2007–2008 highlights

In a four-year, $18 million project with the U.S. Department of Defense and Madison company Resilient Technologies, Kuo K. and Cindy F. Wang Professor of Mechanical Engineering Tim Osswald and graduate students Nick Newman and Eric Foltz are helping to develop a non-pneumatic tire for heavy-grade military vehicles. The group studied airless tire designs and ran tests and simulations that helped Resilient confirm the quality of its unique design concept. The project could be a lifesaver for the military: In many situations in Iraq, for example, tires have proven to be weak links in Humvees that enemies target with improvised explosive devices. (large image)

Research advances

Writing in the April 7, 2008, issue of Chemistry and Sustainability, Energy & Materials, Steenbock Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering James Dumesic and his students detailed an integrated process for creating chemical components of jet fuel from sustainable biomass sources like switchgrass and poplar trees. Whereas in previous research the team demonstrated it could produce jet-fuel components by combining separate catalytic steps, the researchers now show they can integrate the steps and run them sequentially, without complex separation and purification processes between reactors.
Combining lithography techniques with novel self-assembling materials, Smith-Bascom Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering Paul Nealey, Howard Curler Distinguished Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering Juan de Pablo, colleagues at the UW-Madison Nanoscale Science & Engineering Center, and researchers from Hitachi Global Storage Technologies have demonstrated a patterning technology that could overcome the technological limitations currently facing the microelectronics and data-storage industries and pave the way to smaller electronic devices and higher-capacity hard drives. The researchers described their technology in the August 15, 2008, issue of the journal Science.
For modeling strain in both inanimate and human structures, the “Scan-and-Solve” approach is simpler, faster and more accurate than previous methods. Developed by Bernard A. and Frances M. Weideman Professor of Mechanical Engineering Vadim Shapiro and colleagues at Florida International University, the technique takes 3-D sampled or scanned data of an object and calculates where points of weakness occur and how those points will be affected by forces such as gravity, in the case of a centuries-old statue, or activity, in the case of a human bone.
America Online (AOL) has added a real-time text function to its instant messenger beta version 6.8, allowing users to see each other’s text live as it is typed. The option was the result of a collaboration among AOL, the UW-Madison Trace Center and Industrial and Systems Engineering and Biomedical Engineering Professor Gregg Vanderheiden, and the Gallaudet University Technology Access Program. The feature is particularly useful for people—such as those who are deaf or hard of hearing—who rely on text messaging as a primary means of communication.
Building on the observation that microorganisms swim either as “pushers” or “pullers,” Harvey D. Spangler Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering Michael Graham and fellow researchers Patrick Underhill and Juan Hernandez-Ortiz created a computer model that analyzes how populations of up to 100,000 model bacteria swim. Their results, published in the June 20, 2008, issue of Physical Review Letters, indicate that the particular style of swimming leads to different large-scale fluid motions and mixing. Studies of how microorganisms move through and diffuse liquid could enable scientists to develop artificial swimmers, enhance fluid flow in microfluidic devices, or better understand how microorganisms sample their environment.
Led by Lynn H. Matthias Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering Robert Blick, a team of UW-Madison engineers has blended modern semiconductor technology and nanomachines. Reported in the September 26, 2007, issue of the journal Physica Status Solidi, the research marks the advent of a new class of nanomechanical devices, with implications ranging from improved solar energy cells and light-emitting diodes to highly sensitive probes capable of measuring single biological molecules.

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