If you don’t like wandering through big-box stores trying to find the furniture you need, and then struggle to assemble it, researchers have proposed a solution: Smart software that helps you design your own furniture, 3D print the joints and assemble the whole structure at home. “This work has implications for changing how the supply…
Autonomous Go-Karts: Don’t Pour a Bottle of Milk Over This Race Winner
In less than a month, Helio Castroneves, Tony Kanaan, Scott Dixon and last year’s champ, Will Power, will look to add to their Borg-Warner trophy cases by winning the Indianapolis 500. But one of the winners at events at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway this May won’t be a person. It will be an autonomous car.…
How Would You Survive on Mars?
The Resilient ExtraTerrestrial Habitats Institute is working to ensure that the first long-term settlement on other planetary bodies are safe from hazards such as a meteoroid colliding with the moon or violent sandstorms on Mars. Shirley Dyke, head of Purdue University’s RETH Institute, said she noticed that the habitats on other planets portrayed on TV…
Heated Jacket Keeps Police, Military, and Others Warm in Harsh Winter Temps
A new line of heated jackets powered by a mobile USB battery bank will protect police officers, military personnel and others while working in harsh winter conditions. The National Vital Statistics Systems reports that about 1,300 deaths per year are related to natural cold exposure. Hypothermia can cause impaired judgment and coma even in non-lethal…
New Technology Helps Address Big Problems for Small Satellites
CubeSats have become big players in space exploration. Their small size and relatively low cost have made them popular choices for commercial launches in recent years, but the process to propel such satellites in space comes with a number of problems. Now, Purdue University researchers have developed a technology to address one of those key…
AI Technology Addresses Parts Accuracy to Improve Additive Manufacturing
One of the key requirements in aircraft manufacturing is achieving precision tolerances, a concern that carries over to additive manufacturing, Researchers at Purdue University and the University of Southern California have developed automated machine learning technology to improve additive manufacturing. The technology addresses a current significant challenge within additive manufacturing: individual parts that are produced need to…
Researchers Devise 3-D Printer That Can Make Energetic Materials Safer, More Environmentally Friendly
Purdue University researchers have devised a method of 3-D printing that can produce energetic materials with fine geometric features faster and with less expense than traditional methods, while also being safer and more environmentally friendly. Jeffrey Rhoads, a professor in Purdue’s School of Mechanical Engineering, and Emre Gunduz, a former research assistant professor at the…
Hold on Tight! Students Design Twists and Turns of Roller Coaster
Bethany Mruzik admits that engineering principles were the last thing on her mind every time she climbed aboard a roller coaster at Six Flags St. Louis. But with the popular park only 15 minutes from her home, Mruzik – now a senior civil engineering major at Purdue – soon realized her interest in a theme…
3D Printed Cement Paste Gets Stronger When it Cracks
What if the inherent weaknesses of a material actually made houses and buildings stronger during wildfires and earthquakes? Purdue University researchers have 3D-printed cement paste, a key ingredient of the concrete and mortar used to build various elements of infrastructure, that gets tougher under pressure like the shells of arthropods such as lobsters and beetles.…
New Instruments Push Boundaries For Precise Measurements In Jet Engines, Gas Turbines
A Purdue University-affiliated startup is developing instruments to precisely measure pressure, temperature and other analytics inside the harsh environments of rocket engines and gas turbines. Petal Solutions LLC was founded by Guillermo Paniagua, a professor of mechanical engineering, and Valeria Andreoli, David Cuadrado and James Braun, doctoral research assistants. Paniagua said the group’s expertise in computational…
Metal Too ‘Gummy’ To Cut? Draw On It With Sharpie Or Glue Stick
Your everyday permanent markers, glue sticks and packing tape may offer a surprisingly low-tech solution to a long-standing nuisance in the manufacturing industry: Making soft and ductile, or so-called “gummy” metals easier to cut. What makes inks and adhesives effective isn’t their chemical content, but their stickiness to the surface of any gummy metal such…
Making Batteries Safer
Fundamental Purdue University research on making batteries safer has been targeted by the U.S. Office of Naval Research for translation into prototypes of larger batteries used in technologies such as submarines and naval missile systems. The prototype development process, supported by a $2 million grant for three years, is a team effort across Purdue’s schools…
System Allows Surveillance Cameras To ‘Talk’ To The Public Through Individual Smartphones
Purdue University researchers have created a technology that allows public cameras to send personalized messages to people without compromising their privacy. The team developed a real-time end-to-end system called PHADE to allow this process, known as private human addressing. While traditional data transmission protocols need to first learn the destination’s IP or MAC address, this…
Study Shows Ceramics Can Deform Like Metals If Sintered Under Electric Field
Purdue researchers have observed a way that the brittle nature of ceramics can be overcome as they sustain heavy loads, leading to more resilient structures such as aircraft engine blade coatings and dental implants. While inherently strong, most ceramics tend to fracture suddenly when just slightly strained under a load unless exposed to high temperatures.…
Heat And Sound Wave Interactions In Solids Could Run Engines, Refrigerators
A solid can serve as a medium for heat and sound wave interactions just like a fluid does for thermoacoustic engines and refrigerators – resulting in leak-free machines that can stay operating longer. Leaky systems have limited how engineers design thermoacoustic devices that rely on the interplay between temperature oscillations and sound waves. Researchers at…
Water-Repellent Surfaces Can Efficiently Boil Water, Keep Electronics Cool
Surfaces that repel water can support efficient boiling if all air and vapor is removed from a system first, according to research featured on the cover of the most recent issue of Physical Review Letters. Water is typically boiled off hydrophilic surfaces to cool nuclear reactors and high-power electronics, preventing them from overheating. Purdue University research…
Attacks On 4G LTE Networks Could Send Fake Emergency Alerts
Researchers have identified several new vulnerabilities in 4G LTE networks, potentially allowing hackers to forge the location of a mobile device and fabricate messages. Ten new and nine prior attacks were outlined in a paper, including the authentication relay attack, which enables an adversary to connect to core networks without the necessary credentials. This allows…
New CubeSat Propulsion System Uses Water as Propellant
A new type of micropropulsion system for miniature satellites called CubeSats uses an innovative design of tiny nozzles that release precise bursts of water vapor to maneuver the spacecraft. Low-cost “microsatellites” and “nanosatellites” far smaller than conventional spacecraft, have become increasingly prevalent. Thousands of the miniature satellites might be launched to perform a variety of…
Materials Study Probes ‘Field-Assisted’ Processing for High-Tech Ceramic Components
A new project will study the fundamental mechanisms behind a method that uses electrical fields to enhance ceramics-sintering processing to manufacture components for a range of military and commercial applications. The components are expensive to manufacture because they are traditionally created from a powder that is sintered – or fused together – at around 1,500…
Purdue-Affiliated Startup Plans to Use 3D Printers to Create Tomorrow’s Rocket Engines
A startup with Purdue ties plans to use 3D printers as well as other additive manufacturing processes to make future rocket engines that show promise in being faster and less expensive to produce than traditional methods. Tri-D Dynamics LLC, a startup co-founded by Purdue graduate students, wants to tap into the emerging market of small…
Wind Turbines Killing More Than Just Local Birds
Wind turbines are known to kill large birds, such as golden eagles, that live nearby. Now there is evidence that birds from up to hundreds of miles away make up a significant portion of the raptors that are killed at these wind energy fields. Using DNA from tissue and stable isotopes from the feathers of…
High-Efficiency Power Amplifier Could Bring 5G Cell Phones
A new highly efficient power amplifier for electronics could help make possible next-generation cell phones, low-cost collision-avoidance radar for cars and lightweight microsatellites for communications. Fifth-generation, or 5G, mobile devices expected around 2019 will require improved power amplifiers operating at very high frequencies. The new phones will be designed to download and transmit data and…
Toy-Building Kit Allows Children to Create Robots, Control Them Remotely
Research at Purdue University funded through a National Science Foundation grant has led to development of a new kind of toy-building kit that allows children to create robots and control them remotely like a puppeteer. The new kit, called Ziro, was developed in research led by Karthik Ramani, the Donald W. Feddersen Professor of Mechanical…
‘Smart’ Sensor Predicts Failures, Improves Safety for Mechanical, Medical Tech
A Purdue University technology that can help predict failures to the integrity of a tire, hose or other mechanical and medical equipment could help increase automotive safety, improve patient care and reduce liability costs. The technology, developed by a team lead by Gary W. Krutz, professor of agricultural and biological engineering, uses a sensor that can…
A Detector Shines in Search for Dark Matter
Results of the XENON100 experiment are a bright spot in the search for dark matter. The team of international scientists involved in the project demonstrated the sensitivity of their detector and recorded results that challenge several dark matter models and a longstanding claim of dark matter detection. Papers detailing the results will be published in…