Stanford Engineering Library Blog

Help the library test new websites. Participants will get a gift card for Jamba Juice, MoonBeans or the Stanford Bookstore. Testing starts the week of October 13th. If you're interested in participating, please send your contact information to engreference@stanford.edu.

Researchers at Boston University's College of Engineering have received a National Science Foundation grant to explore using LEDs to carry optical communication signals. The LEDs would serve dual purpose as lighting and wireless communication.

Full article from Cellular News:
http://www.cellular-news.com/story/33993.php

*This fall, the Knovel University Challenge has started out with a bang! *

http://info.knovel.com/challenge

Over 1000 valid entries have been received in the first week!

We have very good news, two schools are very close to qualifying for the contest-within-the-contest! Every school with 100 or more valid entries is guaranteed its own prize drawing for an iPod Nano.

Here are the most active schools so far:

Nanyang Technological University = 93
MIT = 90
Georgia Institute of Technology = 77
University of Arkansas = 75
British Columbia Institute of Technology = 65
Colorado School of Mines = 50
Brigham Young Univeristy of Idaho = 44
University of Kentucky = 42
Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology = 41
Case Western Reserve University = 30
University of Cincinnati = 25
Purdue University = 22

Forget those flat silicon laden solar cells that have to be tilted to absorb the most sunlight. A Fremont company, Solyndra, has created cylindrical solar cells that "collect sunlight more efficiently across a broader range of angles and catch light reflected off the roof."

More from Make
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2008/10/solar_roll_ups.html

The race: 600 miles in the vehicle of your choice from Berkeley to Las Vegas. The goal: to complete the race using no petroleum. On Saturday October 11, 5 teams hit the road.

Complete article from The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/13/us/13eco.html?partner=permalink

A new WWF report – 2°C is Too Much – shows that the colonies of emperor penguins and
others are under threat. Many recent climate models forecast likely temperatures rises in
excess of this amount in less than 40 years.

Read the complete report at World Wildlife Fund News

Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory
report that they have successfully produced two-layer superconducting thin films. Neither
layer is superconducting on its own, but exhibits a nanometer-thick region of superconductivity
at their interface.

Read more at Brookhaven National Laboratory News

Researchers at Florida State's High-Performance Materials Institute are taking the discovery of buckypaper to the manufacturing arena. Currently only reproducible in the laboratory, they are on a fast track to develop a less costly means to make the thin carbon nanotube film for use in future manufacturing of planes and automobiles. They anticipate having products on the market within the next 12 months.

Full article:
http://www.physorg.com/news7435.html