Engineering

Nanorobot hand made of DNA grabs viruses for diagnostics and blocks cell entry

A tiny, four-fingered “hand” folded from a single piece of DNA can pick up the virus that causes COVID-19 for highly sensitive rapid detection and can even block viral particles from entering cells to infect them, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign researchers report.

Physical sciences This image shows an overhead shot of a large semiconductor plant located in a rural area.

New PFAS removal process aims to stamp out pollution ahead of semiconductor industry growth

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — A University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign study is the first to describe an electrochemical strategy to capture, concentrate and destroy mixtures of diverse chemicals known as PFAS — including the increasingly prevalent ultra-short-chain PFAS — from water in a single process. This new development is poised to address the growing industrial problem of […]

Engineering This is a portrait of the researcher featured in this article.

New study: Earthquake prediction techniques lend quick insight into strength, reliability of materials

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Materials scientists can now use insight from a very common mineral and well-established earthquake and avalanche statistics to quantify how hostile environmental interactions may impact the degradation and failure of materials used for advanced solar panels, geological carbon sequestration and infrastructure such as buildings, roads and bridges.

Engineering The solar spectrum in the visible, or white light, region. Spectrograms like this split the light up into many wavelengths (colors). Called absorption lines because they are created as atoms absorb light at certain wavelengths, the dark bands indicate specific ionized elements in the Sun.

The solar spectrum in the visible, or white light, region. Spectrograms like this split the light up into many wavelengths (colors). Called absorption lines because they are created as atoms absorb light at certain wavelengths, the dark bands indicate specific ionized elements in the Sun.

Visible light energy yields two-for-one deal when added to CO2 recycling process

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — By combining visible light and electrochemistry, researchers have enhanced the conversion of carbon dioxide into valuable products and stumbled upon a surprising discovery. The team found that visible light significantly improved an important chemical attribute called selectivity, opening new avenues not only for CO2 conversion but also for many other chemical reactions used in catalysis research and chemical manufacturing.

Earth and environmental sciences This image shows an urban housing unit with many air conditioning and heating systems.

Urban heating and cooling to play substantial role in future energy demand under climate change

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Existing global energy projections underestimate the impact of climate change on urban heating and cooling systems by roughly 50% by 2099 if greenhouse gas emissions remain high, researchers report. This disparity could profoundly affect critical sustainable energy planning for the future.

Engineering Professor Nicolas Yunes, center, and co-authors Rohit S. Chandramouli, left, and Abhishek Hegade, far right.

Gravitational waves unveil previously unseen properties of neutron stars

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — A better understanding of the inner workings of neutron stars will lead to a greater knowledge of the dynamics that underpin the workings of the universe and also could help drive future technology, said University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign physics professor Nicolas Yunes. A new study led by Yunes details how new insights into how dissipative tidal forces within double — or binary — neutron star systems will inform our understanding of the universe.

Earth and environmental sciences

More than maps: New atlas captures the state of global river systems through human context

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — The word “atlas,” may conjure images of giant books chock full of maps and a dizzying array of facts and figures. However, the new book “The World Atlas of Rivers, Estuaries, and Deltas” tells the story of these waterways long before human intervention and how they continue to evolve in the presence of — and often at odds with — human civilization. The new atlas is a highly visual guide to the most up-to-date research on the world’s river systems, with an emphasis on the mutual relationship between people and these vital landscapes.

Life sciences A group of researchers stands in an atrium.

Breaking open the AI black box, team finds key chemistry for solar energy and beyond

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Artificial intelligence is a powerful tool for researchers, but with a significant limitation: The inability to explain how it came to its decisions, a problem known as the “AI black box.” By combining AI with automated chemical synthesis and experimental validation, an interdisciplinary team of researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign […]

Life sciences Portrait of Huimin Zhao in one of the biofoundry facilities on the U. of I. campus.

NSF funds new iBioFoundry at Illinois

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — A newly funded U.S. National Science Foundation iBioFoundry at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign will build on more than a decade of research at the U. of I. to integrate synthetic biology, laboratory automation and artificial intelligence to advance protein and cellular engineering. This is one of five new biofoundries to be […]

Arts

Photo of a group of musicians in a semi-circle outside, most of whom are playing percussion instruments and two of whom are playing French horns.

Illinois researchers’ project seeks to learn from Indigenous practices in music, engineering

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — An interdisciplinary research project has led to new ways of making music and of approaching engineering design through interactions with Indigenous communities in Bolivia and Sierra Leone. University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign music professor and professional French horn player Bernhard Scully and engineer and Carle Illinois College of Medicine teaching professor of biomedical […]

Engineering $An overhead view of a large landslide showing a detachment and numerous land fractures$

Researchers clarify how soft materials fail under stress

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Understanding how soft materials fail under stress is critical for solving engineering challenges as disparate as pharmaceutical technology and landslide prevention. A new study linking a spectrum of soft material behaviors — previously thought to be unrelated — led researchers to identify a new parameter they call the brittility factor, which allows […]

Engineering Graduate student Yingqi Jia, left, and professor Shelly Zhang in their lab

Researchers introduce programmable materials to help heal broken bones

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Natural materials like bone, bird feathers and wood have an intelligent approach to physical stress distribution, despite their irregular architectures. However, the relationship between stress modulation and their structures has remained elusive. A new study that integrates machine learning, optimization, 3D printing and stress experiments allowed engineers to gain insight into these […]

Engineering

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