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Articles by Claudia Hoffacker
5 Myths About Borosilicate Glass
SCHOTT's Tina Gallo tackles five myths that may be causing engineers to underestimate borosilicate glass. It's often assumed that glass is fragile and cannot withstand rapid temperature changes, survive harsh industrial environments, or keep pace with modern technologies. Yet borosilicate glass continues to play a critical role in applications where thermal stability, durability, and precision are essential.
Quiz: Engineering New Realities
Smart glasses are having a moment, and not everyone is thrilled about it. As camera-equipped shades are becoming more common, concerns about privacy and consent have naturally followed. That reaction isn't entirely new. After all, when smartphones began spreading in the early 2000s, they prompted many of the same questions: What happens when cameras become tiny, portable, and always within reach? Two decades on from those simpler times, taking a photo with a phone barely registers as futuristic.
Tiny Ski Jumps Open a Path for Photonic Chips to Scale
Compared to their electronic counterparts, photonic chips deliver lightning-fast communication speed and greater bandwidth by relying on light. But because light travels through optical wires in most chip-scale systems, much of the light remains trapped inside the chip.
Ion Beams Speed Qualification for Nuclear Materials
For years, the accepted approach relied on neutron irradiation in test reactors, followed by post‑irradiation analysis that demonstrates core structural materials will maintain their integrity through the life of the core. It is a process that is trusted and reliable but one that is extraordinarily slow.
Quiz: What Do You Know About Airport Engineering?
Find out what you know about the engineering that keeps millions of travelers moving through the world's airports. Summer travel is in full swing, bringing all the fun and stress that comes with it. Maybe you're the person who arrives at the airport four hours early because "you never know," or maybe you're chill about calling a rideshare when your flight is boarding in 58 minutes.
Looking Within from Without
And that is no simple matter. If the tank holds petrochemicals, for instance, it has to be taken out of production, emptied, and then inspected inside. It’s still a hazardous environment when empty, so inspectors must wear hazmat suits. Robotic alternatives can be expensive as well, so no matter how it’s done, an inspection is likely to cost several hundreds of thousands of dollars. But now there’s another way.
Quiz: The Fabric of Innovation
From hand-operated looms to today’s highly automated manufacturing systems, the textile industry has played a pivotal role in shaping industry, technology, and everyday life. The story of textiles accelerated during the Industrial Revolution with inventions such as the flying shuttle, spinning jenny, power loom, and sewing machine.
Retaining Ring Types and Selection
In this publication, we cover the main types of retaining rings and constant section (snap) rings so that you’re more informed to find the best possible ring for your application. There are a variety of ring options because we know your application requirements are unique. Assembly type, assembly size, thrust capacity, installation and removal methods, cost, and environmental factors all play a role in determining which ring type will be selected.
Hair-Thin Fiber Microphone Could Help Prevent Power Grid Outages
Dr. Xiaobei Zhang led the researchers in Optoelectronics & Optical Engineering with Dr. Qi Zhang, professor at the School of Communication and Information Engineering at Shanghai University. They published their new paper in the journal Optics Express, announcing the development in February. “Our research, led by Professor Xiaobei, is a national key project that's funded by the Chinese version of the NSF.
Moscow & Pullman: Built on Service, Powered by Innovation
Features Dealer Profiles As an independent, family-owned company, Moscow & Pullman Building Supply works to maintain its strong tradition of customer service while also implementing modern business practices like online shopping and AI. Claudia Hoffacker July 1, 2026 Owner Tyler Garrett took over the store with his sister, Katie, from their father in 2019. The Garretts combined the two former locations into one state-of-the-art store.
Defects to Boost Strength
“What in general has been inspiring us for the last decade is that at the nanoscale, things are very different, especially for metals,” said Julia R. Greer, the Ruben F. and Donna Mettler Professor of Materials Science, Mechanics, and Medical Engineering at the California Institute of Technology (CalTech). This work was recently published in Nature Communications.
Quiz: World Cup Tech, Turf, and Trivia
The FIFA World Cup depends on engineering to deliver memorable goals, intense rivalries, and iconic venues. Researchers and designers help shape nearly every aspect of the tournament, from natural grass systems built to perform across climates to the aerodynamics of the official match ball. This quiz looks at the science and innovation behind the World Cup, including stadium construction, environmental monitoring, and the role of mechanical engineering in sports.
The Next Era of Programmable Matter
Controlling where material is solid and where it is fluid allows researchers to mimic a huge range of mechanical behaviors. “By enabling complex phase architecture, we can model very different mechanical behavior,” Ni explained. “It can be foam-like, plastic-like, elastomer-like, or polymer-like.” The key to this transformation is a liquid metal composite. Researchers infused gallium, which has a melting point just above room temperature, with magnetic iron particles.
A Landmark in Typecasting
In fact, ASME designated the linotype machine as a Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark in July 2005, bestowing a plaque to the International Printing Museum in Carson, Calif. But the linotype machine’s impact goes beyond simply facilitating the printing process. The mechanical marvel’s history spans nearly a century and made the heyday of newspapers and mass-market books possible by making production faster and the finished products more affordable.
Podcast: 2026 Policy Outlook for Engineers
Paul Fakes of ASME’s Washington office examines the 2026 policy issues—from federal funding to AI regulation—that could shape the future of engineering. This episode of ASME TechCast covers the policy issues shaping engineering in 2026.
Cloaking Sensitive Tech from Magnetic Fields
Intrigued by the idea of magnetic cloaks and how they could be used to protect sensitive electronics and sensors, Harold Ruiz, head of the Green Energy and Transport Research Group and associate professor in electrical machines and power systems at the University of Leicester in the UK, decided to research this topic more thoroughly. “The first time I heard about magnetic cloaking was in 2012, during the Applied Superconductivity Conference in Portland, Oregon,” Ruiz said.
Future of Mechanical Engineering Education: Trends for 2026
System dynamics. Manufacturing processes. Propulsion. Mechanical engineering education basics haven’t changed much in recent years. The same can’t be said for technology. Today’s engineers are doing things that once were considered science fiction: printing human tissue and programming collaborative robots that work side-by-side with humans. The gap between what engineering students are learning and what the industry needs is both a major challenge and a leadership opportunity.
Experiential Learning and Cooperative Education Pay Off
For many would-be engineers, experiential learning is an important consideration when choosing an engineering college, particularly a school that has a robust cooperative education component. It was certainly a deciding factor for Victoria Tripp and Brenna Woodling, both set to graduate this spring from Rochester Institute of Technology’s Kate Gleason College of Engineering.
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