Carnegie Mellon's Smart Headlight System Will Have Drivers Seeing Through the Rain-Carnegie Mellon News. Monday, July 9, 2012 Contact: Byron Spice / 412-268-9068 / bspice@cs.cmu.edu PITTSBURGH—Drivers can struggle to see when driving at night in a rainstorm or snowstorm, but a smart headlight system invented by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University's Robotics Institute can improve visibility by constantly redirecting light to shine between particles of precipitation. The system, demonstrated in laboratory tests, prevents the distracting and sometimes dangerous glare that occurs when headlight beams are reflected by precipitation back toward the driver. "If you're driving in a thunderstorm, the smart headlights will make it seem like it's a drizzle," said Srinivasa Narasimhan, associate professor of robotics.
The system uses a camera to track the motion of raindrops and snowflakes and then applies a computer algorithm to predict where those particles will be just a few milliseconds later. "A human eye will not be able to see that flicker of the headlights," Narasimhan said. New Plastic Is Strong As Steel, Transparent. By mimicking a brick-and-mortar molecular structure found in seashells, University of Michigan researchers created a composite plastic that's as strong as steel but lighter and transparent.
It's made of layers of clay nanosheets and a water-soluble polymer that shares chemistry with white glue. Engineering professor Nicholas Kotov almost dubbed it "plastic steel," but the new material isn't quite stretchy enough to earn that name. Nevertheless, he says its further development could lead to lighter, stronger armor for soldiers or police and their vehicles. It could also be used in microelectromechanical devices, microfluidics, biomedical sensors and valves and unmanned aircraft. Kotov and other U-M faculty members are authors of a paper on this composite material, "Ultrastrong and Stiff Layered Polymer Nanocomposites," published in the Oct. 5 edition of Science.
The robotic machine consists of an arm that hovers over a wheel of vials of different liquids. 10 Futuristic Materials. Lifeboat Foundation Safeguarding Humanity Skip to content Switch to White Special Report 10 Futuristic Materials by Lifeboat Foundation Scientific Advisory Board member Michael Anissimov. 1.
Alexander Graham Bell's Science Experiments for Kids. Beacon Unit Plan Library. Laurie AyersBeacon Learning Center (Bay District Schools) Description In this unit, students use a variety of references to read and organize information and demonstrate knowledge of selected significant people, their contributions to society, and ways the contributions impacted society.
Contributions in the fields of communication and technology and significant scientific discoveries are explored. Timeline activities are included to promote understanding of order of events. Duration The planned duration of this activity is 11 days. Unit Matrix and Standards Click here to view the curriculum matrix which illustrates the unit's instructional design and lists standards addressed in the unit. Lesson Plans Mind Over MatterMind Over Matter is for Day 2 of the unit, Inventions and Inventors. Inside InformationThis lesson is for Day 3 of the unit, Inventions and Inventors. In Line With TimeThis lesson is for Day 4 of the unit, Inventions and Inventors.
Timeline ShuffleIts a lineup! Web Links. Problem-Solving Using the Scientific Method. Problem-Solving Using the Scientific Method Audience: Educators and StudentsGrades: K-8Year: 2000 This NASA video segment explores how to use the scientific method to solve a problem about sound. The segment is part of the NASA SCIFiles program, which features the Tree House Detectives, a group of young students who work together to solve everyday problems. In this segment the detectives talk with Dr. D., a scientist in the neighborhood, and learn that the scientific method helps people identify a problem and find ways to solve that problem.
Problem-Solving Using the Scientific Method Duration: 3 minutes 25 seconds> View QuickTime [11MB] This video clip is part of the NASA SCIence Files™ The Case of the Barking Dogs DVD that may be ordered from the Central Operation of Resources for Educators, or CORE →.