Health, Medicine, & Biotechnology

A Robot to Aid People with Mild Cognitive Impairment

Engineers at the University of California San Diego in collaboration with clinicians, people with MCI, and their care partners have developed CARMEN, short for Cognitively Assistive Robot for Motivation and Neurorehabilitation — a small, tabletop robot designed to help people with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) learn skills to improve memory, attention, and executive functioning at home.

Creating 2D All-Organic Perovskites

Perovskites are among the most researched topics in materials science. Recently, a research team solved an age-old challenge to synthesize all-organic two-dimensional perovskites, extending the field into the exciting realm of 2D materials. This breakthrough opens up a new field of 2D all-organic perovskites, which holds promise for both fundamental science and potential applications.

Portable Science Enclosure Features Unique Innovations

Innovators at NASA Johnson Space Center have designed a science enclosure system for science experiments conducted aboard the International Space Station (ISS). It allows users the ability to safely manipulate objects of study within the transparent enclosure by utilizing protective boundary layer innovations whose designs may be transferable to other containment systems.

Portable Engine Can Power Artificial Muscles in Assistive Devices

Researchers have developed a lightweight fluidic engine to power muscle-mimicking soft robots for use in assistive devices. What sets the new engine apart is its ability to...

Advances and Innovations in Assistive Robotics

Exploring advances and innovations in assistive robotics.

RISING STAR AWARDS 2024 JUDGES

  We want to thank our judges for the Rising Star Awards 2024. Our esteemed panel of judges is comprised of leaders from engineering and technology fields who bring decades of experience and expertise to the...

Surgical Precision: Robotics in the Operating Room

Exploring how robotics are enhancing precision and minimizing invasiveness of surgical procedures.

How Much Do You Know About Labs-on-a-Chip

Lab-on-a-Chip (LoC) technology integrates various analyses such as biochemical operations, chemical synthesis, and DNA sequencing onto a single chip, which otherwise would have been performed in a laboratory taking a substantial amount of time. How much do you know about LoCs? Find out with this quiz.

AI + Computer Simulations = Enhanced Robotic Exoskeletons

Researchers have demonstrated a new method that leverages artificial intelligence (AI) and computer simulations to train robotic exoskeletons to autonomously help users save energy while walking, running, and climbing stairs.

In-Space Manufacturing to Benefit the Future of Human Health on Earth and in Space

As new commercial stations enable the creation of in-space factories that leverage microgravity to improve products for use on Earth, large-scale 3D bioprinting will significantly benefit from it.

Imperceptible Sensors Printed Directly on Human Skin

Researchers have developed a method to make adaptive and eco-friendly sensors that can be directly and imperceptibly printed onto a wide range of biological surfaces.

Scientists Create Soft Robots Mimicking Human Skin to Provide Medical Treatment

Scientists have created innovative soft robots equipped with electronic skins and artificial muscles, allowing them to sense their surroundings and adapt their...

Molecular Crystal Motors Move Like Microbes When Exposed to Light

At first glance, Rabih O. Al-Kaysi’s molecular motors look like the microscopic worms you’d see in a drop of pond water. But these wriggling ribbons are not alive;...

Robotic Device Restores Wavelike Muscular Function in the Body

The soft-robotic prototype, driven by strong magnets controlled by a wearable external actuator, can aid patients suffering from blockages caused by tumors or those requiring stents.

Videos of the Month

See the videos of the month, including one on the techniques and current targets for sustainable crosslinked thermoset polymer materials, one on medical materials innovation pioneers, one on making hydrogen the next major fuel source for our warfighters, and one on the Department of Defense exploring options to protect our warfighters further.

E-Health Patches Monitor Pulse and Blood Pressure

An international team of researchers from Japan and Austria has invented new ultraflexible patches with a ferroelectric polymer that can not only sense a patient’s pulse and blood pressure, but also power themselves from normal movements. The key was starting with a substrate just 1-μm thick.

Shape-Shifting Ultrasound Stickers to Monitor Post-Surgical Complications

When attached to an organ, the soft, tiny sticker changes in shape in response to the body’s changing pH levels, which can serve as an early warning sign for post-surgery complications such as anastomotic leaks. Clinicians then can view these shape changes in real time through ultrasound imaging.

Exosome-Coated Stent Heals Vascular Injury, Repairs Damaged Tissue

The stent delivers regenerative stem cell-derived therapy to blood-starved tissue.

Personalized Pills That Can Deliver Timed Doses

Researchers from the University of Nottingham have led work that has fabricated personalized medicine using Multi-Material InkJet 3D Printing (MM-IJ3DP).

Universal Automated Dosing Systems Could Become Reality

Researchers have created and demonstrated a method of universalizing blood-glucose detection technology as a way of rapidly and inexpensively creating sensors that can monitor the dosing of chemotherapies and other drugs in real time.

3D Printing Flexible Devices Sans Mechanical Joints

Manufacturing elastomers that can be shaped into complex 3D structures that go from rigid to rubbery has been unfeasible until now.

Powering the Wireless Arthroscopic Camera

The first FDA-cleared wireless arthroscopic camera for minimally invasive knee surgeries and other orthopedic procedures got early support from NASA.

5Ws of the Miniature Brain Stimulator

Rice University engineers have developed the smallest implantable brain stimulator demonstrated in a human patient that could revolutionize treatment for drug-resistant depression and other psychiatric or neurological disorders.

Microwave Sensing Technology Enables Versatile Imaging

Microwave sensing and imaging (MSI) technology, which has been in for many years, has now improved to the point that it may usefully supplement or even replace MRI machines and CT scanners in certain applications, including stroke detection and breast cancer detection.

Flexible Artificial Intelligence Optoelectronic Sensors for Health Monitoring

Researchers from Tokyo University of Science (TUS) led by Associate Professor Takashi Ikuno have developed a flexible paper-based sensor that operates like the human brain. The researchers fabricated a photo-electronic artificial synapse device composed of gold electrodes on top of a 10 μm transparent film consisting of zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles and cellulose nanofibers (CNFs).