News from Engineering at Illinois January 2012

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

AIRPORT SCREENING
e! Science News (Quebec City, Jan. 31) -- A study co-written by U. of I. computer science professor Sheldon Jacobson indicates that intensive screening of all air passengers makes the system less secure by overtaxing security resources. Also: Science Codex (San Jose, Calif., Jan. 31), Science Daily (Chevy Chase, Md., Jan. 31).

ELECTRONIC TATOO
Science 360 (National Science Foundation, Jan. 30) -- In this video feature, materials science professor John Roger's explains how his bendable and stretchable electronics may allow for a new generation of brain and heart monitors. Also: Science Nation (Jan. 30), Phys Org.com (Douglas, Isle of Man, Jan. 30), Nanowerk News (Honolulu, Jan. 30), Eureka Magazine (London, Jan. 31), CNET News (San Francisco, Jan. 30), New Electronics (London, Jan. 31), ASEE FirstBell (Jan. 31).

SUPERCOMPUTING
Chicago Tribune (Jan. 28) -- The first pieces of the long-planned Blue Waters supercomputer were expected to be installed this weekend at the U. of I. Also: TechEYE.net (London, Jan. 31).

SOLAR-CELL INNOVATIONS TO NET JOBS
The Herald-Sun (Durham, N.C., Jan. 29) -- A technology created by U. of I. materials scientist John Rogers is providing the foundation for a start-up solar-cell company expected to bring hundreds of jobs to North Carolina.

"BIG DATA" ANALYSIS
Fast Company (New York City, Jan. 27) -- Use of Big Data – the analysis of massive data sets – is finding new and interesting applications in the business world, such as one from Boeing’s research center at Illinois, that will help the company predict the movements of work crews within their factories.

FUEL MANUFACTURING
Western Farm Press (Clarksdale, Miss., Jan. 27) -- Researchers at the U. of I. are preparing to develop an educational and research facility that will be used to demonstrate the process of converting swine manure and algae into crude oil.

NANOTECHNOLOGY
Technology Review (Cambridge, Mass., Jan. 26) -- U. of I. materials science professor John Rogers says results of an IBM experiment with carbon nanotubes shows that they could potentially compete with silicon in microelectronics.

HACKERS
Scientific American (Jan. 24) -- U. of I. electrical and computer engineering professor David Nicol says hackers could conceivably take down a good portion of the U.S. power grid. His analysis relies on simple techniques commonly used by hackers to steal credit cards and the like.

ENERGY USAGE
The New York Times (from the Chicago News Cooperative, Jan. 21) -- Smart-grid advocates often talk of so-called smart meters attached to houses, which are capable of automatically monitoring power usage. They also say appliances outfitted with computer chips can be programmed to run at a time of day when power costs less. “Now, when you want to dry a load of clothes, you turn on the clothes dryer in your basement and you’re probably not that concerned about when your clothes will be dry,” said David M. Nicol, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at Illinois. “But suppose that dryer was smart enough – and dryers are a high-energy user – that you put your load in and it was programmed to say, well I want this done within 12 hours but choose a time when energy is cheaper, and so you just leave it to the computer.” Editor’s note: Nicol is quoted on Page 2 of the article.

NEW SPECTROSCOPY TECHNIQUE
Optics (Cardiff, Wales, Jan. 22) -- Where histology is flawed and subjective, photonics should offer smart, specific diagnoses based on molecular information, says U. of I. bioengineering professor Stephen Boppart. He has been working on a novel interferometric coherent anti-Stokes Raman spectroscopy technique for quantitative histology – which has the potential to add information on the extent of tumor growth to the basic diagnosis.

CONCRETE
The Engineer (London, Jan. 23) -- Materials scientists are experimenting with the possibility of creating self-healing concrete using biomineralization. The process would involve putting spores of bacteria – which naturally produce calcium carbonate – in the concrete mix, which would be activated upon the formation of cracks. “Concrete is basically weak in tension and strong in compression,” said U. of I. civil and environmental engineering professor Paramita Mondal. “People have tried to deal with the problem over the years in a variety of ways. The most common solution has been to use steel rebar to reinforce concrete, but it still cracks.”
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AERIAL SPEED LIMITS
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge, Jan. 20) -- Knowing how fast to fly can help engineers program unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to fly at high speeds through cluttered environments such as forests and urban canyons. Steven LaValle, a professor of computer science at Illinois, says knowing where to cap a UAV’s speed can help engineers like himself design more agile robots. Also: e! Science News (Quebec City, Jan. 21).

BIOFUELS
R&D Magazine (Rockaway, N.J., Jan. 19) -- A new U. of I. study shows Miscanthus x giganteus is a strong contender in the race to find the next source of ethanol if appropriate growing conditions are identified.

U of I EARNS DOT RAIL CENTER GRANT
Chicago Tribune (Jan. 18) -- The U.S. Department of Transportation is spending $3.5 million to set up a rail transportation and engineering center at the University of Illinois. The the NURail Center will focus in particular on problems involved in using rail corridors for both high-speed passenger trains and freight trains. Also: Crain's Chicago Business (Jan. 18), St. Louis Business Journal (Jan. 17), Railroad.net (Jan. 18), Bloomington Pantagraph (Jan. 18), News-Gazette (Champaign-Urbana, Jan. 19), Progressive Railroading (Jan. 18), WDWS-AM (Champaign, Jan. 18), WILL-AM (Urbana, Jan. 18), Railway Gazette (Sutton, England, Jan. 19), Progressive Railroading (Milwaukee, Jan. 20)

COMPUTER VISUALIZATION
The Telegraph (Alton, Ill., Jan. 18) -- NCSA visualizations played a key role in a new IMAX film about space junk.

BIOFUELS
Red Orbit.com (Dallas, Jan. 18) -- A team of U. of I. researchers has developed a computer model that could get biofuel crops to refineries more quickly and more efficiently. Agricultural and biological engineering professors K.C. Ting, Alan Hansen and Luis Rodriguez are cited, as is research professor Yogendra Shastri. Also: Bioscience Technology (Rockaway, N.J., Jan. 17), R&D Magazine (Rockaway, N.J., Jan. 17), Science Codex (San Jose, Calif., Jan. 17), Biofuels Digest (Miami, Jan. 19).

CHEMICAL SENSOR
Nanowerk News (Honolulu, Jan. 18) -- Scientists at Illinois and at Dioxide Materials have demonstrated that randomly stacked graphene flakes can make an effective chemical sensor. Also: AZoSensors (Sydney, Jan. 19).

ALUMINUM BATTERIES
Science Magazine (Washington, D.C., Jan. 13) -- Paul Braun, a professor of materials science and engineering at Illinois, believes aluminum may give lithium a run in the future of battery production, but not yet.

EARTHQUAKE-RESISTANT BRIDGES
R&D Magazine (Jan. 16) -- James LaFave and Larry Fahnestock from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Illinois have worked with the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) on a three-year project, funded through the Illinois Center for Transportation, to evaluate IDOT's earthquake resisting system (ERS) strategy for the design and construction of new bridges in Illinois.

CONDUCTIVE INK
Phys Org.com (Douglas, Isle of Man, Jan. 13) -- U. of I. materials science professor Jennifer Lewis and graduate student S. Brett Walker have developed a new reactive silver ink for printing high-performance electronics on ubiquitous, low-cost materials such as flexible plastic, paper or fabric substrates. Also: +Plastic Electronics (Leatherhead, England, Jan. 13), United Press International (Jan. 13), Middle East North Africa Financial Network (Amman, Jordan, Jan. 13), Nanotechnology Now (Banks, Ore., Jan. 12), Product Design & Development (Dover, N.J., Jan. 13), Red Orbit.com (Dallas, Jan. 14), Science Codex (San Jose, Calif., Jan. 13), Science Daily (Chevy Chase, Md., Jan. 13), New Electronics (London, Jan. 17), Eureka Magazine (London, Jan. 17), Gizmag (Melbourne, Australia, Jan. 17), Discovery News (New York City, Jan. 16), Electronics Weekly (Surrey, England, Jan. 18), TechEYE.net (London, Jan. 19), Electronics News (Sydney, Jan. 23).

Related article: Solar Novus Today (Fort Collins, Colo., Jan. 25) -- U. of I. materials scientists have developed reactive silver ink for printing small, high-performance electronics that readily allow light to pass through the patterned surfaces, making the breakthrough product attractive for solar applications.

SELF-HEALING BATTERIES
R&D Magazine (Rockaway, N.J., Jan. 12) -- Researchers from the U. of I. and Argonne National Laboratory are exploring ways to design batteries that heal themselves when damaged. Also: Phys Org.com (Douglas, Isle of Man, Jan. 11), Bloomberg Businessweek (Jan. 26), 
San Francisco Chronicle (Jan. 29), The Wall Street Journal (Jan. 28).

ALUMNUS BRINGS TOP STUDENTS TO SILICON VALLEY
San Francisco Chronicle (Jan. 11) -- Founders Fund partner, PayPal co-founder, and Illinois computer engineering alumnus Luke Nosek brought a group of current Illinois students to meet with several of the companies in his portfolio.
 
INSPIRED BY NATURE
PNAS (Washington, D.C., Jan. 11) -- U. of I. professor of materials science John Rogers talks about how he uses nature as the basis for the design behind many of his innovations.

ALUMNI BLUES
San Jose Mercury News (California, Jan. 12) -- To play the blues, you pay your dues. Laurie Morvan, an Engineering at Illinois alumna and former volleyball player, recognizes the dedication and sacrifice it takes to forge a career as a blues artist, but she’s found a way to pay the price on her own terms.

ENERGY CERTIFICATION
Data Center Knowledge (Lawrenceville, N.J., Jan. 10) -- The National Petascale Computing Facility at the U. of I. has earned a gold-level certification for energy-efficient buildings.

DELIVERING GENES TO CELLS
Chemical & Engineering News (Dec. 19) -- A new class of helical charged peptides could make it easy to deliver modified genes to cells for research and gene therapy. U. of I. materials science and engineering professor Jianjun Cheng and co-workers designed and synthesized the peptides and show that they deliver genes to cells more efficiently than do other nonviral agents.

SELF-HEALING MATERIALS
Chemical & Engineering News (Dec. 19) -- Search all the scientific literature of the 20th century for “self-healing materials” and you’ll come up with just a handful of results. But expand the search by a decade into the 21st century and suddenly there are hundreds of hits. Chalk that up to U. of I. aerospace engineering professor Scott R. White and materials science and engineering professor Nancy R.Sottos.

ALUMNUS NAMED "TOP INNOVATOR"
PopSci -- CEE alumnus Jon Khachaturian is featured as one of the Top Innovators in Popular Science's "Best of What's New 2011" list. Khachaturian, who holds 50 patents, has developed a monster crane--a 25-story arched truss on top of two 72-by-300-foot barges--that can pull out an entire oil rig in a day, at one fourth the cost of a traditional salvage job.

SCIENCE HIGHLIGHTS
Science News (Washington, D.C., Dec. 31) -- Science News’ “science news of the year” in technology includes two U. of I. engineering projects: epidermal electronics and self-healing lithium-ion batteries.

POWER CONVERSION
Electronics Weekly (London, Jan. 4) -- U. of I. students Rami Abdallah and Pradeep Shenoy, and electrical and computer engineering professors Naresh Shanbhag and Philip Krein looked at how dynamic voltage scaling affects not just processors and logic but the converter used to supply power to the circuitry.

NEW CELL IMAGING SYSTEM
MD News.com (Chattanooga, Tenn., Jan. 3) -- A research team, led by Gabriel Popescu, an electrical and computer engineering professor at Illinois, has developed a new imaging method that can measure cell mass using two beams of light.

EASIER SEMICONDUCTOR ETCHING
CompoundSemi Online (Cedar Park, Texas, Jan. 2) -- A team of U. of I. researchers has developed a method to chemically etch high aspect ratio patterned arrays in gallium arsenide, which is used in numerous optoelectronic components. Electrical and computer engineering professor Xiuling Li led the researchers in the development, which they describe in the journal Nano Letters.
 
ARTIFICIAL PHOTOSYNTHESIS
Motor Trend (Jan. 3) -- Recent discoveries by chemical and biomolecular engineers working on catalysts for artificial photosynthesis have been made at Illinois by chemical and biomolecular engineering professor Paul Kenis and his team collaborating with researchers at Dioxide Materials, a startup company founded by retired chemical engineering professor Richard Masel to commercialize the process.
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