WIRELESS WORKSHOPS
Brainstorming sessions can often be dominated by the loudest people. But a system that allows groups to work together using a wireless network will give everyone a fair shout. ConcertStudeo is a software system that links a central Wi-Fi-equipped PC with other PCs and PDAs in the same room.
It developed out of research into what new forms of learning are possible with Wi-Fi, conducted by Martin Wessner and colleagues at the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Publication and Information Systems in Darmstadt, Germany. The software allows a moderator to put up a problem to which brainstorming participants suggest possible solutions using their PDAs or laptops. The system sorts and categorises suggestions and displays the results. This helps the group to combine the best ideas to reach a solution.
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It also enables the moderator to conduct quizzes and polls, which it immediately collates, presenting the results for use during the workshop or lesson. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a powerful tool for spontaneous cooperation that could have a big effect on e-learning and e-business,鈥� Wessner claims.
MICROWAVE HEAVY METAL SESSION
Giant microwave ovens could one day replace the blast furnaces currently used to make steel. Jim Hwang from Michigan Technological University, situated not far from the largest iron ore mine in the world, produced a pound of steel in his lab using a super-strength oven he made by combining the magnetrons of six household microwaves into a single unit.
He showed that making steel in a microwave oven wastes less energy than a traditional furnace, because microwaves only heat up molecules that are polarised 鈥� meaning they have an unevenly distributed charge 鈥� while a furnace heats everything in it.
Steel is a blend of iron and carbon made by heating iron oxide to over 1000 掳C in the presence of coke and reducing agents. Blast furnaces waste vast amounts of energy heating up the surrounding air. Microwaves however, heat up polarised iron oxide, but not neutral molecules such as nitrogen, which make up almost 80 per cent of air.
