Ken Kingery

Duke University

This conveyer of rubber bands separates solid and liquid waste effectively in an experimental sanitation system at a test site in India. But at a facility in South Africa, where the culture uses toilet paper, the results aren't as good. This was one of many lessons learned from two eight-month-long field trials for sanitation systems sponsored by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Engineers Create Critical Components for Off-Grid Toilets

The big question is how long the system will run before it needs critical maintenance.

This robot can out the source of an ethanol leak in a clever way. Rather than just following the strongest scent, the robot plugs measurements of concentration and airflow into a complex partial differential equation and then decides where the most useful position to take another measurement is. By repeating this process, it can find an ethanol source in just a dozen or two tries in a complex environment with multiple sources.

Robot Sniffs Out Toxic Leaks

It makes calculations on the fly to account for complex airflows rather than simply 'following its nose.'

A view of a microwave scan of a typical wall interior before and after distortions have been removed. By taking into account the types of distortions typically created by flat, uniform walls, the new algorithm allows for better scans without needing to know what the wall is made of beforehand.

Researchers Find Way to See Through Walls

Most technologies that can see through walls are expensive. This one isn't.

Duke engineering professor Michael Bergin (left) stands with Indian Institute of Technology-Gandhinagar colleague Chinmay Ghoroi (right) next to that university's extremely dusty solar panel array.

Pollution Drastically Impacting Solar Power

Global solar energy production is taking a major hit due to air pollution and dust.