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. Assistant professor Shadfar Davoodi at the Skoltech AI Center has developed an approach for optimizing drilling in heterogeneous carbonate reservoirs that simultaneously predicts process characteristics, explains the influence of individual parameters and identifies the most efficient operating regimes. For one of the studied wells, the model estimated a potential increase in the rate of penetration of up to 68.4%. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-10-ai-drilling-regimes-potential.html Engineering Thu, 08 Oct 2026 20:40:06 EDT news710670618 Heating and cooling buildings account for a large portion of global energy use. A research team in the Texas A&M University Department of Materials Science and Engineering was featured on the cover of ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces for a study that aims to reduce that energy consumption. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-10-gel-energy-consumption.html Engineering Thu, 08 Oct 2026 16:40:04 EDT news710696101 Scientists from Skoltech (part of the VEB.RF Group) and the Keldysh Institute of Applied Mathematics of the Russian Academy of Sciences have published the results of laboratory and numerical experiments in the International Journal of Geotechnical Engineering. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-10-gas-ground-subsidence-arctic-oil.html Engineering Thu, 08 Oct 2026 16:00:07 EDT news710693341 Decades from now, if a building is renovated and its facade panels are replaced, the removed panels could be reused on another building. But can they be removed without damage? Will anyone still know who manufactured them or what materials they contain? Without this information, even reusable construction components may end up as waste. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-10-eu-requirements-approach-tool-digital.html Engineering Thu, 08 Oct 2026 14:50:01 EDT news710688739 Researchers at Concordia University have found a way to use red mud, a waste product of aluminum production, to help turn low-quality clay and dredged sediment into useful ingredients for lower-carbon cement. They estimate that the swap could reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 25% to 50%, depending on the formulation. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-10-industrial-key-ingredient-carbon-cement.html Engineering Thu, 08 Oct 2026 14:20:38 EDT news710687538 To mitigate climate change, direct air capture of carbon dioxide (CO₂) from the atmosphere has emerged as an increasingly attractive option for limiting global warming. But scaling up systems to remove and safely store enough CO₂ faces major obstacles, according to researchers at the Georgia Tech School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering (ChBE). https://techxplore.com/news/2026-10-simple-modification-commercial-resin-air.html Engineering Thu, 08 Oct 2026 11:40:12 EDT news710677588 Researchers from Nagoya University in Japan have developed a durable fuel-cell catalyst by wrapping platinum nanoparticles in nitrogen-containing graphene and placing them on carbon nanotubes. This design retained 96.9% of its active surface after 30,000 durability cycles, pointing towards fuel cells with longer lifespans and lower platinum demand. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-10-platinum-fuel-cells-longer-nitrogen.html Engineering Thu, 08 Oct 2026 09:20:01 EDT news710668801 Labor shortages, supply-chain volatility and growing demand for customized products are forcing a fundamental rethink of how work gets done in U.S. manufacturing. To remain competitive, manufacturers must produce increasingly complex parts with fewer workers, shorter lead times and greater flexibility than ever before. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-10-automation-future-american.html Robotics Thu, 08 Oct 2026 07:00:10 EDT news710654402 A study published in the journal Nature Communications presents an advance in hydrogen production: a green, cost-effective process that generates hydrogen while simultaneously producing valuable chemicals for industry. The research was led by Avner Rothschild, a faculty member in the Technion Faculty of Materials Science and Engineering and head of the Technion Sustainability Frontier, together with postdoctoral researcher Dr. Guilin Ruan. A U.S. patent application has been filed for the technology. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-10-green-hydrogen-production-method-yields.html Engineering Wed, 07 Oct 2026 16:40:14 EDT news710609221 A new technology has been developed that can rapidly predict city-scale structural damage even when portions of satellite imagery are obscured by clouds or smoke immediately after a disaster. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-10-ai-method-knowledge-disaster-incomplete.html Engineering Wed, 07 Oct 2026 16:20:09 EDT news710608201 Most electricity is generated by using heat to produce steam, which then turns a turbine. Although this approach performs exceptionally well in the high-temperature, superheated-steam regime, we currently lack widely applicable technologies that can exploit the much more abundant resource of low-temperature heat. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-10-method-reveals-efficiently-based-cells.html Engineering Wed, 07 Oct 2026 14:20:14 EDT news710600798 Researchers have created an aquatic soft robot inspired by marine invertebrates called feather stars. The feather star robot is able to move through the water in all three dimensions, powered by only two actuators. The paper, "Minimal-Actuation Feather Star–Inspired Soft Swimmers for Multimodal 3D Maneuverability," is published in the journal Science Advances. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-10-feather-star-underwater-robot-3d.html Robotics Wed, 07 Oct 2026 14:00:40 EDT news710515263 A team of engineers led by the University of Massachusetts Amherst has designed an ultrathin, flexible mesh that seamlessly integrates electronics with human cells to provide a continuous, reliable, powerful electrical supply. The study, published in Science Advances, provides a potential solution to one of the most difficult problems in wearable and implantable electronics: how to get rid of batteries. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-10-ultrathin-mesh-harvests-energy-human.html Engineering Wed, 07 Oct 2026 14:00:01 EDT news710521861 Despite appearing intact on its exterior, the Carola Bridge in Dresden collapsed in 2024. How could this happen? "If you take a closer look, no bridge collapses without warning," says Dr. Mark Alexander Ahrens from the Institute of Concrete Structure at Ruhr University Bochum. "There are always symptoms leading up to it." https://techxplore.com/news/2026-10-ultrasound-optical-fibers-reveal-bridge.html Engineering Wed, 07 Oct 2026 09:04:39 EDT news710582655 UNSW researchers have teamed up with industry partner UtmoLight to achieve a world-record efficiency for a large-area perovskite solar submodule. The UNSW team, led by Xiaojing Hao, a Scientia professor, achieved a certified stabilized power conversion efficiency of 23.5%, beating the previous benchmark by 0.6 percentage points. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-10-large-scale-perovskite-photovoltaic-efficiency.html Engineering Wed, 07 Oct 2026 07:20:01 EDT news710572802 Conventional metal recovery technologies do not adequately recover critical metals from effluents containing hydrophilic organic solvents. Researchers investigated dithiocarbamate-functionalized cellulose DPE6 to assess how organic solvents affect its metal sorption capability and to develop a separation and recovery technology applicable to actual effluents. The results show highly efficient critical metal recovery and are expected to contribute to the effective use of finite metal resources and the realization of a sustainable society. The research is published in the journal ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-10-cellulose-methanol-based-solar-cell.html Engineering Tue, 06 Oct 2026 14:40:11 EDT news710515504 Florida State University faculty are helping build stronger structures by examining how wave-shaped patterns on exterior walls and roofs reduce wind loads on low-rise buildings by up to 60%. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-10-wall-roof-hurricane.html Engineering Tue, 06 Oct 2026 14:20:12 EDT news710515081 Solar cells absorb sunlight and convert it into electricity. This process, however, is not perfect, and a large part of the solar energy is simply lost along the way. Some of it is lost as heat, while photons with insufficient energy pass through the cell without generating electricity. These are the sources of loss that most scientists in the field try to minimize, but there is another important one known as Boltzmann loss. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-10-solar-cells-gain-efficiency-emitting.html Engineering Tue, 06 Oct 2026 13:00:06 EDT news710508901 A team of Binghamton University researchers has developed a sensor system aimed at helping medical professionals more efficiently monitor how many people are coughing—and potentially spreading a disease—within a given area. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-10-sensor-tracks-room.html Engineering Tue, 06 Oct 2026 12:20:05 EDT news710505542 A new approach to plastic recycling being explored at Penn State could make the process more efficient by using tiny particles of coal, according to researchers. On the latest episode of "Growing Impact," researchers discussed how the technique uses laser light to generate heat at the molecular scale, potentially allowing plastics to be broken down into their basic building blocks and reused. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-10-impact-explores-role-coal-play.html Engineering Tue, 06 Oct 2026 11:20:23 EDT news710503381 A person wearing bulky goggles, turning awkwardly in circles and reaching out to grab something that isn't there—that is the image many of us have of virtual reality, and one that researchers at Kyushu University want to change. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-10-vr-headset.html Engineering Tue, 06 Oct 2026 11:00:01 EDT news710501243 Although tires are a vehicle's sole point of contact with the road, their basic design has barely changed in decades. Once worn down, millions of tons of tire casings—whose main structure remains intact—end up as difficult-to-manage waste. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-10-modular-aims-road-conditions.html Engineering Tue, 06 Oct 2026 10:40:41 EDT news710500921 All-solid-state lithium batteries using nonflammable solid electrolytes are widely recognized as promising candidates for next-generation energy storage because of their superior safety and fast-charging capability. However, widely studied oxide-based solid electrolytes contain heavy elements such as lanthanum and zirconium, resulting in high densities (e.g., 5.12 g/cm3) that limit improvements in overall battery gravimetric energy density. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-10-element-crystal-framework-paves-safer.html Engineering Tue, 06 Oct 2026 09:00:01 EDT news710495401 NASA is leveraging its expertise and enhancing its test facilities to help address a rare but persistent aviation hazard: icing that occurs when aircraft encounter unusually large, very cold water droplets in clouds. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-10-tunnel-track-large-supercooled-droplets.html Engineering Mon, 05 Oct 2026 13:40:02 EDT news710425441 Nature has spent millions of years optimizing the connection between bone and tendon. Over a very short distance, the body transitions from stiff bone to flexible tendon while maintaining strength and durability. Reproducing such a gradual yet robust transition has proven challenging for engineers. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-10-bone-tendon-3d-mimic-body.html Engineering Mon, 05 Oct 2026 09:40:15 EDT news710410803 Professors at the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) and the Universidad Pública de Navarra (UPNA) have developed a soft robotic gripper capable not only of picking up and holding objects but also of manipulating and repositioning what it holds between its fingers without losing its grip. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-10-rubber-ducks-screwdrivers-dexterous-soft.html Robotics Sun, 04 Oct 2026 09:40:06 EDT news710147827 Water electrolyzers are promising devices that use electricity to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. If powered by solar cells or other renewable energy technologies, they could contribute to the sustainable production of hydrogen used to make ammonia, which in turn is used to produce fertilizers and other valuable compounds. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-09-scaled-seawater-hydrogen-fresh-higher.html Engineering Sat, 03 Oct 2026 09:00:01 EDT news709821798 Tests at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, are paving the way for new wind tunnel capabilities for designing the aircraft technologies of the future. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-10-nasa-wing-pressure-sensitive.html Engineering Fri, 02 Oct 2026 13:00:06 EDT news710164385 Researchers from the Brown University School of Engineering have developed a new imaging system that can see and track moving objects in partially opaque environments like dense fog or muddy water. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-10-brain-imaging-fog.html Engineering Fri, 02 Oct 2026 11:00:08 EDT news710157362 Researchers have demonstrated a technique that uses powdered eggshells to produce high-quality magnesium alloys, which have a wide variety of automotive, aerospace and biomedical applications. The eggshells are used as a low-cost, environmentally sustainable alternative to conventional calcium materials, which are manufactured from ore using an energy-intensive process. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-10-eggshells-secret-ingredient-stronger-metal.html Engineering Thu, 01 Oct 2026 17:00:01 EDT news710092741