UH Sustainability Hosts Texas Central
On Thursday September 12th, the University of Houston Office Of Sustainability hosted Texas Central as the first guest in the Fall 2019 Sustainability Meetup Series. Texas Central is the company undertaking the development, design, construction, finance, and operation of the innovative new high-speed passenger train to be built in Texas. Based on the "bullet trains" of Japan, this "Texas Sized" Shinkansen will be able to take you from Houston to Dallas in less than 90 minutes. The rail line's construction represents a big step towards a sustainable future for Texas and sets the president for similar projects to happen around the country.
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Sustainability in the news
Video: UH Energy Symposium Series presents "The New Energy Economy"
In response to the growing challenge of the anthropogenic origins of climate change, a New Energy Economy has been proposed. Supporters have firmly laid the notion that innovation and investment across a broad spectrum of energy markets as well as a rapid upheaval of the current fossil dominated energy landscape. Critics have suggested that the New Energy Economy represents an exercise in magical thinking and a near term transition is impossible. The symposium focuses on understanding the technological challenges and enablers, the economics and business case for the two scenarios as well as the societal impact of the choices.
Researchers Report a New Way to Produce Curvy Electronics
Contact lenses that can monitor your health as well as correct your eyesight aren't science fiction, but an efficient manufacturing method - finding a way to produce the curved lenses with embedded electronics - has remained elusive.
Yu and the other researchers proposed the new fabrication method, conformal additive stamp printing, or CAS printing.
CAS printing works like this: An elastomeric, or stretchy, balloon is inflated and coated with a sticky substance. It is then used as a stamping medium, pushing down on pre-fabricated electronic devices to pick up the electronics and then print them onto various curvy surfaces. In the paper, the researchers describe using the method to create a variety of curvy devices, including silicon pellets, photodetector arrays, small antennas, hemispherical solar cells and smart contact lenses.
UH ECE Professor Jiming Bao Elected Fellow Of American Physical Society
Jiming Bao, professor of electrical and computer engineering at the UH Cullen College of Engineering, was elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS).
According to the APS notification letter, Bao was selected for his "discovery of photoacoustic laser streaming, contributions to the understanding of basic electronic and optical properties of nanostructured materials, and the development of new nanomaterials for applications in solar energy conversions and optoelectronic devices."
UH Law Center student and alumna to be published in prestigious environmental law publication
An article by a University of Houston Law Center 3L student and a recent graduate has been accepted for publication in the Environmental Law Institute's Environmental Law News and Reporter.
The article, "All this talk, but plastics keep piling up," by 3L student Rachael Beavers Horne and 2019 graduate Chantal Carriere proposes a legislative mandate for recycled plastic content implemented by market mechanisms. The inspiration from the article came from Professor Victor Flatt's Environmental Markets course during the Spring 2019 semester.
