You are browsing the archives of Missouri S&T.

(Either JavaScript is not active or you are using an old version of Adobe Flash Player. Please install the newest Flash Player.)

Although this video is a little old, the age isn’t obvious (other than a few hints in some of the captions) and it remains a great video regarding ceramics in general and provides an overview of ceramic engineering careers and the programs offered at Missouri University of Science and Technology in Rolla, Mo. It was produced by the Discovery Channel and the school, and features student interviews and lab demonstrations. It also features comments by a slightly younger (but not by much) Dick Brow.

Share

Ceramic pot filters are crucial for accessing clean water in third-world countries and underdeveloped regions of emerging nations. For a variety of reasons, much of the research regarding the manufacturing and effectiveness of these filters has occurred in Guatemala.

The attractiveness of these filters in countries like Guatemala is that almost all of the raw materials are easily available from abundant indigenous sources, with one exception: colloidal silver (silver nitrate). Levels of E. coli and coloform bacteria are typically used as representative indicators to measure general water quality, and while the ceramic material filters out most of the E. coli and coloform in the water, silver is added to as an additional anti-bacterial agent to kill what is not caught in the filters. In a story that appeared in our Bulletin magazine last year, a researcher reported that untreated filters caught 97% of the bacteria, while filters painted with the colloidal silver stopped 99%.

Everyone agrees that the amount of colloidal silver required per pot is very small. But, even though the per-pot cost is minimal, this additive must be imported and moved to remote regions. Ceramic filter technology is also competing, in a sense, with other indigenous filtering approaches, such as biosand filter applications.

Heinley exams E. coli growing from water samples.

Now, new research suggests that the use of the silver additive may not be all that important and the benefits may not justify the effort to obtain the material. According to a press release, Missouri S&T graduate student Nicole Heinley traveled to Guatemala to conduct research on the ceramic pot filters used to remove bacteria from water.

Heinley collected contaminated water samples from a river in the city of Antigua and studied the structure of the ceramic pot filters available locally. She found that the filters not lined with silver removed a higher than expected rate of E. coli — an average of 99.499 % — high enough that she calls into question whether the benefits of silver justify the logistical and expense problems involved.

“[Colloidal silver] is the only material that has to be imported to manufacture the filters,” Heinley says. “The remaining materials - sawdust and clay - are available locally.”

A paper on these findings written by Heinley and Curt Elmore, associate professor of geological engineering at Missouri S&T, will soon be published in the Journal of Water Science and Technology.

“Perhaps the greatest drawback to using the silver is maintaining the imported supply,” notes Elmore.  He said that developing a household water treatment that does not rely on imported components would be appealing even in a developed area, let alone a developing one.

Moving from lab-based conclusions to real manufacturing often leads to unexpected problems and Heinley warns that, “additional, long-term studies of filters without silver should be undertaken in order to further investigate the issue.”

Below is a two-part video explaining the making and function of ceramic/colloidal filters:

Share

A significant trend in electronics technology is the increasing ability to provide adaptive features into smaller and smaller electronic devices. An example of this technology trend are electronic motes. Electronic motes are devices that can:

• Support the collection and integration of data form a variety of miniature sensors.
• Analyze the sensor data as specified by system level controls.
• Wirelessly communicate the results of their analyzes to other motes, system base stations and the internet as specified by system automation.

Motes are also sometimes referred to as smart dust. One mote is composed of a small, low powered and cheap computer connected to several sensors and a radio transmitter capable of forming ad hoc networks. The computer monitors the different sensors in a mote. These sensors can measure light, acceleration, position, stress, pressure, humidity, sound and vibration. Data gathered are passed on to the radio link for transmission from mote to mote until data reaches the transmission node.

One of the original developers of motes was the DARPA. The defense angles are pretty obvious. For example, In conjunction with a remotely piloted vehicle, a GPS sensor, a magnetometer and a radio transmitter, battlefield commanders would have a clear picture of the field and enemy location and thus would be able to react accordingly without resorting to the use of mines. Other potential applications include intruder surveillance, robot-based sensor collections and manufacturing process surveillance.

To further military surveillance technology, Missouri S&T has been awarded $4.465 million through the U.S. Army Research Laboratory. According to an S&T press release, the funds will be spent developing motes that can detect the presence of various chemicals, electronic signatures and human activity.

Jagannathan Sarangapani, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at S&T and principal investigator for the project, says the motes are capable of sharing information with each other and even interacting with existing Wi-Fi networks to spread messages. In the battlefield, the motes would be deployed in dangerous areas to effectively “listen in the wind” for evidence that someone is in a sensitive or restricted area.

The sensor side of motes is pretty well figured out. However, since Sarangapan and others at Missouri S&T selected to work on this project are all experts in electrical and computer engineering, that suggests the hurdles now have to do with how to actually power the sensors, securely network them and extract useful real time data. That’s no small task. S&T will also be working with two small businesses to help make the technology more feasible: KalScott Engineering in Lawrence, Kan., and Avetec in Springfield, Ohio. The former is experienced in remote sensing and delivering UAV data; the latter brings expertise in computer modeling and integrating complex systems.

But, the ideas for possible application and use of motes in just about any field is limitless. They can be used in conjunction with power meters, water meters and other utility meters to transmit data automatically to a central node or to an electromagnetic truck capable of temporarily powering up the motes in a certain area. Moreover, they can be used in agriculture to give a clear picture of the temperature, humidity, water level, etc for a given location. Motes can be embedded into structures to give constant or periodic reports on structural integrity such as salt content levels in concrete. Furthermore, motes can be used in traffic management and monitoring by placing these devices on major intersections and streets.

One of the limiting factors in the development of motes is the battery. Although a bigger battery would mean a longer life for the mote and farther transmission capabilities for its radio link, smaller motes with smaller batteries are usually more versatile and flexible. Some form of energy scavenging is probably in the work for the motes.

Share

It’s great to see that a large number of schools that we reference in this blog made it to Bloomberg BusinessWeek’s new list of the top 25 “best bargain” universities, and hopefully this will be a shot in the arm to some of the smaller schools, such as the Colorado School of Mines (#1) and  Missouri S&T (#13).

Other schools with well-known materials-oriented programs include Georgia Tech (#2), University of Michigan (#6), Virginia Tech (#7), Texas A&M (#9), Purdue (#12) and University of Florida (#15).

The story – “Cheap Schools That Pack an ROI Punch” – was prepared by Businessweek based on an analysis of earnings data for college graduates. The source data came from PayScale, a salary comparison and benchmarking service. Using this information, Businessweek calculated a 30-year net return on investment for more than 500 colleges and universities.

According to the publication, these schools “boast a 30-year net return on investment that ranges from about $600,000 to more than $1.1 million, an improvement of 56 percent to 187 percent over the average for the entire sample. All of them sport decent graduation rates, too - in most cases, well above the 58 percent average.”

Share

(Either JavaScript is not active or you are using an old version of Adobe Flash Player. Please install the newest Flash Player.)

Richard Brow will tell you he likes everything about glass science, art and processing. Brow, an ACerS Fellow and Curator’s Professor of Ceramic Engineering at Missouri University of Science & Technology in Rolla, Mo., discusses his fascination with glass and delves into two specific areas: tapping into the theoretical strength of glass, and the special field of phosphate glasses.

Brow recently coauthored “The Strength of Silicate Glasses: What Do We Know, What Do We Need to Know?” in the new ACerS publication, the International Journal of Applied Glass Science. He explains that scientists and engineers know that glass can be made much stronger and that a great deal of research is being done in this field. He notes that even small improvements would translate into significant benefits in architecture and construction, glass fibers for wind turbines, packaging, electronics and bioactive glass implants.

He also discusses his research into phosphate glass materials and applications. Most glass-related research and applications focus on silicate glasses, but phosphate glasses can make wider use of special doping materials such as Rare Earths oxides  that can impart special optical and thermal properties to glass. Phosphate glasses can be processed at lower temperatures than silicate glasses.

Share