Physicists at The University of Texas at Austin have discovered that mimicking human muscles can lead to more efficiently designed electric motors for use in robots and appliances. Their bioinspired motors use up to 22% less energy, have a greater range of motion and can lift objects higher than typical electric motors.
The University of Texas at Austin and its College of Natural Sciences will renovate and upgrade one of the most historic visitors' spots on campus, the Texas Memorial Museum.
A team of 12 undergraduate students at UT Austin received top awards at the International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) Competition, including placing in the top 10 overall in the undergraduate category—the only team from the U.S. to do so.
A newly renovated and reimagined space for exploring the science of marine life and ecosystems is now open to the public, free of charge, on the campus of The University of Texas at Austin Marine Science Institute in Port Aransas, Texas. The Patton Center for Marine Science Education offers exhibits, aquaria and programming like keeper chats and fish-feeding demonstrations for visitors to enjoy.
As UTeach at The University of Texas at Austin celebrates 25 years of preparing science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) teachers, it is rising to meet challenges, including a significant shortage of teachers in states like Texas. UTeach's new intensive accelerated teacher development program, UTeach for Texas, aims to help curtail the teacher shortage by supporting career changers who already hold a STEM degree so they can receive teacher preparation in just seven months.
The Teaching Excellence Award in the College of Natural Sciences seeks to promote and recognize outstanding teaching in the college by honoring faculty members who have had a positive influence on the educational experience of our students.
Arianna Long, a NASA Hubble Postdoctoral Fellow at The University of Texas at Austin, was awarded one of the inaugural Eric and Wendy Schmidt Awards for Excellence in Science Communication from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. This award honors science journalists and research scientists who have developed creative, original work related to issues and advances in science, engineering, and/or medicine to inform the general public.
The National Science Foundation has selected The University of Texas at Austin for a pilot grant to establish the UT Center for Pandemic Decision Science (CPDS). The new interdisciplinary center will bring together scientists, engineers, clinicians and policymakers to tackle the grand challenge of preparing the world to combat future pandemic threats.
Autonomous robots will soon rove the buildings and streets of The University of Texas at Austin campus. But unlike other commercial delivery services, this fleet of robots will help researchers understand and improve the experience of pedestrians who encounter them.
Inspired by living things from trees to shellfish, researchers at The University of Texas at Austin set out to create a plastic much like many life forms that are hard and rigid in some places and soft and stretchy in others. Their success — a first, using only light and a catalyst to change properties such as hardness and elasticity in molecules of the same type — has brought about a new material that is 10 times as tough as natural rubber and could lead to more flexible electronics and robotics.
Read our publication, The Texas Scientist, a digest covering the people and groundbreaking discoveries that make the College of Natural Sciences one of the most amazing and significant places on Earth.
