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Water-based electrolytes promise safer phone batteries
It's hard to completely escape safety issues with lithium-ion batteries, in part due to the nature of the electrolytes that charge and release energy when ions shuttle between electrodes. They usually have to be made of easily combustible chemicals to muster enough power. However, that might not be a problem for much longer. Scientists have crafted a water-based electrolyte that's both considerably safer and manages enough voltage (4V) to be useful.
Scientists hold the first quantum computer face-off
For the first time ever, two quantum computers have faced off against each other in a series of experiments to determine which technology reigns supreme. A team of researchers from the University of Maryland have pitted their own quantum computer against IBM's creation, running the same algorithms on both at the same time. The winner? Well, it's kind of a tie. IBM's is faster than Maryland's, but it's also much less accurate. In one test, Maryland got 77.1 percent in accuracy, while IBM only got 35.1 percent. IBM's, however, was up to 1,000 faster than its competitor.
Researchers have found a way to pair cells to smartphones
Wearables, fitness trackers and other medical devices are extremely useful for gathering basic health data, but existing electronics aren't so good at communicating directly with our bodies' biological systems. The simple fact is that there's a disconnect between organic cells that communicate via hormones or nutrients, and electronic devices that communicate via electrons. According to a new study published this week in the journal Nature Communications, however, researchers have devised a way to reprogram bacterial cells to recognize electronic signals. The system could one day allow our smartphones or other devices to communicate directly with cells in the body.
NASA's Antarctica balloons will study cosmic rays and neutrinos
Antarctica is ideal for launching high-altitude science balloons this time of year. You not only get non-stop sunlight (ideal for solar power), but wind patterns that keep those balloons over land. And NASA is determined to take advantage of this. It's launching a trio of Antarctic balloon missions that promise to shed light on the mysteries of space. The first to take off, the University of Maryland's BACCUS (Boron and Carbon Cosmic Rays in the Upper Stratosphere), will look at cosmic ray particles to learn about the chemicals and density in the space between stars.
Six next-gen battery technologies
By Cat DiStasio We all love our battery-powered gadgets, but portable power cells can be devastating to the environment. Fortunately, recent developments have proven that greener batteries are coming in the not-too-distant future. Engineers are replacing toxic components with less harmful materials ranging from leaves to sugar. Other innovations on the rise look to nature to help make batteries last longer, perform better and leave less of a trace once they've been discarded. This gold nanowire-based battery, for instance, was created by accident and could make lithium ion batteries obsolete, while this single-use battery dissolves in water when its job is done, making it easier to reuse its components.
Scientists made see-through wood that's stronger than glass
Researchers at the University of Maryland were able pull away color and chemicals from a block of wood to leave it impressively see-through. The result is a material that is both stronger and more insulating than glass, with better biodegradability than plastic. "We were very surprised by how transparent it could go," said Liangbing Hu, who wrote about the project in Advanced Materials.
Game algorithm could help win elections
There's a particular strain of game theory, Colonel Blotto, that many believe could predict the outcomes of everything from elections to sports matches. It asks two sides to distribute soldiers over a battlefield, and hands wins to whoever has the most soldiers in a given area. However, it has one glaring problem: there hasn't been a way to get a firm solution. Well, computer scientists have finally found that last piece of the puzzle. They've developed an algorithm that can solve the Colonel Blotto game, making it useful as a strategic tool whenever there's a one-on-one situation.
Portable particle accelerators may soon become reality
Modern particle accelerators are big, to put it mildly -- even the smallest ones tend to occupy large rooms. Researchers at the University of Maryland, however, have found a way to shrink them down to where they're genuinely portable. By shooting plasma with a laser pulse in such a way that they intensify the pulse and create a wake, the scientists can accelerate electrons to near the speed of light without using nearly as much energy as current machines (just millijoules for every blast). With this technology, you'd need so much less equipment and power that you could fit an accelerator on a cart.
DARPA's new tech lets robots learn from YouTube videos
Things would be a lot easier for roboticists if their creations can learn from any instructional video they watch without further programming. While we're still far from teaching robots complicated skills using just a playlist of YouTube clips, a University of Maryland research team is in the very early stages of making that happen. The team's research is funded by DARPA's Mathematics of Sensing, Exploitation and Execution (MSEE) program, which aims to teach machines not only how to collect data, but also how to act on it. For this particular study, the researchers have developed a system that allowed their test robots to learn from a series of "how-to" cooking videos on YouTube. During testing, the robots were able to perform the tasks shown in the videos using the right utensils and with zero human input.
Oculus co-founders donate $35 million to erect computer science wing at University of Maryland
New York City is a town of names: Rockefeller, Astor, Trump. Legacies of the vast wealth held by dynastic families in early 20th century New York City. America's college campuses are littered with the same convention; wealthy alumni donate large sums to expand a university, and subsequently name that expansion after themselves. The University of Maryland, for instance, is getting a $35 million computer science wing from two of Oculus VR's co-founders. And what's it named? "The Brendan Iribe Center for Computer Science and Innovation," apparently, after Oculus VR CEO Brendan Iribe. Oculus chief software architect (and co-founder) Michael Antonov is footing another $4 million. The new facility is planned to "feature state-of-the-art maker spaces," says UMD's Jayanth Banavar. Iribe describes it as, "designed for hackers, makers and engineers, which will help give rise to future breakthroughs, products and startups that will transform the way we live and interact with the world around us." More bluntly, the space is being built to educate the next generation of virtual reality and other future computing platforms. "This gift positions Maryland to be one of the leading institutions for virtual reality in the world," Iribe says.
Super-speedy light detector gives x-ray machines a run for their money
It's very tough to find light beyond certain frequencies. If you want to see elusive terahertz waves, for example, you have to get a system that's either really slow or needs to be kept at a temperature near absolute zero -- not exactly practical. The University of Maryland's scientists have a better way, however. They've developed a graphene-based detector that not only works at room temperature, but should be over a million times faster than previous tech. The very nature of graphene is what makes it work so well; since the material doesn't absorb the heat from incoming light, you can use it as a sensor without having to keep it chilly or otherwise jump through hoops to get an accurate reading.
Bitcoin rival rewards you for archiving history instead of doing useless math
Other than generating lucre, Bitcoin mining does nothing but waste of time and energy. That's why researchers from Microsoft and the University of Maryland have developed "Permacoins" which reward you for actually doing something useful: backing up important data to your hard drives. For instance, you could earn crypto-coins by helping store, say, the 200TB US Library of Congress to your own disks. You wouldn't be able to cheat and use Dropbox or Google Drive thanks to an encrypted key, and data would be validated using a "proof of reliability" check. With enough participation, it would provide a safe, distributed backup and enable data to be accessed during outages -- like when the Library of Congress went offline during last year's shutdown. It's just a prototype for now, but researchers reckon a 100 Petabyte data pool could be created if users spent the same on storage that they have on pricy mining rigs.
AeroVelo's human-powered helicopter bags $250,000 Sikorsky Prize
We're sure AeroVelo team members think every sleepless night and pedal push are worth it now that they can add the prestigious $250,000 Sikorsky Prize to their pile of bragging rights. They've completely demolished all the requirements needed to win the human-powered helicopter competition during one of their recent attempts. Atlas, their flying contraption, stayed in the air for 64.11 seconds, flew at a max altitude of 3.3 meters (10.8 feet) and never meandered beyond the designated 10 x 10 meter (33 x 33 feet) area. The University of Toronto's creation was locked in head-to-head battle with the University of Maryland's Gamera chopper for quite some time, but it's finally bagged the prize that had remained unclaimed for 33 long years. That's a tremendous accomplishment for anyone, especially for a project with humble beginnings, and if Leonardo Da Vinci were still alive, he'd extend a big congratulazione.
Big Ten Network carriage agreements may be motivating conference expansion
It's no secret that college football is big business and that a major contributing factor is revenue from television. The influential reach of that revenue is a hot debate in organizations that are supposed to put more ideal values above capitalistic ones -- the two are not always at odds, though. So when a collegiate organization like the Big Ten Conference is motivated to expand, most would like to think it's a school's academic, or even athletic, merits that put said institution at the top of the want list. However, Dan Wetzel of Yahoo Sports believes the reason the Big Ten courted the University of Maryland and Rutgers University really just comes down to finding a way to sell an additional 14.6 million residents the Big Ten Network. The economics of sports networks on cable television is well documented -- the majority pay so that the vocal minority may watch -- but sculpting an amateur sports league to ensure your cable TV channel gets carriage in America's largest media markets might be a new twist.
Gamera II hits new high with unofficial human-powered helicopter altitude record (video)
The University of Maryland team responsible for the Gamera II human-powered helicopter NAA flight time record may be on its way to bagging another one -- this time for altitude. With new freshman pilot Henry Enerson spinning the cranks, the gigantic four-rotor design ascended to eight feet, an unexpectedly lofty level, according to the team. The well-controlled 25 second flight was far less than the record 49.9 seconds Gamera achieved earlier, but the new altitude bodes well for its upcoming Sikorsky Prize attempt. That $250,000 award, unclaimed since 1980, requires a 10-foot altitude to be maintained for one minute, and now looks to be distinctly in the UMD group's sights. Check the video after the break, and marvel at the ungainly quadrocopter's latest aerial exploit.
NAA verifies new US record for human-powered helicopter flight (video)
A team at the University of Maryland has been taking human powered flight to new heights. Or, rather, lengths, by setting a new US record for flight duration of 49.9 seconds with its Gamera II rotorcraft. The benchmark event actually took place in June, but only received the all important plaudits from the National Aeronautic Association on August 9. Gamera II builds on its predecessor (unsurprisingly, Gamera I) by featuring improved transmission, rotor design and a redesigned cockpit. Not content with smashing the previous craft's record of 11.4 seconds, the team plans to fly a further refined version of the copter with longer blades and other fine tuning later this month. The 49.9 second flight has also been submitted to the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale for World, rather than American-record verification. The guys at Maryland might want to keep an eye over their shoulders though, as it looks like someone else already has their eyes on that prize. Video evidence after the break.
Scientists use bilayer graphene to develop extra-sensitive photodetector
By now it goes without saying that graphene is something of a darling in the research community, with scientists using the material to develop transistors, batteries and circuits, among other devices. In 2011, MIT researchers discovered graphene's effectiveness as a photodetector, and a team at the University of Maryland has taken that line of thought a few steps further. By using bilayer graphene (two atoms thick instead of one atom thick), the scientists developed a temperature-sensitive device more than 1,000 times faster than existing technologies. Not to mention, it's capable of recognizing a very broad range of light energies, which means it could be useful in everything from biochemical weapons detection to airport body scanners. Still, the UMD researchers have their work cut out for them: the graphene photodetector has a high electrical resistance, and it will require tweaks to absorb enough light to be useful. Still, this is graphene we're talking about -- and we don't expect its popularity to wane any time soon.
Headphone-wearing pedestrian injuries triple as audiophiles stop noticing onrushing trains
The number of pedestrians injured or killed while wearing headphones has tripled in the last six years: 16 oblivious PMP users were offed in 2004, the number rising to 47 for last year. The research, carried out by Dr Richard Lichenstein at the University of Maryland found that headphone wearers became "inattentionally blind" to dangers such as passing cars and on-rushing trains. That's not us being flip either: 55 percent of the incidents involved locomotives. The majority of victims were male (68 percent) and under the age of 30 (67 percent): which puts your average Engadget reader in the center of the danger zone -- take it from us guys: sometimes it's better to press pause, "Baby, baby" will still be there when you've crossed the railway.
Tiny 'jumping robots' have more in common with firecrackers than Johnny 5
Perhaps calling an immobile plastic bug with explosives strapped to its underside a "jumping robot" is a bit of a stretch, but who are we to argue with the Army Research Laboratory and the University of Maryland. The two groups have collaborated to create a pair of "robots" that measure just a few millimeters in size but can jump several centimeters in the air. One uses a spring like mechanism (which an operator must press down with a pair of tweezers) to propel it, while the other uses a small rocket, which can be triggered either by current applied over wires or a phototransistor (for untethered flight). It all makes for a pretty neat video, which you can find after the break - even if your sister's Furby was more robot than these tiny things.
IBM's Jeopardy-winning supercomputer headed to hospitals. Dr. Watson, we presume?
We always knew that Watson's powers extended well beyond the realm of TV trivia, and now IBM has provided a little more insight into how its supercomputer could help doctors treat and diagnose their patients. Over the past few months, researchers have been stockpiling Watson's database with information from journals and encyclopedias, in an attempt to beef up the device's medical acumen. The idea is to eventually sync this database with a hospital's electronic health records, allowing doctors to remotely consult Watson via cloud computing and speech-recognition technology. The system still has its kinks to work out, but during a recent demonstration for the AP, IBM's brainchild accurately diagnosed a fictional patient with Lyme disease using only a list of symptoms. It may be another two years, however, before we see Watson in a white coat, as IBM has yet to set a price for its digitized doc. But if it's as sharp in the lab as it was on TV, we may end up remembering Watson for a lot more than pwning Ken Jennings. Head past the break for a video from the University of Maryland School of Medicine, which, along with Columbia University, has been directly involved in IBM's program.
