Engineering FYI, January 2010

The Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard has announced a new collaborative effort with the Carlos Slim Institute of Health on a “major research project in genome medicine.”

The goal of the research is to better understand the genomic basis of cancer and type 2 diabetes, specifically in Mexican and Latin American populations.

Read the full news release

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In the midst of a new $25 million Student Center at Clarkson University, a Clarkson professor has developed “a special formula using locally produced recycled material to manufacture the 7,500 concrete blocks that make up the 56,000-square-foot building’s shell.”

Narayanan Neithalath replaced roughly 20 percent of the most expensive, and least sustainable, ingredient in concrete with a mixture of recycled industrial glass powder, which produced a “cheaper, more green building material.” Read article

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A research team at Michigan State University has licensed “unique tattoo matching technology that will allow law enforcement officials to search tattoo image databases to help identify suspects, criminals, and victims.”

The new technology was licensed to MorphoTrak, the world’s top provider of biometric and identity management systems. With the ability to compute the similarity between tattoo color, shape, and texture the new technology will be an invaluable tool for law enforcement. Read full news release

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