Packaging in the consumer product landscape might seem like gloss and glitter, but it serves an essential function: it presents the product to the consumer and safeguards it from harm. However, packaging is often quickly discarded and raises concerns regarding sustainability. Because of this, in the quest for more sustainable packaging solutions, the principles of circular economy are gaining prominence.
Continue readingTweeting About the News
Nicholas Mamo has developed an algorithm that analyses Twitter feeds and extracts information about events. This type of artificial intelligence has been designed to automatically identify the participants involved in the events and understand what happened based on the tweets.
Continue readingSmartAP: Assisting Pilots with AI
As passengers, we often overlook the complexity and challenges faced by pilots as they navigate the skies. THINK explores SmartAP, a cutting-edge AI technology that could help pilots combat stalling and difficult landing situations. Buckle up, sit back, and enjoy the journey!
Continue readingMaximising Solar Panel Efficiency: The DustPV Project
The DustPV project, led by Prof. Ing. Joseph Micallef, aims to determine the optimal timing for cleaning solar panels using innovative sensor technology and weather data analysis. By addressing the challenges of dust accumulation on photovoltaic panels, the project seeks to enhance solar panel performance and contribute to Malta’s renewable energy goals.
Continue readingIts What Inside That Matters: 3D Printing Medical Tech
Microfluidic devices manipulate small volumes of fluids, which are mainly used in biomedical application scenarios such as clinical diagnosis, drug delivery, and point-of-care testing. Creating such devices is a costly and challenging endeavour. The UM’s Department of Industrial and Manufacturing is investigating cost-efficient ways to produce microfluidic devices faster and a lot easier.
Continue readingMaking Electrical Drives More Efficient
The climate crisis urges us to use every means of reducing CO2 emissions. To reduce the energy consumption of electrical drive applications, researchers from the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Malta are working on a hybrid inverter drive. This device will be able to adjust the power input to an electric motor, thus avoiding power losses. With 8 billion electric motors in the EU alone, even small energy savings can scale up to big contributions towards a sustainable future.
Continue readingGreen Cosmetics: An Engineering Perspective on Cosmetic Packaging
The global cosmetics industry is a multi-billion euro business that shows no signs of slowing down. A large percentage of this evaluation is attributed to product packaging, which introduces a considerable environmental issue due to the skyrocketing demands for plastic packaging.
Continue readingThe Future of Campus Energy
Of all energy resources, solar energy is the most abundant. Harnessed even in cloudy weather, the rate of solar energy that arrives on Earth is 10,000 times greater than the rate at which humankind consumes energy. Solar technologies can deliver heat, cooling, natural lighting, electricity, and fuels for a host of applications.
But how does this technology work? Can the University of Malta (UM) lead the way towards greener energy?
Continue readingModl.ai: Creating the Ultimate AI Game Testers
A spin-out from the University of Malta’s Institute of Digital Games is working on artificial intelligence-run game testing software. The engine would run thousands of low-level testing rounds before humans engage in high-level testing of a game prior to market release. Modl.ai co-founder Georgios N. Yannakakis tells THINK how his team aspires to change the game.
Continue readingCan You Enhance That?
Cop shows have taught us that grainy photos of a crime scene usually contain clues to a killer in action. By zooming in or running a program, investigators are able to catch critical clues to help in their investigation. In reality, if one zooms in on a poor-quality image, one simply gets pixels. A team of researchers at the University of Malta (UM) are developing software which can enhance images to extract critical details and clues using artificial intelligence. Dr Ing. Christian Galea, one of the researchers in the Deep-FIR project, talks us through his journey.
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