Category Archives: Engineering

USA Still Leads In Innovation

In innovation, the U.S. still leads by Dr. Venkat Lakshmi:

But this is not entirely the case. The United States is still the center of the world when it comes to innovation and original thinking. In this year’s Nobel Prizes, Americans won in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, and economics. The Nobel Prize in literature was won by Turkish writer affiliated with Columbia University. The other exception was the prize for peace. So in four of six categories, the winners were Americans.

In the past few years, the United States has led the innovation in the Internet revolution. Who 10 years ago could imagine three 20-somethings coming up with the idea of posting video clips on the Internet? This led to the creation of YouTube, which was bought out by Google (yet another enterprise put together by two graduate students) for a mind-boggling sum of $1.6 billion.

I agree that the USA continues to lead especially in those 2 areas. Those winning Nobel Prizes normally made their breakthrough decades before. My guess is the United States will not have as large a percentage of winners from 2020-2029 as it did from 1990-1999 (and I can’t image many people would disagree). And the USA continues to do very well at commercializing innovation. Others are catching up, but still the USA is doing very well in this area – it seems to be the strongest position for the USA (among things such as manufacturing, basic science research, activity in space, k-12 science and engineering education, health care, robotics, science and engineering higher education…).

Related: America’s Technology Advantage Slipping – China’s Gene Therapy Investment – Engineering the Future Economy

Micro-robots to ‘swim’ Through Veins

image of Escherichia coli bacterium with flagella

Micro-robots take off
Photo: Transmission Electron Microscopy photograph of an Escherichia coli bacterium with flagella. The micro-robots are being developed to mimic the swimming behaviour of E.coli.

Micro-robots that can ‘swim’ through the vascular and digestive systems of the human body to perform medical tasks via remote control and, in many cases, avoid invasive major surgery, are being developed at Monash University following today’s announcement that the project has been funded through the Australian Research Council’s Discovery Projects scheme.

Related: Microbots Designed to Swim Like Bacteria – Bacteria Power Tiny Motor – Where Bacteria Get Their Genes – Programing Bacteria – Bacteria Sprout Conducting Nanowires – Biological Molecular Motors

Increasing American Fellowship Support for Scientists and Engineers

A great research paper is available today from the Brookings Institution: Investing in the Best and Brightest: Increased Fellowship Support for American Scientists and Engineers by Richard B. Freeman. For those interesting in science and engineering education and/or economic policy I recommend it.

In 2005, the United States employed about 31 percent of the world’s scientist and engineer researchers and financed 35 percent of R&D while accounting for 5 percent of the world’s population and 21 percent of the world’s GDP…
The U.S. share of global science and engineering activity is declining, however, and will continue to decline

I agree the declining trend is likely to continue, mainly due to the improvement of science and engineering efforts worldwide, see, for example: Diplomacy and Science Research and – U.S. Slipping on Science – Phony Science Gap?.

The growth of high-tech employment in Silicon Valley and in university-based locations of scientific excellence suggests that innovation, production, and employment in high-tech fields occur largely in areas strong in basic science.10 The supply of scientists and engineers is a major factor in the location of these centers of excellence.

Again I agree. I am in danger of confirmation bias since this report basically reinforces what I believe – so of course I find it worthwhile.

While no one can be sure of the particular areas where an increased number of scientists and engineers might make their greatest contribution, our recent history is filled with examples where young innovative researchers have made major contributions to economic progress: The Internet. The biotech industry. The PC. The mathematics of cryptography that underpins Internet commerce.

Again I agree. This is why so many countries have been devoting significant resources to improving their science and technology infrastructure – the economic benefits of doing so.
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Indian Institute of Technology Thoughts

An interesting interview of an IIT graduate and CEO that really discusses how IIT graduates can help the Indian economy more than the title indicates – 5 things entrepreneurs must do to succeed:

First and foremost what is required is empathy and a genuine concern to improve the lot of the people. Next, there has to be a coordinated effort between the government and other agencies. Four focussed initiatives in each district around education, agriculture, industry and social equality could be identified and on an experimental basis ten districts could be identified and handed over to IIT-ians who have the zeal to bring about the transformation with a time bound agenda, with the commitment to support them through various agencies.

Google’s Start by Brin and Page

The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine by Sergey Brin and Lawrence Page, 1998:

This paper addresses this question of how to build a practical large-scale system which can exploit the additional information present in hypertext. Also we look at the problem of how to effectively deal with uncontrolled hypertext collections where anyone can publish anything they want.

See more research papers from Google via Google Labs.

Science and Engineering Scholarships and Fellowships

I have added a new page on our web site that includes links to online resources with advice on applying for and winning science and engineering scholarships and fellowships. That page also includes a list of the largest science and engineering scholarships and fellowships. Please share your comments and suggestions for additions for that page.

Anti-microbial ‘paint’

anti-microbial ‘paint’ kills flu, bacteria

A new “antimicrobial paint” developed at MIT can kill influenza viruses that land on surfaces coated with it, potentially offering a new weapon in the battle against a disease that kills nearly 40,000 Americans per year. If applied to doorknobs or other surfaces where germs tend to accumulate, the new substance could help fight the spread of the flu, says Jianzhu Chen, MIT professor of biology.
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The “antimicrobial paint,” which can be sprayed or brushed onto surfaces, consists of spiky polymers that poke holes in the membranes that surround influenza viruses. Influenza viruses exposed to the polymer coating were essentially wiped out. The researchers observed a more than 10,000-fold drop in the number of viruses on surfaces coated with the substance.
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One of the benefits of the new polymer coating is that it is highly unlikely that bacteria will develop resistance to it, Klibanov said. Bacteria can become resistant to traditional antibiotics by adjusting the biochemical pathways targeted by antibiotics, but it would be difficult for bacteria to evolve a way to stop the polymer spikes from tearing holes in their membranes.

Open Source for LEGO Mindstorms

Lego Tribot

Open Source Firmware, Developer Kits for LEGO® MINDSTORMS®:

“Most often, innovation comes from the core community of users. Our ongoing commitment to enabling our fan base to personalize and enhance their MINDSTORMS experience has reached a new level with our decision to release the firmware for the NXT brick as open source,” said Søren Lund, director of LEGO MINDSTORMS.

photo: Lego TriBot – a flexible 3-wheeled driving robot with sound, light, touch and ultrasonic sensors – see more details.

Related: Books – Building Robots With Lego Mindstorms and LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT Hacker’s Guide – Posts Lego Learning – Fun k-12 Science and Engineering Learning – Building minds by building robots – Buy the Lego Mindstorms NXT kit online – $250

China’s Science and Technology Plan

Interesting article – China’s 15-year science and technology plan by Cong Cao, Richard P. Suttmeier, and Denis Fred Simon:

China initiated a 15-year “Medium- to Long-Term Plan for the Development of Science and Technology.” The MLP calls for China to become an “innovation-oriented society” by the year 2020, and a world leader in science and technology (S&T) by 2050
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China will invest 2.5% of its increasing gross domestic product in R&D by 2020, up from 1.34% in 2005; raise the contributions to economic growth from technological advance to more than 60%

Related: China’s Economic Science Experiment – China challenges dominance of USA, Europe and Japan – Diplomacy and Science Research – Best Global Research Universities – China Builds a Better Internet – Engineering Graduate Data: China, USA and India – Worldwide Science and Engineering Doctoral Degree Data – China and USA Basic Science Research – Chinese Engineering Innovation Plan