A look at Stanford's robotic legacy from the 1960s Earth-bound moon rover named Shakey, to today's host of robots that scale walls, flutter like birds, wind and swim through the depths of the earth and ocean and hang out with astronauts in space and the researchers that bring them to life.
A look back at 2018's research advancements, academic and athletic student achievements, prestigious awards including distinguished visitors and the rich art scene on campus. Link.
Stanford's Precourt Institute for Energy, TomKat Center for Sustainable Energy and Global Climate & Energy Project funded 17 new, early-stage research projects this fall. The competitively awarded seed grants this year include seven faculty members who are applying their expertise to energy research for the first time.
A Stanford-led initiative, the Global Carbon Project, recently reported new projections that global fossil fuel emissions are on track to rise for the second year in a row. In the U.S. carbon dioxide emissions are projected to increase by 2.5% after decades of declines. “Global energy demand is outpacing powerful growth in renewables and energy efficiency,” said Rob Jackson, professor of Earth system science.
A Stanford-led team has developed a way to not only manage heat produced by electronic devices but help route it away from delicate components. The thermal transistor - a nanoscale switch uses a thin layer of molybdenum disulfide just 20 nanometers thick bathed in a liquid of lithium ions.
Today's computers typically use static random-access memory (SRAM) which is fast and compact but power-hungry. Computers running AI and machine learning applications require small, fast, energy-efficient memory chips. Stanford researchers have developed an alternate technology called SOT-MRAM, short for spin-orbit torque magnetoresistive random-access memory.
Stanford researchers have developed a new system for collecting usage reports that emphasizes data privacy. The system, called Prio, uses a technique known as "secret sharing" which breaks up and obscures individual information only allowing for the collection of aggregate reports
Researchers from Stanford medical school are designing digital interventions to enable well-being for the places we frequent the most - the office, car and home. One of the projects to transform the often stressful commute to a "mindful commute," aims to passively sense stress and recommend personalized digital de-stressors turning the commute into a cool-down or de-stress period.
Balaji Prabhakar, Professor, Electrical Engineering discusses his work on 'nudging' commuters to alter their driving habits by using digital incentives. In this Future of Everything podcast, Russ Altman and Prabhakar discuss how his techniques from a Stanford study and larger project in Singapore to shift commuters to off-peak travel habits could improve commuting across the world.
