Category: New products

  • No-Engine Commercial Aircraft Taxiing Deemed Feasible

    Research conducted at University of Lincoln in the U.K. indicates airliners can power their taxiing after landing by harnessing energy in the wheel rotation of their landing gear to generate electricity. The study was funded by a grant from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), the U.K. government’s main funding agency for studies…

  • One-Step Process Developed to Produce Multi-Color Polymer

    Researchers from University at Buffalo in New York have developed a simple, inexpensive process for generating a polymer that emits many different wave-lengths of light. The findings from Buffalo’s engineering department appear online in the journal Advanced Materials (paid subscription required), for which a provisional U.S. patent application has been filed. The engineers, led by…

  • Injectable Gel Material Devised to Treat Heart Tissue Damage

    Engineers at University of California at San Diego have developed a gel-type material that in animal models shows promise in treating heart tissue damaged by a heart attack. The work of a team led by UCSD’s Karen Christman appears in the 21 February issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology (paid subscription…

  • iPhone App Highlights Invasive Plants in Southern Forests

    Research funded by the U.S. Forest Service has generated new software to alert foresters and citizens in the southern U.S. to invasive plant species. The app for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch are available free from Apple’s iTunes Store. The Forest Service is a division of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The software was…

  • Nanotech Fiber Material Converts Heat to Electricity

    Researchers at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina have developed a fiber-like material with the ability to convert heat, such as body heat, into electric power. The team, which includes researchers from universities in New Zealand and Korea, and the company NanoTechLabs Inc. in nearby Yadkinville, North Carolina published its findings online in the…

  • Energy Efficient, Low CO2, Lower Cost Cement Developed

    Engineers at Drexel University in Philadelphia have developed a new cement that reduces energy use and carbon dioxide output by 97 percent compared to standard Portland cement. The research behind the new cement is described in the March 2012 issue of the journal Cement and Concrete Composites (paid subscription required). The new type of cement…

  • Device Improves Wheelchair Control for Spinal Cord Injured

    A system designed at Georgia Institute of Technology enables people with high-level spinal cord injuries to operate a computer and electrically powered wheelchair by moving their tongues. The Tongue Drive, as the system is called, is scheduled for demonstration today by electrical and computer engineering professor Maysam Ghovanloo and colleagues at the IEEE International Solid-State…

  • Braille Texting App for Visually Impaired in Prototype

    Georgia Institute of Technology researchers have built a prototype application for touch-screen mobile devices that aims to be a way of texting without the need to look at a handheld device’s screen. The team led by postdoctoral researcher Mario Romero in Georgia Tech’s interactive computing school will demonstrate the app this weekend at the Abilities…

  • Device Company, MIT Test Drug-Delivery Implanted Microchip

    Scientists at medical technology developer MicroCHIPS in Walthan, Massachusetts and MIT reported the results of a successful human clinical trial of a programmable and wirelessly controlled implanted microchip to deliver drugs. The results appear online in the journal Science Translational Medicine (paid subscription required). The trial, the first successful test of this type of device,…

  • Living Tissue Cell Model Developed to Study Brain Tumors

    Researchers at Brown University in Providence and Harvard Medical School in Boston have created a three-dimensional living tissue model of the brain, including surrounding blood vessels, to study potential brain tumor treatments. The team of chemistry and biomedical engineering researchers published their findings in the journal Theranostics. The need for a living tissue model arose…