water

Here’s where Northeastern students will be helping communities during spring break

Caring for animals. Cleaning up national parks. Helping children with special needs. Check out our interactive map to see where Northeastern students are volunteering.

by Hannah Moore and Gregory Grinnell March 4, 2019

Northeastern engineering students work on a robotic device to extract water from the ice trapped below a simulated surface of Mars. Photo by NASA Langley / David C. Bowman

Northeastern students win NASA's Mars Ice Challenge with a robot built to extract water from the Red Planet

For manned Martian missions to be possible, astronauts will need a lot more water than they can carry on a spacecraft. Enter a team of six Northeastern engineering students, whose remote-operated robotic device to extract water from the ice trapped below a simulated surface of Mars brought the world one small step closer to sending people to the Red Planet.

by Allie Nicodemo June 8, 2018

NASA looks to students to find water on Mars

With NASA planning manned-missions to Mars, and Elon Musk envisioning a large Martian city, the goal of becoming a multi-planetary species feels within reach. The challenge? Finding water. A team of Northeastern students will take part in a NASA competition to build and test systems capable of extracting water from simulated Martian subsurface ice.

by Allie Nicodemo December 19, 2017

Michelle Laboy, assistant professor of architecture and a member of the Resilient Cities Lab, said that “maintaining groundwater levels in Boston is critical to the preservation of old buildings in some of the city’s most historic neighborhoods.” Photo by Matthew Modoono/Northeastern University

Architecture professor leads effort to make water visible

Walk down Newbury Street today, and there’s a good chance you’ll come across at least one of 10 Bluetooth-enabled well caps designed to monitor and display groundwater levels in real time. They’re the brainchild of Michelle Laboy, who says she’s “always been interested in water’s role in the urban landscape.”

by Jason Kornwitz September 15, 2017

3Qs: Why better infrastructure could solve Rio’s water problems

The Olympic sailing competition began on Monday in Rio de Janeiro’s Guanabara Bay, the site of extensive water pollution that officials have warned is a health risk for the athletes. Here, Geoff Trussell, director of Northeastern’s Marine Science Center, explains how bad the pollution can be for the aquatic ecosystem and what needs to be done to fix the problem.

by Joe O'Connell August 9, 2016

3Qs: Will ‘superbug’ in Rio’s waters harm Olympic athletes?

A new study from a team of Brazilian scientists has found that a drug-resistant bacterium has been growing off two city beaches bordering Guanabara Bay, where Olympic sailors will compete next month. We asked Daniel Faber, professor of sociology and director of Northeastern’s Environmental Justice Research Collaborative, to discuss the social, political, and scientific implications of the findings.

by News@Northeastern July 13, 2016

The physics of a snowball

What does it take to make the perfect snowball? Oh, just a little physics. Photo via Thinkstock. If you grew…

by Angela Herring January 2, 2014

Clean water for a Ugandan village

Northeastern’s chapter of Engineers Without Borders will implement a new drinking water system in Bbanda, Uganda this summer, bringing potable water to more than 1,000 villagers.

by Matt Collette July 5, 2013

Metallic personalities

Image via Thinkstock. Civil and environmental engineering professor Philip Larese-Casanova has had a life-long love affair with metals. In his…

by Angela Herring April 29, 2013

AAAS 2013: Environmental Challenges and Adaptation in Cities

Photo via Thinkstock. “If we want to use research to inspire action by cities and have that research be inspired…

by Angela Herring February 18, 2013