News by Subject Technology & Engineering

The future of the US Interstate Highway System is threatened by a persistent and growing backlog of structural and operational deficiencies and by various looming challenges, such as the progress of automated vehicles, developments in electric vehicles, and vulnerabilities due to climate change.

Hydrogen-powered vehicles emit only water vapor from their tailpipes, offering a cleaner alternative to fossil-fuel-based transportation. But for hydrogen cars to become mainstream, scientists need to develop more efficient hydrogen-storage systems. Now, researchers reporting in ACS' Chemistry of Materials have used metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) to set a new record for hydrogen storage capacity under normal operating conditions.

MIT engineers have built and flown the first-ever plane with no moving parts. Instead of propellers or turbines, the light aircraft is powered by an 'ionic wind' -- a silent but mighty flow of ions that is produced aboard the plane, and that generates enough thrust to propel the plane over a sustained, steady flight.

In the first study to assess the energy impact of smart technology in cars, researchers at Stevens Institute of Technology have put a number on the potential fuel-cost savings alone: $6.2 billion.

To break out of Earth's lower orbit, hypersonic vehicles must reach speeds greater than Mach 5. At these hypersonic speeds, the air particles and gases that flow around the vehicle and interact with the surfaces generate heat and create shock waves that disturb the flow's equilibrium. New research at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign created a model to simulate and better understand flow transitions.