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05.11

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 April 2011. Items are excerpted from news releases generated by universities, government agencies and other research institutions. Highlighted topics include:

1. DOE to Fund $130M in Advanced Energy Research Projects

2. Smart Grid Panel Agrees on Standards and Guidelines for Wireless Communication, Meter Upgrades

3. PSERC to Map a New Trajectory For the Smart Grid

4. Study Finds That Photovoltaic Systems Boost the Sales Price of California Homes

5. Rensselaer To Launch New Nuclear Safety Research Program and Lab

6. Algae Could Replace 17 Percent of US Oil Imports

7. Stanford Researchers Use River Water and Salty Ocean Water to Generate Electricity

8. Pitt-led Researchers Create Super-Small Transistor Powered by Single Electrons

9. Researchers Create Hybrid Spintronic Computer Chips

10. New Global Portal for Cyber-Physical Systems Research Launched

11. National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace Released

12. Electronic Medical Records Speed Genetic Health Studies

13. Study Finds Public Relatively Unconcerned About Nanotechnology Risks

14. DARPA Publishes Broad Agency Announcement for Broad Operational Language Translation (BOLT) Program

1. DOE to Fund $130M in Advanced Energy Research Projects

On 20 April, the Department of Energy announced that its Advanced Research Projects Agency for Energy (APRA-E) would be making available grants totalling $130 million in five focused research areas including thermal storage, grid controls and solar power electronics.

For more information, see:  http://www.energy.gov/10283.htm

2. Smart Grid Panel Agrees on Standards and Guidelines for Wireless Communication, Meter Upgrades

The governing board of the public-private Smart Grid Interoperability Panel (SGIP) has voted in favor of a new standard and a set of guidelines important for making the long-planned “smart” electricity grid a reality. The documents address the need for wireless communications among grid-connected devices as well as the ability to upgrade household electricity meters as the Smart Grid evolves.

For more information, see:  http://www.nist.gov/smartgrid/smartgrid-041911.cfm

3. PSERC to Map a New Trajectory For the Smart Grid

The Power Systems Energy Research Center (PSERC) has been awarded a $5.5 million grant from the Department of Energy to investigate requirements for a systematic transformation of today's electric grid. The future grid needs to support high penetrations of highly variable distributed energy resources mixed with large central generation sources, energy storage, and responsive users equipped with embedded intelligence and automation. These sustainable energy systems require more than improvements to the existing system; they require transformative changes in planning and operating electric power systems.

For more information, see:  http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-04/asu-pa041911.php

4. Study Finds That Photovoltaic Systems Boost the Sales Price of California Homes

New research by the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory finds that homes with solar photovoltaic (PV) systems have sold for a premium, expressed in dollars per watt of installed PV, of approximately $3.90 to $6.40/watt. This corresponds to an average home sales price premium of approximately $17,000 for a relatively new 3,100 watt PV system (the average size of PV systems in the Berkeley Lab dataset), and compares to an average investment that homeowners have made to install PV systems in California of approximately $5/W over the 2001-2009 period

For more information, see:  http://newscenter.lbl.gov/news-releases/2011/04/21/bright-spot-for-solar/

5. Rensselaer To Launch New Nuclear Safety Research Program and Lab

The five-year funding plan calls for $1.5 million to be invested at Rensselaer by the U.S. Department of Energy Nuclear Criticality Safety Program (NCSP), managed by the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). The funds will support a new nuclear engineering research program and laboratory at Rensselaer, dedicated to the careful measurement and analysis of high-accuracy nuclear interaction data. This data is used by researchers and engineers around the globe in a wide variety of nuclear physics applications, including nuclear criticality safety of fissionable material processing, the design of new and safer nuclear reactors, and many other applications of interest to the NNSA and the broader international nuclear safety and nuclear reactor community.

For more information, see:  http://news.rpi.edu/update.do?artcenterkey=2856

6. Algae Could Replace 17 Percent of US Oil Imports

A new study by researchers at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory shows that 17 percent of the United States' imported oil for transportation could be replaced by biofuel made from algae. Researchers also determined that the water needed to grow that algae could be substantially reduced by cultivating it in the nation's sunniest and most humid regions.

For more information, see: http://www.pnl.gov/news/release.aspx?id=859

7. Stanford Researchers Use River Water and Salty Ocean Water to Generate Electricity

Stanford researchers have developed a rechargeable battery that uses freshwater and seawater to create electricity. Aided by nanotechnology, the battery employs the difference in salinity between fresh and saltwater to generate a current. A power station might be built wherever a river flows into the ocean.

For more information, see:  http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-03/su-sru032911.php

8. Pitt-led Researchers Create Super-Small Transistor Powered by Single Electrons

A Pitt-led researcj team reports the creation of a single-electron transistor with a central component — an island only 1.5 nanometers in diameter — that operates with the addition of only one or two electrons. The transistor, named SketchSET, provides a building block for new, more powerful computer memories, advanced electronic materials, and the basic components of quantum computers that could solve problems so complex that all of the world's computers working together for billions of years could not crack them.

For more information, see: http://www.news.pitt.edu/news/Levy_SketchSET_NatureNano

9. Researchers Create Hybrid Spintronic Computer Chips

Researchers here have created the first electronic circuit to merge traditional inorganic semiconductors with organic “spintronics” — devices that utilize the spin of electrons to read, write and manipulate data.  They transmitted a spin-polarized electrical current from the plastic material, through the gallium arsenide, and into a light-emitting diode (LED) as proof that the organic and inorganic parts were working together.

For more  information, see:  http://researchnews.osu.edu/archive/hybridspin.htm

10. New Global Portal for Cyber-Physical Systems Research Launched

Vanderbilt's Institute for Software Integrated Systems (ISIS) has built and will operate a Web-based collaboration platform for the new National Science Foundation-funded Cyber-Physical Systems Virtual Organization. The CPS-VO aims to bring together researchers, educators and students working in academics, industry and government agencies in a kind of virtual brain trust to foster progress, develop priorities and quickly distribute information in the rapidly emerging field of cyber-physical systems.

For more information, see:  http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-04/vu-ngp041411.php

11. National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace Released

On 15 April, the Obama Administration released the National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace (NSTIC), which seeks to better protect consumers from fraud and identity theft, enhance individuals' privacy, and foster economic growth by enabling industry both to move more services online and to create innovative new services. The NSTIC aims to make online transactions more trustworthy, thereby giving businesses and consumers more confidence in conducting business online.

For more information, see:   http://www.nist.gov/public_affairs/releases/whitehouse_nstic.cfm

12. Electronic Medical Records Speed Genetic Health Studies

Recruiting thousands of patients to collect health data for genetic clues to disease is expensive and time consuming. But a study shows that process could be faster and cheaper by mining patient data that already exists in electronic medical records. Researchers were able to cull patient information in electronic medical records from routine doctors' visits at five national sites. This allowed researchers to accurately identify patients with five different diseases and reproduce previous genetic findings.

For more information, see:  http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-04/nu-emr041811.php

13. Study Finds Public Relatively Unconcerned About Nanotechnology Risks

A new study finds that the general public thinks getting a suntan poses a greater public health risk than nanotechnology or other nanoparticle applications. The study, from North Carolina State University, compared survey respondents' perceived risk of nanoparticles with 23 other public-health risks.  The study is the first to compare the public’s perception of the risks associated with nanoparticles to other environmental and health safety risks. Researchers found that nanoparticles are perceived as being a relatively low risk.

For more information, see:  http://news.ncsu.edu/releases/wms-berube-binder-nanorisk/

14. DARPA Publishes Broad Agency Announcement for Broad Operational Language Translation (BOLT) Program

On 19 April, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) released a broad agency announcement seeking proposals for a new Human Language Technology (HLT) research and development program called Broad Operational Language Translation (BOLT). The goal of the BOLT program is to create technology capable of translating multiple foreign languages in all genres, retrieve information from the translated material, and enable bilingual communication via speech or text.

For more information, see:  https://www.fbo.gov/

Comments may be submitted to todaysengineer@ieee.org.