biotechnology
Orthofit team members show a device aimed at reducing instances of wrist injury.

Student Led Startup Utilizes Technology to Help Combat Workplace Injuries

By |

In 2016, three Cornell students, Apoorva Kiran, Ph.D. ’17, Pankaj Singh, Ph.D. ’17 and Jason Guss, Ph.D. ’18 embarked on a technical journey to tackle prevalent injuries in workspaces. The group found that their Ph.D. programs in mechanical and biomedical engineering required abundant amounts of time on computers. The frequent hand movements that were thus necessary, soon resulted in the buildup of pain within their wrists. It was then that Kiran, after finding various biomedical technologies for back pain and slouching, came up with the idea of creating a similar technology that targeted wrists — with the hope being that the device would vibrate when the hand was placed in an injurious position. With this idea, Orthofit was born and the three co-founders worked towards creating a glove that would be able to provide the functionality of informing users when their wrists were in harmful positions.

CubeSat
Pathfinder for Autonomous Navigation team members perform tests on spacecraft batteries

NASA To Send 2 Satellites Into Space Designed By Cornell Lab

By |

There’s something about outer space that naturally captures our imagination. From little kids dreaming about becoming astronauts, to full grown adults gazing up at the majesty of the stars, the final frontier timelessly inspires us all. Despite this seemingly natural fascination, few could ever hope to get there because of the exorbitant costs often associated with space flight missions. However, with the advent of 3D printing and work from Space Systems Design Studio – the research lab of Prof. Mason Peck, mechanical and aerospace engineering – this reality is sure to change in the near future. This past March, NASA selected 11 research groups from across the country to partake in their CubeSat launch initiative, which was a project designed to encourage the development of “CubeSats,” or “nano-satellites.” According to NASA, a typical CubeSat unit measures 4×4 inches, and weighs roughly three pounds.

Science

Research Probes Key Protein’s Role in Cancer Cell Growth

By |

Cornell researchers discover protein regulating mechanism which could be the key to eventually treating over 30 percent of all human cancers. For more than three decades, mutant Ras proteins have been known to play a vital role in driving 95 percent of pancreatic cancers and 45 percent of colorectal cancers. With this in mind, Dr. Hui Jing and Dr. Xiaoyu Zhang, both former graduate students who worked under Professor Hening Lin, chemical biology, sought to learn more about the regulation of human cancers by studying K-Ras4a: one of the four members of the Ras protein family. In addition to studying K-Ras4a, Zhang and Lin studied SIRT2, which is another protein that has been closely implicated in aging related diseases. “In the basic research field, scientists still do not fully understand how SIRT2 promotes the formation of the certain types of cancers” said Zhang.

biodiversity

Evolution of Darwin’s Finches: Integrating Behavior, Ecology, and Genetics

By |

For many, Drs. Rosemary and Peter Grant, evolutionary biology, Princeton University, are living legends in the field of modern evolutionary biology, having conducted over four decades of field research on the Galapagos finches. On Monday, March 12, students, professors and alumni packed into Call Auditorium in Kennedy Hall to witness the scientists bring their research on the Galapagos Finches to life. Rosemary’s talk, titled “Evolution of Darwin’s Finches: Integrating Behavior, Ecology, and Genetics” kicked off the Paul C. Mundinger Distinguished Lectureship, in honor of the late Paul C. Mundinger. Mundiger received his Ph.D. from Cornell in 1967 and developed a strong attachment with lab of Ornithology as a graduate student.

Featured in Category
This graphic describes how the Hare Lab measures wild spat-on-shell oysters.

New Data on Remnant Oyster Population Could Help Restore the Hudson River

By |

The Hudson River is infamous for being one of the most polluted rivers in America, but its waters have a lot more to them than meets the eye. Estuaries like the Hudson are some of the most biodiverse ecosystems in the world, where one can find marine, brackish and freshwater species intermingling in a relatively small area. In the Hudson River, oysters served as the foundation for this rich environment until around 1900, when a combination of overfishing and pollution locally decimated the stocks. Oysters begin their life cycle as small, mobile larvae. As they mature, they seek out a surface to settle on and develop their recognizable shells.

Featured in Category
Suzuki enjoying herself at Yellowstone National Park in summer 2017. In addition to running, Suzuki is an active climber and nature enthusiast.

Spotlight on Sophomore Sawako Suzuki: Running Across the Country for Cancer

By |

Meet Sawako Suzuki ’20, a student passionate about solving scientific problems outside the classroom. For some people running is a sport or a rigorous workout. For Suzuki, running is a medium for community engagement, research, philanthropy and healthcare. This summer, she will be running across the country as a fundraiser for youth cancer patients. The run is from San Francisco to Boston.

Science
This is the original tree found in Arnot forest with woodpecker scaling, which is a primary signal for Emerald Ash Borer beetle invasion.

Emerald Ash Borer Invades Tompkins County Forests

By |

Dark green forests, blue skies, fresh water and sunny days are what make Ithaca ‘gorges.’ Unfortunately, this aesthetic is under attack by none other than the infamous Emerald Ash Borer. The EAB is an invasive beetle species which has destroyed ash trees across the country and its detection in Tompkins County is no surprise. The beetle was discovered in February in the Arnot Forest, which is Cornell’s largest teaching and research park at 4200 acres, by Mike Griggs, an entomologist at the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service at Cornell’s Robert W. Holley Center. While peacefully walking his dogs near the forest, Griggs was startled upon recognized deep “wood-peckering” or exposed inner bark on the ash trees, an innuendo for the malignant beetle. The woodpecker activity is a common symptom because the birds are attracted to the larva.

Science
Cornell's MOOC on sharks is accessible for free through the edX online education website.

Online Courses Turn Profs From ‘Sage on the Stage to Guide on the Side’

By |

“Any person, … any study”: it is the phrase heard resounding across the Arts Quad as a backwards-walking tour guide shouts to a shuffling clump of wide-eyed high school students about Cornell’s history of inclusiveness. For Cornellians, the phrase is cliched, but beloved — seen running across the front of every brochure, every banner and every statue across campus. Ezra Cornell was progressive for his time and aimed to promote his institution’s role as a nondiscriminatory place of learning that is open to any student, regardless of race, ethnicity or gender. Unbeknownst to Ezra Cornell, the age of the computer would take this inclusiveness to another level.

entrepreneurship at cornell
Students collaborate on health hackathon project ideas at Collegetown Ehub

Students Develop App to Aid Strep Throat Patients from Home

By |

This past weekend, while the Cornell Campus shut down for an unprecedented snow day, the eHub on College Avenue hummed to life with an atmosphere of innovation and excitement. On Friday evening, students, mentors, and speakers, congregated in Collegetown to embark on the three-day enterprise that is the Cornell Health Hackathon. The Cornell Health Hackathon is an event that encourages students from a diverse background of degrees, majors, and schools to collaborate in teams and produce a viable solution to a relevant issue in the medical community. This year’s hackathon outlined two health-related problems for teams to tackle. The first challenge involved resolving the global antibacterial resistance crisis, the other, creating an easy to use sleep tracking program.

business
Headquarters | This facility, located at 34 Dutch Mill Road, houses Transonic Systems' manufacturing, R&D, sales, marketing and support staff

CEO of Ithaca-based Transonic Systems Talks ‘Disruptive Change,’ Cautions Against IPOs

By |

Interested in having your own startup? An Ithaca-based company with annual revenues of $20 million and subsidiaries in the Netherlands, Japan and Taiwan is here to give you the inspiration you need. Researchers and clinicians seek reliable quantitative data to make informed decisions about patients and experiments. Transonic Systems aids in this process by producing diagnostic and research measurement equipment. Cornelis J. Drost, CEO and president of Transonic Systems, discussed his inspiration behind creating the business.