Feature Channels: Engineering

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High-frequency antennas transmit radio waves across vast distances and even over mountain ranges using very little energy, making them ideal for military communications. These devices, however, have one big problem: They need to be huge to operate efficiently. Instead of adding more bulk, UW-Madison engineers are working to increase the effective size of antennas by turning the military vehicles that carry them into transmitters — using the structures that support the antennas themselves to help broadcast signals.

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Martin Thuo of Iowa State and the Ames Laboratory has led development of liquid-metal particles that can be used for heat-free soldering and other applications. Thuo has helped launch a startup company to develop and market the technology.

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Hybrid batteries that charge faster than conventional ones could have significantly better electrical capacity and long-term stability when prepared with a gentle-sounding way of making electrodes. Called ion soft-landing, the high-precision technique resulted in electrodes that could store a third more energy and had twice the lifespan compared to those prepared by a conventional method, the researchers report today in Nature Communications.

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Columbia Engineering-led team reports achieving real-time single molecule electronic DNA sequencing at single-base resolution using a protein nanopore array. The team includes researchers from Columbia University, Genia Technologies (Roche), Harvard University, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology. The work sets the stage for revolutionary, cost-effective genetic diagnostic platforms with unprecedented potential for precision medicine. (PNAS, 4/18/2016)

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West Virginia University engineer Dan Carder, who led the research team that broke open the Volkswagen emissions scandal, has been named to the 2016 Time 100, the magazine’s annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world.

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The United States produced more than 500 million pounds of blueberries with a farm gate value of $860 million in 2011, making the it the largest blueberry-producing country, accounting for almost two-thirds of the world’s production.4/21/2016UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Industrial engineers from Penn State are part of a nine-university, four-year, $4.

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University of California, Irvine researchers have invented nanowire-based battery material that can be recharged hundreds of thousands of times, moving us closer to a battery that would never require replacement. The breakthrough work could lead to commercial batteries with greatly lengthened lifespans for computers, smartphones, appliances, cars and spacecraft.

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Most materials, too, are capable of being only one thing at a time, but a team of engineers and physicists at the University of Wisconsin–Madison have created an entirely new material in which completely contradictory properties can coexist.

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One secret to creating the world's fastest silicon-based flexible transistors: a very, very tiny knife. Working in collaboration with colleagues around the country, University of Wisconsin-Madison engineers have pioneered a unique method that could allow manufacturers to easily and cheaply fabricate high-performance transistors with wireless capabilities on huge rolls of flexible plastic.

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A University of Delaware research team led by Guoquan Huang of the Department of Mechanical Engineering has been awarded an NSF grant to design resource-aware, attack-resilient navigation for micro aerial vehicles.

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Virtual and augmented reality have the potential to profoundly impact our society, but the technologies have a few bugs to work out to better simulate realistic visual experience. Now, researchers at Dartmouth College and Stanford University have discovered that "monovision" -- a simple technique borrowed from ophthalmology that dates to the monocle of the Victorian Age - can improve user performance in virtual reality environments.

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Scientists at NJIT's Big Bear Solar Observatory (BBSO) have captured unprecedented images of a recent solar flare, including bright flare ribbons seen crossing a sunspot followed by "coronal rain," plasma that condenses in the cooling phase shortly after the flare, showering the visible surface of the Sun where it lands in brilliant explosions.

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By showing that a phenomenon dubbed the “inverse spin Hall effect” works in several organic semiconductors – including carbon-60 buckyballs – University of Utah physicists changed magnetic “spin current” into electric current. The efficiency of this new power conversion method isn’t yet known, but it might find use in future electronic devices including batteries, solar cells and computers.

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A team of researchers at Binghamton University, led by Assistant Professor of Psychology Sarah Laszlo and Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering Zhanpeng Jin, recorded the brain activity of 50 people wearing an electroencephalogram headset while they looked at a series of 500 images designed specifically to elicit unique responses from person to person — e.g., a slice of pizza, a boat, Anne Hathaway, the word “conundrum.” They found that participants’ brains reacted differently to each image, enough that a computer system was able to identify each volunteer’s “brainprint” with 100 percent accuracy.

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U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Ames Laboratory senior metallurgist Iver Anderson was inducted into the National Academy of Inventors (NAI) at a special ceremony in Washington, D.C. today at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

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An article in the latest edition of the journal Science describes an innovative form of heat engine that operates using only one single atom. The engine is the result of experiments undertaken by the QUANTUM work group at the Institute of Physics of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) in collaboration with theoretical physicists of Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU).

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Using a state-of-the-art ultrafast electron microscope, University of Minnesota researchers have recorded the first-ever videos showing how heat moves through materials at the nanoscale traveling at the speed of sound.

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Combining the best features of a lobster and an African fish, University of Wisconsin–Madison engineers have created an artificial eye that can see in the dark. And their fishy false eyes could help search-and-rescue robots or surgical scopes make dim surroundings seem bright as day.

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An anonymous donor has pledged $5,000,000 to establish the Dean’s Chair in Engineering at Vanderbilt University’s School of Engineering, Chancellor Nicholas S. Zeppos announced at the school’s annual distinguished alumni celebration dinner April 14.

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Columbia Engineering Professor Harish Krishnaswamy has integrated a non-reciprocal circulator and a full-duplex radio on a nanoscale silicon chip for the first time. This breakthrough technology needs only one antenna, thus enabling an even smaller overall system than one he developed last year: “This technology could revolutionize the field of telecommunications,” he says. (Nature Communications 4/15/16)

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Scientists at Rice University have discovered that the strong force field emitted by a Tesla coil causes carbon nanotubes to self-assemble into long wires, a phenomenon they call “Teslaphoresis.”

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A modern twist on an old technology could soon help detect rogue methane leaks, hidden explosives and much more. A Duke University team is using software to dramatically improve the performance of chemical-sniffing mass spectrometers.

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A group of scientists from ITMO University in Saint Petersburg, Russia has developed a novel approach to the construction of quantum communication systems for secure data exchange. The experimental device based on the results of the research is capable of transmitting single-photon quantum signals across distances of 250 kilometers or more, which is on par with other cutting edge analogues. The research paper was published in the Optics Express journal.

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Columbia Engineering researchers have developed a novel sheet camera that can be wrapped around everyday objects to capture images that cannot be taken with one or more conventional cameras. They designed and fabricated a flexible lens array that adapts its optical properties when the sheet camera is bent. This optical adaptation enables the sheet camera to produce high quality images over a wide range of sheet deformations. (To be presented at ICCP 5/13-15)

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Medical device leaders from across the country in both industry and academia will converge at the University of Minnesota’s 15th annual Design of Medical Devices Conference April 12-14, 2016. More than 1,300 people are expected to attend this year’s conference, making it the largest medical devices conference in the world.

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Scientists at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) are set to use computer models to investigate NASA tests to develop an engineering tool to design missions using a new type of long-distance space propulsion.

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An international team of researchers has determined that matching the structure of engineered blood vessels to the structure of the host tissues at the site of implantation greatly improves the chances that grafted tissues will survive and thrive.

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Tulane University has expanded its Nitrogen Reduction Challenge to allow more entrepreneurs, researchers and inventors the chance to win $1 million.

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Physicists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory have discovered a topological metal, PtSn4 (platinum and tin), with a unique electronic structure that may someday lead to energy efficient computers with increased processor speeds and data storage.

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In addition to Dr. Brothers’ keynote address, DHS S&T, the Museum of Science Fiction, and the Prince William County Fire Department will cohost an exhibit showcasing how the first responder community uses new technology.

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Instead of reading a label, consumers could be interacting with an electronic screen on packaging in the future.

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A University of Washington-led research team has won a $7.5 million, five-year Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI) grant from the Department of Defense to better model and mount defenses against stealthy, continuous computer hacking attacks known as "advanced persistent threats."

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Scientists create a molybdenum-based material that could be a low-cost alternative to platinum for splitting water to make hydrogen fuel.

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A research team by the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory have discovered that only half the atoms in some iron-based superconductors are magnetic, providing the first conclusive demonstration of the wave-like properties of metallic magnetism.

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Bioengineers determine textile manufacturing processes ideal for engineering tissues needed for organ and tissue repair.

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The addition of sound waves offers the potential to better manipulate qubit communications within a quantum system, researchers say.

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The world has more carbon dioxide than it needs, and a team of Brown University chemists has come up with a potential way to put some of it to good use.

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Engineers have created a new material with an unusual chemical structure that makes it incredibly hard and yet elastic.

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Using state-of-the-art theoretical methods, UCSB researchers have identified a specific type of defect in the atomic structure of a light-emitting diode (LED) that results in less efficient performance. The characterization of these point defects could result in the fabrication of even more efficient, longer lasting LED lighting.

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A Purdue University research team has developed a simulation technique as part of a project to help reduce the cost of carbon nanostructures for research and potential commercial technologies, including advanced sensors and batteries.

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Rice University engineers develop method to ID cause of sour hydrocarbons in wells.

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A revolutionary new type of laser developed by the University of Adelaide is promising major advances in remote sensing of greenhouse gases.

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Khanjan Mehta and then Penn State undergraduate student Rachel Dzombak and graduate student Sally Mouakkad studied the reasons men and women involved with HESE cited as their top motivations for participating in the program with a goal of better understanding why women are drawn to the program.

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New research has identified how liquid-like materials can change into a solid-like state without the addition of extra particles or changes in volume.

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Epilepsy is a neurological disorder that causes seizures of many different types. Recent research from Japan has found that epileptic seizures can be more easily predicted by using an electrocardiogram to measure fluctuations in the heart rate than by measuring brain activity, because the monitoring device is easier to wear. By making more accurate predictions, it is possible to prevent injury or accident that may result from an epileptic seizure. This is a significant contribution toward the realization of a society where epileptic patients can live without worrying about sustaining injury from an unexpected seizure.

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Rice University scientists predict 2-D material -- no longer theoretical -- has unique properties.

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Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory have demonstrated that the placement and type of a tiny measurement device called a reference electrode enhances the quantity and quality of information that can be extracted from lithium-ion battery cells during cycling.

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A Kansas State University mechanical engineer has developed a paperlike battery electrode that may improve tools for space exploration or unmanned aerial vehicles.

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A new 3-D modeling and data-extraction technique is about to transform the field of X-ray crystallography, with potential benefits for both the pharmaceutical industry and structural biology.

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Weihua Guan has created a device that will deliver a diagnosis to the patient in 30 minutes. The assistant professor of electrical engineering in the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, with the help of his graduate student, Gihoon Choi, has created “AnyMDx: A Mobile Molecular Diagnostics Lab for Anyone, Anywhere, Anytime” for rapid diagnosis.