Type:departments

The Starting Line for Self-Driving Cars

February 1, 2025
Electrical, Electronics & Instrumentation, Mechanical, Production & Manufacturing

The 2004 DARPA Grand Challenge was a spectacular failure. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency had offered a US $1 million prize for the team that could design an autonomous ground vehicle capable of completing an off-road course through sometimes flat, sometimes winding and mountainous desert terrain. As IEEE Spectrum…

December 28, 2024
Computer & Information Technology

Users of Google’s Chrome browser can rest easy knowing that their surfing is secure, thanks in part to cryptographer Joppe Bos. He’s coauthor of a quantum-secure encryption algorithm that was adopted as a standard by the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in August and is already being…

December 2, 2024
Computer & Information Technology

When I was eight years old, I won a coloring contest that earned me a free birthday party at my hometown Chuck E. Cheese. We don’t have any photos from the event because, as my mother recalls, it was absolute mayhem. Kids were running from room to room playing video…

November 28, 2024
Electrical, Electronics & Instrumentation, Mechanical, Production & Manufacturing

Ruzena Bajcsy is one of the founders of the modern field of robotics. With an education in electrical engineering in Slovakia, followed by a Ph.D. at Stanford, Bajcsy was the first woman to join the engineering faculty at the University of Pennsylvania. She was the first, she says, because “in…

October 29, 2024
Electrical, Electronics & Instrumentation

“Cover, bring to a boil, then reduce heat. Simmer for 20 minutes.” These directions seem simple enough, and yet I have messed up many, many pots of rice over the years. My sympathies to anyone who’s ever had to boil rice on a stovetop, cook it in a clay pot…

September 30, 2024
Electrical, Electronics & Instrumentation

Imagine if your boss called a meeting in May to announce that he’s committing 10 percent of the company’s revenue to the development of a brand-new mass-market consumer product, made with a not-yet-ready-for-mass-production component. Oh, and he wants it on store shelves in less than six months, in time for…

September 16, 2024
Electrical, Electronics & Instrumentation

Scottish inventor John Logie Baird had a lot of ingenious ideas, not all of which caught on. His phonovision was an early attempt at video recording, with the signals preserved on phonograph records. His noctovision used infrared light to see objects in the dark, which some experts claim was a…

August 26, 2024
Electrical, Electronics & Instrumentation

Few devices are as crucial to people’s everyday lives as their household appliances. Electrical engineer Erika Cruz says it’s her mission to make sure they operate smoothly. Cruz helps design washing machines and dryers for Whirlpool, the multinational appliance manufacturer. Erika Cruz Employer: Whirlpool Occupation: Associate electrical engineer Education:Bachelor’s degree…

August 1, 2024
Electrical, Electronics & Instrumentation

Senate hearings, a post office ban, the resignation of the director of the National Bureau of Standards, and his reinstatement after more than 400 scientists threatened to resign. Who knew a little box of salt could stir up such drama?What was AD-X2?It all started in 1947 when a bulldozer operator…

June 29, 2024
Computer & Information Technology

In 1993, well before Google Glass debuted, the artist Lisa Krohn designed a prototype wearable computer that looked like no other. The Cyberdesk was an experiment in augmented reality. At a time when computers were mostly beige and boxy, Krohn envisioned a pliable, high-tech garment that fused fashion with function.…

The Starting Line for Self-Driving Cars

This Cryptographer Helps Quantum-Proof the Internet

Chuck E. Cheese’s Animatronics Band Bows Out

5 Questions for Robotics Legend Ruzena Bajcsy

The Unlikely Inventor of the Automatic Rice Cooker

The Incredible Story Behind the First Transistor Radio

In 1926, TV Was Mechanical

Erika Cruz Keeps Whirlpool’s Machines Spinning

The Saga of AD-X2, the Battery Additive That Roiled the NBS

This Wearable Computer Made a Fashion Statement

Google won two major awards at MWC Barcelona 2025.

Expanding AI Overviews and introducing AI Mode

This MRI Can Run on Batteries

The Tiny Star Explosions Powering Moore’s Law