https://techxplore.com/rss-feed/engineering-news/ en-us The latest news on engineering technology, engineering science, computer engineering , civil engineering, chemical engineering, aerospace engineering and environmental engineering. Safer and more environmentally friendly indoor solar panels could soon help power electronics in homes and offices, thanks to University of Queensland researchers. A team of chemical engineers led by UQ's Dr. Miaoqiang Lyu and Professor Lianzhou Wang have developed a new fabrication method that eliminates the need for toxic lead and other hazardous solvents in perovskite indoor solar panels. The findings are published in the journal ACS Energy Letters. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-04-toxic-solar-panels-indoors.html Engineering Thu, 30 Apr 2026 17:20:05 EDT news696787201 Halide perovskites are gaining ground on silicon as a critical material for solar cell technologies: A new study published in the journal Science reports a method to make perovskite-based photovoltaics more durable, allowing the films to attain the desirable black phase of crystal configuration quicker and at lower temperatures while also making it harder to degrade into the inactive yellow phase. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-04-perovskite-solar-cells-yellow-phase.html Engineering Thu, 30 Apr 2026 16:40:09 EDT news696784261 Automated vehicles have been steadily rolling out in U.S. cities, but scaled deployment still faces a daunting challenge: proving the technology can safely navigate the complexity of real-world driving. Virginia Tech researchers estimate that traditional testing methods could take decades—or hundreds of millions of driving miles—to validate the full range of situations an automated vehicle may encounter. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-04-ultimate-driver-automated-vehicles.html Engineering Thu, 30 Apr 2026 11:20:10 EDT news696765721 Researchers at Seoul National University have developed a new class of ultralight structural materials that combine the load-bearing strength of engineering materials with the weight of foam. Using a method called 3D node winding, the team created mesoscale carbon fiber lattices that achieve aluminum-level performance on a strength-to-weight basis while weighing as little as 1/100 the weight of aluminum. The findings, published in Nature Communications, demonstrate a new way to build strong, lightweight structures without the need for joints or layered assembly. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-04-ultralight-carbon-fiber-lattices-aluminum.html Engineering Wed, 29 Apr 2026 16:40:01 EDT news696699182 There is no question that violin-making is an art form. It requires a musician's ear, a craftsperson's skill, and a historian's appreciation of lessons learned over time. Making a violin also takes trust: Violin makers (luthiers) often must wait until the instrument is finished before they can hear how all their hard work will sound. But a new tool developed by MIT engineers could help luthiers play around with a violin's design and tweak its sound even before a single part is carved. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-04-virtual-violin-realistic-wood.html Engineering Wed, 29 Apr 2026 14:40:08 EDT news696691981 Nature is replete with slender filaments that bend and coil—from climbing grape vines, to folded proteins, to elephant trunks that can pick up a peanut but also take down a tree. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-04-programmable-3d-filaments-mimic-artificial.html Engineering Wed, 29 Apr 2026 14:20:08 EDT news696690961 If a city's suburban railway network is expanded, additional flats are likely to be built in an agglomeration that is better connected as a result. The opposite also holds true: If new buildings spring up like mushrooms in a suburb, this will call for an expansion of the transport infrastructure. Urban development and transport therefore have a mutual relationship. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-04-traffic-roads.html Engineering Wed, 29 Apr 2026 12:40:05 EDT news696684721 Imagine a display that harvests ambient light when it is not actively in use, offsetting some of its own energy consumption. Materials physics shows that this is possible; the same semiconductor material can, in principle, emit and absorb light efficiently. What has been missing is a device architecture that allows it to do both without reductions in efficiency of either application. A new study reports a perovskite diode that converts sunlight to electricity at 26.7% efficiency (a world record at the time of publication) and emits light at 31% efficiency, figures that would be high for a device designed to do only one of those things. The work is published in the journal Joule. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-04-solar-cell-moonlights-absorbing-emitting.html Engineering Tue, 28 Apr 2026 16:40:04 EDT news696612362 To reliably complete various manual tasks, robots should be able to handle a variety of objects, ranging from items found in households to tools used in specific professional settings. While many existing robotic systems can now complete basic manual tasks, such as picking up objects and carrying them to a set location, most systems still struggle with tasks that entail the dexterous manipulation of objects. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-04-fingereye-bridges-vision-robot-contact.html Robotics Tue, 28 Apr 2026 14:00:07 EDT news696596891 Workplace hearing loss is one of the most common work-related illnesses. While hearing loss is preventable with earplugs, they can be uncomfortable, and users often remove them despite the risks. Low-frequency sounds, such as rumbling traffic and warehouse vibrations, are especially difficult to address because differences in ear physiology allow sound to leak into ears, despite protection from earplugs. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-04-meta-earplugs-booming-voice-effect.html Consumer & Gadgets Tue, 28 Apr 2026 11:00:19 EDT news696500461 As global demand for lithium-ion batteries continues to surge, a team of Rice University researchers has developed a faster, more energy-efficient way to recover critical minerals from spent batteries, potentially easing supply chain pressures and reducing environmental harm. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-04-faster-greener-method-recycle-lithium.html Engineering Mon, 27 Apr 2026 16:00:08 EDT news696523262 It does not take much to confuse some robots. A machine might be great at handling a simple object like a box, yet when it tries to work with a more irregular shape like a banana, it often fails. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-04-bananas-cups-peelers-robots-fruits.html Robotics Mon, 27 Apr 2026 14:40:03 EDT news696519081 Researchers at the Intelligent Biomimetic Design Lab at Peking University have developed a bio-signal framework showing that fish muscles do far more than generate swimming motion. In a series of studies led by Xie Guangming, Professor at the School of Advanced Manufacturing and Robotics, and carried out by twin brothers Waqar Hussain Afridi and Rahdar Hussain Afridi, muscle electrical signals were used to reconstruct body posture, infer surrounding flow conditions, and transfer biological principles to robotic systems. These findings open new directions in biological telemetry, locomotion research, and bio-inspired underwater robotics. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-04-fish-muscles-blueprints-smarter-underwater.html Robotics Mon, 27 Apr 2026 11:10:01 EDT news696506335 Digital image sensors (DIS), devices that capture images by converting light patterns into electrical signals, are integrated in many contemporary electronic devices, including smartphones, digital cameras and some medical instruments. These sensors rely on tiny light-sensitive units called pixels, which record brightness and color. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-04-motion-sensor-captures-ultra-high.html Engineering Mon, 27 Apr 2026 10:00:08 EDT news696502431 Hydrogen is often described as the fuel of the future—a clean, energy-dense way to store renewable power and decarbonize industries from steelmaking to shipping. But inside the devices that produce it, a surprisingly small and familiar phenomenon is getting in the way: bubbles. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-04-hydrogen-highlights-outsized-impacts-tiny.html Engineering Fri, 24 Apr 2026 11:40:07 EDT news696249121 Acrylic acid is essential for everyday products—from paints and coatings to absorbent polymers—yet almost all of it is currently made from propylene, a petrochemical. As global biodiesel production rises, so does the supply of low-value glycerol by-products, creating an opportunity for cleaner, renewable chemical manufacturing. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-04-boost-sustainable-acrylic-acid-production.html Engineering Thu, 23 Apr 2026 17:20:05 EDT news696181681 Smartphones, electric vehicles and many portable devices rely on batteries. Their energy storage capacity, lifetime and safety will strongly shape the future of electrification. Among the most promising next-generation technologies are solid-state batteries. These batteries would allow smartphones to run for several days instead of requiring daily charging and give electric vehicles greater driving ranges than today's limits. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-04-solid-state-batteries-short-circuit.html Engineering Thu, 23 Apr 2026 12:20:01 EDT news696165001 On a bright morning, graduate student Jeremy Klotz and professor Shree Nayar walked through upper Manhattan with a tall tripod and a camera that takes 360-degree images. Their route took them to bike docking stations, which use solar energy to power their kiosks, docking mechanisms, wireless communication, and even E-bike recharging in recent installations. At each docking station, the researchers raised the camera above the panel, snapped a spherical picture, and sent it to Klotz's laptop. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-04-solar-panel.html Engineering Wed, 22 Apr 2026 16:40:11 EDT news696093721 Scientists have found a way to boost terahertz technology using particles thousands of times smaller than a grain of sand. Research published in Scientific Reports by Loughborough University's Emergent Photonics Research Center shows how a sparse layer of nanoparticles can make materials that produce terahertz radiation more efficient. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-04-tiny-particles-boost-terahertz-technology.html Engineering Tue, 21 Apr 2026 17:00:04 EDT news696008881 From the geometric symmetry in Islamic tiles to the mechanical versatility of origami, cultural patterns have an extensive range of structures. Inspired by cultural geometries, researchers from the University of Edinburgh created and tested metamaterials—materials whose properties depend highly on their patterned structure rather than solely composition—comprised of Chinese characters. They published their results in The Journal of Applied Physics. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-04-chinese-characters-strong-materials.html Engineering Tue, 21 Apr 2026 11:00:12 EDT news695892541 Most smart home devices require power one way or another. You have to plug them in, recharge them, or replace their batteries at some point. Georgia Tech researchers think they have a better way with small metal tags that can signal when a door or drawer is opened, count reps in the gym, or even track bathroom use for elderly relatives. Their tags are battery-free, quiet, inherently private, and cost only a few cents each. They're smaller than a penny. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-04-penny-size-ultrasonic-tags-ditch.html Engineering Tue, 21 Apr 2026 08:24:00 EDT news695978163 When assessing the ripeness of fruit, sight and smell can tell you a lot, but the best indicator is often how the fruit feels. Cornell researchers used stretchable fiber-optic sensors to create a soft robot gripper that can predict the ripeness of strawberries by touch, then gently twist them off their branch or vine without causing any damage. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-04-soft-robot-gripper-ripe-fruit.html Robotics Mon, 20 Apr 2026 13:00:01 EDT news695908081 Metamaterials are carefully engineered materials that possess desirable properties and can be used to manipulate electromagnetic, acoustic, or other types of waves in interesting ways. Some materials scientists and engineers have been trying to use these materials to develop so-called invisible devices, or, in other words, devices that do not disturb the environment around them or reveal their presence to other technologies nearby. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-04-invisible-device-disturb-metamaterial-shell.html Engineering Mon, 20 Apr 2026 11:20:07 EDT news695900060 Solar cells, devices that convert sunlight into electricity, are now widely used in many countries. While most existing solar cells are based on silicon, energy engineers have been working on other devices made of so-called perovskites. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-04-perovskite-solar-cells-certified-efficiency.html Engineering Sat, 18 Apr 2026 10:00:04 EDT news695564953 Breaking away from conventional robots that perform only predefined functions once fabricated, researchers have developed a next-generation artificial muscle that can change its shape in real time, recover from damage, and even be reused. The study is published in Science Advances. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-04-slime-artificial-muscle-reshapes-robot.html Robotics Fri, 17 Apr 2026 13:40:01 EDT news695651927 Every year, power plants and factories release billions of tons of carbon dioxide (CO₂) into the atmosphere. Methods exist to capture that CO₂ using chemical solutions and, separately, to convert pure CO₂ into useful fuels and chemicals. But doing both steps at once, in a cost-efficient and scalable way, has been difficult. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-04-triples-capture-ditches-silver-zinc.html Engineering Fri, 17 Apr 2026 13:20:03 EDT news695650141 When it comes to teamwork, we could all learn something from ants. These relatively simple, small-brained animals are famous for their ability to collectively build massive, intricate, climate-controlled structures, despite having neither a blueprint nor a worksite foreman. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-04-simple-robots-ants-excavate.html Robotics Fri, 17 Apr 2026 09:20:03 EDT news695635862 Expectations are rising for all-solid-state batteries—the "dream battery" with low fire risk—not only for electric vehicles but also for various fields such as robotics and Urban Air Mobility (UAM). A research team at KAIST has presented a new design principle that simultaneously overcomes the limitations of solid electrolytes, which were previously vulnerable to air exposure and suffered from low performance. This technology is gaining significant attention as it can enhance both battery safety and charging speeds, demonstrating the feasibility of commercializing next-generation all-solid-state batteries. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-04-oxygen-anchoring-air-stable-solid.html Engineering Thu, 16 Apr 2026 13:20:01 EDT news695563663 A tightly packed ball of office staples can be surprisingly strong. Try to pull it apart and the tangled metal resists like a solid object. But with the right movement or vibration, that same bundle can quickly fall back into loose pieces. A team of engineers and materials scientists in the Paul M. Rady Department of Mechanical Engineering at CU Boulder are exploring how this rare combination of strength and flexibility could inspire a new class of materials built on interlocking particles. By mimicking the way staples lock together and release, these emerging materials could one day form structures that are strong, adaptable and even recyclable, the researchers said. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-04-liquid-metal-entangled-staple-particles.html Engineering Thu, 16 Apr 2026 09:20:03 EDT news695549701 Researchers at NYU Abu Dhabi have uncovered the secret behind the remarkable toughness of the marri nut, the hard seed of the marri tree native to Western Australia. The nut's shell is so strong that even natural predators struggle to break it. By studying how it absorbs impact and resists cracking, the team discovered a clever natural design that could inspire new materials for protective gear and other safety applications. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-04-tough-australian-seed-reshape-helmets.html Engineering Wed, 15 Apr 2026 16:00:04 EDT news695486821