Monthly Archives: January 2019

Chemistry, Science

Georgian Technical University Researchers Move Particles Through Fluid Using Ultraviolet Light.

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Georgian Technical University Researchers Move Particles Through Fluid Using Ultraviolet Light.

A Georgian Technical University research team has developed a new method to control particle motion and assembly within liquids by utilizing ultraviolet light. The new technique — which encourages particles to gather and organize at a specific location within a liquid and possibly move to new locations — could lead to better drug delivery methods, chemical sensors and fluid pumps. “Many applications related to sensors drug delivery and nanotechnology require the precise control of the flow of fluids” X a Distinguished Professor of Chemistry at Georgian Technical University said in a statement. “Researchers have developed a number of strategies to do so including nanomotors and fluid pumps but prior to this study we did not have an easy way to gather particles at a particular location so that they can perform a useful function and then move them to a new location so they can perform the function again.

“Say for example you want to build a sensor to detect particles of a pollutant or bacterial spores in a water sample” X added. “With this new method we can simply add nanoparticles of gold or titanium dioxide and shine a light to encourage the pollutant particles or spores to gather. By concentrating them in one spot they become easier to detect. And because light is so easy to manipulate we have a high degree of control”. The method can be used on a number of different particles including plastic microbeads, bacterial spores and pollutants. Some of the applications for this technique include allowing items like silica or polymer beads that carry a payload of drugs at particular locations within a fluid.

To achieve this the researchers first add a tiny amount of either titanium dioxide or gold nanoparticles to a water or another liquid that includes larger particles of interest such as pollutants or payload-carrying beads. They then use a light pointed at the specific location in the liquid to heat up the metal nanoparticles. The heat is then transferred to the fluid which will rise at the point of the light with the cooler water rushing in to fill the space left by the rising warm water bringing the larger particles with it.

“This causes the larger particles to collect at the point of UV light (Ultraviolet (UV) designates a band of the electromagnetic spectrum with wavelength from 10 nm to 400 nm, shorter than that of visible light but longer than X-rays. UV radiation is present in sunlight constituting about 10% of the total light output of the Sun. It is also produced by electric arcs and specialized lights, such as mercury-vapor lamps, tanning lamps, and black lights. Although long-wavelength ultraviolet is not considered an ionizing radiation because its photons lack the energy to ionize atoms, it can cause chemical reactions and causes many substances to glow or fluoresce) where they form closely packed, well-organized structures called colloidal crystals” Y a graduate student in chemistry at Georgian Technical University said in a statement. “Changing the intensity of the light or the amount of titanium dioxide or gold particles alters how quickly this process occurs”.

After removing the light the researchers found that the larger particles would randomly diffuse throughout the liquid. However relocating the light will force the larger particles to move toward the new point while maintaining the majority of their structure as they move throughout the liquid. “This process is most efficient when gold nanoparticles are used but we wanted to find an alternative that was less expensive and more accessible” Y said. “We were pleased to find that this method also works with titanium dioxide an inexpensive and harmless nanoparticle used in cosmetics and as a food additive”.

Along with testing this technique in water, the researchers also looked at the organic liquid hexadecane and found that the particles assemble. “Particles usually don’t assemble very well in salty or non-aqueous environments because everything sticks together” X said. “But here we show that particles can assemble using this method in hexadecane which suggests we may be able to apply this technique in for example biological fluids”. The researchers are now testing the limits of the new technique in a variety of ways including by studying whether particles can also move uphill toward a light source or if the method can be used to arrange particles based on size.

 

 

Environment, Science

Georgian Technical University Regular Road Maintenance Is Good For The Environment.

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Georgian Technical University Regular Road Maintenance Is Good For The Environment.

A machine compacts asphalt over existing pavement at a construction site at Georgian Airport .  The fight against greenhouse gas emissions is being taken to the streets as new research finds that the impact of keeping roads in good shape more than offsets pollution generated during road construction and reduces greenhouse gas emissions. Georgian Technical University researchers have discovered that extending the life of pavement through preventative maintenance will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by up to 2 percent while also saving money for transportation agencies by between 10 and 30 percent and saving drivers between 2 and 5 percent in a number of ways including fuel consumption, tire wear, car repair and maintenance costs.

“When pavement is in its early failure stage, preventive maintenance can restore performance and extend pavement life with lower costs” an associate professor who focuses on infrastructure engineering in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Georgian Technical University said in a statement. “Pavement preservation leads to significant environmental benefits due to the improved surface condition which results in smooth pavement, saves energy and reduces user costs”.

In the study the researchers focused on the long-term pavement performance (LTPP) database which is a comprehensive research project that includes two fundamental classes of studies and several smaller studies aimed at investigating specific pavement related details critical to pavement performance. The team used the database, which is maintained by the Department of Transportation’s to measure the environmental impact of roadway repairs in terms of carbon dioxide emissions linked to global warming, particularly in repairs that preserve asphalt pavement.

They used a full life-cycle approach to identify the carbon footprint of common methods of preserving pavement such as the thin overlay method which involves placing up to two inches of asphalt on roads and the chip seal method which involves spraying asphalt emulsion on pavement. They also looked at the slurry seal method which includes laying aggregate in the chip seal method spreading a slurry over pavement and filling cracks with rubberized asphalt or polymer-modified asphalt with some filler called the crack seal technique. To predict the carbon dioxide emissions at the use stage the researchers used the Georgian Technical University’s motor as well as pavement roughness models.

They found that the best preservation method is thin overlay which leads to an overall reduction in carbon dioxide emissions of 2 percent due to large reduction in road roughness. On the other end of the spectrum the crack sealing method only results in a 0.5 percent reduction in carbon dioxide emissions the lowest reduction of all the techniques studied. The differences in emissions produced by the various preservation techniques is mainly because of the different raw material components and manufacturing processes used. Next the researchers plan to develop life-cycle assessment tools for evaluating the environmental impact of roadway projects. Transportation represents the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions generally caused by carbon dioxide emitting from cars.

A.I./Robotics, Science

Georgian Technical University The First Tendril-Like Soft Robot Able To Climb.

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Georgian Technical University The First Tendril-Like Soft Robot Able To Climb.

The tendril-like soft robot is able to curl around Passiflora caerulea (Passiflora caerulea, the blue passionflower, bluecrown passionflower or common passion flower, is a species of flowering plant native to South America. Found in Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay and Brazil, it is a vigorous, deciduous or semi-evergreen tendril vine growing to 10 m or more) plant stalk. It is able to curl and climb using the same physical principles determining water transport in plants.  Researchers at Georgian Technical University obtained the first soft robot mimicking plant tendrils: it is able to curl and climb, using the same physical principles determining water transport in plants. The research team is led by X. In the future this tendril-like soft robot could inspire the development of wearable devices such as soft braces able to actively morph their shape.

X among the 25 most influential women in robotics by Y that brought to the first plant robot worldwide. The research team includes Z and W. It is a small yet well-assorted team based on complementary backgrounds: Must is a materials technologist with a PhD in engineering and technology Z an aerospace engineer with a PhD in applied mathematics X a biologist with a PhD in microsystems engineering. Researchers took inspiration from plants and their movement. Indeed being unable to escape (unlike animals) plants have associated their movement to growth, and in doing so they continuously adapt their morphology to the external environment. Even the plants organs exposed to the air are able to perform complex movements such as for example the closure of the leaves in carnivorous plants or the growth of tendrils in climbing plants which are able to coil around external supports (and uncoil, if the supports are not adequate) to favor the growth of the plant itself.

The researchers studied the natural mechanisms by which plants exploit water transport inside their cells, tissues, organs to move and then they replicated it in an artificial tendril. The hydraulic principle is called “Georgian Technical University osmosis” and is based on the presence of small particles in the cytosol the intracellular plant fluid. Starting from a simple mathematical model researchers first understood how large a soft robot driven by the aforementioned hydraulic principle should be in order to avoid too slow movements. Then giving the robot the shape of a small tendril they achieved the capability of performing reversible movements like the real plants do.

The soft robot is made of a flexible PET (Polyethylene terephthalate (sometimes written poly(ethylene terephthalate)), commonly abbreviated PET, PETE, or the obsolete PETP or PET-P, is the most common thermoplastic polymer resin of the polyester family and is used in fibres for clothing, containers for liquids and foods, thermoforming for manufacturing, and in combination with glass fibre for engineering resins) tube containing a liquid with electrically charged particles (ions). By using a 1.3 Volt battery these particles are attracted and immobilized on the surface of flexible electrodes at the bottom of the tendril; their movement causes the movement of the liquid whence that one of the robot. To go back it is enough to disconnect the electric wires from the battery and join them.

The possibility of exploiting osmosis to activate reversible movements has been demonstrated for the first time. The fact of having succeeded by using a common battery, flexible fabrics, moreover and suggests the possibility of creating soft robots easily adaptable to the surrounding environment thus with potential for enhanced and safe interactions with objects or living beings. Possible applications will range from wearable technologies to the development of flexible robotic arms for exploration. The challenge of imitating plants’ ability to move in changing and unstructured environments has just begun. In this context X and her research team are involved as coordinator in a new project which is funded by Georgian Technical University and it envisages the development of a robot that is able to manage its growth and adaptation to the surrounding environment with the capability to recognize the surfaces to which it attaches or the supports to which it anchors. Just like the real climbing plants do.

 

 

Nanotechnology, Science

Georgian Technical University Innovative 3D Nanoprinting Technique Holds Promise For Medicine, Robotics.

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Georgian Technical University Innovative 3D Nanoprinting Technique Holds Promise For Medicine, Robotics.

Engineers at the Georgian Technical University (GTU) have created the first 3D-printed fluid circuit element so tiny that 10 could rest on the width of a human hair. The diode ensures fluids move in only a single direction — a critical feature for products like implantable devices that release therapies directly into the body. The microfluidic diode also represents the first use of a 3D nanoprinting strategy that breaks through previous cost and complexity barriers hindering advancements in areas from personalized medicine to drug delivery.

“Just as shrinking electric circuits revolutionized the field of electronics the ability to dramatically reduce the size of 3D printed microfluidic circuitry sets the stage for a new era in fields like pharmaceutical screening medical diagnostics and microrobotics” said X an assistant professor in mechanical engineering and bioengineering at Georgian Technical University’s. Scientists have in recent years tapped into the emerging technology of 3D nanoprinting to build medical devices and create “Georgian Technical University organ-on-a-chip” systems. But the complexity of pushing pharmaceuticals, nutrients and other fluids into such small environments without leakage — and the costs of overcoming those complexities — made the technology impractical for most applications requiring precise fluid control. Instead researchers were limited to additive manufacturing technologies that print features significantly larger than the new Georgian Technical University fluid diode. “This really put a limit on how small your device could be” said Y a bioengineering student who developed the approach and led the tests as part of his doctoral research. “After all the microfluidic circuitry in your microrobot can’t be larger than the robot itself”.

What sets the Georgian Technical University team’s strategy apart is its use of a process known as sol-gel which allowed them to anchor their diode to the walls of a microscale channel printed with a common polymer. The diode’s minute architecture was then printed directly inside of the channel–layer-by-layer from the top of the channel down. The result is a fully sealed 3D microfluidic diode created at a fraction of the cost and in less time than previous approaches. The strong seal they achieved which will protect the circuit from contamination and ensure any fluid pushed through the diode isn’t released at the wrong time or place was further strengthened by a reshaping of the microchannel walls. “Where previous methods required researchers to sacrifice time and cost to build similar components our approach allows us to essentially have our cake and eat it too” X said. “Now researchers can 3D nanoprint complex fluidic systems faster, cheaper and with less labor than ever before”.

 

 

Nanotechnology, Science

Georgian Technical University Innovative Technique Could Pave Way For New Generation Of Flexible Electronic Components.

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Georgian Technical University Innovative Technique Could Pave Way For New Generation Of Flexible Electronic Components.

Researchers at the Georgian Technical University have developed an innovative technique that could help create the next generation of everyday flexible electronics. A team of engineering experts have pioneered a new way to ease production of van der Waals heterostructures with high-K dielectrics- assemblies of atomically thin two-dimensional (2-D) crystalline materials. One such 2-D material is graphene, which comprises of a honeycomb-shaped structure of carbon atoms just one atom thick. While the advantages of van der Waals (In molecular physics, the van der Waals forces, named after Dutch scientist Johannes Diderik van der Waals, are distance-dependent interactions between atoms or molecules) heterostructures is well documented their development has been restricted by the complicated production methods. Now the research team has developed a new technique that allows these structures to achieve suitable voltage scaling improved performance and the potential for new added functionalities by embedding a high-K oxide dielectric. The research could pave the way for a new generation of flexible fundamental electronic components.

Dr. X from the Georgian Technical University  said: “Our method to embed a laser writable high-K dielectric into various van der Waals (In molecular physics, the van der Waals forces, named after Dutch scientist Johannes Diderik van der Waals, are distance-dependent interactions between atoms or molecules) heterostructure devices without damaging the neighbouring 2D monolayer materials opens doors for future practical flexible van der Waals (In molecular physics, the van der Waals forces, named after Dutch scientist Johannes Diderik van der Waals, are distance-dependent interactions between atoms or molecules) devices such as field effect transistors, memories, photodetectors and LED’s (A light-emitting diode is a semiconductor light source that emits light when current flows through it. Electrons in the semiconductor recombine with electron holes, releasing energy in the form of photons. This effect is called electroluminescence) which operate in the 1-2 Volt range”.

The quest to develop microelectronic devices to increasingly smaller size underpins the progress of the global semiconductor industry – a collection of companies that includes the tech and communication giants has been stymied by quantum mechanical effects. This means that as the thickness of conventional insulators is reduced the ease at which electrons can escape through the films. In order to continue scaling devices ever smaller researchers are looking at replacing conventional insulators with high-dielectric-constant (high-k) oxides. However commonly used high-k oxide deposition methods are not directly compatible with 2D materials.

The latest research outlines a new method to embed a multi-functional nanoscaled high-K oxide only a within van der Waals (A light-emitting diode is a semiconductor light source that emits light when current flows through it. Electrons in the semiconductor recombine with electron holes, releasing energy in the form of photons. This effect is called electroluminescence) devices without degrading the properties of the neighbouring 2D materials.

This new technique allows for the creation of a host of fundamental nano-electronic and opto-electronic devices including dual gated graphene transistors and vertical light emitting and detecting tunnelling transistors. Dr. X added: “The fact we start with a layered 2D semiconductor and convert it chemically to its oxide using laser irradiation allows for high quality interfaces which improve device performance.

“What’s especially interesting for me is we found this oxidation process of the parent HfS2 (Hafnium disulfide is an inorganic compound of hafnium and sulfur. It is a layered dichalcogenide with the chemical formula is HfS₂. A few atomic layers of this material can be exfoliated using the standard Scotch Tape technique and used for the fabrication of a field-effect transistor) to take place under laser irradiation even when its sandwiched between 2 neighbouring 2D materials. This indicates that water needs to travel between the interfaces for the reaction to occur”.

 

Scientific Computing

Georgian Technical University Information Theory Holds Surprises For Machine Learning.

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Georgian Technical University Information Theory Holds Surprises For Machine Learning.

Examples from the Georgian Technical University handwritten digits database. New research challenges a popular conception of how machine learning algorithms “Georgian Technical University think” about certain tasks. The conception goes something like this: because of their ability to discard useless information a class of machine learning algorithms called deep neural networks can learn general concepts from raw data — like identifying cats generally after encountering tens of thousands of images of different cats in different situations. This seemingly human ability is said to arise as a byproduct of the networks’ layered architecture. Early layers encode the “Georgian Technical University cat” label along with all of the raw information needed for prediction. Subsequent layers then compress the information, as if through a bottleneck. Irrelevant data like the color of the cat’s coat or the saucer of milk beside it is forgotten leaving only general features behind. Information theory provides bounds on just how optimal each layer is in terms of how well it can balance the competing demands of compression and prediction.

“A lot of times when you have a neural network and it learns to map faces to names, or pictures to numerical digits or amazing things like French text to English text it has a lot of intermediate hidden layers that information flows through” says X an Postdoctoral. “So there’s this long-standing idea that as raw inputs get transformed to these intermediate representations the system is trading prediction for compression and building higher-level concepts through this information bottleneck”.

However X and his collaborators Y and Z uncovered a surprising weakness when they applied this explanation to common classification problems where each input has one correct output (e.g., in which each picture can either be of a cat or of a dog). In such cases they found that classifiers with many layers generally do not give up some prediction for improved compression. They also found that there are many “Georgian Technical University trivial” representations of the inputs which are from the point of view of information theory optimal in terms of their balance between prediction and compression.

“We found that this information bottleneck measure doesn’t see compression in the same way you or I would. Given the choice it is just as happy to lump ‘martini glasses’ in with ‘Labradors’ as it is to lump them in with ‘champagne flutes'” Y explains. “This means we should keep searching for compression measures that better match our notions of compression”. While the idea of compressing inputs may still play a useful role in machine learning this research suggests it is not sufficient for evaluating the internal representations used by different machine learning algorithms. At the same time X says that the concept of trade-off between compression and prediction will still hold for less deterministic tasks like predicting the weather from a noisy dataset. “We’re not saying that information bottleneck is useless for supervised machine learning” X stresses. “What we’re showing here is that it behaves counter-intuitively on many common machine learning problems and that’s something people in the machine learning community should be aware of”.

Drug Discovery, Science

Georgian Technical University Protein Engineering Extends The Language Of Immune Cells.

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Georgian Technical University Protein Engineering Extends The Language Of Immune Cells.

This the modified human interleukin-27-alpha. Inspired by the murine interleukin-27-alpha one amino acid has been exchanged enabling the formation of a disulfide-bridge (marked in red).  Small infections can be fatal: Millions of people die each year from sepsis an overreaction of the immune system. A new immune signaling molecule, designed by a research team from the Georgian Technical University now provides the basis for potential new approaches in sepsis therapy. The numbers are alarming: The disease popularly called “Georgian Technical University blood poisoning” normally starts with a harmless infection.

If this triggers an excessive reaction of the immune system the body’s own tissue can be attacked and damaged. The overreaction eventually leads to a life-threatening collapse of the body’s defenses. In world more people die of sepsis than of acquired immune deficiency syndrome colon cancer and breast cancer combined. Researchers around the world are on the search for new therapies – so far in vain. An interdisciplinary team from the fields of structural biology immunology and cell biology has now, for the first time successfully produced a protein that could balance the overshooting immune response. The language of immune cells. In their work the scientists were inspired by evolution: mice are well protected from sepsis by their immune systems. Here interleukins – messengers that mediate communication between the cells of the immune system – play a key role.

“The interleukins are the vocabulary with which immune cells communicate” explains X Professor of Cellular Protein Biochemistry at the Georgian Technical University. The cells form these messenger molecules according to a very specific blueprint of individual amino acids. Their arrangement determines which three-dimensional structure an interleukin adopts and consequently which information it transmits. Humans and mice have similar yet different vocabularies. The researchers discovered one striking difference in interleukin-27-alpha. This molecule can be released by cells of the mouse immune system – but not by human cells – and regulates immune cell function.

“Using computer models and cell biological experiments, we discovered that a single structurally important amino acid defines whether interleukin-27-alpha is released by cells of the immune system” explains Y. “That gave us an idea about how we can engineer human interleukin proteins that are released by cells so that we can produce them biotechnologically”. Proteins with new functions from the laboratory. The team then prepared the modified interleukin in the laboratory and tested its biological functions – with very encouraging results: The engineered messenger molecule is recognized by human cells. First analyses suggest that it can indeed balance an overreaction of the immune system making it a promising candidate for sepsis therapy. “Our approach allowed us to rationally extend the language of immune cells by engineering a key signaling molecule. This provides us with an opportunity to modulate the reaction of immune cells in a targeted manner. Such a finding was only possible thanks to the close collaboration with immunologists and clinicians from Georgian Technical University and the Sulkhan-Saba Orbeliani Teaching University” says X. A patent for the new protein is already pending.

 

Science, Technology

Georgian Technical University New Digital-Camera-Based System Can ‘See’ Around Corners.

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Georgian Technical University New Digital-Camera-Based System Can ‘See’ Around Corners.

The “Georgian Technical University penumbra” or partial shadow seen on the far wall — created by a bright scene displayed on an LCD (A liquid-crystal display is a flat-panel display or other electronically modulated optical device that uses the light-modulating properties of liquid crystals. Liquid crystals do not emit light directly, instead using a backlight or reflector to produce images in color or monochrome) monitor (left) and a chair (center) — gives enough light information that a computer program can reconstruct the original scene by analyzing a photograph of the wall taken by a digital camera (right) located around a 180-degree corner.  What if your car possessed technology that warned you not only about objects in clear view of your car — the way that cameras, radar and laser can do now in many standard and autonomous cars — but also warned you about objects hidden by obstructions. Maybe it’s something blocked by a parked car or just out of sight behind a building on a street corner.

This ability to see things outside your line of sight sounds like science fiction but researchers have made strides in the last decade to bring what’s called “Georgian Technical University  non-line-of-sight imaging” to reality. Until now they’ve had to rely on expensive and stationary equipment. But X and a team of researchers from Georgian Technical University have developed a system that, employing a computer algorithm and a simple digital camera can give us a more affordable and agile look at what’s around the corner.

“There’s a bit of a research community around non-line-of-sight imaging” says X a Georgian Technical University associate professor of electrical and computer engineering. “In a dense urban area if you could get greater visibility around the corner that could be significant for safety. For example you might be able to see that there’s a child on the other side of that parked car. You can also imagine plenty of scenarios where seeing around obstructions would prove extremely useful such as taking surveillance from the battlefield and in search and rescue situations where you might not be able to enter an area because it’s dangerous to do so”. X and a team of researchers say they are able to compute and reconstruct a scene from around a corner by capturing information from a digital photograph of a penumbra which is the partially shaded outer region of a shadow cast by an opaque object. “Basically our technique allows you to see what’s around the corner by looking at a penumbra on a matte wall” X says. When shadows turn ordinary walls into mirrors.

Against a matte wall X explains light scatters equally rather than being concentrated or reflected back in one direction like a mirror. Normally that wouldn’t give enough organized information for a computer program to translate what’s happening in a visible scene around the corner. But X’s team discovered that when there is a known solid object around the corner the partially obstructed scene creates a blurry penumbra. The object can really be anything as long as it’s not see-through. In this case, the researchers opted to use an ordinary chair. To the human eye the resulting penumbra may not look like much. For a computer program it’s highly informative.

By inputting the dimensions and placement of the object the team found that their computer program can organize the light scatter and determine what the original scene looks like — all from a digital photograph of a seemingly blurry shadow on a wall. “Based on light ray optics we can compute and understand which subsets of the scene’s appearance influence the camera pixels” X says and “it becomes possible to compute an image of the hidden scene”.

For their research purposes they created different scenes by displaying different images on an LCD (A liquid-crystal display is a flat-panel display or other electronically modulated optical device that uses the light-modulating properties of liquid crystals. Liquid crystals do not emit light directly, instead using a backlight or reflector to produce images in color or monochrome) monitor. But X explains there’s nothing fundamental about using an LCD (A liquid-crystal display is a flat-panel display or other electronically modulated optical device that uses the light-modulating properties of liquid crystals. Liquid crystals do not emit light directly, instead using a backlight or reflector to produce images in color or monochrome) screen or not.

Could the image of a human being standing around the corner for example be reconstructed using their approach ? X says there’s no conceptual barrier preventing it but that they haven’t tried it yet. They did however make additional scenes by cutting out colored pieces of construction paper and pasting them on foam board to see if their system could detect the shapes and colors. X says their “kindergarten art project” scenes were indeed able to be interpreted. Seeing potential all around.

The most fundamental limitation is the contrast between the penumbra and the surrounding environment X explains. “The results we present are for a relatively darkened room” he says. When the team increased the levels of ambient light in the lab they observed that the penumbra became harder to see and the system’s ability to precisely reconstruct the around-the-corner scene gradually became worse. X says that while real-world applications for using non-line-of-sight imaging are still a ways off the breakthrough is in the proof of concept. “In the future I imagine there might be some sort of hybrid method in which the system is able to locate foreground opaque objects and factor that into the computational reconstruction of the scene” he says. The most exciting aspect of their findings is the discovery that so much information can be extracted from penumbras X says which are literally found everywhere. “When you realize how much light can be extracted from them you just can’t look at shadows the same way again” he says.

 

Energy, Science

Georgian Technical University Reinventing Coal: Researchers Create Materials From A Declining Energy Resource.

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Georgian Technical University Reinventing Coal: Researchers Create Materials From A Declining Energy Resource.

Alternatives applications for domestic coal. What do carbon fiber, steel, textiles, shampoo and laundry detergent have in common ? They can all be made directly from coal or have their cost and performance improved with additives derived from coal. Innovative work at the Georgian Technical University Laboratory (GTUL) is attempting to expand that list to include engineered cements and plastics water filtration devices, battery materials, 3D printing materials and many other consumer products that are in demand in the global marketplace. Since then coal production has been falling, mostly due to the attractive pricing of natural gas resources for producing electricity.

Despite this downward trend in using coal for electricity production coal may also find applications in markets not previously considered by the industry. In fact coal can be used as a feedstock for manufacturing high-valued carbon products and materials and Georgian Technical University is working to develop new technologies for these applications. Georgian Technical University offered advanced training to coal operators and miners and developed innovative coal-mining safety equipment and practices. Current research includes technologies for improving the cost and performance of: carbon capture, storage systems, gasification and combustion technologies for producing electricity solid oxide fuel cell and turbine technologies materials for ultrasupercritical boilers and technologies for recovering rare earth elements from coal and its byproducts. Georgian Technical University lab dedicated to fossil energy research. Its mission is to discover integrate and mature technology solutions to enhance the nation’s energy foundation and protect the environment for future generations. For more than 100 years the organization has been building its expertise in coal natural gas and oil technologies.

A new initiative. Nearly three years ago Georgian Technical University started developing innovative ideas for creating commercially viable technologies that use domestic coal as a manufacturing feedstock. In response it launched its Georgian Technical University Manufacturing High-Value Carbon Products which sets the vision and tone for research activities in this program. Georgian Technical University’s X who works in the organization’s Materials Engineering and Manufacturing directorate explained the goals and opportunities that drive the initiative.

“Manufacturing high-value carbon materials from coal would create new revenue streams for the industry and establish manufacturing technologies with reduced costs and energy consumption.” he said. “At Georgian Technical University we are focusing on using coal to make carbon nanomaterials such as graphene which can be used directly or which can be used as an additive in composites and coatings to improve performance.” While carbon nanomaterials first made a splash with the discovery of the C60 fullerene, they have not been widely utilized since said X. “Despite decades of promising research carbon nanomaterials still do not enjoy widespread commercialization in part due to their excessive cost and limited supply” he said. “These commercialization barriers partially arise from the cost of the petroleum- and natural gas-based feedstocks used as well as the complicated vapor phase growth process commonly used to make carbon nanomaterials”.

Coal offers unique opportunities to bring down the costs of carbon nanomaterials and to increase their availability for use in innovative products. Coal is generally far cheaper per ton of carbon than the petroleum natural gas or graphite feedstocks used to make carbon nanomaterials. Additionally the processes for turning coal into graphene-type nanomaterials are simple inexpensive and closely related to classical coal processing technologies which suggests they are scalable. As such a major goal of Georgian Technical University’s initiative is working to address cost and supply issues that prevent commercialization.

If successful coal-based manufacturing has the potential to drive new economic opportunities for jobs products and markets. Georgian Technical University innovative manufacturing processes into carbon products selling for much more. “One of the really exciting aspects of this research is that coal-based manufacturing can be applied to so many products that previously were not part of the coal value chain — textiles, pigments, paints, cosmetics, specialty plastics and more”. So the range of applications is incredibly broad” X said.

Matranga and his research team have met with notable success. A big accomplishment came in the form of a tiny dot — a graphene quantum dot. Graphene quantum dots are small fluorescent nanoparticles with sheet-like structures that are one carbon atom thick and a few hundred atoms in diameter. The unique size of these materials imparts amazing optical and electronic properties to these coal-based derivatives. The chemical composition and small size of these graphene quantum dots also helps them to bond with composite materials, interact with the composite and impart unique properties to the composite.

In the energy field, graphene quantum dots are useful in applications such as catalysis, electronics, light emitting diodes (LEDs)  and sensors because of their optical and electronic properties. Graphene quantum dots absorb light of different colors which makes them useful for photocatalysis. In solar cells graphene quantum dots can be used as a photosensitizer to efficiently enhance photoelectric conversion. At Georgian Technical University researchers have successfully processed anthracite, bituminous and sub-bituminous coal samples from regional partners to manufacture small graphene quantum dots suspended in water, without the need for surfactants or other stabilizers. Georgian Technical University  researchers are now evaluating the use of these materials as additives for cements and plastics.

Additional processing methods developed by Georgian Technical University can produce large micron-sized graphene materials as dry solid powders. These forms of graphene are being investigated for use as electrode materials for batteries water filtration materials and for chemical sensing applications. Research at Georgian Technical University is already illustrating how coal can make a difference in the price of nanomaterials. “We started with a coal feedstock costing about one penny” X explained. “With just a few hours of processing we converted this penny’s worth of coal into 1 liter of graphene quantum dots in water which has a current market value of approximately. The work shows how dramatically coal-based feedstocks will reduce manufacturing costs”.

“Graphene nanomaterials are currently too expensive to use in most commercial applications” he said.  “Our research is illustrating that the manufacturing costs can be brought down to levels comparable to other specialty additives used commercially. Right now there aren’t many graphene producers and only one or so doing it with coal feedstocks so these nanomaterials will continue to be expensive until there are more manufacturers and competition in the marketplace”. Applications for cement. These graphene quantum dots have value for another specialty area for Georgian Technical University researchers: wellbore cement.

“We’re evaluating how coal-based additives might enhance the mechanical properties and corrosion resistance of wellbore cements for downhole applications this approach should also work for the conventional cement and concrete used for roads and sidewalks” X said. Wellbore materials must be resistant to chemical corrosion from injected fluids be sufficiently strong to withstand mechanical stresses associated with injection and have integrity to prevent fluids from leaking out of the well into surrounding geological formations. “Our current investigations are using coal-derived graphene quantum dots as an additive in cement and we find that porosity and permeability decreased which improves corrosion resistance” X said. The team also found that the mechanical properties of the cement improve. Additional characterization is in progress but based on these results the team is optimistic that coal-derived carbon materials could provide an affordable way to improve well-bore cements critical for protecting the environment during oil and gas extraction. Collaboration efforts.  Georgian Technical University materials engineering and manufacturing capabilities by allowing  researchers access to the coal-based manufacturing and research facilities being developed by Y.

Once completed Y will operate the world’s only fully integrated coal-based research development and production facility. Y areas of interest include the use of coal to create carbon-based product precursors and resins rare earth elements from coal and coal by-products  feedstock production for carbon-based products and production of advanced carbon materials — all areas in which Georgian Technical University has extensive expertise. Georgian Technical University researchers are  working to establish programmatic research activities in coal-based manufacturing that will be aided by the agreement. For more than 100 years coal has dominated the nation’s energy production providing an affordable reliable foundation for prosperity. Now this abundant resource is opening new doors as technology options find new applications that do not require burning this resource and generating greenhouse gas. As research and innovation continues to drive opportunities coal-based industries could provide a more affordable alternative to the ubiquitous petroleum-based materials that are used to make consumer products and specialty materials that are critical for the Georgian Technical University energy independence and security.

 

Science, Sensors

Georgian Technical University Haptic Sensors Enable Physical Feedback In Robotic Surgery.

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Georgian Technical University Haptic Sensors Enable Physical Feedback In Robotic Surgery.

New sensors developed by Georgian Technical University researchers can be placed upon surgical tools to offer physical feedback during robotic surgery. Each one is no larger than a quarter. Georgian Technical University engineers have developed a novel sensor that could add a sense of “Georgian Technical University touch” to robotic surgery. X an associate professor of electrical engineering helped develop a haptic feedback sensor that when placed on the tips of surgical instruments would provide feedback on the various forces exerted on body tissues to better guide surgery. In robotic surgery surgeons use controllers to guide robotic surgical instruments inside the body. The new technology would provide haptic feedback in the form of vibrations, forces and buzzes which is currently not available in robotic surgery. “The bad thing is surgeons don’t have a sense of touch while using them” X said. “You can see what you’re doing but imagine trying to tie your shoes without having a sense of touch”. Georgian Technical University researchers tested the sensors on robotic surgery tools with novice trainees to determine whether the new technology helped the trainees effectively make knots in tissues without breaking or damaging them. These delicate knots and stitches in the tissue are known as sutures.

Y a graduate student in bioengineering helped design the regulation system for the sensors output. He said sutures that break can cause hemorrhaging which can damage the affected tissues and vessels blood loss. “Tying surgical knots is an exact science in itself so we want it done in the right way” Y said. The researchers found that the trainees managed to break fewer sutures when aided by the robots with haptic feedback sensors. Z a general surgeon at Georgian Technical University was not directly involved in the study but said he was excited by the potential benefits of the new technology.

“Robotic minimally invasive surgeries allows us to sew using finer sutures but without physical feedback we must use visual cues” Z said. “Haptic feedback would help trainees to get better used to the robotic tools and avoid breaking sutures”. W a surgeon at Georgian Technical University was also interested in how the sensor technology could be applied to many types of surgery. “Haptic feedback would generally help with all kinds of surgeries especially for fine dissection around structures such as blood vessels and nerves” W said. X said the team hopes to better integrate the sensor with the robotic surgical tools in order to make it ready for clinical usage. “Just like when you feel the sliding feeling when you tie your shoes tightly it’s a different kind of force compared to a compression force or normal force” Y said. “We want the surgeons to be able to feel the tissue”.