Featured News - Monday, January 25, 2010 14:14 - 0 Comments
Iowa State, Ames Lab engineer works to develop better batteries for energy alternatives
Get Steve Martin going on the science and technology of batteries and he’ll reach for a sheet of graph paper.
Martin, an Anson Marston Distinguished Professor in Engineering in Iowa State University’s Department of Materials Science and Engineering and an associate of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory, will fill that sheet with the chemical formulas of various lithium compounds and materials. He’ll add a few sketches of carbon atoms forming layers of hexagons. He’ll even jot down some lithium-silicon formulas.
It’s his way of explaining the electrochemical reactions that make batteries work and how new materials could be used to make better, safer batteries. And that’s something that could make a big difference for all of us as the world pursues alternatives to fossil fuels.
Featured News
Students rock Howe Hall at Iowa FIRST LEGO League Championship
On Saturday, January 16, 72 teams of 9- to 14-year-olds from all over Iowa competed in the FIRST LEGO League Championship in Howe Hall on the Iowa State campus. This year’s theme was “Smart Move” and involved two equally weighted components—a robot that maneuvered a course as well as a research project presented to a panel of judges. Teamwork and professionalism also were important aspects of the competition.
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BodyViz co-founder to speak at ISU Pappajohn Center Entrepreneur Forum on February 12
Using an Xbox 360 game controller to travel through a patient’s body in order to plan for surgery may sound like pure science fiction, but it’s now a reality through technology created by an Ames startup company, BodyViz.com . And the co-founder of that company, Eliot Winer — an Iowa State University associate professor of mechanical engineering — will discuss what it took to develop that software when he speaks at an ISU Pappajohn Center Entrepreneurship Forum on Friday, Feb 12.
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ECpE robot is learning to learn
Alexander Stoytchev, an assistant professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and his research group are teaching a robot to learn in the same way a two-year-old does. Read the story from the Robotics Technology Center here–and be sure to watch the video when Josh Zepps and Brink came to visit the Developmental Robotics Laboratory.
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