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 study finds that composite metal foam (CMF) could significantly improve automobile safety during frontal collisions. Using computational models to run detailed simulations, researchers found that incorporating CMF into automobile "front rails" would allow them to absorb more energy during high-velocity impacts. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-09-metal-foam-front-rails-cars.html Engineering Thu, 03 Sep 2026 12:00:01 EDT news707655062 One drawback of most solar cells made with efficiency-boosting perovskite is the presence of hazardous lead in the materials that turn sunlight into electricity. Next-generation solar cells made with the most promising lead-free replacement—nontoxic tin perovskite—have had their own major weakness: They don't hold up against the elements. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-09-raincoat-free-solar-cells-elements.html Engineering Thu, 03 Sep 2026 10:20:06 EDT news707648941 Physicists from the University of Amsterdam have developed a method to print three-dimensional structures in ice. The researchers show how small pillars can be printed at an angle, making it possible to print arbitrary profiles in ice that don't need additional support. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-09-supercooled-enables-3d-ice.html Engineering Thu, 03 Sep 2026 09:00:04 EDT news707644383 Touchscreens and other touch-based controls, from smartphones and tablets to smart devices and wearable electronics, have become part of everyday life. However, many touch interfaces depend on batteries, external power, electrodes and wiring, which can increase costs and make them difficult to install in places where conventional electronics are impractical. Finding a simpler way to create touch-sensitive controls could therefore open new possibilities for wearable devices and the growing Internet of Things (IoT). https://techxplore.com/news/2026-09-laser-pvc-interface-tracks-finger.html Engineering Wed, 02 Sep 2026 13:40:10 EDT news707575081 Research led by RMIT University shows the 3D-printed titanium lattice—made up of hollow, interconnected struts filled with foam—not only floats but also withstands seawater exposure and is stronger than the stainless steel or high-density plastic currently used in jetties, buoys and floating sensors. The paper is published in the journal Advanced Materials. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-09-world-titanium.html Engineering Wed, 02 Sep 2026 12:00:09 EDT news707568422 To create large-scale grid energy storage that is more affordable, powerful and safe, researchers at the Department of Energy's (DOE) Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) decided to let a strong side reaction step into the limelight. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-09-salt-boost-power-grid-batteries.html Engineering Wed, 02 Sep 2026 10:00:05 EDT news707561281 "Micromixer" might just sound like a fancy name for a tiny blender, but mixing liquids at the microliter scale is no simple task. Micromixers are essential components of microfluidic devices widely used across the pharmaceutical, life sciences, chemistry and materials engineering industries, where they rapidly and evenly combine tiny amounts of reagents. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-09-method-efficient-micromixers.html Engineering Tue, 01 Sep 2026 10:40:05 EDT news707477342 Researchers have created a 3D-printed electrode that could help make it easier and safer to store large amounts of renewable energy generated by wind and solar farms. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-09-nature-3d-large-scale-renewable.html Engineering Tue, 01 Sep 2026 10:00:01 EDT news707475121 Drones often hover in the air, noisy and whining. They can already be used for many tasks, but not when you need some quiet. Their batteries would also last longer if they could take a "rest" from time to time. But when a drone is monitoring a rainforest, its cluttered surroundings and its own gripper arm become too tricky for its camera-based vision. Until now. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-08-bird-drone-rest.html Robotics Mon, 31 Aug 2026 17:20:03 EDT news707414642 If you wanted to take down a power grid or a network of drones, which part of the system should you attack? Researchers at The University of New Mexico School of Engineering posed the question in hopes of developing better network security mechanisms. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-08-analysis-reveals-unexpected-vulnerabilities-power.html Engineering Mon, 31 Aug 2026 15:00:16 EDT news707406241 A new electrochemical process can rapidly strip dissolved carbon dioxide from ocean water while self-cleaning its own mineral buildup, according to a University of Michigan Engineering study published in Environmental Science & Technology. Because one step produces energy while another consumes it, the method could also help flex the load on the grid. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-08-ocean-carbon-capture-device-mineral.html Engineering Mon, 31 Aug 2026 12:20:06 EDT news707397182 You might naturally expect a wide, open path to be faster and easier to navigate than a narrow one, just as birds fly freely through the open sky, cars move quickly on empty roads, and a wide hallway seems easier when trying to exit a building. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-08-worms-narrow-paths-faster-wide.html Robotics Mon, 31 Aug 2026 12:00:02 EDT news707395801 Inflatable structures are all around us, from pool floaties and archways at the Tour de France to life-saving emergency resuscitators and vehicle airbags. As useful as these structures are, they are limited to only two stable states—inflated and deflated. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-08-crumples-inflatable-membranes-multiple-stable.html Engineering Sun, 30 Aug 2026 12:20:01 EDT news707133485 Refrigerators, air-conditioning systems and data centers consume enormous amounts of electricity, and cooling demand is constantly rising. A research team from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and the University of Tsukuba in Japan is presenting a new approach demonstrated by a prototype in which heat assumes the role formerly played by an electric motor. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-08-ultrathin-grade-cooling-electric-motor.html Engineering Fri, 28 Aug 2026 13:00:10 EDT news707139961 Lithium-ion batteries power transportation and grid storage and enable our digital lives, but these ubiquitous batteries require frequent recharging and can fail over time. To make batteries more reliable and longer-lasting, researchers are exploring how to replace liquids inside batteries with a solid ceramic material that could improve their performance. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-08-solid-state-batteries-short-circuiting.html Engineering Fri, 28 Aug 2026 10:20:03 EDT news707129281 Researchers from North Carolina State University have created teardrop-shaped soft robots that leap upward or forward when exposed to infrared light—and will keep jumping as long as the light is present. The work demonstrates a new mechanism for self-resetting jumping behavior in soft robotics. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-08-powered-soft-robots.html Robotics Fri, 28 Aug 2026 10:00:02 EDT news707128436 A new set of modular components allows users to create reconfigurable smart devices with electrical connections that keep working no matter what shape the structure forms. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-08-bifur-circuits-devices-electrical-intact.html Engineering Thu, 27 Aug 2026 12:00:48 EDT news707050816 As the global push for cleaner energy intensifies, solid oxide fuel cells have emerged as a promising option. They turn hydrogen or other renewable fuels directly into electricity and heat without combustion, eliminating virtually all pollution and boosting efficiency to more than 60%. But a major downside has kept them out of everyday commercial use: They require extremely high temperatures to operate. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-08-forged-frozen-fuel-thermal-advances.html Engineering Thu, 27 Aug 2026 08:40:09 EDT news707038741 Today, anyone with a large enough artificial intelligence model can generate millions of new material designs in minutes. Unfortunately, that hasn't led to a huge leap in the number of new materials being used to improve the performance of products like computer chips and rockets. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-08-ai-unstable-material-chip-cooling.html Engineering Wed, 26 Aug 2026 12:40:10 EDT news706964457 "Swarms" of cyborg cockroaches with cameras and miniature medical injectors could deliver supervised emergency care to people trapped in collapsed buildings, caves or other places too dangerous for rescuers to reach. The "Paraborgs" developed by University of Queensland biorobotics researchers, working with biomedical engineers at the University of New South Wales (UNSW), move cyborg insects of the future beyond searching for survivors to actively assisting them. The research is published in the journal Advanced Science. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-08-giant-cyborg-cockroaches-people-rescuers.html Robotics Wed, 26 Aug 2026 12:20:05 EDT news706964223 Lithium metal batteries (LMBs) that use pure lithium (Li) for their negative electrodes are attracting significant attention because of their extremely high theoretical capacity. However, their practical applications are limited by low cycling stability and safety issues arising from dendrite formation, electrolyte breakdown and uneven solid-electrolyte interface formation. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-08-tri-layer-electrolyte-safety-lifespan.html Engineering Wed, 26 Aug 2026 11:20:08 EDT news706960742 Shine a light, and the real can be distinguished from the fake. KAIST researchers have developed a security technology that uses unique artificial fingerprints created by the random assembly of nanoparticles. Although extremely difficult to replicate, these fingerprints can be conveniently authenticated using only a smartphone flashlight and a laser pointer, opening up potential applications in anti-counterfeiting and electronic device authentication. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-08-distinguish-real-fake-hard-replicate.html Engineering Wed, 26 Aug 2026 10:20:08 EDT news706957741 Propeller-powered underwater vehicles have long helped scientists explore and monitor aquatic environments. But they're limited by their own mechanics: Spinning blades can snag on vegetation, stir up sediment and startle the wildlife they're often sent to study, making them poorly suited to shallow creeks, dense weeds or close encounters with fish. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-08-scafi-robot-fish-machine-feet.html Robotics Wed, 26 Aug 2026 09:00:03 EDT news706952581 Researchers at Princeton Engineering have created a semiconductor with unique properties: It is just a few molecules thick and can repeatedly change its properties in response to light. This is a step toward building more energy-efficient sensors, optoelectronic devices and computing technologies. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-08-erasable-semiconductor.html Engineering Tue, 25 Aug 2026 16:20:07 EDT news706893121 Researchers at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) and the University of Bordeaux in France have demonstrated a new way to send information through the atmosphere without correcting for the distortions that normally disrupt optical communication. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-08-encoded-survive-real-world-atmospheric.html Engineering Tue, 25 Aug 2026 12:20:44 EDT news706879193 A passenger jet soars across the sky at 640 mph (1,030 kilometers per hour), its wings pummeled with wind and boundary-layer turbulence, challenging the plane's operation and efficiency. Advancing research from Mahmoud I. Hussein aims to prevent that turbulence with engineered microscopic vibrations from synthetic subsurface materials that can dramatically improve fuel efficiency. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-08-tailored-surface-vibrations-aerodynamic-passenger.html Engineering Mon, 24 Aug 2026 17:40:04 EDT news706811881 Concrete slowly absorbs small amounts of carbon dioxide from the air over its lifetime, a natural process sometimes proposed as a solution to the cement industry's heavy carbon footprint. But a new UCLA-led study finds that this passive absorption process is far too slow and too small in scale to meaningfully offset the emissions released when cement is made. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-08-concrete-natural-absorption-offset-emissions.html Engineering Mon, 24 Aug 2026 16:40:04 EDT news706805348 Persistent heat waves and below-average rainfall in spring and summer 2026 are causing drought conditions, falling groundwater levels and low river levels, including in the Rhine in Germany and elsewhere across Europe. At the same time, producing important raw materials such as green hydrogen and methanol requires considerable quantities of water. If renewable fuels are increasingly produced in regions with abundant sun and wind, the question arises as to where this water can come from. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-08-green-methanol-thin-air-captured.html Engineering Mon, 24 Aug 2026 12:20:05 EDT news706791602 For people who are blind or have low vision, moving around independently is a daily challenge. Harvard researchers have developed a new tool that could help people navigate more quickly and safely with nothing more than a device they likely already have—a smartphone. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-08-smartphone-app-vision-users-obstacles.html Consumer & Gadgets Mon, 24 Aug 2026 11:00:03 EDT news706535108 Despite significant advances in technology, knowing the atomic arrangement of metals in their microstructure—which defines their strength, deformability and other properties—is still tricky. In a new study, Yale researchers show that a mold about half the size of a fingernail could solve that problem and lead to the development of stronger, higher-performing materials for airplanes and other uses. Their results are published in Nature Communications. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-08-metals-small-square-billions-holes.html Engineering Mon, 24 Aug 2026 10:20:05 EDT news706784866