At Mindy's instigation, S&T videographer extraordinaire Tom Shipley created a 29-second video of Missouri S&T's bullet bike and entered it into KansasCity.com's 29-second Film Festival. (The festival is in honor of today, Leap Day, Feb. 29.) Have a look and if you like what you see, feel free to leave your five-star rating (and comments) on the site. You can always comment here, too, of course.

And if you've got five minutes to spare, check out the longer version of Tom's bullet bike video, filmed on location in the Nevada desert.

(Cross-posted at Experience This!)

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As part of her annual Farm Tour, U.S. Representative Jo Ann Emerson (pictured) visited campus today to meet with a pair of UMR chemical engineers who've devised a way to make ethanol using things like corn stalks, rice hulls and various types of wood - like the leaves and branches typically left over by the forestry industry.

Missouri recently made the switch to E10 to replace straight gasoline. We'll need 13 billion gallons of ethanol per year to keep up with demand. If we go with E85, we'd need 123 billion gallons of the stuff. If 100 percent of the state's corn grain were used for ethanol production, it would only yield 30 billion gallons. Considering some of that grain also has to go to the food market for people and animals, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that an alternative fuel source is needed.

Enter Neil Book and Olliver Sitton.

Continue reading "Wood you use ethanol?" »

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John F. Carney III, UMR chancellor, shared his work with impact attenuation devices this afternoon as part of the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Graduate Seminar Series. The good news is the fatal crash rate is 20 percent of what it was 40 years ago. The bad news? People still aren't buckling up.

Carney shared several crash test videos (not including this one) during his presentation, much to the delight of the many undergraduate and graduate students in attendance. Perhaps those images will help change the mind of the one student who admitted to not using his seat belt.

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Gov. Matt Blunt is proposing a state-imposed rule that all gasoline sold in Missouri contain at least 10 percent ethanol. If his plan is approved, Missouri would become the fourth state to adopt such a requirement.

KY3, the NBC affiliate in Springfield, Mo., recently turned to UMR's own Virgil Flanigan to help dispell some of the myths associated with ethanol blends. Flanigan, a three-time UMR graduate, is professor emeritus of mechanical and aerospace engineering at UMR and director of the Center for Environmental Science and Technology. A specialist in alternative energy studies, Flanigan is currently studying how biodiesels could help the U.S. Amy improve fuel consumption in Hummer vehicles.

Watch KY3's report here. (Thanks to Jerry Jacob for the link).

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As prices at the pump hit an all-time high, UMR researchers are trying to help shrink our nation's dependence on fossil fuels and reduce pollution by improving fuel cells – the battery of the future. An expert in ceramics, Richard Brow, chair of materials science and engineering and professor of ceramic engineering at UMR, is part of a team developing a stronger solid oxide fuel cell sealant from glass-ceramic materials.

Continue reading "Expert Insight -- The future of fuel cells" »

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As you might expect, most members of UMR’s national champion Solar Car Team are engineering students. Most, but not all.

Continue reading "Student View -- Stephanie Maiden" »

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Members of the Formula Car Team at the University of Missouri-Rolla spend a lot of long nights at Lowe’s and Wal-Mart – after the stores have closed.

Continue reading "Team Watch -- Go speed racers" »

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Von L. Richards II, the Robert V. Wolf Professor of Metallurgical Engineering at UMR, has always been revved about metal. While other fourth graders were playing on swing-sets and watching television, Richards was trying to make metal castings in his garage. “It made my parents very upset," he admits.

Continue reading "Faculty View -- The metal master" »

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Lean, green learning machines

Move over, hybrids. Two UMR researchers are working on a way to transform current automobiles into leaner, greener vehicles. Rather than changing the design of a spark-ignition engine, the researchers are developing a control strategy that would learn “on the fly" how to operate the engine cleaner and more efficiently.

Continue reading "A Quick Look -- Vehicles" »

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A team of UMR researchers is helping the world’s largest auto manufacturer – parent to Cadillac, Chevrolet, GMC, Hummer, Pontiac, Saab and Saturn – create a faster, leaner product development process. With an initial round of testing in, the UMR team is revved up about its promising new tool.

Continue reading "Eye on Research -- Overhaulin' the system" »

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Imagine navigating a toy vehicle through an obstacle course – without a remote control.

Continue reading "Kidz View -- Robo-mojo" »

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