Archive

Johns Hopkins Engineers are partnering with those at Carnegie Mellon University to ensure that additively manufactured metal parts used by NASA in everything from rocket engines to human outposts on other planets are durable and capable of withstanding the stress of the space agency’s most ambitious missions. The JHU-CMU team is spearheading one of NASA’s two…

Johns Hopkins Bloomberg Distinguished Professor and artificial intelligence expert Rama Chellappa has achieved one of the engineering field’s highest distinctions: election to the National Academy of Engineering. Academy membership recognizes individuals who have made outstanding contributions to engineering research, practice, or education. Members advise the U.S. government on matters pertaining to engineering and technology. Chellappa,…

Undergraduates from around the globe visited the Whiting School of Engineering in mid-March to take part in the inaugural 2023 Hopkins Engineering Exploratory Program (HEEP), a weeklong initiative aimed at providing exceptionally accomplished international students with the chance to experience Johns Hopkins and learn about the university’s master’s degree programs, renowned faculty, and cutting-edge research,…

Supported by a $3 million national science foundation grant, experts at Johns Hopkins, New York, and Carnegie Mellon Universities are developing a model for institutional change that not only supports equitable advancement and support of faculty from groups underrepresented in engineering, but that other peer institutions also can customize and use. Project ELEVATE (Equity-focused Launch…

It’s a familiar story: you feel a twinge in your back and next thing you know, you can’t get out of bed. From back pain to achy joints, musculoskeletal pain can be life-changing and debilitating. But does it have to be? That’s the question for Jill Middendorf, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering who studies…

Heat waves are deadly and increasingly frequent. They hit urban areas harder than suburban or rural areas because cities have more heat-absorbing pavement, more buildings, and more people. But what if cities had a tool that could help them develop strategies to protect their citizens from deadly heat? The City-Heat Equity Adaptation Tool (City-HEAT) is…

While artificial intelligence continues to transform health care, the tech has an Achilles’ heel: Training AI systems to perform tasks requires annotated data that engineers sometimes just don’t have or cannot get. In a perfect world, researchers would be able to digitally generate the exact data they need when they need it. “We demonstrated that…

Without the force called friction, cars would skid off the roadway and objects would tumble off tables and onto the floor. Even so, how friction works at a molecular scale remains poorly understood. Now, using complex modeling and computer simulations, a team that included Johns Hopkins mechanical engineer Jaafar El-Awady has shed new light on…

East Baltimore corner mini-markets serve a vital function, providing residents with access to goods ranging from toiletries to convenience foods. Very few corner stores, however, offer fresh fruits, vegetables, and other healthy options because they are expensive and difficult for individual small business owners to procure. Enter the Baltimore Urban Food Distribution app, a smartphone-based…

When the Covid-19 pandemic shuttered local public libraries in early 2020, another kind of library not only flourished but also proved crucial in the fight against the novel coronavirus: the antibody library. An invaluable tool in the discovery and development of new therapies, these libraries are collections of genetically engineered antibodies used in research and…

‘The Most Expensive Saw on the Planet’ Nestled in the newly renovated Materials Characterization and Processing facility in the Johns Hopkins Stieff Silver Building is “the most expensive saw on the planet,” says the facility’s director and professor of materials science and engineering, Mitra Taheri. “It can shoot gallium ions to slice and dice and…

Crohn’s disease is an inflammatory bowel disease that affects an estimated 780,000 Americans, with even higher rates reported in Canada and Europe. Among its many complications are perianal fistulas: tunnels that develop between the inside of the anus and the skin around it. Often resistant to treatment, severe fistulas can lead to incontinence, infertility, and decreased…

Four billion people around the world speak languages not served by Siri, Alexa, or chatbots—to the detriment of global public health, human rights, and national security. Here’s how our experts are leveraging artificial intelligence to achieve digital equity for people the world over.

Whether they share their vision on a flash drive or scrawled on a paper napkin, engineering faculty and students know they can count on experts in the Whiting School’s Machine Shop to bring ideas to life.

Some of Emily Sperring’s best high school memories involve Science Olympiad, a series of regional, state, and national competitions challenging students on knowledge in areas ranging from engineering and chemistry to biology and Earth science. So when she came to Johns Hopkins to study environmental health and engineering three years ago, she began to mentor Maryland Science Olympiad teams at nearby schools, including Barclay Elementary Middle…

Bella Hunt’s graduate research into chalcogenides, a class of materials used for memory storage, has gotten a big boost, thanks to a $100,000 award from the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. Hunt is a fifth-year doctoral candidate in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering. Her project amorphizes, or crystallizes, chalcogenides to create meta-optics:…

When Chinat Yu’s peers were settling in on their first year at Hopkins, he was handing out old-school fliers inviting students to a game so they could get to know one another. “I said, ‘Hey, nice to meet you! I created this treasure hunt. Do you want to play?’” recalls Yu, now a senior majoring…

It may look like a simple contraption of nylon straps, molded polycarbonate strips, and foam padding, but to a local artist, it represents so much more: a voice, the ability to communicate thoughts and ideas, and freedom of expression. “Art gives me a way to express myself without anybody interpreting for me,” says Dan Keplinger,…

When Paul Vallejo ’19, MS ’22, first talked with fellow Hopkins undergrad Ashrita Kumar about forming a band in 2018, he expected music to be a hobby between classes. Five years later, their band Pinkshift has a studio album listed in entertainment magazine Paste’s best punk albums of 2022, and they’re striking out on their second cross-country tour. A chemical and biomolecular engineering major, Vallejo met Kumar through Homewood United…

Space systems expert Michaelyn Thomas MS ’21 embraces the potential of using space for good. In January 2022, she joined the U.S. Space Force—the Armed Forces’ newest branch created to organize, train, and equip space forces to protect U.S. and allied interests in space. As deputy director of the Resilient Missile Warning, Tracking, and Defense Acquisition Delta, Thomas, a civilian, oversees the technology maturation…

There is currently considerable public discourse about ChatGPT, an AI tool that can generate coherent, seemingly researched narrative responses when given a basic prompt.