Category Technology/Electronics

Machine Learning Models can produce Reliable Results even with Limited Training Data

Machine learning models can produce reliable results even with limited training data
Elliptic PDE learning methods can be data-efficient. Credit: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2023). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2303904120

Researchers have determined how to build reliable machine learning models that can understand complex equations in real-world situations while using far less training data than is normally expected.

The researchers, from the University of Cambridge and Cornell University, found that for partial differential equations—a class of physics equations that describe how things in the natural world evolve in space and time—machine learning models can produce reliable results even when they are provided with limited data.

Their results, reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, could be useful for constructing more t...

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Golden Future for Thermoelectrics

Three men stand in front of a blackboard, with a periodic table of the elements in the background.
Michael Parzer, Fabian Garmroudi and Andrej Pustogow (from left), in the background a periodic table showing the electronic structure of all solid elements.

Researchers discover excellent thermoelectric properties of nickel-gold alloys. These can be used to efficiently convert heat into electrical energy. Thermoelectrics enable the direct conversion of heat into electrical energy – and vice versa. This makes them interesting for a range of technological applications. In the search for thermoelectric materials with the best possible properties, a research team at TU Wien investigated various metallic alloys. A mixture of nickel and gold proved particularly promising. The researchers recently published their results in the journal Science Advances.

Using thermoelectrics to generate el...

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New Camera offers Ultrafast Imaging at a Fraction of the Normal Cost

Researchers developed a diffraction-gated real-time ultrahigh-speed mapping (DRUM) camera that can capture a dynamic event in a single exposure at 4.8 million frames per second. Pictured are researchers Xianglei Liu and Jinyang Liang working on the optical setup.
Credit: Xianglei Liu and Jinyang Liang, Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS).

In a new paper, researchers report a camera that could offer a much less expensive way to achieve ultrafast imaging for a wide range of applications such as real-time monitoring of drug delivery or high-speed lidar systems for autonomous driving. Researchers show that their new diffraction-gated real-time ultrahigh-speed mapping (DRUM) camera can capture a dynamic event in a single exposure at 4.8 million frames per second.

Captur...

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Battery-Free Robots use Origami to Change Shape in Mid-Air

A hand holding tweezers that are holding a yellow square with circuits on it
UW researchers developed small robotic devices that can change how they move through the air by “snapping” into a folded position during their descent. Each device has an onboard battery-free actuator, a solar power-harvesting circuit and controller to trigger these shape changes in mid-air. Shown here is a “microflier” in the unfolded state.Mark Stone/University of Washington

Researchers at the University of Washington have developed small robotic devices that can change how they move through the air by “snapping” into a folded position during their descent.

When these “microfliers” are dropped from a drone, they use a Miura-ori origami fold to switch from tumbling and dispersing outward through the air to dropping straight to the ground...

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