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Researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder have made a discovery that explores an inexpensive way to eliminate waste heat in buildings, cooling systems, and even cars and trucks.

Cytoskeletal filaments with chemical motors attached are the basic elements in cells that enable biological motion. Computer simulation of model biomotive systems show that even systems with minimal ingredients are able to generate the kind of exotic nonequilibrium behavior observed in cells.

Transistors, the building blocks of all computer technologies, are currently based on semi-conductors such as silicon, manufactured using energy-intensive processes.

Utah MRSEC establishes science and engineering afterschool clubs at community centers and schools serving predominately underrepresented minority (URM) students in those fields. The Education and Outreach team then hires and trains University of Utah undergraduates to lead the clubs and deliver hands-on activities each week.

We show the first demonstration of shape memory alloys being used for active THz devices. The metal foil was found to reproducibly cycle between the two geometries over 100 times. 

Both the absorption and emission of ultraviolet light by pyrene (PAH compound) are enhanced by more than 30-fold on nanostructured aluminum, compared to an equivalent control sample on sapphire (aluminum oxide). 

We have achieved the enhanced thermoelectric response in polycrystalline Ca3Co4O9 on doping Tb ions in the material. Specifically, a high figure of merit (ZT) of 0.74 at 800 K was observed for Ca2.5Tb0.5Co4O9.

Intellectual Merit: Currently neurological and neuromuscular disorders such as spinal cord injuries and Parkinson’s disease are poorly understood.  A impediment to advances in this area is a lack of materials and devices that would allow for precise long-term two-way communication with groups of neurons (nerve cells) in the body.

MIT MRSEC researchers have developed stimuli-responsive hydrogel materials that can change their mechanical properties upon exposure to light. Insights generated from these studies will aid in the development of programmable hydrogels with specific stress-relaxing or energy-dissipating properties.

The Research Experience for Teachers (RET) program at the MIT MRSEC immerses local science teachers in materials research on campus to increase their content knowledge, and develop pedagogical material for their classroom use.