Category: Science and Technology
NIU’s PROMISE Scholars will host a technology and science talk by Betty A. Shanahan from 5 to 6 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 16, in Room 354 of the Engineering Building. Pizza and refreshments will be served. The event is open to all. Shanahan’s talk, “Authentic Women & Effective Engineers … Create the Future,” will focus on the...
October is career fair season at NIU. With many companies coming to campus to network with students, this is an ideal time to think about life post-graduation. NIU’s College of Engineering & Engineering Technology (CEET) hosts its own job fair each year, catering to the career and internship needs of CEET students. This year, computer...
The digital generation is taking over cyberspace. More and more K-12 students are getting online every day to do everything from shopping to playing games to connecting with friends, but many schools have been hesitant to embrace emerging interactive technologies in the classroom. Northern Illinois University’s HIVE Project is working to change that by generating...
NIU mechanical engineering professor Federico Sciammarella was chosen as technical chair for the upcoming 2012 Rapid Product Development Association of South Africa (RAPDASA) international conference. The conference takes place Wednesday, Oct. 31, through Friday, Nov. 2, According to its website, “RAPDASA embraces the complete product development value chain … RAPDASA aims to become a government-recognized...
In the laboratory of award-winning researcher Angela Grippo, mouse-like creatures known as prairie voles are getting an extreme makeover – habitat edition. Nothing too fancy, mind you – a running wheel, chewy toys, tinfoil balls and furnishings that include a paper towel roll and miniature igloo for cozy hiding places. By enriching the living environment...
University Libraries has launched Huskie Commons, a new online repository featuring NIU student theses and dissertations and faculty members’ publications in peer-reviewed journals. While outreach to NIU faculty is just beginning, Huskie Commons already contains full text versions of more than 60 faculty publications and links to more than 4,000 theses and dissertations. In the...
The plan sounds like something from an adventure novel. Just after Christmas this year, a team of scientists that includes NIU’s Ross Powell and Reed Scherer, with colleagues from nine other major universities, will begin a major research project in the Antarctic. The operations team will use Giant Caterpillar tractors to pull sleds loaded with...
NIU’s PROMISE Scholars will host a “virtual lecture” by Neil Shubin from 4 to 6 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 18, in Room 354 of the Engineering Building. Light refreshments will be served. The event is open to all. Shubin researches the evolutionary origin of anatomical features of animals and is an expert on the evolution of...
You might have heard that spider’s silk is one of the strongest materials in the natural world, but did you know that scientists are working to develop genetically-engineered goats that can produce a spider-like silk in their milk? That’s just one of the weird and fascinating things happening in the world of materials science, a...
Abul Azad, a professor in the NIU Department of Technology, recently published a book titled “Internet Accessible Remote Laboratories: Scalable E-Learning Tools for Engineering and Science Disciplines.” The book is the result of collaboration between three academics from NIU and MIT, as well as Carinthia University of Applied Sciences in Austria. The book has five...
On the topic of computers, artificial intelligence and robots, Northern Illinois University Professor David Gunkel says science fiction is fast becoming “science fact.” Fictional depictions of artificial intelligence have run the gamut from the loyal Robot in “Lost in Space” to the killer computer HAL in “2001: A Space Odyssey” and the endearing C-3PO and...
You’re on deadline, totally immersed in a project at work or school. You glance at your wristwatch and can’t believe where the time has gone. There’s a reason for this time-flies phenomenon, and it has to do with an individual’s working memory capacity, according to NIU researchers. “Individuals with high working memory capacity devote so...