By electrochemically introducing phosphonate ester groups into conductive polymer films, researchers at Science Tokyo have addressed a fundamental trade-off between electronic charge transport and ion transport, overcoming a key performance limitation in organic electrochemical transistors (OECTs). The method enables precise tuning of polymer properties and can be applied to semicrystalline materials without redesigning monomers, supporting the development of improved biosensors and flexible electronic devices.

SUTD researchers have developed a reinforcement-learning-based safety system that teaches a stair-traversing service robot to brace itself mid-fall, addressing one of the biggest barriers to deploying autonomous robots on staircases.

A new study in Artificial Intelligence and Autonomous Systems shows that neural networks pre-trained to predict continuous gait cycle progression can be reused to improve gait phase classification from foot-mounted inertial sensor data. The approach achieved an F1-score of 0.9788, CPU inference latency below 0.07 ms with a compact DNN, and 92.3% accuracy on an independent young-adult dataset.

A new study published in Biochar shows how agricultural and industrial wastes can be transformed into advanced porous carbon materials that may help protect soil and water resources. By combining laboratory surface analysis with a game theory-based decision-making method, researchers identified a set of promising materials that could support future applications in soil improvement, water retention, and environmental conservation.

Greenhouse cherry tomatoes are valued for their flavor, nutrition, and high market demand, but producing more fruit sustainably remains a challenge. One major obstacle is phosphorus, an essential nutrient that plants need for root development, flowering, and fruit production. Although greenhouse soils often contain large amounts of phosphorus from repeated fertilizer use, much of it becomes locked in forms that plants cannot easily absorb.

As cities expand underground through new roads, housing, tunnels, and infrastructure, huge volumes of soil are dug up, moved, and often left exposed at construction or storage sites. A new study published in Biochar suggests that these excavated soils may carry a largely overlooked climate cost.

There’s a conundrum that has perplexed biologists since Charles Darwin himself. Why do some exotic species take off as invasive pests while others don’t?