Blog : GE Global Research

Power Conversion Systems at Global Research

Hi, I’m Arvind Tiwari, manager of the Electrical Power Technologies laboratory based in Bangalore, India. I joined Global Research in Nov 2003. In the coming weeks I will tell you a lot more about myself, my responsibilities at GE Global Research, and what you can expect from me in my blog entries. I am a part of the Power Conversion Systems global technology organization at Global Research and we have research labs in all four of the global research centers at Niskayuna, Bangalore, Munich and Shanghai. To help familiarize you all with some of the work that we do I wanted to share some videos that our Global Technology Leader Juan de Bedout filmed late last year on his trip around the world visiting the labs.

February 8th, 2010 | Energy, Power Conversion Systems

TAGS: Bangalore, Energy, power conversion, renewables, smart grid, solar, wind

Water scarcity around the world

Water scarcity is a major concern and spreading. The fact that there is so much water on the planet unfortunately does not mean that it is conveniently located or clean enough for human consumption.

There are two types of water scarcity: physical and economic. Physical scarcity occurs when water resources cannot meet the demands of a growing population. This type of scarcity is most common in regions located either inland or in arid climates. Economic scarcity is largely due to overuse and is characterized by poor infrastructure and unequal distribution of water.

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February 5th, 2010 | Energy & Propulsion, Water

TAGS: desalination, ecomagination, resources, Water

Chemical Technologies and Materials Characterization

My name is Vincent (Vin, Vince) Smentkowski and I am a surface chemist/analyst working in the Micro and Nano Analysis Laboratory (MNAL) which is one of the three characterization organizations within the Chemical Technology & Materials Characterization (CTMC) global technology organization. I have been working at the Niskayuna site of GE Global Research for 13 years, and used a number of analytical techniques to support GE Global Research programs, GE business issues, as well as to help our strategic partners.

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February 5th, 2010 | Chemical Technologies & Materials Characterization

TAGS: batteries, composites, CTMC, desalination, emissions, holographic data storage, Imaging, materials, membranes, microscopy, Niskayuna

Stay Connected with Edison’s Desk on Twitter and YouTube

Hey, I just wanted to let you know of a new tool that will help you to stay connected with GE Global Research. First off, please follow Edison’s Desk on Twitter at @EdisonsDesk. As well, you can check out our YouTube page at www.youtube.com/grcblog. And please remember to subscribe to our RSS feed for the blog or check back often as we’ll be posting blogs daily!

Thanks!

February 5th, 2010 | Global Research

TAGS: stay connected, twitter, videos, youtube

The dust is coming

Overall the speed of technology is increasing exponentially. This statement is widely repeated; from Moore’s law to the singularity predictions of Ray Kurzweil. Energy technologies however are not living up to our hyper-expectations. Compare, for example, the number of transistors on a single IC to the amount of energy contained in a battery over the last 50 years. Battery technology is standing still by comparison! Available energy is now the bottleneck for pervasive computing, for computing at the “edge”. This is about to change.

Because of this bottleneck, the amount of energy available at the “edge” has remained constant. However, the amount of energy required to do basic sensing and computing is falling (relentlessly driven by Moore’s Law). The lines that describe these phenomena are about to cross. The dust is coming. This New York Times article takes a very interesting look at the pace of this technology. Very soon energy harvesting systems such as solar, vibration, thermal, and chemical systems will be capable of delivering enough energy to an edge sensing and computing system. Nervous energy, potholes, body heat, even our own blood will power our edge computers. The dust is indeed coming.

My question is: How will this fact change our lives?

February 4th, 2010 | Computing & Decision Sciences

TAGS: articles, Energy, Moore's law, Ray Kurzweil, technology