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News and Resources for the Durgin Research Group

Worried About a Robot Takeover?

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Have you ever worried about a future robot apocalypse?  This video collection of robot fails will comfort you.  Skynet has a long way to go.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COD23cVWcIo

Beautiful Chess Games: Alterman vs. Deep Fritz, 2000

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Although not related directly to engineering, I thought that I’d include some posts to a favorite personal site, chessgames.com, particularly in light of the recent passing of the last site founder.  Chess games do have bearing on the state and nature of game theory and artificial intelligence, particularly when humans are playing computers.  The top computers have been beating the top Grandmasters in chess for a while now, but there are often illustrative games that beautifully demonstrate the difference between men and machine.  Here, beauty can transcend computation.  Check out the position at move 26.

Alterman vs. Deep Fritz, 2000

NNU Planning to Launch RFsat in early 2019

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If all goes well, the NNU team that brought us MakerSat will be launching a new satellite mission early next year as part of a new NASA-funded project.  The new satellite experiment, called RFsat, will have a unique RF energy-harvesting radio designed and built by the Georgia Tech Propagation Group.  PhD student researcher Cheng Qi has built a one-of-a-kind microwave backscatter reader and tag-sensor combo that will drive the mission package.

The low-powered reader designed by our team deploys a sensor that unfurls a distance away from the spacecraft.  The reader then energizes and receives backscatter information from the device using a 5.8 GHz transmission.  Complete with generator, retrodirective antenna, and rectenna harvester, the radio package qualifies as the first microwave space-based solar power satellite ever tested — despite the somewhat limited 1m range.  You have to start somewhere.

Check out the story of the November 2017 MakerSat launch by the NNU team here.

Latest PG Recruiting Effort

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In a bid to stay ahead of the game, the GTPG has begun recruiting its newest prospective member to Georgia Tech.  Shortly after he was born on Sunday, July 15, 2018, Elliot Bernard Durgin was given several articles GT-related clothing and some pro-GT pamphlets.  Projected to be in the Georgia Tech graduating class of 2040, Elliot and his 3 doting older sisters are planning to visit campus multiple times over the next two decades.  The siblings are already pre-pre-enrolled in a number of GT summer camps.  We look forward to seeing you around the lab!