The new Center for Data-Driven Discovery makes advanced computational tools available to researchers from all six Caltech divisions, plus JPL researchers.

New faculty member Yisong Yue, assistant professor of computing and mathematical sciences, recently spoke with us about his research interests in machine learning and what he is looking forward to at Caltech.

A team of engineers and scientists has identified a source of electronic noise that could affect the functioning of instruments operating at very low temperatures, such as devices used in radio telescopes and advanced physics experiments.

New faculty member Katherine Faber, the Simon Ramo Professor of Materials Science, studies the reasons why brittle ceramics fracture—and how these materials can be made stronger in the future.

John Tracy, chief technology officer and senior vice president of engineering, operations, and technology for the Boeing Company, is the 2014 recipient of the International von Kármán Wings Award. The honor—bestowed annually by the Aerospace Historical Society, which is part of the Graduate Aerospace Laboratories of the California Institute of Technology (GALCIT)—acknowledges outstanding contributions by international innovators, leaders, and pioneers in aerospace.

Caltech junior Edward Fouad spent 10 weeks this summer as part of the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) program working in the lab of Aaron Parness, a group leader at JPL, where researchers are designing, prototyping, and refining technology for a device called a microspine gripper. Looking something like a robotic circular foot with many toes extending radially outward, such a gripper has the ability to grab onto a rocky surface and cling to it even when hanging upside down.

Researchers at Caltech have developed a system that could make some airplanes more fuel-efficient by allowing them to safely fly with smaller, lighter tails.