Engineering in the News, August 2011

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

SPINTRONICS
R&D Magazine (Rockaway, N.J., Aug. 30) -- Researchers working at the National Synchrotron Light Source at Brookhaven laboratory in New York have discovered an unusually fragile, unstable magnetic state in a member of a class of materials known for its robust magnetic behaviors. Their discovery could lead to applications in the emerging field of spintronics – electronics based on electron spin. The researchers included faculty members from the U. of I.

MOLECULAR PROBES
Nanowerk News (Honolulu, Aug. 30) -- Most molecular probes used in biomedical research require dyes or fluorescence in order to obtain meaningful signals. These probes usually are quite limited with regard to the complexity of what they can image. U. of I. bioengineering professor Rohit Bhargava and colleagues have come up with an intriguing new class of molecular probes to solve this problem.

COMPUTER SIMULATION
Los Angeles Times (Aug. 31) -- The massive, luminous balls of gas in Terrence Malick’s cosmic family drama “The Tree of Life” were a lot of work. Malick tapped researchers at the U. of I.’s National Center for Supercomputing Applications to create animated simulations based on data collected by astrophysicists.

BIOENERGY SOLUTIONS
United Press International (Aug. 29) -- “While we are looking for solutions for energy through bioenergy crops, dependence on water gets ignored, and water can be a significant limiting factor,” says Praveen Kumar, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Illinois. Also: Science 360 (National Science Foundation, Washington, D.C., Aug. 31), Environmental Research Web (Bristol, England, Aug. 31), Biofuels Digest (Miami, Aug. 30), Earth Times (London, Aug. 30), U.S. News & World Report (Aug. 31).

REACTOR DESIGN
Design News (Lexington, Mass., Aug. 29) -- Nearly six months after a devastating earthquake rocked a nuclear power plant in Japan, engineers say the design lessons are starting to come into sharper focus. “There are two ways to look at it,” says James F. Stubbins, professor and head of the department of nuclear, plasma, and radiological engineering at Illinois. “You could say it’s a once-in-400-year event, so maybe the actions of the designers could be understood. On the other hand, there could have been better preparation.”

ENGINEERING BUILDING PROJECT PROCEEDING
Chicago Tribune (from The Associated Press, Aug. 27) -- A four-decade-old plan to construct a building to house the U. of I. electrical and computer engineering programs is finally moving ahead.

ESTROGENIC SIGNALING
United Press International (Aug. 25) -- Researchers have developed sensors than can quickly reveal the presence of compounds that would interact with estrogen receptors in human cells. U. of I. scientists say the sensors are capable of detecting both natural and human-made substances that can alter estrogenic signaling in the body. “There are so many estrogenic compounds in our environment, and some of them could be a danger to health,” says chemical and biomolecular engineering professor Huimin Zhao, who led the research. Also: Drug Discovery & Development magazine (Rockaway, N.J., Aug. 26), Nanotechnology Now (Banks, Ore., Aug. 25), PhysOrg.com (Douglas, Isle of Man, Aug. 25), R&D Magazine (Rockaway, N.J., Aug. 25), Red Orbit.com (Dallas, Aug. 26), Science Daily (Chevy Chase, Md., Aug. 25), AZoSensors (Warriewood, Australia, Aug. 29).
 
CELL DEVELOPMENT
Science Daily (Chevy Chase, Md., Aug. 25) -- University of Illinois researchers are giving a light answer to the heavy question of cell growth. Led by electrical and computer engineering professor Gabriel Popescu, the research team developed a new imaging method called spatial light interference microscopy that can measure cell mass using two beams of light. Also: Nanowerk News (Honolulu, Aug. 26),  News-Medical.net (Sydney, Aug. 26),  R&D Magazine (Rockaway, N.J., Aug. 26), Vision Systems Design (Nashua, N.H., Aug. 26), AZoNano (Warriewood, Australia, Aug. 29).

ALUMNI NON-PROFIT RECOGNIZED
Business Wire (Aug. 25) -- Autodesk, Inc. has named Illini Prosthetic Technologies--a nonprofit organization whose partners include alumni Jonathan Naber and Adam Booher--as the Autodesk Inventor of the Month for August for the company’s use of Autodesk Inventor 3D mechanical design software in developing a more affordable and more easily fitted prosthetic arm for below-elbow amputees, particularly those living in developing nations.

BATTERY DESIGN
Design News (Lexington, Mass., Aug. 24) -- One maxim of electric car battery design is that energy and power are a tradeoff. Increase the energy, and you lose power, and vice versa. Paul Braun, a U. of I. professor of materials science, has developed a battery structure that changes all that, and he hopes to have it in production applications within three years.

FUTURE ASTRONAUT
The Daily Herald (Arlington Heights, Ill., Aug. 25) -- U. of I. senior Samantha McCue is a budding astronaut and pilot who interned at NASA earlier this year.

BASEBALL
Middle East North Africa Financial Network (Amman, Jordan, Aug. 25) -- SmartSports and Sportvision have announced a strategic partnership designed to revolutionize the analysis of player performance data at the amateur through collegiate level of baseball competition. The companies’ innovative technologies are designed to capture and deliver pitching, batting and fielding performance data never before available. The “systems have revolutionized the way the game of baseball is analyzed at the MLB level,” says Alan M. Nathan, an emeritus professor of physics at Illinois.

LIQUID DYNAMICS
PhysOrg.com (Dallas, Aug. 23) -- A new physics-based theory formulated by Kenneth S. Schweizer, a U. of I. professor of materials science and engineering, and graduate student Daniel Sussman could give researchers a deeper understanding of the unusual, slow dynamics of liquids composed of large polymers. Also: e! Science News (Quebec City, Aug. 23), R&D Magazine (Rockaway, N.J., Aug. 23), Science 360 (National Science Foundation, Washington, D.C., Aug. 25).

CORN PROCESSING
Domestic Fuel (Holts Summit, Mo., Aug. 23) -- A new way to remove fiber from corn has been discovered by a professor from Mississippi State University. The process was invented by Radhakrishnan Srinivasan at Mississippi State with help from Illinois agricultural engineering professor Vijay Singh. They believe the process will improve ethanol production efficiency.

METHOD NETS NEW CLASS OF METAMATERIALS
Technology Review (Cambridge, Mass., September-October issue) -- Researchers led by John Rogers have developed a stamp-based printing method for generating large sheets of metamaterials, a new class of materials that interact with light in ways not seen in nature.

LEARNING ABOUT BIOMASS
Biomass (Grand Forks, N.D., Aug. 22) -- BP has awarded a $5,000 grant to undergraduate students at Illinois. The purpose of the grant is for students to learn the engineering properties of biomass. The grant was obtained through Luis Rodriguez, a professor of agricultural and biological engineering.

TSUNAMI DETECTION
Reuters (Aug. 23) -- Researchers using a camera atop Haleakala volcano in Hawaii detected the “airglow” signature in the atmosphere of the March tsunami that devastated Japan. “We have been studying the ionosphere since 1999, but we didn’t expect to end up with a new method for tsunami detection,” says Jonathan Makela, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at Illinois.

BODY WEIGHT AND GASOLINE CONSUMPTION
Modesto Bee (California, Aug. 19) -- According to a 2006 study by the U. of I. and Virginia Commonwealth University, the United States consumes an extra billion gallons of gasoline annually as a result of obesity. And for each pound on average that we gain as a nation, an estimated 39 million gallons of additional fuel are needed to cart us around.

THIN SKIN-LIKE PATCH COMBINES SENSING, DIAGNOSTICS AND MORE
BBC (London, Aug. 11) -- Engineers have developed a device platform that combines electronic components for sensing, medical diagnostics, communications and human-machine interfaces, all on an ultrathin skin-like patch that mounts directly onto the skin with the ease, flexibility and comfort of a temporary tattoo. Led by John A. Rogers, the Lee J. Flory-Founder professor of engineering at Illinois, the researchers described their novel skin-mounted electronics in the Aug. 12 issue of the journal Science. (Editor’s note: A number of the media citations include video, produced by Katherine Gatsche, of the U. of I. News Bureau.)

Also: ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corp., Aug. 12), Arizona Daily Sun (Tucson, Aug. 11), The Associated Press (Aug. 11), Atlanta Journal Constitution (Aug. 11), Bangkok Post (Aug. 12), Beaver County Times (Beaver, Pa., Aug. 11), Belleville News Democrat (Illinois, Aug. 11), Bismarck Tribune (North Dakota, Aug. 11), Bloomberg (Aug. 11), Bonner County Daily Bee (Sandpoint, Idaho, Aug. 11), Boston Herald (Aug. 11), Bradenton Herald (Florida, Aug. 11), Brisbane Times (Australia, Aug. 12), Buffalo News (New York, Aug. 11), Casper Star-Tribune (Wyoming, Aug. 11), CBS News (Aug. 11), Channel News Asia, (Singapore, Aug. 12), Chem Info (Rockaway, N.J., Aug. 11), Chicago Tribune (Aug. 11), CNBC (Aug. 11), CNET News (San Francisco, Aug. 11), CNN (Aug. 11), Computerworld Australia (North Sydney, Aug. 12), CTV (Scarborough, Ontario, Aug. 11), Deseret News (Salt Lake City, Aug. 11)), Discover Magazine (Aug. 11) , Discovery Channel (Aug. 11), Electronics Weekly (Surrey, England, Aug. 12), Forbes (Aug. 11), FOX News (Aug. 11), FRANCE 24 (from Agence France-Presse; Moulineaux, Aug. 11), Gazette Times (Corvallis, Ore., Aug. 11), Greenfield Daily Reporter (Indiana, Aug. 11), Hartford Courant (Connecticut, Aug. 11), HealthDay (Aug. 12), Helena Independent Record (Montana, Aug. 11), International Business Times (New York City, Aug. 11), Irish Independent (Dublin, Aug. 12), KTAR-FM (92.3) (Phoenix, Aug. 11), Las Vegas Sun (Nevada, Aug. 11), Lexington Herald-Leader (Kentucky, Aug. 11), Live Mint (Mumbai, India, Aug. 11), Los Angeles Times (Aug. 11), Medical News Today (Bexhill-on-Sea, England, Aug. 12), MSN (Aug. 11), MSNBC (Aug. 11), Modesto Bee (California, Aug. 11), Nanowerk News (Honolulu, Aug. 11), Nature (London, Aug. 11), News & Observer, New Scientist (Cambridge, England, Aug. 11), News-Medical . net (Sydney, Aug. 12), News Times (Danbury, Conn., Aug. 11), News 24 (Cape Town, South Africa, Aug. 11), NPR (Aug. 11), Olean Times Herald (New York, Aug. 11), Omaha World-Herald (Nebraska, Aug. 11), Orlando Sentinel (Florida, Aug. 11), Palm Beach Post (Florida, Aug. 11), Physics World (Bristol, England, Aug. 11), Phys Org.com (Douglas, Isle of Man, Aug. 11), Plastics & Rubber Weekly (Croydon, England, Aug. 12), Popular Science (Aug. 11), Press Association (London, Aug. 11), R&D Magazine (Rockaway, N.J., Aug. 11), Red Orbit.com (Dallas, Aug. 12), Sacramento Bee (California, Aug. 11), San Francisco Chronicle (Aug. 11), Science (Washington, D.C., Aug. 11), Science Daily (Chevy Chase, Md., Aug. 11), Science News (Washington, D.C., Aug. 11), Scientific American (Aug. 11), Science 360 (NSF-Washington, D.C. (Aug. 12), Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Sioux City Journal (Iowa, Aug. 11), Sun-Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Aug. 11), Sydney Morning Herald (Australia, Aug. 12), Technology Review (Cambridge, Mass., Aug. 11), The Baltimore Sun (Aug. 11), The Boston Globe (Aug. 11), The Charlotte Observer (North Carolina, Aug. 11), The Denver Post (Aug. 11), The Engineer (London, Aug. 12), The Examiner (San Francisco, Aug. 11), The Herald Journal (Logan, Utah, Aug. 11), The Huffington Post (Aug. 11), The Independent (London, Aug. 11), The Indianapolis Star (Aug. 11), The Kansas City Star (Missouri, Aug. 11), The Miami Herald (Aug. 11), The News Tribune (Tacoma, Wash., Aug. 11), The Olympian (Tacoma, Wash., Aug. 11), The Republic (Columbus, Ind., Aug. 11), The Seattle Times, The State Journal-Register (Springfield, Ill., Aug. 11), The Sun-Herald (Biloxi, Miss., Aug. 11), The Times (Valletta, Malta, Aug. 12), The Times and Democrat (Orangeburg, S.C., Aug. 11), The Washington Post (Aug. 11), The Wellington Times (New South Wales, Australia, Aug. 12), The West Australian (from Agence France-Presse; Perth, Aug. 12), Times Union (Albany, N.Y., Aug. 11), Tuscaloosa News (Alabama, Aug. 11), U.S. News & World Report (Aug. 11), Washington Times (District of Columbia, Aug. 11), Winnipeg Free Press (Manitoba, Aug. 11), Wisconsin State Journal (Madison, Aug. 11), Yahoo! News (Aug. 11), Daily Mail (London, Aug. 12), Agence France-Presse (Aug. 13), All Tech News (Montreal, Aug. 13), Calgary Herald (Alberta, Aug. 12), CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corp.) (Toronto, Aug. 12), Daily Herald (Chicago, Aug. 14), Delmarva Daily Times (Salisbury, Md., Aug. 12), Digital Journal (Toronto, Aug. 13), Financial Times (London, Aug. 12), Health 24 (Cape Town, South Africa, Aug. 12), Leader-Post (Regina, Saskatchewan, Aug. 12), Medindia . com (Chennai, India, Aug. 12), New York Post, PC World (San Francisco, Aug. 12), SBS (Crows Nest, Australia, Aug. 15), The Pantagraph (Bloomington, Ill., Aug. 14), The Telegraph (London, Aug. 12), The Times of India (Mumbai, Aug. 12), The Week (Aug. 12), The Youngstown Vindicator (Ohio, Aug. 12), USA Today, Vancouver Sun (British Columbia, Aug. 12), Voice of America (Aug. 15), “Talk of the Nation” (NPR, Aug. 12), Web MD (New York City, Aug. 15), Photonics Online (Erie, Penn., Aug. 16), AZoNano (Warriewood, Australia, Aug. 16), The Scientist (Philadelphia, Aug. 17), The Tribune (Chandigarh, India, Aug. 19), Electronics Weekly (Surrey, England, Aug. 18), Medscape (New York City, Aug. 18), Chemical & Engineering News (Washington, D.C., Aug. 22), CNN (Aug. 23), Los Angeles Times (Aug. 27), The Ledger (Lakeland, Fla., Aug. 31), The Bellingham Herald (Washington, Aug. 30), Chicago Tribune (from the Los Angeles Times, Aug. 26), The Seattle Times (Aug. 31). Editor’s note: Stories about the research have appeared on countless TV stations around the world.

NUCLEAR RESEARCH
Chicago Tribune (from The Associated Press, Aug. 12) -- The U. of I. is getting a $538,000 research grant to find ways to make nuclear power plants safer and more efficient. Also: ASEE FirstBell (Aug. 15).

DRIVING AND OBESITY
Motor Trend (Detroit, Aug. 11) -- U. of I. computer scientist Sheldon Jacobson’s research on the correlation between driving and obesity is discussed.

BLUE WATERS
HPCwire (San Diego, Aug. 8) -- IBM has terminated its contract with the U. of I. to provide the Blue Waters supercomputer for the National Center for Supercomputing Applications. Also: Bloomberg Businessweek (Aug. 8), Contra Costa Times (Walnut Creek, Calif., Aug. 8), St. Louis Post-Dispatch (Aug. 8), The Pantagraph (Bloomington, Ill., Aug. 8), The Times of India (Mumbai, Aug. 9), Time (Aug. 9), ASEE FirstBell (Aug. 9).

Related story: 
Chicago Tribune (Aug. 18) -- IBM has returned $30 million to the U. of I. because of the corporation’s decision to pull out of the Blue Waters supercomputer project.

PEER-TO-PEER DECISION TRAINING
ORMS Today (August) -- ISE professor Ali Abbas describes his research group's peer-to-peer decision training project being done in collaboration with Decision Education Foundation. Together, they have teemed up with peer ambassadors and the Juvenile Detention Center (JDC) of Champaign County to develop a curriculum to teach JDC teens not only what a decision is, but how to aligh their decisions with their values and identify possibilities and alternatives for each decision they face.

HOLONYAK RECOGNIZED AS LED INVENTOR
Techzone (August) -- During a visit to LED maker Cree, Inc.’s Durham, N.C. headquarters, U.S. Secretary of Energy Dr. Steven Chu took a moment to recognize the “father of the light-emitting diode,” Nick Holonyak, Jr., the the John Bardeen Endowed Chair in Electrical and Computer Engineering and Physics at Illinois. Holonyak invented the first practical visible-light LED in 1962 at General Electric’s laboratory in Syracuse, N.Y. 

BUGSCOPE
The Seattle Times (Aug. 6) -- A U. of I. program known as Bugscope puts a $600,000 electron microscope under the control of K-12 kids all over the country, by means of the Internet. It is free to schools, home-school networks and museums, and uses a scanning electron microscope controlled by the Beckman Imaging Technology Group at Illinois. Also: KQED-FM (88.5) (San Francisco, Aug.18).

PHYSICS
Science (Washington, D.C., Aug. 5) -- Physicists can preselect photons in the “right plus left” state and postselect those in the “right minus left state.” And they can expose the beam to an interaction that, say, would tug right- and left-polarized photons in opposite directions. That’s exactly what U. of I. physicist Paul Kwiat and Onur Hosten, now at Stanford University, did to observe a new bit of physics called the spin Hall effect for light. In it, light passing at an angle from air into glass shifts sideways in a direction that depends on whether the light is left- or right-polarized.

BOTNET
Mumbai Mirror (India, Aug. 2) -- A botnet was created to show how easy it would be for a crook to hijack Facebook photos to create a secret communication channel that is very difficult to detect. “If one of your friends is a friend of a friend of the botmaster, the information transfers hop by hop within the social network, finally reaching the botmasters,” says Amir Houmansadr, a computer scientist at Illinois who worked on the botnet.  Also: The Economic Times (Gurgaon, India, Aug. 2).

NUCLEAR WASTE
Chicago Tribune (Aug. 1) -- Clifford Singer, a professor of nuclear, plasma and radiological engineering at Illinois, says state leaders, not local communities, are the ones resisting nuclear waste storage. “Absolutely essential to getting states to cooperate fully is to make it crystal clear from the outset that no state will be forced to take in spent nuclear fuel against its will,” he said. Also: The Bellingham Herald (Washington, Aug. 4).
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