NatHaz Undergraduate Researchers Honored

From Notre Dame News...

"Olga Beltsar and Laura Divel, juniors in the University of Notre Dame’s Department of Civil Engineering and Geological Sciences, along with Mark Pomerenke, a junior in the Department of Electrical Engineering, have been awarded scholarships for the 2010-11 academic year from Tau Beta Pi, the engineering honor society.

Tau Beta Pi scholarships are presented to junior members of the society on a competitive basis of high scholarship, campus leadership, service and the promise of future contributions to the engineering profession. A total of 102 students received scholarships this year."

Olga Beltsar and Laura Divel both serve as undergraduate research assistants in the NatHaz Modeling Laboratory. The members of the NatHaz Modeling Laboratory are proud of the accomplishments of Olga and Laura.

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Sustainable by design

From constructionweekonline.com...

"When the Burj Khalifa opened with a dazzling fireworks display earlier this year, the tower was hailed as a marvel of modern engineering, which it certainly is. However, it is also an excellent example of sustainability at work.

From the facilities management system that increases efficiencies and the practices and technology to extend the tower’s lifespan, to the use of condensation to irrigate its 11-hectare garden and solar panels to heat water, the Burj Khalifa comes with a ‘sustainability inside’ tag."

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Not so fast, Pisa! UAE lays claim to world's furthest leaning tower

From CNN...

"Chalk another record to the United Arab Emirates' collection.

The Capital Gate building in the desert kingdom's capital, Abu Dhabi, has been certified by Guinness World Records as the "World's Furthest Leaning Man-made Tower."

How far does it lean? Nearly five times farther than the Leaning Tower of Pisa in Italy."

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The Genius Behind Minority Report's Interfaces Resurfaces, With Mind-blowing New Tech

From fastcompany.com...

"It's a cliche to say that Minority Report-style interfaces are just around the corner. But not when John Underkoffler is involved. As tech advistor on the film, he was the guy whose work actually inspired the interfaces that Tom Cruise used. The real-life system he's been developing, called g-speak, is unbelievable."

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Generating Power from a Heart

From Technology Review published by MIT...

"A tiny, nearly invisible nanowire can convert the energy of pulsing, flexing muscles inside a rat's body into electric current, researchers at Georgia Institute of Technology have shown. Their nano generator could someday lead to medical implants and sensors powered by heartbeats or breathing."

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Wind-Powered Car Actually Moves Faster Than Wind Speed, Answering Tricky Physics Question

From Popular Science...

"A California team recently tested a wind-powered car that can actually outrun the wind, adding more fuel to a lingering physics debate.

In a test two weeks ago, the car hit a top speed 2.86 times faster than the wind, according to its creators. Some physicists say this should be impossible, but car-builder Rick Cavallaro says that's exactly what happened on May 16. What gives?"

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How iTunes Genius Really Works

From Technology Review published by MIT...

"Ever since the feature debuted in 2008, there's been a lot of speculation about how iTunes Genius accomplishes its playlist-building magic. Now an engineer at Apple that works on the iTune Genius team has revealed some tantalizing clues--a rare disclosure for the infamously secretive company."

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Using Neural Networks to Classify Music

From Technology Review published by MIT...

"New work from students at the University of Hong Kong describes a novel use of neural networks, collections of artificial neurons or nodes that can be trained to accomplish a wide variety of tasks, previously used only in image recognition. The students used a convolution network to "learn" features, such as tempo and harmony, from a database of songs that spread across 10 genres. The result was a set of trained neural networks that could correctly identify the genre of a song, which in computer science is considered a very hard problem, with greater than 87 percent accuracy. In March the group won an award for best paper at the International Multiconference of Engineers and Computer Scientists."

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Crowd Science Reaches New Heights

From The Chronicle of Higher Education...

"Alexander S. Szalay is a well-regarded astronomer, but he hasn't peered through a telescope in nearly a decade. Instead, the professor of physics and astronomy at the Johns Hopkins University learned how to write software code, build computer servers, and stitch millions of digital telescope images into a sweeping panorama of the universe."

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How Can Big Cities Adapt to Climate Change?

From fastcompany.com...

"Regardless of whether climate change is real, man-made, or happening at an accelerated rate, there's no harm in preparing for the worst. In Climate Change Adaptation in New York City, a new report from the New York City Panel on Climate Change, a motley crew of scientists, government officials and legal, risk management, and insurance experts plan out the city's attempt to survive in the face of climate change."

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