A $1.62 million Appalachian Regional Commission award will help the University of Pittsburgh and Robert Morris University train at least 320 workers in advanced laser processing and fiber-optic sensing. The Pittsburgh Laser Engine will also give regional businesses access to specialized equipment and expertise.

With the increasing scale of space infrastructure such as large space telescopes, antenna arrays, and solar power stations, the payload fairing size of launch vehicles has become a critical bottleneck constraining their development. On-orbit autonomous assembly via deployable modules has emerged as an important technical approach to overcome this limitation. Deployable modules typically exhibit high packaging ratios; however, the geometric deviations caused by residual strain, assembly tolerances, and dynamic coupling effects after deployment can significantly affect docking accuracy and structural stability, and may even lead to assembly failure. Nevertheless, existing studies have mostly focused on post-deployment final configuration accuracy optimization, with insufficient attention paid to the cooperative strategies between real-time deformation control and motion control during the assembly process. Moreover, a dynamic modeling method capable of accurately describing the coupling between variable-length flexible components and rigid bodies is still lacking. Therefore, how to achieve active configuration correction and coordinated position–attitude control of deployable modules on orbit has become a key challenge in the autonomous assembly of large space structures.

A new method developed by TU Wien makes it possible to precisely determine the inner state of thermal energy storage systems using just a few sensors. This opens up new possibilities for the more efficient use of industrial waste heat.

Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) researcher Zhenglun “Alan” Wei is aiming to improve prenatal diagnosis of the most common cardiac birth defect by going with the flow … of blood in tiny hearts. Wei, an assistant professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, is leading a four-year project funded with $2,915,519 from the National Institutes of Health to develop a personalized model that will use detailed blood flow information collected from noninvasive tests to detect obstructions of the aorta in fetuses.

A U.S. federal agency is investing $38 million in a provocative and potentially transformative project: AI-powered medical "digital twins" to help doctors personalize treatments for critical ill patients in hospitals. The project, led by a U. of Vermont surgeon and researcher, will help doctors treat the most challenging illnesses in the ICU—sepsis, burns, severe trauma, and disordered immune responses. The funding is from ARPA-H in the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services and is the largest research award in UVM's history.

When a conversational AI character in an immersive environment says something false, how should the system alert the user? Researchers explored this question in a proof-of-concept study, which tested three techniques for alerting users to hallucinated statements from “embodied” AI agents in virtual reality (VR) systems.

A NASA satellite originally designed to study large bodies of water may also be able to monitor most of the world’s irrigation canals, according to a new UW study. This capability could help farmers and water managers around the world manage resources, prepare for droughts and improve food security in their communities.