This years stories

8 Stanford Engineering faculty elected to National Academy of Engineering

Eight professors from the Stanford University School of Engineering are among the newly elected National Academy of Engineering (NAE) members, the NAE said today. According to the NAE, membership honors those who have made outstanding contributions to "engineering research, practice, or education, including, where appropriate, significant contributions to the engineering literature," and to the "pioneering of new and developing fields of technology, making major advancements in traditional fields of engineering, or developing/implementing innovative approaches to engineering education." There are just 2,250 U.S. members of NAE and 211 foreign associates. The eight newly elected members bring Stanford Engineering's NAE membership to more than 80. "Election to the National Academy of Engineering is among the highest professional distinctions any engineer can receive…

Researchers create 'building block' of quanutm networks

A proof-of-concept device that could pave the way for on-chip optical quantum networks has been created by a group of researchers from the US. Presenting the device today, 8 February, in the Institute of Physics and German Physical Society's New Journal of Physics, it has been described as the "building block of future quantum networks." In an optical quantum network, information is carried between points by photons – the basic unit of light. There is a huge potential for this type of network in the field of quantum computing and could enable computers that are millions of times faster at solving certain problems than what we are used to today. This new device, which combines a single nitrogen-vacancy centre in…

Using Twitter to predict the influence of lifestyle on health

Researchers at the University of Rochester showed last year how Twitter can be used to predict how likely it is for a Twitter user to become sick. They have now used Twitter to model how other factors – social status, exposure to pollution, interpersonal interaction and others – influence health. "If you want to know, down to the individual level, how many people are sick in a population, you would have to survey the population, which is costly and time-consuming," said Adam Sadilek, postdoctoral researcher at the University of Rochester. "Twitter and the technology we have developed allow us to do this passively, quickly and inexpensively; we can listen in to what people are saying and mine this data to…

Bringing a new perspective to infectious disease

Scanning electron microscope image of a lymphocyte with HIV cluster.

Enlisted in the fight against HIV, MIT engineers and scientists contribute new technology, materials and supercomputational studies.With the recent launch of MIT’s Institute for Medical Engineering and Science,MIT News examines research with the potential to reshape medicine and health care through new scientific knowledge, novel treatments and products, better management of medical data, and improvements in health-care delivery. Studying infectious diseases has long been primarily the domain of biologists. However, as part of the Ragon Institute, MIT engineers and physical scientists are joining immunologists and physicians in the battle against HIV, which currently infects 34 million people worldwide. The mission of the Ragon Institute — launched jointly in 2009 by Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), MIT and Harvard University — is…

Germans fund project on spintronics

Up to EUR 1 million for cooperation with international partners for research into energy-efficient information technology The German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) is sponsoring a joint project involving Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) in Mainz, Tohoku University in Japan, Stanford University, and IBM Research. The project will be focusing on the field of spintronics, a key technology that enables the creation of new energy-efficient IT devices. At Mainz researchers from JGU's Institute of Physics and the Institute of Inorganic Chemistry and Analytical Chemistry participate with many of the activities taking place under the Materials Science in Mainz (MAINZ) Graduate School of Excellence. Over the next four years, the SpinNet network will be funded with about EUR 1 million from the…