This week’s list of top data news highlights covers January 25, 2025 to January 31, 2025, and includes articles on a dashboard tracking violent deaths in Illinois and a digital learning platform improving exam preparation in Nigeria.
1. Powering Robots with Liquid Energy
Scientists at Cornell University in New York have designed a soft robotic hand that can grab jellyfish without harming them. The robot is powered by an energy-rich fluid that flows through its body, acting both as a battery to store energy and as a fluid to create movement, similar to how hydraulic systems work. This design removes the need for separate batteries or motors, making the robot lighter, more efficient, and better suited for delicate tasks in challenging environments.
2. Streamlining Complex Data Systems
Zencoder, a California-based AI solutions provider, has launched advanced coding assistants capable of directly connecting to databases and comprehending their data schema and types. By using these tools in data engineering workflows, developers can streamline the process of writing and managing code that retrieves, processes, and manipulates data more efficiently, allowing engineers and businesses to focus more on strategic tasks.
3. Harnessing use of AI in the Classroom
An English professor at Arizona State University is working with teachers to integrate AI as a peer reviewer in writing classrooms. In her approach, students write essays or letters, and an AI system provides feedback on structure, clarity, and argument strength—similar to traditional peer review. Teachers remain central by guiding students on how to interpret and apply AI-generated feedback, ensuring that AI enhances learning rather than replacing human instruction.
4. Training to Fight Fires with Augmented Reality
The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection is utilizing augmented reality technology to train flight crews for fires and other natural disaster emergencies. Its system uses geographic data from satellite imagery and aerial surveys to recreate California’s terrain, including mountains, valleys, and fire-prone areas. It also integrates historical weather patterns and real-time wind models, allowing crews to practice in dynamic, data-driven scenarios that enhance decision-making and emergency responses.
Flexential, a data center solutions provider based in North Carolina, and Lone Star Holdings, a data storage company based in Florida, are launching a space-based data center to store mission-critical data for governments and enterprises that require secure, disaster-proof storage. Their lunar data center will use solar power and solid-state storage, ensuring data remains safe from cyber threats, natural disasters, and geopolitical instability. By operating in the Moon’s stable environment, this approach offers a new way to preserve sensitive information and ensure long-term data resilience beyond Earth.
6. Identifying Pregnancy Complications
Researchers from the University of Utah used AI to analyze medical records from nearly 10,000 pregnancies, identifying new risk factor combinations for pregnancy complications. The AI model found that infants face very different levels of risk based on factors such as fetal sex, maternal diabetes, and fetal anomalies. By analyzing patient data, including maternal health history, fetal growth metrics, and other clinical factors, the AI system detected patterns that doctors had not previously recognized. This insight could help doctors better identify high-risk pregnancies that need intensive monitoring while reducing unnecessary interventions for lower-risk cases.
Gridraven, an Estonian startup that uses machine learning for weather prediction and grid modeling, has developed an AI system that helps power companies send more electricity through existing transmission lines without overheating. Normally, utilities limit how much power lines carry based on worst-case weather conditions, or they install sensors to measure real-time factors like wind and temperature. Gridraven’s AI system replaces these sensors by using detailed weather models to predict when conditions allow for safely increasing power flow. In tests, it increased transmission capacity by up to 30 percent and improved accuracy in estimating safe power levels by 60 percent, helping utilities reduce congestion, lower costs, and better use renewable energy.
The National Association of Proprietors of Private Schools, an association representing private school owners in Nigeria, has launched a digital learning platform designed to help students prepare for important national exams. The tool compiles 20 years of past exam questions and includes interactive quizzes and personalized study features, making it easier for students to practice and track their progress. Covering 45 subjects for middle and high school students, it adapts to individual learning by analyzing student performance and tailoring study recommendations to strengthen weak areas.
9. Designing New Candy Factories
Impact Confections, the maker of Warheads sour candy, is using digital twins and XR headsets to plan factory upgrades. The company worked with Australis-based food processing and packaging firm TNA Solutions to create a virtual replica of its facility, allowing teams to walk through the layout and test equipment placement before installation. This helped engineers identify design clashes, such as a conveyor interfering with an HVAC duct, enabling quick fixes before construction.
The Illinois Department of Public Health has launched a statewide dashboard to track violent deaths and non-fatal firearm injuries at the county level. Built with data from Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, the tool compiles information from death certificates, medical examiners, and law enforcement reports to help policymakers and public health officials identify trends and develop violence prevention strategies. The Department of Public Health plans to expand its use to monitor other public health concerns.