Research

EV Charging Stations Multiply, But Are Often Out of Reach for Disadvantaged Populations

For electric cars to gain widespread adoption, all communities must have charging stations, especially in low income and majority Black and brown areas. While people in these neighborhoods are less likely to be able to afford the upfront costs of EVs, they are also more likely to live with the poor air quality from nearby highways.

Stanford researchers will use the Korean 'smart city' of Songdo as a living laboratory

Stanford established the Stanford Center at the Incheon Global Campus, a research center in the "smart city" of Sondo in the South Korean city of Incheon. “This center provides us with access to real-time smart city data, and unique infrastructure to test new technologies and ideas,” Michael Lepech, faculty director of the center said.

Modeling How People Make Causal Judgements

In order for self-driving cars and other AI systems to behave responsibly, an understanding of how their actions affect others is required. Researchers at Stanford, MIT and University College London have developed a computational model of how humans judge causation in dynamic physical situations. The researchers are working to bring the counterfactual simulation model of causation into the AI arena. One goal is to develop AI systems that understand causal explanations the way humans do.

First nanoscale look at a reaction that limits the efficiency of generating clean hydrogen fuel

An international team of researchers from Stanford and the DOE's SLAC Laboratory developed a suite of advanced tools to break through the bottleneck of oxygen evolution reaction which today is only about 75% efficient and uses precious metal catalysts. These tools improve other energy-related processes such as finding ways to make lithium-ion batteries charge faster.

Scientists discover how oxygen loss saps a lithium-ion battery's voltage

Researchers from the DOE's SLAC National Laboratory have measured over hundreds of cycles, the super-slow process of oxygen seepage from a lithium ion battery electrode that eventually saps the battery's energy storage capacity by 10-15%. Now this unprecedented detail could lead to new ways of mitigating oxygen loss and its damaging effects.

Coastal flooding increases Bay Area traffic delays and accidents

As more of the world's population live in cities and with the clustering of cities along coastlines, transportation network disruptions from flooding or other natural disasters can have serious socioeconomic consequences. Stanford researchers sought to identify effects flooding would have on traffic delays and safety, as road closures rerouted vehicles to adjacent streets and neighborhoods. The study highlights challenges of preparing the traffic network in the Bay Area for climate change including those that do not encounter any flooding themselves.

How Trade Triggers Innovation

new paper by Stanford researchers along with researchers at the University of British Columbia and New York University, uncovers a long-overlooked way in which opening international borders to trade can spark more innovation and growth. The study which uses a formal model, demonstrates that increased competition from exporting foreign firms pushes domestic laggards to adopt more efficient practices and technologies.

Kunle Olukotun: How to Make AI More Democratic

In this episode of The Future of Everything podcast, host Russ Altman talks with professor of electrical engineering, Kunle Olukotun about his current focus on new-age chips which will broaden the reach of artificial intelligence. He imagines a world filled with highly efficient, specialized chips built for specific purposes, versus the relatively inefficient but broadly applicable chips of today.

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