The U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) has developed and fielded the next generation of its Insertable Stalk Inspection System (ISIS360), a non-human entry inspection technology designed to improve the safety, speed, and accuracy of shipboard tank inspections across the U.S. Navy’s Surface Fleet. The technology is collapsing inspection timelines from days or weeks to hours and enabling pre-assessment of tank condition, so only tanks requiring maintenance are opened during availability periods.

Illinois Tech engineering professor Qing-Chang Zhong has been elected as a 2025 fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science for the impact that he has made to academia and industry in advancing autonomous, sustainable, and democratized power systems. 

Zhong is being recognized for inventing the synchronized-and-democratized (SYNDEM) architecture by merging synchronization principles in natural sciences and democracy concepts in social sciences and for pioneering virtual synchronous machines (VSM) technologies to revolutionize power systems. 

After decades of progress, longevity science may be facing a paradox: more knowledge, but limited impact. Some researchers now suggest the field may have failed not because of insufficient data, but because of flawed strategy.

The Keck School of Medicine of USC and the USC Viterbi School of Engineering have announced that the Alfred E. Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering will become a joint department between the two schools, forging a formal partnership in education, research and innovation in technology and medicine. This joint department, one of the first of its kind in California, builds on decades of cross-disciplinary research and breakthroughs at USC, including the world’s first FDA-approved artificial retina, the first brain implant to restore lost memory function, and innovations in immunotherapy to treat cancer. With added support from USC’s president and provost, the newly integrated biomedical engineering department will create new structures and gain new resources dedicated to further accelerating biomedical innovation, enriching educational programs and advancing technology in medicine. It will combine expertise in priority areas spanning medical devices, neuroengineering, imaging science, drug discovery, artificial intelligence (AI) and informatics, cellular and molecular bioengineering, and more. Facilities at both the Viterbi School of Engineering and the Keck School of Medicine will be devoted to the joint department, with the chair reporting to both deans. Yingxiao (Peter) Wang, PhD, the department’s current chair, who also holds the Dwight C. and Hildagarde E. Baum Chair in Biomedical Engineering, will help implement the transition by leading the department into its next phase.

A new Concordia University study finds residential energy use in Quebec is driven more by household demographics than building age. Using smart-meter data (2019–2023) and census variables, researchers show factors like income, household size and car ownership better explain consumption, offering utilities and policymakers clearer tools to design targeted, equitable energy strategies.

In the vastness of the Universe, any new object with interesting properties can spur the search for similar objects, potentially establishing a new class of stars. In a paper published in Astronomy & Astrophysics and an arXiv preprint, researchers from the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) describe two stellar remnants that share five properties, including X-ray emission, despite being isolated objects. According to the team, these two remnants are sufficient to define a new class of stars.