Cornell University researchers are expressing hope for the future of Houston’s breathable air, despite the city’s poor rankings in the American Lung Association’s 2019 “State of the Air” report. The report, released in April, ranked Houston ninth nationally for worst ozone pollution and 17th for particle pollution. Researchers say replacing at least 35 percent of […]
New York State Winters Could Pose Solar Farm ‘Ramping’ Snag for Power Grid
By adding utility-scale solar farms throughout New York state, summer electricity demand from conventional sources could be reduced by up to 9.6 percent in some places. But Cornell University engineers caution that upstate winters tell a different tale. With low energy demand around midday in the winter, combined with solar-electricity production, New York’s power system […]
Soft, Social Robot Brings Coziness to Homes — and Classrooms
A new social robot that can be customized with handcrafted material, such as wood and wool, brings simplicity and fun to home robotics — and will soon be used to help teach math to fourth graders. Guy Hoffman, assistant professor in the Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Cornell University, envisioned robots built […]
Advances Point the Way to Smaller, Safer Batteries
People don’t ask too much from batteries: Deliver energy when it’s needed and for as long as it is wanted, recharge quickly and don’t burst into flames. A rash of cell phone fires in 2016 jolted consumer confidence in lithium-ion batteries, a technology that helped usher in modern portable electronics but has been plagued by […]
Shape-Shifting Robots Perceive Surroundings, Make Decisions for First Time
General-purpose robots have plenty of limitations. They can be expensive and cumbersome. They often accomplish only a single type of task. But modular robots – composed of several interchangeable parts, or modules – are far more flexible. If one part breaks, it can be removed and replaced. Components can be rearranged as needed – or […]
Emotional Robot Lets You Feel How It’s ‘Feeling’
Cornell University researchers have developed a prototype of a robot that can express “emotions” through changes in its outer surface. The robot’s skin covers a grid of texture units whose shapes change based on the robot’s feelings. Assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering Guy Hoffman, who has given a TEDx talk on “Robots with […]
Robot Changes Outer Surface Of ‘Skin’ To Express Emotion
Cornell University researchers have developed a prototype of a robot that can express “emotions” through changes in its outer surface. The robot’s skin covers a grid of texture units whose shapes change based on the robot’s feelings. Assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering Guy Hoffman, who has given a TEDx talk on “Robots with […]
Self-Assembling 3D Battery Would Charge In Seconds
The world is a big place, but it’s gotten smaller with the advent of technologies that put people from across the globe in the palm of one’s hand. And as the world has shrunk, it has also demanded that things happen ever faster — including the time it takes to charge an electronic device. A […]
Breakthrough Made In Atomically Thin Magnets
Cornell researchers have become the first to control atomically thin magnets with an electric field, a breakthrough that provides a blueprint for producing exceptionally powerful and efficient data storage in computer chips, among other applications. The research is detailed in the paper, “Electric-field switching of two-dimensional van der Waals magnets,” published in Nature Materials by Jie Shan, […]
Engineers Create New Architecture For Vaporizable Electronics
Engineers from Cornell University and Honeywell Aerospace have demonstrated a new method for remotely vaporizing electronics into thin air, giving devices the ability to vanish – along with their valuable data – if they were to get into the wrong hands. This unique ability to self-destruct is at the heart of an emerging technology known […]