University of Pennsylvania

All in a day's work: Design and print your own robot

Funded by a $10 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF), the project will aim to develop a desktop technology that would make it possible for the average person to design, customize and print a specialized robot in a matter of hours.

Breakthroughs may lead to more energy efficient transistors

Researchers at Penn State and the University of Notre Dame have announced breakthroughs in the development of tunneling field effect transistors (TFETs), a semiconductor technology that takes advantage of the quirky behavior of electrons at the quantum level.

The murky waters of energy harvesting

The confluence of sea water and fresh water with its inherent difference in salinity is providing researchers with a new approach to energy harvesting.

Researchers build first metatronic circuit

Optical engineers at the University of Pennsylvania have created the first computer circuit where logic is performed with light instead of electricity

Eastman Chemical to buy Solutia for $3.4 billion

Eastman Chemical is buying Solutia Inc, chemicals provider for products from iPads to tires, for about $3.4 billion.

Giant piezoelectric effect to improve energy harvesting devices

Researchers in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering and the Materials Research Institute at Penn State are part of a multidisciplinary team of researchers from universities and national laboratories across the U.S. who have fabricated piezoelectric thin films with record-setting properties.

Aircraft e-Genius from IFB wins two highly endowed awards

The electric aircraft e-Genius, which was developed at Institut für Flugzeugbau (IFB) of University of Stuttgart, won no fewer than two awards at the Green Flight Challenge 2011.

Interview with KCF Technologies

As only one week remains before IDTechEx's Energy Harvesting and Storage conference and exhibition in Boston, MA, technology analyst Dr Harry Zervos interviewed KCF Technologies, a company who will be announcing the launch of their newest product offering at the event: The Smart Diagnostics Solution Suite, a family of energy harvesting powered wireless sensors.

Most efficient colloidal quantum dot solar cell ever

Researchers from the University of Toronto, King Abdullah University of Science & Technology and Pennsylvania State University have created the most efficient colloidal quantum dot solar cell ever.

Plastic Logic appoints new CEO

Plastic Logic has appointed, Indro Mukerjee as CEO to replace Richard Archuleta, who is stepping down after leading the company for the past four years.

Energy from wastewater

Environmental engineer Bruce Logan of Penn State University is working on ways to turn wastewater into energy.

The growing EV market will fail without battery size standards support

The growing EV market will fail without battery size standards supported by OEM's and battery companies

Biofuel Cell for self-powered nanodevices

The goal of nanotechnology is to build nanodevices that are intelligent, multifunctional, exceptionally small, extremely sensitive and have low power consumption.

Flexible electronics treating abnormal heart rhythms

Arrhythmic hearts soon may beat in time again, with minimal surgical invasion, thanks to flexible electronics technology.

Key milestone for graphene wafers

Graphene wafers 100mm in diameter have been produced by Researchers in the Electro-Optics Center (EOC) Materials Division at Penn State, making them the largest diameter commercially available for silicon carbide wafers.

Funds to develop self-powered prosthetic limb technology

Representative Glenn Thompson, R-Howard, announced the Department of Defense Appropriations measure includes $2 million in Research, Test, Development, and Evaluation funds for KCF Technologies to further develop and commercialize self-powered prosthetic limb technology.

Breakthrough in industrial-scale nanotube processing

Rice University scientists have unveiled a method for the industrial-scale processing of pure carbon-nanotube fibers that could lead to revolutionary advances in materials science, power distribution and nanoelectronics.

Flood of traction battery money will benefit harvesting

The world is putting over $50 million in government funding into electric cars and the Obama administration is also putting a large sum into the enabling technologies, particularly batteries.

Clear future for transparent electronics

Inorganic semiconductor technologies with conventional patterning offer immediate solutions, according to Kodak, which offers Chemical Vapor Deposition CVD to make it happen.