EurekAlert! News by Subject: Tech & Engineering - News by Subject: Tech & Engineering

Tech & Engineering

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 4-May-2025 13:09 ET (4-May-2025 17:09 GMT/UTC)

Swanson School of Engineering selected to receive $3.3 million to develop new electricity transmission technology

University of Pittsburgh
Grant and Award Announcement

Pitt’s Swanson School of Engineering will lead a $3.3 million university/industry partnership using artificial intelligence to optimize an HVDC converter design for increased power density and decreased cost.

Funder: DOE/US Department of Energy

WVU forensic science research responds to DEA need for faster, better identification of drugs like fentanyl

West Virginia University
Grant and Award Announcement

Relief is coming for crime scene investigators and toxicologists who have struggled to accurately and swiftly identify drugs that have been seized by law enforcement and may be relied on as evidence at trial, thanks to a research partnership between West Virginia University and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

Funder: National Institute of Justice

Engineered receptors help the immune system home in on cancer

University of California - San Francisco
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Most cancer treatments – from chemotherapies to engineered immune cells – have a host of side effects, in large part because they affect healthy cells in the body at the same time as targeting tumor cells. For the same reason, designing new cancer drugs can be challenging due to the molecular similarities between tumor cells and healthy cells.

Journal: Nature
Funder: Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy, CRI Lloyd J Old STAR Award, NIH Director's New Innovator Award, NIH/National Institute of General Medical Sciences

Cash is King: The surprising truth about spending habits in a cashless world

University of Surrey
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Physical cash not only influences how much we spend but also fosters a profound sense of psychological ownership that digital payments cannot replicate, according to research from the University of Surrey.

Journal: Qualitative Market Research An International Journal

Sensitive ceramics for soft robotics

Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (EMPA)
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Robots that can sense touch and perceive temperature differences? An unexpected material might just make this a reality. At Empa's Laboratory for High-Performance Ceramics, researchers are developing soft and intelligent sensor materials based on ceramic particles.

Journal: Advanced Intelligent Systems

Professor Irene Coin’s lab: Important publication on genetic code expansion and Blue Flame Award

Universität Leipzig
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Over the years, chemical biology methods have made an important contribution to the study of integral membrane proteins. A key modern approach is genetic code expansion (GCE), which makes it possible to modify proteins directly in living cells to give them tailor-made properties. Professor Irene Coin from Leipzig University is a pioneer in this field. Together with her US colleague Professor Thomas Sakmar (Rockefeller University, New York), she has now published a comprehensive overview of the development of GCE technology and its application in the renowned journal Chemical Reviews. The non-profit organisation Addgene has also honoured her lab with its Blue Flame Award.

Journal: Chemical Reviews
Funder: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft

LIST and UNHCR to launch early warning system for emergencies

Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology
Business Announcement

The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), in coordination with the Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST), launched today an initiative to develop an advanced global early warning and response system to help humanitarian actors prepare and plan for emergencies.

The new system, which uses the latest AI technology combined with Earth observation data, will help humanitarian actors, local authorities, and local communities to reinforce their preparedness and response by detecting and evaluating risks of events that might trigger forced displacement, and delivering timely alerts ahead of an emergency.