Institute Of Engineer Australia
Department of State Washington File: Text: International Space Station Crew Performs Space Walk
The system will be commanded by operators on the ground at the German Space Operations Center outside Munich or the German Aerospace Research Institute during periods when the Station is flying over Germany. The crew from a workstation inside Zvezda can also operate it. Rokviss will test the ability of lightweight robotic joints to operate in the vacuum of space for future assembly work or satellite repair and servicing. ... The Rokviss consists of a small double-jointed manipulator arm, an illumination system and a power supply. Chiao and Sharipov also installed cabling and an antenna for the robotic device to receive commands. At first the antenna did not receive the proper power. Chiao and Sharipov returned to the antenna work site and remated two electrical connectors. Russian engineers then reported the Rokviss system was operating normally. ... [Read More]
Department of State Washington File: Text: U.S. Team to Develop Portable Infectious Disease Detector
The origin of the collaboration is an example of the power of serendipity. It started when David Schaffer, a VIIBRE student who stayed on at the institute as a project engineer after he graduated, was browsing the Web looking for a permanent job. Although looking for a local position, he inadvertently opened a Web page with listings from California. He came across an interesting opening at Pria, located in Menlo Park, and decided to apply. Although Pria decided that he wasn't the right person for the job, in their correspondence Pyle expressed potential interest in collaborating with VIIBRE. Schaffer passed the information along to Wikswo, who gave Pyle a call. That was in early September. By mid-November a joint research agreement for $120,000 for the first year was completed and signed. ... [Read More]
Department of State Washington File: Text: U.S. Funds Work on New Shape-Changing Materials
"Biological systems are excellent templates for the development of high-performance engineering platforms. An understanding of how biological systems move, adapt, communicate, and replicate are providing scientists and engineers with novel approaches to engineering problems. These solutions are producing a revolution in engineering design through the application of biological principles to the design of new autonomous engineering systems," Leo said. ... Don Leo, professor of mechanical engineering and a member of the Center for Intelligent Materials Systems and Structures (CIMMS) at Virginia Tech, is the principal investigator on this project. His colleagues are: Dr. John Cuppoletti, College of Medicine, University of Cincinnati; Subhash Narang, SRI International, Palo Alto, Cal.; Jay Kudva, NextGen Aeronautics Inc., Torrance, Cal.; and Victor Giurgiutiu, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of South Carolina. At Virginia Tech, Leo will be working with Tim Long, professor of chemistry, and Lisa Weiland, currently a research scientist at CIMMS who will soon be joining the University of Pittsburgh's mechanical engineering department. ... [Read More]
Department of State Washington File: Text: U.S. Rover Is Driven Off Platform onto Mars Surface
"Now, we are the mission that we all envisioned three-and-a-half years ago, and that's tremendously exciting," said JPL's Jennifer Trosper, mission manager. JPL engineer Chris Lewicki, flight director, said "It's as if we get to drive a nice sports car, but in the end we're just the valets who bring it around to the front and give the keys to the science team." ... Since Spirit landed inside Mars' Gusev Crater on Jan. 3, JPL engineers have put it through a careful sequence of unfolding, standing up, checking its surroundings and other steps leading up to today's drive-off. ... [Read More]
Department of State Washington File: Text: U.S. Report Supports Unrestricted Access to Pathogen Genomes
The new report was sponsored by the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and the Central Intelligence Agency. The National Reseach Council is the principal operating arm of the National Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Engineering. It is a private, nonprofit institution that provides scientific advice under a congressional charter. A committee roster follows. ... Claire M. Fraser, Ph.D. President and Director The Institute for Genomic Research Rockville, Md. ... [Read More]
Department of State Washington File: Researcher Cites Improved Soybeans for Healthier Foods
In a related development, Massachusetts Institute of Technology microbiologists at the Palm Oil Research Institute in Malaysia have launched a multimillion-dollar project to genetically engineer the oil palm to produce everything from improved oils to biodegradable plastics. ... John Pierce, director of trait and technology development at DuPont, said at a biotechnology conference in The Hague January 21 that until now farmers have been the primary beneficiaries of plant engineering developments such as herbicide resistant seeds. He predicts the next phase of the plant revolution will emphasize the engineering of desirable traits that will mainly benefit the consumer. ... [Read More]
Department of State Washington File: Text: U.S. Spacecraft Camera Provides Panoramic View of Mars Surface
"It has been detached and folded like a piece of carpet sliding across the floor," said science-team member Dr. John Grotzinger of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge. ... "It has been detached and folded like a piece of carpet sliding across the floor," said science team member John Grotzinger of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge. ... Spirit's flight team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, Calif., continues making progress toward getting the rover off its lander platform, but expected no sooner than early Thursday morning. "We're about to kick the baby bird out of its nest," said JPL's Kevin Burke, lead mechanical engineer for the rover's egress off the lander. ... [Read More]
Department of State Washington File: Text: Mars Rover Sends Pictures to European Space Agency Orbiter
JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Exploration Rover Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Images and additional information about the rover project are available from JPL at http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov and from Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., at http://athena.cornell.edu. ... The ability for a European mission and a NASA mission to communicate with each other at Mars required years of groundwork on Earth, said JPL engineer Peter Shames. Both Mars Express and the rovers use a communications protocol called Proximity-1. The Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems, an international partnership for standardizing techniques used for handling space data, developed Proximity-1. ... [Read More]
Department of State Washington File: Muslim American Promotes Democracy in the Muslim World
Born in Tunisia in 1963, Masmoudi came to the United States in 1981 as a student at the age of 18. He earned a Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in robotics, automation and control. He worked for eight years as a research engineer, senior research engineer, and advanced control engineer in the Washington metropolitan area. In 1999, he won the prestigious George Olmsted Award for his research on improving environmental control. ... The Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy coordinates work by university scholars, Imams, lawyers, engineers, and doctors -- both Muslim and non-Muslim -- from around the United States who are studying and disseminating reliable information on the relation of Islam and democracy. ... [Read More]
Department of State Washington File: Text: Grand Jury Indicts Koreans for Ocean Pollution Conspiracy
The felony corporate guilty pleas and the filing of charges against corporate managers follow the successful prosecution of Doo Hyun Kim, the Captain of the Khana, In Ho Kim, the Chief Engineer of the Khana, and Je Yong Lee, the Chief Engineer of the Sohoh. These three were arrested and detained in federal custody in February 2002 for falsifying records, obstructing the Coast Guard's inspection and tampering with the ongoing federal grand jury investigation related to the discharge of oil from the vessels under their command. ... [Read More]
|