Engineering in the News July 2010

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

BP-FUNDED RESARCH
Los Angeles Times (July 31) -- BP gave the University of California at Berkeley a $500 million grant in 2007 to create the Energy Biosciences Institute. The institute funds nearly 70 projects involving about 350 researchers at Berkeley and its two partner institutions – the U. of I. and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The deal, believed to be the largest-ever corporate sponsorship of university research, has outraged many students and professors who worry the global oil company will exert too much influence over academic research and damage the university’s reputation. Now, as the spill devastates the Gulf Coast, some local activists and faculty members say it’s time to end the partnership.

EDIBLE ELECTRONICS?
Daily News & Analysis (Mumbai, India, July 30) -- Silk, spun by spiders and silkworms, could some day find use in degradable and flexible electronic displays for sensors and implantable optical systems for diagnosis and treatment, according to scientists. Progress in “edible optics” and implantable electronics already has been demonstrated by researchers, including engineering professor John Rogers at Illinois. Also: Science Centric (Sofia, Bulgaria, July 30).

COMPUTING POLITICAL ACCOUNTABILITY
All Gov (Berkeley, Calif., July 29) -- After reviewing 21 years of voting records, Brighten Godfrey, a professor of computer science at Illinois, determined that Republicans Jim DeMint and Tom Coburn have the highest rate of voting “no” among current senators, at 47.9 percent and 47.8 percent, respectively. Also: Huffington Post (New York City, July 29).

ALUMNUS TO LEAD UC BUSINESS SCHOOL
Bloomberg (July 28) -- The University of Chicago Booth School of Business has chosen as its next leader Sunil Kumar, an associate dean at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Kumar earned a Ph.D. in electrical engineering at Illinois. Also: Crain’s Chicago Business (July 28).

ENERGY EFFICIENCY
Business Wire (San Francisco, July 29) -- Over the next few months, the Environmental Defense Fund and General Electric Co. will work to verify energy efficiency opportunities and identify industry best practices at select sites including facilities at the U. of I. and in Atlanta and Orlando, Fla.

LEUKEMIA TEST
Science Centric (Sofia, Bulgaria, July 29) -- Scientists in Japan may have developed a way to accurately predict those patients who will resist treatment with imatinib, the standard of care for chronic myeloid leukemia. Yingxiao Wang, a professor of bioengineering at Illinois, lauds the work as “pioneering.” Also: Medical News Today (Bexhill-on-Sea, England, July 29), MedPage Today (Little Falls, N.J., July 29), SoftPedia (Bucharest, Romania, July 29).

EARTHQUAKES
St. Louis Post Dispatch (July 27) -- A recent U. of I. found that a replay of the New Madrid earthquakes of the 1800s would have a devastating impact in the Midwest; an impact that would dwarf the catastrophic damages of any natural disaster this nation has ever experienced.

BETTER FUEL SENSORS
RedOrbit (Dallas, July 27) -- Sensors used to monitor the quality of diesel fuel and biodiesel blended fuels during engine operation are unable to adequately detect certain important fuel quality concerns. Alan Hansen, a professor of agricultural and biological engineering at Illinois, and his colleagues are working to develop technologies to improve these commercially available sensors. Also: The Engineer (London, July 28), AZom (Warriewood, New South Wales, July 31).

ALUMNUS LEADS BP
The Wall Street Journal (July 25) -- The likely choice of managing director Robert Dudley as BP’s new chief executive marks a watershed moment for a company tightly linked to British history and institutions. He earned a degree in chemical engineering at Illinois. Dudley's appointment was reported widely by media around the world.

RAILROAD ENGINEERING
Progressive Railroading (Milwaukee, July 22) -- The Canadian National Railway recently donated $325,000 to the U. of I. railroad engineering program. “This gift allows us to continue and extend our success in developing courses, conducting research and teaching students about rail transport and engineering,” said U. of I. engineering professor Christopher Barkan. Also: Railway Track & Structures (July 22), Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (July 23).

‘SMART GRID’
Electric Light & Power (Tulsa, Okla., July 21) -- A public private partnership led by the Illinois Science and Technology Coalition has announced the signing of several agreements for smart grid innovations. Illinois members of the public private partnership include the Information Trust Institute at the U. of I.

RAILROADS MOVE FREIGHT
The Washington Post (July 19) -- More than 40 percent of U.S. freight miles are by rail, compared with less than 15 percent in Europe, according to U. of I. engineering professor Christopher Barkan.

ADAPTIVE BICYCLES
Naperville Sun (Illinois, July 18) -- Lose the Training Wheels is a program designed by Richard Klein, a retired mechanical engineering at University of Illinois. He developed bicycles fitted with special rollers and other adaptations that allow children with disabilities to gradually progress from a wide balance base to a conventional one without the dreaded training wheels.

BRAIN IMPLANTS
Yahoo News/PC World (San Francisco, July 16) -- Brain implants pose some design challenges because they are relatively thick, and the brain has a hard time tolerating them and they’re wired with large contacts, which reduces the number of electrodes that can be implanted. Dr. Brian Litt, a professor of bioengineering and neurology at the University of Pennsylvania, is working on two ways to reduce the size and increase the effectiveness of brain implants. In collaboration with engineering professor John Rogers at Illinois, Litt is putting active electronics on flexible sheets of rubber and plastic.

ELECTROPOSITION PROCESS COULD FACILITATE 3D COMPUTER CHIPS
New Scientist (July 15) -- In a bid to increase the abilities of computer chips, researchers have been trying to develop three-dimensional chip designs. But the process "has proved a tricky business." Now, "Min-Feng Yu and Jie Hu at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have developed a technique to grow tiny 3D wires in situ which are tailor-made for their location." Also: AZom (Warriewood, New South Wales, July 15), AzoNano (Sydney, July 16), Daily India (Jacksonville, Fla., July 16), OneIndia (Bangalore, July 16), R&D Magazine (Rockaway, N.J., July 15), Science Centric (Sofia, Bulgaria), Science Daily (Chevy Chase, Md., July 15), Sify News (Chennai, India July 16), Sindh Today (from Asian News International, New Delhi; Mumbai, India, July 16), Thaindian News (from ANI, New Delhi; Bangkok, July 16), ASEE First Bell (July 16), Semiconductor Online (Erie, Pa., July 21), Photonics Online (Erie, Pa., July 21).

FACIAL RECONSTRUCTION
Medical News Today (Bexhill-on-Sea, England, July 13) -- Scientists are using the engineering technology behind the creation of high-performance aircraft components to design 3-D models for the replacement of delicate and complex facial bones lost to cancer surgery or trauma. The research, published this week in the online early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, was led by Ohio State University researchers in collaboration with scientists at Illinois. Also: St. Louis Globe-Democrat (July 12), Daily News and Analysis (Mumbai, India, July 12), DailyTech (Chicago, July 12), India Server (Bangalore, July 14), R&D Magazine (Rockaway, N.J., July 12), RedOrbit (Dallas, July 12), Scientific Computing (Rockaway, N.J., July 13), Sindh Today (Mumbai, India, July 12), Thaindian News (Bangkok, July 12), The Post Chronicle (Denville, N.J., July 12), United Press International (July 12), Zimbabwe Star (Harare, July 12), BioscholarNews (Bilsi, India, July 13), Science Centric (Sofia, Bulgaria, July 13), Sify News (Chennai, India, July 13), The Times of India (Mumbai, July 13), Science 360 (July 13), Daily Tech (July 13), ASEE FirstBell (7/14).

ATOMIC MICROSCOPY
IEEE Spectrum (New York City, July 13) -- Researchers have developed a one-step process that uses a heated atomic force microscope tip to tune the topographical and electrical properties of reduced graphene oxide for graphene-based electronics. William P. King, a professor of mechanical science and engineering at Illinois, says the research stands out for three reasons: 1) It can be accomplished in one step 2) They believe all graphene will behave this way (changing from an insulator to a conductor when heat is applied) 3) The writing process with the heated AFM tip can be accomplished at a high rate. Also: R&D Magazine (Rockaway, N.J., July 14), AZom.com (Warriewood, New South Wales, July 14), AZoNano (Warriewood, New South Wales, July 14), Nanowerk News (Honolulu, July 14).

RAPID 3D PROTOYPING COMES TO THE CLASSROOM
Science 360 (NSF, July 9) -- Thanks to work done by U of I researchers, K-12 students can now “print” 3-D objects from computer-generated sources…right in the classroom! The rapid prototyping or 3-D lithography process is based on a research project headed by Nicholas Fang, and developed at the Center for Nanoscale Chemical-Electrical-Mechanical Manufacturing Systems (NanoCEMMS) at Illinois.

FACIAL RECOGNITION
CNN International (July 9) -- It’s hard to teach a machine to know a human face – and it’s harder still to teach a computer to identify one face from any other. That may be comforting news for people worried about governments using facial recognition systems to keep tabs on the public – in effect, ending anonymity. Technologists say those ideas exist only in science fiction movies – at least for now. “I don’t think, currently, any facial recognition system is good enough for security purposes – not even close, actually,” said Yi Ma, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at Illinois.

JOHN ROGERS PROFILED
Science (Washington, D.C., July 9) -- A profile of John Rogers, the Lee J. Flory-Founder Chair in Engineering Innovation and a professor of materials science and engineering at Illinois (article is in pdf format).

MIDWEST EARTHQUAKES
Illinois Times (Springfield, July 8) -- A new report by the Mid-America Earthquake Center at Illinois estimated the effects of “a major earthquake event” in the central U.S. in the form of a complete rupture of the entire New Madrid fault. Seven quakes of magnitude 6.0 to 7.7 occurred along that fault between December 1811 and February 1812 that rank as some of the largest in the Euro-America era; 10 of the aftershocks were more powerful earthquakes than any Illinois has felt since then; there were perhaps 100 aftershocks as strong as the one from April 2008.

ENERGY
Power-Gen Worldwide (Tulsa, Okla., July 7) -- Ten projects aimed at developing advanced technologies for capturing carbon dioxide from coal combustion have been selected by the U.S. Department of Energy under its Innovations for Existing Plants Program, including one at Illinois. Researchers at Illinois and Parsons Corp. will investigate the use of a carbonate salt (potassium or sodium carbonate) as a solvent for absorption-based, post-combustion carbon dioxide capture.

DATA-DRIVEN DISCOVERIES
HPC Wire (San Diego, July 6) -- Cosmology and astronomy are increasingly data-intensive sciences. The National Center for Supercomputing Applications at Illinois is assisting researchers as they prepare to gather and process petabytes of data. “Data-driven discovery requires an extensive cyberinfrastructure that supports data collection and transport to storage sites, followed by data cataloging, integration and analysis,” says Thom Dunning, the director of NCSA. “This often requires extensive computing resources as well as large data storage facilities.”

CLOUD COMPUTER SYSTEM
TechEYE (London, July 7) -- Intel recently showcased its 48-core, single-chip cloud computer system at a research event in Mountain View, Calif. The experimental system – which debuted in December 2009 – has already been shipped to more than 100 academic institutions and key partners, including Microsoft, the University of California at Berkeley and the University of Illinois.

ILLINI PULLERS FEATURED
WICD TV (Champaign, Ill.; July 6) -- Agricultural and biological engineering professor Alan Hansen and members of the championship tractor team talked about their successful project, trophies, and sponsors.

DATA MINING SUMMER SCHOOL
Daily Illini (July 4) -- Student groups from the Data Sciences Summer Institute (DSSI) presented different digital systems — created with hopes of making relevant information more accessible to people not experienced in information technology.

ELIMINATING BLACK CARBON CAN SLOW GLOBAL WARMING
Futurity (July 1) -- Tami Bond, a civil and environmental engineer professor at Illinois, said that black carbon particles absorb light and turn it into heat, whether they are suspended in air or darkening and melting snow. “The good news," Bond added, "is that we can shut off black carbon’s warming today, like flipping a switch.”
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Contact: Rick Kubetz, Engineering Communications Office, 217/244-7716, editor.