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July 15, 2009 | The
New York Times (via Greenwire)
Research
on solar-powered Air Forces drones takes off
Progress
on improving the efficiency of solar cells for aircraft might allow the
Air Force to start using solar-powered drones. Mechanical engineer
Minoru Taya is developing solar cells that use a flexible film and thin
glass coating mounted on aircraft wings. These dye-sensitized solar
cells power sensors and actuators in the wings to eliminate electric
wires and lighten the drone's load.
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July 6, 2009 | Defense
News
Flying on sunlight
Air
Force scientists are using a synthetic version of a chemical found in
bacteria to convert sunlight into electrons - electricity that it hopes
can power an unmanned aerial vehicle on extended-duration flights. The
dye is the key ingredient in very lightweight dye-sensitized solar cells
that are being developed by UW mechanical engineer Minoru Taya.
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July 10, 2009 | Wired
Air
force eyes purple bacteria to power drones
The
Air Force is sponsoring a research effort by mechanical engineer Minoru
Taya to generate power using a bacterial pigment that can convert solar
energy to electricity, Defense News reports. The pigment, found in
purple microorganisms that thrive in shallow water, harnesses sunlight
to convert carbon dioxide to carbohydrates, which the bacteria then uses
for energy.
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July 20, 2009 | Smithsonian
magazine
Can
computers decipher a 5,000-year-old language?
About
22 years ago, in Hyderabad, India, an eighth-grade student named Rajesh
Rao turned the page of a history textbook and first learned about this
fascinating civilization and its mysterious script. In the years that
followed, Rao’s schooling and profession took him in a different
direction - he wound up pursuing computer science, which he teaches
today at the University of Washington in Seattle - but he monitored
Indus scholarship carefully, keeping tabs on the dozens of failed
attempts at making sense of the script.
SOURCE
MATERIAL
Indus script encodes language, reveals new study of
ancient symbols | April 23, 2009
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June 30, 2009 | Technology
Review
Sensors for
tracking home water use
Engineer
Shwetak Patel and his colleagues have developed a pressure sensor that
fits around a water pipe. The technology, called Hydrosense, can detect
leaks and trace them back to their source, and can recognize
characteristic pressure changes that indicate that a specific fixture or
appliance is in use.
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July 24, 2009 | NPR
Watch
your water
A new
device tracks water use throughout your home to help conserve
resources, reports Living on Earth’s Lisa Song. The device, Hydrosense,
was developed by engineer Shwetak Patel, who has created similar sensors
for electricity and gas usage.
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July 1, 2009 | KING
5 TV
UW
develops early detection for lung cancer
There
still is no early detection screening for lung cancer. As a result,
survivor rates remain low. But new technology developed by UW mechanical
engineer Eric Seibel and local company Visiongate has the potential to
catch lung cancer before it even develops.
RELATED
MATERIAL
Cancer diagnosis: Now in 3-D | Feb. 9, 2009
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July 8, 2009 | The
UW Daily
Taking the
weight off classes
Most
college students are used to the burden of lugging giant books around
campus in weighed-down backpacks.But next school year, approximately 150
UW students — 60 graduate students in CSE along with 90 MBA candidates
in the Technology Management program— will be spared those academic
payloads, through participation in the Kindle pilot program.
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July 10, 2009 | KUOW
radio
Replacing textbooks with
Kindles
About
150 University of Washington students are taking part in a program that
replaces their heavy textbooks with Amazon's electronic reading device.
The interview between computer scientist Ed Lazowska and KUOW's Ross
Reynolds begins at 4:30.
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July 16, 2009 | SeattlePI.com
Project
Trident: Microsoft's look ahead to science future
For
more than two years, Microsoft Research and oceanographers have worked
to develop Project Trident, which compiles, crunches and spits out
scientific data in ways that make research findings easy to share and
replicate. The Collaborative Ocean Visualization Environment (COVE),
developed by UW graduate student Keith Grochow, lets scientists
visualize their findings on a Google Maps-like atlas of the ocean floor.
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June 30, 2009 | Velo
News
Specialized's new time
trial bike for 2010
The
UW's wind tunnel was used to test cyclist Fabian Cancellara’s time-trial
bike, named "The Shiv." The Shiv’s development monopolized more than
100 wind tunnel hours, mostly at the University of Washington wind
tunnel and the A2 wind tunnel in North Carolina.
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July 17, 2009 | Puget
Sound Business Journal
South
Carolina might have allure for Boeing, but charms are limited
Landing
a Boeing assembly line would be a big achievement for North Charleston,
S.C. But poor public schools and no local research university are a
marked difference from the Puget Sound region, where schools are
generally stronger and there is a 93-year history of cross-fertilization
between Boeing and the UW’s engineering programs.
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July 22, 2009 | The
Everett Herald
Move
to S.C. would cost Boeing dearly
Boeing
has been good for our state. But remember, our state has been good to
Boeing, writes John Burbank, executive director of the Economic
Opportunity Institute, in an opinion piece. The University of
Washington’s engineering program produces a stream of smart and creative
people and ideas for Boeing.
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July 9, 2009 | Wired
The next
hacking frontier: Your brain?
Hackers
who commandeer your computer are bad enough. Now scientists worry that
someday, they’ll try to take over your brain. It's time to start paying
attention to the security aspects of neural devices now, before it's too
late, says computer scientist Yoshi Kohno.
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July 11, 2009 | The
New York Times (via the Associated Press)
Special
alloy sleeves urged to block hackers?
Government
officials recommend that Americans keep their e-passports tightly shut
and store their RFID-tagged passport cards and enhanced driver's
licenses in "radio-opaque" sleeves. A spokeswoman for the Washington
state Department of Licensing says the envelope her state offers with
the new enhanced driver's license "ensures that nothing can scan it at
all." But that wasn't what researchers from the University of Washington
and RSA Laboratories, a data security company in Bedford, Mass., found
last year while testing the data security of the cards.
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June 29, 2009 | New
Scientist
Building
a crash-proof Internet
A
series of catastrophic failures seems to suggest that the internet is
rather more vulnerable to accidents, earthquakes or misplaced ships'
anchors than people thought. So how can we make the net more resilient?
Computer scientist Tom Anderson is quoted.
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July 24, 2009 | Xconomy
UW
profs, tech execs talk next-generation graphics, imaging, and
interfaces for games
Four
professors from the UW’s department of computer science and engineering
recently presented their cutting-edge research to a private audience of
tech executives and investors active in the game industry in downtown
Seattle. Speakers were Yoky Matsuoka on robotics, Zoran Popovic on
computer animation for massively multiplayer games, Brian Curless on
human body- and face-shape modeling, and Steve Seitz on using digital
photos to create virtual worlds.
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June 29, 2009 | TechNewsWorld
Toyota wheelchair
guided by thought alone
Toyota
has developed a brain-machine interface that allows a person to steer a
wheelchair simply by thinking about which direction to go. Computer
scientist Rajesh Rao is quoted.
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July 1, 2009 | USA
Today
Students
design, build, race pedal-powered submarines
The
10th International Submarine Races drew 21 college and a few high school
teams from around the world to see whose 10- to 16-foot-long crafts
would impress the judges and win — for innovation, speed,
cost-effectiveness and best use of composite materials. "We've got some
great designs. It's just getting it done," says UW senior Rae Puntenney,
whose sub did not complete the course.
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July 20, 2009 | SeattlePI.com
P-I
archives: 6 ways Seattle was part of the moon landing
Exactly
40 years ago, astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were the first
humans to set foot on the surface of the moon. P-I coverage included an
article on the Universities Space Research Association, which created a
link between the UW and other educational institutions and the federal
government. Albert Babb, then chair of the UW's nuclear engineering
department and now emeritus in chemical engineering, was interviewed for
the 1969 article.
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If you have a newsworthy result about one month
from publication, presentation or demonstration, please contact Hannah
Hickey, hickeyh@uw.edu. Notice
of student and faculty awards and grants is also welcome.
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