On Campus, May 2013

MotorTrend Magazine recently profiled research being done at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign related to a “nanotech cure for Lithium-Ion battery fires.” A trio of researchers, including Dr. Scott R. White (MO B ’86) and Nancy R. Sottos (DE A ‘86) “has proposed smearing a thin coating of nanospheres on either the anode or the separator layer to serve as a sub-microscopic fire brigade.” For more details, read the article

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The New York Tau Chapter of Tau Beta Pi at Binghamton University recently hosted patent attorney Leland D. Schultz, MN A ’75, for a lecture. Schultz works for Hinman, Howard & Kattell as special counsel and earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. The Binghamton student newspaper, Pipe Dream, was on hand to cover the event.

Schultz “framed the lecture through the story of the Wright brothers’ invention and patenting of the airplane.” The article also discussed the Q&A session after the lecture when TBP NY Tau chapter president, Alex Hantman (NY T 2013), discussed his current senior design project with the hopes of starting a company and pursuing patents after graduation. Read the article for more information on Schultz’s talk and Hantman’s bioengineering project.

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In late April, the first ever University Hoverbowl Challenge took place between two teams of students from the University of Alabama and Auburn University. There has been a hovercraft club at Auburn since 2003, but engineering students just started Alabama’s hovercraft club. Hisham K. Ali, AL B 2013, heads the new club and built their first hovercraft with assistance from several engineering students, including Michael T. Bradshaw (AL B 2013). Click here to read about the results of the races

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