11/1/2011
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.
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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.
Live Science (New York City, Nov. 30) -- New ultra-thin, flexible sensors can deliver unprecedented views of the brain while dramatically reducing the invasiveness of brain implant devices. The breakthrough technology packs ultrathin, foldable, silicon transistors into dense arrays of thousands of multiplexed sensors, and it uses just a tenth of the wires required by today’s technology. U. of I. engineering professor John Rogers and Dae-Hyeong Kim, of Seoul National University, in South Korea, are also part of the team that conceived and built the array.
GRAPHENE SENSORS
AzoNano (Sydney, Nov. 30) -- A research study conducted at Illinois has revealed that sensors made of less-perfect graphene deliver enhanced sensitivity. Also: AzoSensors (Sydney, Nov. 30), PhysOrg.com (Douglas, Isle of Man, Nov. 29), Product Design & Development (Madison, Wis., Nov. 29), R&D Magazine (Rockaway, N.J., Nov. 29), Science Codex (San Jose, Calif., Nov. 29).
TRANSPORTATION RESEARCH CENTER
ci living (WCIA-TV, Champaign, Ill., Nov. 29) -- High-tech research on pavements, tires, and transportation systems at the Illinois Transportation Center, (affilated with the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Illinois), are featured.
ALUMNUS TO BUY PRO FOOTBALL FRANCHISE
Si.com (from The Associated Press, Nov. 29) -- Shahid Khan, a College of Engineering alumnus, will purchase the Jacksonvile (Fla.) Jaguars football franchise. The owner and CEO of the Flex-N-Gate Group based in Urbana, Ill., Khan had been a candidate to buy controlling interest in the St. Louis Rams last year. Also: Wall Street Journal (Nov. 29), Fox 30 Action News (Nov. 30). Note: This story has been covered widely--more than 2,000 articles worldwide.
TRACKING INSPIRATION
Science Magazine (Washington, D.C., Nov. 28) -- A specialist in animal movements, Martin Wiselski, has for a decade pursued what a collaborator once dubbed a “ridiculous idea”: a new space-based system to track animals too small to be monitored globally with current instruments. Wiselski was inspired and encouraged by George Swenson Jr., a radio astronomer at Illinois who helped devise the Very Large Array, a series of ground-based antennas that use sophisticated signal processing to detect faint radio waves from distant galaxies.
SOCIAL NETWORKS
New Scientist (London, Nov. 24) -- Imagine a “pre-social” network – a bit like the “pre-crime” unit that figured in “Minority Report.” Such a network would predict where users would go, how long they will stay and who they are likely to meet there. It may sound Orwellian, but a U. of I. research team which has developed technology that does this believes it could spawn a novel form of social network – one that tells its users where and when people with similar interests or habits are likely to congregate. The system’s developers include computer science professor Klara Nahrstedt, who believes the system can do a lot more. Also: New Scientist (Nov. 28).
BUSES WITHOUT BUS STOPS
Chicago Magazine (Nov. 18) -- Yanfeng Ouyang, a civil engineering professor at Illinois, recently set out to address the problem of designing a bus system suitable for low-demand areas. What emerged was an entirely new transit concept that combines the regularity of a fixed-route bus system with the range of a car service. He calls it a “flexible-route transit system.”
AVIATION SECURITY
KCCI-Channel 8 (CBS; Des Moines, Iowa, Nov. 18) -- Sheldon Jacobson, a U. of I. computer science professor and aviation security expert, reviews undercover video and delivers his findings regarding airport security.
COMPUTING AND JOBS
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (Nov. 19) -- Supercomputer maker Cray Inc. expects to add manufacturing workers in Chippewa Falls, Wis., now that the U. of I. has awarded Cray a contract to take over a stalled $300 million supercomputer project.
SENSOR ARRAYS
Technology Review (Cambridge, Mass., Nov. 18) -- Current technology has stalled out at a sensor array with about eight sensors per square centimeter; the new array – built in collaboration with John Rogers, a professor of materials science and engineering at Illinois – can fit 360 sensors in the same amount of space. To create a small device so densely packed with sensors, Rogers integrated electronics and silicon transistors into the array itself, drastically reducing the amount of wiring. Also: Smart Planet (CBS, Nov. 20), Manila Bulletin (Philippines, Nov. 23).
LIGHTING
Science Codex (San Jose, Calif., Nov. 17) -- A research team funded by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research has pioneered the use of micro-plasmas in a revolutionary approach to illumination. U. of I. electrical and computer engineering professors Gary Eden and Sung-Jin Park have founded Eden Park Illumination Inc. to bring this lighting technology to the world. Also: PhysOrg.com (Douglas, Isle of Man, Nov. 17).
MATERIALS
Register Hardware (London, Nov. 17) -- Paul Braun, a U. of I. professor of materials science and engineering, working with graduate student Xindi Yu and postdoctoral researcher Huigang Zhang, came up with a “self-assembled three-dimensional bicontinuous nanoarchitecture consisting of an electrolytically active material sandwiched between rapid ion and electron transport pathways” cathode.
CONVERTING CARBON DIOXIDE
Science (Washington, D.C., Nov. 18) -- Researchers led by U. of I. chemical and biomolecular engineering professor Paul Kenis and Richard Masel, of Dioxide Materials in Champaign, reported online in Science Sept. 29 that they’ve come up with a less energy-intensive way to convert carbon dioxide to carbon monoxide. pdf. Editor’s note: Kenis and Masel’s work is cited in the blue box.
TRANSPORTATION
The Atlantic (Nov. 18) -- Yanfeng Ouyang, a civil engineering professor at Illinois, recently set out to address the problem of designing a bus system suitable for low-demand areas. What emerged was an entirely new transit concept that combines the regularity of a fixed-route bus system with the range of a car service. He calls it a “flexible-route transit system.”
BIOMASS PROCESSING
Biomass Magazine (Grand Forks, N.D., Nov. 16) -- Alan Hansen, a professor of agricultural and biological engineering at Illinois, is part of a team working to determine the main obstacles in current processes and equipment that could limit their application in biomass feedstock harvesting. Also: Western Farm Press (Clarksdale, Miss., Nov. 17).
CONGRESSIONAL TESTIMONY
News-Medical.Net (Sydney, Australia, Nov. 16) -- On Nov. 17, Stephen Boppart, a professor of bioengineering and of electrical and computer engineering, will take part in a congressional briefing convened by the Optical Society of America. The briefing is being held under the auspices of the Advisory Committee for the Congressional Research and Development Caucus.
FLEXIBLE WINDOW INTO THE BRAIN
Science 360 (National Science Foundation, Nov. 16) -- MatSE professor John Rogers is part of a team of researchers co-led by the University of Pennsylvania has developed and tested a new high-resolution, ultra-thin device capable of recording brain activity from the cortical surface without having to use penetrating electrodes.
COMPUTING
The Wall Street Journal (Nov. 14) -- Video: The latest edition of the semiannual top 500 list of the world’s most powerful supercomputers is out; meanwhile, the U. of I. has awarded a $188 million contract to Cray to build one of the world’s most powerful supercomputers.
SUPERCONDUCTIVITY
Science News (Washington, D.C., Nov. 14) -- A new kind of superconductor can’t make up its mind about how to conduct electricity. Current passes through its interior without any resistance, as in a typical superconductor. But its skin behaves like a metal, conducting electricity but with some resistance. “This is the best evidence so far for Majorana fermions in a solid material,” says Taylor Hughes, a theoretical physicist at Illinois. It’s probably going to take many sources of indirect evidence to make the case that Majorana fermions actually exist in this material, Hughes said.
BRAIN ACTIVITY
Health Canal (Melbourne, Australia, Nov. 14) -- A team of researchers co-led by the University of Pennsylvania has developed and tested a new high-resolution, ultra-thin device capable of recording brain activity from the cortical surface without having to use penetrating electrodes. Study collaborators include U. of I. engineering professor John Rogers. Also: News-Medical.Net (Sydney, Nov. 14).
SUPERCOMPUTING CENTER
The Wall Street Journal (Nov. 14) -- A U. of I. research center has awarded a contract valued at more than $188 million to Cray Inc. to build one of the world’s most powerful supercomputers, an effort that IBM worked on for several years before giving up in August. Also: MSN Money (Nov. 14), The Seattle Times (Nov. 14), The Washington Post (Nov. 14), Science Magazine (Washington, D.C., Nov. 28).
ELECTRONIC INK PEN
American Institute of Physics (Nov. 10) -- Video report of a silver-inked rollerball pen capable of writing electrical circuits and interconnects on paper, wood and other surfaces. Developed by U of I researchers, the pen is writing whole new chapters in low-cost, flexible and disposable electronics.
PHYSICS
India Today (Mumbai, Nov. 10) -- Hyderabad-based physicist B.G. Sidharth has received support from some world-renowned scientists after he was overlooked for this year’s Nobel Prize in physics. “It is of course clear that your equation predicts an exponential (inflation-type) expansion of the current universe, hence acceleration,” U. of I. Nobel-winning physicist Tony Leggett wrote in an email to Sidharth. “And it would have been nice if the Nobel committee had mentioned this.”
NANOTECHNOLOGY
Nanowerk News (Honolulu, Nov. 9) -- Tiny wires could help engineers realize high-performance solar cells and other electronics, according to U. of I. researchers. The research group, led by electrical and computer engineering professor Xiuling Li, developed a technique to integrate compound semiconductor nanowires on silicon wafers, overcoming key challenges in device production. Also: R&D Magazine (Rockaway, N.J., Nov. 9), Science Codex (San Jose, Calif., Nov. 9), AZoNano (Warriewood, Australia, Nov. 14), Earth Techling (Portland, Ore., Nov. 21).
NANOFABRICATION
Nanowerk News (Honolulu, Nov. 7) -- A research team from the U. of I. collaborated with researchers at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory on research that sheds light on the role of temperature in controlling a fabrication technique for drawing chemical patterns as small as 20 nanometers. Also: R&D Magazine (Rockaway, N.J., Nov. 8), AZoNano (Warriewood, Australia, Nov. 9), Nanotechnology Now (Banks, Ore., Nov. 8).
IN MEMORIAM
The New York Times (Nov. 5) -- Dr. John Burke, a U. of I. alumnus (chemical engineering), died of pancreatic cancer on Wednesday in Lexington, Mass., at the age of 89. He and a colleague developed a material that became the first commercially reproducible, synthetic human skin. It would save the lives of innumerable severely burned people worldwide.
EDUCATION
The New York Times (Nov. 4) -- The president and industry groups have called on colleges to graduate 10,000 more engineers a year and 100,000 new teachers with majors in science, technology, engineering and math. It turns out, middle and high school students are having most of the fun, building their erector sets and dropping eggs into water to test the first law of motion. The University of Illinois began this fall to require freshmen engineering students to take a course on aspirations for the profession and encourages them to do a design project or take a leadership seminar. Also: Daily 49er (Long Beach, Calif., Nov. 28).
STRETCHABLE CIRCUITS
The Economic Times (Gurgaon, India, Oct. 27) -- John Rogers, a materials scientist at Illinois, took a look at the results of a mistake made when a researcher accidentally pulled a piece of rubber taut as he placed it underneath a circuit. He looked under a microscope and saw what he characterizes as “an accordion made of silicon. Working off this discovery, the 2009 MacArthur “genius” award winner has developed a way to make microprocessors so bendable and thin that they look like electronic skin. Also: New Electronics (London, Nov. 8).
SCIENCE EDUCATION
Journal Star (Peoria, Ill., Nov. 2) -- Joe Muskin, U. of I. education coordinator for the Nano-CEMMS Center, demonstrated how projected blue light can cause a chemical reaction in a plasticizer to create solid objects.
AIRPORT SECURITY
USA Today (Nov. 2) -- In a letter to the editor, U. of I. computer scientist and aviation security expert Sheldon H. Jacobson writes about airport security.
BIODIESEL-POWERED TRAIN
WJBC-AM (1230) (Bloomington, Ill., Nov. 1) -- Amtrak officials say they have no beef with using cattle-based biodiesel to power their Heartland Flyer train. The results, presented last week at a railroad environmental conference at the U. of I., also showed less pollution. Also: Bloomberg Businessweek (Nov. 1), The Washington Post (Nov. 1).
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