An IUPUC assistant professor was recently awarded up to a $10,000 grant from IUPUI to assist in her research.

Dr. Liz daSilva, received the Enhanced Mentoring Program with Opportunities for Ways to Excel in Research or EMPOWER research grant. The EMPOWER grants were developed to support faculty who are historically underrepresented and/or excluded populations in their discipline or area of scholarship.

Over the course of the year-long EMPOWER program, daSilva and her mentor, IUPUC Associate Professor of Psychology Dr. Mark Jaime will continue developing research in the Social Neuroscience Lab at IUPUC, which examines perception of emotional movements people make in social interactions.

Bartholomew County Commissioners are spending just over $169,000 more than expected to replace two bridges. That comes after an unexpected bill to relocate power lines in the area.

County Engineer Danny Hollander said the county has been operating under the belief that the power lines near the bridges on County Road 400W were owned by Bartholomew County REMC, which said the lines were far enough off the road not to require moving.

However, as work on the project gets closer, it turned out the lines on one side of the road are owned by Hoosier Energy. And that company says their high-voltage lines would be too close to the new bridge. Hoosier Energy is charging the county $169,360 for the line relocation.

Commissioners said they had no choice but to pay the bill so the bridge projects can get underway and voted to approve the spending yesterday. The money will come from the county cumulative bridge fund.

A Florida power company is announcing plans to use a Cummins-powered electrolyzer system to produce hydrogen — a step toward carbon-free electricity.

Florida Power and Light Co. announced that the Columbus-based Cummins will supply the utility with a 25-megawatt electrolyzer for Florida’s first green hydrogen plant. The Cavendish Next Gen Hydrogen Hub will use solar energy to power the Cummins equipment, extracting hydrogen from water. The hydrogen would then be mixed with natural gas to power a turbine that would then provide electricity to the power grid.

The Cummins electrolyzer system will contain five Cummins HyLYZER®-1000 PEM electrolyzers producing 10.8 tons of hydrogen a day.

“This project is exciting for Cummins as we establish green hydrogen as a viable way to decarbonize the economy here in the United States,” said Amy Davis, Vice President and President of New Power at Cummins.

“An electrolyzer installation of this magnitude further solidifies PEM technology as a key to reaching zero emissions in energy-intensive industries. FPL’s commitment to the acceleration of the energy transition and support of future demand for affordable renewables is one we passionately share.”

You can read more about the project here.

Image courtesy of Cummins Inc.

Bartholomew Consolidated Schools are relaxing the rules requiring wearing a mask on the systems’ buses.

According to BCSC, the CDC announced over the weekend that it will no longer require the wearing of masks on buses or vans operated by public or private school systems, including early care and education/child care programs.

Based on that guidance, and the continuing decrease in positive COVID-19 cases in the district, BCSC made masks optional for staff and students on buses as of yesterday.

The school district asks that with no mask mandates in place, that parents keep their children at home if they are ill.

The city of Columbus will be relaxing its mask mandates in city buildings, starting on Friday.

The city will no longer require that masks be worn by visitors and city employees in city buildings unless a person is experiencing COVID-19 symptoms or has tested positive for the disease.

Masks will continue to be available for visitors if they want one. If a visitor would feel more comfortable interacting with an employee who is wearing a mask, city employees will wear one.

Bartholomew County authorities are crediting an automated license-plate reading camera system with the recovery of another stolen vehicle and the arrest of the driver over the weekend.

The camera system alerted deputies to a stolen vehicle entering the county at about 7:15 Sunday morning, according to sheriff’s department reports. Deputies soon located the vehicle in the 3000 block of North U.S. 31. After stopping the vehicle, a search revealed drugs and drug-related paraphernalia inside.

The driver, 27-year-old Sklyer Maggard of Indianapolis was arrested on preliminary charges of vehicle theft, possession of the drugs and paraphernalia and an outstanding out-of-county warrant.

The camera system, known as FLOCK, was purchased by Bartholomew County last year. The cameras have the ability to read license plates and quickly process those against a database to alert police with various pieces of information, such as the plate of a stolen vehicle, or a vehicle suspected in a child abduction or missing persons case. That information would be processed within moments and then forwarded to on-duty deputies via a computer program in their vehicle, authorities said at the time.