In the middle of June, during the Graphene Week international conference, eight entities set up the initiative Graphene in Poland with the Warsaw University of Technology being one of them. Research into graphene and attempts to find new applications for this material have been going on for quite some time at our university.

The team working on the development of blood substitute describe it as a milky-white odourless suspension and compare it to milk. Prof. Tomasz Ciach says jokingly that upon special request they will also produce blue blood. It is under his supervision that artificial blood was created at the Warsaw University of Technology. The team are in the process of refining the invention and they intend to patent it.

A fluid as hard as a stone? Yes, that is possible. Non-Newtonian fluids are a well-known phenomenon but how to use their properties to our best advantage? Ask the team from the Chair of Chemical Engineering at the Faculty of Chemistry from the Warsaw University of Technology.

ikorol – an anti-corrosion and anti-rust product effective even on the most demanding surfaces, invented in the Laboratory of Process Engineering at the Faculty of Chemistry of the Warsaw University of Technology. For over thirty years the Laboratory of Process Engineering (LPE) attached to the Faculty of Chemistry has played the role of a technology incubator, successfully combining three types of activities: teaching, basic and applied research and university-industry technology transfer.

A system allowing to monitor vital functions of drivers and machine operators is within arm’s reach. A team from the Faculty of Electronics and Information Technology supervised by Professor Witold Pleskacz, PhD, Eng has constructed a BioSystem-on-Chip, which can monitor vital functions.

If only they could, they would busy themselves in their workshop until late. MelAvio – the Avionics Research Club – is doing its best to triumph in the UAV Challenge Medical Express 2016 international competition which is to be held in September in Australia.

Great things may come in small packaging – this is particularly true for the fight against cancer. Nanotechnology has an incredible potential to treat cancer because it offers a more efficient therapy while limiting its adverse effects.

Kosacki started his studies at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering of the Warsaw University of Technology in 1928 to obtain the degree of an electrical engineer five years later. However, the biggest challenge of his lifetime was still ahead. His mine detector was a significant contribution to the Allied victory in WWII.

Where a doctor cannot come he will send, whom? An engineer. Using specialist software, “Biomech” – Biomechanics and Biomechanical Engineering Student Research Association – provides assistance to doctors in the course of preoperative stage planning.

One might think that the biggest problem of people moving around in wheelchairs is the inability to walk. Standard wheelchairs, however, may lead to more injuries. Designers from the Warsaw University of Technology (WUT) are working on a lever drive wheelchair, which will – among other things - prevent its users from sustaining injuries to their hands. The project is developed at the Faculty of Transport, Department of Computer and Rail Systems in Transport. Krzysztof Fiok, Ph.D. (Eng)  is its supervisor.

There is nothing more natural than walking if you are an able-bodied person. However, as a result of medical conditions, accidents or congenital defects some people cannot move about unassisted. Therefore, scientists from the Department of Design of Precision Devices operating within the Institute of Micromechanics and Photonics at the Faculty of Mechatronics have decided to deal with the problem.

He started studying at the Warsaw University of Technology in 1922. Already at the beginning, he became involved in the activity of the Aviation Section of the Mechanical Student Club operating at the Warsaw University of Technology, where he designed his first structures. However, his aircraft designer career was tragically interrupted.

“We do not see waste as a problem but as a solution”, says Prof. Juan Carlos Colmenares, Ph.D. from the Institute of Physical Chemistry, Polish Academy of Sciences. In the face of enormous pollution and traditional sources of energy running thin, that kind of approach seems a panacea for those problems. But is it possible to produce fuel from lignin?

Last year, they managed to induce plasma in optical fibre core, and today they build a modular medium-power laser. Although their work may not seem spectacular, members of Students' Optoelectronics Association consistently develop their skills along with innovative technology.

Twenty five years ago, Tadeusz Węgrzynowski, today head of Telecommunications Department at the Warsaw University of Technology, sent the first e-mail message in Poland, which started the era of digital messaging in our country. 

They established a student research association to participate in an underwater robotics competition. They say we should wish they hit rock bottom, because paradoxically, this will spell success. Students of the Faculty of Power and Aeronautical Engineering are constructing an underwater robot.

In December 1925 the Aviation Section of Mechanical Scientific Organization of Warsaw University of Technology created the first aviation workshop. It took place in the underground of a New Drawing Office (Nowa Kreślarnia), however a montage went on in a gate of Chemistry Edifice of WUT.  This is the place, where the first sport aircraft JD-2 was created.

The compilation of a train and a plane – Hyperloop. The travel from Gdańsk to Krakow will take no more than 35 minutes. The traveler will spent this time in a special capsule, invented by the alumni and students of Warsaw University of Technology. 

Researchers from Warsaw University of Technology, in the Student Research Centre labs of the Faculty of Materials Science and Engineering have been working on the samples of composites that were used to build the bridge in Błażowa, near Rzeszów. 

Grinding chemical substances is not normally associated with modern technologies. Still, professor Janusz Lewiński with his team from the Environmental Laboratory of Functional Materials and Nanotechnology of the Warsaw University of Technology Faculty of Chemistry and the Institute of Physical Chemistry of the Polish Academy of Sciences prove that the truth is completely different.

Nano-layer sensors for immediate detection of biological or chemical hazards are an important step towards understanding environmental engineering problems. Most importantly, however, they will help to protect the life and health of people and animals.

Students from the Balloon Section of the Warsaw University of Technology Students’ Space Association are completing the BuLMA project (Balloon Micro Lifeform-and-Meteorite Assembler), the aim of which is to study micro organisms and meteorites in the stratosphere. In September 2015, the project was submitted to the REBUX/BEXUS campaign run by European, German and Swedish space agencies. At present, as one of several projects from Europe, it successfully completed the first stage of the competition.

A pedestrian reaches a 6-metre flyer, gets on a small car, gives the destination and sits down comfortably. The podcar chooses the best route on its own, avoids collisions, reacts in emergency situations and takes the passenger to the destination without stopping on the way. This description may seem like science fiction, but it is a definition of the PRT system (Personal Rapid Transit). In the Eco-Mobility project, a team from Warsaw University of Technology has developed such a solution. Will PRT be used in Polish cities in the future?

The Division of Virtual Reality Techniques of the WUT Faculty of Mechatronics gives objects digital immortality. Director of the Division, Robert Sitnik, Ph.D., D.Sc., tells us about tradition supported by modern 3D scanning techniques.

Students of WUT wish to organise the first CanSats competition in Poland. Young Engineers from the Students' Space Association (SKA) set themselves another ambitious goal ie. The Rocket Section of SKA wants to organize the first Polish competition of experiments with CanSats (satellites as little as 0,33l can). The competition will be addressed to people of all ages who are passionate about science and it will enable doing lots of interesting experiments in the atmosphere. It would be a novelty in Poland as currently, such competitions are only organized in the US and Western Europe.