Ada Lovelace said computers could not invent. But a century later, Alan Turing pointed out inventiveness in machines could be found in their capacity to produce surprising and innovative results.
Although female inventorship has grown over the years, 15 years’ worth of patent outcomes from IP Australia suggests inventing is still a luxury for women.
For almost as long as there have been computers, there have been video games.
Neilson Barnard/Getty Images
Technology innovation is one of the Biden administration’s most powerful tools for accelerating progress on climate change. Recent successes in renewable energy and batteries show how this can work.
Maker spaces give engineers and designers the tools to build low-cost medical equipment using locally available materials.
Brandon Martin, Rice University
Engineering students in Malawi and Tanzania have used the materials and tools available to them to build ventilators, personal protective equipment and UV disinfection systems.
Attorneys for Apple heading to court during the so-called smartphone patent wars.
AP Photo/Jeff Chiu
The coronavirus pandemic has driven a lot of scientific progress in the past year. But just as some of the social changes are likely here to stay, so are some medical innovations.
Ice can be a wind turbine’s worst enemy.
AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty
Wind turbines in cold areas typically include methods for removing and repelling ice, but those methods can waste energy. There’s a better way.
Bendable concrete created at the University of Michigan allows for thinner structures with less need for steel reinforcement.
Joseph Xu/University of Michigan College of Engineering
Researchers are developing ways to lock captured CO2 into cement. It could help rebuild America’s crumbling infrastructure and deal with climate change at the same time.
Deicing salts keep winter roads passable but do a lot of harm in the process.
Gregory Rec/Portland Portland Press Herald via Getty Images
De-icing salts help us get around in winter, but they corrode cars, crack roads and contaminate rivers and lakes. Scientists are working to develop better options by imitating natural antifreezes.
Who should be allowed into U.S. labs and who should be kept out?
7postman/E+ via Getty Images
The recent arrest of a Chinese-born scientist at MIT raises questions about the value of international science collaboration and its impact on the American innovation system.
A worker pours dry ice into boxes containing Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine.
Morry Gash/Pool/AFP via Getty Images
From designing vaccine supply chains to improving PPE to rebuilding trust, systematically bringing engineering knowhow to public health problems could make a huge difference.
The ‘DATA Bulls’ use computer science skills to create data analytics for college sports teams.
Felesia Stukes
AI algorithms can solve hard problems and learn incredible tasks, but they can’t explain how they do these things. If researchers can build explainable AI, it could lead to a flood of new knowledge.
Saved from the trash heap and ready for transformation.
Nathan Shaiyen/Michigan Tech
Consumers can turn plastic waste into valuable products at minimal cost using the open source technologies associated with DRAM – distributed recycling and additive manufacturing.
Chadwick Boseman’s portrayal of the Black Panther was an inspiration to people of color in science, technology, engineering and math fields.
Joel C Ryan/Invision/AP
The late Hollywood star celebrated being young, Black and gifted, both on screen and off.
Many Black and Hispanic STEM students leave the science field because of the ‘racial fatigue’ of having to deal with stereotypes.
Jcomp via iStock/Getty Images Plus
Coping with racial stereotypes that permeate STEM culture is like having another full-time job, argues a researcher who studies racism in these fields.
Professor and Director of Quantitative Biosciences Institute & Senior Investigator at the Gladstone Institutes, University of California, San Francisco