Manufacturing & Prototyping

Lunar Lattices and Their Earthly Impact

An innovative 3D printing process that advanced NASA’s approach to outfitting a lunar habitat is making buildings on Earth beautiful, efficient, and strong.

How Much Do You Know About Extrusion Tooling?

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

How Sift's Unified Observability Platform Accelerates Drone Innovation

On this episode of the Aerospace & Defense Technology Podcast, we learn about a new tool that could help manufacturers optimize the way they design and create new drones. Austin Spiegel, CTO of Sift, is the guest to explain their "unified observability platform" and how drone manufacturers can leverage it to optimize their design, validation, manufacturing, and overall engineering processes from prototype to operations.

New on the Market

See what's new on the market, including COMSOL Multiphysics® version 6.4; Novotechnik's Vert-X 26 Series of non-contacting magnetic angle sensors; HMS Networks' N-Tron NT110-FX2, an unmanaged Ethernet switch with two fiber ports; Littelfuse's MMIX1T500N20X4 X4-Class Ultra-Junction Power MOSFET; and more.

Holey Carbon Allotropes

Researchers at NASA have developed new methods to manufacture carbon materials (e.g., nanotubes, graphene) with holes through the graphitic surface of the particles. The methods generate materials with increased accessible surface area, increased functional groups at damage sites, and improved through-surface molecular transport properties.

Building a New 3D Material with DNA

In two papers, one released in Nature Materials and a second in ACS Nano, researchers describe a new methodology for fabricating targeted 3D nanoscale structures via self-assembly that can find use in a variety of applications, and they provide a design algorithm for others to follow suit. And it’s all based on the most basic biomolecular building blocks: DNA. Read on to learn more.

Combining 3D Embroidery Techniques with Machine Learning for Fabric-Based Touch Sensors

A new study from NC State University combines three-dimensional embroidery techniques with machine learning to create a fabric-based sensor that can control electronic devices through touch. Read on to learn more.

Getting Robots to “Bee” have Without a Plan

Bees, ants, and termites don’t need blueprints. They may have queens, but none of these species breed architects or construction managers. Each insect worker, or drone, simply responds to cues like warmth or the presence or absence of building material. Now, researchers at Penn Engineering have developed mathematical rules that allow virtual swarms of tiny robots to do the same. Read on to learn more.

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...

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...

At-Home Robotic Rehabilitation

Two former college roommates have commercialized their robotic knee brace for extending the reach of physical therapists through telehealth.

SAE Automotive Podcast: Solid-State Batteries

To help pass the time during your commute or while working around the house or in the garage, we've launched the SAE Automotive Engineering podcast.

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.

Advances in Fiber Laser Welding for E-Mobility Manufacturing

As electric vehicle designs change and production targets grow even more aggressive, advanced laser welding technologies have continued to evolve to help manufacturers be more efficient and stay competitive. Read on to learn more about it.

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.

Top 5 Tech Briefs Quizzes of 2025

Learn which of our little tests were the most popular this year. Find out which five quizzes topped our 2025 list. Thanks for yet another year of loyal readership; we appreciate your devotion to Tech Briefs. Happy Holidays!

SAE Automotive Engineering Podcast: Additive Manufacturing

To help pass the time during your commute or while working around the house or in the garage, we've launched the SAE Automotive Engineering podcast.

A New Approach to Manufacturing Machine Connectivity for the Air Force

On this episode of the Aerospace & Defense Technology podcast, Corsha CEO Anusha Iyer explains how machine identity, continuous authentication, and secure connectivity are accelerating digital transformation for the U.S. Air Force Sustainment Center. Listen now!

2025 Holiday Gift Guide for Engineers: Tech, Tools, and Gadgets

We here at Tech Briefs want to remedy that toxic part of the holidays. So, we put together a list of terrific gift ideas for anyone — but especially the engineer — in your life.

Manufacturing the World's Tiniest Light-Emitting Diodes

Miniaturization ranks as the driving force behind the semiconductor industry. The tremendous gains in computer performance since the 1950s are largely due to the fact that ever smaller...