Tech Briefs Magazine - September 2022 - 53

United Kingdom to build the world's first
hardware-in-the-loop test bed that emulates
the changing connectivity of a mega
satellite constellation at scale. With support
from the CCI, the Virginia Tech team
and its partners have been researching new
space-based, high-bandwidth networks.
The test bed they built will be simulating
mega internet constellations, including
satellites, ground stations, connected
devices such as phones, and the links between
them all. By running the test bed
through different scenarios, the team is
looking at what to do when operations
are disrupted by something like a space
event or a security breach and how an adjacent
satellite network could compensate
for a compromised system.
Another research team at the college
has recently received $2.9 million in
funding from the U.S. Department of Energy
(DOE) to tackle power grid sustainability,
innovative approaches to power
conversion, and related technologies.
The team submitted a proposal for a new
solution called SCALED, or Substation in
a Cable for Adaptable, Low-cost Electrical
Distribution, with a goal to create a more
streamlined structure that combines the
functionality of power electronics and the
power density benefits of high-voltage cables
to replace bulky power substations in
the electrical grid we use today.
This new, more compact design could
eliminate the need for large and expensive
power substations and enable simple
integration of renewable energy sources,
electric vehicle fast-charging infrastructure,
energy storage, and efficient direct
current distribution lines. The team
hopes to make SCALED adaptable for the
future by making it bidirectional so power
can flow in both directions.
The huge amount of digital data in
the " cloud " today is stored on magnetic
tapes and discs that are fast becoming a
big part of the global energy problem. A
Virginia Tech Department of Physics team is aiming to solve
by creating new thin films made of specially engineered magnetic
materials.
These proposed films are " vertically graded. " For example, a
vertically graded iron-nickel film may be rich in iron on the
bottom and rich in nickel at the top. The magnetic films will be
about 10 nanometers thick, nearly 10,000 times thinner than a
sheet of copy paper. Early research success indicated that magnetism
in vertically graded films can be rotated with low loss,
Tech Briefs, September 2022
Assistant Professor Satoru Emori seeks to develop thin films with a big payoff. (Image: Steven
Mackay for Virginia Tech)
John Chappell (at left), an associate professor with the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC,
and research scientist Laura Beth Payne used high-resolution, time-lapse imaging and a technique
called transcriptional profiling to understand relationships between cells. (Image: Virginia Tech)
showing promise for energy-efficient device applications, but
more studies need to be done about how chemical gradients
actually affect the magnetic switching process.
Researchers at Virginia Tech are closer to understanding the
earliest beginnings of the circulatory system during embryonic
development - a discovery that could lead to ways to repair damage
in the human body after a stroke or heart attack.
Using high-resolution, time-lapse imaging and a technique
called transcriptional profiling to understand relationships
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Tech Briefs Magazine - September 2022

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