CEET to develop fuel cell techonology

The College of Engineering and Engineering Technology wants to go to the next level.

With the help of two grants from the U.S. Department of Defense totaling $4 million, CEET plans to do just that.

“CEET is a young college, and these grants are timely to help the college transition itself into the next level of research endeavors,” CEET dean Promod Vohra said.

The first grant is being used for research on what’s called the “Rock Project.” It is expected to use a $2.25 million grant for the purpose of creating more jobs and opportunities in Rockford, Vohra said.

“The grant will concentrate upon conducting joint research with Rockford industries to enhance development of land-based future combat systems,” he said.

Research areas for the project include cost management, cost analysis, high-speed machining, materials, supply chain management, manufacturing processes, process analysis and micromachining.

A second grant of $1.75 million will be used for the fuel-cell demonstration project.

“NIU, in collaboration with Argonne National Laboratory, will conduct research, awareness and demonstrations of fuel-cell-based vehicles,” Vohra said. “This is a national research priority, and the college intends to develop strong research interest in the area of fuel cells.”

$2 million allocated for particle research

The Northern Illinois Center for Accelerator and Detector Development (NICADD) received a $2 million grant to continue its research.

“NICADD is dedicated to the research and development of new particle accelerator and detector technologies,” said Gerald Blazey, co-director of NICADD and professor of physics at NIU. “NICADD staff and Fermilab National Accelerator Laboratory collaborate on a number of research projects.”

Fermilab is a laboratory near Batavia that employs more than 2,000 workers, including many physicists and engineers from across the globe.

The $2 million that NICADD received from the department of education will be used to support staff working on a research program that primarily includes accelerator and detector research.

Accelerators are used to create high-energy impacts between protons and antiprotons that end up producing different particles of matter.

Fermilab owns the world’s most powerful particle accelerator, the Tevatron Collider.

“Our accelerator program includes simulation of intense electron beams with two computing clusters at NIU, operation of an intense electron source at Fermilab, and development of novel diagnostics for intense beams,” Blazey said. “We are also involved in plasma acceleration of beams and cooling of muon beams at Fermilab.”

Detectors are used to count particles, visualize tracks, measure particle energies and identify different particles.

“The detector program involves operation of a scintillator extruder at Fermilab and research and development on detectors for a linear collider,” Blazey said.

NICADD also has started attracting funds from the National Science Foundation, Blazey said.

“The new funds will also permit us to start a research program in super-conducting radio-frequency particle acceleration in collaboration with Fermilab and Argonne National Laboratory,” Blazey said.