Follow the Ones and Zeros: How the Most Critical and Complex Big Data Around Brings Productivity and Profits
Blowout preventers, or BOPs, are incredibly complex machines that weigh 750,000 pounds and tower 60 feet above seafloor oil wells. They serve as the last line of defense in case anything goes wrong. It takes workers about 18 months to build one and they serve for as long as 30 years.
These Boots Were Made for Walking (on the Moon)
Astronauts Thomas Stafford, Eugene Cernan and John Young took their spacecraft, nicknamed Charlie Brown, to the lunar orbit. Stafford and Cernan then climbed inside the lunar module, dubbed Snoopy, and piloted it just 9 miles above the moon’s surface - after traveling some 240,000 miles from home.
Where Nietzsche Meets Materials Science
Friedrich Nietzsche opined that “that which does not kill us makes us stronger.” GE engineer Joseph Vinciquerra is putting the idea to the test.
Honey, I 3D Printed the President: Fab Lab Space Pops Up Near the White House
Adults and kids alike can learn about rapid prototyping and advanced manufacturing, participate in hands-on training and listen to guest speakers.
AT-AT Boy! GE’s Walking Truck Blends Star Wars with Jules Verne
Got Speed? GE Labs Help F1 Team with Radical Car Redesign
MEMS at Work: Tiny Switches Could Support Next-Generation Wireless Networks
Scientists working in GE labs have developed tiny electrical switches thinner than a human hair that can transmit kilowatts of power. They are called micro-electro-mechanical systems, or MEMS.
The technology’s DNA is built around industrial applications, and MEMS could help reduce waste heat and power consumption in medical devices, aviation systems and other GE products.
In the Company of MEMS: They Do the Hard Work While You Play
MEMS are the Cinderellas of the electronic world. They do a lot of hard work, but get very little recognition.
The tiny chips, their full name is micro-electro-mechanical systems, can sense mechanical motion and convert that motion into electrical signals. “Just about everybody has them in their cellphones,” says Nicholas Yost, electronics technician at GE Global Research. These sensors, accelerometers and gyroscopes can detect the right screen orientation in smartphones, sense motion in Wii controllers, and even deploy airbags in cars.
Going Solo: Formula 1′s Lone American Driver Alex Rossi Talks About Racing in the US, F1 Technology and Building Better “Upside-Down Airplanes”
Formula 1 is arguably the most popular motorsport in the world, but when the race series arrives in Austin, Texas, this weekend, it will mark the end of an era. Starting in 2014, new technical regulations will dramatically alter the F1 car and reduce the size of the engine, shrink the fuel tank, affect aerodynamics and alter the gear box. “Everybody is starting with a blank slate,” says Caterham F1 Team’s 22-year old reserve driver Alexander Rossi.