omniomni/omni-engineering huggingface dataset:
FireFly Acoustic Threat Detection System. The FireFly Acoustic Threat Detection System is a system for detecting hostile fire. It has been developed jointly by the US Army Aviation and Missile Research Development and Engineering Command (AMRDEC), the U.S. Army Research Laboratory (ARL) and industry partners.  The FireFly acoustic and electro-optical (EO) sensor can operate with Serenity Payload or be deployed as a stand-alone unit. FireFly was designed for support of small installations, independent of installation power.

The $45,000 cost of the FireFly sensor is small enough that systems are considered disposable if a failure occurs, yet its algorithms are capable of grouping threats into classifications of small arms fire, heavy machine gun, rockets artillery and mortar, geolocating the threat with a high degree of spatial accuracy. The FireFly system was initially deployed to Afghanistan in May 2012, to support a threat detection requirement.

Reusing Existing Natural Energy, Wind & Solar system (RENEWS) 

Reusing Existing Natural Energy, Wind & Solar system (RENEWS) was a microgrid solution providing alternative power sources to soldiers in combat. RENEWS was developed to address logistical challenges associated with Firefly. Originally deployed in Afghanistan in May 2012, maintaining FireFly’s power supply became a risk for soldiers. RENEWS remedied this problem by producing self-sustaining solar and wind energy for combat technology.

Through harvest of wind and solar power, RENEWS was intended to produce up to 300 watts to remote operations where the power and fuel resupply was difficult or risky. The U.S. Army’s Communications-Electronics Research, Development and Engineering Center started work on RENEWS in 2009 under an American Reinvestment and Recovery Act program for photovoltaics, partnering with ARL and Natick Soldier Research, Development and Engineering Center. RENEWS was first deployed in April 2013.

The RENEWS system consisted of a wind turbine, three 124-watt flexible solar panels, a power conditioner, an AC inverter, and a battery storage/charging unit that contained six BB-2590 rechargeable batteries. RENEWS was designed to power two or three laptops continuously. The storage component provided power at peak demand for about five hours when energy was not being generated by the renewable components. RENEWS components weighed about 100 pounds, and was stored in two cases weighing about 70 pounds each.

References 

Military technology
Xiaolin Wang. Xiaolin Wang is a Chinese-Australian scientist studyying advanced materials synthesis and characterisation and spintronics. He is a University of Wollongong professor, and director of its Institute for Superconducting and Electronic Materials, and an Australian Research Council future fellow.

Discoveries 

Wang discovered a new class of materials in 2008, the spin gapless semiconductor, creating interest and activity in the condensed matter community. In 2012 he observed resistance dependence on applied magnetic field in a topological insulator nano-sheet at room temperature, paving the way for topological insulator applications in magnetoelectronic sensors, spin electronic devices, mechatronics, and other multifunctional devices.

Career 
Wang has a BSc (physics) and MSc (physics) awarded at Tsinghua University, China, or Shandong University, China, and a PhD (materials engineering) awarded at the University of Wollongong, Australia, in 2000. 
 
He was research fellow Johannes-Kepler-University Austria 1993–95, guest research scientist at Atomic Institute of Austrian Universities Austria 1995–96, associate fellow University of Wollongong 2000–02, Australian Research Council APD Fellow 2002–05, visiting fellow, National Institute for Materials Science Japan 2003, visiting scholar, Ohio State University 2004 and QEII Fellow University of Wollongong 2005–2009.

He was made an associate professor at the University of Wollongong 2006–08, and professor from 2008. He has supervised more than 30 PhDs and Mphil, plus more than 10 academic staff. He is a theme leader and node leader at ARC Centre of Excellence in Future Low-Energy Electronics Technologies (FLEET).

From 2013 he has coordinated University of Wollongong and FLEET topological-insulator charge and spin transport research collaborations with Xue Qikun at Tsinghua University, the discoverer of the quantum anomalous Hall effect. In 2017, he received the University of Wollongong Vice-Chancellor's Research Excellence Award For Researcher Of The Year.

Selected publications
 X. L. Wang, “A proposal for a new class of materials: Spin gapless semiconductors”, Physical Review Letters 100, 156404 (2008).
 X.L. Wang, Y. Du, S.X. Dou, and C. Zhang, “Room Temperature Giant and Linear Magnetoresistance in Topological Insulator Bi2Te3 Nanosheets”, Physical Review Letters, 108, 266806 (2012)
 M. Veldhorst et al., “Josephson supercurrent through a topological insulator surface state”, Nature Materials, 11, 417 (2012)

References 

Australian materials scientists
Living people
Year of birth missing (living people)
John Rumney Nicholson. Sir John Rumney Nicholson,  (25 March 1866 – 22 November 1939) was a British engineer.

Biography 
Nicholson was born at Langwathby in 1866, the son of Isaac Nicholson, and was educated at St Bees School. His family was stated to be from Bolton, Cumbria. He entered the works of Black, Hawthorn and Co. in Gateshead in 1883. He was resident engineer in charge of the erection of the first generating station of the Newcastle Electric Supply Company at Pandon Dene in 1889. He then went to Venezuela, and returned to London in 1894 to join P. W. and C. S. Meek consulting engineers, and was engaged on dock and railway undertakings, including at the Port Talbot docks. From there he went to Ellesmere Works at Worsley, near Manchester.

After his marriage in 1902, he moved with his wife to Singapore, where he was engaged as managing director of the Tanjong Pagar Dock Company, and on its nationalization by the government in 1905 became chairman and chief engineer of the new Singapore Harbour Board. For his service in Singapore, he was appointed a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) in the 1913 Birthday Honours list, and knighted in the 1919 Birthday Honours list.

He returned to the United Kingdom in 1918, and after working a year on government work in France, was appointed chief engineer for docks on the North Eastern Railway in 1919. Following the formation of the London and North Eastern Railway group (LNER) in 1923, he continued as chief engineer for docks of the North-Eastern area. He retired late 1927.

He died on 1939 at his home Red House, Underskiddaw, near Keswick, Cumbria.

Family
Nicholson married at the parish church in Lugwardine on 24 September 1902 to Sybil Helen Croft, daughter of Sir Herbert Croft, 9th Baronet. Lady Nicholson was an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE). They had one son and one daughter.

Footnotes

References

1866 births
1939 deaths
Knights Bachelor
Companions of the Order of St Michael and St George
GS&WR Class 341. The Great Southern and Western Railway (GS&WR) Class 341 consisted of a single 4-4-0 express passenger locomotive named Sir William Goulding introduced in 1913 for the Dublin—Cork route.  Despite being an apparently capable design it was withdrawn in 1928.

Design
Design was begun by Robert Coey who retired through ill health and completed by Richard Maunsell who was later to design the UK Southern Railway Schools 4-4-0. Equipped with a large diameter boiler and Schmidt superheater.  It was unique for the GS&WR and its successor the GSR in having inside Walschaerts valve gear. This design was at the limit achievable by a 4-4-0 within the axle weight restriction limits and it was weighed regularly to ensure compliance.  The only change to the initial design was a later reduction in cylinder diameter

Service
Due to weight restrictions it served on the Dublin—Cork route only where from 1916 it later shared services with the new EA Watson designed 400 Class 4-6-0 against which engine 341 seems to have compared favourably.

Withdrawal
The locomotive was withdrawn in 1928 after just 15 years, three 400 class express locomotives were also retired shortly afterwards as surplus to requirements.

Model
There is a detailed O Gauge model of engine 341 in the Fry model railway collection.

References

4-4-0 locomotives
5 ft 3 in gauge locomotives
Railway locomotives introduced in 1913
Scrapped locomotives
Steam locomotives of Ireland
Individual locomotives of Ireland
WDR paper computer. The WDR paper computer or Know-how Computer is an educational model of a computer consisting only of a pen, a sheet of paper, and individual matches in the most simple case. This allows anyone interested to learn how to program without having an electronic computer at their disposal.

The paper computer was created in the early 1980s when computer access was not yet widespread in Germany, to allow people to familiarize themselves with basic computer operation and assembly-like programming languages. It was distributed in over  copies and at its time belonged to the computers with the widest circulation.

The Know-how Computer was developed by  and Ulrich Rohde and was first presented in the television program WDR Computerclub (broadcast by Westdeutscher Rundfunk) in 1983. It was also published in German computer magazines mc and .

The original printed version of the paper computer has up to 21 lines of code on the left and eight registers on the right, which are represented as boxes that contain as many matches as the value in the corresponding register. A pen is used to indicate the line of code which is about to be executed. The user steps through the program, adding and subtracting matches from the appropriate registers and following program flow until the stop instruction is encountered.

The instruction set of five commands is small but Turing complete and therefore enough to represent all mathematical functions:

 inc *register*: Add 1 to the register.
 dec *register*: Subtract 1 from the register.
 jmp *line*: Jumps to the specified line.
 isz *register*: Checks if the register is zero. If so, skips a line. If not, continues normally.
 stp: Stops the program.

In the original newspaper article about this computer, it was written slightly differently (translation):

 + = Add 1 to the contents of data register XX and increase (program step) by 1
 - = Subtract 1 from the contents of data register XX and increase (program step) by 1
 (J) = (Jump) to (line) XX
 0 = Check if the content of the data register XX is equal to 0. If so, then increase (program step) by 2; if no(t), then increase (program step) by 1
 Stop = Stop

An emulator for Windows is available on Wolfgang Back's website, but a JavaScript emulator also exists. Emulators place fewer restrictions on line count or the number of registers, allowing longer and more complex programs.

The paper computer's method of operation is nominally based on a register machine by Elmar Cohors-Fresenborg, but follows more the approach of John Cedric Shepherdson and Howard E. Sturgis in their Shepherdson–Sturgis register machine model.

A derived version of the paper computer is used as a "Know-How Computer" in Namibian school education.

See also
 Digi-Comp I
 Digi-Comp II
 Geniac
 CARDboard Illustrative Aid to Computation
 Turing Tumble
 Little man computer

References

Further reading
  
   
  (NB. Javascript implementation of a paper computer)
 
 

Computers
German inventions
1983 in computing
Models of computation
Educational abstract machines
Educational programming languages
ADA (smart antenna). ADA (an abbreviation of adaptive antenna) is an advanced smart antenna, using multichannel controlled reception pattern antenna (CRPA), designed for various platforms, including UAVs, planes and ships, manufactured by the MLM factory of the Israeli Aerospace Industries (IAI).

The ADA enables vehicles, missiles and other platforms equipped with the smart antenna to navigate even when heavy jamming is conducted in order to block all reception of GPS and other GNSS signals. Using advanced techniques even very faint "good" signals are being extracted from the superposition of incoming waves that include noise and strong signals produced by the enemy (or friendly) jammers. These signals are then used (just like a regular GPS receiver) to triangulate the position and determine the GPS tune.

History 
The theory of the ADA started to emerge as a theory of multichannel estimation. Its origins go back into methods developed in the 1920s that were used to determine direction of the arrival of radio signals by a set of two antennas based on the phase difference or amplitudes of their output voltages. Thus, the assessment of the directions of arrival of a single signal was conducted according to pointed type indicator readings or according to the Lissajous curves,
drawn by beam on the oscilloscope screen.

The existence of ADA was publicly unveiled in February 2017, along with a report that the Israeli Defence Forces has already decided to install the ADAs on "major platforms" in service. It was also displayed in the Aero India air show that was held from 14th to the 18th that month in Bangalore.

In July 2017 MLM has signed a contract with American Honeywell to jointly develop a GPS anti-jam navigation system, based on ADA and Honywell's devices.

References

External links 
 IAI ADA, by the IAI, on YouTube 
 IAI, Honeywell to jointly develop anti-jam system, by Globes, May 2018
 IAI Unveils ADA-O to Help Land Platforms Deal with GNSS Anti-Jammers, by Israel Defense, Mar 2019

Radio frequency antenna types
Smart devices
MLM products
Military equipment
EASN Association. The European Aeronautics Science Network (EASN) is an international non-profit association dedicated to the advancement of the European aeronautics sciences and technologies. The establishment of EASN goes back to 2002 and it was based on two subsequent support actions funded by the European Commission while it was founded as an open, self-funded and self sustainable association in 2008. Specifically, the EASN Association is the Association of the European Academia active in supporting aviation research, facing the fragmentation of Academia and disseminating the new knowledge and breakthrough technologies incubated through aviation research. Headquartered in Brussels, Belgium, the EASN Association encounters members across 28 European countries with the number constantly increasing.

Overview
On 6 May 2008 the EASN Association was officially established by 22 distinguished personalities of the European Aeronautics research community, with the encouragement of the European Commission and the support of several university professors throughout Europe. The mission of the Association is to contribute to the advancement of the aeronautics sciences and technologies and support the education and research in Europe. The tools for accomplishing the above objectives include among others the organization of scientific events, research forums and collaboration with other networks and associations. 
In 2017, the Association counted approximately 350 effective members Europe-wide. These effective members are individuals mainly from European universities active in aviation research. Furthermore, the Association has a number of about 50 associate members which are highly-ranked entities, such as Universities, University Departments, Research Establishments, SMEs, Industries and Laboratories. Among the Association’s associate members top universities are included such as KU Leuven, Polytechnic University of Milan, Warsaw University of Technology, University of Stuttgart, Politecnico di Torino, RWTH Aachen University etc., Research Establishments such as the German Aerospace Center (DLR), Italian Aerospace Research Centre (CIRA), Office National d'Etudes et de Recherches Aérospatiales (ONERA)  etc. and European manufacturers such as Airbus.
Furthermore, the Association is connected with 15.000 researchers across 28 European countries while has strong links with other networks.

References

External links
EASN Association Website https://www.easn.net/

Aeronautics organizations
European Group
European Union and science and technology
Engineering university associations and consortia
Higher education organisations based in Europe
Science and technology in Europe
MRAP Armor Weight Reduction Spiral Program. U.S. Army Research Laboratory (ARL) research on MRAP Armor Weight Reduction Spiral (MAWRS) program resulted in armor technologies 40 percent lighter, with technologies fielded on more than 10,000 MRAP vehicles. Dozens of spin-out designs were provided to most major combat and tactical wheeled-vehicles program in production.

Purpose and plan 
ARL monitored escalation in the lethality of threats encountered by forces deployed in Southwest Asia. For better and lighter protection from improvised explosive devices (IEDs), ARL developed weight reduction goals and started to explore practical technology options by the end of FY08.

A partnership was formed between Research, Development and Engineering Command (RDECOM) and the MRAP Joint Program Office (JPO) that resulted in RDECOM accelerating the development of IED protective technology and JPO redirecting its set of original equipment manufacturers to add vehicle payload capacity. The overall requirement was that the introduction of armor production could not delay the deployment schedule of MRAP equipment to theater.

The program's combined technical approach was to exploit computing and terminal effects experimentation to scale known technologies for the defeat of IED threats; understand the most viable armor mechanisms for efficient penetrator defeat; and then introduce light-weight composites, new materials and enhanced ballistic mechanisms to reduce the add-on weight of final armor packages.

The technical challenge to RDECOM was that technology originally envisioned as high-risk for a one-year developmental program, was now required to be production-ready within five months. The MAWRS program generated dozens of armor designs to counter explosively formed penetrator threats, improving protection for a variety of ground systems.

Results 
Improvements include the Stryker family of vehicles. Using ARL's Defense Supercomputing Resource Center for supercomputing, materials research, on-site fabrication and live fire exercises at experimental facilities, expedient crew protection solutions for the Stryker were developed using advanced armor materials and improvements in energy absorption for crew seating.  These technologies were transitioned to General Dynamics Land Systems for kit production and fielding.

The MAWRS program was recognized by United States Army Materiel Command as the “Top Ten Great Inventions of 2008.”

References

Armored fighting vehicles of the United States
Dalrymple ESCRI battery. The Dalrymple ESCRI battery (Energy Storage for Commercial Renewable Integration) is a 30 MW / 8 MW·h grid-connected battery array near Stansbury on Yorke Peninsula in South Australia. Its role is to provide improved reliability and stability to the electricity network on Yorke Peninsula and South Australia.

The battery is installed adjacent to the Dalrymple substation, seven kilometres southwest of Stansbury. Dalrymple substation is at the end of a 275 kV power line into the peninsula. It feeds 33 kV lines to various towns across the lower end of the peninsula and receives electricity generated by the Wattle Point Wind Farm.

The facility is able to store excess generation from Wattle Point Wind Farm as well as a colocated solar farm and is expected to provide a similar service to the Hornsdale Power Reserve in the Mid North of the state.

The battery was constructed by Consolidated Power Projects with ABB and Samsung components. It was part-funded by a grant from the Commonwealth Government through the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA). It was commissioned in June and July 2018. It provides Frequency Control Ancillary Service (FCAS) to the grid, and also enables the possibility for Yorke Peninsula to operate independently of the wider grid in the event of a system failure. In 2020, its FCAS earned $575,000 per MW installed or $2 million/MWh.

By 2021, the battery had been financially successful enough that ElectraNet returned the $12 million grant funding to ARENA. The installation also provided a model for how to manage the process for registration, licensing and connection. It provides the world's largest autonomous regional microgrid. If the single transmission line to southern Yorke Peninsula is isolated, the ESCRI battery and the Wattle Point Wind Farm create a 100 per cent renewable energy grid.

See also 

 List of energy storage projects in South Australia

References

Energy storage projects
Electric power infrastructure in South Australia
Harvey L. Slatin. Harvey L. Slatin (June 17, 1915 - February 23, 2013) was an American physicist and inventor. He was the 23rd scientist recruited to work on the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos, New Mexico in 1942. He worked on the isolation of plutonium. He was the last surviving member of his Special Engineering Detachment (SED) relating to the Manhattan Project.

Career

In his work as an inventor, he held various patents relating to electroplating processes, such as the process for the electrolytic production of metals, for the preparation of pure metals from their compounds. One of his patents includes a patent for a method of producing lithium. He is the inventor on a patent relating to electrolysis of rare-earth elements and Yttrium.

Slatin received a full scholarship to Cornell University. He graduated in 1937 with a degree in chemical engineering. He earned his PhD at the University of California at Berkeley in nuclear physics. His faculty adviser was Robert J. Oppenheimer. A top security clearance was required to read his doctoral dissertation.

Personal life

Slatin was married to Yeffe Kimball in his first marriage. He and Yeffe Kimble worked on a photography project in the 1950s to honor Native Americans in the Southwest region of the United States. Some of the photographs can be found in the Indian Museum in Santa Fe, New Mexico.  She predeceased him in 1978. He then married Anne Katherine Pratt. They had one daughter, Thomas Wilson Pratt Slatin, a photographer and writer, who specializes in urban exploration photography. Slatin was a supporter of Friends of Music, located in Stamford, New York. He was a longtime vice-president of the organization and served on the board of directors.

References 

American physicists
American chemical engineers
Cornell University alumni
1915 births
2013 deaths