Feature Channels: Engineering

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Argonne senior chemist Robert Tranter, a shockwave chemist, was named a fellow of the Combustion Institute.

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The NSF awarded Stefan Wilhelm a $761,727 CAREER award to continue his research in nanotechnology, which assists in the diagnosis and treatment of diseases such as cancer. Wilhelm’s work focuses on individual nanoparticles – which are about 1,000 times smaller than the diameter of a human hair – and how they interact with the body’s cells.

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A research team at the NYU Center for Cyber Security (CCS) at NYU Tandon are participating in a major initiative in collaboration with data security company Duality — supported by a $14 million grant from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) — to design a revolutionary new microchip (codenamed “Trebuchet”).

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Researchers to measure the brain's subtle magnetic signals in two research volunteers simultaneously as they interact, capturing the rich complexity of the brain's signaling during face-to-face social interactions in real-time.

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Parks played an important role for people seeking respite from the toll of social isolation during the pandemic, and according to new research from Drexel University, they did so without increasing the spread of COVID-19.

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A new study by the University of Georgia revealed that more college students change majors within the STEM pipeline than leave the career path of science, technology, engineering and mathematics altogether.

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Researchers at Columbia Engineering report that they have built what they say is the world's smallest single-chip system, consuming a total volume of less than 0.1 mm3. The system is as small as a dust mite and visible only under a microscope. In order to achieve this, the team used ultrasound to both power and communicate with the device wirelessly

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In a lab on the upper floors of Engineering Hall, something is growing. It’s not a plant. And it’s not an animal. What Ronke Olabisi is growing in her lab is us. From new skin and retinal tissue to hearts and livers, she’s developing the tools to rebuild and repair the human body. A UCI assistant professor of biomedical engineering, Olabisi has been working with regenerative tissue for the better part of seven years, using a hydrogel based on polyethylene glycol diacrylate.

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The answers to many of life’s mysteries have been discovered far below the surface of the seas. However, getting to those depths has not been easy. Thanks to a new fiber optic reel system invented by Brennan Phillips, an assistant professor of ocean engineering at the University of Rhode Island, deep-sea exploration is about to get much more affordable and accessible.

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Thin-film electrodes developed at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory have been used in human patients at the University of California, San Francisco, generating never-before-seen recordings of brain activity in the hippocampus, a region responsible for memory and other cognitive functions.

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Researchers from the National University of Singapore have created a new class of intelligent materials. It has the structure of a two-dimensional (2D) material, but behaves like an electrolyte – and could be a new way to deliver drugs within the body.

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Magnonic devices have the potential to revolutionize the electronics industry. Qi Wang, Andrii Chumak from University of Vienna and Philipp Pirro from TU Kaiserslautern have largely accelerated the design of more versatile magnonic devices via a feedback-based computational algorithm. Their "inverse-design" of magnonic devices has now been published in Nature Communications.

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To really understand how people type on touchscreens, researchers have created the first artificial intelligence model that predicts how people move their eyes and fingers while typing.

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A novel technique for studying vortices in quantum fluids has been developed by Lancaster physicists.

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A group of researchers from Osaka University developed a quadruped robot platform that can reproduce the neuromuscular dynamics of animals (Figure 1), discovering that a steady gait and experimental behaviors of walking cats emerged from the reflex circuit in walking experiments on this robot.

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Improved ventilation can lower the risk of transmission of the COVID-19 virus, but large numbers of decades-old public school classrooms lack adequate ventilation systems. A systematic modeling study of simple air cleaners using a box fan reported in Physics of Fluids shows these inexpensive units can greatly decrease the amount of airborne virus in these spaces, if used appropriately.

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When trauma, illness, or injury causes significant muscle loss, reconstructive procedures for bioengineering functional skeletal muscles can fall short, resulting in permanent impairments. Finding a synergy in the importance of biochemical signals and topographical cues, researchers developed an efficient technique for muscle regeneration and functional restoration in injured rats. They describe results from the technique in Applied Physics Reviews.

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Argonne scientists across several disciplines have combined forces to create a new process for testing and predicting the effects of high temperatures on refractory oxides.

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Wastewater testing is an effective way to identify new cases of COVID-19 in nursing homes and other congregate living settings, and it may be particularly useful for preventing outbreaks in college dormitories, a new University of Virginia study finds.

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Deborah Frincke, one of the nation’s preeminent computer scientists and cybersecurity experts, serves as associate laboratory director of ORNL’s National Security Science Directorate.

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American Resources Corporation will operate its sponsored research program in electrolytic cells through the Innovation Hub at Research Park and in collaboration with Gerardine Botte.

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Responsive neurostimulation is becoming increasingly effective at probing neural circuit function and treating neuropsychiatric disorders, such as epilepsy and Parkinson’s disease. A new approach from Columbia Engineering researchers shows great promise in improving the limitations of current bulky devices. They have built a high-performance implantable system that enables reading and manipulation of brain circuits in real time.

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Voyager 1 – one of two sibling NASA spacecraft launched 44 years ago and now the most distant human-made object in space – still works and zooms toward infinity.

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A new system developed in the lab of Zhen (Jason) He uses bacteria to filter wastewater while creating electricity.

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The Johns Hopkins Center for Injury Research and Policy at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health is co-hosting an online panel discussion at 2 p.m., Tuesday, May 11, EDT, with the Institute of Transportation Engineers.

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Computer scientists at the University of California San Diego have developed a more accurate navigation system that will allow robots to better negotiate busy clinical environments in general and emergency departments more specifically. The researchers have also developed a dataset of open source videos to help train robotic navigation systems in the future. The team detail their findings in a paper for the International Conference on Robotics and Automation taking place May 30 to June 5 in Xi’an, China.

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They may be tiny weapons, but Brigham Young University's holography research group has figured out how to create lightsabers -- green for Yoda and red for Darth Vader, naturally -- with actual luminous beams rising from them.

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With the support of a three-year, $1.1 million contract from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, engineers from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute will study flow separation on existing planes with complex three-dimensional geometries — like the jets the Air Force currently uses —and what can be improved for aircraft of the future. Through improved aerodynamics, researchers aim to increase the efficiency, range, and even the stealth of aircraft.

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EviroTech LLC announced today (May 7) a $4 million investment into the company by 1701 Ventures GmbH of Göttingen, Germany, which will allow EviroTech to complete the final design, production startup and market introduction of its Ultra-Fast COVID-19 detection sensor.

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The new technique is capable of printing organ models containing live cells in minutes instead of hours— a major step in the quest to create 3D-printed replacement organs.

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Five new innovators will be joining Chain Reaction Innovations, the entrepreneurship program at Argonne National Laboratory, as part of the elite program’s fifth cohort to develop clean energy startups that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions and increase U.S. competitiveness in emerging energy technologies.

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Engineers and scientists from MIT and Georgia Tech are enabling near real-time modeling of wheels, treads, and desert animals traveling at high speeds across sandy terrains. “Dynamic Resistive Force Theory,” or DRFT, provides a path to speedier granular modeling — and help in designing optimal rough terrain vehicles, like Mars and lunar rovers.

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University of Delaware’s Swati Singh is among a small group of researchers across the dark matter community that have begun to wonder if they are looking for the right type of dark matter. Singh, Jack Manley, a UD doctoral student, and collaborators at the University of Arizona and Haverford College, have proposed a new way to look for the particles that might make up dark matter by repurposing existing tabletop sensor technology.

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A recent study from the University of Helsinki monitors the breakthrough progresses in the development of microneedles for immunotherapy and discusses the challenges regarding their production.

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Irvine, Calif., May 5, 2021 – If you haven’t had knee surgery, you may have a friend or relative who has. But do you know anyone who has had an operation on their jaw? Although the temporomandibular joint is crucial to speaking, chewing and even breathing, treatments for TMJ disorders are far less common than those for the knee.

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Engineers have created an environmentally friendly leather alternative made from silk. The material can be printed into different patterns and textures, has similar physical properties to real leather, and can withstand the folding, piercing, and stretching typically used to create leather goods.

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An infrared imager developed by UC San Diego engineers could be used to see through smog and fog; easily locate blood vessels on a patient; and see through silicon wafers to inspect the quality of electronic boards. It is also slim, compact and less costly to fabricate than similar technologies.

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Pennington, NJ – The Electrochemical Society (ECS) seeks nominations for the founding Editor-in-Chief (EIC) of ECS Sensors Plus, a new journal being launched in 2021. The EIC, together with the Editorial Board, ensures the smooth operation and success of the Journal. Nomination submissions are accepted as of May 18, 2021, via the EIC Sensors Plus Nominations Form (available as of May 18) and must be received by September 1, 2021.

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Argonne is helping U.S. companies solve pressing manufacturing challenges through an innovative program that provides access to Argonne’s world-class computing resources and technical expertise.

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The Department of Energy has awarded Argonne and partners $2 million to develop an artificial intelligence-assisted system for energy, nutrient and freshwater recovery from municipal wastewater.

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Over the coming decades, our economy and society will need to dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions as called for in the Paris Agreement.

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At the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, scientists use artificial intelligence, or AI, to accelerate the discovery and development of materials for energy and information technologies.

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The lab of Peng Bai has developed a stable, anode-free sodium ion battery that is highly efficient, will be less expensive and is significantly smaller than a traditional lithium ion battery.

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Living materials, which are made by housing biological cells within a non-living matrix, have gained popularity in recent years as scientists recognize that often the most robust materials are those that mimic nature.

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In a study published April 16 in ACS Photonics, University of Wisconsin–Madison researchers fabricated graphene into the smallest ribbon structures to date using a method that makes scaling-up simple. In tests with these tiny ribbons, the scientists discovered they were closing in on the properties they needed to move graphene toward usefulness in telecommunications equipment.

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ORNL story tips: Stealthy air leak detection, carbon to chemicals and recycling goes large

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The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today announced $17.3 million for college internships, research opportunities, and research projects that connect talented science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) students and faculty with the world-class resources at DOE’s National Laboratories.

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Using Argonne’s high-performance computing resources, researchers developed a new design for Caterpillar’s engines that could improve fuel efficiency while reducing harmful emissions.