Engineering news

Engineering

Safer sodium battery eliminates thermal runaway with a heat-triggered polymer barrier

Some batteries have been known to catch fire or explode at high temperatures or when under stress. This safety concern has pushed researchers to experiment with different ways to design safer batteries that can ideally still ...

Engineering

Bio-inspired structural design improves impact resistance and energy absorption

The delicate butterfly served as the inspiration for a new lightweight lattice structure that also boasts enhanced mechanical strength, impact resistance, and energy absorption capability through advanced structural design. ...

Engineering

Intelligent monitoring pipe detects and predicts 3D soil settlement

Researchers have developed an intelligent monitoring pipe that combines optical sensing with machine learning algorithms to monitor and predict 3D soil settlement. With more development, the system could help provide early ...

Robotics

Too many cooks, or too many robots? Finding a Goldilocks level of randomness to keep robot swarms moving

Picture a futuristic swarm of robots deployed on a time-sensitive task, like cleaning up an oil spill or assembling a machine. At first, adding robots is advantageous, since many hands make light work. But a tipping point ...

Engineering

UV glow test measures air disinfection performance in minutes

The effectiveness of air disinfection devices may now be measured in minutes, rather than hours, with a new technique from University of Michigan Engineering. This is important for researchers developing better antiviral ...

Engineering

Diffusion-based AI model successfully trained in electroplating

Electrochemical deposition, or electroplating, is a common industrial technique that coats materials to improve corrosion resistance and protection, durability and hardness, conductivity and more. A Los Alamos National Laboratory ...

Engineering

AI turns simple text into realistic building designs

When working on projects, architects must quickly turn rough concepts into visual representations. Text-to-image models offer an opportunity in this field, where high-quality designs can be generated simply by typing a description. ...

Engineering

City skylines need an upgrade in the face of climate stress

When structural engineers design a building, they aren't just stacking floors; they are calculating how to win a complex battle against nature. Every building is built to withstand a specific "budget" of environmental stress—the ...

Engineering

'I'm walking here!' A new model maps foot traffic in New York

Early in the 1969 film "Midnight Cowboy," Dustin Hoffman, playing the character of Ratso Rizzo, crosses a Manhattan street and angrily bangs on the hood of an encroaching taxi. Hoffman's line, "I'm walking here!" has since ...

Engineering

Your future home might be framed with printed plastic

The plastic bottle you just tossed in the recycling bin could provide structural support for your future house. MIT engineers are using recycled plastic to 3D print construction-grade beams, trusses, and other structural ...

Engineering

Octopus-inspired 'smart skin' uses 4D printing to morph on cue

Despite the prevalence of synthetic materials across different industries and scientific fields, most are developed to serve a limited set of functions. To address this inflexibility, researchers at Penn State, led by Hongtao ...