The world's river and ocean currents carry an enormous amount of kinetic energy, but most of this water flows slower than four miles per hour. Existing turbine and water-mill technologies can't generate enough electricity at such speeds to make their deployment economically viable.

Read the story

A marine engineer and naval architect has designed a new way of drawing energy out of slow-moving rivers and gentle tides. The researcher says the unobtrusive device, which was inspired by the way fish move through the water, could be set down on riverbeds or suspended in the ocean just about anywhere.

Read the story

11/21/08: The University of Michigan's College of Engineering will train 50 engineers from General Motors on alternative powertrain technology - part of a commitment to work together to accelerate the electrification of the vehicle. The partnership illustrates the automaker's desire to find engineers with skills in hybrid, plug-in hybrid and electric vehicle technology.

Read the story

If you're like me, at this time of year, your thoughts turn to people you've lost touch with and would like to see. Perhaps there's someone who, last you heard, was hiding in a subterranean network of caves in eastern Afghanistan. You'd go there and search for him, but you'd likely be shot by guards or turned to mist by a booby trap. One solution might be sending in the six-inch-long robotic micro-aerial vehicle known as the Com-Bat.

Read the story

A revolutionary device that can harness energy from slow-moving rivers and ocean currents could provide enough power for the entire world, scientists claim. The technology can generate electricity in water flowing at a rate of less than one knot - about one mile an hour - meaning it could operate on most waterways and sea beds around the globe.

Read the story

The technology can generate electricity in water flowing at a rate of less than one knot - about one mile an hour - meaning it could operate on most waterways and sea beds around the globe.

Read the story

This looks very promising: A revolutionary device that can harness energy from slow-moving rivers and ocean currents could provide enough power for the entire world, scientists claim. The new device, which has been inspired by the way fish swim, consists of a system of cylinders positioned horizontal to the water flow and attached to springs. As water flows past, the cylinder creates vortices, which push and pull the cylinder up and down. The mechanical energy in the vibrations is then converted into electricity.

Read the story

An engineer in the US has built a machine that can harness energy from the slow-moving currents found in oceans and rivers around the world. By exploiting the vortices that fish use to propel themselves forward, the device could, he says, provide a new kind of reliable, affordable and environmentally-friendly energy source.

Read the story

They are too small for the human eye to see, but placed under the microscope, the black and white images of President-elect Barack Obama become clear.

Read the story

A new hydropower prototype from the University of Michigan could end up using even slower river and ocean currents to generate energy.

Read the story

Researchers claim to have fashioned a fish-like hydrokinetic scheme that harnesses both fast and slow underwater currents to generate electricity.

Read the story

Ann Arbor-based lithium ion battery manufacturer A123Systems Inc. received $10 million in state funding for a battery manufacturing facility. Michigan State University and the University of Michigan will contribute research to bolster the company's efforts.

Read the story

University officials on Nov. 14 announced The Michigan Difference has raised more than $3.1 billion in support of facilities, programs, professorships and student aid since July 2000. The support of more than 364,000 donors has enabled the University to increase greatly student financial aid, create new student programs, hire and retain outstanding faculty, support groundbreaking research, and provide new buildings for health care, teaching, arts and entertainment, and more.

Read the story

When Engineering senior Courtenay Holscher met David Munson on Halloween last year, he was dressed as a pickle jar. The costume itself wasn't a shock--after all, it was Halloween. It's just the fact that Munson, the man in the Vlasic Dill Pickle suit is the dean of the College of Engineering.

Read the story

President-elect Barack Obama's image looms larger than ever in the media these days, but now his face has been rendered in 3-D portraits smaller than a grain of salt, using nanotechnology.

Read the story

After enrollment in computer science classes plummeted in the early part of the decade, students are starting to refill seats, local university officials say.

Read the story

U-M's energy institute announces an innovative strategy to tell the difference between inspired and misguided, and what it takes to make a good idea become great policy. Steven Skerlos, an associate professor of mechanical engineering, is leading a team that brings experts in engineering, sociology, mathematical modeling and psychology for an unprecedented melding of technology and social science knowledge.

Read the story

A team of U-M researchers has created carbon nanotube images of Obama that include a "nanobama" flag and "nanobama" blocks. There's even a "nanobiden" image of the incoming vice president. But their details only can be seen and photographed with optical and electron microscopes.

Read the story

A University professor has developed new technology that he says will extract energy from water in an environmentally-friendly way. It's slated to be deployed in the Detroit River over the next 19 months. Michael Bernitsas, professor of naval architecture and chief executive officer of Vortex Hydro Energy, says his device - VIVACE, which stands for Vortex Induced Vibration for Aquatic Clean Energy - presents "a totally new method of extracting energy from water flow."

Read the story

A bane of Big Oil's offshore rigs could become a boon for renewable energy. By tapping the natural motion of slow-moving water, a new hydrokinetic generator could open vast new swaths of the ocean for energy production.

Read the story

Barack Obama is larger than life these days. Except, that is, at the University of Michigan, where the president-elect has become remarkably small. A team of researchers has created carbon nanotube images of Obama that can be seen only through electron microscopes. John Hart, assistant professor in mechanical engineering, led the team that created a "nanobama" flag and "nanobama" blocks.

Read the story

Though signals from NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander have stopped because of dust storms and limited sunlight, University researchers who contributed to the mission are continuing their search for conditions favorable to life on the Red Planet by analyzing the data sent back by the lander.

Read the story

As the damaged reputation of nuclear power plants improves and the nation's hunger for carbon-free energy grows, the University of Michigan's Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences program has seen an increase in enrollment to historic numbers.

Read the story

Barack Obama is larger than life these days. Except, that is, at the University of Michigan, where the president-elect has become remarkably small. A team of researchers has created carbon nanotube images of Obama that can be seen only through electron microscopes. John Hart, assistant professor in mechanical engineering, led the team that created a "nanobama" flag and "nanobama" blocks.

Read the story

See the tiniest representation of the new US president yet. Each face is built from roughly 150 million carbon nanotubes.

Read the story

U.S. Rep. Vernon Ehlers (R-Grand Rapids) will deliver the second annual James R. Mellor Lecture today at 4 p.m. in the Chrysler Center's Chesebrough Auditorium on North Campus to discuss the role of engineering in society and how it can benefit the public.

Read the story

Scientist John Hart created a remix of Shepard Fairey's Obama poster from 150 million carbon nanotubes, each of which measured tens of thousands of times smaller than a human hair. That sure is a lot of tiny Obamas.

Read the story

In late October, a University of Michigan group composed mostly of aerospace engineering undergraduates zoomed into the world record book for launching the longest flight by a fuel cell-powered airplane. The group, called SolarBubbles, flew the airplane in a field in Milan, Mich., for 10 hours, 15 minutes and four seconds, whizzing past the old record of a little over nine hours held by a California-based engineering company. The group had been working on the plane, named Endurance, for six months.

Read the story