Further Findings

It’s been a rough ride lately for the lithium-ion battery. Though practically all of us carry one around — they power everything from cell phones to iPods — the lightweight cells have sparked some high-profile product failures.

It was bad enough when they caused laptop computers to burst into flames, leading to millions of recalled batteries since 2000. Their reputation took another hit in January, when battery fires in two of Boeing’s new 787 Dreamliner planes caused airlines to ground their
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The University of Texas at Austin honored two researchers whose collaboration led to a company that aims to change how electronics are made.

Professors C. Grant Willson and S.V. Sreenivasan received the Inventor of the Year award Thursday (Dec. 6, 2012) for developing a nanolithography process used for manufacturing computer chips, hard drives and other electronic components.

They took their research beyond the laboratory in co-founding Molecular Imprints Inc., an Austin-based company with more than 100 employees.

“I congratulate Professor Sreenivasan and Professor Willson for
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Robert Hebner, director of the university’s Center for Electromechanics (CEM), conducts research in a large algae growth demonstration facility for biofuels. The facility is located adjacent to CEM.

It’s theoretically possible to produce about 500 times as much energy from algae fuels as is needed to grow the fuels, according to a new study by researchers at The University of Texas at Austin.

However, limited by existing technology, the researchers found in a separate study that their algae growing facility is getting
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We’ve rounded up some of the research highlights of the spring 2012 semester at The University of Texas at Austin.

One piece of news, growing support for a medical school at the university, isn’t exactly current research, but it could lead to vast research opportunities in health and medicine for years to come.

Noteworthy research included authoritative reports on the process of hydro-fracturing in mining natural gas, water resources in the important food-producing regions of California’s Central Valley and the Great Plains,
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It seems that the only time astronomers at The University of Texas at Austin took a break from finding new planets and bigger black holes during the fall 2011 semester was when university geologists edged in with evidence of a lake under the surface of Saturn’s moon, Europa.

As busy as those researchers were, the semester also brought discoveries in green energy, Parkinson’s disease, post-traumatic stress disorder, concealed handguns and the relationship between children’s happiness and their parents.

Here’s a look at
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Adela Ben-Yakar, an engineering professor, and Jon Pierce-Shimomura, a neurobiology professor, have teamed up to develop technology to test drugs for neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s.

Scientific collaborations across disciplines can be great when they happen.

Researchers bring different skills, expertise and perspectives that can illuminate hard problems.

But just bringing different disciplines together can be a hard problem in itself, despite work being done by universities to break down the siloes that contain them.

So we wondered how Adela Ben-Yakar, a professor in the
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Cockrell School of Engineering Associate Professor Adela Ben-Yakar and College of Natural Sciences Assistant Professor Jon Pierce-Shimomura received a competitive $3 million grant from the National Institutes of Health. The grant will fund research that aims to prevent degeneration of the nervous system, which occurs through natural aging and diseases like Alzheimer’s. Photo by Marsha Miller

This article originally appeared on the Cockrell School of Engineering Web site. It was written by Melissa Mixon.

Technology developed by researchers at The University of
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The twin satellites of the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) constantly beam information back to Earth.

(See the full story on the University of Texas at Austin Web site).

The data arrives in scientists’ computers as screens full of numbers. The scientists transform the bit and bytes into images to help them, other researchers and policymakers better understand the information.

The principal investigator of the GRACE misson is Byron Tapley, director of the Center for Space Research and professor in the Cockrell School of
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There are more than 1.2 million cases of skin cancer in the United States each year.

Biomedical engineers at The University of Texas at Austin have developed a device that could reduce the need for biopsies that are performed to determine whether a growth is cancerous.

James Tunnell and his student researchers developed a pen-sized, light-based device for detecting skin cancers.

For every melanoma found, doctors perform approximately 50 biopsies. As a result, healthcare providers spend billions of dollars per year taking
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In recent years, automobiles have become quieter and more comfortable.

For that you can thank an engineering professor at The University of Texas at Austin.

Dr. Jeffrey Bennighof, professor in the Department of Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics in the Cockrell School of Engineering, developed software that manufacturers have used to reduce noise and vibration.

The Automated Multilevel Substructuring (AMLS) software enables fast and accurate prediction of car vibrations over a wide frequency range on inexpensive computers. Analyses are done in hours on
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