Technology Advances — Engineering Challenges

A challenge from the Pentagon’s advanced-research organization, Darpa, has the aviation industry working on an unmanned surveillance and communications plane that can circle targets for half a decade on solar power.

The first entry in Darpa’s Vulture program is the Odysseus. The plane’s designers at Aurora Flight Sciences have produced this concept of a 492-foot-wide folding aircraft powered by solar panels that cover the top of the plane. Read article

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The FCC is using engineers to research both sides of recent requests to increase the maximum power for FM digital channels.

Clear Channel and CBS Radio were among several radio groups requesting that the FCC increase the maximum permissible digital operating power of FM stations from the current limit of 1% of a station’s authorized analog power to 10%. The claim is that this change would allow FM digital channels to improve coverage and building penetration.

The results of a technical report by the National Public Radio (NPR) suggest that more testing is necessary on power levels and interface. Some independent engineers feel that “there is no headroom for any power increase in many areas,” and that the FCC should hold off until further research is conducted.
Read full article

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A collaboration of bioengineers have “created a tiny micron-sized device that allows researchers to measure and manipulate cellular forces as assemblies of living cells reorganize themselves into tissues.”

The study was conducted by Christopher Chen of the University of Pennsylvania along with other professors from U Penn, UCSB, and Cambridge. Read article for more information

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