Notable & Newsworthy
July 2014
In this episode of PSDtv economic theorist and author Jeremy Rifkin explains his concept of The Internet of Things. He has gained added attention through his description of the developing Collaborative Commons. The meteoric rise of this new economic paradigm is a transformative technology revolution fueled by
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Date:
07/30/2014
Bonnell-Kangas’ winning project was an improved battery interface module for an electric racing motorcycle
Texas Instruments named Aaron Bonnell-Kangas from Ohio State University the overall winner of the seventh annual TI Innovation Challenge, a contest that showcases the inventive projects of today’s aspiring engineers. Bonnell-Kangas’ winning project was an improved battery interface module for an electric ra
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Date:
07/30/2014
cloudBit gives people the power to turn any object into an internet-connected device
littleBits Electronics, a company making hardware limitless, announced the launch of the cloudBit. First previewed at TED 2014, the cloudBit adds a new dimension to the littleBits library, letting you “snap the internet to anything”. Mapping to littleBits’ mission of putting the power of electronics in th
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Date:
07/28/2014
Zeno the robot
A new robot is changing the way child autism is diagnosed and treated. The robot, called Zeno, is a collaboration between Dr Dan Popa at the University of Texas at Arlington (UTA), Hanson RoboKind, Dallas Autism Treatment Centre, Texas Instruments and National Instruments, and is the brainchild of Hanson Robot ow
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Date:
07/24/2014
Quant e-Sportlimousine
After making a debut at the 2014 Geneva Motor Show, the Quant e-Sportlimousine has received approval from Germany's TÜV Süd. The car, which uses an electrolyte flow cell power system, is now certified for use on German and European roads.
Everything about the scene suggested that it might very well have been
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Date:
07/21/2014
KSPG is testing a range extender for electric vehicles using a test vehicle based on the FIAT 500
Together with FEV, KSPG is currently successfully testing a range extender developed for electric vehicles. The test vehicle, based on the FIAT 500, has already undergone comprehensive tests at KSPG. Customer response to tests conducted at various OEMs underscore the targets achieved in the development of this ex
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Date:
07/18/2014
Fully printed organic thin film transistors (OTFTs) on a paper substrate. (a) Schematic of the device structure for a fully printed OTFT on paper. (b) Arrays of fully printed OTFTs fabricated on a paper substrate inkjet printed with the NIMS logo before adding the device. (c) An optical microscope image of fully-printed OTFT arrays. (d) A magnified optical microscope image of the individual device
Printing semiconductor devices are considered to provide low-cost high performance flexible electronics that outperform amorphous silicon thin film transistors currently limiting developments in display technology. However the nanoparticle inks developed so far have required annealing, which limits them to substrates th
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Date:
07/16/2014
Firefly Space Systems
The signs of a healthy industry isn't just growth or innovation, but a tendency to reach out and fill niche markets. A case in point is the small satellite launch company Firefly Space Systems, which recently unveiled its planned Alpha launcher. Aimed at the small satellite launch market, it's designed to launch sate
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Date:
07/14/2014
Researchers have developed a lithium ion battery made of sand that outperforms the current standard by three times
Researchers at the University of California, Riverside’s Bourns College of Engineering have created a lithium ion battery that outperforms the current industry standard by three times. The key material: sand. Yes, sand.
“This is the holy grail – a low cost, non-toxic, environmentally friendly way to pr
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Date:
07/10/2014
In the drive to get small, Robert Wolkow and his lab at the University of Alberta are taking giant steps forward.
The digital age has resulted in a succession of smaller, cleaner and less power-hungry technologies since the days the personal computer fit atop a desk, replacing mainframe models that once fill
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Date:
07/10/2014
Lithium-ion batteries have made portable, rechargeable electronics commonplace. Unfortunately, they do have some glaring drawbacks, including heat issues, being made with rare, toxic elements, and the fact the technology doesn't scale up very well, which limits applications. A team of scientists at the University of
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Date:
07/04/2014
An illustration of the molecular structure of tropoelastin, the smallest unit of the protein elastin
University of Washington researchers have shown that a favorable electrical property is present in a type of protein found in organs that repeatedly stretch and retract, such as the lungs, heart and arteries. These findings are the first that clearly track this phenomenon, called ferroelectricity, occurring at
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Date:
07/04/2014
There are a handful of naturally occurring materials, known as piezoelectric materials, that generate electricity if you bend, stretch or apply another mechanical force to them, and vice versa - if you apply a voltage across them, they'll deform accordingly. These materials are currently the subject of intense res
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Date:
07/03/2014
Stanford researchers believe that they've discovered a flexible, switchable material, a crystal that can form a paper-like sheet just three atoms thick
Do not fold, spindle or mutilate. Those instructions were once printed on punch cards that fed data to mainframe computers. Today's smart phones process more data, but they still weren't built for being shoved into back pockets. In the quest to build gadgets that can survive such abuse, engineers have been testing elec
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Date:
07/02/2014
Laboratory apparatus for mapping and imaging of radio frequency (RF) electric fields at resolutions below the usual RF wavelength limit.
Imaging and mapping of electric fields at radio frequencies (RF)* currently requires the use of metallic structures such as dipoles, probes and reference antennas. To make such measurements efficiently, the size of these structures needs to be on the order of the wavelength of the RF fields to be mapped. This po
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Date:
07/01/2014
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