Engineering Innovation

Researchers are working on a way to predict when symptoms from the novel coronavirus might turn dangerous.

As wildfire season starts, engineers are developing a new tool to stop them in their tracks.

Making enough COVID-19 vaccine to immunize the world will be a challenge, but a new vaccination method, without the typical needles, may help.

Re-opening during the pandemic would be easier to safely manage if we had a quick at-home test, like a pregnancy test, for COVID-19 infection. Engineers may be close.

While political views differ, democracy depends upon a basic agreement about facts. Can technology help people sort truth from trash in social media?

If you want to help researchers fighting the coronavirus, even while you’re hunkering down at home, we’ve got a video game for you!

Thirty years ago, a bacteria from the Potomac River was found to produce its own tiny wires that conduct electricity. Just last month, an even more surprising discovery was announced.

More than thirty years ago, a new type of bacteria was discovered in the mud of the Potomac River. Now it could provide a key to producing clean energy.

The National Science Foundation recently announced finalists of a public competition for bold ideas to guide their long-term planning. One of the Grand Prize winners wants to get us all involved in tackling climate change.

The current coronavirus outbreak is being tracked using technologies that monitor news and social media, in the hope of identifying hotspots and predicting its spread.

Engineers are working on a removable heart pump that might one day let patients with end stage heart failure not only survive longer, but recover.

A growing number of artists are creating works that pull people into thinking more about climate change…and the pros and cons of possible solutions.

Brain implants can treat diseases ranging from Parkinson’s to depression, but patients must generally be tethered to machines. The key to a new solution might be in your pocket.

We mostly talk about carbon dioxide as the culprit of climate change. But methane is actually about a hundred times more powerful as a greenhouse gas.

Thanks to “man’s best friend,” researchers are making progress on developing an artificial nose that can “smell” the presence of bacterial infection.

As Virginia warns of a potentially bad wildfire season and dangerous fires continue to burn in California, engineers are developing a new tool to stop wildfires in their tracks.

A new technique might soon allow you to stream High Definition video from a camera so small it could be attached to your glasses.

Antarctica is melting faster than expected, so a U-N report released this week says, unless something is done, sea levels will likely rise higher by the end of this century than previous estimates. Some scientists say it may be time to think of radical solutions.

Wind turbines are getting a redesign at the University of Virginia…inspired by the way palm trees withstand storms.

Mars has a harsh environment. So, in anticipation of human travel there, engineers are working on ways to make parts of the planet more hospitable for life.

Most of us spend the large majority of our time indoors, where the air is often more polluted than outdoors. Now one engineer wants to incorporate some nature into the workings of our homes.

Nature’s plants take in carbon dioxide and use it to grow. But they can’t keep up with the amount of C-O-2 that we pump into the air by burning fossil fuels.

Side effects from treatments like chemotherapy might one day be dramatically reduced by a new method that delivers drugs only to a specific target.

This week, 50 Fairfax County students will be the first to complete a unique three-year program that could revolutionize the way STEM – science, technology, engineering, and math – is taught.

The start of summer…back to thunderstorms and mosquitoes. Ever wonder how mosquitoes’ fragile bodies survive the impact of raindrops that are 50 times their weight?

Do restaurant bathroom signs saying “Employees must wash hands” make you feel more comfortable? A new device is making sure workers hands are really clean.

Can computers be creative? That was a topic of conversation at yesterday’s National Math Festival in D-C, during discussion of a book called The Creativity Code.

Engineers have created the first medical device that simply dissolves in the body after its job is done.

Journalism and engineering seem like completely different lines of study. So why is one university in the Midwest putting students from those majors together…in Silicon Valley?

Diagnosing lung diseases ideally uses tools like chest X-rays and blood tests, but in low-resource communities the stethoscope is often the only tool.

Today’s cars are basically computers on wheels, and are becoming more and more connected to the internet. So what if a particular brand got hacked?

This week, at a meeting of the American Physical Society, researchers will announce progress on developing an artificial nose that can “smell” the presence of bacterial infection.

It would be the largest engineering project ever. Researchers are considering ways to actively cool the planet in case global warming gets out of control.

While political views differ, democracy depends upon a basic agreement about facts. Can technology help people sort truth from trash in social media?

It won’t be especially cold in Atlanta’s football stadium for tonight’s Super Bowl, but you’ll probably see the receivers wearing gloves anyway.

It’s relatively easy for bad guys to tap into and steal transmissions from fiber-optic cables, without even being noticed. So sensitive data must be encrypted.

This weekend’s snowfall may be the start of a colder winter according to a theory that looks at air streams in the Arctic region.

Oceans are full of invisible bacterial life that are highly attuned to their environment, so the Navy is trying to enlist them.

Since nuclear power plants don’t emit greenhouse gases, many think they are a solution to climate change. So a push is now on to boost worldwide nuclear energy production by deploying more – but much smaller – reactors.

If you’re shopping online and want to reduce your carbon footprint this holiday season, experts say – don’t procrastinate.

E-mail scams are the number one global cybercrime, but a newly engineered search tool is now being deployed to reveal the crooks.

We used to think of antennas as metal protrusions from T-Vs or cars. Now they’re more hidden, and a new advance takes that even further. Introducing the spray-on antenna…

If last week’s U-N report on climate change wasn’t dire enough, recent research shows the plastics we use every day are adding to the problem.

It may be too late to prevent climate change by simply reducing carbon dioxide emissions. So researchers are working on ways to grab C-O-2 that’s already in the air.

A new engineering technique could soon give you quiet space, even in a noisy environment, without bulky headphones.

As we prepare for more rain, this time from remnants of Hurricane Florence, a recent report identifies the D-C area as high-risk for increased flooding in the future.

Soon you may be able to cut the cord from your technology, and charge it while on the move.

Researchers have, for the first time, demonstrated a technique that could allow direct wireless communication between devices in the deep sea and the air above.

China recently imposed a ban on plastic waste being sent there for recycling. It’s unclear where that plastic is going to go, but engineers are assessing impacts and remedies.

Biomedical engineers have, for the first time, created a working blood vessel system for testing how to treat injury or disease in the lab.