Award-Winning Researcher Trains Robots to Make Educated Guesses

Yen-Ling Kuo always wanted to understand how things worked. When she was growing up in Taiwan, reading the story of Michael Faraday in elementary school piqued her curiosity about the natural world. During that time, she was introduced to Logo, a computer program with a turtle cu … | Continue reading


@spectrum.ieee.org | 3 months ago

Why Orbital Data Centers Are Harder Than Silicon Valley Thinks

“Space computing, the final frontier, has arrived,” Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang declared at the Nvidia GTC conference in March.Indeed, the idea of data centers in orbit has gone from science fiction to a serious spending category. Elon Musk’s SpaceX has acquired xAI (also Musk’s) and … | Continue reading


@spectrum.ieee.org | 3 months ago

EPICS in IEEE’s Awards Honor Outstanding Students and Faculty

The EPICS (Engineering Projects in Community Service) in IEEE program, administered by IEEE Educational Activities, has launched the Excellent EPICS in IEEE Contributor Awards. The recognitions honor the program’s outstanding students and faculty volunteers in Excellent Team Lead … | Continue reading


@spectrum.ieee.org | 3 months ago

We Are Crowd-Sourcing the Panopticon

A man raises his phone as police move into a crowd. The video is shaky, loud, immediate. Within minutes, it is online. Within hours, it is everywhere. This is how accountability works now. Something happens, someone records it, and that footage can show what really happened, some … | Continue reading


@spectrum.ieee.org | 3 months ago

What Size Company Is Right for You?

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 Parsity and delivered to your inbox for free!Small Startup, Mid-Size Company, … | Continue reading


@spectrum.ieee.org | 3 months ago

The Pros and Cons of Job Hopping as an Engineer

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 Parsity and delivered to your inbox for free!Job Hopping as an Engineer: The … | Continue reading


@spectrum.ieee.org | 3 months ago

The Computer Science Degree Isn’t Dead

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 Parsity and delivered to your inbox for free!The CS Degree Isn’t Dead. The En … | Continue reading


@spectrum.ieee.org | 3 months ago

Beyond Dexterity: Why Contact May Define the Next Era of Robotics

This article is brought to you by AGILINK.Throughout the exhibition hall at the 2026 IEEE International Conference on Robotics (ICRA), in Vienna, one demonstration seemed to attract a disproportionate amount of attention.Two robotic hands were making a balloon dog. Slowly and del … | Continue reading


@spectrum.ieee.org | 3 months ago

IEEE Celebrates Technology’s Brightest Minds at Annual Event

New York City was the backdrop of this year’s IEEE Honors Ceremony, held on 24 April.The event celebrates engineering pioneers who have developed technologies that have changed how people connect and learn about the world. This year’s celebrants included the engineers behind inno … | Continue reading


@spectrum.ieee.org | 3 months ago

50 Years of The Institute

The Institute is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. Launched in 1976, the publication was designed to keep members informed about IEEE and what its constituents were doing, as well as to report on the organization’s initiatives, technical standards, products, and service … | Continue reading


@spectrum.ieee.org | 3 months ago

7 Ways New Engineers Can Flourish in the Age of AI

New graduates’ careers are unfolding in an era when AI is not optional. The most successful engineers treat artificial intelligence as leverage, not competition.Here are seven tips to help keep young professionals in demand no matter how quickly the field’s tools evolve.1. Master … | Continue reading


@spectrum.ieee.org | 3 months ago

What It Takes for Future-Ready Power Distribution

This sponsored article is brought to you by Black & Veatch.The biggest challenge facing utilities today isn’t what it seems. It’s not demand, even as load growth accelerates. It’s not extreme weather, even as “major events” become routine. It’s not cybersecurity, even as connecti … | Continue reading


@spectrum.ieee.org | 3 months ago

IEEE President’s Note: Designing a Safer Digital World for Kids

Children born after 2013 are the first generation to grow up fully immersed in digital systems, which weren’t designed with them in mind. One‑third of the world’s Internet users are younger than 18, according to UNICEF, yet these systems shaping their daily lives were built for a … | Continue reading


@spectrum.ieee.org | 3 months ago

Why Sardinians Are Fighting the Renewable Energy Transition

“Not in my backyard” is the rallying cry of citizens everywhere resisting projects proposed for their locality. Whether it’s affordable housing, a waste treatment plant, or a new data center, they may recognize the benefit of the activity. They just don’t want it near them. And t … | Continue reading


@spectrum.ieee.org | 3 months ago

This DIY Bipedal Robot Used Pneumatic “Air-Muscles” Instead of Motors

In 1987, Richard Greenhill, a British photographer who was fascinated by (but had no actual training in) robotics, decided he wanted to build a life-size humanoid that could do useful things, like carrying luggage. He was working at a startup called Intergalactic Robots, but he c … | Continue reading


@spectrum.ieee.org | 3 months ago

Poetry for Engineers: Cyborg Laboratory

This is the place where you face yourself,the you that could be you with a fewdifferent parts, a pump for your heart,eyes off color, and fresh off the shelffake hair (a bit obvious), skin smoothed.You’re not perfect, but it’s a good start.Down to small digits, you’ll be improved. … | Continue reading


@spectrum.ieee.org | 3 months ago

Make a Soft Digital Clock Tick With Millifluidics

Electrons are great. We use them to move vehicles, illuminate cities, and, of course, compute. But computation is not confined to the world of electronics. And shifting to alternative nonelectronic realms can unlock unique advantages: Photonic chips, for instance, process informa … | Continue reading


@spectrum.ieee.org | 3 months ago

Finding Success in Industry as a Chip Designer

I have been an application-specific IC (ASIC) designer for almost three decades. Over that time, I’ve moved through the full academic trajectory, from graduate student to full professor; later, I transitioned to industry after an unsuccessful stint at entrepreneurship. When I mad … | Continue reading


@spectrum.ieee.org | 3 months ago

South Africa Has AI Leverage. Its Draft Policy Leaves It Unused

This article is adapted by the author with permission from Tech Policy Press. Read the original article.South Africa is not just another developing country struggling to govern artificial intelligence (AI); it is the exception with leverage, and the window to act on it is closing … | Continue reading


@spectrum.ieee.org | 3 months ago

What It Takes to Preserve Floppy Disks

Floppy disks are several decades old—many of the disks are degrading and the data stored on them is at risk of being lost. In response, Leontien Talboom, a technical analyst at Cambridge University Libraries and Archives, led a roughly year-long project preserving floppy disks ca … | Continue reading


@spectrum.ieee.org | 3 months ago

Meet NASA Low Outgassing Standards With Adhesives for Aerospace and Optical Systems

This sponsored article is brought to you by Master Bond.Outgassing is the release of volatile substances from a cured adhesive over time. These released materials, which may include residual solvents, unreacted monomers, or other chemical species, can deposit on nearby surfaces, … | Continue reading


@spectrum.ieee.org | 3 months ago

IEEE TryEngineering OnCampus Program Expands to 7 Universities

The OnCampus program, administered by IEEE Educational Activities, last year expanded its engineering experiences from two to seven universities.Part of TryEngineering, the program is held at universities around the world, offering preuniversity students hands-on opportunities to … | Continue reading


@spectrum.ieee.org | 3 months ago

Reclaiming Social Engineering for Good

“Social engineering” sounds like something out of a conspiracy thriller, charged with totalitarian control and fringe paranoia. More mundanely, it’s come to be associated with phishing and other scams, in which fraudsters manipulate people into disclosing personal information. Ye … | Continue reading


@spectrum.ieee.org | 3 months ago

Developers: Get Your Medical Mobile App Verified By IEEE

Patients who use mobile applications to manage medical conditions including depression and chronic pain might assume the apps have been evaluated by regulatory agencies to be safe and effective. But that isn’t necessarily the case.Most of the more than 55,000 medical apps that cl … | Continue reading


@spectrum.ieee.org | 3 months ago

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

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, ne … | Continue reading


@spectrum.ieee.org | 3 months ago

Will Robotics Have a ChatGPT Moment?

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 hom … | Continue reading


@spectrum.ieee.org | 3 months ago

Manchester Code Made Bits Behave

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 … | Continue reading


@spectrum.ieee.org | 3 months ago

What Makes a Job Dull, Dirty, or Dangerous?

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 steamin … | Continue reading


@spectrum.ieee.org | 3 months ago

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

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 inters … | Continue reading


@spectrum.ieee.org | 3 months ago

Striking New Views of the First Atomic Bomb Test

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 … | Continue reading


@spectrum.ieee.org | 3 months ago

IEEE Society Helps Researchers Meet Their Next Corporate Backer

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 lead … | Continue reading


@spectrum.ieee.org | 3 months ago

Accelerating Chipmaking Innovation for the Energy-Efficient AI Era

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: Co … | Continue reading


@spectrum.ieee.org | 3 months ago

IEEE Program Aims to Connect the Billions Who Are Still Offline

Given how integral the Internet has become to everyday tasks such as shopping, paying bills, and holding virtual meetings, it’s interesting that nearly 30 percent of the global population still has no access to it. More than 2 billion people are still offline, according to a repo … | Continue reading


@spectrum.ieee.org | 4 months ago

Neutralizing the Gigascale Problem: How to Solve the Physical Power Paradox of Extreme AI Training Loads

This sponsored article is brought to you by Ampace.As AI workloads grow to gigascale levels, the global data center industry has hit a hidden physical wall. The real bottleneck is no longer just the thermal limit of the chip or the capacity of the cooling system — it is the dynam … | Continue reading


@spectrum.ieee.org | 4 months ago

Ana Inês Inácio Designs the Future of Wireless

When Ana Inês Inácio goes to work at the Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research (TNO) in The Hague, she thinks about signals most people never notice: radio waves moving between satellites, sensors, and future wireless networks.The integrated circuits the resear … | Continue reading


@spectrum.ieee.org | 4 months ago

Learn What It Takes to Become a Cybersecurity Consultant

Cybersecurity consultants have never been more in demand. Information security analyst roles are projected to grow nearly 30 percent between now and 2034, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. More than 15 million cybercrime incidents occurred worldwide in 2024, Stati … | Continue reading


@spectrum.ieee.org | 4 months ago

Bionic Tech Must Prove Itself Beyond the Lab

I first met Robert Woo in 2011, during his third time walking in a powered exoskeleton. The architect had been paralyzed in a construction accident four years earlier, but he was determined to get back on his feet. Watching him clunk across a rehab room in an exoskeleton prototyp … | Continue reading


@spectrum.ieee.org | 4 months ago

Sardinia’s Ancient Reasons for Rejecting a Clean Energy Future

“Why are you here?” Fabrizio Pilo, an electrical engineer, asks me as we sit in an outdoor café near his home in Cagliari, an ancient city on the island of Sardinia. It’s a fair question. I’m a journalist from the United States. I’d just stepped off my flight 2 hours prior and co … | Continue reading


@spectrum.ieee.org | 4 months ago

IEEE Smart Village Is Helping to Electrify Rural Cameroon

More than 30 years ago, in the mountain village of Mbem in northwest Cameroon, the moon and stars in the night sky were the only light young Jude Numfor knew after the sunset. Electricity had not yet reached his rural community.“There was one person in the village with a petrol g … | Continue reading


@spectrum.ieee.org | 4 months ago

With $1 Cyberattacks on the Rise, Durable Defenses Pay Off

Transforming a newly discovered software vulnerability into a cyberattack used to take months. Today—as the recent headlines over Anthropic’s Project Glasswing have shown—generative AI can do the job in minutes, often for less than a dollar of cloud computing time.But while large … | Continue reading


@spectrum.ieee.org | 4 months ago

DAIMON Robotics Wants to Give Robot Hands a Sense of Touch

This article is brought to you by DAIMON Robotics.This April, Hong Kong-based DAIMON Robotics has released Daimon-Infinity, which it describes as the largest omni-modal robotic dataset for physical AI, featuring high resolution tactile sensing and spanning a wide range of tasks f … | Continue reading


@spectrum.ieee.org | 4 months ago

Better Hardware Could Turn Zeros into AI Heroes

When it comes to AI models, size matters.Even though some artificial-intelligence experts warn that scaling up large language models (LLMs) is hitting diminishing performance returns, companies are still coming out with ever larger AI tools. Meta’s latest Llama release had a stag … | Continue reading


@spectrum.ieee.org | 4 months ago

The Chip That Made Hardware Rewriteable

Many of the world’s most advanced electronic systems—including Internet routers, wireless base stations, medical imaging scanners, and some artificial intelligence tools—depend on field-programmable gate arrays. Computer chips with internal hardware circuits, the FPGAs can be rec … | Continue reading


@spectrum.ieee.org | 4 months ago

“Entanglement: A Brief History of Human Connection”

It started with word, cave, and storytelling,A line scratched on stone walls:“Meet me when the young moon rises.”The first protocol for connection.Coyote tales, forbidden scripts,Medieval texts hidden from flame.What lived in Aristotle’s lost Poetics II?Was it God who laughed las … | Continue reading


@spectrum.ieee.org | 4 months ago

What Makes eVTOL Motors Different Than EV Motors?

Electric vehicles, whether they’re cars on the road or electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft, are built around similar electric motors. But there are vital differences including component costs, mass, and redundancy.Jon Wagner spent five years as the senior dire … | Continue reading


@spectrum.ieee.org | 4 months ago

Engineering Collisions: How NYU Is Remaking Health Research

This sponsored article is brought to you by NYU Tandon School of Engineering.The traditional approach to academic research goes something like this: Assemble experts from a discipline, put them in a building, and hope something useful emerges. Biology departments do biology. Engi … | Continue reading


@spectrum.ieee.org | 4 months ago

Yong Wang Turns Information Into Insights

When Yong Wang recently received one of the highest honors for early-career data visualization researchers, it marked a milestone in an extraordinary journey that began far from the world’s technology hubs.Wang was born in a small farming village in southwestern China to parents … | Continue reading


@spectrum.ieee.org | 4 months ago

GPU Renters Are Playing a Silicon Lottery

Think one GPU is very much like another? Think again. It turns out that there’s surprising variability in the performance delivered by chips of the same model. That can make getting your money’s worth by renting time on a GPU from a cloud provider a real roll of the dice, accordi … | Continue reading


@spectrum.ieee.org | 4 months ago