• How smartphones are fighting floods

    A new smartphone app is helping the Army Corps of Engineers to strengthen its levees and fight floods in Kansas;filing reports is as simple as using a smartphone to take a picture, adding a note, and uploading the information to a database, which only takes a few seconds; this new system helps reduce the time it takes to gather critical information about levees by as much as thirty-six hours, giving engineers valuable additional time to detect and save a failing levee

  • Averting bridge disasters: new sensors could save hundreds of lives

    One of every four U.S. highway bridges has known structural problems or exceeded its intended life-span. Most only get inspected once every one or two years; University of Maryland researcher has developed a new sensor that measures indicators of a bridge’s structural health, such as strain, vibration, flexibility, and development of metal cracks; the sensors are expected to last more than a decade, with each costing about $20

  • Tiny flying machines revolutionize surveillance work

    Tiny aerial vehicles are being developed with innovative flapping wings based on those of real-life insects; incorporating micro-cameras, these revolutionary insect-size vehicles will be suitable for many different purposes ranging from helping in emergency situations considered too dangerous for people to enter, to covert military surveillance missions

  • Micro-robots emulate water-striding insects

    Researchers are working on building nimble micro-robots that are able to skim across the surface of water; the prototype devices emulate water-striding insects such as mosquitoes and water spiders, and could be used for military spy missions, water-pollution monitoring, and other applications

  • The world’s first "printed" aircraft flies

    Engineers have designed and flown the world’s first “printed” aircraft, which could revolutionize the economics of aircraft design; the plane is a UAV whose entire structure has been printed, including wings, integral control surfaces, and access hatches; it was printed on an EOS EOSINT P730 nylon laser sintering machine, which fabricates plastic or metal objects, building up the item layer by layer

  • Auto theft going extinct?

    Thanks to aggressive police work and new technology car theft could eventually become an obsolete problem; new technological developments like high-tech keys, immobilizer systems, and GPS tracking have made it increasingly difficult for thieves to successfully steal cars; new police tactics and technologies like bait cars and license plate scanners have given law enforcement agencies the edge in tracking down stolen cars and catching thieves

  • Sensing "skin" protects concrete structures

    Scientists have developed a sensing “skin” which is made of stretchy thermoplastic elastomer mixed with titanium dioxde; patches of the skin are painted with black carbon to measure changes in the electrical charge of the skin; the skin will be rolled out in patches across structures such as bridges and dams; the formation of a crack would cause a movement in the concrete under the patch, which would change the capacitance, or stored energy, of the skin; daily check by computers would detect the change the capacitance, and issue and alert

  • Texas A&M launches a blimp program

    Texas A&M is launching a new airship program to develop lighter-than-air (LTA) blimps; LTA systems generate lift force by using sufficient volume of a lighter-than-air gas, such as helium; heavier-than-air (HTA) systems, on the other hand, generate lift by a relative motion between the wings or rotor blades and ambient air; airships can contribute to a number of missions including disaster response, homeland security, and communications relay

  • New fingermarks detection technology

    The new technology uses Matrix Assisted Laser Desorption Ionization Mass Spectrometry Imaging (MALDI-MSI) to provide crime scene investigators with key extra details about suspects; these details, such as any substances they might have touched, can provide crucial background information in a criminal investigation

  • Students develop landmine detection robot

    A team of Texas A&M University at Qatar students and faculty has developed a state—of-the-art landmine detection robot as part of the NI Mine Detection Robot Design Contest; The competition challenged engineering students in the Middle East to work toward solutions to the real-life landmine problem that the Arab region and other areas face in the aftermath of conflict

  • Mathematical framework converts junk energy into useful power

    Researchers have developed a mathematical framework that could one day form the basis of technologies that turn road vibrations, airport runway noise, and other “junk”energy into useful power;

  • Cambridge U team intends to win the 2011 World Solar Challenge

    The World Solar Challenge, the “Formula One” of eco-friendly motorsport, consists of a 3,000 kilometer race across the Australian outback from Darwin to Adelaide; it will be held 16-23 October 2011; the University of Cambridge team believes it has a real chance to win with their newly designed Cambridge University Eco Racing (CUER) machine

  • Sensors printed on wetsuits detect explosives, other hazards

    UC Sand Diego researcher has successfully printed thick-film electrochemical sensors directly on flexible wetsuit material, paving the way for nano devices to detect underwater explosives or ocean contamination; UCSD has a full U.S. patent pending on the technology, and has begun talks on licensing the system to a Fortune 500 company

  • World's first cardboard vacuum cleaner unveiled

    A U.K. vacuum cleaner manufacturer will market a high performance vacuum cleaner constructed out of recycled and recyclable materials; the device was designed by an industrial design student; the corrugated cardboard panels that form the body of the machine are easily replaced if damaged and cost just a tenth of the price of an equivalent plastic panel

  • New technology increase potency of beam weapons

    Laser scientists and engineers have long recognized that direct-diode lasers can offer significant advantages over other laser technologies due to their efficiency, reliability, compactness, and relatively low cost; applications for direct-diode lasers have been limited, however, owing to their low brightness — a combination of lower power and poorer beam quality relative to alternative laser technologies; a Massachusetts-based company, using wavelength beam combining (WBC) technology, is offering a way to solve this problem — allowing direct-diode lasers to be used in demanding industrial applications — and in effective beam weapons