News & Events

08-17-22

A new control algorithm for wind farms that alters how individual turbines are oriented into the wind promises to boost farms' overall efficiency and energy output by optimizing how they deal with their turbulent wake. "Individual turbines generate choppy air, or a wake, which hurts the performance of every turbine downwind of them," says John O. Dabiri, Centennial Professor of Aeronautics and Mechanical Engineering. "To cope with that, wind farm turbines are traditionally spaced as far apart as possible, which unfortunately takes up a lot of real estate." [Caltech story]

Tags: research highlights GALCIT MCE John Dabiri alumni Michael Howland

08-15-22

A team of researchers from Caltech has unveiled a new wearable sensor that can detect in human sweat even minute levels of many common nutrients and biological compounds that can serve as indicators of human health. The sensor technology was developed in the lab of Wei Gao, Assistant Professor of Medical Engineering; Investigator, Heritage Medical Research Institute; Ronald and JoAnne Willens Scholar. [Caltech story]

Tags: Wei Gao Medical Engineering Daniel Mukasa Jihong Min Changhao Xu Minqiang Wang Yiran Yang Cui Ye Nicole Heflin

08-11-22

Imagine driving home after a long day at work. Suddenly, a car careens out of an obscured side street and turns right in front of you. Luckily, your autonomous car saw this vehicle long before it came within your line of sight and slowed to avoid a crash. This might seem like magic, but a novel technique developed in the laboratory of Changhuei Yang, Thomas G. Myers Professor of Electrical Engineering, Bioengineering, and Medical Engineering; Investigator, Heritage Medical Research Institute, could bring it closer to a reality. "We can see all the traffic on the crossroads with this method. This might help the cars to foresee the potential danger that one is not able to see directly." explains electrical engineering graduate student Ruizhi Cao. [Caltech story]

Tags: EE research highlights Changhuei Yang MedE Ruizhi Cao

08-04-22

Caltech researchers have developed a database containing global data on how humans have impacted the planet. The Human Impacts Database is designed to be accessible to scientists, policymakers, and everyday citizens. "In my view, the root to understanding is numeracy: once you have the numbers, it becomes clear what the problems are, which things are significant, and which things are less so," says Rob Phillips, Fred and Nancy Morris Professor of Biophysics, Biology, and Physics. [Caltech story]

Tags: APhMS research highlights alumni Rob Phillips Griffin Chure Rachel Banks

07-30-22

One of the major limitations of optics-based systems at present is that, at a certain point, they still need to have electronics-based transistors to efficiently process the data. Now, a team led by Alireza Marandi, assistant professor of electrical engineering and applied physics at Caltech, has created an all-optical switch. Such a switch could eventually enable data processing using photons. Device nanofabrication was performed at the Kavli Nanoscience Institute (KNI) at Caltech. [Caltech story]

Tags: research highlights KNI Alireza Marandi Rajveer Nehra Saman Jahani Luis Ledezma Arkadev Roy Qiushi Guo Ryoto Sekine Robert Gray

07-28-22

Turbulent airflows are chaotic and unpredictable: consider the bumps and jolts one might experience during an airplane flight encountering turbulent air. With increased knowledge of turbulent airflows, airplane designs could become safer, more resilient, and ultimately more fuel efficient.  H. Jane Bae, Assistant Professor of Aerospace, has developed a way to use machine learning to further improve the design process. [Caltech story]

Tags: research highlights GALCIT H. Jane Bae

07-27-22

For the past two decades, Julia R. Greer, Ruben F. and Donna Mettler Professor of Materials Science, Mechanics and Medical Engineering; Fletcher Jones Foundation Director of the Kavli Nanoscience Institute, has been at the forefront of creating new materials whose structures are designed and controlled at the smallest level, giving them unusual and useful properties. [Caltech story]

Tags: APhMS MedE MCE Julia Greer alumni Carlos M. Portela

07-26-22

Graduate Student Conor Martin has received the best paper award at the 14th International Symposium on Hazards, Prevention, and Mitigation of Industrial Explosions (ISHPMIE). The paper is titled "Thermal Ignition: Effects of Fuel, Ambient Pressure and Nitrogen Dilution."

Tags: honors GALCIT Joseph Shepherd Connor Martin

07-18-22

Andrew Stuart, Bren Professor of Computing and Mathematical Sciences, is a recipient of the 2022 Vannevar Bush Faculty Fellowship from the US Department of Defense. Professor Stuart is being recognized for "Data-Driven Acceleration and Discovery of Computational Models." The Vannevar Bush Faculty Fellowship is the Defense Department’s most prestigious research grant award.

Tags: honors CMS Andrew Stuart

07-13-22

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has named Azita Emami to the Microsystems Exploratory Council (MEC) for a three-year term beginning this summer. Emami is Andrew and Peggy Cherng Professor of Electrical Engineering and Medical Engineering; Executive Officer for Electrical Engineering; and Director, Center for Sensing to Intelligence. MEC brings over 30 of the brightest scientists and engineers together to identify new areas of development in microsystems science and technology and to recommend future possible research directions. The MEC Group was established by DARPA in 2017 to support its technology offices and provide continuing and independent assessment of the state of advanced microsystem technology as it relates to the U.S. Department of Defense.

Tags: EE honors MedE Azita Emami