Science/Technology

Just before putting on your winter coat, hat and gloves to go shovel yet another snowstorm a few years from now, you may first put on a special t-shirt which will monitor your heart and your health.

Mobile app designers are tackling social and civic issues across the region through a competitive “virtual hackathon.” The AT&T Western New York Civic App Challenge allows innovative thinkers and designers to create apps for cash prizes to make their ideas a reality. WBFO’s Ashley Hirtzel spoke to a few of the dueling app creators.

An unusual coffee war, that has been percolating, has now boiled over. A Canadian coffee roaster recently filed a lawsuit against American coffee giant Keurig over what it claims is an attempt to maintain a near monopoly and keep single-serve coffee prices artificially high. 

Across the world, there are problems with getting clean drinking water. At the University at Buffalo, a group of undergraduates is working with an engineering professor to provide clean water for a few pennies and no cost for fuel.

General Motors' Tonawanda plant will be getting some national attention tonight as the Science Channel features the Chevy Corvette engine it manufactures on the show "How It's Made - A Dream Car."

David Mitchell, a 1980 graduate of St. Joseph's Collegiate Institute, serves as NASA's lead project manager for  the MAVEN mission, which recently made its way into an orbit around Mars. Mitchell took time last week to share some insights with WBFO News.

A major app competition was launched on the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus Wednesday. The AT&T WNY Civic App Challenge aims to attract technology experts from the eight counties of western New York to create smartphone applications that will improve the quality of live in the region. 

A cheaper alternative may be on the way to the broadband internet services currently available in Erie County. The Legislature is going to explore the possibility of starting its own county-wide network.

The Buffalo Zoo has sent hundreds of endangered Puerto Rican crested toad tadpoles to Puerto Rico as part of a major conservation effort.

Amazing life-saving medical procedures and research are happening in Buffalo's Medical Corridor.  Medical innovation and radical changes to healthcare procedures are underway through the combined forces of the Jacobs Neurological Institute, Gates Vascular Institute and the Clinical and Translational Research Center.

Researchers at the University at Buffalo are studying how mind-controlled robots can be utilized in the manufacturing sector. The team is also working to make the technology more affordable for companies.

A number of Buffalo college students have been coming away with some of the big prizes at recent computer code writing contest known as “hackathons.” As the popularity of hackathons continues to grow, observers are assigning a lot of value on the codefests, while others question whether the work coming out of them is relevant to the general public.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded the University at Buffalo a $25 million Science and Technology Center grant Wednesday.

University at Buffalo researchers are developing an underwater internet system. The wireless network aims to improve the detection of tsunamis and potentially save civilian lives.

Researchers at the University at Buffalo have been awarded funds to continue a program that is working to improve roadways across the country. The $1.4 million grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation will help researchers collect ‘big data’ that can help deal with a range of transportation issues.

Buffalo State College officially opened its state-of-the-art Technology Building, Thursday. The facility cost $36.5 million to build and was paid for through the SUNY Construction Fund.

A conference aimed at providing support to computer programmers is coming to Buffalo. The Nickel City Ruby conference will bring people from around the world to discuss the perils and pleasures of the open-source programming language called Ruby.

A western New York business is creating terra cotta architectural features with the help of the latest technology. The objects are an important element in restoring and maintaining historic buildings and building new ones.

The Great Lakes Fishery Commission estimates that more than 40 million people in the US and Canada depend on the Great Lakes for food, drinking water and recreation. A state-of-the-art research vessel the “Muskie” is currently making its way through Lake Erie collecting data samples for the US Geological Survey.

A Niagara Falls manufacturer that converts waste plastic into clean liquid fuel is teaming with art supplies brand Crayola to recycle old markers.

SUNY Buffalo State College professor is using digital music and sound as a therapeutic device.  WBFO'S Eileen Buckley says it is being used for physical and cognitive therapy.

Several New York State economic development agencies have joined forces with the Buffalo Niagara Enterprise under the marketing umbrella ‘NY Loves Nanotech’. The collaboration aimed to gain support for the region's semiconductor industry during a global nanotech conference in San Francisco.

Mobile technology has created some new opportunities for citizen scientists to play an active part in research, especially with tighter budgets. Now a nationwide project is enlisting the public to gather up-to-date information on water levels.

An international non-profit organization Girl Develop It or GDI works to help empower women through technology particularly by training them to write their own software. WBFO’s Ashley Hassett recently spent time with a couple of upstate women coders.

A two-day workshop hosted by the University at Buffalo kicks off today called Conversations in the Disciplines. As WBFO's Eileen Buckley reports, the workshops are designed to inspire creativity and innovation in the Biomedical Sciences, an important component in gaining grant dollars for research.