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12.10

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 November 2010.  Items are excerpted from news releases generated by universities, government agencies and other research institutions. Highlighted topics include:

1. NIST Innovation Program Seeks Public Input To Serve National Needs

2. DARPA’s Deep Learning Leverages Machine Learning Techniques

3. NASA Funds FIRST High School Robotics Competition

4. New Standard Proposed For Supercomputing

5. Short, On-chip Light Pulses Will Enable Ultrafast Data Transfer

6. Updated NIST Software Uses Combination Testing to Catch Software Bugs

7. Virginia Tech Computer Scientist Designs Award Winning Software to Combat Hacking

8. Breakthrough May Lead to Disposable E-Readers

9. Methane-powered Laptops May Be Closer Than You Think

10. Nanogenerators Able to Power Small Conventional Electronics

11. Auto Exhaust Heat Tapped To Create Electricity

12. Ultrathin Alternative to Silicon for Future Electronics

13. Nanoscale Light Sensor Enables Hybrid Optic and Electronic Devices

14. Nanopillar Advance Shows Potential for Next Generational Solar Cells

15. Transparent Conductive Material Could Lead to Power-Generating Windows

16. Univ. of Maryland Funded To Advance Women Faculty in Science and Engineering

17. UM Dorms Will Go “Off the Water Grid”

1. NIST  Innovation Program Seeks Public Input to Serve National Needs

The Technology Innovation Program (TIP) of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is seeking public input on six NIST-prepared white papers outlining potential areas for research grants and, separately, requests detailed suggestions of critical national needs and associated technical needs for future TIP funding competitions.  The six draft whitepapers distill topics in five areas of critical national need, which are under consideration for the upcoming funding competitions.  The draft white papers are:

• Water: New Technologies for Managing and Ensuring Future Water Availability

• Manufacturing: Advanced Robotics and Intelligent Automation

• Manufacturing and Biomanufacturing: Materials Advances and Critical Processes

• Energy: Technologies to Enable a Smart Grid

• Civil Infrastructure: Advanced Sensing Technologies and Advanced Repair Materials for The Infrastructure: Water Systems, Dams, Levees, Bridges, Roads, and Highways

• Healthcare: Advanced Technologies for Proteomics, Data Integration and Analysis, and Biomanufacturing for Personalized Medicine.

For more information, see: http://www.nist.gov/tip/tip_110910.cfm

2. DARPA’s Deep Learning Leverages Machine Learning Techniques

The quantity of data available to DoD commanders and analysts from new sensor platforms with improved resolution and range poses tremendous challenges. This data must be quickly and correctly analyzed, currently by highly trained human operators. As sensor capabilities expand, sophisticated, powerful machines are needed with the ability to replicate, and even surpass, human perceptual capabilities. Through its Deep Learning program, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA is conducting basic research into hierarchical machine perception and analysis, and applications in visual, acoustic and somatic sensor processing for detection and classification of objects and activities.

For more information, see: http://www.darpa.mil/news/2010/DeepLearningReleaseFinal.pdf

3. NASA Funds FIRST High School Robotics Competition

On Nov. 24, NASA announced a partnership with the Foundation For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST), which will provide up to $20 million over the next five years to support a national program to inspire student interest in science, engineering, and mathematics with a focus on robotic technology.  "This is the largest NASA-funded student program geared toward robotics activities," said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden. "For the next five years, approximately 25,000 students across the country will not only learn from our nation's best and brightest, but also compete and have fun at the same time."

For more information, see: http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2010/nov/HQ_10-307_Student_Robotics.html

4. New Standard Proposed for Supercomputing

A new supercomputer rating system was released at Supercomputing Conference 2010 on Nov. 17 by an international team led by Sandia National Laboratories. The rating system, Graph500, tests supercomputer ability to analyze large, graph-based structures that link the huge number of data points present in biological, social and security problems. The intent is to influence computer makers to build computers with the architecture to deal with these increasingly complex problems.

For more information, see: https://share.sandia.gov/news/resources/news_releases/supercomputing-standard/

5. Short, On-chip Light Pulses Will Enable Ultrafast Data Transfer

University of California - San Diego electrical engineers recently developed the first ultra compact, low power pulse compressor on a silicon chip to be described in the scientific literature.  The compressor enables short, powerful light pulses on a chip -- an important step toward the optical interconnects that will likely replace the copper wires that carry information between chips within today's computers.

For more information, see: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-11/uoc--sol112410.php

6. Updated NIST Software Uses Combination Testing to Catch Software Bugs

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have released an updated version of a computer system testing tool that can cut costs by more efficiently finding flaws. A tutorial on using the tool accompanies the new release.  Working with researcher Jeff Yu Lei and his students from the University of Texas at Arlington, NIST designed Advanced Combinatorial Testing System (ACTS), a freely distributed software tool to generate plans for efficiently testing combinations of two to six interacting variables. The method goes beyond the commonly used "pairwise" approach to software testing, which tests combinations of two variables, so it can detect more obscure flaws.

For more information, see: http://www.nist.gov/itl/csd/bugs_110910.cfm\

7. Virginia Tech Computer Scientist Designs Award Winning Software to Combat Hacking

One of the serious threats to a user's computer is a software program that might cause unwanted keystroke sequences in order to hack someone's identity. This form of attac, known as “spoofing” is increasing, infecting enterprise and personal computers. A keystroke anti-spoofing technique has received an IEEE Computer Society best paper award and will soon be a part of a new PC security product.   To combat the "spoofing attacks," Daphne Yao, assistant professor of computer science at Virginia Tech and her former student, Deian Stefan, now a graduate student at Stanford University, developed an authentication framework called "Telling Human and Bot Apart" (TUBA), a remote biometrics system based on keystroke-dynamics information.  Their work won a best paper award at CollaborateCom '10, the 6th International Conference on Collaborative Computing, sponsored by the IEEE' Computer Society, Create-Net, and the Institute for Computer Sciences.

For more information, see:  http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-11/vt-vtc110110.php

8. Breakthrough May Lead to Disposable E-Readers

A discovery by University of Cincinnati engineering researcher Andrew Steckl could revolutionize display technology with e-paper that's fast enough for video yet cheap enough to be disposable.  Steckle demonstrated that paper could be used as a flexible host material for an electrowetting device. Electrowetting (EW) involves applying an electric field to colored droplets within a display in order to reveal content such as type, photographs and video.

For more information, see: http://www.uc.edu/news/NR.aspx?id=12779

9. Methane-powered Laptops May Be Closer Than You Think

With advances in nanostructured devices, lower operating temperatures, and the use of an abundant fuel source and cheaper materials, a group of researchers led by Shriram Ramanathan at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) are increasingly optimistic about the commercial viability of the solid-oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) to power mobile devices such as laptops.   In their first paper, Ramanathan's group demonstrated stable and functional methane-based all-ceramic thin-film SOFCs  that do not contain any platinum.

For more information, see:  http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-11/hu-mlm112310.php

10. Nanogenerators Able to Power Small Conventional Electronics

Georgia Tech researchers have reached a significant milestone in their development of nanometer-scale generators that harvest mechanical energy from the environment using an array of tiny nanowires: the ability to power conventional electronic devices such as liquid-crystal displays.

For more information, see: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-11/giot-ngs110810.php

11. Auto Exhaust Heat Tapped To Create Electricity

Researchers at Purdue University are creating a system that harvests heat from an engine's exhaust to generate electricity, reducing a car's fuel consumption.  With funding from the National Science Foundation, the team is collaborating with General Motors, to develp a prototype using thermoelectric generators, or TEGs.  TEGs generate an electric current to charge batteries and power a car's electrical systems, reducing the engine's workload and improving fuel economy.

For more information, see: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-11/pu-tua112310.php

12. Ultrathin Alternative to Silicon for Future Electronics

Berkeley researchers have successfully used ultra-thin layers of the semiconductor indium arsenide to create a nanoscale transistor with excellent electronic properties. The technique could be applied to other III–V semiconductors for future high-speed, low-power electronic devices.

For more information, see: http://newscenter.lbl.gov/feature-stories/2010/11/22/ultrathin-alternative-to-silicon/

13. Nanoscale Light Sensor Enables Hybrid Optic and Electronic Devices

UW-Madison researchers overcome one of nanotechnology's most daunting challenges by creating a nanoscale light sensor that can be combined with near-atomic-size electronic circuitry to produce hybrid optic and electronic devices.  The photonic device is less than 4 nanometers wide, enabling on-demand photonic interaction with objects as small as single molecules or quantum dots. In another first, the tiny device can be electrically tuned to change its sensitivity to different colors in the visible spectrum, which may forgo the need for the separate light filters other sensors typically require.  The researchers produced the photonic devices via a rewritable nanoelectronics platform that works like a microscopic Etch A Sketch.

For more information, see: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-11/uop-ptd111110.php

14. Nanopillar Advance Shows Potential for Next Generational Solar Cells

By tuning the shape and geometry of highly ordered  nanopillar arrays of germanium or cadmium sulfide, researchers at the Berkeley National Laboratory and UC-Berkeley have been able to drastically enhance the optical absorption properties of  nanopillars.  Nanopillars — densely packed nanoscale arrays of optically active semiconductors — have shown potential for providing a next generation of relatively cheap and scalable solar cells, but have been hampered by efficiency issues. The Berkeley researchers were able to produce nanopillars that absorb light as well or even better than commercial thin-film solar cells, using far less semiconductor material and without the need for anti-reflective coating.

For more information, see: http://newscenter.lbl.gov/feature-stories/2010/11/16/nanopillar-light-collectors/

15. Transparent Conductive Material Could Lead to Power-Generating Windows

Scientists at Brookhaven and Los Alamos National Laboratories have fabricated transparent thin films capable of absorbing light and generating electric charge over a relatively large area. The material could be used to develop transparent solar panels or even windows that absorb solar energy to generate electricity.

For more information, see: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-11/dnl-tcm110310.php

16. University of Maryland Funded To Advance Women Faculty in Science and Engineering

The University of Maryland has received a five-year, $3.2 million ADVANCE grant from the National Science Foundation to increase the representation and advancement of women faculty members in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. The impact of the NSF grant will be broadened beyond the STEM disciplines to the entire University of Maryland campus through financial commitments pledged by the university's leadership to invest in a "culture of inclusive excellence."

For more information, see: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-11/uom-nfu111010.php

17. UM Dorms Will Go “Off the Water Grid”

A $2 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) will allow the University of Miami (UM) College of Engineering to develop an autonomous net-zero water dormitory at UM. The project will make it possible for the residents to go "off the water grid," by using a sustainable approach to water collection, treatment and reuse. This project aims at promoting principles of sustainable development, by eliminating the conveyance of water and wastewater to and from centralized treatment plants, which consumes a large part of total U.S. electric power generation.  Over the next four years, the researchers will develop the self-sustaining system for converting all dormitory wastewater into potable water.

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