Grants for renewable energy and conservation will cut energy costs, create jobs, promote energy independence

WASHINGTON, June 10, 2015 - Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today announced that USDA is investing more than $6.7 million in 544 renewable energy and energy efficiency projects nationwide.

Secretary Vilsack made the announcement during a visit to the Snake River Brewing Company, in Jackson, Wyo. The company received a $13,810 USDA Rural Development Rural Energy for America Program (REAP) grant to install a solar panel to generate energy for the business.

"These grants will help farmers, ranchers and small business owners use more renewable energy, which cuts carbon pollution, reduces our dependence on foreign oil, saves businesses money on their energy bills and creates American jobs," Vilsack said. "All of these are crucial components to developing healthier, more economically vibrant rural communities."

REAP was created by the 2002 Farm Bill and was reauthorized by the 2014 Farm Bill. REAP funding has helped farmers expand renewable energy use in recent years. The new Census of Agriculture shows the number of farms utilizing renewable energy production has doubled in the last five years.

Since 2009, USDA has awarded $545 million to support more than 8,800 REAP projects nationwide. This includes $361 million in grants and loans for almost 2,900 renewable energy systems. For the remaining 5,900 projects, USDA provided $184 million to help rural small businesses and agricultural producers make energy efficiency improvements such as lighting; heating, ventilation and cooling; irrigation; insulation and motor replacements. When fully operational, these projects are estimated to generate and save 7.3 billion kilowatt hours of electricity annually - enough to power more than 660,000 homes for a year.

Eligible agricultural producers and rural small businesses may use REAP funds to make energy efficiency improvements or install renewable energy systems, including solar, wind, renewable biomass (including anaerobic digesters), small hydroelectric, ocean energy, hydrogen and geothermal.

The awards list announced today is contingent upon the recipients meeting the terms of the grant agreement.

President Obama's historic investments in rural America have made our rural communities stronger. Under his leadership, these investments in housing, community facilities, businesses and infrastructure have empowered rural America to continue leading the way - strengthening America's economy, small towns and rural communities.

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RAPID CITY, S.D. (May 7, 2015) - Two new antenna prototypes are the first to be developed using a special class of thin film material which allows them to alter their shape using temperature and radiate at varying frequencies within the popular GHz range. A single reconfigurable antenna could replace two or more traditional antennas, including those in cell phones, Wi-Fi and numerous military devices.

The revolutionary new antennas developed at the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology, in collaboration with Michigan State University, were documented in the IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters in February. They are made by integrating vanadium dioxide thin films, a type of "phase-change" material, meaning it is an insulator at room temperature and becomes metal when heated above 68 degrees Celsius. The heating-cooling cycle is repeatable and the phase-change is reversible.

Principal investigator and renowned expert Dimitris Anagnostou, Ph.D., of the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology, led the research with his graduate student Tarron Teeslink, collaborating with Nelson Sepulveda, Ph.D., and his student David Torres, from Michigan State University.

Anagnostou, associate professor in the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, has been working on reconfigurable and tunable antennas for the past 15 years. Common methods to date have resulted in non-linearities, high losses, expensive fabrication equipment and often complicated biasing mechanisms.

His exploration of vanadium dioxide has shown the material can be used in linear devices, has minimal losses and can be activated using a variety of heat transfer methods.

Linear devices for radio-frequency communications applications involve usually passive components such as antennas and (microwave) filters, as well as resistors, capacitors and inductors.

Often antennas are tuned or reconfigured using non-linear components such as diodes, but these distort the electrical signals, especially over a wide range of frequencies. Vanadium dioxide is a linear material, meaning it affects all radio frequencies by the same amount causing no distortion, and is therefore suitable for narrowband and wideband tuning.

Vanadium dioxide was investigated as far back as 1959, when an article described the insulator-to-metal transition at approximately 68 degrees Celsius. Since then, it has been almost neglected, as the need for reconfigurable components, wireless communications and antennas was not as significant, Anagnostou said.

In the past decade vanadium dioxide has received widespread attention from researchers due to its properties for applications spanning from information storage to stronger artificial muscles and missile guidance.

This is the only known success achieving reconfigurability by altering the antenna's geometry with the special class of material. Several other universities are currently working in the area, indicating the strong scientific interest in this area.

"The novelty lies in obtaining the know-how of the integration and application of the material in antennas in the GHz range. There are still many things to learn. These prototype antennas prove the material is capable for use and should be further investigated," Anagnostou said, adding the material can find application in general antenna and microwave component design but ultimately has the potential for many military uses. "Our ongoing experiments in using the material for cloaking and thermal camouflage are also very encouraging," he said.

The National Science Foundation funded the work over three years as a collaborative proposal between South Dakota Mines and Michigan State University. While Anagnostou and Teeslink did the design and characterization at SD Mines, Michigan State researchers fabricated the antennas at the clean room of the Air Force Office of Scientific Research.

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Upcoming Events with Volunteer Needs:

•  Monday, May 3 - Science Night - Noche de Ciencias - Black Hawk College (5:30 - 8:30 PM) Parents and students age 9-15 are invited to attend the free event hosted at Black Hawk College in partnership with QCESC member society, the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE) and John Deere.  Science Night is a national program to promote knowledge and interest in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). The event will include fun, hands-on STEM activities, useful college info for parents & students, and Bilingual parent workshop.  The National President of SHPE is scheduled to attend.
  Link to attend or volunteer
•   Friday, May 8 - High School Cardboard Boat Race   - Bettendorf Middle Park Lagoon Registration for local high school teams and volunteers are being sought for the 8th annual cardboard boat regatta race being held at Bettendorf Middle Park Lagoon.  The event is scheduled to run from 8:00 AM until approximately 2:00 PM depending on the number of entries.  Last year there were a record 26 teams from 5 area schools that participated.  High school teachers and engineers are also invited to participate to compete against the students.Link to Further Info including links  to register a team or volunteer

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  July 27-31, Engineering Kids Camp - Putnam Museum & Science Center
  Students and volunteers are being sought for the 7th Annual Engineering Kids one day camps for students in grades 2nd through 8th grade (as of Fall). Nearly 400 students attended this very popular camp last year with several of the day selling out.  The camp is possible through a partnership between the QCESC, Putnam and Iowa State University College of Engineering.  This camp is an exciting, engaging experience for your young innovator. Fun, imaginative sessions including LEGO robotics, a Giant Screen 3D film, the opportunity to create and learn side by side with engineering students from Iowa State University and Quad City Professional Engineers & Technologist.
  Link to Further Information including to register a team or volunteer.

For further information or questions, please contact Carl Loweth, QCESC STEM Coordinator at e-mail carl.loweth@gmail.com or via phone at 563-505-1196.

(DES MOINES) - Iowa Gov. Terry E. Branstad and Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds today applauded the Iowa House of Representatives for passing House File 641, a bill that aims to connect every acre of Iowa to high-speed broadband Internet. The bill passed 89-5.

"We began calling for broadband legislation last year because our administration understands that if we are to continue to grow jobs and increase incomes we must ensure that ever acre of Iowa is connected with high-speed broadband," said Branstad. "I applaud the Iowa House for passing the broadband Internet bill with strong bipartisan support and look forward to working with the Senate on the measure in the coming weeks."

"It's clear from today's vote that the Iowa House of Representatives shares our view that high-speed broadband will connect agriculture and equipment through rural fiber, schools to online resources and businesses to the global marketplace," said Reynolds. "We appreciate today's vote of confidence from the Iowa House for this innovative proposal."

In January, Gov. Branstad called for the passage of his "Connect Every Acre" broadband bill in the Condition of the State address by stating, "The fabric of our state is woven together by the gravel roads and the interstate system, but in this day and age it also must be connected through access to broadband as well. This legislative session, let's come together and pass legislation allowing rural Iowa to experience continued growth and connection to the rest of Iowa and the rest of the world."