Feature Channels: Engineering

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Fire consumes wood ferociously, in a deadly blaze—but the substances used to treat wood to resist burning can also be noxious and toxic. A Stony Brook University Materials Science Professor guided an undergraduate and two Long Island high school students as they developed a patent-pending, environmentally sustainable way to render the wood used in construction flame retardant—and 5x stronger—using natural materials.

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A team of NUS researchers led by Associate Professor S K Panda from the NUS Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, is currently putting the final touches to a robotic sea turtle that does not use a ballast system which is commonly used in underwater robots for diving or sinking functions. Without this ballast system, it is much smaller and lighter, enabling it to carry bigger payloads so that it can perform more complicated tasks such as surveillance, water quality monitoring in Singapore reservoir or energy harvesting for long endurance. The turtle robot, which can self-charge, is also able to do a dynamic dive or sink vertically, ie it can enter vertical tunnels or pipes in the seabed with very small diameters.

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A Kansas State University engineering team has discovered some of graphene oxide's important properties that can improve sodium- and lithium-ion flexible batteries.

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A team led by the University of Oklahoma professor who invented the interband cascade laser has reached a major milestone in the development of interband cascade lasers by creating a robust technology that operates at room temperature and works continuously—an important component for building practical systems.

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Research led by Dr. Robert Gregg of the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science enables powered prosthetics to dynamically respond to the wearer’s environment and help amputees walk. Wearers of the robotic leg could walk on a treadmill almost as fast as an able-bodied person.

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A team of biomedical engineers at Washington University in St. Louis, led by Lihong Wang, PhD, has developed the world’s fastest receive-only 2-D camera, a device that can capture events up to 100 billion frames per second.

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GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Buck Rogers surely couldn’t have seen this one coming, but at NASA’s request, University of Florida researchers have figured out how to turn human waste – yes, that kind -- into rocket fuel.

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Dan Giammar, PhD, is going deep into the earth to find a potential solution to store carbon emissions from coal-fired power plants.

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Who would've known human waste could be used to propel spacecraft from the moon back to Earth? UF/IFAS researchers responded to the call from NASA and came up with a process to convert waste to methane and propel spacecraft to Earth.

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Although hummingbirds are much larger and stir up the air more violently as they move, the way that they fly is more closely related to flying insects than it is to other birds.

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Energy storage devices and computer screens may seem worlds apart, but they’re not. When associate professor Qi Hua Fan of the South Dakota State University electrical engineering and computer science department set out to make a less expensive supercapacitor for storing renewable energy, he developed a new plasma technology that will streamline the production of display screens.

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As hands come in left and right versions that are mirror images of each other, so do the amino acids and sugars within us. But unlike hands, only the left-oriented amino acids and the right-oriented sugars ever make into life as we know it.

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University of Washington electrical engineers have developed a way to automatically track people across moving and still cameras by using an algorithm that trains the networked cameras to learn one another’s differences.

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During World War II, the western Pacific was a hotbed for combat. Numerous aircraft were lost in the waters off Palau, submerged for decades with little closure for the families of fallen airmen. Researchers from the University of Delaware and Scripps Institution of Oceanography, working with the non-profit BentProp Project, are using underwater robotics technologies to find them.

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Dr. Edward Sazonov, an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at The University of Alabama, hopes to change that through development of a sensor worn around the ear that would automatically track diet, giving medical professionals and consumers accurate information that can be missed with self-reporting.

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University of Utah engineers developed the first room-temperature fuel cell that uses enzymes to help jet fuel produce electricity without needing to ignite the fuel. These new fuel cells can be used to power portable electronics, off-grid power and sensors.

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University of Utah engineers have developed a new type of carbon nanotube material for handheld sensors that will be quicker and better at sniffing out explosives, deadly gases and illegal drugs.

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The rapid increase in mobile technology such as smart phones and watches, tablets and Google Glass, has resulted in the need for more research to ensure those devices work well. But, says Wichita State University assistant professor Jibo He, there are no good tools to properly test mobile devices. So He, along with WSU professor Barb Chaparro, invented a solution using the latest technology of Google Glass.

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Iowa State's Song-Charng Kong is working with engineers at the U.S. Army Research Laboratory to study the fundamental physics of diesel engines. Understanding the fundamentals could lead to better engine performance, fuel economy and power.

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A researcher in Drexel’s College of Engineering is taking a closer look at aerosol formation involving an organic compound called limonene that provides the pleasant smell of cleaning products and air fresheners. His research will help to determine what byproducts these sweet-smelling compounds are adding to the air while we are using them to remove germs and odors.

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Feeding the world’s energy appetite may take innovative approaches in the future. A book by Nilanjan Ray Chaudhuri, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at North Dakota State University, Fargo, is the first text of its kind to examine methods to bring offshore wind energy on shore to power industry, homes and businesses. “Multi-terminal Direct Current Grids: Modeling, Analysis, and Control,” is published by the Wiley-IEEE Press.

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The syllabus of a recent Operations Research course taught by Dr. Ivan G. Guardiola at Missouri University of Science and Technology seems to have more in common with a script from the TV series “The Walking Dead” than with a typical upper-level class for engineering management majors.

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Scientists have discovered exceptional properties in a garnet material that could enable development of higher-energy battery designs.

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Developing invisible implantable medical sensor arrays, a team of University of Wisconsin-Madison engineers has overcome a major technological hurdle in researchers’ efforts to understand the brain. The team described its technology, which has applications in fields ranging from neuroscience to cardiac care and even contact lenses, in the Oct. 20 issue of the online journal Nature Communications.

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In a first step toward future human therapies, researchers at The Saban Research Institute of Children’s Hospital Los Angeles have shown that esophageal tissue can be grown in vivo from both human and mouse cells.

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Engineers at Washington University in St. Louis have shown a new way to reverse or eliminate loss by, ironically, adding loss to a laser system to actually reap energy gains.

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Researchers from Columbia Engineering and the Georgia Institute of Technology report today that they have made the first experimental observation of piezoelectricity and the piezotronic effect in an atomically thin material, molybdenum disulfide (MoS2), resulting in a unique electric generator and mechanosensation devices that are optically transparent, extremely light, and very bendable and stretchable.

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Researchers have demonstrated an additive manufacturing method to control the structure and properties of metal components with precision unmatched by conventional manufacturing processes.

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Using 3-D printing and novel semiconductors, researchers have created a power inverter that could make electric vehicles lighter, more powerful and more efficient.

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Scientists from Tohoku University in Japan have developed a new type of energy-efficient flat light source based on carbon nanotubes with very low power consumption of around 0.1 Watt for every hour’s operation--about a hundred times lower than that of an LED.

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A team of researchers from the National University of Singapore (NUS) has pioneered the world’s first fluorescent sensor – called Milk Orange – that rapidly identifies the presence of fat in milk. This novel sensor is being applied to the development of a device for rapid on-site measurement of milk fat, which is especially useful in areas such as dairy farms in developing countries. This device could also help enhance the current milk quality control process, particularly in resource-limited regions.

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First-of-its-kind, light-as-cloud architectural technology boasts lower setup cost and time, and is set to revolutionise long-span architecture and construction.

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Electronic devices that dissolve completely in water, leaving behind only harmless end products, are part of a rapidly emerging class of technology pioneered by researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and their advances suggest a new era of devices that range from green consumer electronics to ‘electroceutical’ therapies, to biomedical sensor systems that do their work and then disappear. The work will be presented at the AVS 61st International Symposium.

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Using a common laboratory filter paper decorated with gold nanoparticles, researchers have created a unique platform, known as “plasmonic paper,” for detecting and characterizing even trace amounts of chemicals and biologically important molecules—from explosives, chemical warfare agents and environmental pollutants to disease markers. The work will be described at the AVS 61th International Symposium and Exhibition.

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University of Washington engineers have designed a concept for a fusion reactor that, when scaled up to the size of a large electrical power plant, would rival costs for a new coal-fired plant with similar electrical output.

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Is it a solar cell? Or a rechargeable battery? Actually, the patent-pending device invented at The Ohio State University is both: the world’s first solar battery.

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An ambitious project is taking shape at Empa’s Laboratory for High Performance Ceramics: ceramic brake disks for compact cars. Empa scientists have teamed up with partners from Italy, Spain and Liechtenstein to develop the automobile technology of tomorrow. The only thing is: can the high-tech solution also be realized with a reasonable prize tag?

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By using liquid salts during formation instead of harsh chemicals, fibers that conduct electricity can be strengthened, according to a patent issued to a team of researchers at The University of Alabama.

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Mobile lighting systems powered by hydrogen fuel cells are cleaner, quieter and now have a proven track record in applications such as nighttime construction, sports and entertainment events and airport operations, making them ready for commercialization and broader use. That’s the conclusion reached by researchers at Sandia National Laboratories and others after a multiyear project sponsored by the Department of Energy’s Fuel Cell Technologies Office and the Boeing Co. Project support also came from the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans), Altergy Systems and 11 other project partners.

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Columbia Engineering and MIT researchers have combined computer simulations designed for Hollywood with precision model experiments to examine the mechanics of coiling. Their study, which bridges engineering mechanics and computer graphics, impacts a variety of engineering applications, from the fabrication of nanotube serpentines to the laying of submarine cables and pipelines (published 9/29 PNAS Early Online edition).

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A flight test program is underway on nine commercial aircraft flying regular routes that are carrying sensors to monitor their structural health, alongside their routine maintenance. The flight tests are part of a Federal Aviation Administration certification process that will make the sensors widely available to U.S. airlines.

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Turning a World War II-era chapel into an Environmental Education and Conference Center here has connected Washington National Guard's 176th Engineers and 446th Airlift Wing Citizen Airmen in a unique way.

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Researchers from the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science have created technology that could be the first step toward wearable computers with self-contained power sources or, more immediately, a smartphone that doesn’t die after a few hours of heavy use

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In a step that could lead to longer battery life in smartphones and lower power consumption for large-screen televisions, researchers at the University of Michigan have extended the lifetime of blue organic light emitting diodes by a factor of 10.

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Working with two magnetic fields and a laser, Sandia's Z machine has released an amount of neutrons surprisingly close to 'break-even' fusion.

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University of Utah engineers discovered a way to create a special material – a metal layer on top of a silicon semiconductor – that could lead to cost-effective, superfast computers that perform lightning-fast calculations but don’t overheat. This new “topological insulator” behaves like an insulator on the inside but conducts electricity on the outside.

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Ultrasound is a safe, affordable and noninvasive way to see internal structures, including the developing fetus. Ultrasound can also “see” other soft tissue — including tendons, which attach muscles to bone, and ligaments, which attach bone to bone. Ray Vanderby, a professor of biomedical engineering and orthopedics and rehabilitation at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, is commercializing an ultrasound method to analyze the condition of soft tissue.

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Scientists trying to improve the power conversion efficiency of organic solar cells were long hampered by drawbacks of metal electrodes. Now comes a more efficient, easily processable and lightweight solar cell that can use any metal for the electrode, breaking down this barrier.

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High-fidelity simulations to help determine how engine knock develops and assist in predicting how the transition from smooth combustion to knocking occurs.