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News and features about the latest technology, engineering, and science advances including electronics, computing, energy, biomedical, robotics and more.

Video Friday: High Mobility Logistics

25 April 2025 @ 4:00 pm

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.ICUAS 2025: 14–17 May 2025, CHARLOTTE, NCICRA 2025: 19–23 May 2025, ATLANTALondon Humanoids Summit: 29–30 May 2025, LONDON

IEEE Standards Development Pioneer Koepfinger Dies at 99

24 April 2025 @ 6:00 pm

Joseph Koepfinger Developed standards for electric power systems Life Fellow, 99; died 6 January Koepfinger was an active volunteer with the American Institute of Electrical Engineers (AIEE), an IEEE predecessor society. He made significant contributions to the fields of surge protection and electric power engineering. In the early 1950s he took part in a three-year task force studying distribution circuit reliability as a member of AIEE’s surge protective devices committee (SPDC), according to his ArresterWorks biography

Intel AI Trick Spots Hidden Flaws in Data-Center Chips

24 April 2025 @ 2:00 pm

For high-performance chips in massive data centers, math can be the enemy. Thanks to the sheer scale of calculations going on in hyperscale data centers, operating round the clock with millions of nodes and vast amounts of silicon, extremely uncommon errors appear. It’s simply statistics. These rare, “silent” data errors don’t show up during conventional quality-control screenings—even when companies spend hours looking for them.This month at the IEEE International Reliability Physics Symposium in Monterey, Calif., Intel engineers

These Companies Were the Patent Powerhouses of 2024

23 April 2025 @ 7:30 pm

This article is best viewed on desktop. In 2006, IEEE Spectrum ranked patenting powerhouses in our first annual patent survey. The survey, conducted by the research firm 1790 Analytics, examined the number and influence of U.S. patents generated by more than 1,000 organizations. Semiconductor manufacturer Micron Technology came out on top at the time, with IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Intel, and Broadcom rounding out the top five. Nearly 20 years later, every company on the top 10 list has been usurped. Once mighty companies have fallen in the ranks, others have come and go

XPrize in Carbon Removal Goes to Enhanced Rock Weathering

23 April 2025 @ 12:00 pm

The XPrize Foundation today announced the winners of its four-year, US $100 million XPrize competition in carbon removal. The contest is one of dozens hosted by the foundation in its 20-year effort to encourage technological development. Contestants in the carbon removal XPrize had to demonstrate ways to pull carbon dioxide from the atmosphere or oceans and sequester it sustainably.Mati Carbon, a Houston-based startup developing a sequestration technique called enhanced rock weathering, won the grand prize of $50 million.

High Schoolers’ AI-Enabled Device Deters Drunk Driving

22 April 2025 @ 6:00 pm

Accidents happen, but not all of them are inevitable. Drunk driving is one of the deadliest and most preventable causes of roadway fatalities. In 2022 alone, more than 13,000 people died in alcohol-related vehicular crashes in the United States, accounting for nearly a third of all traffic deaths, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.Now a group of high school students in North Carolina is taking action with SoberRide, an AI-enabled device they designed to prevent intoxicated people from driving.

AMD Takes Holistic Approach to AI Coding Copilots

22 April 2025 @ 4:48 pm

Coding assistants like GitHub Copilot and Codeium are already changing software engineering. Based on existing code and an engineer’s prompts, these assistants can suggest new lines or whole chunks of code, serving as a kind of advanced autocomplete. At first glance, the results are fascinating. Coding assistants are already changing the work of some programmers and transformi

Ace This Tricky Interview Question

21 April 2025 @ 8:03 pm

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!One of the most common mistakes I’ve observed among job seekers is over-sharing. When you’re interviewing at a company, remember this key insight: Don’t share information that hurts you.This frequently comes up for folks who have been affected by a “perfor

Henry Samueli’s Career Advice for Aspiring Engineers

21 April 2025 @ 3:30 pm

Henry Samueli, cofounder of Broadcom and the 2025 recipient of the IEEE Medal of Honor, has this advice for engineering students and recent graduates just starting on their careers:“Don’t do engineering for the money. Do it because it can have an impact, because you enjoy doing it, and because you love doing it. If you have an impact on society, the money follows.”“Advance your college education as far as you can. I know there are people that say, ‘You don’t even need a college education,’ but statistically, that’s stup

This Man Made the Modem in Your Phone a Reality

21 April 2025 @ 3:00 pm

In 1991, very few people had Internet access. Those who did post in online forums or email friends from home typically accessed the Internet via telephone line, their messages traveling at a top speed of 14.4 kilobits per second. Meanwhile, cable TV was rocketing in popularity. By 1991, sixty percent of U.S. households subscribed to a cable service; cable rollouts in the rest of the world were also picking up speed. Hypothetically, using that growing cable network instead of phone lines for Internet access would dramatically boost the speed of communications. And making cable TV itself digital instead of analog would allow cable prov