Technological innovation

  • Molecule “scanner” uses terahertz radiation to identify single molecules

    Molecules could soon be “scanned” in a fashion similar to imaging screenings at airports, thanks to the world’s smallest terahertz detector, developed by University of Pittsburgh physicists. The scanner has the ability chemically to identify single molecules using terahertz radiation — a range of light far below what the eye can detect.

  • Eighty-six collegiate teams compete for the best car design and build

    Eighty-six teams competed in the Baja Society of Automotive Engineers competition in Bellingham, Washington to determine the Baja car with the best design and build. Every year, collegiate automotive clubs enter to compete in any of the three national competitions that test the design, speed, maneuverability, and endurance of a student-manufactured Baja car — a frame-only vehicle used for off-roading and high adventure activity. Arizona State University’s Sun Devil Motorsports Team improved its ranking from 37th last year to 17th this year.

  • Locating criminals by tracking their cell phones’ digital fingerprints

    To keep from being tracked and getting caught, criminals use evasion tactics such as modifying the built-in ID code in their cell phone or swapping out SIM cards, making it impossible for law enforcement to track the criminals down by relying solely on cell phone signals. German engineers found, however, that the radio hardware in a cellphone — a collection of components like power amplifiers, oscillators, and signal mixers — all introduce radio signal inaccuracies. When these inaccuracies, or errors, are taken together, as seen in the digital signal sent to a cell tower, the result can be read as a unique digital signal –a digital fingerprint. These digital fingerprints do not change even if the built-in ID code has been modified, or the SIM card has been swapped out.

  • New technology enables crops to take nitrogen directly from the air

    Nitrogen fixation, the process by which nitrogen is converted to ammonia, is vital for plants to survive and grow. Only a very small number of plants, however, most notably legumes (such as peas, beans, and lentils) have the ability to fix nitrogen from the atmosphere with the help of nitrogen fixing bacteria. The vast majority of plants have to obtain nitrogen from the soil, and for most crops currently being grown across the world, this also means a reliance on synthetic nitrogen fertilizer. Nitrogen pollution is a major problem however, and efforts to deal with it are costly. Researchers have developed a method of putting nitrogen-fixing bacteria into the cells of plant roots. The implications for food production are enormous.

  • Harnessing energy from wind whipping through urban concrete canyons

    Two Drexel University students developed a wind-harvesting concept which would exploit the wind whipping through “concrete canyons” between buildings and skyscrapers in large urban centers. Their concept involves a system of wind turbines that could be installed in streets and spaces between buildings, using flexible sails to divert otherwise turbulent winds into a more useful stream.

  • UMaine student develops affordable option for shoring up Maine’s aging bridges

    The State of Maine Department of Transportation is responsible for 2,772, or 70 percent, of the bridges in the state. A 2007 report found that of those bridges, 205 are more than 80 years old, 244 were considered in poor condition, and 213 were found to be structurally deficient. Additionally, 288 bridges were at risk of closure or weight restrictions between 2007 and 2017. Replacing all these bridges would be too costly. Researchers developed software designed specifically to assess the load rating of flat-slab bridges to determine which bridges can be repaired instead of replaced. For the bridges that can last a few more years with reinforcing instead of replacing, the researchers engineered a retrofitting system which could be applied to increase the bridge’s strength and weight limits.

  • Water purifier for soldiers, first responders successfully tested in the field

    A new easy-to-carry water purifier that could give Marines and first-responders access to clean water wherever they go successfully completed its first operational test. The new purifier was developed to help reduce enormous logistical burdens already faced by forward-deployed personnel. There are two versions — one that can treat 1,000 gallons per day and one that can handle 5,000 gallons per day.

  • Making power lines safer

    Last year, blackouts left 620 million people in India without power for a couple of days, and cost the U.S. economy more than $120 billion. Electric sparking has been blamed for major bushfires in Australia. Researchers have invented and patented a way of detecting and locating potential electrical faults along long stretches of power line before they occur.

  • New underwater robots mimic designs found in nature

    See video

    In recent years, robotic underwater vehicles have become more common in a variety of industrial and civil sectors. Now, a new class of underwater robot has emerged that mimics designs found in nature. These “biomimetic” vehicles promise to lead to new underwater technologies that could help the oil and gas industry, underwater humanitarian demining, environmental monitoring, search and rescue operations, anti-terrorist activities, harbor surveillance, coastal security and fisheries management, and more.

  • Young engineers compete in underwater robotics race

    Student-built autonomous underwater vehicles will speed through the depths of a Navy pool in a battle for supremacy at the 16th International RoboSub Competition. The competition is being held this week (22-28 July). In addition to building autonomous underwater vehicles, teams are also responsible for creating Web sites and writing journal papers that outline their work.

  • Ben-Gurion University student team’s Hydro Camel competes in RoboSub Competition

    Today, there are many remotely operated submarines that handle important tasks, such as checking underwater pipelines, mapping underwater minefields, searching for locations to place communication cables, and searching for sunken vessels. These marine vessels, however, are limited by effective communication cables and require frequent human-operator contact. Ben-Gurion University of the Negev is developing a more accurate and effective autonomous, independently thinking underwater vessel that would revolutionize these and other tasks. The BGU entry in the RoboSub Competition is called Hydro Camel.

  • Hollow-core optical fiber to enable high-power military sensors

    The intensity of light that propagates through glass optical fiber is fundamentally limited by the glass itself. A novel fiber design using a hollow, air-filled core removes this limitation and significantly improves performance by forcing light to travel through channels of air, instead of the glass around it. DARPA’s spider-web-like, hollow-core fiber design is the first to demonstrate single-spatial-mode, low-loss and polarization control — key properties needed for advanced military applications such as high-precision fiber optic gyroscopes for inertial navigation.

  • Georgia Tech’s VentureLab ranks No. 2 among university-based incubators

    Georgia Tech’s VentureLab helps create startup companies based on Georgia Tech research. Since its formation in 2001, VentureLab has launched more than 150 technology companies which have attracted more than $700 million in outside funding. VentureLab program has been ranked second in the world in a new benchmarking study. The study, conducted by UBI Index, examined 150 university-based business incubators in twenty-two different countries.

  • U.S. research universities subject to sustained cyberattack campaign by China

    Leading U.S. research universities report that they have been subject to millions of Chinese hacking attempts weekly. The Chinese are aware that universities, and the professors who do research under the schools’ auspices, receive thousands of patents each year in areas such as prescription drugs, computer chips, fuel cells, aircraft, medical devices, food production, and more. The Chinese government-sponsored cyberattacks on American research universities are an expansion of efforts by China to steal information that has commercial, political, or national security value.

  • CIA copied, employed “Q”-developed 007 outlandish gadgets

    The real-life CIA copied and employed a few outlandish gadgets from James Bond movies. The CIA was successful copying Rosa Klebb’s infamous spring-loaded poison knife shoe from the film From Russia with Love, but was less successful trying to copy the homing beacon device used in Goldfinger to track the villain’s car. The CIA version had “too many bugs in it,” former CIA director Allen Dulles would later say, and stopped working when the enemy entered a crowded city.