FEBRUARY 2020 • LONGISLANDPRESS.COM 27
WHOLLY MOLI
RESEARCH FRONTIERS
VISIONARY SMART GLASS
BY CLAUDE SOLNIK
Long Island is far from being a
hub for automakers, but a company
with headquarters in Woodbury
is responsible for creating
an exciting new feature in many
automobiles, planes, trains, and
even buildings.
Research Frontiers makes
SPD-SmartGlass, using suspended
particle device (SPD) smart light-control
technology. Scientifically put,
nanoparticles absorb light suspended
in a polymeric system distributed
throughout a film in or on glass. In
layman's terms, it’s an electronically
adjustable tinted window.
“It looks like any window-tint film,
but when you put electric voltage
through the coatings, the nanoparticles
line up and allow light to pass
through,” Research Frontiers CEO
Joseph Harary says. “You can tune
the amount of light coming through
the film.”
Research Frontiers has about 400
patents and patent applications for
technology licensed to companies
on every continent except Antarctica,
including Innovative Glass, in
Plainview. Harary says the company
spent more than $110 million to
develop the technology, now in its
third generation of product with
research done on LI.
The first product debuted in 2001 in
aircraft, before Mercedes-Benz and
McLaren Automotive began including
it as an option. It reduces carbon
dioxide emissions in cars by 4 grams
per kilometer.
“It’s also the only smart glass
technology proven reliable for the
automotive market,” Harary says.
Smart glass can also increase the
driving range of an electric vehicle
by 5.5 percent, Harary adds. It's
used in trains to cool the
cabin. And it’s being used
to make buildings more
energy efficient.
Intelligent glass lets
buildings essentially
put on and remove a
jacket, working with
heating, lighting and
air conditioning.
“It’s not much more
expensive than a good
energy-efficient window
with a good,
custom shade,”
Harary says.
The latest
product is a
combination of
smart glass and organic light-emitting
diode (OLED) screen technology,
letting surfaces go from
transparent to screens
and back.
“Imagine a TV
or storefront
window that
goes from
being clear to a
high-definition
TV and back
again,” Harary
said.
The glass can even
be voice activated.
“You can talk to the window,”
Harary says.
“Some of the
windows are
Amazon or Al-
Joseph Harary of Research Frontiers. exa enabled.”
Students Participate in 19th Amendment
Centennial Research Campaign
SUNY Old Westbury students enrolled in the
American Studies course "History of U.S.
Women" recently took part in a nationwide
crowdsourcing campaign to help document the
lives of suffrage leaders.
In the effort for the Online Biographical
Dictionary of Women Suffragists, 1890-1920,
the students contributed with hundreds of college
students and local historical society members in
celebrating the centennial of the 19th
amendment by developing short biographical
sketches of local leaders' lives and political
commitments. Over 3,000 suffrage leaders have been researched
nationwide, drawn from Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony,
Matilda Jocelyn Gage and Ida Harper’s six volume History of Woman
Suffrage (1881-1922).
SUNY Old Westbury American Studies Professor
Carol Quirke with students who engaged in
crowdsourcing research for the national effort.
Last year, Professor Carol Quirke led the course, which contributed
fifteen sketches of women from Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New York.
This year, students in her class researched
suffrage leaders in Maine, including the wife
of the man responsible for inventing ear
muffs.
Students’ work will be published in the
Online Biographical Dictionary of the
Women Suffragists, which is connected to the
Women of the Social Movement database
published by Alexander Street Publishing.
Participating students included D’Andra
Barksdale, Agnelli Bruno, Brandon Johnson,
Brianna Knibbs, Lanise Paige, Niko Nantsis, Teesha Puri, Mikayla
Renton, Julia Richards, Demi Spirou, and Avia Yoseffi.
The students' genealogical and primary source research was
supported by the SUNY Old Westbry Library and Honors College
along with Distinguished Professor of History Emeritus Thomas Dublin of
SUNY Binghamton and members of the Maine Historical Society.
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