GE Global Research

I hope you all enjoyed the first part of the Laser Diode-logues that we started in order to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the invention of the laser, which took place on Sunday, May 16th! We’ve got plenty of interesting pieces from my interview with Robert Hall to come so please subscribe above or follow @EdisonsDesk on Twitter to stay connected. Today I wanted to share another video with you. This was put together in 1981 soon after Jack Welch became CEO of the General Electric Company.

At that time, I was tasked in capturing how GE was using laser technology in the company. Per Jack Welch’s request, a company wide meeting was planned in New York City to showcase GE’s technology and products to the analysts. It was somewhat easy to show many of GE products, even operating, such as an aircraft engine, a Healthcare diagnostic system, a large motor, lighting products, switch gear, small and large appliances, etc. Laser technology, that’s operating, could (can) not be shown in a non-technical public venue such as a hotel. So over a six-week period, I traveled the company filming and taking pictures of GE’s use of laser technology. The results were this video and six 2.5×6-foot posters highlighting the use of laser technology in GE from the late 1960’s to 1981.

We showed this video along with the posters at the analyst meeting in New York City and even Jack Welch stopped by to see what the exhibit was all about. I think it is an interesting look at GE laser applications and even a vision of what a laser-based “factory of the future” looked like in the 1981 lens. It just goes to show you that GE has been investing in laser technologies from the early 60s through the 80s and to today.

One of the interesting things about this video is that it illustrates the breath of GE’s involvement in laser technology over 4 decades ago. As I traveled around the company chronicling laser technology in 1981, you could see this breadth from laser processing applications, to defense applications, to isotope separation, to laser fusion, and to even “star wars” during the Reagan years. Since the video was produced for a non-technical audience such as the analysts, I have used this video over the last 2.5 decades as an introduction when I shared with youth of all ages around the country how GE and industry use lasers in general. The video seems to never grow old which indicates that lasers are still an emerging technology even though this year is its 50th anniversary.

Hi, I am Marshall Jones, a principal engineer in GE’s Laser & Metrology Labs. I am one of several researchers who work on laser technologies here at GE Global Research. If you work on lasers, you know that Sunday, May 16th is a special day – the 50th anniversary of the laser. To honor this major milestone, my colleagues and I are launching this new “Laser Diode-logues” blog feature. What’s in the name, you ask?

Well, GE’s greatest laser invention and what many consider to be one of the most significant achievements in this field was retired GE scientist Robert Hall’s invention of the semiconductor (diode) laser. It’s impact in products and our everyday lives seem to have no limit.

Diode lasers help enable everything from reading CDs and DVDs to laser printing and price scanning in stores. In fact, if you watched TV today, you probably used a TV remote to change the channel on your set. Diode lasers are key to that application too … and so much more.

I had the great honor of interviewing Robert Hall this week at our Research Lab in Upstate NY. We had a great conversation about his invention of the diode laser and other memories of his time at GE and the invention of the diode laser.  We also had the chance to show him the holographic data storage lab and show him one of the cool future laser applications GE is working on.

I want to thank Dr. Hall for taking the time to talk with me and hope everyone enjoys listening to his recollections of the diode laser invention, I know I did.  One of the most interesting things Robert Hall told us was actually off camera.  He recalled that when he actually received his patent in Washington, D.C., it was right at the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis.  He said he went to bed the night after receiving his patent wondering if he would even wake up in the morning and if he would ever have the chance to celebrate his accomplishment.  Well, I am happy to say that almost 50 years later, Robert is still celebrating the diode laser and so are we.

Enjoy the video and happy anniversary to the laser! Keep an eye on this spot for more to come from my interview with Robert.

My name is Angela Fisher and I work in the Environmental Technology Laboratory. This is a great place to work because our efforts focus on solving a variety of environmental issues for the company, such as improving the sustainability of GE products and reducing the environmental impacts of GE projects and processes. I’ve recently gotten involved in some of the work being done in our Ecoassessment Center of Excellence which is really cool because this type of work is win-win-win (people-planet-profit); holistically evaluating the way we create, use, and dispose of stuff and finding ways to improve, minimizing resource consumption and environmental emissions to our planet, and reducing costs and liability for the GE businesses in the process.

Many of the projects in the Ecoassessment Center of Excellence involve life cycle assessment, which is a methodology for analyzing the net environmental impact of a product across its entire life cycle, from cradle-to-grave, starting with materials extraction from nature, pre-processing, component and product manufacturing, transport, packaging, use, and ultimately disposal at the end of the product’s life. A subset of life cycle assessment is commonly referred to as carbon footprinting, which looks specifically at greenhouse gas emissions across the life cycle of the product. Carbon footprinting is becoming more widely used as an environmental metric, and yet a global standard for calculating a product carbon footprint is not yet available.

Enter the Greenhouse Gas Protocol Initiative . This organization, a joint effort of the World Resources Institute (WRI) and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), is currently developing a “Product Life Cycle Accounting and Reporting Standard” that is intended to provide a consistent methodology for life cycle greenhouse gas emissions accounting at the product level. So guess what? GE is participating in the development of this new standard as a road tester. My colleague Bill Flanagan and I, working with GE Energy, are applying the draft version of the Product Standard to analyze the life cycle greenhouse gas emissions of  GE Energy’s 2.5 mega-watt wind turbine. Applying the new standard gives us the opportunity to develop a greenhouse gas emissions profile for the wind turbine using standardized methods and reporting formats, while also giving us the opportunity to provide useful feedback to WRI/WBCSD about our experience with the draft standard prior to its final release at the end of 2010. Our participation in this initiative reflects our continuing commitment and support for the development of international standards and protocols for product life cycle reporting. The next few months will be very busy! I’ll post an update once we’ve finished the road test.

Every GE employee is trained in Six Sigma, and most have at least a Green Belt certification.  One of the fundamental concepts within Six Sigma is measurement – how you quantify cause and effect. Recently the NY Times published an interesting article discussing this concept, but in the interest of monitoring and recording daily human behavior and biological performance.

As scientists, we embrace the ability to accurately and precisely measure phenomena in the lab.  We are comfortable with the idea that a well-crafted measurement technique carries more weight than a hunch, and yet we sometimes don’t carry that same attitude toward daily life.  Competitive runners can attest to the training breakthroughs incited by new insight from reviewing a training log.  Studies show that dieters who keep a food diary are more likely to maintain long-term weight loss (and certain commercial weight-loss programs make great use of this idea).  I have considered using Six Sigma to optimize things in my life…the perfect recipe for chocolate chip cookies, the right ratio of hops to barley in a homebrewed beer, running a Gage R&R on the temperature control in my oven.  I know individuals who built runcharts of their newborn child’s feeding habits, sleeping schedule, height, and weight.  Measurement is a big deal – as scientists, we don’t like to make decisions without data, and data quality can significantly impact decision quality.

As a chemical engineer, I’m used to building experiments around variables that are pretty straightforward to measure – temperature, pressure, flow rate.  It’s easy to take it for granted that you can measure your system’s outputs.  However, precise and accurate measurement of some phenomena, like human behavior, can be much more elusive.  I am fascinated by the experiments psychologists design to quantify human behavior, and the creative methods they use to overcome measurement challenges.  An interesting example of this is the subject of this week’s episode of PBS’ Nova, which explores how some researchers study and quantify irrational human behavior as it relates to dealing with money.

In many ways, we all are interested in the data that describes our lives and behavior.  When we turn that inquisitive eye and demand for data to ourselves, how much more could we learn, and further, what would we do with that information?  In yoga, we are taught to “listen to your body” – robust self-measurement and data monitoring gives this a whole new meaning.  If I had data that indicated that a cup of coffee doesn’t really make me more alert or focused, would I stop drinking coffee?  As queried in the Broadway musical “Rent”, how do you measure a year in the life?