New materials could harness energy from cellphones or body heat, and improve solar power, geothermal
Extra heat is generated from any form of energy conversion – even with something as green as solar panels. But with up to 72 per cent of it left unused, there’s also great potential to harvest electricity from that waste. A University of Alberta researcher has successfully developed a way to figure out the chemistry…
Schulich Leaders put their love of technology to work solving problems
Kevin Uzomechine says his fascination with technology began as a youngster transfixed by the brief static blue text on his TV set that read “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.” By the time the large blocks of unabashed yellow text had crawled vertically up through the screen to Star Wars’ signature trumpets, the…
Synthetic data based on records ensures confidentiality
A University of Alberta researcher is developing an inventive solution to a problem plaguing health-care research around the world: how to make data-driven decisions without compromising the privacy of personal medical records. Dean Eurich, professor in the School of Public Health, is academic lead on a project that has successfully created a “synthetic data” set that…
Device built by U of A team could help researchers learn how osteoarthritis develops
Members of a University of Alberta student club are walking on air after testing samples of bioengineered knee cartilage in a reduced-gravity experiment competition. Amira Aissiou and Kirtan Dhunnoo of the University of Alberta Space Design Group strapped themselves in and went for a wild ride in the Canadian Space Agency’s Falcon 20 parabolic aircraft to get a…
Innovators in women and children’s health, water safety, nutrition and archeology join ranks
Why some are more susceptible to cardiovascular disease than others, even when taking into account life-modifying factors like smoking and exercise, boils down to developmental aspects that start in the womb, according to a global authority on vascular pathophysiology in the pregnancy complication of pre-eclampsia. “It sets the stage,” said Sandra Davidge, Distinguished University Professor in…
Wearable technology could get ahead of hospital admissions by predicting respiratory flare-ups
A new University of Alberta feasibility study involving 40 patients could help those dealing with long-term chronic respiratory issues by using new wearable technology and artificial intelligence to monitor symptoms and warn of coming exacerbation episodes. ADAMM-RSM is a wearable device developed in the U.S. for patients with asthma, with the goal of expanding its…
Things are changing faster, and for the better, than radical environmentalists recognize or acknowledge
A recent Globe and Mail story about a firm developing garbage-to-biodiesel technology shows how continuing progress makes the global warming extremists’ most hysterically apocalyptic predictions, and their extreme absolutist ‘solutions,’ not only grossly wrong but already likely obsolete. In the case of the company profiled, Cielo Waste Solutions Corp. is able to transform not just…
U of A cardiologist teams up with computer scientists, engineers to create 3-D heart imaging device
A University of Alberta-based team is developing a system to improve the way heart conditions are diagnosed by blending robotics and artificial intelligence with existing cardiac ultrasound technology. “Current echocardiography (heart ultrasound) is used for virtually all patients with cardiac symptoms, but it has limitations. For example, it doesn’t typically capture the entire heart in…
Instead of playing catch-up with the next virus, precision medicine lets us deal with it swiftly
On March 17, David Wishart, ’83 BSc (Hons), fielded a call from Medellin, Colombia. A company called Quantrack had a job for him. The novel COVID‑19 coronavirus had its hooks in the country. The Quantrack team figured that if Wishart, a professor of both biology and computing science, could make one of his famous heat…
In the drive to become more efficient and adaptive, farms are becoming innovation incubators
The future of farming might bring tiny drone pollinators or a fishy foray into conserving water in greenhouses. It might bring an app that diagnoses plant disease, artificial intelligence that reduces a farmer’s driving time, or robotics that lend some extra hands. Future farming might bring some, all or none of those. What it will…