Engineering & Computer Science
Dr Baowei Fei – A New Technique for Targeted Prostate Cancer Biopsies
Two-dimensional transrectal ultrasound (TRUS) guided biopsy is the standard method for prostate cancer diagnosis. However, the technique is limited in one respect – it can be prone to sampling error. Cancers can be missed, or their severity grossly underestimated. To address this, Dr Baowei Fei, from the University of Texas (UT) at Dallas and UT Southwestern Medical Center, is pioneering a technique that merges positron emission tomography (PET) with TRUS to detect prostate cancer more accurately than before.
Dr Rolf Drechsler | Dr Christoph Lüth – SELFIE – Self-Verification of Electronic Systems
Electronic systems influence many aspects of daily life. It is imperative, therefore, that these systems are working as intended and expected. The process of ensuring the correctness of systems is called verification. Traditional verification methods, however, are...
Professor Mikhail Prokopenko – Mastering Complex Systems: Predicting the Unpredictable
Many of the greatest challenges currently facing humanity, such as climate change and effective urbanisation, are multifaceted and intricate, with multiple moving parts. Complex systems analysts pull data and insights from diverse components to generate dynamic…
The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation
The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation promotes academic cooperation between excellent scientists and scholars from abroad and from Germany. To this end, it grants more than 700 research fellowships and research awards annually. These allow researchers from all over...
Dr Brian Glazer – Emerging Technologies to Enable Affordable Ocean Observing
Coastal environments have immense ecological, practical, recreational and cultural value, and are under threat from multiple natural and anthropogenic stressors. Dr Brian Glazer and his team at the University of Hawai’i use specialised equipment to conduct remote...
Dr Harald Baayen – Are You Listening? Teaching a Machine to Understand Speech
In the past few years, speech recognition has become a new standard for state-of-the-art technology. We now talk to our phones as much as we talk on them. How can helping machines learn to listen improve our understanding of how our own brains work? Dr Harald Baayen...
Dr Pankaj Sharma – Inspiring Students at The Duke Energy Academy at Purdue
A secure and sustainable energy supply for the future depends upon communities and industries working together. To facilitate this, a skilled STEM workforce is needed. To that end, Dr Pankaj Sharma a courtesy professor at Purdue University and his colleagues have...
Dr Pankaj Sharma – Teachers Inspired by the Duke Energy Academy (DEAP)
Much of the responsibility of improving science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education has fallen upon teachers. However, it is often just assumed that they have the tools and skills needed to fulfil that responsibility. Dr Pankaj Sharma a courtesy...
Professor Pankaj Sharma – A Short Interdisciplinary Summer Course in Sustainable Development
The survival of humanity relies upon the sustainable use of natural systems that provide food, energy, and water. However, the growth in the world’s population and human activities that generate pollution are posing serious sustainability challenges to these systems....
Dr Klaus Schulz | Dr Florian Fink – Novel Software for Cleansing Digitised Historical Texts
A fortune in historical information lies in archives and library basements around the world. Now, research by Dr Klaus Schulz, Dr Florian Fink and their colleagues at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich is helping to bring this important information to light....
Professor William Holderbaum | Dr Ioannis Dimitrios Zoulias | Dr Monica Armengol – Walking Against the Current
A research team at the University of Reading is helping people with paraplegia to stand, using electrical stimulation and high-tech exercise platforms to prevent long-term decline in bone and muscle. Spinal cord injuries are far more common than you might think....
Outcomes of Gender Summit 11, Co-hosted by NSERC
From November 6 to 8, 2017, more than 675 advocates of gender equity from across many different fields in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) took part in Gender Summit 11, in Montreal, Quebec. Co-hosted by the Natural Sciences and Engineering...
The National Research Council of Canada’s Advanced Electronics & Photonics Research Centre
Headquartered in Ottawa, the National Research Council (NRC) is the primary national research and technology organisation of the Government of Canada. As one of its many research centres, the Advanced Electronics and Photonics Research Centre serves the information...
Dr Partha P. Mukherjee – Improving Electrode Microstructural Dynamics & Battery Performance
Whether it be enabling renewable technologies, mobilising electric vehicles, or powering the electronic devices we carry, batteries are essential to modern life. As technology continues to advance, high-quality, long-lasting batteries are needed more than ever. Dr...
SFB 1083 – Collaborating to Study Interfaces in Miniaturised Materials
Creating technologies from multiple materials with different physical properties can be hugely beneficial, but the process doesn’t come without its challenges. As we fabricate new devices, an understanding of the physics occurring at the interfaces where different...
Crumbed Rubber Concrete: A Promising Material for Sustainable Construction
Crumbed rubber concrete (CRC) is a promising new material on the construction scene. Created by replacing sand with rubber particles when mixing concrete, the material promises to significantly reduce certain environmental impacts, yet its structural properties are...
Wolfspeed & International Femtoscience: Creating a New Generation of Capacitors
Capacitors are a vital component in virtually every electronic device we use, and yet, innovations that make them more efficient have been a long time coming. Mr John Fraley and his colleagues at Wolfspeed, A Cree Company, and International Femtoscience are now...
Dr Ali Mesbah – Learning-Based Performance Optimisation of Uncertain Systems
Many systems in nature change in random, unpredictable ways over time. From the motions of microscopic particles in fluids to the daily price of stocks, random processes play a large role in systems we interact with every day. Also, because of our incomplete...
Dr Yier Jin | Dr Cliff Zou – Cyberforensic.net – Training Many to Fight Cyber Crime
People are sharing more personal information online than ever before. It is essential, therefore, that robust security and privacy systems are in place to protect it. Furthermore, experts in the field of cybersecurity are essential. Drawing on their extensive research...
I2R – At the Forefront of Imaging & Remote Sensing
Scientists and engineers often need tailored remote sensing instruments to understand complex phenomena. ‘Innovative Imaging and Research’, or ‘I2R’, located at the NASA John C. Stennis Space Center in Mississippi, is developing such instruments for particularly...
BreezoMeter – Mapping Allergies: A Modern Approach to Pollen Prevalence Reporting
For seasonal allergy sufferers, the warm spring weather that delights most comes with unpleasant symptoms and breathing difficulties. However, most methods of predicting pollen abundance are not precise enough to help the afflicted avoid high pollen areas. BreezoMeter...
Dr Huu Duc Vo | Dr Njuki Mureithi – Improving Aircraft Performance with Plasma Actuators
Aeroplanes are required to change their trajectory many times during a flight. A system of adjustable surfaces that manage lift is typically used to meet this requirement. However, Dr Huu Duc Vo and Dr Njuki Mureithi from École Polytechnique de Montréal, Canada, have...
Dr Larysa Baraban – Professor Gianaurelio Cuniberti – Pioneering Nanotechnology Research for Macroscale Applications
Good things come in small packages. Dr Larysa Baraban, Professor Gianaurelio Cuniberti and their colleagues at TU Dresden, Germany, are leading the charge in the application of nanotechnology in fields as diverse as biotechnology, environmental protection and...
Dr Wei-Chau Xie – Shaking Up the Physics of Vibration
Nuclear power plants may be some of the most secure structures in our society, but when subjected to earthquakes, they have the potential to cause major disasters. Dr Wei-Chau Xie of the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada, is now developing algorithms for...
Dr Shikharesh Majumdar – Improving High Performance Data Analytics Platforms & Smart Systems: Resource Management and Middleware
Our rapidly increasing production of data is straining computer infrastructures to unprecedented levels. As researchers develop much-needed coping mechanisms, Dr Shikharesh Majumdar at Carleton University focuses on two important solutions to the issue: creating...
Professor Gert Bange | Dr Wieland Steinchen – Bridging the Gap Between Protein Structure and Dynamics
Proteins are present in all living organisms. The unique functions they perform in biochemical processes are dependent on their three-dimensional structure. Dr Wieland Steinchen and Professor Gert Bange, from the Center for Synthetic Microbiology (SYNMIKRO) and...
Dr Andreas Heyn – Cutting the Cost of Corrosion
$2.5 Trillion USD. That’s the most recent estimate for how much corrosion costs us globally every year. That’s about the same as the Gross Domestic Product of the entire UK. It’s no wonder, then, that there is an international push for better ways to detect and repair...
Dr Gernot Schaller – Maxwell’s Demon: Extracting Energy from Chaos
Since it was theorised over 150 years ago, physicists have viewed the concept of ‘Maxwell’s demon’ as a highly desirable yet ultimately unattainable source of energy. For over a century, the device seemed to work theoretically, but a fundamental barrier prevented it...
Professor Gustaaf Jacobs – Modelling Shock Waves and Particle Interactions in High-Speed Flows
Understanding how shock waves, flow dynamics and turbulence all interact and affect the distribution of particles has applications ranging from high-speed vehicles to explosions and even ocean sediment dynamics. Professor Gustaaf Jacobs at San Diego State University...
Dr Rens van de Schoot – Statistical Methods for Small Data
Researchers are heavily reliant on statistical techniques that are based on large sample sizes. Therefore, attempts to gain useful information from small samples can often lead to biased, or incorrect conclusions. Dr Rens van de Schoot at Utrecht University has shown...
Linh Le – Bonbouton: Leading the Charge in Wearable Healthcare Technology
At Bonbouton, Linh Le and his colleagues are creating a ground-breaking new range of wearable healthcare technologies. These products can track vital signs such as skin temperature and muscle motion, empowering people with the knowledge and data they need to monitor...
Professor Thomas Voigtmann – Non-Equilibrium Materials: Bridging a Gap in Understanding
Measuring the mechanical properties of different materials by analysing their behaviour is a familiar task to many scientists and engineers. Yet for some more unusual materials, large-scale material properties are incredibly difficult to predict using current methods....