Engineering news
Engineering
A heatshield for 'never-wet' surfaces: Engineers repel even near-boiling water with low-cost, scalable coating
Superhydrophobic surfaces—those famously "never-wet" materials that make water bead up and roll away—have a stubborn weakness: hot water. Once temperatures climb above roughly 40 degrees Celsius, many superhydrophobic ...
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Engineering
Mixing generative AI with physics to create personal items that work in the real world
Ever had an idea for something that looked cool, but wouldn't work well in practice? When it comes to designing things like decor and personal accessories, generative artificial intelligence (genAI) models can relate. They ...
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A new way to study how cannabis use impacts safe driving
As marijuana legalization expands across the U.S., it is outpacing research on the impact of cannabis use behind the wheel. Researchers at the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute (VTTI) recently spent two years collecting ...
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Engineers discover new physics principle to break sound absorption barriers in ventilated spaces
In everyday life, designing spaces that both let air flow and absorb sound can be a tricky balancing act. Usually, materials that allow air to pass through—like vents—also let sound escape, making it hard to reduce noise ...
4 hours ago
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Physics-aware AI algorithm uses Newton's third law to keep simulations stable
A team of EPFL researchers has developed an AI algorithm that can model complex dynamical processes while taking into account the laws of physics—using Newton's third law. Their research is published in the journal Nature ...
Feb 20, 2026
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Robotics
Humanoid robots that 'catch themselves' instead of falling: What a new walking algorithm changes
While the statement, "Humanoid robots are coming," might cause anxiety for some, for one Georgia Tech research team, working with humanlike robots couldn't be more exciting. The researchers have developed a new "thinking" ...
Feb 20, 2026
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Engineering
Shipping damage, measured in real time: How wireless origami cushioning could improve logistics
Origami, the traditional Japanese art of paper folding, has received considerable attention in engineering. By applying paper-folding principles, researchers have created compact structures that are flexible, lightweight, ...
Feb 20, 2026
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Engineering
Tackling uplift resistance in tall infrastructure sustainably
Tall structures like radio towers experience high wind loads that generate uplift forces at their foundations, a challenge that is increasing burden, as natural occurrences like typhoons and tornadoes become more frequent ...
Feb 20, 2026
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Engineering
New gel electrolyte points to stronger, safer anode-free lithium batteries
Researchers at Columbia Engineering have developed a new gel electrolyte that both improves the lifetime and safety of anode-free lithium batteries, an emerging battery architecture that could dramatically boost energy density ...
Feb 19, 2026
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Engineering
Resilient nylon-11 film generates electricity from pressure and survives repeated runovers
RMIT University researchers have developed a flexible nylon-film device that generates electricity from compression and keeps working even after being run over by a car multiple times, opening the door to self-powered sensors ...
Feb 19, 2026
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Engineering
Why city street surveys miss methane leaks, and what that means for safety
The complexities of urban environments—like variable winds off tall buildings or surfaces—significantly impair the ability to detect natural gas leaks from underground pipelines, a new study shows. SMU researchers found ...
Feb 19, 2026
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Engineering
Laser-etched glass can store data for 10,000 years, Microsoft says
Thousands of years from now, what will remain of our digital era? The ever-growing vastness of human knowledge is no longer stored in libraries, but on hard drives that struggle to last decades, let alone millennia.
Feb 18, 2026
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Engineering
3D printing platform rapidly produces complex electric machines
A broken motor in an automated machine can bring production on a busy factory floor to a halt. If engineers can't find a replacement part, they may have to order one from a distributor hundreds of miles away, leading to costly ...
Feb 18, 2026
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Engineering
Repairable infrared lens can cut costs and bring thermal imaging to more devices
The days of dropping a thermal imaging camera and replacing an expensive lens are coming to an end with a new repairable lens developed by Flinders University scientists. The high-performance lens for infrared cameras invented ...
Feb 18, 2026
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Engineering
Safer batteries for storing energy at massive scale: A new electrolyte with proton-hopping conductivity
Among the enduring challenges of storing energy—for wind or solar farms, or backup storage for the energy grid or data centers—is batteries that can hold large amounts of electricity for a long time. In addition to having ...
Feb 18, 2026
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Engineering
Safer railroads through ultrasound: Beamforming algorithms can improve track safety inspections
Advances in ultrasound—the same imaging technology that uses sound waves to allow doctors to monitor babies in utero—are being applied by engineers at the University of California San Diego to make railroad track inspection ...
Feb 18, 2026
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Engineering
Ultrafast 3D printing method creates complex objects in under a second
High-speed 3D printing has just gotten a lot faster. Researchers from Tsinghua University in China have developed a new high-speed printing technology capable of creating complex millimeter-scale objects in just 0.6 seconds. ...
Engineering
The giant fire tornado that could save our oceans
In the frantic hours following an offshore oil spill, emergency responders face a destructive decision: let the oil spread or ignite it. Once ignited, it creates an "in-situ" fire pool that stops the oil from spreading and ...
Feb 17, 2026
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Engineering
Hydrogen-bond networks boost all-perovskite solar cell efficiency
The use of solar cells, devices that can convert sunlight into electricity, has grown exponentially over the past decades. These devices are enabling the production of clean and renewable energy, which could contribute to ...
Engineering
New electrolyzer turns plastic-waste syngas into ethylene with less energy
For every ton of ethylene created, one ton of carbon dioxide is produced. With more than 300 million tons of ethylene produced each year, the production system has a huge carbon footprint that scientists and engineers are ...
Feb 17, 2026
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Engineering
Can AI build a machine that draws a heart? What automated mechanism design could mean for mechanical engineering
Can you design a mechanism that will trace out the shape of a heart? How about the shape of a moon, or a star? Mechanism design—the art of assembling linkages and joints to create machines with prescribed motion—is one ...
Feb 17, 2026
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Engineering
SpaceX to compete in Pentagon contest for autonomous drone tech
Elon Musk's SpaceX and wholly owned subsidiary xAI are competing in a secretive new Pentagon contest to produce voice-controlled, autonomous drone swarming technology, according to people familiar with the matter.
Feb 17, 2026
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Engineering
Woven nickel-titanium structures unlock new flexibility in 3D-printed shape-memory materials
At first glance, few materials would seem to have less in common than metals and textiles. And yet, by manufacturing nickel-titanium alloys as a highly deformable, interwoven material, more similar to fabric than a typical ...
Feb 16, 2026
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Engineering
Review finds 1–2 nm closed pores can boost hard carbon sodium storage
As the global transition toward clean energy accelerates, the demand for sustainable, low-cost, and scalable energy storage technologies continues to grow. While lithium-ion batteries have dominated the market for decades, ...
Feb 16, 2026
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Engineering
Rule-breaking discovery reveals new way to strengthen metal in extreme conditions
There's a reason why blacksmiths fire metals before hammering them. Heat always softens metal, making it more malleable and easier to reshape. Or does it? In a surprising new study, Northwestern University engineers discovered ...
Feb 13, 2026
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