STEM

UA Researchers Help Develop Fuel of the Future

Pumping gas into your car may be unnecessary in a few years. Instead, many vehicles on the highways could run on hydrogen fuel cells. Research at The University of Alabama is helping move this scenario toward reality.

Less Means More in Nano-Particles Research

If less is more, researchers in The University of Alabama’s Center for Materials Information Technology, or MINT, have struck gold in their attempts to discover how to store greater amounts of data in smaller storage spaces.

Ballistics Research Helps Air Force Develop New Weapons Technology

A research team in The University of Alabama’s College of Engineering is assisting the U.S. Air Force in selecting the best steel alloy to use in its next generation of air-launched weapons.

May the Technology Force Be With You

Most people know George Lucas for his creation of the “Star Wars” film saga. However, it was Lucas’ work with education – not his more famous work in film — that caught the attention of Dr. Barrie Jo Price.

Astronomers Use Hubble Space Telescope to Review Spiral Galaxy with ‘Backward’ Arms

Astronomers from The University of Alabama and Bevill State Community College recently presented remarkable Hubble Space Telescope images of the disk of a distant spiral galaxy.

Intelligent Solutions

A team of researchers at The University of Alabama thinks answers to traffic problems in Birmingham and other U.S. cities lie in today’s advanced technology, answers that will produce safer highways, less congestion, more efficient commuting, quicker emergency response, and fewer frayed nerves.

Insights into the Mind

Computer games developed by a pair of University of Alabama psychology professors are giving researchers a clearer understanding of the learning problems children with autism face and could lead to development of the first performance-based test to diagnose the neurological disability.

Physics Professors Seeking Clues to Tiniest of Elements

Neutrinos are among the most elusive particles known to man, yet these tiny elements have been giving scientists big headaches for many years. In fact the word neutrino, which even sounds small, is an Italian diminutive invented by the scientist Enrico Fermi.

Welding Research Yields Success

Dr. Viola Acoff, associate professor of metallurgical and materials engineering, and Dr. Nagy El-Kaddah, professor of metallurgical and materials engineering, have had recent success in developing a model that accurately predicts how the microstructures of intermetallic compounds change when various welding parameters are used.

Hypersonic Flight Studied in UA’s Wind Tunnels

Chuck Yeager first broke the sound barrier in his X-1 research plane in 1947, and today, scientists at NASA are developing and testing new propulsion systems on the Hyper-X (or X-43) research plane to propel airplanes and spacecraft to hypersonic velocities (velocities greater than five times the speed of sound).