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Have you received a notification from your bank or credit card company alerting you to suspicious activity on your account and requesting you confirm a purchase? You probably wondered how the bank suspected the charge wasn’t legitimate.Credit card companies use a variety of methods to detect fraud, which is the most common type of identity theft and is on the rise, according to Experian, one of the major consumer credit information services.Pankaj GuptaEmployer Discover Financial Services

When I traveled to Ellabell, Ga., in May to report on Hyundai Motor Group’s hyperefficient Metaplant—a US $12.6 billion boost to U.S.-based manufacturing of EVs and batteries—the company’s timing appeared solid. At this temple of leading-edge factory tech

It’s a little after 6:30 on a brisk July morning in a stone hut high in the Italian Alps. A gently hissing wood fire is leaking some warmth out of a brick oven. Gathered near it, around a big wooden table, some of Europe’s brightest young lepidopterists are doing what they do best: arguing in Spanish, Italian, and English about moths.

As an electrical engineering student in the 1980s and ‘90s, Carlotta Berry had two experiences that helped shape her future as an educator.First, while she studied robots, she wasn’t allowed to interact with them. “The robots were too expensive, so the undergrads did not get to touch them,” Berry recalls. “I said to myself, I’m going to teach engineering someday, but in a way that the students will get to touch and program the robot.”This led Berry to work toward overcoming the economic exclusivity of robotics. But her second formative undergrad

I was a little disappointed by China’s World Humanoid Robot Games.1 As fun as real-life Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots is, what people really care about is robots doing their chores. This is why robot laundry folding videos are so popular: we didn’t know how to do that even a few years ago. And it is certainly somethin

When hundreds of volcanologists gathered in Geneva last July for the world’s largest volcanology conference, Italy’s Instituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV) drew particular attention. INGV was presenting results from five years of very close range observations of Stromboli, one of the Mediterranean’s most monitored volcanoes. Its frequent small erup

This article was originally published by Canary Media.Eavor, an advanced-geothermal startup, says it has significantly reduced drilling times and improved technologies at its nearly online project in Germany—milestones that should help it drive down the costs of harnessing clean energy from the ground.In late October, the Canadian company released results from two years of drilling activity at its flagship operation in Geretsried, Germany, giving Canary Media an exclusive early look. Eavor said the data validates its initial efforts to deploy novel “closed-loop” geotherma

Diamonds, lasers, and oil aren’t the first things you may think of when considering ways to keep chips and computers cool. But as modern chip designs pack and stack more transistors into ever smaller spaces, heat has emerged as a critical problem.To solve it, the semiconductor industry is throwing everything at the wall. What sticks could enable the scaling of not only AI data centers but also a host of applications in consumer electronics, communications, and military equipment.This article is part of The Hot, Hot Future of Chips.As Senior Editor Samuel K. Moore explained to me between bites of a cold t

Volunteering is the lifeblood of professional communities, offering individuals the chance to contribute, grow, and collaborate with amazing people. Engaging with the IEEE community has been instrumental in shaping my career since my early days as a student member. Over the years, as I transitioned to a full member and later to a senior member, I witnessed firsthand how volunteering can lead to personal growth and foster meaningful connections in my life and the lives of others.I have had the opportunity to work alongside many dedicated volunteers, and a few of them have left a lasting impact on me. One is

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! Happy Halloween from UCL!