News Briefs

Tech researchers develop catalyst

A Tech professor, along with a pair of scientists in China, has developed platinum crystal catalysts in a never-before observed shape. Zhong Lin Wang, professor of Materials Science and Engineering, and Yong Ding, a research scientist, worked with researchers from Xiamen University to develop the highly stable "tetrahexahedral" crystals, which have four times more catalytic activity per unit area than existing commercial platinum catalysts.

In addition to many other industrial applications, the catalysts can be used to improve the efficiency of processes used to generate hydrogen fuel cells.

Package race tests shipping carriers

Every year since 2003, logistics students from the School of Industrial and Systems Engineering have chosen hard-to-reach destinations across the world to see which carriers can ship packages there the quickest.

For this year's race, the group, led by professor John Bartholdi, mailed packages to locations in Brazil, Iraq, Myanmar, Samoa and Zimbabwe. DHL emerged victorious, being the first carrier to deliver three of the packages to their destinations, and the second to deliver the remaining two.