UK researchers have discovered a new way of observing designer nanomaterials – materials 400 times smaller than a human hair. The breakthrough has the potential to revolutionise the way nanomaterials are applied to medicine and catalytic chemical reactions, for example in designing ever smaller drug transporters. The project involved researchers from the University of Bristol working with a team from the Science and Technology Facilities Co...

A prototype for an interactive mobile device, called Cubimorph, which can change shape on-demand will be presented this week at ICRA 2016, in Stockholm, Sweden, 16th-21st May. The research led by Dr Anne Roudaut from the Department of Computer Science at the University of Bristol, in collaboration with academics at the Universities of Purdue, Lancaster and Sussex, will be presented at the International Conference on Robotics and Automation (...

Quantum computers have significant potential to open entirely new directions for processing information and to overhaul the way that we think about and use the science of computation. Modern computers already play a huge role in society — they routinely handle and process vast amounts of data and solve calculations at an incredible rate. However, there are some problems that they just cannot solve in a useful amount of time, no matter how f...

A team of researchers led by Professor Mike Fraser and Dr Anne Roudaut from Bristol University’s Bristol Interaction Group (BIG) group, will present six papers at ACM CHI 2016, in San Jose, USA. The conference brings together researchers from universities, corporations and start-ups from across the world and could change the way people interact and collaborate in the future.

The quest for a 1,000-fold capacity enhancement alongside higher data rates for 5G wireless networks is the subject of intense international academic and industrial research. Two engineers from the University of Bristol's Communication Systems and Networks (CSN) group, who are leaders in this field, have been invited to discuss the future of wireless communications in Brussels and Brooklyn (US).

  A collaborative research team has found humanoid robotics and computer avatars could help rehabilitate people suffering from social disorders such as schizophrenia or social phobia. It is thanks to the theory of similarity, which suggests that it is easier to interact socially with someone who looks, behaves or moves like us.

University of Bristol scientists are researching how drones can be used to speed up landmine clearance to demonstrate how large, football pitch-sized areas can be mapped quickly. The research, led by Dr John Day of the Interface Analysis Centre in Bristol’s School of Physics, is funded by Find A Better Way, the charity founded by England and Manchester United legend Sir Bobby Charlton.

An artificial mimic of a key light-sensitive molecule has been made by scientists at the University of Bristol. The work, published in Science, could lead to ways of building light-sensitive artificial cells. Professor Jonathan Clayden and colleagues in Bristol's School of Chemistry, along with collaborators at the Universities of Manchester and Hull, created an artificial mimic of rhodopsin, a protein that resides in cell membranes in the retina...

A research by engineers from the Universities of Bristol and Lund, working alongside National Instruments (NI), has demonstrated how a massive antenna system can offer a 12-fold increase in spectrum efficiency compared with current 4G cellular technology. Multiple antenna technology, referred to as MIMO, is already used in many Wi-Fi routers and 4G cellular phone systems. Normally this involves up to four antennas at a base station.

Data centres such as the ones used by Google and Facebook are the fundamental backbone for a range of services and applications including cloud and fog computing, big data, Internet of Things (IoT), social networking, weather forecasting, earthquake and tsunami prediction and cyber security. As such they are a hidden, yet integral part of modern life and human progress.

Research by High Performance Networks (HPN) group in the University of Bristol’s Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering has found, for the first time, a scientific solution that enables future internet infrastructure to become completely open and programmable while carrying internet traffic at the speed of light.

The advent of 3D printers supposedly means we can manufacture anything in our homes. But in reality most existing home 3D printers can only make things out of certain plastics, although there are industrial systems that can print certain metals. What has so far been out of reach is a way to 3D print high-tech composite materials such as the carbon fibre composites that are used to build lightweight but extremely strong versions of things.

Tom Carter creates sounds you can touch. As the co-founder of Bristol-based Ultrahaptics, Carter has developed a technology that uses arrays of speakers, similar to a car's parking sensors, to produce ultrasounds that create tactile sensations. These sonic objects can be "touched" from up to two metres away.

The next generation of mobile wireless systems, known as 5G, will ensure that the internet is always accessible and if a new European project, 5G-XHaul, achieves its ambitious goals then coverage dead spots will be a thing of the past.

  Engineering students from the University of Bristol are developing a unique Unmanned Airborne System (UAS) that will be used to monitor the activity of a live volcano in Latin America.

The University of Bristol has announced that it is collaborating with Keysight Technologies on 5G millimetre-wave research. The two organisations are already deeply involved in the 5G ecosystem in Europe and the US and now will be working closely together on multiple 5G millimetre-wave technologies.

The microprocessor inside a computer is a single multipurpose chip that has revolutionised people’s life, allowing them to use one machine to surf the web, check emails and keep track of finances. Now, researchers from the University of Bristol and Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT), have pulled off the same feat for light in the quantum world by developing an optical chip that can process photons in an infinite number of ways.

A device that holds airborne particles - aerosols - for extended periods of time has been jointly developed by a team at the University of Bristol and Portishead-based firm Biral. Aerosols play a vital role in many processes and studying their evolution over time is vital to developing a detailed understanding of fields as diverse as climate change and drug delivery to the lungs.

A form of fast, reliable and low-cost driverless personal transport, developed at the University of Bristol, is now being used by thousands of passengers every day at Heathrow Airport. Researchers from the Department of Aerospace Engineering have removed the queuing and inefficiencies associated with bus transfers to Terminal 5 at Heathrow Airport.

Technology has changed rapidly over the last few years with touch feedback, known as haptics, being used in entertainment, rehabilitation and even surgical training. Using ultrasound, virtual 3D haptic shapes that can be seen and felt have been developed, described in the University of Bristol research paper ‘Rendering volumetric haptic shapes in mid-air using ultrasound’.