Matt Shipman

A group of biology researchers want “citizen scientists” to participate in a study of which insects and microbes visit specific crops in different geographical areas. Called the “Great Pumpkin Project,” the study, which includes NC State researchers, will help document geographic variation in the insects and microbes associated with some of our most delicious crops – eventually helping farmers improve plant health and crop yields. Cucurbit crops like pumpkin, squash, cucumber, melon and gourds are an initial focus of the project. “Most of the calories humanity depends on are from less than 200 domesticated food crop plants,” Lori Shapiro,...

A new study finds that corporate sustainability reporting often focuses on issues that are unimportant to stakeholders, and offers specific suggestions to improve the content of future corporate sustainability reporting efforts. “Right now, most corporate entities rely on guidelines from the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) when developing their sustainability reports,” says Marianne Bradford, a professor of accounting at North Carolina State University and lead author of a paper on the work. “We wanted to know whether stakeholders – particularly consumers – care about the aspects of sustainability those GRI guidelines promote. And our findings show that it’s a mixed...

North Carolina State University is part of a new initiative aimed at advancing U.S. leadership in the biopharmaceutical sector. The National Institute for Innovation in Manufacturing Biopharmaceuticals (NIIMBL) will be coordinated by the University of Delaware and is supported with a five-year, $70 million grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce – and at least $129 million from a consortium of 150 companies, educational institutions, research centers, coordinating bodies, non-profits and Manufacturing Extension Partnerships across the country. NIIMBL is the 11th institute in the overall Manufacturing USA initiative, and NC State is involved with four of them. “I couldn’t be more...

Researchers from North Carolina State University and the Intel Corporation have developed a new way to significantly accelerate core-to-core communication. Their advance relies on hardware to coordinate efforts between cores for multiprocessor operations. Many computer functions require multiple processors, or cores, to work together in a coordinated way. Currently, this coordination is achieved by sending and receiving software commands between cores. But this requires cores to read and execute the software, which takes time. Now researchers have developed a chip design that replaces the software instructions with built-in hardware that coordinates communication between cores, accelerating the process. “This approach,...

North Carolina State University has announced that seven projects will receive support from its Chancellor’s Innovation Fund (CIF) in fiscal year 2017. The funding will help NC State researchers move innovative discoveries from the lab bench to the marketplace, in areas ranging from the development of new antibiotics to the creation of faster, more accurate medical diagnostic tools. This is the sixth year of the CIF. Over its first five years, the fund awarded $1.9 million to 28 projects. That investment in NC State innovation has led to the creation of 10 startup companies, 14 commercialization agreements, $9.9 million...

North Carolina State University, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Georgia Tech are forming a center that aims to speed up design and verification of microelectronic circuits and systems, reducing development costs and time-to-market for manufacturers of microelectronic products, especially integrated circuits. The center is funded for five years through the National Science Foundation’s Industry/University Cooperative Research Centers (I/UCRC) program, and by the industrial members of the center. Integrated circuits, or chips, power everything from smart watches to supercomputers. The semiconductor industry – perennially one of America’s top exporters – has been searching for new ways to increase performance...

Researchers from North Carolina State University have developed a new technique that improves the ability of computer vision technologies to better identify and separate objects in an image, a process called segmentation. Image processing and computer vision are important for multiple applications, from autonomous vehicles to detecting anomalies in medical imaging. Computer vision technologies use algorithms to segment, or outline the objects, in an image. For instance, separating the outline of a pedestrian against the backdrop of a busy street. These algorithms rely on defined parameters – programmed values – to segment images. For example, if there is a...

Researchers have developed a technique for coating polymer implants with a bioactive film that significantly increases bonding between the implant and surrounding bone in an animal model. The advance could significantly improve the success rate of such implants, which are often used in spinal surgeries. The work was done by researchers at North Carolina State University, the University of Cambridge and the University of Texas at San Antonio. The polymer in question is called polyether ether ketone, or PEEK, which has mechanical properties similar to bone, making it attractive for use in spinal implants. However, PEEK doesn’t bond well...

Researchers have developed an integrated, wearable system that monitors a user’s environment, heart rate and other physical attributes with the goal of predicting and preventing asthma attacks. The researchers plan to begin testing the system on a larger subject population this summer. The system, called the Health and Environmental Tracker (HET), is composed of a suite of new sensor devices and was developed by researchers from the National Science Foundation’s Nanosystems Engineering Research Center for Advanced Self-Powered Systems of Integrated Sensors and Technologies (ASSIST) at North Carolina State University. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, asthma...