ENGGtalks Newsroom

03 Apr 24

Fast-Track Your Sensor Research: Essential Tools for Accelerated Testing

Electrical, Electronics & Instrumentation, Mechanical, Production & Manufacturing

A sensor generates an electrical signal that depends on the physical quantity we aim to measure. Achieving the desired performance is an iterative process that begins with finding suitable materials, sensing methods, and control parameters. A complete toolset to characterize the prototype with efficient workflows is crucial to keep up…

03 Apr 24

Satellite Radar Sharpens Ukraine Dam Collapse Questions

Mechanical, Production & Manufacturing

New analysis of the former Kakhovka Dam in Ukraine shows that it may have been deteriorating long before it collapsed in June 2023, amid credible reports of explosions.An international team of researchers has been studying synthetic aperture radar (SAR) archival data of the dam and evaluating the larger context behind…

02 Apr 24

The Rise and Fall of 3M’s Floppy Disk

Electrical, Electronics & Instrumentation, Mechanical, Production & Manufacturing

A version of this post originally appeared on Tedium, Ernie Smith’s newsletter, which hunts for the end of the long tail. If you ask the average person what the company 3M does, odds are if they have a few gray hairs hanging out on their scalp, they might say that…

02 Apr 24

Toyota’s Bubble-ized Humanoid Grasps With Its Whole Body

Electrical, Electronics & Instrumentation, Mechanical, Production & Manufacturing

When we think about robotic manipulation, the default is usually to think about grippers—about robots using manipulators (like fingers or other end effectors) to interact with objects. For most humans, though, interacting with objects can be a lot more complicated, and we use whatever body parts are convenient to help…

01 Apr 24

Stuart Parkin Revolutionized Disk Drive Storage

Electrical, Electronics & Instrumentation, Mechanical, Production & Manufacturing

Ours is a data-centric world. Many modern inventions and occupations rely on data. Artificial intelligence feasts on it. Machine learning identifies patterns within it. Internet of Things devices generate and transmit it. Genomics, bioinformatics, climate science, telecommunications, finance, health care and so many more fields depend on it.For massive datasets…

01 Apr 24

Blink to Generate Power for Smart Contact Lenses

Computer & Information Technology

The potential use cases for smart contacts are compelling and varied. Pop a lens on your eye and monitor health metrics like glucose levels; receive targeted drug delivery for ocular diseases; experience augmented reality and read news updates with displays of information literally in your face. But the eye is…

31 Mar 24

Why L. Ron Hubbard Patented His E-Meter

Electrical, Electronics & Instrumentation, Mechanical, Production & Manufacturing

To call L. Ron Hubbard a prolific writer is an extreme understatement. From 1934 to 1940, he regularly penned 70,000 to 100,000 words per month of pulp fiction under 15 different pseudonyms published in various magazines. Not to be constrained by genre, he wrote zombie mysteries, historical fiction, pirate adventure…

30 Mar 24

Rollable OLED’s Moment Is Near

Electrical, Electronics & Instrumentation

Mobile World Congress, a technology convention held each year in Barcelona, Spain, placed a spotlight on rollable phones like the Phantom Ultimate, a scroll-like concept from Tecno Mobile, and Motorola’s “Adaptive Display Concept,” a phone that can wrap around your wrist like a smartwatch. They were followed by a new…

30 Mar 24

Video Friday: Co-Expression

Electrical, Electronics & Instrumentation, Mechanical, Production & Manufacturing

Video Friday is your weekly selection of awesome robotics videos, collected by your friends at IEEE Spectrum robotics. We also post a weekly calendar of upcoming robotics events for the next few months. Please send us your events for inclusion.RoboCup German Open: 17–21 April 2024, KASSEL, GERMANYAUVSI XPONENTIAL 2024: 22–25…

29 Mar 24

Fusion Tech Finds Geothermal Energy Application

Electrical, Electronics & Instrumentation, Mechanical, Production & Manufacturing

The upper 10 kilometers of the Earth’s crust contains vast geothermal reserves, essentially awaiting human energy consumption to begin to tap into its unstinting power output—which itself yields no greenhouse gasses. And yet, geothermal sources currently produce only three-tenths of one percent of the world’s electricity. This promising energy source…