Science and Technology

People who live in flood-prone areas naturally aren't thrilled about the uncertainty they must cope with each hurricane season, but research conducted by a University at Buffalo engineer is based on the idea that a better understanding of this uncertainty is key to helping mitigate damage from floods.

John R. "Jack" Davis, a well-known Western New York industrialist who graduated from the University at Buffalo with a degree in engineering, has given $1.5 million to the UB School of Engineering and Applied Sciences in support of a new high-tech, flagship engineering building to be constructed on UB's North (Amherst) Campus.

So far, reports from the field suggest that the mandatory evacuation of New Orleans in advance of Hurricane Gustav is proceeding in a reasonable manner, says a University at Buffalo researcher who spent eight days in New Orleans in 2005 studying evacuation plans and decision making in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

The 4,000-plus international students who begin classes this semester at the University at Buffalo will find enhanced resources on the UB Libraries' Web site suggested by their peers and developed by the libraries especially for them.

A novel gene signaling mechanism that controls whether a stem cell develops into its destined tissue or fails to differentiate and becomes cancer has been identified by researchers in the multi-laboratory Molecular and Structural Neurobiology and Gene Therapy Program based at the University at Buffalo.

University at Buffalo architect Annette LeCuyer's recent research is on a remarkable material that is changing the way architects and engineers think about building performance. The material, ETFE, is being showcased at the Beijing Olympics as the material used to construct the National Aquatics Center.

University at Buffalo faculty members challenged teams of Western New York's best and brightest high school students to prove their scientific and mathematical mettle in a brain-teasing race around the UB North (Amherst) Campus today. Using some of UB Engineering's high-tech lab resources, student teams competed to destroy a miniature building in a simulated earthquake, detect hidden weapons in X-ray images of luggage, use trigonometry to operate a mechanical robot and calculate turbulence in a wind tunnel.

A unique nanoparticle system developed by University at Buffalo scientists takes advantage of the versatility of bioconjugated quantum rods to ferry novel diagnostic and therapeutic agents across the blood-brain barrier, according to recent in vitro findings.

With females accounting for between 10 and 15 percent of all U.S. engineers, high school can sometimes get lonely for young women who are interested in engineering and technology. But that won't be the case this week when 16 tech-minded young women entering grades 10-12 attend the University at Buffalo's 2008 Fisher-Price Cyber Engineering Workshop for Young Women.

Bloodsucking pests like bat fleas and bat flies may not sound very appealing to the rest of us, but to University at Buffalo biologist Katharina Dittmar de la Cruz, Ph.D., they are among the most successful creatures evolution has ever produced.