The competition required student teams to design and create small, unmanned outdoor vehicles capable of negotiating obstacles and navigating with the use of GPS. Teams also were judged on their robot’s ability to understand and respond to a standardized messaging system called Joint Architecture for Unmanned Systems. A number of organizations, including the U.S. Army and the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International, sponsored the competition.

PAVE’s winning entry, Kratos, was named after a son of Zeus in Greek mythology. Featuring two cameras as “eyes” and a GPS navigational system, Kratos is able to “see” objects surrounding it and determine its position relative to those obstacles. Kratos can then choose the best path to follow in order to avoid collision or stay within defined lane boundaries.

Kratos won fourth place in the navigation portion of the IGVC, reaching seven GPS waypoints in a field filled with obstacles in just over three and a half minutes. The robot placed sixth in the lane-following and obstacle avoidance segment, traveling 223 feet on a course that at times required the robot to navigate around a center island in the path and even double back on itself. Videos from all three days of the competition are available on the PAVE website.

The Kratos technology was based on systems PAVE designed for Prospect 12, their entry in this year’s Urban Challenge competition of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. A disappointing finish at the Urban Challenge competition semifinals inspired nine members of the team to enter the IGVC.

“Technically, the hardest part of the IGVC for us was taking the technology from the Urban Challenge and changing the decision-making logic to help the robot see objects,” said Andrew Saxe ’08, who received regular text message updates from his teammates at the competition since his graduation from Princeton conflicted with the IGVC. Even after overcoming technical obstacles, the students had quite a long journey ahead of them — the 640 mile drive they made from Princeton to Michigan in a rental van large enough to accommodate Kratos.

The nine members of the team are “an extremely talented and motivated group of undergraduates,” said computer science professor Robert Schapire. “I am officially their advisor, but I can assure you that the project was entirely theirs from start to finish.”

The opportunity to take ownership of the robot design and creation was one of the most valuable aspects of the experience, Saxe said. “It teaches you to do all the ‘under the hood’ things. It is very different to learn about something in class and to implement it on a robot that has to work.”

His teammate Gordon Franken, a junior mechanical and aerospace engineering major, agreed.

“This competition highlights the difference between academic and professional knowledge, between the classroom and the real world,” Franken said. “We get to have the opportunity to develop real-world knowledge at the undergraduate level, as opposed to waiting for graduate school or getting into industry.”

PAVE, the University’s only student-run research team with its own laboratory space, will be seeking new members in the fall and hopes to enter next year’s IGVC.

Ever since the birth of the internet and the discovery of Google^®, the trip to the library seems ever too taxing if not out of the way in our extremely hectic lives. Despite the wealth of knowledge and plethora of books, we find the information from Wikipedia able to suffice our curiosity. Well, enough of making such hard choices, it’s time we take the best of both worlds and merge it together: introducing the Readius^®!

As the New York Times commented in a recent article, people these days like to read emails and articles on a large screen with ease, but at the same time, want these devices to fit in the palm of their hands. As the iPhone^® has accomplished this feat through touch features that increase the font size of letters, the Readius^® unfolds into a 5 inch screen that can accommodate about 22 lines of text!

Though primarily used to store books, texts, and other old-fashioned forms of information in its 8 GB memory, this intriguing device is naturally equipped with 3.5G HSPDA Tri band that allows for global wireless connectivity. Between downloading articles from HowStuffWorks.com and importing eTexts through its USB port, this little tech-toy allows up to thirty hours of usage before having to charge it. That’s plenty of time to catch up with a little light reading!

Equipped with a powerful processing engine for high speeds, this machine is already ahead of the game with little known competition in the market. Ultra light, weighing no more than 115 grams, this eReader is also built with Blue Tooth capabilities along with a headphone port for mp3 and other audio formats. The classic evening is thus all encased in this gadget- a quiet night next to the fireplace with a book to read and light music in the background.

But while this form of perfection seems somewhat good for the archetypal reader lets mention the state of the art technology that backs this device. The most unique feature is its ability to flex and roll- it can actually wrap around a finger! Unlike past flexible screens acting on a low resolution viewing, the Readius^® operates via a high resolution screen produced by a technology termed ‘active matrix’. The active matrix consists of, as the same NYT article explains, “transistors behind each pixel that can potentially provide fast switching and high performance”. This same high performance allows for 16 grayscale shades to accommodate for high picture quality; though while our world is in color, a prototype will be constructed that will adjust for websites and books in color, coming this May. These screens are just as clear as an LCD or plasma screen and yet are more durable than the typical Blackberry^® screen, having been tested with hammers.

The product is still not out in the market, but will be released to England, Italy and Germany this coming fall and to the United States next year. The projected price is a ballpark figure of $359 which rivals of course, the price of the iPhone^® and the Blackberry^®. The novel technology of flexible screens is a step toward a new technology market hoping to make companies like iSuppli Corporations, makers of these screens, a projected 2.8 billion dollars in the coming years.

While we still have some time until the Readius^® becomes a reality, we can still appreciate the circuitry involved to create high speeds in turning pages of eTexts and switching between book and music. The ability to still have Google^® at your fingertips, of course, will be an asset that cannot be ignored. The deathly combination of internet and a library all in one place and all mobile makes it the ideal device for the well read person always on the go!

For more information please visit www.readius.com and the New York Times at http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/06/technology/06novelties.html?_r=1&ref=technology&oref=slogin

     As Jerry tries to prepare his morning breakfast before he leaves, he opens the refrigerator to find the label on the milk carton flashing, signaling that it has expired. He sits eating his milk-less breakfast, watching the character on his cereal box wave to him, and decides to check the morning news.  Jerry unfolds his newspaper, a large transparent display folded into quarters much like an old-fashioned paper newspaper. The morning news streams across the display, and an article catches his interest. He taps the headline and the article quickly expands to full size. Five minutes later, it’s time to go, so he quickly powers down the display and folds it back up, tossing it casually into his briefcase.

     As Jerry is driving to work, a small message pops up in his windshield-display, warning him about a traffic jam and offering a possible alternate route. Jerry accepts, and his gps reroutes him by changing the lit path he is following on his windshield. Jerry follows the route suggested by the map and successfully avoids the traffic jam arriving to work on time.  At work, Jerry goes into his office and turns on his desk displays.  His virtual inbox is full, but it’s time for a meeting, so with a flick of his wrist he slides his mail program aside onto a wall display to deal with later.  During a meeting, Jerry finds his attention wandering, so he takes out a pen and unravels a transparent display from the side of it, and checks his e-mail under the pretense of taking a few notes.

     Later that day, when work is finally over and Jerry heads home.  Upon arrival, he goes to his living room, and taps a panel on the wall, turning the living room windows opaque once again so he can enjoy a movie on his TV wall.

So what’s all this? A work of science fiction, a flight of fancy? Not quite. All the technological wonders utilized by Jerry are within the realm of possibility. The key? OLEDs.

What’s an OLED?                                                                       
OLED stands for organic light emitting diodes. A diode is a solid state device, which is simple a piece of hardware that contains no moving parts and is largely made up of circuitry. A diode is a semi-conductor device that only allows electricity to flow in one direction. Thus, as the name OLED implies, OLEDs are diodes that utilize a thin film of organic molecules to create light. The intensity of the light depends on the amount of electricity supplied, and the color of the light depends on the type of organic molecule used in the film.

OLEDs and Displays
The most publicized application of OLED technology is in displays. OLED displays have many advantages over LCD displays. The displays have higher contrast, lower power consumption (up to 40% right now), and, when the manufacturing technology has been fully developed, will be easier to produce than LCD displays. Using OLEDs in displays will enable the production of thinner and even flexible displays in the near future.

Thin Displays
Unlike LCD displays, OLED displays do not need a backlight, which is why they can be made much thinner. Thin OLED displays in production today are small compared to the LCD displays available. When OLED display technology becomes mature and cost-effective, it will not be difficult to imagine a home where walls can be used as interactive displays.

As 255 Madison students and community members thundered down the Lakeshore Path on the first warm Saturday morning in April, they dodged muddy puddles and happy pedestrians out for a weekend walk along Lake Mendota.

The runners’ motivation? A worthy cause, and several hundred slices of pie waiting at the finish line.

April 5, 2008, was the 8th annual Pi Mile Run, hosted by the University of Wisconsin-Madison chapter of Tau Beta Pi, an engineering honor society. This year boasted double the attendance of last year’s event, with participants running in either a 5K (3.14 miles) or 10K race.

All race proceeds go toward a clean water project in El Salvador.

Mechanical engineering student Ted Durkee, who coordinated the 2007 run, connected the honor society with the El Salvador project. Two summers ago, Durkee traveled to El Salvador to work with ENLACE, a non-profit organization that develops sustainable initiatives in El Salvador.

Currently, families in the communities of Las Delicias, Las Animas and El Rosario spend a third of their meager income trucking in water—yet, the water comes from one of the most polluted rivers in El Salvador.

During his stay in El Salvador, Durkee learned that community residents have been trying to get clean water for more than 50 years. The three communities, which combined have a population of 6,100, now are working together on their attempts to build a well water system. They finally developed formal plans in 2002.

Although the communities have the will to implement the project and ENLACE provides organizational support, they lack the finances to get the wells and pipes in place.

Biomedical engineering student Jessica Hause organized the 2008 Pi Mile Run, with help from Durkee and biomedical engineering student Sarah Steenblock. As in 2007, they again chose the Las Delicias water project as the charity to benefit from race sponsors and registration fees. “We volunteered for this because we were really excited about the opportunity to organize a community event and help fulfill a need that will directly change people’s lives,” Durkee says.

The strong turnout means Tau Beta Pi will donate about $4,000—an amount that will make a significant difference. Every $20 equals 8 feet of pipe for the well system, according to Hause.

A variety of sponsors, including URS Washington Division; Graef, Anhalt, Schloemer and Associates Inc.; Polygon Engineering Council; Saris Cycling Group; Rudolph & Sletten Inc; Underground Printing; Fontana Sports; Montgomery Associates; and Hey and Associates Inc., also helped make the Pi Mile Run a success, says Durkee.

“We were really excited and pleasantly surprised by the generosity of our sponsors this year. That definitely had a tremendous effect on the event and enabled us to make a much bigger impact on our chosen charity,” he says.

The event drew participants at a variety of running levels. Sam Keepman, a UW-Madison sophomore, was the top male winner of the 5K at a time of 18:05. A member of the UW-Madison track team, Keepman says he participated in the race because it benefited charity and was conveniently located. “It’s my first time running this race,” he says. “I didn’t think it would be this big.”

Two other race participants were also first-time Pi Mile runners. Jessica, age 8, and Jocelyn, age 5, traveled from Fredonia, Wisconsin, to tackle the 5K along with their mother, who frequently runs races. “This is the first race they’ve run without strollers,” she says.

Jessica was all smiles about her successful day. Jocelyn was a bit tired.

Kae Yoshikawa was the top 5K female runner with a time of 22:43. Chris Dresser was the top 10K male runner at 34:28 and Jaime Kulbel was the top 10K female at 44:57.

However, current technology can give residents only a few tens of seconds of warning that an earthquake is about to strike.

More than 6,000 miles away from Tokyo, University of Wisconsin-Madison engineering students are discussing technologies for better prediction systems—and how engineers from different disciplines could collaborate to find a solution.

The Tokyo case study is only one example of the humanitarian applications of engineering that students are investigating in the inaugural semester of the course, Introduction to Society’s Engineering Grand Challenges.

Based on challenges outlined by the National Academy of Engineering (NAE), the UW-Madison class aims to inspire students to become engineers to improve the quality of life around the world. This semester, 98 first-year students are tackling five themes that encompass a variety of challenges facing society today.

Susan C. Hagness

Donald C. Woolston

Susan Hagness, a professor in electrical and computer engineering, conceived of the course as a way to show students the bigger picture of what engineers do for society. “The course is a combination of the NAE project and an inclination I’ve had for awhile that there are students out there who would make wonderful engineers who need to know more about the important impact engineering has in the world,” says Hagness. “It’s not about making cool high-tech gadgets. It’s more than that.”

The course reaches out to students early in their engineering education because studies suggest that students who see the role of engineering in society are more likely to stay with the field, Hagness says.

Mike Lucas is one of the first-year students in Grand Challenges. Lucas says he entered UW-Madison confident he would be an engineer, but partway through the first semester of classes, he was unsure he wanted to continue. “I was just not exposed to much engineering,” he says.

His adviser, College of Engineering Assistant Dean for Engineering General Resources Donald Woolston, encouraged Lucas to try the Grand Challenges course.

The class helped. “It gives you a good idea of what engineers do and the specifics of what the different disciplines do,” Lucas says. He says studying engineering now feels like a concrete decision and plans to pursue a degree in engineering mechanics.

The course also makes an effort to reach out to women—and nearly a quarter of the enrolled students are female. Samantha Kamin is one of them. A first-year student, Kamin was interested in engineering before taking the course, but Grand Challenges helped her pinpoint biomedical engineering as the discipline she plans to study.

The course structure offers students a taste of different engineering disciplines while enabling them to examine broad engineering issues, says Hagness. “Instead of structuring the themes based on specific NAE grand challenges, we came up with societal themes based on scale, starting with engineering challenges at the personal level and getting larger and larger,” she says.

Course sections rely on a team of faculty members who each present a theme and case studies to students, who work with two of the themes over the course of the semester.

Nicola J. Ferrier

Katherine (Trina) McMahon

Jeffrey S. Russell

Mechanical Engineering Professor Nicola Ferrier teaches students about engineering challenges that impact individuals, such as privacy, biometrics, rehabilitation engineering and assistive technologies. Civil and Environmental Engineering Assistant Professor Trina McMahon and Professor Jeffrey Russell discuss sustainable engineering solutions for challenges facing the developing world, including clean water, housing and health care.

Hagness teaches the third theme, which is engineering for the “megacity” and tackles challenges such as pollution, transportation, security, energy, and natural disasters in cities with populations above 10 million; Chemical and Biological Engineering Professor Daniel Klingenberg at global engineering challenges focused on environmental issues like climate change and conservation.

And finally, Biomedical Engineering Assistant Professor Kristyn Masters expands the course horizons beyond Earth to investigate space travel, inhabiting space and deflecting near-Earth objects like asteroids.

Daniel J. Klingenberg

Kristyn S. Masters

Within each course section, students work in teams to develop oral and poster presentations. In the “megacity” group, for example, current projects include underground high-speed transportation to reduce congestion in cities and turning megacities into self-sufficient “eco-cities.”

“This course helped me decide to get the additional Technical Communication Certificate (in engineering) because it helped me realize that I really enjoy the presentation and communication aspect of this field,” says first-year student Kamin.

Class activities also challenge students to consider more than just technical issues when developing solutions to engineering problems. “Engineering is fundamentally a design process with both technical and nontechnical constraints,” says Hagness. “We’re trying to emphasize the importance of a broad perspective: Engineering solutions are influenced by political, environmental, ethical, legal and social constraints.”

“That perspective will help students in all of their future coursework here as well as wherever their career takes them.”

The course is funded by the College of Engineering 2010 Initiative, which seeks to increase cross-disciplinary research and education on campus to respond to changes in the engineering field, such as technological advancements and global competition.

“The long-term vision is to expand the offering of this course to students from all over campus,” says Hagness. “Having a more diverse environment in the classroom would help the engineering students because ultimately, they are going to be working on technologies that have to be embraced by the public.”

That message resonates with Kamin. “The most valuable thing I learned in this course is that the communication of information is just as important as obtaining that information in the first place,” she says.

“Without being able to communicate your research or the effect it will have on society, it is impossible to get people excited about your work.”

Please bear with me/us as I transition into the “real world” and we figure out the future of Technizzel.

Check back soon for even cooler engineering feats!

- Ben

Today is May 1, 2008. This is the Global Warming Era. Thanks to Al Gore, everyone seems to be familiar with the pressing issue of Global Warming and Carbon Dioxide (CO2) emissions, but in case you haven’t, allow me to recap.

Globally, we emit nearly 8 Billion tons of CO2 per year, a number that, until recent years, had been growing at about 1.5% annually. This staggering amount of CO2 has had numerous detrimental effects on our environment and rumors of legislation taxing CO2 emitting plants have never been stronger.

This sort of legislation exists in European countries like Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden, yet on average, CO2 emissions in those countries has remained on the rise. Yes, despite these governments slapping businesses with millions and millions in taxes, they have continued emitting even more CO2 than ever before. Crazy? Not exactly.

As we all know, the threat of receiving a parking ticket will have little effect long term if no other parking alternative is provided (Think - college campuses). In a sense, this parking ticket example is a microcosm of the overarching CO2 tax issue. Despite the officials who believe that simply taxing CO2 emitters here in the USA will reduce annual emissions, we should look to our European friends as an example.

The cement manufacturing industry accounts for nearly 10% of the world’s CO2 emissions. Consider Markus Akermann, CEO of Holcim, one of the world’s largest cement suppliers. As CEO, Akermann has two choices. He can spend millions upon millions of dollars to set up an internal research and development team whose sole focus would be to alter their existing cement production process to rid CO2 emissions. Alternatively, he can continue supplying cement and accept a few million dollar decrease in revenue due to the proposed carbon tax. Considering an internal R&D team may amount to no process improvements with regards to CO2, which would you choose?

Until technologies for permanently sequestering CO2 become readily available, the government should spend its time investing in potential technologies rather than implementing a money-making carbon tax. Simply put, this resembles the ever old argument of which came first, the chicken or the egg. Without alternatives, CO2 emitters will not invest their own money into ddevloping cleaner technologies. And, without taxing companies, the government lacks the funds to invest in research. Essentially, this has resulted in a stand still, preventing any major improvements on the most important issue of our time: Global Warming.

By: Patryk Garlinski, Ben Jabbawy, Matt Gleason, and Yeounoh Chung

Imagine a world where instead of paying $40 or more to fill up your car with gas just to make it through the week, you could plug your car in overnight, get thousands of miles out of a full charge, and even help free the world from its heavy dependence on oil. Best of all, you could do it for less than what you’re paying to fill up your tank now. We’ve all thought about such a car, but how far are we from this ideal world?

Recently the answer to this question has started to take shape in the form of the Automotive X Prize (AXP). This competition, offered by the X Prize Foundation, challenges teams to design and build 100+ mile-per-gallon vehicles that could eventually be sold to the public. By organizing this competition, the X Prize Foundation says they hope “to inspire a new generation of viable, super-efficient vehicles that help break our addiction to oil and stem the effects of climate change.” Teams worldwide will compete to win the multi-million dollar prize and show that their vehicle has what it takes to become the future of the automotive industry. In order to qualify for the competition, teams will have to construct vehicles that meet the 100 mile-per-gallon mark and also must pass strict emissions and safety guidelines. In addition, each team must present a viable business plan for producing and selling their vehicle. Of the teams that meet these requirements, the winner will be determined by a series of race stages set to be held in 2010.

So far, over 50 teams have officially joined the competition. Though many of the ideas being developed are quite diverse, with competitors trying everything from super-efficient traditional engines to revolutionary hydraulics and air powered motors, the most popular source of energy for this competition is clearly electricity. Tesla Motors, a young, privately funded car company, has already proven that a purely electric vehicle is commercially viable with the release of their Roadster this past year. This environmentally friendly sports car reportedly gets 120 miles per gallon when using an electricity/gasoline equivalent conversion. However, the Roadster does not meet the emissions guidelines set forth by the X prize competition, which is why Tesla plans to enter a new model that will be more moderately priced and geared toward the mainstream auto market. Another California based company, Aptera Motors, has developed both electric and hybrid electric versions of their vehicle prototype, the Typ-1. The earliest two-seat model achieved a whopping 230 miles per gallon, well beyond today’s standards. Not only does the Typ-1 drive like a car of the future, it has the strikingly futuristic looks to go with it.

Building a Better Battery

While these examples may make it seem like the goal of the AXP competition has already been met, and with relative ease, pure efficiency is not the whole story. The greatest optimization challenges for developers of electric vehicles have been and will continue to be driving range and refueling time. When trying to improve vehicle efficiency, excess weight is usually one of the first things to go. In a vehicle powered by electricity, energy is typically stored in batteries, which tend to be very heavy and take up lots of space. Historically, small, light vehicles just don’t have the battery capacity necessary to travel long distances. Another problem lies in the time it takes to charge the batteries in an electric car. The most advanced batteries widely sold up until now take several hours to charge. Compare this with the several minutes it takes to fill up at a gas pump and it is easy to see the problem.

It is for this reason the automotive industry is shining a major spotlight on battery innovation as a segway into a new era of hybrid and electric cars. Thanks to many researchers and innovators, batteries are finally breaking new ground in meeting the demanding requirements of the automobile industry.

Dr. Cui, a researcher at Stanford University has found a way to inject silicon nanowires into lithium-ion batteries to improve their performance. This revolutionary technology expands on the energy storage of current lithium-ion batteries, increasing their capacity by up to 10 times; the nanowires prevent silicon placed in the battery from degrading over repeated charge/discharge cycles. Imagine a 120 MPG electric vehicle such as the Tesla Roadster coming out in 2008, packed with 6,800 Lithium-ion batteries. With Dr. Cui’s “revolutionary” nanowire-batteries, the Roadster could cruise the same distance while carrying only a tenth the number of batteries, reducing the weight of the car by 800 lbs! This would in turn help improve performance and increase fuel efficiency even further. However, instead of going for extreme weight reduction of the vehicle, a more likely route would be to increase the vehicle’s total driving range for practicality, giving consumers a blend of long driving range and weight reduction.

The prospects for the battery innovation sound tremendous, but it has yet to prove its ground in some aspects. One area of skepticism lies in the predicted lifespan of the battery. In an interview with Dr. Yi Cui from GM-VOLT.com, he stated that he is currently doing tests to see if his batteries will meet a target of 1000 cycles (better than most li-ion cells) without substantial depreciation, and that he expects to have results in the next couple of months. The implications of this kind of study are very important. So far, the only published results show that the batteries hold up very well when cycled 30 times. To bring this into perspective, the Tesla roadster has an estimated range of about 220 miles. With a range extension of 10 times, the carbon nanowire battery could bring this range up to 2200 miles on one charge. A thousand cycle lifespan would mean that the car’s battery would be able to take the car 2.2 million miles without needing to be replaced, and that’s quite a bit.

But what about charging the whole battery pack, which holds as much electricity as 6800 standard lithium-ion batteries do? If a laptop with 12 lithium-ion battery cells takes about 2 hours to fully charge, then could fully charging an electric vehicle with 6800 cells take as long as 13,600 hours?! Well, you would not be relying on a regular home appliance adaptor (100 – 240 V, 1.5 Amps) to charge such battery. For commercial electric vehicles that are available in the very near future, the average charging time, given a special charging station that runs on 70 Amps of current at 100 – 240 V, projects to be about 3.5 hours, which is not terrible, but not great either. Fortunately, MIT researchers are coming up with a better solution to the problem. By inserting a layer of metal (manganese and nickel) separated from the lithium by oxygen and organizing the crystalline structure of the material, the flow of lithium-ions within the battery can increase up to 10 times faster than that of an unmodified battery. Another positive aspect of this improvement is that by using manganese and nickel rather than currently accepted cobalt in lithium-ion cells, the cost of production can be much cheaper and the capacity of the battery can be much higher. ^*1*

A Competitive Edge

So how much of an impact will this new battery technology have on the teams competing for the X Prize? Looking at the vehicles engineered by Tesla and Aptera, they are only able to cover 220 and 120 miles per charge respectively, before needing to charge for several hours. While this is not terrible, limitations of this kind may cause many consumers to doubt the utility of such a vehicle. It is this perspective that has encouraged many teams to pursue some form of hybrid electric vehicle. The inclusion of an engine running on liquid fuel provides the advantage of quick refueling during long periods of driving. At the same time, if the ability to plug the vehicle in and recharge off the grid exists, shorter trips may be completed on only electric power. This is the strategy of several teams, including a team from Cornell University, the first student team to register for the contest. Cornell AXP is working on designing a super-efficient plug in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) that will focus on utilizing electrical power as much as possible. While using a standard battery pack will necessitate a considerable reliance on the engine to power the vehicle, the Cornell team plans to use the best batteries they can get their hands on. If Dr. Cui’s research turns out to be as promising as it sounds, a nanowire battery pack could prove invaluable to teams taking this approach.

Looking Ahead

While many teams will likely be able to achieve the necessary efficiency, performance could be a more significant issue. Though the specifics of the race stages of the contest have not been officially announced, it is likely that a variety of driving scenarios will be required in the competition. Slower driving over short distances, consistent with urban driving, might not put much separation between competitors. Rather, it is the longer “highway” courses that may decide the outcome. Any team employing electricity as a main source of energy will need every bit of help possible to extend the driving range of their vehicles. This is why the development of new lithium-ion batteries with ten times the capacity of their predecessors offers such an advantage for both AXP, and the industry as a whole.

However, the new battery technology does raise some concerns. One issue that will arise if a move to electric vehicles occurs is where all needed electricity to charge them will come from. Just plugging into the grid means you will be using electricity produced mainly by burning fossil fuels. So, might a decrease in vehicles powered by gas or other fuels just mean an increase in power plants and a continued dependence on fossil fuels? As Cornell AXP’s team leader Terence Davidovits points out, not quite: “Electric cars are more efficient and would likely result in a reduction in CO2 emissions, even taking into account the fact that we burn fossil fuels to supply electricity. We also then have a vehicle fleet in place that can then be charged with sources like wind, solar or nuclear, that do not require the consumption of fossil fuels.” This concern with where the power will come from will undoubtedly be important to eco-friendly car buyers.

In fact, a lot of people are talking about solar power these days. You might have heard about how entire communities out in California are buying up solar cells to power up their homes and don’t have to pay any more energy bills. If they get more solar energy for a given month than they need, the power companies are forced to buy off the excess energy. The main issue is that in order to implement this technology, these families are also spending over fifty thousand dollars on some of the larger installations to power their houses. So, how much would it cost to power your car with one of these solar cells?

Rising car companies like Tesla Motors plan on co-marketing sustainable energy products from other companies along with the car. They claim such a solar panel to be modestly sized and priced, and that the system can generate about 50 miles per day of electricity. That adds up to 350 miles a week, which is a great starting point considering most people drive an average of 230 miles per week, yet this will still leave a lot of people short. The more important solar panel detail is that it will cost an estimated five to six thousand dollars to purchase. While the prospects of everyday individuals helping the world go green by buying up solar cells to reduce their carbon emissions sounds great, it is just not economical for everyone. It is even inefficient for those who have little access to sun exposure. It is expected that most people will not want to make that kind of investment. This again brings us to the topic of fossil fuels. Now instead of the original intent of having a zero emission vehicle, because most Americans get over 50% of their electricity from coal burning, we’re back to the predicament that burning fossil fuels is just downright cheaper than the alternatives.

Like all automotive innovations, one has to wonder whether these concepts will actually become a reality. Are these new batteries economically viable options for automobiles or are they the work of science fiction? In the GM-Volt interview with Dr. Cui, he addresses the following concerns and shares his thoughts on where these batteries are headed in the near future. Since cost is so relevant to developing batteries for cars, are silicon nanowires more expensive? Furthermore, would they increase the cost of the cells?

“Silicon is the second most abundant element in the world. For battery applications it doesn’t have to be high purity silicon. Unlike silicon solar cells which require high purity. The silicon industry is also big, people know everything about silicon. The infrastructure is there, the supply source is there. With the excitement of use of silicon for batteries, the cost will be reduced dramatically.”
What timeline do you think it would take before your technology could be incorporated into a commercial product?
“I am working on it. As a rough timeline, I would say perhaps 5 years.”

Dr. Cui has mentioned the possibility of starting his own company to develop these batteries, but is also thinking of working with an existing battery company. Five years just seems like too long to wait for this type of technology advancement. Cui needs to start thinking about some serious growth. With the AXP competition set to begin in 2010, we can only hope that the innovations springing from the challenge will aid in minimizing the time in attaining such batteries. The consumer basis for these batteries is practically limitless, and no one wants to wait around for new technology. High demand is going to push mass production to come soon. Be ready.

_{*1* Nickel: 8$/lb, Cobalt: 15$/lb, Manganese: 1$/lb, from 2007 Material database by Granta Design Limited.}

Many technological advances are inundating the military market. Among perhaps tougher Kevlar and new rifles, is the Sarcos^® Exoskeleton: a revolutionizing robot that complements the human body to attend to the most inhuman tasks possible. While some may imagine that lifting two hundred pounds is a struggle, this machine trivializes this very task, as a CNN video highlights the easiness and lack of human strength needed to operate the robot. With plans to become bulletproof, the exoskeleton can help a single man load a nuclear missile precisely and delicately enough to still play a game of catch- so what exactly is this military epiphany?

For the last fifteen years, as the Sarcos^® website indicates, this company has been a leader in the research and development aspects of industries relating to robotics, medical devices, and mechanical and electrical Microsystems. By targeting the focus of the company to couple two diametric perspectives of biology and engineering, the company has given birth to many inventions that add human dexterity to nonhuman elements. Much of the research conducted through the company is centered on the development of silicon-based micro-sensors and electronic servo actuation systems. Silicon-based micro-sensors primarily “measure machine operational characteristics such as rotary movement, strain, load, acceleration, position, pressure, vibration, sound, and flow”. While acknowledging a variety of characteristics relative to robotic systems on a micro scale, these sensors can take the information gathered and apply it to products in the automotive, medical and aerospace industries especially. In combination with the development of such sensors, is the creation of Human/Computer interfaces that allow “an individual to be visually and mechanically immersed within a computer-generated synthetic environment”. The interfaces are further divided into four groups that target a different aspect of a machine, or robot in this situation, including: “(1) mobility portals (MPs), (2) Sensuit command systems (SCSs), (3) graphic workstation interfaces (GWIs), and (4) dexterity masters (DMs)”. Altogether, the interfaces and microsensors allow for the robot to operate to the whim of the human as well as the human to control the robot in extreme situations throughout acute expertise of proprietary actuation, sensor, and control technologies.

Important aspects as mentioned above, are the micro-sensors and actuators used to direct the robots. One such microsensor is the Rotary Displacement Transducer, in which through “emitter and detector disks, housing elements, and a sealed input shaft, the chips interact electrostatically to measure relative position with absolute rotary resolutions”. In general most sensors produced, specifically those of Sarcos^®, address intelligence of “multiplexing, signal processing, and self-calibration as well as measurement of rotation, linear strain, and multi-axis strain” in regards to the robot.

The Human/Computer interfaces are also vital to the movement, function, and appearance of the robot that allow for its marketability and success. In general HCIs allow for the movement of the robot to be lightweight and of low resistance especially through the many degrees of freedoms providing for a myriad of joint angles. Through both wired and wireless communication between the computer and the interface, the HCIs allow for local kinematic transformations and control. Mentioned above were a few types of interfaces designed for specific purposes in regards to the robot, including MPs, SCSs, and GWIs. MPs are primarily responsible for natural movement in a synthetic environment and allow for real-time decision making in terms of speed, direction, exertion, and posture. SCS are utilized for direct and interactive real-time measurements of the operator’s body, in which certain signals conducted can control the robot in extreme situations. GWIs, lastly, are small intelligent interfaces that control through microsensors the real-time yet natural command of the many robotic movements.

As the potential consumer for such an idea would be the government and the potential purpose would be for the protection and support of the soldiers, it is grateful that the product is highly reliable yet low cost for such high performance. Since the suit can be controlled either through a remote operator wearing a SenSuit or through a computer controlled preprogrammed show, one can imagine the amount of background engineering and aesthetic design used to implement such a machine. Much of the robot is managed by advanced CAD systems called Pro/Engineer and Alpha-One which manage interfaces handling animation and analysis and allow for real-time movement unlike many robots throughout the world.

This up and coming company has been capturing the eye of the technological world since the early 90s, and with the future of the military in its hands, we have only to wait for what else is in store in the robotic community. Through the thorough research and development of the micro-sensors and interfaces, this robot is ready to stand by every soldier- helping each man and woman run faster, work harder, and yet not sweat a drop. As politics highlight the weakening of the United States military with a vast dispersal of military forces throughout the world, perhaps Sarcos^® has provided a hopeful remedy!

Read more from http://www.sarcos.com/

The Wisconsin students were paired with 22 UCT students and stayed on the UCT campus. Though UW-Madison has hosted LeaderShape for more than a decade, this is the first time the program has been held in Africa, and it’s the first time American students have gone overseas to participate.

Early New Year’s Day, the UW-Madison students flew more than 20 hours to Cape Town. They spent the first few days adjusting to a time zone eight hours ahead of Wisconsin. In keeping with advice from UCT chemical engineering associate professor Duncan Fraser, the students used exercise and sunshine to beat the jet-lag. They explored downtown Cape Town, climbed Table Mountain and toured the Cape Peninsula, which is home to overly curious baboons and penguins content to merely sway in the wind.

On Day 6 (Sunday, January 6) of the trip, the UCT students arrived for LeaderShape, a six-day program focused on developing leadership qualities and identifying personal visions for changing the world. This year’s cross-cultural session was “the most intense LeaderShape I’ve seen,” says co-lead facilitator and UW-Madison alum Kristin Skarie.

The UCT students hailed from many African, Asian and European countries, as well as a variety of racial and class backgrounds. Their variety of perspectives, combined with those of the UW-Madison students, led to conversations that found a deep level of authenticity, says LeaderShape co-lead facilitator Jamie Washington. Immediately, the UW-Madison and UTC students bonded. “We have come together perfectly,” says Joey Laspe, a UW-Madison nuclear engineering student.

Abbott Laboratories and a private contributor, Gary Wendt, sponsored the trip. Students had an opportunity to meet and thank Wendt when he visited Cape Town during LeaderShape (January 6 to 12). Wendt and College of Engineering Dean Paul Peercy spoke to students about what it takes to be an effective leader. Vision and character are the two qualities central to leadership, according to Peercy. For Wendt, every vision needs to be grounded in reality and every leader needs to be persuasive enough to get people to believe in an idea.

Wendt’s own vision led him to support the trip. “We are no longer citizens of Madison or Cape Town, but citizens of the world,” he says. “Why I’m excited about being involved in this is it’s an opportunity to get engineers out of a relatively closed environment and into another environment. Being in another country is an interesting chance to learn.”

Both UW-Madison and UCT students found the LeaderShape program valuable. “I learned so much more about myself in five days than I have learned in years,” says Lesego Mosime, a construction studies student at UCT. “It was a beautiful experience for me.”

During the final week of the trip (January 13 to 18), the group had to put their teamwork and motivation skills to the test. The students worked at the Edith Stephens Wetland Park, a small preserve set in the middle of five poor townships on the outskirts of Cape Town. The pond at the park has been choked off by water hyacinth, and students spent four laborious days tossing the weed into tall piles along the banks, as well as helping with other small maintenance projects around the preserve. “The next time I see a water hyacinth, which may be in my dad’s fish pond, I’m going to throw it over the fence,” says Craig MacKenzie, a UW-Madison civil engineering student.

The hot, sweaty, mucky, nasty work—as facilitator and UW-Madison educational policy studies doctoral student JP Leary describes the project—was important to the park. With six dedicated staff members and no real funding, the park scratches out an existence in the barren Cape Flats region.

The pond is critical for the poverty-stricken communities at its borders. Winter in Cape Town means rain, and the pond keeps the water from flooding the townships. The invasive water hyacinth makes it harder for rain to run into the pond; students could envision the damage waist-high water might inflict on the tiny homes after they toured one community, Philippi, the day (January 13) before the project.

The pond offers relief from the gray, dusty landscape of the Cape Flats, as well as a home to many bird and wildlife species that risk losing their breeding spots as the hyacinth ruins the wetland ecosystem. Denis Kow Son Wong, a UCT computer and electrical engineering student, wants to continue the project by educating township kids about the value the pond has for their communities and their wildlife. “If we don’t teach them or educate them on what we did—in this case, taking out the hyacinths and maybe bringing new hope to the wildlife—inevitably the place will end up as it was before, as if we didn’t make any difference at all,” says Wong. “They’d be walking blind past this pond.”

Throughout the project, the students encouraged each other and stayed enthusiastic about working in weather that alternated between blistering hot or chilly, windy and rainy. “These very different student groups came quickly together as one and it’s very gratifying to see that spirit of collaboration make it all the way through to the end,” says Adrienne Thunder, a LeaderShape facilitator and senior advisor in the UW-Madison College of Letters and Science. “The students have been excellent representatives of both institutions.”

All too soon, January 18 arrived and the UW-Madison students packed and departed South Africa for the long flight home. However, the experience has left students from both sides of the Atlantic with strong cross-cultural relationships. “During LeaderShape, people wanted to get along, and it was easy to trust each other and talk openly,” says Ahmed Akhalwaya, a UCT computer engineering student.

Andrew Elizondo, a UW-Madison engineering mechanics and astronautics student, agrees that the Madison and UCT students got very close in a short amount of time. “I see us still cracking jokes a year from now,” he says. “It’s not really over.”