Engineering News

The oil and gas industry has been a focal point for engineering innovation in recent years, as companies strive to tap into deeper and more challenging reservoirs. But the wealth of new engineering tools that have come from this investment will not do anything to bring prices any lower.

Though the company is better known for its prominent role as a top military contractor, Lockheed Martin recently announced that it has agreed to develop a type of renewable energy plant off the southern coast of China that will use only the temperature differential of ocean water.

A team of researchers at ETH Zurich might have found a way to create self-assembling components, with the discovery of a technique to create materials that react to their environments.

An innovative new take on batteries could allow manufacturers to tailor their batteries to their specific needs, and potentially lead to smaller electronics with more power, according to researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Oil and gas production in the U.S. has surged in recent years, leading to a new sense of optimism within the energy industry. Many imagine this recent boom will mean the end of the drive for engineering research in renewables, or at least a major blow, and a stop to the once rampant talk of "peak oil."

With the U.S. shutting down its shuttle program in 2012, there seems to be an opening for other countries to take the lead in terms of space exploration. In a special announcement for what Russia calls Cosmonaut's Day, President Vladimir Putin outlined his plans to push the country forward with its own brand new launch pad and massive spending on new engineering research and development efforts.

For many people, when they hear about the U.S. space agency's new plan to capture an asteroid and bring back into Earth's orbit, they have visions of countless Hollywood movies with asteroids the size of mountains hurtling toward the planet.

The new budget proposal from President Barack Obama may not get very far with Congress, but it does at least offer some support for science and engineering, along with some promise that the president intends to stand behind federal spending on engineering research and development.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration has slowly been handing off its duties shuttling people and supplies back and forth to near-Earth orbit, hiring private companies to help service the International Space Station, But the agency has its eyes set a bit further out in space, and a new type of engine being developed at the University of Washington.

A new engineering innovation in the so-called "artificial leaf" could make the technology practical for people living in the difficult conditions that it was initially intended - rural and small-town residents in developing countries without consistent access to normal electric grids.