Engineering news

Electromagnetic fields as cutting tools

Technology / Engineering

created Dec 01, 2009 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (21) | comments 13

(PhysOrg.com) -- The bodywork on motor vehicles must be sufficiently stable, but processing the high-strength steels involved -- for example punching holes in them -- can prove something of a challenge. A new steel-cutting ...


Dutch PhD student develops device to combat noise

Technology / Engineering

created Dec 01, 2009 | popularity 3.9 / 5 (16) | comments 17

Johan Wesselink of the University of Twente, The Netherlands, has developed a device to actively combat noise nuisance. This invention curtails sound waves and vibrations by producing anti-noise. The researcher is confident ...


Shape shifters: Researchers create new breed of antennas

Shape shifters: Researchers create new breed of antennas

Technology / Engineering

created Dec 01, 2009 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (13) | comments 4

(PhysOrg.com) -- Antennas aren't just for listening to the radio anymore. They're used in everything from cell phones to GPS devices. Research from North Carolina State University is revolutionizing the field ...


Flight of fancy

Flight of fancy: MIT autonomous mini-helicopter solves one tough challenge

Technology / Engineering

created Dec 03, 2009 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (13) | comments 2

In its first 18 years, the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International’s annual aerial-robotics competition posed four successive challenges, which robotics researchers had to meet using entirely ...


Micromachined piezoelectric harvester drives fully autonomous wireless sensor

Micromachined piezoelectric harvester drives fully autonomous wireless sensor

Technology / Engineering

created Dec 15, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (10) | comments 1

For the first time, a piezoelectric harvesting device fabricated by MEMS technology generates a record of 85μW electrical power from vibrations. A wafer level packaging method was developed for robustness. ...


Pickin' Up Good Vibrations to Produce Green Electricity

Pickin' Up Good Vibrations to Produce Green Electricity

Technology / Engineering

created Nov 30, 2009 | popularity 4.1 / 5 (11) | comments 2

(PhysOrg.com) -- Vibrations from the environments we live and work in could be much more widely harnessed as a clean source of electricity, due to cutting-edge UK research.


Design chosen for British 1,000 mph car

Design chosen for British 1,000 mph car (w/ Video)

Technology / Engineering

created Nov 25, 2009 | popularity 3.9 / 5 (11) | comments 8

(PhysOrg.com) -- A British team hoping to be the first to get a car to 1,000 mph (1,610 km/h) has made its final design selection. The six-tonne car, known as the Bloodhound, will be powered by a Eurofighter ...


MIT's big wheel in Copenhagen

Biking 2.0: MIT's big wheel in Copenhagen (w/ Video)

Technology / Engineering

created 21 hours ago | popularity 3.7 / 5 (9) | comments 4

Yesterday, Dec. 15, at the Copenhagen Conference on Climate Change, MIT researchers debuted the Copenhagen Wheel -- a revolutionary new bicycle wheel that not only boosts power, but can keep track of friends, ...


Microscopic gyroscopes, the key for motion sensing

Microscopic gyroscopes, the key for motion sensing

Technology / Engineering

created Dec 09, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (6) | comments 1

(PhysOrg.com) -- Tiny devices made possible by combining the latest advances in mechanical and electronics technology could be at the heart of next-generation personal navigation and vehicle stabilisation ...


Munich lab demonstrates diesel truck engine with barely measurable emissions

German researchers demonstrate diesel truck engine with barely measurable emissions

Technology / Engineering

created Dec 07, 2009 | popularity 3.8 / 5 (6) | comments 1

Just three months after the Euro 5 Norm for exhaust emissions went into force for all new car models, researchers at the Technische Universitaet Muenchen (TUM, Germany) have demonstrated an engine that is ...


New laser -- it's a gas, gas, gas... sensor

New laser -- it's a gas, gas, gas... sensor

Technology / Engineering

created Dec 04, 2009 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (4) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- A new generation of optical sensors is enabling the development of robust, long-lasting, lighting-fast trace gas detectors for use in a wide range of industrial, security and domestic applications.


Scientists study hummingbirds flight to develop self-propelled surveillance devices

Technology / Engineering

created Dec 16, 2009 | popularity 3.8 / 5 (5) | comments 1

The secret to the flight of the hummingbird and other tiny birds and insects lies in the looping, swirling flow of air, called a vortex, that their flapping wings create.


The filter is designed to be used in rural households

India's Tata launches low-cost water filter for rural poor

Technology / Engineering

created Dec 07, 2009 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (4) | comments 1

India's giant Tata Group on Monday unveiled a new low-cost water purifier, hoping to do for health what it did for motoring and provide affordable, safe drinking water for millions and cut disease.


On the Crest of Wave Energy

On the Crest of Wave Energy

Technology / Engineering

created Nov 19, 2009 | popularity 3.5 / 5 (4) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- The ocean is a potentially vast source of electric power, yet as engineers test new technologies for capturing it, the devices are plagued by battering storms, limited efficiency, and the ...


National Taiwan University logo

Cellphone powers back pain chip in Taiwan

Technology / Engineering

created Nov 27, 2009 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (3) | comments 0

Taiwanese researchers have developed a chip to treat backpain that is powered by mobile phone, a member of the team said Friday.