The recent news that hackers broke into University of Missouri computer systems ought to present a strong case for a national need for programs like UMR's cyber-security efforts. And for the upcoming announcement that UMR will soon become a National Center of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Education (CAEIAE).

When the designation occurs on June 5, UMR will become the first university in Missouri to achieve that designation. This means students will be eligible for scholarships and grants from the federal government if they choose to study "information assurance." UMR offers graduate certificates in this area, as well as emphasis areas in computer engineering and computer science.

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Mobile Radio Technology talks this month with UMR's own Kelvin Erickson about his efforts to use the nation's gas pipelines to build wireless networks.

“A big part of dealing with pipelines is the aspect of inspection," said Richard Baker, project manager with the Gas Technology Management Division of DOE's National Energy Technology Laboratory. “The methodology that they used in this project was a novel approach to communicating to connection devices inside the lines because it actually was looking at using the pipeline as a wave guide for a communications signal."

Read more here.

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Inside a three-story high-bay structures laboratory, Genda Chen is testing a new maintenance-free adaptive damper to mitigate the vibration of buildings. Unlike the "smart damper" Chen created, this new device requires no external energy.

How does it work? When a tank filled with water and sand is subjected to a weak earthquake, the sand will sink at the bottom of the tank and the water will slosh by itself. As the intensity of the earthquake increases, the sand will move together with the water, increasing the mass of the water-sand mixture that is in motion. "The moving water or water-sand mixture is directly related to the force that can be generated by the tank to counteract the earthquake effects on the building," Chen explains. "As a result, the tank filled with sand functions as an adaptive device for vibration suppression of the building."

The proposed water tank, technically called a mass-variable tuned liquid damper, uses earthquake energy to change its mass according to the intensity of the earthquake. The larger earthquake needs more counterforce, or more water-sand mass in sloshing motion. See the "sloshing" action for yourself.

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Late yesterday afternoon I got an email invite to watch some "large missile tests" inside the three-story high-bay structures laboratory on campus. Who could turn down the chance to watch 15-pound 2x4s fly at more than 100 mph toward a safe house? I had no choice but to run over with Tom Shipley, manager of video productions at UMR, to watch lumber splinter into tiny pieces and listen to magnificantly loud explosions.

Each safe house, designed by Kontek Industries of New Madrid, Mo., will be home to 10 New Orleans pump operators for five days the next time a Category 5 (or smaller) hurricane passes by that area. The houses, to be located right next to the pump stations, will be stocked with all necessities -- folding bunkbeds, food and water, air conditioning, restroom facilities and more. The 20 houses will sit 30 feet off the ground to avoid potential storm surges from Lake Pontchartrain.

Continue reading "KaBOOM!" »

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Would you like Wi-Fi with your gas?

That's a question Nethercomm, a San Diego company, is asking consumers. The 1.2 million miles of natural gas distribution and transmission pipelines that crisscross the United States could be used to build wireless networks, according to a study by UMR researchers.

Continue reading "Wi-Fi goes underground" »

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Paul Worsey, professor of mining engineering at UMR, is an instructor of the nation’s only pyrotechnics course offered for college credit. An expert in munitions, Worsey is part of a team developing techniques to trace explosives back to their manufacturers, an effort that may help law enforcement officials better identify terrorists.

Continue reading "Expert Insight -- Detecting explosives" »

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Graduate student Braden Lusk is having a “blast" at UMR.

Continue reading "Student View -- Braden Lusk" »

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As the federal government considers whether airplane passengers should have inflight wireless Internet access, two groups of UMR students are examining the vulnerabilities such networks pose.

Continue reading "Team Watch -- Wi-Fi warriors" »

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As the world continues to recover from one of the worst natural disasters in history, one researcher at the University of Missouri-Rolla is working to put a damper on earthquake destruction by developing a “smart" damper that can adapt to external disturbances such as earthquakes and keep buildings from shaking as much.

Continue reading "Faculty View -- Shaking things up in the lab" »

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Protecting the power grid

UMR researchers are developing a system to thwart terrorist threats to the nation’s power grid. Locally “embedded controllers," placed in electric transmission systems to regulate power flow, are controlled by computers. By addressing potential failure and security problems, the researchers could build and deploy a network that would be resilient to failure and could heal itself.

Continue reading "A Quick Look -- Making the nation safer" »

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An improvised explosive device (IED), often rigged to detonate from a distance, may be the most common casualty producing weapon in Iraq, but if it uses a radio receiver, it could also be one of the easiest to override, say UMR researchers.

Continue reading "Eye on Research -- On the hunt for IEDs" »

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Tweety Bird, a cartoon canary, was known for his uncanny ability to detect and avoid danger in the form of Sylvester the Cat. But real canaries were used once-upon-a-time by coal miners as protection against the buildup of explosive gasses.

Continue reading "Kidz View -- Warning: animals are trying to tell us something" »

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