EV Industry Grapples with Unprecedented Battery Regulation Compliance Challenges

The EU Battery Regulation demands unprecedented granularity in supply chain tracking. Read on to learn more about what this means.

New Self-Assembling Material Could Be the Key to Recyclable EV Batteries

Today’s electric vehicle boom is tomorrow’s mountain of electronic waste. And while myriad efforts are underway to improve battery recycling, many EV batteries still end up in landfills. A research team from MIT wants to help change that with a new kind of self-assembling battery material that quickly breaks apart when submerged in a simple organic liquid. Read on to learn more.

How Carbon Fibers Can Help Manufacture Li-ion Batteries

Oak Ridge National Laboratory researchers have overcome a barrier to using a more affordable, dry process for manufacturing the Li-ion batteries used in vehicles and electronic devices. The resulting batteries provide greater electricity flow and reduced risk of overheating. Read on to learn more.

The End of the Beginning: Why the EV Market Will Overcome the Loss of Tax Credits

Will EV sales in the U.S. double by the end of the decade, or more? Will the U.S. keep pace with China’s relentless iterative improvements on EV technology, or will China increasingly dominate the rapidly electrifying global transportation industry? Read on to learn more.

Breakthrough Advances Sodium-Based Battery Design

Read on to learn about research that raises the benchmark for sodium-based all-solid-state batteries and demonstrates thick cathodes that retain performance at room temperature down to subzero conditions.

Breaking the Rules to Build a Better Battery

By flipping a foundational belief in battery design, Hailong Chen and his team found that charging zinc-ion batteries at higher currents can make them last longer. Read on to learn more about this surprising result.

New Products

See the new products, including Plasmatreat's HydroPlasma, a solution for the removal of stubborn contaminants from glass and metal surfaces; TDK Corporation's 3000-watt TDK-Lambda brand HWS3000G programmable AC-DC power supplies; Zircotec's new range of proprietary ceramic coatings; Thermo Fisher Scientific's expanded solutions for battery manufacturers; and more.

Heavy-Payload Conveyance Paves the Way for Next-Generation Battery Manufacturing

Battery packs are becoming larger and heavier, particularly in applications such as electric trucks, aviation and renewable energy storage. As payload requirements increase, manufacturers are turning to advanced automation and material handling systems to keep pace. Read on to learn what this means.

Vision Integration Transforms Collaborative Robotics

Without integrated vision, robots can only perform tasks in precisely the same way every time. If a part is even slightly out of position or rotated differently, the robot may fail to complete its task, or worse, cause an error in the process. Read on to learn more.

Boosting Welding Productivity with the GoFa Cobot

Finland-based Metos Oy, a manufacturer of professional stainless steel kitchen equipment, needed a welding solution that could deliver flawless, pressure-rated welds for small batches of high-spec products, which feature tubular structures and circular shafts that required continuous, precision welding. Read on to find out what they did.

Robotic System for Assembly and Maintenance of Lightweight Reconfigurable Structures

Missions to the moon and other planets will require large-scale infrastructure that would benefit from autonomous assembly by robots without on-site human intervention. NASA Ames Research Center has developed a novel and efficient mobile bipedal robot system to construct low-mass, high precision, and largescale infrastructure. Read on to learn more.

New AI-Driven Design Tool Optimizes Performance and Functionality of Robots

A team of UC Berkeley-led researchers has developed an AI-driven framework to optimize and automate the design of complex truss robots. This approach enables designers to create robots with extraordinary capabilities while maximizing control efficiency. Read on to learn more about it.

Programming Robots with Rubber Bands

Mechanical engineering researchers in the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences think there’s another way to design robots: Programming intended functions directly into a robot’s physical structure, allowing the robot to react to its surroundings without the need for extensive on-board electronics. Read on to learn more.

Robotic Skin Allows Tiny Robots to Navigate Complex, Fragile Environments

Researchers at the University of California San Diego have developed a soft robotic skin that enables vine robots that are just a few millimeters wide to navigate convoluted paths and fragile environments. Read on to learn more.

AR-Enhanced Rescue Robot for Disaster Response

Robots may soon have a new way to communicate with people. Not through words or screens, but with light and images projected directly onto the world around them. University of South Florida's Zhao Han is developing technology that could transform how people interact with robots in both emergencies and everyday life. Read on to learn more.

New Products

See the new products, including NVIDIA's IGX Thor, an industrial-grade platform built to bring real-time physical AI directly to the edge; Teknic's precision planetary gearboxes; PI's L-220 series linear actuators; Compact Click dev tool from MIKROE; and more.

Why Human Expertise Is Driving the Future of Autonomy

The future of industrial autonomy will not be defined by systems that operate as opaque black boxes, but by approaches that deliberately embed the expertise of the people who know the processes best. Machine teaching makes this possible by making the skills and strategies of expert operators the foundation of AI system design. Read on to learn more.

The Mechanics Behind Motion: Exploring Planetary Servo Gearboxes

While growing up, many of us were fascinated by watching gears turning, whether in bicycles, clocks or garbage trucks packing trash on the old rear-load machines. Today, gearing systems play a crucial role in machinery, transmitting power efficiently and reliably across a wide range of applications. Read on to learn more.

Training Uncrewed Underwater Vehicles for Visualization of Subsurface Structures

Through a combination of modeling, simulation, and machine learning (ML), USM researchers are laying the groundwork for intelligent uncrewed underwater vehicles (UUVs) capable of autonomously and accurately revealing what lies beneath the waves. Read on to learn more.

A Satellite Micro-Vibration Test Platform to Isolate Vibrations

The micro-vibration test instrument gives the ESA a high confidence that a satellite’s mechanisms in space will generate verified forces and torques as displayed and confirmed on the micro-vibration test instrument on Earth. Read on to learn more about it.

How Metasurfaces Can Act as Quantum Upgrades

Optics researchers in the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences created specially designed metasurfaces — flat devices etched with nanoscale light-manipulating patterns — to act as ultra-thin upgrades for quantum-optical chips and setups. Read on to learn more.

Color Filtering Software Enhances Material Strain Analysis

Innovators at NASA Johnson Space Center have developed a technology that can isolate a single direction of tensile strain in biaxially woven material. This is accomplished using traditional digital image correlation (DIC) techniques in combination with custom red-green-blue (RGB) color filtering software. Read on to learn more.

Entangled-Photon Pairs Secure Optical Communications

NASA's Glenn Research Center has developed a method of using entangled-photon pairs to produce highly secure mobile communications that require mere milliwatts of power. Read on to learn more.

3D LiDAR for Improved Rover Traversal and Imagery

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center has developed a Space Qualified Rover LiDAR (SQRLi) system that will improve rover sensing capabilities in a small, lightweight package. The new SQRLi package is developed to survive the hazardous space environment and provide valuable image data during planetary and lunar rover exploration. Read on to learn more about it.

A New Method to Protect Aircraft Against GPS Outages

Researchers from Sandia National Laboratories and Ohio State University are taking experimental navigation technology to the skies, pioneering a backup system to keep an airplane on course when it cannot rely on global positioning system satellites. Read on to learn more.

Researchers Give New Meaning to the Term “Microwave Brain”

Cornell researchers have developed a low-power microchip they call a “microwave brain,” the first processor to compute on both ultrafast data signals and wireless communication signals by harnessing the physics of microwaves. Read on to learn more about it.

The U.K.’s First Long-Distance, Quantum-Secured Video Call and More

Researchers have successfully demonstrated the U.K.’s first long-distance ultra-secure transfer of data over a quantum communications network, including the U.K.’s first long-distance quantum-secured video call. Read on to learn more.

‘Leukemia-On-A-Chip’ Could Transform CAR T Blood Cancer Treatments

A collaborative multidisciplinary team of researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and the Tandon School of Engineering at New York University has developed a miniature device that could transform how blood cancer treatments are tested and tailored for patients. Read on to learn more.

Smart Wound Monitor Poised to Improve Infection Care

Researchers from RMIT University have developed a wearable wound monitoring device with integrated sensors that could reduce infection risks by minimizing the need for frequent physical contact. Read on to learn more about it.

Micro-Organ Device Mimics Organ Structures for Lab Testing

NASA Johnson Space Center has developed the Micro-Organ Device (MOD) platform technology that serves as a drug screening system with human or animal cell micro-organs to supplement and reduce animal studies while potentially increasing the success of clinical trials. Read on to learn more.

3D Construction of Biologically Derived Materials

NASA has developed a novel approach for macroscale biomaterial production by combining synthetic biology with 3D printing. This innovation provides modern design and fabrication techniques for custom-designed organic or organic-inorganic composite biomaterials produced from limited resources. Read on to learn more.

Shoreline Model Predicts Storm Protection, Sea-Level Rise

Researchers have created a simulation model to analyze how coastal management activities meant to protect barrier islands from sea-level rise can disrupt the natural processes that are keeping barrier islands above water. Read on to learn more about it.

Integrating Photovoltaics with Crop Production

As countries race to expand renewable energy infrastructure, balancing clean electricity production with land use for food remains a pressing challenge — especially in Japan, where mountainous terrain limits space. A recent study led by researchers from the University of Tokyo explores a promising solution: integrating solar panels with traditional rice farming in a practice known as agrivoltaics. Read on to learn more.

Building a Good Indoor Climate with Sustainable Building Components

A team of researchers from ETH Zurich investigated a new approach to passive dehumidification of indoor spaces. Read on to learn more about it.

New on the Market

See what's new on the market, including the new ImageIR® 9800 from infraTec; Instron's new 100 kN table model for the 6800 and 3400 Series universal testing systems; Sumida Corporation's CIUH10D46 and CIUH10D47 pulse transformers; and much more.

Products of Tomorrow

See the products of tomorrow, including a drone with flapping wings that can locate and hover around a moving light like a moth to a flame; a new multi-layered metalens design that could revolutionize portable optics in devices like phones, drones, and satellites; and more.

Product of the Month

See the product of the month: OnLogic's new edge computer series, the Karbon 520.

The Future of Axial- and Radial-Flux Motors

Traditionally, most motors used in EVs and mobility platforms have been radial flux systems. In recent years, there have been major strides in alternative axial flux motor architectures. What exactly do these architectural differences mean for motor design and production? Read on to find out.

AI at the Speed of Light?

International research collaboration has unlocked a new approach that performs complex tensor computations using a single propagation of light. The result is single-shot tensor computing, achieved at the speed of light itself.

High-Temperature-Resistant Material Perfect for Applications Like Energy-Efficient Aircraft Engines

A new material might contribute to a reduction of the fossil fuels consumed by aircraft engines and gas turbines in the future.

Artemis II Mission Launch

As 2026 nears, NASA continues moving forward to launching Artemis II, the first crewed mission under the Artemis campaign, no later than April next year. Test your knowledge about the mission in this quiz.

How Packet Digital Is Scaling Domestic Drone Battery Manufacturing

On this episode of the Aerospace & Defense Technology podcast, Packet Digital CEO Terri Zimmerman breaks down the company’s push to expand U.S.-based production of advanced lithium-ion batteries for military unmanned aircraft systems. Listen now!

Developing Sustainable Drug-Delivery Devices

The challenges and opportunities in developing greener drug delivery solutions without compromising performance and safety.

Revolutionizing the Production of Semiconductor Chips

Engineers at The University of Texas at Austin are leading an academic and industry all-star team that aims to revolutionize the production of semiconductor chips with a new 3D printing method.

An Electronic Fiber for Stretchable Sensing

The phrase ‘liquid metal’ may bring to mind something hazardous, like mercury or molten steel. But in the Laboratory of Photonic Materials and Fiber Devices (FIMAP) in EPFL’s School of...

New Cooling Technique Could Make Computer Chips More Powerful

As more devices get piled onto computer chips to increase processing power capacity, heat generation becomes increasingly concentrated. This heat must be removed to keep chip...

Scientists Create Superconducting Semiconductor Material

Scientists have long sought to make semiconductors that are also superconducting, thereby enhancing their speed and energy efficiency and enabling new quantum technologies. However,...

Manufacturing the World's Tiniest Light-Emitting Diodes

Miniaturization ranks as the driving force behind the semiconductor industry. The tremendous gains in computer performance since the 1950s are largely due to the fact that ever smaller...

2025 Holiday Gift Guide for Engineers: Tech, Tools, and Gadgets

We here at Tech Briefs want to remedy that toxic part of the holidays. So, we put together a list of terrific gift ideas for anyone — but especially the engineer — in your life.

How Do Hydraulic Brakes Work?

If you’ve ridden in a modern car, bus, truck, aircraft, or even on certain bicycles, you’ve used hydraulic brakes. You most certainly have used them, but do you know how they work? Find out with this quiz.

SAE Automotive Engineering Podcast: Additive Manufacturing

To help pass the time during your commute or while working around the house or in the garage, we've launched the SAE Automotive Engineering podcast.