Engineering

Rice improves catalyst that destroys ‘forever chemicals’ with sunlight

Rice chemical engineers have improved their light-powered catalyst for destroying forever chemical PFOA.

Rice engineers get a grip with ‘necrobotic’ spiders

Rice University engineers find they can manipulate the legs of dead spiders to serve as grippers.

Synthetic tools conduct messages from station to station in DNA

Bioengineers used deactivated Cas9 fusion proteins to synthetically control gene expression and reveal new details about natural processes in human cells.

Wireless activation of targeted brain circuits in less than one second

Rice neuroengineers and collaborators have created wireless technology to remotely activate brain circuits.

Strain-sensing smart skin ready to deploy

Carbon nanotubes’ natural fluorescence enables a method to detect high strain concentrations, which can lead to damage that threatens the integrity of critical infrastructure like aircraft, buildings, pipelines, bridges and ships.

SARS-Arena reveals hidden hooks in virus

SARS-Arena will help to find conserved parts in proteins from SARS-CoV-2 that could be a key for the development of wide-spectrum vaccines.

Emu stands tall at detecting bacteria species

Rice computer scientists develop Emu, which uses long reads of genomes to identify bacteria in a community.

Landmark new engineering and science building on campus to bear Ralph S. O’Connor’s name

A self-made businessman who started out working in oilfields and ended up building an empire in energy and real estate investments will be memorialized at Rice University with a landmark new science and engineering building named in his honor.

Boron nitride nanotube fibers get real

Rice scientists create the first boron nitride nanotube fibers using the custom wet-spinning process they developed to make carbon nanotube fibers.

City, county and port support Galveston Bay Park study

Houston, Harris County, Port Houston and entrepreneur Joe Swinbank have chipped in for an engineering study of Galveston Bay Park, a chain of man-made islands that Rice University experts have proposed building as both a hurricane barrier and a 10,000-acre public park.

Rice OEDK team creates new feeding device for Houston Zoo’s red river hogs

Just steps away from Rice University, you can meet Neptune, Luna, Vidalia, Artemis and Ophelia, the Houston Zoo’s resident red river hogs.

SeqScreen can reveal ‘concerning’ DNA

Rice computer scientists and collaborators develop a program to screen short DNA sequences, whether synthetic or natural, to determine their toxicity.

Agriculture emissions pose risks to health and climate

Rice researchers find the economic cost of emissions from agriculture and their risks to populations through air pollution and climate change.

Humans in the loop help robots find their way

Rice computer scientists develop a method that allows humans to help complex robots build efficient solutions to “see” their environments and carry out tasks.

Doctoral alumna wins prestigious Schmidt Science Fellowship

Doctoral graduate Natsumi Komatsu has been awarded a prestigious Schmidt Science Fellowship