ENGGtalks Newsroom

27 Nov 23

Europe’s IT sector worried AI Act ‘misses mark on tech neutrality’

Computer & Information Technology

The EU’s upcoming AI Act has an ambitious goal: to set the first landmark framework for regulating artificial intelligence. But its strict approach towards General Purpose AI (GPAI) and foundation models has sparked controversy both among the bloc’s policymakers and the wider tech industry. Now, following the act’s latest Trilogue…

27 Nov 23

‘Wave devouring’ tech inspired by whales could propel ships towards net zero

Computer & Information Technology

Scientists from Cranfield University in the UK are developing a kind of underwater wing for ships that could help decarbonise a sector responsible for more emissions than air travel. Known as wave devouring propulsion technology, it is essentially a flapping foil system installed at the bottom of a ship’s hull…

26 Nov 23

Build Your Own Hi-fi Ear Defenders

Electrical, Electronics & Instrumentation, Mechanical, Production & Manufacturing

Many of us have gotten used to being able to dampen unwanted sound, thanks to the noise-cancellation technology found in, for example, Apple’s AirPods Pro earbuds. But this tech gets you only so far: Noise cancellation works just for relatively low frequencies, and the overall hearing protection that earbuds can…

26 Nov 23

New Neurotech Eschews Electricity for Ultrasound

Computer & Information Technology

2023 has been a year chock-full of developments in brain-computer interface (BCI) technology: devices that can decode brain signals and use them to control an external device, or use a device to alter brain signals. BCI developers Neuralink, Paradromics, and Synchron all reached important milestones in the clinical trial process,…

26 Nov 23

Volunteer Training Program Sees Record Growth As it Marks 10 Years

Electrical, Electronics & Instrumentation, Mechanical, Production & Manufacturing

IEEE depends on volunteer members for many things, including organizing conferences, coordinating regional and local activities, writing standards, and deciding on IEEE’s future. But because the organization can be complex, many members don’t know what resources and roles are available to them, and they might need training on how to…

25 Nov 23

Generating Power on Earth From the Coldness of Deep Space

Electrical, Electronics & Instrumentation, Mechanical, Production & Manufacturing

It’s a summer night. On the rooftop of a quiet building, a set of panels cools the rooms within and keeps the lights on, removing heat and generating electricity using the coldness of the sky. That cold isn’t in the air around the building—the night is warm. Rather, the panels…

25 Nov 23

Satellite-Sharing Enables Low-Cost Earth Observation

Electrical, Electronics & Instrumentation

In August, Oleksii Kryvobok walked through a green and yellow field of sunflowers south of Kyiv, Ukraine, and measured the harvest’s photosynthetic activity with a device on a tripod. Hundreds of kilometers overhead, the EOS SAT-1 satellite, launched by Kryvobok’s employer, EOS Data Analytics (EOSDA), in Mountain View, California, was…

25 Nov 23

Video Friday: Punch-Out

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.Humanoids 2023: 12–14 December 2023, AUSTIN, TEX.Cybathlon Challenges: 02 February 2024,…

24 Nov 23

Europe’s Ariane 6 rocket is ‘ready to rumble’ following full dress rehearsal

Computer & Information Technology

The European Space Agency’s next-generation heavy-lift rocket Ariane 6 successfully completed a full dress rehearsal on Thursday, in preparation for its maiden flight next year. The so-called hot-fire test at Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana “simulated a complete launch sequence and thus validated the entire flight phase of Ariane 6’s…

24 Nov 23

For NASA, Iceland’s Lava Fields Mimic Venus’s Hellscape

Aerospace & Aeronautical

The pleasant streets of Grindavik on the southern tip of Iceland are now barren, stark, and cracked, as empty-seeming as the vast landscape around it. On 11 November, this Iclandic fishing town was evacuated on fears of an imminent volcanic eruption. Just eleven days earlier, at the beginning of the…