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NASA awards $100,000 grant for sideways supersonic plane concept, sonic boom not included
NASA isn't just interested in extra-terrestrial exploration, but in pushing the boundaries of atmospheric flight as well, which is why it's just awarded $100,000 in funding for the supersonic plane concept shown above. As you can see, the symmetrical plane is basically all wing, and that's because it has two different configurations based on how fast you want to go. For normal, subsonic flight, a plane needs a decent wingspan to get off the ground and sustain flight at lower speeds. But, when you want to go supersonic, large wings become a bit of a drag, which is where the concept's bi-functional design comes in. The plane begins its journey in the long-winged setup, but spins 90 degrees amongst the clouds to use its stubby wings for efficient faster-than-sound flight and "virtually zero sonic boom." Gecheng Zha from the University of Miami has been touting his concept for quite some time, but now he's got the cash to refine the design, run simulations and do some wind tunnel testing, with the potential for more funding in the future. Unfortunately, the concept is, at best, decades from becoming a reality, but we're sold on the ninja star-like design. Guile, however, is not impressed.
CenturyLink gets $35 million FCC grant to connect 45,000 rural homes to the internet (updated)
CenturyLink has announced that it's getting $35 million from the FCC's Connect America Fund to hook 45,000 homes in rural areas up to the internet. The company isn't hiding its disappointment at the donation, since it was originally angling for closer to $90 million. However, the conditions attached to the extra cash made further deployment "uneconomic," so the company will have to settle at this first target to begin with. There is some hope for countryside folk: CenturyLink mavens have filed a waiver application which, if granted, would let the company connect a further 60,000 homes where service is currently too expensive to install. Update: The FCC has made its own announcement, pledging that it'll connect up to 400,000 unconnected citizens in the next three years and up to seven million in six. The full text is after the jump.
Details on Playdead's Limbo successor dredged up in Danish grant list
Playdead is perking up, offering some scant details about its follow-up to 2010's Limbo via a listing for Danish interactive grant recipients spotted by superannuation. The game has a working title of "Project 2" and is slated for PS3, Xbox 360, PC and Mac.The game will follow "a boy's struggle against evil forces trying to take over the world through questionable experiments on human bodies," as superannuation translates it. "Project 2" is a 2D platformer in a 3D world and is "in color," though from the screenshot above it looks as if those colors may have been scraped from Limbo's leftovers.Playdead received £1,000,000 from the Danish government to work on "Project 2." It began working on this title in 2010 and set its production time at "three and a half years," superannuation notes, bringing its launch to an estimated 2014.
Tesla pairs up with SolarCity, will power off-grid homes as well as cars
If you've ever dreamed of thumbing your nose at big energy and its expensive, polluting ways, then Tesla and a solar panel leasing company called SolarCity might be taking you a baby-step closer to reality. Although recognized mostly for its EVs, Tesla reckons it knows enough about batteries to solve a key problem in the solar energy chain -- namely the storage of power for use when the sun, power grid, or both go offline. The battery design, consisting of many laptop-style lithium ion batteries stacked together, was chosen after two years of research and a $1.8 million energy grant. The two companies are now waiting for tax credits from the Fed and California before rolling out the tech. And being kissing cousins -- with Elon Musk as both Chairman of SolarCity and CEO of Tesla -- certainly can't hurt.
Silicon Knights: we never received any of Canada's money
Last year, Silicon Knights was awarded a grant by the Canadian government, in part to self-publish games, and to hire 80 employees. But it turns out the Ontario Ministry of Economic Development and Trade never handed over the funds -- a promised sum of $3 million Canadian."There hasn't been any funding. There were announcements and no money received," Silicon Knights president Denis Dyack told GI.biz. "That's one of the strangest things. So, at one point, there was a loan that we got. That's it." Dyack said he's following up on the money, but to no avail so far.It could be an alarming issue for Silicon Knights, considering the state of affairs at the Ontario-based studio. Late last year the developer had to let 45 go, and it remains embroiled in a long-running legal dispute with Epic over the use of Unreal Engine 3 during the development of Too Human.
Bomb-sniffing crystals may save us from nuclear Armageddon, tea leaves agree
Worried that a nuclear attack might wipe out all of American civilization? You needn't be, because the scientific community's crystal ball says crystal balls may save humanity. Last week, the Department of Energy awarded a $900,000 grant to Fisk University and Wake Forest, where researchers have been busy exploring the counter-terrorist capabilities of strontium iodide crystals. Once laced with europium, these crystals can do a remarkably good job of picking up on and analyzing radiation, as the team from Fisk and other national laboratories recently discovered. Cost remains the most imposing barrier to deploying the materials at airports or national borders, though soothsaying scientists claim it's only a matter of time before they develop a way to produce greater crystalline quantities at an affordable price. The only thing Miss Cleo sees is a glistening press release, in your very near, post-break future.
National Endowment for the Arts grants now available for games
It looks like the affirmative side of the "Games as Art" debate just got a powerful player on their side: The National Endowment for the Arts. The government agency recently changed its "Arts on Radio and Television" category to the somewhat broader "Arts in Media." According to the official NEA guidelines, these include "media created for theatrical release; performance programs; artistic segments for use within an existing series; multi-part webisodes; installations; and interactive games." Hey, that's us! Developers seeking federal backing for their super artistic projects can apply on the NEA's official site before September 1. Considering the grants range from $10,000 to $200,000, we think it would be worth the effort.
Google gives Georgia Tech $1 million to build a benchmark for the open internet
You can benchmark the cycles of your CPU, power of your GPU, speed of your internet connection, and a myriad of other seemingly important things. However, there's one missing benchmark that could make all those seem rather frivolous: the openness of your connection. Google wants one and has just awarded Georgia Tech a $1 million grant over two years (with a possible $500k bonus for a third year) to come up with a benchmark capable of detecting just how neutral your net is. When ready, it'll look for any artificial throttling that's been set in place and will also check for evidence of digital censorship. No word on when an early version might see release, but hopefully it comes before we need to start paying extra for the ability to download non-ISP-approved content.
FTA awards $16.6 million in grants for fuel cell bus research
While we were jealously hung up on South Korea's working electric bus system, Christmas apparently came early for a couple of lucky US fuel cell bus research projects -- in the form of $16.6 million in Federal Transit Administration grants. Pasadena based Calstart snagged almost $10.2 million and will funnel 70 percent of the funds to developing the first phase of a low-cost, longer lasting fuel cell power system. Calstart will then spend its remaining $2.9 million in partnership with the Chicago Regional Transit Authority to develop and test the viability of fuel cell bus fleets in cold climates. The Center for Transportation and the Environment in Atlanta was the other project to hit the federal money gravy train. It received a hefty $6.4 million to spread across six different projects that dabble in everything from developing fast-charging 35-foot fuel cell buses, to similar lithium ion versions, to improving existing hybrid bus platforms. Federal pork for fuel cell DSLR development regrettably missed the cut. For the full scoop hit up the press release after the break.
Better Place's electric taxis coming to SF Bay Area, thanks to $7 million grant
San Francisco, San Jose and Palo Alto, California were all too happy to endorse Better Place's electric vehicle infrastructure two years ago, but now the powers that be have invested some cash to get this show on the road. The Bay Area's Metropolitan Transportation Commission has dropped $6.9 million to purchase and build 61 electric taxis and four robotic battery swap stations to put freshly juiced cells in place -- just like Better Place has been doing with Tokyo taxis since April 26th. Yellow Cab Cooperative and Yellow Checker Cab will operate the zero-emission vehicles, though CNET reports that they've yet to choose a particular type -- perhaps we'll finally see Mitsubishi's i MiEV with a steering wheel on the left-hand side? PR after the break.
DARPA enlists NVIDIA to build exascale supercomputer that's '1000x faster' than today's quickest
At this point, it's pretty obvious that GPUs will soon be playing a huge role in modern day supercomputers -- a role that may just rival that of the tried-and-true CPU. Virginia Tech is gleefully accepting $2 million in order to build a GPU and CPU-enabled HokieSpeed supercomputer, and today DARPA is handing out $25 million to NVIDIA in order to develop "high-performance GPU computing systems." Specifically the Defense Department's research and development arm is aiming to address a so-called "crisis in computing," and if all goes well, the four-year project will eventually yield a "new class of exascale supercomputers which will be 1,000-times more powerful than today's fastest supercomputers." That's a pretty lofty goal, but NVIDIA will be aided by Cray, Oak Ridge National Laboratory and a half-dozen US universities along the way. And yeah, if ever anyone's ego was prepared to topple Moore's Law, it'd be this guy.
Coulomb partners with Ford, Chevy, Smart to deliver 4,600 free EV charging stations in US
Looks like Australia and Poland were just the beginning: Coulomb Technologies is looking to roll out nearly 5,000 electric vehicle charging stations in the US, effective immediately. If one of those cherry-red push pins is pointed at your neighborhood, you'll likely see the stations popping up at local businesses soon, and if you're looking to purchase a Chevy Volt, Tesla-powered Smart or one of Ford's two new EVs, you can even qualify to have a free station installed in your home. Partially paid for by a $15 million grant from the Department of Energy, the ChargePoint America program won't necessarily give you free electricity to go with it -- that "charge" in ChargePoint has a double meaning, after all -- but we're happy to see the zero-emissions future is finally on a roll. PR after the break.
Penny Arcade Scholarship now accepting applications
Wondering what it feels like to be on the receiving end of the benevolence frequently exhibited by the creators of Penny Arcade? If you're a college student with starry-eyed ambitions to change the video game industry for the better, you might be able to bask in the warm light of their generosity by receiving the fourth annual Penny Arcade Scholarship, a $10,000 academic grant set aside for a special student with a GPA over 3.3 and the aforementioned revolutionary aspirations. Applications for the scholarship are currently being accepted and must be sent in by May 30, along with two letters of recommendation, an academic transcript, an essay on how you plan to change the industry and your photograph, which will only be seen publicly if you're the winner, as displayed on the scholarship's page. It's not like the Penny Arcade guys are basing their decision on prettiness or anything. [Via GamePolitics]
Silicon Knights gets $4 million from Canadian government
Silicon Knights has been shoving the beggar's cup in the face of the Canadian government for some time now and The Welland Tribune reports that a grant has been approved. This means Silicon Knights has been awarded $4 million (pretty big cup, eh?), which it will use to recruit 65 new workers for the Ontario-based studio to help create its next game -- the rumored Siren in the Maelstrom. President Denis Dyack is obviously stoked about the influx of cash, but offered little on the studio's next game. "We can only say it's a next generation title and a high production value game," he offered. "That's all we can say." Hey, that's all well and good, but we don't want to hear jack about a siren and some maelstrom or whatever. Give us an Eternal Darkness sequel, please. Please? [Via GI.biz]
Yale gets $4 million grant for HIV avoidance game
A group of pupils at Yale University recently received a grant from the (deep breath) Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, which will help fund development of a video game which teaches youngsters how to avoid contracting HIV. The game, Retro-Warriors, will be designed with a multicultural focus, so that it can be used to teach young people across the globe how to identify and eschew risky behaviors. It's not the first time someone's proposed such a project -- however, considering the aforementioned grant was for $3.9 million, it might be the most well-funded educational game of all time. We're fully expecting top-of-the-line graphics, a score by Hans Zimmer and some measure of involvement from Nolan North. For more information on what the game will actually be like, check out this CNS News article. [Via GamePolitics]
Funcom receives grant to create extreme sports MMO
In between navigating the sometimes-choppy waters of Age of Conan and working toward the launch of The Secret World, Funcom is having a busy year, but it looks like they are adding one more project to the pile as well. Funcom has been given a grant worth NOK 1.5 million -- $262,000 US -- in order to create a new extreme sports MMO. Funcom's Director of Communications Erling Ellingsen says "Yes, I can confirm that Funcom is working on a new project called Board with the World. This will be a free-to-play social MMO focusing on the world of extreme sports. [...] First and foremost we will be focusing on snowboarding, with the possibility of adding different sports later. We also want this to be a social world rich with different types of media content and pop-cultural elements such as music, video and even fashion. It is definitely exciting, and we look forward to revealing more on this later." Work on the project is expected to begin in January 2010, and we can expect more details as it progresses.
US government lays out cash for wall-based, in-home 'smart meters'
Google has its PowerMeter, Microsoft has its Hohm and Obama has his "smart meters." Got it? Good. Around two years after UK taxpayers began footing the bill for in-home energy monitors, it seems as if America's current administration is looking to follow suit. While visiting the now-open solar facility in Arcadia, Florida today, the Pres announced that $3.4 billion in cash that the US doesn't actually have has just been set aside for a number of things, namely an intelligent power grid and a whole bundle of smart power meters. Aside from boring apparatuses like new digital transformers and grid sensors (both of which are designed to modernize the nation's "dilapidated" electric network), 18 million smart meters and 1 million "other in-home devices" will be installed in select abodes. The idea here is to give individuals a better way to monitor their electricity usage, with the eventual goal set at 40 million installed meters over the next few years. Great idea, guys -- or you know, you could just advise people to turn stuff off when they aren't using it, or not use energy they can't afford. Just sayin'.
Vice President Biden announces $2.4 billion in battery-related grants
It hasn't been much of a secret that the US government was planning to dole out a couple of billion in battery-related grants to automakers this week, but we only got the details on who gets what today when Vice President Joe Biden made the big announcement himself in Detroit. As you might expect, the big three automakers all got a sizable chunk of the $2.4 billion up for grabs, with GM snagging $240 million for three separate grants, Ford getting $92.7 million (part of which will fund an electric-drive-parts facility in Michigan), and Chrysler receiving $70 million to develop and deploy advanced plug-in hybrid pickups and minivans. The single biggest winner, however, is Johnson Controls Inc., which got close to $300 million to produce battery parts for hybrid and electric vehicles. Chrysler partner A123 Systems Inc. was the next highest with $249.1 million, while EnerDel got $118.5 million that it'll use for its Indianapolis plant that produces lithium-ion cells and battery packs.[Image courtesy Wood TV8]
Tesla, Ford, Nissan all receive electric car development loans from US government
High five, Tesla fans -- everyone's favorite incredibly controversial electric car company has just been granted $465m in loans from the Department of Energy's Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing program. The bulk of the money will go towards that postponed Model S factory, while the remaining $100m will be used to fund an electric powertrain manufacturing facility that will sell parts like motors and battery packs to other carmakers. Tesla wasn't the DOE's only big winner: Nissan received $1.6b (billion!) to build batteries and EVs in Tennessee and Ford received an undisclosed amount to build two upcoming electric cars, but since those companies have largely drama-free upper management that isn't constantly involved in lawsuits, it feels a little more routine. Still, it's an exciting time -- let's hope all these tax dollars turn into affordable, convenient electric transportation sooner rather than later.Update: A "congressional source" has told the AP that Ford's getting $5.9 billion, so yeah, the Oval's still the big dog. Read - Tesla Read - Ford Read - Nissan
Sprint nabs $7.3M grant for hydrogen fuel cells at cell sites
The US Department of Energy is feeling generous with some $41.9 million worth of cold, hard cash in a round of grants aimed at advancing fuel cell tech, and Sprint ended up scoring some $7.3 million of it -- the only carrier to do so. Carriers and hydrogen fuel cells don't seem like a natural fit at first, but it turns out that backup power at cell sites is kind of a big deal, and fuel cells are a perfect fit for a reliable, long-running, zero-emission solution. Interestingly, Sprint has been really into this for a while now -- it's their third awarded grant, and it turns out that they've had fuel cells deployed at sites since way back in 2005 (and they've even got 12 patents under their belt to prove it). Most current sites offer up to 15 hours of power in the event of an emergency using low-pressure hydrogen tanks, and the carrier says that it'll use the latest cash infusion to work with its partners to boost that up to 72 hours. Probably worse ways for the government to spend $7.3 million, when you think about it (say, on no-bid contracts for surplus eraser heads for Number 2 pencils, for instance).
