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08.10

Tech News Digest

Compiled By IEEE-USA Staff

The following is a roundup of news and notable developments in electrical engineering and computer or information technology reported during late June and July 2010.  Items are excerpted from news releases generated by universities, government agencies and other research institutions. Highlighted topics include:

1. Public Comment Sought on Draft Computer Security Document For Cloud Computing and Virtualization Technology

2. White House Soliciting Input to U.S. Nanotech Innovation Policy

3. Nano 'Pin Art' Arrays Are Step Toward Mass Production of Nanowires

4. Infrared Lasers Used to Heat a “Nano Bathtub”

5. Ion Trap Could Simplify Quantum Computer Design

6. Nano-sized Light Mill Drives Micro-Sized Disk

7. Gallium Arsenide-Based Nano Processor Works at “Terahertz” Speeds

8. First Monolithic Terahertz Solid-State Transceiver Reported

9. Spotting Cloud-Computing Problems Before They Start

10. Polymer Synthesis Could Aid Future Electronics

11. 'Broken symmetry' Discovery Opens New Superconductor Research Path

12. Unusual Electrons Go With the Flow

13. Transformation Optics Allow Light to Make a U-turn

14. Glass Invisibility Cloak

15. Nanotech Coatings Help Generate Electricity from Sewage

16. Notable Research Grants

1. Public Comment Sought on Draft Computer Security Document For Cloud Computing and Virtualization Technology

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has issued draft recommendations for securely configuring and using full virtualization technologies, which, by means of software, duplicate a computer's operating system and its applications on other machines.  Because it helps maximize the use and flexibility of computing resources — multiple operating systems can run simultaneously on the same hardware — full virtualization is considered a key technology for cloud computing, but it introduces new issues for IT security.  NIST is requesting public review of the new draft computer security publication (NIST Special Publication 800-125, Guide to Security for Full Virtualization Technologies) and soliciting comments until 13 August.

For more information, see: http://www.nist.gov/itl/csd/cloud_072110.cfm

2. White House Soliciting Input to U.S. Nanotech Innovation Policy

On 15 July, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy announced establishment of a National Nanotechnology Initiative Strategy Portal, an online event taking place 13 July – 15 August to solicit public input on NNI priorities and how the NNI can achieve the vision of a “future in which the ability to understand and control matter at the nanoscale leads to a revolution in technology and industry that benefits society.”

For more information, see: http://strategy.nano.gov/

3. Nano 'Pin Art' Arrays Are Step Toward Mass Production of Nanowires

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have cultivated many thousands of nanocrystals in what looks like a pinscreen or "pin art" on silicon, a step toward reliable mass production of semiconductor nanowires for millionths-of-a-meter-scale devices such as sensors and lasers.

For more information, see: http://www.nist.gov/eeel/optoelectronics/nanowires_072110.cfm

4. Infrared Lasers Used to Heat a “Nano Bathtub”

Researchers at JILA have demonstrated the use of infrared laser light to quickly and precisely heat the water in "nano bathtubs" — tiny sample containers — for microscopy studies of the biochemistry of single molecules and nanoparticles. Fast, noncontact heating of very small samples is expected to enable new types of experiments with single molecules. For example, sudden, controlled jumps in temperature could be used to activate molecular processes and observe them in real time.

For more information, see: http://www.nist.gov/physlab/div848/bathtub_072110.cfm

5. Ion Trap Could Simplify Quantum Computer Design

Physicists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have demonstrated an ion trap with a built-in optical fiber that collects light emitted by single ions (electrically charged atoms), allowing quantum information stored in the ions to be measured. The advance could simplify quantum computer design and serve as a step toward swapping information between matter and light in future quantum networks.

For more information, see: http://www.nist.gov/physlab/div847/trap_070610.cfm

6. Nano-sized Light Mill Drives Micro-Sized Disk

Berkeley Lab researchers have created a nano-sized light mill motor powerful enough to drive micro-sized disks. With rotational speed and direction controlled by the frequency of incident light waves, this new nanomotor should open the door to a broad range of applications in energy and biology as well as in nanoelectromechanical systems.

For more information, see: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-07/dbnl-nlm070610.php

7. Gallium Arsenide-Based Nano Processor Works at “Terahertz” Speeds

Physicists in the United States and Germany have discovered a way to use a gallium arsenide nanodevice as a signal processor at "terahertz" speeds, the first time it's been used for this purpose and an important step forward in the new world of optical communication and computing.

For more information, see: http://bit.ly/blDODH

8. First Monolithic Terahertz Solid-State Transceiver Reported

Sandia National Laboratories researchers have taken the first steps toward reducing the size and enhancing the functionality of devices in the terahertz (THz) frequency spectrum.  By combining a detector and laser on the same chip to make a compact receiver, the researchers rendered unnecessary the precision alignment of optical components formerly needed to couple the laser to the detector.

For more information, see: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-06/dnl-slr062910.php

9. Spotting Cloud-Computing Problems Before They Start

Large-scale computer hosting infrastructures offer a variety of services to computer users, including cloud. But when these infrastructures run into problems — like bottlenecks that slow their operating speed — it can be costly for both the infrastructure provider and the user. New research from North Carolina State University will allow these infrastructure providers to more accurately predict such anomalies, and address them before they become a major problem.

For more information, see: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-07/ncsu-nrc071210.php

10. Polymer Synthesis Could Aid Future Electronics

Tomorrow's television and computer screens could be brighter, clearer and more energy-efficient as a result of a process involving the synthesis of a conjugated organic polymer developed by a team of researchers from Canada and the US Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

For more information, see:  http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-07/drnl-psc071910.php

11. 'Broken symmetry' Discovery Opens New Superconductor Research Path

In a major step toward understanding the mysterious "pseudogap" state in high-temperature cuprate superconductors, a team of Cornell, Binghamton University and Brookhaven National Laboratory scientists have found a "broken symmetry," where electrons act like molecules in a liquid crystal: Electrons between copper and oxygen atoms arrange themselves differently "north-south" than "east-west."   This simple discovery opens a door to new research that could lead to room-temperature superconductors.

For more information, see: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-07/cu-sd071510.php

12. Unusual Electrons Go With the Flow

A group of Princeton researchers has found that electrons on the surface of specific materials act like miniature superheroes, relentlessly dodging the cliff-like obstacles of imperfect microsurfaces, sometimes moving straight through barriers.  The Princeton work hints at the possibilities of speeding up integrated circuits that process information by flow of electrons between different devices. The new materials potentially could break the bottleneck that occurs when metallic interconnects get so small that even the tiniest atomic imperfection hinders their performance.

For more information, see: http://www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S27/90/58A67/

13. Transformation Optics Allow Light to Make a U-turn

Berkeley researchers have combined the fields of transformation optics and plasmonics to demonstrate that with only moderate modifications of the dielectric component of a metamaterial, the physical space through which light travels can be altered with promising results, such as the creation of a 180 degree bend that won't alter the energy or properties of a light beam as it makes the U-turn, or a plasmonic version of a Luneburg lens.

For more information, see: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-07/dbnl-tom070610.php

14. Glass Invisibility Cloak

Elena Semouchkina, an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at Michigan Tech, has found ways to use magnetic resonance to capture rays of visible light and route them around objects, rendering those objects invisible to the human eye.   Semouchkina and her colleagues at the Pennsylvania State University, have developed a nonmetallic cloak that uses identical glass resonators made of chalcogenide glass, a type of dielectric material (one that does not conduct electricity). In computer simulations, the cloak made objects hit by infrared waves — approximately one micron or one-millionth of a meter long — disappear from view.

For more information, see: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-07/mtu-nys072110.php

15. Nanotech Coatings Help Generate Electricity from Sewage

Engineers at Oregon State University have made a significant advance toward producing electricity from sewage, by the use of new coatings on the anodes of microbial electrochemical cells that increase their electricity production about 20 times.  The finds bring the researchers one step closer to technology that could clean biowaste at the same time it produces useful levels of electricity — a promising new innovation in wastewater treatment and renewable energy.

For more information, see: http://oregonstate.edu/ua/ncs/archives/2010/jul/nanotech-coatings-produce-20-times-more-electricity-sewage

16. Notable Research Grants

Energy Innovation:  Caltech and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory received a $122M DOE grant to develop an Energy Innovation Hub aimed at developing revolutionary methods to generate fuels directly from sunlight.  For more information, see:  http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-07/ddoe-ctt072210.php

Nuclear Engineering:  More than $2 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Energy will strengthen nuclear research and education, and help develop the next generation of nuclear technology at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.  For more information, see: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-07/rpi-udo071310.php

Comments may be submitted to todaysengineer@ieee.org.