• US State Department to form cyber bureau

    Hackers, often backed by other nation states and their resources, have repeatedly struck US companies this year, with particular concerns about a surge of ransomware attacks. In May, a ransomware attack targeting pipeline operator Colonial Pipeline led to a temporary disruption to the fuel supply on the East Coast. This month, the US Treasury Department said that suspected ransomware payments amounting to $590m had been made in the first half of 2021. A Wall Street Journal report said the new bureau would have three divisions. The first will be focused on international cyber-security issues such as policy development, deterrence and negotiations with allies and adversaries. The second will be focused on digital policy, such as supporting the development of secure telecommunications infrastructure…

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    E+T Magazine

  • Australia announces net-zero 2050 goal; no legislation to follow

    Morrison has been under international pressure, having long refused to join other national leaders in pledging to reach net-zero emissions by the 2050 deadline ahead of COP26 in accordance with the aims of the Paris Agreement. Australia is one of the world’s biggest CO2 emitters on a per capita basis. Morrison has been in a quandary over climate policy, reluctant to upset rural voters opposing the phase-out of polluting industries ahead of next year’s election. The Australian Liberal Party also faces resistance within government; its coalition partner, the National Party, has a core voter base centred on agriculture and mining. In announcing the target, Morrison downplayed the potential for economic disruption and job losses: “Australians want action on climate change,” he told media in…

  • Tesla pushed to raise safety standards of driverless function by US regulator

    In a letter to the automaker’s founder Elon Musk, NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy questioned Musk's decision to allow drivers access to his firm’s “Full Self-Driving Beta technology” without having first rectified the problems with the system that have caused multiple fatal crashes in recent years. The NTSB is still investigating the most recent fatal accident, which occurred in April this year, and which killed both occupants of the vehicle. The driver's Tesla car reportedly crashed after losing control while trying to take a curve at high speed. Neither the driver nor his fellow passenger was at the wheel, ready to take control in the event of an incident, as is required under the terms of Tesla’s driverless software. However, Tesla's vehicles have no system in place to ensure that drivers…

  • Gambling adverts on social media ‘more appealing to children than adults’

    Disguised gambling marketing and adverts for betting on esports are especially alluring as they trigger positive emotions in under 25-year-olds, according to a study conducted at the University of Bristol. A poll of more than 650 children, young people and adults across the UK revealed that the vast majority of adults were wary or annoyed when faced with gambling adverts, while children mainly reacted positively. The report calls for tighter regulations for gambling content marketing and a ban on esports gambling advertising in order to prevent youngsters from becoming addicted to gambling. It adds that social media platforms should only allow gambling adverts on social media when users actively opt-in to receive them. The online survey involved 210 children aged 11 to 17 years; 222 young…

  • The low-code route to hitting green targets

    The UK has fallen behind on adapting to climate change. A recent Climate Change Committee report highlighted how the gap between the level of risk and mitigation efforts is widening at an alarming rate. Despite having capacity and the resources needed to respond to risks, the UK is failing to prepare for the inevitable, with the report going on to lay bare the urgency and scale of changes needed across the infrastructure if the country wants to reach its new 2050 net zero target. The utilities sector is pivotal to meeting that objective, as is the role of digital innovation across sectors. Some 90 per cent of utility sector leaders surveyed in a recent study said that their commitment to net zero has initiated or triggered a sea change in their organisation. Forty four per cent went further…

  • Whistleblower accuses Facebook of fuelling global unrest

    Whistleblower Frances Haugen (pictured) met with MPs for two hours yesterday where she was probed about the company’s inner workings. Haugen was a data engineer at Facebook and began secretly copying thousands of the firm’s documents before quitting the firm. She has said the firm’s own internal data has shown that its Instagram platform is more dangerous for teenagers than rivals such as Snapchat or Tiktok. “The events we’re seeing around the world, things like Myanmar and Ethiopia, those are the opening chapters because engagement-based ranking does two things: one, it prioritises and amplifies divisive and polarising extreme content and two it concentrates it,” Haugen said. But Facebook has rejected her claims with founder Mark Zuckerberg recently saying it was illogical for the social…

  • Sturgeon promises shift away from fossil fuels for Scotland

    Sturgeon pledged that the strategy will set out how Scotland can make the “fastest possible transition” away from oil and gas, based on the understanding that “unlimited extraction of fossil fuels, or maximum economic recovery in UK policy terms, is not consistent with our climate obligations”. The new energy strategy is due to be published next year. However, a preliminary “catch-up plan” will be laid out this week, setting out what actions it must take after having missed emissions reductions targets for three consecutive years. Sturgeon, speaking to students at Strathclyde University in Glasgow, said that Scotland has some of the strictest climate targets in the world. The Scottish Parliament has approved legislation committing the country to reaching net-zero greenhouse gas emissions…

  • Climate ‘tipping points’ identified using millennia-old data

    University of Birmingham researchers found that the current understanding of tipping points is lacking because such an event has not occurred in recent times. Earth System models, routinely used for climate predictions, are taken from our understanding of the physical, chemical and biological processes that work together to shape our planet’s environment. But these models do not provide a complete picture because they fail to simulate known climate events from the past. The new study finds that knowledge of climate reconstructions from thousands of years ago can be used to fine-tune Earth System models to provide a more accurate understanding of climate system thresholds. Senior author Dr Peter Hopcroft, said: “Climate modelling is the only way we have to predict future climate change…

  • Endless regression: hardware goes virtual on the cloud

    In the summer of 2018, professors John Hennessy and David Patterson declared a glorious future for custom hardware. The pair had picked up the Association for Computing Machinery’s Turing Award for 2017 for their roles in the development of the reduced instruction set computer (RISC) architectural style in the 1980s.   Towards the end of their acceptance speech, Patterson pointed to the availability of hardware in the cloud as one reason why development of custom chips and the boards they would be soldered onto is getting more accessible. Cloud servers can be used to simulate designs on-demand and, if you have enough dollars to spend, you can simulate a lot of them in parallel to run different tests. If the simulation does not run quickly enough, you can move some or all of the design into…

  • Motorola faces competition investigation over its emergency services network

    The Airwave Network was first introduced in 2000 as a way to allow emergency services to communicate during major incidents without interruption. All of Great Britain’s emergency services and over 300 public safety organisations communicate using the network and its coverage is actually superior to any of the publicly available networks, with 99 per cent coverage across the country. The CMA has launched a market investigation, following a consultation earlier this year, which set out concerns about the impact of the dual role of Motorola as the owner of the company providing the current mobile radio network (Airwave Solutions) and as a key supplier in the roll-out of the planned new Emergency Services Network (ESN). The ESN is superior to the Airwave network because it runs on 4G technology…

  • London’s Ultra Low Emission Zone expands 18-fold to cut air pollution

    The new ‘inner London’ zone is 18 times the size of the current central London zone and is designed to tackle air pollution in some of London’s most densely populated areas. The £12.50 daily charge is on top of the £15 Congestion Charge, which is designed to lower overall traffic in central London and mostly covers diesel cars that are more than six years old and petrol cars that are more than 15 years old. Around 87 per cent of vehicles currently travelling in the zone already meet ULEZ standards and will therefore be exempt from the new charge, up from 39 per cent in February 2017 when plans for expansion were first announced. ULEZ has now been expanded from central London, covering the same area as the Congestion Charge, up to - but not including - the North Circular and South Circular…

  • Sponsored: Collaborating for a fairer world

    The potential of engineering to transform and protect lives was thrown into sharp focus by the pandemic. In the initial stages, supply chains struggled to cope with demand for essential products. PPE shortages made the headlines: but with 40% of pre-pandemic PPE production based in China, this was inevitable. Concerns over how long it would take to develop an effective vaccine and issues over distribution and matching supply with demand also emerged. It was clear that our existing models of manufacture - based on proprietary technologies, restrictive IP practices and just-in-time supply chains - were not fit for purpose in the face of a rapidly evolving global crisis. As outlined in a Wilson Center report , the situation not only prompted a remarkable response from the engineering community…

  • Escape Rooms arrive at National Museum of Computing

    Participants must band together with their teammates to crack the problems against the pressures of a ticking clock – and rival teams – in a race to reach the finish line and escape TNMOC. The escape room challenges are rooted in the museum’s unique collection. In order to collect and decipher clues and escape the museum, participants must grapple with historic and retro computing technology (including paper tape, punch cards and floppy disks) and solve programming and cryptography challenges. “After a difficult 18 months of limited access to the museum, we are delighted to be able to host fun days out like our Escape Room packages,” said Jacqui Garrad, director, TNMOC. “We have received an overwhelmingly positive response from those who have trialled them and are thrilled to be opening…

  • How tech can help sport boost its green credentials

    With COP26 fast approaching, one thing is for certain: in every industry, a focus on 'ESG' –shorthand for using environmental, social and governance factors to evaluate the sustainability performance of companies and countries – is top of the agenda. The world of sport is no exception. This year, we have already seen the Tokyo Olympics prioritise recycled and recyclable materials; Tottenham Hotspur play ‘the world’s first carbon-zero football match’, and the Williams F1 team be the first to pledge to be climate positive by 2030. These are all big steps forward and like measures to increase diversity in sport - such as the MCC’s recent appointment of its first-ever female president - they should be celebrated. There is still a long way to go. The sports industry’s huge environmental and social…

  • Toyota trialling hydrogen engines in race cars

    Earlier this year, the Japanese automaker announced that, to play its part in the shift to a carbon-neutral society, it is in the process of developing a hydrogen engine. Rival automakers such as Ford and Honda are also exploring the technology as another zero-carbon alternative to conventional fossil fuel-based internal combustion engines. Fuel cell electrified vehicles, such as Toyota’s Mirai , contain a fuel cell in which hydrogen reacts with oxygen to produce electricity to power an electric motor. However, hydrogen engines generate power through the combustion of hydrogen using fuel supply and injection systems similar to those found in conventional vehicles. Hydrogen engines burn hydrogen as their fuel, releasing no harmful products. A major advantage of hydrogen engines is that minimal…

  • View from Brussels: EU supercomputers start to boot up

    ‘Discoverer’—a world-class peta-scale supercomputer capable of executing 4.5 billion operations every second—was inaugurated by EU and Bulgarian government officials in the Eastern European country’s capital city, Sofia. Made possible thanks to funding worth more than €11 million from the EU and the Bulgarian state, Discoverer is designed to be part of a continent-wide supercomputer network that can be used to accelerate research across a variety of sectors. “Bulgaria can foster research and be better integrated in pan-European innovation ecosystems. It will stimulate highly data-intensive research in such areas as medicine, industry or security,” said Mariya Gabriel, the EU commissioner in charge of research and innovation policies. The European High Performance Computing Joint Undertaking…

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  • Government must do more to support the skills needed for net zero, report warns

    Released today, the Committee's latest report, titled 'Green Jobs', expresses disappointment that despite announcements committing millions of pounds to green jobs initiatives, the UK government is yet to define what a ‘green job’ is and how it will evaluate the perceived demand. The 'Net Zero Strategy', which claims to support up to 440,000 jobs by 2030, would have been the ideal opportunity to offer clarity on how to define and measure what ‘green jobs’ are. While the strategy set out the government’s green jobs and skills ambitions, what is needed now is a detailed, actionable delivery plan. Delay in clarifying this information could lead to the government’s ambitions amounting to little more than an aspiration and failing to prepare the UK for the future. This lack of understanding…

  • VR headsets could reconstruct facial expressions

    “This is one of the first devices that will allow us to monitor human facial activity in detail and it has a variety of potential applications ranging from [VR] gaming to healthcare,” said Professor VP Nguyen, a computer scientist at Texas. “The project bridges the gap between anatomical and muscular knowledge of the human face, and electrical and computational modelling techniques to develop analytical models, hardware and software libraries for sensing face-based physiological signals.” Nguyen is director of the university’s wireless and sensor systems laboratory, which is focused on building connected systems to monitor and improve human health and environment. He has received a grant of almost $250,000 from the National Science Foundation for the VR project, which is one part of a larger…

  • Smart bandage contains sensors to detect wound-healing process

    Developed by researchers at the University of Bologna in Italy, the bandage allows doctors to determine how well a dressed wound is healing without removing the bandage, which can disrupt the healing process. By changing the geometry and materials in the bandage, the researchers believe it could be fine-tuned to suit different types of wound. Chronic wounds can be a source of significant suffering and disability for patients who experience them. Getting such wounds to heal can be difficult due to a large number of varying factors that impact the healing process, such as temperature, glucose levels, and acidity. One of the most important is moisture levels – too dry, and the tissue can become desiccated; too wet, and it can become white and wrinkly. Both these situations disrupt the healing…

  • Plastic industry’s contribution to climate change to outpace coal by 2030

    In a collaboration between Bennington College and Beyond Plastics, the report found that as fossil fuel companies seek to recoup falling profits, they are increasing plastics production, cancelling out the greenhouse gas reductions gained from closures of coal-fired power plants in the US. The report analysed data of ten stages of plastics production, usage and disposal and found that the US plastics industry is releasing at least 232 million tons of greenhouse gases each year - the equivalent of 116 average-sized coal-fired power plants. In 2020, the plastics industry’s reported emissions increased by 10 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions over 2019 and construction is currently underway on another 12 plastics facilities with an additional 15 in the planning stages. “The fossil…

  • Advanced morphing material able to take on any shape

    “Today’s shapeshifting materials and structures can only transition between a few stable configurations, but we have shown how to create structural materials that have an arbitrary range of shape-morphing capabilities,” said Professor Lakshminarayanan Mahadeva, a renowned expert in the organisation of matter. “These structures allow for independent control of the geometry and mechanics, laying the foundation for engineering functional shapes using a new type of morphable unit cell.” A major challenge in designing shape-morphing materials is balancing the seemingly contradictory needs of conformability and rigidity. Conformability enables transformation to new shapes, but going too far in this direction compromises the material’s ability to maintain its shape. Rigidity helps lock the material…

  • Tighter rules needed to stop energy suppliers ‘greenwashing’ their tariffs

    In a survey of more than 900 people, the consumer organisation found that 72 per cent said they expect that companies selling green tariffs will buy renewable electricity from other companies or generators, while a similar number (67 per cent) expect that the company generates its own renewable electricity. To be able to call a tariff ‘green’ or ‘renewable’, a supplier matches the electricity consumers use with energy generated from a renewable source. They do this with renewable energy certificates or REGOs (renewable energy guarantees of origin). But these certificates are not attached to the power, so companies can buy and sell them separately – and often cheaply. The Committee on Climate Change has said that unbundling REGOs from power “could mean that the supplier of the green tariff…

  • Secrets of pearl perfection could unlock high-precision nanomaterials

    For centuries, scientists have tried to understand how molluscs produce such perfect objects. “We humans, with all our access to technology, can’t make something with a nanoscale architecture as intricate as a pearl,” said Professor Robert Hovden, a materials science and engineering expert. “So, we can learn a lot by studying how pearls go from disordered nothingness to this remarkably symmetrical structure.” As a pearl is built, its symmetry edges towards perfection, coaxing order from unpredictable layers of nacre, the durable organic-inorganic composite that gives it its pearlescent sheen. The process begins when nacre covers a shard of aragonite that surrounds an organic centre. The layers of nacre, which comprise more than 90 per cent of a pearl’s volume, become progressively thinner…

  • IET Achievement Awards celebrate world-leading engineers

    The IET Achievement Awards recognise individuals worldwide who have made exceptional contributions to the advancement of engineering, technology and science in any sector. This can be through research and development in their respective technical field or through their leadership of an enterprise. This year, 15 of the world’s top engineering and technology talents have been honoured with medals and trophies for services to the industry. The top Faraday medal was awarded to Fleming for his significant role in the development of the world’s first obstetric ultrasound device. Whilst working for Smiths Industries in Glasgow, Fleming became the lead engineer in charge of developing the first ultrasound machine, the diasonograph. This static B-Scan machine was the first scanner to go into commercial…

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