Columbia University

Custom carpentry with help from robots

Every year thousands of carpenters injure their hands and fingers doing dangerous tasks such as sawing. In an effort to minimize injury and let carpenters focus on design and other bigger-picture tasks, a team has created AutoSaw, a system that lets nonexperts customize different items that can then be constructed with the help of robots.

TARA Biosystems

IDTechEx analyst Nadia Tsao interviewed TARA Biosystems CEO Dr Misti Ushio on August 7, 2017. TARA is developing cardiac models for pharmaceutical testing.

Flexible lithium battery for wearable electronics

The rapid development of flexible and wearable electronics is giving rise to an exciting range of applications, from smart watches and flexible displays—such as smart phones, tablets, and TV—to smart fabrics, smart glass, transdermal patches, sensors, and more. With this rise, demand has increased for high-performance flexible batteries. Up to now, however, researchers have had difficulty obtaining both good flexibility and high energy density concurrently in lithium-ion batteries.

Custom ink, ultraviolet light to repeatedly change an object's colour

3-D printing has come a long way since the first rapid prototyping patent was rejected in 1980. The technology has evolved from basic designs to a wide range of highly-customizable objects. Still, there's a big issue: Once objects are printed, they're final. If you need a change, you'll need a reprint.

Robotic network to explore Antarctic ice shelves

One of the biggest unknowns for the future of Earth's climate is Antarctica, where the West Antarctic Ice Sheet holds so much ice that if it collapsed could bring several feet of rising seas. A new partnership will use a robotic network to observe the conditions beneath a floating Antarctic ice shelf.

Floating solar fuels rig for seawater electrolysis

In a single hour, more energy from the sun hits the Earth than all the energy used by humankind in an entire year. Imagine if the sun's energy could be harnessed to power energy needs on Earth, and done in a way that is economical, scalable, and environmentally responsible.

Engineers create artificial graphene

Researchers are the first to observe the electronic structure of graphene in an engineered semiconductor; finding could lead to progress in advanced optoelectronics and data processing.

Device makes power conversion more efficient

New design could dramatically cut energy waste in electric vehicles, data centers, and the power grid.

Tool to debug black box deep learning algorithms

Computers can now beat humans at chess and Go, but it may be a while before people trust their driving. The danger of self-driving cars was highlighted last year when Tesla's autonomous car collided with a truck it mistook for a cloud, killing its passenger.

Energy harvested from evaporation

In the first evaluation of evaporation as a renewable energy source, researchers find that US lakes and reservoirs could generate 325 gigawatts of power, nearly 70 percent of what the United States currently produces.

Small robots are inspired by origami

Through origami-inspired engineering, researchers hope to not only create rapidly fabricable robots capable of completing tasks, but also build intuitive design software that enables others who may not be trained in engineering to create their own personalized origami robots.

Novel dot system to improve cancer detection

Researchers have developed a proof-of-concept nanosystem that dramatically improves the visualization of tumors.

Designing custom robots in a matter of minutes

Even as robots become increasingly common across different parts of our world, they remain incredibly difficult to make.

Towards a high-resolution, implantable neural interface

The goal of The Neural Engineering System Design program is developing an implantable system able to provide precision communication between the brain and the digital world.

CRISPR gene editing can cause hundreds of unintended mutations

As CRISPR-Cas9 starts to move into clinical trials, a new study has found that the gene-editing technology can introduce hundreds of unintended mutations into the genome.

$8.4 million to study brain training using electric stimulation

The U.S. Defense Department is looking for ways to speed up cognitive skills training and is awarding engineers and neuroscientists up to $8.4 million over the next four years to investigate how to do that by applying electrical stimulation to peripheral nerves as a means of strengthening neuronal connections in the brain.

Freezing lithium batteries may make them safer and bendable

A new method that could lead to lithium batteries that are safer, have longer battery life, and are bendable, providing new possibilities such as flexible smartphones.

3D printed robots with shock-absorbing skins

Researchers have presented a new method for 3-D printing soft materials that make robots safer and more precise in their movements — and that could be used to improve the durability of drones, phones, shoes, helmets, and more.

3-D-printed robots with shock-absorbing skins

A new method for 3-D printing soft materials that make robots safer and more precise in their movements — and that could be used to improve the durability of drones, phones, shoes, helmets, and more.

3D food printer can cook your food

Over the past year, researchers have been developing a 3D food printer that can fabricate edible items through computer-guided software and the actual cooking of edible pastes, gels, powders, and liquid ingredients—all in a prototype that looks like an elegant coffee machine.