Appointment helps strengthen university, Department of Defense ties
The U.S. Department of Defense’s National Security Innovation Network appointed Jake Laktas university program director for Washington University in St. Louis. He will work closely with faculty and students, connecting them with regional industry partners and forging collaborations.
Lew receives competitive MURI Award
Matthew Lew, at the McKelvey School of Engineering, is part of a team that received a $7.5 million five-year award under the U.S. Department of Defense’s highly competitive Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative Program (MURI). The team’s research is aimed at developing a new class of functional living electronics based on living materials such as proteins and bacteria.
Clinical trial in trauma patients to evaluate drug that stops excessive bleeding
In trauma patients experiencing severe bleeding, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis will evaluate a drug already approved to minimize blood loss in people suffering from hemophilia — a genetic clotting disorder — or heavy menstrual periods.
Research casts doubt on voice-stress lie detection technology
Photo by Joe Angeles / WUSTL PhotoThe Truster hand-held “Emotion Reader.”Voice-stress analysis, an alternative to the polygraph as a method for lie detection, is already widely used in police and insurance fraud investigations. Now, however, it is being touted as a powerful and effective tool for an array of new applications — everything from screening potential terrorists in the nation’s airports to catching wayward spouses in messy marital disputes. Despite its booming popularity, recent federally sponsored studies have found little evidence that existing voice-stress technologies are capable of consistently detecting lies and deceptions. “You could have gotten better results by flipping a coin,” says Washington University in St. Louis psychologist Mitchell S. Sommers, lead investigator on a recent voice-stress study.