Engineering
press releases.

Engineering1 Oct 2024

Research provides new insights into role of mechanical forces in gene expression

The genome inside each of our cells is modelled by tension and torsion — due in part to the activity of proteins that compact, loop, wrap and untwist DNA — but scientists know little about how those forces affect the transcription of genes. “There are a lot of mechanical forces at play all the time that we never consider, we have very little knowledge of, and they’re not talked about in textbooks,” said Laura Finzi, the Dr. Waenard L. Miller, Jr. ’69 and Sheila M. Miller Endowed Chair in Medical Biophysics at Clemson University. Transcription is the process by which a cell makes an RNA copy of a segment of DNA. One ...

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Engineering27 Sep 2024

Autonomous vehicles can be imperfect — As long as they’re resilient

Researchers from three of Virginia’s premier universities, including the University of Virginia’s Homa Alemzadeh, aim to take the risk out of self-driving vehicles by overcoming inevitable computer failures with good engineering. The trio will share a $926,737 National Science Foundation award to identify when and where autonomous vehicle systems are most vulnerable to safety-critical failures. They plan to use this knowledge to design ways to efficiently mitigate potential safety hazards and enhance the overall system resilience. Alemzadeh, an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering in UVA’s School of Engineering and Applied ...

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Engineering25 Sep 2024

Study reveals mallards' flight responses ineffective in preventing vehicle collisions

Research Highlights Risk to Both Humans and Wildlife, Suggests Need for New Collision Mitigation Strategies A recent article published in PeerJ Life & Environment has uncovered insights into how mallards (Anas platyrhynchos) respond to approaching vehicles, revealing that these common waterbirds are poorly equipped to avoid collisions, particularly at high speeds. The research, which used both simulated and real-world vehicle approaches, highlights the urgent need for improved methods to reduce bird-vehicle collisions—events that are not only financially costly but also dangerous to both humans and wildlife. The study focused ...

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Engineering24 Sep 2024

Innovative electrolytes could transform steelmaking and beyond

The lifeblood of any battery is the electrolyte. It is the medium through which positively charged elements (cations) migrate en masse between the positive and negative electrodes. By this means, batteries discharge to provide energy and charge to store energy. Scientists call this an electrochemical process. Electrolytes are central to the development of different electrochemical processes, as well. For example, they could be used in converting iron ore into purified iron metal or iron alloys. A challenge is that the electrolyte must remain stable under extreme operating conditions and avoid side reactions that reduce energy efficiency. The payoff ...

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Engineering24 Sep 2024

Nearly 200 potential mammary carcinogens found in food contact materials: new study highlights regulatory shortcomings

About this study: Research identifies nearly 200 potential breast carcinogens in food contact materials, including plastics and paper, highlighting widespread exposure despite existing regulation. The findings underscore an urgent need for stronger preventative measures to reduce these chemicals in everyday products. Researchers from the Food Packaging Forum identify and discuss nearly 200 potential breast carcinogens that have been detected in food contact materials (FCMs) on the market. ...

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Engineering23 Sep 2024

New origami-inspired system turns flat-pack tubes into strong building materials

Engineers at RMIT University have designed an innovative tubular structural system that can be packed flat for easier transport and pop up into strong building materials. This breakthrough is made possible by a self-locking system inspired by curved-crease origami — a technique that uses curved crease lines in paper folding. Lead researchers, Dr Jeff (Ting-Uei) Lee and Distinguished Professor Mike (Yi Min) Xie, said bamboo, which has internal structures providing natural reinforcement, inspired the tube design. “This self-locking system is the result of an intelligent geometric design,” said Lee from RMIT’s School of Engineering. ...

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Engineering22 Sep 2024

Aviation can achieve Net-Zero by 2050 if immediate action is taken, says University of Cambridge report

Cambridge University has today released a groundbreaking report outlining a five-year roadmap to help the aviation sector achieve net-zero climate impact by 2050. Despite ambitious pledges from governments and industry, the aviation sector remains significantly off course in its efforts to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050. The report, titled “Five Years to Chart a New Future for Aviation,” outlines four 2030 Sustainable Aviation Goals—specific, actionable steps that must be initiated immediately and completed within five years if the aviation sector is to be on track to achieve net-zero by 2050. The 2030 Goals outlined in the report are: Accelerating the deployment ...

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Engineering20 Sep 2024

Demand-side actions could help construction sector deliver on net-zero targets

Using state-of-the-art energy efficiency technologies to renovate existing properties and construct new ones could enable Europe’s construction sector to almost eliminate its carbon emissions by 2060, a new study suggests. Published in the journal Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, the research is the first to fully assess the potential for energy demand reduction across the construction sectors of the United Kingdom and all European Union member states. It highlights that 75% of Europe’s building stock is currently classed as energy inefficient, with total floor space also ...

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Engineering18 Sep 2024

UVA Engineering professor awarded $1.6M EPA grant to reduce PFAS accumulation in crops

Associate professor of chemical engineering Bryan Berger received funding from the Environmental Protection Agency to reduce the impact of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, known as PFAS, in food and farming communities. The award is part of the over $15 million the EPA granted to 10 institutions for PFAS reduction research, aimed at improving farm viability and increasing knowledge of PFAS accumulation. Water sample collection for testing in Limestone, Maine. (Contributed photo) Known as forever chemicals, PFAS are man-made substances that have been used in industry ...

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Engineering18 Sep 2024

How do exogenous additives affect the direction of heavy metals and the preservation of nitrogen in pig manure compost?

Most of the heavy metals in pig manure originate from feed additives, such as copper and zinc. When these heavy metals are introduced into agricultural soil, they can significantly increase the heavy metal content in crops, posing a threat to both the environment and human health. While pig manure is rich in nitrogen, an essential nutrient for crop growth, a substantial amount of nitrogen is lost in gaseous form during the composting process, impacting the quality of the compost. Moreover, this process results in the emission of ...

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Engineering17 Sep 2024

Mapping out matter’s building blocks in 3D

NEWPORT NEWS, VA – Deep inside what we perceive as solid matter, the landscape is anything but stationary. The interior of the building blocks of the atom’s nucleus — particles called hadrons that a high school student would recognize as protons and neutrons — are made up of a seething mixture of interacting quarks and gluons, known collectively as partons. A group of physicists has now come together to map out these partons and disentangle how they interact to form hadrons. Based at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility and known as the HadStruc Collaboration, these ...

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Engineering12 Sep 2024

Dual-feedback healing mechanism redefining anti-oxidation coatings in fiber reinforced composites

Fiber-reinforced ceramic matrix composites (CMCs) have been the primary choice for radome materials in hypersonic vehicles due to their high toughness, strength, and other advantageous properties. However, oxidation by oxygen in the atmospheric environment at elevated temperatures remains a significant obstacle to their further development. Thermal protection coatings offer a crucial avenue to mitigate this issue. Nonetheless, inherent material differences or fiber orientations within CMCs can lead to disparate thermal expansion rates between the matrix and fibers during temperature variations, inevitably ...

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Engineering12 Sep 2024

Bake, melt or ignite: How synthesis methods have a profound impact on disordered materials

A new study has revealed for the first time how different synthesis methods can profoundly impact the structural and functional properties of high entropy oxides, a class of materials with applications in everyday electronic devices. The study was published this week in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. “The specific material that we’ve studied here is a high entropy oxide with a spinel crystal structure, which is a mixture of five different transition metal oxides. A lot of the excitement that we ...

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Engineering11 Sep 2024

ORNL debuts convergent manufacturing platform at IMTS 2024

A new convergent manufacturing platform, developed in only five months at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, is debuting at the International Manufacturing Technology Show, or IMTS, in Chicago, Sept. 9–12, 2024. The technology, called Future Foundries, opens the door for hundreds of thousands of small- and medium-sized companies to join the convergent manufacturing revolution, according to ORNL researchers. It is a cutting-edge platform that integrates multiple advanced manufacturing systems into a single, agile platform. “The democratization ...

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Engineering10 Sep 2024

UTA to build netted drone facility in Fort Worth

The University of Texas at Arlington is expanding its research and innovation capabilities by building a $2.3 million, state-of-the-art outdoor netted drone facility. The Maverick Autonomous Vehicle Research Center (MAVRC) will be located at the UT Arlington Research Institute (UTARI) in Fort Worth, with a planned completion date of January 2025. “MAVRC will significantly and positively impact UTA’s presence in the region by supporting the university-industry-government-community ecosystem focused ...

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Engineering9 Sep 2024

New molecular engineering technique allows for complex organoids

A new molecular engineering technique can precisely influence the development of organoids. Microbeads made of specifically folded DNA are used to release growth factors or other signal molecules inside the tissue structures. This gives rise to considerably more complex organoids that imitate the respective tissues much better and have a more realistic cell mix than before. An interdisciplinary research team from the Cluster of Excellence “3D Matter Made to Order” with researchers based at the Centre for Organismal Studies and the Center ...

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Engineering5 Sep 2024

Worcester Polytechnic Institute launches nation's first master’s program in explosion protection engineering

Worcester, MA – September 5, 2024—Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) has launched a groundbreaking Master of Science in Explosion Protection Engineering, the first program of its kind in the United States. Designed amid growing concerns about fire and explosion risk posed by manufacturing facilities and advancing technologies like electric vehicles and hydrogen fuel cells, the new program builds on WPI’s esteemed legacy in Fire Protection Engineering, which has been at the forefront of fire safety education and research since its inception in 1978. “The demand ...

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Engineering3 Sep 2024

New provincial funding to help drive connected and autonomous vehicle research at uOttawa

The University of Ottawa has been awarded a $1 million grant from the Ontario Research Fund – Research Excellence (ORF-RE) to support the “Secure, Intelligent and Trustworthy Ecosystems for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles” (SITE-CAV) project. Led by Burak Kantarci,Full Professor, School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, uOttawa’s Faculty of Engineering, the project aims to accelerate the development and integration of connected and autonomous vehicles (CAVs – or vehicles equipped with sensors and decision-making software that drives and controls it without direct ...

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Engineering3 Sep 2024

$1.8 million NIH grant to FAU engineering fuels quest to decode human evolution

Natural selection is an important evolutionary force that enables humans to adapt to new environments and fight disease-causing pathogens. However, the unique footprints of natural selection in our genome can be buried beneath those left by other evolutionary forces. Thus, by leveraging information about multiple evolutionary forces, researchers can identify signatures of natural selection in the human genome, and ultimately determine its role in human adaptation and disease. Low-cost DNA sequencing has ...

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Engineering30 Aug 2024

Structural equality and support index in early childhood education

About The Study: This cohort study found that early childhood programming is associated with social determinants of health in adulthood. These findings reinforce the importance of early childhood education in addressing health disparities and contributing to healthier, more equitable communities and suggest that educational attainment is a key mechanism for health promotion. Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Arthur J. Reynolds, PhD, email ajr@umn.edu. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.32050) Editor’s ...

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Engineering30 Aug 2024

What a submerged ancient bridge discovered in a Spanish cave reveals about early human settlement

Media Contact: John Dudley (814) 490-3290 (cell) jjdudley@usf.edu EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE UNTIL 5 A.M. ET ON AUG. 30, 2024 What a submerged ancient bridge discovered in a Spanish cave reveals about early human settlement Led by a USF geologist, a team of researchers examined a submerged 25-foot bridge to tackle a long-lasting archaeological controversy: When humans settled on the islands in the western Mediterranean. Their findings narrow a historical gap between the settlement timelines of the eastern and western Mediterranean regions. TAMPA, Fla. (Aug. 27, 2024) – A new study led by the University ...

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Engineering28 Aug 2024

UBC engineers develop all-in-one solution to catch and destroy ‘forever chemicals’

Chemical engineers at the University of British Columbia have developed a new treatment that traps and treats PFAS substances—widely known as “forever chemicals”—in a single, integrated system. Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are widely used in manufacturing consumer goods like waterproof clothing due to their resistance to heat, water and stains. However, they are also pollutants, often ending up in surface and groundwater worldwide, where they have been linked to cancer, liver damage and ...

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Engineering28 Aug 2024

Shot of confidence: Building trust in vaccination programs

A new paper in the Journal of Public Health, published by Oxford University Press, finds that highlighting the harms of not getting vaccinated is a more effective message than emphasizing the benefits of vaccination for individual patients or the benefits to public health. Vaccination remains the most economical and effective public health strategy for reducing morbidity and mortality. But some vaccines, such as those for flu, pneumonia and HPV, are given voluntarily. Often due to misinformation or ignorance many people are reluctant to get vaccinated for various diseases (or to vaccinate their children). For years researchers have been investigating various strategies ...

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Engineering27 Aug 2024

Women in global fisheries industry fall through the safety net

Millions of women who work in the fisheries industry are being left behind as technologies develop to counter the effects of climate change and economic pressures. New research led by the University of East Anglia (UEA) looks specifically at post-harvest fisheries and aquaculture, where women constitute 50 per cent of the total workforce. Despite their significant contributions women often remain invisible, are unpaid or underpaid, their work seen as an extension of household work. The findings, ‘A systematic review of the impact of post-harvest aquatic food ...

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Engineering22 Aug 2024

Pong prodigy: Hydrogel material shows unexpected learning abilities

In a study published today (22 August) in Cell Reports Physical Science, a team led by Dr Yoshikatsu Hayashi demonstrated that a simple hydrogel - a type of soft, flexible material - can learn to play the simple 1970s computer game ‘Pong’. The hydrogel, interfaced with a computer simulation of the classic game via a custom-built multi-electrode array, showed improved performance over time. Dr Hayashi, a biomedical engineer at the University of Reading’s School of Biological Sciences, said: "Our research shows that even very simple materials can exhibit complex, adaptive behaviours typically associated with living systems or sophisticated AI. "This ...

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