September 2016

J. Joshua Yang and Qiangfei Xia, electrical and computer engineering department, CPHM, UMass Amherst College of Engineering are leading a research team that is developing a new type of nanodevice for computer microprocessors that can mimic the functioning of a biological synapse—the place where a signal passes from one nerve cell to another in the body.

Lili He, CPHM and food science, is featured in the cover story of the Aug. 22 issue of Chemical & Engineering News, which introduces this year’s “Talented 12,” the magazine’s second annual feature highlighting “skilled young chemists” whose mission it is to use “top-notch chemistry” to solve “some of the world's most diabolical scientific problems.” She is saluted for her food safety research, in which she uses advanced techniques including surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy.

A team of computer scientists headed by Deepak K. Ganesan (CPHM) has created a new radio technology that allows small mobile devices to share battery power in larger nearby devices. This would extend the battery life of small devices such as smart phones and fitness watches, the researchers say. The new system was developed by modifying existing Bluetooth technology. The team outlined the idea in a paper presented Aug. 25 at the Association for Computing Machinery’s special interest group on data communication (SIGCOMM) conference in Florianópolis, Brazil.

Patrick J. Flaherty, mathematics and statistics, is part of a research team that has developed a rapid, low-cost screening method to decipher the gene mutations behind drug resistance. The new method addresses how some chemotherapy agents used on tumors and cancer can stop working because they become resistant to the drug’s effect.

The Boston region has become a hotbed for life-science jobs, thanks to a constant push to meld research and industry.