Making Sci-Fi Reality
Science fiction authors and engineers have one big thing in common — envisioning the future. Concepts that were once bound to speculative fiction — self-driving cars, missions to Mars, and more — are now becoming a reality thanks to engineers like ours at NYU Tandon.
Exploring the unknown
In space, no one can hear you snore
For astronauts, a good night’s sleep is harder to come by in a zero-g environment than their mattresses back on earth. Luckily, Tandon students are working on a way to bring them a little relief and a well-deserved rest.
Doctoral student Devjoy Dev, advised by Assistant Professor Khalil Ramadi (BME) took home the People’s Choice Award at the NYU Abu Dhabi GradSlam for his talk, “A Gut Feeling: Improving Astronaut Sleep with an Electric Pill.”
Going to space without the carbon footprint
Brooklyn-based startup AIR COMPANY is helping power NASA’s next-generation rockets, thanks to an innovative collaboration with the NYU Tandon School of Engineering that aims to transform climate-harming carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions into sustainable rocket fuel.
AIR COMPANY researchers have joined with Donald F. Othmer Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering and director of NYU Tandon’s Sustainable Engineering Initiative (SEI) Miguel Modestino, to develop new applications for its AIRMADE™ technology that uses a process similar to photosynthesis to convert CO2 into high-performance fuels and chemicals.
Exploring the depths with drones
From the days when mapmakers drew dragons and sea monsters at the margins of the explored seas, the oceans have always offered unexplored mysteries. Centuries on, we have made surprisingly little progress — only around five percent of the world’s oceans have been mapped.
Autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) and remotely operated underwater vehicles (ROUVs) may help us explore deeper and further than before, but then you run into another problem — power.
A group of researchers from NYU Tandon including Industry Assistant Professor of General Engineering Jason A. Röhr and Professor André Taylor (CBE, SEI) are exploring how to make solar power viable for underwater vehicles.
Tracking viral threats in the air
People could soon be alerted to potentially deadly airborne threats — including pollutants, bacteria, and viruses — in schools, buses, and other indoor spaces, thanks to groundbreaking research underway at NYU Tandon School of Engineering.
NYU Tandon faculty members Herman F. Mark Professor in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Elisa Riedo (CBE) and Professor Davood Shahrjerdi (ECE, NYU WIRELESS) are working on developing sensors to detect pathogens in the air in places where they are installed.
Your AI doctor can see you now
ChatGPT’s responses to people’s healthcare-related queries are nearly indistinguishable from those provided by humans, a new study from NYU Tandon School of Engineering and Grossman School of Medicine reveals, suggesting the potential for chatbots to be effective allies to healthcare providers’ communications with patients.
An NYU research team led by Technology Management and Innovation Department Chair Oded Nov (CUSP) presented 392 people aged 18 and above with 10 patient questions and responses, with half of the responses generated by a human healthcare provider and the other half by ChatGPT.
Improving self-driving cars
In a promising development for self-driving car technology, a research team at NYU Tandon School of Engineering has unveiled an algorithm — known as Neurosymbolic Meta-Reinforcement Lookahead Learning (NUMERLA) — that could address the long-standing challenge of adapting to unpredictable real-world scenarios while maintaining safety. The research was conducted by Associate Professor Quanyan Zhu (ECE, C2SMARTER, CCS, CATT) and his Ph.D. candidate Haozhe Lei.
Artificial intelligence and machine learning have helped self-driving cars operate in increasingly intricate scenarios, allowing them to process vast amounts of data from sensors, make sense of complex environments, and navigate city streets while adhering to traffic rules.
NYU Nanofabrication (Nanofab) Cleanroom
Designing chips is difficult enough, but computer science research needs access to state-of-the-art semiconductors and other materials. On October 18th of 2023, the ribbon was cut at the newly minted NYU Nanofabrication (NanoFab) Cleanroom, a specialized research environment in which scientists and engineers can fabricate cutting-edge semiconductor chips to advance research on quantum science and engineering, precision medicine, neurotechnologies, next-generation communications technology, and secure computing.
Located on NYU Tandon’s campus, the NYU NanoFab helps fulfill the promise of the bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act, signed into law by President Biden in 2022.