EurekAlert! News by Subject: Tech & Engineering - News by Subject: Tech & Engineering

Tech & Engineering

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 2-Jan-2026 13:11 ET (2-Jan-2026 18:11 GMT/UTC)

SUN-DT moves towards the full digitalization of tower CSP plants to improve efficiency and reduce operational costs

IMDEA Networks Institute
Business Announcement

The European project SUN-DT, in which IMDEA Networks participates and which is funded by Horizon Europe, officially launched its activities in October 2025. Formed by a consortium of nine international organizations and coordinated by CENER, the initiative aims to drive the digital transition of tower concentrated solar power (CSP) plants.

Neuroscientists develop human brain-like technology that can accelerate understanding of Alzheimer's, other neurodegenerative diseases

Houston Methodist
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Houston Methodist neuroscientists have developed a first-of-its-kind method to rapidly produce synchronized, human brain wave-like activity in lab-grown neural networks that can communicate over long distances. This innovation offers researchers a powerful tool to study how brain connectivity is affected in neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s and to explore potential treatments.

Journal: Advanced Healthcare Materials

SwRI tackles pre-ignition challenges in hydrogen-fueled engines

Southwest Research Institute
Business Announcement

SAN ANTONIO — November 26, 2025 — Engineers at Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) have developed a reliable testing methodology to study stochastic pre-ignition (SPI) in hydrogen-fueled internal combustion engines (H₂-ICEs), offering the automotive industry tools to address challenges associated with hydrogen fuel and advance cleaner engine technologies.

Do children imitate communication manners of machines? Experiment on children's response to polite vs. commanding robot

SWPS University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

The presence of robots in schools is no longer surprising. How do elementary school children treat humanoid robots? Are they polite to them, and willing to attribute human-like qualities to them? Researchers from SWPS University have shown that in most cases, children treat robots politely, and younger children and girls are more likely to perceive them as possessing human-like qualities.

Journal: Computers & Education

Research into zoonotic disease risks requires a One Health approach

CABI
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A new evidence brief, based on a study by the Juno Evidence Alliance conducted in collaboration with CABI’s One Health Hub, has highlighted that a One Health approach is needed in research into zoonotic disease risks around the world.

Could traffic factors enhance autonomous vehicle safety?

Tsinghua University Press
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Researchers at Imperial College London, developed a new method to combine infrastructure-based traffic data with vehicle-based data. They demonstrate that adding traffic covariates increases accuracy and the use of the No-U-Turn Sampler (NUTS) reduces the computational running time.

Journal: Communications in Transportation Research

Bridging signal processing and AI: the next frontier in image reconstruction

Tsinghua University Press
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Image reconstruction—the process of recovering clear images from incomplete or noisy data—has been advancing rapidly through deep learning. Yet most existing approaches rely on costly supervised training and lack theoretical transparency. A new survey maps the rise of unsupervised deep learning for image reconstruction, from traditional denoising-based priors to modern diffusion models. These methods learn structured visual information directly from unlabeled data, and have achieved impressive performance across various fields, including biomedical imaging and remote sensing. The study shows how unsupervised learning based image reconstruction unites neural network efficiency with solid mathematical foundations to achieve both interpretability and flexibility, offering a blueprint for next-generation imaging systems.

Journal: Visual Intelligence