What if a low-cost solar thermal ice production system could be used to refrigerate vaccines without electricity? Adam Gage, Peter Shoaf, Jeromie Webster, and Logan Olsen think it would be pretty cool. The team developed a method to harness naturally occurring adsorption/desorption cycles to help developing countries increase vaccine availability. Continue reading
Tag Archives: momentum
Retro arcade game player
Sometimes it’s in going backward that we move forward. At least that’s what Kyle Thompson, Flint Yoder, and José Terrazas may have thought when they designed a multi-user, open-source system that can host vintage arcade games such as Tetris and Snake. The system includes a controller; a super-bright RGB display designed to fit behind frosted glass to create an aesthetically pleasing piece of functional art; and handpicked joysticks meant to mimic the experience of gaming in a retro arcade. Continue reading
Inexpensive wireless robotic hand
It can be traumatic enough when someone needs a prosthetic device, but it can be doubly so when that person is faced with the price tag. And then the expensive prosthetic may not even give the person enough functionality to make it worth it. “The current price of prosthetics goes in the thousands, and they are all semi-functional,” said Aleksandar Bogdanovic, a graduating senior in the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. Continue reading
Radiation exposure in honeybees
Until recently, radiation dose calculations primarily focused on human tolerance, but research shows that nonhuman organisms may be more sensitive to radiation than humans. In the past few years, the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) has been developing a set of Reference Animals and Plants to assess radiation effects on nonhuman species. Casey King, Mario Gomez, Thomas Iverson, and Junwei Jia in the Department of Nuclear Engineering and Radiation Health Physics focused their senior project on developing dose conversion factors for honeybees (genus Apis). Continue reading
Vibrations testing facility
Flow-induced vibrations can have devastating consequences. For example, the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in Washington collapsed when strong winds induced vibrations that matched the natural frequency of the bridge. In California, Edison International decided to permanently shut down the nearly new San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station after vibrations in the steam generator caused alloy tubes to rub against each other, resulting in leakage and unsafe operating conditions. Continue reading