 |
 |
 |
|
 |
|
|||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
||||||
|
||||||
|
 |
|
|||||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
|
|
|||||
|
|||||
|
|||||
|
|||||
|
Rensselaer In the News: Energy Security
President Shirley Ann Jackson told CNN's Lou Dobbs that our nation's continuing capacity for innovation is at risk. She noted that the current science and engineering workforce will soon retire in record numbers, a diminishing number of young Americans are studying science and engineering, and there is a decreased flow of talent from abroad. If left unchecked Jackson said this "quiet crisis" could lead to a day of reckoning that can threaten our national and economic security. Appearing as a guest on CNN's Lou Dobbs Tonight April 18, 2005, Jackson urged a national focus on energy security as a means to excite and expand the science and technology workforce, much like the space race did in the 1960s. "We cannot drill our way to energy security … We have to innovate our way to energy security," Jackson said, "…energy security is the space race for this millennium." Two recent Associated Press (AP) stories, appearing in newspapers and on Web sites globally, reported on Rensselaer energy security research: Reducing automobile traffic gridlock would reduce fuel consumption. A team of Rensselaer researchers — including undergraduate and graduate students — is developing a tool to help ease congestion. An AP story featured the work of the team, led by Professor George List, director of the Center for Infrastructure and Transportation Studies, and Professor William "Al" Wallace '61, director of research for the center. The team has developed and is testing the wireless Advanced Traveler Information System (ATIS). Commuters in the Capital Region are using a wireless device placed in their car that tracks and then alerts them to traffic jams along their route to work and redirects them to a better route, thereby saving time and fuel. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, by 2025, SSL could displace general illumination light sources such as incandescent and fluorescent lamps, decreasing national energy consumption for lighting by 29 percent.Another AP article noted: "This week, researchers at the Lighting Research Center at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y., said they had increased the light output per watt of a white LED to almost six times that of an incandescent light bulb, more efficient even than a compact fluorescent bulb." Innovation will be the key to not only improving the efficiency of existing energy sources, but also developing new sources. The May 2005 edition of IEEE Spectrum magazine includes an article by Rensselaer Professor Richard Lahey '64 and his collaborators on the progress in sonofusion research: "If this proves possible — and it's still a big 'if' — sonofusion could become a revolutionary new energy source." |
|
|
||
|
|||||
|
 Next |
|
|
|
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), 110 8th St., Troy, NY 12180. (518) 276-6000 |