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Engineering
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Engineering

As racial diversity and income rise, civilian injuries by police fall

An analysis of civilian injuries resulting from interactions with police in Illinois found that residents of all races and ethnicities are more likely to sustain injuries if they live in economically under-resourced areas. The risk of injury decreases as communities become more racially diverse, the researchers found. The study from the University of Illinois Chicago analyzed information on nearly 5,000 injuries caused by police that were treated in Illinois hospitals between 2016 and 2022. The researchers then compared that information with socioeconomic data from the U.S. Census on each injured person’s home ZIP code. The study is published in the ...

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National Science Board elects first industry leader in 30 years
Engineering

National Science Board elects first industry leader in 30 years

Darío Gil, Ph.D., IBM Senior Vice President and Director of Research and a member of the Board of Trustees for Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), has been elected chair of the National Science Board (NSB). The NSB is the governing board of the National Science Foundation (NSF) and adviser to Congress and the President on policy matters related to STEM research and STEM education. “Darío Gil’s insights and innovative thinking will be indispensable to his leadership of the NSB,” said RPI President Martin A. Schmidt, Ph.D. “His election speaks volumes about his exceptional talents ...

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Polymeric films protect anodes from sulfide solid electrolytes!
Engineering

Polymeric films protect anodes from sulfide solid electrolytes!

People have various relationships in society including those with family, friends, and coworkers. While these relationships play a significant role in our lives, it's crucial to maintain a healthy distance as being too close can lead to intense emotions or conflicts. Interestingly, a recent study in the field of chemistry demonstrates that maintaining such distance can enhance battery performance in electric vehicles. In this research, Professor Soojin Park, Dr. Sungjin Cho and Youngjin Song, a PhD student, from the Department of Chemistry at Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH) in collaboration with the team of Professor Sung Gap Im ...

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Virginia Tech researcher’s breakthrough discovery uses engineered surfaces to shed heat
Engineering

Virginia Tech researcher’s breakthrough discovery uses engineered surfaces to shed heat

Splash a few drops of water on a hot pan and if the pan is hot enough, the water will sizzle and the droplets of water seem to roll and float, hovering above the surface. The temperature at which this phenomenon, called the Leidenfrost effect, occurs is predictable, usually happening above 230 degrees Celsius. The team of Jiangtao Cheng, associate professor in the Virginia Tech Department of Mechanical Engineering, has discovered a method to create the aquatic levitation at a much lower temperature, and the results have been published in Nature ...

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Electromechanical material doesn’t get ‘clamped’ down
Engineering

Electromechanical material doesn’t get ‘clamped’ down

HOUSTON – (May 23, 2024) – Lighting a gas grill, getting an ultrasound, using an ultrasonic toothbrush ⎯ these actions involve the use of materials that can translate an electric voltage into a change in shape and vice versa. Known as piezoelectricity, the ability to trade between mechanical stress and electric charge can be harnessed widely in capacitors, actuators, transducers and sensors like accelerometers and gyroscopes for next-generation electronics. However, integrating these materials into miniaturized systems has been difficult ...

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Researcher charges ahead with new tech to power drones wirelessly
Engineering

Researcher charges ahead with new tech to power drones wirelessly

Dr. Ifana Mahbub, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at The University of Texas at Dallas, has been awarded the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Director’s Fellowship to continue her research to develop wireless technology to recharge unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in flight. DARPA awards the fellowships to its Young Faculty Award recipients who demonstrate exceptional performance. Mahbub received a Young Faculty Award, which provided $500,000 over ...

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SwRI leads courses at 2024 Society of Tribologists & Lubrication Engineers Annual Meeting
Engineering

SwRI leads courses at 2024 Society of Tribologists & Lubrication Engineers Annual Meeting

SAN ANTONIO — May 21, 2024 —As a leader in fuels and lubricants research, Southwest Research Institute is home to a world-class tribology laboratory and expert staff that are developing advanced techniques and technology to study wear, friction and lubrication. SwRI tribologists will share their expertise at the 2024 Society of Tribologists and Lubrication Engineers (STLE) Annual Meeting May 19-23 in Minneapolis. The STLE Annual Meeting and Exhibition invites members of the lubricant industry ...

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Seeking stronger steel, systematic look at 120 combinations of alloy elements provides clues
Engineering

Seeking stronger steel, systematic look at 120 combinations of alloy elements provides clues

Decarbonization of automobiles not only requires a shift from gasoline engines to electric motors, but also quality steel parts that help the motors run while lessening the weight of vehicles. High-performance steel materials can offer quieter rides and resist the wear and tear from high-speed rotation in motors. To create them, the process of modifying the steel surface with carbon, nitrogen, and alloy elements needs to be optimized. To understand the interactions between elements in steel, a systematic investigation ...

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Engineering

Ion irradiation offers promise for 2D material probing

Two-dimensional materials such as graphene promise to form the basis of incredibly small and fast technologies, but this requires a detailed understanding of their electronic properties. New research demonstrates that fast electronic processes can be probed by irradiating the materials with ions first. A collaboration involving researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and the University of Duisburg-Essen has shown that when graphene is irradiated with ions, or electrically charged atoms, the electrons that are ejected ...

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From the road to the cloud: leveraging vehicle GNSS raw data for spatial high-resolution atmospheric mapping and user positioning
Engineering

From the road to the cloud: leveraging vehicle GNSS raw data for spatial high-resolution atmospheric mapping and user positioning

Innovative Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) positioning technologies harness massive vehicle-generated data to create high-resolution atmospheric delay correction maps, significantly enhancing Global Positioning System (GPS) accuracy across varied spatial scales. This new method exploits real-time, crowd-sourced vehicle GNSS raw data, refining traditional GPS applications and presenting a cost-effective solution for precise positioning. The quest for enhanced Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) accuracy has been hindered ...

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Can we revolutionise the chemical industry and create a circular economy? Yes, with the help of catalysts
Engineering

Can we revolutionise the chemical industry and create a circular economy? Yes, with the help of catalysts

The chemical industry is a cornerstone of global development, driving innovation, and providing essential products that support our modern way of life. However, its reliance on unsustainable fossil resources has posed significant threats to global ecosystems through climate change and chemical pollution. A new commentary published in Cell Press’ OneEarth co-authored by Griffith University researchers puts forth a transformative solution: catalysis to leverage sustainable waste resources, ushering the industry from a linear to a circular economy. “If ...

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Exploration of polymer cononsolvency mechanism through soft X-ray absorption spectroscopy
Engineering

Exploration of polymer cononsolvency mechanism through soft X-ray absorption spectroscopy

This study investigates the cononsolvency mechanism of poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM), which is soluble in pure methanol (MeOH) and water but insoluble in aqueous MeOH solutions. Combining oxygen K-edge X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) with theoretical calculations executed in molecular dynamics (MD) simulations and inner-shell calculations, it was found that hydrophobic interactions between PNIPAM and MeOH clusters play a key role in PNIPAM aggregation and cononsolvency emergence. PNIPAM is ...

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Engineering

Building a better sarcasm detector #ASA186

OTTAWA, Ontario, May 16, 2024 – Oscar Wilde once said that sarcasm was the lowest form of wit, but the highest form of intelligence. Perhaps that is due to how difficult it is to use and understand. Sarcasm is notoriously tricky to convey through text — even in person, it can be easily misinterpreted. The subtle changes in tone that convey sarcasm often confuse computer algorithms as well, limiting virtual assistants and content analysis tools. Xiyuan Gao, Shekhar Nayak, and Matt Coler of Speech Technology Lab at the University of Groningen, Campus Fryslân developed a multimodal algorithm ...

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Bioengineered enzyme creates natural vanillin from plants in one step
Engineering

Bioengineered enzyme creates natural vanillin from plants in one step

Vanilla extract is one of the most widely used flavoring compounds in food products and cosmetics. The pleasant and sweet smell of this classic flavor is imparted by the chemical compound ‘vanillin’ found in the seed pods of vanilla plants belonging to the orchid family. In plants, vanillin is synthesized by the conversion of ferulic acid by the enzyme - VpVAN. However, laboratory biosynthesis of vanillin from plant-derived VpVAN yields only very small quantities of vanillin, and is, therefore, commercially impractical. Further, although chemically derived ...

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Engineering

Structural evolution and high-temperature sensing performance of polymer-derived SiAlBCN ceramics

The group of Gang Shao from Zhengzhou University, China recently investigated the structural evolution of pentagonal polymer-derived SiAlBCN ceramics (PDCs) and outlined PDC-based sensor technology for high-temperature extreme environments. The high-performance temperature sensing materials including high sensitivity, fast response, wide detection range are scarce and needful. This research developed a ceramic-based temperature with attractive performance that can be applied in high-temperature environments ...

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Engineering

Downsizing local news contributes to crumbling infrastructure

Key takeaways A new study from UCLA and Duke University shows local journalism that produces detailed coverage about aging infrastructure increases voter support for additional infrastructure investment. Basic, undetailed reporting, like that from severely understaffed newsrooms or AI-generated stories, resulted in lower support for infrastructure spending. Voters demonstrated a willingness to hold local politicians accountable when provided with context in local reporting. Reading strong local journalism is tied to greater support for funding dams, sewers ...

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Engineering

Kelly receives funding for civil war graffiti preservation

Kelly Receives Funding For Civil War Graffiti Preservation Mills Kelly, Senior Scholar and Former Director, Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media (RRCHNM); Professor, History, has received funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities for: “Off the Wall: Digital Preservation of Civil War Graffiti Houses.” Kelly will use the funding to support the building and publishing of a digital archive focused on soldiers’ graffiti found in Civil War-era structures located in the ...

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Nature's 3D printer: bristle worms form bristles piece by piece
Engineering

Nature's 3D printer: bristle worms form bristles piece by piece

A new interdisciplinary study led by molecular biologist Florian Raible from the Max Perutz Labs at the University of Vienna provides exciting insights into the bristles of the marine annelid worm Platynereis dumerilii. Specialized cells, so-called chaetoblasts, control the formation of the bristles. Their mode of operation is astonishingly similar to that of a technical 3D printer. The project is a collaboration with researchers from the University of Helsinki, Vienna University of Technology and Masaryk University in Brno. The study was recently published in the renowned journal Nature Communications. Chitin is ...

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Visual experiences unique to early infancy provide building blocks of human vision, IU study finds
Engineering

Visual experiences unique to early infancy provide building blocks of human vision, IU study finds

What do infants see? What do they look at? The answers to these questions are very different for the youngest babies than they are for older infants, children and adults. Characterized by a few high-contrast edges in simple patterns, these early scenes also contain the very materials needed to build a strong foundation for human vision. That is the finding of a new study, “An edge-simplicity bias in the visual input to young infants,” published on May 10 in Science Advances by IU researchers Erin Anderson, Rowan Candy, Jason Gold and Linda Smith. “The starting ...

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Engineering

Few tenure-track jobs for engineering PhDs

A study finds that most engineering PhD graduates will never secure a tenure-track faculty position. Over the past 50 years, the number of full-time faculty positions in US universities has steadily declined while production of science and engineering PhD graduates has nearly doubled. Siddhartha Roy and colleagues analyzed data on PhD graduates and tenure-track and tenured faculty members across all engineering disciplines from 2006–2021. The average annual likelihood of securing a tenure-track faculty position in engineering during this 16-year period was 12.4%. The likelihood of securing a tenure-track faculty position was 18.5% in ...

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Engineering

Bio-inspired materials’ potential for efficient mass transfer boosted by a new twist on a century-old theory

The natural vein structure found within leaves – which has inspired the structural design of porous materials that can maximise mass transfer – could unlock improvements in energy storage, catalysis, and sensing thanks to a new twist on a century-old biophysical law. An international team of researchers, led by the NanoEngineering Group at the Cambridge Graphene Centre, has developed a new materials theory based on ‘Murray’s Law’, applicable to a wide range of next-generation functional ...

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Smart labs for bespoke synthesis of nanomaterials are emerging
Engineering

Smart labs for bespoke synthesis of nanomaterials are emerging

In the early 20th century, the development of a catalyst for ammonia synthesis by the Haber-Bosch method took more than 10,000 experiments before it was successful. The development of new materials is a time-consuming and costly process from design to commercialization. However, in recent years, researchers have been working to shorten the development period by using artificial intelligence (AI). When combined with robots, it is possible to conduct material development research 24 hours a day, 365 days a year without human ...

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GIST-MIT CSAIL researchers develop a biomechanical dataset for badminton performance analysis
Engineering

GIST-MIT CSAIL researchers develop a biomechanical dataset for badminton performance analysis

In sports training, practice is the key, but being able to emulate the techniques of professional athletes can take a player’s performance to the next level. AI-based personalized sports coaching assistants can make this a reality by utilizing published datasets. With cameras and sensors strategically placed on the athlete's body, these systems can track everything, including joint movement patterns, muscle activation levels, and gaze movements. Using this data, personalized feedback is provided on player technique, along with improvement recommendations. Athletes can access this feedback anytime, and anywhere, making these systems versatile for athletes at ...

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Variety in building block softness makes for softer amorphous materials
Engineering

Variety in building block softness makes for softer amorphous materials

Tokyo, Japan – Scientists from Tokyo Metropolitan University have created a new model for disordered materials to study how amorphous materials resist stress. They treated groups of atoms and molecules as squishy spheres with varying softness. Putting their model under a load, they discovered unexpected disparities between harder regions and where forces were concentrated, with areas in between such regions “hardening” to produce elongated “force chains”. Their findings promise new insights into designing better materials. When it comes to building hard materials, using hard ingredients is not enough. For example, when concrete fails during ...

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Engineering

When injecting pure spin into chiral materials, direction matters

Researchers from North Carolina State University and the University of Pittsburgh studied how the spin information of an electron, called a pure spin current, moves through chiral materials. They found that the direction in which the spins are injected into chiral materials affects their ability to pass through them. These chiral “gateways” could be used to design energy-efficient spintronic devices for data storage, communication and computing. Spintronic devices harness the spin of an electron, rather than its charge, to create current and move information through electronic devices. “One of the goals in spintronics ...

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