Technology
press releases.

Technology3 Jun 2024

The coldest lab in New York has a new quantum offering

There’s a hot new BEC in town that has nothing to do with bacon, egg, and cheese. You won’t find it at your local bodega, but in the coldest place in New York: the lab of Columbia physicist Sebastian Will, whose experimental group specializes in pushing atoms and molecules to temperatures just fractions of a degree above absolute zero. Writing in Nature, the Will lab, supported by theoretical collaborator Tijs Karman at Radboud University in the Netherlands, has successfully created a unique quantum state of matter called a Bose-Einstein Condensate (BEC) out of molecules. Their BEC, cooled ...

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Technology3 Jun 2024

Pudukotai Dinakarrao receives funding for continuous and lightweight authentication for wearable and portable embedded systems

Sai Manoj Pudukotai Dinakarrao, Assistant Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering, received funding for the project: “CLAWS: Continuous and Lightweight Authentication for Wearable and Portable Embedded Systems.” “The target of this funding is to accelerate the transition of technology,” Pudukotai Dinakarrao said. Using this proposed authentication technique, Pudukotai Dinakarrao will collect the gait signal of a user continually using a lightweight always-on sensing methodology. The collected gait signal will be analyzed through resource-aware dynamic early-exit neural networks (EENets) for authentication. The proposed technique ...

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Technology3 Jun 2024

Enhancing nanofibrous acoustic energy harvesters with artificial intelligence

(LOS ANGELES) June 3, 2024 – Scientists at the Terasaki Institute for Biomedical Innovation (TIBI), have employed artificial intelligence techniques to improve the design and production of nanofibers used in wearable nanofiber acoustic energy harvesters (NAEH). These acoustic devices capture sound energy from the environment and convert it into electrical energy, which can then be applied in useful devices, such as hearing aids. Many efforts have been made to capture naturally occurring and abundant energy sources ...

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Technology3 Jun 2024

PSU secures $1 million grant for high-performance computing cluster across Oregon

Portland State will power up a new high-performance computing cluster that will give researchers at universities and colleges across Oregon the ability to advance computing-intensive research projects by processing large datasets and performing complex computations in a fraction of the time — thanks to a nearly $1 million grant from the National Science Foundation’s Campus Cyberinfrastructure program. The Oregon Regional Computing Accelerator (Orca) aims to provide free-of-cost computing resources and cyberinfrastructure ...

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Technology3 Jun 2024

Updating the way the Lab computes

Unraveling the behavior of plasma increasingly requires intensive computing resources. That’s why plasma demands a calculated approach to computation. As the new head of computational sciences at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL), Shantenu Jha is excited to be at the helm of the Lab’s computing efforts, fusing computer science expertise with PPPL’s pioneering research into the fourth state of matter. “I want to continue to grow the excellence that already exists in computing for fusion energy at PPPL, which ...

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Technology2 Jun 2024

Cutting-edge robotics: Introducing the hybrid-driven origami gripper

In an impressive leap forward for robotics technology, researchers from Shanghai Jiao Tong University have unveiled a novel hybrid-driven origami gripper, designed to tackle the challenge of grasping and manipulating objects with unprecedented versatility and precision. This innovative device, highlighted in a recent study published in Cyborg Bionic Systems, promises to reshape the capabilities of robotic systems in industries ranging from manufacturing to healthcare. The newly developed gripper utilizes a combination of pneumatic and cable-driven mechanisms to control an origami-inspired structure, allowing for adjustable finger stiffness and variable finger lengths. This sophisticated ...

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Technology2 Jun 2024

Revolutionizing robotics: Integrating actuation and sensing for smarter soft robots

The world of robotics is witnessing a transformative shift with the rise of soft robotics, which offers unparalleled flexibility and adaptability in various applications, from medical interventions to intricate rescue operations. A groundbreaking review article by Zhou et al. published in Cyborg Bionic Systems in 2024, sheds light on this evolution, highlighting the crucial integration of actuation and sensing technologies that pave the way for truly intelligent soft robots. Soft robots, unlike their rigid counterparts, are made from materials that mimic the mechanical properties of living tissues, allowing them to move and adapt with a life-like grace. This capability makes ...

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Technology1 Jun 2024

Revolutionizing robotics: A breakthrough in soft actuator technology

In an era where robotics are increasingly becoming a part of everyday life, a significant breakthrough has been made by a team of researchers at Zhe jiang University, China. Their latest creation, a wrist-inspired soft actuator capable of bidirectional torsion, promises to transform the landscape of soft robotics. The innovative design of this actuator, described in detail in the journal Cyborg Bionic Systems, is inspired by the human wrist's ability to perform complex movements. Unlike traditional robotic mechanisms that rely on rigid components, this soft actuator utilizes a magneto-pneumatic hybrid system combined with a Kresling origami structure. This design allows for an astonishing ...

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Technology31 May 2024

This self-powered sensor could make MRIs more efficient

MRI scans are commonly used to diagnose a variety of conditions, anything from liver disease to brain tumors. But, as anyone who has been through one knows, patients must remain completely still to avoid blurring the images and requiring a new scan. A prototype device described in ACS Sensors could change that. The self-powered sensor detects movement and shuts down an MRI scan in real time, improving the process for patients and technicians. During an MRI scan, a patient must stay entirely still for several minutes at a time, otherwise “motion artifacts” could appear and blur the final image. To ensure a clear picture, patient movement needs to be identified as ...

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Technology31 May 2024

Antibodies may aid effort to fight influenza B: Study

Researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center have isolated human monoclonal antibodies against influenza B, a significant public health threat that disproportionately affects children, the elderly and other immunocompromised individuals. Seasonal flu vaccines cover influenza B and the more common influenza A but do not stimulate the broadest possible range of immune responses against both viruses. In addition, people whose immune systems have been weakened by age or illness may not respond effectively to the flu shot. Small-molecule drugs that block neuraminidase, a major surface glycoprotein of the ...

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Technology31 May 2024

UT Arlington, Microsoft host AI “Prompt-a-Thon”

Faculty, staff and researchers from higher education and K-12 schools throughout Texas gathered in Arlington for the state’s first “Prompt-a-Thon” hosted by Microsoft and UTA’s offices of Research and Innovation and Information Technology. Together, educators and researchers learned how to best use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to improve their work. “This Prompt-a-Thon is a significant step toward promoting AI literacy across multiple universities and establishing UTA as a frontrunner for AI use in the state,” said Jeremy Forsberg, associate ...

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Technology31 May 2024

Children’s visual experience may hold key to better computer vision training

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — A novel, human-inspired approach to training artificial intelligence (AI) systems to identify objects and navigate their surroundings could set the stage for the development of more advanced AI systems to explore extreme environments or distant worlds, according to research from an interdisciplinary team at Penn State. In the first two years of life, children experience a somewhat narrow set of objects and faces, but with many different viewpoints and under varying lighting conditions. Inspired by this developmental insight, the researchers introduced a new machine learning approach that uses information about spatial position to train AI visual ...

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Technology31 May 2024

Navigating new horizons: Pioneering AI framework enhances robot efficiency and planning

In a groundbreaking study published in Cyborg Bionic Systems, researchers from Shanghai University have unveiled a new artificial intelligence framework that revolutionizes the way robots interpret and execute tasks. The "Correction and Planning with Memory Integration" (CPMI) framework leverages large language models (LLMs) to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of robots performing complex, instruction-based tasks. Traditionally, robots required explicit programming and extensive data to navigate ...

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Technology31 May 2024

How researchers are protecting AI of the future

Trust is vital to the widespread acceptance of AI across industries, especially when safety is a concern. For example, people may be hesitant to ride in a self-driving car knowing that the AI running it can be hacked. One barrier to increasing trust is that the algorithms powering AI are vulnerable to such attacks. Dr. Samson Zhou, assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Texas A&M University, and Dr. David P. Woodruff, professor in the Computer Science Department at Carnegie Mellon University, hope to strengthen algorithms used by big data AI models against attacks. Big data AI models are ...

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Technology30 May 2024

Every drop counts: New algorithm tracks Texas daily reservoir evaporation rates

Summer can be an extra challenging time for Texas’ 189 major water supply reservoirs. With temperatures consistently reaching 100 degrees or higher, reservoir evaporation rates see high increases. Accurate evaporation rate estimates are crucial for water resource managers, as reservoirs play an essential role in our social and economic systems by supplying water for agricultural, municipal, and industrial consumption. Reservoirs are also critical for mitigating impacts from droughts and floods. A recent study published ...

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Technology30 May 2024

Novel mobile air monitoring technology yields greater insight into post-disaster pollution levels

A team including researchers from the Texas A&M University School of Public Health and School of Medicine has found that high resolution mass spectrometry could be a valuable tool for identifying and assessing air-borne contaminants produced by natural and man-made disasters. Their findings were published in the Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology. The scientists used high resolution mass spectrometry—a highly accurate means of identifying molecular compounds in a sample—in fall 2023 to identify volatile organic ...

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Technology30 May 2024

The AI paradox: Building creativity to protect against AI

Cultivating creativity in schools is vital for a future driven by artificial intelligence (AI). But while teachers embrace creativity as an essential 21st century skill, a lack of valid and reliable creativity tests means schools struggle to assess student achievement. Now, a new machine-learning model developed by the University of South Australia is providing teachers with access to high-quality, fit-for-purpose creativity tests, that can score assessments in a fraction of the time and a fraction of the cost. Applied to the current ...

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Technology30 May 2024

Q&A: How AI affects kids’ creativity

Shortly after artificial intelligence models including Midjourney and OpenAI’s Dall-E went public, AI-generated art started winning competitions: one in digital art, another in photography. Concern rumbled that AI could replace artists — and even, by some metrics, be more creative than humans. But simultaneously, people were exploring these tools as ways to augment their creative processes, not replace them. University of Washington researchers grew curious about how AI might affect creativity in children, specifically, so they worked with a group of 12 Seattle-area kids ages seven to 13 to explore how the kids’ creative processes interacted ...

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Technology29 May 2024

AIM algorithm enhances super-resolution microscope images in real time

When trying to measure molecular structures with nanometer precision, every bit of noise shows up in the data: someone walking past the microscope, tiny vibrations in the building and even the traffic outside. A new processing technique removes noise from optical microscope data in real time, allowing scientists to track individual molecules over 10 times more precisely than was possible before. A team of bioengineering researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign has introduced an algorithm called adaptive intersection maximization, or AIM, that removes high-frequency ...

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Technology29 May 2024

JPMorgan Chase, Argonne and Quantinuum show theoretical quantum speedup with the quantum approximate optimization algorithm

In a new paper in Science Advances on May 29, researchers at JPMorgan Chase, the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory and Quantinuum have demonstrated clear evidence of a quantum algorithmic speedup for the quantum approximate optimization algorithm (QAOA). This algorithm has been studied extensively and has been implemented on many quantum computers. It has potential application in fields such as logistics, telecommunications, financial modeling and materials science. “This work is a significant step towards reaching quantum advantage, ...

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Technology29 May 2024

AI browser plug-ins to help consumers improve digital privacy literacy, combat manipulative design

Researchers at the University of Notre Dame are developing artificial intelligence tools that help consumers understand how they are being exploited as they navigate online platforms. The goal is to boost the digital literacy of end users so they can better control how they interact with these websites. In a recent study, participants were invited to experiment with online privacy settings without consequence. To test how different data privacy settings work, the researchers created a Chrome browser plug-in called Privacy Sandbox that replaced participant data with personas generated by GPT-4, a large language model from OpenAI. With Privacy Sandbox, participants could ...

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Technology29 May 2024

AI saving humans from the emotional toll of monitoring hate speech

A team of researchers at the University of Waterloo have developed a new machine-learning method that detects hate speech on social media platforms with 88 per cent accuracy, saving employees from hundreds of hours of emotionally damaging work. The method, dubbed the Multi-Modal Discussion Transformer (mDT), can understand the relationship between text and images as well as put comments in greater context, unlike previous hate speech detection methods. This is particularly helpful in reducing false positives, which are often ...

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Technology29 May 2024

Bio-inspired cameras and AI help drivers detect pedestrians and obstacles faster

It’s every driver’s nightmare: a pedestrian stepping out in front of the car seemingly out of nowhere, leaving only a fraction of a second to brake or steer the wheel and avoid the worst. Some cars now have camera systems that can alert the driver or activate emergency braking. But these systems are not yet fast or reliable enough, and they will need to improve dramatically if they are to be used in autonomous vehicles where there is no human behind the wheel. Quicker detection using less computational ...

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Technology29 May 2024

Modular, scalable hardware architecture for a quantum computer

CAMBRIDGE, MA — Quantum computers hold the promise of being able to quickly solve extremely complex problems that might take the world’s most powerful supercomputer decades to crack. But achieving that performance involves building a system with millions of interconnected building blocks called qubits. Making and controlling so many qubits in a hardware architecture is an enormous challenge that scientists around the world are striving to meet. Toward this goal, researchers at MIT and MITRE have demonstrated a scalable, modular hardware platform that ...

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Technology29 May 2024

Landmark study is step towards energy-efficient quantum computing in magnets

Researchers from Lancaster University and Radboud University Nijmegen have managed to generate propagating spin waves at the nanoscale and discovered a novel pathway to modulate and amplify them. Their discovery, published in Nature, could pave the way for the development of dissipation free quantum information technologies. As the spin waves do not involve electric currents these chips will be free from associated losses of energy. The rapidly growing popularity of artificial intelligence comes with an increasing desire for fast and energy efficient computing devices and calls for novel ...

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