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

SEM-Guided Low-kV FIB Finishing for Leading-Edge Semiconductor Failure Analysis

21 May 2026 @ 10:00 am

Discover how the ZEISS Crossbeam 750 FIBSEM sets a new benchmark for precise TEM lamella prep, tomography, and advanced nanofabrication. This delivers better resolution, better SNR, larger usable FOV, and shorter acquisition times. Learn how uninterrupted FIB milling will reduce damage and rework, accelerate time to TEM, and increase first pass success—so your FA, yield, and materials teams make faster, confident data driven decisions.Join us to discover how the new ZEISS Crossbeam 750 with its see while you mill capability delivers precision and clarity—every time—for demanding FIB-SEM workflows. Designed for extremely challenging TEM lamella preparation, tomography, advanced nanofabrication, and APT‑ready lift‑out, Crossbeam 750 combines a new Gemini 4 SEM objective lens, a double deflector

The Future of Physical AI Isn’t Smarter Robots, It’s Smarter Interfaces

21 May 2026 @ 10:00 am

This sponsored article is brought to you by Wetour Robotics.A field technician on a wind turbine, harness clipped, both hands on a wrench, needs to send a command to the diagnostic device hanging at her belt. A logistics worker on a loading dock, gloves on, eyes on the pallet, needs to redirect a connected lift. A person using an assistive mobility device on a crowded street wants to nudge it forward without taking out a phone or speaking aloud. None of these moments call for a smarter robot. They call for a smarter way to be heard by the machines that already exist.The industry has been building from one sideThe past three years of Physical AI have been a story of remarkable

Will Robotics Have a ChatGPT Moment?

20 May 2026 @ 11:00 am

Over the next few decades, billions of autonomous, AI-powered robots will work alongside people in factories, perform tedious tasks in warehouses, care for the elderly, assist in unsafe disaster areas, deliver packages and food to our doorsteps, and eventually help out in our homes. Some will look like us, and many won’t. What is certain is that regardless of form factor, robots will all rely heavily on AI in order to deliver real-world value.In 2025, total investments in robotics companies reached a record US $40.7 billion, accounting for 9 per

Manchester Code Made Bits Behave

18 May 2026 @ 6:00 pm

In the late 1940s—when computer engineers were grappling with unreliable hardware and noisy transmission environments—a team of engineers inside a modest lab at the University of Manchester, England, confronted a problem so fundamental that it threatened the viability of digital computing itself. Machines could generate bits, but they could not reliably read them back.The inconsistent reading back of memory data did not initially present itself as a grand theoretical challenge. It showed up as something more mundane: inconsistent computing results.Engineers including

What Makes a Job Dull, Dirty, or Dangerous?

18 May 2026 @ 1:00 pm

For years, the field of robotics has used the terms “dull, dirty, and dangerous” (DDD) to describe the types of tasks or jobs where robots might be useful—by doing work that’s undesirable for people. A classic example of a DDD job is one of “repetitive physical labor on a steaming hot factory floor involving heavy machinery that threatens life and limb.”But determining which human activities fit into these categories is not as straightforward as it seems. What exactly is a “dull” task, and who makes that assumption? Is “dirty” work just about needing to wash your hands afterwards, or is there also an a

How Melbourne’s AI and Data Center Flywheel Is Accelerating Research Innovation

18 May 2026 @ 10:00 am

This sponsored article is brought to you by Melbourne Convention Bureau (MCB) supported by Business Events Australia.Melbourne’s reputation as a global events city, from the Australian Open tennis and Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix to hosting NFL regular season games, now intersects with a different form of scale: large-scale compute, data-intensive research, and advanced engineering. Long recognized for de

Agentic AI for Robot Teams

18 May 2026 @ 10:00 am

This presentation highlights recent efforts at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory to advance agentic AI for collaborative robotic teams. It begins by framing the core challenges of enabling autonomy, coordination, and adaptability across heterogeneous systems, then introduces a scalable architecture designed to support agentic behaviors in multi-robot environments. The talk concludes with key challenges encountered and practical lessons learned from ongoing research and development.Key learningsProvides an introduction to LLM-based AI AgentsDescribes an approach to applying LLM-based AI Agents to robotic teamsProvides demonstrations of the approach running in hardware with a heterogeneous team of robotsPresents lessons learned an

Striking New Views of the First Atomic Bomb Test

15 May 2026 @ 1:00 pm

Editor’s note: If you’d like to pinpoint the instant when the world entered the nuclear age, 5:29:45 a.m. Mountain War Time on 16 July 1945, is an excellent choice. That was the moment when human beings first unleashed the power of the nucleus in an immense, blinding ball of fire above a gloomy stretch of desert in the Jornada del Muerto basin in New Mexico. Emily Seyl’s Trinity: An Illustrated History of the World’s First Atomic Test (The University of Chicago Press) offers hundreds of startlingly vivid photographs of the Manhattan Project that emerged from a 2

IEEE Society Helps Researchers Meet Their Next Corporate Backer

14 May 2026 @ 6:00 pm

The IEEE Communications Society (ComSoc)’s Research Collaboration Pitch Session initiative is proving to be a catalyst for meaningful engagement between academic researchers and industry innovators. Launched last year, the program connects promising researchers with industry leaders who can offer them funding, mentorship, and connections to bring interesting ideas closer to real-world deployment.Rather than relying on chance encounters at conferences, the pitch sessions create a focused environment. Five academic presenters share their work with f

Accelerating Chipmaking Innovation for the Energy-Efficient AI Era

14 May 2026 @ 10:00 am

This sponsored article is brought to you by Applied Materials.At pivotal moments in history, progress has required more than individual brilliance. The most consequential breakthroughs — such as those achieved under the Human Genome Project — required a new operating paradigm: Concentrate the world’s best talent around a single mission, establish a common platform, share critical infrastructure, and collapse feedback loops. When stakes are high and timelines are compressed, sequential and siloed innovation simply cannot keep pace.Today’s AI era is creating an engineering race with similar demands. Every company is pushing to deliver higher-performance AI system