National Science Foundation

Mantis Composites

Mantis composites specialize in the 3D Printing of continuous fiber reinforced composites. Michael Chapiro (COO) spoke with technology analyst Dr Richard Collins.

Introducing the latest in textiles: Soft hardware

The latest development in textiles and fibers is a kind of soft hardware that you can wear: cloth that has electronic devices built right into it.

Ultra sensitive skin for robots

A smart skin that will give robots more sensitive tactile feeling than humans. The smart skin technology allows the robots to sense temperature changes and surface variations, which would allow a person alongside the robot to be safer or react accordingly.

Nanotube rebar makes graphene twice as tough

Rebar graphene is the nanoscale analog of rebar (reinforcement bars) in concrete, in which embedded steel bars enhance the material's strength and durability. Rebar graphene, developed by the Rice lab of chemist James Tour in 2014, uses carbon nanotubes for reinforcement.

Eden GeoPower awarded $225,000 from National Science Foundation

Eden GeoPower is pleased to announce that it has been granted the Small Business Innovation Research Program Phase I award of $225,000 from the National Science Foundation.

Gentle robotic hand for sea life

The open ocean is the largest and least explored environment on Earth, estimated to hold up to a million species that have yet to be described. However, many of those organisms are soft-bodied - like jellyfish, squid, and octopuses - and are difficult to capture for study with existing underwater tools, which all too frequently damage or destroy them. Now, a new device safely traps delicate sea creatures inside a folding polyhedral enclosure and lets them go without harm using a novel, origami-inspired design.

Cell-sized robots

Researchers have created what may be the smallest robots yet that can sense their environment, store data, and even carry out computational tasks. These devices, which are about the size of a human egg cell, consist of tiny electronic circuits made of two-dimensional materials, piggybacking on minuscule particles called colloids.

Researchers improve conductive property of graphene

Researchers have connected a graphene layer with two other atomic layers (molybdenum diselenide and tungsten disulfide) thereby extending the lifetime of excited electrons in graphene by several hundred times.

Drones survey African wildlife

A new technique enables fast and accurate counting of gnu, oryx and other large mammals living in wildlife reserves. Drones are used to remotely photograph wilderness areas, and the images are then analysed using object recognition software and verified by humans.

Magnetic 3-D-printed structures crawl, roll, jump, and play catch

New printing technique could be used to develop remotely controlled biomedical devices.

Chip upgrade helps miniature drones navigate

Researchers at MIT, who last year designed a tiny computer chip tailored to help honeybee-sized drones navigate, have now shrunk their chip design even further, in both size and power consumption.

One-step, 3D printing for multimaterial projects

Similar to the advance from black and white to color printing, a research team for the first time has used 3D printing technology in a one-step process to print structures made of two different materials.

Frozen yoghurt robots, eliminates need for staff

Launching off success in US markets, revolutionary frozen yogurt robots, are set to disrupt the industry in Canada.

Rare element for flexible, printed devices

Researchers have discovered a new two-dimensional material, derived from the rare element tellurium, to make transistors that carry a current better throughout a computer chip.

Ingestible bacteria on a chip could help diagnose disease

Researchers have built an ingestible sensor equipped with genetically engineered bacteria that can diagnose bleeding in the stomach or other gastrointestinal problems. This "bacteria-on-a-chip" approach combines sensors made from living cells with ultra-low-power electronics that convert the bacterial response into a wireless signal that can be read by a smartphone.

Guiding marine robots to optimal sampling sites

Observing the world's oceans is increasingly a mission assigned to autonomous underwater vehicles — marine robots that are designed to drift, drive, or glide through the ocean without any real-time input from human operators. Critical questions that AUVs can help to answer are where, when, and what to sample for the most informative data, and how to optimally reach sampling locations.

Transparent transistors fabricated onto the sharp curves

Transparent transistors fabricated onto the sharp curves of a tiny glass tube are paving the way toward a therapeutic advance for diabetes sufferers.

Machine-learning system processes sounds like humans do

Using a machine-learning system known as a deep neural network, researchers have created the first model that can replicate human performance on auditory tasks such as identifying a musical genre.

Lena Biosciences

IDTechEx analyst Nadia Tsao interviewed Lena Biosciences President & CEO Dr Jelena Vukasinovic on August 16, 2017. Lena Biosciences manufactures 3D tissue culturing scaffolds and organ-on-a-chip devices.

Thin film converts heat from electronics into energy

Engineers have developed a thin-film system that can be applied to sources of waste heat to produce energy at levels unprecedented for this kind of technology.