Science & Engineering

Research may contribute to manufacturing and medical industry improvements

Joseph Brown. The position of the notebooks illustrates how the cantilevers described in his paper work.

A paper on the mechanics of interlocking structures by a University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa assistant professor highlights a discovery that could have far-reaching effects in the manufacturing and medical industries. The paper, Nonlinear Mechanics of Interlocking Cantilevers, by Joseph J. Brown, assistant professor in mechanical engineering, was published in the Journal of Applied Mechanics. The research explored the mechanical behavior and design of simple interlocking structures …

Power up with water drops

Frustrated trying to charge your phone on the go? A newly developed energy harvesting method may soon lead to technologies that will allow you to keep your phone charged, without external chargers. A University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa research team led by Tianwei “David” Ma, interim associate dean and professor in civil engineering in the College of Engineering, has developed a new method of generating electricity …

Magdy F. Iskander honored for electromagnetic research and education

A new book The World of Applied Electromagnetics—In Appreciation of Magdy Fahmy Iskander, published by Springer, commemorates four decades of Iskander’s research in electromagnetic and wireless communications technologies and contributions to engineering education. Iskander is an electrical engineering professor and director of the Hawaiʻi Center for Advanced Communications in the College of Engineering at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. Two of Iskanderʻs former graduate students, Akhlesh Lakhtakia, who serves …

Prestigious physics journal publishes professor’s fluid dynamics paper

One of the most prominent publications in physics, Physical Review X, accepted an article by Sangwoo Shin, a University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa assistant professor in mechanical engineering. The article is titled Accumulation of Colloidal Particles in Flow Junctions Induced by Fluid Flow and Diffusiophoresis. Shin examines how underground aquifers, hydraulic fractures, coastal habitats and water filtration systems all deal with the flow of water that contains …

Exploring biofilms and the search for life on Mars

Green and purple biofilms hang from the walls of lava caves near Kīlauea caldera on Hawaiʻi Island. These, and other biofilms, may be similar to microbial life on early Earth and possibly an early Mars environment.

Rebecca Prescott, a University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoamicrobiology student who recently received her PhD, has won a prestigious National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship award for her project, “Survival in extreme environments through cooperation: biofilms and looking for life on Mars,” under the program Broadening Participation of Groups Underrepresented in Biology. “We are interested in how cooperative behavior, through chemical communication in bacteria, may help microbes survive …

Engineering students win UH innovation challenge

Accuity Consulting Services President Julia Okinaka, Goog Egg team members Arif Rahman and Kainalu Matthews; and PACE Executive Director Peter Rowan.

A duo of University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa College of Engineering students took top honors in the UH Mānoa Pacific Asian Center for Entrepreneurship (PACE) Breakthrough Innovation Challenge for their idea that provides a solution to hunger in developing countries. Arif Rahman and Kainalu Matthews of team Good Egg received $1,000 for developing a noninvasive test for embryo health-check during in vitro fertilization of bovine cattle. Their technology of an automated washing and grading …

Nanosilicon resource published by Klaus Sattler

There is great reliance now on electronic devices, such as computers, laptops or cellular phones. These are built with integrated circuits with small silicon-based units on the micrometer scale, which is a millionth of a meter. When materials are reduced to the nanometer scale, which is a billionth of a meter, new properties emerge that are critical in many areas …

Microbiome transplants provide disease resistance in critically-endangered Hawaiian plant

P. kaalaensis outplanted in the wild. Photo credit: Vincent Costello

Transplanting wild microbes from healthy related plants can make a native Hawaiian plant healthier and likelier to survive in wild according to new research from the Amend Laboratory in the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa botany department and the Oʻahu Army Natural Resources Program (OANRP). Professor Anthony Amend and postdoctoral researcher Geoff Zahn used microbes to restore the health of a critically endangered Hawaiian plant that, until now, had been driven to extinction …

Initiative to address challenges facing Hawaiʻi and the world launches with research projects

The eight research projects of the inaugural University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Strategic Investment Initiative have been selected. Each project capitalizes on the strengths of the university and focuses on a challenge facing Hawaiʻi such as resource management and revitalizing the Ala Wai watershed, the solutions of which can be exported to the world. The projects, announced by the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and …

International expert to head new UH innovation/ commercialization office

C. David Ai has been appointed director of the Office of Innovation and Commercialization, as well as chief innovation officer of the University of Hawaiʻi System. Ai will be responsible for the management of intellectual property (IP) and UH-developed technology assets through his oversight of three inter-related offices. Ai’s appointment was approved on August 24 by the UH Board of Regents and he is set to …