Engineers at the University of Maryland have recently published research into new uses for wood, including making it mouldable and even turning it into a battery. A team led by materials science and engineering Professor Liangbing Hu used a ‘water-shock’ process to give wood ‘formability’, much like metal, plastic or concrete, thus bypassing the need to cut or carve it into … [Read more...] about Three ground-breaking new uses for wood
Construction
Turning marine infrastructure into habitats for sea life
A team of scientists is designing special panels that can be attached to marine infrastructure to make it more attractive for colonisation by sea life. The Living Seawalls project, led by coastal ecologists Associate Professor Melanie Bishop and Katherine Dafforn of Macquarie University in Sydney, is a finalist in the Earthshot environment prizes, to be awarded later in October … [Read more...] about Turning marine infrastructure into habitats for sea life
Young engineers design and build solar-powered home in Jordanian refugee camp
A team of UCLA students and recent graduates has harnessed the power of the sun to bring safe, low-cost housing to displaced Palestinianrefugees in the Jerash camp in Jordan. Founded in 2019 by UCLA Samueli School of Engineering alumnus Rashed Alkhlaifat, student organisation Design Create Solar brings together UCLA students from a wide range of academic backgrounds to … [Read more...] about Young engineers design and build solar-powered home in Jordanian refugee camp
Design firms create James Bond-style underground garage
British engineering and design consultancy Arup and London-based architectural studio Unism have released images of an underground showroom in Warsaw they’ve designed to house a private collection of eight heritage Aston Martin cars (with two extra spaces available for any future additions). Set to be located 6.8 metres underground beneath a grassy knoll in one of the city’s … [Read more...] about Design firms create James Bond-style underground garage
New HS2 viaduct design will significantly reduce its embedded carbon
The designers of the High Speed 2 (HS2) rail link have announced that they’ve figured out how to more than halve the amount of embedded carbon in one of the project’s viaducts. The innovative ‘double composite’ approach, which involves sandwiching two steel girders between two layers of reinforced concrete to create an extremely strong but lightweight span, was developed by … [Read more...] about New HS2 viaduct design will significantly reduce its embedded carbon
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