UC Science Today

Wi-Fi signals are predominantly used for communication, but a team of engineers at the University of California, Santa Barbara are working to use Wi-Fi signals as a sensing mechanism. Yasamin Mostofi and her team have shown that a Wifi signal can be used to count the number of people in a given space, which can someday be used for energy efficiency.

"For instance, the current smart speakers, they have Wi-Fi cards, so we have a very rich environment in a smart home for Wi-Fi links. And so we can imagine they could be used in figuring out which areas are more crowded and optimizing all sorts of things, like heating and cooling based on where people are. We think of it as an additional way of sensing."

Mostofi’s lab is also working on other uses for Wi-Fi, including using at archeological sites.

"Where sometimes there’s part of a structure that’s, you know, you just don’t want to break and you want to sense something behind it and you just simply can’t use cameras – it’s not visible."

Educators looking for a way to get kids interested in materials science and engineering may want to bring some superheroes into the mix. That’s what mechanical engineer Suveen Mathaudhu of the University of California, Riverside has been doing – and it seems to be working. He’s now regarded as an expert on the science of superheroes.

"The science portrayed in comic books is fairly diverse. From the metals work that you see in Captain America’s shield and in Thor’s metal hammer and in Wolverine’s claws; to bio-inspired materials, like Spiderman’s web; to magnetic materials and energy materials as manipulated by Magneto."

Mathaudhu, who studies how to make metallic materials lighter and stronger, started making connections between the superpowers of superheroes and real science.

"I started using these in my technical talks as an interest grabber and then slowly, I saw more and more connections to research, to STEM outreach, and to the kind of work that I’m doing. So, it’s been a fantastic outreach tool and continues to be interesting to me."

Wi-Fi signals are predominantly used for communication, but a team of engineers at the University of California, Santa Barbara are working to use Wi-Fi signals as a sensing mechanism. Yasamin Mostofi and her team have shown that a Wifi signal can be used to count the number of people in a given space, which can someday be used for energy efficiency.

"For instance, the current smart speakers, they have Wi-Fi cards, so we have a very rich environment in a smart home for Wi-Fi links. And so we can imagine they could be used in figuring out which areas are more crowded and optimizing all sorts of things, like heating and cooling based on where people are. We think of it as an additional way of sensing."

Mostofi’s lab is also working on other uses for Wi-Fi, including using at archeological sites.

"Where sometimes there’s part of a structure that’s, you know, you just don’t want to break and you want to sense something behind it and you just simply can’t use cameras – it’s not visible."

Educators looking for a way to get kids interested in materials science and engineering may want to bring some superheroes into the mix. That’s what mechanical engineer Suveen Mathaudhu of the University of California, Riverside has been doing – and it seems to be working. He’s now regarded as an expert on the science of superheroes.

"The science portrayed in comic books is fairly diverse. From the metals work that you see in Captain America’s shield and in Thor’s metal hammer and in Wolverine’s claws; to bio-inspired materials, like Spiderman’s web; to magnetic materials and energy materials as manipulated by Magneto."

Mathaudhu, who studies how to make metallic materials lighter and stronger, started making connections between the superpowers of superheroes and real science.

"I started using these in my technical talks as an interest grabber and then slowly, I saw more and more connections to research, to STEM outreach, and to the kind of work that I’m doing. So, it’s been a fantastic outreach tool and continues to be interesting to me."

Wi-Fi signals are predominantly used for communication, but a team of engineers at the University of California, Santa Barbara are working to use Wi-Fi signals as a sensing mechanism. Yasamin Mostofi and her team have shown that a Wifi signal can be used to count the number of people in a given space, which can someday be used for energy efficiency.

"For instance, the current smart speakers, they have Wi-Fi cards, so we have a very rich environment in a smart home for Wi-Fi links. And so we can imagine they could be used in figuring out which areas are more crowded and optimizing all sorts of things, like heating and cooling based on where people are. We think of it as an additional way of sensing."

Mostofi’s lab is also working on other uses for Wi-Fi, including using at archeological sites.

"Where sometimes there’s part of a structure that’s, you know, you just don’t want to break and you want to sense something behind it and you just simply can’t use cameras – it’s not visible."

Educators looking for a way to get kids interested in materials science and engineering may want to bring some superheroes into the mix. That’s what mechanical engineer Suveen Mathaudhu of the University of California, Riverside has been doing – and it seems to be working. He’s now regarded as an expert on the science of superheroes.

"The science portrayed in comic books is fairly diverse. From the metals work that you see in Captain America’s shield and in Thor’s metal hammer and in Wolverine’s claws; to bio-inspired materials, like Spiderman’s web; to magnetic materials and energy materials as manipulated by Magneto."

Mathaudhu, who studies how to make metallic materials lighter and stronger, started making connections between the superpowers of superheroes and real science.

"I started using these in my technical talks as an interest grabber and then slowly, I saw more and more connections to research, to STEM outreach, and to the kind of work that I’m doing. So, it’s been a fantastic outreach tool and continues to be interesting to me."

Wi-Fi signals are predominantly used for communication, but a team of engineers at the University of California, Santa Barbara are working to use Wi-Fi signals as a sensing mechanism. Yasamin Mostofi and her team have shown that a Wifi signal can be used to count the number of people in a given space, which can someday be used for energy efficiency.

"For instance, the current smart speakers, they have Wi-Fi cards, so we have a very rich environment in a smart home for Wi-Fi links. And so we can imagine they could be used in figuring out which areas are more crowded and optimizing all sorts of things, like heating and cooling based on where people are. We think of it as an additional way of sensing."

Mostofi’s lab is also working on other uses for Wi-Fi, including using at archeological sites.

"Where sometimes there’s part of a structure that’s, you know, you just don’t want to break and you want to sense something behind it and you just simply can’t use cameras – it’s not visible."

Educators looking for a way to get kids interested in materials science and engineering may want to bring some superheroes into the mix. That’s what mechanical engineer Suveen Mathaudhu of the University of California, Riverside has been doing – and it seems to be working. He’s now regarded as an expert on the science of superheroes.

"The science portrayed in comic books is fairly diverse. From the metals work that you see in Captain America’s shield and in Thor’s metal hammer and in Wolverine’s claws; to bio-inspired materials, like Spiderman’s web; to magnetic materials and energy materials as manipulated by Magneto."

Mathaudhu, who studies how to make metallic materials lighter and stronger, started making connections between the superpowers of superheroes and real science.

"I started using these in my technical talks as an interest grabber and then slowly, I saw more and more connections to research, to STEM outreach, and to the kind of work that I’m doing. So, it’s been a fantastic outreach tool and continues to be interesting to me."

Almost all animals with vocalizations have pretty innate ones. In other words, if a dog never met another dog, he will still bark exactly the same. But no so with birds. Hamish Mehaffey, a post-doctoral researcher at the University of California, San Francisco, studies how birds learn to sing.

"In birds, if they don’t hear other birds sing, they will sing a terrible, nonsensical song that will make them very unpopular when they finally meet other birds and they usually try to mimic the songs that they hear around them. So, even within the exact same species, there are differences in the songs."

Mehaffey and his colleagues have discovered the specific neurological mechanism by which songbirds can experiment and refine their songs as they become adults.

"We were looking at how two different pathways interact in order to allow birds to sing; one is required for the bird to sing a normal adult song and the other one was required for any kind of changes."

Understanding this mechanism in birds can help explain how the human brain learns complex motor skills and may even someday help treat neurological conditions like Parkinson’s disease.

Almost all animals with vocalizations have pretty innate ones. In other words, if a dog never met another dog, he will still bark exactly the same. But no so with birds. Hamish Mehaffey, a post-doctoral researcher at the University of California, San Francisco, studies how birds learn to sing.

"In birds, if they don’t hear other birds sing, they will sing a terrible, nonsensical song that will make them very unpopular when they finally meet other birds and they usually try to mimic the songs that they hear around them. So, even within the exact same species, there are differences in the songs."

Mehaffey and his colleagues have discovered the specific neurological mechanism by which songbirds can experiment and refine their songs as they become adults.

"We were looking at how two different pathways interact in order to allow birds to sing; one is required for the bird to sing a normal adult song and the other one was required for any kind of changes."

Understanding this mechanism in birds can help explain how the human brain learns complex motor skills and may even someday help treat neurological conditions like Parkinson’s disease.