Tag Archives: Technology

Flexing Fingers for Micro-Robotics: Berkeley Lab Scientists Create a Powerful, Microscale Actuator

By Guest PostDecember 18, 2012Scienceartificial muscles, beckoning finger, berkeley lab, chromium metal layer, chun cheng, electron, electronic behaviors, flex, human muscle cells, junqiao wu, kai liu, kevin wang, metal, microactuator, microfluidics, micron, microscale actuator, natural application, oxide material, phase transitions, phenomena, phillip m. duxbury, piezoelectric device, piezoelectric technology, ramamoorthy ramesh, subhendra d mahanti, Technology, temperature variation, university of california, vanadium dioxide, zhenting cheng

Berkeley, Calif., Dec. 2012 — Researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the University of California, Berkeley, have developed an elegant and powerful new microscale actuator that can flex like a tiny beckoning finger. Based on an oxide material that expands and contracts dramatically in response to a small temperature variation, the actuators are smaller than the width of a human hair and are promising for microfluidics, drug delivery, and artificial muscles.

“We believe our microactuator is more efficient and powerful than any current microscale actuation technology, including human muscle cells,” says Berkeley Lab and UC Berkeley scientist Junqiao Wu. “What’s more, it uses this very interesting material—vanadium dioxide—and tells us more about the fundamental materials science of phase transitions.” (more…)

NASA’s GRAIL Creates Most Accurate Moon Gravity Map

By Guest PostDecember 10, 2012Scienceapollo lunar missions, basin rings, bouguer gravity anomalies, cambridge, celestial body, crater central peaks, earth, ebb, flow, grail, gravity anomalies, gravity field, gravity field map, gravity gradients, gravity recovery, interior laboratory, jeff andrews hanna, linear gravity anomalies, maria zuber, mark wieczorek, massachusetts institute, mission, moon, moon basin, moon dike map, moon dikes, NASA, olivine materials map, probe, rocky planets, solar system, solar system history, Technology, tectonic structures, thin moon crust, volcanic landforms

PASADENA, Calif. — Twin NASA probes orbiting Earth’s moon have generated the highest resolution gravity field map of any celestial body.

The new map, created by the Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) mission, is allowing scientists to learn about the moon’s internal structure and composition in unprecedented detail. Data from the two washing machine-sized spacecraft also will provide a better understanding of how Earth and other rocky planets in the solar system formed and evolved.

The gravity field map reveals an abundance of features never before seen in detail, such as tectonic structures, volcanic landforms, basin rings, crater central peaks and numerous simple, bowl-shaped craters. Data also show the moon’s gravity field is unlike that of any terrestrial planet in our solar system. (more…)

Best Paper

By Guest PostNovember 30, 2012Scienceanthropomorphic, arm exoskeletons, automation, best student paper, cable driven exoskeletons, cable driven robots, carex, delaware, mechanical arm, neural rehabilitation, robotics, stroke, sunil k agrawal, Technology, university, ying mao

IEEE recognizes doctoral student’s robotics work with ‘Best Paper’ award

Ying Mao, a doctoral student studying mechanical engineering at the University of Delaware, earned the “Best Student Paper” award at the 2012 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation.

IEEE is the “world’s largest professional association for the advancement of technology.”

The paper, titled “Transition from Mechanical Arm to Human Arm with CAREX: a Cable Driven ARm EXoskeleton (CAREX) for Neural Rehabilitation,” was selected from among nearly 800 papers accepted to the conference. (more…)

IBM Opens Advanced Analytics Center in Columbus, Ohio

By Guest PostNovember 29, 2012Technologyadvanced analytics, analytics, analytics center, analytics solutions, big data, business analytics, christine a poon, cognitive computing, columbus, economic growth, ecosystem, gordon gee, greg allenby, ibm, ibm premier partner, ibm watson, jobsohio, john r kasich, mike rhodin, ohio, ohio state university, ron lovell, smarter planet, Technology, watson commercialization

New Center to Foster Economic Competitiveness in the U.S., Create 500 Jobs Aligned to New Markets for Watson, Smarter Commerce and Social Business Client

COLUMBUS, OHIO – 29 Nov 2012: IBM today announced it will establish a new analytics center in Columbus, Ohio, dedicated to advancing research, development, client services and skills training in the areas of analytics, big data and cognitive computing. The move aims to create 500 new analytics jobs and nurture economic development in the region over the next three years.

Ohio is home to 27 Fortune 500, and 57 Fortune 1,000 companies, as well as a burgeoning technology sector and leading academic institutions. The IBM Client Center for Advanced Analytics will offer a strong foundation for a broad public and private sector collaboration that will include The Ohio State University (Ohio State), JobsOhio, Columbus 2020, ICC, an IBM Premier Partner, and other Columbus-based businesses. (more…)

Microsoft and APHSA Survey Reveals Status of Health and Human Services IT Modernization Efforts and a Promising Future for Transformation

By Guest PostNovember 14, 2012Technologyaphsa, bipartisan, child welfare, factor, florida, Health, hhs transformation, human services, it system modernization, laura caliguiri, Microsoft, microsoft dynamics crm, survey, Technology, tracy wareing

States in need of best practices and flexible IT solutions that improve access, quality and efficiency in the financing and delivery of health and human services programs.

REDMOND, Wash., and WASHINGTON — Nov. 13, 2012 — The American Public Human Services Association (APHSA), in coordination with Microsoft Corp., today released the results of a new survey of health and human services departments and agencies nationwide. The report, “A Promising Future for HHS Transformation — The Real Impact of IT System Modernization,” includes survey findings that identify the expectations, strategies and practices that health and human services (HHS) agencies use for the planning, acquisition and implementation of their information technology (IT) systems.

APHSA and Microsoft surveyed 67 agency program leaders from 35 states at various stages of modernizing their HHS IT systems, from those who have implemented solutions for eligibility determination and benefit issuance, case management, and online self-service to those who had not yet modernized. The survey focuses on capturing the agencies’ experience with organizational transformation planning efforts, the agencies’ system life-cycle challenges, and the impact and benefits the agencies experienced from IT modernization. The results revealed that with dynamic executive leadership, due diligence and solid program management practices, departments are seeing incremental benefits expected of IT modernization, but a number of challenges remain. With those challenges, a bright path exists to achieve the desired business benefits for transformation through the promise of today’s technology. (more…)

Top 5 Advantages of Sixth Sense Technology

By Guest PostNovember 7, 2012Technologybrianne, browsing, camera, computer device, desktop computer, electronics industry, email, gesture, it, laptop, microsoft office, mirror, mobile, new dimension, playing game, pocket projector, sixth sense, suite, tablet, Technology, user guide

Sixth Sense Technology is made up of several parts like pocket projector, camera, and mirror. All these are connected together to one mobile computer device. The device made from Sixth Sense Technology is extremely portable and can be worn around the neck. There are several benefits of Sixth Sense Technology. Let’s have a look at the top 5.

Number 1:

Sixth Sense features a certain user guide that is extremely simple to use. There are several important gestures that people can easily learn without even going through rigorous tutorials. These gestures include taking a photo, or making a call over phone, or even trying to check out the time.To take a photo snap, the user need to simply make a hand gesture in the air that feels like a rectangle. With this simple gesture, the picture will get snapped. Yes, this is what Sixth Sense Technology is all about. The snapped picture will be stored carefully in the device’s memory card. User will always have direct access to the picture whenever he/she wants to edit it. The user can easily resize the image and carry out editing simply with the help of some finger motions over the projected screen. (more…)

Biofuels from Algae Hold Potential, but Not Ready for Prime Time

By Guest PostNovember 6, 2012Environmentalgae, algae biomass, algal biofuels, biofuel, biosystems, cycle, energy, energy security, engineering aspect, environmental engineering, environmentally sustainable, factor, gallons, joel cuello, nrc, potential, production, scaling up, Technology, transportation fuel, water source

UA biofuel expert Joel Cuello explains how future innovations could help realize algal biofuels’ full potential.

Scaling up the production of biofuels made from algae to meet at least 5 percent – about 10 billion gallons – of U.S. transportation fuel needs would place unsustainable demands on energy, water and nutrients, says a new report from the National Research Council, or NRC. However, these concerns are not a definitive barrier for future production, and innovations that would require research and development could help realize algal biofuels’ full potential.

“Algal biofuels are not quite ready for prime time,” said NRC committee member Joel Cuello, a professor in the UA department of agricultural and biosystems engineering who co-authored the report. “In other words, if scaled up today, the resources that have to go into production would not be sustainable. However, in our report we say that this not a show stopper, because there are technology combinations that can be designed and developed to make the production process more environmentally sustainable.” (more…)

Advancing the Digital Humanities

By Guest PostNovember 4, 2012Educationafrican american literature, arizona, aurasma application, bryan carter, cable television, culture, devices, digital format, digital humanities, internet, ipads, iphones, jeremy patrick gesuale, ken mcallister, mobile network, music, o2, online course, phone calls, smartphone, social media, surfing, Technology, telegraph, uk, university, voicethreads, web

Bryan Carter, a UA assistant professor of Africana studies, is among faculty members in the arts and humanities more readily employing consumer-based technologies in educational, creative, interdisciplinary and engaging ways.

Take a guess – what are the most common uses for devices like smartphones?

Earlier this year, the UK-based mobile network O2 reported that, on average, people use their smartphones to access the Internet, communicate via social media and listen to music. Other popular uses, as explained by an article in The Telegraph, include playing games and making phone calls. (more…)