USU receives grant for online learning

Utah State University has been awarded a research grant from the Division of Undergraduate Education at the National Science Foundation.

The grant is for a project aimed at improving retention of engineering undergraduate students within the critical first two years of study. The three-year grant begins this month.

The grant enables USU to implement and formally evaluate the use of online learning forums within distance delivered sections of the engineering calculus course sequence, taught within the USU distance education system. The goal is to help graduate more professionals into engineering and other science, technology, engineering and mathematics — STEM — disciplines. Deseret News

Brigham City Seeks Input on Economic Strategies

The Brigham City Community and Economic Development Department – with support from Box Elder County – has been conducting a study in order to develop strategies that will help to grow four distinct business clusters in the community that are comprised of the aerospace and composites, structural steel, shooting sports and agricultural areas of concentration.

Box Elder County’s economic development director, Mitch Zundel, said that while this is primarily a Brigham City driven project, the county is following along closely since the scope of the cluster analysis will impact the county as a whole.

Through grants from the U.S. Department of Commerce and other federal, state and local agencies and businesses, Brigham City Corporation has hired former Ogden City Mayor Matthew Godfrey’s consulting firm to draft this industry cluster analysis. Box Elder News Journal

Wirelessly-Charged Electric Bus Unveiled in Utah

The next-generation of electric vehicle technology was on display last week, as Utah State University (USU) rolled out a wirelessly-charged electric transit bus.

Dubbed the “Aggie Bus,” the 22-foot vehicle powers-up by sitting over charging pads embedded in the roadway. Through a magnetic field, the bus receives 25 kilowatts of energy — enough power to drive approximately 30 miles before needing a recharge.

For the initial demonstration held on Thursday, Nov. 15, researchers charged the bus in a garage-like laboratory with an above-ground charging pad, and then took university and media passengers on a short ride.

Officials tout the Aggie Bus as the first bus to receive wireless energy of up to 25 kilowatts with more than 90 percent efficiency over an air gap of six inches. That gap includes roadway materials such as asphalt.

From a consumer perspective, the system is similar to rechargeable pads that mobile devices sit on to wirelessly recharge. But in this case, the device could sit on a shelf above the pad and still receive power.

The idea is that eventually, a public transit bus could charge up, go on its route and, every time it stops to pick up passengers, it would sit above an in-ground charging pad that would recharge the vehicle.

If it works as planned, the technology could set the stage for a viable form of non-fossil fuel power. Some work still needs to be done before you’ll see big city transit authorities adopting the technology, however. Researchers must still test various forums of surface materials to determine which are the most conducive to charging, and they need to increase the height of the air gap. But officials believe the question is now a matter of “when” rather than “if.” Government Technology

Space technology in insulation markets cuts energy bills

NASA technology is taking the Northern Utah insulation market by storm, saving valuable energy in its wake.

Consider a metal building used as a youth basketball gym in Northern Utah. Although insulated to code, the facility was unusable in the months of July and August. Air conditioners couldn’t keep up with the heat.
In May, a thin, reflective material was installed in the building’s rafters. Even during the hottest summer on record, the building was continuously used.

The reflective material, called RadiaSource, acts as a reflective shield, keeping heat out in the summer and in during the winter. The same technology has been used for suits in the space program to prevent heat gain and loss in the extremes of outer space.

Although the technology has been around for a while, practical applications outside of space have developed only in the last couple of years, as manufacturers learned how to handle the problem of oxidation.

The Department of Energy concluded during a roof study that this technology provides the best opportunity for return on investment when compared with cool-color roofs, ventilation or mass insulation. Standard Examiner

Utah battery innovators get $5 million in federal grants

The round of funding came as part of $43 million released by the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, or ARPA-E.

Utah State University will get $3 million to develop advanced battery management systems that will optimize the performance of each cell in a battery pack. The goal is reduce the cost of vehicle batteries by 25 percent.

Also winning funding is the Salt Lake City firm Materials & Systems Research, Inc., or MSRI, which is to receive $1.73 million in Small Business Innovation Research money to improve sodium battery membranes. The idea is to make the membranes stronger, safer, longer-lasting and less costly to produce. Salt Lake Tribune

Hitting a Milestone

At Utah State University, USTAR teams have reached new milestones by working together on genomic research projects resulting in two sets of transgenic twin goats. Double the research—double the fun.

USTAR at Utah State University was designed, in part, to foster collaboration between USTAR faculty and core university faculty to build on established university research areas of strength.

Two USTAR teams, represented by Randy Lewis, of the Synthetic BioManufacturing Institute, and Irina Polejaeva, of Veterinary Diagnostics and Infectious Diseases, worked together to design the goats using genomics technology. Both sets of twin were created with different proof of concept milestones in mind.


Lewis, a member of the Synthetic BioManufacturing Institute at USU, uses transgenic goats to produce milk with spider silk proteins. The proteins are purified and spun into fibers that can be used to create technical fabrics as well as artificial ligaments and tendons. Stronger than Kevlar and more flexible than nylon, Lewis’s spider silk has been used to craft a bullet resistant skin and can be used to create a next generation solution for parachute cords.

Lewis selected his best spider silk milk producer, Daisy, gave her skin cells to the VDID team and ask them to create the first set of cloned spider goat twins born at Utah State University. “Because we need large quantities of milk to get large quantities of silk, it makes sense to copy our best producer,” said Lewis." Utah Pulse