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As informed sources proliferate and compete for the attention of time-strapped engineers, Tech Briefs’ unique, compelling content ensures your marketing message will be seen and read. Our coverage includes NASA and major federal R&D labs (Department of Energy, Department of Defense, etc.) Our mission is to report "engineering solutions for design and manufacturing." Go to techbriefs.com for expand

ed editorial coverage. If it is an engineering breakthrough that will help to create great products, it’s reported in Tech Briefs.

SAE Media Group announced the winners of its Rising Star Awards: Women in Engineering program yesterday during a live on...
10/03/2025

SAE Media Group announced the winners of its Rising Star Awards: Women in Engineering program yesterday during a live online event attended by participants across the globe.

This prestigious program honors exceptional women engineers who are not only making remarkable strides in their fields but also lighting the way for future generations. Their achievements, leadership, and dedication continue to inspire and elevate the engineering community.

Organizations were invited to nominate outstanding women engineers whose achievements have positively impacted both the industry and society. Every nominee was exemplary, making the selection process both inspiring and incredibly challenging. We applaud all the nominees for their remarkable contributions to engineering and their commitment to shaping a better future.

The entries were evaluated by our esteemed panel of judges and editorial team, and six winners were selected in the fields of Aerospace/Defense, Automotive/Transportation, Electronics, Manufacturing/Materials, Medical, and Robotics, Automation & AI.

The 2025 Rising Star Awards recipients include:

Click here to find out the winners: https://ow.ly/rbu350X6c5m

Aerogel Art Attracts AttentionIoannis Michaloudis must have seemed like an unusual choice of speaker at first. Much of h...
10/03/2025

Aerogel Art Attracts Attention

Ioannis Michaloudis must have seemed like an unusual choice of speaker at first. Much of his talk before the scientists, engineers, and entrepreneurs gathered in Dallas for the 2024 summit of the Advanced Research Projects-Energy agency was abstract. He spoke of the sky as the planet’s protective garment, floated the idea of making shade clouds from space junk, and characterized his artwork as “biomimicry of the sky.”

But as the world’s best insulator, the translucent, ethereal silica aerogel Michaloudis works with has concrete energy applications. He finished his talk by proving this with a video of his aerogel Coperni AirSwipe bag, which had caused a sensation at its debut months earlier, being filled with molten brass.

“It was amazing because they were like, you know, an artist is speaking, OK, he’s making beautiful things,” recalled the Greek artist, researcher, and professor. “And then lava inside this bag that had gone viral all over the world.”

Read the rest of the NASA Spinoff: https://ow.ly/r9tb50X65Fo

RISING STAR AWARDS 2025 WINNERS ANNOUNCEDThe wait is over. We’re thrilled to announce the winners of the 2025 Women in E...
10/02/2025

RISING STAR AWARDS 2025 WINNERS ANNOUNCED

The wait is over. We’re thrilled to announce the winners of the 2025 Women in Engineering: Rising Star Awards!

This prestigious program honors exceptional women engineers who are not only making remarkable strides in their fields but also lighting the way for future generations. Their achievements, leadership, and dedication continue to inspire and elevate the engineering community.

Meet the winners in all six categories: https://ow.ly/Isal50X5JvC

How VR Games Can Lead to a Healthier SocietySince their inception, video games have taken much blame, including making p...
10/01/2025

How VR Games Can Lead to a Healthier Society

Since their inception, video games have taken much blame, including making people lazy and unhealthy.

However, current VR technology has the ability to do the opposite. Watch the video below to see two examples.

https://ow.ly/tOg850X4RJX

Device Eliminates Vortices and VibrationIt’s a classic case of beginner’s luck. Thomas Berger had just started his Ph.D....
09/30/2025

Device Eliminates Vortices and Vibration

It’s a classic case of beginner’s luck. Thomas Berger had just started his Ph.D. in mechanical engineering at EPFL’s School of Engineering when he made his now-patented discovery, which has already been published. His thesis built on work he had started as a master’s student, but with the help of a 3D printer. This led to the promising technology that’s now attracting interest from investors.

Berger conducted his research at the laboratory headed by Mohamed Farhat, which studies complex fluid dynamics for applications including sailboats and hydropower turbines. “Turbines create particular challenges from both a scientific and engineering perspective,” said Farhat, who also supervised Berger’s thesis. “We’re aiming to address those challenges by running experiments on our large equipment. The biggest challenge relates to flow-induced vibration, which is a major problem for turbine designers as well as operators.” The key to Berger’s system is to eliminate the vortices that cause much of the vibration.

Vortices form when a fluid such as air or water flows over an obstacle. They’re created by such things as airplane wings, the ferries crisscrossing Lake Geneva, and the Burj Khalifa skyscraper in Dubai. Once the fluid starts to flow over the obstacle at a certain velocity, alternating vortices are created in the obstacle’s wake that exert oscillating pressure on its surface, resulting in vibration. These vortices can be very strong and damage turbines or even bridges, as occurred with the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in the U.S. in 1940. They were first identified by engineer Theodore von Kármán in 1911 and are now known as Kármán vortices.

Learn more: https://ow.ly/Tzck50X4fY6

Meet RoboBall: A Robot with No Fixed Top or BottomDecades after its inception, RoboBall has found new life at Texas A&M ...
09/29/2025

Meet RoboBall: A Robot with No Fixed Top or Bottom

Decades after its inception, RoboBall has found new life at Texas A&M University. Now it intends to enter uncharted terrain.

"It's been really fun to be able to take this robot and not be very gentle with it. A lot of people will build these robots, spend a lot of time and money, and then they're very careful, very systematic with their tests. They’re afraid to push it to its limits and as a result you don't necessarily get the full extent of understanding of what your robot can do."

Learn more: https://ow.ly/QXJu50X3wNl

Happy Friday! How Much Do You Know About EV Safety Innovations?Electric vehicles (EVs) are the wave of the future. We se...
09/26/2025

Happy Friday! How Much Do You Know About EV Safety Innovations?

Electric vehicles (EVs) are the wave of the future. We see more and more of them on the road each day. So, how much do you know about the safety innovations that keep EVs (and us) safe? Find out with this quiz.

https://ow.ly/zf1n50X2K48

How AI Can Protect the Electric GridResearchers at Sandia National Laboratories have developed brain-inspired AI algorit...
09/24/2025

How AI Can Protect the Electric Grid

Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories have developed brain-inspired AI algorithms that detect physical problems, cyberattacks, and both at the same time within the grid.

“As more disturbances occur, whether from extreme weather or from cyberattacks, the most important thing is that operators maintain the function and reliability of the grid,” said Shamina Hossain-McKenzie, Cybersecurity Expert and Project Leader. “Our technology will allow the operators to detect any issues faster so that they can mitigate them faster with AI.”

Learn more: https://ow.ly/tO3h50X1rz6

My Opinion: AI Is Great — Is There Enough Electricity to Feed It?"In my opinion there is no doubt there will be a huge i...
09/23/2025

My Opinion: AI Is Great — Is There Enough Electricity to Feed It?

"In my opinion there is no doubt there will be a huge increase in demand — I don’t think there’s anything we can do about that in the near future, despite the ongoing efforts to make data centers less power-hungry."

Learn more about SAE Media Group's Ed Brown's opinion on the matter: https://ow.ly/c0se50X0M1R

An AI-Powered Robodog Is Here to Save the Day!A team at Arizona State University used artificial intelligence to design ...
09/22/2025

An AI-Powered Robodog Is Here to Save the Day!

A team at Arizona State University used artificial intelligence to design a quadrupedal robot created for way more than just playing fetch.

"Unitree Go2 is a quadruped robot. It has its own GPUs, which is required for running all the deep learning models in parallel. We can think of it like it's just another computer, a powerful computer, but with some embodiment. It has links and it can sense everything. So, the sensors — we collect data from the environment from different sensors, cameras, LiDARs for understanding the depth. And there's a microphone. Then we compute everything inside, run our AI algorithms inside, then send signals to motors. How to control it, what to do."

Learn more: https://ow.ly/1rru50X063p

How Much Do You Know About Wind Turbines?A device that converts the kinetic energy of wind into electrical energy, wind ...
09/19/2025

How Much Do You Know About Wind Turbines?

A device that converts the kinetic energy of wind into electrical energy, wind turbines are imperative in our search for renewable energy as we aim to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels.

How much do you know about wind turbines? Find out with this quiz:

https://ow.ly/r6NI50WZixy

The future of medical devices is being shaped now.Join us at the Medical Device Manufacturing & R&D Summit 2025 this Nov...
09/19/2025

The future of medical devices is being shaped now.

Join us at the Medical Device Manufacturing & R&D Summit 2025 this November! This is your opportunity to connect with industry leaders, visionary engineers, and pioneering suppliers who are driving innovation in the medical device sector.

With limited space available, make sure you're in the room where critical decisions are made.

📩 Secure your spot or request more info: [email protected]

🔗 Register now: https://ow.ly/a62R50WZj5V

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