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Unmanned, Automated Utility Ship to Be Built in 2017
The ship will initially be remotely piloted but will transition to fully automated and ultimately autonomous operations after control algorithms have been developed during the remote piloting phase.
Spinach Plants Engineered to Detect Explosives
This is one of the first demonstrations of the engineering of electronic systems into plants.
Smart bridge sensors
The project is designed to showcase the future of smart, sustainable, user-centered transportation infrastructure that helps to monitor structural and environmental health.
Sensor Technology Could Prevent Infant Deaths
The system involves a pressure sensor installed under the lining of a car seat. An Arduino circuit board connected to the sensor synchronizes with an app on a parent’s mobile phone.
Satellites Used to Track Photosynthesis
Photosynthesis is easy to track in deciduous trees—as leaves bud or turn yellow and fall off. But until recently, it had been impossible to detect in evergreen conifers on a large scale.
Rewritable Material Could Reduce Paper Waste
The material, made out of tungsten oxide and a common polymer used in medicines and food, avoids use of the toxic, expensive organic dyes associated with other such products under development.
Factors Leading to Concrete Bridge Cracks
When the current infrastructure was built in the 1950s, it was constructed for that era's traffic demands, with little focus on maintenance.
Smartphone "Laboratory" Detects Cancer Biomarker
Although smartphone spectrometers exist, they monitor or measure only a single sample at a time, making them inefficient for many real-world applications.
"Perfect" Soap Molecule Invented
Conventional soaps and detergents are generally viewed as environmentally unfriendly because they are made from fossil fuels.
NASA to Test In-Flight Folding Wing Design
The design could potentially result in an increase in efficiency by reducing drag and increasing lift and performance.
NASA Technology Could Smooth Flight Arrival Traffic
At the heart of Flight Deck Interval Management is NASA software called Airborne Spacing for Terminal Arrival Routes, which was demonstrated in 2014 aboard Boeing’s ecoDemonstrator aircraft.
Flexible Supercapacitor May Enable Phone Charging in Seconds
Researchers have developed a process for making flexible supercapacitors that can be recharged more than 30,000 times without degrading.
Ice Is No Match for This New Coating
Researchers have invented an ice-repellent coating that tests show out-performs today's best de-icing products.
GOES Satellite Enters Orbit to Report on the Weather
An advanced weather satellite was launched into Earth orbit as part of an $11 billion effort to update forecasting.
Drones Team with Biobots Map Areas After Disasters
Unmanned aerial vehicles and insect cyborgs are being tested by university researchers to map areas such as collapsed buildings after a disaster.
Fluorescent Dye Can Stockpile Energy
A fluorescent liquid dye, BODIPY, has stored and transferred energy in a rechargeable liquid battery.
Funding for University R&D Falls for Fourth Year in Row
Adjusted for inflation, federal funding for higher education R&D declined 1.7% between FY 2014 and FY 2015.
Wind/Hydropower Plant Set for Testing
The water will act as a battery to discharge and modulate output during periods when the air is calm.
WiFi Radio Advance Could Benefit IoT
The device has a range of about 50 meters and can transmit up to 300 kilobits per second.
Flexible Materials Help Keep Bridges Open in a Big Quake
Bridge columns built using memory-retaining nickel/titanium rods and a flexible concrete composite returned to their original shape after a 7.5-magnitude tremor.