CMU Engineering Podcast

Mechanical engineering grad student Thomas Healy talks about his startup company Hyliion, which produces a module that may reduce 18-wheeler efficiency by up to 30%.

How do you make an 18-wheeler more efficient?

Carnegie Mellon's Information Network Institute (INI) turns 25 this year, and one of the major milestones of INI is the creation of the world's first big WiFi network in the early '90s. Alex Hills, the first director of the INI, led that project and shares a few interesting stories with us.

Hills' book "Wi-Fi and the Bad Boys of Radio" can be purchased at:
http://www.amazon.com/Wi-Fi-Bad-Boys-Radio-Technology/dp/1457505606

Hills speaks at INI's diploma ceremony on May 17, 2015.

CMU's Alex Hills on building the world's first big WiFi network

Professor Jeremy Michalek and Ph.D. student John Helveston chat about their recent study on American and Chinese consumer preferences on electric vehicles, and how they may shape the future of electric vehicle technology development.

What do American and Chinese consumers want in an electric vehicle?

CMU engineering researchers discuss how sensors can be used to monitor the health of bridges, train tracks, and the environment. These sensors are a new "macroscope," revealing large-scale characteristics of our world previously invisible to us.

This episode features: ECE professor / department head Jelena Kovačević, CEE Ph.D. student George Lederman, ECE professor Pei Zhang, and CEE professor Mario Bergés.

Sensors: the new "macroscope"

Did you know that the US steel industry produces 12 million cars' worth of CO2 per year? Well, it does, but materials science and engineering professor Chris Pistorius says there is hope in reducing that with a new fuel in town.

How a simple switch in fuel can clean up the steelmaking process

We're told from a very early age that putting electronic devices in our mouth, let along swallowing them, isn't a great idea. In this episode, engineering professor Chris Bettinger talks about how edible electronics may someday help diagnose and treat human disease. 

How eating electronics can help diagnose and treat human disease

Some studies have shown that the average person has over 50 online accounts-- that's a lot of passwords to recall on a daily basis. In this episode, computer science and engineering professor Lorrie Cranor offers her insight on what makes a good password good and how we all can better protect our online data.

What goes into a good, secure password?

We've all heard of hacking contests where the participants are computer security experts. But a hacking contest where the participants are... computers? That's a new one, and in this episode, we hear from CMU-spinoff ForAllSecure who is heading to the national stage to compete against the nation's best autonomous hacking systems.

Teaching a computer to hack... all by itself

When it comes to climate change, we all know that CO2 emissions are a big problem—but they aren’t the only one. In this episode, we’re talking to researchers in CMU’s Smart Infrastructure Institute and the Center for Atmospheric Particle Studies, who have partnered with People’s Gas to examine their natural gas pipelines for leaking methane, one of climate change’s biggest contributors.

Why are our streets leaking so much methane?

Hackers are in high demand by companies to help strengthen their security, but there's currently a shortage of talent. CyLab director David Brumley argues that the problem is that society at-large does not fully understand what hacking means. 

In this episode, we'll hear from four members of CMU's top internationally ranked hacking team, the Plaid Parliament of Pwning, about how they got into hacking, and why.

A glimpse into the hacker psyche

Buggy, also known as Sweepstakes, is a Carnegie Mellon University tradition, a relay style race held at the annual CMU Spring Carnival where the buggy, a torpedo-like "racecar," serves as the baton. And in true CMU form, two teams are creating autonomous, self-driving buggies.

The quest for the autonomous buggy

"Make It Real" is a podcast that features in-depth conversations with researchers leading innovative research projects in Carnegie Mellon's College of Engineering.