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10a.Cov2.NA.indd 2 9/10/10 9:28 AM proof #2 layoUt cloSEd Na 9/16/10 @ 10:38 am INt Bp/BN volume 47 number 10 north american 10.10 update 11 LASER URANIUM ENRICHMENT MAKES A COMEBACK Some say the controversial technology poses proliferation risks. By Sandra Upson

13 PAINLESS SMART-GRID SAVINGS

16 THE UAV DATA GLUT

17 ASIMO-KICKING ROBOTS

18 THE BIG PICTURE computer scientists convert algebra into works of art.

26 36 opinion 7 SPECTRAL LINES taste the magic of one extraordinary Web server. By David Schneider

10 FORUM A reader reminds us of the advantages of molten-salt nuclear reactors.

25 TECHNICALLY SPEAKING Wherein a wordsmith tracks, inventories, and records the words we use for tracking, inventorying, and recording. By Paul McFedries

departments 4 BACK STORY 42 How a close encounter with the Goodyear blimp launched a career. Cover: tavis cOVer StOrY CoBUrn this paGe, CloCkwise 6 CONTRIBUTORS from top left: dan paGe; tavis CoBUrn; loCkheed martin 20 HANDS ON 36 green supercars Your boss won’t spring for a Frugal with fuel, gentle on the greenhouse gases, and brimming with uS $15 000 telepresence robot? power: Meet the new beasts of the autobahn. By Lawrence Ulrich Neither will ours. make one yourself— for about $1000. By David Schneider

26 the great spectrum Famine 22 TOOLS & TOYS The hunger for wireless links to the Internet is fast exceeding what the wait for inexpensive, easy-to-use the airwaves can provide. By Mitchell Lazarus e-readers is over. By Joshua J. Romero 23 PROFILE 32 soFtware v. soFtware In a bomb-damaged city, a bioengineer creates new visualizations of damaged Computer forensics tools can help sort out even the toughest cases of arteries. By Michael Dumiak software copyright infringement. By Bob Zeidman 24 GEEK LIFE 42 airships ahoY It’s getting harder to ﬁ nd work in virtual The oldest aviation technology is reborn in new designs for high- worlds. By Mark Anderson altitude, long-endurance, and heavy-lift airships. By Ron Hochstetler 68 THE DATA the long recession hasn’t put a damper on wind energy. By Steven Cherry

spectrum.ieee.org OctOber 2010 • Ieee Spectrum • NA 1

10.Contents.NA.indd 1 9/16/10 10:40 AM NI LabVIEW NI LabVIEW Limited Only by Your Imagination Limited Only by Your Imagination

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©2009 National Instruments. All rights reserved. CompactRIO, LabVIEW, National Instruments, NI, and ni.com are trademarks of National Instruments. ©2009 National Instruments. All rights reserved. CompactRIO, LabVIEW, National Instruments, NI, and ni.com are trademarks of National Instruments. Other product and company names listed are trademarks or trade names of their respective companies. 0177 Other product and company names listed are trademarks or trade names of their respective companies. 0177

2009-0177.indd 1 2009-0177.indd 19/18/09 1:49:04 PM 9/18/09 1:49:04 PM

10a.p2.INT.NA.indd 2 9/20/10 9:40 AM volume 47 number 10 north american 10.10

spectrum. Green Tech Patent ieee.org Scorecards ieee spectrum has partnered available 1 October with 1790 Analytics to bring you Video: Searching for our annual patent scorecards. On 15 October, we’ll debut our patent Europe’s Banned Bulbs scorecards for green tech. We’ll Across Europe, nighttime looks a tell you who has the most valuable patent portfolios in batteries, clean coal, fuel cells, and little different these days. That’s more. Some companies, like General Electric and Siemens, because the European Union will be familiar. Others like ThioSolv and Quallion may be is phasing out incandescent new, but they’ve shown some impressive R&D chops. lightbulbs in favor of more energy-efficient compact fluores GADGT E S ARE A CAT’S cent models. Not everyone is BEST FRIEND happy with the change. Before cata s nd technology— the 2009 ban on 100-watt and two things that go great together. frosted incandescent bulbs went Spectrum searched the Web to into effect, many consumers bring you some of the cutest complained, and there were even photos of cats and their favorite some reports of hoarding. IEEE devices. Pictured here is Dai-chan, who proclaims, “You will obey my wishes.” (And dog Spectrum investigates whether lovers, fear not! E-mail your favorite dog-and-tech photos the ban has worked by scouring to [email protected] for a chance to be featured in an Berlin for the forbidden bulbs. upcoming slideshow.)

Clo ckwise from top: Thomas Kienzle/AP Photo; tech insider webinars ieee.org/theinstitute iStockphoto; andreeainjapan/ C heck out all webinars, including these below, available 6 October Using social media to Flickr; David McNew/ at http://spectrum.ieee.org/webinar Getty Images attract NEW CLIENTS Social media is the new ONLINW E EBINARS n The Top Three business referral engine, & RESOURCES Prototyping Challenges and IEEE members who in Robotics are consultants need n 5 er Octob : E ngage Sponsored by National to know how to take Students Using Instruments advantage of this popular Interactive Modeling medium. Learn the tips and Simulation Tools n White paper: A Practical given by an expert at a Sponsored by Mathworks Approach for Developing recent IEEE Consultants Multicore Systems Network gathering. n Parametric Execution: Sponsored by IBM Driving Systems http://spectrum.ieee. new ieee xplore Engineering Value Through org/whitepapers subscription PACKAGE Advanced Trade Studies IEEE Releases NEW Learn about the new IEEE n Sponsored by IBM Check out the design black box standard resource library by Maxim: Member Digital Library FOR CARS n Introducing Ansoft http://spectrum.ieee. Basic subscription package, As millions of drivers Designer 6.0 org/static/maxim- which offers users a less Sponsored by Ansys resource-library face ongoing automotive expensive option to access recalls for electrical and full-text articles from the n Hall Effect n Check out the design onboard computer issues, IEEE Xplore digital library. Measurements for resource library by motor vehicle event data Semiconductor and Other Texas Instruments: recorders, also called Materials Characterization http://spectrum.ieee.org/ black boxes, are becoming Contains over 25% Renewable Resources Sponsored by Keithley static/ti-resource-library increasingly important.

IEEE SPECTRUM (ISSN 0018-9235) is published monthly by The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. All rights reserved. © 2010 by The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc., 3 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10016-5997, U.S.A. The editorial content of IEEE Spectrum magazine does not represent official positions of the IEEE or its organizational units. Canadian Post International Publications Mail (Canadian Distribution) Sales Agreement No. 40013087. Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to: Circulation Department, IEEE Spectrum, Box 1051, Fort Erie, ON L2A 6C7. Cable address: ITRIPLEE. Fax: +1 212 419 7570. INTERNET: [email protected]. ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTIONS: IEEE Members: $21.40 included in dues. Libraries/institutions: $399. POSTMASTER: Please send address changes to IEEE Spectrum, c/o Coding Department, IEEE Service Center, 445 Hoes Lane, Box 1331, Piscataway, NJ 08855. Periodicals postage paid at New York, NY, and additional mailing offices.C anadian GST #125634188. Printed at W224‑N3322 Duplainville Rd., Pewaukee, WI 53072-4195, U.S.A. IEEE Spectrum circulation is audited by BPA Worldwide. IEEE Spectrum is a member of American Business Media, the Magazine Publishers of America, and Association Media & Publishing. IEEE prohibits discrimination, harassment, and bullying. For more information, visit http://www.ieee.org/web/aboutus/whatis/policies/p9-26.html.

spectrum.ieee.org Oct ober 2010 • IEEE Spectrum • NA 3

10.Contents.NA.indd 3 9/16/10 10:40 AM back story e i ditor al

Editor in chief Susan Hassler, [email protected]

Ex ecutive Editor Glenn Zorpette, [email protected]

Manan gi g Editor Elizabeth A. Bretz, [email protected]

S enior Editors Harry Goldstein (Online), [email protected]; Jean Kumagai, [email protected]; Samuel K. Moore (News), [email protected]; Tekla S. Perry, [email protected]; Philip E. Ross, [email protected]; David Schneider, [email protected]

S enior Associate Editor Steven Cherry (Resources), [email protected]

Ass ociate Editors Sally Adee, [email protected]; Erico Guizzo, [email protected]; Joshua J. Romero (Online), [email protected]; Sandra Upson, [email protected]

Ass istant Editor Willie D. Jones, [email protected]

S enior Copy Editor Joseph N. Levine, [email protected]

C opy Editor Michele Kogon, [email protected]

Editorial Researcher Alan Gardner, [email protected]

e xecutive producer, spectrum radio Sharon Basco

Ass istant producer, spectrum radio Francesco Ferorelli, [email protected]

the Helistat [see photo]. “We’d take A dministrative Assistants Ramona Gordon, [email protected]; Up in the Air it out on the tarmac, and the sun Nancy T. Hantman, [email protected] would heat it and the helium inside ieepee s ctrum journalism intern Ariel Bleicher, [email protected] uring Ron Hochstetler’s would expand, which would cause C ontributing Editors John Blau, Robert N. Charette, sophomore year at Purdue these huge air valves to crack open Peter Fairley, David Kushner, Robert W. Lucky, University, the Goodyear a little,” he says. “As the air escaped, Paul McFedries, Prachi Patel, Carl Selinger, D Seema Singh, William Sweet, John Voelcker Blimp came to campus. “The lights it was like the reed of a clarinet were shining up on this big silvery vibrating, and the ship would sing.” AT R & Production airship, floating just 2 feet off the Sadly, the Helistat was doomed. S enior Art Director Mark Montgomery a ssociate Art Director Michael Solita ground,” he recalls. “I thought, During a 1986 flight test, it crashed Ass istant Art Director Brandon Palacio

Oh, my gosh, this thing is flying shortly after takeoff, killing one of Photo Editor Randi Silberman Klett

all the time! Unlike an airplane or the pilots. By then Hochstetler was D irector, Periodicals Production Services Peter Tuohy

helicopter, which has to exert all no longer working for Piasecki, Editorial & Web Production Manager Roy Carubia this effort to clamber into the clouds, but he’s spent much of his career se nior electronic layout specialist Bonnie Nani an airship is always flying, as if it since then in the airship industry. Wb e Production Coordinator Jacqueline L. Parker belongs in the sky.” Currently, he is director of lighter- mie ult m dia Production Specialist Michael Spector Hochstetler, who describes than-air programs for Science Editi or al advisory Board recent advances in airship technol- Applications International Corp., Susan Hassler, Chair; Marc T. Apter, Francine D. Berman, Jan Brown, Raffaello D’Andrea, Hiromichi Fujisawa, Kenneth ogy in “Airships Ahoy” in this issue, in McLean, Va. Y. Goldberg, Susan Hackwood, Bin He, Erik Heijne, Charles H. went on to get a B.S. in aviation tech- Having witnessed several boom- House, Christopher J. James, Ronald G. Jensen, Ruby B. Lee, nology as well as a Federal Aviation and-bust cycles in the airship Tak Ming Mak, David A. Mindell, C. Mohan, Fritz Morgan, Andrew M. Odlyzko, Barry L. Shoop, Curtis A. Siller Jr., Larry L. Smarr, Administration aircraft mechanic’s business, he admits it’s not for the Harry L. Tredennick III, Sergio Verdú, William Weihl, Bas¸ak Yüksel

license. “I knew I didn’t want to go risk averse or the easily discouraged. Editi or al Correspondence work in a big airplane factory,” he “I know people who’ve wrecked their I EEE Spectrum, 3 Park Ave., 17th Floor, New York, NY 10016-5997 says. Airships, on the other hand, lives because they can’t get airships Attn: Editorial Dept. Tel: +1 212 419 7555 Fax: +1 212 419 7570 Bureau: Palo Alto, Calif.; Tekla S. Perry +1 650 328 7570 “looked like the last unexploited out of their systems,” he says. Responsibility for the substance of articles rests upon the aviation arena,” but jobs in that The last few years, though, have authors, not IEEE or its members. Articles published do not represent official positions of IEEE. Letters to the editor may be industry are always scarce. seen the kind of “slow and steady excerpted for publication. He got his first big break when growth that builds a solid base,” he Adv ertising Correspondence he went to work as a mechanic for says. The technology has vastly I EEE Spectrum, 3 Park Ave., 17th Floor, New York, NY 10016-5997 aviation pioneer Frank Piasecki, improved, he notes, and “there are Attn: Advertising Dept. +1 212 419 7760 inventor of the tandem rotor sober people in serious positions The publisher reserves the right to reject any advertising. helicopter. Piasecki was leading who don’t laugh at using lighter- Re print Permission

Li s brarie : A rticles may be photocopied for private use

a project in New Jersey to build than-air vehicles for applications R of patrons. A per-copy fee must be paid to the Copyright E an experimental 105-meter-long where their capabilities exceed those Clearance Center, 29 Congress St., Salem, MA 01970. tetl s

hybrid airship-helicopter, called of airplanes and helicopters.” o For other copying or republication, contact Business Manager, h IEEE Spectrum. c

C opyrights and Trademarks: I EEE Spectrum is a registered n Ho citi ng articles in IEEE Spectrum o R IEEE Spectrum publishes two editions. In the international edition, the abbreviation INT appears at the trademark owned by The Institute of Electrical and Electronics foot of each page. The North American edition is identified with the letters NA. Both have the same Engineers Inc. Careers, EEs’ Tools & Toys, EV Watch, Progress, editorial content, but because of differences in advertising, page numbers may differ. In citations, you Reflections, Spectral Lines, and Technically Speaking are should include the issue designation. For example, The Data is in IEEE Spectrum, Vol. 47, no. 10 (INT), trademarks of IEEE.

October 2010, p. 60, or in IEEE Spectrum, Vol. 47, no. 10 (NA), October 2010, p. 68. of Courtesy

4 NA • iEEE Spectrum • October 2010 spectrum.ieee.org

10F.Backstory.NA.indd 4 9/16/10 9:21 AM 10a.p5.NA.indd 5 9/20/10 9:41 AM I eiEEE M d a Staff Director; Publisher, IEEE Spectrum James A. Vick, [email protected] Ass ociate Publisher, Sales & Advertising Director Marion Delaney, [email protected] R ecruitment Sales Development Manager Tavis Coburn, Mic t hell Michael Buryk, [email protected] based in Toronto, Lazarus is a B susines Manager R obert T. Ross ieee media/spectrum group Marketing Manager draws inspiration partner in the Blanche McGurr, [email protected] from printed Washington, I nteractive Marketing Manager Ruchika Anand, [email protected] L ist sales & Recruitment services product/Marketing Manager materials of the D.C.–area law firm of Ilia Rodriguez, [email protected] 1920s to the 1960s, including Fletcher, Heald & Hildreth, which RE PRint SALES +1 212 221 9595, ext. 319 Russian avant-garde posters and specializes in telecommunications marketing & Promotion specialist Faith H. Jeanty, [email protected] Adv ertising Sales +1 212 419 7760 classic comic books. He began law and regulation. In addition to a Sales advisor John Restchack +1 212 419 7578 creating illustrations by hand with law degree, he holds two degrees in Advertising Production Manager Felicia Spagnoli paint and silk screen. Now he electrical engineering and a s enior Advertising Production Coordinator Nicole Evans Adv ertising Production +1 732 562 6334 achieves similar effects with doctorate in experimental psychol- IEEE Staff Executive, Publications Anthony Durniak digital tools. For the retro-style ogy. During the 1970s, while IEE E bOArd of Directors images of classy cars accompany- working on mathematics education Pre sident & CEO Pedro A. Ray +1 732 562 3928 Fax: +1 732 465 6444 [email protected] ing this month’s cover story, “The reform, he wrote on the subject of Pre sident-elect Moshe Kam Greening of the Supercar” [p. 36], math anxiety. His article on the trea surer Peter W. Staecker Coburn says he strove to “exude looming crisis in wireless broad- Secretary David G. Green Pa st President John R. Vig the excitement and optimism of the band, “The Great Spectrum Famine” Vics e Pre idents auto industry’s golden era” using a [p. 26], nevertheless takes an T ariq S. Durrani, Educational Activities; Jon G. Rokne, Publication Services & Products; Barry L. Shoop, Member & digital process “that’s very similar unblinking look at the numbers. Geographic Activities; W. Charlton Adams, President, Standards to old-school low-fi printing.” Association; Roger D. Pollard, Technical Activities; Evelyn H. Hirt, President, IEEE-USA Lawrence Dnivisio Directors Mi chael Ulrich explores H iroshi Iwai (I); Robert E. Hebner Jr. (II); Nim K. Cheung (III); Roger W. Sudbury (IV); Dumiak is a an unorthodox trend Michael R. Williams (V); Mark I. Montrose (VI); science and in high-end power Enrique A. Tejera M. (VII); Stephen L. Diamond (VIII); Alfred O. Hero III (IX); Richard A. Volz (X) technology reporter cars in “The Ren gio Directors based in Berlin. Greening of the Supercar” [p. 36]. Charles P. Rubenstein (1); William P. Walsh Jr. (2); Clarence This summer, in Belgrade to And he came to auto journalism by L. Stogner (3); Don C. Bramlett (4); Sandra L. Robinson (5); Leonard J. Bond (6); Om P. Malik (7); Jozef W. Modelski (8); interview heart-imaging engineer an unorthodox route: rock music. Tania L. Quiel (9); Yong Jin Park (10) Nenad Filipovic for the profile The native Detroiter worked in the Dri ectors Emeritus “Coronary Calculus” [p. 23], he 1980s as a rock musician, playing E ric Herz, Theodore W. Hissey wondered how this corner of keyboard as far afield as Europe IEEtE S aff Europe became a source of before becoming a business writer executive director & COO James Prendergast +1 732 502 5400, [email protected] predictive software that visual- in the early 1990s, then a car writer. H uman Resources B etsy Davis, SPHR izes the plaques that cause heart He lives in Brooklyn, N.Y., and +1 732 465 6434, [email protected] Publications A nthony Durniak attacks. But, he says, it all made regularly writes for The New York +1 732 562 3998, [email protected] Ed ucational Activities Douglas Gorham sense after a few meals. “Serbian Times and Automobile. +1 732 562 5483, [email protected] cooking is...robust. This guy’s Standards Activities Judith Gorman +1 732 562 3820, [email protected] going to have a lot of patients.” Bob Zeidman, m ember & geographic Activities C ecelia Jankowski who wrote “Software +1 732 562 5504, [email protected] Cr o porate Strategy & Communications Matthew Loeb, CAE Chad Hagen, v. Software” [p. 32], is +1 732 562 5320, [email protected] chief marketing officer Patrick D. Mahoney ndi

who illustrated the the president of +1 732 562 5596, [email protected] a R C hief information officer futuristic concept of Software Analysis Alexander J. Pasik, Ph.D. rtin a

+1 732 562 6017, [email protected] rus; M “spimes” for and Forensic Engineering Corp., the C hief Financial Officer T homas R. Siegert aza L +1 732 562 6843, [email protected] rah Technically leading provider of intellectual- a T echnical Activities Mary Ward-Callan S Speaking [p. 25], has been a property analysis software. He +1 732 562 3850, [email protected] tchell tchell xon; xon; i i D graphic designer and art director holds seven patents, two bachelor’s Managing Director, IEEE-USA C hris Brantley M +1 202 530 8349, [email protected] elly elly h for 16 years. Based in Minneapolis, degrees—in physics and electrical burn; S IEEPE ublication Services & Products board o C he has created infographics for engineering—from Cornell, and a Jon G. Rokne, Chair; Tayfun Akgul, John Baillieul, Silvio E. Barbin, vis

Deborah M. Cooper, Celia L. Desmond, Tariq S. Durrani, a idman; T popular magazines, including master’s in EE from Stanford. He is Mohamed E. El-Hawary, Gerald L. Engel, David A. Grier, e Fortune and More. Recently, he took also the inventor of the Silicon Valley Jens Hannemann, Lajos Hanzo, Hirohisa Kawamoto, Z

Russell J. Lefevre, Michael R. Lightner, Steve M. Mills, rrie

Pradeep Misra, Saifur Rahman, Edward A. Rezek, a on a creative challenge, joining the Napkin, a cocktail napkin printed C Curtis A. Siller Jr., W. Ross Stone, Ravi M. Todi, Robert J. Trew,

Flickr group “Make Something with a simple form for creating a Karl R. Varian, Timothy T. Wong, Jacek Zurada ett; l K Cool Every Day,” for which he business plan, which when I EEE Operations Center created an original image each day completed can be presented to a 445 Hoes Lane, Box 1331, Piscataway, NJ 08854-1331 U.S.A. Tel: +1 732 981 0060 Fax: +1 732 981 1721 lberman i

for a year. venture capitalist as a funding pitch. clockwise fromleft: top S

6 NA • iEEE Spectrum • October 2010 spectrum.ieee.org

10.Contributors.NA.indd 6 9/16/10 10:22 AM Proof 6 LAYOUT FINAL 9/16/10 @ 9:13 am MM/BN NA spectral lines

DIY as an Extreme Sport

FLASHBACK: The front panel of Bill Buzbee’s handcrafted Web server [left] evokes the late 1960s or early ’70s. Residing within it are some two hundred 74-series ICs, painstakingly wire-wrapped together [right].

ots of people know or slice the silicon into the damn thing runs for the entertainment that you can construct wafers. But he did construct at all, much less runs and educational value— La Web server at home his home-built CPU, called as well as it does.” must inspire anyone’s without great difficulty. Get Magic-1, by meticulously That one person could admiration. And it warms a PC, load it with Apache, wire-wrapping together construct a Web server the hearts of us middle- do some port forwarding some two hundred 74-series starting from little more aged technophiles to see on your router, and you’re TTL chips. They reside on than stone knives and bear this tribute to the kind of good to go. Or if you think five printed-circuit boards, skins—and doing it all technology that got us first that’s too mundane, you which are housed in a in his spare time—is just acquainted with computers. could build a tiny Web cabinet whose front panel is stunning. But Buzbee’s I’d urge other geeks of the server out of an Arduino replete with dozens of LEDs accomplishment doesn’t baby-boom generation microcontroller by adding and paddle switches. It thus end with putting together who want a good soaking an Ethernet accessory board. has, as he intended, the the hardware. “I’ve had in nostalgia to drop in on Thousands of people, I’m distinctive look of the mini- to write an assembler and Magic-1 over the Internet. sure, have hacked systems and microcomputers of the linker from scratch, retarget If browsing Buzbee’s Web like that together for various late 1960s and early 1970s. a C compiler, write and port site seems too modern for purposes. But I’ve recently Buzbee claims that it sports the standard C libraries, you, Telnet in and play the discovered, much to my the performance of an Intel write a simplified operating original Adventure game pleasure and amazement, 8086 (a close cousin of the system, and then port a or perhaps have a soothing that one home brewer has 8088, the CPU found in the more sophisticated one,” he session of ELIZA. Consider set up a DIY Web server original IBM PC) making says. It helps that Buzbee it therapy for dealing with that’s far more impressive it a decade or so ahead of develops software for a the frustrations of modern than any of those. Indeed, its nonchronological time. living. “It also helps that computing hardware. You

Bill Buz Bill he’s taken “do it yourself” to It’s a DIY masterpiece. But as far as my wife knows, can also take pleasure in a whole other level. Buzbee is self-deprecating I’m actually doing paying knowing that the signals b e

e/home Bill Buzbee, of Half Moon in advertising his creation: work on the laptop and you’re creating in the depths Bay, Calif., has built himself On his Web site, at http:// not just screwing around of Magic-1’s circuitry will b

r a Web server entirely from homebrewcpu.com, which with my hobby projects.” be flowing through wires ewcpu.com scratch. Scratch is, of course, is served up, of course, Still, that somebody lovingly connected by a relative term. No, he didn’t by Magic-1, he says, “I’m would take on such a one pair of human hands. draw the copper into wires continually amazed that challenge—and purely —David Schneider

spectrum.ieee.org Oct ober 2010 • IEEE Spectrum • NA 7

10.spectrallines.v2.NA.indd 7 9/16/10 9:56 AM Capture the Concept.

COMSOL Multiphysics gives you the power to capture the concept—that is to analyze all physically relevant aspects of your design—and to do so quickly and efﬁ ciently. Its unique combination of an easy-to-use interface and a ﬂ exible simulation engine allows every level of engineer to simulate just how their design will operate in reality. This approach delivers tangible results that save precious development time and spark innovation.

TURBINE STATOR BLADE. A stator blade in the turbine stage of a jet engine is heated by the combustion gases. To prevent the stator from melting, air is passed through a cooling duct in the blade. The resulting temperature gradients introduce signiﬁ cant stresses.

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© 2010 COMSOL, INC. COMSOL, COMSOL MULTIPHYSICS ARE REGISTERED TRADEMARKS OF COMSOL AB. CAPTURE THE CONCEPT IS A TRADEMARK OF COMSOL AB. OTHER PRODUCT OR BRAND NAMES ARE TRADEMARKS OR REGISTERED TRADEMARKS OF THEIR RESPECTIVE HOLDERS.

10a.p8.9.INT.NA.indd 8 9/20/10 9:42 AM Capture the Concept.

WATCH TUTORIAL Joule Heating of a Circuit Board Fuse www.comsol.com/showcase

10a.p8.9.INT.NA.indd 9 9/20/10 9:42 AM forum PROOF 7 LAYOUT FINAL 09/14/10 12:51 pm bn NA

while we’ve Conference on the strangely, in the IEEE By Sally Adee & Erico Guizzo illustrations by bryan christie design been snoozing remote control of Spectrum article he states, for 40 years. black boxes. I also “For the record, I never Combining spoke at the National pad expense reports.” an MSR with Transportation Joel Huizenga fl uorinated Safety Board’s Inter- CEO, No Lie MRI thorium as the national Sympo sium San Diego input fuel leads to on Transportation a liquid fl uoride Recorders in May 1999. The editors reply: thorium reactor, Both of these papers We thank Joel Huizenga which solves most are available online, for pointing out the Reactors Redux nonproliferation as are a number of contradiction. After Nuclear-reactor design is poised for a desperately needed revival. Here are seven contenders and waste other IEEE papers and consulting with Mark more than half a century ago, the fi rst commercial nuclear power reactors went critical in the United Kingdom and the United States. In the decades since, technology has brought us 3-billion-transistor issues and uses presentations I have Harris, however, we chips, manned spacefl ight, and violin-playing robots. Nevertheless, the basic design of commercial nuclear power reactors has changed not a whit. They seem to be trapped in a land that technology forgot. Yes, conservatism can be a good thing, perhaps nowhere more so than in the design of nuclear reactors. 100 percent of written on this subject stand by the statement Electric utilities aren’t known for daring, and you can’t reasonably expect them to risk several billion dollars on a reactor without a track record. On the other hand, you can’t pin hopes for a nuclear renaissance on designs that were fresh back when color TV and transatlantic jet travel were novelties. You need the promise its input fuel, over the last 12 years. he made to us and to of something much better, and no fewer than a dozen advanced reactor designs are in the running to off er it. The backers of these designs are eyeing potentially enormous businesses , as “waking giant” countries as opposed to The Safelander our readers that he China and India pursue major electrifi cation schemes. In the United States and Europe, a signifi cant shift to nuclear is far from assured, but several factors seem to be pushing that option, including climate change concerns and awareness of the hidden costs of fossil fuels. current solid- remote piloting system hadn’t overstated The new reactor designs fall into three categories. First, there are the new light-water reactors, which aren’t radically diff erent from what’s out there right now but add better safety features. Then there are the small modular reactors that produce less than 300 megawatts but can be scaled up. Need more power? Just add more fueled reactors, (U.S. Patent No. business expenses, modules to your plant. Finally, there are the really-out-there designs, known in the industry as Generation IV. There are too many worthy, intriguing designs for us to describe here. So, after talking to a dozen nuclear experts, we simply chose seven reactor designs that struck us as the most innovative and interesting. We which use less 7099752) was the result which means that No picked reactors of diff erent kinds and at diff erent development stages, including those that are only a hair’s breadth from regulatory approval and others that are literally still on the drawing board. than 10 percent of a paper I presented Lie MRI’s fi ndings on Did we leave out a new reactor design that you think beats all these here? Will new reactors reenergize the nuclear industry? Go to http://spectrum.ieee.org/newnuclear and tell us what you think. of their supply of at a symposium of the that particular question spectrum.ieee.org AuguSt 2010 • iEEE SpEctrum • NA 25 enriched uranium. International Aviation were indeed wrong.

08.NuclearReactors.NA.indd 25 7/15/10 1:51 PM All fi ssionable Safety Association elements are in New York City in NO ROSE- LETTERS do not TIME FOR maintained in the November 2000. There, COLORED represent opinions THORIUM? molten salt until approximately a year GLASSES of IEEE. Short, concise letters are he article destroyed; there is before 9/11, I spoke s a member preferred. They T“Reactors Redux” no refueling and no on the remote aircraft Aof the Theatre may be edited [August] on possible spent fuel to store fl ight recorder and how Historical Society of for space and “new” nuclear power for millennia. to use the data in real America, I note that clarity. To post reactors is interesting, time in order to prevent Mark Anderson’s your comments Alexander Cannara online, go to but it left out an entire IEEE Life Member terrorist and hijacking special report, “3-D spectrum.ieee.org. class—the molten-salt Menlo Park, Calif. attacks as well as in the Home” [Tools Or write to Forum, reactors. MSRs were decompression crashes. & Toys, August], IEEE Spectrum, developed between 1954 SAFETY BY perpetuates the myth 3 Park Ave., Seymour Levine 17th Floor, New York, and 1974 by Eugene REMOTE IEEE Life Senior Member that theatergoers of NY 10016-5997, Wigner, Edward Teller, found the article Culver City, Calif. the 1950s viewed 3-D U.S.A.; fax, and Alvin Weinberg of I “Beyond the Black Box” movies using glasses +1 212 419 7570; Manhattan Project fame. [August] interesting TO TELL with anaglyphic e-mail, n.hantman The Oak Ridge National but severely lacking in (colored) lenses. With @ieee.org. THE TRUTH Laboratory actually ran information, history, read with interest rare exceptions, 3-D a 7.4-megawatt MSR and references on the IMark Harris’s article movies of that era were for fi ve years. MSRs use of real-time remote [“Liar!,” August] about projected using linear were designed to be safe, black boxes on aircraft. my company’s MRI- polarized light onto nonexplosive, e cient, I have U.S. Patent based lie-detection silver screens, hence and compact. However, No. 5890079 for the technology and requiring glasses with the government stopped remote aircraft fl ight compared this account polarized (colorless) funding them because recorder, or RAFT. The with Harris’s earlier story lenses, the same MSRs couldn’t make patent was awarded to for The Sunday Times of principle used by some plutonium for Cold me in 1999. While the London. There Harris of today’s theatrical War bombs. Now patent was pending, admitted we were correct 3-D systems. we need them, and I presented a paper on our fi ndings that he Joseph Zollner other countries are at the 1998 Digital lied about overclaiming IEEE Member doing R&D on them Avionics Systems on his expenses. Yet, West Allis, Wis.

10 NA • IEEE SPECTRUM • OCTOBER 2010 SPECTRUM.IEEE.ORG

10.Forum.NA.indd 10 9/14/10 1:00 PM more online at spectrum.ieee.org

GE has called the laser method Dangerous a “game-changing technology” device? Lawrence Laser Uranium Enrichment and along with Hitachi and Livermore Cameco Corp., a Canadian National Makes a Comeback nuclear fuel provider in Saskatoon, Laboratory’s plan was among T he controversial technology poses proliferation Sask., is devoting hundreds of millions of dollars to developing many doomed risks, but nuclear firms press on laser uranium it and building the plant near enrichment Wilmington, N.C. The technology schemes. Will wo technology giants, pursuing a controversial technique in question was licensed from GE and Hitachi GE and Hitachi, are for making nuclear fuel using Silex Systems, an Australian succeed where so many others betting big on a nuclear lasers, a method they hope to company that’s been quietly T have not? renaissance. The companies commercialize by building the conducting enrichment research phot O: Lawrence Livermore National formed an alliance in 2006 to world’s first industrial-scale pilot at a small facility near Sydney Laboratory push for a global expansion of plant in 2012. Regulatory agencies for the last quarter century. nuclear power. But selling new are worried that laser enrichment But many experts are skeptical. reactors is only half the game. The of uranium could lead to the Allan Krass, a retired U.S. State joint venture is also aggressively proliferation of nuclear weapons. Department official and a physicist

spectrum.ieee.org october 2010 • IEEE Spectrum • NA 11

10U.News.NA.indd 11 9/15/10 2:22 PM ° The temperature increase needed to rescue computers controlling the GOCE gravity-mapping satellite. The troubled 7 C €350 million (US $455 million) satellite was unable to send data down to Earth from 8 July until the fix in September.

U-235 gas

complex assembly U-238 gas of staggered pulsing lasers, each with its own set of tuning optics. who visited Silex’s laboratory The optics themselves in 2000, says GE and Hitachi are also difficult to Uranium “are betting that there will be hexafluoride gas engineer, says Einar an upsurge of nuclear power Ronander, the CEO plant construction—that’s a of Klydon, a South huge and extremely risky bet.” African firm that grew He adds that laser enrichment I solating Isotopes: Many countries have sought to out of that country’s has been held back by Laser separate uranium-235 from uranium-238 with lasers. In one laser enrichment pro- substantial technical hurdles. possible approach, uranium hexafluoride gas shoots into gram and sold Silex its If approved, the pilot a chamber at supersonic speeds. A precisely tuned laser lasers. The laser-tuning intercepts the stream, causing the molecules containing U-235 plant will be the first large- process uses a hydro- to absorb a photon. Those molecules then undergo a series scale attempt to use photons of brief events that propel the U-235 to the outside of the gen gas whose aerody- to separate the desirable IAEA wouldn’t say. But gas stream. A barrier separates the core of the stream from namics can be finicky. uranium-235 isotopes from some hints can be found in the rim, which now has a higher concentration of U-235. Bouncing shock waves the more abundant but the technology’s history. Source: Jeff W. Eerkens and Jaewoo Kim in the gas can disrupt nonfissile U-238 isotopes Of the many government- the beam, diminishing found in natural uranium. sponsored laser enrichment the laser’s overall effi- Experts generally believe programs, most were shut an inert gas that dilutes the repeatedly forcing it through ciency. And that’s no that a laser facility would down in anticipation of a uranium. The gas is cryogen- a porous membrane. good, says Ronander, be both smaller in size and 1993 agreement between the ically cooled and shot out of a At least that’s the theory. because the energy cost have much lower energy United States and Russia, nozzle at supersonic speeds. In practice, several obstacles of photons adds up fast. demands than existing known as the Megatons to Rapid-fire pulses from an have kept the technology The difficulties don’t enrichment plants. Those Megawatts Program, which infrared laser penetrate the in the lab. “These lasers end there. Skimming off features are excellent from the flooded the market with gas, increasing the vibra- are unlike any other in the the enriched material is perspective of improving the cheap uranium scavenged tional energy in the U-235 world—basically, if you need troublesome too. In the economics of nuclear power from Russia’s nuclear molecules’ chemical bonds. a laser, you’ve got to go invent system Cameco built in plants, but they also present arsenal. The engineers That higher vibrational one,” says Bruce Warner, the early 1990s, the entire a major headache for the and physicists working in energy causes each U-235 a laser physicist who led laser apparatus had to International Atomic Energy those laboratories tend to molecule to react more Lawrence Livermore National be shut down to collect Agency (IAEA) and other argue that they were on the quickly with a third sub Laboratory’s enrichment the enriched uranium. nuclear watchdog groups verge of success when their stance in the gas stream, program, in Livermore, “We had ideas of how to attempting to spot clandestine projects were discontinued. explains Garratt. In one Calif., until the program’s solve this, but we never enrichment plants, largely In essence, all those version of the process, a new demise in the late 1990s. had the chance to try from satellite imagery. programs made use of molecule forms around the According to several laser them,” Garratt says. At least 20 countries the unique frequencies at U-235. The new molecule lasts enrichment experts, Silex’s GE-Hitachi wouldn’t have attempted—and, at one which atoms and molecules for less than a microsecond approach likely begins with say if it has solved these point or another, failed— vibrate. A laser tuned to before breaking apart, and a 10.8-micrometer carbon issues—or has faced to use lasers to economically the precise vibrational the repelling force from that dioxide laser that pulses entirely different ones. separate uranium isotopes frequency of a U-235 atom event pushes the U-235 to the hundreds of times per second. Either way, whether since the 1970s. “Everyone or a molecule containing edges of the stream, where The infrared pulses travel the venture even gets was looking for this magical U-235 can cause that isotope it can then be siphoned off. through elaborate optics that to work out the kinks elixir, the best way to do to behave differently from Though the precise tune their wavelengths to the in laser enrichment is this,” recalls Dennis Garratt, the heavier U-238. mechanics of Silex’s process needed 16 µm. Each pulse now a question for the who was director of R&D for Broadly, in the method may differ, the underlying must contain about one joule U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Cameco from 1989 to 1996. that Silex explored, called logic is that illuminating of energy and be repeated Commission (NRC). That So what’s different this molecular laser isotope sep- a gas with a laser would fast enough to expose as agency is charged with

time? And will this version aration, enrichment begins require only a fraction of the much gas as possible. And hertzberg danie assessing the safety of laser enrichment somehow with uranium hexafluoride energy needed by the two if the laser doesn’t pulse fast of nuclear facilities l be proliferation proof? When gas—in which each uranium methods used now to enrich enough? Add more lasers! but is unaccustomed uranium—spinning the gas In short order you can wind contacted by IEEE Spectrum, atom is surrounded by six y to weighing the l

GE-Hitachi, Silex, and the fluorine atoms—mixed with in a series of centrifuges or up with an expensive and emi cooper proliferation risk of

12 NA • ieee Spectrum • october 2010 spectrum.ieee.org spectrum.ieee.org

10U.News.NA.indd 12 9/15/10 2:22 PM ° T he temperature increase needed to rescue computers controlling the GOCE gravity-mapping satellite. The troubled 7 C €350 million (US $455 million) satellite was unable to send data down to Earth from 8 July until the fix in September.

complex assembly new technologies. U-238 gas of staggered pulsing The extent of this lasers, each with its own particular risk, of set of tuning optics. course, is open to debate. The optics themselves Jeff W. Eerkens, an are also difficult to independent physicist engineer, says Einar who has worked on Ronander, the CEO laser enrichment as long of Klydon, a South as lasers have existed, African firm that grew recognizes the threat Isolating Isotopes: Many countries have sought to out of that country’s and suggests tracking separate uranium-235 from uranium-238 with lasers. In one laser enrichment pro- sales of the optics, possible approach, uranium hexafluoride gas shoots into gram and sold Silex its which are uncommon. a chamber at supersonic speeds. A precisely tuned laser lasers. The laser-tuning Other experts think intercepts the stream, causing the molecules containing U-235 process uses a hydro- there’s no imminent to absorb a photon. Those molecules then undergo a series of brief events that propel the U-235 to the outside of the gen gas whose aerody- danger; they say that gas stream. A barrier separates the core of the stream from namics can be finicky. countries interested in the rim, which now has a higher concentration of U-235. Bouncing shock waves clandestine enrichment Source: Jeff W. Eerkens and Jaewoo Kim in the gas can disrupt will continue building the beam, diminishing centrifuges because the laser’s overall effi- that technology’s repeatedly forcing it through ciency. And that’s no comparatively simpler a porous membrane. good, says Ronander, designs have already At least that’s the theory. because the energy cost eluded proliferation In practice, several obstacles of photons adds up fast. controls. But Charles have kept the technology The difficulties don’t Ferguson, the president in the lab. “These lasers end there. Skimming off of the Federation of An Easy Smart- are unlike any other in the the enriched material is American Scientists, world—basically, if you need troublesome too. In the cautions that as more a laser, you’ve got to go invent system Cameco built in niche laser applications Grid Upgrade one,” says Bruce Warner, the early 1990s, the entire emerge, laser enrichment a laser physicist who led laser apparatus had to will eventually seem Saves Power Lawrence Livermore National be shut down to collect less exotic. T rimming voltage trims power consumption, Laboratory’s enrichment the enriched uranium. The NRC is expected and consumers needn’t lift a finger program, in Livermore, “We had ideas of how to to rule on GE-Hitachi’s Calif., until the program’s solve this, but we never building license by the demise in the late 1990s. had the chance to try end of 2011. Should it ess is more when it comes an August 2010 analysis from According to several laser them,” Garratt says. deny the license, though, to beef on the bun (at least the Department of Energy’s enrichment experts, Silex’s GE-Hitachi wouldn’t laser enrichment is L according to your doctor), Pacific Northwest National approach likely begins with say if it has solved these unlikely to disappear. and the same now appears to be Laboratory (PNNL). a 10.8-micrometer carbon issues—or has faced As Krass, the state true for AC voltage. Research Some utilities are facing dioxide laser that pulses entirely different ones. department physicist, by the Electric Power Research push-back from consumers hundreds of times per second. Either way, whether wrote in a 1977 review Institute (EPRI), in Palo Alto, disenchanted with smart meters The infrared pulses travel the venture even gets of laser enrichment Calif., is confirming that many and riled by real-time pricing through elaborate optics that to work out the kinks in the journal Science electrical devices work equally for electricity. So the best tune their wavelengths to the in laser enrichment is (paraphrasing J. Robert well and use less energy at lower news for utilities is that such needed 16 µm. Each pulse now a question for the Oppenheimer), “It voltages, and that offers utilities conservation voltage reduction, must contain about one joule U.S. Nuclear Regulatory would be a mistake a big conservation opportunity. or CVR, should cut energy use of energy and be repeated Commission (NRC). That to underestimate the By trimming the voltage they without asking consumers fast enough to expose as agency is charged with great desire of scientists deliver, distribution utilities to change their behavior.

much gas as possible. And hertzberg danie assessing the safety to achieve something in the United States could slim CVR operates within the of nuclear facilities ‘technically sweet’… if the laser doesn’t pulse fast l the nation’s power appetite by wiggle room offered by electrical enough? Add more lasers! but is unaccustomed and worry about the 3 percent—the equivalent of standards. The standard for the

In short order you can wind y to weighing the consequences later.” unplugging every refrigerator nominally 120-volt AC power in l

up with an expensive and emi cooper proliferation risk of —Sandra Upson in the country—according to the United States and Canada, spectrum.ieee.org spectrum.ieee.org october 2010 • IEEE Spectrum • NA 13

10U.News.NA.indd 13 9/15/10 2:22 PM New top speed for a graphene transistor. UCLA engineers say 300 gigahertz such devices should be able to reach terahertz speeds soon.

for example, calls for 114 to low, many smart meters 126 V. The range is practical, Powered-Down Appliances can send an alert back to 118 volts vs. 122 volts given the ever-shifting power the utility. However, even demand on a distribution with smart meters, utilities system. Utilities generally Conserved Conserved will be adjusting the voltage measure and control voltage power power feeder by feeder, not at the at their substations and aim Appliance (watts) (percent) level of the individual house. for the higher end of the indc u tion motor Uluski says EPRI is devel- range to avoid browning Fan 4.2 6% oping more precise tools to out customers at the ends help utilities predict how display of the lines. The result much energy CVR can save is that, on average, U.S. CRT TV 2.1 4% them on each feeder. That customers get 122.5-V power. LCD TV 0 0% should help focus CVR invest- Until recently, most ments, according to the PNNL utilities saw no need to Plasma TV –2 0% report. The report’s model operate differently, assuming Desktop LCD –0.6 –2% suggests that using CVR on that voltage had a negligible lighting the 40 percent of feeders most effect on power demand. And responsive to it nationwide 13-W compact indeed that assumption is fluorescent would capture 80 percent of true for some loads. Electric lamp (CFL) 0.9 8% the technique’s energy-saving heaters on a lower voltage potential. EPRI is also quan- simply run longer to deliver 20-W CFL 1 6% tifying how emerging loads the same heat, resulting LED such as plasma TVs and elec- in no savings. But other (low quality) 0.2 6% tric cars will respond to CVR. appliances can get by at 75-W The biggest obstacle to lower voltages by doing less incandescent 3.4 5% CVR, however, remains the work. For example, at the classic lost-revenue problem low end of the voltage range, 42-W CFL 0.8 2% that has long stifledu tilities’ lights dim imperceptibly. LED conservation impulse. The big-ticket item for (high quality) 0.1 1% Utilities that succeed at CVR CVR appears to be the LED (medium will sell less power. Tom induction motors in fans, quality) –0.1 –1% Wilson, president of CVR sys- refrigerators, and dozens tem developer PCS UtiliData, S erious savings: Reducing the voltage feeding a variety of other appliances. Motors of appliances from the 122 volts typical at wall plugs in the based in Spokane, Wash., tend to operate at a lower United States down to 118 V saves power in most cases. says this lost revenue prob-

mechanical load than they Source: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory lem has made selling utilities are rated to handle. As on CVR an “uphill struggle.” a result, higher voltages Wilson says change generate stronger magnetic neighborhood. An influential many utilities are exploring is coming, as regulators fields than the motors can 2008 study by the Northwest CVR through pilot projects get more creative about use, throwing energy away. Energy Efficiency Alliance, financed with economic rewarding utilities for the Utilities in the U.S. Pacific based in Portland, Ore., recovery funds, and a few, “nega‑watts” of energy saved Northwest began testing analyzed the experience of six such as Progress Energy, in through conservation pro- CVR’s potential in the 1990s. CVR pioneers and found that Raleigh, N.C., are pushing grams. Rather than wait, he They minimized the voltage on average every 1 percent into full-scale implementation. says PCS is marketing CVR to delivered by measuring it drop in voltage delivered For those installing smart large power consumers such close to the consumer and a 0.7 to 0.8 percent drop in meters, CVR is a natural, as industrial firms and uni- adjusting frequently. Voltage power. And most feeders because smart meters versities. They have the clout is controlled at substations could safely drop 3 to 4 V. provide the real-time voltage to press utilities to implement for each feeder line, which Bob Uluski, a distribution readings to guide the voltage CVR on their feeders, says generally serves a whole specialist with EPRI, says trimming: If levels dip too Wilson. —Peter Fairley

14 NA • ieee Spectrum • october 2010 spectrum.ieee.org

10U.News.NA.indd 14 9/15/10 2:22 PM tech in sight These with the military’s high- under the direction of the Instead, Shah proposes using Eyes in the tech hardware. Defense Advance Research some basic geometry tricks There were some Projects Agency, called to find a person, based on Humanoid glimmers of hope, however, ARGUS-IS, succeeds, a single the relationship between Sky That See at August’s 7th IEEE drone-mounted video sensor the height of an object and Robots Could International Conference and processor could easily the length of its shadow. He Too Much on Advanced Video and “capture one and a half to admits, though, that this Signal-Based Surveillance, 2 million vehicles [within a strategy wouldn’t work so Kick Your M ilitary analysts are in Boston. Mubarak Shah, 40-kilometer radius] during well on video shot on cloudy buried in video from director of the Computer one mission,” says Rush. days or using infrared light. Asimo surveillance drones. Visions Lab at the University Shah’s solution depends The final challenge Shah Some software of Central Florida, in Orlando, on keeping track of all the addressed is how to map apan has long held tricks could help identified three computer possible paths a vehicle may the movement patterns of world dominance surveillance tasks that have taken, then weeding many things at once. Say, Jwhen it comes to are notoriously difficult. out the poor choices. The for example, you have some walking humanoid n 2009 alone, the U.S. The first task involves computer does that by aerial footage of a city and robots, its most Air Force shot 24 years’ you want to figure out how it’s famous emissary Iworth of video over Iraq laid out—where the roads are, being the charismatic, child- and Afghanistan using spy the bridges, the intersections, size, astronaut-like Asimo, drones. The trouble is, there where people regularly travel, which ambles, runs, and climbs aren’t enough human eyes to the areas they avoid, where stairs. Until recently, only South watch it all. they gather. What a computer Korea had demonstrated full- The deluge of video sees in a surveillance video size humanoids with legs as data from these unmanned is “very noisy optical flow,” impressive as those of their aerial vehicles, or UAVs, is Shah says—lots of motion but Japanese counterparts. Now other likely to get worse. By next not much order. But, using countries are trying to catch up. year, a single new Reaper mathematical noise-reducing Here’s how four robots might take drone will record 10 video tools called Gaussian filters, on Asimo in a future robot race. feeds at once, and the Air Shah can find order in the —Erico Guizzo Force plans to eventually noise and get his software to upgrade that number to 65. draw a picture of the city in John Rush, chief of the motion. “We can basically Intelligence, Surveillance and W AtcHIng YOU: The MQ-9 Reaper drone is on the prowl. discover the road networks photo: Lt. Col. Leslie Pratt/U.S. Air Force Reconnaissance Division of without knowing anything the U.S. National Geospatial- about a city,” he says. Intelligence Agency, projects tracking big swarms using some common sense: But it may be a while that it would take an untena of objects, such as cars, It knows two vehicles before such technologies ble 16 000 analysts to study traveling over a wide area, probably won’t choose a are accurate and usable the video footage from like an expressway. When collision course, for example. enough to be adopted broadly. UAVs and other airborne shot from above, cars are And it uses a bit of modern Military intelligence analysts surveillance systems. exceedingly small (usually transportation theory as well: “will use systems put in front The best—and perhaps no more than 30 pixels), and If one car is behind another, of them now, then turn them only—way forward is to there are often thousands the two cars are probably off because it just makes have a computer watch it of them. Plus, the plane accelerating at a similar rate. their job harder,” Rush told all. But programming a that’s shooting footage is Finding a person can be engineers in Boston. “Getting system to automatically moving faster than the even harder than keeping them to accept the results search video and pick out vehicles it’s capturing, so track of cars. In aerial video, [of automatic video-search noteworthy information is a tracking algorithm has typical statistics-based software] without going back not an easy problem. And only a few frames to work algorithms mistake quite a lot and checking all the data— so far, no one has developed with for each car. And if a of things—trees, mailboxes, that’s a long time coming.” HONDA software that can keep up new technology developed traffic lights—for people. —Ariel Bleicher

16 NA • ieee Spectrum • october 2010 spectrum.ieee.org spectrum.ieee.org

10U.News.NA.indd 16 9/15/10 2:22 PM tech in sight These Instead, Shah proposes using some basic geometry tricks to find a person, based on Humanoid the relationship between the height of an object and Robots Could the length of its shadow. He admits, though, that this strategy wouldn’t work so Kick Your well on video shot on cloudy CHARLI Virginia Tech’s Robotics & days or using infrared light. Asimo Mechanisms Laboratory, Blacks burg, Va. The final challenge Shah CHARLI (Cognitive Humanoid Autonomous addressed is how to map apan has long held Robot with Learning Intelligence) is the first the movement patterns of world dominance untethered, autonomous, full-size walking many things at once. Say, when it comes to humanoid robot built in the United States, J according to Virginia Tech roboticist Dennis for example, you have some walking humanoid asimo Hong. He and his team are now upgrading aerial footage of a city and robots, its most it with custom-made linear actuators that you want to figure out how it’s famous emissary help mimic how human limbs move. In a laid out—where the roads are, being the charismatic, child- soccer match against Asimo, Hong’s team the bridges, the intersections, size, astronaut-like Asimo, is confident that CHARLI would prevail. photo: Virginia Tech where people regularly travel, which ambles, runs, and climbs the areas they avoid, where stairs. Until recently, only South they gather. What a computer Korea had demonstrated full- sees in a surveillance video size humanoids with legs as is “very noisy optical flow,” impressive as those of their Shah says—lots of motion but Japanese counterparts. Now other not much order. But, using countries are trying to catch up. mathematical noise-reducing Here’s how four robots might take tools called Gaussian filters, on Asimo in a future robot race. Shah can find order in the —Erico Guizzo noise and get his software to draw a picture of the city in motion. “We can basically Reem-B Pal Robotics, Barcelona discover the road networks without knowing anything Reem-B was designed to assist humans with everyday tasks, says Davide Faconti, founder of Pal Robotics. The 1.47-meter-high robot can about a city,” he says. walk at a relatively slow speed of 1.5 kilometers per hour, but thanks But it may be a while to powerful actuators in its legs and arms, Reem-B “is probably the before such technologies strongest humanoid in the world,” says Faconti, boasting that his robot are accurate and usable can carry a 12-kilogram payload—say, a big watermelon. Try that, Asimo. enough to be adopted broadly. photo:A P L Robotics Military intelligence analysts “will use systems put in front Justin German Aerospace Center’s Surena 2 University of Tehran’s of them now, then turn them Institute of Robotics and Mechatronics, Advanced Vehicles Center, Tehran off because it just makes Ob erpfaffenhofen-Wessling, Germany their job harder,” Rush told This 1.45-meter-high humanoid was developed to help researchers explore aspects of bipedal engineers in Boston. “Getting Justin is currently a four-wheeled robot with a head and two dexterous arms, but researchers have locomotion, says Tehran University professor them to accept the results demonstrated a pair of legs [right] that may become Aghil Yousefi-Koma. His team is working on a [of automatic video-search its lower body. The legs use powerful yet lightweight feedback control system that yields a much software] without going back motors to explore joint torque-based control concepts more humanlike motion. Surena 2 might be and checking all the data— for biped balancing and walking, according to a slow walker, but it has its tricks: It can bow,

HONDA engineer Christian Ott. If Justin’s legs turn out to be as stand on one leg, and according to some that’s a long time coming.” nimble as its arms, Asimo might not stand a chance. news reports, dance. Dance-off, Asimo? —Ariel Bleicher IMAGE : Institute of Robotics and Mechatronics/DLR P lhoto: A ireza Sotakbar/ISNA/AP Photo spectrum.ieee.org spectrum.ieee.org october 2010 • IEEE Spectrum • NA 17

10U.News.NA.indd 17 9/15/10 2:22 PM 10a.p15.NA.indd 15 9/10/10 9:32 AM 18 NA • IEEE SPECTRUM • OCTOBER 2010 SPECTRUM.IEEE.ORG

10.Bigpicture.NA.indd 18 9/15/10 9:08 AM the big picture

PRETTY MATH PROBLEM You’re looking at the solution to a computational ﬂ uid dynamics problem. It is one of thousands of math-based artistic renderings stored in a database maintained by computer scientists from the University of Florida, in Gainesville, and AT&T Labs Research, in Florham Park, N.J. But what you don’t see makes all the di erence. The matrix, or table of values, is sparse, meaning that the number of zeros it contains far outweighs the number of nonzero values. This sparsity allows for a type of data compression that lets engineers working on a simulation store the data without taking up too big a chunk of memory. IMAGE: YIFAN HU/ AT&T LABS VISUALIZATION GROUP

SPECTRUM.IEEE.ORG

10.Bigpicture.NA.indd 19 9/15/10 9:08 AM hands on

Major Components from behind. To be sure, with I, Office + MSI Wind L1300 netbook a heavy 18-ampere-hour lead- Worker CompUSA; $285 acid battery ($35) mounted Build your own + Motor mount and wheel kit on the base, there’s really not telepresence robot Parallax; $280 much chance that this robot + HB-25 motor drivers could topple anywhere. n last month’s issue, my Parallax; $50 (x 2) An MSI Wind L1300 fellow IEEE Spectrum editor + Ping ultrasonic sensor netbook ($285) provides most Parallax; $30 Erico Guizzo investigated of the robot’s smarts, along I + SLA-12V18 lead-acid battery the up-and-coming universe with a screen that shows Battery Mart; $35 of telepresence robots— my face when I operate it. + ACC-1206S charger electromechanical proxies Running it from the lead-acid for lead-acid battery that allow you to be there Battery Mart; $33 battery required an “in-car” without actually being there. + In-car adapter to power netbook adapter ($18). The netbook As a telecommuter, I was eBay; $18 sits atop a salvaged camera intrigued by the possibility + Arduino Duemilanove tripod, which is affixed to the of being able to “walk” over microcontroller base with hinges, making to a colleague’s office, just Sparkfun Electronics; $30 it easy to adjust the screen as if I were working down + Logitech C905 webcam position to shoulder height. the hall. The problem is that Staples; $80 At a lower level, literally commercial telepresence + SPT-50 pan-and-tilt mechanism and figuratively, sits an robots are pricey. The one Servocity.com; $20 Arduino Duemilanove Erico tested, made by the Note: This list reflects prices at the time microcontroller ($30), a the project was built. company Anybot, will sell device that regular readers for close to US $15 000. I’m casters to keep things level. of this column will surely too sheepish to ask the boss The nice thing about such recognize. The netbook to shell out for something an arrangement is that the communicates over a USB like that. robot can rotate in place. cable with the Arduino, But I’m not too sheepish I was set to arrange mine which in turn talks to the to try to build one. the same way, but a friend two motor-controller boards So with Erico’s help I with considerable experience via 5-V serial lines. The cobbled together a simple advised me otherwise. The Arduino is also hooked up telepresence robot for about DROPPING BY: Casually these motors with nice problem with four wheels, to two small limit switches $1000 in parts. Initially, strolling over to a colleague’s aluminum mounts, axles, he explained, was that an attached for right and left office to chat is something most we thought about copying telecommuters miss. But robot and wheels. Each kit also irregularity in the floor could bumpers. And this little Sparky Jr., a telepresence technology now makes this includes an optical encoder cause one of the drive wheels computer operates two radio- robot built on an iRobot possible—even on the cheap. and a position-controller to lift, sending the robot off control servos I had on hand, Create base. Construction photo: Randi Silberman Klett board, providing closed-loop in an unintended direction. which I rigged into a simple is detailed at the Sparky Jr. instead I rolled a robotic control of wheel movements. With three wheels, that pan-and-tilt mechanism for Web site, which is “dedicated base of my own design. But the kit doesn’t contain can’t happen. So I mounted the robot’s webcam. (You to DIY, open-source mobile To propel it, I used the any motor-driver circuitry, the two driven wheels could purchase a much telepresence.” But this motor mount and wheel so I purchased separate forward on each side and better engineered unit for as robot’s cat-size stature kit ($280) from Parallax, 25-amp units ($50 each), put just one swiveling little as $20.) In addition, the wouldn’t be adequate of Rocklin, Calif. The kit also from Parallax. caster in the rear. In truth, Arduino runs a Parallax Ping for office life; I’d need includes a pair of 12-volt Many mobile robots, I incorporated five wheels ultrasonic distance sensor something taller to gossip DC motors with worm- including the iRobot Create, in all, if you include the two ($30), which is mounted to with others around the screw reduction gearing have four wheels spaced small casters I added to the the tripod at waist height. water cooler and Xerox that were surely designed around a circle at 90-degree very front. These don’t touch As mobile telepresence machine. And the iRobot for automobile electric intervals. Only the two the floor: I added them only robots go, I suspect that Create is too small and windows. The gearing has wheels at either side are to prevent the robot from this collection of hardware light to support much more play than I would have driven, the two at front and tipping over if it stopped is about as simple as you of a superstructure. So liked, but Parallax integrated back merely being swiveling suddenly or was bumped could get by with. The

20 NA • iEEE Spectrum • october 2010 spectrum.ieee.org spectrum.ieee.org

10U.Resources.NA.indd 20 9/14/10 3:34 PM Major Components from behind. To be sure, with software that operates it modified Wiguna’s code so to Skype. It’s a bit like + MSI Wind L1300 netbook a heavy 18-ampere-hour lead- all is, however, reasonably that in addition to controlling maneuvering a Mars rover: CompUSA; $285 acid battery ($35) mounted complicated. And for that, the remote webcam, I Send a command, wait for + Motor mount and wheel kit on the base, there’s really not I must credit Hari Wiguna could also command the the response, send the next Parallax; $280 much chance that this robot and the good people who gave robot to rotate in place or command, and so forth. But + HB-25 motor drivers could topple anywhere. us Skype. Let me explain. move forward and back by with practice, even my 7-year- Parallax; $50 (x 2) An MSI Wind L1300 Before purchasing any of given amounts, all while old son could manage it. + Ping ultrasonic sensor netbook ($285) provides most the hardware, I wanted to conducting a Skype video More problematic was Parallax; $30 of the robot’s smarts, along be sure that I could turn this call. I also added some a nasty software bug. I + SLA-12V18 lead-acid battery with a screen that shows collection of components into code so that the robot could eventually traced the problem Battery Mart; $35 my face when I operate it. a functioning robot without communicate information to the way that the SkyDuino + ACC-1206S charger Running it from the lead-acid months of programming. back to its master. If the robot code handled communication for lead-acid battery Battery Mart; $33 battery required an “in-car” with the Arduino: For each + In-car adapter to power netbook adapter ($18). The netbook command sent to that board, eBay; $18 sits atop a salvaged camera a virtual serial port is opened + Arduino Duemilanove tripod, which is affixed to the and closed. But my Arduino microcontroller base with hinges, making reset each time this serial Sparkfun Electronics; $30 it easy to adjust the screen port was opened, creating + Logitech C905 webcam position to shoulder height. havoc. The remedy was Staples; $80 At a lower level, literally simple—have the C# code 1 2 + SPT-50 pan-and-tilt mechanism and figuratively, sits an open that port only once, at Servocity.com; $20 Arduino Duemilanove the beginning of the session. Note: This list reflects prices at the time microcontroller ($30), a This system is admittedly the project was built. device that regular readers a bit fragile—it requires the casters to keep things level. of this column will surely interaction of three separate The nice thing about such recognize. The netbook computer processes, one an arrangement is that the communicates over a USB running on the Arduino, robot can rotate in place. cable with the Arduino, another on the netbook, I was set to arrange mine which in turn talks to the plus the Skype application— 3 4 the same way, but a friend two motor-controller boards and they must be started in with considerable experience via 5-V serial lines. The SKYPE ON WHEELS: A set of plywood parts [1] forms the basic sequence or else errors occur. advised me otherwise. The Arduino is also hooked up robot platform. Drive hardware [2] is attached on the bottom, And Skype suffers from problem with four wheels, to two small limit switches along with a swiveling caster in the back and two tip-prevention dropped calls, which means casters up front [3]. An Arduino single-board computer mounted he explained, was that an attached for right and left that a person familiar with on the base handles low-level tasks [4] while a netbook fixed irregularity in the floor could bumpers. And this little to a camera tripod runs a Skype session. photoS: David Schneider the robot needs to be available cause one of the drive wheels computer operates two radio- to nurse it back to life from to lift, sending the robot off control servos I had on hand, That’s when I stumbled on bumps into something, it time to time. But judging in an unintended direction. which I rigged into a simple Hari Wiguna’s SkyDuino halts and tells the operator from Erico’s experience With three wheels, that pan-and-tilt mechanism for project, a DIY pan-and- whether the right or left test-driving Anybot’s can’t happen. So I mounted the robot’s webcam. (You tilt webcam that’s remotely bumper hit. Also, with robot, such problems dog the two driven wheels could purchase a much operated. Wiguna’s code each command sent to the commercial models too. forward on each side and better engineered unit for as for SkyDuino, written in robot, the ultrasonic sensor My sense is that these put just one swiveling little as $20.) In addition, the C#, makes use of Skype’s sends out an inaudible machines are a bit like early caster in the rear. In truth, Arduino runs a Parallax Ping application programming ping and listens for the personal computers—cool I incorporated five wheels ultrasonic distance sensor interface to send one- echo. The Arduino then for hackers but not quite in all, if you include the two ($30), which is mounted to character messages to a gauges the distance to the ready for prime time. Still, small casters I added to the the tripod at waist height. remote Arduino. I’d just have nearest obstacle and relays exploring the practicality very front. These don’t touch As mobile telepresence to expand the repertoire of that information back to of a telepresence robot is a the floor: I added them only robots go, I suspect that messages to include a set of the person driving. lot of fun when you’ve laid to prevent the robot from this collection of hardware robot-motion commands. It took a while to get the out only a small fraction tipping over if it stopped is about as simple as you I downloaded Microsoft’s hang of steering, mostly of what it costs to buy one. suddenly or was bumped could get by with. The (free) Visual C# package and because of the delays inherent —David Schneider spectrum.ieee.org spectrum.ieee.org october 2010 • IEEE Spectrum • NA 21

10U.Resources.NA.indd 21 9/14/10 3:34 PM tools & toys profile

applications processor and activate unintentionally. coronary the display controller, and And what about Sony, calculus partly due to scale: Reportedly, the company that pioneered large manufacturers have the e-reader? Although Serbian engineer Nenad reached quotas that qualify many Spectrum readers Filipovic’s equations model them for discounts. But both have vouched their love blood flow and could predict Barnes & Noble and Amazon for the Sony e-readers in heart attacks have the added advantage online comments, it’s hard of being in the book to recommend them now. he red and blue glow of computer business. Just as Microsoft Sony has announced a new animations fills a lab in the Insti lost money on Xboxes and line of readers but says it Ttute for Basic and Physical made it up in game sales, doesn’t intend to compete Chemistry in Belgrade. It’s a warm these two booksellers can on price. In this market, summer day in Serbia. That we are only survive, and thrive, even that’s a lot like giving up. 5 minutes from a spot where U.S. cruise if they have to offer their To the extent that the missiles once slammed into ministry hardware below cost. price wars remain limited to buildings doesn’t much register with In fact, the race to control the United States, there’s still Nenad Filipovic. To be sure, like most the biggest slice of room for lesser- Serbians, he hopes to put the past behind The iPad, success. Although the many the e-book-buying known companies. him and forge a bright future for this e-readers introduced there public may bring PocketBook’s rapidly changing heart of the Balkans. the Kindle, all shared the same E Ink even greater price tiny, stripped- But at the moment, he’s hunched over his and the screen technology, each cuts. It’s not hard down e-reader computer, trying to create a new kind of Immutable offered its own combination to imagine a future made a positive imaging for cardiologists. Laws of the of trade-offs, and it seemed as where you get an impression on The NATO bombs that rained on if there might be a different e-reader free with Spectrum testers, Serbia during its 1999 conflict with the Marketplace ideal e-reader for each user. a pledge to buy a and the company breakaway province of Kosovo led to the A culling of the But after months of wild book every month. currently has collapse of the Miloševic´ government, herd of e-readers is proliferation, the list of viable But now is still a commanding sending Belgrade into chaos and already under way, e-reader manufacturers the time to buy. The hold on the Filipovic to Harvard. Five years ago, as prices plummet is now shrinking, even current Kindle Russian market. he came back as a bioengineering as the market expands. and Nook greatly The next professor at the University of f you’ve considered It’s largely a matter of improve on their big change for Kragujevac. At the Institute for Basic buying an e-reader but price. When the Apple’s iPad initial designs. Our e-readers will be and Physical Chemistry, he helped Ihaven’t yet taken the hit the market in an explosion recommendation the addition of start BioIRC, a spin-off that creates plunge, there’s no longer a of hype and hysteria for just is to stick with color displays that predictive software for visualizing the need to wait. It’s only been US $500, it suddenly seemed one of these major can be viewed in plaques that cause heart attacks and three years since Amazon ludicrous that anyone would models, if only for E-SURVIVORS: direct sunlight. charting their future growth. jump-started the market pay more for a dedicated their vast, easy- The $139 Nook But don’t let that “We deal with small plaques,” with its Kindle [above], but reader with a monochrome to-use bookstores. [top] and the keep your wallet in Filipovic says. “The point is, when does the technology has improved display. To stay viable, The convenience lightweight your pocket: Mass this plaque develop, and how much

PocketBook an Klett

greatly since then. And as manufacturers needed to of shopping for production of color m time does a patient need—one month, [bottom] may r this summer’s price wars in slash their e-reader prices. At books directly be rare survivors displays has only two months, six months, 10 years?” the United States carry over the end of June, the Barnes & on your device in the harsh recently begun, BioIRC is an interdisciplinary mashup to the holiday season and the Noble Nook went from $259 to only becomes e-reader market. so there’s plenty of informatics and hemodynamics. CT ble; Randi Silbe

rest of the world, e-readers $149 for a Wi-Fi version ($199 clear when you’re of time to enjoy a o and MRI imaging and catheter cameras N & are finally ready for a for the 3G model). Amazon forced to try the frustrating black-and-white e-reader build a precise geographic image of s e n

mainstream audience. countered by announcing alternative. The IEEE that doesn’t break the bank. r the individual patient’s heart. Blood a Back in January, at the that the next version of the Spectrum staff generally —Joshua J. Romero B analysis shows lipids, hemoglobin,

annual Consumer Elec Kindle would start at $139. prefers the Kindle, finding the azon; albumin, and cholesterol factors. Data- m tronics Show, it seemed like The price drops are partly Nook’s separate navigation A version of this article appeared A mining tools plumb genetic profiles, o every company wanted to due to more sophisticated screen an inefficient use of on IEEE Spectrum Online T patient history, and lifestyle statistics. o r

ride in the wake of Amazon’s chip sets that integrate the space and a little too easy to in August. F m p: Vascular shear stress analysis adds

22 NA • iEEE Spectrum • october 2010 spectrum.ieee.org spectrum.ieee.org

10U.Resources.NA.indd 22 9/14/10 3:34 PM profile activate unintentionally. c oronary And what about Sony, calculus the company that pioneered the e-reader? Although S erbian engineer Nenad many Spectrum readers Filipovic’s equations model have vouched their love blood flow and could predict for the Sony e-readers in heart attacks online comments, it’s hard to recommend them now. he red and blue glow of computer Sony has announced a new animations fills a lab in the Insti line of readers but says it Ttute for Basic and Physical doesn’t intend to compete Chemistry in Belgrade. It’s a warm BLOOD CENTER: Five years ago, Serbian- born and Harvard-trained bioengineer Nenad on price. In this market, summer day in Serbia. That we are only Filipovic [above] returned to his war-torn that’s a lot like giving up. 5 minutes from a spot where U.S. cruise homeland [below] to develop software that To the extent that the missiles once slammed into ministry visualizes the vascular system [left] and price wars remain limited to buildings doesn’t much register with predicts heart attacks. P hotos: Michael Dumiak the United States, there’s still Nenad Filipovic. To be sure, like most room for lesser- Serbians, he hopes to put the past behind known companies. him and forge a bright future for this PocketBook’s rapidly changing heart of the Balkans. tiny, stripped- But at the moment, he’s hunched over his down e-reader computer, trying to create a new kind of made a positive imaging for cardiologists. impression on The NATO bombs that rained on Spectrum testers, Serbia during its 1999 conflict with the and the company breakaway province of Kosovo led to the currently has collapse of the Miloševic´ government, a commanding sending Belgrade into chaos and hold on the Filipovic to Harvard. Five years ago, BioIRC is doing clinical trials with Russian market. he came back as a bioengineering 100 patients in Serbia. “We collect data, The next professor at the University of and we simulate,” Filipovic says. “And big change for Kragujevac. At the Institute for Basic we compare results over time.” He says e-readers will be and Physical Chemistry, he helped BioIRC can already predict plaque the addition of start BioIRC, a spin-off that creates growth—not position, but growth— color displays that predictive software for visualizing the with 70 to 80 percent accuracy. can be viewed in plaques that cause heart attacks and Predictive medicine could also greatly direct sunlight. charting their future growth. improve the placement of medicated But don’t let that “We deal with small plaques,” precision. The data is crunched on the stents, drug-delivering mesh tubes that keep your wallet in Filipovic says. “The point is, when does SEE-GRID (Southeastern European reinforce weak artery walls. your pocket: Mass this plaque develop, and how much Grid), a computer network consortium Other centers for predictive an Klett production of color m time does a patient need—one month, of 13 countries. As yet, there is no one medicine include Stanford, the r displays has only two months, six months, 10 years?” tool that measures all of these factors. University of Texas, and Worcester recently begun, BioIRC is an interdisciplinary mashup It’s a little bit like writing new software Polytechnic. Filipovic is still a so there’s plenty of informatics and hemodynamics. CT for each heart. Harvard associate, but he has seen his ble; Randi Silbe

of time to enjoy a o and MRI imaging and catheter cameras Predictive medicine is a growing department suffer tough cutbacks. “It’s N & black-and-white e-reader build a precise geographic image of but sometimes controversial field. hard to be a scientist now. There’s no s e n that doesn’t break the bank. r the individual patient’s heart. Blood The practice of modeling in itself can money,” he says. “It’s hard here, too. But a —Joshua J. Romero B analysis shows lipids, hemoglobin, be controversial—after all, it didn’t I see a chance for young people. The

azon; albumin, and cholesterol factors. Data- always work on Wall Street. But the best students come to me, and they want m A version of this article appeared A mining tools plumb genetic profiles, results are already promising and to work. It’s changed completely here. o on IEEE Spectrum Online T patient history, and lifestyle statistics. may eventually affect more than just There’s a vision. Not just here. I see o r in August. F m p: Vascular shear stress analysis adds coronary plaque analysis. changes in Europe.” —Michael Dumiak spectrum.ieee.org spectrum.ieee.org october 2010 • IEEE Spectrum • NA 23

10U.Resources.NA.indd 23 9/14/10 3:34 PM geek life

Real money: The film inflation that makes gold Play Money explores the thin less scarce and therefore line between virtual gold and less valuable when real dollars. photo: Nameless Films exchanged for real dollars. increasing their demand for In some ways, gold virtual goods. Eventually, farming has become more players with more money entrenched: Sony, for than time sought ways to example, created its Station buy those virtual goods with Exchange (now called Live their real-world credit cards. Gamer Exchange), an auction Gold farming, in other site that the company says words, was as natural lets players trade avatars, a market response as items, and currency among putting up a lemonade each other for real money. stand on a hot day. Yet in other ways, gold “Teens are cash poor and farming appears to be a time rich,” says novelist temporary phenomenon, The End of Gold Farming? and celebrated blogger Cory Castronova says. Virtual- R eal-world laborers make real-world money Doctorow. Adult gamers world designers are now in virtual worlds. But maybe not for long are often the other way adding features that can around. So long as youth in cut gold farmers out of the developing nations can make picture. For example, rather ight now, thousands gold farmers generating quick cash playing games than paying a third-party pro of gamers are doing more than $10 billion in they play for fun anyway, to ratchet up your character’s Rmenial jobs in their annual, real-money revenue. online “gray” markets will level (“leveling”), a 2009 patch virtual worlds. And they’re Yet the future of gold crop up that can compensate to World of Warcraft now earning a living. farming is uncertain. Some them—however meagerly, by enables players to teleport The process of contracting observers see it as a classic developed-world standards. directly to battles that allow out a game’s drudge work market inefficiency—a blip Doctorow’s latest thriller, them to advance within the for real money is called “gold in the history of online For the Win (Tor, 2010), game faster. “Just press a farming.” This happens games—that game designers imagines gold farmers button and boom, you’re in the games that involve can and should eliminate across the planet rising up in a dungeon,” Castronova thousands of characters at a from their virtual worlds. to unionize and collectively says. “You can rapidly get time, interacting in an online Edward Castronova, a improve the conditions of everything you need to get a universe that players inhabit virtual worlds economist at their labor. Researching character up at a high level.” over the course of months or Indiana University, says it the book—which is aimed Virtual economies even years. Some tasks, such was Blizzard Entertainment’s at youngsters—Doctorow scholar Vili Lehdonvirta as gathering up virtual gold 2004 hit game World of went to China, where an of the Helsinki Institute for pieces, swords, and magic Warcraft that turned the estimated 85 percent of the Information Technology wands, can be done by any gaming industry on its world’s gold farms are based. says that Castronova is novice player who puts in head. Previous games had Doctorow found “a gray- undoubtedly right that new the time. In other cases, you presumed their big attraction market activity [in which] massively multiplayer online can hire a master player to was their battles—seeking out everybody does it differently.” games will indeed avoid surmount a game’s challenges monsters and killing them. Yet though these gray the inefficiencies that give and raise your character But in World of Warcraft, markets are undoubtedly rise to gold farming. But, he to a higher skill level. Castronova says, monster complex, they also still obey says, “the overall digital By any standard, gold hunting was almost simple textbook laws of economy will grow. So even farming is big business. incidental to the larger real-world economics. For if individual opportunities Estimates range from a global quest, which made a player’s example, when Blizzard are closed down by new workforce of 400 000 earning status more important, increases the number of game designs, there are US $1 billion a year to a labor pulling people deeper into rewards, it adds more gold always gaps that will be pool exceeding a million the virtual world and thus to the system, a sort of exploited.” —Mark Anderson

24 NA • iEEE Spectrum • october 2010 spectrum.ieee.org

10U.Resources.NA.indd 24 9/14/10 3:34 PM technically speaking By Paul McFedries

purposes it’s also a fount of cradle-to-gate refers to every- new words and phrases. thing that happens with a Life cycle practitioners product until it’s ready to ship. usually start by coming up If the product gets with a life cycle inventory, shipped to another link in the which tots up the materials production chain, then that used, the energy consumed, portion of the product’s life and the emissions produced cycle is called gate-to-gate during a product’s life, or with or gate-to-site (for example, a technoeconomic analysis, a construction site). If the which considers a product’s product is edible, then the technology in terms of its portion of its life cycle from economic costs and benefits. the time it leaves the producer They might then work on to the time the consumer is impact assessment and life ready to eat it is called gate- cycle improvement, which to-plate. If the producer is look at the actual or potential a farmer, then that portion environmental consequences of the life cycle is known as of producing the product farm-to-fork. If the producer and at ways to reduce them. is a fisherman or seafood Some practitioners use life processor, you can describe cycle energy analysis that stage as boat-to-throat. (LCEA) to examine not only As you might imagine, the direct energy used in the fossil-fuels consumption is a production, distribution, and huge part of LCA. The cradle- use of a product but also the to-grave equivalent here is indirect energy used to create called well-to-wheel, where and maintain the services, the “well” is the place where components, and systems that the unprocessed fossil fuel T he Age are used to manufacture and is extracted from the ground distribute the product. and the “wheel” is the vehicle The fundamental unit of burning the processed fuel. of Spimes LCA is the whole-life cost, The segments in between are Spimes have identities; they are protagonists of a documented which refers to the environ- well-to-station, the costs of process. They are searchable, like Google. You can think of spimes mental cost accumulated processing the raw fuel and as being auto-Googling objects. —Bruce Sterling during a product’s entire life its delivery to the gas station cycle. This is also called the (or similar distributor); few years ago, the we can and will make the cradle-to-grave cost. In this station-to-tank, the costs of writer Bruce Sterling right decisions about what to age of avid and expanding storing and pumping the fuel; Aenvisioned a future purchase and produce.” recycling programs, a more and tank-to-wheel, the costs generation of products that This “age of spimes” isn’t recent idea is cradle-to- and impacts of burning the were, he said, “precisely quite here yet, but we’re cradle, which adds in as well fuel while driving. located in space and time. getting closer, thanks to an the recycling of the product LCA practitioners are the They have histories. They increasingly sophisticated into something new. first to benefit from the coming are recorded, tracked, discipline called life cycle LCA practitioners seem age of spimes, but we’re not far inventoried, and always assessment (or LCA), inordinately fond of breaking off from the day when we can associated with a story.” which attempts to quantify down a product’s life cycle all make smart and informed He dubbed this new kind of the total environmental into smaller and smaller decisions on products. As thing a spime, a blend of space impact of all the inputs and segments, usually in an effort Sterling said in the speech and time. In the Los Angeles processes used to take a to apportion life cycle costs where he coined the word Times a couple of years later, product from raw materials appropriately. In the cradle- spime: “At the moment, you the writer and critic Susan to its final form. LCA (which to-gate segment, the “gate” is are end-using gizmos. My gen Chad Salter Reynolds wrote, “In can also stand for life cycle the factory (or farm or mill thesis here, my prophecy to H a an age of spimes—products analysis) is an important or whatever) gate (or door or you, is that, pretty soon, you with Web sites and bar codes— idea, for sure, but for our loading dock or whatever), so will be wrangling spimes.” o

spectrum.ieee.org Oct ober 2010 • IEEE Spectrum • NA 25

10.TechSpeak.NA.indd 25 9/14/10 1:01 PM The Great Spectrum Famine

M obile broadband is consuming the available radio spectrum. Serving up more won’t be easy By Mitchell Lazarus

26 NA • iEEE Spectrum • october 2010 spectrum.ieee.org

10.SpectrumFamine.NA.indd 26 9/15/10 5:08 PM

spectrum.ieee.org spectrum.ieee.org

10.SpectrumFamine.NA.indd 27 9/15/10 5:08 PM

spectrum.ieee.org october 2010 • IEEE Spectrum • NA PB Not even sci-fi writers foresaw what much of the world. Finding ways that traffic in the same amount of spectrum use less radio bandwidth to carry out by using a dense network of towers and we’d be doing with our phones once these communications is not impossi- taking advantage of digital encoding and ble, but it requires the adoption of some data compression. new technologies. Sometimes the problematic conse- technology put color screens and a lot Telecommunications regulators try quences of outdated regulations are less to anticipate such developments, and obvious. For example, all radio commu- of computing power in our pockets. sometimes they even help to bring them nications services have power limits, about. But much of their work consists typically chosen to provide for reliable Now we know: We use them to stream nections. The spread of faster connections simply of codifying and institutional- communications under near-worst-case YouTube and Facebook videos; we in turn spurred Web designers to load up izing established ways of doing things, conditions. But even when conditions watch TV shows; we download and their sites with multimedia. Technology which can interfere with efforts to use are good, transmitters can still blast store songs and movies; we take pictures and content each drove the other. the airwaves in better ways. away at the same high power, tying up of everything going on around us; we Now we are seeing an equally vicious Two-way radio is a good example. It their frequencies over a wide geographic read (and some of us even write) novels; cycle in the wireless realm. Smartphones, became popular in the 1960s with the area. The old rules ignore the fact that we play video games; we surf the Web. along with fully mobile laptops and appearance of compact transistor-based modern equipment can be designed to Sometimes we even talk to each other. tablets, are spreading fast, and people gear. Back then, a one-way FM voice automatically adjust power levels to the These days you can unleash a gusher of are using them ever more hours of the channel required 25 or 30 kilohertz. minimum needed, varying its output bits over the air that would have choked day. Estimates show the amounts of That’s a gluttonous use of spectral from moment to moment. Cellphones even a wired connection to the Internet such wireless data doubling or tripling bandwidth by today’s standards. do this routinely. Most of the time the not so long ago. annually. We can expect a hundredfold Actually, it was inefficient even then: transmitter in your phone runs at well These transmissions consume radio expansion in just a few years. Amateur radio equipment in those under its full power rating, facilitat- bandwidth—lots of it. And days routinely squeezed ing reuse of the same frequency nearby they will take increasing a voice signal into 5 kHz. (and prolonging battery life to boot). But amounts of this precious Nevertheless, when the only a few kinds of radios, such as those commodity as the iPad and Federal Communications used for wireless Internet access in the its Androidgenous kin pro- Commission set aside por- 5-gigahertz band, are required to have liferate. People are already tions of the spectrum for this spectrum-saving feature. feeling the pinch. two-way radios, it sub- Why are such improvements not Reg ulators have few divided the bands into more readily adopted? One reason is options to head off the com- 25-kHz channels. The FCC that they cost money, and often those ing bandwidth crisis. They then made things worse by who must pay and those who will can’t realistically expect to assigning blocks of chan- benefit are not the same. The recent reduce demand. Nor can nels to particular industries, shift to digital television in the United they expand the overall sup- including subdivisions as States, for example, freed up 108 MHz ply. That leaves the daunting small as “Motion Picture” of prime spectrum. Obvious beneficia- chore of squeezing today’s and “Forest Products.” The users into narrower slices of result, a decade or two later, the radio spectrum, thereby was a huge embedded base eking out more space for other things. Where will all the new capacity come of inefficient radios, spread unevenly Limited Spectrum for Mobile Broadband That’s sometimes possible, but it’s not from? Addressing this issue demands over dozens of channel blocks. easy. To reengineer existing radio sys- first an understanding of why all radio The FCC has since merged the chan- tems—or their users—is a bit like trying spectrum is not created equal. nel blocks across all industries, keep- to overhaul a car’s engine while it’s bar- ing only public safety separate. But reling down the highway. Every application of radio works narrowing the channels proved more Policymakers, at least in private, best within a certain range of frequen- difficult. Not until 1992 did the FCC sometimes hold out hope for a fourth cies, and mobile broadband is no excep- launch a “refarming” program to cut option: that some game-changing tech- tion. Its sweet spot is relatively narrow, the standard 25-kHz bandwidth to nical breakthrough will save the day at roughly in the range of 300 to 3500 mega- 12.5 kHz, with plans for a further trim- the 11th hour. But nothing now on the hertz. That’s because radio waves that ming to 6.25 kHz. Twenty years later a drawing board suggests that technology are much above 3500 MHz (shorter than lot of 25-kHz equipment is still in use, alone can get us out of this predicament. about 9 centimeters) do not penetrate well and the FCC-required implementation In a sense, history is just repeat- into buildings or through rugged terrain, of 6.25‑kHz equipment is still years ing itself. Two decades ago, people who leading to frustrating dead spots. Lower away. Users, happy with their inefficient accessed the Internet typically did so frequencies are better in this regard, but radios, resist government efforts to take with phone-line modems chugging along they require awkwardly large antennas them away. In the meantime, the goals at 14.4 kilobits per second. That was fine for efficient transmission; 300 MHz is of the program have been overtaken by for the largely static, text-based Internet roughly the lowest frequency compatible technology. Doubling and quadrupling 75 meters 7.5 meters 0.75 meters 7.5 cm 7.5 mm of the day. But as the use of graphics and with a reasonably efficient antenna that’s capacity may have been worth the effort sound, and then video, expanded, so did small enough to fit in a handheld device. in 1992, but such a target seems almost the bandwidth needed, prompting more Not surprisingly, this swath of pointless today. Cellphone systems can OPPORTUNITY WINDOW: The best frequencies for mobile broadband are high enough that the antenna can be made conveniently compact,

people to obtain broadband Internet con- the spectrum is already staked out in carry 10 to 100 times the amount of voice andpreceding above: dan page page yet not so high that signals will fail to penetrate buildings. This leaves a relatively narrow range of frequencies available for use [red band].

28 NA • iEEE Spectrum • october 2010 spectrum.ieee.org spectrum.ieee.org

10.SpectrumFamine.NA.indd 28 9/15/10 5:08 PM much of the world. Finding ways that traffic in the same amount of spectrum ries were the U.S. Treasury, which auc- for telegraph lines in 1928. Restoring use less radio bandwidth to carry out by using a dense network of towers and tioned just under half that spectrum for the original throughput of that radio these communications is not impossi- taking advantage of digital encoding and US $19 billion, and public-safety person- channel without changing anything ble, but it requires the adoption of some data compression. nel, who received some badly needed else risks increasing the bit error rate. new technologies. Sometimes the problematic conse- additional capacity without charge. But To keep the rate level, the designer can Telecommunications regulators try quences of outdated regulations are less to make those gains possible, U.S. TV increase the power, which impairs bat- to anticipate such developments, and obvious. For example, all radio commu- stations had to replace much of their tery life. Or he can limit the range— sometimes they even help to bring them nications services have power limits, equipment, and consumers had to shell or perhaps compress the data to reduce about. But much of their work consists typically chosen to provide for reliable out cash for new receivers. (The gov- the bit payload. But that delays the sig- simply of codifying and institutional- communications under near-worst-case ernment subsidized digital-to-analog nal and may reduce how accurately it izing established ways of doing things, conditions. But even when conditions converter boxes, but for only 10 per- can be reconstructed at the receiver. The which can interfere with efforts to use are good, transmitters can still blast cent or so of the sets in use.) Similarly, bottom line is, making more efficient use the airwaves in better ways. away at the same high power, tying up the FCC’s refarming program requires of spectrum usually means something Two-way radio is a good example. It their frequencies over a wide geographic those now using two-way radios to else has to give. became popular in the 1960s with the area. The old rules ignore the fact that replace their equipment at their own appearance of compact transistor-based modern equipment can be designed to expense for the benefit of others. Regulators sometimes try to gear. Back then, a one-way FM voice automatically adjust power levels to the The government sometimes does boost spectrum efficiency by fiat. In channel required 25 or 30 kilohertz. minimum needed, varying its output better and puts the costs where they the United States, fixed-location micro- That’s a gluttonous use of spectral from moment to moment. Cellphones belong. In the United States, for example, wave equipment for some bands cannot bandwidth by today’s standards. do this routinely. Most of the time the 1.9‑GHz cellphones operate in spectrum legally be sold unless it can transmit at Actually, it was inefficient even then: transmitter in your phone runs at well formerly used for fixed point-to-point least 2.5 to 4.5 bits per second per hertz, Amateur radio equipment in those under its full power rating, facilitat- microwave communications. The FCC the exact value depending on its band- days routinely squeezed ing reuse of the same frequency nearby auctioned the spectrum for mobile use width. Two-way radios in some bands a voice signal into 5 kHz. (and prolonging battery life to boot). But but warned bidders they would have to also have a minimum, although it is Nevertheless, when the only a few kinds of radios, such as those pay the costs of “relocating” the fixed much more lenient. Federal Communications used for wireless Internet access in the users to other bands. Predictably, dis- Often more effective, though, is a reg- Commission set aside por- 5-gigahertz band, are required to have putes broke out over the details. But the ulatory environment that gives licens- tions of the spectrum for this spectrum-saving feature. principle made sense: The party that ees both the motive and the means two-way radios, it sub- Why are such improvements not benefits from a change should pay for it. to improve efficiency on their own. divided the bands into more readily adopted? One reason is Money is not the only problem; prac- Wireless-phone carriers in the United 25-kHz channels. The FCC that they cost money, and often those tical considerations impose limits, too. States must bid at auction for exclusive then made things worse by who must pay and those who will Suppose, for example, a designer wants use of a frequency band over a specified assigning blocks of chan- benefit are not the same. The recent to modify a system to operate in half the geographic area. Nationwide, the auc- nels to particular industries, shift to digital television in the United radio bandwidth it currently uses. Other tion prices have totaled many billions of including subdivisions as States, for example, freed up 108 MHz things being equal, that halves the data dollars. Writing big checks powerfully small as “Motion Picture” of prime spectrum. Obvious beneficia- throughput, as Harry Nyquist proved motivates the licensees to generate the and “Forest Products.” The result, a decade or two later, was a huge embedded base of inefficient radios, spread unevenly Limited Spectrum for Mobile Broadband over dozens of channel blocks. Best for mobile broadband (300 MHz–3.5 GHz) The FCC has since merged the channel blocks across all industries, keeping only public safety separate. But B ounces from the sky Bounces inside rooms narrowing the channels proved more difficult. Not until 1992 did the FCC launch a “refarming” program to cut the standard 25-kHz bandwidth to Penetrates buildings and terrain Reflects from buildings 12.5 kHz, with plans for a further trimming to 6.25 kHz. Twenty years later a lot of 25-kHz equipment is still in use, and the FCC-required implementation Follows Earth’s curvature Travels in a straight line of 6.25‑kHz equipment is still years away. Users, happy with their inefficient Fades in the rain radios, resist government efforts to take them away. In the meantime, the goals 1 MHz 10 MHz 100 MHz 1 GHz 10 GHz of the program have been overtaken by technology. Doubling and quadrupling 75 meters 7.5 meters 0.75 meters 7.5 cm 7.5 mm capacity may have been worth the effort Size of efficient antenna in 1992, but such a target seems almost pointless today. Cellphone systems can OPPORTUNITY WINDOW: The best frequencies for mobile broadband are high enough that the antenna can be made conveniently compact,

carry 10 to 100 times the amount of voice andpreceding above: dan page page yet not so high that signals will fail to penetrate buildings. This leaves a relatively narrow range of frequencies available for use [red band]. spectrum.ieee.org spectrum.ieee.org october 2010 • IEEE Spectrum • NA 29

10.SpectrumFamine.NA.indd 29 9/15/10 5:08 PM most possible revenue from the avail- case, subscribers were mostly unaware Source: Federal 22% Communications W oRLD Wide able spectrum, which in turn encourages of it—people just kept on talking, with Commission Worries the adoption of equipment that can serve no significant interruptions or inconve- 3 600 000 4% 20 the maximum number of subscribers. nience (although a few analog-only hold- 6% T he growing popularity Licensees are free to choose whatever outs had to be urged to upgrade their 8% forms of radio technology they think handsets). Second, the changeover need 17% of mobile broadband is will work best. not be forced from on high. The analog- a global phenomenon, 2 700 000 17% 15 With that kind of financial incen- to-digital switch required essentially no 15% and the laws of physics tive, coupled with minimal regulatory government involvement. Carriers made 14% that limit the frequencies constraints, wireless-service providers the change on their own, for their own available for it are the have achieved dramatic improvements benefit, and on their own timetables. 12% in spectrum efficiency. They’ve done Contrast that with the transition same everywhere. So it 1 800 000 I Voice over Internet Protocol 10 that by being clever about the modula- from analog to digital television, which 10% is no surprise that many tion schemes, data encoding, and tower was mostly completed in the United I Gaming configurations they adopt. Back in the States by June 2009. That job was only I Peer-to-peer other countries are facing 66% Terabytes per month the same spectrum famine 1970s the early mobile telephony pro- a little bigger—today the United States I Web/data Percent of households viders used one transmitter to serve an has just a few more TV receivers than I Video as the United States. 900 000 5 entire city, typically with all users shar- cellphones—but it proved much harder. Source: Cisco All regions have large ing just one or two dozen voice channels. The digital-TV conversion took amounts of spectrum The service was expensive, required a lot 22 years and cost broadcasters, viewers, dedicated to TV, most of of heavy equipment stowed in the trunk and the U.S. government billions of dol- it in the frequency range of your car, and it often entailed long lars. One key difference was that in the waits to make a call. TV switchover none of the broadcast- 0 0 suitable for wireless 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 Cellular carriers in the 1980s ers stood to cash in, at least not imme- broadband. Most countries vastly improved mobile services using diately. Most of the money that changed Changing tastes: The amount of data being sent wirelessly over the Internet has shot up globally [left], while the small fraction of have targeted a conversion 832 pairs of 30-kHz-spaced analog FM hands went the other way, to buy new television-owning households that rely on over-the-air broadcasts has been steadily diminishing in the United States [right]. to digital broadcast TV channels in the 800-MHz band. The studio and transmission equipment. as their best bet for cellular layout reused the same frequen- Consumers paid for new home TVs digital TV stations more tightly than obtaining more wireless cies at different locations across a city to and converter boxes. With prodding their analog predecessors. That freed support many thousands of conversa- from the government, the broadcast- up 108 MHz of spectrum, over a quar- spectrum—what the tions. But charges for wireless minutes ing and consumer-electronics indus- ter of the total bandwidth allotted to European Union calls a remained high, geared mostly to busi- tries mounted a massive publicity cam- broadcast TV before the transition. And “digital dividend.” Several ness customers. paign to prepare viewers for the coming thanks to data compression, each digital have already completed The next iteration, in the 1990s, was sea change. Cable and satellite-TV com- channel accommodates about four ana- 1.9-GHz “2G” voice service, among the panies ran their own campaigns, pro- log-quality video signals, and digital the transition, including first to make use of auctioned spec- moting their services as a way to keep TV also offers new options for high-def- Belgium, Denmark, Finland, trum in the United States. Although old sets working. The government inition programming and data services. Germany, Luxembourg the FCC’s rules do not require it, all of offered free vouchers for converter The overall result is about a fivefold (the first anywhere), the the licensees opted for digital transmis- boxes (then ran out of money to distrib- improvement in spectrum efficiency—a Netherlands, Norway, sion, which yielded a big improvement. ute them). Still, in the end, on the morn- success by any measure. Digital modulation is not inherently ing of 13 June 2009, many viewers were Or maybe not. The United States Spain, Sweden, and more spectrum efficient than analog, shocked to find that their beloved analog still has 294 MHz of spectrum set aside Switzerland. Other but it allows much better compression TV sets showed only snow. primarily for TV. But the vast major- countries have transitions and offers more ways to combine mul- Compared with the wireless-phone ity of U.S. TV-owning households sub- in progress, most tiple communications onto one channel. conversion, the shift to digital TV scribe to cable or satellite television. Just scheduled for completion Those advantages were enough was slow and painful. Whereas the 10 percent watch only transmissions to persuade the companies operat- wireless-phone changeover was an sent over the air. And the over-the-air between 2011 and 2013 ing older, analog cellphone systems to inside job, one largely driven by the fraction has declined steadily over the (China in 2015). The go digital. In the late 1980s, the car- market’s invisible hand, digital TV was decades. So the 294 MHz of TV spec- amounts of spectrum riers had begun shipping dual-mode directed by the government at every trum—much of it in a frequency range harvested vary from about analog/digital handsets and converting stage: adopting technical standards, ideal for mobile broadband—serves a 100 up to 130 megahertz. their base stations to digital. The hand- setting required start‑up dates for digi- small and shrinking number of viewers. set automatically switched to whichever tal broadcasting, even imposing fines on Noting this fact, some policymakers Many countries are mode suited the equipment installed at electronics distributors who trafficked have proposed to divert still more of the also experimenting the nearest tower. The conversion took in analog-only TVs. Market forces and TV broadcast spectrum to mobile broad- with spectrum auctions, about a decade, although carriers kept incentives played little part. And the TV band. One such plan in the United States some with a minimum some analog service in place until 2008. transition required the participation of would reallocate and auction 120 MHz, of regulation of the The outcome was a tenfold increase in consumers in ways the wireless-phone or about 41 percent of the postanalog TV the capacity of these wireless networks. conversion did not. capacity. Broadcasters who lose their technologies, as a way The regulators learned some valu- On the positive side, though, the channels could receive part of the auc- of fostering efficient use. able lessons from that transition. First, switch to digital TV did work: It enabled tion revenues. Or they might be allowed —M.L. it can be done pretty painlessly. In this the FCC to repack transmissions from a share of the newly expanded channel

30 NA • iEEE Spectrum • october 2010 spectrum.ieee.org spectrum.ieee.org

10.SpectrumFamine.NA.indd 30 9/15/10 5:08 PM case, subscribers were mostly unaware Source: Federal 22% Communications of it—people just kept on talking, with Commission no significant interruptions or inconve- 3 600 000 4% 20 nience (although a few analog-only hold- 6% outs had to be urged to upgrade their Over-the-Air TV 8% Viewing Drops handsets). Second, the changeover need 17% in the U.S. not be forced from on high. The analog- 2 700 000 17% 15 to-digital switch required essentially no 15% government involvement. Carriers made Mobile Broadband Skyrockets Globally 14% the change on their own, for their own benefit, and on their own timetables. 12% Contrast that with the transition 1 800 000 I Voice over Internet Protocol 10 from analog to digital television, which 10% was mostly completed in the United I Gaming States by June 2009. That job was only I Peer-to-peer 66% Terabytes per month a little bigger—today the United States I Web/data Percent of households has just a few more TV receivers than I Video 900 000 5 cellphones—but it proved much harder. Source: Cisco The digital-TV conversion took 22 years and cost broadcasters, viewers, and the U.S. government billions of dollars. One key difference was that in the TV switchover none of the broadcast- 0 0 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 ers stood to cash in, at least not immediately. Most of the money that changed Chan ngi g tastes: The amount of data being sent wirelessly over the Internet has shot up globally [left], while the small fraction of hands went the other way, to buy new television-owning households that rely on over-the-air broadcasts has been steadily diminishing in the United States [right]. studio and transmission equipment. Consumers paid for new home TVs digital TV stations more tightly than capacity taken from a fellow broadcaster on their present frequencies, beyond the and converter boxes. With prodding their analog predecessors. That freed whose station stays on the air long-awaited halving of their bandwidth. from the government, the broadcast- up 108 MHz of spectrum, over a quar- Not surprisingly, broadcasters as We need to offer these people a more ing and consumer-electronics indus- ter of the total bandwidth allotted to a group vehemently oppose any such efficient alternative while making it tries mounted a massive publicity cam- broadcast TV before the transition. And reorganization of the airwaves, although more costly for them to use their old paign to prepare viewers for the coming thanks to data compression, each digital some individual station owners would equipment. Suppose the FCC gave a non- sea change. Cable and satellite-TV com- channel accommodates about four ana- likely be happy to take the money and profit industry group a few megahertz in panies ran their own campaigns, pro- log-quality video signals, and digital close shop. Others favor keeping their which to provide efficient, digital, two- moting their services as a way to keep TV also offers new options for high-def- channels but renting out bandwidth way radio service on an at-cost basis. To old sets working. The government inition programming and data services. for wireless use. Maybe that would be sure, many users would prefer to keep offered free vouchers for converter The overall result is about a fivefold be less disruptive to these businesses. their existing radio gear. But the FCC boxes (then ran out of money to distrib- improvement in spectrum efficiency—a And it does seem a little soon to require could make their licenses more expen- ute them). Still, in the end, on the morn- success by any measure. American TV watchers to relearn how to sive and equipment requirements more ing of 13 June 2009, many viewers were Or maybe not. The United States orient their antennas and tune their sets. demanding, while pointing users to the shocked to find that their beloved analog still has 294 MHz of spectrum set aside new collective service as a better option. TV sets showed only snow. primarily for TV. But the vast major- That we’re even talking about Eventually, enough will have Compared with the wireless-phone ity of U.S. TV-owning households sub- revamping the U.S. TV bands barely migrated out of the original band to allow conversion, the shift to digital TV scribe to cable or satellite television. Just a year after the last reorganization the FCC to take it back and reallocate it was slow and painful. Whereas the 10 percent watch only transmissions suggests how thorny spectrum issues for other purposes. The result would be wireless-phone changeover was an sent over the air. And the over-the-air have become. two-way radio use that is 10 to 100 times inside job, one largely driven by the fraction has declined steadily over the Any solution ultimately has to identify as spectrum efficient as today’s with lit- market’s invisible hand, digital TV was decades. So the 294 MHz of TV spec- the least efficient or least critical services tle disruption along the way. directed by the government at every trum—much of it in a frequency range and redesign them to use less spectrum. Other bands may require different stage: adopting technical standards, ideal for mobile broadband—serves a Consider, for example, the current situa- approaches. For example, the FCC is setting required start‑up dates for digi- small and shrinking number of viewers. tion with two-way radios: 12.5 kHz for a considering ways to convert underused tal broadcasting, even imposing fines on Noting this fact, some policymakers one-way voice channel, with many chan- mobile satellite bands to a primarily ter- electronics distributors who trafficked have proposed to divert still more of the nels vacant at any given moment. Such restrial cellphone-type service. And the in analog-only TVs. Market forces and TV broadcast spectrum to mobile broad- radios are indispensable to police, fire- U.S. government occupies large swaths incentives played little part. And the TV band. One such plan in the United States fighters, and other emergencyr esponders, of valuable spectrum that Congress could transition required the participation of would reallocate and auction 120 MHz, as well as utility workers, taxi drivers, help to make available for private use. consumers in ways the wireless-phone or about 41 percent of the postanalog TV plumbers, construction crews, and many True, any such reorganization of the conversion did not. capacity. Broadcasters who lose their others. But their collective traffic could airwaves would take years. But what On the positive side, though, the channels could receive part of the auc- be handled in far less spectrum than is solution wouldn’t? Given the growing switch to digital TV did work: It enabled tion revenues. Or they might be allowed being used today. Unfortunately, there’s hunger for mobile broadband, we ought the FCC to repack transmissions from a share of the newly expanded channel no practical way to improve these devices to get cracking. o spectrum.ieee.org spectrum.ieee.org october 2010 • IEEE Spectrum • NA 31

10.SpectrumFamine.NA.indd 31 9/15/10 5:08 PM 32 Na • iEEE Spectrum • october 2010 spectrum.ieee.org spectrum.ieee.org

10.SoftwareForensics.50.v2.NA.indd 32 9/20/10 9:50 AM > * */// * * Two international companies. An accusation of plagiarized software. A court trial. Two expert witnesses who offer directly conflicting opinions. A judge who has never owned a computer must decide who's right. Just a few years ago, the experts’ testimony would have been the only technical evidence the judge would have considered. But now a third point of view is available: that of a sophisticated software forensics program. By interpreting the program’s results, an expert computer scientist can give a definitive, quantitative answer.

> * */// * * spectrum.ieee.org spectrum.ieee.org october 2010 • IEEE Spectrum • Na 33

10.SoftwareForensics.50.v2.NA.indd 33 9/20/10 9:50 AM rism but in ways of measuring the complexity of code and Software Source-Code Elements the “mental effort” required to create it. He devised quantitative measurements, later called Halstead metrics, that counted the number of unique operators and operands as well as the number of operator and operand occurrences in source code. Starting in the late 1970s, various researchers used the Halstead metrics to create more sophisticated metrics that were intended to detect plagiarism. If two computer programs produced similar values for these metrics, the conclusion was that plagiarism was likely to have taken place. In 1989, Alan Parker and James Hamblen of Georgia Tech documented at least seven plagiarism-detection algorithms that relied on Halstead metrics. Although these algorithms vary somewhat, they are similar in that they all yield a single score. If the score exceeds a certain threshold value, it indicates that plagiarism has probably occurred. But having one score for an entire program means that small sections of plagiarized code could be missed entirely.

Partially matching identifiers (highlighted In recent years, litigation over software in the United vinced a judge that there was reason to believe its software in red) may be signs of copying States and elsewhere has skyrocketed. Partly that’s due to copyright had been infringed. the 1998 case State Street Bank & Trust v. Signature Financial Avanti had a lot of financial backing, though, and so it was Group, which established that most kinds of software are able to delay the trial for some years. By the time the case reached patentable. Partly it’s due to the fact that you can easily the discovery phase, during which attorneys turned over rel- and surreptitiously make a copy of copyrighted source code evant documents, including source code, to the opposing side, and put it on a flash drive or send it by e-mail. And partly Avanti’s software had gone through many revisions. it’s due to our increasing reliance on computers and the At that time, no sophisticated forensics software yet increasing value of the software that runs our businesses existed that could spot illegal copying. Teams of experts spent and our equipment. months manually poring over the code, but they found few Clearly, it’s in society’s best interest to resolve these law- signs of copying. Eventually, though, they turned up one curi- suits as efficiently and equitably as possible. But settling such ous comment in both programs. The comment was a descrip- disputes can get exceedingly technical, and few people have tion in which a single word was spelled incorrectly. It was the expertise to parse source code—the human-readable form known that some of the same programmers had worked on of a program—to determine what, if anything, has been ille- both programs, which is completely legal as long as the pro- gally reproduced. A program that runs something as simple grammers don’t literally copy the code. Perhaps one of them as a clock radio can have thousands of lines of code; a more wasn’t a very good speller. complicated device, such as an airplane, can have millions. But this comment stood out. What were the chances that That’s why automatic software forensics tools are so useful. the same misspelling would show up in the same comment in Just as software for analyzing DNA has become crucial in nearly identical positions in both programs? Practically zero. resolving criminal cases and paternity suits, tools that can Based largely on that seemingly tiny concurrence, Avanti lost quickly and accurately uncover illicit software copying are both the civil and criminal lawsuits, and several of its execu- becoming key to copyright infringement litigation. tives went to jail. After paying fines that effectively put it out of business, what was left of Avanti was bought by a Cadence etecting illegal copying without the aid of forensics rival, Synopsys. software can be like finding the proverbial needle in In that case, justice prevailed, but much of the time and a haystack. In one high-profile case that some col- expense involved in trying the case could have been avoided leagues of mine worked on, Cadence Design Systems, with forensics software. one of the largest developers of software for electronic Ddesign automation, sued Avanti Corp., a much smaller com- omputer scientists have studied software copying petitor. As is common in the tech business, Avanti had been since at least the late 1970s. In 1987, J.A.W. Faidhi and founded by high-level engineers and executives who’d previ- S.K. Robinson of Brunel University, in England, pub- ously worked for Cadence. lished a paper in the journal Computers & Education on In the mid-1980s Cadence introduced a product called detecting plagiarism in students’ programming proj- Symbad for laying out the physical structure of integrated Cects. The paper characterized six types of source-code modifi- circuits. In a surprisingly short time Avanti came out with cations that students tended to make, but it didn’t really define A side-by-side comparison of two snippets its own circuit-layout program, called ArcCell. Not only did what constituted plagiarism or provide useful measurements of source code reveals some of the telltale the product development time seem too short, but a Cadence for determining whether or not it had occurred. signs of copied code. A forensics program engineer noticed that ArcCell exhibited a very strange bug Later research sought to fill that gap. Many of these that measures source-code correlation that was identical to a bug in Symbad. Given these suspicious efforts were based on the earlier work of computer scientist would note that many of the statements are identical and that the sequence of instructions circumstances, Cadence filed a motion with the court and con- Maurice H. Halstead. Halstead wasn’t interested in plagia-

34 Na • iEEE Spectrum • october 2010 spectrum.ieee.org spectrum.ieee.org

10.SoftwareForensics.50.v2.NA.indd 34 9/20/10 9:50 AM rism but in ways of measuring the complexity of code and Algorithms of this kind refl ect their creator’s aim: They are writ- the “mental eff ort” required to create it. He devised quan- ten by university professors trying to spot plagiarism in student titative measurements, later called Halstead metrics, that projects, and so they are mainly concerned with fl agrant inci- counted the number of unique operators and operands as dents of cheating. well as the number of operator and operand occurrences in Investigating illegal copying in commercial software is source code. quite diff erent. Copied code is not necessarily there illegally; Starting in the late 1970s, various researchers used the it may have been purchased from a third-party vendor, or Halstead metrics to create more sophisticated metrics that it may be open-source code. So an algorithm that assumes were intended to detect plagiarism. If two computer programs that any instance of copying is illegal—that is, plagiarized— produced similar values for these metrics, the conclusion was ignores the fact that sometimes the copying was authorized. that plagiarism was likely to have taken place. In 1989, Alan There can be many other reasons that one source-code fi le is Parker and James Hamblen of Georgia Tech documented at similar to another, most of which are not due to copying. More least seven plagiarism-detection algorithms that relied on about that later. Halstead metrics. The other key difference between plagiarism-detection Although these algorithms vary somewhat, they are similar software and forensics software is that the former is designed in that they all yield a single score. If the score exceeds a cer- to execute quickly, and that by design, it favors false negatives tain threshold value, it indicates that plagiarism has probably over false positives. In other words, a professor would rather occurred. But having one score for an entire program means miss a few cheaters than falsely accuse a student of cheat- that small sections of plagiarized code could be missed entirely. ing. One professor explained to me that Continued on page 48

Partially matching identifiers (highlighted BlanK lines (highlighted in yellow) vinced a judge that there was reason to believe its software in red) may be signs of copying may also be signs of copying copyright had been infringed. Avanti had a lot of fi nancial backing, though, and so it was able to delay the trial for some years. By the time the case reached the discovery phase, during which attorneys turned over relevant documents, including source code, to the opposing side, Avanti’s software had gone through many revisions. At that time, no sophisticated forensics software yet existed that could spot illegal copying. Teams of experts spent months manually poring over the code, but they found few signs of copying. Eventually, though, they turned up one curi- ous comment in both programs. The comment was a description in which a single word was spelled incorrectly. It was known that some of the same programmers had worked on both programs, which is completely legal as long as the programmers don’t literally copy the code. Perhaps one of them wasn’t a very good speller. But this comment stood out. What were the chances that the same misspelling would show up in the same comment in nearly identical positions in both programs? Practically zero. Based largely on that seemingly tiny concurrence, Avanti lost both the civil and criminal lawsuits, and several of its executives went to jail. After paying fi nes that eff ectively put it out of business, what was left of Avanti was bought by a Cadence rival, Synopsys. In that case, justice prevailed, but much of the time and expense involved in trying the case could have been avoided with forensics software. omputer scientists have studied software copying since at least the late 1970s. In 1987, J.A.W. Faidhi and S.K. Robinson of Brunel University, in England, published a paper in the journal Computers & Education on detecting plagiarism in students’ programming proj- cects. The paper characterized six types of source-code modifi - cations that students tended to make, but it didn’t really defi ne A side-by-side comparison of two snippets is also identical. but the fact that many that the comments in fi le 1 at lines 1, 8, and 19 what constituted plagiarism or provide useful measurements of source code reveals some of the telltale of the identifi ers match or partially match correspond to blank lines in fi le 2. there’s no for determining whether or not it had occurred. signs of copied code. a forensics program (__iNt_maX__ , main, ieee, negative and neg, reason to have blank lines in those locations. Later research sought to fill that gap. Many of these that measures source-code correlation exponent and exp, mantissa and mant) isn’t comments are typically removed for only two eff orts were based on the earlier work of computer scientist would note that many of the statements are necessarily due to illegal copying, because they reasons: because they are wrong—which is not identical and that the sequence of instructions are commonly used identifi ers. Finally, note the case here—or to hide signs of copying. Maurice H. Halstead. Halstead wasn’t interested in plagia-

spectrum.ieee.org spectrum.ieee.org octobEr 2010 • iEEE SpEctrum • Na 35

10.SoftwareForensics.50.v2.NA.indd 35 9/20/10 9:50 AM The Greening of the Supercar

Ferraris, just By like Fords, Lawrence must now Ulrich conform to environmental regulations

someday soon there will be an affordable and clever electric vehicle that will conquer the world, as the Model T and Volkswagen Beetle did in their day. In the meantime, there’s the Tesla Roadster, a US $109 000, 300-horsepower, two-seat toy for rich, environmentally conscious gadget hounds. Yes, for every Nissan Leaf or Chevy Volt with mainstream pre- tensions, there’s a battery-powered land rocket that’s way more Bugatti than Beetle. Makers of automobiles more associated with tearing up the earth than with saving it are suddenly rushing to outdo each other in the automotive industry’s next big battleground: electric and plug-in hybrid cars. Their pitch is the familiar best of all worlds: cars that look hot, go fast, run clean, and consume either no gasoline or very little. But really now, does a man who buys a six-figure missile on wheels really fret over fuel bills or global warming? Probably not, but carmakers say that afflu- ent buyers increasingly want to make a green statement anyway. In a world where a fuel-sucking V-12 engine

seems not just passé but nearly pathological, an electric Coburn Tavis

36 NA • iEEE Spectrum • october 2010

10.GreenSuperCar.NA.indd 36 9/16/10 9:29 AM A udi e-Tron In the movie Iron Man, billionaire guzzling from a premium nozzle, adventurer Tony Stark drives an the e-Tron can draw from Audi R8 supercar. But even Iron its 53-kilowatt-hour battery Man has yet to get his metal to cover 248 km (154 miles) mitts on the e-Tron, which Audi on a charge. will bring to market around 2012 Like other EV sports cars, the at an estimated US $150 000. Audi is limited to a modest top Looking like a scaled-down speed—in this case, 200 km/h R8 but sharing its aluminum (120 mph)—because of how Audi Space Frame construction, quickly precious electrons are the e-Tron takes advantage of used up at autobahn speeds. four electric motors—two each “You could take out the high- at the front and rear axles— speed limiter, but you’d only to offer a torque-vectoring travel a few miles,” Audi head take on its trusty Quattro of electromobility strategy all-wheel-drive system. Frank Van Meel says; at high Those motors send a total of speed, “the electric motor has 230 kilowatts (313 horsepower) a tendency to suck the battery and 681 newton meters dry.” Weight is another enemy of (502 foot-pounds) of torque EV range and performance: At to all four wheels, urging the 2000 kilograms (4400 pounds), Audi from 0 to 100 kilometers the e-Tron prototype weighs as per hour (62 miles per hour) much as a full-size luxury sedan. in 4.8 seconds—not quite as Audi insists it will chop up to quick as the V-10 powered R8 408 kg (900 pounds) from the but impressively swift for an finished product. But it won’t electron-enabled sports car. be easy: the lithium-ion battery, And while the standard R8 is Continued on next page

october 2010 • IEEE Spectrum • NA 37

10.GreenSuperCar.NA.indd 37 9/16/10 9:29 AM sports car marks its owner as not just loaded but also progres- ily than a Citroën? For years, sports-car makers have offered sive, ahead of the curve in both auto technology and fashion. precisely that defense of their guzzling: These exclusive cars Auto execs, of course, are only too happy to propagate this per- sell in such tiny quantities—and are driven so lightly, as week- ception. “In the long run, we’re either going to run out of oil or end toys—that their environmental impact is negligible. Ferrari the price will go up dramatically,” says Frank Van Meel, head sells fewer than 10 000 new cars a year around the world, com- of electromobility strategy for Audi. pared to the millions of a GM or Toyota. Ferrari officials say “There’s a need to act right now.” their exotic baubles tend to be driven less than 10 000 km a year And yet, it’s not really the warm- on average, about half as much as a typical passenger car. Even ing planet that’s spurring the super- Continued from so, regulations may limit the free passes and no longer allow car makers. It’s the heated rhetoric, previous page major companies to buy indulgences for green sins. and the forging of new government power inverter, and Colin Peachey, Lotus’s chief engineer, frankly allows that regulations. This is quite a change control electronics saddle political and social forces are driving the industry. “In an for a niche market that has obsessed the Audi with more than ideal world, where burning fuel didn’t damage the planet, over miles per hour while largely 470 kg (1040 pounds). there wouldn’t be a case for electric cars. We’d carry on with ignoring miles per gallon. To boost efficiency, our V-8s and V-12s and have all the performance and conve- Audi adds an automotive Under a controversial European nience that gas gives you.” first: A heat pump, Commission plan, new cars in typically used in buildings, It’s hard to imagine a world in which wealthy car buyers Europe may be required by 2015 that can scavenge heat or can’t have the cars they want—or one in which carmakers to meet a strict fleetwide average cold from one part of the can’t even make the cars they want. Peachey insists that of 130 grams of carbon dioxide per car and send it to another, sports-car builders could be effectively legislated out of exis- kilometer driven. The United States without the energy- tence if they don’t hybridize or otherwise green their lineups. sapping electric climate is expected to adopt similar CO “The emissions may be a relative drop in the ocean, yet leg- 2 control found in other standards and has already man- hybrids and EVs. Audi cites islators are saying we’re going to tax you until it hurts, and dated a 22 percent improvement in a 2.5-hour waiting time above a certain emissions level, you just won’t be able to sell fleet average fuel economy, to about for a high-voltage charger, the car,” he says. 35 miles per gallon (6.7 liters per or up to 8 hours on The writing on the wall is even being translated into Italian: 100 kilometers) by 2016. Because household current. Audi is Ferrari has unveiled the 599 HY-KERS hybrid supercar con- CO emissions are a remorseless also developing a wireless cept, which combines a V-12 engine with an 80-kilowatt 2 inductive charger, akin function of how much fuel you burn, to an electric toothbrush (107-horsepower) electric motor—and a 3-kilowatt-hour lith- he said. Ferraris and other models will begin to adopt the start- the EU target means that a gasoline setup, that can begin ium battery said to be just 2.5 centimeters (1 inch) thick— stop functions of hybrids, shutting engines down automatically car would need to consume just charging as soon as the boosting fuel efficiency to as much as 9.4 L/100 km (25 mpg) at stoplights to save fuel. 5.1 L/100 km, or achieve 46 mpg. car is parked, no plug and reducing CO2 emissions to 270 g/km. Ferrari’s performance strategy is to add 1 additional There’s just one problem: No required. Owners can use The car adopts energy-capturing regenerative-braking horsepower for every kilogram of mass added to its hybrid conventional sports car in the a smartphone to manage technology from Ferrari’s KERS (Kinetic Energy Recovery cars. In fact, its recently unveiled hybrid concept car actually and monitor charging world today achieves that kind of System, used in Formula One race cars), delivering an esti- accelerates more quickly than the standard 599 GTB Fiorano remotely, including fuel economy or squeaky-clean preheating or precooling mated 1.5 percent gain in fuel efficiency. And as if that weren’t model. Critically, that extra weight must be distributed in a emissions, let alone supercars the cabin and drive system surprising enough to traditionalists, Ferrari chairman Luca way that doesn’t spoil a car’s handling balance or intrude like the 21.4 L/100 km (11 mpg) using juice from the grid di Montezemolo said recently that every car in Ferrari’s unduly on passenger and cargo space. Virtually every Lamborghini Murciélago, among instead of drawing from lineup will adopt hybrid technology within three to five years. sports-car maker is designing batteries and hybrid compo- the industry’s worst offenders, the car’s battery. (Note to collectors: Now’s the time to buy up the soon-to-be nents to fit into a thin “skateboard” entirely under the car’s

belching 480 grams of CO2 per kilo- “classic” gas-burning models.) floor, lowering the vehicle’s center of gravity. meter. Even Lotus’s tiny Elise, soon to be equipped with a Colin Chapman, the engineer, Formula One genius, and The Tesla Roadster, which is based on the gasoline-powered shrimpy new 1.6-L four-banger, will emit 155 g/km. That’s founder of Lotus, created the most enduring mantra of sports- Lotus Elise, proved that EVs can be fast and fun. But they still less than any current gas-driven sports car but still above and racing-car design: Add lightness. And for today’s perfor- don’t outperform comparable gasoline models, especially in the proposed target. mance geniuses, electrified cars pose a tremendous challenge: handling. That goes for hybrids, too. Much has been made of Small-scale sports-car builders such as Ferrari and how to reduce emissions and keep cars fast and razor sharp an electric motor’s ability to deliver its full monty of torque Porsche have long been excused from meeting the United in handling—as customers demand—even as batteries and the instant you mash the gas—er, throttle. But for pure EVs, States’ Corporate Average Fuel Economy rules. Other pur- electric motors add weight and greatly complicate the pur- those motors must counteract hundreds of kilograms in bat- veyors of power and luxury have paid fines for missing fuel- suit of perfectly balanced (roughly 50-50) weight distribution teries, cooling systems, and electronic controls. Take the Elise, a consumption standards, with Mercedes shelling out nearly between front and rear axles. featherweight at less than 910 kilograms (2000 pounds). It gains $300 million since 1983—a practice the company has vowed In a briefing on Ferrari’s environmental issues, technical more than 300 kg (660 pounds) of electric fat in its transforma-

to end by boosting efficiency. director Roberto Fedeli expressed confidence that the com- TavisCoburn tion to the electric Tesla Roadster. And because batteries run out

Yet a fast-car fan might ask: In a world steaming with emis- pany would dramatically reduce CO2 emissions while “keeping of energy so quickly, especially at higher speeds—a single gallon sions from coal-fired power plants and hundreds of millions of its soul” and honoring all its performance and fun-to-drive tra- of gasoline contains 33 kWh of energy, about two-thirds of the cars, who cares if a Lamborghini guzzles gasoline more greed- ditions. Yet further gains in engine efficiency won’t be enough, energy stored in the entire battery pack of a typical EV—electric

38 NA • iEEE Spectrum • october 2010 spectrum.ieee.org spectrum.ieee.org

10.GreenSuperCar.NA.indd 38 9/16/10 9:29 AM ily than a Citroën? For years, sports-car makers have offered precisely that defense of their guzzling: These exclusive cars sell in such tiny quantities—and are driven so lightly, as week- end toys—that their environmental impact is negligible. Ferrari sells fewer than 10 000 new cars a year around the world, compared to the millions of a GM or Toyota. Ferrari officials say their exotic baubles tend to be driven less than 10 000 km a year on average, about half as much as a typical passenger car. Even so, regulations may limit the free passes and no longer allow major companies to buy indulgences for green sins. Colin Peachey, Lotus’s chief engineer, frankly allows that political and social forces are driving the industry. “In an ideal world, where burning fuel didn’t damage the planet, there wouldn’t be a case for electric cars. We’d carry on with our V-8s and V-12s and have all the performance and convenience that gas gives you.” It’s hard to imagine a world in which wealthy car buyers can’t have the cars they want—or one in which carmakers can’t even make the cars they want. Peachey insists that sports-car builders could be effectively legislated out of exis- tence if they don’t hybridize or otherwise green their lineups. “The emissions may be a relative drop in the ocean, yet leg- islators are saying we’re going to tax you until it hurts, and above a certain emissions level, you just won’t be able to sell the car,” he says. The writing on the wall is even being translated into Italian: Ferrari has unveiled the 599 HY-KERS hybrid supercar concept, which combines a V-12 engine with an 80-kilowatt (107-horsepower) electric motor—and a 3-kilowatt-hour lith- he said. Ferraris and other models will begin to adopt the start- Mercedes SLS AMG eDrive ium battery said to be just 2.5 centimeters (1 inch) thick— stop functions of hybrids, shutting engines down automatically boosting fuel efficiency to as much as 9.4 L/100 km (25 mpg) at stoplights to save fuel. From its shape to its fanciful gull-wing doors, the US $186 000 Mercedes SLS AMG harks back to the classic and reducing CO2 emissions to 270 g/km. Ferrari’s performance strategy is to add 1 additional The car adopts energy-capturing regenerative-braking horsepower for every kilogram of mass added to its hybrid SL gull-wing of the ’50s. But the zero-emissions version of the technology from Ferrari’s KERS (Kinetic Energy Recovery cars. In fact, its recently unveiled hybrid concept car actually SLS casts an eye toward a distant gas-free future, even as System, used in Formula One race cars), delivering an esti- accelerates more quickly than the standard 599 GTB Fiorano Mercedes readies its lithium-ion supercar for sale around 2013. mated 1.5 percent gain in fuel efficiency. And as if that weren’t model. Critically, that extra weight must be distributed in a Using the same lightweight aluminum body as the standard surprising enough to traditionalists, Ferrari chairman Luca way that doesn’t spoil a car’s handling balance or intrude model, the Mercedes ditches its massive V-8 in favor of four di Montezemolo said recently that every car in Ferrari’s unduly on passenger and cargo space. Virtually every electric motors with a total of 392 kilowatts and 880 newton lineup will adopt hybrid technology within three to five years. sports-car maker is designing batteries and hybrid compo- meters of torque. It thus loses 7 percent of the power (420 to (Note to collectors: Now’s the time to buy up the soon-to-be nents to fit into a thin “skateboard” entirely under the car’s 392 kW) but more than makes up for it by adding 35 percent “classic” gas-burning models.) floor, lowering the vehicle’s center of gravity. more torque (649 to 880 Nm). Mercedes is targeting the Colin Chapman, the engineer, Formula One genius, and The Tesla Roadster, which is based on the gasoline-powered same 3.8-second squirt from 0 to 100 kilometers (62 miles per founder of Lotus, created the most enduring mantra of sports- Lotus Elise, proved that EVs can be fast and fun. But they still hour) achieved by the fossil-fueled version—albeit with the and racing-car design: Add lightness. And for today’s perfor- don’t outperform comparable gasoline models, especially in far lower top speed of roughly 200 km/h (125 mph), versus mance geniuses, electrified cars pose a tremendous challenge: handling. That goes for hybrids, too. Much has been made of 317 km/h (197 mph) for the gas burner. A 48-kW modular how to reduce emissions and keep cars fast and razor sharp an electric motor’s ability to deliver its full monty of torque battery is divided into three 16-kW units, one mounted below in handling—as customers demand—even as batteries and the instant you mash the gas—er, throttle. But for pure EVs, the elegantly stretched hood, another along the center electric motors add weight and greatly complicate the pur- those motors must counteract hundreds of kilograms in bat- tunnel, and the third behind the passenger compartment. suit of perfectly balanced (roughly 50-50) weight distribution teries, cooling systems, and electronic controls. Take the Elise, a An intelligent all-wheel-drive system features the torque- between front and rear axles. featherweight at less than 910 kilograms (2000 pounds). It gains vectoring capability of other sports-car EVs. Mercedes figures In a briefing on Ferrari’s environmental issues, technical more than 300 kg (660 pounds) of electric fat in its transforma- the electric SLS will cover from 150 to 180 km (93 to 112 miles) director Roberto Fedeli expressed confidence that the com- TavisCoburn tion to the electric Tesla Roadster. And because batteries run out on a charge, with 8 hours required to juice the batteries on pany would dramatically reduce CO2 emissions while “keeping of energy so quickly, especially at higher speeds—a single gallon its soul” and honoring all its performance and fun-to-drive tra- of gasoline contains 33 kWh of energy, about two-thirds of the household current, or 5 hours on a high-density charger— ditions. Yet further gains in engine efficiency won’t be enough, energy stored in the entire battery pack of a typical EV—electric plenty of time for its owner to chat up admirers. spectrum.ieee.org spectrum.ieee.org october 2010 • IEEE Spectrum • NA 39

10.GreenSuperCar.NA.indd 39 9/16/10 9:29 AM cars are generally limited to 200 km/h Pro sche 918 Spyder vectoring to their gasoline-powered (125 mph) or less; your mom’s Toyota When Porsche designs a concept car, it’s not fooling all-wheel-drive cars). Camry can go faster. around—the company reliably follows through with a Next up will be electric wheel-hub Fortunately, electric motors them- production model. And that’s what makes the 918 Spyder motors, which will push the perfor- selves are much more efficient than such catnip for speed demons and green demons alike. mance envelope even farther. Michelin, internal combustion engines, losing This heart-stopping, roughly US $630 000 successor to for example, has been developing its the Carrera GT ditches that supercar’s V-10 guzzler for the much less power between the motor one-two punch of a plug-in hybrid. Active Wheel system for over a decade. and pavement. That’s why an elec- The all-wheel-drive Spyder starts with the small- It puts a motor, a brake, and suspension tric vehicle can travel 25 or more but-mighty 3.4-liter V-8 from the RS Spyder racer, with control in each of a car’s four wheels, kilometers on the energy equivalent— 367 kilowatts (500 horsepower) and a symphonic eliminating the need for an engine, 9200‑rpm redline. That midmounted engine is mated to a from its batteries—of barely a liter of traditional suspension, gearbox, and fluid-cooled lithium-ion battery pack and a pair of electric gas. Of course, those batteries are motors—one for the front wheels, one for the rears—that transmission. This offers formida- heavy and can’t store nearly as much spool up another 160 kW (218 hp). It’s an extravaganza ble performance: A typical sports car energy per cubic centimeter as gaso- of thrust, good for a 3.2-second trip from 0 to 100 km/h takes roughly 6 seconds to stop from line does. “If you’re carrying enough (that’s 62 mph), a 319-km/h top speed, and a Porsche- 100 km/h; Michelin’s concept system tested lap time that breaks 7 minutes, 30 seconds around battery for a 200-mile range, a lot of the famed Nürburgring Nordschleife circuit in Germany’s can do it in 2.8 seconds. the time you’re dragging that battery Black Forest—faster than the Carrera GT. Gearheads may worry that today’s as deadweight and actually hurting But—and here’s the change from yesteryear— speed merchants will be shackled by your handling and fuel economy,” if you drive the 918 Spyder more economically, it can environmental demands, just as the sip as little as 3 liters of petrol per 100 kilometers on says Peachey, the Lotus engineer. So original ’60s muscle cars were driven the latest European Driving Cycle—or 78 miles per in real life, your choice comes down to extinction by the first-ever emis- Lotus 414E Hybrid Concept gallon. That puts the Porsche’s CO2 emissions at just to limited range or a hybrid drive- 70 grams per kilometer. By way of comparison, the sions rules. Yet a modern sports car Lotus’s tiny, two-seat Elise provided the backbone for the train. Lotus, Porsche, and Ferrari Toyota Prius, among the greenest cars sold around the like the Corvette Z06 somehow man- groundbreaking Tesla Roadster EV. Yet with the concept 414E, world, emits 89 g/km. (As for gas-powered supercars, are all going the hybrid route. They ages to combine an impressive 26 mpg Lotus has adopted the plug-in hybrid approach of the Chevy the Lamborghini Murciélago, among the worst CO2 can travel, say, 55 km (about 34 miles), offenders, blows out 480 g/km). with 505 hp and a 198-mph top speed, Volt and Fisker Karma: pairing a smaller, lighter, and less- on electricity alone. A supplementary One reason for the economy is a diet of carbon fiber, figures that shame any car of the ’60s. powerful battery pack with a tiny, range-extending gasoline engine eliminates the “range anxi- magnesium, and aluminum that keeps the Porsche (For those of you in the metric realm, engine—which Lotus insists will deliver a smaller carbon ety” of a pure EV, allowing smaller, light on its toes, at just 1490 kilograms (3300 pounds). that translates as 9 L/100 km, 377 kW, Another is the Spyder’s good-cop, bad-cop personality, footprint over the vehicle’s life than a full Tesla-type EV. Lotus lighter batteries and a less-powerful and 319 km/h.) enabled by four driver-selectable modes: Toggle up to reaches that conclusion by taking into account not simply electric motor. An optimist might gather that E-Drive and the Porsche can travel up to 25 km (16 miles) energy consumption and emissions but also the energy used But electrics hold intriguing advan- on electricity alone, drawing juice from its battery, there’s nothing to fear: Ferraris and to manufacture the vehicle and, above all, the battery. tages as well. Multiple electric motors supplied in part by the regenerative brakes. The Hybrid Corvettes will still be duking it out, mode mixes and matches power as needed from the Based on the slinky new two-plus-two Evora, the 414E gets allow “torque vectoring”—indepen- going faster and handling better than electric motors and gas engine. Sport Hybrid employs dent control of the drive speed of each ever. This time, though, the drivers 306 kilowatts (408 horsepower) and 800 newton meters both drive systems but sends more power to the rear (590 foot-pounds) of torque from lithium-polymer batteries, individual wheel to improve cornering, wheels, with a torque-vectoring unit to boost handling by will have a new metric to brag about: stability, and safety—with no need of speeding or slowing individual wheels. Finally, the Race fuel efficiency. o dual electric motors, and a 1.2-liter midmounted engine that complex mechanical or hydraulic dif- Hybrid setting kicks performance to warp-speed limits, burns either gasoline or alcohol. Lotus figures the 414E will travel including the push-to-pass E Boost, which feeds a jolt of ferentials to divvy the power among To buy reprints of the artwork 56 kilometers (35 miles) on electricity alone and more than current to shoot past competitors. It’s the equivalent of the wheels (BMW and other manu- a nitrous oxide tank from the 2001 filmThe Fast and the featured in this article, go to 480 km (300 miles) once its gas engine kicks in, while hitting 96

facturers are already applying torque Furious, but without the environmental baggage. http://shop.taviscoburn.com. Coburn (2) Tavis kilometers per hour (60 miles per hour) in less than four seconds.

40 NA • iEEE Spectrum • october 2010 spectrum.ieee.org spectrum.ieee.org

10.GreenSuperCar.NA.indd 40 9/16/10 9:29 AM vectoring to their gasoline-powered all-wheel-drive cars). Next up will be electric wheel-hub motors, which will push the performance envelope even farther. Michelin, for example, has been developing its Active Wheel system for over a decade. It puts a motor, a brake, and suspension control in each of a car’s four wheels, eliminating the need for an engine, traditional suspension, gearbox, and transmission. This offers formida- ble performance: A typical sports car takes roughly 6 seconds to stop from 100 km/h; Michelin’s concept system can do it in 2.8 seconds. Gearheads may worry that today’s speed merchants will be shackled by environmental demands, just as the original ’60s muscle cars were driven Coming from Lotus—the British through paddle-selected gears to to extinction by the first-ever emis- Lotus 414E Hybrid Concept company dedicated to sports cars in slow the vehicle without using the sions rules. Yet a modern sports car Lotus’s tiny, two-seat Elise provided the backbone for the their purest form—the 414E plug-in brakes—a key technique when heading like the Corvette Z06 somehow man- groundbreaking Tesla Roadster EV. Yet with the concept 414E, hybrid is also a rolling rejection of the into corners on road or track—with the ages to combine an impressive 26 mpg idea that electric cars can’t be fun. For electric motors varying their electrical Lotus has adopted the plug-in hybrid approach of the Chevy one thing, it lets the driver shift gears, resistance to do so. And the more with 505 hp and a 198-mph top speed, Volt and Fisker Karma: pairing a smaller, lighter, and less- as all true sports cars should. Most regenerative braking you engage in, figures that shame any car of the ’60s. powerful battery pack with a tiny, range-extending gasoline EVs deprive you of that connection the more electricity there’ll be to pour (For those of you in the metric realm, engine—which Lotus insists will deliver a smaller carbon because they don’t need a multigeared back into rpm’s. that translates as 9 L/100 km, 377 kW, transmission to maximize power; The Lotus also gains a big edge in footprint over the vehicle’s life than a full Tesla-type EV. Lotus that’s because an electric motor traction and handling from its motors’ and 319 km/h.) reaches that conclusion by taking into account not simply delivers explosive, instant-on torque ability to power individual wheels. By An optimist might gather that energy consumption and emissions but also the energy used no matter how fast it’s turning. (That’s speeding up the outside rear wheel there’s nothing to fear: Ferraris and why EVs like the Tesla Roadster can in a turn, the Lotus is able to pivot to manufacture the vehicle and, above all, the battery. Corvettes will still be duking it out, get away with a mere single-speed through the corner at a higher speed. Based on the slinky new two-plus-two Evora, the 414E gets transmission.) In the Lotus, though, the Such torque vectoring also allows going faster and handling better than gearbox can mimic the driver-selected sophisticated control of the car to ever. This time, though, the drivers 306 kilowatts (408 horsepower) and 800 newton meters (590 foot-pounds) of torque from lithium-polymer batteries, gears of a conventional transmission, boost stability in emergency situa- will have a new metric to brag about: heightening the fun. tions. And it’s all done without the fuel efficiency. o dual electric motors, and a 1.2-liter midmounted engine that Lotus also designed its regenerative weighty clutches and differentials burns either gasoline or alcohol. Lotus figures the 414E will travel braking—which captures kinetic energy used by torque-vectoring gasoline and converts it into electricity to charge cars, such as the Porsche Panamera. To buy reprints of the artwork 56 kilometers (35 miles) on electricity alone and more than the battery—to mimic the “engine “The car becomes even more like featured in this article, go to 480 km (300 miles) once its gas engine kicks in, while hitting 96 braking” effect of a conventional six- a go-kart,” Lotus chief engineer Colin

http://shop.taviscoburn.com. Coburn (2) Tavis kilometers per hour (60 miles per hour) in less than four seconds. speed gearbox. Drivers can downshift Peachey says. spectrum.ieee.org spectrum.ieee.org october 2010 • IEEE Spectrum • NA 41

10.GreenSuperCar.NA.indd 41 9/16/10 9:29 AM 42 NA • iEEE Spectrum • october 2010 spectrum.ieee.org spectrum.ieee.org

10.Airships.NA.indd 42 9/15/10 9:28 AM specialized esidents ofcaribou, maine, who happened designs breathe to glance up at the skies over the former Loring Air R Force Base recently got a glimpse of the future— new life into although they might have thought they were looking the world’s at something out of the past. Engineers from my company, Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC), in oldest aircraft McLean, Va., have been conducting test fl ights of a new technology type of lighter-than-air vehicle. In appearance, the Skybus 80K bears the same oblong B y RON HOCHSTETLER shape as the Goodyear Blimp, and it’s based on the same fl ight principles that have governed airships since the 1800s. But this airship, one of a number of commercial and military vehicles now under development, repre- sents a distinct break from tradition. Unlike their diri- gible cousins of past centuries, these new vehicles are being designed to lift heavy payloads, remain aloft for weeks or even months at a time, and fl y without pilots— all while expending far less energy than a conventional airplane or unmanned aerial vehicle. The Predator UAV, for instance, can carry a payload of 340 kilograms on a typical mission of up to 40 hours. SAIC’s Skybus 1500E pilot-optional airship is being designed to carry a payload three times that size and stay aloft for up to 21 days.

spectrum.ieee.org spectrum.ieee.org octobEr 2010 • iEEE SpEctrum • NA 43

10.Airships.NA.indd 43 9/15/10 9:28 AM he renewed investment in airships comes at a time when the energy footprint of all modes of transportation is being scru- tinized. Some aviation visionaries now argue that we can’t continue using exclu- sively petroleum-based fuels to power our aircraft. Such concerns have prompted new research into jet biofuels and energy- efficient jet engines. We’ve also begun to understand Tthat not every flight has to be made at eight-tenths the speed of sound. For certain tasks, airplanes just can’t compete with airships. Modern airship designers are targeting two press- ing needs: intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance missions and the transporting of multiton payloads to locations unreachable by conventional transport. For example, airships are ideal for con- tinuously monitoring sites where improvised explosive devices or rocket launchers may be deployed. They also excel at scanning for distant airborne threats. That’s why, in June, the U.S. Army awarded a US $517 million contract to Northrop Grumman and British firm Hybrid Air Vehicles to build three airships, each as long as a football field, to monitor trouble spots in Afghanistan. Cargo airships, meanwhile, are especially attractive for places that have poor roads and for remote regions that have no roads at all. At a transportation conference I recently attended in Canada’s Northwest Territories, mining company executives and community leaders expressed strong support for using airships to shuttle equipment and supplies to distant mining outposts and villages. Such needs are driving the reinvention of the airship.

n airship flies primarily by A r c h i m e d e s ’ S principle, which describes the buoyancy of a body A submerged in a denser fluid. That is, an airship operates more like a submarine than an airplane or a helicopter. Those aircraft have to generate 100 percent of their lift from the flow of air over their wings or rotor blades. An airship, however, employs a lighter- than-air nonflammable gas such as helium to give it buoyancy. When the lifting gas displaces a volume of air that weighs more than the entire airship (including fuel and payload), the airship floats. That resul- tant lift is what’s known as the airship’s static buoyancy. For instance, to lift 1 kilogram at sea level, the airship needs approximately 1 cubic meter of helium gas. Airships weigh considerably more than that, of course; the Skybus that recently flew in Maine tipped the scales at 1600 kg unfilled. The lifting gas is contained within the airship’s outer skin, a large fabric bag or envelope that is aerodynamic, lightweight, and rugged. Inside the envelope are one or more smaller bags, called ballonets, which hold ordinary air. On the ground, electric fans pump air into the ballonets until the pressure of the helium surrounding the ballonets exceeds atmo-

44 NA • iEEE Spectrum • october 2010 spectrum.ieee.org spectrum.ieee.org

10.Airships.NA.indd 44 9/15/10 9:28 AM The Flying Aircraft Carrier B ack in the 1930s, the USS Akron and USS Macon, two U.S. Navy airships, supported a small squadron of scout biplanes from internal aircraft hangars in their huge bellies. A modern version of this concept would be an airship designed to carry dozens of small, low-cost, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), each equipped with miniaturized sensors, antisubmarine warfare systems, or even lightweight precision weapons. This pilot-optional airship could serve as a sky base from which the UAVs would launch, refuel, and relaunch. The airship itself could also be designed to be refueled in flight, meaning that the entire system could serve as an almost permanent airborne platform. To minimize its vulnerability to attack, the airship would be positioned away from any areas of conflict into which theU AVs would be deployed. Equipped with its own lightweight self- defense systems, this flying aircraft carrier could be a game-changing military system.

spheric pressure by a very slight margin filled lifting bags. Those days also saw the of about 480 pascals. The ballonets occupy development of semirigid designs, which between 25 and 50 percent of the airship’s typically had a stout aluminum keel run- total gas volume. Bleeding off a measured ning lengthwise from the nose to the tail, amount of air through valves in the bal- providing a convenient mounting point lonets provides room inside the envelope for the individual gas cells and distrib- for the helium to expand as the ship rises. uting the lift of each cell evenly. The only As the airship ascends, the decreasing semirigid airships flying today are the atmospheric pressure causes the helium Zeppelin NT series, which began oper- inside the airship to expand steadily. Once ations in the late 1990s and are used pri- all the air in the ballonets is gone, the air- marily for sightseeing and advertising. ship cannot ascend higher without either Although nonrigid airships aren’t bursting or venting its helium. This point is known as the airship’s pressure altitude. To descend, the airship uses its electric fans to blow air back into the ballonets. This gas-management system must con- stantly keep the helium at a pressure that’s slightly higher than the surrounding atmosphere, to preserve the aero dynamic shape of the envelope. If ascending and descending were all an airship did, this combination of gases and ballonets would be sufficient. But an airship also needs a certain amount of power and propulsion, to run the onboard navigation and communications systems and any electronics in the payload, and to maneuver to different locations. Most EmilyCoop current airships use traditional gasoline engines, but increasingly designers are

e looking at alternative power and propul- r (2); (2); sion systems. One idea is a regenerative P r

e system incorporating photovoltaics and v ious pag ious fuel cells, in which hydrogen fuel cells The Sailing Airship produce water vapor. The solar power In 1940 the noted American airship e

s engineer Charles P. Burgess speculated

: : could be used to separate the water back S

c that it might be possible to sail an airship i e into its component gases; the hydrogen n

c at sea. He proposed lowering from an e

would then be fed back into the fuel cells. A airship by cables a hydrodynamic body p pli Almost all airships flying today are that would serve as an underwater wing, c a

tions tions of a nonrigid design, which means the translating the force of the wind blowing ship’s shape comes only from the pressure on the airship into controllable motion I

n through the water. The airship’s great t

e of the gases inside. By contrast, the giant

r surface area, he suggested, would capture nationalCorp. airships of the 1930s, the Hindenburg being enough wind to allow it to be used for the most iconic example, had rigid inter- dedicated transoceanic airships. To date, nobody has realized Burgess’s vision, but nal skeletons made of aluminum or wood. it would surely represent the greenest of Inside this cage were a dozen or more gas- air-tr ansportation systems. spectrum.ieee.org spectrum.ieee.org october 2010 • IEEE Spectrum • NA 45

10.Airships.NA.indd 45 9/15/10 9:28 AM weighed down by an internal framework, need to be made of extremely durable, yet they still have to support the gases, fabric, lightweight materials—materials that may and other components, as well as any pay- not yet exist. In addition, its power system load. Obviously, the greater the airship’s will need advanced photovoltaics and fuel weight, the larger the volume of lifting gas cells capable of generating enough power needed and the bigger the envelope size. to operate the radars, navigation system, As the size increases, so does the vehicle’s communications gear, and the electric surface area and consequently the amount motors that will turn the airship’s giant of aerodynamic drag during flight. These propellers. A lot of extreme engineering and other factors dictate the amount of is going into today’s airship designs. power required to propel the airship through the sky. hile the upcoming stratospheric surveillance airships will carry rela- lthough people pilot most of today’s W tively small payloads, some airships airships, the newer designs are increas- now in development will lift a great deal A ingly pilot optional, meaning that a more—payloads of hundreds of tons, crew can fly them during tests or initial albeit at lower altitudes. That presents deployments and then quickly switch them an entirely different set of challenges. to remote operation. Several fully remotely An airship designed to carry 50 metric operated airships are also in development. tons of cargo would be hundreds of meters One of their chief uses right now is for bat- long and weigh tens of tons lying empty of tlefield surveillance. These airships carry helium on the factory floor. The sheer size various imagers and detectors to altitudes would make its assembly a daunting task. of 1500 to 5500 meters on missions last- These new vehicles would likely be built UP THERE: The SkyHook [above] will ing 24 hours or more. Guardian Flight haul oil-drilling equipment in northern in smaller subsections that would later be Systems, based in North Carolina, devel- Canada. The U.S. Army’s pilot-optional Long joined together in immense hangars. oped the pilot-optional Polar 400 for the Endurance Multi-Intelligence Vehicle [left] A more critical issue is how to com- U.S. Department of Defense. In the fully will conduct surveillance in Afghanistan. pensate for the sudden increase in the air- T oP: Boeing; Bottom: Northrop Grumman pilotless category is SAIC’s Skybus 80K airship’s static lift that occurs when a heavy ship, which so far has conducted more than and southern borders of the continen- payload is unloaded. The most straight- 62 hours of flight tests in Maine. To date, the tal United States, according to the North forward remedy is to add onto the airship Skybus 80K is the only unmanned airship American Aerospace Defense Command. an amount of weight equal to the payload to hold an experimental designation from If that sounds ambitious, consider the as the payload is removed. the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration. proposed high-altitude airship known as Some heavy-lift designers are also It has a gas volume of 2300 m3 (80 000 cubic almost always have the familiar ellip- the Integrated Sensor Is Structure, or ISIS. developing hybrid vehicles. These incor- feet) and is designed to carry a 230-kg sur- soidal shape. Among the power sources Under this $400 million program jointly porate the static lift of helium along veillance payload as high as 3000 meters being considered for high-altitude air- funded by the Defense Advanced Research with some form of dynamic lift, such for up to 24 hours. ships are electric motors coupled with Projects Agency and the U.S. Air Force, as helicopter-style rotors or airplane- More ambitious is the U.S. Army’s lithium-ion batteries, hydrogen fuel cells, Lockheed’s Skunk Works is building an like wings. In most of these designs, the Long Endurance Multi-Intelligence and flexible-film photovoltaics, which unmanned stratospheric airship powered helium is sufficient to lift the vehicle’s Vehicle. The LEMV will carry a 1100‑kg would blanket the upper parts of the air- by solar cells and fuel cells that would be weight, while the dynamic lift is devoted payload up to 6000 meters for as long ship’s huge surface. Any of these options capable of operating at 21 kilometers’ alti- to the payload’s weight. This produces as 21 days without refueling. Its first would need to weigh less and be more tude for up to 10 years at a time. A one- an aircraft that is slightly heavier than deployment is to be in Afghanistan efficient than standard engines. third-scale prototype, itself longer than a air and so is much less buoyant during in late 2011 or early 2012. A number of To fly even higher and longer with football field, is scheduled to fly in 2013. cargo unloading. defense companies considered vying heavier sensor payloads is the ultimate What makes ISIS unique is the inte- Lockheed’s Skunk Works first test- for the LEMV contract. But two months goal of military leaders who see the gration of its mission sensors—a UHF flew its P-791 proof-of-concept hybrid air- ago, the five-year contract—one of the modern airship as an unblinking, ever- radar for monitoring vehicles and sol- ship in 2006. The aircraft has two propul- largest airship contracts to be awarded present eye in the sky. Under the Defense diers on the ground and an X-band sion motors on the exterior of its envelope since World War II—went to Northrop Department’s $149 million High Altitude radar for tracking cruise missiles up to and two attached to its tail. This generates Grumman and Hybrid Air Vehicles. Airship program, Lockheed’s Maritime 600 km away—into the body of the air- about 20 percent of the dynamic lift when To operate in the thin atmosphere at Systems & Sensors Division in Akron, ship. According to Raytheon, which is the vehicle is flying forward. Other hybrid such high altitudes for extended periods Ohio, is now exploring ways to build an building the radars, the radar antennas airships under development include of time, an airship needs to be light (at airship capable of carrying a 230-kg sen- form a cylinder in the center of the air- Hybrid Air Vehicles’ SkyCat, which will least compared with lower-flying coun- sor package into the stratosphere, as much ship. By integrating the sensor system be the basis for the U.S. Army’s LEMV; terparts) and have an efficient propul- as 18 kilometers up, where it would remain into the structural supports, the design the Worldwide Aeros Corp.’s Aeroscraft,

sion system that can function with little for a month at a time. At that altitude, one reduces the airship’s overall weight and EmilyCoop which was recently submitted to the FAA or no oxygen. Also essential is a design airship would be able to monitor a patch adds structural stiffness. Even so, the for design certification; and the proof-of- that minimizes aerodynamic drag, of ground 1200 km across. Just 11 of them demands of a 10-year high-altitude mis- concept Dynalifter, being readied for test e which is why high-altitude airships could provide radar coverage of the coastal sion mean that the full-scale ISIS will r flight by Ohio Airships.

46 NA • iEEE Spectrum • october 2010 spectrum.ieee.org spectrum.ieee.org

10.Airships.NA.indd 46 9/15/10 9:28 AM need to be made of extremely durable, yet efficiently as air, so a multi-lobed hybrid lightweight materials—materials that may may tend to list toward the side that’s not not yet exist. In addition, its power system exposed to the sun. will need advanced photovoltaics and fuel Perhaps the biggest issue, though, is cells capable of generating enough power the hybrid’s potential to pitch nose up or to operate the radars, navigation system, down and to roll from side to side. A con- communications gear, and the electric ventional, single-hulled airship avoids motors that will turn the airship’s giant this problem because the majority of its propellers. A lot of extreme engineering gas volume is positioned well above its is going into today’s airship designs. center of gravity, imparting what’s known as pendulum stability. The higher up the hile the upcoming stratospheric center of lift is, the more stable the airship surveillance airships will carry rela- is; conversely, the closer the center of lift is W tively small payloads, some airships to the center of gravity, the greater the ten- now in development will lift a great deal dency of pitching from wind gusts. more—payloads of hundreds of tons, To get around these problems, Boeing albeit at lower altitudes. That presents and the Canadian company SkyHook an entirely different set of challenges. International are collaborating on a dif- An airship designed to carry 50 metric ferent approach: a rotary-airship hybrid. tons of cargo would be hundreds of meters It combines a conventional ellipsoidal long and weigh tens of tons lying empty of envelope with four powerful helicopter helium on the factory floor. The sheer size Ar i ships in Space rotor units, which are installed below the would make its assembly a daunting task. Earth isn’t the only place where airships helium envelope. The helium is sufficient These new vehicles would likely be built could find a home. A number of off- to support the weight of the vehicle itself, UP THERE: The SkyHook [above] will world destinations have enough of an haul oil-drilling equipment in northern in smaller subsections that would later be atmosphere to support airships, including leaving the full power of the rotors to lift Canada. The U.S. Army’s pilot-optional Long joined together in immense hangars. Mars, Venus, and Saturn’s largest moon, a 36-metric-ton payload. One of the first Endurance Multi-Intelligence Vehicle [left] A more critical issue is how to com- Titan. Compared with robotic rovers, applications of the SkyHook is moving airships would be able to survey far more will conduct surveillance in Afghanistan. pensate for the sudden increase in the air- equipment and supplies for oil-drilling ToP: Boeing; Bottom: Northrop Grumman ground. And they don’t require much ship’s static lift that occurs when a heavy power, which is always at a premium operations in northern Canada. and southern borders of the continen- payload is unloaded. The most straight- on planetary missions. So far, the only To spur further progress in heavy-lift successful extraterrestrial deployment tal United States, according to the North forward remedy is to add onto the airship was the Soviet Union’s 1984 Vega mission designs, I and several other airship enthu- American Aerospace Defense Command. an amount of weight equal to the payload to Venus, which sent two balloons to float siasts are setting up an international con- If that sounds ambitious, consider the as the payload is removed. 54 kilometers above the planet’s surface test to promote the development of air- proposed high-altitude airship known as Some heavy-lift designers are also for nearly two days. ships as a green, low-carbon form of cargo More recently, NASA has funded a the Integrated Sensor Is Structure, or ISIS. developing hybrid vehicles. These incor- number of balloon and airship projects for transport for commercial operations. The Under this $400 million program jointly porate the static lift of helium along solar system exploration. Researchers at Zero Emissions Transport Airship Prize, funded by the Defense Advanced Research with some form of dynamic lift, such the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, or Z-Prize, similar to the more familiar Calif., have developed several lighter-than- Projects Agency and the U.S. Air Force, as helicopter-style rotors or airplane- air designs for use on a possible follow-up X-Prize, will offer a large cash award for Lockheed’s Skunk Works is building an like wings. In most of these designs, the mission to Titan and Venus. They’ve also the successful development and flight test unmanned stratospheric airship powered helium is sufficient to lift the vehicle’s conducted extensive flight tests over of a heavy-lift airship that meets the com- weight, while the dynamic lift is devoted the Mojave Desert with an 11-meter-long petition’s criteria. We hope to entice air- by solar cells and fuel cells that would be autonomous airship. There’s even talk of capable of operating at 21 kilometers’ alti- to the payload’s weight. This produces sending entire fleets of rovers and airships ship developers to focus their efforts on tude for up to 10 years at a time. A one- an aircraft that is slightly heavier than to scout out new planetary frontiers. designing cost-effective cargo airships third-scale prototype, itself longer than a air and so is much less buoyant during that will have their greatest applications in football field, is scheduled to fly in 2013. cargo unloading. While these hybrids hold promise, they developing regions—places where moving What makes ISIS unique is the inte- Lockheed’s Skunk Works first test- also have some inherent technical chal- freight by conventional transport is diffi- gration of its mission sensors—a UHF flew its P-791 proof-of-concept hybrid air- lenges. For one, the additional dynamic lift cult and hugely expensive or subject to dis- radar for monitoring vehicles and sol- ship in 2006. The aircraft has two propul- increases aerodynamic drag. To help with ruption by criminals or terrorists. And by diers on the ground and an X-band sion motors on the exterior of its envelope generating dynamic lift, they also typically emphasizing airship designs with low car- radar for tracking cruise missiles up to and two attached to its tail. This generates have a flatter profile than conventional air- bon emissions, we hope also to encourage 600 km away—into the body of the air- about 20 percent of the dynamic lift when ships, but this shape gives them a higher the creation of the first environmentally ship. According to Raytheon, which is the vehicle is flying forward. Other hybrid ratio of envelope fabric to gas volume, sustainable air-transport system. building the radars, the radar antennas airships under development include increasing the airship’s empty weight. It’s an exciting time to be an airship form a cylinder in the center of the air- Hybrid Air Vehicles’ SkyCat, which will Higher weight and drag, of course, mean engineer. These vehicles represent both ship. By integrating the sensor system be the basis for the U.S. Army’s LEMV; more propulsive power and more fuel, the oldest and now the latest forms of air- into the structural supports, the design the Worldwide Aeros Corp.’s Aeroscraft, both of which make the ship even heavier. craft. They’re also an aviation technology

reduces the airship’s overall weight and EmilyCoop which was recently submitted to the FAA And some hybrids employ multiple lobes that has yet to be fully exploited. While adds structural stiffness. Even so, the for design certification; and the proof-of- in their design, which can create problems some naysayers may think the time of demands of a 10-year high-altitude mis- concept Dynalifter, being readied for test as the gases inside heat up from the sun’s these leviathans is long past, in fact their e sion mean that the full-scale ISIS will r flight by Ohio Airships. rays. Helium conducts heat six times as day is just dawning. o spectrum.ieee.org spectrum.ieee.org october 2010 • IEEE Spectrum • NA 47

10.Airships.NA.indd 47 9/15/10 9:28 AM age, rather than unique features, such as the number of tail fi ns. Software v. Software And rather than rendering a defi nitive verdict that illegal copy- Continued from page 35 ing has or hasn’t occurred, CodeMatch relies on measurable quantities that can be used to judge the likelihood of copying. just the threat of a plagiarism- detection program, whether it CodeMatch works by gauging the statistical correlation of worked or not, was enough to discourage cheating. two variables. A correlation of 0 indicates that the two varia- The goals of a software forensics tool used in intellectual- bles are unrelated. A correlation of 1 indicates that a change in property litigation have to be very diff erent. In these cases, there one variable always causes a similar change in the other. And may be hundreds of millions of dollars at stake. The tool must –1 indicates a completely opposite correspondence between favor false positives over false negatives so that it does not miss their variations. For source-code fi les that have no similari- any cases of copying; an expert can then examine the results and ties, the correlation is 0; for identical fi les, it’s 1. eliminate those false positives. And it must be fast, but not at the expense of accuracy; in these high-stakes cases, it’s fine to dedicate a com- > few people have the expertise to parse puter or set of computers to analyze the code > source code--the human-readable form for a day, a week, or even a month if necessary. > of a program--to determine what, if o how do you go about creating such a > anything, has been illegally reproduced software forensics tool? I spent about a year developing CodeMatch, for use in copyright infringement cases. My company released CodeMatch looks for such correlations by examining and the fi rst version in 2003, and the program has been comparing two collections of source-code fi les. Source code sevolving ever since. Here are the basic principles I followed in consists of statements, which include the instructions and developing CodeMatch. First, the tool can analyze source code in identifi ers that guide the program, as well as comments and a way that’s independent of the programming language. That’s strings that serve to document the code but cause no action extremely important, given the wide variety of software cases to occur. A single line of source code may include one or more in which the program is used. To be able to do that, CodeMatch statements and one or more comments. focuses on characteristics in the code that are generic to all CodeMatch spots correlations in four places: statements, types of source code. If the program were comparing automobile comments/strings, identifiers, and instruction sequences. designs instead, it might look at characteristics such as gas mile- Each type of correlation offers a clue to plagiarism that the The Exact Lens you need, The Expert Support you want Custom Lens Designer and Manufacturer. Thousands of Lens Sizes in Stock. Universe Kogaku America designs Most Lenses Ship Same Day. Lens Assemblies for Every Application... Medical Imaging Lenses Microscope Objectives & Eyepieces Focus on Medical Lenses Photographic Lenses Lens Mounting Accessories from Prototype to Production Lens Filters and Accessories Lens assemblies for medical imaging and diagnostic cameras Image and Barcode Lenses from Universe Kogaku are available off-the-shelf in a wide variety of sizes and styles designed for use with today’s high- UV Quartz Lenses resolution diagnostic cameras. Our design capability and 60 CCD and CMOS Lenses years of manufacturing experience allow us to produce any CCTV Lenses special lens.... in any quantity! Applications include Endoscope Diode Laser Lenses and fiber scope couplers, diagnostic camera hand pieces, and High Resolution Lenses medical X-ray scanning. Contact Universe for drawings, full performance data, and pricing. Your Custom Lens Assembly www.UKAoptics.com In USA: 516-624-2444 Email: [email protected] © 2010 Universe Kogaku (America) Inc.

48 Na • iEEE SpEctrum • octobEr 2010 spectrum.ieee.org

10.SoftwareForensics.50.v2.NA.indd 48 9/20/10 9:50 AM 10a.p49.NA.indd 49 9/14/10 9:46 AM others may miss. Statement correlation finds the percentage of matching statements. Comment/string correlation finds the > J ust as software for analyzing percentage of matching comments and strings. Identifier cor- > DNA has become crucial in relation finds the percentage of matching or partially match- > resolving criminal cases and ing identifiers. Identifier names in copied code are often changed to disguise the copying, but because they contain > paternity suits, tools that useful information for debugging and maintaining the code, > can quickly and accurately the new names are usually similar to the original names. For > uncover illicit software copying example, the identifier “count” may be renamed “count5” or “cnt.” CodeMatch flags such similarities. > are becoming key to copyright Instruction-sequence correlation compares long > infringement litigation sequences of instructions. Even if the identifiers, comments, strings, labels, and operators are completely different, the sequence of instructions will likely be pre- nce these four correlations have been determined, served to maintain the functionality of the original code. CodeMatch combines them into a single overall cor- For instance, an unscrupulous programmer may decide to relation value. Even then, the work is not done. A soft- use another party’s copyrighted code as a reference, per- ware expert must still go through the results and rule haps even rewriting the code in a different programming out any reasons for the correlation other than copy- language to evade detection. If the programmer duplicates Oright infringement. only the program concepts, that’s not copyright infringe- As mentioned earlier, a correlation may occur when two ment. But if he takes anything literal, like a sequence of programs use the same widely available open-source code instructions, and converts it directly into the new language, or code purchased from a third-party vendor. Correlations that could be infringement, because the programmer is can also spring from automatic code-generation tools making an unauthorized derivative of the work, which is like Microsoft’s Visual Studio and Adobe Dreamweaver, protected by the copyright. CodeMatch can spot such simi- which use standard identifiers for many variables, classes, larities in code, even when they’re written in different lan- methods, and properties. The structure of the code gener- guages. Copyright infringement can also involve copying ated by these tools also tends to fit into a certain template nonliteral elements like software architecture or organi- Whitepaperad_1-4:Layoutwith an identifiable pattern. 1 So 9/12/08 it’s common 1:17 for twoPM pro-Page 1 zation, but CodeMatch is not as useful in detecting these grams developed using the same code-generation tool to forms of copyright infringement. have a correlation. Download free white papers on

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10.SoftwareForensics.50.v2.NA.indd 50 9/20/10 9:50 AM Are you keeping up with technology— Or falling behind?

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09-PCEED-0207o-Proceedings-Third-Page-Ad-Final.indd10/21/09 1 2:52:53 PM

10a.p51.NA.indd 51 9/14/10 9:15 AM A correlation may happen simply because the programmers which was quickly bought by a large competitor for a hefty who created the software studied at the same school or work in sum of money. The large company, unsurprisingly, incor- > Just as books by the same author may have a similar style, even the same industry and therefore rely on the same identifier names. porated the acquired company’s code into its own program. > when the subject matter is completely different, software written For example, many programmers like to use the identifier “result” I was hired in late 2003 by the bankrupt start-up’s investors, > by the same programmer may also have a telltale style to designate the result of an operation, so that identifier appears because they believed their start-up’s code had been illegally in lots of unrelated programs. A search on the Internet can deter- copied and that they were entitled to some money. The large mine whether an identifier is widely used or relatively rare. company, again unsurprisingly, insisted that the software it I didn’t in fact know that, and I began to feel really ner- Similarly, the same algorithm may show up in unrelated pro- had acquired did not infringe on the bankrupt start-up’s work. vous. Had I overlooked something? Had I not done a com- grams. An algorithm is a set of instructions for accomplishing a To begin, I used CodeMatch to examine and compare the plete search? If both programs contained code from a third given task—say, calculating the square root of a number. In one source code of the bankrupt company’s program and the large party that allows its code to be copied, then there was no programming language there may be an easy or well-understood company’s program. I found a strong correlation between copyright infringement. I told the lawyer that I would need way of writing that algorithm. If it’s taught in programming the two. I then checked whether each instance of correla- to know more about the third-party code. He assured me classes at universities or appears in a popular programming text- tion might have a legitimate explanation. Ultimately, I found that the expert hired by his client would provide the nec- book, then it’s likely to show up in many programs, too. matching statements, comments, and identifier names that essary information in his own report. What about two blocks of code written by the same person? seemed to be unique to the two programs; searching online, A few days later I received the oppos- Just as books by the same author may have a similar style, even I could find no use of them anywhere else. I concluded that ing expert’s report. Sure enough, it con- when the subject matter is completely different, software written the code had been copied. tained snippets of open-source code that by the same programmer may also have a telltale style. He might The next step was the deposition, the pretrial process dur- were identical to snippets from both par- repeatedly use a unique identifier name, for instance. ing which the opposing side’s lawyers question witnesses ties’ code. But I noticed something else. For these reasons, a software forensics expert must exam- and experts in an attempt to uncover new information. I pre- Whereas in my report I had included ine each instance where CodeMatch finds a strong correlation. sented a report comparing sample snippets of copied code, and dozens of lines of code in each snippet, If all of the benign reasons can be ruled out, the correlation I included CD-ROMs containing the results of the complete the other expert gave only a few lines. must be due to unauthorized copying. In that case, the owner CodeMatch analysis of the code. I then searched the Internet and of the copyrighted software has a strong legal case. The defendant’s lawyer showed me a slide with three snip- found the open-source code that both pets of code. Two of the snippets were ones I’d included in my programs had obviously relied on. ere’s how CodeMatch worked in one real-world case. report as evidence of copying. But it was the third snippet that Comparing the snippets again, I discov- A small start-up had developed software for viewing nearly tripped me up. It was identical to the other two snippets. ered that while maybe 10 to 20 percent e-mail attachments on handheld devices; the soft- “Did you know that this third snippet of code is open-source of the lines matched exactly in all ware was good, but the company went out of business. code that is freely available on the Web, accessible to anyone?” three sets of code, the vast majority of The founders then started a new software company, the lawyer asked. the lines were different. I concluded H that the original company’s programmers had taken open-source code and made significant functional changes to AT T E N T I O N it. The defendant had tried to make it IEEE MEMBERS: Free e-Newsletter appear that the open-source code had simply been copied without alteration, News and opinions on sustainable but in actuality proprietary changes energy, cars and climate. had been made by my clients’ company Energy experts and then copied by the defendant’s company. After my discovery, the two sides speak out reached a settlement, and there was ! no courtroom trial. My clients didn’t divulge the terms, but they told me they were pleased with the result.

Alternative fuel for thought ince CodeMatch came out seven years ago, it’s become an accepted from the editors of IEEE Spectrum. tool for sorting out cases of software copyright infringement. CodeMatch has evolved into SCodeSuite, a set of tools for comparing, mea- Subscribe at suring, and filtering the results of a source- www.spectrum.ieee.org/energywise code comparison, not only for copyright infringement but also trade-secret theft and even tax cases. CodeSuite can run on a standalone computer, a multiproces- sor machine, or a network of computers; my company trains lawyers and other consultants to run and interpret the results so that they can effectively use the software. As the importance of software in our daily lives grows, intellectual property

52 Na • iEEE Spectrum • october 2010 spectrum.ieee.org spectrum.ieee.org

10.SoftwareForensics.50.v2.NA.indd 52 9/20/10 9:50 AM which was quickly bought by a large competitor for a hefty sum of money. The large company, unsurprisingly, incor- > J ust as books by the same author may have a similar style, even porated the acquired company’s code into its own program. > when the subject matter is completely different, software written I was hired in late 2003 by the bankrupt start-up’s investors, > by the same programmer may also have a telltale style because they believed their start-up’s code had been illegally copied and that they were entitled to some money. The large company, again unsurprisingly, insisted that the software it I didn’t in fact know that, and I began to feel really ner- disputes over that software are also likely to escalate. You may had acquired did not infringe on the bankrupt start-up’s work. vous. Had I overlooked something? Had I not done a com- consider all that litigation a good thing, righting a wrong, or a To begin, I used CodeMatch to examine and compare the plete search? If both programs contained code from a third bad thing, draining valuable resources. But software forensics source code of the bankrupt company’s program and the large party that allows its code to be copied, then there was no tools that automate, quantify, and standardize such disputes company’s program. I found a strong correlation between copyright infringement. I told the lawyer that I would need can only be beneficial, in that they leave less room for mis the two. I then checked whether each instance of correla- to know more about the third-party code. He assured me understanding and get to the important results and help resolve tion might have a legitimate explanation. Ultimately, I found that the expert hired by his client would provide the nec- disputes much faster than ever before. o matching statements, comments, and identifier names that essary information in his own report. seemed to be unique to the two programs; searching online, A few days later I received the oppos- I could find no use of them anywhere else. I concluded that ing expert’s report. Sure enough, it con- the code had been copied. tained snippets of open-source code that The next step was the deposition, the pretrial process dur- were identical to snippets from both par- Massachusetts Institute of Technology ing which the opposing side’s lawyers question witnesses ties’ code. But I noticed something else. and experts in an attempt to uncover new information. I pre- Whereas in my report I had included Put MIt to Work For You sented a report comparing sample snippets of copied code, and dozens of lines of code in each snippet, I included CD-ROMs containing the results of the complete the other expert gave only a few lines. CodeMatch analysis of the code. I then searched the Internet and The defendant’s lawyer showed me a slide with three snip- found the open-source code that both pets of code. Two of the snippets were ones I’d included in my programs had obviously relied on. report as evidence of copying. But it was the third snippet that Comparing the snippets again, I discov- AdvAnced studY ProgrAM nearly tripped me up. It was identical to the other two snippets. ered that while maybe 10 to 20 percent “Did you know that this third snippet of code is open-source of the lines matched exactly in all Enroll in MIT classes over one or code that is freely available on the Web, accessible to anyone?” three sets of code, the vast majority of more semesters, full or part time. the lawyer asked. the lines were different. I concluded that the original company’s programmers had taken open-source code and made significant functional changes to AT T E N T I O N it. The defendant had tried to make it As an AsP Fellow, you will: IEEE MEMBERS: Free e-Newsletter appear that the open-source code had simply been copied without alteration, › investigate the latest advances in your field News and opinions on sustainable but in actuality proprietary changes › design a curriculum to meet individual energy, cars and climate. had been made by my clients’ company and company goals Energy experts and then copied by the defendant’s company. After my discovery, the two sides › access the full range of MIT courses speak out reached a settlement, and there was and resources ! no courtroom trial. My clients didn’t divulge the terms, but they told me they › build a lifelong network of colleagues were pleased with the result.

Alternative fuel for thought ince CodeMatch came out seven years ago, it’s become an accepted Accepting applications for Spring 2011 from the editors of IEEE Spectrum. tool for sorting out cases of soft- Classes begin February 1 ware copyright infringement. CodeMatch has evolved into http://advancedstudy.mit.edu/spring SCodeSuite, a set of tools for comparing, mea- [email protected] Subscribe at suring, and filtering the results of a source- 617.253.6128 www.spectrum.ieee.org/energywise code comparison, not only for copyright See web site for upcoming infringement but also trade-secret theft information session dates. and even tax cases. CodeSuite can run on a standalone computer, a multiproces- sor machine, or a network of computers; my company trains lawyers and other consultants to run and interpret the results so that they can effectively use the software. As the importance of software in our daily lives grows, intellectual property spectrum.ieee.org spectrum.ieee.org O ctober 2010 • IEEE Spectrum • NA 53

10.SoftwareForensics.50.v2.NA.indd 53 9/20/10 9:50 AM The Electrical and 2-3 Senior Lecturers in Media technology The Department of Media Technology at the School of Computer Science, Physics and Computer Engineering Mathematics at Linnaeus University in Sweden invites applications and nominations for tenured faculty positions at a senior lecturer level, to begin August 2011. We are Department of interested in strong candidates in a number of teaching and research areas of media technology – including digital media and interactive systems, collaborative technologies and Web 2.0 applications, mobile media and services, advanced interface and in- Baylor University teraction design, 3D modelling/animation – as well as interdisciplinary areas such as interactive media and learning and Internet technologies and their social implications. seeks faculty applicants in all areas of electrical and computer The department is committed to increasing the diversity of its faculty, and we strongly engineering, with preference in the areas of cyber-physical encourage applications from women. systems (i.e., embedded systems, computer/network security, and A successful candidate must have a solid disciplinary foundation and demonstrate sensor networks) as well as power and energy. The department promise of outstanding scholarship in every respect, including teaching and research. anticipates fi lling three positions in August 2011 and approxi- Please refer to http://www.celekt.info for information about the department’s current mately seven more over the next fi ve years, and invites applicants research focus. at any rank. All applicants must have an earned doctorate and A PhD in media technology, computer science, interaction design or related area is re- a record of achievement in research and teaching; applicants at quired. To guarantee full consideration, applications, scientifi c publications and letters the ranks of associate or full professor must also demonstrate a of reference should be received by November 22, 2010. Detailed information about the record of sustained research funding. The ECE department offers application process can be found at: B.S., M.S., M.E. and Ph.D. degrees and is poised for aggressive http://lnu.se/about-lnu/jobs-and-vacancies?l=en expansion of its faculty and facilities, including access to the Baylor Research and Innovation Collaborative (BRIC), a newly- Linnaeus University is an affi rmative action, equal opportunity employer. established research park minutes from the main campus. Requirements: A successful candidate must have a solid disciplinary foundation and demonstrate Chartered in 1845 by the Republic of Texas, Baylor University promise of outstanding scholarship in every respect, including research and teaching. is the oldest university in Texas. Baylor has an enrollment of approximately 15,000 students and is a member of the Big XII Conference. Baylor’s mission is to educate men and women for worldwide leadership and service by integrating academic excellence and Christian commitment within a caring community. The department seeks to hire faculty with an active Christian faith; applicants are encouraged to read about Baylor’s vision for the integration of faith and learning at www.baylor.edu/about/vision. Application reviews are ongoing and will continue until available positions are fi lled. Applications must include: 1) a letter of interest that identifi es the applicant’s anticipated rank, 2) a complete CV, 3) a statement of teaching and research interests, 4) the names and contact information for at least three professional references. Additional information is available at www.ecs.baylor.edu. Send materials to Dr. Robert Marks Baylor University One Bear Place #97356 Waco, TX 76798-7356 or by email to [email protected]. Baylor is a Baptist University affi liated with the Baptist General Convention of Texas. As an Affi rmative Action/Equal Employment Opportunity employer, Baylor encourages minorities, women, veterans, and persons with disabilities to apply.

54 NA • iEEE Spectrum • October 2010 Spectrum.IEEE.org

10a.p54.v2.NA.indd 54 9/17/10 10:34 AM a great place to work

Exciting Overseas Opportunities in Vienna, Austria with the International Atomic Energy Agency Visit www.bnl.gov/ispo Be part of the NEXT GENERATION SAFEGUARDS INITIATIVE

Cost Free Experts Regular Staff Junior Professional Officers The U.S. Support Program to IAEA The IAEA Department of Safeguards Safeguards positions are available for Safeguards funds supplemental technical seeks outstanding, mid-career recent graduates in the area of software positions, called Cost Free Experts, to engineers and scientists for three to development, engineering, technical writ- assist the IAEA with short-term, technical seven year appointments. Vacancies ing, information collection and analysis, projects for which the IAEA lacks expertise are posted at www.iaea.org. Interested information security and instrumentation or manpower. Available CFE positions are parties should apply directly to support. Positions provide valuable profes- advertised at http://www.bnl.gov/ISPO/ the IAEA, but can also contact the sional experience and can lead to future CFE/cfe.asp. Send applications or requests International Safeguards Project Office opportunities in the national laboratories for information to [email protected]. (ISPO) for information and assistance and U.S. government. Visit www.bnl.gov/ with application status. ispo/jpo/jpo.asp for additional informa- ISPO Recruitment Program Sponsored by the International Safeguards Project Office • Brookhaven National Laboratory tion and application materials.

SPECTRUM.IEEE.ORG OCTOBER 2010 • IEEE SPECTRUM • NA 55

10a.GreatPlaceToWork.v2.NA.indd 55 9/17/10 11:41 AM Department Head Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science South Dakota State University Brookings, SD

South Dakota State University invites applications and nominations for the position of

Discover the satisfaction of Department Head of Electrical Engineering & Computer133 lpi Science. SDSU, the state’s land-grant and largest university, is a Carnegie RU/H (high research activity) institution with 12,400 innovation and service to the nation students. The university is seeking an energetic academic leader with strategic vision, outstanding academic credentials and successful administrative experience. The Department MIT Lincoln Laboratory applies advanced technology to problems Head, who reports to the Dean of Engineering, holds a 12-month position and oversees all of critical to national security in the areas of communications, space the department’s administrative functions including academic, budget, facilities, research and surveillance, advanced electronics, air and missile defense, cyber outreach. In FY 2010 the department had 25 base-funded faculty and 390 students enrolled security, integrated sensing and decision support, and homeland protection. in undergraduate and graduate programs in electrical engineering, computer science and software engineering. The department is enjoying strong growth in enrollments and funded Unless otherwise noted, the following positions require a PhD in Electrical Engineering, Applied Mathematics or Physics. In lieu of research, strong ties to industry and a beautiful new $12 million-72,000 sq. ft. building. a PhD, a MSEE with 5 years of directly related experience will be considered. The successful applicant must have an earned Ph.D. and distinguished record of performance consistent with appointment as a tenured full professor in a discipline Sensor Signal Development Engineer (2094) appropriate to the department. He/she must also have a record of innovative and strategic Participate in the development of adaptive, multidimensional leadership that would apply to a progressive and growing academic environment and a sensor signal and image processing algorithms for detection, record of effective university administrative experience. estimation, classification, and localization. Develop novel

algorithms, plan and execute data collection campaigns, perform 3.25” x 10” data analysis in support of algorithm development. MATLAB, For detailed electronic application instructions, a full description of the position and C/C++ programming experience are strongly desired. information on the department, university and community, please visit Network System Architect (2087) http://www.sdstate.edu/eecs/ Utilize experience in the development of large, complex, network- For the most complete consideration, applications should be received by Nov. 1, 2010. based systems involving mobile and static nodes connected via high speed fiber, wireless line-of-sight data links and through For questions on the electronic employment process, contact SDSU Human Resources satellite networks. Conduct research into efficient and stable at (605) 688-4128. South Dakota State University is an AA/EEO employer. routing for mobile nodes, network security and high bandwidth data transfers. PhD in Electrical Engineering or Computer Science required. In lieu of a PhD, a MS in Electrical Engineering or Computer Science with 5+ years of directly related experience will be considered. Thorough understanding of protocols, network architectures is required. Instrumentation Engineer (2084) Define, develop, and test the next generation of civilian and military operational and experimental RF and EO-IR sensing instrumentation for weather, climate and space surveillance TEMASEK RESEARCH FELLOWSHIP (TRF) applications. Experience in one or more of the following areas of

EO-IR sensor system development is required: optical analysis The Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and587015 the National University of and design of radiometric systems, low noise mixed analog and Singapore (NUS) invite outstanding young researchers with a PhD Degree in digital integrated circuits, or detectors; calibration; system engineering; and hardware development, testing, and integration. science or technology to apply for the prestigious TRF awards. Integrated Photonics Engineer (2024) The TRF scheme provides selected young researchers an opportunity to conduct and lead research that is a relevant to defence. It offers: Seeking a candidate with both a broad background and a detailed understanding of optoelectronic materials, devices, and • 3-year research grant, with an option to extend up to a further 3 years, integration. Develop novel device and system concepts involving • possible tenure-track academic appointment with the university at multiple aspects of photonic integration that will have significant the end of the TRF, impact on future DoD mission areas. Responsibilities will include design and simulation of optoelectonic devices, interaction • attractive and competitive remuneration. with material growth personnel and resources, development Fellows may lead and conduct research, andIEEE Spectrum Magazine publish in these areas: of fabrication processes and coordination of fabrication 1. Biomimicry support personnel and the development and implementation of sophisticated laboratory measurement equipment. PhD in 2. Cognitive Sciences Electrical Engineering, Physics, or related field with at least 3. Cyber Security 3 years of direct experience with the design, fabrication, and characterization of compound semiconductor devices including 4. Computational Photography

lasers, optical amplifiers, photodiodes, and optical modulators. 5. Microsystem Technologies 127413

All positions are located in Lexington, MA. Other fundamental areas of science or technology, where a breakthrough would be of interest to defence and security, will also be considered. Please visit our website at www.ll.mit.edu

for more information on these and Singapore is a globally connected cosmopolitanPUBLICATION WO # city-state with a supportive IO # SIZE NOTES SCREEN our many other opportunities. environment and vibrant research culture. For more information and application procedure, please visit NTU – http://www3.ntu.edu.sg/trf/ NUS – http://www.nus.edu.sg/dpr/funding/trf.htm Closing date: 11 January 2011 Technology in Support of National Security Shortlisted candidates will be invited to Singapore to present their re- As an Equal Opportunity Employer, we are committed to realizing search plans, meet local researchers and identify potential collaborators our vision of diversity and inclusion in every aspect of our enterprise. in April/May 2011. Due to the unique nature of our work, we require U.S. citizenship.

56 NA • iEEE Spectrum • October 2010 Spectrum.IEEE.org

10a.p56.NA.indd 56 9/14/10 11:50 AM a great place to work

SPECTRUM.IEEE.ORG OCTOBER 2010 • IEEE SPECTRUM • NA 57

10a.GreatPlaceToWork.v2.NA.indd 57 9/17/10 11:41 AM Job Opening for Tenure-Track Associate Professors TOKYO INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo Tech) in Japan invites applicants for two Tenure-Track Associate Professor positions in the following research ﬁ elds.

• Energy-conversion Materials (Nanotecnology, Meta-material, Photoelectric conversion, Thermoelectric conversion, Piezoelectric The Edward S. Rogers Sr. Department of Electrical and Computer conversion, Electromagnetic conversion, Organic semiconductor) Engineering at the University of Toronto invites applications for • Advanced Interdisciplinary Fields being rooted in Mechanical faculty positions, starting July 1, 2011, in the following three areas: and Control Engineering (including but not limited to: Environmental Issues; Energy Engineering; Security; Biomechanics; Robots; and Advanced Materials and Processing) 1. SYSTEMS CONTROL Applications are welcomed from outstanding candidates in all areas of systems control, including candidates whose Tokyo Tech is the largest university in Japan specializing in science and technology. research is interdisciplinary in nature. Applications for this position Since its foundation in 1881, Tokyo Tech has always been at the forefront of the should be addressed to Professor Manfredi Maggiore, Chair of the researches and played a pivotal role as a reliable leader in science and technology. Systems Control Search Committee, and sent to: We are interested in candidates who are committed to high standards and [email protected]. professionalism in their areas of expertise. The successful candidates will belong to the department offering the positions and carry out research and educational 2. ELECTROMAGNETICS Research areas of particular interest include: activities as an independent faculty member. In the longer term, they are expected biomedical applications of electromagnetic waves, microwave devices to progress to the key positions within Tokyo Tech. with emphasis on nanoscale effects, novel electromagnetic materials, The candidate should have a PhD degree in natural science or engineering and microwave circuit integration/packaging, RF MEMS, remote sensing have English-language proﬁ ciency. In cases where the applicant’s degree is from and radars. Applications for this position should be addressed to Tokyo Tech, two or more years experience of research and/or education at other Professor George Eleftheriades, Chair of the Electromagnetics Search institutions (academic or industry) is additionally required. Committee, and sent to: [email protected]. To apply to the positions, please visit our website and read the application guideline. 3. ELECTRICAL ENERGY SYSTEMS Research areas of particular http://www.global-edge.titech.ac.jp/tenure-track/ interest include: power system dynamics, power system automation, Deadline Date for Online Entry: October 22, Friday, 2010 protection, integration of renewable energy sources/storage, and Ofﬁ ce of Tenure-Track System, Tokyo Institute of Technology other emerging technologies within the scope of power systems. 2-12-1 S6-20 Ookayama, Meguro, Tokyo 152-8550, JAPAN Applications for this position should be addressed to Professor Peter Phone: +81-3-5734-7627 Lehn, Chair of the Energy Systems Search Committee, and sent to: E-mail: [email protected] [email protected].

Successful candidates are expected to pursue excellence in research and teaching at both the graduate and undergraduate levels, and The Department of Electrical must have (or be about to receive) a Ph.D. in the relevant area. and Computer Engineering, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, The ECE department ranks among the top 10 in North America. It seeks applications to fi ll one or more attracts outstanding students, has excellent facilities, and is ideally tenure-track positions at all levels. located in the middle of a vibrant, artistic, and diverse cosmopolitan We are particularly interested in city. The department offers competitive salaries and start-up funding, candidates with expertise in analog and faculty members have access to signifi cant Canadian operational and mixed-signal electronic circuits; electric power system dynamics and infrastructure research grants. Additional information on the with focus on distribution system and micro-grid; and RF/microwave department can be found at: www.ece.utoronto.ca. electromagnetics. Outstanding applicants in other areas will also be considered. Information on department research activities and curricula Applicants must submit their applications by email to one of the three may be found on the web at email addresses given above. Please submit only Adobe Acrobat PDF documents and include a curriculum vitae, a summary of previous www.ece.utah.edu. research and proposed new directions, and a statement of teaching Faculty responsibilities include developing and maintaining an interna- philosophy and interests. tionally recognized research program, effective classroom teaching at the undergraduate and graduate levels, and professional service. Résumés Applications should be received by January 15, 2011. with names and contact information for at least three references should be sent to Ms. Debbie Sparks, Faculty Search Committee, University of The University of Toronto is strongly committed to diversity within Utah, Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, at dsparks@ its community and especially welcomes applications from visible minority group members, women, Aboriginal persons, persons with ece.utah.edu. Applications will be reviewed starting November 1, disabilities, members of sexual minority groups, and others who may 2010, and will be accepted until the positions are fi lled. Applicants must contribute to the further diversifi cation of ideas. hold a Ph.D. by the time of appointment. The University of Utah values candidates who have experience working in settings with students from All qualifi ed candidates are encouraged to apply; however, Canadian diverse backgrounds and possess a strong commitment to improving citizens and permanent residents will be given priority. Salary will be access to higher education for historically underrepresented students. commensurate with qualifi cations and experience. The University is fully committed to affi rmative action and to its policies of nondiscrimination and UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO equal opportunity in all programs, activities, and employment. Employment decisions are made The Edward S. Rogers Sr. Department of without regard to race, color, national origin, sex, age, status as a person with a disability, religion, Electrical & Computer Engineering sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, and status as a protected veteran. The Univer- 10 King’s College Road sity seeks to provide equal access for people with disabilities. Reasonable prior notice is needed to arrange accommodations. Evidence of practices not consistent with these policies should be Toronto, ON, Canada M5S 3G4 reported to: Director, Offi ce of Equal Opportunity and Affi rmative Action, 801-581-8365 (V/TDD).

58 NA • iEEE Spectrum • October 2010 Spectrum.IEEE.org

10a.p58.NA.indd 58 9/14/10 2:58 PM a great place to work

Faculty Position in East Africa

Carnegie Mellon University departments (Information is embarking on an exciting networking Institute and opportunity to transform Carnegie Mellon Silicon graduate education in East Valley Campus), 2 institutes Africa by introducing new (Carnegie Mellon Cylab and models of education, research Institute for Complex and development, and the Engineered Systems), commercialization of information and many multidisciplinary and communication technologies research centers. (ICT). With programs from Europe opportunity—Carnegie to Asia, Carnegie Mellon’s College Mellon is seeking exceptional of Engineering is establishing a candidates in the areas of regional ICT Centre of Excellence networking, Communications, (CoE) in Kigali, Rwanda that Security, Software Engineering, will provide first-class graduate Image and Signal Processing, education in a region booming Entrepreneurship, and Innovation with opportunities for technology and Technology Management, who innovation. Striving to become can deliver innovative, interdisciplinary the technology hub for East Africa, graduate programs. Candidates should Rwanda is investing heavily in possess a Ph.D. in a related discipline infrastructure and capacity and an outstanding record in research, building in the critical areas of teaching and leadership. Applications ICT and engineering. should include a comprehensive The Programs—With a history of resume including a complete list excellence in higher education, of publications, 3-5 professional Carnegie Mellon will address references, a statement of research Rwanda’s and the regions’ skill and teaching interests (less than 2 needs by offering Master of Science pages each), and copies of 2 research APPlICATIonS ShoUlD degree programs in Information papers (journal or conference papers). BE ADDRESSED To: Technology and Electrical and Schedule—Students will enroll at the Computer Engineering. Carnegie CoE in Kigali starting Summer/Fall 2011. Dean, College of Engineering Mellon’s College of Engineering is Successful applicants are expected consistently ranked amongst the Carnegie Mellon University to spend one academic semester at top ten in the USA and the world. 5000 Forbes Ave Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh starting The College includes 7 departments spring 2011 before assuming their granting BS, MS, and Ph.D. degrees, office: 110 Scaife hall position in Kigali in summer 2011. 2 graduate-only degree granting Pittsburgh, PA 15213-3890 [email protected] college of engineering www.cit.cmu.edu

SPECTRUM.IEEE.ORG OCTOBER 2010 • IEEE SPECTRUM • NA 59

10a.GreatPlaceToWork.v2.NA.indd 59 9/17/10 11:41 AM FACULTY POSITION Faculty Position in Electrical Engineering OPENING at ICE/ NSYSU, TAIWAN The Institute of Communications Engineering at National Sun Yat-Sen University, Taiwan, invites outstanding candidates to apply for faculty positions at all ranks (Full, Associate and Assistant Professors) The Department of Electrical Engineering seeks to fi ll a tenure track with emphasis on wireless communications, com- position starting Spring 2011 at the assistant professor level. munication systems, and EM wave-related areas. Applicants should have a PhD degree in EE with Qualifi cations: B.S. in electrical engineering and Ph.D. in electrical engineering or a closely related fi eld a strong commitment to research and teaching completed by December, 2010. The successful candidate must have a strong commitment to undergraduate graduate courses. Applicants need to prepare a teaching and other undergraduate activities. The successful candidate will have at least one year of teaching letter explicitly expressing the intended rank to experience at the minimum level of teaching assistant in an engineering program. The candidate should apply, CV with publication list, statement of interest be able to teach a broad spectrum of EE courses including laboratories. We encourage strong candidates and plans in both research and teaching, reprints in the areas of power systems, power electronics, motor drives, renewable energy, controls, and digital of selected published papers, three recommenda- electronics to apply. He or she must have enthusiasm for professional engagement with students in and out tion letters, and other supporting materials. The of the class room. The applicant must possess excellent oral and written communication skills in English. application materials should be sent to The candidate must have a demonstrated commitment to or experience with racially diverse populations. Professor Chih-Wen Kuo, Director The teaching assignment will be at the UW-Rock County site where UW-Platteville has collaborative programs. Institute of Communications Engineering Other responsibilities include curriculum development, student advising, professional and scholarly National Sun Yat-Sen University activities, and serving on committees. To view a complete position description, please visit the web site: Kaohsiung, Taiwan 80424 http://www.uwplatt.edu/pers/employ.htm and be received by ICE/NSYSU before Feb. 28, 2011. For further information, please e-mail the To apply, please email your electronic application letter, resume, and contact information for at least three institute director [email protected], professional references (all documents in portable document format (pdf) please) to: or contact us directly Ms. Rose Durni; Department of Electrical Engineering; Email: [email protected] Tel: 886-7-5252000#4475(or #4162) The review of applications will begin on October 1, 2010 and will continue until the position Fax: 886-7-5254475 http://www.ice.nsysu.edu.tw is fi lled. The names of all fi nalists and of applicants who have not requested confi dentiality in writing will be released upon request. Employment will require criminal background check. NSYSU has been named by the Ministry of Education (MOE), Taiwan as one of the top seven research- The University of Wisconsin – Platteville, an equal opportunity, affi rmative action employer, seeks to intensive universities in Taiwan since 2002. Our build a diverse faculty and staff and encourages applications from women and persons of color. campus is located right at the scenic beach of Kaohsiung city, southern Taiwan.

Vice President and Director Georgia Tech Research Institute Texas State University-San Marcos – The Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) is seeking its next Vice President and Director. Founded in 1934, GTRI is a Electrical Engineering. The newly established Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) affi liated research center and a leading technical resource for the Department EE program in the Ingram School of Engineering in- of Defense and other federal agencies as well as industry. GTRI’s interdisciplinary expertise allows for creative solutions vites applications for a tenure-track faculty position at which are applied to government; health and human systems; energy and environment; manufacturing technologies; and the Assistant or Associate Professor level. Research information and communication technologies. specialization in communication systems, networking, or computer engineering is required. Industrial or com- GTRI is the largest research entity of Georgia Tech. Located on 400 acres of land in the heart of Atlanta, Georgia Tech has mercialization experience is preferred, with emphasis 20,000 undergraduate and graduate students and 14,000 continuing education participants. Georgia Tech is ranked 35th on product or system development and delivery. Addi- among national research universities and 7th among public research universities by the US News & World Report. tional information is available at Reporting to the Executive Vice President for Research at Georgia Tech, the Director will lead GTRI’s over 1,500 staff members http://www.txstate.edu/academicaffairs/ operating in 15 locations across the United States and Ireland. This individual will provide strategic, technical and administra- FacultyEmp/faculty_employment.htm tive leadership as well as planning and direction to the overall operation of GTRI. The new Director will build upon and expand GTRI’s strong partnerships with various Georgia Tech academic divisions and other research organizations. Applicants for the position should submit a cover letter, CV, one-page statements of teaching and research inter- The successful candidate will be a highly accomplished leader whose background will ideally include industrial, academic ests, and list of three references to: Search Coordinator, and/or government technology experience. An advanced degree in engineering, science or other relevant area is required Ingram School of Engineering, Texas State University- with a strong preference for a doctoral degree. In addition, the qualifi ed candidate must be a U.S. citizen, having or capable San Marcos, 601 University Drive, San Marcos, TX of obtaining a TS/SCI security clearance, as well as other specialized security clearances. For additional information on GTRI 78666, or by e-mail to [email protected]. The and the search, please see www.evpr.gatech.edu/GTRI_search. University reserves the right not to proceed with any GTRI is being assisted by Ellen Brown, Randy Jayne, and Tracie Davis at the fi rm of Heidrick & Struggles International, Inc. appointments for fi nancial or programmatic reasons. Screening of applications will begin immediately and continue until the position is fi lled. Nominations and applications Review of applications will begin December 1, 2010 and should be addressed to: continue until the position is fi lled. The position starts in August 2011. Heidrick & Struggles, Inc. Phone: (404) 682-7316 GTRI Director Search Email: [email protected] Texas State University is located in the advanced tech- 303 Peachtree Street, NE nology corridor linking Austin and San Antonio. Texas Suite 4300 State University is an AA/EOE that encourages applica- Atlanta, GA 30308 tions from underrepresented minority group members and women.

60 NA • iEEE Spectrum • October 2010 Spectrum.IEEE.org

10a.p60.NA.indd 60 9/15/10 10:33 AM a great place to work

Work for Vestas and make a difference

Our wind turbines generate CO2-free electricity to millions of households worldwide.

Your career with Vestas we all need to be focused on the same goal; the global success of wind energy. Joining Vestas, you’ll be joining an organization with business units and colleagues in practically every corner Immediate opportunities of the world. For you, this means unique opportunities for international experience. We provide our employees Right now we’re recruiting for more than 150 challenging with the best possible framework in which to thrive and positions globally within electrical and develop, both professionally and personally. power plant engineering, quality engineering, materials, project management, products and design engineering, A job at Vestas means a lot of interesting challenges and mechanics, systems engineering, construction manage- opportunities. Our goal is to attract and develop the most ment and various other specialist fields. talented and well-qualified people in their fields. As a result, we offer attractive terms of employment, a good salary and advantageous conditions that include:

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SPECTRUM.IEEE.ORG OCTOBER 2010 • IEEE SPECTRUM • NA 61

10a.GreatPlaceToWork.v2.NA.indd 61 9/17/10 11:41 AM tion to have a strong commitment both to research and to teaching at the undergraduate and graduate levels while candidates for research track faculty positions would focus primarily on research.

The department is primarily seeking individuals for fac- The Department of Electrical and Computer Engineer- ulty positions at the Assistant Professor rank; however, ing at Carnegie Mellon has faculty (both research under unusual circumstances and commensurate with and tenure track) openings. Exceptional candidates the qualifi cations of the individuals, appointments may in all areas of Electrical and Computer Engineering will be made at the rank of Associate Professor or Profes- be given serious consideration, but especially those sor. Applicants must have earned a doctorate in a re- that broaden the department in emerging areas or that lated area by the date of appointment. strengthen existing areas. Applications should include a comprehensive resume, a The College of Engineering and the Department of Elec- list of three to fi ve professional references, a statement of trical and Computer Engineering are both ranked among research and teaching interests (less than 2 pages each), the top ten programs in the United States both at the un- and copies of two research papers (journal or confer- dergraduate and graduate level. The faculty have strong ence papers). The applicant is responsible for soliciting ties with many multidisciplinary centers and institutes the reference letters to be sent directly to the address such as the Institute for Complex Engineered Systems below. All applications including letters of reference may (graduated NSF ERC), Software Engineering Institute, be sent electronically to [email protected] or to: Human Computer Interaction Institute, The Robotics Institute, and the Information Networking Institute. The T.E. (Ed) Schlesinger department is home to several multidisciplinary centers Department Head and and laboratories such as the Data Storage Systems Schramm Professor Center (Graduated NSF ERC), Center for Silicon Sys- Electrical and Computer Engineering tem Implementation, Microelectromechanical Systems Hamerschlag Hall Laboratory, Distributed Robotics Laboratory, the Paral- Carnegie Mellon University lel Data Laboratory, and the Computer Architecture Lab Pittsburgh, PA 15213-3890 at Carnegie Mellon. Faculty in the Department of Electri- Evaluation of applications will begin immediately and cal and Computer Engineering also have ties and col- continue throughout the academic year until available laborations with colleagues around the world through a positions are fi lled. Candidates are encouraged to ap- number of formal research and educational programs. ply early. Carnegie Mellon is building a culturally di- A moderate teaching load allows time for quality re- verse faculty and encourages applications from female search and close involvement with students and other and minority candidates. Carnegie Mellon is an Equal faculty. We expect candidates for a tenure track posi- Opportunity Employer.

FACULTY OPENING STANFORD UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF AERONAUTICS AND ASTRONAUTICS

The Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at Stanford University invites applications for a tenure-track faculty position at the Assistant or untenured Associate Professor level. Modern fl ight systems and space systems are two of the most important technology pillars supporting a worldwide aerospace enterprise. Research advances in aerospace are critical to satisfy large increases in future demand for air transportation, to advance the technology of autonomous air vehicles, and to achieve breakthroughs in satellite design and space fl ight, while insuring safety and security and protecting the environment. We are seeking applicants who will develop innovative courses and conduct research at the frontier of areas such as space systems engineering, cyber-physical systems, autonomous systems, control and navigation, aviation and the environment, system simulation and design, and aerospace structures and materials. This is a broad-area search, and we will place higher priority on the impact, originality, and promise of the candidate’s work than on the particular sub-area of specialization within Aeronautics and Astronautics. Evidence of the ability to pursue a program of innovative research and a strong commitment to graduate and undergraduate teaching are required. The successful candidate will be expected to teach courses at the graduate and undergraduate levels and to build and lead a team of graduate students in Ph.D. research. Applicants should include a cover letter, a curriculum vitae, a list of publications, a one-page statement of research vision, a one-page statement of teaching interests, and the names of fi ve references. Please submit these materials as a single PDF fi le labeled “AA_Search_LastName_FirstName. pdf” to [email protected]. For additional information, please contact Professor Brian Cantwell ([email protected]). Applications will be accepted until the position is fi lled; however the review of applications will begin on December 1, 2010. Stanford University is an equal opportunity employer and is committed to increasing the diversity of its faculty. It welcomes nominations of and applications from women and members of minority groups, as well as others who would bring additional dimensions to the university’s research and teaching missions.

62 NA • iEEE Spectrum • October 2010 Spectrum.IEEE.org

10a.p62.NA.indd 62 9/14/10 9:41 AM York University, Toronto, Canada: The Department of Computer Science Faculty Position and Engineering in collaboration with the Departments of Biology, and Science and in Computer Science Technology Studies invite faculty applications (CSE) 962257 in the following areas: (i) Visual Neuroscience and Engineering or Computational Neuroscience of Vision, and; (ii) Digital Media (Computer Graphics) and Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) Department in the College of Engineering at the University of Toledo invites applications for a tenure-track or tenured CSE faculty position at the Assistant Technoscience - both at the Assistant Professor or Associate Professor rank beginning in Spring 2011 or Fall 2011. Candidates are sought with exper- level in the tenure track stream. The deadline tise in cognitive networking, computer network architecture and protocols, computer networks security, for the applications is November 30, 2010 with a high-performance router/switch architecture, network management, network performance, QoS control, start date of July 1, 2011. For detailed information, wireless communications, wireless sensor networks, and other closely related research frontiers. The please visit http://yorku.ca/acadjobs. candidates should have demonstrated leadership in establishing and leading comprehensive multi-disci- York University is an Affi rmative Action Employer. plinary externally funded research programs in wireless communications and networking. A PhD in Computer Engineering or Computer Science is required. The successful candidate will be ex- California State University–Fresno pected to (i) Establish an externally funded research program involving graduate students and postdoc- toral fellows; (ii) Teach at all levels and develop new graduate level courses in diverse CSE areas includ- Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer ing cognitive networking, cyber security, data structures, network operating systems, sensor networks, Engineering (ECE) starting Aug. 2011 and wireless communications; (iii) interact with other College of Engineering faculty in multi-disciplinary Candidates are expected to teach a broad range of courses research areas; and (iv) actively lead or participate in strategic initiatives at the region, state, and federal in the undergraduate ECE curriculum, and teach graduate courses as well as carry out scholarly work in their techni- levels. A competitive start-up and salary will be offered commensurate with experience. cal area of expertise which should include at least two of Consideration of qualifi ed candidates will begin past Oct. 1, 2010. The position will remain open until the the following: electronics, power electronics, VLSI, and/ or mixed signals/systems. Other duties include student appointment is made. Please send a cover letter, a CV, detailed narratives of research and teaching inter- advising and mentoring, project and thesis supervision, ests, and names/contacts of at least fi ve references to Dr. Mansoor Alam, Chair, EECS Department, MS and university service at all levels. An earned doctorate in 308, The University of Toledo, 2801 W. Bancroft Street, Toledo, OH 43606-3390. Applications will also EE, CompE, or related area is required. For further details be accepted in the PDF format by e-mailing to [email protected]. Prospective applicants can on the position, qualifi cations, application procedure/ learn about the EECS Department and the University of Toledo at http://www.eng.utoledo.edu/eecs/ deadlines, and the university, visit and www.utoledo.edu. www.csufresno.edu/aps The University of Toledo is an Equal Access, Equal Opportunity, Affi rmative Action Employer California State University–Fresno is an affi rmative Faculty recruitmentand Educator. Women ad-2010 and minority 121x116.pdf candidates are 1strongly 03/09/2010 encouraged to apply.4:18 PM action/equal opportunity institution.

Mississippi State University invites applications for tenure-track faculty positions in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering in Power/High-Voltage Engineering, Signal/Image Processing and Micro/ Nano Electronics. Candidates in other areas will be considered. Please visit

www.ece.msstate.edu/employment C for additional information. Screening M will continue until the position is ﬁ lled. MSU is an AA/EOE. Y CM

The University of Minnesota – Twin Cities invitesCMY applications for faculty positions in Electrical and Computer Engineering at all ranks in the areas ofK computer engineering; power and energy systems; and communications and signal processing, including networking. Women and other underrepresented groups, and those with interdisciplinary interests in medical devices, the biosciences, and the nanosci- ences, are especially encouraged to apply. An earned doctorate in an appropriate discipline is required. Rank and salary will be commensurate with qualiﬁ cations and experience. Positions are open until ﬁ lled, but for full consideration, apply by November 30, 2010. Apply at http://www.ece.umn.edu/. The University of Min- nesota is an equal opportunity employer and educator.

Spectrum.IEEE.org Oct ober 2010 • IEEE Spectrum • NA 63

10a.p63.NA.indd 63 9/15/10 10:58 AM BOSTON UNIVERSITY Department of Mechanical Engineering Open Faculty Positions The Department of Mechanical Engineering at Boston University invites applications to ﬁ ll the following tenure track positions:

Position 1: Position 2: Mechatronics/Systems/Control Energy-related Areas Relevant Speciﬁ c areas of interest include, but are not limited to: to Mechanical Engineering • Energy systems Speciﬁ c areas of interest include: • Cyber-physical systems and • Energy from sustainable sources networked control systems • Waste heat capture • Biomechatronics • Energy storage technologies • Computational science for energy applications

Qualifi ed candidates at all academic ranks will be considered, however, applicants seeking appointment above the rank of assistant professor must have a distinguished record of academic and professional performance and must clearly demonstrate the ability to develop and sustain a program of graduate education in their fi eld as well as a funded research program. The Department of Mechanical Engineering has strong research programs in acoustics and vibrations; biomechanics; computational science and engineering; dynamics, robotics, systems and controls; thermofl uid sciences, energy and sus- tainability; materials; and MEMS and nanotechnology. The department is further strengthened by its affi liation with the Division of Materials Science and Engineer- ing, the Division of Systems Engineering, the Fraunhofer USA Center for Manu- facturing Innovation, the Center for Information and Systems Engineering, and the Photonics Center. Both the Department and College are working to implement ambitious ten-year plans that envision substantial growth in the coming years. For additional information and for instructions on how to apply, please go to: http://www.bu.edu/me/facultysearch Boston University is an equal opportunity, affi rmative action organization.

64 NA • iEEE Spectrum • October 2010 Spectrum.IEEE.org

10a.p64.v2.NA.indd 64 9/17/10 2:38 PM Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Tenure Track Faculty Positions The Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at Drexel University is Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering seeking outstanding candidates at any rank in all areas of computer engineering for tenure-track positions. Areas of special emphasis include high-performance The University of Texas at Austin computing, bio-informatics, computer and network security, embedded systems and multimedia. Candidates must have a Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering, The Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at The University of computer engineering or computer science with outstanding academic creden- Texas at Austin has three faculty openings with a start date of Fall 2011. tials that clearly demonstrate their ability to conduct independent and successful Appointment would be at the assistant professor level. The department will research in their areas of expertise and develop a graduate research program consider candidates in any area of electrical and computer engineering. leading to peer-reviewed publications and external funding. Candidates must Applicants should have received or expect to receive a doctoral degree in have excellent communication skills with a commitment to engage in high-quality Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a related discipline prior to undergraduate and graduate education in areas of computer engineering. The ECE department offers both undergraduate and graduate programs in computer September 2011. Successful candidates are expected to supervise graduate engineering with several areas of specialization including computer networks, students, teach undergraduate and graduate courses, develop a sponsored computer architecture, computer-aided design, VLSI systems and operating sys- research program, collaborate with other faculty, and be involved in service tems (see http://www.ece.drexel.edu). The department also has a very active to the university and the profession. PhD program with many outstanding students enrolled in it. Applications must be submitted online (www.ece.utexas.edu). Priority Applications should include a cover letter, complete resume, research and teach- deadline is December 31st 2010. Earlier submission is strongly encouraged. ing statements and the names and addresses of three references. Copies of key publications may also be submitted. All application materials should be submitted Dr. Ahmed Tewfi k, Chairman electronically as a single pdf document via e-mail to: Moshe Kam, Department Electrical and Computer Engineering Head, Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, at the following e-mail ad- 1 University Station C0803 dress: [email protected]. Only online applications will be accepted. Review Austin TX 78712-0240 of applications will begin immediately and continue until the positions are fi lled. Tel: (512) 471-6179 Email: tewfi [email protected] Drexel University is a private, urban university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA and is recognized for its traditionally strong technological focus and career-in- A security sensitive background check will be conducted on the applicant tegrated education. Eligibility to work in the United States at the time of appointment selected. UT Austin is an Equal Opportunity/Affi rmative Action Employer. is required. Drexel University is an equal opportunity/affi rmative action employer.

ECE Department Head Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology The Electrical and Computer Engineering Department invites applications for a department head who will enable our enthusiastic faculty to provide ﬁ rst rate educational opportunities for our students in a laboratory and project-oriented undergraduate curriculum. The successful candidate must have an earned doctorate in electrical or computer engineering and should have experience in fostering collaborative relationships between industry and academia, the ability to work with faculty and staff in attracting funding to support the educational mission of the department, and demonstrated leadership experience. The ECE head is also a member of the Rose-Hulman faculty and, as such will be expected to teach a reduced load and demonstrate excellence in teaching, professional development and service. Rose-Hulman is a private, predominantly undergraduate, engineering, science, and mathematics school which is consistently ranked among the best colleges of science and engineering in the nation by a variety of publications and surveys. The department has 325 students, twenty faculty, and four staff. Applicants should submit on line at https://jobs.rose-hulman.edu/ (i) a letter of application, (ii) curriculum vitae, (iii) statements describing their teaching, professional development and scholarship, (iv) administrative philosophy and leadership experience, and (v) the names, email addresses and tele- phone numbers of three references. Applications will be accepted until the position is ﬁ lled, but for full consideration apply by December 1, 2010. Send questions and nominations to [email protected]. For further information ECE Department: http://ece-1.rose-hulman.edu/ecedh/ Rose-Hulman: http://www.rose-hulman.edu/ EOE

Spectrum.IEEE.org Oct ober 2010 • IEEE Spectrum • NA 65

10a.p65.NA.indd 65 9/10/10 10:48 AM Tenure Track Faculty Position www.ece.cmu.edu

The Departments of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Engineering and Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon have a joint tenure track faculty opening for an exceptional candidate in the area of health informatics who has both technical and policy interests and skills. We seek a candidate who will build a program of collaborative resaearch that applies information and communication technolgy to improve dramatically the efficacy and efficency of healthcare delivery. Tenure-Track The College of Engineering and the ECE and EPP Departments are ranked among the top Faculty Position ten programs in the U.S. both at the undergraduate and graduate level. Our faculties have strong ties with many multidisciplinary centers and institutes such as the Carnegie Mellon The Department of Electrical Engineering seeks CyLab (including its Usable Privacy and Security Laboratory), Institute for Complex Engi- applications in all areas of Electrical Engineering, neered Systems, Software Engineering Institute, Human Computer Interaction Institute, with a particular interest in computer engineer- and Information Networking Institute. The departments are also home to several multidis- ing, for a tenure-track faculty position at the ciplinary centers and laboratories such as the Data Storage Systems Center, Carnegie assistant professor level. All candidates should Mellon Electricity Industry Center, Center for Silicon System Implementation, the Parallel Data Laboratory, and the Computer Architecture Lab at Carnegie Mellon. have a commitment to teaching and the ability to pursue a high impact research program. Ap- A moderate teaching load allows time for quality research and close involvement with plicants should submit a complete curriculum vi- students and other faculty. We expect candidates for a tenure track position to have a tae, a description of research and teaching inter- strong commitment both to research and to teaching. The departments are primarily seek- ests, and the names and contact information for ing individuals for a position at the Assistant Professor rank; however, with appropriate at least three references using the following site: qualifications, appointments may be made at a higher rank. Applications should include a comprehensive resume, a list of 3 to 5 professional references, a statement of research https://www.ee.princeton.edu/ and teaching interests (less than 2 pages), and copies of 2 research papers (journal or apply/faculty/ conference papers). The applicant is responsible for soliciting the reference letters to be A start date of September 1, 2011 is preferred. sent to the address below. Send applications to: For full consideration, please submit applications T. E. (Ed) Schlesinger as soon as possible and no later than January 1, Carnegie Mellon is building a culturally diverse Professor and Head 2011. Princeton University is an equal opportunity faculty and encourages applications from female Electrical and Computer Engineerig employer and complies with applicable EEO and Carnegie Mellon University and minority candidates. Carnegie Mellon is an Pittsburgh, PA 15213-3890 Equal Opportunity Emplloyer. afﬁ rmative action regulations.

Positions Open Accept the Navy Challenge Toyota Become a member of an elite research and development community involved in basic and applied Technological scientiﬁ c research and advanced technological development for tomorrow’s Navy. Institute

Toyota Technological accomplishments and future NAVAL RESEARCH LABORATORY Institute has openings plans for research activities Senior Scientist for Intense Particle Beams and Plasma Processes for full professor or tenure- and education (3 pages) track professor positions (5) Names of two references ST-1310, $119,554 to $179,700* per annum at Department of Advanced with e-mail addresses and *Rate limited to the rate for level III of the Executive Schedule (5 U.S.C. 5304(g)(2)) Science and Technology, phone numbers Faculty of Engineering. (6) Application form available from our website For more information, please refer to the website Deadline Conducts and leads a broad-based, multidisci- Applicants should be recognized as national/ http://www.toyota-ti.ac. December 20th, 2010 plinary research program pushing the frontiers international authorities in the above areas of jp/Jinji/home_E.htm. Inquiry of the application of plasma beams in space and research, and should have demonstrated the Research fi eld 1. Intelligent information laboratory plasma, with particular emphasis on scientifi c vision and organizational skills necessary 1. Intelligent information processing: Professor space defense applications and advanced weapons. to bring long term, multi-faceted research processing including Tatsuo Narikiyo Uses theoretical and computational plasma physics programs to successful completion. learning theory and its Phone +81-52-809-1816 and beam-plasma interaction physics to advance application, information E-mail n-tatsuo@toyota-ti. A resume or Optional Application for Federal theory and its application, ac.jp the fi eld of beam-plasma interaction in space and intelligent systems, Employment (OF-612) must be received by 2. Solar energy conversion related plasma technologies. computer vision, etc. November 1, 2010. Apply to: Naval Research science and technology: Leads and guides multidisciplinary research efforts Laboratory, ATTN: Annemarie Mycka, Code 1810 2. Solar energy conversion Professor Yasutake Ohishi in the above areas that may include theoretical and Announcement #NWO-1310-00-K9735002-FL, science and technology Phone +81-52-809-1860 E-mail y-ohishi1@ experimental plasma physicists, space physicists 4555 Overlook Avenue, SW, Washington, DC including solar cell research on physics, basic materials, toyota-ti.ac.jp and engineers, plasma turbulence experts, and 20375-5324 or apply online at devices, systems, etc. numerical simulation experts. https://hro.nrl.navy.mil/jobs/index.htm. Faxed or Documents should be sent Starting date to Mr. Takashi Hirato emailed applications Will Not be accepted. Please As a distinguished scientist and recognized leader September 2011, or at Toyota Technological contact Annemarie Mycka at annemarie.mycka@ in his/her fi eld the incumbent will be called upon the earliest convenience Institute; 2-12-1, Hisakata, nrl.navy.mil for more information. Tempaku-ku; Nagoya, to brief DoD senior offi cials regarding Laboratory Documents 468-8511 Japan research efforts in the above areas, to serve as (1) Curriculum vitae liaison between NRL, the Navy and other national Navy is an Equal (2) List of publications Please write “Application for (3) Copies of 5 (fi ll in the research fi eld you and international organizations, and to consult on Opportunity Employer representative publications would like to apply)” in red important scientifi c and programmatic issues. (4) Description of major on the envelope.

66 NA • iEEE Spectrum • October 2010 Spectrum.IEEE.org

10a.p66.NA.indd 66 9/15/10 11:00 AM Ministry of Higher Education King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals Dhahran, Saudi Arabia

Communication College of Engineering Sciences Networks, ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT

Systems The Electrical Engineering Department at King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals (KFUPM) in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, invites applications for faculty positions & Devices at the rank of Associate Professor or Full Professor starting from September, 2010 in Research the following area : Bell Labs, POWER SYSTEMS WITH HIGH VOLTAGE and PROTECTION Alcatel-Lucent Required Qualifications: An earned Ph.D. degree in the area of specialization from a reputable University is required. The applicant’s GPA in the first university degree should be 3 points out of 4 Bell Labs, the innovation engine of or the equivalent. Research experience and a strong publication record in refereed international journals are also required. Also required is a full command of teaching Alcatel-Lucent, is a worldwide research English with demonstrated evidence of quality teaching as well as university teaching and development organization that focus- experience in the specified field. The successful candidates are expected to teach es on key technologies for telecommuni- undergraduate and graduate courses, conduct scholarly research, supervise cation. It is internationally renowned as graduate students and carry out some administrative duties. the birthplace of the CCD, the DFB laser, Salary and Benefits: WDM, and MIMO. Bell Labs is seeking Two-year renewable contract. Competitive salaries based on qualifications and post-doctoral, junior and senior level can- experience. Free furnished air-conditioned on-campus housing unit with free essential didates for several research positions at utilities and maintenance. The appointment includes the following benefits according to the University’s policy: air ticket/s to Dammam on appointment; annual repatriation our New Jersey locations. air ticket/s for up to four persons; assistance with local tuition fees for school-age Successful candidates are expected dependent children; local transportation allowance; two months’ paid summer leave; to pursue high caliber, internationally end-of-service gratuity. The KFUPM campus has a range of facilities including a recognized fundamental or long-term medical and dental clinic, an extensive library, computing, research and teaching laboratory facilities and a recreation center. research on topics related to the dynamics, consumption and conservation To apply : of energy in communication networks, Candidates should send their CV/Resume, copies of their degree, diplomas, systems, or devices. Responsibili- transcripts, and the application forms (can be obtained from the site: http://www.kfupm.edu.sa/fpa/) to the following address : ties include creating and maintaining strong collaborative associations with Dean of Faculty & Personnel Affairs university-based researchers, other DEPT. REF.No. EE-101 leading research bodies, product busi- KFUPM Box 5005, Dhahran 31261, Saudi Arabia ness units, and government agencies. E-mail: [email protected] Also required is the ability to conduct Fax: +966-3-860-2429 or 860-2442 independent research while contribut- Please always refer to the above DEPT. REF. No. in all correspondence ing to team-oriented projects, as well For more information, please visit the following website/links: as strong written and verbal com- http://www.kfupm.edu.sa/fpa munication skills. We are looking for candidates who are versatile, hands-on self-starters, and who value intellectual freedom. The candidate must have demonstrated strong research skills with extensive laboratory experience and/or outstanding analytical/ My Profession numerical modeling capabilities. A PhD in Electrical Engineering, Optics, Phys- My Organization ics or related disciplines is required. Candidates should submit a proﬁ le to myIEEE www.alcatel-lucent.com/careers, Login to including an up-to-date CV (full publica- www.ieee.org/myieee tions list and at least 3 references).

Spectrum.IEEE.org Oct ober 2010 • IEEE Spectrum • NA 67

401-Qy myIEEE Ad 4.5x2.indd 1 8/10/06 9:02:04 AM

10a.p67.v2.NA.indd 67 9/16/10 3:15 PM the data

UNITED STATES

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PORTUGAL

DENMARK UNITED STATES GERMANY PORTUGAL SPAIN DENMARK

The Long and Windy Road ccording to a new U.S. Department The United States and China are at of Energy report, 2009 was a banner the top of the lists in large part because Ayear for wind power. China led the they’re so large. According to the study, way, adding almost 14 gigawatts of new written by researchers from Lawrence capacity for a total of 26 GW in cumulative Berkeley National Laboratory, if Texas capacity. The United States kept its overall were a separate nation, its 9.4 GW of total lead in cumulative capacity by adding capacity would rank sixth, after India. 10 GW, representing a 40 percent increase. But other countries are doing even better By a coincidence, 40 percent was also on a per capita basis. Last year, Portugal the share of new U.S. electric generating added 60 megawatts per million people, capacity from wind installations—“the while Denmark still comfortably leads in largest single form of [newly on-line] cumulative capacity per capita at 618 MW.

power production,” the report said. —Steven Cherry JUDE BUFFUM

68 NA • IEEE SPECTRUM • OCTOBER 2010 SPECTRUM.IEEE.ORG

10.DataInfographic.NA.indd 68 9/15/10 10:55 AM You create a brighter future. We work to protect it.

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1 U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Clearinghouse for Long-Term Care Information, October 2008, www.longtermcare.gov. 2 Genworth 2010 Cost of Care Survey, April 2010, www.genworth.com/content/genworth/us/en/products/long_term_care/long_term_care/cost_of_care.html. 3 The Long-Term Care Resources Network is only available for residents of the United States. Coverage may vary or may not be available in all states. This program is administered by Marsh U.S. Consumer, a service of Seabury & Smith, Inc. d/b/a in CA Seabury & Smith Insurance Program Management. CA Ins. Lic. #0633005. AR Ins. Lic. #245544. IEEE prohibits discrimination, harassment and bullying. For more information, ©Seabury & Smith, Inc. 2010 visit www.ieee.org/web/aboutus/whatis/policies/p9-26.html. 46108 (10/10)

46108 IEEE (10/10) 10a.Cov3.v2.NA.indd46108 Oct IEEE Spectrum 3 Ad.indd 1 9/16/10 11:5711:54 AM Full Size: 7.875" x 10.5" Bleed: 8.125” x 10.75” Live: 7” x 10” Folds to: na Perf: na Colors: 4C=(CMYK) Stock: na Postage: na

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