Engineering Laboratory

Lidar image of building collapse site looks like a black-and-white photo with some parts of the remaining walls marked in yellow and red.

NIST Report to Congress Provides Update on Champlain Towers South Investigation

50 Years of Fire Safety Advances at NIST

Photograph of large residential-style home with blue tile roof and solar panel in suburban campus setting.

A House Ahead of its Time

News and Updates

A two-lane highway lined with the burnt remains of vehicles that were destroyed by fire while in traffic.

NIST Updates Critical Wildfire Evacuation and Sheltering Guidance

April 24, 2025

The ESCAPE report redefines how to save lives in the face of fast-moving wildfires.

Horizontal concrete slab is visible in a forest of scaffolding and equipment in a large indoor space.

Champlain Towers South Investigation Team Provides Update to Structural Engineers

April 11, 2025

This outreach will help ensure that the team’s findings and recommendations lead to improvements to codes, standards and practices that can prevent similar

A black and white image of the aluminum alloy under a microscope. Most of the image is light grey, but there are many small black spots that have lines extending out from them like cracks.

Rare Crystal Shape Found to Increase the Strength of 3D-Printed Metal

April 7, 2025

NIST researchers have found special atomic patterns called quasicrystals in 3D-printed aluminum alloys.

NIST Report to Congress Provides Update on Champlain Towers South Investigation

February 5, 2025

The report notes that the team has completed all experimental work on the physical evidence from the building’s structural elements.

Events

Additive Construction The Path to Standardization III

Additive Construction – The Path to Standardization Continues III

Mon, Aug 18 - Wed, Aug 20 2025

The event, Additive Construction – The Path to Standardization Continues, will bring together industry and academic

Software

Tool for Evaluation of Vaporized Hydrogen Peroxide Disinfection of N95 Masks in Small Rooms

June 3, 2020

This spreadsheet tool estimates the vaporized hydrogen peroxide (VHP) concentration in air of rooms used for VHP mask disinfection systems. The tool employs a

FDS and Smokeview

Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS) is a computational model for smoke and heat transport from fires. Smokeview visualizes the output from FDS and CFAST.

BEES

February 5, 2018

The BEES ( Building for Environmental and Economic Sustainability) software brings to your fingertips a powerful technique for selecting cost-effective

CONTAM

January 8, 2021

CONTAM is a multizone indoor air quality and ventilation analysis computer program designed to help you determine: (a) airflows: infiltration, exfiltration, and

STEP File Analyzer and Viewer

May 15, 2025

The free STEP File Viewer supports parts, assemblies, dimensions, tolerances, and more. The Analyzer generates a spreadsheet of all entity and attribute

EVAP-COND, Version 5.0

January 1, 2020

EVAP-COND is a software package that contains NIST's simulation models EVAP and COND for finned-tube evaporators and condensers. The “tube-by-tube” scheme in

CFAST

CFAST (Consolidated Model of Fire and Smoke Transport) is a computer program that helps users understand how fire and smoke spread through a building.

VCCTL Software

(Return to Cement Hydration and Degradation Modeling Software) The Virtual Cement and Concrete Testing Laboratory (VCCTL) software provides a virtual testing

View All Software

Tools and Instruments

Additive Manufacturing Metrology Testbed (AMMT)

The NIST Additive Manufacturing Metrology Testbed is a fully custom, open-platform laser powder bed fusion (LBPF) system to advance monitoring, controls, and

Fire Calorimetry Database (FCD)

The NIST Fire Calorimetry Database (FCD) contains results of fire experiments conducted at the National Fire Research Laboratory.

SPHERE

In the artificial ultraviolet (UV) weathering of materials, a need exists for weathering devices that can uniformly illuminate test specimens with a high level

Additive Manufacturing Powder Metrology Laboratory

NIST researchers are developing and deploying test methods, protocols, and exemplar data for characterizing the properties of metal powders used in commercial

Awards

Amy Mensch is Selected for the 2025 ASME Lakshmi Singh Early Career Leadership Award

This award recognizes early-career women engineers who have demonstrated considerable leadership in, commitment to, and continued service to

Eric Link is Receives 2025 Washington Academy of Sciences (WAS) Excellence in Research Award in Engineering

To recognize a person for outstanding research contributions in any scientific or engineering discipline.

Kamel Saidi Receives 2025 Washington Academy of Sciences Leadership Award

For outstanding leadership and significant impacts on advanced manufacturing, construction, and emergency response capabilities and

50 Years of Fire Safety Advances Site Receives Communicator Award of Excellence and Award of Distinction

The 50 Years of Fire Safety Advances website received a Communicator Award of Excellence in the General-Science and Technology category and

Press Coverage

New unit at NIST (usa)

XtreeE, 3D Concrete Printing Solutions

July 5, 2024

We are thrilled to announce that XtreeE has successfully installed our cutting-edge 3D concrete printing system at the prestigious National Institute of

Taking Measure Blog

Corey Stambaugh poses smiling outdoors on the NIST campus.

A Quantum Leap Forward: How Tiny Particles Can Bring Us Exciting New Tech

June 18, 2025

Researchers are using quantum science to develop computers that can do tasks traditional computers can’t do as efficiently. That’s why it’s an exciting time to

Two NIST researchers, wearing hardhats and protective jackets, watch a small shed burn as part of a setudy.

Fighting Fire With Research: How a Scientist is Protecting People and Property From Wildfires

June 16, 2025

NIST fire experts are working to better understand dangerous wildfires, so communities can protect people and homes.

A person performs chest compressions on a CPR practice mannequin.

Shocking History: How a NIST Engineer Helped Create Lifesaving CPR

June 4, 2025

An electrical engineer who worked at NIST helped create the technique we know today as cardiopulmonary resuscitation, or CPR.

How NIST Helped Start an Industry: Our Role in Jump-Starting Quantum Information Science

May 28, 2025

While quantum technology may seem like a new field, it’s been around for a while and has a fascinating history — much of which involved NIST’s experts.

A detailed view of two connected blue and silver train cars on a railway track.

Planes, Trains and Automobiles: NIST Edition

May 21, 2025

However you choose to get from A to B, NIST helped make your preferred mode of transportation safer and more standardized.

A researcher wearing a mask, safety glasses and gloves sits at a desk, looking at electronic devices and writing on a clipboard.

Research-Based Practices Can Help Forensic Scientists Do Their Best Work

May 7, 2025

A NIST working group made recommendations to help forensic scientists work more effectively — with the goal of making the justice system more impartial.

Quantum Advances: NIST and Industry Drive Powerful Computing and Clocks

April 30, 2025

Imagine what life would be like without GPS, something you use all the time without thinking about where it came from. NIST research helped bring you GPS and

Krister Shalm, wearing safety glasses, smiles over a lab table covered with electronics equipment.

Quantum and Dance: It Takes 2 to Entangle

April 14, 2025

Quantum physics and dancing may seem very different, but they both rely on creativity and precision. Both have shaped one NIST researcher’s outlook on life.

Julie Haney sits at a table in the NIST library with a laptop, looking at a smartphone in her hand.

7 Tips to Keep Your Smart Home Safer and More Private, From a NIST Cybersecurity Researcher

April 2, 2025

Our smart home devices can be compromised, but you can take a few simple steps to reduce your risks.

Leroy Jia poses smiling at his desk, with piles of books in the background.

Mathematical Models Can Help Us Understand — and Possibly Treat — Complex Diseases

March 26, 2025

What if a computer model could help make us healthier? Researchers at NIST and elsewhere are working to make this a reality for patients with a condition of the

Alexander Kramida looks up as he sits at his desk in front of a computer screen full of data.

Shedding Light: How NIST’s Light Database Helps Bring You Computer Chips, Welded Steel and More

March 20, 2025

Atomic spectroscopy helps to bring us many things we use every day, but without updated information, it would be harder for scientists and experts to create

Justyna Zwolak poses for a casual photo outdoors on the NIST campus.

Marie Skłodowska-Curie: A Legacy of Innovation and Empowerment for Women in Science

March 12, 2025

Growing up in a country where the first scientist to win a Nobel Prize was a woman helped inspire a NIST researcher to pursue her career in science.

A researcher in a lab coat and safety glasses poses next to a large piece of lab equipment.

The Insulation That Melts in Your Walls — and Could Reduce Your Energy Costs

February 26, 2025

Wherever humans go, we take some form of insulation with us to keep us at just the right temperature. But just because the idea is old doesn’t mean that there

A rectangular box coated with reflective foil hangs from cables over a parking lot.

High-Flying Science: How and Why We Sent a Refrigerator Halfway to Space

February 12, 2025

NIST-developed tools can study the remnants of the Big Bang and more, and now researchers are working to launch these tools high above the Earth’s atmosphere —

A researcher wearing safety glasses reaches into a box of circuitry and other equipment, which emits a green glow.

5 Concepts Can Help You Understand Quantum Mechanics and Technology — Without Math!

February 5, 2025

Quantum is everywhere, and you can understand the basic quirks of life at the quantum level … no math required.