• UAVs with dexterous arms to help in infrastructure repair and disaster recovery

    With current technology, most UAVs perform passive tasks such as surveillance and reconnaissance missions, tasks which are performed well above ground; researchers are interested in how UAVs might interact with objects at or near ground level; a UAV with dexterous arms could perform a wide range of active near-ground missions, from infrastructure repair and disaster recovery to border inspection and agricultural handling

  • Seeing through walls, clearly

    Research and tests show, for the first time, the ability to use t passive WiFi radar for through-the-wall (TTW) detection of moving personnel – and do so covertly

  • New forensic tool automates RAM forensic investigations

    New tool enables computer forensic investigators to analyze and make use of information contained in volatile memory; memory analysis produces important, case-relevant data for investigators that cannot be obtained from disk analysis, such as running applications, open files, and active network connections

  • Canadian company offers the first treatment to neutralize red mud

    Red mud is the most significant waste product of the traditional Bayer process for aluminum production; the industry produces more than 100 million tons of red mud a year, of which less than 5 percent is be reused; the rest is stored in ponds and reservoirs, posing serious environmental and economic risk; on 4 October 2010, for example, a flood of toxic red mud devastated Hungary after a retaining dyke ruptured, causing an ecological disaster; Canadian company Orbite Aluminae offers a technology to tackle the aluminum industry’s most serious problem

  • Improving landmine detection – and air travel safety

    It is estimated that there are about 110 million active landmines lurking underground in sixty-four countries across the globe; each year as many as 25,000 people, most of them civilians, are maimed or killed by landmines; the mines not only kill and maim, they can paralyze communities by limiting the use of land for farming and roads for trade; researchers offer a better way to detect landmines – a method which can also be used in airports to help thwart possible terrorist threats

  • Improving oil recovery, aiding environmental cleanup

    Researchers have taken a new look at an old, but seldom-used technique developed by the petroleum industry to recover oil, and learned more about why it works, how it could be improved, and how it might be able to make a comeback not only in oil recovery but also environmental cleanup

  • New, affordable instant warnings of bridge collapse

    The Federal Bureau of Transportation lists nearly 70,000 U.S. bridges as “structurally deficient,” requiring extra surveillance; in addition, more than 77,000 others are categorized as “obsolete” — exceeding their intended lifespan and carrying loads greater than they were designed to handle; researchers developed a new technology for monitoring these 150,000 aging U.S. highway bridges

  • A second look at off-shore use of vertical-axis wind turbines

    Wind energy researchers are re-evaluating vertical axis wind turbines (VAWTs) to help solve some of the problems of generating energy from offshore breezes; though VAWTs have been around since the earliest days of wind energy research, VAWT architecture could transform offshore wind technology

  • A device used to measure nuclear weapons effects is now used for rocket propulsion system

    Can a device formerly used to test nuclear weapons effects find a new life in rocket propulsion research? That is the question in which researchers seek an answer; when assembled, the device will tip the scales at nearly fifty tons, and will be “one of the largest, most powerful pulse power systems in the academic world,” according to one researcher

  • Researchers say spoofed GPS signals can be countered

    From cars to commercial airplanes to military drones, global positioning system (GPS) technology is everywhere — and researchers have known for years that it can be hacked, or as they call it, “spoofed”; the best defense, they say, is to create countermeasures that unscrupulous GPS spoofers can not deceive

  • Milestone for a Raytheon bomb which acquires, tracks, and then hits moving targets

    Raytheon said its Small Diameter Bomb II (SDB II) program achieved a milestone when it successfully engaged and hit a moving target during a flight test at the White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico; the bomb, released from an F-15E, acquired, tracked, and guided to a moving target using its tri-mode seeker, scoring a direct hit

  • Using dolphins’ signal processing method for sea-mine detection

    One way for Iran to close the Straits of Hormuz to shipping is to place thousands of sea mines in the water; research examine how dolphins process their sonar signals, using the findings to provide a new system for man-made sonar to detect targets, such as sea mines, in bubbly water

  • Cutting massive power use at big data companies in a flash

    Big data needs big power; the server farms that undergird the Internet run on a vast tide of electricity — Google, for example, uses enough electricity in its data centers to power about 200,000 homes; now, a team of engineers has a solution that could radically cut that power use — a new type of memory in companies’ servers that demands far less energy than the current systems

  • New rapid diagnostic test for pathogens, contaminants developed

    Using nanoscale materials, researchers have developed a single-step method rapidly and accurately to detect viruses, bacteria, and chemical contaminants; the method could be used to detect pathogens and contaminants in biological mixtures such as food, blood, saliva, and urine

  • Unmanned systems emulate animals’ conditioned fear-response mechanism for self-preservation

    When animals in the wild engage in eating or grazing, their eyes, ears, and sense of smell continuously monitor the environment for any sense of danger; researchers developed a similar conditioned fear-response mechanism for unmanned systems