https://techxplore.com/engineering-news/ en-us The latest news on engineering technology, engineering science, computer engineering , civil engineering, chemical engineering, aerospace engineering and environmental engineering. Researchers in the Andrew and Erna Viterbi Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the Technion in Israel have demonstrated control over an emerging material, which they consider as a possible future alternative to silicon in microelectronics. This is a timely development, because scientists and engineers face challenges in continuing the transistor shrinking trend, an important driver of computer chip performance. https://techxplore.com/news/2023-07-lays-groundwork-future-high-performance-alternatives.html Engineering Thu, 13 Jul 2023 12:12:05 EDT news608469122 A University of Minnesota Twin Cities team has, for the first time, synthesized a thin film of a unique topological semimetal material that has the potential to generate more computing power and memory storage while using significantly less energy. The researchers were also able to closely study the material, leading to some important findings about the physics behind its unique properties. https://techxplore.com/news/2023-07-material-key-energy-consumption-electronics.html Engineering Thu, 13 Jul 2023 12:00:01 EDT news608468203 The hottest drink of the summer may be the SEAS-colada. Here's what you need to make it: gin, pineapple juice, coconut milk and a dielectric elastomer actuator-based soft peristaltic pump. Unfortunately, the last component can only be found in the lab of Robert Wood, the Harry Lewis and Marlyn McGrath Professor of Engineering and Applied Sciences at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. https://techxplore.com/news/2023-07-powers-soft-robots-cocktails-door.html Robotics Thu, 13 Jul 2023 10:43:20 EDT news608463796 Clean energy plans, including the U.S. Infrastructure Investment Act's "Clean Hydrogen Road Map," are counting on hydrogen as a fuel of the future. But current hydrogen separation technology is still falling short of efficiency and sustainability goals. As part of ongoing efforts to develop materials that could enable alternative energy sources, researchers in Drexel University's College of Engineering have produced a titanium oxide nanofilament material that can harness sunlight to unlock the ubiquitous molecule's potential as a fuel source. https://techxplore.com/news/2023-07-titanium-oxide-material-sunlight-green.html Engineering Thu, 13 Jul 2023 10:41:16 EDT news608463672 On the moon, there are raw materials that humanity could one day mine and use. Various space agencies, such as the European Space Agency (ESA), are already planning missions to better explore Earth's satellite and find minerals. This calls for appropriate exploration vehicles. Swiss researchers led by ETH Zurich are now pursuing the idea of sending not just one solitary rover on an exploration tour, but rather an entire team of vehicles and flying devices that complement each other. https://techxplore.com/news/2023-07-planetary-analog-environments-explored-team.html Robotics Thu, 13 Jul 2023 10:24:01 EDT news608462637 When an electric vehicle is parked outside, its temperature can swing wildly from day to night and season to season, which can lead to deterioration of the battery. To dampen these fluctuations and extend the battery's lifespan, researchers have designed an all-season thermal cloak that can cool an electric vehicle by 8°C on a hot day and warm it by 6.8°C at night. The cloak, made predominantly of silica and aluminum, can do so passively without outside energy input and operates without any modification between hot or cold weather. This prototype is described July 11 in the newly launched Device, an application-oriented sister journal to Matter, Joule, and Cell. https://techxplore.com/news/2023-07-thermal-cloak-passively-electric-vehicles.html Engineering Thu, 13 Jul 2023 03:01:35 EDT news608436081 There is a "silent hazard" lurking underneath our major global cities, and our buildings were not designed to handle it. https://techxplore.com/news/2023-07-ground-deforming-ready-infrastructure.html Engineering Wed, 12 Jul 2023 20:10:05 EDT news608207129 As researchers make major advances in medical care, they are also discovering that the efficacy of these treatments can be enhanced by individualized approaches. Therefore, clinicians increasingly need methods that can both continuously monitor physiological signals and then personalize responsive delivery of therapeutics. https://techxplore.com/news/2023-07-headway-precision-therapeutics-fully-bioelectronic.html Engineering Mon, 10 Jul 2023 17:07:31 EDT news608227641 A common food and medicine additive has shown it can boost the capacity and longevity of a next-generation flow battery design in a record-setting experiment. https://techxplore.com/news/2023-07-next-generation-battery.html Engineering Mon, 10 Jul 2023 16:59:19 EDT news608227151 Imagine a wearable patch that tracks your vital signs through changes in the color display, or shipping labels that light up to indicate changes in temperature or sterility of food items. https://techxplore.com/news/2023-07-stretchy-color-changing-display-future-wearable.html Engineering Mon, 10 Jul 2023 16:56:05 EDT news608226959 University of California Berkeley researchers have designed an extreme-weather proven, hand-held device that can extract and convert water molecules from the air into drinkable water using only ambient sunlight as its energy source, a study published in Nature Water shows. https://techxplore.com/news/2023-07-portable-sun-powered-harvester-combat-scarcity.html Engineering Fri, 07 Jul 2023 09:39:22 EDT news607941557 Two teams of solar-power engineers, one led by a large group at Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin für Materialien und Energie GmbH, the other led by a group at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, has found two ways to improve the efficiency of solar cells by getting silicon and perovskite to work together better. Both teams have published papers in the journal Science outlining the details of their work and the results of their testing. Stefaan De Wolf and Erkan Aydin, with the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, have published a Perspectives piece in the same journal issue outlining the work done by both teams. https://techxplore.com/news/2023-07-methods-efficiency-solar-cells-silicon.html Engineering Fri, 07 Jul 2023 08:47:09 EDT news607938408 Solid electrolytes with high lithium-ion conductivity can be designed for millimeter-thick battery electrodes by increasing the complexity of their composite superionic crystals, report researchers from Tokyo Tech. This new design rule enables the synthesis of high-entropy active materials while preserving their superionic conduction. https://techxplore.com/news/2023-07-high-entropy-superionic-solid-state-conductors.html Engineering Thu, 06 Jul 2023 14:00:01 EDT news607853165 A team led by Nagoya University researchers in Japan has successfully predicted crystal orientation by teaching artificial intelligence (AI) using optical photographs of polycrystalline materials. The results were published in APL Machine Learning. https://techxplore.com/news/2023-07-ai-based-technique-crystal-efficiency-electronic.html Engineering Thu, 06 Jul 2023 10:41:17 EDT news607858871 Researchers have combined research with real and robotic insects to better understand how they sense forces in their limbs while walking, providing new insights into the biomechanics and neural dynamics of insects and informing new applications for large legged robots. They presented their findings at the SEB Centenary Conference 2023. https://techxplore.com/news/2023-07-big-robot-bugs-reveal-force-sensing.html Robotics Thu, 06 Jul 2023 09:30:01 EDT news607853048 Engineers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign have developed a new test that can predict the durability of cement in seconds to minutes—rather than the hours it takes using current methods. The test measures the behavior of water droplets on cement surfaces using computer vision on a device that costs less than $200. The researchers said the new study could help the cement industry move toward rapid and automated quality control of their materials. https://techxplore.com/news/2023-07-fast-automated-cement-durability.html Engineering Wed, 05 Jul 2023 05:00:02 EDT news607593653 Proton-exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) are a promising energy solution for reducing carbon emissions in the transport sector. As suggested by their name, these cells contain a proton-conducting membrane based on polymer materials that serves as an electrolyte. While PEMFCs could have notable advantages, their cost, durability and the availability of the fuel required to operate them will need to improve before they can be implemented on a large-scale. https://techxplore.com/news/2023-07-grooved-electrodes-proton-exchange-membrane-fuel.html Engineering Tue, 04 Jul 2023 09:30:01 EDT news607595035 Transistors that can change properties are important elements in the development of tomorrow's semiconductors. With standard transistors approaching the limit for how small they can be, having more functions on the same number of units becomes increasingly important in enabling the development of small, energy-efficient circuits for improved memory and more powerful computers. Researchers at Lund University in Sweden have shown how to create new configurable transistors and exert control on a new, more precise level. https://techxplore.com/news/2023-07-edge-transistors-semiconductors-future.html Engineering Mon, 03 Jul 2023 09:38:04 EDT news607595881 Flexible displays that can change color, convey information and even send veiled messages via infrared radiation are now possible, thanks to new research from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Engineers inspired by the morphing skins of animals like chameleons and octopuses have developed capillary-controlled robotic flapping fins to create switchable optical and infrared light multipixel displays that are 1,000 times more energy efficient than light-emitting devices. https://techxplore.com/news/2023-06-displays-flexible-fins-liquid-droplets.html Engineering Fri, 30 Jun 2023 14:00:01 EDT news607335001 A research team led by Prof. Yu Shuhong from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) proposed a new strategy to prepare smart windows that dynamically regulate solar radiation, providing a more effective window for solar spectrum regulation and heat management in buildings. The work is published in Nature Communications. https://techxplore.com/news/2023-06-smart-windows-redefine-solar.html Engineering Fri, 30 Jun 2023 10:28:03 EDT news607339681 Are you feeling nostalgic for homogeneous integration of chips—one flat board where you can use your fingers to stuff in all the circuitry you need? It might be best to head to the Lego store. The rest of the world is moving fast to heterogeneous integration—where the boards are 3D, the chips are a mix of electronic and photonic functions, and every specification is in nanometers. It just as challenging as it sounds, but much more fun. https://techxplore.com/news/2023-06-micro-transfer-heterogeneous-si-photonic-circuits.html Engineering Thu, 29 Jun 2023 15:58:17 EDT news607273095 The brain comprises billions of interconnected neurons that transmit and process information and allow it to act as a highly sophisticated information processing system. To make it as efficient as possible, the brain develops multiple modules tasked with different functions, like perception and body control. Within a single area, neurons form multiple clusters and function as modules—an important trait that has remained essentially unchanged throughout evolution. https://techxplore.com/news/2023-06-artificially-cultured-brains-series.html Engineering Thu, 29 Jun 2023 10:10:06 EDT news607252201 In a recent study published in ACS ES&T Engineering, Feng "Frank" Xiao and colleagues at the University of Missouri demonstrate an innovative method using thermal induction heating to rapidly break down PFAS left on the surface of two solid materials—granular activated carbon and anion exchange resins—after these materials have been used to filter PFAS from municipal water systems. The team's goal is to clean the materials before they are properly disposed. https://techxplore.com/news/2023-06-method-pfas-left-treatment-filters.html Engineering Wed, 28 Jun 2023 15:48:03 EDT news607186082 New technology developed by Rice University engineers could lower the cost of capturing carbon dioxide from all types of emissions, a potential game-changer for both industries looking to adapt to evolving greenhouse gas standards and for the emergent energy-transition economy. https://techxplore.com/news/2023-06-electrochemical-device-captures-carbon-dioxide.html Engineering Wed, 28 Jun 2023 12:36:03 EDT news607174561 Most robotic grippers are made using either soft plastics—to pick up objects without damaging them—that melt at high temperatures, or metals which are stiff and costly. A team of researchers from the National University of Singapore (NUS), together with their collaborators from the Northeast Forest University, have created a wooden robotic gripper that could be used in a very hot environment and yet maintain a tender touch. https://techxplore.com/news/2023-06-first-ever-wooden-robotic-gripper-driven.html Robotics Wed, 28 Jun 2023 10:51:03 EDT news607168261 A newly created real-life Transformer is capable of reconfiguring its body to achieve eight distinct types of motion and can autonomously assess the environment it faces to choose the most effective combination of motions to maneuver. https://techxplore.com/news/2023-06-bioinspired-robot-flies.html Robotics Tue, 27 Jun 2023 13:10:30 EDT news607090196 Engineers at Westlake University, China, have created a synthetic tube of liquid crystal elastomers with a unique range of motion. In their paper, "Bioinspired helical-artificial fibrous muscle structured tubular soft actuators," published in Science Advances, the engineering team reveals the unique manufacturing technique used to achieve a remarkably versatile tubular structure. https://techxplore.com/news/2023-06-liquid-crystal-elastomers-elephant-trunks.html Robotics Tue, 27 Jun 2023 09:45:32 EDT news607077904 A trio of roboticists at CREATE Lab, EPFL, in Switzerland, has designed, built and tested a robot that can pick raspberries. In their project, reported in the journal Communications Engineering, Kai Junge, Catarina Pires and Josie Hughes designed and tested their robot based on a new idea to reduce the cost of designing fruit-picking robots. https://techxplore.com/news/2023-06-fake-raspberries-robots-real.html Robotics Mon, 26 Jun 2023 09:50:22 EDT news606991808 Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), commonly known as drones, have already proved to be highly promising for tackling numerous real-world problems, for instance allowing users to take aerial images, monitor remote or natural environments, deliver parcels, or assisting agents during search and rescue missions and military operations. While these systems are already being used by many companies and individuals worldwide, they can have significant limitations, such as a high-power consumption and limited operation times. https://techxplore.com/news/2023-06-energy-consumption-flapping-wing-flying-robots.html Robotics Mon, 26 Jun 2023 09:23:12 EDT news606990184 Researchers at Florida State University and the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering are helping build the solar cells of tomorrow by examining how a next-generation material can operate efficiently under real-world conditions that include baking temperatures and hours of sunlight. https://techxplore.com/news/2023-06-solar-cell-material-real-world-conditions.html Engineering Thu, 22 Jun 2023 16:51:27 EDT news606671483