The universal adoption of digital 3-D design tools has truly changed forever the way that advanced products are created, from original concept studies, development, testing, and manufacturing, right through the lifecycle to maintainability, future enhancement, and long-term support. The ability to share detailed specifications and test data between all partners worldwide, but with controlled access as required throughout the supply chain, enables large and small suppliers to work to common standards and requirements, maintaining the same data accuracy across the network. This has not only saved valuable time, helping to reduce costs, but has brought about higher standards of product quality and, importantly, more traceability, providing a clear picture for project managers who have access in real time to progress at all levels.

Faster, lighter, stronger, hotter – words anyone working on military product development is all too used to hearing. In a world where advanced computer modeling and simulation packages are helping engineers optimize new product designs to increase performance, oftentimes the limiting factors to meeting spec are the mechanical and thermal restrictions inherent to currently available engineering materials. Ceramic matrix composites, or CMCs, provide an entire world of new thermo-mechanical properties, allowing engineers the ability to unlock the potential of some of their most advanced high temperature and high speed designs.

The performance of avionics systems is dictated by the timely availability and usage of critical health parameters. Various sensors acquire and communicate the desired parameters. In current scenarios, sensors are hardwired and the number of sensors are growing due to automation, which increases the accuracy of intended aircraft functions.

Software defined radio system engineers can now exploit new technology to perform digital signal processing much closer to the antenna than ever before. Various strategies include the latest wideband data converters, monolithic receiver chips, compact RF tuners, new FPGA families, and remote data acquisition modules using gigabit serial interfaces. Each approach presents benefits and tradeoffs that must be considered in choosing the optimal solution for a given application.

University College London (UCL) researchers are investigating passive radar technologies that can see through walls using WiFi radio waves. The novel research required a real-time, passive (non-cooperative) wireless target detection demonstration system capable of tracking moving bodies through walls and obstacles. Much like traditional radar systems, the approach still relies on detecting the Doppler shifts in radio waves as they reflect off moving objects. However, unlike traditional radar systems that actively transmit radio waves, the passive system relies on the existing WiFi signals that already swamp our airwaves. The complete lack of spectrum occupation and power emission ensures the radar is undetectable, making it ideal for military or security surveillance in urban settings.

Scientists at the Fraunhofer Institute have developed a high-resolution magnetic line camera to measure magnetic fields in real time, which is particularly useful for quality assurance during the manufacture of magnets. Read more at http://articles.sae.org/13706.

Ethanol and other alcohols can disrupt yeast cell membranes, eventually killing the cells. In research funded by the MIT Energy Initiative and the U.S. Department of Energy, researchers at MIT and the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research found that adding potassium and hydroxide ions to the medium in which yeast grow can help cells compensate for that membrane damage. Read more at http://articles.sae.org/13609.