Designing safe bridges and water systems for low-income communities is not always easy for engineers coming from highly industrialized places. A new discipline called contextual engineering helps engineers think beyond personal values, expectations and definitions of project success when tackling global infrastructure problems. A new study from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign uses comprehensive…
Optimizing Winglets for Minimum Drag, More Efficient Flight
Although, winglets have been around since the mid-1970s, there is still a wide variety of shapes, sizes, and angles. If you’ve ever taken a photo out the window of a commercial airplane, you most likely have a great shot of a winglet—that part of the wing at the tip that angles upward. That little change…
Building a More Perfect Flying Vehicle
When designing flying vehicles, there are many aspects of which we can be certain but there are also many uncertainties. Most are random, and others are just not well understood. University of Illinois Professor Harry Hilton brought together several mathematical and physical theories to help look at problems in more unified ways and solve physical…
New Algorithm Fuses Quality And Quantity In Satellite Imagery
Using a new algorithm, University of Illinois researchers may have found the solution to an age-old dilemma plaguing satellite imagery — whether to sacrifice high spatial resolution in the interest of generating images more frequently, or vice versa. The team’s new tool eliminates this trade-off by fusing high-resolution and high-frequency satellite data into one integrated…
Satellites, Supercomputers, And Machine Learning Provide Real-Time Crop Type Data
Corn and soybean fields look similar from space – at least they used to. But now, scientists have proven a new technique for distinguishing the two crops using satellite data and the processing power of supercomputers. “If we want to predict corn or soybean production for Illinois or the entire United States, we have to…
Shape-Shifting Organic Crystals Use Memory to Improve Plastic Electronics
Researchers have identified a mechanism that triggers shape-memory phenomena in organic crystals used in plastic electronics. Shape-shifting structural materials are made with metal alloys, but the new generation of economical printable plastic electronics is poised to benefit from this phenomenon, too. Shape-memory materials science and plastic electronics technology, when merged, could open the door to…
Researchers Put New Spin on Old Technique to Engineer Better Absorptive Materials
A team of University of Illinois bioengineers has taken a new look at an old tool to help characterize a class of materials called metal organic frameworks – MOFs for short. MOFs are used to detect, purify and store gases, and could help solve some of the world’s most challenging energy, environmental and pharmaceutical challenges…
New Headway in Desalination Technology
Engineers at the University of Illinois have taken a step forward in developing a saltwater desalination process that is potentially cheaper than reverse osmosis and borrows from battery technology. In their study, the researchers are focusing on new materials that could make desalination of brackish waters economically desirable and energy efficient. The need for practical…
Cicada Wings May Inspire New Surface Technologies
Researchers are looking to insects – specifically cicadas – for insight into the design of artificial surfaces with de-icing, self-cleaning and anti-fogging abilities. Their wings allow cicadas to fly, of course, but they also are good at repelling water – a condition that humans can appreciate, too. “Our work with cicadas is letting us explore…
States Find Rewards from High-Tech Investments, Given Time and Patience
States have spent millions to develop high-tech industry, with its promise of good jobs and economic growth. But does the public investment pay off? A national study of such investments in the 1980s and 1990s suggests it does – including in places where prospects for high-tech seems less than ideal. The key for these state…
Transistors That Can Switch Between Two Stable Energy States
Engineers are unveiling an upgrade to the transistor laser that could be used to boost computer processor speeds — the formation of two stable energy states and the ability to switch between them quickly. Modern computers are limited by a delay formed as electrons travel through the tiny wires and switches on a computer chip.…
Computer-Generated Doctor Explains Test Results To Patients
If viewing your latest medical test results on your doctor’ss online portal leaves you scratching your head and wondering whether to start planning your 100th-birthday bash or begin writing your will, you’re not alone. Imagine how different that experience might be if instead you were able to view a video in which a physician explained…
Machine Learning Could Solve Riddles Of Galaxy Formation
A new machine-learning simulation system developed at the University of Illinois promises cosmologists an expanded suite of galaxy models – a necessary first step to developing more accurate and relevant insights into the formation of the universe. The feasibility of this method has been laid out in two recent papers written by astronomy, physics and…
A Glucose Meter of a Different Color Provides Continuous Monitoring
Champaign, IL — University of Illinois engineers are bringing a touch of color to glucose monitoring. The researchers developed a new continuous glucose monitoring material that changes color as glucose levels fluctuate, and the wavelength shift is so precise that doctors and patients may be able to use it for automatic insulin dosing – something…
Muscle-Powered Bio-Bots Walk on Command
Champaign, IL — A new generation of miniature biological robots is flexing its muscle. Engineers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign demonstrated a class of walking “bio-bots” powered by muscle cells and controlled with electrical pulses, giving researchers unprecedented command over their function. The group published its work in the online early edition of…
Drones give farmers an eye in the sky to check on crop progress
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — This growing season, crop researchers at the University of Illinois are experimenting with the use of drones – unmanned aerial vehicles – on the university’s South Farms. Dennis Bowman, a crop sciences educator with U. of I. Extension, is using two drones to take aerial pictures of crops growing in research plots…