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From the College of Natural Sciences
Robot soccer team wins U.S. Open
The UT Austin Villa robot soccer team won the RoboCup U.S. Open, the first U.S. Open using humanoid robots and the first time The University of Texas at Austin team has placed first in a RoboCup league using real robots. In the finals, the team beat Penn, Carnegie Mellon and Bowdoin on their rise to the top. The UT Austin Villa team is led by com...
Biologists in $25 Million Project to Develop Fuel from Algae
AUSTIN, Texas — Biologists and engineers at The University of Texas at Austin have been selected to be a part of a $25 million project that would transform algal oil to jet fuel. Algal feedstock is considered one of the best sources for biofuel. It is renewable, does not compete with food crops and grows in wet or dry environments using brac...
Virtual Schizophrenia
Uli Grasemann and Risto Miikkulainen aren’t the first computer scientists to use neural network systems to model what might be going on inside a schizophrenic brain. They’ve had an advantage, however, that others have lacked. Their neural network system, DISCERN, can understand and produce natural language. Working with Ralph Hoffman, a psychiatri...
Computer Scientist Named to President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology
AUSTIN, Texas — William H. Press, the Warren J. and Viola M. Raymer Professor in Computer Sciences and Integrative Biology at The University of Texas at Austin, has been named to the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST). Press was among 20 scientists and engineers named to the council by President Obama in a speech at t...
Solar Cells, Batteries Research Receives $15 Million
AUSTIN, Texas--With a $15 million grant, scientists and engineers aim to revolutionize solar cells and energy storage technologies as one of two Energy Frontier Research Centers (EFRCs) established at The University of Texas at Austin by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). The White House announced the creation of 46 new EFRCs nationally in conju...
Sex Isn't Everything
The ants, Mycocepurus smithii, amongst their fungus garden. Photo: Alex Wild. In the end, sex might not be everything. At least, that’s the story for a fungus-farming ant that seems to be doing just fine without it. In fact, they’ve done away with males entirely, a “first ever” for the ant world. Most social insects—the wasps, ants and bees—are...
New Documentary Highlights BFL
A new documentary follows Professor Larry Gilbert around BFL, highlighting its essential role in studies of ecology and its importance to the university.
Live-in Domestics: Mites as Maids
Mites not only inhabit the dust bunnies under the bed, they also occupy the nests of tropical sweat bees where they keep fungi in check. Bees and their young are healthier when mites live-in, report researchers from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) in Panama and The University of Texas at Austin. Mutually beneficial cleaning relat...
New Computer Science Complex Receives $30 Million Challenge Grant from Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
The University of Texas at Austin announced today (April 17) a $30 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, part of a $120 million capital campaign to construct a new building complex for one of the nation's leading computer science programs.Read It Now
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