Innovation Inside Our DNA: GE Announces GE Research’s Evolution into Three New Advanced Research Centers

Will Palmer

September 14, 2022

Research has been a big deal at GE since the first decade of its existence. In 1900, Thomas Edison’s new company created the General Electric Research Laboratory, devoted to original research that would help the company innovate and maintain its competitive edge. It was an idea led by GE’s chief engineer at the time, Charles P. Steinmetz, who argued that innovation worked best when great minds were brought together under one roof. The lab began operations in a barn behind Steinmetz’s house in Schenectady, New York, before moving to its legendary headquarters there a year later.

Swimmer and aspiring physicist Cameron McEvoy arrived at the 2016 Olympic Games with a lot of pressure on his shoulders, which are easily broad enough to take the load.

In the not-too-distant future, airplanes will scythe into the wind with an airframe that can virtually streamline its shape using nothing but air. In pursuit of this goal, researchers at NASA and Boeing moved a vertical tail from an old 757 inside the world’s largest wind tunnel at NASA Ames Research Center in California to test technology called active flow control. Active flow uses tiny air jets to reduce friction and turbulence across flight surfaces.

Because wind turbines are such a great source of clean, renewable energy, they’re usually greeted with a great deal of enthusiasm. But some complaints have been made that they can cause too much noise for residents living within a mile of the blades.
So just how noisy are these turbines?