Are tomorrow’s engineers ready to face AI’s ethical challenges?

Ethics is often neglected in engineering education, two researchers write, despite mounting questions about how to responsibly design artificial intelligence programs.

Erin A. Cech, Associate Professor of Sociology, University of Michigan • conversation
April 19, 2024 ~9 min

After the Baltimore bridge collapse, we need clear-eyed assessments of the risks to key infrastructure

The collapse of the Francis Scott Key bridge is already affecting global supply chains.

Marios Chryssanthopoulos, Professor of Structural Systems, University of Surrey • conversation
March 28, 2024 ~7 min


Baltimore Key Bridge: how a domino effect brought it down in seconds

We’ll need to learn the lessons from this disaster.

Mohamed Shaheen, Lecturer in Structural Engineering, Loughborough University • conversation
March 28, 2024 ~5 min

How AI and a popular card game can help engineers predict catastrophic failure – by finding the absence of a pattern

What mathematicians call ‘disordered collections’ can help engineers explore real-world worst-case scenarios. The simple card game Set illustrates how to predict internet and electrical grid failures.

John Edward McCarthy, Professor of Mathematics, Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis • conversation
March 26, 2024 ~7 min

Thin, bacteria-coated fibers could lead to self-healing concrete that fills in its own cracks

Your skin heals from cuts and scrapes on its own − what if concrete could do that too?

Yaghoob Farnam, Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering, Drexel University • conversation
March 22, 2024 ~7 min

Lithium-ion batteries don’t work well in the cold − a battery researcher explains the chemistry at low temperatures

Electric vehicles are catching on across the US, but they’re also catching on fire in colder regions like the Northeast and Midwest.

Wesley Chang, Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Mechanics, Drexel University • conversation
March 5, 2024 ~7 min

3D printing promises more efficient ways to make custom explosives and rocket propellants

‘Energetic’ materials are ones that readily ignite or detonate. The shapes of those materials have a big effect on how they burn or blow up.

Monique McClain, Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Purdue University • conversation
Feb. 20, 2024 ~8 min

A new generation of spaceplanes is taking advantage of the latest in technology

Spaceplanes seemed out of favour when the shuttle was retired in 2011; they now seem to be making a comeback.

James Campbell, Reader, Brunel University London • conversation
Feb. 8, 2024 ~9 min


How can I get ice off my car? An engineer who studies airborne particles shares some quick and easy techniques

When you’re running late in the winter, you don’t want to have to spend time scraping frost off your windshield. Try some expert-recommended techniques instead.

Suresh Dhaniyala, Bayard D. Clarkson Distinguished Professor of Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering, Clarkson University • conversation
Feb. 2, 2024 ~5 min

Combining two types of molecular boron nitride could create a hybrid material used in faster, more powerful electronics

Two forms of the same boron nitride molecules couldn’t look and act more different – but combining them could lead to applications that have the best of both worlds.

Abhijit Biswas, Research Scientist in Materials Science and Nanoengineering, Rice University • conversation
Jan. 24, 2024 ~7 min

/

6