Engineering

Rice’s Amanda Marciel wins NSF CAREER Award

Rice’s Amanda Marciel has won an NSF CAREER Award for her research on materials useful in applications such as stretchable electronics and biomimetic tissues.

Global health initiative targeting newborn mortality to announce next phase Jan. 23 with new, 8-figure funding

A major initiative to improve newborn care and survival across sub-Saharan Africa will announce the next phase of activities supported by new, eight-figure funding during a press conference held at Rice University’s Biosciences Research Collaborative Jan. 23.

Woodside provides $12.5M to support Rice-led project to advance decarbonization

Rice University and Woodside Energy today announced a ground-breaking five-year technology collaboration aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions and providing lower carbon solutions.

Rice chemists find new way to rid boron nitride nanotubes of impurities

Rice scientists in the lab of Angel Martí have uncovered a new way to make high-purity boron nitride nanotubes, hollow cylindrical structures that can withstand temperatures of up to 900 degrees Celsius while also being stronger than steel by weight.

Rice engineers propose hybrid urban water sourcing model

Houston’s water and wastewater system could be more resilient with the development of hybrid urban water supply systems that combine conventional, centralized water sources with reclaimed wastewater, according to a study by Rice engineers published in Nature Water.

Rice researchers revolutionizing 5G network testing

With the potential to transform the future of global wireless networks, Rice University engineers are developing a cutting-edge testing framework to assess the stability, interoperability, energy efficiency and communication performance of software-based machine learning-enabled 5G radio access networks (RANs).

Rice’s Ashok Veeraraghavan wins Texas Academy’s O’Donnell Award

Rice’s Ashok Veeraraghavan has been awarded the Edith and Peter O’Donnell Award in Engineering from the Texas Academy of Medicine, Engineering, Science and Technology (TAMEST), one of the state’s highest academic honors.

Rice scientists use blood test to track gene expression in the brain

Rice-engineered synthetic serum marker can track gene expression in the brain noninvasively, using blood tests.

Rice bioengineering curriculum cultivates human-centered approach to medical design

A five-year grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) will support the development of an innovative undergraduate bioengineering curriculum component intended to cultivate inclusive design principles for Rice students contemplating a career as medical practitioners or medical technology innovators.

’Tis the season of giving . . . and engineering

The holiday season kicked off early this year for a Rice staff member who received a welcome and much-needed gift from a team of freshman engineering students.

Molecular jackhammers’ ‘good vibrations’ eradicate cancer cells

Rice scientists and collaborators at Texas A&M University and University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center have found a new way to kill cancer cells by using near-infrared light to make a small dye molecule attached to their membrane vibrate strongly. It is the first time this kind of mechanical molecular action has been used as a potential therapy.

For this emergent class of materials, ‘solutions are the problem’

Rice materials scientists developed a fast, low-cost, scalable method to make covalent organic frameworks (COFs), a class of crystalline polymers whose tunable molecular structure, large surface area and porosity could be useful in energy applications, semiconductor devices, sensors, filtration systems and drug delivery.

Electronic pathways may enhance collective atomic vibrations’ magnetism

A new study from Rice’s RAMBO laboratory and collaborators suggests the magnetism of phonons, collective atomic vibrations, is enhanced by electronic pathways.

Rice-Hamburg U. of Technology launch research collaboration

Rice chemical engineer Walter Chapman is spearheading a collaboration with the Hamburg University of Technology’s SMART Reactors Collaborative Research Center, which aims to develop solutions in support of a transition from fossil fuel to renewables-based economic and production chains through innovative reactor design and development.

Chance twists ordered carbon nanotubes into ‘tornado films’

Rice scientists in the lab of Junichiro Kono have developed two new methods to create ordered carbon nanotube films with either a left- or right-handed chiral pattern.