Is your Uber driver going too fast? Soon, you’ll be able to prove it.
Image: Noel Tock under Creative Commons license

Since 2009, Uber has taken off all around the world as the premier ride-sharing company. Now, your Uber experience may improve thanks to the company’s application of sensor technology via each driver’s smartphone.

A typical Uber experience asks the driver and passenger to rate each other after each drive. If the mark comes in unusually low, Uber can now investigate your claims by examining the driver’s journey with data pertaining to speed and erratic driving. The company aims to collect this data from the gyrometer in the driver’s phone and data from GPS and accelerometers.

This from Uber:

Gyrometers in phones can measure small movements, while GPS and accelerometers show how often a vehicle starts and stops, as well as its overall speed. If a rider complains that a driver accelerated too fast and broke too hard, we can review that trip using data. If the feedback is accurate, then we can get in touch with the driver.

Read the full article.

An array of different sensory devices are used in your smartphone, allowing our phones to follow our commands and functions seamlessly. From the sensors in your screen that recognize touch to the voltage and current measurement sensors for battery utilization optimization, sensors are constantly responding to the ever-increasing demand for faster, cheaper, smaller, and more sensitive means to monitor the world around us.

Now these sensor technologies could help produce safer conditions on the road. If gyrometer results show that drivers are moving their phones while driving, Uber may offer mounts. If the accelerators pick up constant speeding conditions, Uber is ready to tell their drivers to curb their enthusiasm.

The new ECS website was launched last week. We hope it’s easy to find what you are looking for!

Try it on your smartphone or tablet. Before the change, our stats told us 80% of you were looking at the site on your desktop computer. We think that will change now that it’s mobile-friendly.

You might notice we refreshed the ECS logo as well. We felt like the blue and green colors spoke to the enormous stake science represented by the Society has in the sustainability of our planet and its people.

We’ll be sharing lots of new features over the next few weeks.

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While society as a whole is moving toward cleaner, more renewable energy sources, there is one key component that is typically glossed over in the energy technology conversation: energy storage.

Developments in solar and wind are critical in the battle against climate change, but without advances in energy storage, our efforts may fall short. What happens when the sun isn’t shining or the wind isn’t blowing?

The folks at Popular Science are providing a friendly analogy to explain the the importance of energy storage.

Through a nanoribbon-infused epoxy, researchers were able to remove ice through Joule heating.
Image: Rice University

Graphene, better known as the wonder material, has seemingly limitless possibilities. From fuel cells to night-vision to hearing, there aren’t many areas that graphene hasn’t touched. Now, researchers from Rice University and transforming graphene for uses in air travel safety.

James Tour, past ECS lecturer and molecular electronics pioneer, has led a team in developing a thin coating of graphene nanoribbons to act as a real-time de-icer for aircrafts, wind turbines, and other surfaces exposed to winter weather.

(MORE: Read “High-Density Storage, 100 Times Less Energy“)

Through electrothermal heat, the graphene nanoribbons melted centimeter-thick ice on a static helicopter rotor blade in a -4° Fahrenheit environment.

This from Rice University:

The nanoribbons produced commercially by unzipping nanotubes, a process also invented at Rice, are highly conductive. Rather than trying to produce large sheets of expensive graphene, the lab determined years ago that nanoribbons in composites would interconnect and conduct electricity across the material with much lower loadings than traditionally needed.

Read the full article.

“Applying this composite to wings could save time and money at airports where the glycol-based chemicals now used to de-ice aircraft are also an environmental concern,” Tour said.

The coating may also protect aircrafts from lightning strikes and provide and extra layer of electromagnetic shielding.

As electronics advances, the demand for high-performance batteries increases. The lithium-ion battery is currently leading the charge in powering portable electronic devices, but another lithium-based battery contender is on the horizon.

The lithium-air battery is one of the most promising research areas in current lithium-based battery technology. While researchers such as ECS’s K.M. Abraham have been on the Li-air beat since the late 90s, current research is looking to propel this technology with the hopes of commercializing it for practical use.

A new contender: Lithium-air batteries

Recently, Khalil Amine, IMLB chair; and Larry Curtiss, IMLB invited speaker, co-authored a paper detailing a lithium-air battery that could store up to five times more energy than today’s lithium-ion battery.

(MORE: Submit your abstract for IMLB today!)

This work brings society one step closer to the commercial use of lithium-air batteries. In previous works regarding Li-air, researchers continuously encountered the same phenomenon of the clogging of the pores of the electrode.

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New material could help SOFCs operate more efficiently and cheaply.
Image: Bloom Energy

Solid oxide fuel cells may be producing cleaner energy at a more efficient level soon, thanks to a development at the University of Cambridge.

A new thin-film electrolyte material, developed by a team including ECS member Sergei Kalinin, has the potential to propel portable power sources due to its ability to achieve high performance levels and very low temperatures.

Advancing fuel cells

With a huge scientific focus shift toward developing new energy technologies, fuel cells have emerged as a big contender. Transitioning from a simple laboratory curiosity in the 19th century to a main contender for powering electric vehicles, researchers have dedicated much energy to building an efficient, cost effective fuel cell.

(MORE: Read “Battery and Fuel Cell Technology“)

This from University of Cambridge:

By using thin-film electrolyte layers, micro solid oxide fuel cells offer a concentrated energy source, with potential applications in portable power sources for electronic consumer or medical devices, or those that need uninterruptable power supplies such as those used by the military or in recreational vehicles.

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Due to overwhelming demand the IMLB Abstract Submission deadline has been extended to February 15!

Don’t miss this chance to participate in IMLB 2016, make sure to submit your abstract so you can present your latest work to lithium-ion battery researchers from around the world.

Submit abstracts

We’ve talked about ORCID identifiers quite a bit here at ECS. From the top five reasons to sign up for ORCID to the publishing benefits of the identifiers, we’re strong believers in ORCID’s place in the ever-expanding and international nature of scientific literature.

Recently, The Royal Society announced that it would require all authors submitting to their journals to have an ORCID iD. Additionally, seven other publishers – including PLOS and the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers – join The Royal Society, requiring author to have ORCID iDs starting in 2016.

Stuart Taylor, publishing director of The Royal Society, recently sat down with The Scholarly Kitchen to discuss why ORCID is such an important and promising thing in the current climate of scholarly publications.

Read the article.

Image: Penn State

With the newly popular hoverboards bursting into flames, safety in batteries has made its way to the public spotlight. To increase lithium ion battery safety, one ECS member is working to develop batteries with built in sensors to warn users of potential problems.

Chao-Yang Wang, 19-year ECS member, is taking on the challenge of making the highly popular lithium ion battery safer in light of demands for smaller, more energy efficient devices.

“Li-ion batteries essentially provide portable power for everything,” says Wang. “Your cell phone charge can now last for a week instead of a day, but it’s still the same size. The battery has a lot more energy density, you are compressing more and more energy into a smaller space, and you have to be careful when you do that. Our job is to come up with solutions to provide safety while at the same time increasing performance.”

While lithium ion batteries are typically safe under normal conditions, the battery’s flammable electrolyte solution could overheat and catch fire if it is punctured or overcharged.

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Deadline for Submitting Abstracts
April 15, 2016
Submit today!

Topic Close-up

SYMPOSIUM H04: Low-Dimensional Nanoscale Electronic and Photonic Devices 9

FOCUSED ON the most recent developments in nanoscale transparent electronic, photonic materials, and devices. The symposium will encompass low dimensional and transparent novel materials and devices, processing, device fabrication, reliability, and other related topics.

NOTING THAT the symposium includes materials preparation, growth, processing, devices, chemistry, physics, theory and applications, it also provides a forum for researchers, scientists and engineers from different countries worldwide, who are actively involved in all forms of research on low dimensional nanomaterials related to electronic and photonic devices and properties. Learn about all the topics!

Did You Know?

Students can be eligible for the General Student Poster Session awards by submitting an abstract to Z01 – General Society Student Poster Session.

Important Dates

• Take advantage of exhibition and sponsorship opportunities:
  Deadline: June 15, 2016

Full papers presented at ECS meetings will be published in ECS Transactions.

Submit today!