science wire

Industry, government, media and UC San Diego academic leaders discussed solutions to the challenges facing the U.S. engineering enterprise at the National Engineering Forum (NEF) on Oct.10 at the Robert Payne Scripps Seaside Forum at UC San Diego's Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

On a hot Saturday afternoon in the Mojave Desert, a team of UC San Diego engineering students huddled in a small underground bunker and watched quietly as the rocket engine they had designed over the past eight months flared to life on a test platform.

Imagine a robot that can mimic human gestures or a disposable device that reminds you to re-position your spine.

It's easy to spot a "bad" data visualization-one packed with too much text, excessive ornamentation, gaudy colors, and clip art.

A new online tool enables users to assess not only how much water we use and for what, but also how we can mitigate against future scarcity. We want to help identify opportunities where efficiencies or demand reduction would be effective Julian Allwood Water, like many other natural resources,is in both high demand and limited supply.

From rainbow coloured liquid-crystal molecules, to  tunnels deep under the ground, this year's entries from the University of Cambridge Department of Engineering photo competition help to bring engineering brightly and vividly to life.

MINNEAPOLIS / ST. PAUL (10/15/2013) —Former University of Minnesota mechanical engineering professor Ernst R.G. Eckert, often referred to as the father of the modern engine

By Pristine Ong 14 October 2013 Intelligent machines are a favourite subject for science fiction writers, who have mined into the rich potential for mayhem when robots with brains rebel against their human masters.

Female scientists, engineers and mathematicians at the University of Sheffield are being celebrated today (15 October 2013) as part of Ada Lovelace day - a national celebration aimed at raising the profile of women working in STEM subjects across the globe.

The University of Leeds and multinational consumer goods company Procter & Gamble (P&G) have signed a strategic agreement that will harness academic research to develop new high-tech products.

Robot technology and the questions we should be asking Confused about the ethics of smart technology?

Movement focuses on engineering to secure America's future The National Engineering Forum (NEF) was in San Diego this week to foster actionable discussions on sustaining America's engineering enterprise.

Posted under: Engineering , Health and Medicine , News Releases , Research , Science , Technology For many, music is a universal language that unites people when words cannot. But for those who use cochlear implants - technology that allows deaf and hard of hearing people to comprehend speech - hearing music remains extremely challenging.

In the past, robots were designed for factories. Americans became upset when they lost jobs on the production line to mechanized arms that could do more work in less time - without salaries, health insurance, sick days, or vacations.

Researchers at The University of Nottingham helped create a landmark exhibition at London's Science Museum to showcase a technology that is transforming manufacturing.

Scientists take a quieter step closer to first practical quantum computer Scientists working to produce the world's fastest, most powerful computers have moved a step closer to creating a practical prototype using microwaves - by shielding the atoms driving this new generation of computers from the harmful effects of noise.

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.

A neglected statistical tool could help robots better understand the objects in the world around them.

Small cubes with no exterior moving parts can propel themselves forward, jump on top of each other, and snap together to form arbitrary shapes.

Space base Of all ESA establishments, ESTEC is the largest, with around 2700 personnel. This is where ESA missions are conceived then guided through development, and work on new technology is coordinated.

A demonstration set-up in Mohsen Kavehrad's lab creates partially coherent visible (red) light. This type of light performs better through the atmosphere than pure coherent light, an important consideration for outdoor optical wireless applications.

30 Sep 2013 Science Minister David Willetts MP today visited the site of the National Graphene Institute (NGI) at The University of Manchester, which will be the UK's national centre for research into the wonder material.

Cancerous tumors can shed cells that travel through the blood stream and create new cancerous growths. These seed cells can be very difficult to detect, but Stanford scientists are developing a noninvasive method using a mini-microscope that could find these cells. One of the cruelest truths about cancer is that even after you beat the disease, it can still come back to kill you.

Posted under: Engineering , Health and Medicine , News Releases , Research , Science Similar to using Python or Java to write code for a computer, chemists soon could be able to use a structured set of instructions to "program” how DNA molecules interact in a test tube or cell. A team led by the University of Washington has developed a programming language for chemistry that it hopes will streamline efforts to design a network that can guide the behavior of chemical-reaction mixtures in the same way that embedded electronic controllers guide cars, robots and other devices.

Ceramics are not known for their flexibility: they tend to crack under stress. But researchers from MIT and Singapore have just found a way around that problem - for very tiny objects, at least.

Unprecedented feat points toward a new generation of energy-efficient electronics. A team of Stanford engineers has built a basic computer using carbon nanotubes, a semiconductor material that has the potential to launch a new generation of electronic devices that run faster, while using less energy, than those made from silicon chips.

A new type of miniature camera system developed by engineers at the University of California, San Diego, promises to give users a big picture view without sacrificing high-resolution.

Researchers at Caltech developed the optical equivalent of a tuning fork-a chip-based device that could be important to electronics of the future.

Kevin Dao, an undergraduate research assistant on the campus's Teen Sleep Study, takes a break during Friday's overnighter.

Over 190 world experts met at The University of Nottingham recently, to discuss ways of finding innovative solutions the failures of dams, tunnels, bridges and buildings as a result of fatigue, geo-hazards and other causes.

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Major grants from the National Science Foundation will spur breakthroughs in quantum engineering and artificial intelligence The National Science Foundation (NSF) is awarding grants to create three n

More than 100 Mechanical Engineering and Aeronautics staff joined alumni and guests for the naming of Imperial's City & Guilds Building.

Postdoctoral researchers , immersed in theoretical and experimental studies, contribute immeasurably to the life and work of the university.

19 September 2013 Robotics can offer the Australian agricultural industry the chance to regain its competitive edge in the global marketplace, according to Professor Salah Sukkarieh from the University of Sydney.

Object-recognition systems - software that tries to identify objects in digital images - typically rely on machine learning.

After almost seven weeks at sea, University of Washington scientists and engineers have installed pieces for a historic observatory.

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16 Sep 2013 University of Manchester scientist Professor Brian Cox returns to television screens in a new BBC2 series called Science Britannica starting on Wednesday 18 September. Rock-star turned scientist Professor Cox, part of the Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences, will explore why, when science has done so much for humanity, it sometimes gets such a bad press.

Graphene - which consists of atom-thick sheets of carbon atoms arranged hexagonally - is the new wonder material: Flexible, lightweight and incredibly conductive electrically, it's also the strongest material known to man. In the latest , researchers at MIT, Columbia University and IBM's T. J.

Imperial's main entrance on Exhibition Road will be illuminated this week with an installation based on data from the Kepler space observatory.

10 Sep 2013 An innovative way to measure and image X-ray beams with unrivalled precision, developed at The University of Manchester, has been honoured with a 2013 R&D 100 Award - often dubbed the 'Oscars of Innovation'.

Falko Kuester, profesor of visualization and virtual reality at UC San Diego's Qualcomm Institute, stands in front of the VROOM digital display while viewing data on a tablet computer.

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. Gary Messing, head of materials science and engineering and distinguished professor of ceramic science and engineering, has been named a co-director of the Center for Innovative Materials Processing through Direct Digital Deposition (CIMP-3D).

A new interdisciplinary research center at MIT, funded by the National Science Foundation, aims at nothing less than unraveling the mystery of intelligence.

09 Sep 2013 One of the world's largest graphene manufacturers has agreed a £5m collaborative research partnership to open its European base at The University of Manchester.

Outstanding scholars elected as fellows of the Royal Society of Canada in honour of achievements in engineering, physics and music.