Category Technology/Electronics

Wearable personal cloud graphic. Credit: Image courtesy of University of Alabama at Birmingham

A wearable cloud make the design of mobile and wearable devices simple, inexpensive and lightweight by having mobile device users tap into the resources of the wearable cloud, instead of relying solely on the capabilities of their mobile hardware. Researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham are exploring the concept of a wearable personal cloud – a fully functioning, yet compact and lightweight cloud computing system embedded into clothing.

Assistant Prof Ragib Hasan, Ph.D and postdoc grad Rasib Khan, Ph...

Modeling how methanol interacts with platinum catalysts inside fuel cells in realistic environments becomes even more complicated because distances between the atoms can change as molecules dance near the charged surface. Credit: Manos Mavrikakis

Using a unique combination of advanced computational methods, University of Wisconsin-Madison chemical engineers have demystified some of the complex catalytic chemistry in fuel cells – an advance that brings cost-effective fuel cells closer to reality. “Understanding reaction mechanisms is the first step toward eventually replacing expensive platinum in fuel cells with a cheaper material,” says Prof. Manos Mavrikakis.

Fuel cells generate electricity by combining electrons and protons — provided by a chemical fuel such as methanol – with oxygen fr...

Researchers from MIT and MIT Lincoln Laboratory report an important step toward practical quantum computers, with a paper describing a prototype chip that can trap ions in an electric field and, with built-in optics, direct laser light toward each of them.

Built-in optics could enable chips that use trapped ions as quantum bits. Although quantum systems with as many as 12 qubits have been demonstrated in the lab, building quantum computers complex enough to perform useful computations will require miniaturizing qubit technology, much the way the miniaturization of transistors enabled modern computers.

Trapped ions are probably the most widely studied qubit technology, but they’ve historically required a large and complex hardware apparatus...

Nanofiber mat electrode (John Russell / Vanderbilt)

The project is part of a $13 million Department of Energy program to advance fuel cell performance and durability and hydrogen storage technologies announced last month. The $4.5 million collaboration is based on a new nanofiber mat technology developed by Peter Pintauro, the H. Eugene McBrayer Professor of Chemical Engineering at Vanderbilt, that replaces the conventional electrodes used in fuel cells. The nanofiber electrodes boost the power output of fuel cells by 30% while being less expensive and more durable than conventional catalyst layers...