Spartans are creating technologies for a better world

Some of the most impactful technologies often aren’t the ones you see. They seamlessly make their way into our day, making life safer, healthier and more sustainable.

At Michigan State University, a top 40 U.S. university for its number of utility patents, Spartan researchers are designing and delivering those very innovations. As a result of years of work, they’re improving health care outcomes, creating more sustainable packaging, making artificial intelligence more accessible for all, and advancing the nation’s semiconductor and aerospace infrastructure.

These efforts would not be possible without funding from federal agencies and other sources. With funding from agencies like the U.S. Department of Energy and National Science Foundation and others, Spartans are developing technologies that power a stronger Michigan, a more accessible society and a better quality of life for Americans.

Solving a health concern for vulnerable patients

In hospitals, nursing homes and assisted-living facilities, limited mobility is one of the biggest threats to patient health. With about 2 million people currently living in these settings, there is an increased risk of preventable injuries and illnesses, including pressure sores, which can form when individuals remain in the same position for extended periods without movement.

Tamara Bush and Justin Scott display a chair with Sit Sense technology

That’s where Sit Sense comes in. Developed by Tamara Bush, associate dean for inclusion and diversity and professor of mechanical engineering, and Justin Scott, a research associate in the College of Engineering, Sit Sense is a patented technology that automatically identifies high-pressure regions on the body and repositions patients accordingly, with particular attention to high-risk, pressure-prone areas like the buttocks and lower and upper back. The technology means the chair automatically moves based on timing and sensors, offering different posture supports for the patient with repositioning adjustments as frequently as every 20 minutes.

“I went into biomechanics to make a difference in the world and make a difference in people’s lives, and I see this as a really strong possibility of making that happen,” says Bush. “Not all innovations make it beyond the lab, but Sit Sense has the potential to improve the lives of countless people — from patients and caregivers to aging adults and those in specialized occupations. That’s what inspires me.”

Supported by an NSF Partnership for Innovation grant, Bush and her team were able to hire undergraduate students to assist on the project. Currently, the researchers are working with nurses in Michigan hospitals to ensure the device is user-friendly. One day, Sit Sense could be deployed in hospitals, nursing homes, clinical therapy settings and dialysis centers as well as be used by individuals with prosthetics or those who work in occupations that require long hours of sitting.

Read more on MSUToday.

Packaging that protects people and the planet

Many packages that hold the foods we eat — potato chips or juice boxes, for example — are made with multiple layers of materials. To keep the food fresh, packaging contains a layer of plastic coated with metal that blocks out light and oxygen. Then another layer of plastic seals the bag or box to keep air out. These packages, however, cannot be recycled.

With the global packaging market valued at $250 billion, that’s a massive environmental challenge. And Spartan researchers are helping solve it.

MSU’s Muhammad Rabnawaz, an associate professor in the School of Packaging in the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, and his team are developing more sustainable materials to make packaging easier to recycle while preserving its performance. The team is also collaborating with researchers from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and Amcor, a leading company in responsible packaging.

Rabnawaz, a National Academy of Inventors Fellow, believes packaging can be simpler. Instead of using as many as 12 layers that make up some bags of chips, why not optimize fewer layers and make them recyclable? Doing more with less, it turns out, works. A four-layer structure developed by Rabnawaz and his team can meet most of the performance requirements needed in food packaging. This alternative is both chemically recyclable — breaking down into small molecules to recreate materials similar to the original — and mechanically recyclable through standard melt-reprocessing methods.

In optimal scenarios, this new structure matches the cost of current commercial nine-layer packaging while delivering significant environmental benefits: energy use and carbon emissions are reduced by 50% or more in the case of mechanical recycling, a process that recovers and reshapes materials without altering the chemical structure. Looking ahead, the team plans to engage with industry partners to bring this work to market.  

This Spartan innovation is good for the planet and for business, with a market that could be worth millions, if not billions, of dollars.

This research was supported by a $1.7 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy. In April, the School of Packaging announced an NSF-funded Center for Plastic, Paper and Hybrid Packaging End-of-Life Solutions, which will be led by Rabnawaz.

Read more on MSUToday.

Artificial intelligence for everyone

Artificial intelligence, or AI, is supposed to make life easier. For individuals who stutter or have common speech disfluencies, however, using voice-activated AI technologies like Siri or Alexa can be an annoyance. And when calling a doctor’s office or other automated service, the annoyance can become more serious.

That’s why a team of MSU researchers is building an app that will make voice-activated artificial intelligence accessible to people with speech disfluencies. Initially focusing on stuttering, their work aims to improve voice technology for everyone. The interdisciplinary team includes experts representing engineering, communicative sciences and disorders, psychology and, critically, people who stutter.

“For me, this technology is about more than convenience,” says Jia Bin, an MSU doctoral student from China who leads the East Lansing chapter of the National Stuttering Association and belongs to the World Stuttering Network, “it’s about being truly heard. As someone who stutters, I’ve often felt unseen by voice tech. Being part of the HeardAI team means I get to help change that. I'm not just a research assistant — I bring my lived experience. It’s empowering and healing."

“Our primary goal is enhancing speech recognition systems to handle the broad spectrum of natural speech, benefiting all users who interact with voice AI,” says Nihar Mahapatra, an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at MSU and principal investigator on the project.

The HeardAI team includes scholars, students, and community members representing diverse backgrounds, including (from left): Nihar Mahapatra, Jia Bin, Caryn Herring, Anne Marie Ryan, Megan Arney, J. Scott Yaruss and Hope Gerlach-Houck.

Also on Mahapatra’s team is Ann Marie Ryan from the Department of Psychology; J. Scott Yaruss from the Department of Communicative Sciences and Disorders; as well as Hope Gerlach-Houck from Western Michigan University’s Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences; and Caryn Herring, the executive director of Friends: The National Association of Young People Who Stutter.

The project is funded by the National Science Foundation Convergence Accelerator program, which supports user-driven research projects that address major challenges facing society. “That’s the really cool part,” says Herring. “Individuals who stutter and the larger stuttering community have a say. They have a role in what we are going to develop. We’ve gotten input from people who stutter from the start.”

“HeardAI's work is not just about fixing a technical flaw, it’s about shifting the narrative,” says Bin. “Stuttered voices matter. People who stutter don’t have to adapt to technology, technology will adapt to us.”

More than 3 million people in the U.S. and 80 million people worldwide have a stutter. The team’s HeardAI app will include flexible solutions for individuals interacting with voice-AI systems like Siri, developers creating accessible voice AI services and organizations relying on accurate automatic speech recognition transcripts. It is not only people who stutter who will benefit from this technology — this research could also be a springboard to helping people with a wide range of speech differences and, ultimately, everyone who uses this technology.

For Mahapatra and his team, this innovation isn’t simply about convenience; it's about advancing speech recognition technology to accurately handle the full spectrum of human speech patterns.

By developing technology that accurately understands the nuances of human speech, MSU's HeardAI project is creating voice interfaces that are more accurate, responsive, and beneficial for everyone.

Read more on MSUToday.

Powering new industries and advancing microelectronics in Michigan

From autonomous vehicles and satellites to national defense systems, today’s technologies depend on advanced microelectronics. But these systems are vulnerable to cosmic rays — high-energy particles from space that can damage circuits and cause devices to fail.

On MSU’s campus, at the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams, or FRIB, a U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science national user facility, users are addressing this challenge in FRIB’s chip-testing facilities, where researchers are simulating the effect of cosmic rays on electronics. These include heavy ions that are known to cause serious issues with the performance and longevity of electronic systems in spacecraft and satellites, as well as electronics on land-based systems such as autonomous vehicles and medical devices.

FRIB is expanding the nation’s chip-testing capacity for next-generation semiconductor devices, including those used in applications such as commercial spaceflight, wireless technology and autonomous vehicles. Credit: Image courtesy of the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams

Currently, there is a national shortfall of testing capacity for advanced microelectronics. In addition to basic research, FRIB supports U.S. industry by helping address the national shortage of microelectronics testing. FRIB’s heavy-ion facilities, including the FRIB Single-Event-Effects Facility and the in-progress K500 Chip Testing Facility, or KSEE, will address that need. In 2024, the federal government funded MSU to build KSEE, repurposing the K500 cyclotron into a next-generation testing tool for industry. The facilities will be a magnet for attracting high-tech companies to Michigan, increasing the state’s impact on the nation’s semiconductor and aerospace infrastructure, and will provide additional capacity to educate students in chip design and testing. 

Over the next five years, the U.S. also will need to fill an expected 50,000 jobs in semiconductor-related fields. With the new facilities at FRIB, MSU is positioned to help prepare the workforce in this highly specialized field.  

“This is an exciting next step in expanding MSU’s impact in this critical area in service to the nation — both in providing testing capacity and cultivating a skilled workforce,” says Leo Kempel, the Dennis P. Nyquist Endowed Professor in Electromagnetics in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. “By partnering to foster talent and innovation, MSU, FRIB and the College of Engineering are forging a path that ensures America’s leadership in this vital field for generations to come, with Spartan engineers leading the way.”

Read more on MSUToday.

Spartans will always pursue bold solutions that make life better. But when research funding is at risk, so are the innovations that improve health, grow the economy and strengthen communities. With sustained investment, Spartan researchers can keep turning ideas into real-world impact. 

Read more stories about how MSU researchers are advancing technologies for a changing world.

For generations, Spartans have been changing the world through research. Federal funding helps power many of the discoveries that improve lives and keep America at the forefront of innovation and competitiveness. From lifesaving cancer treatments to solutions that advance technology, agriculture, energy and more, MSU researchers work every day to shape a better future for the people of Michigan and beyond. Learn more about MSU’s research impact powered by partnership with the federal government.