Mini Quadruped Leverages Curved-Crease Origami Thu, December 07, 2023 UPenn’s Cynthia Sung (USFOE 2019) is engineering centimeter-scale walking and crawling robots at low fabrication costs that can self-fold, unfold, crawl and steer, all using a single motor, enabling controlled, reversible, and complex motions to explore tight or cluttered environments. Read More
Computational Medicine Mon, December 04, 2023 FOE alum Amanda Randles at Duke is engineering supercomputer models of how blood flows through arteries at the cellular and particulate levels to simulate how an individual’s specific cardiovascular architecture will likely respond to surgical procedures such as a bypass graft or stent placement. Read More
Hyperdimensional Computing Thu, November 30, 2023 FOE alum Roman Caudillo at Intel discusses the engineering of a novel machine-learning paradigm inspired by theoretical neuroscience and how humans and other animals use their senses to gather information. Read More
Better Prosthetics Mon, November 27, 2023 FOE alum He (Helen) Huang at NC State and UNC at Chapel Hill has engineered robotic prosthetic ankles that are controlled by nerve impulses and allow amputees to move more ‘naturally’, improving overall stability. Read More
Wearable That Monitors Estrogen in Sweat Mon, November 20, 2023 Caltech's Wei Gao (USFOE 2021) has engineered a wearable sensor that may one day make it easier for women to monitor their estradiol levels at home and in real time, showing indicators for women's health and fertility. Read More
I Can Read Your Mind Thu, November 16, 2023 Gert Cauwenberghs (USFOE 2000), Sheng Xu (USFOE 2019), and Patrick Mercier (CAFOE 2019) at the University of California San Diego are engineering screen-printed, flexible sensors that allow earbuds to record brain activity and exercise levels. Read More
New Material That Curves Light Mon, November 13, 2023 Mikhail Kats (USFOE 2020) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison has engineered a unique, record-setting material that can bend one infrared ray of light in two directions, which could lead to innovations in night vision, Lidar, chemical sensing, microscopy, and other applications. Read More
Tiny Technology, Far-reaching Frontiers Thu, November 09, 2023 At Purdue, David Cappelleri (GAFOE 2015) is using a 3D printer to engineer mobile microrobots that can go into the body and perform precise operations such as drug delivery, cell manipulation, and object characterization. Read More
National Recognition for Alumni Mon, November 06, 2023 Subra Suresh recently received the National Medal of Science, and Juan Gilbert, James Fujimoto, and Eric Swanson were awarded the National Medal of Technology and Innovation for their work that inspires the next generation of American minds in science and technology. Read More
Holistic Approach to Indoor Air Quality Thu, November 02, 2023 John Zhai (USFOE 2011) at the University of Colorado Boulder is researching the impact on respiratory health of indoor air quality, with a focus on affordable housing, a sector which often encounters more IAQ challenges due to lower budgets, poor design, and inexpensive building materials. Read More
New Bacteria to Eat Ocean Plastic Mon, October 30, 2023 FOE alum Nathan Crook at NC State has engineered a fast-growing, plastic-eating organism that is especially good at breaking down plastic that's used in all sorts of household products including soda bottles and clothing and is a major contributor to microplastic pollution. Read More
Detecting Breast Cancer Earlier Thu, October 26, 2023 Canan Dagdeviren (USFOE 2019) at MIT Media Lab has engineered a wearable ultrasound device that could allow earlier tumor detection, which is valuable for patients at high risk of developing breast cancer between routine mammograms and could improve the survival rate for breast cancer patients. Read More
Inverse Vaccine for Autoimmune Disease Thu, October 19, 2023 NAE member Jeffrey Hubbell (USFOE 1995) at the University of Chicago is engineering a new type of vaccine that can completely reverse autoimmune diseases like multiple sclerosis and type 1 diabetes — all without shutting down the rest of the immune system. Read More
Focused Ultrasound to Treat Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s Fri, October 13, 2023 FOE alum Elisa Konofagou at Columbia University is engineering focused ultrasound to non-invasively open the blood-brain barrier to deliver drugs and apply gene therapy for neurologic diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. Read More
Six FOE Alumni Elected to NAM Thu, October 12, 2023 Six FOE alumni were elected to the National Academy of Medicine in October. Election to NAM is considered one of the highest honors in the fields of health and medicine. Read More
Better Batteries Mon, October 09, 2023 FOE alum Matthew McDowell at Georgia Tech is engineering batteries from aluminum materials which have higher energy density and greater stability and show promising performance for safer, cheaper, more powerful batteries. Read More
New Wearable for Navigation Thu, October 05, 2023 Marcia O'Malley (USFOE 2005) at Rice University has engineered a fabric-based wearable device that "taps" a user's wrist with pressurized air, silently helping them navigate to their destination, which could benefit amputees, the hearing-impaired, and surgeons, pilots, soldiers, and others. Read More
Autonomous Off-road Vehicle for Natural Disaster Relief Mon, October 02, 2023 A group overseen by Chris Paredis (GAFOE 2006) at Clemson University has engineered an off-road reconnaissance and relief vehicle that can navigate all on its own to expedite the delivery of supplies and to gather real-time data for emergency responders. Read More
AI That Learns from Physics Laws and Thought Experiments Thu, September 28, 2023 FOE alum Aydogan Ozcan at UCLA has engineered an AI model that can reconstruct microscopic images using only random artificial holograms -- synthesized solely from 'imagination' without relying on any real-world experiments, actual sample resemblances, or real data. Read More
Sensing and Controlling Microscopic Spin Density in Materials Mon, September 25, 2023 FOE alum Ju Li at MIT has engineered a way to tune the spin density in diamond by applying an external laser or microwave beam, which could open new possibilities for advanced quantum devices. Read More