Stories

Researchers Take Stock of the Most Promising Control Scheme for Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motors

Electrical machines consume nearly half of all the electrical power generated worldwide, making them one of the top contributors to carbon...

Computer-Guided Drawing Machine Fabricates Paper Metamaterials

Scientists have developed a new technique for fabricating metamaterials from sheets of paper, using a computer to guide the movement of conductive ink pens and mechanical...

Fighting Gravity with the World’s First Propulsion Suit

Using jet fuel as a means to power five gas turbines, the suit can propel pilots about 40 mph for up to eight minutes and can generate more than 1,000 horsepower.

How is AI Transforming Manufacturing?

Artificial intelligence (AI) adoption is gradually increasing across industries. How much do you know about AI in manufacturing? Take this quiz to find out.

Gallium Nitride Yields More Energy-Efficient Devices

Engineers have created new high-power electronic devices that are more energy efficient than their predecessors.

Designing to Minimize Environmental Impact

According to the NASA Earth Observatory, air temperatures on Earth have been rising since the Industrial Revolution. Here is a suggestion about one way that engineers could help reduce the problems caused by that in their everyday work.

Robots Walk Autonomously Via Microscopic Brains

Engineers have installed tiny electronic “brains” on solar-powered robots so that the machines can walk autonomously, sans external control.

Test Your Knowledge About Wearable Technology

See how much you know about wearable technology and the progress it has made.

Test Your Knowledge About Batteries

Do you know how far the battery has advanced since its inception? Find out with our quiz below.

New Ultrathin Capacitor Could Enable Energy-Efficient Microchips

The silicon-based computer chips that power our modern devices require vast amounts of energy to operate. Despite ever-improving computing efficiency, information technology...

A New Neuromorphic Chip for AI on The Edge

An international team of researchers has designed and built a chip that runs computations directly in memory and can run a wide variety of AI applications — all at a fraction of the energy...

Leading Experts Suggest Guidelines for Assessing Emerging Transistor Performance

To continue making smartphones, laptops, and other devices more powerful, yet energy efficient, industry is intensely focused on identifying promising...

Strain-Sensing Smart Skin Ready to Deploy

A strain-sensing smart skin developed at Rice University uses very small carbon nanotube structures to monitor and detect damage in large structures. The “strain paint” uses the fluorescent...

Glow-in-the-Dark Algae May Be Ideal for Soft Robots

Engineers developed soft devices containing algae that glow when under mechanical stress —perfect for building soft robots.

How Much Do You Know About Computer History?

How did this computer revolution happen? Who were some of the pioneers? How long has it taken to get here?

Scientists Stick Hydrogen Where the Sun Doesn’t Shine

One method for keeping removed carbon out of the atmosphere long-term involves injecting CO2 into rock formations deep underground.

Smart Microrobots Walk Autonomously

A collaborative effort has installed electronic “brains” on solar-powered robots that are 100 to 250 micrometers in size — smaller than an ant’s head — so that they can walk autonomously without...

NIST is Calibrating Gear Artifacts

Gears are sophisticated parts that play a vital role in cars, airplanes, construction and mining equipment, food processing, clock making, and more. And, companies are still trying to make them better —...

Teaching Package-Handling Robots to Navigate Using Visual Cues

We humans are adept at using audio and visual cues for communication while carrying out collaborative tasks. Now researchers are aiming to implement gestural interaction in a networked system of robots.

Eyes on Self-Driving Cars Reduce Accidents

Robotic eyes on autonomous vehicles could improve pedestrian safety, according to a new study at the University of Tokyo. Participants played out scenarios in virtual reality (VR) and had to decide...

A Motorless Sailplane to Explore Mars’ Atmosphere

The UA team aims to design a motorless sailplane that can soar over the Martian surface for days at a time, using only wind for propulsion.

How Much Do You Know About Humanoid Robots?

How much do you know about humanoid robots?

Light-Sensing 3D-Printed Device Could Help People with Lupus

A team of engineers and doctors at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities have designed a unique 3D-printed light-sensing medical device that is placed directly on the skin and...

Advanced Microscope Techniques Could Improve Computer Memories

Anyone who has watched steam billow up from a boiling kettle or seen ice crystals form on a wet window in winter has observed what scientists call a phase transition. Phase...

Thin Device Triggers One of Quantum Mechanics’ Strangest Phenomena

An ultrathin invention could make future computing, sensing and encryption technologies remarkably smaller and more powerful by helping scientists control a strange but...

New Products

High-Speed InGaAs Photodiodes OSI Optoelectronics (Hawthorne, CA) has introduced infrared-sensitive, pigtail-packaged High-Speed InGaAs Photodiodes with active areas of 75 µm and 120 µm. The single/multi-mode fiber is optically...

How Much Do You Know About Electric Aircraft Advances?

How much do you know about the advances regarding to electric aircraft?

Electronic Warfare Combat Training Pod

Using mPOD, “adversary” pilots can emulate enemy jamming techniques accurately, conditioning aircrews to evolving threat scenarios and better preparing them for real combat.

A Silky-Smooth Alternative to Microplastics

The EU has already declared that the nonbiodegradable microplastics must be eliminated by 2025, but a team of MIT scientists has perhaps expedited that timeline.