science wire

E.quinox secures funding to light up more homes in Rwanda this summer

University of Sheffield chosen as Centre of Excellence for Engineering and Architecture

Multimillion pound project to develop next generation computing systems
14 May 2013 A national collaboration of electronic engineers and computer scientists is aiming to develop the next generation of energy-efficient computing systems.

Science and Engineering South Consortium (SES-5)
The most powerful cluster of research intensive universities in the UK are joining forces to form a new consortium to become one of the world's leading hubs for science and engineering research.

Mass Observation calls for public to take part in day diary archive project
Mass Observation calls for public to take part in day diary archive project The Mass Observation Archive is calling on individuals throughout the UK to chart their opinions, feelings, and experiences in a one-day electronic diary.

Graphene’s high-speed seesaw
30 Apr 2013 A new transistor capable of revolutionising technologies for medical imaging and security screening has been developed by graphene researchers from the Universities of Manchester and Nottingham.

Graphene’s high-speed seesaw
A new transistor capable of revolutionising technologies for medical imaging and security screening has been developed by graphene researchers from the Universities of Nottingham and Manchester.

Sheffield overtakes Cambridge for engineering research income
The University of Sheffield has overtaken the University of Cambridge for engineering research income, confirming the institution as a world-leader in the field.

School children build bridges with University of Birmingham engineers
The School of Civil Engineering at the University of Birmingham is pioneering a new initiative to take bridge construction out to local schools and sixth forms to engage young people in the discipline.

Early career reseachers decend on parliament
Last month the House of Commons hosted a group of early career researchers, including 16 from Imperial, who presented their science to politicians.

Sussex achieves first milestone award for improving prospects of female scientists

£1.3m EPSRC grant enables large scale graphene production at Nottingham
£1.3m of funding from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) will be used to buy a new molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) system for The University of Nottingham.

University partners with Sondrel to develop Chinese design talent
The University of Nottingham has launched a unique training programme which will enable Chinese students to become the integrated circuit (IC) designers of the future.

Engineering research makes front-page news
An article, World-changing technology being pioneered in Bristol , about pioneering research into energy and CO2 reduction via improved power amplifier efficiency in the cellular and broadcast indu

Frog-like robot will help surgeons
Researchers at the University of Leeds are using the feet of tree frogs as a model for a tiny robot designed to crawl inside patients' bodies during keyhole surgery. The tiny device is one of a growing stable of bio-inspired robots being built in the University’s School of Mechanical Engineering and featured on the BBC’s The One Show last night.

The work of Professor Peter Kohl’s group
Peter Kohl heads up the Cardiac Biophysics and Systems Biology group at Imperial which tackles heart science issues at various scales.

Inventor’s corner: Dr Themistoklis Prodromakis
Themistoklis Prodromakis is a research fellow at the Centre for Bio-inspired Technology and is developing brain-inspired electronics using memristors What are memristors?

Sensory helmet could mean firefighters are not left in the dark
A specially-adapted 'tactile helmet', developed by researchers at the University of Sheffield, could provide fire-fighters operating in challenging conditions with vital clues about their surroundings.

Low-cost LEDs for saving energy and improving health
Gallium nitride has been described as "the most important semiconductor since silicon" and is used in energy-saving LED lighting.

Swarming robots could be the servants of the future
Swarms of robots acting together to carry out jobs could provide new opportunities for humans to harness the power of machines. Researchers in the Sheffield Centre for Robotics, jointly established by the University of Sheffield and Sheffield Hallam University, have been working to program a group of 40 robots, and say the ability to control robot swarms could prove hugely beneficial in a range of contexts, from military to medical.

University of Birmingham receives £5.9 million to assess the underworld
The University of Birmingham will receive one of four large grants as part of a multimillion pound investment in leading engineering research projects to be announced by Minister for Universities and Science, David Willetts today (12 March 2013).

EPSRC announces new UCL Centre for Nature Inspired Engineering
Innovative engineering projects announced today, including a new Centre for Nature Inspired Engineering at UCL, will bring leading engineers and scientists together to address some of the major engineering challenges facing the world.

Building a better battery
A new battery technology provides double the energy storage at lower cost than the batteries that are used in handheld electronics, electric vehicles, aerospace and defence.

City launches festival of science and engineering
A fortnight-long festival showcasing science and engineering in the city, which is led by the University of Sheffield and Sheffield Hallam University, returns this month in a new form, bigger and better than ever before.

Scientists to support the manufacture of future electronics
Scientists are being backed by government to put the UK at the forefront of a growing global high-tech electronics industry.

Consortium wins graphene research funding
The University of Liverpool's Stephenson Institute is part of one of the successful research projects to receive funding to enhance the ‘manufacturability' of graphene, one of the thinnest, strongest and most conductive materials known to man.

Liverpool/Manchester Consortium wins Graphene Research Funding
The University of Liverpool's Stephenson Institute is part of one of the successful research projects to receive funding to enhance the ‘manufacturability' of graphene, one of the thinnest, strongest and most conductive materials known to man.

Photo competition set to showcase Science and Engineering research
Shutterbug scientists are being encouraged to submit interesting, unusual or otherwise noteworthy images to a College of Science and Engineering photography competition. Academic staff, research associates and postgraduate students are eligible for entry to the College's Technical Photography contest.

Flying moths inspire robotics
The hawk moth's wings are a blur of mottled grey motion as it hovers tethered to a steel rod in large white plastic orb. Outside the orb in the darkened room where I stand, a projector casts moving patterns of dimmed light onto the sphere's surface, illuminating the moth's field of vision with oscillating stripes.

Smart living
Providing a secure and sustainable energy supply is one of the key issues facing the UK today. Finding innovative solutions to this challenge will involve academics working with local authorities, businesses and governments.

£1.3m drive to harness high-performance racing car materials for high-performance buildings
Civil and structural engineers will explore the durability of high-tech composite materials of the type used in aerospace and automotive industries in a bid to unlock their full potential for infrastructure and civil engineering works.

’Wet’ computer server could cut internet waste
A revolutionary liquid-cooled computer server that could slash the carbon footprint of the internet is being tested at the University of Leeds.

Engineering scholarship aims to boost UK industry

Imperial celebrates its automotive research prowess
The Department of Mechanical Engineering at Imperial has been at the forefront of research to develop the next generation of vehicles for more than 40 years.

Imperial Festival returns for second fun-filled extravaganza

A class act: empathic robot tutors in classrooms to facilitate teaching and learning
A European project to develop robotic tutors that will support teachers and motivate students in secondary schools is being led by University of Birmingham engineers and computer scientists, in collaboration with Heriot-Watt University and other European partners.

Robot electric car shows off iPad 'auto drive'
Robotic technology from Oxford University that enables a car to 'drive itself' for stretches of a route has been shown driving a Nissan Leaf electric car.

A taste of the graphene sandwich
Writing in PNAS , University of Manchester graphene researchers found that sandwiching a layer of the wonder material between boron nitride could produce highly-accurate capacitors. Capacitors could pave the way for flexible and superstrong electronic devices. Wonder material graphene was first isolated in 2004 at The University of Manchester by Andre Geim and Kostya Novoselov.

Workshop Wizardry: new scheme at Imperial to train skilled research technicians
Scientific research today is nearly always a team effort – and is becoming increasingly collaborative and multidisciplinary.

Imperial gets a diamond of a gift from The Queen

Light reading: The Department of Physics's nanoplasmonics group
Stefan Maier's nanoplasmonics group started five years ago with just one other member. It is now a 30-strong team which last year produced 40 publications, almost all in high impact journals, including Nature journals and Science.

Profile: Professor Tony Cass
Tony Cass Tony Cass (Chemistry) celebrates his 30th year at the College in 2013, having worked across numerous departments and centres – some now extinct, and others that have evolved into groups such as the Institute for Biomedical Engineering, for which Tony serves as Deputy Director.

Manchester leads the way in 1bn euro research projects
Winners of the ten-year Future Emerging Technology research programs were announced at a press conference in Brussels this morning.

Graphene: Taking the wonder-stuff from dream to reality
—Sir Leszek Borysiewicz The Cambridge Graphene Centre will start its activities on February 1 st 2013, with a dedicated facility due to open at the end of the year.

Enhancing social interactions using information technology
Social pathologies, including schizophrenia, autism and social phobia, are mainly characterised by difficulties in interacting with other people.

UCL plans new department at the interface between STEM and policy
UCL is opening a new department focused on the interface between science, technology, engineering, maths (STEM) and policy, as well as an associated interdisciplinary research institute, in September 2013.

Cross-arms could speed up connection of new electricity supplies
Insulated Cross-arms, manufactured and sold by University of Manchester spin-out company Arago Technology Ltd., have been installed on pylons in some of the most stark and remote areas of the UK to

WMG to host 600 strong bespoke engineering degree for Jaguar Land Rover staff
WMG (Warwick Manufacturing Group) at the University of Warwick has announced that it has entered an agreement with Jaguar Land Rover to teach up to 600 Jaguar Land Rover employees to degree level in product engineering and manufacturing engineering.

Virtual heart sheds new light on heart defect
Researchers at the School of Physics and Astronomy used cutting edge technology to build an advanced computational model of an anatomically correct sheep's heart. It was made by taking a series of very thin slices of the heart, imaging them in 2D and then using a computer programme to render them into a 3D model.

The next generation of plastic electronics

Smarter infrastructure
Wireless sensors are one way to better look after infrastructure, and it's something that industry is interested in doing, but batteries are always the sticking point." —Kenichi Soga

New PVC for Research joins Sussex
The University's new Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Research) took up his post this week. Michael Davies has come from Auckland, where he was Dean of Engineering and Pro-Vice-Chancellor of the University's innovation campus, to join Sussex.

New funding to research ’super material’ graphene
Scientists at Imperial College London are set to receive over £4.5 million of public funding to investigate how the 'super material' graphene can drive improvements in high-tech industries, such as aerospace design and medical technologies.

Runners benefit from new spin-out
Run3D Ltd, a new Oxford University spin-out company, provides a pioneering service to help runners avoid a common form of injury.

Scientists view the atomic structure of the crystal under the optical microscope
Scientists from the University of Sheffield have analysed the microscopic structure of widely used crystal materials for the first time to reveal their detailed atomic properties.

Voyage of scientific and engineering discovery for school pupils
A new innovative programme of discovery has been launched at the University of Sheffield to help school pupils across South Yorkshire delve into the intriguing worlds of Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths.

UCL Electronic & Electrical Engineering win Department of the Year Award

New Engineering Building will open door to growth and investment
The decision to approve the University of Sheffield's planning application for an £81 million state of the art New Engineering Building on the Jessop East site will open the door to growth and investment, making a huge contribution to the Sheffield and regional economy.

HOSTs with the most
A number of international students from Imperial will be spending time with British families over the festive period, as part of a scheme run by the charity HOST UK together with the College's International Office.

The University of Nottingham hosts annual Engineering Christmas Lecture
Hundreds of school children from across the region will get an entertaining and exciting insight into engineering at The University of Nottingham's annual Engineering Christmas Lecture.

Controlling hybrid quantum bits is child’s-play
New research has demonstrated a way to make bismuth electrons and nuclei work together as qubits in a quantum computer. The discovery takes us a key step further to creating practical quantum computing which could tackle complex programs that would otherwise take the lifetime of the universe to finish.

Engineers pave the way towards 3D printing of personal electronics
Scientists are developing new materials which could one day allow people to print out custom-designed personal electronics such as games controllers which perfectly fit their hand shape.

Further developing Chinese aerospace industry partnership
Supporting the development of the next generation of passenger aircraft, using advanced materials, design and manufacturing processes, will be the focus of a new £5 million partnership between Imperial College London and a major Chinese aerospace conglomerate, announced today.