Gizmodo: purdue

Purdue University Breakthrough Could Lead to Low-Cost, Mass-Produced LEDs

Jack Loftus — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 16:00:00 EDT

The researchers at Purdue University are just full of bright ideas these days, and this weekend was no exception. Thanks to a major breakthrough, they may have overcome a major obstacle for "solid state lighting," which laymen like to call LED (light emitting diode). That obstacle? Cost. LEDs are expensive, mostly because their innards are created on a substrate of sapphire. That means only a few gadgets and luxury cars headlights have benefited from the tech so far. Purdue researchers solved the conundrum with a technique that creates the LEDs on low-cost, metal-coated silicon wafers. This is great news for energy conservation, because while LEDs are much more efficient than their incandescent brethren, they are also 20 times more expensive to produce. [Purdue University]

Purdue's 156-Step Burger Maker Wins Rube Goldberg Contest

Kit Eaton — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 10:45:26 EDT

We've brought you Rube Goldberg-style clocks and toys, but none of them are a match for the 156-step device that's just won the annual Rube Goldberg Machine Contest. This year's challenge was to assemble a burger with vegetables, condiments and two bun halves. The meat was pre-cooked... a sensible idea to avoid fires and explosions: you'll understand when you look at the great pics of the machines that MAKE took. Beneath the gallery you'll find a demo video of some of them in action. Sadly we don't have one of the complete 156-step run yet, so you'll just have to imagine its fantasticness.

The whole idea is to create a machine that combines creative thinking with complexity in design, and, most importantly, inefficiency— much in the vein of Goldberg's cartoons.

The winning team, the Purdue Society of Professional Engineers, have had plenty of practice at this— they've won two of the previous three contests. Their machine won them a regional prize earlier in the year, and for the Nationals they added another 55 steps. With somewhere around 5,000 man-hours of work in it, the victory seems well deserved, particularly when the rules stipulate that the task must be achieved in more than 20 steps.

Awesome, pointless, engineering fun. We love it. [MAKE and CNN]

Networked Geiger-Counter Cellphone System to Detect Radioactive Bombs

Kit Eaton — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 09:25:02 EST

This anti-terrorism concept from researchers at Purdue University puts together miniature radiation counters built right into cellphones across the US. Each solid-state sensor would be able to sniff out radioactive sources from up to 15 feet, and then would send in the location to Homeland Security, the FBI and Jack Bauer, resulting in huge dirty-bomb surveillance system. Sounds like 24 meets Big Brother in 1984, but it is a pretty clever system and apparently it works right now.

Professors Ephraim Fischbach and Jere Jenkins suggest that the electronics could filter out false alarms from medical radiation sources and radioactive potassium in bananas (wait, bananas are radioactive? Who knew!) and the sensors themselves would add little weight to a cellphone or laptop. The system could track the progress of suspicious radiation sources (like a badly-shielded suitcase bomb) across the country, and even act as an alert system for radiation leaks from the legitimate nuclear industry. It's also been tested on campus, using a very weak radioactive source, demonstrating that the technology already exists.

If you didn't mind doing a little cloak-and-dagger work for the Government as you walked around with your phone in your pocket, then this sounds like it could be a pretty effective anti-terror weapon. [Purdue press release via TG Daily]

Afternoon News: Poop-Sniffing, Pancake-Eating, Vegas-Going Spammers

Benny Goldman — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 16:00:00 EST

• A Purdue professor is paying students $30 to sniff animal poop and using the research to improve estimations of odor emissions on farms. It's days like this that I am happy I went to Indiana University. [11alive]
• Dealzmodo: All-you-can-eat pancakes at IHOP?! Why am I still sitting here? [Dealnews via BBG]
• Alan Ralsky, a notorious spammer from West Bloomfield, MI (sort of my home town!) was indicted yesterday on 41 charges of swindling millions of dollars by using penny stock scam emails. Good riddance. [Detroit Free Press]
• Did we mention we're going to Vegas? The weather doesn't look great, but just about anything beats another day in frigid New York City. [Weather Underground]

Tricorder Invented, For Realz

Mark Wilson — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 19:48:38 EST

"Mr. Spock, what is that substance?"
"Hmm...it appears to be a naked photo of the alien from Zentir 16. The one that you promised to show to no one else."
"Not that! The OTHER substance."
"Oh, that's just the STD you left on the picture...and my heart"

Purdue researchers have invented a real-world "tricorder". It utilizes a mass spectrometer to analyze the information received from an ionized water vapor (that contacts any substance under study). Not only does the unit provide results within minutes—it only weighs 20lbs, which should be an attainable lifting goal for most Star Trek fans before the next conference. – Mark Wilson

Scientists Invent Real-Life Tricorder [via scifi tech]

Purdue University Develops Mr.Fusion, Finally

Travis Hudson — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 14:29:42 EST

A team of scientists and researchers at Purdue have developed a fully functional Mr. Fusion. (For those who have no idea what I'm talking about, go rent Back to the Future II asap.) This tactical biorefinery can munch up food, paper and plastic garbage and turn it into energy. This machine was commissioned for the U.S. military (so don't expect it on top of your DeLorean anytime soon) for use in the field to create energy. It is roughly the size of a small moving van, so there is still some work that needs to be done to make it a little more functional. This biorefinery can supposedly produce 90-percent more energy than it consumes, which is a damn impressive feat. Next step: flying cars, hoverboards and self-drying clothing. –Travis Hudson

Scientists develop portable generator that turns trash into electricity [Via SCI FI]