research News

One year ago, as physicians and administrators at Penn State Health’s Milton S. Hershey Medical Center prepared for the impact of COVID-19, a consortium of Penn State researchers joined together to make a positive impact.

In smart cities of the future, sensors distributed throughout buildings and bridges could monitor infrastructure health. Cloud-based computing could decrease traffic with real-time analysis available to commuters. Windows could tint themselves darker on sunny days or lighten to brighten a room on cloudy ones. 

The Penn State Center for Socially Responsible Artificial Intelligence recently announced the recipients of its inaugural round of seed funding. The center awarded more than $93,000 to five interdisciplinary research projects.

Two faculty members have been selected to receive Lab Bench to Commercialization (LB2C) grants from the Eberly College of Science in 2021. The competitive program provides funding for researchers in the college, enabling them to enhance the commercial potential of ongoing research and prepare them to translate their intellectual property to the marketplace.

The Penn State Materials Research Institute (MRI) has announced the 2021 recipients of seed grants that will enable University faculty to establish new collaborations with partners outside their own units for exploration of transformative ideas for high-impact materials science and engineering. There are four research themes for the seed grants, with 12 grants totaling more than $500,000 which were awarded by MRI in partnership with Penn State’s Applied Research Laboratory and the Pennsylvania Recycling Markets Center in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. 

When Peter Heaney, Penn State professor of mineral sciences in the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences and the Materials Research Institute, was preparing for a graduate seminar in crystallography last spring, he searched for a photo of an unsung hero of materials science and engineering, Walter Friedrich. What he found instead was a buried interview from 1963 with Friedrich that Heaney helped to translate, shining some light on the German scientist’s vital yet forgotten role in a Nobel Prize-winning discovery.

Researchers in the Penn State College of Engineering received $434,000 from the United States Army to develop additive manufacturing, or 3D printing, techniques for high strength steels and alloys.

Roman Engel-Herbert of Penn State Department of Materials Science and Engineering was among the team at eVOxS that developed a method for implementing oxide-thin film materials into the production of new electrical devices. The team just won a Ben Franklin Technology Partners/Central and Northern PA prize.

Two-dimensional materials can be used to create smaller, high-performance transistors traditionally made of silicon, according to Saptarshi Das, assistant professor of engineering science and mechanics (ESM) in Penn State’s College of Engineering. 

Piezoelectric materials hold great promise as sensors and as energy harvesters but are normally much less effective at high temperatures, limiting their use in environments such as engines or space exploration. However, a new piezoelectric device developed by a team of researchers from Penn State and QorTek remains highly effective at elevated temperatures.