National Science Foundation

Swift Solar USA

SAN CARLOS, Calif., Dec. 15, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Solar PV technology company Swift Solar announced today that it secured more than $8 million in Series Seed 2 funding, with an additional $1.5 million expected to close soon, for a total of $9.6 million.

Digital Fabric has Memory, Temperature Sensors and a Neural Network

Researchers have created the first fiber with digital capabilities, able to sense, store, analyze, and infer activity after being sewn into a shirt.

New Possibilities for 3D-Printing Human Tissue, Vocal Chord Repair

There is no replacement for the vocal cords when damage is severe or permanent. Now, a team of materials scientists has developed a soft material with promise of new treatments in the future. Their novel soft material, called an elastomer, is very stretchable and 10,000 times softer than a conventional rubber, matching the mechanical properties of vocal cords. The elastomer can be 3D printed for use in health care.

Ultra- Precision Agriculture Uses Machine Learning, Robots

A gardener hoping for a crop of the juiciest summer tomatoes might tend to each and every plant in a plot. But a farmer working to feed the world? Researchers believe that may be possible. They're applying and integrating layers of technologies - including sensors, machine learning, artificial intelligence, high-throughput phenotyping platforms such as drones and small-scale rolling robots that can also fertilize, weed and cull single plants in a field - with the ultimate goal of replacing farmers' reliance on heavy machinery and broadcast spraying in operations of all sizes.

Smart Fabric Allows Users to Track Data Directly Through Clothing

Nextiles is launching into the sports and performance market to provide smart thread technology that captures biometric and biomechanics data.

Atheraxon

Atheraxon is a start-up that spun out of the ATHENA Lab at Georgia Tech. IDTechEx spoke with their CEO Brian Arnberger and CTO Jimmy Hester on 15th Apr. 2021.

Avium, LLC.

Avium is an American start-up developing advanced catalyst coated electrodes for alkaline water electrolysis

Floating Robots will Help Solve the Mysteries of our Oceans

The University of Washington will soon be deploying a fleet of floating robots in oceans around the world. The effort is part of a $53-million, five-year grant from the National Science Foundation to pursue fundamental questions about ocean ecosystems and to inform computer models for fisheries and climate studies.

Detecting COVID-19 With a Sticker on Your Skin

One day, a wearable, bioelectronic device could wirelessly transmit a person's vital signs — potentially providing critical information for early detection of health issues such as COVID-19 or heart disease — to a healthcare provider, eliminating the need for an in-person visit while also saving lives.

Wearable Sensor Monitors Health, Administers Drugs Using Saliva, Tears

A new kind of wearable health device would deliver real-time medical data to those with eye or mouth diseases.

New Vibration Energy Harvesting Generators From Xidas

Xidas releases the energy harvesting for Industrial IoT industry's first high-power-output, vibration-based energy harvester (the VEG series) in a small footprint with prices similar to industrial batteries.

Xidas

Xidas has developed a proprietary micro-engineering method that relies on bonding patterned sheets of different materials to make micro-mechanical and micro-electronic devices. These include sensors, energy harvesters and miniaturized medical devices. The company primarily targets industrial IoT as an application space.

Breakthrough Optical Sensor Mimics Human Eye, a Key Step to Better AI

Previous attempts to build a human-eye type of device, called a retinomorphic sensor, have relied on software or complex hardware, but the new sensor's operation is part of its fundamental design, using ultrathin layers of perovskite semiconductors - widely studied in recent years for their solar energy potential - that change from strong electrical insulators to strong conductors when placed in light.

A Defect-resistant Superalloy for 3D Printing

In recent years, it has become possible to use laser beams and electron beams to "print" engineering objects that have complex shapes that could not be achieved by conventional manufacturing routes. The additive manufacturing process, known widely as 3D printing, for metallic materials involves melting and fusing fine-scale powder particles — each about ten times finer than a grain of local beach sand — in sub-millimeter-scale "pools" created by focusing a laser or electron beam on the material.

3D Printer Enables Variable Gloss

New system enables realistic variations in glossiness across a 3D-printed surface. The advance could aid fine art reproduction and the design of prosthetics.

Lumiode, Inc.

Lumiode is a semiconductor technology spin-out company from Columbia University. It is based in NYC. The company mainly works on next generation micro-displays for AR application.

Stretchable Sensor Gives Robots and VR a Human Touch

Researchers have created a fiber-optic sensor that combines low-cost LEDs and dyes, resulting in a stretchable "skin" that detects deformations such as pressure, bending and strain. This sensor could give soft robotic systems - and anyone using augmented reality technology - the ability to feel the same rich, tactile sensations that mammals depend on to navigate the natural world.