Engineering & Technology
Using low-cost sensors and citizen science to examine air quality
Air pollution is often a direct cause of poor health. Although useful, governmental air quality recording sometimes lacks spatial coverage. By harnessing the power of modern day’s ‘digital residents,’ citizen science projects can be easily employed to continuously gather vast quantities of data. Dr Andrew May and colleagues from The Ohio State University are teaming up with teachers and students […]
The Tommie Science Network: A high-speed network for high-level research
As science research projects increasingly focus on utilising ‘big data’, universities and research centres have needed to upgrade their research networks in order to facilitate the management and sharing of large and unwieldy datasets internally and externally. The University of St. Thomas, Minnesota has recognised this need, and Chief Information Officer and Vice President of Innovation & Technology Services Ed […]
Architecting 3D integrated circuit fabrics at nanoscale
Dr Csaba Andras Moritz, entrepreneur and Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, is developing a new nanoscale 3D integrated circuit technology. This research offers a solution to the current 2D CMOS scaling issues and offers a pathway for building integrated circuits in the future with much higher densities and efficiencies than currently possible. It could […]
Integer-dimensional fractals of nonlinear dynamics
Fractal dimension was developed as a quantitative measure of complex, irregular objects, essentially because it had been accepted that fractals could not be characterised by integer dimensions. Dr Zonglu He, a Professor of Economics at Kaetsu University, is challenging this basic concept with her novel finding that fractals actually can occur in integer dimensional space-times. Her research demonstrates the consistency of both fractional and […]
The materials making potassium-ion batteries possible
You are probably familiar with lithium-ion batteries that can be found everywhere from inside our mobile phones to electric cars. However, lithium’s larger brother potassium may soon find its way into the batteries that power our everyday lives. Dr Titus Masese at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology in Osaka, Japan, has been developing new materials for electrodes to help […]
Developing the Geneva Solar Cadaster: A decision support tool for sustainable energy management in urban areas
Gilles Desthieux, Associate Professor at the Geneva Institute of Landscape, Engineering and Architecture and a Consultant in Urban Energy Planning with Amstein+Walthert Geneva, leads a team of researchers who have developed the Geneva Solar Cadaster, a tool for modelling solar radiation and energy production from building rooftops and facades. Recent urban studies have shown that our cities play a significant role in […]
Assessing performances of Computer-Aided Diagnosis of breast cancer
In under two decades, the techniques used to image, classify and diagnose breast cancer have significantly improved with the help of rapidly advancing computer-based digital image processing and machine learning technologies. Since the early days of developing Computer-Aided Diagnosis technology in the 1990s, Professor Bin Zheng at the University of Pittsburgh and then the University of Oklahoma has dedicated his […]
Creating a better oscillator: Dissipative solitons and travelling-wave field‑effect transistors
The key to improving the performance of high-speed electronic circuits is the generation of short electrical pulses with reduced phase noise. Dr Koichi Narahara of the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at Kanagawa Institute of Technology studies electric pulses generated by travelling-wave field-effect transistors. He found that the devices possess unique properties that could provide increased operating frequencies and decreased phase […]
Using technology to improve needle procedures
Dr Gabor Fichtinger is Chair of Cancer Care Ontario Research and Professor at Queen’s University School of Computing in Kingston, Ontario. His interests are in computer-assisted surgery and interventions. Dr Jan Fritz is the Director of Interventional MR Imaging and an Assistant Professor of Radiology and Radiological Science at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland. The two have […]
Making the Internet a safer place
Back in May 2017, a huge cyberattack crippled several of the largest digital networks in the UK and US, paralysing over two hundred thousand computers. To combat such threats Dimitrios Pezaros, Senior Lecturer at the University of Glasgow, and David Hutchison, Distinguished Professor of Computing at Lancaster University, launched SAI2 (A Situation-Aware Information Infrastructure), a research project aimed […]