Deltaker, S.A. tile. Credit: ASCER

The Spanish Ceramic Tile Manufacturers’ Association (ASCER) says it is working with the Harvard Graduate School of Design on a one-year research effort to explore the best ways to meet the increasing challenges of product customization, adjustment to buyers’ preferences, and sustainability in production.

The Ceramic Futures project will be led by Martin Bechthold, professor of Architectural Technology, and Christoph Reinhart, associate professor of Architectural Technology. According to an ASCER press release, the project consists of three phases.

The first phase (December 2009 to spring 2010) is focusing on current design-to-manufacturing processes. Work during this time is based on in-depth case studies on sustainability, manufacturing and related design and business strategies.

The second phase (January to June 2010) includes a detailed evaluation of the performance of ceramic materials in buildings. Integral parts of this phase are prototyping and experimentation studies that investigate the customization of ceramics through robotics and other digital fabrication technologies.In

In the final phase (May to December 2010), the group says it will develop the best ideas generated in the previous phase, and complete one or more prototypes to highlighting possible improvements in the fabrication of ceramic products.

Although details have not been announced, ASCER says it will disseminate the findings of the research project via lectures and publications.

I received some additional information about Carlo Pantano’s presentation on “The Art of Science of Glass” that will be held at 12 noon, March 26, 2010 at Penn State University.

Don’t expect a formal and technical lecture. Instead, Pantano’s presentation/conversation is part of Penn State’s ongoing “Unplugged” luncheon series that is modeled on the Café Scientifique concept that looks for opportunities to have an informal exchange between scientists and the public.

Here is what Pantano - who directs PSU’s Materials Research Institute – tells me he hopes to cover in his presentation:

“Historically, artists and scientists have been very successful collaborators. The glass artists in Italy gave Galileo his first glass lens. Archaeological stained glasses provide models for nuclear waste disposal. The Glass Flowers, which are precise, realistic models of plants, served as models for botanists at the turn of the century. Obsidian, a natural volcanic glass, first served stone age man for utilitarian purposes but progressed to be an artform. Today, both natural and synthetic glasses are widely used to create glass art. (Or, is it art glass?) Moreover, the materials and technology used to create the world-renowned glass art of Tagliapietra and Chihuly are as important to artists today as the samples of arts and craft glass were to the early scientists who made the first spectacles, thermometers, telescopes, batteries and vacuum chambers.

“Yet, we do not really educate across the art-science interface.

“In this conversation, I will describe these and other crossovers between the art and science of glass: glass manufacturing defects that inspire art; stained glass and photovoltaic solar art glass; glass art using a femtosecond laser; the increasing use of glass in architecture and medicine; and the broader impact of glass in our society. I will also describe our DaVinci glassblowing program at Penn State and our recent international excursion to bring artists, chemists and conservation scientists together at the graduate and professional level.

“My primary motivation for the DaVinci program at Penn State is to put real materials into the hands of undergraduate students in any discipline. A material they can make, study, control and be creative with. Glass art, especially glassblowing, familiarizes art students with scientific principles, materials and technology; for science and engineering students, it provides a sense of aesthetics and the importance of creating new ideas through association rather than simply deductive thinking. Artists and scientists may have different practical goals and approaches, but understanding and describing the nature of things is always at the root. Other motivations for the program are to heighten the interest of children and the public in science, and more generally, to introduce students to the real world of interdisciplinarity and the difficulties of communication therein.

The talk will take place in the Executive Room at the Penn Stater Conference Center Hotel. It is open to the public and includes a buffet luncheon. The event will begin at 12 noon, with the talk to begin at ~12:15 p.m. to allow time for people to go through the buffet line. The cost is $8 per person for members of the Penn State Alumni Association and $12 per person for nonmembers. Reservations are required and can be made by contacting Marilyn Engle at mbengle@psu.edu or 814-863-8117. Payment will be accepted at the event by check made payable to Penn State. The deadline to make a reservation is Friday, March 12.

The DOE announced that 24 million hours of supercomputing time out of a total of 1.6 billion available at Argonne and Oak Ridge National Labs have been awarded to investigate materials for developing lithium-air batteries that would be capable of powering a car for 500 miles on a single charge.

Through the Innovative and Novel Computational Impact on Theory and Experiment program, a research team including scientists from ANL, ORNL and IBM will use two of the world’s most powerful supercomputers to design new materials required for a lithium–air battery. Lithium-ion batteries, used in today’s emerging plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, currently have a maxiumum range of 40 to 100 miles before a recharge is necessary.

The calculations will be performed at both labs, which have two of the world’s top-ten fastest computers.

“Computation and supercomputing are critical to solving some of our greatest scientific challenges,” said DOE Secretary Chu. “This year’s INCITE awards reflect the enormous growth in demand for complex modeling and simulation capabilities, which are essential to improving our economic prosperity and global competitiveness.”

The INCITE program provides a collection of unique computational resources that enable scientists and engineers to conduct cutting-edge research in weeks or months rather than the years needed previously. The use of scientific modeling can accelerate scientific breakthroughs in areas such as climate change, alternative energy, life sciences, and materials science.

“Argonne is committed to developing lithium air technologies,” says Eric Isaacs, the lab’s director. “The obstacles to Li-air batteries becoming a viable technology are formidable, but the modeling and simulation capabilities of DOE’s supercomputers will help us accelerate the innovations required in materials science, chemistry and engineering.”