Researchers at Kobe University, Japan, in partnership with National Chung Hsing University, Taiwan, developed a new electrical power converter design that provides considerably better efficiency at reduced cost and maintenance than before.
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Researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tenn., are developing algorithms and multilayered communication and control systems that make electric vehicle chargers operate more reliably, even if there is a voltage drop or disturbance in the electric grid.
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Researchers at the University of Surrey, England, University of Cambridge, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xidian University, and Zhengzhou University, China, built a new kind of two-faced (bifacial) solar panel using single-walled carbon nanotubes as both front and back electrodes that are the highest efficiency single junction solar cells to date.
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Researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, Calif., have furthered a new type of soft material that can change shape in response to light, a discovery that could advance “soft machines” for a variety of fields, from robotics to medicine.
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Scientists from ARCI, an autonomous institution of the Department of Science and Technology, India, found a new technique of synthesizing thin hard surface coatings by high velocity air fuel spraying has the potential of emerging as an environmentally-friendly safer alternative to hard chrome plating used in on car parts, tools, and kitchen utensils.
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Researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tenn., demonstrated that stainless steel and other metal alloys coated with hexagonal boron nitride, or hBN, exhibit non-stick or low-friction qualities along with improved long-term protection against harsh corrosion and high-temperature oxidation in air.
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Researchers at Stanford University have demonstrated that a new material may make phase-change memory an improved option for future AI and data-centric systems.
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Researchers at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, Israel, have shown how to exploit the natural nonlinearity of silicon to track the propagation of light through a circuit to characterize a chip’s performance.
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A research team from the Institute of Oceanology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences developed an organic–inorganic hybrid superamphiphobic coating with integrated functionalities of liquid repellency, self-cleaning, anti-corrosion, and anti-icing.
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Scientists at the South China University of Technology have created a new porous ceramic that is ultrastrong at elevated temperatures and simultaneously high thermal insulating, two properties needed for making the shell of hypersonic aircraft.
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Researchers at the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, Wash., found that adding a small amount of solid carbon to copper boosts its ability to conduct electricity—industry applications abound.
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Zurich Instruments, Switzerland, joins forces with two leading experimental labs at ETH Zurich and MIT, the quantum computing startup Atlantic Quantum, and leading theorists at Université de Sherbrooke and Forschungszentrum Jülich to participate in the SuperMOOSE project, which aims to entangle two error-corrected qubits and thus lay the foundation for future quantum computers.
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Researchers at Nagoya University in Japan used artificial intelligence to discover a new method to understand dislocations in polycrystalline materials, materials widely used in information equipment, solar cells, and electronic devices, that can reduce their efficiency.
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In the adrenaline-fueled rush of a set-up for their studio review, a team of students pursuing a Master of Science in Design with a concentration in Robotics and Autonomous Systems (MSD-RAS) assemble layer upon layer of ceramic bricks, securing them in place with a satisfying “clink.” And as the model got taller, the stakes got higher. The breakability of ceramic was not far from anybody’s mind.
Clay is one of the world’s oldest building materials: From adobe bricks to terracotta tiles, clay has been used to construct buildings for millennia. Now, advances in computational design and robotic technology have revolutionized the way these bricks are made, and what forms they can take. Made by extruding layers of clay in carefully defined toolpaths, the students 3D printed their designs using six-axis industrial robots, more easily found in a car manufacturing plant than a design school.
These fully-integrated and automated robots are housed just a floor below the Plaza Gallery in Meyerson Hall, in the Stuart Weitzman School of Design’s Robotics Lab, which opened in 2019 as part of the Department of Architecture’s Advanced Research and Innovation Lab. They position the School at the forefront of architectural design research that leverages and develops approaches to robotic fabrication. The two-semester MSD-RAS program combines an education in robotics with the tools of artificial intelligence and automated systems, which hold the promise of thoroughly adaptive, sustainable, and intelligent approaches to manufacturing and design.
Robert Stuart-Smith, the program’s director and an assistant professor of architecture, sees the MSD-RAS program in relation to the Fourth Industrial Revolution, a historic shift in manufacturing that began in the last decade or so with the development of technology like artificial intelligence. One simple example of a semi-autonomous robot application, is a sanding robot, which adjusts its position in response to sensor-feedback to maintain a constant amount of pressure that it applies to the part it is finishing.
“Most architecture is still built by Second Industrial Revolution technologies of mass production,” says Stuart-Smith, “where things are only economical if we make them all the same, and produce these same parts at high volumes of production. But with the Fourth Industrial Revolution, we have the capabilities of bespoke production at a scale or volume similar to mass production.” The goal, he says, is to put artisanship back into manufacturing, in a way that’s less expensive and more accessible than ever before, and less wasteful.
For more information: University of Pennslyvania
Image: Offering a robust suite of milling, additive manufacturing, sheet-metal bending, and hot-wire cutting tools, the Robotics Lab in Meyerson Hall brings together faculty and students across the Department of Architecture for studio-based work and funded research.
For the first time, scientists at Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, N.M. and Texas A&M University, have witnessed pieces of metal crack, then fuse back together without any human intervention, overturning fundamental scientific theories in the process.
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University of Wisconsin–Madison engineers have used a spray coating technology to produce a new workhorse material that can withstand the harsh conditions inside a fusion reactor.
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Leica Microsystems, Germany, a leader in microscopy and scientific instrumentation, has launched Autonomous Microscopy powered by Aivia, a new AI-based detection workflow for confocal microscopy that automates the detection of rare events by extracting the most relevant data from their experiments.
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A research team led by Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, Mass., found that by ditching toxic solvents, a new dry-coating process could make batteries more sustainable and cut manufacturing costs by 15% and energy use by 47%. It could also be faster-charging than today’s electrodes.
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Researchers at North Carolina State University, Raleigh, N.C., have created a robot called RoboMapper that can rapidly identify new perovskite materials with improved stability and solar cell efficiency and is capable of conducting experiments more efficiently and sustainably to develop a range of new semiconductor materials with desirable attributes.
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Systems in the Universe trend toward disorder, with only applied energy keeping the chaos at bay. The concept is called entropy, and examples can be found everywhere: ice melting, campfire burning, water boiling. Zentropy theory, however, adds another level to the mix.
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Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Multidisciplinary Sciences, Germany, resolved and analyzed the mutual repulsion between individual electrons in an electron microscope for the first time, enabling the team to develop a method that could increase the performance of established electron microscopes and open up a new interface between electron microscopy and quantum technology.
Continue readingThe U.S. National Science Foundation announced 24 research and education projects to 47 institutions with a total investment of $45.6 million — including funding from the “CHIPS and Science Act of 2022” — to enable rapid progress in new semiconductor technologies and manufacturing as well as workforce development.
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As part of a prestigious 2023 summer internship with the U.S. Department of Defense, John Migliore, a fourth-year Ph.D. candidate at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill departments of applied physical sciences and chemistry, conducted tests on whether high-performance polymers would change the mechanical and structural properties of ceramic materials.
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An international team, including researchers from Washington University in St. Louis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Yonsei University and Inha University in Korea, Georgia Institute of Technology, and the University of Notre Dame, has demonstrated the monolithic 3D integration of layered 2D material into novel processing hardware, addressing the challenge of increased information transfer time between functional components in advanced computer chips and paving the way for AI computing.
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A research team at the University of Science and Technology of China of the Chinese Academy of Sciences developed a groundbreaking chemical method for two-dimensional metal-organic lattices.
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While it can take years of focused laboratory work to determine how to make the highest quality materials for use in electronic and photonic device applications, researchers at North Carolina State University developed an autonomous system that can identify how to synthesize “best-in-class” materials in hours or days.
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Florida International University, Miami, Fla., introduced its new Cold Spray and Rapid Deposition Laboratory, a facility that will advance techniques in the repair, design and durability of high-performance materials. The lab is supported by a five-year, $22.9 million grant from the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Army Research Laboratory.
The lab will advance additive manufacturing techniques such as cold spray, a technique where particles are blasted onto a material surface at low temperatures. The techniques are highly relevant to 3D printing, the rapid repair of machinery, and the coating of materials to make them stronger. The research stands to benefit the manufacturing of next-generation vehicles and munitions while also boosting workforce development and activity across the economy.
“FIU’s commitment to innovation and impact is on full display today as we celebrate the opening of this lab,” said Kenneth A. Jessell, president of FIU. “We show the world today that we are a leader for Army Research Lab Cold Spray Technology and an influential partner, together with our congressional delegation, in building up Miami’s tech, innovation and manufacturing ecosystem.”
The lab will be led by Distinguished University Professor Arvind Agarwal, chair of FIU’s department of mechanical and materials engineering at the College of Engineering and Computing (CEC) and a renowned expert on advanced additive manufacturing techniques.
“From developing antibacterial coatings for biomedical use to assisting in environmental corrosion prevention in coastal communities, these technologies promise to deliver solutions to a myriad of real-world problems, while helping to train the next generation of researchers, technologists and STEM professionals in the fields of robotics, advanced manufacturing, aerospace technologies and machine learning,” Agarwal said.
The opening of the lab positions FIU as a key provider of research and talent for the Department of Defense and industry partners, particularly due to the increase demand for electronics and the expansion of both the aerospace and defense industries.
Image – Cold spay lab. Courtesy of: FIU.
For more information:
Florida International University
YouTube Video – First large scale cold spray facility in a Florida university
Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) researchers have developed one of the world’s smallest, most intense and fastest refrigeration devices, the wearable thin-film thermoelectric cooler (TFTEC), and teamed with neuroscientists to help amputees perceive a sense of temperature with their phantom limbs.
Continue readingGeorgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, one of the top public research universities in the U.S., and GlobalFoundries, Malta, NY., one of the world’s leading semiconductor manufacturers, announced a new partnership to expand collaboration on semiconductor research, education, talent, and workforce development.
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The U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory, Iowa, has received $392,000 in funding to commercialize a gas atomization nozzle design for producing metal powders for manufacturing.
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