ribosome, which is perhaps the cell’s most essential, and most complex, molecular machine. Also: AZoNano (Sydney, Nov. 23), e! Science News (Quebec City, Nov. 23), Innovations Report (Bad Homburg, Germany, Nov. 24), Nanowerk News (Honolulu, Nov. 23), News-Medical (Sydney, Nov. 24), PhysOrg (Douglas, Isle of Man, Nov. 23), R&D Magazine (Rockaway, N.J., Nov. 23), RedOrbit (Dallas, Nov. 23), Science Daily (Chevy Chase, Md., Nov. 23), Scientific Computing (Rockaway, N.J., Nov. 24), Medical News Today (Bexhill-on-Sea, England, Nov. 25).

HELPING HS STUDENTS DEVELOP ALTERNATIVE POWER
Chicago Tribune (Nov. 29) -- Led by teacher Brian Sievers, an Illinois mechanical science and engineering alumnus, science students at Thornridge High School are working with the U of I, Michigan State University, the nonprofit Education for Prosperity and other agencies to build a solar-powered biodiesel processor that could provide electricity for a small rural school in Haiti, one of the world’s most impoverished countries. Also: StockAnalyst (from the Chicago Tribune; Bend, Ore., Nov. 29).

BLUE WATERS TO USE IBM POWR7 IH NODE
The Register (London, Nov. 27) -- The Power7 IH node was on display at the SC09 supercomputer trade show last week in Portland, Ore. The server node is the heart of the 20 petaflop Blue Waters supercomputer being installed at the U of I.

STRUCTURE FABRICATION
Science Centric (Sofia, Bulgaria, Nov. 24) -- Researchers at Illinois have developed a technique for fabricating three-dimensional, single-crystalline silicon structures from thin by coupling photolithography and a self-folding process driven by capillary interactions. “This is a completely different approach to making three-dimensional structures,” said Ralph G. Nuzzo, the G. L. Clark Professor of Chemistry at Illinois. Also involved in the research were U of I mechanical science and engineering professor K. Jimmy Hsia and Jennifer A. Lewis, the Thurnauer Professor of Materials Science and Engineering and the director of the university’s Frederick Seitz Materials Research Laboratory. Also: AZoNano (Sydney, Nov. 23), AZoOptics (Sydney, Nov. 24), e! Science News (Quebec City, Nov. 23), Innovations Report (Bad Homburg, Germany, Nov. 24), Nanowerk News (Honolulu, Nov. 23), PhysOrg (Douglas, Isle of Man, Nov. 23), R&D Magazine (Rockaway, N.J., Nov. 24), RedOrbit (Dallas, Nov. 24), Science Daily (Chevy Chase, Md., Nov. 23), Photonics Online (Pittsfield, Mass., Nov 25), Chemie (Berlin, Nov. 25), Nanotechwire (Philadelphia, Nov. 24), R&D Magazine (Rockaway, N.J., Nov. 25),  Science 360 News Service (National Science Foundation; Washington, D.C., Nov. 25), Semiconductor Online (Erie, Pa., Nov. 25), Technology Review (Cambridge, Mass., Nov. 25), R&D Magazine (Rockaway, N.J., Nov. 26), Times of the Internet (from United Press International; Cleveland, Nov. 30), United Press International (Nov. 30).

GRAPHICS PROCESSING UNITS
GenomeWeb (New York City, Nov. 23) -- Last week the U of I Coordinated Science Laboratory announced the start of gpucomputing.net, a new network of research communities intended to foster collaboration among researchers and Graphics Processing Unit developers.

NANOTECHNOLOGY
PhysOrg (Douglas, Isle of Man, Nov. 20) -- U of I physics professor Nadya Mason worked with U. of I. researchers Travis Dirks and Yung-fu Chen, as well as Norman Birge at Michigan State University, to develop a technique to map out changes in conductance through a carbon nanotube quantum dot.

GENOMICS
e! Science News (Quebec City, Nov. 19) -- A new statistical technique developed by researchers at Illinois allows scientists to scan a genome for specific gene-regulatory regions without requiring prior knowledge of the relevant transcription factors. “Our statistical approach is more widely applicable than other approaches, and is especially useful for investigating gene regulatory networks with relatively little prior characterization,” said Saurabh Sinha, a professor of computer science and an affiliate of the university’s Institute for Genomic Biology. Also: Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News (New Rochelle, N.Y., Nov. 19), PhysOrg (Douglas, Isle of Man, Nov. 19), R&D Magazine (Rockaway, N.J., Nov. 19), RedOrbit (Dallas, Nov. 19), Science Daily (Chevy Chase, Md., Nov. 19), Science Centric (Sofia, Bulgaria, Nov. 21).

RNA PRODUCTION UNCOVERED
Genome Web Daily News (New York City, Nov. 19) -- A team led by Taekjip Ha, a professor in the U of I Department of Physics, and Smita Patel, of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, found that during DNA replication, RNA primers “are made ‘on the fly’ during ongoing DNA synthesis and that the leading-strand T7 replisome does not pause during primer synthesis, contrary to previous reports.”

FLUID DROPLETS INCREASE DATA-CARRYING SPEEDS
Globe and Mail (Toronto, Nov. 17) -- John Rogers, a U of I professor of materials science, has found that droplets of fluid in fiber optic channels can increase the speeds of data-carrying photons. His micro-fluid optical fibers could be key to super-fast delivery of live and streaming multi-media.

MEASURING EARLIEST STAGES OF CRYSTALLIZATION
Physics World (Bristol, England, Nov. 13) -- A new microscopy technique has allowed researchers at Illinois to make the first measurements of the earliest stages of crystallization. The work of the materials science research group is described in the November 2009 edition of Science. Also: Rapid Electronics (Colchester, England, Nov. 24).

‘FATHER OF PLASMA’
Gizmodo Australia (Darlinghurst, New South Wales, Nov. 13) -- It was in the late 1960s and early 1970s that the so-called “father of plasma,’ Larry Weber, began researching plasma at the U of I as a screen for the PLATO teaching computer system.

WET ETHANOL PRODUCTION
RedOrbit (Dallas, Nov. 9) -- A research team led by agricultural engineer Esha Khuller found using a wet ethanol production method that begins by soaking corn kernels rather than grinding them results in more gallons of ethanol and more usable co-products. Also: Daily India (from Asian News International, New Delhi; Jacksonville, Fla., Nov. 10), Science Daily (Chevy Chase, Md., Nov. 9), Sindh Today (from ANI, New Delhi; Mumbai, India, Nov. 10), Thaindian News (from ANI, New Delhi; Bangkok, Nov. 10), Innovations Report (Bad Homburg, Germany, Nov. 11), United Press International (Nov. 11), Times of the Internet (from UPI; Cleveland, Nov. 11) .

SOLAR DECATHLON
The Register-Mail (Galesburg, Ill., Nov. 10) -- Homeway Homes partnered with a student team from the U of I that took second place in the U.S. Department of Energy’s Solar Decathlon, a competition to design and build an energy-efficient home.

ENERGY INVESTMENT
Nanowerk News (Honolulu, Nov. 6) -- The U of I Sustainable Technology Center will share $5 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act Funding with Argonne National Laboratory, Commonwealth Edison Co. and GridPoint for projects to support the development of new solar energy technologies and the rapid deployment of available carbon-free solar energy systems. Also: AZom (Sydney, Australia, Nov. 6).

WEB NEOPHYTES
Genome Web Daily News (New York City, Nov. 5) -- If, like an elderly person listening to the din of grandchildren rambling on about something called “texting,” you’re feeling left out, the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the U of I may be able to help with a new webpage for the uninitiated.

BATTLEFIELD COMPUTER NETWORKS
Chicago Tribune (from The Associated Press, 11/4) -- The U.S. Army will spend $16.75 million to set up the new Information Network Academic Research Center, at  Illinois as part of the U.S. Army Research Laboratory's Network Science Collaborative Technology Alliance. The center will develop technology for computer networks used on battlefields and in other similarly difficult environments. Also: The New York Times (from AP, Nov. 3), WGN-Channel 9 (Chicago, Nov. 3), CBS News (from AP, Nov. 3), ASEE FirstBell (Nov. 4). 

NANOCIRCUITRY
Popular Science (Nov. 3) -- Researchers from the U of I are collaborating in a multi-institution effort to develop implantable silicon-silk electronics that almost dissolve completely inside the body, leaving behind nanocircuitry that could be used for improved electrical interfaces for nervous system tissues or photonic tattoos that display blood-sugar readouts on the skin’s surface. Also: Technology Review (Nov. 3), softpedia (Bucharest, Romania, Nov. 15).
 
STRETCHABLE SILICON CIRCUITS
Technology Review (Cambridge, Mass., Nov. 3) -- Last year, John Rogers, a professor of materials science and engineering at Illinois, has developed flexible, stretchable silicon circuits whose performance matches that of their rigid counterparts.
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Contact: Rick Kubetz, Engineering Communications Office, 217/244-7716, editor.