Manufacturing

In 2018, The American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME)  named the Pratt & Whitney single crystal turbine blade an historic mechanical engineering landmark. These blades, which can be found in many modern, high-performance gas turbines (a.k.a. jet engines)—including the ones powering the F-22 Raptor, and larger electricity-producing turbines—are grown from a …

The COVID-19 pandemic, while demonstrating the nation’s vulnerabilities to biothreats, has also shown the fragility of the supply chain. The United States relies on foreign suppliers for a number of critical components including commodity chemicals, rare earth elements and active pharmaceutical ingredients, she said. Ensuring a resilient domestic supply chain …

The Department of Defense (DOD) acquires goods and services from contractors, federal arsenals, and shipyards to support military operations. The acquisition is a broad term that applies to more than just the purchase of an item or service; the acquisition process encompasses the design, engineering, construction, testing, deployment, sustainment, and …

We live in an increasingly interconnected world, one in which mobile communications provide a significant element of this interconnectivity. This increasing demand for high speed, low latency networks supporting mobile connectivity is leading the definition of 5th generation mobile networks. These next generation networks are driven not only by changing …

Two out of three missions to the red planet have failed. One reason there have been so many losses is that there have been so many attempts. “Mars is a favorite target,” says Dr. Firouz Naderi, manager of the Mars Program Office at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. To get there, …

As the Global warming is melting the Arctic ice, and opening up new shipping trade routes and real estate, intense resource competition over an estimated $1 trillion untapped reserves of oil, natural gas and minerals has started. Human activities have grown in the Arctic by almost 400 percent in the …

Modeling and simulation (M&S) is the use of models as a basis for simulations to develop data utilized for managerial or technical decision making. Modeling is the process of representing a model (e.g., physical, mathematical, or logical representation of a system, entity, phenomenon, or process) which includes its construction and …

Additive manufacturing can reduce the time and material costs in a design cycle and enable the on-demand printing of customized parts. Recent advances in 3D printing technology now enable antennas and RF electronics to be designed and prototyped significantly faster than conventional manufacturing time scales.  New multi-material 3D printers that …

Ethylene is a hidden organic chemical that is crucial to modern human life. It is hidden because it is a precursor to products used in most households worldwide but not sold directly to consumers. For example, ethylene is the chemical base for polyethylene (PET) bottles, car parts, buckets, pipes, and …