World Watch small, thin, and flexible — not to mention durable and cost effective to produce. Conventional tactile sensors often restrict natural body movements and fail or wear out easily. The university says the newer technology has wide applications for smart medical devices, wearable consumer electronics, robotics, and more. Biomedical engineering researchers at North Carolina State University (Raleigh, North Carolina) have also achieved recent progress in this field. The researchers there have developed software allowing powered prosthetics to tune themselves automatically. As prosthetics must be customized for individuals, this innovation is expected to improve comfort and reduce fitting times. HOT DESKING HIGHLIGHTS WORLD’S SMARTEST OFFICE SPACE Does your dream workplace include peace and quiet, lighting and temperatures customized to your individual needs, and changing work spaces to fit your schedule? Then you might want to check out The Edge, an Amsterdam office building being hailed as home to the world’s smartest office space. The 2,500 employees of Deloitte, the building’s main tenant, share 1,000 desks, a concept called hot desking. When employees arrive each morning, sensors guide them to a parking spot, then to the best work area based on their schedule. Possibilities include a sitting or standing desk, a work booth, a meeting room, a balcony seat, and a concentration room. Bloomberg News (New York) reports that the building, developed by OVG Real Estate, contains 28,000 of these sensors. Employees use their smartphones to adjust light and temperatures to their individual preferences, find colleagues, and even manage exercise routines. Cited as the world’s greenest building by a British rating agency, The Edge also features super-efficient LED panels powered by Internet cables, and solar panels that produce more electricity than the building uses.
LATITUDE
BY GAIL HELGASON Freelance Contributor
SCIENTISTS DISCOVER WORLD’S LONGEST CHAIN OF VOLCANOES Australian scientists have discovered the world’s longest chain of continental volca- noes, according to the Australian National University in Canberra. The 2,200-kilometre chain across eastern Australia was created over the last 33 million years. It is nearly three times the length of the Yellowstone hotspot track in North America, says research leader Dr. Rhodri Davis of the Research School of Earth Sciences. This volcanic activity is surprising because it occurs outside of tectonic plate boundaries, where volcanoes usually are found. The research, reported in the journal Nature , could help scientists better understand the movement of the continents throughout Earth’s history. CAMPUS EARNS ITS WINGS WITH GLOBAL PROJECT OF THE YEAR Is that a winged flying saucer? That’s one way onlookers have described the first building developed on Florida Polytechnic University’s new campus. The 15,050-square-metre Innovation, Science and Technology Building has been named Global Project of the Year by the Engineering News-Record (New York). It features a curvilinear roof with 94 aluminum sunshades in the shape of wings. Powered by hydraulic cylinders, they move with the sun to provide either light or shade inside the building. Engineering for the $60-million project was provided by Thornton Tomasetti,
Anderson Lane and TLC Engineering for Architecture. The building was designed by famed architect Santiago Calatrava.
ENGINEER, CHEERLEADER AND MOM DESIGNS CHILD-SAVING CLIP Electrical engineer and former cheerleader Marcie Miller of Chandler, Ariz., has given parents something to cheer about. Ms. Miller, employed by Intel, has invented a device to prevent the deaths of children in hot cars, TODAY Parents reports. The Intel Smart Clip is equipped with sensors, and it clasps onto a child’s car seat. If a parent walks away with the child still in the seat, an app on the parent’s smartphone sounds an alarm. Ms. Miller, who was a cheerleader for the Arizona Cardinals professional baseball team, says her family helps inspire her work. Having a daughter recently brought home the danger of hot cars. More than a dozen children die in hot cars each year in the United States, often because the caregiver has forgotten the child is in the rear seat. ENGINEERING PROGRESS MADE IN MEDICAL PROSTHETICS Thanks to researchers at the National University of Singapore Faculty of Engineering, medical prosthetic devices may soon become more flexible and comfortable. The researchers have developed a wearable, liquid-based sensor that is
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