In a new spin on a classic Leonardo da Vinci design, students from the University of Maryland’s Department of Aerospace Engineering have taken one of the master’s ideas, the “Aerial Screw,” and developed a working prototype.

Unveiled at the Vertical Flight Society’s 2022 Transformative Vertical Flight Conference—Crimson Spin, a small, unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)—flies through the combined lift of four, whirring red spiral-shaped blades, and garnered much media attention for its unique take on da Vinci’s design.
When communities are hit by a disaster, their main conduit for federal aid is the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Public Assistance (PA) program, which provides funding for rebuilding damaged infrastructure. But the PA program is set up in a way that often incentivizes unwise decision-making. Allison Reilly has just received an NSF CAREER Award that will support research intended to guide policy reform in this area.

Professor Xiaoming (Shawn) He and his team developed a new strategy to improve engineered heart tissues and one day advance overall understanding of heart disease. They found that the ROCK inhibitor commonly used in 3D cultures of human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) contributed extensively to their heterogeneous differentiation.

An international research team consisting of scientists at the University of Maryland, the Institute of Physics in Beijing (Chinese Academy of Sciences), and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have captured experimental evidence that sheds light on the mechanism of high temperature superconductivity in the so-called cuprate superconductors, first discovered in 1986.

Americans discard about 103 million tons of food annually, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and much of that tossed-out food ends up in landfills. Indeed, food waste accounts for nearly a quarter of all landfill use in the United States. The mounting environmental hazard has prompted Guangbin Li, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering, to explore possible alternative methods of managing waste.