A 10-year basic research program on material science led by Johns Hopkins University has concluded, with a virtual culmination event co-hosted by Army Combat Capabilities Development Command’s Army Research Laboratory.

Twenty-five universities and research organizations from 13 states and three foreign nations composed the Materials in Extreme Dynamic Environments Collaborative Research Alliance, whose materials-by-design strategy has resulted in computational design codes and protective materials for armor, the U.S. Army said Feb. 2.

Patrick Baker, ARL’s director, said MEDE achieved its goal by emphasizing the basic research elements of relevance, team and science.

MEDE academics and DEVCOM ARL researchers have produced  478 peer-reviewed articles, which have been cited more than 8,000 times. The effort’s findings in materials research have supported weight reduction and material performance.

MEDE’s culmination event virtually gathered over 180 individuals including those from U.S. Army Futures Command, the Office of Naval Research, the Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation.

The National Counterterrorism Center has released its new mobile app designed to disseminate documents, resources and alerts based on unclassified counterterrorism intelligence.

The aCTknowledge app combines analysis, training and alerting into one counterterrorism platform, where users can read analysis reports, review educational materials, receive notifications and track topics of interest, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said Monday.

Users may employ the app to access real-time intelligence about potential terrorism that can affect national security. “The app empowers its users with the information they need to protect their communities from potential threats,” said Christy Abizaid, NCTC director.

Federal government and military personnel may now access aCTknowledge via the Apple App Store. NCTC plans to make the app available to local, tribal, territorial and state partners in the foreseeable future.

Gillian Bussey, director of the Joint Hypersonics Transition Office, said the Department of Defense will need to boost its production capacity for offensive and defensive hypersonic systems, DOD News reported Tuesday.

Bussey said at a discussion with the Center for Strategic and International Studies that DOD should boost the rates of additive manufacturing for cruise missiles engines and thermal protection systems for glide vehicles.

She said these particular aspects of hypersonics production take the most time and addressing them can produce significant results.

“Those are the things that take the longest. If we can reduce the production time and increase the capacity and you know double, triple, quadruple those production numbers, I think that’s how we’ll really make a difference,” she said.

Bussey also noted that DOD is prioritizing offensive hypersonic systems over defensive ones because the latter presents higher costs and complexities.

Researchers from Switzerland have found that an implanted electrode device enabled three patients with spinal cord injury to stand and walk again, CNN reported Monday.

Participants in the STIMO clinical trial were able to independently take steps on a treadmill using body weight support a day after undergoing surgery to place the epidural device from Onward Medical.

“For the first time, we have not only immediate effect – though training is still important – but also individuals with no sensation, no movement whatsover, have been able to regain full standing and walking independently of the laboratory,” said Gregoire Courtine of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. Courtine is one of the study’s authors who led the trial with Dr. Jocelyne Bloch from Lausanne University Hospital.

Using a tablet computer, the researchers stimulated the patients’ trunk and leg muscles by initiating and sending unique sequences of electrical pulses to the implanted device through the pacemaker.

The research team plans to hold a larger clinical trial in the U.S. The study was published in the journal Nature Medicine.

The Department of Energy is investing $28 million in research and development projects aimed at applying clean hydrogen to electricity production, industrial activities and transportation.

The funding opportunity announcement would drive the use of carbon capture technologies to generate clean hydrogen from waste materials, such as plastics, biomass, legacy coal and municipal solid waste, DOE said Monday.

The projects will focus on the following topic areas: clean hydrogen cost reductions for DOE’s Hydrogen Shot effort, clean hydrogen from high-volume waste materials and biomass, and sensors and controls for co-gasification of waste.

The FOA also supports front-end engineering design studies for carbon capture systems at domestic steam methane reforming facilities and autothermal reforming facilities, which produce hydrogen from natural gas.

DOE’s Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management announced the FOA, which supports the Biden Administration’s goal of achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.