Each of 50 Weeks in the City of Science features a text about selected research in a given subject area carried out by scientists from the universities forming the Academic Consortium Katowice City of Science. The texts we publish give insight into the diversity of issues scientists deal with and show the research potential that is dormant in the universities of the consortium.
| Agnieszka Kliks-Pudlik |
New Technologies Week is the 15th of 50 weeks in 50 weeks in the City of Science. New technologies break through subsequent cognitive and knowledge-related barriers allowing us to solve not only the biggest mysteries in the world of science, such as antimatter, as well as such common problems as excessive greenhouse gas emissions or food waste.
‘Currently, we cannot imagine conducting exact science research without new technologies – starting with the ‘common’ computers used for computing, through state-of-the-art laboratories, and ending with large equipment, such as the Large Hadron Collider in CERN. Our work consists of using new technologies and, at the same time, creating new ones to fulfil our unusual research needs’, says Katarzyna Schmidt, PhD, Associate Professor from the August Chełkowski Institute of Physics at the Faculty of Science and Technology of the University of Silesia, curator of New Technologies Week.
Photo by Robs on Unsplash
Nature run-aways
Neutrinos are the most elusive of all fundamental particles. – Many billions of them pass through our hands every second of every day, without any effect! This is because they seldom interact. Neutrinos have no electrical charge and interact very weakly with other particles. Not so long ago, we weren’t even certain that they had mass. Some physicists assumed that they might have no mass at all, just like a photon. Others believed that neutrinos have mass, just very little mass’, says Katarzyna Schmidt.
Scientists from the August Chełkowski Institute of Physics at the Faculty of Science and Technology of the University of Silesia have contributed to solving the mystery of neutrino mass. A team of physicists led by Prof. Jan Kisiel and Arkadiusz Bubak, PhD, DSc, Associate Professor takes part in international research on the properties of neutrinos under the Tokai-to-Kamioka (T2K) experiment conducted in Japan. In 2020, the results of the T2K experiment were published in Nature.
Neutrino research is possible thanks to innovative technology – in the J-PARC facility located near Tokai, neutrinos are produced and placed underground where they travel 300 km until they reach the detector (a tool for detecting, e.g. particles). At the end of 2023, the experiment entered a new phase of data collection after a modification to the apparatus, which allowed the scientists to register neutrino interactions with new detectors.
AI for physics
Katarzyna Schmidt takes an interest in combining AI with physics.
Together with physicists from the Warsaw University of Technology, she is working on the possibilities of using algorithms (machine learning and deep learning) to automate the analysis of data that comes from experiments conducted at the CERN nuclear research facility. The aim of these experiments is to, among others, find the phase transition between hydron gas and quark-gluon plasma.
The team is currently working on machine learning models that, based on given characteristics, will learn to distinguish signals from noise in elementary particle detectors. ‘Once properly trained, the machine learning models can be used to automatically reject signals not originating from an elementary particle that has passed through a time projection chamber (a type of detector – editor’s note), allowing the rapid and efficient identification of particle tracks with minimal false detections. The results of our research are very interesting and quite promising’, says Katarzyna Schmidt.
Less energy-intensive food delivery
New technologies are crucial in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, reduce food waste, and increase the quality of food products through more effective transport and storage. This fits in with the issue of the so-called food chain, i.e. the set of all technological processes that link the place of food production (e.g. the farm) to its final consumer (the consumer).
Developing innovative methods to reduce the energy needed for food transport and storage is the task undertaken by a research team led by Prof. Jacek Smołka from the Department of Thermal Technology at the Faculty of Energy and Environmental Engineering of the Silesian University of Technology.
The team focuses on, among other things, mobile refrigeration units used in the so-called last-mile delivery. This involves the design and application of a two-phase supersonic ejector to a refrigeration system for a delivery van (previously the smallest such ejector served a supermarket), thus reducing the energy required to power a refrigerating unit used by food suppliers, among others.
The team is also working on the development of freeze-drying technology for household use. ‘The challenge is to adapt it for use outside the laboratory, as this technology is currently mainly used in the production of pharmaceuticals and food for astronauts and professional athletes (such as mountain climbers or ocean cruise participants). Its implementation in households could help reduce the amount of wasted food by storing it for the long term without losing nutritional value, emphasises Jakub Bodys, PhD, from the research team.
The research is being conducted as part of the ‘Enough emissions’ project under the EU project ‘Horizon’.
New Technologies Week programme can be found on the event website.