Rice’s César A. Uribe is developing computational tools to help scientists better understand ecosystems with recent studies using AI to glean new insights from different kinds of ecological data — from African mammal food webs to tropical forest soundscapes.

A new paper by UMBC researchers, led by physicist Sebastian Deffner, demonstrates quantum computing’s potential to optimize urban train scheduling, using Baltimore’s Light RailLink as a model. Their study, published with collaborators from the Polish Academy of Sciences, leverages quantum “noise” to model unpredictable train delays. Tested on IonQ and D-Wave quantum devices, the approach solves small-scale scheduling but highlights the need for advanced hardware for larger networks. This interdisciplinary work could revolutionize logistics, finance, and drug discovery by tackling complex systems affected by randomness.

A paper from the lab of UChicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering Prof. Y. Shirley Meng, published this week in Joule, raises the benchmark for sodium-based all-solid-state batteries, demonstrating thick cathodes that retain performance at room temperature down to subzero conditions. By stabilizing a metastable structure that has not previously been reported, this breakthrough research both advances sodium batteries as an environmentally safer alternative to lithium batteries and represents an advance in pure science. 

In collaboration with chemical technology and engineering company Dimensional Energy, scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have integrated binder jet additive manufacturing with an advanced post-processing method to fabricate leak-tight ceramic components, overcoming a key challenge of ceramic additive manufacturing. 

Results from two studies find new implant restores blood pressure balance after spinal cord injury. In a rare double publication in both Nature and Nature Medicine, a pair of landmark studies by Dr. Aaron Phillips, PhD, UCalgary, Dr. Grégoire Courtine, PhD, EPFL, and Dr. Jocelyne Bloch, MD, UNIL, describe the development of a targeted therapy to address blood pressure regulation in 14 participants across four clinical studies conducted at three separate medical centers in Canada, Switzerland, and the Netherlands. The implantable neurostimulation system evaluated in these studies was developed by ONWARD Medical. The company recently received FDA approval to initiate a pivotal trial of this therapy, which is expected to involve approximately 20 leading neurorehabilitation and neurosurgical research centers across Canada, Europe and the United States.

 

The SAGEST Center brings together advanced computing, data analytics and engineering to model extreme environments using hypersonic flight as a rigorous proving ground.