News
July 26, 2017
Fungal Spores Harness Physics to Launch Themselves
Evolution has shaped fungal spores to aim and power their launch with merging water droplets
October 10, 2014
Interdisciplinary Duke Team Awarded $1.3 Million for Innovative Cancer Diagnosis and Therapy
Duke University and Zenalux Biomedical were recently awarded a Phase II Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) grant from the National Institutes of Health for $1,321,235. The two-year project, titled “A Quantitative Optical Sensor to Monitor Tumor Vascular Physiology,” is a collaborative effort [...]
October 08, 2014
Duke Startup Innovates Blood-Testing Technology—and Tech Transfer Process
A new technology to exponentially improve blood-screening for transfusions has leapfrogged its way from Duke University lab to corporate development. In an unusually streamlined tech-transfer deal, a two-year-old startup company founded by Duke bioengineers was acquired last week by industry giant [...]
October 08, 2014
Melina Smith: Understanding Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation
As a Grand Challenges Scholar, I am uniting my penchant for physics and engineering with my passion for neuroscience and psychology toward the goal of Reverse-Engineering the Brain. I work in the laboratory of Marc Sommer, professor of biomedical engineering, studying the effect of transcranial [...]
October 08, 2014
Kevin Mauro: Building a Brain-to-Brain Interface
A brain-to-brain interface connects one organism's brain to another to allow direct communication of neural data. Scary, right? But while words, vocal inflections and facial expressions are often misinterpreted, in a brain-to-brain interface, direct transmission of thoughts prevents any [...]
October 08, 2014
Kevin Nikolaus: Scanning the Environment with Unmanned Aerial Systems
My Grand Challenge Scholar research centers on the challenge of engineering the tools of scientific discovery. Although it is one of the less mentioned of the fourteen NAE grand challenges, I believe that it holds a crucial role in designing a better future. "This program has certainly changed my [...]
October 08, 2014
Lucas Johnston: Preventing Injuries through Orthopaedic Biomechanics
As a member of the Grand Challenge Scholars Program, I am integrating all of my experience in technical research, interdisciplinary learning, service, entrepreneurship and global perspective to expand my knowledge and focus my capabilities to help solve the Grand Challenge of Engineering Better [...]
October 08, 2014
Mona Dai: Treating Contaminated Drinking Water in Uganda
As part of the NAE Grand Challenge Scholars Program, I am focusing on the challenge of providing clean drinking water access to all. My research project focuses specifically on the impact of using ceramic water filters (CWF) to treat contaminated drinking water in Uganda. Ceramic water filters are [...]
October 06, 2014
Sapiro Awarded Two New Grants to Understand the Brain
Guillermo Sapiro, the Edmund T. Pratt Jr. School Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Duke University, has been awarded two new grants totaling about $2.5 million over the next five years. Sapiro is a co-investigator on both grants, each exploring the detailed inner workings of the [...]
October 03, 2014
Pratt Students Speak at White House BRAIN Conference
Three Pratt participants in the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) Grand Challenge Scholars Program were invited to the White House Sept. 30 for the BRAIN Conference. The national conference celebrated new commitments to President Barack Obama’s BRAIN Initiative that aims to revolutionize [...]
October 01, 2014
Nanoparticles Accumulate Quickly in Wetland Sediment
A Duke University team has found that nanoparticles called single-walled carbon nanotubes accumulate quickly in the bottom sediments of an experimental wetland setting, an action they say could indirectly damage the aquatic food chain. The results indicate little risk to humans ingesting the [...]