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Tech & Engineering

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 30-Oct-2026 11:16 ET (30-Oct-2026 15:16 GMT/UTC)

WVU AI research could transform how scientists monitor ecosystems

West Virginia University
Grant and Award Announcement

With help from artificial intelligence, West Virginia University researchers are speeding up environmental scientists’ access to time-sensitive data about ecosystem health, allowing experts to respond rapidly to events like droughts or wildfires.

Prevalence of mental health discussions in publicly available generative AI conversations

JAMA Network
Peer-Reviewed Publication

About the Study: This cross-sectional study evaluates how often adolescents use artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots to discuss mental health concerns.

Journal: JAMA Network Open

A smartphone navigation app for people with blindness and low vision

Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Harvard engineers have developed Mobilio, a smartphone app that uses AI, built-in sensors and personalized audio beeps to give users with blindness or low vision continuous guidance and obstacle avoidance.

Journal: Nature Biomedical Engineering

JMIR News: Digital health, and where it’s headed

JMIR Publications
Reports and Proceedings

JMIR Publications released five feature News and Perspectives articles on the state of digital scholarship and clinical practice.

Journal: Journal of Medical Internet Research

Engineering enters the operating room

University of Pittsburgh
Grant and Award Announcement

Pitt's Swanson School of Engineering and School of Medicine have launched a new NIH-funded T32 program pairing bioengineering postdocs with neurosurgery residents on team-based research across areas like epilepsy, stroke, and movement disorders. Co-directed by Aaron Batista and Jorge González-Martínez, the program aims to bridge the long-standing gap between engineering labs and operating rooms, with postdocs shadowing surgeries and residents getting lab experience under engineering mentors. This program is the first of its kind in the country to formally integrate neurosurgery and bioengineering around research and education. This creates a unique platform for innovation while establishing a new model for training the next generation of leaders at the intersection of neuroscience, engineering, and clinical care.

Study finds sustainable farming program helps refugees, immigrants boost health while launching agribusinesses

University of Kansas
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Researchers at the University of Kansas School of Social Welfare, spent time with New Roots, a program in Kansas City that works with resettled refugees, immigrants and English language learners. They found that the program that teaches sustainable agriculture in an urban setting provides an alternative to "company jobs," while improving physical and mental health of participants while teaching lessons on farming and American business practices, including sales, taxes, insurance and more.

Journal: Journal of Community Practice

Assembly of giant wild sunflower family genomes unlock potential for new perennial crops

The Land Institute
Peer-Reviewed Publication

The Land Institute and HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology have assembled the first chromosome-scale, haplotype-phased genomes for Silphium integrifolium (rosinweed, silflower) and Silphium perfoliatum (cup plant, silphie). The findings are published in the journal Nature Communications. This landmark research promises to expand and accelerate the development of more climate-resilient, sustainable perennial crops for food, fiber, forage, and medicines.

Journal: Nature Communications
Funder: The Land Institute, The Perennial Agriculture Project in conjunction with The Malone Family Land Preservation Foundation and The Land Institute

SwRI wins two R&D 100 awards

Southwest Research Institute
Grant and Award Announcement

Two Southwest Research Institute-developed technologies have been selected as winners of prestigious R&D 100 Awards. R&D World recognized SwRI’s patented Parallelogram Synchronized Truss Assembly (PaSTA) technology and the Advanced Locomotive Technology and Rail Infrastructure Optimization System (ALTRIOS), developed in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) National Laboratory of the Rockies (NLR), as two of the most important innovations of 2026.

Europe's buildings are designed for a climate that no longer exists – new open dataset offers a fix

Norwegian University of Life Sciences
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Researchers release free future climate files for 5,000+ European locations, ready to plug into standard building simulation tools. The data allows us to design buildings for the future European climate.

Journal: Journal of Building Performance Simulation