Aurelia Butler

Physicists at Delft University of Technology have built a new technology on a microchip by combining two Nobel Prize-winning techniques for the first time. This microchip could measure distances in materials at high precision, for example underwater or for medical imaging. Because the technology uses sound vibrations instead of light, it is useful for high-precision position measurements in opaque materials. The instrument could lead to new techniques to monitor the Earth’s climate and human health. The work is now published in Nature Communications.
Simple and low-power technology
The microchip mainly consists of a thin ceramic sheet that is shaped like a trampoline. This trampoline is patterned with holes to enhance its interaction with lasers and has a thickness about 1000 times smaller than the thickness of a hair. As a former PhD candidate in Richard Norte’s lab, Matthijs de Jong studied the small trampolines to figure out what would happen if they pointed a simple laser beam at them. The trampoline’s surface started vibrating intensely. By measuring the reflected laser light from the vibrating surface, the team noticed a pattern of vibrations in the shape of a comb that they hadn’t seen before. They realised that the trampoline’s comb-like signature functions as a ruler for precision measurements of distance.
This new technology could be used to measure positions in materials using sound waves. What makes it special is that it doesn’t need any precision hardware and is therefore easy to produce. “It only requires inserting a laser, and nothing else. There’s no need for complex feedback loops or for tuning certain parameters to get our tech to operate properly. This makes it a very simple and low-power technology, that is much easier to miniaturise on a microchip,” Norte says. “Once this happens, we could really put these microchip sensors anywhere, given their small size.”
Unique combination
The new technology is based on two unrelated Nobel Prize-winning techniques, called optical trapping and frequency combs. Norte: “The interesting thing is that both of these concepts are typically related to light, but these fields do not have any real overlap. We have uniquely combined them to create an easy-to-use microchip technology based on sound waves. This ease of use could have significant implications for how we measure the world around us.”
Overtones
When the researchers pointed a laser beam at the tiny trampoline, they realised that the forces that the laser exerted on it were creating overtone vibrations in the trampoline membranes. “These forces are called an optical trap, because they can trap particles in one spot using light. This technique won the Nobel Prize in 2018 and it allows us to manipulate even the smallest particles with extreme precision,” Norte explains. “You can compare the overtones in the trampoline to particular notes of a violin. The note or frequency that the violin produces depends on where you place your finger on the string. If you touch the string only very lightly and play it with a bow, you can create overtones; a series of notes at higher frequencies. In our case, the laser acts as both the soft touch and the bow to induce overtone vibrations in the trampoline membrane.”
Bridging two breakthrough fields
“Optical frequency combs are used in labs around the world for very precise measurements of time, and to measure distances,” Norte says. “They are so important to measurements in general that their invention was given a Nobel Prize in 2005. We have made an acoustic version of a frequency comb, made out of sound vibrations in the membrane instead of light. Acoustic frequency combs could for instance make position measurements in opaque materials, through which vibrations can propagate better than light waves. This technology could for example be used for precision measurements underwater to monitor the Earth’s climate, for medical imaging and for applications in quantum technologies.” More

Scientists investigating a compound called “Y-ball” – which belongs to a mysterious class of “strange metals” viewed as centrally important to next-generation quantum materials – have found new ways to probe and understand its behavior.
The results of the experiments, aided by the insights of theoretical physicists at Rutgers, could play a role in the development of revolutionary technologies and devices.
“It’s likely that that quantum materials will drive the next generation of technology and that strange metals will be part of that story,” said Piers Coleman, a Distinguished Professor at the Rutgers Center for Materials Theory in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the Rutgers School of Arts and Sciences and one of the theoreticians involved in the study. “We know that strange metals like Y-ball exhibit properties that need to be understood to develop these future applications. We’re pretty sure that understanding this strange metal will give us new ideas and will help us design and discover new materials.”
Reporting in the journal Science, an international team of researchers from Rutgers, the University of Hyogo and the University of Tokyo in Japan, the University of Cincinnati and Johns Hopkins University described details of electron motion that provide new insight into the unusual electrical properties of Y-ball. The material, technically known as the compound YbAlB4, contains the elements ytterbium, aluminum and boron. It was nicknamed “Y-ball” by the late Elihu Abrahams, founding director of the Rutgers Center for Materials Theory.
The experiment revealed unusual fluctuations in the strange metal’s electrical charge. The work is groundbreaking, the researchers said, because of the novel way the experimenters examined Y-ball, firing gamma rays at it using a synchrotron, a type of particle accelerator.
The Rutgers team — including Coleman, fellow physics professor Premala Chandra and former postdoctoral fellow Yashar Komijani (now an assistant professor at the University of Cincinnati) — have spent years exploring the mysteries of strange metals. They do so through the framework of quantum mechanics, the physical laws governing the realm of the ultra-small, home of the building blocks of nature such as electrons.

Analyzing the material using a technique known as Mossbauer spectroscopy, the scientists probed Y-ball with gamma rays, measuring the rate at which the strange metal’s electrical charge fluctuates. In a conventional metal, as they move, electrons hop in and out of the atoms, causing their electrical charge to fluctuate, but at a rate that is thousands of times too fast to be seen by Mossbauer spectroscopy. In this case, the change happened in a nanosecond, a billionth of a second.
“In the quantum world, a nanosecond is an eternity,” said Komijani. “For a long time, we have been wondering why these fluctuations are actually so slow.” “We reasoned,” continued Chandra, “that each time an electron hops into an ytterbium atom, it stays there long enough to attract the surrounding atoms, causing them to move in and out. This synchronized dance of the electrons and atoms slows the whole process so that it can be seen by the Mossbauer.”
They moved to the next step. “We asked the experimentalists to look for these vibrations,” said Komijani, “and to our delight, they detected them.”
Coleman explained that when an electrical current flows through conventional metals, such as copper, random atomic motion scatters the electrons causing friction called resistance. As the temperature is raised, the resistance increases in a complex fashion and at some point it reaches a plateau.
In strange metals such as Y-ball, however, resistance increases linearly with temperature, a much simpler behavior. In addition, further contributing to their “strangeness,” when Y-ball and other strange metals are cooled to low temperatures, they often become superconductors, exhibiting no resistance at all.
The materials with the highest superconducting temperatures fall into this strange family. These metals are thus very important because they provide the canvas for new forms of electronic matter — especially exotic and high temperature superconductivity.
Superconducting materials are expected to be central to the next generation of quantum technologies because, in eliminating all electrical resistance, they allow an electric current to flow in a quantum mechanically synchronized fashion. The researchers see their work as opening a door to future, perhaps unimaginable possibilities.
“In the 19th century, when people were trying to figure out electricity and magnetism, they couldn’t have imagined the next century, which was entirely driven by that understanding,” Coleman said. “And so, it’s also true today, that when we use the vague phrase ‘quantum materials,’ we can’t really envisage how it will transform the lives of our grandchildren.” More

In our daily lives, lithium-ion batteries have become indispensable. They function only because of a passivation layer that forms during their initial cycle. As researchers at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) found out via simulations, this solid electrolyte interphase develops not directly at the electrode but aggregates in the solution. The scientists report on their study in the Advanced Energy Materials journal. Their findings allow the optimization of the performance and lifetime of future batteries.
From smartphones to electric cars — wherever a mobile energy source is required, it is almost always a lithium-ion battery that does the job. An essential part of the reliable function of this and other liquid electrolyte batteries is the solid electrolyte interphase (SEI). This passivation layer forms when voltage is applied for the first time. The electrolyte is being decomposed in the immediate vicinity of the surface. Until now, it remained unclear ow the particles in the electrolytes form a layer that is up to 100 nanometers thick on the surface of the electrode since the decomposition reaction is only possible in a few nanometers distance from the surface.
The passivation layer on the anode surface is crucial to the electrochemical capacity and lifetime of a lithium-ion battery because it is highly stressed with every charging cycle. When the SEI is broken up during this process, the electrolyte is further decomposed and the battery’s capacity is reduced — a process that determines the lifetime of a battery. With the right knowledge on the SEI’s growth and composition, the properties of a battery can be controlled. But so far, no experimental or computer-aided approach was sufficient to decipher the SEI’s complex growth processes that take place on a very wide scale and in different dimensions.
Study as Part of the EU Initiative BATTERY 2030+
Researchers at the KIT Institute of Nanotechnology (INT) now managed to characterize the formation of the SEI with a multi-scale approach. “This solves one of the great mysteries regarding an essential part of all liquid electrolyte batteries — especially the lithium-ion batteries we all use every day,” says Professor Wolfgang Wenzel, director of the research group “Multiscale Materials Modelling and Virtual Design” at INT, which is involved in the large-scale European research initiative BATTERY 2030+ that aims to develop safe, affordable, long-lasting, sustainable high-performance batteries for the future. The KIT researchers report on their findings in the journal Advanced Energy Materials.
More than 50,000 Simulations for Different Reaction Conditions
To examine the growth and composition of the passivation layer at the anode of liquid electrolyte batteries, the researchers at INT generated an ensemble of over 50,000 simulations representing different reaction conditions. They found that the growth of the organic SEI follows a solution-mediated pathway: First, SEI precursors that are formed directly at the surface join far away from the electrode surface via a nucleation process. The subsequent rapid growth of the nuclei leads to the formation of a porous layer that eventually covers the electrode surface. These findings offer a solution to the paradoxical situation that SEI constituents can form only near the surface, where electrons are available, but their growth would stop once this narrow region is covered. “We were able to identify the key reaction parameters that determine SEI thickness,” explains Dr. Saibal Jana, postdoc at INT and one of the authors of the study. “This will enable the future development of electrolytes and suitable additives that control the properties of the SEI and optimize the battery’s performance and lifetime.” (or) More

In 2019, an international research team headed by materials chemist Anna Isaeva, at that time a junior professor at ct.qmat (Complexity and Topology in Quantum Matter), caused a stir by fabricating the world’s first antiferromagnetic topological insulator — manganese bismuth telluride (MnBi2Te4). This remarkable material has its own internal magnetic field, paving the way for new kinds of electronic components that can store information magnetically and transport it on the surface without any resistance. This could revolutionize computers by making them more sustainable and energy-efficient. Since then, researchers around the globe have been actively studying various aspects of this promising quantum material, eager to unlock its full potential.
Milestone achieved with MnBi6Te10
Based on the previously discovered MnBi2Te4, a team from ct.qmat has now engineered a topological insulator with ferromagnetic properties known as MnBi6Te10. In ferromagnetic materials, the individual manganese atoms are magnetically aligned in parallel, meaning that all their magnetic moments point in the same direction. By contrast, in its antiferromagnetic predecessor, MnBi2Te4, only the magnetic moments within a single layer of the material are aligned in this way. The slight change in the crystal’s chemical composition has a major impact, as the ferromagnetic topological insulator MnBi6Te10 exhibits a stronger and more robust magnetic field than its antiferromagnetic predecessor. “We managed to fabricate the quantum material MnBi6Te10 such that it becomes ferromagnetic at 12 Kelvin. Although this temperature of -261 degrees Celsius is still far too low for computer components, this is the first step on the long journey of development,” explains Professor Vladimir Hinkov from Würzburg. It was his group who discovered that the material’s surface exhibits ferromagnetic properties, enabling it to conduct current without any loss, whereas its interior doesn’t share this characteristic.
Race for the miracle material
The ct.qmat research team wasn’t alone in aiming to create a ferromagnetic topological insulator in the laboratory. “Following the remarkable success of MnBi2Te4, researchers worldwide began searching for more candidates for magnetic topological insulators. In 2019, four different groups synthesized MnBi6Te10, but it was only in our lab that this extraordinary material displayed ferromagnetic properties,” explains Isaeva, now a professor of experimental physics at the University of Amsterdam.
Antisite disorder in the atomic structure
When the Dresden-based materials chemists led by Isaeva painstakingly figured out how to produce the crystalline material in a process akin to detective work, they made an astonishing discovery. It turned out that some atoms needed to be repositioned from their original atomic layer, meaning they had to leave their native arrangement in the crystal. “The distribution of manganese atoms across all crystal layers causes the surrounding manganese atoms to rotate their magnetic moment in the same direction. The magnetic order becomes contagious,” explains Isaeva. “Atomic antisite disorder, the phenomenon seen in our crystal, is usually considered disruptive in chemistry and physics. Ordered atomic structures are easier to calculate and better understood — yet they don’t always yield the desired result,” adds Hinkov. “This very disorder is the critical mechanism that enables MnBi6Te10 to become ferromagnetic,” emphasizes Isaeva.
Collaborative network for cutting-edge research
ct.qmat scientists from the two universities TU Dresden and JMU Würzburg as well as from the Leibniz-Institut für Festkörper- und Werkstoffforschung (IFW) in Dresden collaborated on this groundbreaking research. The crystals were prepared by a team of materials chemists headed by Isaeva (TU Dresden). Subsequently, the samples’ bulk ferromagnetism was detected at IFW, where Dr. Jorge I. Facio also developed a comprehensive theory explaining both the ferromagnetism of MnBi6Te10 characterized by antisite disorder and its antiferromagnetic counterparts. Hinkov’s team at JMU Würzburg conducted the vital surface measurements.
The researchers are currently working to achieve ferromagnetism at considerably higher temperatures. They’ve already made initial progress, reaching around 70 Kelvin. Simultaneously, the ultra-low temperatures at which the exotic quantum effects manifest need to be increased, as lossless current conduction only starts at 1 to 2 Kelvin.
Cluster of Excellence ct.qmat
The Cluster of Excellence ct.qmat — Complexity and Topology in Quantum Matter has been jointly run by Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg and Technische Universität Dresden since 2019. Nearly 400 scientists from more than 30 countries and from four continents study topological quantum materials that reveal surprising phenomena under extreme conditions such as ultra-low temperatures, high pressure, or strong magnetic fields. ct.qmat is funded through the German Excellence Strategy of the Federal and State Governments and is the only Cluster of Excellence to be based in two different federal states. More

The virus responsible for E. coli infection has a secret weapon: teamwork.
Always scrappy in its bid for survival, the virus alights on an unassuming host cell and grips the surface with the business end of its tubular tail. Then, the proteins in the tail contract in unison, flattening its structure like a stepped-on spring and reeling the virus’s body in for the critical strike.
Thanks to the proteins’ teamwork, the tail can flex and flatten with ease. This process, called molecular cooperativity, is often observed in nature but rarely seen in non-living systems.
Researchers at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology discovered a way to trigger this cooperative behavior in organic semiconductors. The energy- and time-saving phenomenon may help enhance the performance of smartwatches, solar cells, and other organic electronics.
Their work was accepted for publication in Nature Communications.
“Our research brings semiconductors to life by unlocking the same dynamic qualities that natural organisms like viruses use to adapt and survive,” said Ying Diao, a researcher at the Beckman Institute and a coauthor of the study.

Viruses may have mastered molecular cooperativity, but the same cannot be said of crystals: non-living molecular structures classified by their symmetry. Though aesthetically pleasing, the molecules that comprise crystalline structures have diva-like dispositions and seldom work together. Instead, they test researchers’ patience by plodding through structural transitions one molecule at a time — a process famously demonstrated by diamonds growing from carbon, which demands blistering heat, intense pressure, and thousands of years sequestered deep beneath the earth.
“Imagine taking down an elaborate domino display brick by brick. It’s exhausting and laborious, and once you’ve finished, you would most likely not have the energy to try it again,” said Daniel Davies, the study’s lead author and a researcher at the Beckman Institute at the time of the study.
By contrast, cooperative transitions occur when molecules shift their structure in synchrony, like a row of dominoes flowing seamlessly to the floor. The collaborative method is fast, energy-efficient, and easily reversible — it’s why the virus responsible for E. coli infection can tirelessly contract its protein-packed tail with little energy lost.
For a long time, researchers have struggled to replicate this cooperative process in non-living systems to reap its time- and energy-saving benefits. This problem was of particular interest to Diao and Davies, who wondered how molecular teamwork might impact the electronics sector.
“Molecular cooperativity helps living systems operate quickly and efficiently,” Davies said. “We thought, ‘If the molecules in electronic devices worked together, could those devices display those same benefits?'”
Diao and Davies study organic electronic devices, which rely on semiconductors made from molecules like hydrogen and carbon rather than inorganic ones like silicon, a ubiquitous ingredient in the laptops, desktops, and smart devices saturating the market today.

“Since organic electronics are made from the same basic elements as living beings, like people, they unlock many new possibilities for applications,” said Diao, who is also an associate professor of chemical and biological engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. “In the future, organic electronics might be able to attach to our brains to enhance cognition or, be worn like a Band-aid to convert our body heat into electricity.”
Diao studies the design of solar cells: wafer-thin window clings that soak up sunlight to convert into electricity. Organic semiconductors that can flex without breaking and contour to human skin would likewise be “an important part of the future of organic electronic devices,” Davies said.
It’s a bright future indeed, but an important step toward designing dynamic organic electronics like these is fashioning dynamic organic semiconductors. And for that to happen, the semiconductor molecules must cooperate.
Dominoes inspired the researchers’ approach to trigger molecular teamwork in a semiconductor crystal. They discovered that rearranging the clusters of hydrogen and carbon atoms spooling out from a molecule’s core — otherwise known as alkyl chains — causes the molecular core itself to tilt, triggering a crystal-wide chain of collapse the researchers refer to as an “avalanche.”
“Just like dominoes, the molecules don’t move from where they are fixed. Only their tilt changes,” Davies said.
But tilting a string of molecules is neither as easy nor as tactile as picking up a domino and rotating it 90 degrees. On a scale much smaller than a plastic game piece, the researchers gradually applied heat to the molecule’s alkyl chain; the increased temperature induced the domino-like effect.
Using heat to rearrange the molecules’ alkyl chains also caused the crystal itself to shrink — just like the virus’s tail prior to E. coli infection. In an electronic device, this property translates to an easy, temperature-induced on-off switch.
The applications of this discovery have yet to be fully realized; for now, the researchers are thrilled with the first step.
“The most exciting part was being able to observe how these molecules are changing and how their structure is evolving throughout these transitions,” Davies said.
Unlocking the potential of molecular collaboration was possible through teamwork on an international scale, with contributing researchers hailing from Purdue University, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Argonne National Laboratory. Raman spectroscopy was conducted in the Beckman Institute Microscopy Suite. More

An international team of scientists is developing an inkable nanomaterial that they say could one day become a spray-on electronic component for ultra-thin, lightweight and bendable displays and devices.
The material, zinc oxide, could be incorporated into many components of future technologies including mobile phones and computers, thanks to its versatility and recent advances in nanotechnology, according to the team.
RMIT University’s Associate Professor Enrico Della Gaspera and Dr Joel van Embden led a team of global experts to review production strategies, capabilities and potential applications of zinc oxide nanocrystals in the journal Chemical Reviews, a high-impact international journal.
Professor Silvia Gross from the University of Padova in Italy and Associate Professor Kevin Kittilstved from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in the United States are co-authors.
“Progress in nanotechnology has enabled us to greatly improve and adapt the properties and performances of zinc oxide by making it super small, and with well-defined features,” said Della Gaspera, from RMIT’s School of Science.
“Tiny and versatile particles of zinc oxide can now be prepared with exceptional control of their size, shape and chemical composition at the nanoscale,” said van Embden, also from RMIT’s School of Science.

“This all leads to precise control of the resulting properties for countless applications in optics, electronics, energy, sensing technologies and even microbial decontamination.”
Sky’s the limit with spray-on electronics
The zinc oxide nanocrystals can be formulated into ink and deposited as an ultra-thin coating. The process is like ink-jet printing or airbrush painting, but the coating is hundreds to thousands of times thinner than a conventional paint layer.
“These coatings can be made highly transparent to visible light, yet also highly electrically conductive – two fundamental characteristics needed for making touchscreen displays,” Della Gaspera said.
The nanocrystals can also be deposited at low temperature, allowing coatings on flexible substrates, such as plastic, that are resilient to flexing and bending, the team says.

The team is ready to work with industry to explore potential applications using their techniques to make these nanomaterial coatings.
What is zinc oxide and how can it be used?
Zinc is an abundant element in the Earth’s crust and more abundant than many other technologically relevant metals, including tin, nickel, lead, tungsten, copper and chromium.
“Zinc is cheap and widely used by various industries already, with global annual production in the millions of tonnes,” van Embden said.
Zinc oxide is an extensively studied material, with initial scientific studies being conducted from the beginning of the 20th century.
“Zinc oxide gained a lot of interest in the 1970s and 1980s due to progress in the semiconductor industry. And with the advent of nanotechnology and advancement in both syntheses and analysis techniques, zinc oxide has rapidly risen as one of the most important materials of this century,” Della Gaspera said.
Zinc oxide is also safe, biocompatible and found already in products such as sunscreens and cosmetics.
Potential applications, other than bendable electronics, that could use zinc oxide nanocrystals include: self-cleaning coatings antibacterial and antifungal agents sensors to detect ultraviolet radiation electronic components in solar cells and light emitting devices (LED) transistors, which are miniature components that control electrical signals and are the foundation of modern electronics sensors that could be used to detect harmful gases for residential, industrial and environmental applications.Next steps
Scaling up the team’s approach from the lab to an industrial setting would require working with the right partners, Della Gaspera said.
“Scalability is a challenge for all types of nanomaterials, zinc oxide included,” he said.
“Being able to recreate the same conditions that we achieve in the laboratory, but with much larger reactions, requires both adapting the type of chemistry used and engineering innovations in the reaction setup.”
In addition to these scalability challenges, the team needs to address the shortfall in electrical conductivity that nanocrystal coatings have when compared to industrial benchmarks, which rely on more complex physical depositions. The intrinsic structure of the nanocrystal coatings, which enables more flexibility, limits the ability of the coating to conduct electricity efficiently.
“We and other scientists around the world are working towards addressing these challenges and good progress is being made,” Della Gaspera said.
He sees great opportunities to collaborate with other organisations and industry partners to tackle these kinds of challenges.
“I am confident that, with the right partnership, these challenges can be solved,” Della Gaspera said. More

A recent study that examined the relationship between artificial intelligence (AI) and law enforcement underscores both the need for law enforcement agencies to be involved in the development of public policies regarding AI — such as regulations governing autonomous vehicles — and the need for law enforcement officers to better understand the limitations and ethical challenges of AI technologies.
“Law enforcement agencies have a crucial role to play in implementing public policies related to AI technologies,” says Veljko Dubljevi?, corresponding author of the study and an associate professor of science, technology and society at North Carolina State University.
“For example, officers will need to know how to proceed if they pull over a vehicle being driven autonomously for a traffic violation. For that matter, they will need to know how to pull over a vehicle being driven autonomously. Because of their role in maintaining public order, it’s important for law enforcement to have a seat at the table in crafting these policies.”
“In addition, there are a number of AI-powered technologies that are already in use by law enforcement agencies that are designed to help them prevent and respond to crime,” says Ronald Dempsey, first author of the study and a former graduate student at NC State. “These range from facial recognition technologies to technologies designed to detect gunshots and notify relevant law enforcement agencies.
“However, our study suggests that many officers do not understand how these technologies work, which makes it difficult or impossible for them to appreciate the limitations and ethical risks of those technologies. And that can pose significant problems for both law enforcement and the public.”
For this study, the researchers conducted in-depth interviews with 20 law enforcement professionals who work in North Carolina. The interviews addressed a range of issues, including the values and qualities that the study participants felt were critical for law enforcement officers.

While there was no consensus across a majority of study participants, there were several characteristics that cropped up repeatedly as important qualities for a law enforcement professional, with integrity, honesty and empathy being cited most often.
“Understanding what law enforcement deems to be desirable characteristics in officers is valuable, because these characteristics can inform the development of responsible design guidelines for AI technologies that law enforcement will use,” Dempsey says.
“Design guidelines can be used to inform AI decision-making, and it is easier for end users to work with AI tools if the values guiding AI decisions are consistent — or at least not in conflict — with the values of the end users,” says Dubljevi?.
The researchers also asked study participants about their views on AI in general, as well as existing and emerging AI technologies.
“We found that study participants were not familiar with AI, or with the limitations of AI technologies,” says Jim Brunet, co-author of the study and director of NC State’s Public Safety Leadership Initiative. “This included AI technologies that participants had used on the job, such as facial recognition and gunshot detection technologies. However, study participants expressed support for these tools, which they felt were valuable for law enforcement.”
The study participants also expressed concern about the future of autonomous vehicles, and what challenges they may pose to the law enforcement community.
“However, study participants did say that they would welcome public use of autonomous vehicles if that would reduce car accidents,” says Dubljevi?. “Specifically, the participants welcomed the idea of spending less time responding to vehicle accidents, which would allow them to focus on addressing crime.”
“There are always dangers when law enforcement adopts technologies that were not developed with law enforcement in mind,” says Brunet. “This certainly applies to AI technologies such as facial recognition. As a result, it’s critical for law enforcement officials to have some training in the ethical dimensions surrounding the use of these AI technologies. For example, where a law enforcement agency chooses to deploy AI tools will affect which portions of the public are subject to additional scrutiny.”
“It’s also important to understand that AI tools are not foolproof,” says Dubljevi?. “AI is subject to limitations. And if law enforcement officials don’t understand those limitations, they may place more value on the AI than is warranted — which can pose ethical challenges in itself.” More

New research from Carnegie Mellon University’s Robotics Institute (RI) aims to increase autonomy for individuals with such motor impairments by introducing a head-worn device that will help them control a mobile manipulator. Teleoperated mobile manipulators can aid individuals in completing daily activities, but many existing technologies like hand-operated joysticks or web interfaces require a user to have substantial fine motor skills to effectively control them. Research led by robotics Ph.D. student Akhil Padmanabha offers a new device equipped with a hands-free microphone and head-worn sensor that allows users to control a mobile robot via head motion and speech recognition.
More than five million people in the United States live with some form of paralysis and may encounter difficulties completing everyday tasks, like grabbing a glass of water or putting on clothes. New research from Carnegie Mellon University’s Robotics Institute (RI) aims to increase autonomy for individuals with such motor impairments by introducing a head-worn device that will help them control a mobile manipulator.
Teleoperated mobile manipulators can aid individuals in completing daily activities, but many existing technologies like hand-operated joysticks or web interfaces require a user to have substantial fine motor skills to effectively control them. Research led by robotics Ph.D. student Akhil Padmanabha offers a new device equipped with a hands-free microphone and head-worn sensor that allows users to control a mobile robot via head motion and speech recognition. Head-Worn Assistive Teleoperation (HAT) requires fewer fine motor skills than other interfaces, offering an alternative for users who face constraints with technology currently on the market.
In addition to Padmanabha, the research team includes Qin Wang, Daphne Han, Jashkumar Diyora, Kriti Kacker, Hamza Khalid, Liang-Jung Chen, Carmel Majidi and Zackory Erickson. In a human study, participants both with and without motor impairments performed multiple household and self-care tasks with low error rates, minimal effort and a high perceived ease of use. The research team will present their paper, “HAT: Head-Worn Assistive Teleoperation of Mobile Manipulators,” at the IEEE’s International Conference on Robotics and Automation in London this spring. More