• How Do We Learn to Live with Extreme Events?

    From weather dictionaries to AI physics, new approaches try to anticipate the next catastrophic flood, tornado, or hurricane.

  • DHS S&T Awards $259M to Counter-Unmanned Aircraft System Threats

    Germantown, Maryland-based Amentum has been awarded a five-year contract with a maximum value of $260 million by DHS S&T to develop and deploy emerging capabilities and prototypes for countering unmanned systems threats (C-UST).

  • Machine-Learning Techniques for Predicting the Evolution of Epidemics

    Machine learning techniques can provide an assumption-free analysis of epidemic case data with surprisingly good prediction accuracy and the ability to dynamically incorporate the latest data. The techniques used to analyze case data show promise for predicting the evolution of an epidemic.

  • The Information Age Is Starting to Transform Fishing Worldwide

    The post-industrial area – with its robots, sensors, artificial intelligence, and machine learning — has transformed manufacturing and farming. Commercial fishing, one of the oldest industries in the world, is a stark exception, with industrial fishing, factory ships, and deep-sea trawlers still the dominant hunting mode in much of the world. This approach has led to overfishing, stock depletions, habitat destruction, the senseless killing of unwanted by-catch and wastage of as much as 30% to 40% of landed fish. But these patterns are starting to change.

  • U.S. Flood Damage Risk Is Underestimated

    Researchers used artificial intelligence to predict where flood damage is likely to happen in the continental United States, suggesting that recent flood maps from FEMA do not capture the full extent of flood risk.

  • Geoelectrical Methods in Search for Hidden Graves

    Rather than digging to identify unmarked mass grave sites or evidence to locate missing persons, cutting-edge technologies are helping law enforcement agents, forensic scientists and historians uncover attempts to hide victims.

  • New Network to Improve Biosecurity in Livestock

    Health and welfare, safety and sustainability are crucial elements for ensuring the future of livestock production. Biosecurity aims to prevent the introduction and spread of pathogens within and between farms and, consequently, results in better welfare, increased food safety and better sustainability. A new network to improve biosecurity in livestock.

  • You've Heard of Water Droughts. Could “Energy” Droughts Be Next?

    In a new modeling study, researchers show how widely wind and solar potential vary by season and year, suggesting that backup energy sources may be needed as the world shifts to renewables to bring carbon emissions to zero.

  • New National Water Alliance Aims to Predict Water-Related Hazards, Manage U.S. Water Resources

    The new Cooperative Institute for Research to Operations in Hydrology (CIROH) is composed of 28 academic institutions, non-profit organizations, and government and industry partners across the United States and Canada, aiming to better predict water-related hazards and manage the nation’s water resources.

  • The Future of 5G+ Infrastructure Could Be Built Tile by Tile

    Currently 5G+ technologies rely on large antenna arrays that are typically bulky and come only in very limited sizes, making them difficult to transport and expensive to customize. Researchers have developed a novel and flexible solution to address the problem. Their additively manufactured tile-based approach can construct on-demand, massively scalable arrays of 5G+‐enabled smart skins with the potential to enable intelligence on nearly any surface or object.

  • Future-Proofing Our Emergency Networks

    Climate change is heightening the intensity and frequency of severe weather around the world, making hurricanes more dangerous, increasing extreme heat, intensifying wildfires, and risking greater natural disasters. It’s a hard reality that the essential technology we rely on to get in touch with family, friends, and emergency services during a crisis is not guaranteed.

  • Tactical Tunneling to Help Military Operations, Rescue Missions

    New tactical tunneling technologies show the feasibility of rapidly constructing tactical tunnel networks that enable secure, responsive resupply in denied environments. These networks could provide infrastructure for logistics support, such as pre-positioning supplies in advance of an operation or providing ongoing resupply as troops move through a contested area. The ability to rapidly bore tactical tunnels could also be helpful in rescue missions.

  • Marine Energy Is Finally Here

    Is marine energy finally here? The simple answer is yes, the ocean—specifically clean energy generated from waves, tides, and ocean and river currents—can help save the planet. Revamped software offers marine energy industry the data it needs to succeed.

  • DIY Innovations for Bomb Squads

    Bomb-squad members must effectively employ critical thinking and problem-solving skills while working in stressful, potentially life-threatening situations. DHS S&T notes that bomb technicians’ ability to expect the unexpected and adjust accordingly has created a consistent pipeline of do-it-yourself (DIY) inventions to solve everyday issues they face, and the S&T works to validate these innovations.

  • Testing Similitude Laws of Multistory Masonry Buildings

    Earthquakes and other stressors on buildings pose a threat to their structural integrity that endangers human life. It helps to be able to calculate the behavior of buildings and test with small-scale models.