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. A new approach that uses light to switch the magnetic states of a material could lead to faster, smaller and more energy-efficient data storage. Engineers at the University of California San Diego published their findings in Nature Communications. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-09-material-magnetic-properties.html Engineering Fri, 25 Sep 2026 14:00:31 EDT news709561693 Scientists have developed an air purifier charged by sunlight and indoor LED lights, potentially offering an inexpensive, lower-maintenance alternative to standard filtration systems that protect users from pollutants and airborne diseases. The study, published in the journal Chem, shows that the air filter maintained 99% of its maximum filtration efficiency after a month of use and 95% for the following two months. In the future, the filter could be used in reusable versions of the N95 masks worn throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-09-sunlight-indoor-recharge-washable-filter.html Engineering Fri, 25 Sep 2026 11:00:32 EDT news709545662 Using the human body to transmit signals, Georgia Tech engineers have created a wireless networking system that allows tiny implantable sensors and actuators to communicate with each other and with wearable devices. Their system means devices can work together like never before, sensing in one part of the body and triggering a therapeutic response elsewhere—perhaps releasing medicine or stimulating a nerve. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-09-health-wearables-implants-body-network.html Engineering Thu, 24 Sep 2026 14:00:01 EDT news709375938 Mechanical and aerospace engineering professor Anupam Pandey's research team has found that microscopic folds in soft materials can act like tiny, programmable traffic gates for liquid droplets. The folds can stop droplets, let them pass or merge them together without surface coatings or additional hardware. Remarkably, the droplets never touch the fold. They sense it from a distance and slow down, stop short or change course in response. The study is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-09-soft-surfaces-rewritable-merge-droplets.html Engineering Wed, 23 Sep 2026 17:00:07 EDT news709401481 As our skies increasingly crowd with buzzing, hovering, flitting drones, spare a thought for the humble hopping robot. Hopping, a popular form of locomotion in the insect and amphibian worlds, is nearly two orders of magnitude more energy-efficient than flying. Unlike a mosquito that must constantly expend energy to stay aloft, a flea only works out when it jumps. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-09-tiny-robot-precisely-height.html Robotics Wed, 23 Sep 2026 15:20:08 EDT news709394701 Cornell University physics researchers have made robots that can, for the first time, sense the temperature of their surroundings and react together to change it. "Little things can have a large impact," said Itai Cohen, a leader in developing microscopic robots and a corresponding author on the study. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-09-microrobots-environment.html Robotics Wed, 23 Sep 2026 05:00:12 EDT news709293086 Roboticists at the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering and the University of Michigan have shown that elastic rods can be bent and twisted to repeatedly snap between shapes, releasing built-up energy that enables small robots to hop, flip and swim. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-09-snapping-rods-frog-robot-outrun.html Robotics Mon, 21 Sep 2026 15:40:09 EDT news709223821 A research team led by Dr. Taehoon Kim of the Composites & Convergence Materials Research Division at the Korea Institute of Materials Science (KIMS), collaborated with research teams led by Dr. Seon Joon Kim and Dr. Jaewoo Kim of the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) to develop an ultrathin composite film that combines electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding, infrared (IR) stealth and high mechanical strength. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-09-ultrathin-blocks-electromagnetic-masking-infrared.html Engineering Mon, 21 Sep 2026 13:00:03 EDT news709214041 Researchers from Tokyo Metropolitan University have used an evolutionary algorithm to identify optimal shapes for ultra-thin, bio-inspired corrugated airfoils, the two-dimensional cut-throughs of wings. Lightweight membrane-like wings are a strong contender for use in unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in thin atmospheres, like on Mars, and in UAV miniaturization. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-09-insect-corrugations-drones-fly-mars.html Engineering Mon, 21 Sep 2026 12:20:03 EDT news709209541 The global transition toward carbon-free, clean and sustainable energy has accelerated the search for new hydrogen-producing technologies. However, making clean hydrogen by splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen is expensive because of its reliance on scarce metals such as platinum and iridium. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-09-carbon-imperfections-scarce-metals-future.html Engineering Mon, 21 Sep 2026 11:40:08 EDT news709208508 Taking some of the physical strain off construction workers could do more than reduce fatigue. New research from Texas A&M University suggests it may also help them recognize hazards around them. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-09-exoskeletons-workers-hazards-fatigue.html Engineering Sat, 19 Sep 2026 08:00:04 EDT news708868874 A research team from The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) has developed a new modeling and optimization framework that helps researchers design modularized autonomous experimentation (MAE) platforms for new materials by determining the optimal combination of equipment before construction begins, thereby reducing time and cost before the platform is physically built. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-09-conscious-method-automated-materials-labs.html Engineering Fri, 18 Sep 2026 13:20:08 EDT news708956281 Seawater holds enormous potential for green hydrogen production, but realizing that potential remains far from straightforward. Direct seawater electrolysis can damage electrodes, whereas conventional freshwater electrolysis loses much of its energy as low-grade waste heat. Researchers have now found a way to harness this otherwise wasted heat, using it to desalinate seawater and produce fresh water alongside hydrogen. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-09-couples-seawater-desalination-hydrogen-production.html Engineering Fri, 18 Sep 2026 13:00:12 EDT news708954361 Carbon fiber is a key component in automobile manufacturing, aerospace engineering and energy infrastructure, but it mostly relies on petroleum-derived products, which can be expensive and contribute to carbon emissions. But what if carbon fiber were made of a free waste material and was as strong as—or even stronger than—petrochemical-based products? Engineers at Washington University in St. Louis are exploring that prospect in research recently published in the journal Matter. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-09-paper-production-stronger-carbon-car.html Engineering Fri, 18 Sep 2026 11:20:04 EDT news708948901 A flying robot with just one moving part may sound simple. Controlling one precisely is anything but. Most conventional drones rely on several rotors to control how they rise, turn and move. A robot with only one actuator has far fewer ways to correct itself when it drifts off course, encounters a disturbance or reaches the physical limits of what its motor can achieve. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-09-maple-seed-robot-flies-accurately.html Robotics Fri, 18 Sep 2026 11:00:08 EDT news708946441 Although invaluable to modern society, refrigeration faces challenges from traditional vapor-compression systems, which are energy-intensive and use refrigerants that exacerbate the greenhouse effect and damage the ozone layer. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-09-cooling-device-built-sustainable-refrigeration.html Engineering Fri, 18 Sep 2026 10:00:04 EDT news708943258 Rats and mice can scurry through dark, tight spaces with ease—in caves, underground burrows, buildings or sewers. Their superpower is their whiskers. Now, tiny autonomous drones could soon navigate through darkness, dust and smoke using artificial whiskers inspired by these animals. Their small size limits the use of large or heavy sensors for navigation. That's why researchers at Delft University of Technology (The Netherlands) have developed a lightweight whisker-based tactile sensor that enables drones to navigate and explore their surroundings through gentle touch. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-09-bio-whiskers-enable-tiny-drones.html Robotics Fri, 18 Sep 2026 08:40:04 EDT news708939423 A robot meant to inspect a coastline, a flooded street or a wetland can't count on one kind of ground. It might need to crawl over a hard surface, climb a bank, scale a curb or a step, then slide into open water, often within the same few feet. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-09-robot-shifts-weight.html Robotics Thu, 17 Sep 2026 13:00:25 EDT news708868077 A team of researchers at the University of Stuttgart has developed a new method that could make MRI even more precise by eliminating "dead time," a key limiting factor in the measurement process, thereby enabling the detection of signals that are lost using conventional methods. This opens up new possibilities for medical diagnostics and non-destructive materials testing. The new approach is published in the journal Science Advances. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-09-mri-technique-dead-capture-rapidly.html Engineering Thu, 17 Sep 2026 11:20:25 EDT news708860285 Electronics engineers worldwide have been trying to develop increasingly smaller components that can store and process information while consuming less energy. Ferroelectric materials, which possess spontaneous electrical polarization that can be reversed by an externally applied electric field, have proved promising for the development of denser, more energy-efficient memories and other miniaturized electronic components. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-09-ferroelectric-material-stable-atomic-thickness.html Engineering Thu, 17 Sep 2026 07:20:08 EDT news708695876 Researchers at Durham University have developed a new drone navigation system that enables autonomous aircraft to fly faster, more smoothly and more safely through crowded and obstacle-filled environments. This leads to new possibilities for applications such as search and rescue, infrastructure inspection and environmental monitoring. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-09-flexible-flight-corridors-drones-cluttered.html Robotics Wed, 16 Sep 2026 16:10:01 EDT news708791541 Researchers at the Department of Energy's (DOE) Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) have developed a computational method that could help electric grid operators and data center developers manage power more efficiently as artificial intelligence drives unprecedented growth in electricity demand. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-09-method-grids-center-power-demand.html Engineering Wed, 16 Sep 2026 16:00:10 EDT news708791770 Deicing technologies often rely on heat to melt ice. But University of Texas at Dallas researchers have found that, under extreme cold, making ice even colder can weaken its grip on surfaces. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-09-colder-temps-aircraft-deicing.html Engineering Wed, 16 Sep 2026 14:40:10 EDT news708784899 Storing energy as heat is a proven pathway to address the challenge solar power faces when it's dark or cloudy outside by enabling the capture, storage and on-demand release of thermal energy. The process, called high-temperature thermal energy storage (TES), however, can be prohibitively expensive. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-09-steelmaking-solar-energy-electric-arc.html Engineering Wed, 16 Sep 2026 14:20:03 EDT news708784081 The Smart Materials research unit, coordinated by Athanassia Athanassiou, deputy scientific director of the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT-Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia) in Genoa, Italy, has developed a new method to make wood flexible in a controlled way and therefore easier to shape. Unlike current approaches, which are more energy-intensive or less sustainable, IIT's treatment could offer a green alternative. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-09-sustainable-treatment-wood.html Engineering Wed, 16 Sep 2026 13:40:07 EDT news708783781 Western University engineers have taken a major step toward solving a long-standing challenge in nuclear power. Their study, published in Nature Communications, describes for the first time how hydrogen can combine with zirconium to form tiny, brittle structures that create intense stresses in CANDU reactor pressure tubes. These stresses may cause the surrounding metal to deform and even crack. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-09-tiny-hydrides-reveal-hidden-stresses.html Engineering Wed, 16 Sep 2026 09:40:01 EDT news708769862 Scientists have used an X-ray detector on a sounding rocket, a type of research rocket that flies to the edge of space, then returns to Earth within minutes, to document metal dendrites—the branching structures that form as liquid metal cools—forming in microgravity conditions for the first time. By analyzing the images using machine learning, they reveal insights that could improve how metal components are solidified and manufactured. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-09-rocket-tracks-liquid-metal-solidifies.html Engineering Tue, 15 Sep 2026 08:40:06 EDT news708680166 Monitoring the lifespan of a lithium-ion battery without disassembling it may be possible. This prospect emerged from a study published in May in the journal Cell Reports Physical Science by researchers at the State University of Campinas (UNICAMP) in the state of São Paulo, Brazil, and their collaborators. The scientists created an advanced computational model to investigate these energy sources and discovered that natural voltage fluctuations act as an "X-ray" of the system. This reveals the microscopic structure of battery materials and the speed of the chemical reactions occurring within them. The finding paves the way for rapid, low-cost diagnostics in energy storage. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-09-periodic-voltage-fluctuations-lithium-batteries.html Engineering Mon, 14 Sep 2026 16:40:04 EDT news708622381 Scientists and engineers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) have developed a camera-based inspection system that can monitor complex 3D-printed structures layer by layer, using AI and machine learning (ML) to measure tiny variations and potentially identify problems before a part ever leaves the printer. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-09-ai-powered-3d-printers-brain.html Engineering Mon, 14 Sep 2026 15:20:01 EDT news708617881 A new study helps show how builders and city planners can minimize the materials needed to accommodate the planet's future population. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-09-million-efficient-future.html Engineering Fri, 11 Sep 2026 14:00:08 EDT news708353942