Missouri S&T researchers believe the power grid of the future will operate much like the Internet, except it will transmit energy and not data, speeding renewable electric-energy technology into every home and business in the country. This National Science Foundation-funded study is just one of a number of energy-related research projects at Missouri S&T that distinguishes the university as a leader in energy research.
It may look like a plain wooden box, but this computer-controlled bartender could give restaurants of the future a smarter way to serve sodas and mixed drinks.
Recent experiments to create a fast-reacting explosive by concocting it at the nano level could mean more spectacular firework displays. But even more impressive to the Missouri S&T professor who led the research, the method used to mix chemicals at that tiny scale could lead to new strong porous materials for high-temperature applications, from thermal insulation in jet engines to industrial chemical reactors.
Federal requirements to increase the production of ethanol have developed into a “drink-or-drive” issue in the Midwest as a result of biofuel production’s impact on water supplies and water quality, says Joel Burken, professor of environmental engineering at Missouri S&T, in the May 1 issue of the journal Environmental Science & Technology.
Despite the stirring portrayal in Band of Brothers, Easy Company of the 101st Airborne Division was not the first to enter Adolf Hitler’s Berchtesgaden mountain retreat near the end of World War II, says military historian John C. McManus in his latest book.
A fan of country music since childhood, Patrick Huber, associate professor of history and political science, asserts in his latest book that the origins of the genre in the South lie not in rural communities as previously believed, but in cities and towns. His book, Linthead Stomp: The Creation of Country Music in the Piedmont South, was published by the University of North Carolina Press in 2008. The book also documents the role of textile mill workers in early country music.
Many researchers believe the air inside your home can be more hazardous to your health than the smog and other environmental pollutants you are exposed to outside, says Jon McKinney, a junior in environmental engineering at Missouri S&T.
The same acoustic waves that dolphins and whales use to communicate when they’re thousands of miles apart can be used by humans to transmit information wirelessly, says Rosa Zheng, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at Missouri S&T.
He was a notorious mobster and killer, but Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel was also an affectionate father and a charming ladies’ man, says Amanda Kamps, a senior in history at Missouri S&T.
Several glass containers filled with algae-stained water sit on a table in Paul Nam’s laboratory. Next to the big green bottles are two much smaller vials. One of the vials, labeled “biodiesel,” contains a mostly clear solution labeled “algae oil.”
Using thousands of brain cells from laboratory rats, S&T researchers hope to design a more intelligent power grid. They envision a more flexible system that can respond to uncertainty and circumstances - much like the brain itself.
Using a newly patented sensor system, engineers will be able to measure structural damage to bridges and buildings following an earthquake.
Pearl millet, a hardy grain that is abundant in even the harshest regions of Africa and India, is a staple for many of the world’s poorest people. But removing the edible seed from the chaff is hard work. Traditional threshing techniques usually involve women pounding the plant with mortar and pestle.
When corporate America first started talking about lean manufacturing in the 1980s and 1990s, they were looking at ways to cut costs while maintaining customer satisfaction. These days, companies are also interested in portraying themselves as environmentally conscious, but are concerned about the costs associated with green initiatives.
Missouri S&T researchers are part of a new effort that aims to transform the
nation’s power grid into an Internet of sorts for energy - a grid that will speed renewable electric-energy technologies into every home and business.
You probably won’t be able to drive down the highway in your own non-polluting vehicle that runs on hydrogen power any time soon. Nor will you be powering your whole house with hydrogen-based technology in the coming years. Someday soon, though, you might own a cell phone equipped with a hydrogen-powered fuel cell instead of a battery. The cell phone would come with an insert-ready hydrogen pack and a small solar array for charging.
In one corner of a huge civil engineering laboratory on campus, Ronaldo Luna watches a machine shake silt from the Mississippi River until it liquefies.
A new treatment in development at Missouri S&T could improve the quality of life for more than 36 million people currently infected with HIV. One-third of adults with HIV and half of children with HIV develop HIV-1 associated dementia, which causes behavioral and cognitive dysfunctions.
Although former Vice President Al Gore got most of the credit in the media for the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize, the award was shared by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). A team of Missouri S&T researchers were integral to the IPCC’s work and in April 2008 the group received official recognition of their “substantial contributions” to the award by the IPCC.
If Yinfa Ma’s research holds up, pregnant women and those on probation won’t be the only ones asked to pee in a cup. Ma, Curators’ Teaching Professor of chemistry, has developed a non-invasive instrument for pre-cancer screening that uses urine samples to detect cancer in the body and predict the cancer’s type and severity using a group of biomarkers.
The ultrasmall holds huge possibilities for the future if you ask Julia E. Medvedeva, assistant professor of physics.
The famous line delivered by Paul Newman in the movie Cool Hand Luke could summarize David Wright’s last three years of cattle industry research: “What we have here is a failure to communicate.”
High-tech military gear, carried by soldiers along with the 20 to 40 pounds of batteries they require, one day could have a lighter-than-air power source.
Many Missourians have long associated glass blowing with artisans who populate Silver Dollar City. Now, students at Missouri S&T can watch glass blowing – and practice it themselves – on campus.
Adedotun Moronkeji, CE’07, is part of the next wave of tsunami research. Moronkeji spent last summer helping to create model-scale experiments at Oregon State University’s Tsunami Wave Basin, the largest facility of its type in North America.
When a water supply is contaminated, people are usually ordered to boil their H2O. But if Curt Elmore’s emergency drinking water system proves reliable, people will be able to drink water that has been treated with ultraviolet energy.
The Mississippi Delta region was losing land long before Hurricane Katrina came ashore. But the correlation between land loss and the risk of flooding in the region is now more evident than ever.
Making a balloon out of glass might not seem like such a great idea on the surface – but Hank Rawlins, MetE’91, MS MetE’92, a graduate student in metallurgical engineering, thinks glass balloons might turn out to be the best way to put monitoring equipment in the upper atmosphere.
A team of UMR researchers found concentrations of leachable arsenic and lead above drinking water standards in sediment and soil samples collected from New Orleans’ parishes following Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
A group of UMR researchers led by Genda Chen has developed a way to retrofit bridges to help them withstand everything from blasts to earthquakes to old age.
A UMR mechanical engineer and two of his colleagues have received a patent for a system that could improve the performance of electric motors.
While the chrome in your car’s bumper isn’t hazardous to your health, producing that chrome can be.
Members of the UMR chapter of Engineers Without Borders are working to design sustainable solutions to problems ranging from waste management to energy generation for residents of Bolivia, Guatemala and Honduras.
If the Missouri Department of Transportation improved its sources of biodiesel, the department would be able to meet a legislative mandate requiring 75 percent of its diesel vehicle fleet and heavy equipment be fueled with B-20 – biodiesel.
Increasing demands on an aging U.S. power infrastructure made headlines last summer as temperatures in the Midwest and South topped 100 degrees.
The soldiers of the future could be equipped with stronger, lighter body armor and ride in safer armored vehicles with tougher run-flat tires, thanks to cross-linked aerogels, a material invented by UMR chemist Nicholas Leventis. This lightweight combination of highly porous glass and plastic is four to five times tougher per pound than materials currently used in military armor.
Jay A. Switzer, the Donald L. Castleman Distinguished Professor of Chemistry at UMR, received the Presidential Award for Research and Creativity from the University of Missouri.
The hosts of the popular TV series “Mythbusters” may be best known for creating mayhem by destroying stuff in the name of science, but now a UMR professor is helping high school students get in on the action.
Two UMR researchers will receive an estimated $400,000 apiece during the next five years as part of the National Science Foundation’s CAREER program, which supports promising scientists early in their careers. The program recognizes and supports the early career development of teacher-scholars who are most likely to become the academic leaders of the 21st century.
Smart ships with power systems that can think and repair themselves sound like something out of a futuristic science-fiction novel. But Ganesh Kumar Venayagamoorthy is working to make them a reality for the U.S. Navy.
If all goes as planned, the UMR Golf Course will become a state-of-the-art research and technology park over the next 10 years, complete with green space and walking trails.
America’s war on drugs examined in 19th century
Today’s war on drugs is not the first battle America has fought against addiction. In her new book, The Opium Debate and Chinese Exclusion Laws, UMR historian Diana Ahmad examines the opium-smoking epidemic of the mid-19th century and finds that Chinese immigrants weren’t the problem, as is commonly believed.
