Engineering News

Following an investigation by the Federal Communications Commission’s Enforcement Bureau, Windsteam Corporation has agreed to pay $2.5 million to settle their rural call completion. The company has agreed to also implement a three-year plan to meet compliance with FCC requirements in long-distance calls failing to connect in rural areas.

A team of engineers from several universities has developed a way to harvest energy from vibrations to charge self-powered electronic devices. The team has created a nanogenerator that utilizes polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF), a sponge-like material, which is the key to harvesting vibration energy.

Stanford researchers are using the seeds of a pomegranate as inspiration to cluster tiny silicon particles in hard carbon rinds to design the next generation of lithium ion batteries.

The Federal Communications Commission proposed updates to the E911 rules due to the increase of use of wireless phones to call 911 in an emergency. These proposed changes will help emergency responders better locate wireless callers especially indoors.  

Yesterday, the Department of Defense released a strategy announcing their plans to incorporate future wireless spectrum shortage into its operations and acquisitions. As part of their plans, the DoD will release some of their existing spectrum to share with the private sector where applicable. 

In December 2013, Google acquired 8 robotic companies that specialize in manipulation, vision and humanoid robots. One of those companies is a spinout of MIT, Meka, and they are creating ‘sociable’ humanoids that safely work next to humans in various environments.

The IEEE has recently approved two new projects to advance the standardization of phasor data concentrators (PDCs) with standards to improve fault management and other smart grid functionality.

Several projects are being funded by the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Energy (ARPA-E) for the development and research of using liquid battery electrodes that reduce costs while increasing energy density. These new batteries have the ability to be recharged or replaced with new fuel.

After an 18 month transitional period to implementing the updated Waste, Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) into EU national law, major changes will effecting the photo voltaic (PV) solar panel market.

A University of West England computer scientist has created bio-wires with lettuce that could lead the way for biological computers and bio-robots.