spectrum.ieee.org

The AI data center construction boom continues unabated, with the demand for power in the United States potentially reaching 106 gigawatts by 2035, according to a December report from research and analysis company BloombergNEF. That’s a 36 percent jump from the company’s previous outlook, published just seven months earlier. But there are severe constraints in power availability, material, equipment, and—perhaps most significantly—a lack of engineers, technicians, and skilled craftsmen that could turn the data center boom into a bust.

Jensen Huang, cofounder and CEO of Nvidia, is the 2026 IEEE Medal of Honor recipient. The IEEE honorary member is being recognized for his “leadership in the development of graphics processing units and their application to scientific computing and artificial intelligence.” The news was announced on 6 January by IEEE’s president and CEO, Mary Ellen Rand

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.ICRA 2026: 1–5 June 2026, VIENNAEnjoy today’s videos! This is one of the best things I have ever seen.

The newly released Preparing for a Career as an AI Developer guide from the IEEE Computer Society argues that the most durable path to artificial intelligence jobs is not defined by mastering any single tool or model. Instead, it depends on cultivating a balanced mix of technical fundamentals and human-centered skills—capabilities that machines are unlikely to replace.AI is reshaping the job market faster tha

This article is crossposted from IEEE Spectrum’s careers newsletter. Sign up now to get insider tips, expert advice, and practical strategies, written in partnership with tech career development company Taro and delivered to your inbox for free!As we enter 2026, we’re taking a look back at the top pieces of advice we shared in the Career Alert newsletter last year. Whether you’re looking for a new job or seeking strategies to excel in your current role, read on for the three most popular recommendations that could hel

Peek inside the package of AMD’s or Nvidia’s most advanced AI products, and you’ll find a familiar arrangement: The GPU is flanked on two sides by high-bandwidth memory (HBM), the most advanced memory chips available. These memory chips are placed as close as possible to the computing chips they serve in order to cut down on the biggest bottleneck in AI computing—the energy and delay in getting billions of bits per second from memory into logic. But what if you could bring computing and memory even closer together by stacking the HBM on top of the GPU?

Wearable displays are catching up with phones and smartwatches. For decades, engineers have sought OLEDs that can bend, twist, and stretch while maintaining bright and stable light. These displays could be integrated into a new class of devices—woven into clothing fabric, for example, to show real-time information, like a runner’s speed or heart rate, without breaking or dimming.But engineers have always encountered a trade-off: The more you stretch these materials, the dimmer they become. Now, a group co-led by Yury Gogotsi, a materials scientist at Drexel University in Philadelphia, has found a way around

The IEEE Board of Directors has received petition intentions from IEEE Senior Member Gerardo Barbosa and IEEE Life Senior Member Timothy T. Lee as candidates for 2027 IEEE president-elect. The petitioners are listed in alphabetical order and indicate no preference.The winner of this year’s election will serve as IEEE president in 2028. For more information about the petitioners and Board-nominated candidates, visit ieee.org/pe27. You can sign their petitions at ieee.org/petition.Signatures for IEEE president-elect candidate petitions are due 10 April at 12:00 p.m. EST/16:00 p.m. UTC. IEEE Senior Member Gerardo Barbosa

In 2018, Justin Kropp was working on a transmission circuit in Southern California when disaster struck. Grid operators had earlier shut down the 115-kilovolt circuit, but six high-voltage lines that shared the corridor were still operating, and some of their power snuck onto the deenergized wires he was working on. That rogue current shot to the ground through Kropp’s body and his elevated work platform, killing the 32-year-old father of two.“It went in both of his hands and came out his stomach, where he was leaning against the platform rail,” says Justin’s father, Barry Kropp, who is himself a retired l

On a blustery November day, a Cessna turboprop flew over Pennsylvania at 5,000 meters, in crosswinds of up to 70 knots—nearly as fast as the little plane was flying. But the bumpy conditions didn’t thwart its mission: to wirelessly beam power down to receivers on the ground as it flew by.The test flight marked the first time power has been beamed from a moving aircraft. It was conducted by the Ashburn, Va.-based startup Overview Energy, which emerged from stealth mode in December by announcing the feat.But the greater purpose of the flight was to demonstrate the feasibility of a much grander ambition: to beam power from space to Earth. Overview plans to launch satell