MIT engineers developed a soft robot that can flap through water in response to flashes of light. The aquabot is lined with muscle cells that twitch when illuminated, enabling the robot to swim a distance of about four times its body length in one minute.

With the advancement of deep-space missions such as crewed lunar exploration and Mars exploration, artificial intelligence (AI) technologies are being increasingly embedded into aerospace engineering management processes, and managers' AI competency has become a critical factor affecting mission delivery performance and safety compliance. However, traditional project management competency models have been primarily constructed around process control and redundancy design within deterministic systems, failing to explicitly address governance challenges introduced by AI integration—including black-box opacity, accountability allocation, traceable review of AI outputs, and accountability mechanisms for assisted decision-making. Although existing NASA and ESA frameworks provide fundamental support for aerospace project delivery, AI-related competencies in aerospace management exhibit inherent interdependencies. Managers are required to continuously balance delivery schedules and cost pressures against mission assurance obligations such as verification and validation, configuration control, and compliance, making it impossible to simply represent AI competency as a linear list of attributes. Therefore, how to construct an AI competency assessment framework that captures governance priorities and multi-attribute interdependencies has become a critical issue urgently to be addressed in aerospace engineering management in the AI era.

SAN ANTONIO — September 29, 2026 —Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) and Australia-based Adelaide University are exploring quantum radio frequency (RF) sensing, sensemaking, which is quantum signal interpretation and analytics, and related technologies through a new three-year memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed by both organizations. A joint research team launched first-phase, hands-on evaluations of superconducting quantum RF sensors for signals intelligence applications at the Jesper Munch Quantum Laboratories at Adelaide University in South Australia. Signals intelligence is the field of collecting, intercepting and analyzing electronic signals to support defense, communications and emergency response.

More than 6 million U.S. homes have solar panels on their roofs — but what if you could generate power inside your house, too?Researchers from Binghamton University have developed a new type of wallpaper that turns moisture in the room into small amounts of electric current, and they hope to improve the technology for greater power yields.

Pharmaceuticals, fine chemicals, and agrochemicals are produced industrially using a wide range of chemical reactions. These processes need to become more efficient, less expensive, and more sustainable. The Pieber group at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) has now taken a step in this direction. In Nature Catalysis, researchers today present a new nickel catalyst that can be activated with visible light to efficiently make a broad array of chemical bonds.

From October 6 to 8, 2026, the EFX—Expo for Electronics Manufacturing will take place for the first time at the Stuttgart exhibition center. The Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Solid State Physics IAF will be exhibiting at the joint Chip Connect BW area. The focus will be on the institute’s newly launched research activities in the field of AI tools for chip design and chip design for AI applications, as well as its established expertise in III-V semiconductor manufacturing for pilot lines.

Europe could turn more of its scientific discoveries into new technologies, products and businesses by changing the way it funds innovation and supports researchers, according to a new Policy Forum published in Science.