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Energy

Interdisciplinary Research Centre
 

Plant-based calamari that rivals real seafood in texture

Plant-based seafood alternatives should have similar flavors, textures and nutritional content to the foods they mimic. And recreating the properties of fried calamari rings, which have a neutral flavor and a firm, chewy texture after being cooked, has been a challenge. Building off previous research, a team describes successfully using plant-based ingredients to mimic calamari that matches the real seafood's characteristic softness and elasticity.

Engineering a robot that can jump 10 feet high -- without legs

Inspired by the movements of a tiny parasitic worm, engineers have created a 5-inch soft robot that can jump as high as a basketball hoop. Their device, a silicone rod with a carbon-fiber spine, can leap 10 feet high even though it doesn't have legs. The researchers made it after watching high-speed video of nematodes pinching themselves into odd shapes to fling themselves forward and backward.

FRESH bioprinting brings vascularized tissue one step closer

Using their novel FRESH 3D bioprinting technique, which allows for printing of soft living cells and tissues, a lab has built a tissue model entirely out of collagen.

Smart bandage clears new hurdle: Monitors chronic wounds in human patients

The iCares bandage uses innovative microfluidic components, sensors, and machine learning to sample and analyze wounds and provide data to help patients and caregivers make treatment decisions.

'Periodic table of machine learning' could fuel AI discovery

After uncovering a unifying algorithm that links more than 20 common machine-learning approaches, researchers organized them into a 'periodic table of machine learning' that can help scientists combine elements of different methods to improve algorithms or create new ones.

Engineer reinvents ceramics with origami-inspired 3D printing

In a breakthrough that blends ancient design with modern materials science, researchers have developed a new class of ceramic structures that can bend under pressure -- without breaking.