In the news
Lookout, Road Runner! This ASU scientist built a jetpack for running (Sports Illustrated)
One of the projects being developed at ASU’s Human Machine Integration Lab is a jetpack that promises to help people to more effortlessly run faster and further. ASU engineering graduate student Jason Kerestes is developing the technology. The jetpack idea sprung from the work of Thomas Sugar, a professor in the engineering programs at the Polytechnic School, who has been developing exoskeletons designed to enhancing soldiers’ physical capabilities in the field. Read the article and watch the video.
DARPA creates the tech you can only dream of (Digital Trends)
A feature highlighting some of the interesting projects supported by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, a part of the U.S. Department of Defense, mentions a “wearable robot” prototype. It’s the jetpack project led by ASU engineering graduate student Jason Kerestes and Thomas Sugar, a professor of engineering in the Polytechnic School. Read the article and watch the video.
Tropical inspiration for an icy problem (Science Daily)
The ability of the tropical poison dart frog to secret toxins through its skin to deter predators led Konrad Rykaczewski to a new method for preventing dangerous ice buildup on airplane wings. He presented his findings at the annual meeting of the American Physical Society Division of Fluid Dynamics. Rykaczewski is an assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering in the School for Engineering of Matter, Transport and Energy. Read the article.
ASU professor improves prosthetic hand technology (The State Press)
Marco Santello is working with researchers at the Mayo Clinic and the Italian Institute of Technology to develop and test the next generation of prosthetic hand technology. Their work is based on an innovative design for a robotic hand based on natural finger coordination patterns. Santello, a neurophysiologist, is a professor and director of the School of Biological and Health Systems Engineering. Read the article.
ASU students use radical solutions to advise local wildlife nonprofit (ASU News)
A new ASU course called Creating Living Buildings is introducing students to the Living Building Challenge, based on the idea that buildings should be “functionally embedded within their ecosystems.” Fernanda Cruz Rios, a construction engineering doctoral student in the School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment, is working with classmates to apply the building philosophy to a local wildlife rehabilitation facility. Oswald Chong, an associate professor in the Del E. Webb School of Construction, is one of the teachers of the course, which he says is teaching students about the next generation of “green” construction. Read the article.
