Beginning this summer, and over the next several years, NASA will be sending unmanned aircraft dubbed "severe storm sentinels" above stormy skies to help researchers and forecasters uncover information about hurricane formation and intensity changes. The Hurricane and Severe Storm Sentinel...

A multiyear collaboration among Stanford engineering departments uses some of the world's fastest supercomputers to model the complexities of hypersonic flight. Someday, their work may lead to planes that fly at many times the speed of sound.

Aeronautical innovators at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Virginia are one step closer to confidently crafting a viable commercial airliner that can fly faster than the speed of sound, yet produce a sonic boom that is quiet enough not to bother anyone on the ground below. Wind tunnel tests of...

A robot was equipped with a new type of tactile sensor built to mimic the human fingertip. Imitating human strategies, it also used a newly designed algorithm to make decisions about how to explore the outside world.

Capable of other human sensations, the sensor can also tell where and in which direction...

Sealing cracks in roadways ensures a road’s structural integrity and extends the time between major repaving projects, but conventional manual crack sealing operations expose workers to dangerous traffic and cover a limited amount of roadway each day.

To address these challenges,...

Creators of an experimental bracelet, the Galvanic Skin Response monitor, want to use their device to assess student engagement in the classroom, and then use that information to inform teaching methods. The wireless-sensor technology, worn by a student, analyzes...

Researchers at the University of California, San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering have developed a technique that enables metallic nanocrystals to self-assemble into larger, complex materials for next-generation antennas and lenses. The metal nanocrystals are cube-shaped and,...

University of Utah physicists have developed an inexpensive, highly accurate magnetic field sensor for scientific and possibly consumer uses. The magnetic-sensing thin film, an organic semiconductor polymer named MEH-PPV, measures magnetic fields accurately with a drop of "plastic...

You’ve no doubt heard about fantasy camps that give ordinary, everyday people the opportunity to step out of their routine 9-to-5 lives and live out their dreams for a few days in the company of those who have done it – and in some cases are still doing it – at the professional level. There are baseball fantasy...

MIT researchers have devised an algorithm that enables a robot to quickly learn an individual’s preference for a certain task, and adapt accordingly to help complete the task. The group is using the algorithm in simulations to train robots and humans to work together.

The researchers...

An organization would like to increase the oxygen barrier in thermoplastic elastomers by an order of magnitude or more to preserve the shelf life of food/beverages. This organization is seeking an order-of-magnitude improvement in oxygen blocking, without a substantial increase in...

A recent transportation conference demonstrated a possible advancement in automotive safety: cars that communicate with each other and warn drivers of impending collisions. Later this summer, the government will begin a year-long test involving nearly 3,000 vehicles. The vehicles will be equipped to...

Scientists at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, Electronics Science and Technology Division, have developed high-band-gap solar cells capable of producing sufficient power to operate electronic sensor systems at water depths of 9 meters.

Harnessing the energy of sunlight can be as simple as tuning the optical and electronic properties of metal oxides at the atomic level by making an artificial crystal or super-lattice “sandwich,” according to Binghamton University researcher Louis Piper. “Metal oxides are cheap, abundant,...

With the age of the incandescent light bulb fading rapidly, the holy grail of the lighting industry is to develop a highly efficient form of solid-state lighting that produces high-quality white light. One of the few alternative technologies that produce pure white light is white-light quantum dots...

Team CADET at Rice University have developed a slingshot-driven device that stops high-velocity projectiles without destroying them. Currently, the Air Force simulates deceleration by firing cannons into walls. The strategy is expensive and the sensor module and target are typically...

Wake Forest University physicists have developed a "Power Felt" fabric that doubles as a spare outlet. When used to line a shirt, for example, it converts subtle differences in temperature into electricity. The technology could be used to power up devices, including MP3 players and cell phone batteries. ...

Engineers from the University of California, Berkeley, sent a fleet of 100 smartphone-equipped floating robots down the Sacramento River to demonstrate the next generation of water monitoring technology, promising to transform the way government agencies monitor one of the state’s most...

As far as the design of the basic hand grenade goes, "The basic technology is almost 100 years old," said Richard Lauch, a Picatinny Arsenal engineer. Lauch, who served in the U.S. Marine Corps, has been on a mission to modernize the hand grenade so that it is safer as well as easier to use and cheaper to...

Soldiers stationed in remote combat outposts face logistics and safety challenges to power their radios, laptops and GPS units. U.S. Army scientists are researching methods to harness the Sun and wind to ease the burdens associated with transporting fossil fuels to dangerous areas

Thanks to a group of University of Houston students, the hearing impaired may soon have an easier time communicating with those who do not understand sign language. During the past semester, students in UH’s engineering technology and industrial design programs teamed up to develop the concept and...

In March of 2012, NASA successfully launched five rockets from its Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. The launch was part of NASA's Anomalous Transport Rocket Experiment, or ATREX, which will help scientists better understand the jet stream. Jack Vieira, range project manager for the ATREX...

iGlobe is open-source software built on NASA World Wind virtual globe technology. iGlobe provides a growing set of tools for weather science, climate research, and agricultural analysis. Up until now, these types of sophisticated tools have been developed in isolation by national...

The CARVE Small Aircraft Data Distribution System acquires the aircraft location and attitude data that is required by the various programs running on a distributed network. This system distributes the data it acquires to the data acquisition programs for inclusion in their data files.