Process Engineering

Choosing the best chops, steaks or other fresh meat products is a tough job. It’s a delicate balancing of leanness, juiciness, taste, marbling and more. Increasingly, meat processors use electronic devices and equipment—such as optical probes, ultrasonic sensors and digital cameras—to evaluate critical fat to meat ratios. In 2003, for instance, electronic devices determined pricing for more than 80 percent of the almost $7.5 billion worth of swine processed in the United States. Multiple dev

SC researchers present new electric pulse technology

A new technology that uses electric fields to alter the “guts” of a cell may lead to improved methods of treating diseases such as cancer and leukemia, according to researchers in the USC Viterbi School of Engineering.

The technology, called electroperturbation, exposes cells to electric pulses just tens of nanoseconds (tens of billionths of a second) long, said electrical engineer Thomas Vernier, an investigator on a coll

New technology patented by researchers at the University of Wales, Bangor could lead to the development of ultra-sensitive sensors able to detect the presence of explosive materials. The sensors will have many security and military applications including being developed for use in the war against terrorism.

It is the innovative collaboration of molecular biology and chemistry that has enabled the team to develop the novel sensor technology ‘nano-dog’ to be developed to commercial prototype.

A novel process for fabricating tuneable lasers using micro-machined mirrors was developed by IST project TUNVIC. Part of a special two-part device, it allows variable wavelengths of emitted light that will ultimately allow increased volumes of data to be sent through a single optical fibre cable.

High-capacity data links between networked routers are part of the Internet’s backbone. These links use optical fibre cables through which information is sent using semiconductor lasers. By d

A balloon-shaped robot explorer that one day could search for water on other planets has survived some of the most trying conditions on planet Earth during a 70-kilometer (40-mile), wind-driven trek across Antarctica.

The Tumbleweed Rover, which is being developed at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif., left the National Science Foundation’s Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station on Jan. 24, completing its roll across Antarctica’s polar plateau roughly eight

Over the last decade, microfluidics has enabled the rapid growth and commercialisation of the life sciences, and IST-project FLOWMAP aims to further these advances by elaborating a roadmap that identifies technological gaps and streamlines RTD activities in the field.

One of the most dynamically emerging disciplines of microtechnology, microfluidic devices can accurately control minute volumes of fluid – mostly liquids – well below the microlitre range.

Modern inkjet technology wi