Research

Automobile and electronics manufacturing have accounted for about 90% of the industrial robots purchased in the U.S. Studies by Stanford researchers examined the impact of AI and robotics in manufacturing, retail banking and nursing homes. Initially the introduction of robots and AI replaced human workers but over time new jobs at least partially offset the losses. It takes time for robots to deliver higher productivity, which can allow companies to expand.

Seventeen high-risk, high-reward concepts based on new, potentially transformative ideas to build a sustainable, affordable, secure energy future have been awarded by Stanford's Precourt Institute for Energy to Stanford faculty and five collaborators at other research institutions. Projects range from assessing health of retired EV batteries, climate and health impacts from battery production and analysis for a U.S. transition to electrified medium and heavy-duty vehicles. See the complete list of projects awarded here.

As part of Stanford's Long-Range Vision, the Ethics, Society and Technology (EST) Hub was launched to help coordinate and amplify the teaching, research and activities on campus at the intersection of ethics, society and technology. Led by political science professors Margaret Levi and Rob Reich, seen here at left, EST has awarded grants supporting ethics in STEM education and courses to ensure students at Stanford consider the social and ethical implications of technology.

In a new study, scientists at SLAC National Accelerator Lab, looked at both the surface and interior of lithium-ion battery electrodes to see how what happens in one affects the other. Their discovery that cracking and chemical changes on the particle's surface varied a lot from place to place and corresponded with areas of microscopic cracking deep inside the particle and sapped its storage capacity, will be applied to other electrode materials focusing on how charging speed affects damage patterns.

A new model developed by Stanford researchers, combines sensor data with computer modeling of the physical processes that degrade lithium-ion battery cells to predict the battery's remaining storage capacity and charge level. This new approach offers a way to predict the true condition of a rechargeable battery in real time and could help pave the way for smaller battery packs.

Researchers have co-designed hardware and software, with hardware just slightly more advanced than what is currently found in autonomous cars, to reconstruct 3D hidden scenes based on the movement of individual particles of light. This technique complements other vision systems used for medical applications and is focused on large scale situations such as self driving cars navigating in fog or heavy rain and satellite imaging of Earth through hazy atmosphere.

Snorkel AI, a project from the Stanford AI Lab which recently emerged out of stealth, enables clients to input data-related expertise into a system to generate the most accurate algorithms and models possible. Data labeling for machine-learning systems can be an expensive, time-intensive process. Instead, experts provide rules they work by and not just labels, enabling the Snorkel AI system to effectively label data itself. Applications include major banks, genomics, self-driving car data and COVID patient triaging.

SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Stanford University will partner with other institutions on one of the National Quantum Information Science (QIS) Research Centers, Q-NEXT, led by Argonne National Lab. The work of Q-NEXT will focus on commercialization of new technologies and ensure that the U.S. remains at the forefront in this advancing field. Researchers at SLAC and Stanford will work on numerous topics including quantum sensors and networks, materials characterization and simulations.

Stanford's TomKat Center for Sustainable Energy through its Innovation Transfer Program has granted $4.8 million to 78 projects since it's fall 2013 start. Over the past nine months, 13 new projects teamed Stanford faculty and students advancing technological and business model innovations.

A new paper in Nature Energy from Stanford, MIT and Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, calls for five major advances in how we convert, store and transmit thermal energy. Approximately 90 percent of the world's energy use involved generation or manipulation of heat, including the cooling of buildings and food. The analysis calls for an urgent need for breakthroughs in thermal science & engineering which could reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least one gigaton, which is about 3 percent of energy-related GHG emissions globally.