Media Watch Archives
New UC Irvine Institute Focuses on Mobility and Connectivity
Assembly -
The future of the automotive industry involves autonomous, connected, zero-emission vehicles. To address the numerous issues and challenges associated with those technologies today, the University of California, Irvine (UCI) recently opened the Horiba Institute for Mobility and Connectivity2 (HIMaC2). The new organization is a part of the Advanced Power and Energy Program at UCI, which focuses on the future of mobility, and the integration of the energy and transportation sectors, including its impact on the electric grid. Read More
E.coli Being Used to Detect Heavy Metals Within Water
Food Poisoning News -
This is an extremely important development as scientists have now found a new way to improve water quality, and not just in the United States. What is this new technology? … In other words, through the machine’s built-in optical sensors, scientists are able to monitor E.coli’s biochemical responses to exposure to different metals, such as chromium and arsenic, and discover if the samples of water are contaminated at a much earlier rate. Through this quick and thorough piece of new detection technology (it only takes 10 minutes!), contaminated tap and wastewater samples can be identified much more quickly. … Co-author of a new study on this technology, which appears in Proceedings in the National Academy of Science, is a UCI professor of materials science and engineering, Regina Ragan. Read More
E.coli Can Detect Heavy Metal Contamination in Water
Laboratory Equipment -
Scientists at the University of California, Irvine have shown E.coli can do more than keep you sick in bed for days. In a new study, researchers demonstrated that the bacterium can detect heavy metal contamination in water. … “This new water monitoring method is highly sensitive, fast and versatile,” said co-author Regina Ragan, UCI professor of materials science and engineering. “It allowed the algorithms to determine if drinking water was within U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and World Health Organization recommend limits for each contaminant with greater than 96 percent accuracy and with 92 percent accuracy for treated wastewater.” Read More
Body-worn Sensors with Microfluidic Chips Offer Future-Focused Diagnostic Tools
SPIE -
Michelle Khine, a research scientist, entrepreneur, mentor, and professor of biomedical engineering at the Samueli School of Engineering at the University of California, Irvine, still gets to play with her favorite childhood toy. More than 10 years ago, as a founding professor at the University of California, Merced, Khine came up with an elegant, effective and inexpensive solution to creating microfluidic chips using Shrinky Dinks®, a thin plastic that can be cut into any shape and baked into a smaller, thicker size. Today, the popular children's activity material remains an integral element of her fundamental and applied research. "We develop our own technology," says Khine …. Read More
Electrifying future homes
Spectrum News 1 -
A neighborhood in Southern California could set the standard for energy-efficient homes throughout the country. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) gave KB Home $6.65 million to develop an experiment in energy-resilient housing. … The houses are the first all-electric, solar and battery-powered microgrid communities in the Golden State. … Once all the homes and the microgrid battery are online, the University of California Irvine will study microgrid’s performance over the next four years and report is data back to the DOE. Read More
Researchers create E. coli-based water monitoring technology
Phys.org -
"This new water monitoring method developed by UCI researchers is highly sensitive, fast and versatile," said co-author Regina Ragan, UCI professor of materials science and engineering. "It can be broadly deployed to monitor toxins at their sources in drinking and irrigation water and in agricultural and industrial runoff. This system can provide an early warning of heavy metal contamination to safeguard human health and ecosystems." Read More
Close to Home: Winter storms, summer swelter can stall electric cars
The Press Democrat -
California boasts nearly half the nation’s approximately 3 million EVs, according to Veloz, a nonprofit that promotes electric vehicles. But achieving the state’s goal of barring new internal combustion engines in a dozen years will require a major expansion of its generating capacity. “If we try to move in this direction and use only battery electric vehicles, we will fail,” Jack Brouwer, an engineering professor at UC Irvine, told CBS Los Angeles. Read More
Beware the Mighty Mantis Shrimp
Texas Monthly -
The ability of the mantis shrimp to inflict punishment without also breaking its own shell fascinated engineers at the University of Southern California and the University of California, Irvine. Mimicking the latticelike structure of mantis shrimp whackers, researchers created a super tough, regenerative material that may eventually be used in construction materials or body armor. Read More
Top 5: How Cold Spray Technology Offers Faster Additive Manufacturing
3Dnatives -
Top 4: A Scientist’s Perspective On 3D Printing for Biological Research. Interviews are a valued method to gain insight into a topic, including manufacturing and science, in an accessible and interesting way – this video certainly shows that! In this clip, we hear from Quinton Smith, [assistant professor of chemical & biomolecular engineering] at University of California, Irvine (UCI) on a number of his research projects, including the use of 3D printing to assemble the tissues needed for organ growth for patients with liver diseases, for example. Bioprinting is of course one of the most exciting applications of 3D printing and has the potential to replace transplants in the future. Read More
So you think you know lift? Better read this
Aerospace America -
Given how deeply air transportation is woven into modern life, it’s surprising that the precise workings of aerodynamic lift remain a topic of debate among the experts. To sort all this out, I met on a video call last month with Paul Bevilaqua, retired from Lockheed Martin Skunk Works, and [associate professor] Haithem Taha of the University of California, Irvine. I learned about several myths and at least one collapsing theory. Here is our discussion, lightly edited and compressed. Read More