News & Events

03-20-23

As part of Conversations on Artificial Intelligence, a webinar series hosted by the Caltech Science Exchange, Andrew and Peggy Cherng Professor of Electrical Engineering and Medical Engineering Azita Emami discusses how her lab incorporates artificial intelligence (AI) into medical devices to improve health and enhance quality of life. Watch the conversation. [Caltech story]

Tags: EE research highlights MedE Azita Emami

03-09-23

In the latest advance in nano- and micro-architected materials, engineers at Caltech have developed a new material made from numerous interconnected microscale knots. The knots make the material far tougher than identically structured but unknotted materials: they absorb more energy and are able to deform more while still being able to return to their original shape undamaged. [Caltech story]

Tags: APhMS research highlights MedE Julia Greer Sammy Shaker Weiting Deng Widianto Moestopo

02-28-23

One of the foundational early advances in computer science that makes our increasingly digital world possible began with a small course at Caltech in the early 1970s taught by Carver Mead (BS '56, MS '57, PhD '60), the Gordon and Betty Moore Professor of Engineering and Applied Science, Emeritus. Mead received the 2022 Kyoto Prize for Advanced Technology in honor of his "leading contributions to the establishment of the guiding principles for VLSI systems design." VLSI, which stands for "very large-scale integration," is the process of combining millions of transistors onto a single chip that forms an integrated circuit and it is the cornerstone of the computers the world relies on today. [Caltech story] 

Tags: honors research highlights Carver Mead

02-24-23

Researchers, led by Lihong Wang, Bren Professor of Medical Engineering and Electrical Engineering, have made a major step forward in medical imaging by taking inspiration from the field of astronomy. In astronomy, the light that reaches telescopes is distorted by the earth's atmosphere, resulting in blurry images of planets, satellites, and other cosmic objects. The earth's atmosphere is what's known as a scattering medium; it scatters light, making images appear unfocused and cloudy. Wavefront shaping is a method of generating focused light by reversing the optical distortion caused by the atmosphere. In this method, a reflective device, like a mirror, "shapes" light waves to counterbalance distortion. It's similar to a person wearing active noise-cancelling headphones to combat ambient noise. [Caltech story]

Tags: EE research highlights MedE Lihong Wang

02-22-23

Nearly a decade ago, researchers heralded the discovery of a new wonder class of ultrathin materials with special optical and electrical properties that made it a potential rival for graphene, a form of carbon discovered in 2004 whose own special properties interest both scientists and engineers. Now, Caltech engineers have shown that one of these wonder materials, tungsten diselenide, is not just a rival to graphene but also a complement to it. [Caltech Story]

Tags: APhMS research highlights Stevan Nadj-Perge Cyprian Lewandowski Alex Thomson Yiran Zhang Robert Polski Jason Alicea Étienne Lantagne Hurtubise

02-17-23

In recent months, debate has swirled around gas stoves and their relationship to health conditions such as childhood asthma. Paul Wennberg speaks with the Caltech Science Exchange about indoor air pollutants and what people can do to limit their exposure. Wennberg is Caltech's R. Stanton Avery Professor of Atmospheric Chemistry and Environmental Science and Engineering; Executive Officer for Environmental Science and Engineering; Director, Ronald and Maxine Linde Center for Global Environmental Science. [Caltech Science Exchange story]

Tags: research highlights Paul Wennberg Caltech Science Exchange

02-14-23

Engineers from Caltech have discovered that Leonardo da Vinci's understanding of gravity—though not wholly accurate—was centuries ahead of his time. In an article published in the journal Leonardo, the researchers draw upon a fresh look at one of da Vinci's notebooks to show that the famed polymath had devised experiments to demonstrate that gravity is a form of acceleration—and that he further modeled the gravitational constant to around 97 percent accuracy. [Caltech Story]

Tags: research highlights GALCIT Morteza Gharib

02-13-23

Caltech researchers have developed proxies for human doctors that are small enough to travel through the human body and help diagnose ailments. These "smart pills" are typically swallowed, and as they pass through the digestive tract, they collect health data, record images, and even deliver drugs. [Caltech story]

Tags: EE research highlights MedE Azita Emami Mikhail Shapiro Saransh Sharma

12-16-22

Increasingly, the online world is moving toward automated moderation tools that can identify abusive words and behavior without the need for human intervention. Now, two researchers from Caltech, one an expert in artificial intelligence (AI) and the other a political scientist, are teaming up with Activision on a two-year research project that aims to create an AI that can detect abusive online behavior and help the company's support and moderation teams to combat it. [Caltech story]

Tags: research highlights CMS Animashree Anandkumar

12-02-22

Lihong Wang, Bren Professor of Medical Engineering and Electrical Engineering; Andrew and Peggy Cherng Medical Engineering Leadership Chair; Executive Officer for Medical Engineering, and his research team show how they developed a new variant of photoacoustic microscopy (PAM) called needle-shaped beam photoacoustic microscopy (NB-PAM). NB-PAM has a depth of field nearly 14 times greater than what was achievable before. [Caltech story]

Tags: EE research highlights MedE Lihong Wang Rui Cao