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Europeans conduct final test of Galileo
The EU wants to compete in the lucrative positioning market, and wants its Galileo system to compete with the U.S. GPS system; project has been hobbled by delays and shortfall of funds, but the EU soldiers on
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UAVs on display at the Smithsonian
As the scope and breadth of UAV deployments grow, so is the public interest in them; the Smithsonian put some of them on display; “UAVs are the future of combat air forces,” says the curator, himself a retired Air Force pilot
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Advanced Nanotechnology Research, LANCER
Lockheed Martin and Rice University launch strategic partnership to develop center which will develop new technologies for a broad range of applications in electronics, energy, and security
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Straw power planned
With more and more companies turning to biofuels as an alternative to fossil fuels, a debate has erupted over the food-energy trade-off involved; a Welsh company bypasses this debate by planning to generate energy from straw
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Technological breakthrough in the fight to cut greenhouse gases
New, efficient method found to convert waste carbon dioxide (CO2) into chemical compounds known as cyclic carbonates; researchers estimate that the technology has the potential to use up to 48 million tons of waste CO2 per year, reducing the U.K. emissions by about four percent
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Modernizing the U.S. electrical grid
The U.S. Department of Energy will invest $50 million in demonstration project aiming to improve efficiency in the U.S. electricity grid
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Government scrapping virtual fence on Arizona-Mexico border
Boeing’s Project 28 — showcasing advanced technologies to be used in making U.S. borders more secure — was hobbled from the start by technological glitches and delays; it delivered much less than what was promised, and DHS decides to scrap it
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The WiMax interoperability solution // By Daniel Zubairi, CISSP
Conversation with Mark Adams, chief architect of mobility at Northrop Grumman, on using WiMax for public safety and civil defense
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How much water is needed to produce various types of energy?
Most of the energy we consume requires the use of water for its generation; water is a dwindling resource, so researchers wanted to know how much water is required to produce different types of energy
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Sustaining bridge infrastructure through Bridge Information Modeling
Bentley offers end-to-end bridge solution which will allow bridge engineers to create and renovate bridge infrastructure
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Robots in search-and-rescure competition
A robot competition takes place in Germany this week; the robots compete with each other in how well they traverse, autonomously and without any input from handlers, through a maze resembling the aftermath of a natural disaster; robots sniff out toy dolls that either emit CO2, give off heat, make noise, or move
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Patent "trolls" bill not likely soon
Patent trolls, who file patents without any intention of developing them, have been the bane of the technology sector (remember the Blackberry case?); a bill to limit the rights of trolls passed the House but stalled in a Senate committee
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Energía renovable en Aragón
Renewable energy in Spain: Iberdola Renewables, one of Spain’s largest alternative energy companies, forms a joint venture with an Aragón bank to develop clean energy installations in the Aragon region of northeastern Spain
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Army future combat technology demonstrated for Congress
The Army exhibited its future combat systems on Capitol Hill last week; among the items demonstrated: urban unattended ground sensors, land warrior, small UGV, and Class I UAV
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Shape-shifting skin to reduce drag on planes and submarines
Dolphins induce their skin to wrinkle so water would not stick to them, thus reducing drag and friction; researchers design shape-shifting skin for submarines and planes to reduce drag
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The long view
Developing New Vaccine Against Three Biothreat Pathogens
Scientists are seeking to develop a multi-pathogen vaccine that will protect against three bacterial biothreat pathogens.
Preparing National Security Officials for the Challenges of AI
Artificial intelligence (AI) is one of several rapidly emerging technologies that promise to disrupt not only multiple sectors of the U.S. economy but also the manner in which the U.S. government carries out its foundational responsibility to protect national security consistent with the rule of law and constitutional values. Steve Bunnell writes that “The United States’ national security apparatus is not known for nimbleness, nor is the law that governs it. When it comes to AI, the risk is not just that our generals will fight tomorrow’s war with yesterday’s strategy but also that the United States will lack the legal and policy guardrails that are essential to a lawful, accountable, and ethical protection of the nation’s security.”
The Civil-Military Divide over Artificial Intelligence
What factors influence how comfortable and uncomfortable software engineers feel with potential applications of AI for the U.S. military? Is there a correlation between the degree of trust that software engineers have in societal institutions—specifically, in DoD—and their perception of the acceptability of building AI applications for DoD? Do software engineers perceive the countries that DoD has identified as strategic competitors as a meaningful threat to the United States? What types of news media and other sources of information are software engineers relying on to inform them about events related to DoD?
Making hardware and software Quantum-Safe
Quantum computers are thought to have the potential to perform specialized calculations beyond the reach of any supercomputers in existence and will be able to break current public key cryptosystems used today.
New Method Kills Cyberattacks in Less Than a Second
Researchers, using artificial intelligence, new method that could automatically detect and kill cyberattacks on our laptops, computers and smart devices in under a second.
Next-Generation Search & Rescue: Body Cameras, Live Streaming
Typically, search and rescue teams in the wilderness use radio, in-person briefings, text messaging, drones and paper forms to communicate and coordinate their efforts. New digital tools have the potential to revolutionize wilderness search and rescue efforts.
Emerging Hydrogen Storage Technology to Increase Energy Resilience
With the rise in renewable energy as well as increasing uncertainty associated with outages due to power surges and extreme weather events, energy storage plays a key role in ensuring reliable power supply to critical infrastructure such as healthcare facilities, data centers, and telecommunications. New study assesses cost competitiveness of metal-organic framework materials to store hydrogen for large-scale backup power applications.
Boosting Efforts to Predict Harmful Solar Weather Events
When big blasts of energy from the sun envelop the Earth, they can very strong: a 2015 event so weakened Earth’s protective magnetic field that it penetrated to the atmosphere, posing a threat to everything from circling space station astronauts to delicate electronics and communication systems.
Emerging Hydrogen Storage Technology to Increase Energy Resilience
With the rise in renewable energy as well as increasing uncertainty associated with outages due to power surges and extreme weather events, energy storage plays a key role in ensuring reliable power supply to critical infrastructure such as healthcare facilities, data centers, and telecommunications. New study assesses cost competitiveness of metal-organic framework materials to store hydrogen for large-scale backup power applications.
Boosting Efforts to Predict Harmful Solar Weather Events
When big blasts of energy from the sun envelop the Earth, they can very strong: a 2015 event so weakened Earth’s protective magnetic field that it penetrated to the atmosphere, posing a threat to everything from circling space station astronauts to delicate electronics and communication systems.