10 most-read Cornell Engineering stories of 2023
Cornell engineers are dedicated to translating ideas into impact, and in 2023 their ingenuity yielded amazing new research discoveries and breakthroughs for the world. Faculty and students collaborated across disciplines and pioneered new strategies to fight cancer, engineered self-folding origami machines, explored nuclear cooling with NASA, thought differently about climate solutions, and deployed technology to bridge the digital divide.
The 10 most-read Cornell Engineering stories from 2023:
1. Remembering Lena Kourkoutis, renowned electron microscopy expert
Lena F. Kourkoutis, M.S. ’06, Ph.D. ’09, an associate professor in the School of Applied and Engineering Physics who was internationally recognized for her advances in cryo-electron microscopy, passed away at the age of 44.
2. Robot provides unprecedented views below Antarctic ice shelf
An underwater robot, dubbed Icefin, revealed more than a century of geological processes beneath the Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica, and is informing models of sea-level rise.
3. Cornell to lead new semiconductor research center
Cornell Engineering is leading a new $34 million research center that will accelerate the creation of energy-efficient semiconductor materials and technologies, and develop revolutionary new approaches for microelectronics systems.
4. Scientists detect global layer of melt hidden below Earth’s tectonic plates
A new study co-authored by a Cornell Engineering geologist has for the first time revealed the global extent of a layer of melted rock encircling the Earth below its tectonic plates.
5. Soft robots harness viscous fluids for complex motions
Cornell engineers designed a new system of fluid-driven actuators that enable soft robots to achieve more complex motions, leveraging the very thing – viscosity – that had previously stymied their movement.
6. Antibody fragment-nanoparticle therapeutic eradicates cancer
A novel cancer therapeutic, combining antibody fragments with molecularly engineered nanoparticles, permanently eradicated gastric cancer in treated mice.
7. New center merges math, AI to push frontiers of science
With artificial intelligence poised to assist in profound scientific discoveries that will change the world, Cornell Engineering is leading a new $11.3 million center focused on human-AI collaboration that uses mathematics as a common language.
8. Made in the shade: Growing crops at solar farms yields efficiency
In the face of climate change, growing commercial crops under acres of solar panels is a potentially efficient use of agricultural land that can boost food production and improve panel longevity.
9. Repairs to Flat Rock Bridge span two generations
The 1983 student chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers designed and built Flat Rock Bridge. Now the current student chapter has renovated it with the help of faculty, staff and community members.
10. Shapeshifters: Can buildings behave like organisms?
With a $3 million National Science Foundation grant, Cornell researchers are creating a new approach to architecture by learning how plants and animals form internal structures.