Background There has been a recent rise in the number of people impersonating delivery workers, and is partially due to home alarms only being sold to secure closed doors. By analyzing the interaction between homeowners and burglars, it was apparent burglars can exploit this flaw by assuming a fake identity to persuade homeowners to disable their alarm...

Background Ultrathin photonic nanostructures, such as plasmonic and dielectric metamaterials and metasurfaces, have broad applications in electromagnetic wave manipulation, high resolution imaging, and computation. However, conventional production of these metastructures relies on precise nano-machining techniques that are difficult to manufacture...

The analysis of small-molecule metabolites and drugs in body fluids and tissue extracts plays a vital role in human health, food safety and environmental monitoring. The current gold standard for small molecule detection is mass spectrometry, which is expensive, time consuming, and requires trained personnel. Universal point-of-care (POC) testing would...

­In the past 10 years, there have been many new viral pathogens which have emerged as major public health threats, including Ebola virus, SARS-CoV, Zika virus and most recently SARS-CoV-2. Quantitative measurement of neutralizing antibodies (nAbs) is important for determining sterilizing immunity as well as evaluating effectiveness of vaccines and...

Background Colorful pigments from pictures serve to selectively absorb light within a spectral range, thus modulating the light reflection and color display. Conventional pigments, however, are usually toxic and relatively large. They also tend to degrade over time and lose their brightness and resolution. Structural color is an alternative to conventional...

­Recent infectious diseases, such as SARS-CoV-2, have caused massive and widespread global health and economic problems. One of the most effective tools in the early stages of a disease outbreak is testing and isolation of the infected. However, it takes time to develop a new diagnostic, particularly with novel pathogens. By the time a new test...

­Ebola virus (EBOV) is a highly virulent pathogen, causing severe hemorrhagic fever in humans with a lethality rate of 45-90%. With such high lethality rates, it is imperative that EBOV is detected early and infected patients are isolated to reduce transmission and control outbreaks. While PCR is the gold standard for EBOV detection, it requires...

­SARS-CoV-2, the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19, has spread globally into a full-blown pandemic, resulting in over 4 million deaths worldwide. With new and more contagious variants circulating, identification, surveillance, isolation and research are still vital to minimize spread and improve containment. Serology tests for detecting SARS-CoV-2...

Background By converting sunlight to heat, concentrated solar thermal power (CSP) technology presents a viable form of thermal energy storage that directly addresses grid integration and storage challenges. Current CSP mirror manufacturing processes require depositing multiple layers of films, including silver which requires physical vapor deposition...

Background Recent innovations have allowed us to manipulate light for uses in a variety of applications such as information processing and quantum computing. More specifically, polarization of light has become an attractive method for communicating optical data, demonstrating better sensitivity, signal in free space, and capacity than conventional...