Posts Tagged ‘inventions’

The Future of Energy: An Emerging Science by Dr. Thomas Valone

an-emerging-scienceA new 220 page softcover book discusses the latest emerging energy technologies and mankind’s history of energy and its future trends. Includes an examination of the sociopolitical aspects of man’s use of energy.

In a world of uncertainty about the future, The Future of Energy: An Emerging Science by Thomas Valone offers “…hope for solving the world’s looming energy shortage,” according to Science magazine, since it considers things we have barely imagined in search of new carbon-free technologies.

Containing a myriad of new energy technologies assembled into archetypal categories, a sociological perspective emerges along with the science. Well funded, emerging energy sources such as dense plasma focus fusion, powdered metal-burning engines, wireless transmission of electricity, space-based solar power, piezoelectric highway electricity generators and zero point energy are given simple and short summaries.

Recent Conferences on Future Energy sponsored by the author’s institute, offering the best examples of emerging future energy sources, are also listed and described.

“[I]t would be foolhardy not to assess a broad spectrum of advanced energy sources, converters, and enabling technologies.” - Martin Hoffert, et al., Science, Vol. 300, 25 April 2003, p. 581 (more…)


Research Behind World’s Largest Wave Energy Device

The full-scale version of Aquamarine Power's 'Oyster' wave power device as it was being built in Scotland in 2008.  (Aquamarine Power)

The full-scale version of Aquamarine Power's 'Oyster' wave power device as it was being built in Scotland in 2008. (Aquamarine Power)

Queen’s University Belfast has helped the global wave energy industry take a major stride forward with the launch of the world’s largest working hydro-electric wave energy device by Aquamarine Power.

Known as Oyster, the device has been officially launched by Scotland’s First Minister Alex Salmond MP, MSP at the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) in Orkney.

It is currently the world’s only hydro-electric wave energy device producing power and is now producing power by pumping high pressure water to its onshore hydro-electric turbine. This will be fed into the National Grid to power homes in Orkney and beyond. A farm of 20 Oysters would provide enough energy to power 9,000 three bedroom family homes.

Oyster was first conceived out of work funded by an Engineering and Physical Sciences Research grant to Queen’s between 2002 and 2004, to develop surging power-wave devices.

Professor Trevor Whittaker from Queen’s School of Planning, Architecture and Civil Engineering was the principal investigator and was supported by Dr Matt Folley. Aquamarine Power Ltd was formed by a Scottish entrepreneur specifically to develop the technology. Today there is a joint agreement which results in Queen’s undertaking all the hydrodynamic testing for Aquamarine. (more…)


Extreme Solar Energy Cell Makeover

Dr. Alex Freundlich, research professor of physics and electrical and computer engineering, Center for Advanced Materials, University of Houston.

Dr. Alex Freundlich, research professor of physics and electrical and computer engineering, Center for Advanced Materials, University of Houston.

Commercialization of new solar technology to boost solar efficiency.

A pioneer in solar power in the 1990s before it became “sexy,” University of Houston Professor Alex Freundlich recently entered into a collaborative research agreement with U.K.-based start-up QuantaSol for the development of the next generation of super efficient solar cells.

“A sabbatical 20 years ago brought me to Houston from France, when at the time Houston was one of few places in the world to find a steady support for solar energy research,” said Dr. Alex Freundlich, research professor of physics and electrical and computer engineering, Center for Advanced Materials, University of Houston. “One of the reasons I decided to stay in Houston was the opportunity to work with NASA and to continue my research in high efficiency solar energy materials and devices. Since the early days of the space program solar cells have been the workhorse of space exploration and the need of satellites with more onboard power has fueled high risk research in solar cells. In the past few decades, most major advances in the area of high efficiency solar cells came from space development and exploration.”

Freundlich met Keith Barnham, co-founder of QuantaSol, a former faculty at Imperial College London, early in his career while working as a staff scientist on solar cells at the French National Scientific Research Laboratory (CNRS).

“Keith convinced me that low dimensional structures held a promise for great improvements in solar cells. As a physicist these quantum structures opened access to refreshing and sophisticated device physics. I believe that over the years the type of science that Keith and I have dedicated our career to has not only produced remarkable device results but created an excellent opportunity for the intellectual development of students and faculty involved in these project,” said Freundlich. (more…)


Green Heating and Cooling Technology Turns Carbon From Eco-Villain to Hero

Professor Bob Critoph, University of Warwick

Professor Bob Critoph, University of Warwick

Carbon is usually typecast as a villain in terms of the environment but researchers at the University of Warwick have devised a novel way to miniaturise a technology that will make carbon a key material in some extremely green heating products for our homes and in air conditioning equipment for our cars.

Most domestic heating and automotive air conditioning requires a lot of energy. Domestic space heating and hot water account for 25% of energy consumption in the UK.  Across the EU, vehicle air conditioning uses about 5% of the vehicle fuel consumed annually, and within the UK it is responsible for over 2 million tonnes of CO2 emissions.

To combat global warming, new technologies to reduce these emissions are vital. Researchers at the University of Warwick have been working on practical solutions for many years and are now developing new energy saving technologies.

In houses, the best condensing boilers are about 90% efficient. There are electric heat pumps on the market that use electricity to extract heat from the outside air or the ground to heat homes more efficiently, but the electricity used still incurs large CO2 emissions at the power station. Researchers have long been aware of a much more energy efficient way to drive heat pumps (or air conditioners) using adsorption technology. This uses heat from a gas flame or engine waste heat to power a closed system containing only active carbon and refrigerant. When the carbon is at room temperature it adsorbs the refrigerant and when heated the refrigerant is driven out. (more…)


Embracing the Elements: Weather-Sensitive Architecture

Ryerson School of Interior Design Professor Filiz Klassen has produced a series of building skins to create responsive structures which can be described as hot, cold, wet or dry. (Ryerson University)

Ryerson School of Interior Design Professor Filiz Klassen has produced a series of building skins to create responsive structures which can be described as hot, cold, wet or dry. (Ryerson University)

Buildings typically provide shelter from the elements, but one Ryerson University researcher thinks structures ought to relate more to the environment instead. To this end she has created architectural “skins,” which interact with the weather to ultimately create environmental structures that integrate form with function.

An Associate Professor in Ryerson’s School of Interior Design, Filiz Klassen’s material innovations research in architecture has produced a series of building skins to create responsive structures which can be described as hot, cold, wet or dry. Examples include walls that reveal etched poems, create flashes of light, or that pulse with the pressure of wind, differences in temperature and lighting conditions or when subjected to rain.

By integrating weather elements into her innovative designs, Prof. Klassen is adding an entirely new dimension to architecture. It’s not just about aesthetics, but a building’s dynamic response to the elements. Integrating innovative textiles and building materials will also change a building’s environmental footprint by changing our attitudes and energy consumption. “Scientific research has produced materials that adjust to environmental conditions in different contexts,” explained Klassen. (more…)


Nate Lewis: Powering the Planet

by Natan S. Lewis

Nate Lewis of the California Institute of Technology describes the greatest problem of our time - energy use and production, and the prospects for addressing it. Series: Roger Revelle Centennial Symposium

Presentation Abstract

This presentation describes and evaluates the technical, political, and economic challenges involved with widespread adoption of renewable energy technologies. (more…)


Students Develop New Surveillance Technology Solving 60-Year-Old Design Dilemma

The smallest monocopter built by Ulrich to-date, with a maximum dimension of 9.5 cm and a wing equal in size to a natural samara. (Photo by Evan Ulrich/A. James Clark School of Engineering, U-Md.)

The smallest monocopter built by Ulrich to-date, with a maximum dimension of 9.5 cm and a wing equal in size to a natural samara. (Photo by Evan Ulrich/A. James Clark School of Engineering, U-Md.)

Maple tree seeds (or samara fruit) and the spiraling pattern in which they glide to the ground have delighted children for ages and perplexed engineers for decades. Now aerospace engineering graduate students at the University of Maryland’s Clark School of Engineering have learned how to apply the seeds’ unique design to devices that can hover and perform surveillance in defense and emergency situations.

In the 1950s, researchers first tried to create an unmanned aerial vehicle that could mimic a maple seed’s spiraling fall. Ever since, their attempts have been foiled by instability, resulting in a lack of control over the tiny (less than one meter) vehicles, which were easily knocked off course by wind. As recently as June 2009, this was considered as an open challenge for engineers.

The Clark School students have solved the steering problem and provided a solution that allows the device to take off from the ground and hover, as well as perform controlled flight after its initial fall to the ground after being deployed from an aircraft. The device can also begin to hover during its initial descent, or after being launched by hand. (more…)


Smallest Nanoantennas for High-speed Data Networks

Nano dipole antennas under the microscope: The colors reflect the different trans-mission frequencies. (Photo by: LTI)

Nano dipole antennas under the microscope: The colors reflect the different trans-mission frequencies. (Photo by: LTI)

More than 120 years after the discovery of the electromagnetic character of radio waves by Heinrich Hertz, wireless data transmission dominates information technology. Higher and higher radio frequencies are applied to transmit more data within shorter periods of time. Some years ago, scientists found that light waves might also be used for radio transmission. So far, however, manufacture of the small antennas has required an enormous expenditure. KIT scientists have now succeeded for the first time in specifically and reproducibly manufacturing smallest optical nanoantennas from gold.

In 1887, Heinrich Hertz discovered the electromagnetic waves at the former Technical College of Karlsruhe, the predecessor of Universität Karlsruhe (TH). Specific and directed generation of electromagnetic radiation allows for the transmission of information from a place A to a remote location B. The key component in this transmission is a dipole antenna on the transmission side and on the reception side. Today, this technology is applied in many areas of everyday life, for instance, in mobile radio communication or satellite reception of broadcasting programs. Communication between the transmitter and receiver reaches highest efficiency, if the total length of the dipole antennas corresponds to about half of the wavelength of the electromagnetic wave. (more…)


Chemists Discover Recipe to Design a Better Type of Fuel Cell

U of C chemist George Shimizu, one of the team working on the science behind fuel cells.

U of C chemist George Shimizu, one of the team working on the science behind fuel cells.

New formula helps increase the efficiency and decrease the cost

Fuel cells are often touted as one method to help decrease society’s addiction to fossil fuels. But there is still a lot of work to be done before fuel cells will be ready for mass market to be used in transportation, home heating and portable power for emergencies.

University of Calgary chemists Jeff Hurd and George Shimizu have taken the science behind a specific type of fuel cell towards a higher level of design. They have discovered a new material that allows a PEM fuel cell, known as a polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell, to work at a higher temperature. This discovery is extremely important in terms of increasing the efficiency and decreasing the cost of PEM fuel cells.

“This research will alter the way researchers have to this point perceived candidate materials for fuel cell applications,” says Shimizu a professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Calgary. (more…)


New Method to Keep Fruit & Vegetables Fresh Saves Energy

fruit-and-vegDid you know that millions of tons of fruits and vegetables in the United States end up in the trash can before being eaten, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture?

A Georgia State University professor has developed an innovative new way to keep produce and flowers fresh for longer periods of time. Microbiologist George Pierce’s method uses a naturally occurring microorganism — no larger than the width of a human hair — to induce enzymes that extend the ripening time of fruits and vegetables, and keeps the blooms of flowers fresh. The process does not involve genetic engineering or pathogens, but involves microorganisms known to be associated with plants, and are considered to be helpful and beneficial to them.

“These beneficial soil microorganisms serve essentially the same function as eating yogurt as a probiotic to have beneficial organisms living in the gastrointestinal system,” Pierce said. (more…)


Major Advance in Organic Solar Cells

Guillermo Bazan is a professor of Chemistry and of Materials at UC Santa Barbara.

Guillermo Bazan is a professor of Chemistry and of Materials at UC Santa Barbara.

Gains in speed, quality and current over conventional production techniques hold promise for both research and commercial production

Professor Guillermo Bazan and a team of postgraduate researchers at UC Santa Barbara’s Center for Polymers and Organic Solids (CPOS) today announced a major advance in the synthesis of organic polymers for plastic solar cells. Bazan’s team:

* reduced reaction time by 99%, from 48 hours to 30 minutes, and
* increased average molecular weight of the polymers by a factor of more than 3.

The reduced reaction time effectively cuts production time for the organic polymers by nearly 50%, since reaction time and purification time are approximately equal in the production process, in both laboratory and commercial environments.

The higher molecular weight of the polymers, reflecting the creation of longer chains of the polymers, has a major benefit in increasing current density in plastic solar cells by as much as a factor of more than four. Over polymer batches with varying average molecular weights, produced using varying combinations of the elements of the new methodology, the increase in current density was found to be approximately proportional to the increase in average molecular weight. (more…)


Lumenhaus Kindles Solar Possibilities for Sustainable House Building

lumenhausA team of faculty, undergraduate, and graduate students spanning four colleges — the College of Architecture and Urban Studies, the College of Engineering, the Pamplin College of Business, and the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences — has created a solar-powered house for the 2009 U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon, taking place on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. through Oct 17, 2009.

An attribute of the Virginia Tech entry that makes an immediate impression is the Eclipsis system — an advanced building façade comprising two layers: a metal shutter shade and a translucent insulating panel. The shutter shade slides along the north and south façades, providing protection from direct sunlight while simultaneously allowing for indirect, natural lighting, views to the exterior and privacy to those inside. The sliding insulating panel is a translucent polycarbonate panel filled with aerogel. Aerogel is a super lightweight, highly insulating translucent material that provides insulation equivalent to a typical sold wall during harsh weather conditions without blocking natural light.

Known as Lumenhaus, the Virginia Tech structure will compete against 19 other universities to determine which team has designed and built the most efficient, operational solar-powered house to address evolving quality of life issues.

Virginia Tech is one of only two U.S. universities invited to compete in the first Solar Decathlon Europe, which will take place in Madrid in June 2010. The Solar Decathlon Europe competition is modeled on the biennial U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon.

Learn more about Lumenhaus at www.lumenhaus.com.


Developing Enzymes to Clean Up Pollution by Explosives

Dr Gideon Grogan, York Structural Biology Laboratory

Dr Gideon Grogan, York Structural Biology Laboratory

Scientists at the University of York have uncovered the structure of an unusual enzyme which can be used to reverse the contamination of land by explosives.

The discovery, by scientists in the York Structural Biology Laboratory and the Centre for Novel Agricultural Products, will support the development of plants that can help tackle pollution caused by royal demolition explosive, also known as RDX.

Researchers at York have identified bacteria that use RDX as a food source and used that knowledge to develop transgenic plants that can draw pollutants out of the soil and break them down.

The latest findings, published in The Journal of Biological Chemistry, focus on the XplA enzyme which plays an important role in that process.

Dr Gideon Grogan, from the York Structural Biology Laboratory, said: “The biological process for tackling the pollution caused by RDX already exists but we need to find ways of making it work faster and on the scale required. (more…)


An Engineer’s Solution for Sustained Economic Growth

by Steve Morra

sustainable-development-2[Editors note: There is much I agree with in Steve Morra's article reposted here. And while true 21st century sustainability involves much more than simply fanning the flames of  innovation or encouraging scientific and technological breakthroughs,  Steve wasn't trying to address all the problems of the world here. And he does offer a number of specific measures which could play a real role in helping to bring about a new golden age of discovery and growth. And that may be exactly what's needed to achieve real global sustainability. So these ideas are well worth thinking about seriously. - Blake Harris]

Introduction

Sustained or increased economic chaos is the likely result of the public solutions offered for the worldwide macro-economic decline as of late 2009. Comparing simple historical economic data with public rhetoric, the solutions offered promise further economic decline past recession into depression and beyond for the vast majority of our micro-economic futures. It is time to publicly look at the “Golden Goose” in technical history to find a realistic solution with sustained economic growth.

A positive solution can be found by first identifying the Golden Goose that has fueled that last century’s growth, as well as throughout all history. The second step requires using modern tools to insure they are nurtured and protected for sustained economic growth, rather than being killed or haphazardly left to fend for themselves. Individuals and the now floundering crony-capitalist, credit/bank, fiat currency, corporate, political, and other systems would do well to consider and to debate this solution as part of their natural survival instinct. (more…)


Renewable Hydrogen Production Becomes Reality at Winery

Bruce E. Logan, the Kappe professor of environmental engineering, researches the use of hydrogen as an everyday, environmentally friendly fuel source. Here Bruce Logan (right) and Shaoan Cheng examining microbial electrolysis cells in their laboratory at Penn State. (Greg Grieco)

Bruce E. Logan, the Kappe professor of environmental engineering, researches the use of hydrogen as an everyday, environmentally friendly fuel source. Here Bruce Logan (right) and Shaoan Cheng examining microbial electrolysis cells in their laboratory at Penn State. (Greg Grieco)

The first demonstration of a renewable method for hydrogen production from wastewater using a microbial electrolysis system is underway at the Napa Wine Company in Oakville. The refrigerator-sized hydrogen generator will take winery wastewater, and using bacteria and a small amount of electrical energy, convert the organic material into hydrogen, according to a Penn State environmental engineer.

“This is a demonstration to prove we can continuously generate renewable hydrogen and to study the engineering factors affecting the system performance,” said Bruce E. Logan, Kappe professor of environmental engineering. “The hydrogen produced will be vented except for a small amount that will be used in a hydrogen fuel cell.” Eventually, Napa Wine Company would like to use the hydrogen to run vehicles and power systems. (more…)


New Material May Expand Uses for Solid Oxide Fuel Cells

Georgia Tech researchers Meilin Liu, Mingfei Liu, Lei Yang and Kevin Blinn examine test results for their new fuel cell material. (Georgia Tech Photo: Gary Meek)

Georgia Tech researchers Meilin Liu, Mingfei Liu, Lei Yang and Kevin Blinn examine test results for their new fuel cell material. (Georgia Tech Photo: Gary Meek)

A new ceramic material described in this week’s issue of the journal Science could help expand the applications for solid oxide fuel cells – devices that generate electricity directly from a wide range of liquid or gaseous fuels without the need to separate hydrogen.

Though the long-term durability of the new mixed ion conductor material must still be proven, its development could address two of the most vexing problems facing the solid oxide fuel cells: tolerance of sulfur in fuels and resistance to carbon build-up known as coking. The new material could also allow solid oxide fuel cells, which convert fuel to electricity more efficiently than other fuel cells, to operate at lower temperatures, potentially reducing material and fabrication costs.

“The development of this material suggests that we could have a much less expensive solid oxide fuel cell, and that it could be more compact, which would increase the range of potential applications,” said Meilin Liu, a Regent’s professor in the School of Materials Science and Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. “This new material would potentially allow the fuel cells to run with dirty hydrocarbon fuels without the need to clean them and supply water.” (more…)


“Soil Dipstick” Forecasts the Health of Farms, Forests and the Planet

soil-dipstickAccording to climate change experts, our planet has a fever — melting glaciers are just one stark sign of the radical changes we can expect. But global warming’s effects on farming and water resources is still a mystery. A new Tel Aviv University (TAU) invention, a real-time “Optical Soil Dipstick” (OSD), may help solve the mystery and provide a new diagnostic tool for assessing the health of our planet.

According to Prof. Eyal Ben-Dor of TAU’s Department of Geography, his soil dipstick will help scientists, urban planners and farmers understand the changing health of the soil, as well as its agricultural potential and other associated concerns. “I was always attracted to drug development and diagnostics, which spurred the development of this OSD device,” he says. “It’s like a diagnostic device that measures soil health. Through a small hole in the surface of the earth, we can assess what lies beneath it.”

As climate change alters our planet radically, Prof. Ben-Dor explains, this dipstick could instantly tell geographers what parts of the U.S. are best — or worst — for farming. For authorities in California, it is already providing proof that organic farms are chemical-free, and it could be used as a whistle-blower to catch environmental industrial polluters. (more…)


Engineering Professors Develop New Hybrid Vehicle Concept for RV Travelers

Drs. Steve Shepard Jr. (left) and Steve Shepard Sr. in front of their RV. (Dr. Steve Shepard Jr. Family)

Drs. Steve Shepard Jr. (left) and Steve Shepard Sr. in front of their RV. (Dr. Steve Shepard Jr. Family)

While the cost of fuel has put a damper on the travel plans of many Americans, one father-son engineering duo with a passion for RV travel has decided to combat the problem by creating a concept for an electric-hybrid passenger vehicle with the ability to improve fuel economy and increase the acceleration of the motor home towing it.

Dr. Steve Shepard Jr., UA associate professor of mechanical engineering, and his father, Dr. Steve Shepard Sr., a former faculty member and researcher at Mississippi State University, developed the idea for a hybrid dinghy pusher after the cost of fuel curtailed both families’ traveling plans.

In this concept, the dinghy consists of a hybrid SUV towed by the RV. When driven as a standard automobile, the SUV operates as a fully-functional hybrid vehicle. When towed behind a RV, the SUV switches into the hybrid dinghy pusher mode, where only the electrical portion of the hybrid-SUV is utilized. The HDP works by going into generator mode and storing energy when going downhill, and energy previously stored in the batteries is used to help push the motor home up-hill. The previously stored electrical energy in the HDP can also be used to help accelerate the motor home more quickly from a stop or while just driving down the road. (more…)


UGA Licenses Technology to Make Fuel from Dead Forests and Agricultural Waste

dead-forestAn innovative process for turning waste biomass – such as dead trees, agricultural waste and lumber byproducts – into a liquid fuel to power conventional engines has been licensed by the University of Georgia Research Foundation, Inc. to Tolero Energy, LLC, a private biofuels company based in Sacramento, Calif. The technology represents a leap forward for the biofuels industry: the ultra-low-sulfur biofuel does not require additional refinement or processing before blending with biodiesel and petroleum diesel.

The exclusive license provides Tolero Energy global rights to the technology, including the right to grant sublicenses.

Tolero CEO Chris Churchill said the company will focus on the transportation fuels market as it completes development of the UGARF bio-oil technology. He expects to make product based on the technology available in the first half of 2010.

Lead inventor of the technology is Tom Adams, a retired member of the University of Georgia Faculty of Engineering. Co-inventors are John Goodrum, Manuel Garcia-Perez, Dan Geller and Joshua Pendergrass – all presently or previously associated with the UGA Faculty of Engineering. (more…)


Looking Deeply into Polymer Solar Cells

This is a 3-D electron tomography image of a polymer-metal oxide solar cell. The 3-D nanoscopic morphology shows the interpenetrating metal oxide network in (yellow) below an aluminum contact (gray) inside a polymer matrix (black). (Eindhoven University of Technology)

This is a 3-D electron tomography image of a polymer-metal oxide solar cell. The 3-D nanoscopic morphology shows the interpenetrating metal oxide network in (yellow) below an aluminum contact (gray) inside a polymer matrix (black). (Eindhoven University of Technology)

Researchers from the Eindhoven University of Technology and the University of Ulm have made the first high-resolution 3D images of the inside of a polymer solar cell. This gives them important new insights in the nanoscale structure of polymer solar cells and its effect on the performance. The findings were published online in Nature Materials on Sunday 13 September.

The investigations shed new light on the operational principles of polymer solar cells.

These solar cells do not have the high efficiencies of their silicon counterparts yet. Polymer cells, however, can be printed in roll-to-roll processes, at very high speeds, which makes the technology potentially very cost-effective. Added to that, polymer cells are flexible and lightweight, and therefore suitable to be used on vehicles or clothing or to be incorporated in the design of objects. (more…)


Wind Energy Manufacturing Laboratory Establish

Iowa State University researchers, left to right, Vinay Dayal, Matt Frank, Frank Peters and John Jackman are working to establish a Wind Energy Manufacturing Laboratory on campus. They're pictured with turbine blades at TPI Composites' Newton factory. (Iowa State University)

Iowa State University researchers, left to right, Vinay Dayal, Matt Frank, Frank Peters and John Jackman are working to establish a Wind Energy Manufacturing Laboratory on campus. They're pictured with turbine blades at TPI Composites' Newton factory. (Iowa State University)

It’s not easy to make the machines that convert wind to electricity.

Just consider the turbine blades that spin in the wind: a single blade can be 40 to 50 meters long and 12,000 to 15,000 pounds. It has to be built within millimeters of specifications. It has to be built to withstand 20 years of harsh conditions in the field. And it has to be built to handle speeds up to 200 miles per hour at the tip.

Iowa State University researchers are working with researchers from TPI Composites, a Scottsdale, Ariz.-based company that operates a turbine blade factory in Newton; and the U.S. Department of Energy’s Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, N.M., to improve the process currently used to manufacture turbine blades. (more…)


Carbon Nanotubes Could Make Efficient Solar Cells

by Anne Ju, Cornell Chronicle

Paul McEuen, Goldwin Smith Professor of Physics (Courtesy Cornell University)

Paul McEuen, Goldwin Smith Professor of Physics (Courtesy Cornell University)

Using a carbon nanotube instead of traditional silicon, Cornell researchers have created the basic elements of a solar cell that hopefully will lead to much more efficient ways of converting light to electricity than now used in calculators and on rooftops.

The researchers fabricated, tested and measured a simple solar cell called a photodiode, formed from an individual carbon nanotube. Reported online Sept. 11 in the journal Science, the researchers — led by Paul McEuen, the Goldwin Smith Professor of Physics, and Jiwoong Park, assistant professor of chemistry and chemical biology — describe how their device converts light to electricity in an extremely efficient process that multiplies the amount of electrical current that flows. This process could prove important for next-generation high efficiency solar cells, the researchers say. (more…)


Who Are You? Mobile ID Devices Find Out Using NIST Guidelines

Mobile ID devices allow users in the field to collect biometrics and compare them with identity databases wirelessly. (Orandi, NIST)

Mobile ID devices allow users in the field to collect biometrics and compare them with identity databases wirelessly. (Orandi, NIST)

A new publication that recommends best practices for the next generation of portable biometric acquisition devices—Mobile ID—has been published by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

Devices that gather, process and transmit an individual’s biometric data—fingerprints, facial and iris images—for identification are proliferating. Previous work on standards for these biometric devices has focused primarily on getting different stationary and desktop systems with hardwired processing pathways to work together in an interoperable manner. But a new generation of small, portable and versatile biometric devices are raising new issues for interoperability. (more…)


Smart Cane Provides Navigation Cues for the Blind

Kumar Yelamarthi, a CMU assistant professor of engineering, stands back as CMU seniors Chris Zeleney (left) and Wil Martin (right) explain how the Smart Cane works with the RFID technology. (Robert Barclay)

Kumar Yelamarthi, a CMU assistant professor of engineering, stands back as CMU seniors Chris Zeleney (left) and Wil Martin (right) explain how the Smart Cane works with the RFID technology. (Robert Barclay)

More than 1 million people in the United States are visually impaired, and according to the National Center for Health Statistics, the biggest challenges for these individuals are the ability to determine direction and travel freely from place to place.

While common tools available today include canes or guide dogs, a group of engineering students at Central Michigan University say they have designed another tool to improve mobility. The Smart Cane is a device that detects obstacles and provides navigation cues by using Radio Frequency Identification technology - similar to what some major retailers use to tag merchandise to prevent theft.

“We are one of the first to research the use of RFID technology outdoors,” said Kumar Yelamarthi, a CMU assistant professor of engineering and project leader. “We’re very excited about what this project will lead to.” (more…)