Frequent explosions plagued the U.S. grain industry until the Occupational Safety and Health Administration introduced new grain-handling standards in 1988. The number of explosions soon dropped.

Still, grain handling and processing facilities in the U.S. have experienced a 10-year average of 8.4 incidents annually, said Kingsly Ambrose, professor of agricultural and biological engineering. During the last decade these incidents have led to dozens of injuries and fatalities, millions of dollars in damage, and operational downtime.

In May 2024, Sandia National Laboratories became the first facility within the nuclear security enterprise to provide its employees with access to this powerful new tool with SandiaAI Chat, enabling them to ask sensitive unclassified questions.

Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) has achieved significant milestones at the World Telecommunication Standardization Assembly (WTSA-24), the highest decision-making body for telecommunications standardization, by securing six leadership positions.

Nick Gregorich and Syed Islam, ORNL R&D staff, recently completed Cohort 19 of the Energy I-Corps program, an initiative of DOE’s Office of Technology Transitions, or OTT, that provides teams of researchers and industry mentors with an immersive two-month training to develop commercialization pathways for laboratory-developed technologies.

Dr. Koushik Kasanagottu, a public health expert and assistant clinical professor in the Department of Internal Medicine at the UC Riverside School of Medicine, addresses questions pertinent to AI in medicine.

The Kobe University start-up Photo-on-Demand Chemical Co. Ltd. demonstrated that it can produce methane from sewage to refine it into pharmaceutical raw materials and other useful chemicals. For this, TSUDA Akihiko, the CEO and associate professor at the Graduate School of Science, and his team have developed a “photoproduction” method that produces such chemicals by shining light on methane and chlorine, etc. The company was established in April 2024 and began demonstration tests at a sewage treatment plant of Kobe City in September. We asked Tsuda about the background to the research, which also promotes decarbonization policies known as “green transformation” (GX) in Japan, and future developments.

Thirty years have passed since the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake, often referred to as “the birthplace of volunteerism” in Japan. Today, it is common to see volunteers involved in the recovery and reconstruction of disaster-stricken areas. On the other hand, the Noto Peninsula Earthquake in 2024 has raised various issues, including moves by the government to restrict the activities of volunteers. What is the role of volunteers in disaster-stricken areas? We interviewed Professor MATSUOKA from the Graduate School of Human Development and Environment, who as a specialist in social education continues to do research on and practice community empowerment.

During the summer of 2024, while the Paris 2024 Paralympics Games were in full swing, the 2024 Pan-American Masters Games (PAMG), an international multi-sport event for masters athletes, took place in Cleveland, USA. Professor CHOGAHARA Makoto from the Graduate School of Human Development and Environment participated in the 10-day event both as an athlete and as a board member of the International Masters Games Association (IMGA), the organizing body, and shared in the excitement of rubbing shoulders with rivals from around the world. With the World Masters Games 2027 Kansai coming up, we asked Chogahara, who specializes in sports promotion and serves as a council member for the event, about its significance and the role lifelong sports play in an aging society.