Engineering in the News December 2010

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

NAVIGATING CHECKOUT LINES
The Globe and Mail (Toronto, Dec. 30) -- Bill Hammack, a U. of I. engineering professor, says there is a science to the checkout line. He says the best set-up is to have all customers form a combined line and then go to whichever cashier is free. It’s most efficient because if there’s a delay with one customer (a price check, for example) it doesn’t hold up everyone else. For a checkout with three cashiers, this system makes things about three times faster, Hammack says. Editor's note: By early January, Hammack's YouTube video had gone viral, netting over 375,000 views.

MATERIALS
Post-Crescent (Appleton, Wis., Dec. 24) -- Scientists have long known of materials that can visibly react to electricity, light or heat, but at the U. of I. they are now are developing a class of new polymer materials known as mechanophores that can change color when they are stressed to certain levels.

POLYMER RESEARCH MAKES PS "TOP TEN" LIST
Popular Science (Dec. 20) -- The research on Mechanochemically Active Polymers (Mechanophores) by Nancy Sottos, Jeff Moore, Paul Braun and Scott White was featured in the Popular Science list of "10 Tech Concepts You Need to Know for 2011." 

PARALLEL COMPUTING
NetworkWorld (from InfoWorld; Framingham, Mass., Dec. 17) -- Java developers are getting more assistance in writing parallel programs for multi-core systems with another technology from the U. of I.

CONTAMINANT REMOVAL
International Business Times (London, Dec. 16) -- U. of I. researchers have demonstrated a simpler method of adding iron to tiny carbon spheres to create catalytic materials that have the potential to remove contaminants from gas or liquid. Also: AZom (Warriewood, Australia, Dec. 16), AZoNano (Warriewood, Australia, Dec. 16), e! Science News (Quebec City, Dec. 15), Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News (New Rochelle, N.Y., Dec. 15), Nanotechnology Now (Banks, Ore., Dec. 15), Nanowerk News (Honolulu, Dec. 15), PhysOrg (Douglas, Isle of Man, Dec. 15), R&D Magazine (Rockaway, N.J., Dec. 15), Science Daily (Chevy Chase, Md., Dec. 15).

IN MEMORIAM
Chicago Tribune (Dec. 16) -- Muzaffer Atac, one of the founding scientists at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, the national physics lab near Batavia, Ill., died Dec. 7. Born in 1931 in a small mountain village in eastern Turkey, Atac and his wife moved to the United States in 1961 so he could pursue graduate studies in physics at Illinois.

METAMATERIALS AS CAMOUFLAGE
EE Times (Dec. 15) -- U of I materials science and engineering professor John Rogers is collaborating with marine biologists, engineers, and scientists at Rice University to develop new metamaterial as a future military camouflage based on the chameleon-like photosensitive skin of the squid. Also: ASEE FirstBell (Dec. 16).

STEM CELLS
Science Daily (Chevy Chase, Md., Dec. 15) -- U. of I. researchers have found a key to keeping stem cells in their neutral state: It takes a soft touch. Also: e! Science News (Quebec City, Dec. 15),Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News (New Rochelle, N.Y., Dec. 15), PhysOrg (Douglas, Isle of Man, Dec. 15), R&D Magazine (Rockaway, N.J., Dec. 15).

ENERGY RESEARCH
The Cypress Times (Texas, Dec. 13) -- Petros Sofronis, a professor of mechanical science and engineering at Illinois, has been chosen to lead the International Institute for Carbon-Neutral Energy Research of Kyushu University.

NANOTECHNOLOGY
Nanowerk News (Honolulu, Dec. 13) -- The U. of I. and the Institute of Microelectronics, an institute of the Agency for Science, Technology and Research in Singapore, are collaborating on identifying and defining the ground rules for the systematic optimization of nanowire sensor design as well as the techniques for batch fabrication. Also: AsiaOne (Singapore, Dec. 13), EE Times (San Francisco, Dec. 13), New Electronics (London, Dec. 14), EE Times-Europe (Brussels, Dec. 14), AZoSensors (Warriewood, Australia, Dec. 16).

FLEXIBLE ELECTRONICS
Technology Review (Cambridge, Mass., Dec. 9) -- U. of I. materials science professor John Rogers has developed prototype sensors, processors, and light-emitting diodes based on silicon and built on thin, lightweight, flexible, and even stretchy materials. Also: ASEE FirstBell (Dec. 9).

Related story: engaget (Dec. 10) -- Reebok has teamed up with MC10 -- a startup founded by John Rogers -- to build "conformable electronics" into high-performance clothing for athletes.

BIOINFORMATICS
Medill Reports (Chicago, Dec. 9) -- “The goal of science today is to understand how and where the function of an organism is encoded in the DNA,” says Saurahb Sinha, a professor of computer science at Illinois. Sinha also works in bioinformatics and conducts research in the application of computer science to molecular biology.

PHYSICS PROF HEADS CHANCELLOR SEARCH
News-Gazette (Champaign-Urbana, Ill., Dec. 7) -- Physics professor Doug Beck will chair the search committee that will recommend potential successors for interim Chancellor Robert Easter at Illinois.

EARTHQUAKE SIMULATION
Computerworld (Framingham, Mass., Dec. 6) -- Thomas Jordan, the director of the Southern California Earthquake Center, is preparing computer applications to run on Blue Waters, a 10-petaflop system that’s being built by IBM for use late next year at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at Illinois. Also: Network World (Framingham, Mass., Dec. 6).

PRACTICAL HOLOGRAPHY
The New York Times (Dec. 4) -- Innovative research in holography is going on at labs and companies worldwide, said Lisa Dhar, a senior technology manager at Illinois. “Groups are deploying new materials and methods to create compelling work” of both still and moving holograms, said Dhar, an expert in holographic materials. Also: Sarasota Herald-Tribune (Florida, Dec. 5), St. Louis Post-Dispatch (Dec. 5), The Ledger (Lakeland, Fla., Dec. 5).

AVIATION SAFETY
The Spectrum (St. George, Utah, Dec.3) -- Bird strikes have become a significant threat to aircraft operation safety with annual damage up to $1.2 billion to commercial aircraft worldwide. “Threat exists as long as there is wildlife around,” said Edwin Herricks, an engineering professor at Illinois.

REACTIVE GAS SIMULATIONS
AZoNano (Warriewood, Australia, Dec. 2) --Researchers at Argonne National Laboratory will work with researchers at Illinois and the University of Chicago to conduct simulations of the transition from deflagration to detonation in reactive gases. Also: ChemInfo (Rockaway, N.J., Dec. 1), Nanotechwire (Philadelphia, Dec. 2), Medical News Today (Bexhill-on-Sea, England, Dec. 3).

TISSUE IMAGING
The Engineer (London, Dec. 1) -- U. of I. researchers led by Stephen A. Boppart have created a tissue-imaging technique that is easy to read, accurate, quick and could eliminate the need for invasive biopsies.

MAGNETOVISION
New Scientist (Cambridge, England, Dec. 1) -- Klaus Schulten, a biophysicist at Illinois, had been studying some unusual chemical reactions that can be affected by magnetism. He realized that if similar reactions took place in living things, it might enable them to detect magnetism.

DIPLOMA MILLS
The Badger Herald (Madison, Wis., Dec. 1) -- U. of I. physics professor George Gollin helped catch and stop a criminal group that was running a fake college degree program that was making millions of dollars a year. For his trouble he and his family were harassed and threatened by the criminals running the operation.
___________________

PLEASE NOTE: Some web links are short-lived by design of the publisher. In most cases, articles are archived on the publisher's website and can be retrieved electronically. Some articles may be archived on sites that are fee-based, and some may have re-distribution restrictions.

Contact: Rick Kubetz, Engineering Communications Office, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; 217/244-7716, editor.