NewsFlash: College of Engineering in the Media | Vol. 1, No. 3 | A publication of the College of Engineering and uwnews.org, the UW Office of News and Information

UW College of Engineering NewsFlash | Vol. 1, No. 3 | May 30, 2007

NewsFlash is a monthly email of press items featuring our College's researchers. For a more complete and regularly updated list of COE media coverage, see In the Media.

Click on a headline to read that article on the web. Some links may require a subscription or no longer be active.

NewsFlash is a service of the UW College of Engineering and the UW Office of News and Information. If you have a newsworthy result about one month from publication, presentation or demonstration, please contact Hannah Hickey at (206-543-2580, hickeyh@uw.edu).

May 24, 2007 | BBC News
Robot performs surgery

Jay
Leno NASA is concerned not only for the health of its spacecraft, but for the health of its astronauts. Robotic systems could make surgery possible by remote control. In May the space agency tested a mobile surgical system being developed at the UW.

SOURCE MATERIAL
Robotic surgeon to team up with doctors, astronauts on NASA mission | uwnews.org release: Apr. 18, 2007

Apr. 25, 2007 | The Tonight Show with Jay Leno
Jay Leno: Monologue

In his opening monologue Jay Leno refers to the UW's surgical robot.

SOURCE MATERIAL
Robotic surgeon to team up with doctors, astronauts on NASA mission | uwnews.org release: Apr. 18, 2007

	May. 7, 2007 \| USATODAY.com Deep diving team to test robotic surgeons on sea floor
	A team of six aquanauts and two handy robotic surgeons, including one from the UW's BioRobotics Lab, will plunge into the Atlantic Ocean to test new medical and exploration tools for spaceflight. SOURCE MATERIAL Robotic surgeon to team up with doctors, astronauts on NASA mission \| uwnews.org release: Apr. 18, 2007

	May 9, 2007 \| KUOW public radio Dr. Robot
	Scientists at the University of Washington want to help surgeons operate on patients who are across oceans and even planets. Their solution? A surgical robot. SOURCE MATERIAL Robotic surgeon to team up with doctors, astronauts on NASA mission \| uwnews.org release: Apr. 8, 2007

	May 4, 2007 \| Seattle Daily Journal of Commerce Universities ready to float their concrete boats
	The American Society of Civil Engineers of holding its national concrete canoe contest next month in the Seattle area. The UW's Melana Foster and Kristina Lowthian discuss the upcoming competition.

	May 9, 2007 \| The Seattle Post-Intelligencer Utilities to explore power in the tides
	The Snohomish County Public Utility District is investigating how to turn tidal power into electricity. The UW's Philip Malte, professor of mechanical engineering, is project manager for the research study.

	May 21, 2007 \| The Boston Globe Prototype: Smart sunglasses let you control the amount of shade
	Materials scientists and engineers at the University of Washington have developed a pair of glasses that go from virtually opaque to crystal clear in two seconds. The specs contain a semi-solid gel whose properties change when an adjacent polymer layer is electrically charged. SOURCE MATERIAL 'Smart' sunglasses and goggles let users adjust shade and color \| uwnews.org release: Mar. 27, 2007

	May 1, 2007 \| Photonics Spectra Sunglasses Developed with Adjustable Shade and Color
	Tired of fumbling to find the right eyewear to meet the ever-changing intensity of the sun? Having trouble finding a pair of shades to complement the latest fashion? Mechanical engineer Chunye Xu may have come up with a solution. SOURCE MATERIAL 'Smart' sunglasses and goggles let users adjust shade and color \| uwnews.org release: Mar. 27, 2007

	Apr. 14, 2007 \| Science News Color-tunable glasses
	Changeable shades that rely on novel polymer films sandwiched between layers of glass are being developed by mechanical engineer Chunye Xu in the UW’s Center for Intelligent Materials and Systems. SOURCE MATERIAL 'Smart' sunglasses and goggles let users adjust shade and color \| uwnews.org release: Mar. 27, 2007

	Mar. 9, 2007 \| Wired DepthX Robot Scours Sinkholes
	An untethered, autonomous diving robot leaves to collect samples from a geothermal sinkhole 400 feet below the water’s surface. The UW's Payman Arabshahi, affiliate associate professor of electrical engineering, describes how it navigates in three dimensions using a combination of sonar and dead reckoning.

	June 1, 2007 \| Popular Science A robotic cable crawler
	Companies could soon deploy a robot to sniff out problems in buried power cables. Engineers at the UW have invented the Robotic Cable Inspection System, or Cruiser, a four-foot-long, train-like 'bot. SOURCE MATERIAL Robotic crawler detects wear in power lines (uwnews.org release: Dec. 21, 2006)

	Apr. 20, 2007 \| The Seattle Times Balazinska's Law
	When UW computer scientist Magda Balazinska was named a 2007 Faculty Fellow, she got $200,000 in research money from Microsoft - and a starring role in their media campaign.

	May 2, 2007 \| The Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sims sees money in every mile
	Someday we may have computer chips in our cars that record time and lane miles traveled on major highways, and pay tolls based on the level of traffic congestion. A new report, co-authored by the civil engineer Mark Hallenbeck, argues such a system could radically transform Seattle's roadways.

	Apr. 25, 2007 \| The Oregonian Snowpack feels the heat of rain above 6,500 feet
	"Rain-on-snow events" -- surges of rainfall and warm temperatures that abruptly melt mountain snowpacks -- can cause lethal floods. Scientists with the U.S. Geological Survey report the events are becoming less common. Dennis Lettenmaier, professor of civil and environmental engineering, is quoted.

	May 2, 2007 \| USA Today Washington will destroy dams to revive a river
	High hopes ride on knocking down two aging hydroelectric dams. Civil engineer Richard Palmer is quoted on the dams' fall from favor.

	Apr. 1, 2007 \| Popular Mechanics The Brain-Powered Robot Servant: Resident Roboticist
	Researchers at the UW's Laboratory for Neural Systems have built a humanoid robot, called Morpheus, that can be controlled by thought alone. According to computer scientist Rajesh Rao: "In essence, the robot becomes an extension of your own body." SOURCE MATERIAL Researchers demonstrate direct brain control of humanoid robot (uwnews.org release: Dec. 14, 2006)

	May 9, 2007 \| ABC News Mind controlled robot
	How would you like having a robot cater to your every whim, just by thinking? This video explains how computer scientist Raj Rao and colleagues are doing just that, while getting a better understanding of how the human brain works. SOURCE MATERIAL Researchers demonstrate direct brain control of humanoid robot (uwnews.org release: Dec. 14, 2006)

	Apr. 1, 2007 \| CBS Sunday Morning The future's taking too long to get here
	UW computer scientist Rajesh Rao’s robot can read your mind, if you wear a funny hat and think really hard about something. CBS host Bill Geist tries it out. SOURCE MATERIAL Researchers demonstrate direct brain control of humanoid robot (uwnews.org release: Dec. 14, 2006)

If you have a newsworthy result about one month from publication, presentation or demonstration, please contact Hannah, hickeyh@u.washington.edu. Notice of student and faculty awards and grants is also welcome.