Thu, 18 Feb 2010 04:26:56 +0000

Northwestern University researcher reveals cloak of invisibility

Imagine you’re alone in your room watching television. Suddenly, your annoying younger sibling disturbs your tranquility. He pelts you with popcorn, unplugs your television and breaks your favorite pen. You get up, and he cloaks himself with an invisibility device as he runs away laughing.

This may sound like an episode of the Twilight Zone or Star Trek, but Cheng Sun, an assistant professor in the mechanical engineering department at Northwestern University, is working to bring the concept of invisibility to fruition. While Sun will not be boarding the Star Trek Voyager anytime soon, he has been conducting his research for about a year and is completing the final stages of his 3-D cloaking device experiments. He is hoping to have his work published in an academic journal sometime in this summer.

What is meta-material science?

Meta, referring to the definition, is something that goes beyond the ordinary. The concept of meta-material is somewhat that all the material is made by atoms or molecules. So we want to create the same terminology. If a structure can be designed that the structure is much smaller than the wavelengths, so the wave would not be able to see individual building elements, but still we can design the properties that can be substantially different from the natural materials. Essentially, we’re creating man made or artificial crystals and material properties that never existed.

How did you get the idea for the cloaking device?

Initially, there was a theoretical paper published in the Physical Review Letters, and they were just giving a form letter to indicate the possibility that this could happen. Later, I think there were two or three papers published in a different publication. All those demonstrations were in the 2 dimensional. That’s the reason I became interested to see if this technology could work in a 3-D field. If I do the optical cloak, you definitely want to hide something of a certain size but if you only use 2-D technology it probably won’t work.

What can you share about your 3-D optical cloaking device?

It’s nothing special.  It can help to compensate the light on a curved surface. The light that comes out just appears to be not affected. In that case, it appears that light is reflected by a flat surface.

What are some of the uses of this research?

Generally if you want to hide something that could be a very useful technology. On the other hand, I think it is important to know how people can hide something. In this case, imagine you are working for the Transportation Security Administration. You would want to know how people could hide an object and would want to know the technology needed to counteract that kind of technology. I think it would be dangerous if the bad guy was able to get a hold of that technology without letting others know.

How will the 3-D cloaking device be similar to what has been shown on science fiction shows like Star Trek?

In terms of the final goal, it will be very similar. We’re basically taking a more realistic approach that hopefully will make the sci-fi adaptation of 3-D cloaking a little closer to being a reality in our lifetime.

Article by: Matt McQuaid

Improv comedy has been one of the main staples of funny business since the art form was invented.  Legendary comics such as Robin Williams and Stephen Colbert made appearances on the hit improv show Whose Line is it Anyways?, and many hit TV shows such as Reno 911! and Curb Your Enthusiasm rely on improv comedy to entertain their audiences.

For those not familiar with improv comedy, it’s a form of comedy where the actors create jokes as they go along, without scripts, props, or anything else other than their own creativity. Actors often create scenes by taking suggestions of random things (such as a place, occupation, famous person, etc.) from the audience, or by playing elaborate theatre games that turn into a scene.

Suffolk University has been blessed with its own gang of merry pranksters who practice the venerable art of making people laugh without a script, Seriously Bent. Seriously Bent won championships in 2005, 2006, and 2007, as well as a number of other awards throughout the years. After defending it’s title in the East Coast Regional Competition, the gang recently took second place at the National College Im prov Festival in Chicago. They competed against nine other schools, including the University of Southern California, Florida State University, Wheaton College, Oberlin College, and Northwestern University.

Although Seriously Bent came in second to The Titanic Player’s Daddy Mags out of Northwestern University, the scoring was the closest in the competition’s history, with the Titanic Player’s scoring 100 points to Seriously Bent’s 99.5. “We were all kind of frustrated, but it’s .5, it’s really nothing to be too bummed about,” stated cast member Christian Roberts. “I don’t think anything went wrong, we all agreed that we pretty much wouldn’t change anything. It’s really about having fun, at the end of the whole set we all had fun.”

One thing the crew noticed upon arriving in the windy city was that there were concrete stylistic differences.  “Chicago and Boston improv styles are somewhat different. And the games, the Chicago ones, were different,” Roberts remarked.  “Chicago style improv is much more improvisational theatre,” stated cast member Corey O’Rourke. “In Boston we focus more on improvisational comedy.”

The crew was also very pleased to be in Chicago, a city that has been crucial to comedy throughout the years. Seriously Bent stopped by to see performances by the Second City Improv Comedy Troupe, a legendary outfit who’s alumni include Stephen Colbert, Joan Rivers, and Saturday Night Live founding fathers Dan Akroyd, John Belushi, and Bill Murray.

“Even though we didn’t bring back the trophy, we brought back a different form of entertainment to show the Suffolk community,” Roberts remarked, “Having fun out there and watching those shows really helped us, maybe not necessarily in the competition but just in our attitudes.” O’Rourke was also enthused by seeing the performances out in Chicago, stating “Just being around where improv was founded, you watch something, it might not be the funniest thing or the best thing you’ve ever seen, but it makes you laugh….and that just makes you want to do that to your own audience.”

Seriously Bent will have a number of upcoming shows on campus throughout the semester. Their End of the Year review, a blend of sketch comedy and improv, will take place in April.