Released: 4-Jan-2013 2:50 PM EST
Computer Scientists Find Vulnerabilities in Cisco VoIP Phones
Columbia University School of Engineering and Applied Science

Columbia Engineering researchers have found vulnerabilities in Cisco VoIP telephones, recently demonstrating how they can insert malicious code into a Cisco VoIP phone (any of the 14 Cisco Unified IP Phone models) and start eavesdropping on private conversations—not just on the phone but also in the phone’s surroundings—from anywhere in the world.

Released: 24-Jan-2013 3:15 PM EST
Mobile Device Speeds Up Diagnostic Testing for HIV and More
Columbia University School of Engineering and Applied Science

Columbia Biomedical Engineering Professor Samuel Sia has taken his innovative lab-on-a-chip and developed a way to not only check a patient’s HIV status anywhere in the world with just a finger prick, but also synchronize the results automatically and instantaneously with central health-care records—10 times faster than the benchtop ELISA.

30-Jan-2013 2:30 PM EST
Study Shows That Gases Work with Particles to Promote Cloud Formation
Columbia University School of Engineering and Applied Science

Columbia Engineering and Georgia Institute of Technology researchers have published a study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences showing that certain volatile organic gases can promote cloud formation in a way never considered before by atmospheric scientists. They say this is the first time gases have been shown to affect cloud formation in this way and will “improve our ability to model cloud formation, an important component of climate.”

15-Feb-2013 10:00 AM EST
Shedding New Light on Infant Brain Development
Columbia University School of Engineering and Applied Science

A new Columbia Engineering study finds that the infant brain does not control its blood flow the same way as the adult brain, that the control of brain blood flow develops with age. These findings could change the way researchers study brain development in infants and children.

   
Released: 11-Mar-2013 1:15 PM EDT
Designing Interlocking Building Blocks to Create Complex Tissues
Columbia University School of Engineering and Applied Science

Columbia Engineering’s new “plug-and-play” method to assemble complex cell microenvironments is a scalable, highly precise way to fabricate tissues with any spatial organization or interest—like those found in the heart or skeleton or vasculature. The PNAS study reveals new ways to better mimic the enormous complexity of tissue development, regeneration, and disease.

Released: 11-Apr-2013 3:00 PM EDT
New Technique Measures Evaporation Globally
Columbia University School of Engineering and Applied Science

Researchers at Columbia Engineering and Boston University have developed the first method to map evaporation globally using weather stations, which will help scientists evaluate water resource management, assess recent trends of evaporation throughout the globe, and validate surface hydrologic models in various conditions.

Released: 18-Apr-2013 8:00 AM EDT
New Computational Model Can Predict Breast Cancer Survival
Columbia University School of Engineering and Applied Science

Columbia Engineering researchers have developed a new computational model that is highly predictive of breast cancer survival and, they hope, perhaps all cancers. Their work won the Sage Bionetworks/DREAM Breast Cancer Prognosis Challenge, a crowd-sourced effort for accurate breast cancer prognosis using molecular and clinical data.

Released: 24-Apr-2013 5:00 PM EDT
Columbia Engineers Generate World-Record mmWave Output Power from Nanoscale CMOS
Columbia University School of Engineering and Applied Science

Harish Krishnaswamy, assistant professor of electrical engineering at Columbia Engineering, has generated a record amount of power output—by a power of five—using silicon-based nanoscale CMOS (complementary metal oxide semiconductor) technology for millimeter-wave power amplifiers. Power amplifiers are used in communications and sensor systems to boost power levels for reliable transmission of signals over long distances as required by the given application. Krishnaswamy’s research will be reported at the June 2013 Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Radio Frequency Integrated Circuits Symposium.

Released: 16-May-2013 10:00 AM EDT
Graphene Study Confirms 40-Year-Old Physics Prediction
Columbia University School of Engineering and Applied Science

Researchers have directly observed—through moiré-patterned graphene—a rare quantum effect that produces a repeating butterfly-shaped energy spectrum, confirming the longstanding prediction of this quantum fractal energy structure called Hofstadter’s butterfly. The study is published in Nature’s May 15 Advance Online Publication.

Released: 23-May-2013 10:00 AM EDT
Stitching Defects Into World’s Thinnest Semiconductor
Columbia University School of Engineering and Applied Science

Columbia University researchers have grown high-quality crystals of molybdenum disulfide, the world’s thinnest semiconductor, and studied how these crystals stitch together at the atomic scale to form continuous sheets, gaining key insights into the optical and electronic properties of this new “wonder” material.

Released: 23-May-2013 4:00 PM EDT
Fastest Measurements Ever Made of Ion Channel Proteins
Columbia University School of Engineering and Applied Science

Columbia Engineering researchers have used miniaturized electronics to measure the activity of individual ion-channel proteins with temporal resolution as fine as one microsecond, producing the fastest recordings of single ion channels ever performed.

Released: 31-May-2013 12:00 PM EDT
Even with Defects, Graphene Is Strongest Material in the World
Columbia University School of Engineering and Applied Science

Columbia Engineering researchers demonstrate that graphene, even if stitched together from many small crystalline grains, is almost as strong as graphene in its perfect crystalline form. This resolves a contradiction between theoretical simulations, which predicted grain boundaries can be strong, and earlier experiments, which indicated they were much weaker than the perfect lattice.

Released: 20-Jun-2013 4:35 PM EDT
Building Operating System Provides Brain for Smarter Cities
Columbia University School of Engineering and Applied Science

Innovative machine learning technology developed by Columbia Engineering is the driving force—in effect, the brain—behind Di-BOSS™, a new digital building operating system that integrates all building operating systems into one, easy-to-use cockpit control interface for desktops and portable devices. The system has been successfully piloted in NYC by Rudin Management, saving them energy costs and resources.

Released: 21-Aug-2013 2:00 PM EDT
Christine Fleming Named to MIT Technology Review’s Annual Innovators under 35 List
Columbia University School of Engineering and Applied Science

Christine Fleming has been named to MIT Technology Review’s annual list of 35 top young innovators for her research in the field of biotechnology and medicine. Fleming, assistant professor of electrical engineering at Columbia Engineering, is working on giving cardiologists a powerful new tool: high-resolution films of the living heart, available in real time during cardiac procedures.

Released: 22-Aug-2013 3:00 PM EDT
Columbia Researchers Win $1 Million Keck Award
Columbia University School of Engineering and Applied Science

Columbia University researchers have won a $1 million 3-year grant from the W. M. Keck Foundation to advance their research in combining biological components with solid-state electronics, creating new systems that exploit the advantages of both.

Released: 4-Sep-2013 1:00 PM EDT
Bigshot Camera Does Good
Columbia University School of Engineering and Applied Science

Computer Science Professor Shree Nayar has launched Bigshot, a kit that features a build-it-yourself digital camera designed to serve as both a creative tool and a medium for education. It’s accompanied by an in-depth website that includes an interactive textbook with engaging demos of science and engineering concepts related to the camera. Nayar will use some of his royalties to donate cameras to kids in underprivileged communities through his program Bigshots for Good.

Released: 10-Sep-2013 8:00 AM EDT
New Evidence to Aid Search for Charge “Stripes” in Superconductors
Columbia University School of Engineering and Applied Science

Researchers from Columbia Engineering and Brookhaven National Laboratory have identified a series of clues that particular arrangements of electrical charges known as “stripes” may play a role in superconductivity, using a method to detect fluctuating stripes of charge density in a material closely related to a superconductor.

Released: 11-Sep-2013 4:35 PM EDT
Researchers Win $5.25M NIH Grant to Develop New Single Molecule Electronic DNA Sequencing Platform
Columbia University School of Engineering and Applied Science

A team of researchers led by Columbia Engineering Professor Jingyue Ju has won a three-year $5.25 million NIH grant to develop a novel integrated miniaturized system for real-time single molecule electronic DNA sequencing. This will help them develop their approach into a robust miniaturized platform that will allow the entire human genome to be deciphered for about $100, creating an ideal platform for personalized medicine and basic biomedical research.

Released: 28-Oct-2013 5:30 PM EDT
Using Data Science Tools to Discover New Nanostructured Materials
Columbia University School of Engineering and Applied Science

Columbia Engineering researchers have developed a new approach to designing novel nanostructured materials through an inverse design framework using genetic algorithms. The study, published in PNAS’s October 28 Early Online edition, is the first to demonstrate the application of this methodology to the design of self-assembled nanostructures, and could help speed up the materials discovery process. It also shows the potential of machine learning and “big data” approaches.

Released: 17-Nov-2013 3:00 PM EST
Columbia Engineers Make World’s Smallest FM Radio Transmitter
Columbia University School of Engineering and Applied Science

A team of Columbia Engineering researchers, led by Mechanical Engineering Professor James Hone and Electrical Engineering Professor Kenneth Shepard, has taken advantage of graphene’s special properties—its mechanical strength and electrical conduction—and created a nano-mechanical system that can create FM signals, in effect the world’s smallest FM radio transmitter. The study is published online on November 17, in Nature Nanotechnology.

Released: 8-Jan-2014 2:00 PM EST
Columbia Engineering Wins $3M ARPA-E Grant to Raise Efficiency, Lower Cost of Power Grid
Columbia University School of Engineering and Applied Science

A Columbia Engineering team has won a $3 million ARPA-E grant for research targeted at developing next-generation power conversion devices to transform how power is controlled and converted throughout the grid. The researchers are developing a new method to fabricate vertical gallium nitride devices in a low-cost matter compatible with traditional silicon semiconductor manufacturing.

Released: 10-Feb-2014 4:00 PM EST
Chips That Listen to Bacteria
Columbia University School of Engineering and Applied Science

Researchers led by Ken Shepard (electrical engineering and biomedical engineering professor, Columbia Engineering) and Lars Dietrich, biological sciences assistant professor, Columbia University) have shown integrated circuit technology can be used for a most unusual application—the study of signaling in bacterial colonies. They have developed a chip based on CMOS technology that enables them to electrochemically image the signaling molecules from these colonies spatially and temporally—they’ve developed chips that “listen” to bacteria.

Released: 8-Apr-2014 5:00 PM EDT
Radiator Labs Wins Popular Science Magazine's Annual Invention Award
Columbia University School of Engineering and Applied Science

For more than two years, Marshall Cox PhD’13 and John Kymissis, associate professor of electrical engineering, have been working on their startup Radiator Labs. Their first consumer product—the Cozy—is now in production and set for delivery next fall, just in time for winter’s cold blasts. And also just in time to win Popular Science Magazine's Annual Invention Awards as one of the most exciting innovations the PopSci editors have seen this past year.

Released: 30-Apr-2014 1:00 PM EDT
Columbia Engineers Grow Functional Human Cartilage in Lab
Columbia University School of Engineering and Applied Science

Columbia Engineers have successfully grown—for the first time—fully functional human cartilage in vitro from human stem cells derived from bone marrow tissue. Their study, which demonstrates new ways to better mimic the enormous complexity of tissue development, regeneration, and disease, is published in the April 28 Early Online edition of PNAS.

Released: 28-May-2014 9:05 AM EDT
Crow or Raven? New Birdsnap App Can Help!
Columbia University School of Engineering and Applied Science

Using computer vision and machine learning techniques, Columbia Engineering researchers have developed Birdsnap, a free new iPhone app that's an electronic field guide featuring 500 of the most common North American bird species. The app enables users to identify bird species through uploaded photos, + accompanies a comprehensive website.

Released: 2-Jun-2014 10:05 AM EDT
Using Computers to Influence the Law
Columbia University School of Engineering and Applied Science

Researchers at Columbia Engineering and the University of Maryland Carey School of Law recently published a study in the New York University Journal of Law & Liberty that examines how advances in machine learning technology may change the way courts treat searches, warrants, and privacy issues.

11-Jun-2014 12:00 PM EDT
BRAIN POWER: New Insight into How the Brain Regulates Its Blood Flow
Columbia University School of Engineering and Applied Science

Columbia Engineering professor Elizabeth M. C. Hillman has identified a new component of the biological mechanism that controls blood flow in the brain, demonstrating that the vascular endothelium plays a critical role in the regulation of blood flow in response to stimulation in the living brain. Understanding how and why the brain regulates its blood flow could provide important clues to understanding early brain development, disease, and aging.

   
Released: 18-Jun-2014 4:00 PM EDT
Columbia Engineering Team Finds Thousands of Secret Keys in Android Apps
Columbia University School of Engineering and Applied Science

Columbia Engineering researchers have discovered a crucial security problem in Google Play, the official Android app store. The study is the first to make a large-scale measurement of the huge marketplace, using PlayDrone, a tool they developed to circumvent Google security to successfully download Google Play apps and recover their sources.

Released: 11-Aug-2014 2:00 PM EDT
Professor Qi Wang Wins EMBS Early Career Achievement Award
Columbia University School of Engineering and Applied Science

Qi Wang, assistant professor of biomedical engineering, recently won the prestigious 2014 Early Career Achievement Award from the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBS). EMBS, the world's largest society of biomedical engineers, cited his “contribution to neural engineering and biomedical instrumentation, including measuring biomechanical properties of skin and tissue, building a tactile display for a virtual Braille system, and discovery of a neural basis for sensory adaptation in behavior.“

Released: 14-Aug-2014 9:30 AM EDT
New Non-Invasive Technique Controls Size of Molecules Penetrating the Blood-Brain Barrier
Columbia University School of Engineering and Applied Science

A new technique developed by Elisa Konofagou, associate professor of biomedical engineering and radiology at Columbia Engineering, has demonstrated for the first time that the size of molecules penetrating the blood-brain barrier can be controlled using acoustic pressure—the pressure of an ultrasound beam—to let specific molecules through. This innovative method, published in the Journal of Cerebral Blood Flow & Metabolism, may help improve drug delivery to the brain.

Released: 18-Aug-2014 11:00 AM EDT
New Tool Makes Online Personal Data More Transparent
Columbia University School of Engineering and Applied Science

Roxana Geambasu and Augustin Chaintreau, assistant professors of computer science at Columbia Engineering, have developed XRay, a new tool that reveals which data in a web account, such as emails, searches, or viewed products, are being used to target which outputs, such as ads, recommended products, or prices. They are presenting the prototype, an open source system designed to make the online use of personal data more transparent, at USENIX Security on August 20.

8-Sep-2014 11:00 AM EDT
Mapping the DNA Sequence of Ashkenazi Jews
Columbia University School of Engineering and Applied Science

Researchers have created a data resource that will improve genomic research in the Ashkenazi Jewish population and lead to more effective personalized medicine. The team of experts from Columbia Engineering and 10 other labs in the NYC area and Israel focused on the Ashkenazi Jewish population because of its demographic history of genetic isolation and the resulting abundance of population-specific mutations and prevalence of rare genetic disorders. The study was published on Nature Communications.

29-Sep-2014 9:05 AM EDT
How Things Coil
Columbia University School of Engineering and Applied Science

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).

13-Oct-2014 5:00 PM EDT
Researchers Develop World’s Thinnest Electric Generator
Columbia University School of Engineering and Applied Science

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.

Released: 16-Dec-2014 12:00 PM EST
Startup Seamless Devices Launches from Prof. Peter Kinget’s Lab
Columbia University School of Engineering and Applied Science

Innovative technology developed in Electrical Engineering Professor Peter Kinget’s lab is at the core of Seamless Devices, a startup co-founded by Kinget and his former student Jayanth Kuppambatti PhD’14. Seamless Devices aims to address critical limitations faced by semiconductor technologies striving to meet the demands of performance and power efficiency required by the next-generation of electronic devices and sensors.

16-Jan-2015 2:00 PM EST
New High-Speed 3D Microscope—Scape—Gives Deeper View of Living Things
Columbia University School of Engineering and Applied Science

Columbia Engineering professor Elizabeth Hillman has developed SCAPE, a new microscope that images living things in 3D at very high speeds. Her approach uses a simple, single-objective imaging geometry that requires no sample mounting or translation, making it possible to image freely moving living samples. SCAPE’s ability to perform real-time 3D imaging at cellular resolution in behaving organisms could be transformative for biomedical and neuroscience research. (Study published on Nature Photonics's website 1/19/2015.)

23-Jan-2015 11:00 AM EST
Nanoshuttle Wear and Tear: It’s the Mileage, Not the Age
Columbia University School of Engineering and Applied Science

As nanomachine design advances, researchers are moving from wondering if the nanomachine works to how long it will work—an important question as there are so many potential applications, e.g., for medical uses including drug delivery and early diagnosis. Columbia Engineering Professor Henry Hess observed a molecular shuttle powered by kinesin motor proteins and found it to degrade when operating, marking the first time degradation has been studied in detail in an active, autonomous nanomachine.

2-Feb-2015 8:00 AM EST
Smartphone, Finger Prick, 15 Minutes, Diagnosis—Done!
Columbia University School of Engineering and Applied Science

Columbia Engineering Professor Samuel Sia has developed a low-cost smartphone accessory that can perform a point-of-care test that simultaneously detects three infectious disease markers—HIV and syphilis—from a finger prick of blood in just 15 minutes. The device replicates, for the first time, all mechanical, optical, and electronic functions of a lab-based blood test without requiring any stored energy: all necessary power is drawn from the smartphone. February 4, Science Translational Medicine.

Released: 25-Feb-2015 2:15 PM EST
Shining New Light on Vascular Diseases in Diabetics
Columbia University School of Engineering and Applied Science

Columbia Engineering Professor Andreas Hielscher is developing a novel technology that could improve diagnosis of peripheral arterial disease and make it easier to monitor patients. He’s won a $2.5 million 5-year grant from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute to build and test a dynamic optical tomographic imaging system, which uses near-infrared light to map the concentration of hemoglobin in the body’s tissue and reveal how well blood is perfusing patients’ hands and feet.

Released: 11-Mar-2015 3:05 PM EDT
Steroids Rapidly Restore Blood-Brain Barrier Function after Blast
Columbia University School of Engineering and Applied Science

Columbia Engineering Professor Barclay Morrison has led the first study to determine underlying biological mechanisms that promote functional recovery of the blood-brain barrier after blast injury, demonstrating that treatment with the glucocorticoid, dexamethasone, after primary blast injury promotes rapid recovery of an in vitro model of the BBB. His findings may also help improve outcomes in brain-injured soldiers and civilians, reducing the length of their mandatory rest periods before returning to duty.

Released: 13-Mar-2015 1:05 PM EDT
New Technology May Double Radio Frequency Data Capacity
Columbia University School of Engineering and Applied Science

Columbia engineers have invented a technology—full-duplex radio integrated circuits—that can be implemented in nanoscale CMOS to enable simultaneous transmission and reception at the same frequency in a wireless radio. Up to now, this has been thought to be impossible: transmitters and receivers either work at different times or at the same time but at different frequencies. Electrical Engineering Professor Harish Krishnaswamy’s team is the first to demonstrate an IC that can accomplish this.

13-Apr-2015 3:00 PM EDT
A Camera That Powers Itself!
Columbia University School of Engineering and Applied Science

A team led by Shree K. Nayar, Computer Science Professor at Columbia Engineering, has invented a prototype video camera that is the first to be fully self-powered—it can produce an image each second, indefinitely, of a well-lit indoor scene. They designed a pixel that can not only measure incident light but also convert the incident light into electric power. The work will be presented at the International Conference on Computational Photography in Houston, 4/24-26

24-Apr-2015 3:05 PM EDT
Two-Dimensional Semiconductor Comes Clean
Columbia University School of Engineering and Applied Science

Columbia Engineering Professor James Hone led a team in 2013 that dramatically improved the performance of graphene by encapsulating it in boron nitride. They’ve now shown they can similarly improve the performance of another 2D material, molybdenum disulfide (MoS2. Their findings provide a demonstration of how to study all 2D materials and hold great promise for a broad range of applications including high-performance electronics, detection and emission of light, and chemical/bio-sensing. Nature Nanotechnology , week of April 27, 2015

Released: 13-May-2015 5:05 PM EDT
Prof. Matei Ciocarlie Wins Young Investigator Program Grant for Hands-on Research
Columbia University School of Engineering and Applied Science

Matei Ciocarlie, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, has been awarded a three-year $637,000 Young Investigator Program (YIP) grant from the Office of Naval Research (ONR) for his work on human-in-the-loop systems in which humans and robotic manipulators work together, side by side, on the same task.

Released: 22-May-2015 10:05 AM EDT
New Computational Technique Advances Color 3D Printing Process
Columbia University School of Engineering and Applied Science

Columbia Engineering professor Changxi Zheng has developed a technique that enables hydrographic printing, a widely used industrial method for transferring color inks on a thin film to the surface of 3D objects, to color these surfaces with the most precise alignment ever attained. His new computational method, which simulates the printing process and predicts color film distortion during hydrographic immersion, generates a colored film that guarantees exact alignment of the surface textures to the object.

22-May-2015 11:00 AM EDT
One Step Closer to a Single-Molecule Device
Columbia University School of Engineering and Applied Science

Columbia Engineering professor Latha Venkataraman has designed a new technique to create a single-molecule diode, and, in doing so, she has developed molecular diodes that perform 50 times better than all prior designs. Venkataraman’s group is the first to develop a single-molecule diode that may have real-world technological applications for nanoscale devices.

Released: 27-May-2015 4:05 PM EDT
What’s Fair?: New Theory on Income Inequality
Columbia University School of Engineering and Applied Science

The increasing inequality in income and wealth in recent years, together with excessive pay packages of CEOs in the U.S. and abroad, is of growing concern.. Columbia Engineering Professor Venkat Venkatasubramanian has led a study that examines income inequality through a new approach: he proposes that the fairest inequality of income is a lognormal distribution (a method of characterizing data patterns in probability and statistics) under ideal conditions, and that an ideal free market can “discover” this in practice.

   
11-Jun-2015 3:05 PM EDT
World’s Thinnest Light Bulb—Graphene Gets Bright!
Columbia University School of Engineering and Applied Science

Led by James Hone’s group at Columbia Engineering, a team of scientists from Columbia, SNU, and KRISS demonstrated—for the first time—an on-chip visible light source using graphene, an atomically thin and perfectly crystalline form of carbon, as a filament. They attached small strips of graphene to metal electrodes, suspended the strips above the substrate, and passed a current through the filaments to cause them to heat up. (Nature Nanotechnology AOP June 15)

15-Jun-2015 2:05 PM EDT
Staying Cool: Saharan Silver Ants
Columbia University School of Engineering and Applied Science

Researchers have discovered two strategies that enable Saharan silver ants to stay cool in one of the world’s hottest environments. They are the first to demonstrate that the ants use a coat of uniquely shaped hairs to control electromagnetic waves over an extremely broad range from the solar spectrum to the thermal radiation spectrum and that different physical mechanisms are used in different spectral bands to realize the same biological function of reducing body temperature.

26-Aug-2015 3:00 PM EDT
Columbia Engineers Develop New Approach to Modeling Amazon Seasonal Cycles
Columbia University School of Engineering and Applied Science

Columbia engineers have developed a new approach, opposite to climate models, to correct inaccuracies using a high-resolution atmospheric model that more precisely resolves clouds and convection and parameterizes the feedback between convection and atmospheric circulation. The new simulation strategy paves the way for better understanding of the water and carbon cycles in the Amazon, enabling researchers to learn more about the role of deforestation and climate change on the forest.” (PNAS Online Early Edition 8/31)


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