Nevertheless, She Persisted Thu, February 25, 2021 Even when she's the only woman or person of color in a room full of engineers, Stanford's Debbie Senesky (USFOE 2016) shares how her resilience, adaptability, and determination have helped her engineer solutions for the aeronautics, astronautics, healthcare, and automotive industries. Read More
Beetle Models Structural Strength Mon, February 22, 2021 Pablo Zavattieri (USFOE 2014) at Purdue University is taking engineering cues from the exoskeleton of the diabolical ironclad beetle, which could inspire the design of aircraft gas turbines that are safer and longer lasting. Read More
Heated Face Mask Thu, February 18, 2021 NAE member Michael Strano (USFOE 2007) at MIT has designed a reusable mask with heated copper mesh powered by a battery and surrounded by insulating neoprene that can filter and inactivate coronaviruses. Read More
Thirteen FOE Alumni Elected to NAE Thu, February 11, 2021 Check out the list of FOE alumni newly-elected as NAE members. Read More
A Nano-Needle To Modify Plant Genes Mon, February 08, 2021 Markita Landry (USFOE 2017) at the University of California, Berkeley is engineering carbon nanotubes that can penetrate cell walls to alter genes, which could lead to breeding new varieties of crop plants faster and easier. Read More
New Book - Mercury Stories Thu, February 04, 2021 In Mercury Stories, MIT's Noelle Selin (EU-US FOE 2019) examine sustainability from a systems engineering approach by analyzing human interactions with the volatile and toxic element over thousands of years. Read More
Discrimination in Health Research Funding Mon, February 01, 2021 Kristyn Masters, Lori Setton, Elizabeth Cosgriff-Hernandez, Muyinatu Bell, Stacey Finley, Naomi Chesler, Karen Christman, Joyce Wong, and Tejal Desai argue that racial funding disparity by the National Institutes of Health remains a significant barrier to success of Black biomedical engineers. Read More
3D Printing Microfluid Channels for Medical Testing Thu, January 28, 2021 FOE alum Michael McAlpine at the University of Minnesota has engineered a process to 3D print without a cleanroom, which means that diagnostic tools could be printed by a doctor right in their office or printed remotely by soldiers in the field. Read More
Perils of Working from Home Mon, January 25, 2021 Burcin Becerik-Gerber (USFOE 2013) at the University of Southern California discusses how ergonomic engineering can address the toll on mental and physical health caused by working from home. Read More
Hastening Vaccines and Treatments Thu, January 21, 2021 MIT's Ram Sasisekharan (IAFOE 2006) engineers breakthrough biological therapeutics for emerging infectious diseases and drug-resistant infections using a rapid response strategy that dramatically reduces production time from several years to just a few months. Read More
Sex, Race, and Robots Thu, January 14, 2021 FOE alum Ayanna Howard at Georgia Tech has published a thought-provoking audiobook about the risks of AI learning current cultural, racial, gender, sexual orientation, religion, and socioeconomic biases. Read More
Clues to the Gut-Brain Connection Mon, January 11, 2021 FOE alum Reza Ghodssi at the University of Maryland has engineered a platform that could dramatically improve diagnosis and lead to treatments for mood disorders like depression and anxiety and chronic auto-immune diseases like irritable bowel syndrome and rheumatoid arthritis. Read More
Assessing Damage to Brain Cells from Head Trauma Thu, January 07, 2021 Nicole Hashemi (USFOE 2018) at Iowa State University is using her engineering expertise with the manufacture of microstructures to study and describe the damage to brain cells caused by the formation and collapse of microbubbles in the skull, which could lead to development of better helmets. Read More
Treating Tinnitus Through the…Tongue? Mon, January 04, 2021 The University of Minnesota's Hubert Lim (CAFOE 2019) is engineering a device that significantly reduces tinnitus, the sensation of hearing phantom sounds ranging from annoying to debilitating, that affects an estimated 10 to 15 percent of the population. Read More
Treating a Rare, Incurable Form of Blindness Sat, December 19, 2020 Krishanu Saha (USFOE 2019) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison is engineering a gene therapy to correct a currently untreatable inherited form of macular degeneration that causes blindness. Read More
Increasing Access to Electricity Thu, December 17, 2020 Carnegie Mellon University's Destenie Nock (USFOE 2020) writes about changing the policy paradigm by taking a benefit maximization approach to electricity planning and engineering in developing countries. Read More
Underwater Robots Autonomously Dock Mid-Mission Mon, December 14, 2020 Purdue University's Nina Mahmoudian (USFOE 2016) has engineered a mobile docking system that enables autonomous underwater vehicles to perform longer tasks without human intervention, which could be adapted for exploration of extraterrestrial lakes. Read More
Nanonet Collapses to Trap Drug Molecules Thu, December 10, 2020 Northwestern University's Evan Scott (USFOE 2018) is engineering a new, rapid method for fabricating nanoparticles that could be used for water purification, diagnostics, and rapidly-generated vaccine formulations. Read More
COVID-19 Vaccine Distribution — Disruption and Innovation Mon, December 07, 2020 From a systems engineering standpoint, FOE alum Julie Swann at North Carolina State University writes about the Herculean task of COVID-19 vaccine distribution. Read More
App Helps with Teaching Music Over Zoom Thu, December 03, 2020 In response to the pandemic shutting down music groups' ability to practice together, FOE alum Youngmoo Kim at Drexel University has engineered the Virtual Chorister app, which enables musicians to stream videos straight from YouTube as they sing or play in unison. Read More