2,833 Kilometers on One Liter of Fuel – Shell Eco Marathon

After a nail-biting finish the French team Microjoule from La Joliverie have topped the Prototype leaderboard for the fifth consecutive year in a petrol-fuelled car. Chased by relative newcomers Team GAMF from Kecskemet College from Hungary, who achieved 2,696 km/l, victory was uncertain until the last moment. “It was tense – the other team was out on the track with us for the final attempt,” says Clément You, Microjoule Team leader. “Tonight we will celebrate – and next year our goal is 3,000 km!”
In one of the other seven fuel categories, French team Polyjoule, Polytech Nantes, was a few seconds over the time limit in their final attempt powered by hydrogen. But an earlier distance of 541 km/kWh was enough for victory. “We played with fire,” says team leader Sebastian Sors. “And it paid off!” In the gas-to-liquids (GTL) category the MAC Eco Team from the Netherlands broke the 2011 record, achieving 416 km/l.
The UrbanConcept class considers needs of everyday drivers and could inspire advances in sustainable car design. Winners included the DTU Roadrunners from Denmark, who came first in the ethanol fuel category with the equivalent of 611km/l, breaking their 2011 record by 100 km/l. “No-one would dream of getting over 600 kilometres from one litre of fuel, and we don’t expect family cars to look like ours,” says team manager Andreas Junker. “But perhaps we can meet car manufacturers half way.”
The Electricar Solution team from Lycée des metiers Charles Privat, France, set a new record for energy efficiency on an electric battery electric with 263km/kWh. “It’s all about the preparation,” says team leader Marc-Antoine Souchet. “Our car can go 50km/h so one day the technology could be considered for town driving.”
Off the track, teams receive awards for achievements including technical innovation, eco-design and safety. The best team spirit award went to EMIteam from Morocco. Their car arrived days after them and they were only able to make one attempt, but they remained positive: “We are so happy,” says Sara Boulam, team manager. “For every problem there is a solution!”
This year alongside the competition a lab offering interactive activities around the future of energy welcomed over 40,000 visitors, while a one-day Business Forum brought together leader and experts to discuss challenges to the health of our planet.

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New Architectural Materials Are Creating Amazing Buildings

MIT is a bastion of leading engineering disciplines and recent advances in architectural geometry, for example, leverage knowledge and experience from across the MIT community, pushing innovative technology forward at a faster clip.

 

 

 

Advances Coming Through Interdisciplinary Collaboration

Nader Tehrani, Department Chair, Department of Architecture, and principal and founder of NADAAA leads faculty and students in carrying out novel experiments through collaborative workshops with other departments fostering cross disciplinary thinking and cooperation.
According to Tehrani, creating any human artifact involves three main factors: geometry, process and material. New materials, of which there have recently been many, lead to new forms that affect how architects design buildings. Tehrani and his staff collaborate closely with MIT’s Emergent Material Group and Urban Metabolism Group, all of whom share an interest in how building materials affect architecture.

The Changing Paradigm Of Architecture

Tehrani mentions the recent increase in this study and use of foamed material, especially in the creation of foamed cement’s and concretes. Discovering or synthesizing materials that are significantly lighter and stronger than existing materials allows architects to design and build in new ways.

Tehrani’s students, as architects, exist between two worlds: one of designing calculating or analyzing, and the other, determining what can practicably be built or constructed. With recent breakthroughs in nanotechnology architects are now beginning to build materials starting on the nanoscale. And by studying the self assembling characteristics of biological systems, architects are thinking about how new materials can or should be made and used. Using self-assembly as a new paradigm for building things of all kinds is leading to new insights and advances.

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Audi Electric Bike Revealed

Last week German automaker Audi made its first big splash into the E-bike world, releasing photos and videos of an exciting lightweight prototype electric stunt bike that may be among the most ambitious projects introduced in this space to date. No specific names or dates have been announced yet by the Germans, so for now it is still technically a concept bike–but from the looks of it a radically groundbreaking one.
This ebike made #1 of our top 10 ebikes of the future list.
And is #4 on our 10 fastest production Ebikes list.
And to see the fasted ebikes in the world ever built check out our  10 fastest electric bikes on the planet.
Audi is making some other fast moves in the 2-wheel motor sport category with the announcement last month of their purchase of Italian motorcycle-maker Ducati for $1.2 billion in a rare move for an auto manufacturer. Ducati’s dealership network may well provide Audi with an instant world-wide distribution channel for upscale high-performance E-bikes.
And separately, VW, also owned by Audi, has been working on something they call “last mile transportation,” which focuses on the use of short-distance urban transportation.
Audi’s concept E-bike is what you would expect when some of Europe’s most skilled auto engineers and modernist designers get together and decide they are going to create a flagship E-bike with no expenses spared.
The Audi E-bike is based on custom carbon fiber wheels and a full-suspension carbon fiber frame; even the front suspension forks are custom designed for this bike. The rims look very similar in design to those on the $80K Blacktrail, leading to speculation by some in the E-bike community that this bike was partially designed by PG Bikes, the company behind the Blacktrail.  Certainly at least the Audi ebike designers had the obscenely priced  Blacktrail in mind when they designed their bike. The Audi E-bike also uses the same “Harmonic Drive System” as the Blacktrail, a highly regarded German design developed by Clean Mobile. Clean Mobile builds custom bottom-bracket drive systems for exclusive high end bikes made by innovative European companies such as KTM . Ironically Clean Mobile also went through an ownership change recently, first filing insolvency, and then being acquired by TQ-Systems GmbH and switching most of its staff just last month.
The key element to the Audi drive system designed by Clean Mobile, that it keeps the motor weight in the center of the frame (unlike most hub powered bikes which have heavy weight awkwardly placed in rear wheel) and most importantly allows the power to be driven through the bicycles  gear system. This means that the motor is allowed to operate in its maximum efficiency zone, because as we know, electric motors like to spin quickly at a high rpm.  Most expensive ebikes like this choose an In the Gear hub transmission like the German made 14 speed Rohloff . We are very surprised that  Audi opted to go with a standard derailleur system given the other flashes of bicycle technology in this bike such as the $800 Brakeforce one carbon fiber hydraulic brakes. We suspect that going with a derailleur instead of a Rohloff was a compromise Audi had to make to accommodate the carbon rims which have attached carbon spokes, and may have been a design blunder that will be corrected if and when the bike goes into production. Carbon rims with built in spokes make no sense on an ebike other than aesthetics, and add considerably to the cost.  To give you an idea the Blacktrail bike which uses an identical carbon wheel set, sells a replacement set of wheels and rims for a staggering $5000.
The Audi E-bike is designed with light weight, high power and nimbleness in mind, no doubt for BMX-type stunts such as those seen in the video, so does not carry a heavy, cumbersome battery pack. Instead it features a small, featherweight, quick-change pack, enabling the rider to choose between riding “naked” for short distances or hauling extra battery packs in a backpack for longer rides. The bike appears well-balanced, with most of the serious weight (battery and motor) situated very low and centered in the frame.  Best of all, it tilts the scales at a scant 46 pounds–unheard of to date for a full suspension E-bike.
Other interesting design details include a motorcycle-like seat which can retract during riding to transform the E-bike into a trials-type bike for jumping and stunt-riding. A built-in brake/tail light in the back of the seat is a brilliant futuristic touch. The Audi E-bike also has LED lights built into the front of the handlebar, which you can clearly see in the below video. Smart details like these make this E-bike a showcase of sleek, integrated, forward-looking design.
Other goodies include a built-in Android smartphone app that serves as an electronic control system for the bike, not just monitoring battery and speed but a host of other useful functions, including the ability to toggle through five cycling modes: Pure, Pedelec, eGrip, Power Wheelie, and Balanced Wheelie. The bike also utilizes a torque sensor, which measures how much the rider is pedaling and can add power accordingly.  Another sweet feature of this control system is a lock feature, which locks the rear wheel and sets off an alarm if someone tries to grab and dash your $2ok bike.  All in all this is one of the most impressive efforts we have seen software-wise in an E-bike.

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Revolutionary Flexible Paper Tablet

At the cornerstone of any good company or economy for that matter is efficiency. At Queens University in Ontario Canada researchers have come up with the ultra thin, ultra light weight, flexible plastic displays called PaperTab, a high resolution, 11 inch touch screen display with built-in electronics. The creator, Plastic Logic, incubated at Cambridge University’s Cavendish Lab, is now a world renowned creator of a stream of technological innovations in flexible displays.
The key difference is flexibility: there is a possibility of a wide range of applications that would not be possible with glass-based displays.  Expected applications include mobile devices, billboards, reading devices, art applications, and more.
The device runs on the Intel core i5 processor and employs a sensor material instead of an electrophoretic display and looks like a sheet of paper in a clear plastic sleeve, but is in fact an interactive display .  There are no mice or buttons and navigation is accomplished by finger swipes or simply bending the corner of the page up to go back or down to move forward.

A typical user would have any number of paper tabs, say 10, which are in effect like filing drawers.  Applications run in each PaperTab, for example word-processing, gallery, image editor, etc. Information can be shared and transferred between PaperTabs using copy and paste commands or finger swipes.  Uploading and downloading of files and videos wirelessly to and from multiple devices is a built in function.
Typical displays would be expected to last greater than five years and allow about 10 million page updates which is about the same yield as the LCD industry.  Memory capacity is ample: 16 or 32 GB. The device currently comes with black or white plastic backing.
At 10 times thinner than its glass competitors , reading outside or at a ballgame, displaying signage, wearing a rolled tablet on the wrist, displaying artwork, all with a superlight interface is indeed an innovation.

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New Flexible Glass Will Significantly Reduce The Cost Of Solar Panels

There is an interesting story about ancient Rome which tells us that flexible glass is a legendary lost invention from the time of the reign of Roman Emperor Tiberius Caesar. Tiberius Caesar ordered the execution of a glassmaker for inventing the ‘Vitrum Flexile’ or flexible glass, which was unbreakable and could be bended by hand. The emperor feared that the new invention would undermine the value of gold and silver and will shatter the whole economy.
Now after hundreds of years, In 2012 Corning introduced ‘Willow Glass’. As you probably know, Corning is the manufacturer of Gorilla Glass, which forms the front of most premium Smart-phones today. Willow glass is a type of flexible glass.
Willow Glass is very heat resistant, which is useful in high temperatures measured in hundreds of degrees Celsius. Willow Glass is flexible enough to be rolled up which can significantly speed up production and reduce costs. Willow Glass’s combination of flexibility, transparency, and heat resistance makes it a very good option for the creation of cadmium telluride (CdTe) solar cells.
The U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has built flexible solar cells out of Corning’s Willow Glass. These new solar cells are strong enough to even replace roofing shingles.
Conventional solar panels are bulky and breakable, which makes them expensive to transport and install. But with this latest technological development, the flexible glass can be used to make cheap solar cells. These flexible solar cells can even replace conventional brick or slate shingles.
The cost of installation is one of the most prohibitive factors in adopting solar power. But using flexible solar cells instead of conventional brick or slate shingles would make it much cheaper. With roofing made of solar panels, homes can generate their own electricity.

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Could These Solar Cells Replace Heavy Solar Panels?

Researchers at University of Alberta have discovered that phosphorus and zinc can be used to make inexpensive nanoparticle-based solar cells that can turn the sun’s power into electrical energy. Researchers have designed nanoparticles that absorb light and conduct electricity from these two elements.
It is a big breakthrough in making solar power more accessible to parts of the world that are off the electricity grid. Phosphorus and zinc are abundant materials in Earth’s crust and are more easily available than rare earth materials like cadmium. Moreover, there are no manufacturing restrictions imposed on phosphorus and zinc as is on lead-based nanoparticles.
The new nanoparticle-based solar cells are very easy to manufacture; these can be mass-manufactured using plain methods like roll-to-roll printing or spray-coating. By lowering the cost of manufacture, solar power is made more affordable, which is one of the biggest hurdles to widespread adoption faced by the solar power industry.
This research offers a promising approach towards making the Nanoparticle-based ‘inks’ which could be used to paint or print solar cells that are responsive to light. The researchers at University of Alberta are now conducting experiments with the nanoparticles by spray-coating them onto large solar cells to test their efficiency.

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Aspid GT-21 Invictus, Pure Cutting Edge Design

Spanish automaker IFR Automotive S.L., founded in 2003 by Ignacio Fernandex Rodriguez, is based in Catalonia and its latest offering, Aspid GT-21 Invictus is named after a viper species native to the region.  The Aspid GT-21 Invictus is a “Supercar” that accelerates from 0 to 62 mph in 2.8 seconds with a top speed of 155 mph.  But what makes IFR’s Aspid cars special is not how fast they are.  Pure research and development at the center of its founder’s thinking is.
Rodriguez brought with him personal experience in the automobile industry from design of components and whole vehicle concepts to the engineering of high volume production of cars.  In addition, Rodriguez had developed specialized engineering skills in supporting competitive racers and rally cars.  His highest profile job was rally engineer with the Mitsubishi team competing in the World Rally Championships.
IFR uses an aluminum extrusion composite system called Alexcom which provides a main body that is ten times stiffer than a conventional aluminum frame.  A twin brake system is another innovation by IFR which was patented and is a light weight stainless steel brake system with twin discs with turbine shaped slots for unparalleled cooling and efficiency.
IFR has also created an innovative suspension system which is light weight and has a suspension arm extruded from an aluminum tube with an elliptical cross-sectional profile with two reinforcement cords running throughout the extrusion.
Finally IFR has implemented what it calls “Unidrive” which completely eliminates the traditional instrument panel and replaces it with two state of the art digital displays which totally integrates an almost infinite number of electronic and electrical possibilities within a common system.   A driver can change almost whatever parameter he chooses such as the rev limit, valve timing, power output, steering assistance, ABS, noise valve, brake balance, traction control, stability control, pitch, roll, yaw and ride height as well as damping characteristics. And, with a touch of the screen restore the factory settings.
Rodriguez decided to take up vehicle research and development when he saw the opportunity to bring innovative technologies to the car market.  His experience and connections in motorsports had exposed him to cutting edge technologies that he would integrate into his designs.
IFR’s cars are produced in limited runs and provide owners with a truly unique car.  Alliances with some of the top auto parts designers in the industry insures the finished product is among the best.

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You’re Hired! Trump’s 62-Story Dubai Hotel Could Be Revived with New VP

IndustryTap recently wrote about $616 billion Millennium Tower Boston, a project that lay inert from 2006 to 2013, victim to the “Global Economic Crisis” or “Global Credit Crunch.” The project finally became an active worksite when its owner, Millennium Partners, cobbled together financing.
Donald Trump, who has more lives than a cat, having raised himself Phoenix-like from the ashes of bankruptcy four times and narrowly missing a helicopter crash that claimed the life of one of his most-trusted partners, was forced to halt construction of Trump Hotel Dubai in 2009 due to the financial instability of a key partner. The hotel was expected to be 62 stories tall and bring with it Trump’s signature “chutzpah,” becoming part of what is now called the “Eight Wonder of the World,” Palm Jumeirah. The clear lesson is that if Trump can get financing, the project will go forward. The original design was to feature split-linked pinnacles that would rise above the Palm Golden Mile.
Last month, Trump hired Shafi Syed, as VP of Development and Acquisitions for India, the Middle East and Africa. Syed will work out of the Trump Dubai headquarters. If anyone can revive the project, it is Syed, whose experience at Wyndham Exchange, Cendant VNG and Taj Hotels, Resorts & Palaces India should be a boon to Trump.
Trump’s most recent project in the region, “Trump International Golf Club, Dubai”, is a 7,205 yard, par 71,18 hole PGA Championship golf course with a 30,000 square foot state-of-the-art clubhouse and Trump Spa & Wellness Center. The course is being designed by world-renowned golf course architect Gil Hanse and will be completed in 2016. Trump owns luxury properties in New York, Chicago, Panama, Toronto, Miami and Washington, DC. The following video goes into detail on Trumps golf course projects.

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Hacker Turns Hijacked Drones into “Zombies”

Will there be any blue skies and white puffy clouds to see in our future or will the view be muddled with a traffic jam of drones? We’ve been hearing a lot of talk lately about unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) filling the skies to make us feel as if that future sky will be filled with swarms of flying robots.
Though there aren’t that many drones flying around currently, this might change very soon. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) estimates that we could see as many as 15,000 drones in the sky by 2020.
There might come a time when we will wait for a drone instead of a truck to deliver our package. Amazon already shared plans to use airborne drones to deliver goods within 30 minutes of your order.
But what if hackers could hijack those drones?
One such hijacker is already here. Notable hacker Samy Kamkar has custom built the software for Skyjack, which he uses along with a modified Parrot AR.Drone 2 to seek wireless signals of other drones and take control of them … even while in flight.
Skyjack takes over drones in the sky and literally turn them into zombie drones. Skyjack’s controller can gain  complete access to other drones and can issue commands to them using just a tablet or laptop. The controller can change the other drone’s course, adjust its speed and even view the drone’s live video feeds.
At present, Skyjack can only hijack other drones that use similar communication systems to those employed by Parrot. But shouldn’t that be enough to wake up companies to make their future drones more secure?

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Live with 1 Million People in a Futuristic Pyramid City

Dubai is building one of the wonders of the world, inspired by incredible feats of architecture of Mayans and Egyptians. They built the pyramids to weather the test of time, but masterpiece structure ‘Ziggurat’ will be self-sustainable with all natural-energy sources.
Here are some interesting facts and features that are going to be incorporated in the Ziggurat Project:
• Ziggurat is named after the temple towers of the ancient Mesopotamian valley.
• The structure is a gargantuan and will cover 2.3 square kilometers (0.88 square miles).
• Ziggurat is green and will be capable of running completely off the grid by utilizing solar, steam, wind and other natural resources.
• This carbon-neutral structure is shaped like a pyramid and will house nearly one million people.
• This structure will have plenty of green spaces for recreation and agriculture.
• The building has an efficient public transportation system that will run horizontally and vertically.
• It will use just 10% of land surface that a normal one million person city would need.
• Facial recognition technology for security purposes will be integrated into the structure’s design.
Ziggurat was unveiled at the recent Cityscape Dubai. The project puts forward the ideal model for the future with space-saving design and non-reliance on fossil fuels.

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