Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) has been awarded $6.3 million for a groundbreaking initiative that could transform additive manufacturing by enabling the rapid production of high-quality components from scrap metal. This innovative approach to additive manufacturing, aims to ensure that essential components can be produced even in the most resource-limited environments, including where access to traditional supply chains is limited. 

What if your brain had a built-in map – not of places, but of possible futures? Researchers at the Champalimaud Foundation (CF) blend neuroscience and artificial intelligence (AI) to reveal that populations of dopamine neurons in the brain don’t just track whether rewards are coming – they encode maps of when those rewards might arrive and how big they might be.

These maps adapt to context and may help explain how we weigh risks, and why some of us act on impulse while others hold back. Strikingly, this biological mechanism mirrors recent advances in AI, and could inspire new ways for machines to predict, evaluate and adapt to uncertain environments more like we do.

Researchers have developed a cost-effective, AI-powered system for diagnosing nystagmus—a condition causing involuntary eye movements—using smartphone videos and cloud-based analysis. Unlike traditional methods like VNG, which are expensive and cumbersome, this deep learning model uses real-time facial landmark tracking to assess eye movement metrics remotely. A pilot study with 20 participants showed its accuracy closely matched traditional devices, highlighting its potential for telehealth use and broader clinical application.