Since the early 2000s, I’ve been actively volunteering for nonprofits and local community organizations including my children’s school’s parent-teacher organization. There I worked with teachers and other parents to plan and implement annual programs that enriched the students and the school community as a whole. Through my work, I’ve realized that volunteering isn’t just about giving back; it’s also a way to learn new skills. Every hour invested adds tangible value to one’s per...| IEEE Spectrum
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. World Robot Summit: 10–12 October 2025, OSAKA, JAPAN IROS 2025: 19–25 October 2025, HANGZHOU, CHINA Enjoy today’s videos! We demonstrate a new landing system that lets drones safely land on moving vehicles at speeds up to 110 km/h. By combining l...| IEEE Spectrum
Most of us have heard the adage “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” But when it comes to personal health, many people overlook preventative measures such as diet and exercise. Instead, they tend to rely on medical professionals to save the day after they’ve gotten sick. Ximena Montserrat Ramirez Aguilar is working to change that by educating her fellow Mexicans about how to manage their health so they can avoid undergoing treatment for preventable conditions such as Type ...| IEEE Spectrum
Taiwan failed to pass an August referendum on whether or not a nuclear plant should be restarted, if it were deemed safe to operate. While the more than 4 million votes for “yes” outnumbered the more than 1.5 million “no” votes, the number of affirmative votes failed to surpass the 25 percent threshold of eligible voters also required for the referendum to pass. As a result, Taiwan remains on the nuclear-free path it has followed since the shutdown of the nuclear plant in question, Ma...| IEEE Spectrum
Engineers are masters of scale. They harness energy from the sun, wind, rivers, atoms, and ores. They manipulate electrons, photons, and crystals to compute and communicate. They devise instruments that detect perturbations in the fabric of space-time. And they grapple with challenges—anticipated or not—that are presented by the scale of the problem they are trying to solve. The articles in this issue describe engineers who think about, interact with, and create things at very precise and...| IEEE Spectrum
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! In 2015, I joined Pinterest as a software engineer after my company was acquired. Going from a five-person company to a 500-person company was daunting, especially since I had never worked in a hypergrowth organization. I talked previously about bes...| IEEE Spectrum
This article is part of The Scale Issue. Longest Continuously Operating Electronic Computer Voyager 1 and its twin space probe, both launched by NASA in 1977, were the first human-made objects to reach interstellar space. But that’s not the only record the spacecraft hold. Voyager 2’s Computer Command System has not been turned off since it first booted up about 48 years ago, making it the longest continuously operating electronic computer. Quietest Place on Earth Can you hear your own he...| IEEE Spectrum
A gibbous moon hangs over a lonely mountain trail in the Italian Alps, above the village of Malles Venosta, whose lights dot the valley below. Benjamin Wiesmair stands next to a moth trap as tall as he is, his face, bushy beard, and hair bun lit by its purple glow. He’s wearing a headlamp, a dusty and battered smartwatch, cargo shorts, and a blue zip sweater with the sleeves pulled up. Countless moths beat frenetically around the trap’s white, diaphanous panels, which are swaying with gho...| IEEE Spectrum
Five years ago, Eric Aguilar was fed up. He had worked on lidar and other sensors for years at Tesla and Google X, but the technology always seemed too expensive and, more importantly, unreliable. He replaced the lidar sensors when they broke—which was all too often, and seemingly at random—and developed complex calibration methods and maintenance routines just to keep them functioning and the cars drivable. So, when he reached the end of his rope, he invented a more robust technology—w...| IEEE Spectrum
When Microsoft researchers in 2023 identified a new kind of material that could dramatically reduce the amount of lithium needed in rechargeable batteries, it felt like combing through a haystack in record time. That’s because their discovery began as 32 million possibilities and, with the help of artificial intelligence, produced a promising candidate within 80 hours. Now researchers at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory plan to synthesize and test the novel material, NaxLi3−xYCl6...| IEEE Spectrum
What happens when you say “Hello” to ChatGPT? Such a simple query might seem trivial, but making it possible across billions of sessions requires immense scale. While OpenAI reveals little information about its operations, we’ve used the scraps we do have to estimate the impact of ChatGPT—and of the generative AI industry in general. This article is part of The Scale Issue. OpenAI’s actions also provide hints. As part of the United States’ Stargate Project, OpenAI will collaborate...| IEEE Spectrum
This is a sponsored article brought to you by IP.com Around the world, innovation is no longer just a function of invention. It is a strategic asset, deeply linked to economic resilience—and increasingly reliant on ever-evolving technologies like artificial intelligence (AI). As intellectual property ecosystems transform under this new reality, the need for advanced, efficient, ethical AI-supported innovation infrastructure has never been more urgent. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (U...| IEEE Spectrum
IEEE Collabratec reached a milestone in August: more than 100,000 IEEE members (plus 250,000 nonmembers) on the online networking platform. To commemorate the achievement, IEEE released a 100,000-member badge for users. The badges recognize members for their participation in IEEE Collabratec’s communities and discussion forums. They also reward users for creating networks with other IEEE members and solving IEEE Puzzlers brainteasers. “Since 2021 IEEE Collabratec has been a game-changer i...| IEEE Spectrum
Autonomous vehicles have eyes—cameras, lidar, radar. But ears? That’s what researchers at Fraunhofer Institute for Digital Media Technology’s Oldenburg Branch for Hearing, Speech and Audio Technology in Germany are building with the Hearing Car. The idea is to outfit vehicles with external microphones and AI to detect, localize, and classify environmental sounds, with the goal of helping cars react to hazards they can’t see. For now, that means approaching emergency vehicles—and eve...| IEEE Spectrum
Low Earth orbit, where most satellites operate, has become a whirlwind of metal shards and dead, tumbling debris. Anyone with hardware or human crew in orbit knows the drill. Orbital collision warnings can be unremitting. Whether the object is a defunct satellite or a stray hunk of glass from a solar panel that shattered long ago, every item circling Earth is also a potential projectile. And nearly all of this junk, traveling at least eight times as fast as a rifle bullet, can be damaging in ...| IEEE Spectrum
One of the robotics projects that I’ve been most excited about for years now is iRonCub, from Daniele Pucci’s Artificial and Mechanical Intelligence Lab at the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Genoa, Italy. Since 2017, Pucci has been developing a jet-propulsion system that will enable an iCub robot (originally designed in 2004 to be the approximate shape and size of a 5-year-old child) to fly like Iron Man. Over the summer, after nearly 10 years of development, iRonCub3 achieved l...| IEEE Spectrum
We forge ahead with scientific quests, but even zealous efforts hit a wall trying to make what nature most detests: nothing at all. It seems like such a little thing to do— removing every molecule. We find that though we displace almost all, a few remain behind. It takes attentive planning and robust equipment in a lab to do the chore of pumping vacuum pressure down to just a millitorr. The stalwart researcher persists and loses sleep, but can’t reach perfection—I’m afraid the univers...| IEEE Spectrum
This article was originally published by Canary Media. At a dock along the banks of the Cousins River, Chad Strater loaded up his small aluminum workboat with power tools and a winch. Strater, who owns a marine construction business, was setting out to tinker with floating equipment at a nearby oyster farm. On the quiet morning in August, with the sun already beating down hard, his vessel whirred to life, only without the usual growl of an oil-guzzling motor. The boat is all electric. Just no...| IEEE Spectrum
To the naked eye, the stars are diamond flecks scattered across the inner surface of a celestial sphere. Telescopes have brought depth to our vision, mapping the true distances to cosmic objects. But the universe they reveal appears utterly beyond the human scale of space and time. Even the closest stars seem infinitely remote, and reaching them a thing of science fiction, save for a few dead and dying probes drifting outward for eternity. This article is part of The Scale Issue. Now, though,...| IEEE Spectrum
Have you ever thought “IEEE Spectrum is terrific, but I just wish I had a way to experience even more of it, perhaps at a local science and technology museum?” Well, I am pleased to say that your very specific wish has been granted! In collaboration with the IEEE History Center and the IEEE Global Museum and the support of generous donors, Spectrum’s Chip Hall of Fame has been adapted into a traveling exhibit that has just begun making its way around U.S. museums, and, hopefully, the wo...| IEEE Spectrum
“How did we get here?” That existential question about the universe has captivated humankind for centuries. Many scientists have attempted to answer it, including the Rev. Georges Lemaître, a Belgian cosmologist and Catholic priest. In 1927 he theorized that the universe was created from a single particle he called the “primeval atom.” That atom later disintegrated in an explosion, LeMaître figured, creating space, time, and an ever-expanding universe, according to the American Muse...| IEEE Spectrum
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. CoRL 2025: 27–30 September 2025, SEOUL IEEE Humanoids: 30 September–2 October 2025, SEOUL World Robot Summit: 10–12 October 2025, OSAKA, JAPAN IROS 2025: 19–25 October 2025, HANGZHOU, CHINA Enjoy today’s videos! Gemini Robotics 1.5 is our mos...| IEEE Spectrum
Short courses in semiconductor manufacturing are gaining traction, offering students a path to industry-ready skills and experience.| IEEE Spectrum
The Phoebus cartel engineered a shorter-lived lightbulb and gave birth to planned obsolescence| IEEE Spectrum
Can your robot be hacked? A new vulnerability in Unitree robots could turn them into a botnet army. Are we taking robot security seriously enough?| IEEE Spectrum
Billions of dollars in contracts were arranged in a hurry. The fight now is for R&D funding.| IEEE Spectrum
Python reigns supreme again, but is AI changing the game for programming languages? Find out how coding is transforming.| IEEE Spectrum
Ultrasound enables minimally invasive 3D-printing of tissues, therapies, and more| IEEE Spectrum
It takes more than building a humanoid robot to build a humanoid robot product.| IEEE Spectrum
Celebrating 15 years of IEEE-HKN: Discover how this merger has empowered engineering leaders worldwide.| IEEE Spectrum
Web3's evolution: From privacy dreams to blockchain's financial reality. How does cryptography fit in?| IEEE Spectrum
EV charging brings multiple security and privacy risks| IEEE Spectrum
Nuclear batteries that last decades are being developed to power drones, sensors, remote devices and medical implants. Energy storage at its extreme.| IEEE Spectrum
Can AI truly collaborate with human coders? Researchers highlight the hurdles and potential solutions in AI-driven software engineering.| IEEE Spectrum
Synthetic-biology startups adopt technologies from the computer industry| IEEE Spectrum
Why are China, Russia, and the US racing to build nuclear reactors on the moon? Dive into the reasons behind this cosmic competition.| IEEE Spectrum
Can AI solve the space traffic jam? Discover how CREAM is automating collision avoidance and changing the way we manage satellites.| IEEE Spectrum
An emerging technology, grid-forming inverters, are letting utilities install more renewable energy facilities, such as solar photovoltaics and wind turbines. The inverters are often connected to utility-scale battery systems at solar-plus-storage facilities.| IEEE Spectrum
AI systems perceive time with precision beyond human limits. Could this alter our sense of causality in critical systems?| IEEE Spectrum
How did Kamal Rudra transform from a bored student to a semiconductor innovator? Dive into his journey and find out what sparked his passion.| IEEE Spectrum
Silicon carbide vs. gallium nitride: Which semiconductor will dominate high-temperature electronics? The competition is heating up.| IEEE Spectrum
Conversational cars are here: Talk to your vehicle like never before with AI-enabled vehicle assistants that make driving safer and more intuitive.| IEEE Spectrum
Walmart Chile tests a green hydrogen truck, aiming to decarbonize transport. But can it handle the country's rugged geography?| IEEE Spectrum
Can the DOE meet its 90-day deadline for nuclear site selection? Nuclear permit expert Daniel Stout explains the challenges and offers a solution.| IEEE Spectrum
Grid-scale batteries in Scotland are stabilizing power supply with advanced grid-forming inverters.| IEEE Spectrum
Could shining light through the human head be the key to affordable deep brain imaging? Glasgow researchers think so.| IEEE Spectrum
Exaone 4.0 is redefining AI for business users with unmatched performance in science, math, and coding. How does it stack up against the competition?| IEEE Spectrum
Andrew Ng has serious street cred in artificial intelligence. He pioneered the use of graphics processing units (GPUs) to train deep learning models in the late 2000s with his students at Stanford University, cofounded Google Brain in 2011, and then served for three years as chief scientist for Baidu, where he helped build the Chinese tech giant’s AI group. So when he says he has identified the next big shift in artificial intelligence, people listen. And that’s what he told IEEE Spectrum...| IEEE Spectrum
The end of Moore’s Law is looming. Engineers and designers can do only so much to miniaturize transistors and pack as many of them as possible into chips. So they’re turning to other approaches to chip design, incorporating technologies like AI into the process. Samsung, for instance, is adding AI to its memory chips to enable processing in memory, thereby saving energy and speeding up machine learning. Speaking of speed, Google’s TPU V4 AI chip has doubled its processing power compared...| IEEE Spectrum
MIT researchers use 2D materials for capacitors in quantum circuits in effort to scale processors| IEEE Spectrum
The world's leading engineering magazine| IEEE Spectrum
Meta's $14 billion investment in Scale AI could reshape the future of AI data labeling. What does this mean for AI's evolution?| IEEE Spectrum
Farmers were on the fence about precision farming, until Deere engineers made it more accurate and economical| IEEE Spectrum
Aspiring Materials' process extracts valuable minerals from olivine, offering a cleaner, sustainable solution for battery material supply chains.| IEEE Spectrum
MLCommons has made benchmarks for AI performance, but it's time to measure safety too| IEEE Spectrum
The glass arcs that will let astronomers peer back millions of years are decades in the making| IEEE Spectrum
All the latest algorithms news, videos, and more from the world's leading engineering magazine.| IEEE Spectrum
The supercomputer could explore up to 200 million possible chess positions per second with its AI program| IEEE Spectrum
Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, Europe's largest, faces dire challenges after Russian occupation. Damaged reactors, costly repairs, and cooling issues threaten its future. Can Ukraine revive it, or should it focus on smaller, decentralized power sources instead? #ZaporizhzhiaCrisis| IEEE Spectrum
What will the device be like on its 100th anniversary?| IEEE Spectrum
In a dairy barn full of content cows, autonomous robots handle milking, feeding, and cleaning, allowing farmers more flexibility and improving cow welfare. With robots, cows produce more milk and more comfortable lives. Could this be the future of sustainable farming?| IEEE Spectrum
Software engineer Charity Majors challenges the "10x engineer" myth, arguing that true productivity lies in team performance, not individual brilliance. She encourages building workplaces where "normal" engineers can thrive. Are we focusing too much on hiring "the best" instead of the right people?| IEEE Spectrum
Today, SpaceX will launch a Falcon 9 rocket carrying an Intuitive Machines mission to land on the moon. Among other things, the mission contains a mini data center—just 1 kilogram containing a microchip and 8 terabytes of SSD storage. The idea holds promise: safety from earthly disruptions and a haven for data sovereignty. But there is are also latency and bandwidth issues, maintenance difficulty and cost.| IEEE Spectrum
When transistors can’t get any smaller, the only direction is up| IEEE Spectrum
A transformer supply crisis bottlenecks energy projects| IEEE Spectrum
Many dropped the baton before Sony finally took it across the finish line| IEEE Spectrum
Researchers induced bots to ignore their safeguards without exception| IEEE Spectrum
The proposed strategy relies on manipulating with high precision an unimaginably huge number of variables| IEEE Spectrum
In July 1945, The Manhattan Project culminated in a successful nuclear weapons test near Los Alamos, New Mexico. But the United States committed to stop nuclear weapons testing in a 1965 treaty. The Manhattan Project’s progeny, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), is constrained to testing its nukes in simulation only. So instead of projecting U.S. strength through a massive explosion, yesterday the NNSA did so by unveiling the world’s most massive supercomputer.| IEEE Spectrum
All the latest superconductors news, videos, and more from the world's leading engineering magazine.| IEEE Spectrum
All the latest generative ai news, videos, and more from the world's leading engineering magazine.| IEEE Spectrum
How Kaspersky Lab tracked down the malware that stymied Iran’s nuclear-fuel enrichment program| IEEE Spectrum
All the latest climate change news, videos, and more from the world's leading engineering magazine.| IEEE Spectrum
The latest developments in processors, memory, nanotechnology, optoelectronics, and integrated circuit design and materials| IEEE Spectrum
All the latest transistor news, videos, and more from the world's leading engineering magazine.| IEEE Spectrum
Profiles and interviews with engineers, tech industry news, and the latest trends on the job market| IEEE Spectrum
All the latest microsoft news, videos, and more from the world's leading engineering magazine.| IEEE Spectrum
All the latest ibm news, videos, and more from the world's leading engineering magazine.| IEEE Spectrum
All the latest amazon news, videos, and more from the world's leading engineering magazine.| IEEE Spectrum
China, India, the EU, and the US are all pursuing divergent approaches| IEEE Spectrum
The latest advances in artificial intelligence and machine learning, generative AI, ChatGPT, LLMs, deepfakes, and more| IEEE Spectrum
All the latest neural networks news, videos, and more from the world's leading engineering magazine.| IEEE Spectrum
All the latest gpus news, videos, and more from the world's leading engineering magazine.| IEEE Spectrum
This new type of network learns functions rather than linear weights, allowing researchers to understand their behavior better. These networks could be the antidote to "black box" artificial intelligence, which could be particularly useful in helping scientists discover new laws.| IEEE Spectrum
The latest developments in consumer robots, humanoids, drones, and automation| IEEE Spectrum
All the latest intel news, videos, and more from the world's leading engineering magazine.| IEEE Spectrum
Thanks to VERO, Genoa has fewer cigarette butts littering the ground| IEEE Spectrum
Imec’s plan to use superconductors to shrink computers| IEEE Spectrum
Private utility companies are blocking new interregional transmission lines| IEEE Spectrum
A 2024 plea for lean software| IEEE Spectrum
Experiments with Midjourney and DALL-E 3 show a copyright minefield| IEEE Spectrum
Her new organization, DAIR, will raise the alarm about how AI is being deployed today and use AI to speak truth to power.| IEEE Spectrum
But the regulations that could rein it in would benefit all of AI| IEEE Spectrum
The executive order covers AI safety, algorithmic bias, and privacy| IEEE Spectrum
Run natively on edge devices, personalized AI assistants will get wild, and weird, soon| IEEE Spectrum
OpenAI says the problem’s solvable, Yann LeCun says we’ll see| IEEE Spectrum
Videoconferencing exhaustion has now been neurologically proven| IEEE Spectrum
“This is not sci-fi. This is quite real.”| IEEE Spectrum
Creepy robots and the strange phenomenon of the uncanny valley: definition, history, examples, and how to avoid it| IEEE Spectrum
These early adopters found out what happened when a cutting-edge marvel became an obsolete gadget... inside their bodies.| IEEE Spectrum