Articles

The Impact of AI Across the Industrial Value Chain

It is no exaggeration to say that AI will be the next big leap across all of industry, reimagining the way people work, products are designed, and factories are operated. But AI doesn’t mean a fully autonomous future but rather a harmony, uniting people and technology in a way that plays to the strength of both to achieve a result greater than what either could achieve alone. Read on to learn more.

When Automation Goes Wrong: Lessons from the Field

Automation is a powerful tool, but only when designed and implemented with a systems-level mindset. Failures rarely stem from the automation hardware itself but often result from gaps in planning, integration, or life cycle support. Read on to learn more.

Implementing Predictive Maintenance

Predictive maintenance is based on condition monitoring, anomaly detection, and classification algorithms, and integrates predictive models which can estimate the remaining machine runtime. Read on to learn more about it and how to implement it.

How to Optimize Self-Powered Sensing

MIT researchers have developed a method that anyone can use to design an energy management interface between the harvester and the sensor load to minimize the drain on the harvester and maximize the amount of data that can be transmitted by the sensor. Read on to learn more via this Q&A with Daniel Monagle and Steven B. Leeb.

2025 Rising Star Awards Winners

SAE Media Group’s Women in Engineering: Rising Star Awards program shines the spotlight on trailblazers who not only excel in their respective domains but also stroke the flames of inspiration in others. This year’s awards program features six categories: Aerospace/Defense, Automotive/Transportation, Electronics, Manufacturing/Materials, Medical, and Robotics, Automation and AI. In this special section, you’ll meet the winners in all six categories.

How Through-Hole Reflow Technology Transforms Production

A new technology closes the gap and combines PCB production into a single process, leveraging the capabilities of SMT. The resulting through-hole reflow (THR) process allows for components to be mounted through those pre-drilled holes — but secured during the same soldering process as the SMT-designed components. Read on to learn more.

Aerospace & Defense Rising Star Awards Winner 2025

Keshika Warnakula, Senior Flight Mechanics Engineer, Syos Aerospace, from Auckland, New Zealand is the 2025 Rising Star Award Winner for Aerospace and Defense.

Electronics Rising Star Awards Winner 2025

Samantha Shumberger, Senior Design Engineer, Molex, from Wellsville, PA, is the 2025 Rising Star Award Winner for Electronics.

Robotics, Automation & AI Rising Star Awards Winner 2025

Ipsita Mohanty, Co-Founder and Chief AI Architect, QApp from San Jose, CA, is the 2025 Rising Star Award Winner for Robotics, Automation & AI.

Automotive/Transportation Rising Star Awards Winner 2025

Sadiyah Sabah Chowdhury, Senior Technical Specialist in Technical Strategy & Integration, Cummins from Columbus, IN, is the 2025 Rising Star Award Winner for Automotive/Transportation.

Manufacturing Rising Star Awards Winner 2025

Mariam Sulleiman, Graduate Researcher, University of Texas at Austin from Austin, TX, is the 2025 Rising Star Award Winner for Manufacturing.

Medical Rising Star Awards Winner 2025

Debbie Teodorescu, Founder and Board Director, SurgiBox Inc.; Invasive & Heart Failure Cardiologist from Seattle, WA, is the 2025 Rising Star Award Winner for Medical.

Rising Star Awards 2025 Judges

Meet our esteemed panel of judges comprising of leaders from engineering and technology fields, who bring decades of experience and expertise to the evaluation process, ensuring fairness and rigor. These judges were hand-selected by SAE Media Group’s editorial team for their breadth of knowledge and experience in the industry.

Products of Tomorrow

See the products of tomorrow, including a new type of 3D-printed titanium that’s about a third cheaper than commonly used titanium alloys; specially designed metasurfaces — flat devices etched with nanoscale light-manipulating patterns — to act as ultra-thin upgrades for quantum-optical chips and setups; and a handheld slide staining system designed to support medical, research, or environmental monitoring.

Optimizing Laser Cutting in Semiconductor Advanced Packaging

DPSS lasers are a critical enabling technology for meeting the precision materials processing demands of advanced packaging. Both nanosecond and USP lasers can achieve excellent results, but the right choice depends on specific requirements. Read on to learn more.

New Imaging Technologies Achieve Real-Time Boundary Detection, Single-Shot High-Dynamic Range Imaging

Patent-pending imaging technologies created in Purdue University’s College of Engineering could be developed and commercialized for applications as diverse as medical imaging, autonomous navigation, surveillance, microscopy, and advanced manufacturing. Read on to learn more about it.

How to Optimize for Isolation and Performance Using Advanced Digital Isolators

This article briefly examines why isolation is required, emphasizing the need in sensor-based circuits. It then looks at various aspects of isolation using state-of-the-art digital isolators from Analog Devices and shows how they can be applied.

Flexible Silicon Photovoltaics: A Breakthrough in Space-Grade Solar Power

In-space manufacturing is expected to become a core part of future space economy by using assets in orbits or beyond Earth orbit for use in space. Tech Briefs interviewed space-focused solar energy startup Solestial’s CTO Stanislau Herasimenka about the key technology developments leading to this increased momentum for space-based manufacturing and the role solar power will play in it. Read on for the full interview with Herasimenka, edited for length and clarity.

Products of Tomorrow

See the products of tomorrow, including a new tunable laser that uses a series of rings to smoothly emit many light wavelengths from a single chip; a smart capsule called PillTrek, which can measure pH, temperature, and a variety of different biomarkers; and more.

From Mine to Battery: The Growing Importance of Graphite Purity and Provenance

Collaborating across sectors and keeping up with developments in analysis tools will be crucial as the transition to a more sustainable energy landscape occurs in the future. Read on to learn more.

Laying the Building Blocks for the EV Smart Grid

This article introduces the fundamental concepts behind EV load management, which allows fleet operators to fit more EV chargers on the utility service that they currently have. Read on to learn more.

How Battery Simulation Is Taking High-Performance EV Development to New Heights

What was once a specialized capability is now becoming a cornerstone of modern EV development. Simulation delivers speed, accuracy, and flexibility — qualities that are essential to staying competitive in advanced electrification. Read on to learn more.

Why Accurate SoC and SoH Estimation Is Critical for Battery Longevity and Business Success

The modern world runs on battery power. The world’s most critical industries are widely adopting battery-powered systems to achieve decarbonization goals, energy independence, and mobility. Still, like any technology, battery performance and business success depend on how well they’re managed. Read on to learn what this means.

Sealing the Future of Hydrogen: Advanced Gaskets for Electrolyzer Efficiency

As a key technology in the transition to cleaner energy, electrolyzers are critical in enabling hydrogen production without reliance on fossil fuels. However, these renewable systems face significant engineering challenges that require meticulous technical attention. Read on to learn more.

Making Hydrogen Power a Practical Proposition

Occupying a unique space as both an energy vector and a fuel, hydrogen has gained interest for propulsion and power generation applications over the past several years. Hydrogen has been investigated thoroughly throughout the previous decades, but with advances in hydrogen generation and infrastructure, and the increasing need to low-carbon propulsion solutions across all sectors, hydrogen propulsion may be poised for significant market penetration. Read on to learn more.

Retrofit in Industrial Production: Digitization of Existing Systems

Retrofitting offers a technically and economically sensible way to adapt existing production facilities to the requirements of modern manufacturing processes. The use of image processing, measurement technology, and deep learning in existing machines and systems can be decisive in this context. Read on to learn more.

Faster Wire Connection Technology Generates Quantifiable Savings

Today, there is innovative conductor terminating technology, known as SNAP IN technology, that allows for the fastest wiring connections to date. Read on to best understand the advantages that SNAP IN technology brings to motion control systems.

Advanced Motion Control Components for Critical Aerospace Applications

Using higher-quality, custom-engineered motion control components provides significant advantages for aerospace manufacturers. Whether through advanced gas springs, precision dampers, or electric linear actuators, the right components ensure that equipment will operate smoothly and reliably for the expected lifespan, while meeting the rigorous standards of modern aerospace. Read on to learn more.

Products of Tomorrow

See the products of tomorrow, including a compact, low-power receiver for 5G-compatible smart devices that is about 30 times more resilient to a certain type of interference than some traditional wireless receivers; a flexible, conductive skin, which is easy to fabricate and can be melted down and formed into a wide range of complex shapes; and tiny batteries that vanish after use inspired by Mission: Impossible.