Engineering & Technology

SUTD researchers developed a fully knitted, circuit-embedded knee wearable for wireless sensing of joint motion in real-time. Compared to other knitted electronics, this model has fewer externally integrated components and a more sensitive sensor, making it less error-prone.

Researchers from Osaka University show how their multilegged walking robot can be steered by inducing a dynamic instability. By making the couplings between segments more flexible, the robot changes from walking straight to moving in a curved path. This work can lead to more energy-efficient and reliable robotic navigation of terrain.

A group of researchers from universities in Thailand and Malaysia have collaborated to develop a unique kind of film that is good for the environment and can decompose naturally. They made this film using leftover pineapple stems, which helps reduce the use of harmful plastic films. This new film has the potential to be used as packaging material, contributing to a more sustainable way of doing business and promoting a circular economy.

Two key challenges in chemistry innovation are solved simultaneously by exploring chemical opportunities with artificial intelligence.

With the use of electric vehicles and grid-scale energy storage systems on the rise, the need to explore alternatives to lithium-ion batteries has never been greater. Tohoku University researchers have recently developed a prototype calcium metal rechargeable battery capable of 500 cycles of repeated charge-discharge - the benchmark for practical use. The breakthrough was made thanks to the development of a copper sulfide nanoparticle/carbon composite cathode and a hydride-based electrolyte.

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Prioritising climate change, ITEX is encouraging inventors to push the boundaries of creativity and innovation to drive new climate technology

To improve the therapeutic techniques to treat those with brain disorders, researchers have developed microscopic, thermally-drawn microelectronic fiber-based neural probes as a means to manipulate both electrical and chemical signals in the brain. Now, a researcher from Tohoku University’s Frontier Research Institute for Interdisciplinary Sciences has led a group that increased the functionality of these fibers by equipping them with neurochemical sensing aptamers.

Specially coated surfaces help scientists investigate what happens when cell clusters are turned upside down.

- DGIST Professor Hongki Kang’s team developed technology for selective photothermal layer formation and a transparent electrode based on a fine inkjet printing solution process. - This has potential to efficiently measure various body signals through a flexible fine electrode array customized for patients. - The research results are published in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces.

- Business agreement for implementing and operating a Semiconductor Contracting Department - After recruiting students starting from 2024, those selected as scholars will have the opportunity to join Samsung Electronics.

Philip M. Parker, INSEAD Chaired Professor of Management Science and founder of the INSEAD AI lab called TotoGEO, has developed TotoPoetry – a poetry generator trained on a rule-oriented approach to AI.

To discover and preserve conservation laws in the data of physical phenomena, researchers from Osaka University developed FINDE, which uses a neural network to represent the underlying conservation laws of a system as opposed to its superficial dynamics. Experiments demonstrated that energy and mass conservation laws, spatial symmetries, and constraints were discovered and preserved, indicating the potential of FINDE to contribute to the development of computer-aided engineering and physics simulations.

Researchers from SANKEN (The Institute of Scientific and Industrial Research), at Osaka University designed a cellulose nanofiber paper (nanopaper) that can be used as a substrate for on-skin electronics. The porous structure of the nanopaper means that it can conform and adhere to the skin well enough for effective signal transfer and allows moisture to pass through for breathability and comfort. It is hoped that the nanopaper can soon be used to acquire electrophysiological data, such as ECGs in the clinic.

A research group at Osaka Metropolitan University has succeeded in selectively recovering trace rare earth elements in synthetic seawater and environmental water, such as hot spring water, using baker’s yeast with a phosphate group added. The phosphorylated yeast is expected to be utilized as a material for recovering useful metals and removing toxic metals, thereby contributing to the realization of a metal resource-circulating society.

Doctors at King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital have developed lightweight and easy-to-use Parkinson's gloves that can automatically reduce tremors, allowing patients to enjoy social life and reducing side effects from medication and risk from brain surgery.

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A tiny platform empowers scientists to examine how gut and liver cells interact in health and disease.

We sat down with Dr. Ji Ha Lee to get to know her and her work on developing recyclable and degradable gels that can replace plastics as well as nanogels that can help with targeted drug delivery.

- Successful localization of magnetic sensor chips through a performance evaluation based on unique technologies of DGIST (original technology), Electric Vehicle Advanced Materials Co., Ltd. (module mass production), and Kwangwoo Co., Ltd. (product production) - Expected to strengthen national competitiveness in the global sensor market, which is dominated by foreign companies based on performance and price competitiveness

- The 2021 paper from the research team of Professor Dongwon Yoon of the Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science & Technology (DGIST) was selected as the cover paper for the 10th anniversary edition of the top Soft Robotics Journal - Recognized for excellence in robot hand technology that is as flexible and delicate as a human hand combined with a “flexure hinge”

An international team of scientists is helping to reduce carbon emissions into the atmosphere by exploring different natural fibres and blending the natural fibres in plastics to make light-weight and strong green composite materials for the construction and automotive industries.

An Osaka Metropolitan University joint research group has discovered that near-infrared absorbing dyes, which had previously been considered to have closed-shell electronic structures, have an intermediate electronic structure, between closed- and open-shell structures. They also found that as the wavelength of near-infrared light that can be absorbed becomes longer the contribution of open-shell forms increases within the dye. These newly discovered characteristics are expected to be utilized to develop new near-infrared absorbing dyes that can absorb longer wavelength near-infrared light.

Scientists in Singapore converted fruit waste into a solar absorber called Mxene to develop an efficient and sustainable water desalination process.

Researchers at The University of Tokyo develop a gate driver for circuit bipolar transistor electronic switches with a timing function robust to changes in current and temperature, which can be used in many industrial control applications

Fujitsu and Osaka University’s Center for Quantum Information and Quantum Biology (QIQB) today revealed the development of a new, highly efficient analog rotation quantum computing architecture, representing a significant milestone toward the realization of practical quantum computing. The new architecture reduces the number of physical qubits required for quantum error correction – a prerequisite for the realization of fault-tolerant quantum computing – by 90% from 1 million to 10,000 qubits. This breakthrough will allow research to embark on the construction of a quantum computer with 10,000 physical qubits and 64 logical qubits (4), which corresponds to computing performance of approximately 100,000 times that of the peak performance of conventional high performance computers.

Researchers from SANKEN (The Institute of Scientific and Industrial Research), at Osaka University in collaboration with researchers from Imperial College London (UK) have improved the Faradaic efficiency of the nitrogen reduction reaction into ammonia by straightforward optimization of chemical process parameters. They found that trace water was the probable source of the high selectivity by facilitating incorporation of lithium oxide into the solid electrolyte interphase. These findings will also aid optimization of other analogous reactions, and thus help the chemicals industry optimize the sustainability of one of the most carbon-intensive reactions globally.

Scientists from Alliance University, Bangalore, Birla Institute of Technology Mesra, Inha University, Hanyang University, South Korea, and Newcastle University in Singapore have developed a new and straightforward approach to turn used COVID-19 facemasks into potential absorbent materials that can be employed for carbon capture from atmosphere.

An international interdisciplinary team of researchers hailed from India, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand has successfully developed a method of using chitosan from terrestrial insects to manufacture eco‐friendly polymer composite parts using the 3D printing method.

Scientists restore impaired kidney for the first time, How fibre composite fails when wet, Cleaner fish recognize themselves in pictures 🖼️🐟& The source of black carbon in the sea. Read all in the latest Editor's Choice. Plus our magazine Asia Research News 2023 is out now 🎉!