Engineering news
Robotics
Rise of the rice robots—creating active smart materials
Rice becomes weaker when compressed quickly, while staying stronger under slow pressure—a discovery enabling scientists to design a new material that could be used to build "soft" robots that change stiffness automatically ...
20 hours ago
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Engineering
Sodium-ion batteries lean heavily on lithium-ion expertise, patent analysis suggests
Researchers from the University of Münster, ETH Zurich, Stanford University, and the Fraunhofer Research Institution for Battery Cell Production (FFB) used AI-supported patent analysis to show how strongly battery technologies ...
23 hours ago
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Engineers demonstrate lightweight 'exoskeleton' that helps stroke survivors walk
A leading cause of disability in the United States is hemiparesis, a condition where impaired motor control, muscle weakness, and spasticity affect one side of the body. Occurring in 80% of stroke survivors, reduced mobility ...
Feb 24, 2026
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Researchers develop a system that detects subtle defects missed by existing industrial visual inspection
Industrial quality inspection plays a critical role in manufacturing, from ensuring the reliability of electronics and vehicles to preventing costly failures in aerospace and energy systems. Traditional vision-based inspection ...
Feb 24, 2026
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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 ...
Feb 23, 2026
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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 ...
Feb 23, 2026
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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 ...
Feb 23, 2026
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Engineering
Forest-based resins challenge fossil materials in wind turbines, boats and high-performance adhesives
Researchers at the University of Oulu, Finland, have developed new high-performance bio-based resins that can replace conventional oil-based materials in composite products—without compromising strength, cost, or industrial ...
Feb 23, 2026
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Engineering
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 ...
Feb 23, 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
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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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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