News Digest 4 Dec 2014

 ૨૦૧૫ ના વિદ્યાર્થીઓ માટેના વિશ્વના શ્રેષ્ઠ શહેરો

Sandesh | 28 Nov 2014 | Read More

પૃથ્વીને રક્ષણ આપતું નવું સ્તર શોધાયું

Sandesh | 28 Nov 2014 | Read More

NEW LIMITS - CITIES GROW BUT INFRA IS INFANT

The Times of India | 4 Dec 2014

While the large municipal corporations in the state are grappling with financial woes -some have deficits running into crores -while others are stretched to their limits in providing civic services, the government is burdening these more by increasing the sizes of Gujarat's major cities. Read More

Indian scientists find key to PTSD

Ahmedabad Mirror | 3 Dec 2014

Bengaluru-based researchers have found that a tiny almond shaped region in the brain is responsible for post-traumatic stress disorder, a discovery that could lead to a potential cure. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, a condition of persistent mental and emotional stress occurring as a result of injury or severe psychological shock, typically involving disturbance of sleep and constant vivid recall of the experience, with dulled responses to others and to the outside world. Read More

MIT unveils cheetah robot

Ahmedabad Mirror | 3 Dec 2014

MASSACHUSETTS It's a robot unlike any other, inspired by the world's fastest land animal and controlled by video game tech. The robot, called the cheetah, can run on batteries at speeds of more than 16 kmph, jump about 16 inches high, land safely and continue running for at least 15 minutes ­ while using less power than a microwave. Read More

Graphene beats Kevlar as bulletproof armor

Ahmedabad Mirror |  Dec 2014

Researchers have discovered that graphene is twice as good at stopping bullets when compared to Kevlar. The discovery could allow manufacturers to make light-weight, low-cost bulletproof vests. The `wonder material' graphene could be used to make better bulletproof armour as it can withstand the impact of a bullet ten times as well as steel, scien tists say. Read More

Missing ingredient in energy-efficient buildings: Trained people

More than one-third of new commercial building space includes energy-saving features, but without training or an operator's manual many occupants are in the dark about how to use them. Read More

Inexpensive hydrolysable polymer developed

Through some inventive chemistry, scientists have developed a class of 'hindered urea bond-containing polymeric materials' or 'poly(hindered urea)s' -- cheap polymers that can be designed to degrade over a specified time period, making them potentially useful in biomedical and agricultural applications. Read More

Heat-conducting plastic: 10 times better than conventional counterparts

The spaghetti-like internal structure of most plastics makes it hard for them to cast away heat, but a research team has made a plastic blend that does so 10 times better than its conventional counterparts. Read More

Autodesk reinvents teamwork in the cloud

LAS VEGAS – Autodesk, Inc. cloud-based tools like A360 and Fusion 360 empower designers and engineers to work in whole new ways and are reinventing the modern design and collaboration experience. At Autodesk University, the company announced that A360 Team will be available globally later this month. Read More

Autodesk makes design software free to schools worldwide

LAS VEGAS – Fulfilling its promise to expand access to its professional design software in education, Autodesk, Inc. has made its industry-leading design, engineering and entertainment software free to students, instructors and academic institutions worldwide. Read More

Harnessing the Power of Gravity

The New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) will build a new hydroelectric facility at the city’s Cannonsville Reservoir, located in Delaware County. By capturing the natural force of the billions of gallons of water that are released from Cannonsville Reservoir each year, the hydroelectric facility will generate enough electricity to power roughly 6,000 homes and it will avoid the emission of 25,620 metric tons of greenhouse gases each year — the equivalent of removing 5,400 automobiles from the road. The facility is also expected to generate approximately $2 million in revenue each year, depending on demand and the market price of electricity. Read More

A Climate of Change In Flood Risk Management

The late Gilbert F. White, known worldwide as the father of floodplain management, declared in his doctoral dissertation, “Floods are acts of God, but flood losses are largely acts of man.” That was in 1942. More than seven decades later, flood losses continue to increase globally due to socioeconomic factors including population growth, urbanization, aging infrastructure, and continued development in flood-prone areas. Read More

Engineers take big step toward using light instead of wires inside computers

Stanford engineers have designed and built a prism-like device that can split a beam of light into different colors and bend the light at right angles, a development that could eventually lead to computers that use optics, rather than electricity, to carry data. Read More

World's fastest 2-D camera may enable new scientific discoveries

A team of biomedical engineers at Washington University in St. Louis, led by Lihong Wang, PhD, the Gene K. Beare Distinguished Professor of Biomedical Engineering, has developed the world's fastest receive-only 2-D camera, a device that can capture events up to 100 billion frames per second. Read More

Magnetic transmission could spell the end of gearboxes

Spanish engineers claim a new levitating transmission system developed for space applications could be used across many sectors. It’s the sound every mechanic and technician dreads: the shriek of misaligned gears that tells you that something is very wrong in the gearbox. It heralds a probable equipment breakdown, outages and expensive repairs. Read more

Plastic legacy

The issue of how to deal with a growing amount of waste plastic is exercising one UK company. The abundant usefulness of plastic is tempered by the legacy it leaves when humans have no more use for it. The material endures because it is durable, lightweight and low cost; factors that go some way to explaining how global production has increased from 1.5 million tonnes per year in 1950 to 245 million tonnes in 2008. Read more

Magnet shaft generator passes bench test

The Switch, a specialist of megawatt-class permanent magnet (PM) machines and frequency converter packages for advanced wind and marine drive trains, has successfully tested its PM shaft generator in a rigorous bench test in Vaasa. The first pair in an order of four PM shaft generators is part of a complete system being delivered by WE Tech Solutions of Finland to Wallenius Lines of Sweden. Read More

Heavy-duty connectors

Aerco now supplies the Cavotec range of heavy-duty, high voltage, high current connectors designed for applications in the aircraft maintenance, mining, petrochemical, marine, heavy lifting and offshore and land-based oil and gas industries. Read More

New thermal imaging software packages

Two new software packages that cut thermal imaging engineers’ survey/reporting time by 20% by streamlining the data capture, input and analysis procedures associated with thermal imaging report generation and maintenance monitoring, have been developed by thermographic services specialist, Ti Thermal Imaging. Read More