Synthetic Muscle Fibers Mon, November 22, 2021 Young-Shin Jun (EU-US FOE 2016) at Washington University in St. Louis and Sinan Keten (USFOE 2017) at Northwestern University are engineering proteins that are nearly identical to those found in muscle tissue and could be a great material for sutures and tissue engineering. Read More
Glow-in-the-Dark Plants Thu, November 18, 2021 NAE member Michael Strano (USFOE 2007) at MIT is engineering rechargeable lighting embedded in plant leaves that could start to replace the current unsustainable urban electrical lighting grid for the mutual benefit of all plant-dependent species — including people. Read More
Mask Alternative for Extended Use Mon, November 15, 2021 Jelena Srebric at the University of Maryland Global Campus is engineering new type of personal protective equipment that is far more comfortable than a surgical mask or N95 ventilator for workers who currently face the discomfort and inconvenience of wearing masks for hours at a time. Read More
New Solid-State Battery With Surprises Thu, November 11, 2021 FOE alum Shirley Meng at the University of California San Diego is engineering a new type of battery that weaves two promising battery sub-fields into a single safe, long-lasting, and energy-dense battery and holds promise for a wide range of applications from grid storage to electric vehicles. Read More
Liquid Metal in Hydrogel Generates Electricity with a Twist Mon, November 08, 2021 Michael Dickey (USFOE 2014) at North Carolina State University is engineering a soft, stretchable device that converts movement into electricity in dry and wet environments, which could have applications in marine environments. Read More
New Options for Osteoarthritis Thu, November 04, 2021 Vanderbilt's Craig Duvall (CAFOE 2017) is engineering new drug treatments for the prevention of post-traumatic osteoarthritis caused by injury that will help reduce associated health care costs as well as the loss of quality of life. Read More
Brain-Inspired Random Computing Power Mon, November 01, 2021 Brad Aimone (USFOE 2017) at Sandia National Lab is engineering a probabilistic computer that can create smarter maintenance schedules, help analyze subatomic shrapnel inside particle colliders, simulate nuclear physics experiments, and process images faster and more accurately. Read More
Efficient Genome Writing in Bacteria Thu, October 28, 2021 MIT's Timothy Lu (CAFOE 2017) has engineered a technique to efficiently edit bacterial genomes and program memories into bacterial cells by rewriting their DNA. Various forms of spatial and temporal information can be permanently stored for generations and retrieved by sequencing the cells’ DNA. Read More
Artificial Intelligence in the Ocean Mon, October 25, 2021 Kakani Katija (USFOE 2020) of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute has engineered FathomNet, an open-source, distributed image database that can be used to train, test, and validate state-of-the-art artificial intelligence algorithms to understand the ocean and its inhabitants. Read More
Using Microbes for Better Sewage Treatment Thu, October 21, 2021 Columbia University's Kartik Chandran (CAFOE 2015) is engineering carefully cultured bacterial communities to improve sewage treatment—and create useful products in the process. Read More
Stem Cells for Cardiac Muscles Mon, October 18, 2021 Melissa Skala (USFOE 2020) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison is engineering a non-invasive imaging technique that can predict the efficiency of stem cell differentiation as a method of quality control, which holds great potential for regenerative therapies and treatments to combat ... Read More
Big Data Tool Monitors Disaster Recovery Thu, October 14, 2021 Ali Mostafavi (JAFOE 2021) at Texas A&M analyzed visitation patterns to essential establishments like pharmacies, religious centers, and grocery stores during Hurricane Harvey to assess the recovery of communities after natural disasters in near real time. Read More
Preventing Plastic Pollution Mon, October 11, 2021 The University of Georgia's Jenna Jambeck (USFOE 2020) is seeking engineering solutions by studying the types of litter volunteers picked up during a Mississippi River cleanup event and the precise location of where they found it to extrapolate how pollution could be prevented. Read More
A Dissolving Pacemaker Fri, October 08, 2021 NAE member and FOE alum John Rogers of Northwestern University has engineered a wireless, battery-free, fully implantable heart pacing device that dissolves when it is no longer needed, helping to avoid infections and becoming enveloped in scar tissue. Read More
Invincible Lithium-ion Batteries Mon, October 04, 2021 Noel Bakhtian (USFOE 2020) at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory is engineering battery cathodes using a new class of materials that provide batteries with the same if not higher energy density than conventional lithium-ion batteries but can be made of inexpensive, abundant metals. Read More
Light-Shrinking Material Lets Ordinary Microscope See in Super Resolution Thu, September 30, 2021 Zhaowei Liu (USFOE 2014) at the University of California San Diego has engineered a technology that improves the resolution of an ordinary light microscope so that it can be used to directly observe finer structures and details in living cells. Read More
Helping Robots Collaborate to Get the Job Done Mon, September 20, 2021 George Pappas (GAFOE 2007) at the University of Pennsylvania has engineered an algorithm to ensure the fruitful cooperation of information-gathering robot teams in complex, unpredictable environments such as mapping or search-and-rescue. Read More
Using Affordable Gold Leaf to Diagnose Infections Thu, September 16, 2021 FOE alum Catherine Klapperich at Boston University is engineering gold leaf electrodes that, in combination with a CRISPR-based assay, could sensitively detect human papillomavirus (HPV) DNA in human samples. The method also could be modified to diagnose other viral infections. Read More
Machine Learning and Earthquake Risk Prediction Mon, September 13, 2021 At the University of Texas at Austin, Ellen Rathje (JAFOE 2000) is using machine learning to study geotechnical engineering responses to liquefaction, when solid ground turns to liquid during earthquakes, which can topple buildings and bridges. Read More
Acoustoelectronic Nanotweezers Thu, September 09, 2021 Duke University's Tony Jun Huang (EU-US FOE 2014) is engineering a label-free, dynamically controllable method of moving and trapping nanoparticles over a large area, which holds promise for applications in fields ranging from condensed matter physics to biomedicine. Read More