Engineering News

A team of researchers at Rice University in Texas are using a new apparatus featuring 96 antennas to test a highly efficient wireless communications system.  The Rice rig, also known as Argos, is the largest type of array to be built and will provide a developmental environment to test the concept of Massive MIMO.  

The Indian Road Transport Ministry has begun the process of creating standards for automobile safety, called the New Car Assessment Programme (NCAP). Test facilities are also being built to perform these tests throughout the country.

A team of researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have developed a flexible piezoelectric implant that can harvest energy from natural motions within the body. The device has been tested on cows and sheep and has demonstrated that it can harvest enough energy from a beating heart to power a cardiac pacemaker.

A research team at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University has developed a chip that can be placed on any sensing point – such as electrical cables, conductors, junctions – to detect electrical currents. This revolutionary chip does not use power supplies and signal conditioners that are traditionally used with current sensors.

The FCC has proposed a $5.23 million fine against U.S. Telecom Long Distance Inc. (USLTD) for allegedly changing consumers’ preferred long distance carriers without prior authorization and billing for unauthorized charges and failing to describe charges simply and clearly as required by federal law.

Idaho National Laboratories scientists have developed a new app that will turn smartphone cameras into radiation detectors and are currently testing it on four different Android phones.