PaveX, a company founded by a Purdue University engineering professor, leverages AI so public works departments can automate road condition assessments and maintain local road infrastructure. The company has surveyed and assessed more than 3,400 miles of Indiana roads. CEO and founder Mohammad Jahanshahi said PaveX is expanding to support pilot projects in other states, including California, Illinois, Michigan and North Carolina.

The Center for Infrastructure Assurance and Security (CIAS) at The University of Texas at San Antonio has received a $100,000 grant from Craig Newmark Philanthropies that will allow the CIAS Community Cybersecurity Clinic (C4) to expand its reach to more organizations, broaden student training opportunities and reinforce the CIAS mission of advancing cybersecurity readiness across the nation.

Meeting global energy demands while mitigating environmental harm remains a major challenge, as many current solutions rely on expensive and toxic noble metals. In a recent study, researchers from Japan successfully developed a novel copper–cobalt oxide composite anchored on nitrogen-doped carbon nanostructures. Synthesized via a simple method, this material excels in energy storage, environmental remediation, and water splitting—offering a low-cost and sustainable alternative to conventional catalysts across multiple applications.

A large cross-sectional study of 8,412 first-grade children in Shanghai, led by Southeast University researchers, found that dietary preferences may influence asthma risk. Children who favored pickled and smoked foods were nearly twice as likely to develop asthma, and girls preferring fried foods showed a particularly strong association. Conversely, seafood preference in normal-weight children was linked to reduced asthma risk. The findings highlight diet as a potential target for childhood asthma prevention strategies.

Tokyo faces severe risks due to soil liquefaction, a phenomenon where the ground behaves like a liquid during strong seismic events. To improve existing hazard maps, researchers from Japan developed a new framework that combines extensive borehole data with artificial neural networks. Their model can accurately predict soil properties, producing high-resolution 3D liquefaction hazard maps, helping to improve earthquake risk management in Tokyo and other vulnerable megacities.