Technology
press releases.

Technology5 Feb 2024

MSU making voice-activated artificial intelligence more accessible

MSU has a satellite uplink/LTN TV studio and Comrex line for radio interviews upon request. EAST LANSING, Mich. – As artificial intelligence technology advances, one area lags behind: voice-activated AI. For the more than 80 million people who stutter, voice AI technologies, which are increasingly being used in job hiring practices, can still be impossible to navigate. HeardAI, a multidisciplinary project from Michigan State University, Western Michigan University, and the nonprofit Friends: The National Association of Young People Who Stutter, has advanced to Phase 2 of the National Science Foundation’s Convergence Accelerator program to ...

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Technology5 Feb 2024

Max Planck Institute for Informatics and Google are expanding their strategic research partnership on Artificial Intelligence

The Max Planck Institute for Informatics and Google deepen their strategic research partnership. With additional financial support from the U.S. IT company, the “Saarbrücken Research Center for Visual Computing, Interaction and Artificial Intelligence (VIA)”, which was only launched in November 2022 at the MPI in Saarbrücken, is establishing a new research area “Vision and Language Models (VLMs)”, led by Professor Bernt Schiele. This was presented by the Max Planck Directors Bernt Schiele and Christian Theobalt together with Google representatives to Saarland ...

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Technology5 Feb 2024

New technology unscrambles the chatter of microbes

Researchers from University of California San Diego, as part of a large collaboration with scientists around the world, have developed a new search tool to help researchers better understand the metabolism of microorganisms. Microbes are key players in virtually all biological and environmental systems, yet limitations in current techniques used to study microbial metabolism make it difficult to decode their interactions and activities. The new research, published February 5, 2023 in Nature Microbiology, directly addresses these limitations, which could ultimately transform our understanding of both human health and the environment. “Humans are walking ecosystems in which microbes vastly ...

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Technology2 Feb 2024

Potential to ‘save more lives than doctors’: Rice launches WaTER Institute to develop accessible clean water technology

Forty-three million Americans lack access to municipal water, and 1 in 10 people globally do not have access to safe drinking water. Rice University’s new WaTER Institute, launched today, aims to address this and other complex water-related challenges. “Clean water can save more lives than doctors,” said Pedro J. Alvarez , the institute’s director and the George R. Brown Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering. The institute’s researchers will also predict and prevent diseases by monitoring wastewater; ...

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Technology2 Feb 2024

New guidelines aim to elevate comprehensive care for people with severe epilepsy

(February 2, 2024) The National Association of Epilepsy Centers (NAEC) has developed updated guidelines that outline the comprehensive services and resources epilepsy centers should provide to improve quality of care for people whose epilepsy is not well-controlled. An Executive Summary of the 2023 Guidelines for Specialized Epilepsy Centers: Report of the National Association of Epilepsy Centers Guideline Panel was published online on February 2, 2024, in Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. The complete NAEC guidelines are published as an eAppendix on the journal’s website. Epilepsy is one of the most ...

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Technology2 Feb 2024

A sleeker facial recognition technology tested on Michelangelo’s David

Many people are familiar with facial recognition systems that unlock smartphones and game systems or allow access to our bank accounts online. But the current technology can require boxy projectors and lenses. Now, researchers report in ACS’ Nano Letters a sleeker 3D surface imaging system with flatter, simplified optics. In proof-of-concept demonstrations, the new system recognized the face of Michelangelo’s David just as well as an existing smartphone system. 3D surface imaging is a common tool used in smartphone facial recognition, as well as in computer vision and autonomous driving. These systems typically consist of a dot projector that contains multiple components: ...

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Technology2 Feb 2024

Regulation makes crypto markets more efficient

First-of-its-kind research on cryptocurrency finds that the most regulated coins create the most efficient markets. That crypto regulation, often provided by cryptocurrency exchanges like Binance, can also help protect investors by providing reliable, public information. “Both small and institutional investors should know, if they invest in coins without any regulation, they may suffer from price manipulation or a severe lack of insider information,” said Liangfei Qiu, a University of Florida professor of business and one of the authors of the new study. “Instead, they may want to invest in coins listed with platforms ...

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Technology2 Feb 2024

NRL joins Airborne and Satellite Investigation of Asian Air Quality (ASIA-AQ)

WASHINGTON – U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) meteorologists, in partnership with NASA, will join a team of international scientists to participate in the Airborne and Satellite Investigation of Asian Air Quality (ASIA-AQ) experiment beginning on February 2. NRL’s collaborators, David Peterson, Ph.D., meteorologist, Theodore McHardy, Ph.D., American Society for Engineering Education postdoctoral researcher, Nicholas Gapp, Science Applications International Corporation ...

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Technology2 Feb 2024

Biodegradable sensor monitors levels of pesticides via direct contact with surface of fruit and vegetables

Researchers at the University of São Paulo (USP) and the Federal University of Viçosa (UFV) in Brazil have developed a sustainable sensor that can be placed directly on the surface of a vegetable or fruit to detect the presence of pesticides. Known for this reason as “plant-wearable”, it is made of cellulose acetate, a material derived from wood pulp. The device has the potential to help assure food safety in a world that increasingly suffers from a shortage of food and the environmental and health problems caused ...

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Technology2 Feb 2024

USC launches School of Advanced Computing

USC President Carol Folt launched the university’s first new school in more than a decade: the USC School of Advanced Computing, a cornerstone of her $1 billion advanced computing initiative. The school seeks to educate all students, regardless of their major, in the ethical use of computing technology as part of the president’s Frontiers of Computing initiative. Gaurav Sukhatme — a professor of computer science and electrical and computer engineering, and executive vice dean of the USC Viterbi School of ...

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Technology1 Feb 2024

The evolution of sign languages globally revealed through computational analyses

A computational analysis has highlighted the poorly understood relationships and elusive histories of modern sign languages worldwide, revealing two major sign language families shaped by geopolitical forces and relevant signing communities. The findings show that the computational methods applied – which have been useful in understanding spoken languages – can be extended to the study of sign languages; as such, they offer promise for addressing the disparities in our understanding of other marginalized and diverse ...

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Technology1 Feb 2024

AI system reveals new insights into early language acquisition through the experience of a single child

A new machine learning model – trained on video and audio recorded from the first-person perspective of one young child for over a year – has provided new insights into early language acquisition. Not only do the findings offer a valuable framework to understand how children learn words and concepts, but they could be critical in developing artificial intelligence (AI) systems that can learn language in more human-like ways. Beginning around 6 to 9 months of age, children begin acquiring their ...

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Technology31 Jan 2024

UC Irvine scientists make breakthrough in quantum materials research

Irvine, Calif., Jan. 31, 2024 — Researchers at the University of California, Irvine and Los Alamos National Laboratory, publishing in the latest issue of Nature Communications, describe the discovery of a new method that transforms everyday materials like glass into materials scientists can use to make quantum computers. “The materials we made are substances that exhibit unique electrical or quantum properties because of their specific atomic shapes or structures,” said Luis A. Jauregui, professor of physics & astronomy ...

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Technology31 Jan 2024

How to make bright quantum dots even brighter

Quantum dots are a kind of artificial atom: just a few nanometres in size and made of semiconductor materials, they can emit light of a specific colour or even single photons, which is important for quantum technologies. The discoverers and pioneers of the commercial production of quantum dots were awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2023. In recent years, quantum dots made of perovskites have attracted particular attention. Perovskites belong to a class of materials that have a similar structure to the mineral perovskite ...

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Technology31 Jan 2024

Method combines artificial intelligence and satellite imagery to map crop-livestock integration systems

Crop-livestock integration (CLI) systems combine the growing of crops in rotation or consortium, especially grain crops such as soybeans, corn and sorghum, and forage plants used to feed cattle and pigs, with the raising of livestock, typically beef cattle. The crops provide most of the cash income, while the livestock has food available during the dry season and facilitates seed management. CLI improves soil fertility, raises yields and helps rehabilitate degraded areas while reducing the use of pesticides, mitigating the risk of erosion and the seasonality of production, and lowering ...

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Technology31 Jan 2024

Symbiotic autonomous robot ecosystem enhances safety and efficiency on nuclear facilities decommissioning

Nuclear facilities, particularly during decommissioning, face significant challenges due to hazardous materials and environments. Traditional methods often rely heavily on human intervention, posing risks and inefficiencies. A groundbreaking research introduces a symbiotic autonomous robot ecosystem, designed to transform nuclear facility decommissioning. This innovative approach leverages a Cyber-Physical System (CPS) coordinated through a digital twin interface, significantly enhancing safety, efficiency, and operational awareness ...

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Technology31 Jan 2024

Researchers overview recent progress and challenges in silicon-based anode materials for lithium-ion batteries

Research in recent years displays that several chemical modifications (binders, composite materials, and electrolytes) provide superior stability and enhance electrochemical performance in Si-based anodes in lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). Thus far, several different chemical interactions on structural alterations to Si-based anode materials have been tried to enhance Li+ kinetics, structural stability, and volume development control throughout the delithiation/lithiation process. Despite significant advancements, Si and Si-based electrodes are still in their infancy and are still far from finding widespread practical use. Si-based anodes face some difficulties, including substantial ...

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Technology31 Jan 2024

SCAI publishes expert consensus statement on management of calcified coronary lesions requiring intervention

WASHINGTON—Coronary artery calcification is increasing in prevalence, leading to greater risks both during procedures such as percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) and adverse events in the short and long term. Along with these challenges, treatment options are expanding, increasingly including calcium modification prior to stent implantation. A newly published SCAI Expert Consensus Statement on the Management of Calcified Coronary Lesions outlines methods for interventional cardiologists to identify various types of calcified coronary lesions ...

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Technology31 Jan 2024

Bringing together real-world sensors and VR to improve building maintenance

A new system that brings together real-world sensing and virtual reality would make it easier for building maintenance personnel to identify and fix issues in commercial buildings that are in operation. The system was developed by computer scientists at the University of California San Diego and Carnegie Mellon University. The system, dubbed BRICK, consists of a handheld device equipped with a suite of sensors to monitor temperature, CO2 and airflow. It is also equipped with a virtual reality environment that has access to the sensor data and metadata in a specific building while being ...

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Technology31 Jan 2024

Antiviral color nanocoating technology

Since the onset of COVID-19, we've become accustomed to seeing antiviral films attached to elevator buttons and public transportation handles. However, conventional antiviral films are made by mixing antiviral metal particles with polymers. Due to the manufacturing process, only a very small fraction of these metal particles is exposed on the surface. As a result, contrary to the belief that these films will protect us from viruses, the actual antiviral effect upon contact with the film surface is not ...

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Technology31 Jan 2024

Key LiDAR sensor elements for autonomous vehicles are now made with our technology

LiDAR sensors are indispensable for the realization of advanced technologies such as advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), autonomous driving, and AR/VR. In particular, short- and mid-range LiDAR used in AR/VR devices and smartphones requires better distance (depth) resolution to detect the shape of a person or object more accurately, and so a single-photon detector with better timing jitter performance is required. LiDAR measures distance and creates a 3D image by calculating the time it takes for a photon emitted by the transmitter to strike an object, reflect, and arrive back at the ...

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Technology30 Jan 2024

Festive opening of the Institute for Quantitative and Computational Biosciences

Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) recently inaugurated its new Institute for Quantitative and Computational Biosciences (IQCB) in the presence of Clemens Hoch, the Minister of Science of Rhineland-Palatinate, and Professor Stefan Müller-Stach, JGU's Vice President for Research and Early Career Academics. The IQCB is an interdisciplinary research institute at the interface between the life sciences and neighboring disciplines including mathematics, computer science, physics, chemistry, and engineering, thus generating new opportunities for research by way of, for example, computer-aided analysis of large amounts of data, computer-based ...

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Technology30 Jan 2024

Machine sentience and you: what happens when machine learning goes too far

There’s always some truth in fiction, and now is about the time to get a step ahead of sci-fi dystopias and determine what the risk in machine sentience can be for humans. Although people have long pondered the future of intelligent machinery, such questions have become all the more pressing with the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learningT. These machines resemble human interactions: they can help problem solve, create content, and even carry on conversations. For fans ...

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Technology30 Jan 2024

Drexel researchers propose AI-guided system for robotic inspection of buildings, roads and bridges

Our built environment is aging and failing faster than we can maintain it. Recent building collapses and structural failures of roads and bridges are indicators of a problem that’s likely to get worse, according to experts, because it’s just not possible to inspect every crack, creak and crumble to parse dangerous signs of failure from normal wear and tear. In hopes of playing catch-up, researchers in Drexel University’s College of Engineering are trying to give robotic assistants the tools to help inspectors with the job. Augmenting visual ...

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Technology29 Jan 2024

Probiotics promote weight loss in obese dogs

Washington, D.C.—Researchers have identified 2 strains of probiotics that can be used to reduce weight in obese dogs. The research is published this week in Microbiology Spectrum, a journal of the American Society for Microbiology. In the new study, the research team investigated metabolic diseases in companion animals and set out to identify probiotics suitable for long-term and safe treatment. “The initial challenge involved selecting specific metabolic diseases for examination, leading us to focus on the prevalent issue of 'obesity in pets,’” said study principal investigator Younghoon Kim, Ph.D., professor in the ...

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