News Digest : 25 Aug 2014

News Digest 25 Aug 2014

Engineering a delicious change

Ahmedabad Mirror | 21 Aug 2014

The increasing ranks of qualified engineers joining the food industry is proof there is life beyond the workplace. What’s with engineers setting up eating places? Most of these new places, offering global cuisine from Korean to Mexican and everything in between (if you go westwards from Korea) appear to have been set up by trained engineers. Read More

Why we need qualified faculty in engineering disciplines

The last few decades have witnessed a large growth in engineering and technical institutions in India. We have about 3,400 engineering colleges with an intake capacity of about 14.7 lakh. This excludes the existing IITs, NITs and IIITs. The government in its first Budget has proposed the setting up of five more IITs. This quantitative growth is welcome. However, there are areas of concern that need to be addressed if this growth has to complement quality engineering education in the country. Read More

Standards of higher education institutes ‘abysmally low’: Pranab

President Pranab Mukherjee on Sunday expressed concern over the standards of higher education in the country. According to him, standards of higher education institutes (in India) in comparison to international benchmarks are “abysmally low”. Read More

No country can progress without innovation: President

President Pranab Mukherjee has expressed concern over India lagging behind other countries in having patents, and said no country can progress without innovation. Read More

DR FIX IT : What goes into making your favourite airline a safe box-in-the-air?

Ahmedabad Mirror | 25 Aug 2014

A Rs 4,200 cr industry decides The most sought after service offered is what aeronautical engineers call the `eco-bath' or an atomised water wash… Each day, as flights get ready to take off and land at the Mumbai International Airport Ltd (MIAL), the airlines' on-ground crew and the Air Traffic Control tower staff aside, a group of 30 men take their posts around the perimeter of the airport ready with fireworks and laser torches in hand. Their task -to burst crackers, produce flares or shine light in the sky in a bid to scare birds that may be hovering around the landingtake-off strip. Read More

Hydrogen generator runs on AAA battery

Ahmedabad Mirror | 23 Aug 2014

Researchers have developed a cheap device that uses a 1.5-volt battery to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. The gas could be used to power fuel cells in zero-emissions vehicles… Although fuel cell cars are touted as zero-emissions vehicles, most of them run on hydrogen made from natural gas, a fossil fuel that contrib utes to global warming. Now scientists at Stanford University have developed a low-cost, emissions-free device that uses an ordinary AAA battery to produce hydrogen by water electrolysis. Read More

PERCENTILE-BASED ENGG ADMISSIONS - SC stays high court order on merit list

Ahmedabad Mirror | 22 Aug 2014

Order brings relief to 47,000 students who have gained admission under the percentile-based system; next hearing on September 22… In a significant development, the Supreme Court on Thursday stayed Gujarat High Court’s decision to scrap engineering admissions based on the percentile system. It fixed September 22 as the next date of hearing. Read More

Guide - 5 GOOD REASONS TO USE MICROSOFT OFFICE ONLINE

Ahmedabad Mirror | 21 Aug 2014

Microsoft is not known for its quick adoption of new trends, but when it does get on board, it often tries to make up lost time with gobs of money and hoards of experienced software engineers.This strategy seems to be working with Office Online, a cloud-connected version of the world's most popular productivity software that is free to use (with limitations) and offers a buffet of useful features. You'll even find Office Online useful, if you already have a copy of Office installed on your computer. Read More

India’s Maiden Mars Mission One Month out from Red Planet Arrival

India’s maiden foray to Mars is now just one month out from the Red Planet and closing in fast on the final stages of the history making rendezvous culminating on September 24, 2014. As of Aug. 22, 2014, the Mars Orbiter Mission, or MOM, was just 9 million kilometers away from Mars and the crucial Mars Orbital Insertion (MOI) engine firing that places India’s first interplanetary voyager into orbit around the 4th planet from the Sun. Read More

Controlling ferromagnetic domains using light

A variety of magnetic materials can be controlled using only polarized light, according to new work carried out by an international team of researchers. The unexpected and so far unexplained discovery shows that the optical phenomenon, which was previously thought to be possible only in ferrimagnets, is actually much more general. The discovery could potentially have a major impact on data storage, as it could allow magnetic bits to be rapidly switched by optical pulses in state-of-the-art hard drives. Read More

Vehicle-to-Vehicle: 7 Things to Know About Uncle Sam's Plan

PARIS — Now that Google has autonomous cars up and running in California, and more new cars are equipped with Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS), the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's unveiling this week of its plan to require vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communications technologies in all new passenger cars might seem too little, too late. Read More

Dual output DC/DC controller

Linear Technology Corporation has launched a dual output multiphase synchronous step-down DC/DC controller with a serial digital interface, writes Nick Flaherty. Read More

Underground monitoring system

Dragoncam is a special underground monitoring system which checks the inside of cable ducts for ridges and damage. This innovation could save developers and Network Operators and Developers (DNOs) thousands of pounds by removing the risk of having to dig up damaged cable. Read More

New process simplifies recycling of plastics

Researchers at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet (LMU) in Munich have developed a new process claimed to simplify the process of sorting plastics in recycling plants. A team of researchers led by Prof Heinz Langhals of LMU’s Department of Chemistry have developed a technique that provides for automated recognition of their polymer constituents, thereby improving the efficiency of recycling and re-use of the various types of plastic. Read More

Mechanical motion added to 3D-printed creations

Two new computational design methods developed by Disney Research Zurich are making it possible for anyone to bring 3D-printed creations to life by adding mechanical motion. The methods are said to apply to two specific types of characters – planar mechanical characters that are similar to shadow puppets, and linkage-based characters formed by networks of rigid links and hinged joints. In either case, the researchers have developed tools that lead the user in designing mechanisms that will achieve a desired cyclical motion. Read More