Northwestern University

It took nature millions of years to create intelligent, adaptive species. Researchers at Northwestern University are using AI to evolve robots in minutes. The result is a robot that is agile, highly adaptive, and technically indestructible.

Engineers at Northwestern University have developed a device that goes on your fingertip to feel the sensation of interacting with textured surfaces on a touchscreen. It could be a major step forward in how we interact with personal tech.

Wouldn't it be cool to 'feel' a textured object, or perceive the sensation of running your hand over rich fabric in VR? That's what researchers at Northwestern University are hoping to achieve with their new wearable.

This strange white paste might not look like much, but it could not only solve the sand shortage, but make the cement manufacturing process absorb carbon dioxide instead of emitting it. Scientists grew this stuff out of seawater, electricity and CO2.

In what they're calling the "highest density of mechanical bonds ever achieved," researchers created a super-strong flexible material that works very much like chainmail. The breakthrough has already demonstrated its ability to improve body armor.

Scientists have devised a clever new method of allowing people to feel sensations that are transmitted to their skin. Beyond its applications in fields such as gaming and telepresence, the technology could also be used to guide the blind.

Ice wreaks havoc on surfaces, but we might have a new way to prevent it building up. Scientists at Northwestern University have shown that textured surfaces with thin layers of graphene oxide can stay completely frost-free for long periods.

A Northwestern University team has demonstrated a remarkable new way to generate electricity, with a paperback-sized device that nestles in soil and harvests power created as microbes break down dirt – for as long as there's carbon in the soil.

Evolution is a very slow process, due largely to the fact that nature doesn't "know" in advance which features of an animal will be beneficial. A new AI-based algorithm does know, however, allowing it to design robots within a matter of seconds.

Back in 2012, we heard about tiny biped "biobot" robots that used actual muscle tissue to walk. Well, the descendants of those bots are now equipped with LEDs, which allow them to be remotely steered in a practical fashion.

Researchers at Northwestern University in Illinois have demonstrated the world's smallest remote-controlled walking robot. These tiny machines can bend, twist, crawl, walk, turn and jump without hydraulics or electricity, using shape-memory alloys.

Blind corners have long troubled drivers, but researchers have now developed a holographic camera technology that can peer around corners by reconstructing scattered light waves, quickly enough to spot fast-moving objects like cars or pedestrians.