Creator Of Most Efficient Supercomputer To Start Working On Drone-Bugs

Thursday, February 7, 2013 - 10:30 in Mathematics & Economics

Simulation Of Proposed MAVs U.S. Air Force/Wikimedia CommonsWu-chun Feng will be getting $3.5 million over three years for his services. Wu-chun Feng, an associate professor of computer science in the College of Engineering at Virginia Tech, is the creator of Green Destiny, a supercomputer so efficient it basically ran on a couple of blow dryers' worth of power. He also made a list for ranking the efficiency of supercomputers, called the Green 500, then turned around and topped the list in 2011 with another computer: HokieSpeed. The next logical step would be to keep making incredilbly efficient computers, but instead, Feng is doing something slightly different: making robot drone-bugs. The Air Force wants someone who can help make more efficient micro-air vehicles, or MAVs, tiny robots that can act do reconnaissance, and they're giving Feng $3.5 million over three years for the career adjustment. Researchers have made 10-centimeter 'bots already,...

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