Mechanical engineering

The 2023 James Dyson Award global winners have been announced. The prizes have gone to three different student teams, each of which offers novel solutions to modern issues including global warming and providing care in war and disaster zones.

As stuffy offices get even more stuffy in a hot summer, aircon units will very likely be switched on. But aircons use a lot of power. Engineers have created a see-through coating for windows that's reported to reflect up to 70 percent of heat coming in from the sun.

Surprisingly, there has been no good science explaining why shoelaces spontaneously come untied. A team of graduate students at UC Berkeley set out to solve this everyday mystery and their results shed light on the mysterious mechanics of knots.

Researchers at MIT have invented a printing process that could turn a lot of potential breakthroughs, such as electricity-generating clothing and smart sutures, into an inexpensive reality.

Computer-controlled artificial legs have aided in improving amputees' freedom of movement by mimicking the natural motion of their missing limbs. Now, a new robotic ankle promises to make this motion even more precise by dynamically adjusting to the terrain underfoot.

Harvard University labs are offering a comprehensive online Soft Robotics Toolkit to help in the design, creation, and control of soft robots made from flexible materials. The toolkit contains downloadable, open-source plans, step-by-step tutorial videos, and real world studies.

Armed with plywood, a glass tube and some empty chip packets, mechanical engineering students have developed a low-cost water purification system designed to deliver clean drinking water to remote communities in Papua New Guinea.

A team at MIT is developing extra robot limbs that can help out humans with everyday tasks where an extra hand, arm, or leg might be useful. The robot can automatically determine when it is needed and how best to help.

A US team from the University of Pennsylvania has taken out the 2013 James Dyson Award with the Titan Arm, an upper body exoskeleton that augments human strength. The team will receive the £30,000 (US$48,260) first prize, with an additional £10,000 (US$16,100) for their university.

Purdue University's Professor Mark French and his graduate students, Craig Zehrung and Jim Stratton, have built an air gun that fires a ping-pong ball at over Mach 1.2 (900 mph or 1,448 km/h).

Rice University students have developed an automated IV drip system to help treat child dehydration.

A newly-created nanocomposite material gets stiffer when subjected to repeated mechanical stress.