ENGGtalks Newsroom

24 Sep 23

NASA Battery Tech to Deliver for the Grid

Mechanical, Production & Manufacturing

Technologies for space are designed to be tough, safe, and long-lasting. So what happens when you bring the battery chemistry deployed on the International Space Station, nickel-hydrogen, down to Earth? “[It’s] the most durable battery ever invented,” says Jorg Heinemann. Nickel-hydrogen batteries, he says, can last for 30,000 charge cycles,…

23 Sep 23

Inside the Global Race to Tap Potent Offshore Wind

Electrical, Electronics & Instrumentation, Mechanical, Production & Manufacturing

In a hangar at the University of Edinburgh, a triangular steel contraption sits beside a giant tank of water. Inside the tank, a technician in a yellow dinghy adjusts equipment so that the triangled structure can be hoisted into the water to see how it deals with simulated waves and…

23 Sep 23

Connection Machine Joins All to All to Optimize Better

Electrical, Electronics & Instrumentation, Mechanical, Production & Manufacturing

Optimization problems—such as scheduling the hundreds of National Football League (NFL) games while attempting to abide by the league’s many, many rules—can take huge computing resources. Some such problems are impractical even for today’s supercomputers. Inspired by quantum phenomena and other physics-based ways of computing, researchers have been trying to…

22 Sep 23

0-days exploited by commercial surveillance vendor in Egypt

Computer & Information Technology

Last week Google’s Threat Analysis Group (TAG), in partnership with The Citizen Lab, discovered an in-the-wild 0-day exploit chain for iPhones. Developed by the commerci…

22 Sep 23

The Endless Quest for the Perfect Computer Display

Electrical, Electronics & Instrumentation

Computer monitors have improved tremendously since the first mainstream color LCDs edged out CRT displays two decades ago. But odds are high the motion performance of the monitor you’re using right now is far from perfect.This is the reality of modern displays with a 60 hertz refresh rate, which refresh…

22 Sep 23

Video Friday: Robot Dance

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.IROS 2023: 1–5 October 2023, DETROITCLAWAR 2023: 2–4 October 2023, FLORIANOPOLIS,…

22 Sep 23

Industrial Light & Magic Engineer Wins a Technical Oscar

Electrical, Electronics & Instrumentation, Mechanical, Production & Manufacturing

Winning an Academy Award is probably not something most engineers ever expect to do. But it was a fitting honor for Jim Vanns, who won a 2023 Technical Achievement Award—commonly referred to as a Technical Oscar—from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for his work on the high-performance…

22 Sep 23

Virtual influencers: meet the AI-generated figures posing as your new online friends

Computer & Information Technology

The future of influence is here: a digital avatar that captivates millions of adoring fans while offering unparalleled customisation and round-the-clock availability. Virtual influencers are transforming the way content is created, consumed and marketed online. They represent an electrifying dance between cutting-edge technology and our desire for connection. But, at…

22 Sep 23

Poland investigates ChatGPT after alleged data privacy breach

Computer & Information Technology

Poland’s data protection watchdog is investigating OpenAI’s ChatGPT after an unnamed complainant accused the company of GDPR breaches. “The case concerns the violation of many provisions on the protection of personal data, which is why we will ask OpenAI to answer a number of questions in order to thoroughly conduct…

22 Sep 23

3 ways AI can help communities adapt to climate change in Africa

Computer & Information Technology

Last week at the inaugural Africa Climate Summit (ACS) in Nairobi, Kenya, we joined African leaders and shared our commitment to advance AI solutions to address the clim…