|
|
What Nature Cannot Provide, Engineers Invent
| By Ed Stiles - November 13, 2009, 9:00 am
During the early 20th century, engineers and physicists focused on exploiting the properties of naturally occurring materials. In other words, their work accommodated materials’ properties.
Today, engineers and physicists have turned this research model on its head by creating new materials with properties that don’t occur in nature, essentially building materials to fit their design needs.
Metamaterials are one new class of synthetic materials that are creating excitement in electromagnetics and acoustics.
The name comes from a workshop sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, in November 1999, with “meta” meaning “beyond.”
Professor Richard Ziolkowski, of UA Electrical and Computer Engineering, was one of the participants at that workshop, and he has been at the leading edge of meta ...... (read more) |  | | A snapshot in time of one of the first finite difference time domain simulations of negative refraction. This image is on the cover of the author's book, Metamaterials: Physics and Engineering Explorations.
. |
|
Recent News StoriesPaul Blowers Chosen as 2010 da Vinci Fellow Arizona Engineer • November 17, 2009, 9:13 am Paul Blowers, associate professor of chemical and environmental engineering, has been named the 2010 da Vinci fellow by the UA College of Engineering. The fellowship is sponsored by the College’ ...... (read more) | | College and Local Solar Firms Combine to Improve Solar Cell Efficiency UA News • November 16, 2009, 9:01 am Local companies and College of Engineering get NSF grant to research combination of holographic optical collectors with thin-film solar cells.... (read more) | | RIP Tom Vincent: First Graduate of UA Aerospace Engineering PhD Program Arizona Engineer • November 10, 2009, 12:40 pm Thomas L. Vincent
PhD/AE 1963
Vincent died Oct. 26, 2009, from pancreatic cancer at age 74. He was born in Portland, Ore., in 1935 and was the first graduate of the UA’s doctoral program in ae ...... (read more) | | UA and Industry Use Robotics to Promote Engineering Among Less Privileged Students Arizona Engineer • November 10, 2009, 10:16 am Nearly 200 middle and high school students attended this summer’s engineering academy and robotics camp, and parents are already clamoring to enroll their kids in next year’s summer engine ...... (read more) | | UA Researchers Use Holographic Imaging to Detect Ovarian Cancer Arizona Public Media • November 10, 2009, 9:39 am Professors Kostuk and Barton are designing and building an ovarian cancer medical imaging and screening instrument that will use holographic components in a new type of optical microscope.... (read more) | | Chemical Engineering Senior is MVP in National Engineering Challenge Arizona Daily Star • November 9, 2009, 9:42 am UA chemical engineering senior voted MVP in national engineering challenge at Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers conference in Washington, D.C.... (read more) | | Globetrotting Engineer Designs Instruments to Detect Life at Extremes of Nature, Including Other Planets Arizona Engineer • November 3, 2009, 10:28 am At first glance, helping the FBI investigate a crime scene and searching for life on Mars seem worlds apart. That is, unless your world is an instrument lab on the fourth floor of the UA’s Elect ...... (read more) | | UA Engineers Will Create Planetary Rover from Retinal Implant Test Robot Arizona Engineer • November 2, 2009, 11:39 am When Wolfgang Fink, the recently appointed Edward and Maria Keonjian Distinguished Professor in Microelectronics, establishes his research lab at UA, one of his projects will be to transform a robot t ...... (read more) | | Manufacturing Research Center Makes Advances in Reducing Water and Energy Use UA News • October 29, 2009, 9:57 am Work at the UA's Engineering Research Center for Environmentally Benign Semiconductor Manufacturing is leading to to advancements in reducing water and energy consumption.... (read more) | | New Minerals Institute Searches for Ways to Making Mining More Efficient and Sustainable UA News • October 29, 2009, 9:44 am Mary Poulton, head of the department of mining and geological engineering and director of the recently established Lowell Institute for Mineral Resources, and assistant professor Jinhong Zhang de ...... (read more) | |
|
|