A collaboration between civil engineering and neurosurgery at the University of Pittsburgh could change how spinal fusion surgery is performed and monitored. Associate Professors Amir Alavi, Nitin Agarwal, and D. Kojo Hamilton have received a $352,213 National Institutes of Health (NIH) R21 grant to develop the first self-powered spinal implant capable of transmitting real-time data from inside the body.

Optical computing, which uses light rather than electricity to process information, offers a promising route to overcome the speed and energy limits of conventional electronics. In a recent study, researchers from China developed an optical feature extraction engine, OFE².  The integrated system performs high-speed feature extraction using optical diffraction. Operating at 12.5 GHz, OFE² demonstrated record-low latency and enhanced performance in various tasks, including image analysis and real-time processing of financial data.

Between 2008 and 2010, polarization in society increased dramatically alongside a significant shift in social behavior: the number of close social contacts rose from an average of two to four or five people. The connection between these two developments could provide a fundamental explanation for why societies around the world are increasingly fragmenting into ideological bubbles.

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have uncovered the first natural example of granular jamming, a process where loose particles lock into place under pressure, in the skeleton of a soft coral. The discovery explains a long-observed mystery in biology and could inspire new designs for medical devices, robotics and protective gear.

Xuanhong Cheng, a professor of bioengineering and materials science and engineering at Lehigh University, and her team are collaborating with materials science company Dow Inc. to study how microbes—microscopic organisms that digest sewage—interact with and potentially biodegrade viscosifiers, polymers used in consumer products like shampoos, detergents, and cosmetics to keep ingredients suspended and stable in solution. Their proposal recently received a three-year GOALI award from the National Science Foundation. The program funds projects that support university-industry collaborations.