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01.11

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

1. Hall Named to Head House Science and Tech Committee

2. Feds Partner to Promote Cybersecurity Innovation

3. Program Encourages African-Americans To Pursue Robotics and Computing Careers

4. Avant-Garde Music Offers A Gateway to Artificial Intelligence

5. Semiconductors Employed as Ultrasensitive Microwave Detectors

6. Tiny Laser Light Show Illuminates Quantum Computing

7. PCAST Report Offers Recommendations on Health IT

8. Federal Guidance on Electronic Health Record Usability

9. International Collaboration Boosts Worldwide Nanotechnology Research

10. New Materials Used to Demonstrate More Reliable Nanoelectromechanical Systems

11. World's Smallest Battery Created

12. Iowa Researchers Fabricate More Efficient Polymer Solar Cells

1.  Hall Named to Head House Science and Tech Committee

On 8 Dec., the House Republican Conference confirmed that Rep. Ralph Hall (R-Texas) will chair the House Science and Technology Committee when the 112th Congress convenes in 2011. In an associated press release, Hall noted "Our Committee will help ensure that taxpayer dollars are invested wisely in research and development programs by providing effective oversight of existing programs and by eliminating wasteful and duplicative programs and streamlining programs where needed." 

For more information, see: http://gop.science.house.gov/Pressroom/Item.aspx?ID=277

2.  Feds Partner To Promote Cybersecurity Innovation

On 6 Dec., the Obama Administration released a Memorandum of Understanding signed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) of the Department of Commerce, the Science and Technology Directorate of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS/S&T), and the Financial Services Sector Coordinating Council (FSSCC) intended to speed the commercialization of cybersecurity research innovations that support our Nation’s critical infrastructures.

For more information, see: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/12/06/partnership-cybersecurity-innovation

3.  Program Encourages African-Americans To Pursue Robotics and Computing Careers

The National Science Foundation has extended its support for an alliance of nine major research universities, including Carnegie Mellon University, and 19 historically black colleges and universities that encourages African-American students to pursue graduate training and research careers in robotics and computer science.

For more information, see: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-12/cmu-nep120910.php

4.  Avant-Garde Music Offers A Gateway to Artificial Intelligence

Stretching their boundaries, artificial intelligence researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have teamed up with musicians on an unlikely project: a digital conductor of improvised avant-garde performances.  A conductor that could guide such performances must be capable of “high level reasoning,” said Professor Selmer Bringsjord, co-principal investigator, director of the Rensselaer Artificial Intelligence and Reasoning Laboratory.  The problem is an excellent candidate for artificial intelligence because a conductor of the unpredictable musical style would need to employ interconnecting elements of cognition — perception/action, reasoning, decision-making, planning, memory — to understand and respond appropriately to the music.

For more information, see:  http://news.rpi.edu/update.do?artcenterkey=2803

5.  Semiconductors Employed as Ultrasensitive Microwave Detectors

Physicists from Rice University and Princeton University have discovered a way to use one of the information technology industry's mainstay materials — gallium arsenide semiconductors — as an ultrasensitive microwave detector that could be suitable for quantum computing. The discovery comes at a time when computer chip engineers are racing both to add nanophotonic devices directly to microchips and to boost processor speeds beyond 10 gigahertz.

For more information, see: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-12/ru-rpd120810.php

6.  Tiny Laser Light Show Illuminates Quantum Computing

A new laser-beam steering system that aims and focuses bursts of light onto single atoms for use in quantum computers has been demonstrated by researchers in North Carolina and Wisconsin. The  new system is somewhat like the laser-light-show projectors used at rock concerts and planetariums. But it's much smaller, faster, atom-scale accurate and aimed at the future of computing, not entertainment.

For more information, see: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-12/aiop-tll120610.php

7.  PCAST Report Offers Recommendations on Health IT

On 8 Dec., the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) released a report entitled “Realizing the Full Potential of Health Information Technology to Improve Healthcare for Americans: The Path Forward,” which calls for widespread adoption of a “universal exchange language” that allows for the transfer of relevant pieces of health data while maximizing privacy.

For more information, see: http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/microsites/ostp/pcast-health-it-release.pdf

8.  Federal Guidance on Electronic Health Record Usability

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has released two new publications intended to help developers of software and computer systems for doctors' offices, clinics, and hospitals improve the ease of use of electronic health records (EHRs). These publications are part of a federal effort, led by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) to help providers adopt and use EHRs that can bring about broad quality improvements and cost savings in the health care system.

For more information, see:  http://www.nist.gov/itl/hit/hit_120810.cfm

9.  International Collaboration Boosts Worldwide Nanotechnology Research

Despite their initial focus on national economic competitiveness, the nanotechnology research initiatives now funded by more than 60 countries have become increasingly collaborative, with nearly a quarter of all papers co-authored by researchers across borders.  Researchers from the two leading producers of nanotechnology papers — China and the United States — have become each nation's most frequent international co-authors. Though Chinese and U.S. researchers now publish roughly the same number of nanotechnology papers, the U.S. retains a lead in the quality of publications — as measured by the number of early citations.

For more information, see: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-12/giot-woi120910.php

10.  New Materials Used to Demonstrate More Reliable Nanoelectromechanical Systems

Researchers at Northwestern University, the Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies at Sandia and Los Alamos National Laboratories, and Binghamton University have found a way to dramatically improve the reliability of carbon nanotube-based nanoelectromechanical systems.  By replacing metal, thin-film electrodes with electrodes made from diamond-like carbon (an electrically-conductive and mechanical robust material), they were able to demonstrate nanoelectromechanical devices constructed from individual CNTs switching reliably over numerous cycles and apply this functionality to memory elements that store binary states.

For more information, see: http://www.mccormick.northwestern.edu/news/articles/article_798.html

11.  World's Smallest Battery Created

A benchtop version of the world’s smallest battery — its anode a single nanowire one seven-thousandth the thickness of a human hair — has been created by a team led by Sandia National Laboratories researcher Jianyu Huang.  To better study the anode’s characteristics, the tiny rechargeable, lithium-based battery was formed inside a transmission electron microscope (TEM) at the Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies (CINT), a Department of Energy research facility jointly operated by Sandia and Los Alamos national laboratories.

For more information, see: https://share.sandia.gov/news/resources/news_releases/world%e2%80%99s-smallest-battery/

12.  Iowa Researchers Fabricate More Efficient Polymer Solar Cells

Researchers from Iowa State University and the Ames Laboratory have developed a process for fabricating more efficient polymer solar cells. They discovered a textured substrate pattern that allows deposition of a uniformly thin light-absorbing layer. The result is a polymer solar cell that captures more light and produces more power.  Tests indicated the research team's light-trapping cells increased power conversion efficiency by 20 percent over flat solar cells made from polymers.

For  more information, see: http://www.news.iastate.edu/news/2010/dec/solarcells

Comments may be submitted to todaysengineer@ieee.org.