Feature Channels: Engineering

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In many of the nation’s traffic lights, light-emitting diodes or LEDs with their brighter light and longer life have replaced standard bulbs. But knowing when to replace the signal heads has remained a guessing game, says Dr. Suzanna Long, assistant professor of engineering management and systems engineering at Missouri University of Science and Technology. That’s because LED traffic lights don’t burn out – they just lose brightness over time.

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Civil engineers from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute were part of an international research team that collapsed a full-scale dike this week in the Netherlands. The test dike was embedded with advanced sensors and traditional measurement instruments, and results of the study are expected to help validate powerful new technologies for monitoring the health of aging flood-control infrastructure.

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Jason Martin, Brad Chassee and Tony Rainoldi, the founders of ArchPatent and graduates of The University of Alabama in Huntsville, have found an easy, low-cost way to navigate the enormous database of patent information or be confident that you were identifying the most important results.

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In August 2007, the I-35W Bridge over the Mississippi River in Minneapolis collapsed, killing 13 people and injuring 145. The collapse was attributed to a design deficiency that resulted in a gusset plate failing during ongoing construction work. Now, an interdisciplinary team of researchers at the University of Delaware is developing a novel structural health monitoring system that could avert such disasters in the future.

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Can a device formerly used to test nuclear weapons effects find a new life in rocket propulsion research? That is the question in which a graduate student at The University of Alabama in Huntsville seeks an answer.

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A research team at the University of Iowa has engineered a better design for hip implants for obese patients. The team learned that thigh size is a reason why hip implants fail, and why it contributes to an increased rate of failure for the morbidly obese. Results are published in the journal Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research.

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Do you know who Michael Jackson or George Washington was? You most likely do: they are what we call “household names” because these individuals were so ubiquitous. But what about Giuseppe Tartini or John Bachar?

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A Virginia Tech Transportation Institute researcher studies the causes of intersection vehicle collisions.

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Educational outreach is a critical component of nearly every research grant awarded by the federal government or other funding organizations. Along with conducting experiments and documenting the results, grant recipients are tasked with reaching out to high schools and lower schools to help expose and excite students about science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Not every grant recipient, however, knows how or where to start these outreach activities.

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When Adam Estelle graduated from the University of Arizona's materials science and engineering program four years ago, he had no idea he would be involved in saving thousands of lives. Now, Estelle is working with technology based on copper alloys that kill bacteria, fungi and viruses. The metals can be fashioned into everything from IV poles to sinks to bed rails -- just about anything that is frequently touched in hospitals.

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University at Buffalo researchers are enlisting hundreds of students to build an unprecedented smartphone network that will help scientists improve handheld computers and better understand how the devices are changing the world.

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Engineering researchers at the University of Arkansas have received funding from the National Science Foundation to create distortion-tolerant communications for wireless networks that use very little power. The research will improve wireless sensors deployed in remote areas where these systems must rely on batteries or energy-harvesting devices for power.

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Recycled materials may become armor against flying debris: Panels for a new high-tech shelter created at the University of Alabama at Birmingham have passed the National Storm Shelter Association’s tornado threat test.

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First-year engineering students who participate in service-learning projects as part of their coursework see themselves as more capable and more motivated to learn than those who do not take part in service-learning projects, a recent study suggests.

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With the continual evolution of the learning community environment at Virginia Tech, the next step was the decision to house the engineering and science participants in one University Residence Hall starting with the 2012-13 class. The close living quarters will allow the engineering and science students to live in the inVenTs Learning Community.

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Dan Braun earned a bachelor’s in mechanical engineering at the University of California, San Diego in 2006. Five years later he came back to enroll in the inaugural class of the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering’s Master of Advanced Study Program in Medical Device Engineering. The cross-disciplinary program is designed to train working professionals to apply their engineering know-how and workforce experience to a new career in one of the region’s fastest growing technology sectors.

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As the world’s population nears seven-billion people, mechanical engineers will play a major role in meeting global challenges says a research study conducted by ASME (American Society of Mechanical Engineers).

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A University of Washington scientist has proposed an experiment to test cloud brightening, a geoengineering concept that alters clouds in an effort to counter global warming. His proposed experiment is part of a larger paper detailing the latest thinking on cloud brightening.

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A catalyst that can replace platinum in diesel engines has been shown to reduce pollution by up to 45 percent. The catalyst, mullite, is from the family of minerals known as oxides. The finding opens new possibilities to create renewable, clean energy technology without precious metals.

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University of Cincinnati innovations on reducing the noise of the nation’s most sophisticated military aircraft will be presented at an international conference in New York.

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NASA's Mars Science Laboratory Rover “Curiosity” would have a hard time completing its mission if it were not for a successful partnership between the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and a professor-student team at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

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A team of Drexel University engineers are adding reconfigurable, wireless antennas to microchips in hopes of freeing up space on the tiny silicon wafers – a development that could the paradigms of microchip architecture.

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A group of University of Tennessee, Knoxville, engineering students feel like sixteen-year olds when they received the keys to a 2013 Chevrolet Malibu they are going to remodel to make more eco-friendly.

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Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), such as those used by the military for surveillance and reconnaissance, could be getting a hand –and an arm– from engineers at Drexel University as part of a National Science Foundation grant to investigate adding dexterous limbs to the aircrafts. The project, whose subject harkens to the hovering android iconography of sci-fi movies, could be a step toward the use of UAVs for emergency response and search and rescue scenarios.

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Mani Golparvar-Fard, an assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering at Virginia Tech, has developed an augmented reality modeling system that automatically analyzes physical progress on large-scale construction projects. The system allows a contractor to determine whether a project is on, ahead, or behind schedule, leading to cost savings and reduction in project delivery time.

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Sandia National Laboratories’ wind energy researchers are re-evaluating vertical axis wind turbines (VAWTs) to help solve some of the problems of generating energy from offshore breezes.

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A tiny vibrating cantilever sensor could soon help doctors and field clinicians quickly detect harmful toxins, bacteria and even indicators of certain types of cancer from small samples of blood or urine. Researchers from Drexel University are in the process of refining a sensor technology that they developed to measure samples at the cellular level into an accurate method for quickly detecting traces of DNA in liquid samples.

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The volume of "green" advertising rises and falls in conjunction with key indicators of economic growth. That's the finding from a study of 30 years of environmental ads in National Geographic Magazine.

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Ryerson University’s Centre for Urban Energy launches Energy Management and Innovation Certificate

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According to a new salary survey by ASME (American Society of Mechanical Engineers) and ASCE (American Society of Civil Engineers), average, base salaries for engnineers rose three percent from last year; the average salary for engineers in 2012 is $95,603, an increase of $2,877 over last year.

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Reaching a milestone fueled by student researchers' quality work, Dr. Charles Perry's 50- to 100-percent gas-saving wheel-hub motor, plug-in hybrid retrofit kit's success is leading to dialogue with potential companies with fleets of vehicles to solicit funds to build and demonstrate a manufacturing version of this technology.

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To accelerate the development of new health technologies, the University of Michigan will create and grow a Department of Biomedical Engineering that spans the Medical School and College of Engineering.

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A ratings system developed by a group of Kansas State University researchers could keep bridges safer and help prevent catastrophic collapses. The researchers have created a bridge health index, which is a rating system that more accurately describes the amount of damage in a bridge. Additionally, the health index can extend beyond bridges and apply to other structures, such as gas pipelines, dams, buildings and airplanes.

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The U.S. Chemical Safety Board today has announced a public hearing to support its continued analysis of effective safety performance indicators and to release preliminary findings into the agency’s investigation of the Macondo well blowout, explosion and fire in the Gulf of Mexico. The CSB’s two day hearing on July 23-24, 2012, in Houston, Texas, will feature presentations and discussions on measuring process safety performance in high hazard industries, including the development and implementation of leading and lagging indicators, for effective safety management.

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New research shows that exercise is a key step in building a muscle-like implant in the lab with the potential to repair muscle damage from injury or disease. In mice, these implants successfully prompt the regeneration and repair of damaged or lost muscle tissue, resulting in significant functional improvement.

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A team of researchers from Drexel University's College of Engineering has developed a new method for quickly and efficiently storing and discharging large amounts of energy. Their "electrochemical flow capacitor," which is fully scalable, could be the key to a more efficient integration of renewable resources into the energy grid.

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Regional planning may seem sensible--even essential--but it is notoriously tough to implement. Its enemies are often local officials, who view regional planning as a threat. To succeed, planners must be just as cagey and tough as the opposition.

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The Wind Energy Initiative of Iowa State University's College of Engineering is building research and education programs across disciplines. The initiative's ultimate goal is to help the country produce 20 percent of its electrical energy from wind by 2030.

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A team of bioengineers and biochemists at Penn State University is using a miniaturized ultrasound device to capture and manipulate biological materials, such as the tiny roundworm, C. elegans.

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Biomedical engineering researchers say better implantable sensors and cartilage-growing techniques are making engineered cartilage a clinical reality for patients suffering from joint damage.

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Study finds degrees in science, technology, engineering and math associated with 25 to 50 percent higher earnings; Latino college grads are highest earners.

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With the help of a $2 million grant from the U.S. Office of Naval Research, mechanical engineers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison will develop a tool to characterize the performance of a new class of alternative fuels that could be used in maritime vehicles such as submarines and aircraft carriers.

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In time for the U.S. Olympic Trials, engineers settle the argument over which swim stroke technique -- deep catch or sculling -- is faster.

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GTRI researchers have developed a prototype automated pavement crack detection and sealing system. In road tests, the system was able to detect cracks smaller than one-eighth-inch wide and efficiently fill cracks from a vehicle moving at a speed of three miles per hour.

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Two Kansas State University civil engineers are working to make Kansas roads and highways safer by reducing the number and severity of vehicular crashes that involve large, cargo-carrying trucks.

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University of Utah physicists developed an inexpensive, highly accurate magnetic field sensor for scientific and possibly consumer uses based on a “spintronic” organic thin-film semiconductor that basically is “plastic paint.”

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University of Utah engineers designed microscopic mechanical devices that withstand intense radiation and heat, so they can be used in circuits for robots and computers exposed to radiation in space, damaged nuclear power plants or nuclear attack.

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A side mirror that eliminates the dangerous “blind spot” for drivers has now received a U.S. patent. The subtly curved mirror, invented by Drexel University mathematics professor Dr. R. Andrew Hicks, dramatically increases the field of view with minimal distortion. designed his mirror using a mathematical algorithm that precisely controls the angle of light bouncing off of the curving mirror, similar to manipulating the direction of each tiny mirror face on a disco ball to make a smooth, nonuniform curve.

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U.S. researchers are perfecting simulations that show a nuclear weapon's performance in molecular detail, which is critical because international treaties forbid the detonation of nuclear test weapons.