Contacts: Bong Wie, Aerospace Engineering, bongwie@iastate.edu William Byrd, Iowa Space Grant Consortium, 515 294-3106, wbyrd@iastate.edu Mary Jo Glanville, Engineering Communications and Marketing, 515 294-8787, mglanvil@iastate.edu Ames, Iowa—The Iowa State University Asteroid Deflection Research Center (ADRC), established in April 2008, has won its first research contract to study and develop technologies to mitigate the threat posed …Continue reading “Iowa State research center wins grant to study asteroid deflection”
Atul Kelkar, ME, and Jerald Vogel, AerE, who are co-founders of Innovation Vibration Solutions (IVS), received the third-place prize of $10,000 in the third annual statewide John Pappajohn Business Plan Competition. IVS has developed an innovative vibration isolation technology that provides for superior suspension solutions for various applications, such as reducing the road impact felt …Continue reading “Engineering Professors Awarded Third Place In Pappajohn Contest”
The Iowa State University Asteroid Deflection Research Center (ADRC) is sponsoring an Asteroid Deflection Research Symposium on October 23–24, 2008, at Doubletree Hotel Crystal City-National Airport, Arlington, Virginia. Read for more information ADRC Symposium Program Link to Symposium Summary Link to ADRC Website
Researchers Vikram Dalal and Rana Biswas are seeking ways to access the sun’s energy more directly through cutting-edge photovoltaic technologies.
Assistant Professor Sumit Chaudhary is working toward enhancing the efficiency and convenience of flexible, organic-based plastic solar cells.
PowerFilm CEO and co-founder Frank Jeffrey never planned on becoming an entrepreneur—but then a promising new technology changed his career path.
Jon Giorgini, an engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., has received the prestigious Harold Masursky Award, presented by the American Astronomical Society’s Division for Planetary Sciences. Jon Giorgini earned a Bachelor of Science degree in aerospace engineering from Iowa State University; and a Master of Science degree in aerospace engineering, specializing in celestial mechanics, …Continue reading “ISU Alum, Jon Giorgini Honored with Masursky Award”
Iowa State University and University of Hawai’i researchers have won a 2008 R&D 100 Award for their work to grow microscopic fungus in leftovers from ethanol production in an effort to improve the efficiency of the corn-to-ethanol conversion process. Presented by R&D Magazine, the Chicago Tribune has called the awards the “Oscars of Invention.” An …Continue reading “R&D 100 Award for Ethanol Project”
Say the word “biofuels” and most people think of grain ethanol and biodiesel. But there’s another, older technology called gasification that’s getting a new look from researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory and Iowa State University. By combining gasification with high-tech nanoscale porous catalysts, they hope to create ethanol from a wide range …Continue reading “Material into Ethanol”
ECpE Associate Professor Manimaran Govindarasu and CCEE Associate Professor Sri Sritharan recently won the Best IT Innovation Award at the Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation’s 6th Annual Meeting. The award names their real-time system visualization tool (“RSVtool”) as the best new IT technique or product developed during the past year. The RSVtool helps to effectively …Continue reading “IT Innovation NEES Award”
An Asteroid Deflection Research Center has been established on the Iowa State campus to bring researchers from around the world to develop asteroid deflection technologies. “In the early 1990s, scientists around the world initiated studies to assess and devise methods to prevent near-Earth objects from striking Earth,” says Bong Wie, the Vance D. Coffman Chair …Continue reading “Asteroid Deflection”
In traumatic accidents, broken bones can be reduced to bone fragments, sometimes leaving a void in the bone structure that needs to be filled. IMSE Assistant Professor Matt Frank is investigating the use of a subtractive rapid prototyping process called CNC-RP to reverse-engineer replacement bone fragments from medical imaging such as CT scans. The research …Continue reading “Replacing Bone Fragments”
When talk turns to energy and its related issues—cost, availability of resources, the potential of alternatives—what becomes clear is that clarity itself is at a premium. Agreement on any single aspect of our energy present or energy future is elusive, in part because complex questions defy simple answers. Understanding the technology is difficult enough, and …Continue reading “Shining Light on Policy & Panels”
