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II. POLITICAL HOTLINE
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TRUMP PLAN TO EASE EMISSIONS RULES WORRIES CARMAKERS
President Trump maintains thats he’s giving the U.S. auto industry a huge boost by working to loosen vehicle emission standards set by the Obama administration. But as the New York Times recently reported, the weakened federal rules could instead give carmakers a big, costly headache. The proposed new rules would essentially freeze mileage standards where they are now, at around 37 miles per gallon; the Obama rules would raise the bar to 54.5 m.p.g. But California and 13 other states, which together comprise roughly a third of the American auto market, will keep the stricter rules intact. They also plan to sue the federal government in an effort to stop the administration’s bid to water down the standards. For automakers, the Times says, the
split market could force them to limit choices in high-fuel-economy states, while seeing a surge in demand in the other states. But, in that scenario, it’s likely that high-mileage states would bar residents from buying cars in other states. Moreover, if consumers do bring gas-guzzlers into higher-standards states, like California, the auto companies could face fines from those states for failing to meet their regulations, the paper says. The upshot is an industry that’s torn. If it backs the White House, its bottom line will likely take a big hit. But if it decides to protect its revenues and oppose the administration, it fears Trump may retaliate by imposing tariffs on auto imports, which would raise the cost of U.S. vehicles, the Times says. Additionally, it seems likely that the administration won’t make public its final plan until late spring or early summer, which
would mean that legal challenges wouldn’t reach the Supreme Court until after Trump’s first term. If he’s not reelected, the next Democratic administration almost certainly wouldn’t defend the Trump rules in court.
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MICROSOFT, AMAZON VIE FOR $10 BILLION DEFENSE CONTRACT
The Pentagon’s plan to award a 10-year, $10 billion contract to a tech company to set up a cloud-computing system at the Defense Department set off a heated bidding war between Amazon, Oracle, Microsoft, and IBM. Earlier this month, the agency announced that the two finalists were Microsoft and Amazon. Google had also been a potential bidder, but last year decided to drop out of the contest. The project is called JEDI, for the joint enterprise defense infrastructure. The Pentagon concluded that Oracle’s and IBM’s plans failed to meet the minimum requirements for JEDI, the New York Times says. Oracle has already filed a lawsuit claiming that an Amazon employee, who had previously worked on JEDI while at the Pentagon, posed a conflict of interest. The Pentagon had
asked the court to stay the suit while it conducted an internal investigation. It’s now saying the suit can proceed, but its own probe had found “no adverse impact on the integrity of the acquisition process.” However, the department said it did find some potential ethical violations by the former employee and referred those to its Office of Inspector General for a closer look, the paper says. The winning bid could be announced as early as July. TechCrunch also reports that beyond filing the lawsuit, Oracle also made back-channel complaints about the bidding process to President Trump. The online magazine also notes that whoever wins the contract may not see all the money, because well before the 10 years are up the Defense Department could end the project. Both news reports note that the tech industry wasn’t happy with the Pentagon’s plan to go with a single
vendor for JEDI.
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III. INNOVATIONS |
RESEARCHERS LOOK TO METHANE TO STORE GREEN POWER
The Achilles heel of solar and wind power is storage. Both forms of renewable energy typically produce much more electricity than needed when they’re active. But so far there have not been great options for storing all that excess electricity so it can be tapped when the sun sets and the winds die down, or during peak demand times. Electric-car manufacturer Tesla is among several companies developing mega-sized battery-storage systems for grids, but they also require new infrastructure. So, could methane solve the problem? According to Engadget, researchers at Stanford University are developing a biology-based storage system using a microbe called Methanococcus maripaludis, which munches on hydrogen and carbon dioxide and produces methane. Using
renewable energy-generated electricity, the team places metal electrodes into water to split it into hydrogen and oxygen. The oxygen fizzes safely into the atmosphere, but the hydrogen atoms are then fed to the microbes. The methane they produce doesn’t dissolve in water, Engadget says, so it’s easily collected and stored. It can then be burned like any other fossil fuel to produce electricity when needed to back up renewable sources. To be sure, methane also releases CO2 into the air when it burns. But because in this system the methane is created using CO2 taken from the atmosphere, it’s a carbon-neutral process. Nickel-molybdenum electrodes work best, the researchers say, and they are inexpensive and readily available. Efforts are now underway to see if the technology can scale up to industrial levels.
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SWISS FIRM SAYS IT HAS DEVELOPED A SUPER-DENSE BATTERY
The most common metric used to measure the energy density of batteries is watt-hours per kilogram. The Tesla Model 3, for instance, uses lithium-ion batteries with around 250 Wh/kg, and the automaker says it is closing in on batteries that will hit 330 Wh/kg. Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Energy’s research goal is batteries with 500 WH/kg. But The Verge says a Swiss company, Innolith, is claiming it’s close to producing a high-density battery that would pack a whopping 1,000 Wh/kg. If the company actually comes up with a battery that dense, a pack of them would give an electric vehicle a range of around 620 miles (Tesla’s top-end cars now have a range of about 330 miles). EVs today rely on lithium-ion batteries that use liquid electrolytes.
Several companies are working to produce solid-state batteries—which, of course, wouldn’t contain any liquid—that would give cars a range of 500 miles. But, as The Verge points out, solid-state batteries have yet to make it out of the lab. Innolith’s batteries are lithium-ion based, too, but with a difference: Their electrolyte isn’t an organic solvent, but an inorganic one, comprising mainly salt-like materials. Organic solvents now used by batterymakers are highly flammable—which is why lithium-ion batteries are often fire hazards—but Innolith’s batteries contain nothing that can burn. Inorganic electrolytes are also more stable, which is why they can hold so much more energy. Innolith says it should take three to five years to bring its powerful battery to market.
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IV. THE K-12 REPORT |
TESLA PROGRAM INTRODUCES GIRLS TO ENGINEERING
Women constitute 57 percent of the U.S. workforce, but when it comes to occupations based on computers and mathematics, they account for only 26 percent of those positions. And women comprise only 12.7 percent of the engineering workforce. This situation is, of course, not new, and over the years, plenty of STEM programs aimed at encouraging young girls to develop the skills and passions necessary to work in tech industries have been launched. One recent addition is Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day, a new STEM education effort by electric car manufacturer Tesla in partnership with Envirolution, an environmental technology company, according to TechRepublic. A Tesla press release says the one-day national event was designed to “show girls how engineering can be a
great career choice and a great way to change the world.” Tesla says it is “committed to increasing female students’ exposure to manufacturing and engineering,” and that Engineering Day is only one part of that mission. More than 200 students participated in the event, which was hosted by around 80 Tesla employees at the company’s facilities across California and Nevada, including Reno, Los Angeles, San Diego and Las Vegas. The students were given hands-on activities in electrical, civil and mechanical engineering, including building simple motors, suspension bridges, and balloon-propelled cars.
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TRUMP ADMINISTRATION SUED OVER HEALTHY LUNCH RULES
The Trump administration has rolled back a signature Obama White House effort to make school meals healthier, a program championed by former First Lady Michelle Obama. Now a coalition of states and advocacy groups has filed lawsuits to maintain the Obama rules. They argue that the U.S. Department of Agriculture acted illegally when it issued new rules last year to water down requirements that school meals contain less salt and more whole grains, the New York Times reports. The initial rules were promulgated after Congress passed the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010. The USDA violated the Administrative Procedure Act because it issued new guidelines with little public notice, no scientific underpinnings, and against strong public opposition, the suits claim.
Last year, the department published a final rule that permanently delayed and eliminated sodium targets and halved the amount of whole grains that have to be served, the paper says. USDA officials claimed the previous rules were costly and burdensome to school districts and had caused decreased participation in the federal school-lunch program. But advocacy groups say the department’s own data show that nearly all schools were participating in the lunch program and making progress to meet its requirements.
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V. JOBS, JOBS, JOBS |
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VII. COMING ATTRACTIONS |
HERE’S THE LINEUP FOR NEXT EDITION OF PRISM MAGAZINE
COVER: HUNGER—Engineering faculty and students are at the forefront of finding creative ways to reduce hunger on U.S. campuses.
Image Courtesy of Ben Falter
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FEATURE 1: AMAZON—Virginia’s engineering schools are pouring resources into what they expect will be a dynamic high-tech ecosystem once Amazon’s HQ2 arrives.
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FEATURE 2: CONSTRUCTION—Engineers at British universities and companies join forces work on novel methods and materials to improve the industry’s productivity and to also help expand the UK’s stock of affordable housing.
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VIII. COMMUNITY ANNOUNCEMENTS |
APPLY TODAY: CHALLENGING IMPLICIT BIAS TRAIN THE TRAINER PROGRAM
Receive the tools and training needed to prepare and deliver implicit bias workshops at your institution with the new train the trainer program Training for Action: Challenging Implicit Bias. This three-part program will commence with a full-day workshop on June 15th in conjunction with the 2019 ASEE Annual Conference. Applications open now! Learn more and apply: https://goo.gl/NSQMwF
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DEPARTMENT CHAIR’S BEST PRACTICES
Register for the 2019 Chairs Conclave—taking place June 16t in Tampa, FL—to connect with department chairs and learn the best practices of successful chairs. Topics covered include leadership skills, department culture, faculty evaluations, and entrepreneurship for chairs. The Chairs Conclave is an exclusive forum for engineering and engineering technology department chairs to exchange ideas, talk through challenges, and build working relationships. Learn more and register today—seating is limited—at https://chairsconclave.asee.org.
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VIII. SOUND OFF |
Do you have a comment or suggestion for Connections?
Please let us know. Email us at: connections@asee.org. Thanks.
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