University of Texas System Regents announce plans to build UT Medical Center on site of Erwin Center

Today The University of Texas System Board of Regents Chairman Kevin P. Eltife announced plans to launch a monumental healthcare initiative to accelerate and expand UT Austin’s burgeoning medical district into a world-class academic medical center for education, research and patient care. The University of Texas at Austin Medical Center will start with two new hospital towers — The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and a UT Austin hospital. MD Anderson, the nation’s #1 cancer hospital, will expand its Houston footprint to Austin by building and operating a new, comprehensive cancer center, while UT Austin will build and operate its new specialty hospital.

Exploring, Monitoring and Modeling the Deep Ocean

The NSF is funding a team led by the Oden Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences at UT Austin to implement a Deep-Ocean Observing Strategy (iDOOS), bringing together U.S. and international networks engaged in deep-ocean observing, mapping, exploration, modeling, research and sustainable management.

New Dual Degree Honors Program at The University of Texas at Austin Combines Business, Electrical and Computer Engineering

The University of Texas at Austin will offer a new integrated business and engineering honors degree program. The rigorous four-year undergraduate curriculum in the Cockrell School of Engineering and the McCombs School of Business will prepare students for competitive engineering leadership careers.

Optical Techniques Offer Fast, Efficient COVID-19 Detection

Without the prospect of herd immunity on the immediate horizon, speedy detection for COVID-19 remains imperative for helping to curb the pandemic. Point-of-care testing that can provide immediate results is an urgent need. Researchers investigated the opportunities and challenges in developing rapid COVID-19 sensing techniques and discuss the prospects of optical biosensors for point-of-care COVID-19 testing in the journal Applied Physics Reviews.

Texas McCombs Full-Time MBA Program Receives STEM Certification

The University of Texas at Austin’s McCombs School of Business has announced that 14 of its 22 concentrations in its highly ranked full-time MBA program are now STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) certified, demonstrating a level of quantitative rigor across the MBA program.

Face Masks Provide Additional Communication Barrier for Nonnative Speech

Though face masks are important and necessary for controlling the spread of the new coronavirus, they result in muffled speech and a loss of visual cues during communication. Sandie Keerstock, Rajka Smiljanic, and their colleagues examine how this loss of visual information impacts speech intelligibility and memory for native and nonnative speech. They will discuss these communication challenges and how to address them at the 179th ASA Meeting, Dec. 7-10

Batteries Mimic Mammal Bones for Stability

Sodium-ion batteries offer several advantages over lithium-ion batteries; however, it is difficult to develop sodium cathodes, materials through which electrons can enter a battery. Many candidate materials are unstable or cannot withstand high voltages. To find a solution, researchers turned to nature. They created a porous system of NVP structures, surrounded by a dense shell of reduced graphene oxide. They describe the mammal bone-inspired sodium cathode in the journal Applied Physics Reviews.

Improving High-Energy Lithium-Ion Batteries with Carbon Filler

Lithium-ion batteries are the major rechargeable power source for many portable devices as well as electric vehicles, but their use is limited, because they do not provide high power output while simultaneously allowing reversible energy storage. Research reported in Applied Physics Reviews aims to offer a solution by showing how the inclusion of conductive fillers improves battery performance.

Wichita State joins prestigious national research institute to boost artificial intelligence field

Wichita State University has been named a founding member of a newly formed AI Institute for Foundations of Machine Learning (IFML), established by a $20 million grant from the National Science Foundation.

MD Anderson and UT Austin Create Unique Data-Driven Collaboration to Eliminate Cancer Using Novel Mathematical and Computational Approaches

The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and two institutions at The University of Texas at Austin – the Oden Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences and the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) – today announced a new initiative to build a strong collaboration in Oncological Data and Computational Science.

Simple Self-Charging Battery Offers Power Solutions for Devices

A new type of battery combines negative capacitance and negative resistance within the same cell, allowing the cell to self-charge without losing energy, which has important implications for long-term storage and improved output power for batteries. In Applied Physics Reviews, researchers at the University of Porto and the University of Texas at Austin report making their very simple battery with two different metals, as electrodes and a lithium or sodium glass electrolyte between them.

McCombs Launches First-in-the-Nation Health Care Cybersecurity Leadership Program

The McCombs School of Business at The University of Texas at Austin announces the Leadership in Health Care Privacy and Security Risk Management certificate program, a new first-in-the-nation professional program designed to help address a critical workforce shortage issue.