Category Archives: Industry

USA Soccer and Brazil FIFA 2014: Not Just Happy to Be There

ESPN’s football/soccer podcast, “Men In Blazers” interviewed USA Soccer head coach Jurgen Klinnsman at South by Southwest in Austin, TX. At about 30 minutes in, in a light-hearted manner he talks about the US having a fan base that publicly … Continue reading

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Nanofibers in Application: Dialysis using Zeolites in an Electrospun NF Web

The popular press has picked up on the publication of,  Fabrication of zeolite–polymer composite nanofibers for removal of uremic toxins from kidney failure patients by a team out of WPI-MANA.  Unfortunately, this article ties together many sensationalist components that are commonly … Continue reading

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Filtration in the Popular Media: Chinese Fear for Soil and Food

The New York Times recently covered the growing awareness of the pollution problems in China that have come with increased industrialization and growth.  The December 2013 article focused on growing concerns about heavy metals, primarily cadmium, spreading into the food … Continue reading

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New Products: What We Study

I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. My sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history, naval architecture, navigation, commerce, and agriculture, in order to give their children … Continue reading

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Define the Mission, then the Vehicle

Pat Duggins’ book Final Countdown, which documents NASA’s move to shutdown the Space Shuttle Program repeats an important aviation and aerospace maxim: The mission should define the vehicle, not the vehicle define the mission. Apollo’s mission was to put a … Continue reading

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World of Bluegrass Should be Raleigh and Durham’s SXSW

Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill have always had a bit of inferiority complex about our place in the tech world.  Texas’s booming economy and a greater number of early stage investors has helped Austin pass us as a region when … Continue reading

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Insights from Aviation and Aerospace on Innovation and Disruption

There are no shortage of insights to be taken from the aviation and aerospace industry.  Any achievements are made in public – the Wright’s couldn’t hide their practice sessions in Ohio, Sputnik’s surface reflected in the night sky as it … Continue reading

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In 2008 We Never Expected Tesla’s GigaPlant

At the outset of the most recent financial downturn in 2008 enthusiasm grew for funding materials science research into energy storage.  The thought at the time was that manufacturing in this sector could ease employment concerns.  Concerns about global energy … Continue reading

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Aviation and Aerospace Innovation

The history of aviation and aerospace is fascinating because the achievements were technically challenging and the impact on society has been so clear.  Through the major phases of the industry’s growth ideas evolved across the globe, with the pioneers taking … Continue reading

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Favorite Podcasts

My first digital music player was a Rio, and I first signed up for the iTunes store in 2005. But for a music phase in high school, Bob Dylan is the only artist for which I’ve regularly kept a music … Continue reading

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