The tiny tube circled an ant’s thorax, gently trapping the insect and demonstrating the utility of a microrobotic tentacle developed by Iowa State University engineers. “Most robots use two fingers and to pick things up they have to squeeze,” said Jaeyoun (Jay) Kim, an Iowa State University associate professor of electrical and computer engineering and an associate of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory. “But these tentacles wrap around very gently.”
Roger Steinforth has been through all the data from all the computer simulations. And he thinks adding wings to Cyclone Racing’s mini open-wheel racer could cut lap times by a second or two. That’s a big performance boost for the student-designed and student-built race cars of the formula racing series sponsored by SAE International, formerly the Society of Automotive Engineers.
Early in the week, the mining robot of Cyclone Space Mining was mostly a pile of parts in the team’s campus workshop. And that pile was still too small. So team members were working at a bank of nearby computers, designing more parts for their mining machine. And Tyler Broich, the team’s vice president, was getting ready to order a few more blocks of aluminum that could be turned into all those new parts.
Eliot Winer likes to show off the magic and usefulness of immersive virtual reality. So there you were, in the middle of Iowa State’s MIRAGE lab, taking a shift at a military checkpoint. In this case, the lab’s mix of virtual and real worlds put you behind the barriers protecting a strategic stretch of road. …Continue reading “Iowa State engineer finds new ways to see data, train soldiers, help doctors”
Hui Hu picked up a 3-D printed model of a typical wind turbine and began explaining two problems with the big, tall, three-bladed machines. First, said the Iowa State University professor of aerospace engineering, check out the base of each blade. They’re big, round structural pieces. They’re not shaped like an airfoil. And so they …Continue reading “Iowa State engineers study the benefits of adding a second, smaller rotor to wind turbines”
Alireza Sassani turned a switch and sent 60 volts of electricity into a small block of concrete. A few minutes later the Iowa State University doctoral student took some measurements and found the block’s surface temperature had risen from 64 degrees Fahrenheit to 189 degrees. Next, Therin Young stepped up to the demonstration table and …Continue reading “Iowa State engineers developing pavement technologies to clear snow and ice from runways”
Written by Anne Krapfl Five faculty proposals to develop new approaches for teaching undergraduate courses will share $56,000 in available funds for 2015-16, the 19th year of the Miller Faculty Fellowship program. Senior vice president and provost Jonathan Wickert endorsed the recommendations of the Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching (CELT) advisory board, which …Continue reading “Five Miller fellowships awarded for 2015-16”
Baskar Ganapathysubramanian spelled out a major goal of his work on the title page of a conference presentation: “Revolutionizing Science through Simulation.” Baskar, an associate professor of mechanical engineering, and the researchers in his group are serious about that. They’re confident they have developed the tools and the methods to mathematically and computationally simulate problems across …Continue reading “Change Agent: Baskar Ganapathysubramanian”
The compression-ignition, internal-combustion engine goes all the way back to the 1890s and the work of one Rudolf Diesel. All these decades later, engineers have developed advanced diesels featuring higher pressures, lighter parts, cleaner emissions and better efficiencies. Turbo diesels have even won the 24 Hours of Le Mans sports car race. So, engineers have it all figured out? …Continue reading “Iowa State engineer helps Army Lab study the fundamental physics of diesel engines”
AMES, Iowa – Fuyuan Jing reached for the top shelf of his university cubicle and pulled down a box of business cards. He picked out a slick and glossy card, the company logo printed in bright blue, yellow, orange, red and green. That card identified Jing as president of VariFAS Biorenewables LLC. Jing said his …Continue reading “Center for Biorenewable Chemicals helps Iowa State researchers launch startup companies”
ExxonMobil Corporation is establishing an advanced biofuels research program at Iowa State University. The ExxonMobil Biofuels Program will initially focus on two research projects with Iowa State. The studies are related to the fast pyrolysis of biomass – rapidly heating biomass (including corn stalks, switchgrass or wood chips) without oxygen to produce liquid bio-oil, which can …Continue reading “ExxonMobil supports Iowa State research in biofuels science and engineering”
The U.S. Department of Energy has awarded Iowa State engineers $1 million to study how high-strength concrete can be used to build taller wind turbine towers. “I think this will revolutionize wind energy,” said Sri Sritharan, Iowa State University’s Wilson Engineering Professor in Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering and leader of the College of Engineering’s Wind Energy Initiative. “We won’t …Continue reading “Energy Department supports Iowa State studies of concrete for taller wind turbine towers”
AMES, Iowa – The week’s objectives include scuba certification, wilderness survival, skydiving, flight simulation and a virtual visit to the International Space Station. Those objectives are all part of an Iowa State University prototype workshop designed to give six students a taste of the operational aspects of spaceflight training and Iowa State educators a first …Continue reading “Astronaut Clayton Anderson inspires, organizes Iowa State workshop on spaceflight ops”
There they were, at 10,000 feet on the remote and rugged slopes of the Mauna Kea volcano on the big island of Hawaii, running their robot through the same volcanic soil NASA uses to test space rovers. “This was otherworldly,” said Jim Heise, the faculty advisor for Cyclone Space Mining. Six teams of students from …Continue reading “Cyclone Space Mining competes in Hawaii; once again demonstrates it has built a strong robotic miner”
Ludovico Cademartiri had what seemed like an impossibly demanding list of requirements for his lab equipment. The Iowa State University assistant professor of materials science and engineering wants to understand environmental effects on plant growth, specifically how variations in climate and soil characteristics affect root growth. That requires highly controlled environments that expose whole plants to environmental …Continue reading “Iowa State engineers turn LEGO bricks into a scientific tool to study plant growth”
