Whetstone, a software tool that sharpens the output of artificial neurons, has enabled neural computer networks to process information up to a hundred times more efficiently than the current industry standard, say the Sandia National Laboratories researchers who developed it. The aptly named software, which greatly reduces the amount of circuitry needed to perform autonomous […]
Raising The Heat To Lower the Cost Of Solar Energy
Sandia National Laboratories will receive $10.5 million from the Department of Energy to research and design a cheaper and more efficient solar energy system. The work focuses on refining a specific type of utility-scale solar energy technology that uses mirrors to reflect and concentrate sunlight onto a receiver on a tower. The heat from the […]
New Sandia Balloon-Borne Infrasound Sensor Array Detects Explosions
Sheets of plastic similar to that used for garbage bags, packing tape, some string, a little charcoal dust and a white shoebox-size box are more than odds and ends. These are the supplies Danny Bowman, a Sandia National Laboratories geophysicist, needs to build a solar-powered hot air balloon for detecting infrasound. Infrasound is sound of […]
Pioneering Smart Grid Technology Solves Decades Old Problematic Power Grid Phenomenon
Picture a teeter-totter gently rocking back and forth, one side going up while the other goes down. When electricity travels long distances, it starts to behave in a similar fashion: the standard frequency of 60 cycles per second increases on the utility side of the transmission line while the frequency on the customer side decreases, […]
Diagnosing Supercomputer Problems
A team of computer scientists and engineers from Sandia National Laboratories and Boston University recently received a prestigious award at the International Supercomputing conference for their paper on automatically diagnosing problems in supercomputers. The research, which is in the early stages, could lead to real-time diagnoses that would inform supercomputer operators of any problems and could even autonomously fix the issues, […]
Sandia Labs Team Continues To Quantify Fatigue Using Wearables
Can fatigue be predicted? Can life-threatening fatigue be differentiated from recoverable fatigue? A team of researchers led by Sandia National Laboratories is seeking answers to these questions through the Rim-to-Rim Wearables at the Canyon for Health, or R2R WATCH, study, a collaboration with the University of New Mexico and the National Park Service and funded by the Defense Threat […]
Cool Flames for Better Engines
A “cool flame” may sound contradictory, but it’s an important element of diesel combustion — one that, once properly understood, could enable better engine designs with higher efficiency and fewer emissions. Sandia National Laboratories mechanical engineer Jackie Chen and colleagues Alex Krisman and Giulio Borghesi recently identified novel behavior of a key, temperature-dependent feature of […]
Lab Develops Way To Spot Defects Inside Hard-To-Image Materials
It’s hard to get an X-ray image of low-density material like tissue between bones because X-rays just pass right through like sunlight through a window. But what if you need to see the area that isn’t bone? Sandia National Laboratories studies myriads of low-density materials, from laminate layers in airplane wings to foams and epoxies that […]
Clean Water That’s Just Right’ With Sandia Sensor Solution
Water utilities have a Goldilocks problem: If they don’t add enough chlorine, nasty bacteria that cause typhoid and cholera survive the purification process. Too much chlorine produces disinfection byproducts such as chloroform, which increase cancer risks. The amount of chlorine needs to be “just right” for safe drinking water. The Environmental Protection Agency regulates how much of […]
Bright Thinking Leads To Breakthrough In Nuclear Threat Detection Science
Taking inspiration from an unusual source, a Sandia National Laboratories team has dramatically improved the science of scintillators — objects that detect nuclear threats. According to the team, using organic glass scintillators could soon make it even harder to smuggle nuclear materials through America’s ports and borders. The Sandia Labs team developed a scintillator made […]