Mechanical Engineering

Texas Engineers will lead a new project on marine carbon dioxide removal, capture and storage as part of a larger research push from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).

Imagine a laser so gentle it can cradle nanoparticles, biological cells, and even drive drug-delivering microscopic vehicles to sick cells without causing harm. This isn't science fiction; it's a new innovation led by a team of scientists at The University of Texas at Austin.

Battery experts at The University of Texas at Austin have shed new light on a critical issue facing battery components commonly used in electric vehicles.

A pair of Cockrell School research teams are part of a massive semiconductor grant program from the National Science Foundation that includes funds from industry leaders and the federal CHIPS Act.

Energy security is getting a boost at The University of Texas at Austin. The Cockrell School of Engineering will now partner with the Kay Bailey Hutchison Energy Center.

For significant portions of the globe faced with water shortage problems a beacon of hope may be on the way: the ability to easily turn hot air into drinking water.

To combat the extreme environmental toll of major oil spills, researchers at The University of Texas at Austin have created a new technology that could significantly improve cleanup capabilities compared to today's methods.

The journey through the past, present and future of energy continues as “Power Trip: The Story of Energy” returns for a second season airing on PBS nationwide.

Microscopically small particles are very challenging to move around. So much so that the breakthrough technology for doing that won the Nobel Prize more than 25 years ago.

But the technology, known as optical tweezers, isn't without its limits. Chief among them, the technology usually can only move these particles from place to place, also known as two-dimensional manipulation.

A rash of storms in Texas in recent years — from Hurricane Harvey in 2017 to the deep freeze in 2021 — has put big chunks of the population in danger and left millions without electricity or water for long periods.

These calamities also served as motivation for a researcher at The University of Texas at Austin to refocus her work on innovations that can help communities respond to severe weather events. Her latest project is a mug-sized device that can quickly clean water using a small jolt of electricity to fish out bacterial cells. In lab experiments, the device was able to remove 99.997% of E. coli bacteria from 2- to 3-ounce samples taken from Waller Creek in Austin in approximately 20 minutes, with the capacity to do more.

Guihua Yu was one of 28 U.S. researchers under the age of 42 to be named as finalist honorees for the Blavatnik National Awards for Young Scientists, announced by New York Academy of Sciences.

A new farming system developed by researchers at The University of Texas at Austin aims to solve one of the biggest problems in modern agriculture: the overuse of fertilizers to improve crop yields and the resulting chemical runoff that pollutes the world’s air and water.

An international research team co-led by Texas Engineer Guihua Yu won the Royal Society of Chemistry’s (RSC) prestigious Materials Chemistry Horizon Prize, an award celebrating groundbreaking developments which push the boundaries of science. 

For decades, scientists have been investigating how to recreate the versatile computational capabilities of biological neurons to develop faster and more energy-efficient machine learning systems. One promising approach involves the use of memristors: electronic components capable of storing a value by modifying their conductance and then utilizing that value for in-memory processing.

A common chemical reaction that most people have seen first-hand is the inspiration for a new way to make a flexible gel film that could lead to innovations in sensors, batteries, robotics and more.

How light interacts with matter is one of the most basic, yet important branches of science. A growing area in this field is nanophotonics, which studies these interactions at the smallest of scales where material building blocks begin to exhibit dynamic properties.

A new flexible, wearable medical device could provide a major boost in the fight against heart disease, the leading cause of death in the United States.

A team led by researchers at The University of Texas at Austin has developed an ultrathin, lightweight electronic tattoo, or e-tattoo, that attaches to the chest for continuous, mobile heart monitoring outside of a clinical setting. It includes two sensors that together provide a clear picture of heart health, giving clinicians a better chance to catch red flags for heart disease early.

Today, foldable phones are ubiquitous. Now, using models that predict how well a flexible electronic device will conform to spherical surfaces, engineers from The University of Texas at Austin and University of Wisconsin–Madison could usher in a new era in which these bendy devices can integrate seamlessly with parts of the human body.

Anyone who's traveled internationally is familiar with this standard question upon returning: "Did you bring back any fruits or vegetables?" This has to do with a larger effort from the U.S. government to prevent agricultural pests from entering the country within cargo shipments or passenger baggage, potentially threatening the nation's crops.

Two-dimensional semiconductors have a chance to galvanize significant advances in electronic device capabilities, replacing silicon-based chips. However, many problems continue to hold back these devices.

 A major problem is carrier mobility, or how fast electrons can move through the semiconductors. These 2D semiconductors are notoriously slow in this area, limiting the ability for improvements and real-world applications.