Oak Ridge Today

UT, Y-12 chemical sensing technology wins national R&D100 award

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Michael-Sepaniak

Michael Sepaniak

A low-cost chemical sensor invented by a University of Tennessee chemistry professor in partnership with the Y-12 National Security Complex has been recognized by R&D Magazine as a top technology product in the marketplace, a press release said.

The invention, the product of UT Chemistry Professor Michael Sepaniak and collaborators at Y-12, was selected this weekend for the 2015 R&D100 Award—known in the field as the “Oscars of innovation.” The award recognizes the top 100 technology projects of the year and honors the inventors.

ChIMES (Chemical Identification by Magneto-Elastic Sensing) is a new low-cost passive chemical sensing technology. The sensors are based on a set of target response materials that expand in the presence of a target. The expanding volume puts stress on materials, changing their magnetic properties so they can be detected wirelessly. [Read more…]

Obama visit spotlights sports car printed by UT engineers at ORNL

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Shelby Cobra 3D Printed Cobra

University of Tennessee engineering students Andrew Messing and Alex Roschli printed this Shelby Cobra at Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Manufacturing Demonstration Facility. The car was on stage during President Obama’s visit to Techmer PM in Clinton on Friday. (Photo courtesy UT)

 

CLINTON—President Obama took the stage at Techmer PM in Clinton on Friday to announce that the University of Tennessee in Knoxville will head a $259 million advanced manufacturing project and that Oak Ridge National Laboratory will play a key role. The president shared the spotlight with a shiny example of innovation, research, and collaboration between the two—a Shelby Cobra 3D printed car.

The car was highlighted during Obama’s visit as an example of the changing world of manufacturing. It was produced with major contributions from a pair of student interns from UT’s College of Engineering—Alex Roschli and Andrew Messing, a press release said.

Roschli and Messing, both seniors in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, are doing internships at ORNL, where the car was printed at the Manufacturing Demonstration Facility. [Read more…]

DOE report co-chaired by UT professor calls for renewed focus on high-end math research

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Jack Dongarra

Jack Dongarra

Professor also ORNL researcher, co-author of Top 500 ranking of the world’s most powerful supercomputers

KNOXVILLE—The U.S. Department of Energy recently released a report co-chaired by Jack Dongarra, a distinguished professor at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, in which he stresses the importance of prioritizing research into high-end mathematics to help keep the United States on the cutting edge of computing.

“Exascale computing (capable of one quintillion floating point operations per second) will enable us to solve problems in ways that are not feasible today and will result in significant scientific breakthroughs,” said Dongarra, of UT’s Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. “However, the transition to exascale poses numerous scientific and technological challenges.”

Dongarra, one of five National Academy of Engineering members on the faculty of UT’s College of Engineering, said that increased funding for the development of new models and ways of gathering data is key to unlocking a number of those challenges. [Read more…]