Category: Research and Innovation

A gloved hand holds a clear petri dish containing a translucent green hydrogel shaped like the ND monogram, representing the University of Notre Dame, used in Professor Donny Hanjaya-Putra's lab for research on lymphatic vessel growth.

Engineers and cancer researchers develop tunable biomaterials to treat lymphedema

The lymphatic system plays a vital role in many health issues, such as heart disease, neurodegenerative conditions, inflammation, metabolic disorders, cancer, and lymphedema. Despite its importance, scientists still lack many details about how the lymphatic system grows and functions, and this …

A large wind turbine in the foreground with several turbines scattered across a sprawling wind farm in the background. The landscape features open fields, trees, and utility infrastructure under a clear blue sky.

Notre Dame and Oxford collaborate to boost wind farm efficiency with supercomputer

Wind spirals and swirls around wind turbines in complex, chaotic patterns that are difficult to predict. Accurately modeling these dynamics could significantly enhance the reliability and efficiency of wind farms. With this goal, engineers at the University of Notre Dame and mathematicians at …

biocomputing fabric made of micropatterned heart muscle and fibroblast networks

Engineering next-generation biocomputing systems using heart cells

Heart muscle cells can generate and pass on electrical signals with little energy loss. When these cells are engineered to connect in specific ways, they can work together to handle and remember complex information—sometimes more efficiently and flexibly than modern computers. In a project …

Bolivar-Nieto and student researchers test prosthetic

Notre Dame and Purdue engineers use e-textiles and sensor networks to enhance prosthetic fit

The most common reason people with lower-limb loss stop using their prosthesis is an ill-fitting socket. Everyday activities such as standing, walking, or stair climbing put enormous pressures on the soft tissues of the residual limb, which are not well-adapted to managing the forces these …

A researcher in a white coat reaches behind a system of wires while holding a round metal device.

Berthiaume Institute announces 2024 Technology Development Fund awardees

The Berthiaume Institute for Precision Health at the University of Notre Dame has announced the awardees of its Technology Development Fund for 2024. Four projects received funding, each of which aims to enhance a key area of knowledge at the frontier of science and engineering for …

floral plasma wave pattern

Synchronized forces behind flower-like patterns in plasma waves

Neither a solid, liquid, nor gas, plasma doesn’t play by the same rules as the other states of matter. Its unique properties are particularly evident at plasma-liquid interfaces, where chemical, electric and fluid forces collide to create waves.  In a recent paper in Physical Review …

A photo of a stone that reads "Notre Dame" with the main building and autumn trees in the background

Notre Dame to develop next-generation refrigerant technology as part of a new National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center

The University of Notre Dame is part of a new National Science Foundation (NSF) Gen-4 Engineering Research Center (ERC) called EARTH, which stands for Environmental Applied Refrigerant Technology Hub. Led by the University of Kansas, EARTH will bring together 80 institutions and researchers from a …

Agboola Suleiman holding membrane

Machine learning discovers ‘hidden-gem’ materials for heat-free gas separation

Chemical separation, including gas separation, accounts for a whopping 15 percent of U.S. energy consumption and produces millions of tons of carbon emissions. Separating gases by passing them through membranes could be an efficient, environmentally-friendly alternative to current methods—if …

Yanliang Zhang

Best recipe yet for thermoelectric devices

Power plants, factories, car engines—everything that consumes energy produces heat, much of which is wasted. Thermoelectric devices could capture this wasted heat and convert it into electricity, but their production has been prohibitively costly and complex. Yanliang Zhang, Advanced …

The moon over Golden Dome and Basilica.

Notre Dame elected to Universities Space Research Association to advance space exploration research

The University of Notre Dame has been inducted into the Universities Space Research Association (USRA). Founded in 1969 under the auspices of the National Academy of Sciences at the request of the U.S. Government, the USRA is a nonprofit corporation chartered to advance space-related science, …