Columbia University

A flexible camera: a radically different approach to imaging

A team of engineers has developed a novel sheet camera that can be wrapped around everyday objects to capture images that cannot be taken with one or more conventional cameras.

3-D printed robots made of both solids and liquids

Researchers present the first-ever technique for 3-D printing robots that involves printing solid and liquid materials at the same time. The new method allows the team to automatically 3-D print dynamic robots in a single step, with no assembly required, using a commercially-available 3-D printer.

Lumiode, Inc.

Lumiode is a spin out from Columbia University focused on commercializing micro-LED displays. Dr Vincent Lee, the company's CEO spoke to IDTechEx Principal Analyst Dr Harry Zervos about Lumiode's technology, roadmaps and addressable markets.

Engineers build biologically powered chip

Columbia University Engineering researchers have, for the first time, harnessed the molecular machinery of living systems to power an integrated circuit from adenosine triphosphate, the energy currency of life.

Study explores nanoscale structure of thin films

The world's newest and brightest synchrotron light source has produced one of the first publications resulting from work done during the facility's science commissioning phase.

Tough biogel structures produced by 3-D printing

Researchers have developed a new way of making tough biocompatible materials, called "hydrogels," into complex and intricately patterned shapes.

Renewable energy from evaporating water

An immensely powerful yet invisible force pulls water from the earth to the top of the tallest redwood and delivers snow to the tops of the Himalayas. Yet despite the power of evaporating water, its potential to propel self-sufficient devices or produce electricity has remained largely untapped -- until now.

Engineering phase changes in nanoparticle arrays

Scientists have just taken a big step toward the goal of engineering dynamic nanomaterials whose structure and associated properties can be switched on demand.

World's first self-powered camera

A research team has invented a prototype video camera that is the first to be fully self-powered - it can produce an image each second, indefinitely, of a well-lit indoor scene.

Intelligent charging system could protect EV owners

A recent pilot project in New York City looked for an intelligent way to charge large numbers of electric delivery trucks at the lowest cost without straining the local grid and infrastructure.

World's thinnest electric generator

Researchers report that they have made the first experimental observation of piezoelectricity and the piezotronic effect in an atomically thin material, molybdenum disulfide (MoS2), resulting in a unique electric generator and mechanosensation devices that are optically transparent, extremely light, and very bendable and stretchable.

Getting more electricity out of solar cells

When sunlight shines on today's solar cells, much of the incoming energy is given off as waste heat rather than electrical current. In a few materials, however, extra energy produces extra electrons — behavior that could significantly increase solar-cell efficiency.

Funding to develop energy storage technologies

$1.4 million has been awarded to six companies working on new technologies in battery and energy storage.

Getting a charge from changes in humidity

A new type of electrical generator uses bacterial spores to harness the untapped power of evaporating water, according to research.

Graphene can host exotic new quantum electronic states at its edges

Under an extremely powerful magnetic field and at extremely low temperature, the researchers found, graphene can effectively filter electrons according to the direction of their spin, something that cannot be done by any conventional electronic system.

Seamless integrated circuits etched on graphene

Researchers have introduced and modeled an integrated circuit design scheme in which transistors and interconnects are monolithically patterned seamlessly on a sheet of graphene, a 2-dimensional plane of carbon atoms.

Diamonds, nanotubes find common ground in graphene

What may be the ultimate heat sink is only possible because of yet another astounding capability of graphene.

Research into self-powered systems using nanoscale devices

Scientists attempting to build self-powered systems using nanoscale devices that can transmit and receive wireless signals using so little power that their batteries never need replacing.

Merging tissue and electronics

New tissue scaffold could be used for drug development and implantable therapeutic devices.