The SciTech Lecture Series welcomes Jerry Barker, Founder and President of Ocular Systems, Inc. He will be speaking on "An Eye Toward Innovation".Wake Forest University research on Power Felt, a promising new thermoelectric device, appears in the current issue of Nano Letters, a leading journal in nanotechnology.
Potential uses for Power Felt include lining automobile seats to boost battery power and service electrical needs, insulating pipes or collecting heat under roof tiles to lower gas or electric bills, lining clothing or sports equipment to monitor performance, or wrapping IV or wound sites to better track patients’ medical needs.
Comprised of tiny carbon nanotubes locked up in flexible plastic fibers and made to feel like fabric, Power Felt uses temperature differences – room temperature versus body temperature, for instance – to create a charge.
Power Felt has been developed by researchers in Wake Forest's Center for Nanotechnology and Molecular Materials.
Wake Forest University senior Anqi Zou never thought she would thank video gamers for showing her the way to exciting discoveries in molecular biology.
But here she is, acknowledging that the technology she uses to show the inner workings of cells was originally perfected to create realistic images on gaming screens worldwide.
No matter. Wake Forest students are using graphics processing units – also called GPUs or graphics cards – to explore the biomolecular processes in the cell and take on challenges, including a cure for cancer.
For the uninitiated, the prospect of 18 talks in one day could sound like a college lecture series on steroids. But if you’ve ever watched a TED Talk online, then you’ll know why the students organizing the event are so excited. And if you haven’t, now’s your big chance to see it in person.
"TEDxWakeForestU will literally open the gates of innovation by being accessible, inspirational and affordable to a wide audience,”says Wake Forest senior Lucy Lan, who came up with the idea for the event and recruited other students to help.In refining a genetically inspired algorithm that proactively discovers more secure computer configurations, they are leveraging the concept of “survival of the fittest.”
A study prepared for Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center bestimates the health system had a $3.8 billion economic impact during the last fiscal year by providing thousands of jobs, state-of-the-art health care, pioneering medical research, commercialization of intellectual property and tax dollars.
The analysis finds that by turning research into new tests and treatments, Wake Forest Baptist is helping create and drive a new technology-based economy in the region. The report says Wake Forest Baptist represents one of North Carolina’s preeminent institutions for participation and growth in the life-science economy and its importance is expanding given the rising status of life sciences as the driver of U.S. economic progress today and in the future.
