Record Breaking Electric Car

Kostadinov | May 24, 2013

Back in 2010, Venturi Automobiles teamed up with the Ohio State University to place a new FIA world speed record for electric vehicles. Their attempt was successful and the vehicle they created – Venturi VBB-2.5, reached top speed of 307.58 mph (nearly 492 km/h). Now the same team, Venturi Automobiles and the Ohio State University, is attempting to break their own wolrd record via their new vehicle, the Venturi VBB-3, which is expected to achieve 372.82 mph (596 km/h) at first in 2013, before attempting a run at 434.96 mph(696 km/h) one year later. The VBB-3 vehicle has 3,000 hp to …Read More

The Solarcopter

Kostadinov | May 23, 2013

Solarcopter is a solar powered remote controlled helicopter-prototype designed for multipurpose applications. It is a development of Master students from Queen Mary, University of London. The very first Solarcopter prototype was designed to fly solely from energy generated from a photovoltaic panel, but with the assistance of a reserve battery that was also charged by the copter’s solar panel. The purpose of this battery was to provide energy when the solar panel was not able to do so. After that, the students improved their prototypes and the following Solarcopters are able to fly, take off and hover without the need …Read More

Bionic Camera Inspired by Insects

Kostadinov | May 22, 2013

Every insect eye consists of lots of small units called facets. Each facet is comprised of lens, pigment, and photoreceptors. The lens is mounted on a transparent crystalline cone that allows the light to reach the photoreceptors. Black pigment isolates facets from each other and screens out background light. The hemispherical shape allows extremely wide-angle fields of view, and the other advantage of this design is that it has incredible depth of view, which keeps objects focused despite the distance from the camera. John Rogers, a physical chemist and materials engineer at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and leader …Read More

New Attempt of Creating Cyborg

Kostadinov | May 21, 2013

The primary purpose of the project was to develop flexible working method to combine electronics with tissue. The scientists used 3D printing of cells and nanoparticles followed by cell culture to combine a small coil antenna with cartilage, creating a “bionic ear”. “In general, there are mechanical and thermal challenges with interfacing electronic materials with biological materials. Previously, researchers have suggested some strategies to tailor the electronics so that this merger is less awkward. That typically happens between a 2D sheet of electronics and a surface of the tissue. However, our work suggests a new approach — to build and …Read More