• California passes Delete Act to protect residents' data privacy

    The Delete Act ( SB 362) has been signed into law by California governor Gavin Newsom, as part of an effort to protect citizens’ online rights. California residents need only make a single request to get all their data scrubbed from data brokers’ records. Previously, residents could still request that their data was deleted, but they were forced to submit a request to individual companies to achieve it.  In order to make the new requirements possible, the legislation also mandates that all data brokers register with the California Privacy Protection Agency (CPPA), which would create a single form for residents to request that their data is deleted. Data brokers are companies that gather and sell people's personal information, such as address, age or marital status. They include credit…

  • Global warming has cost £13m an hour, researchers find

    New Zealand researchers have measured the economic costs of extreme weather events linked to climate change. Their research has found that these occurrences have caused at least $2.8tn (£2.3tn) in damage over the past 20 years, The Guardian has reported. Although the figures vary drastically year-on-year, the scientists found that s torms, floods, heatwaves and droughts have resulted in an average cost  of $140bn (£115bn) a year from 2000 to 2019. The latest data shows $280bn in costs in 2022. The researchers obtained this figure by c ombining data on how much global heating worsened extreme weather events with economic data on losses. Two-thirds of the damage costs were related to the loss of life, while a third was due to property and other assets being destroyed. The study also found…

  • Cream of the crop: meet the finalists for the IET Excellence and Innovation Awards

    Nearly 100 expert judges have spent the summer poring over hundreds of entries to this year’s awards. There is added nuance to all the awards as the IET looks to build on the introduction to societal issues over recent years. The organisers say: “Once more, we want to celebrate the engineers using science and technology to find solutions to the biggest challenges humankind is currently facing. We believe in excellence and innovation but with impact and a long-term view, and we are incorporating social and environmental impact across all categories.” The big reveal is on 15 November 2023 at the inspiring Glasgow Science Centre – just a short walk over the Millennium footbridge over the River Clyde to the Crowne Plaza where the IET’s Powering Net Zero Week is taking place (see page 98). …

  • Labour promises railway and energy reforms if it wins the next election

    Speaking at the party’s conference in Liverpool, shadow transport secretary Louise Haigh confirmed that plans announced under former leader Jeremy Corbyn to return the UK’s train system to public ownership have not been dropped under Keir Starmer. “There is no point offering infrastructure announcements of investment unless we radically reform railways as well, because for too long decisions around investment and infrastructure have been made completely divorced from the reality of the way railways are run,” she said. “I am here to confirm today that the next Labour government will radically overhaul our rail system and we will outline the detailed vision for that in the coming days, weeks and months. “We are working in lockstep with unions, mayors and with local leaders and industry…

  • Samsung and SK Hynix allowed to ship US chips to Chinese factories

    The US has granted a waiver to technology firms including Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix that will be allow them to supply US-made chip equipment to their China factories indefinitely without separate US approvals, South Korea’s  Yonhap News Agency has reported.  The US government has already notified the two companies of its decision, which takes effect immediately, Choi Sang-mok, Seoul’s senior presidential secretary for economic affairs, told reporters.  Previously, the two companies were required to seek  one-year waivers to the US sanctions on the import of advanced technology to the Asian giant. The waivers would have expired this month. “The US government’s decision means that the most significant trade issue of our semiconductor companies has been resolved,” said Choi. “Uncertainties…

  • World’s largest offshore wind farm begins powering Britain

    The National Grid has connected Dogger Bank in the North Sea, set to become the world’s largest offshore wind farm, to the UK electricity transmission network.  The 277-turbine wind farm is located 70 nautical miles off the coast of Yorkshire. Upon its completion, scheduled for 2026, Dogger Bank will occupy an area almost as large as Greater London. It   is expected to produce 3.6GW of power, enough for six million homes a year. The wind farm was jointly developed by Britain’s SSE and Norway’s Equinor and Vårgrønn.  UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has celebrated the news, saying Dogger Bank will bolster energy security, create jobs, lower electricity bills and keep the country on track to reach net zero.  “Offshore wind is critical to generating renewable, efficient energy that can power…

  • Greece uses augmented reality to take visitors back to antiquity

    With only a smartphone, tourists can now see what the Parthenon looked like back when it was used as a temple of Athena thousands of years ago – paint included.  The Greek telecoms provider Cosmote, with the support of the country’s Culture Ministry, has created Chronos, an augmented reality (AR) application that superimposes a digital image onto several buildings within the Acropolis, including the Parthenon  temple, the adjacent Roman theatre and parts of the Acropolis Museum. The app is named after the Greek word for time and the leader of the mythological Titans.  The images provide insights into how the site looked thousands of years ago. Visitors only have to point their phones to a part of the building to see the marble sculptures that used to be housed there before they were removed…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • UK investigates Snapchat AI chatbot over privacy risks

    The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has issued Snap, the parent company behind Snapchat, a preliminary enforcement notice over the privacy risks posed by its generative AI chatbot ‘My AI’. As a result, Snapchat could face a multi-million pound fine or even be forced to shut down the  feature in the UK.  The ICO issued the notice after conducting an investigation into the tool, launched in spring 2023. T he chatbot, powered by OpenAI’s GPT technology, marked the first example of generative AI embedded into a major messaging platform in the UK.  However, the ICO has found that the risk assessment Snap conducted before it launched My AI did not “adequately assess the data protection risks” to users, particularly children aged 13 to 17.  “The provisional findings of our investigation…

  • UK awards £89m for ‘cutting-edge’ EV technology

    The UK will provide  £89m of funding to drive forward its goal of becoming a world leader in zero-emissions vehicle technology. The funding package includes four collaborative R&D projects, five scale-up projects to assess if businesses in the automotive sector are ready for growth, and seven feasibility studies to prepare projects to develop large-scale manufacturing facilities in the UK. The initiatives include Aston Martin’s plans to develop a luxury battery EV platform and Perkins’ project to develop a hydrogen-hybrid integrated power system for off-road vehicles. It is estimated that the projects combined will ‘create or safeguard’ more than 4,700 jobs while saving up to 65 million tonnes of CO 2 from being emitted over the next decade. The funding has been awarded through the…

  • Pet tech boom: biometrics and AI gain favour among cat and dog owners

    Anyone who’s noted the increased numbers of dog walkers in their neighbourhood will know that the Covid-19 crisis unleashed a pet ownership boom. Millions acquired four-footed companions to help them through the stresses of home isolation. The People’s Dispensary for Sick Animals found that 36% of all current UK owners of dogs, cats and rabbits acquired their pets after March 2020, indicating that 4.1 million dogs and 3.7 million cats have been homed since the onset of the pandemic.  Pet population rises synced with other digital dependencies heightened by lockdown. Our use of connected technology helped to manage routine but essential aspects of daily life, from grocery delivery to virtual medical check-ups. And as more pet food was added to online shopping baskets, it became clear that…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • UK Armed Forces to get £88m sensor upgrade to detect chemical threats in battle

    It will be a first of its kind for the UK Armed Forces, as the wearable sensor will be able to detect threats from both vapours and aerosols. Under the contract, UK firm Smiths Detection will develop three next-generation chemical sensor products for the MoD, to be operational by 2028. This includes a wearable personal chemical agent sensor that continually monitors the environment around the user, a survey chemical agent sensor that can check potentially hazardous areas or surfaces, and a remote chemical sensor for use in fixed locations. As new hazards emerge in the future, the equipment can be continually updated and improved, identifying a greater range of chemical threat coverage, the MoD said. Minister for defence procurement James Cartlidge said: “It’s vital we protect our service…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • US agency sues Elon Musk over $44bn Twitter takeover

    The long-running feud between Musk and the SEC has escalated, as the Tesla owner now faces a lawsuit over the company’s purchase of social media platform Twitter, now rebranded as X . The SEC is investigating w hether Musk broke federal law in 2022 when he bought stock in the platform and the paperwork that he filed in relation to the transaction.   Before the billionaire obtained full control over Twitter, Musk bought a 9.2 per cent stake in the company, becoming its  majority shareholder. The purchase was not disclosed in an SEC filing until the following month and led the company's other shareholders to sue Musk, with no success.  Musk’s purchase of Twitter stocks merely months before his acquisition of the platform could see him facing charges of insider trading, market manipulation…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • MPs call for ‘urgent stop’ to police use of facial recognition tech

    Earlier this week, policing minister Chris Philp proposed giving police access to more than 45 million images stored in the passport photos database for use in facial recognition technology, to help catch criminals like shoplifters and burglars. But a joint statement backed by dozens of MPs and peers, including former Brexit secretary David Davis MP, Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey, Green MP Caroline Lucas and former shadow attorney-general Shami Chakrabarti, warns of “serious concerns” about the “incompatibility with human rights” and “discriminatory impacts” of facial recognition surveillance. It also said expanded use of the technology lacked sufficient legal basis and a democratic mandate. Governments around the world are considering whether to prohibit or permit the use of live…

  • Government pledges £70m for ‘next-gen’ telecommunications technology

    The UK government has announced a £70m investment into the Future Telecoms UKRI Technology Missions Fund.  In addition to the pledge, the government has also joined the new Global Coalition on Telecommunications (GCOT), a new global coalition to bolster telecoms security, resilience and innovation. Its members include Australia, Canada, Japan and the US.   The announcement has been described as part of an effort to ensure the UK becomes a global leader in 6G technology, improving the capacity and speeds of data transfer.  “Telecommunications networks are the lifeline of global economies, and safeguarding their resilience and security in an evolving, interconnected world is a top priority for our governments,” said Michelle Donelan, secretary of state for science, innovation and technology…

  • Government not doing enough to halt ‘devastating’ wildlife declines, report finds

    According to The Wildlife Trusts’ State of Nature report, most of the important habitats are in “poor condition”, but restoration projects could still help to rehabilitate some of the wildlife that has been lost. The species studied have declined by an average of 19 per cent since monitoring began in 1970. But some groups have fared much worse than others, such as birds (43 per cent), amphibians and reptiles (31 per cent), fungi and lichen (28 per cent) and terrestrial mammals (26 per cent). Species such as the turtle dove, hazel dormouse, lady’s slipper orchid and European eel now face an uncertain future, and there have also been declines in the distributions of more than half (54 per cent) of the UK’s flowering plant species, with species such as heather and harebell significantly at…

  • UK to investigate Amazon and Microsoft’s cloud sector dominance

    The investigation will address  the supply of public cloud infrastructure services in the UK. The CMA will look at the market dominance of cloud ‘hyperscalers’, namely Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft’s Azure, which together   hold approximately 60 to 70 per cent of the cloud services market share.   Google is their closest competitor with a share of somewhere between 5 and 10 per cent. “Many businesses now completely rely on cloud services, making effective competition in this market essential,” said CMA chief executive Sarah Cardell. “ The CMA’s independent inquiry group will now carry out an investigation to determine whether competition in this market is working well and, if not, what action should be taken to address any issues it finds.” The watchdog’s probe follows Ofcom…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • The drones and cameras that could keep homes secure

    The pandemic lockdown was not a good time for burglars, who rely on people being out to make a living. But now, with near-normal life returned, the opportunistic thief may soon find that, having wrenched open the back door, they are greeted by a whirring drone shining a torchlight and filming their faces.  Just a few years ago, it was only the wealthy and overly cautious who had security cameras on their property. Today, one in five UK households has a video doorbell to monitor visitors to their home. And with the advent of artificial intelligence (AI) and drones, home security devices are about to rise to new heights.  Amazon’s home camera pioneer Ring, based in California, has started consumer trials in the US for its latest product, the ‘Always at Home’ autonomous indoor drone. Expected…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • Global power sector emissions may have peaked in 2023, study finds

    According to the Ember think tank, emissions from the sector plateaued in the first half of 2023, with just a slight increase of 0.2 per cent compared to the same period last year. During this time, wind and solar were the only electricity sources that significantly increased both their generation, as well as share in the global power mix. Across the globe, 50 countries set new monthly solar generation records in the first half of 2023. China continues to be the leader in solar generation, providing 43 per cent of global growth, while the EU, US and India accounted for about 12 per cent each. But China also approved more than 50GW of new coal power in the first six months of 2023 – despite commitments to reduce its carbon emissions – and now consumes more than 50 per cent of the world’s…

  • EU opens anti-subsidy probe into Chinese electric car imports

    The EC has published a notice of initiation , officially kickstarting its investigation into possibly illegal Chinese electric car subsidies.  The document states that the EC has found evidence of loans at favourable rates, tax exemptions and components bought very cheaply. Should it consider this enough evidence of unfair practices, the bloc could impose tariffs on Chinese car manufacturers above the standard 10 per cent EU rate. The probe was first announced last month, in EC president Ursula von der Leyen’s State of the European Union address. In the speech, von der Leyen warned that global markets were being “flooded” with cheaper Chinese electric cars. “The EV sector holds huge potential for Europe’s future competitiveness and green industrial leadership,” she said. “EU car manufacturers…

  • Budge up: making space for the next generation

    Society is far from fairly represented in STEM, portraying a false sense of elitism that deters diverse, budding young talent.  The Making Spaces project, led by Professor Louise Archer at University College London, launched in 2020. Funded by Lloyd’s Register Foundation (LRF), the initiative focuses on the growing global phenomenon of ‘makerspaces’ – physical locations designed for people to come together to create and collaborate. The project strives to bridge the inequalities in STEM and to encourage participation from under-represented communities through working in collaboration with practitioners. In 2020, the UK government acknowledged the importance of STEM with £179m of investment in the future of UK science. Funding is vital to fuelling growth and success in STEM but doesn’t directly…

  • Sunak axes northern leg of HS2, but promises billions for transport links

    After weeks of speculation , Sunak confirmed the scrapping of “the rest of the HS2 project” during his closing speech at the Conservative Party conference, held in a former train station in Manchester.  Sunak explained his decision to scrap any HS2 connection that is not in the London–Birmingham leg as a result of changing circumstances and rising costs. The move goes against the warnings of former prime ministers, political allies, regional mayors and businesses.  “I say to those who backed the project in the first place, the facts have changed,” Sunak said. “And the right thing to do when the facts change is to have the courage to change direction. “So I am ending this long-running saga. I am cancelling the rest of the HS2 project.” HS2 was a central part of Boris Johnson’s levelling…

  • Regulator forces Hitachi to sell train-signalling arm before Thales merger

    The rail arms of both Hitachi and Thales are major global suppliers of signalling systems for mainline and urban tracks. In August 2021, Hitachi announced a €1.7bn deal to acquire the Thales Ground Transportation Business. Last year, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) warned that the merger could lead to higher fares for consumers. The body’s independent inquiry group concluded that if the merger was allowed to go ahead, few credible competitors would remain. In response, Hitachi has offered to sell its signalling business in the UK, France and Germany. The CMA said it would still need to approve the purchase, and Hitachi’s key customers in these countries will also need to agree to the transfer of the relevant signalling contracts. But it said that once this requirement is met…

  • AI designs new robot from scratch in seconds

    T he team tested the system by giving it a simple prompt: “Design a robot that can walk across a flat surface.” The computer started with a block about the size of a bar of soap. Knowing it was unable to walk, as instructed, the AI began making iterations of the design. With each new version, the resulting robot improved on previous flaws. After nine tries, the AI algorithm designed a robot riddled with holes and with three legs, rear fins and a flat face. It generated a robot design that could walk half its body length per second – about half the speed of an average human stride. The entire design process – from a shapeless block with zero movement to a full-on walking robot – took just 26 seconds on a laptop. “We discovered a very fast AI-driven design algorithm that bypasses the…

  • How SF6-free alternatives drive decarbonization

    During this webinar, we will discuss the advantages and benefits of: SF6 ban becoming the new norm and driving a sustainable future for medium voltage Environmental concerns driving the need for SF6-free solutions Comparative use cases between products with and without SF6 Current and incoming regulations related to SF6 How SF6-free solution fits into a Life Cycle Assessment Finally, we will illustrate the application all these key standards and their benefits in different real-life use cases. Register to watch this free live webinar on Tuesday 17 October, 10:00 (CEST).  Register for this webinar

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