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07.10

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

1. New Effort to Measure the Impact of Federally Funded Research

2. MIT Dean Suresh Nominated To Direct National Science Foundation

3. Quantum Dots Promise Leap in Solar Cell Efficiencies

4. Oak Ridge National Lab to lead Reactor Simulation Innovation Hub

5. NIST to Accelerate Federal Adoption of Cloud Computing

6. Research Explores Physical Stresses Caused by Multi-touch Electronic Devices

7. Nanostructure Flaws Affect Potential Speed of Solid-State Memory

8. Texas Tech, U of Utah Win Sandia Microdevice Competition

9. Nano-patterned Superconducting Thin Films Fabricated

10. Graphene-Based Nanocircuitry Demonstrated

11. RPI Researchers Develop New Method for Mass-producing Graphene

12. Carbon Nanotubes Shown to Improve Energy Capacity of Lithium Batteries

 1. New Effort to Measure the Impact of Federally Funded Research

A new initiative promises to monitor the impact of federal science investments on employment, knowledge generation, and health outcomes. The initiative—Science and Technology for America’s Reinvestment: Measuring the Effect of Research on Innovation, Competitiveness and Science, or STAR METRICS—is a multi-agency venture led by the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation (NSF), and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP).

For more information, see: http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/microsites/ostp/STAR%20METRICS%20FINAL.pdf

2. MIT Dean Suresh Nominated to Direct National Science Foundation

On 3 June, the White House announced that Dr. Subra Suresh would be nominated to fill the vacant post of National Science Foundation Director post.  Suresh is currently Dean of the School of Engineering and the Vannevar Bush Professor of Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).  From 2000 to 2006, Dr. Suresh served as the head of the MIT Department of Materials Science and Engineering.  Dr. Suresh is an member of  the U.S. National Academy of Engineering and  holds a bachelor’s degree from the Indian Institute of Technology in Madras, an M.S. from Iowa State University, and a Sc.D. from MIT. 

For more information, see: http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/president-obama-announces-more-key-administration-posts-1

3. Quantum Dots Promise Leap in Solar Cell Efficiencies

A team of University of Minnesota-led researchers has cleared a major hurdle in the drive to build solar cells with potential efficiencies up to twice as high as current levels, which rarely exceed 30 percent.  By showing how energy that is now being lost from semiconductors in solar cells can be captured and transferred to electric circuits using semiconductors only a few nanometers wide (i.e. “quantum dots”), the team has opened a new avenue for solar cell researchers seeking to build cheaper, more efficient solar energy devices.

For more information, see:  http://www1.umn.edu/news/news-releases/2010/UR_CONTENT_211711.html

4. Oak Ridge National Lab to lead Reactor Simulation Innovation Hub

A team led by Oak Ridge National Laboratory has received $122 million and access to the world's most powerful computers to speed the development of the next generation of nuclear reactors. The award from the US Department of Energy creates the first energy innovation hub -- the Consortium for Advanced Simulation of Light Water Reactors -- headquartered at Oak Ridge.

For more information, see: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-05/drnl-orn052810.php

5. NIST to Accelerate Federal Adoption of Cloud Computing

On 9 June, The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) announced that it has been designated to accelerate the federal government’s secure adoption of cloud computing by leading efforts to develop standards and guidelines in close consultation and collaboration with standards bodies, the private sector, and other stakeholders. Computer science researchers at NIST are working on two complementary efforts to speed the government’s quick and secure adoption of cloud computing.

For more information, see: http://www.nist.gov/itl/csd/cloud_060910.cfm

6. Research Explores Physical Stresses Caused by Multi-touch Electronic Devices

The evolution of computer systems has freed us from keyboards and now is focusing on multi-touch systems, those finger flicking, intuitive and easy to learn computer manipulations that speed the use of any electronic device from cell phones to iPads. But little is known about the long-term stresses on our bodies through the use of these systems.  A team of researchers at Arizona State University is engaged in a project to determine the effects of long-term musculoskeletal stresses multi-touch devices place on us.

For more information, see: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-06/asu-pfo060710.php

7. Nanostructure Flaws Affect Potential Speed of Solid-State Memory

After running a series of complex computer simulations, researchers have found that flaws in the structure of magnetic nanoscale wires play an important role in determining the operating speed of novel devices using such nanowires to store and process information. The finding*, made by researchers from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the University of Maryland, and the University of Paris XI, will help to deepen the physical understanding and guide the interpretation of future experiments of these next-generation devices.

For more information, see:  http://www.nist.gov/cnst/walls_060910.cfm

8. Texas Tech, U of Utah Win Sandia Microdevice Competition

The world’s smallest chess board — about the diameter of four human hairs — and a pea-sized microbarbershop were winners in this year’s design contest for, respectively, novel and educational microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), held at Sandia National Laboratories in mid May.

For more information, see:   https://share.sandia.gov/news/resources/news_releases/mems_contest/

9. Nano-patterned Superconducting Thin Films Fabricated

A team of researchers from Bar-Ilan University, Israel, and the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory has fabricated thin films patterned with large arrays of nanowires and loops that are superconducting — able to carry electric current with no resistance — when cooled below about 30 kelvin (-243 degrees Celsius). Even more interesting, the scientists showed they could change the material’s electrical resistance in an unexpected way by placing the material in an external magnetic field, creating potential use as a switch.. Such superconducting nanowires and nano-loops might eventually be useful for new electronic devices.

For more information, see:  http://www.bnl.gov/bnlweb/pubaf/pr/PR_display.asp?prID=1148&template=Today

10. Graphene-Based Nanocircuitry Demonstrated

Researchers at Georgia Tech have created a simple and quick one-step process based on thermochemical nanolithography (TCNL) for creating nanowires, tuning the electronic properties of reduced graphene oxide on the nanoscale and thereby allowing it to switch from being an insulating material to a conducting material.  The technique works with multiple forms of graphene and is poised to become an important finding for the development of graphene electronics.

For more information, see:  http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-06/giot-sst060710.php

11.  RPI Researchers Develop New Method for Mass-producing Graphene

Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have developed a simple new method for producing large quantities of the promising nanomaterial graphene. The new technique works at room temperature, needs little processing, and paves the way for cost-effective mass production of graphene.

For more information, see: http://news.rpi.edu/update.do?artcenterkey=2742

12. Carbon Nanotubes Shown to Improve Energy Capacity of Lithium Batteries

Researchers at MIT have discovered that using carbon nanotubes for one of the battery's electrodes produced a significant increase -- up to tenfold -- in the amount of power it could deliver from a given weight of material, compared to a conventional lithium-ion battery.

For more information, see: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-06/miot-ucn061710.php

Comments may be submitted to todaysengineer@ieee.org.