NSF’s Discovery Files Podcast

Training Artificial Intelligence Experts

U.S. National Science Foundation-supported researchers are accelerating artificial intelligence technologies. Mingyi Hong, a professor at the University of Minnesota, with affiliation with AI-LEAF National AI Institute, and an NSF-funded researcher, discusses AI reinforcement learning strategies and the challenges of training experts.

Next Generation Ferroelectric Semiconductors

U.S. National Science Foundation-supported researchers are developing a new class of semiconductors with great potential for next-generation microelectronic devices. Zetian Mi, a professor at the University of Michigan, discusses his group's work with wurtzite ferroelectric nitride semiconductors.

The Matter in the Universe with Vera Rubin

As the NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory, a joint project of the U.S. National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science, begins its mission to unlock new understanding of cosmic phenomena, we visit an archival lecture from its namesake, Vera C. Rubin. In the lecture, she discussed how galaxies form, how you might measure the matter in them and her observations of dark matter.

Light From Cosmic Dawn

U.S. National Science Foundation-supported observatories allow researchers to advance and expand humanity’s understanding of the early universe. Tobias Marriage, a professor at Johns Hopkins University, and Yunyang Li, a postdoctoral researcher at The University of Chicago, discuss how they used the NSF Cosmology Large Angular Scale Surveyor to see the cosmic microwave background, light from the beginning of the universe.

Smart Manufacturing

U.S. National Science Foundation-supported researchers are developing a multimodal system that combines image analysis and natural language processing to help manufacturers detect problems, suggest improvements and communicate with machines in real-time. Bingbing Li, a professor at California State University, Northridge, discusses his group's work with vision language models for use in smart manufacturing.
 

Lipocartilage and Regenerative Medicine

U.S. National Science Foundation-supported researchers are investigating the mechanisms of cell regeneration for medical treatments. Maksim Plikus, a professor at the University of California, Irvine, discusses lipocartilage, how his lab found it and its potential for advancing tissue engineering and regenerative medicine.

Critical Minerals and Rare Earth Elements

Critical minerals are crucial to both the economy and national security. Rachel Teasdale, a professor at California State University, Chico, and program director in the U.S. National Science Foundation Division of Earth Sciences, discusses how critical minerals and rare earth elements form and how we use them.

Breakthrough Copper Alloy

As innovation transforms the aerospace, energy and defense industries, new materials with advanced properties are needed to meet the moment. Kiran Solanki, a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at Arizona State University, discusses designing new materials and enhancing existing ones for extreme condition applications.

Biomedical Security

Implantable medical devices are creating new therapeutic and monitoring solutions for many complex health conditions. However, wireless medical devices are susceptible to malicious attacks. Kaiyuan Yang, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at Rice University, discusses biomedical security and developing hacker-resistant implants.

QR Code Security

QR codes are scanned every day for restaurant menus, parking payments or flight boarding passes, but malicious users can take advantage of the technology for phishing and other criminal activities. Gaurav Sharma and Irving Barron, professors at the University of Rochester, discuss QR code technology and how their research makes it safer.