Engineering FYI, July 2010

Researchers from the Wyss Institute at Harvard are “using genetic engineering to get organisms to act the way we want them to.”

The organisms are producing sugar from photosynthetic bacteria, which could have “implications in moving toward a green economy.” Read the article for more information on the findings that appear in Applied and Environmental Biology.

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A news report from WTHI-TV in Terre Haute, IN, highlights the efforts of a team of Purdue civil engineering students traveling “the state testing the safety and endurance of road bridges.”

Purdue graduate student Jason Provines, MI A ’09, is quoted in the story explaining the need for the tests. “Rather than try to do some analytical model of the bridges, we want to let the bridge tell us how it’s responding,” said Provines.

The data from their work will be presented to a local technical assistance program. Read more here, for information about the bridges they tested

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Wired is reporting on the efforts of “the big names in aerospace” to design and win the contract for the supersonic airliner of the future.

NASA released pictures of new designs (below) submitted by both Boeing and Lockheed Martin.

One of the main struggles of the new design is to reduce the loud boom created by shock waves from the airplane’s engines. Read the article for more of the challenges involved.

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