Engineering in the News February 2013

This monthly summary includes excerpts from Illinois in the News, a daily service provided by the University of Illinois News Bureau and other media search tools. This collection of February stories focuses on engineering topics and faculty contacted for their expertise by print and broadcast reporters around the world.

STRETCHABLE BATTERY
BBC (London, Feb. 26) -- U. of I. materials science professor John Rogers and colleagues have created a flexible, stretchable battery that can be charged wirelessly. Also: ExtremeTech (New York City, Feb. 26), Geek.com (New York City, Feb. 26), NBC News (Feb. 27), R&D Magazine (Rockaway, N.J., Feb. 27), Science World Report (New York City, Feb. 26), Popular Science (Feb. 27), NBC News (Futuretech, Feb. 27), CBS News (Feb. 27), PC Magazine (Feb. 28), Daily Northwestern (blog, Feb. 28), GottaBeMobile (Feb. 27), UPI.com (Feb. 26), Cinema Blend (Feb. 26), International Business Times (Feb. 27), The Inquistr (Feb. 26), Digital Journal (Feb. 26), ExtremeTech (Feb. 26), Deccan Herald (Feb. 26), Global Post (Feb. 26), Latinos Post (Feb. 26), Discovery Channel (video; Canada, Feb. 27), French Tribune (Paris, Feb. 27), Gizmag (Melbourne, Australia, Feb. 27), io9 (San Francisco, Feb. 28), Red Orbit.com (Dallas, Feb. 27), Science Recorder News (Seattle, Feb. 26), Smithsonian (Feb. 27), Ubergizmo (San Francisco, Feb. 26), ASEE FirstBell (Feb. 28), Knovel (Feb. 28), TechSpot (Feb. 27), Geek (Feb. 26)

FEDERAL CUTS
Crain's Chicago Business (blog, Feb. 27) -- Cutting-edge work at Fermilab in Batavia, Argonne National Laboratory in Lemont and the University of Illinois' National Center for Supercomputing Applications in Champaign-Urbana could be hit hard by federal budget cuts – a hit the Chicago region can't afford. “Mindless cuts” at critical research facilities take us in the wrong direction, writes Joe Cahill.

BRAGG TO LEAD UW ENGINEERING
UW Today (Feb. 26) -- Michael B. Bragg, professor and interim dean of the College of Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, has been selected as dean of the University of Washington College of Engineering, effective July 15, 2013. An aeronautical engineer who earned his BS and MS degrees at Illinois, Bragg has held numerous leadership positions including head of the aerospace engineering department, associate dean for research and administrative affairs, executive associate dean for academic affairs, and interim dean in the College of Engineering.

SELF-HEALING MATERIALS
CNN Tech (Feb. 22) -- The U.S. firm Autonomic Materials has been working on developing self-healing coatings, sealants and adhesives based on microcapsule technologies devised by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, which have been demonstrated to be able to allow electrical circuits to repair themselves.

ALUMNI LIGHTING THE WORLD
WCIA-TV (Feb. 20) -- Physics alumnus Patrick Walsh talks about his company, Greenlight Planet, and its mission to replace kerosene lamps in the developing world with solar-powered LED lights. 

HEALTH IMAGING
WLS-Channel 7 (ABC; Chicago, Feb. 19) -- U. of I. researchers are working with hospitals to test an experimental device that could revolutionize the way breast tumors are removed. It’s a first of its kind imaging tool that basically would allow surgeons to determine if they got all of the cancerous tissue while they are actually removing a breast tumor. “Our system allows that surgeon to take a look at that margin in real-time and determine if more needs to be removed,” says U of I electrical and computer engineering professor Stephen Boppart. Related story: WICD NewsChannel 15 (Champaign-Urbana, Feb. 18).

USING THE MIND TO CONTROL VIA ELECTRONIC TATTOOS
Txchnologist (Feb. 19) -- Temporary electronic tattoos could soon help people fly drones with only thought and talk seemingly telepathically without speech over smartphones, researchers say. Using the electronic tattoos, UC-San Diego Professor Todd Coleman and his colleagues have found they can detect brain signals reflective of mental states, such as recognition of familiar images. The devices are now being commercialized for use as consumer, digital health, medical device, and industrial and defense products by startup MC10 which was co-founded by U. of I. engineering professor John Rogers and George Whitesides, of Harvard University.

HIGH-SPEED RAIL
“All Things Considered” (NPR, Feb. 16) -- How to build a high-speed rail system without hurting the freight industry is a problem that has not yet been solved, says Christopher Barkan, the director of the RailTEC center at the U. of I. “The freight railroad network is a great asset to our economy and environment,” he says, “and we need to be careful that expansion of passenger service does not harm the viability of that efficient freight-rail transit system we’ve developed.” Editor’s note: Transcript includes a link to an audio version of the story.

ULTRA-SENSITIVE IMAGING
Scicasts (Leicester, England, Feb. 14) -- Utilizing optical characteristics first demonstrated by the ancient Romans, researchers at Illinois have created a novel, ultra-sensitive tool for chemical, DNA, and protein analysis. "With this device, the nanoplasmonic spectroscopy sensing, for the first time, becomes colorimetric sensing, requiring only naked eyes or ordinary visible color photography," says Logan Liu, a professor of electrical and computer engineering and of bioengineering. Also: ScienceBlog (Feb. 14), R&D Magazine (Feb. 15), AzoNano (Feb. 15), Photonics.com (Feb. 15), News Medical.net (Sydney, Feb. 16), Wired Magazine (Feb. 25).

CS PROFESSOR HONORED
HPCwire (San Diego, Feb. 13) -- Computer science professor William Gropp has been appointed the Thomas M. Siebel Chair in Computer Science at the U. of I., one of only two such chairs in the United States.

BIOCHEM LAB ON A CHIP
Science Daily (Feb. 12) -- Using micro-fabrication techniques and incorporating a unique design of transistor-based heating, researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign are further advancing the use of silicon transistor and electronics into chemistry and biology for point-of-care diagnostics. Also: Scicasts (Leicester, England, Feb. 13), ScienceBlog (Feb. 12), AZoNano (Warriewood, Australia, Feb. 14), Space Daily (Feb. 14).

STRAIN IMPROVES MATERIAL
e! Science News (Quebec City, Feb. 11) -- Like turning coal to diamond, adding pressure to an electrical material enhances its properties. Now, U. of I. researchers, led by materials science professor Lane Martin, have devised a method of making ferroelectric thin films with twice the strain, resulting in exceptional performance. Also: ScienceCodex (Feb. 11), ScienceBlog (Feb. 11), R&D Magazine (Feb. 11), Science Daily (Feb. 11), AZoNano (Warriewood, New South Wales, Feb. 12), ECNMag (Rockaway, N.J., Feb. 11), Laboratory Equipment (Smithtown, N.Y., Feb. 12), Nanowerk News (Honolulu, Feb. 11), New Electronics (Dartford, England, Feb. 11), PhysOrg.com (Douglas, Isle of Man, Feb. 11), Science Business (Washington, D.C., Feb. 11), Science Newsline (Tokyo, Feb. 11), Space Daily (Pasadena, Calif., Feb. 15).

ALUMNUS FEATURED
The Manitoban (Winnipeg, Feb. 11) -- Before Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, or even Internet Explorer, there was NCSA Mosaic, commonly referred to as just Mosaic. NCSA stands for the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the U. of I. It was there that co-founder Marc Andreessen found himself in 1993, as he started the Web browser that would introduce the Internet to the general public

BIOENGINEERING
Technology Review (Cambridge, Mass., Feb. 11) -- Heart tissues are physically tough and electronically conductive. Creating synthetic versions that mimic that combination is difficult but could open up new doors in health sciences. Rashid Bashir, a bioengineering professor at the U. of I. has demonstrated a biological machine built from heart tissue and polymer, but says without conductive materials its application will be limited.

VIRAL VIDEO'S "PATIENT ZERO"
On the Media (audio link, New York City, Feb. 8) -- In 1995, a decade before YouTube ushered in the age of the viral video, a couple of upstart young film-school graduates created an underground, analogue video sensation. And it turns out, a student in a U. of I. residence hall who digitized it and put it up on an emerging Internet a year later made the original “South Park” debut “patient zero” for viral video. Editor’s note: The U. of I. reference occurs at 5:55.

HACK-A-THON WINNERS
Daily Illini (Feb. 8) -- Two University students and brothers--Ali and Ehsan Razfa--are moving on to a national-level hackathon after placing first at MHacks, a hacking competition hosted by the University of Michigan. The third-place application, $now_code, was created by Illinois' students Rishabh Marya and Bhuwan Khattar.

BATTERY TECHNOLOGY
Design News (Lexington, Mass., Feb. 7) -- South Korean researchers have developed what appears to be the world’s first imprintable and bendable lithium-ion battery, which could lead to a future for smart clothing. The Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology led the project team that included John A. Rogers, a materials engineer at the U. of I.

UI MANUFACTURING LAB IN CHICAGO
Crain's Chicago Business (blog, Feb. 6) -- Gov. Pat Quinn is to announce today that the University of Illinois, in partnership with its National Center for Supercomputing Applications and private companies, will be forming an Illinois Manufacturing Lab likely to be located in the central area of Chicago. This follows the university's announcement last month of a major tech-research center also to be located in Chicago. Also: Chicago Sun-Times (Feb. 6), Belleville News Democrat (Feb. 6), The Republic (from The Associated Press, Feb. 6), Quincy Herald-Whig (Illinois, Feb. 6), Daily Illini (Feb. 12).

Related story: Crain’s Chicago Business (Feb. 12) --  A bit of blowback has started to develop over moves by the U. of I. to establish two big research labs in Chicago. An Urbana-Champaign-area legislator and a businessman are griping that Chicago is trying to make off with some valuable resources.

NEW ENGINEERING MASTER'S DEGREE
Daily Illini (Editorial, Feb 6.) -- At Monday’s meeting of the Urbana-Champaign Senate, professor Victoria Coverstone, associate dean for graduate and professional programs in the College of Engineering, submitted a proposal for a new master’s of engineering degree, which would be offered alongside an already existing master’s of science program. The new program would offer students looking for a more class-based learning experience without a thesis requirement.

VIRTUAL REALITY
Science Daily (Chevy Chase, Md., Feb. 5) -- U. of I. researchers are part of a multi-university team that is looking to add a sense of touch to virtual reality technology.

GRAINGER GIFT
Bloomberg (Feb. 5) -- The Grainger Family Foundation has pledged $100 million to the U. of I. to support the school’s College of Engineering.

NEW BRAIN IMAGING TECHNOLOGY
American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) -- Researchers interested in imaging the brain have long desired to study the stiffness of brain tissue as a way to show changes in the structural integrity of the brain during disease. To meet this challenge, Brad Sutton and John Georgiadis from the Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering at Illinois, along with graduate student Curtis Johnson and professor Keith Paulsen from Dartmouth College, have developed an innovative brain MRE method that can measure the stiffness of brain tissue. This may lead to earlier detection of disease states in the future.

POLLUTION
Christian Science Monitor (Feb. 4) -- Black carbon soot has been shown to be the second largest contributor to global warming after carbon dioxide. But, whether eliminating some of the largest sources of that black carbon would slow or halt warming is a complex scientific question. While dark soot particles absorb heat and warm the air, they also promote cloud formation that shades and cools. Some versions of organic carbon also have a cooling effect. “This is why we say you can reduce a fraction of the global warming from black carbon, but not nearly all of it, by selecting the right sources,” says Tami Bond, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Illinois. Also: South China Morning Post (Feb. 5).

TWO ALUMNI HONORED BY PRESIDENT OBAMA
USA Today (Feb. 1) -- In a White House ceremony, President Obama awarded the National Medal of Science to 12 researchers, including alumnus Sidney Drell (MS 1947, PhD 1949, Physics); and the National Medal of Technology and Innovation to 11 inventors, including George R. Carruthers (BS 1961, PhD 1964, Aerospace Engineering; MS 1962, Nuclear Engineering).

NPRE ALUMNUS LEADS FUSION EFFORT
AzoNano.com (Feb. 1) -- The research of a multi-institutional team from the U.S., Japan, and France, led by Predrag S. Krstic of the Joint Institute for Computational Sciences and U of I alumnus Jean Paul Allain (MS 2000, PhD 2001, NPRE) at Purdue University has answered the question of how the behavior of plasma—the extremely hot gases of nuclear fusion—can be controlled with ultra-thin lithium films on graphite walls lining thermonuclear magnetic fusion devices. Also: Science 360 (NSF, Feb. 1).
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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.

If you have any questions about the College of Engineering, or other story ideas, contact Rick Kubetz, editor, Engineering Communications Office, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 217/244-7716.