Stories

Making Tungsten Carbide a More Viable Alternative

Marc Porosoff, Associate Professor, University of Rochester, Department of Chemical and Sustainability Engineering, and his collaborators recently achieved several key advancements to make tungsten carbide a more viable alternative to platinum in chemical reactions.

Tracking Falling Space Debris

The new tracking method generates more detailed information in near real-time than authorities have today about the reentry of space debris from falling satellites — information that will help to quickly locate and retrieve the charred and sometimes toxic remains.

Advancing All-Solid-State Batteries

To create efficient pathways for lithium-ion transport within the solid electrolyte, the research team focused on "divalent anions" such as oxygen and sulfur. Divalent anions play a crucial role in altering the crystal structure by integrating into the basic framework of the electrolyte.

How Much Do You Know About Extrusion Tooling?

How much do you know about extrusion tooling? Find out with this quiz.

A Stretchable OLED that Can Maintain Most of Its Luminescence

An international collaboration has developed a flexible and stretchable OLED that could put the technology on track for new applications.

Visualizing Radio Frequency Signals in Real Time

Viavi Solutions Inc. has integrated the "RF Viewer" augmented reality (AR) application into its OneAdvisor 800 Wireless test platform. Designed to address telecommunications, network...

New Wireless Transceiver Offers Fiber Optic Speed Without Physical Cables

A new transceiver invented by electrical engineers at the University of California, Irvine boosts radio frequencies into 140-gigahertz territory, unlocking data...

Tactical Radio Upgrades for US Navy Vessels, Jets and Drones

The U.S. Navy has awarded Data Link Solutions, a joint venture between BAE Systems and Collins Aerospace, a $248 million production contract to deliver hundreds of Multifunctional...

My Opinion: We Need More Power Soon — Is Nuclear the Answer?

Electrical demand, moved largely by AI, is skyrocketing, but is nuclear energy the best solution?

Microscopic Swimming Machines that Can Sense, Respond to Surroundings

Researchers have created the world’s smallest programmable, autonomous robots: microscopic swimming machines that can independently sense and respond to their surroundings, operate for months, and cost just a penny each.

Greener Energy? Drinkable Seawater? This Sodium-Ion Battery Breakthrough May Deliver Just that

Researchers detail how an existing sodium-based material, sodium vanadium oxide, can perform significantly better when the water it naturally contains is not removed.

How Much Do You Know About the History of Military Drones?

How much do you know about the historical evolution of military drone technology? Test your knowledge with this quiz.

This AI Can Predict Future X-Rays

An AI system that can predict what a patient’s knee X-ray will look like a year in the future could transform how millions of people with osteoarthritis understand and manage their condition, according to research by the University of Surrey.

Artificial Tendons Give Muscle-Powered Robots a Boost

Our muscles are nature’s actuators. The sinewy tissue is what generates the forces that make our bodies move. In recent years, engineers have used real muscle tissue to actuate...

World’s Smallest Programmable, Autonomous Robots

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania and University of Michigan have created the world’s smallest fully programmable, autonomous robots: microscopic swimming machines that can...

Bio-Hybrid Robots Turn Food Waste into Functional Machines

Although many roboticists today turn to nature to inspire their designs, even bioinspired robots are usually fabricated from non-biological materials like metal, plastic, and...

Building Bots on a Budget

Ph.D. student in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, Yufeng Chi is part of a team of Berkeley engineers that has developed Berkeley Humanoid Lite, a low-cost, open-source robot made of...

H2-ICE Is Heating Up

Zero-carbon fuels are gaining momentum for hard-to-electrify mobility sectors as well as for stationary power generation. Hydrogen internal combustion engines are staking their claim as a future pathway for long-haul trucking, heavy off-highway machines, maritime vessels, and gensets. Test your knowledge about hydrogen combustion engines in this quiz.

SAE Media Group Acquires Aviation Carbon Event to Expand Aerospace Portfolio

SAE Media Group®, an SAE International company and a leading global provider of conferences and publications for aerospace, defense, and other critical industries, has announced its acquisition of Aviation Carbon, the specialist event platform dedicated to carbon reduction, sustainability, and decarbonization across the aviation industry.

Turning Edible Fungi into Organic Memristors

Researchers from The Ohio State University recently discovered that common edible fungi, such as shiitake mushrooms, can be grown and trained to act as organic memristors, a type of data processor that can remember past electrical states.

Rapidly Evaluating Heat Shield Materials

A team of engineers at Sandia National Laboratories has developed ways to rapidly evaluate new thermal protection (heat shield) materials for hypersonic vehicles.

Stanford Researchers Develop Flexible Color-Changing Material

Stanford researchers have developed a flexible material that can quickly change its surface texture and colors, offering potential applications in camouflage, art, robotics, and...

A New Tool for Measuring Femtosecond Lasers

Ultrashort laser pulses — that are shorter than a millionth of a millionth of a second — have transformed fundamental science, engineering and medicine. Despite this, their ultrashort duration...

NVIDIA Includes Ethernet Photonics in New Six-Chip AI Rubin Platform

NVIDIA is bringing Ethernet networking with co-packaged optics to artificial intelligence (AI) factories, enabling scale-out and scale-across on the NVIDIA Rubin platform...

How Much Do You Know About CAD?

How much do you know about CAD? Find out with this quiz.

Aerial Microrobots That Can Match a Bumblebee's Speed

MIT researchers have demonstrated aerial microrobots that can fly with speed and agility that is comparable to their biological counterparts.

Improved Safety, Durability, and Power: A Carbon-Based Battery Materials Breakthrough

This research demonstrates a new way to make carbon-based battery materials much safer, longer lasting, and more powerful by fundamentally redesigning how fullerene molecules are connected.

A Highly Accurate Simulator for Spray-Based Concrete 3D Printing

Engineers at Carnegie Mellon University have created a fast, highly accurate simulator for spray-based concrete 3D printing that could enable stronger, more complex, and less wasteful construction by predicting how concrete behaves and solidifies, even around rebar.

Tech Briefs Wrapped 2025: Top 10 Technology Stories

As engineering continues to shape society and drive innovation, here are the year’s top 10 engineering stories that resonated most with Tech Briefs' audience.