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Germany offers £12bn to lure chipmakers to the country

Germany is determined to build up its chipmaking capacity. To achieve this, the country’s Ministry of Economy has announced it will offer €14bn (about £12bn) in financial support of the industry. The semiconductor shortage and the supply chain disruptions caused by the rise of demand in the wake of the pandemic, have created havoc in many industries that rely on this technology, including carmakers, healthcare providers and telecom operators. In this context, large corporations like Apple and Ford were forced to halt production processes , facing billions of dollars in losses. The chip shortage is expected to last until at least 2024, according to Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger. To address this challenge, the European Commission has set out plans to encourage chip manufacturing in Europe through…

E+T Magazine in Manufacturing
Scottish Power commits to raft of green hydrogen projects in the Highlands

The projects are led by Scottish Power and Storegga and are expected to deliver hundreds of megawatts of green hydrogen production capacity before the end of the decade, with plans for the first facility to be operating by 2024. Hydrogen production is typically delineated into ‘green’ methods, which can be carbon neutral through the use of electrolysis to separate it from water, and blue hydrogen, which is not carbon neutral as it is produced by splitting natural gas. Blue hydrogen can only be described as a net-zero carbon fuel when used in conjunction with carbon capture and storage; furthermore, studies have found that blue hydrogen is more carbon-intensive as a source of heat than natural gas, coal, or diesel. Green hydrogen is currently two to three times more expensive than blue…

E+T Magazine in Renewable Energy
$AI can predict bone fractures in cancer patients$

AI can predict bone fractures in cancer patients

As medicine continues to embrace machine learning, a new study suggests that scientists may be able to use AI tools to predict how cancer affects the probability of spinal fractures. Every year, over 1.6 million cancer cases are diagnosed in the US, 10 per cent of which experience spinal metastasis, which occurs when the disease spreads from other places in the body to the spine. One of the biggest clinical concerns patients face is the risk of spinal fractures due to these tumours, which can lead to severe pain and spinal instability. “Spinal fracture increases the risk of patient death by about 15 per cent,” said Soheil Soghrati, associate professor at Ohio State University. “By predicting the outcome of these fractures, our research offers medical experts the opportunity to design better…

E+T Magazine in Medical Diagnostics
World central bank group denounces Big Tech data harvesting

A paper published by the world’s main central bank umbrella group said that while many countries already have some laws around data use, most individuals are still not aware of their data rights or the risks that come with the unregulated use of data. The advent of smartphones, digital technologies, software applications and network connectivity has led to a dramatic expansion of consumers’ digital footprints, turning data into a valuable commodity. In this context, s ocial media giants, Big Tech firms and banks have been able to harvest, process and sell user data with little oversight. In order to ”level the playing field between data subjects and data controllers," authorities should adopt new data governance systems, the paper said. These would include requiring firms to get clearer…

E+T Magazine in Cybersecurity
1,000 Big Issue sellers now accept cashless payment

The move is designed to help homeless sellers of the magazine as cash use in the UK falls dramatically. A study from last year found that if the current trend of declining cash usage in the UK continues, the country could become entirely cashless by 2026 . The Big Issue is using contactless technology via the Zettle by PayPal card reader, which enables sellers to accept contactless payments in-person directly on their Android mobile devices, with no additional hardware or fees. The magazine found that vendors offering cashless payments will sell up to 35 per cent more magazines using the Zettle card reader than a vendor that is only accepting cash, as nearly 70 per cent of debit card transactions and over half (56 per cent) of credit card transactions in the UK are now contactless. Vendors…

E+T Magazine in Engineering with a Disability
View from Brussels: Losing friends, alienating people

Access to the EU’s €95bn research programme – Horizon Europe – is contingent on signing up to other rules and regulations, so that non-EU countries are on the same level playing-field as the 27 member states. For non-EU nations like Norway, it is relatively smooth sailing as it is part of the European Economic Area (EEA), whose rules are very closely aligned with the full-fat EU codex. But for Switzerland and the UK, it is more complex. This time last year, talks between Bern and Brussels broke down, as the Swiss government pulled the plug on a bilateral deal that would have codified hundreds of separate agreements with the EU into one overarching framework. Swiss ministers were concerned that the pact would undermine the Alpine republic’s preciously guarded sovereignty over migration…

E+T Magazine in Research and Innovation
Money & Markets: Engineers will likely survive this round of inflation

Do you remember when ‘spin’ was a new idea and ‘spin-doctors’ were a new concept? Well, here we are 25 or so years later and it has become hard to believe anything. This is a bad situation made worse by finding ourselves with a novel and worrying business configuration. What just happened and where are we heading? As I am sure my audience of engineers love to do, I will try and simplify as much as possible. Covid and actions to combat it have brought us to a point where inflation is baked into the global economy and interest rates are going up. For some time to come, the sovereign deficits of the major global economies are going to grow, while that ‘real’ GDP - after adjusting for inflation - is set to fall. You will likely hear the word ‘reset’ a lot going forwards when it comes to markets…

E+T Magazine in Manufacturing
Global collaboration ‘necessary’ in the fight against Big Tech, says EU antitrust chief

The architect of landmark EU antitrust rules has called upon governments to collaborate on a common approach to curb the power of large technology corporations. Vestager, who has handed out billions of euros in fines to Alphabet's Google and launched investigations into Apple, Amazon and Meta Platform's alleged anticompetitive behaviour, said there was global agreement on the issues raised by large digital platforms. "This debate is no longer a hot topic amongst competition practitioners but it has strong political attention," she said in a recent conference. "Close cooperation will be necessary because we will not be short of work and we will not be short of novel services or practices to look at." Earlier this week, the European Commission accused Apple of restricting competition…

E+T Magazine in Ethical Aspects
Fuel and oxygen could be harvested from lunar soil to aid Moon base

Researchers from Nanjing University in China are hoping to design a system that takes advantage of lunar soil and solar radiation, the two most abundant resources on the Moon. After analysing the lunar soil brought back by China’s Chang’e 5 spacecraft, their team found the sample contains compounds including iron-rich and titanium-rich substances that could work as a catalyst to make desired products such as oxygen using sunlight and carbon dioxide. With China and Russia announcing a collaboration to build a research station on the surface of the Moon last year, the discovery could help to provide vital resources by harvesting local resources instead of relying on expensive cargo drops from rocket launches. The team proposed an “extra-terrestrial photosynthesis” strategy which uses lunar…

E+T Magazine in Space
EVs double market share; VW to invest €10bn in production

Battery-powered electric vehicles (BEVs) almost doubled their market share in the European Union during the first quarter of 2022, as the rollout of models across the continent gathers pace. BEVs accounted for 10 per cent of total passenger car sales in the EU, according to data from the region's carmaker association (ACEA), surpassing plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, which accounted for an 8.9 per cent share. In total, 224,145 BEVs were sold across the EU in the period January-March 2022 – a significant increase over the 146,125 vehicles sold in the same period in 2021. Hybrid electric vehicles accounted for more than a quarter of the market, up from around a fifth in the same period last year. Cars powered by petrol and diesel lost market share, but still accounted for 52.8 per cent…

E+T Magazine in Power Conversion
Structural changes observed in the brains of astronauts on long-duration missions

The team imaged the brains of 15 astronauts before and after extended tours of duty on the International Space Station (ISS). They found that in their time away from planet Earth, the fluid-filled spaces along veins and arteries in the brain were altered. These spaces, known as perivascular space, are integral to a natural system of brain cleansing that occurs during sleep. The network of tubes is known as the glymphatic system – a brain-wide network that clears metabolic proteins that would otherwise build up in the brain. Scientists say this system seems to perform optimally during deep sleep. “These findings have important implications as we continue space exploration,” said senior author Juan Piantino. “It also forces you to think about some basic fundamental questions of science and…

E+T Magazine in Space
Telecom sector drops its challenge to landmark California net neutrality law

A group of industry associations that represent major internet providers, including AT&T, Comcast and Verizon, have dropped their challenge of a federal district court's ruling upholding California's net neutrality law. While supporters of net neutrality rules celebrate the legislation as a necessary step to ensure a free and open internet, telecom providers believe the rule discourages investment in broadband and introduces uncertainty about acceptable business practices. The 2018 law allows the California state government to ban internet service providers (ISPs) from slowing down or blocking access to websites and applications that don’t pay for premium service. Last month, the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously rejected an industry attempt to prevent the state from enforcing…

E+T Magazine in Telecommunications
Night-time satellite images used to identify areas of poverty

Despite successes in reducing poverty globally in the last two decades, almost one billion people are still living without access to reliable and affordable electricity, which in turn negatively affects health and welfare, and impedes sustainable development. Researchers have been using satellite images of Earth at night to study human activity for almost 30 years and it is well established that these images – commonly referred to as night-time radiance – can help map issues like economic growth, poverty, and inequality, especially in places where data are lacking. In developing countries, areas that are unlit at night generally indicate limited development, while brightly lit areas indicate more developed areas like capital cities where infrastructure is abundant. An obvious example…

E+T Magazine in Functional Safety
Handheld device could cut the rate of cancer biopsies in half

Scientists have been able to successfully leverage millimetre-wave imaging to slash the rate of unnecessary biopsies. In 2015, 5.9 million skin biopsies were performed on Medicare recipients - a 142 per cent increase since the turn of the millennium. The healing process from these procedures is long and painful, as doctors need to carve away small lumps of tissue for laboratory testing, leaving patients with wounds that can take weeks to heal. Patients have been willing to undergo such treatments to enable early cancer treatment. However, this approach might soon no longer be necessary. Researchers at Stevens Institute of Technology are developing a low-cost handheld device that could cut the rate of unnecessary biopsies in half and give dermatologists and other frontline physicians easy…

E+T Magazine in Medical Diagnostics
Why upskilling is the key to attracting tech talent during a skills shortage

Both Brexit and the Covid-19 pandemic have taken a toll on the recruitment process. Amidst a pool of vacant positions, employers are having a hard time when it comes to attracting the best talent. Employees are reluctant to switch roles due to uncertainty, outsourcing workers from the European Union isn’t on the cards anymore, and employees lack both hard and soft skills. This is on record as the most severe skills shortage that the UK has ever faced and is likely to slow Britain’s economic growth. Although trade sectors, such as construction, engineering, and IT, are affected the most, the UK labour shortage spans across all industries. In a recent KPMG pulse survey , 70 per cent of the companies that participated said they found it difficult or very difficult to attract and retain employees…

E+T Magazine
View from India: The semiconductor is the new oil in this digital age

Today’s economy is based on data, or rather data-driven artificial intelligence (AI). Semiconductors enable advances in communication, transportation, education and electronic devices. “The semiconductor industry is projected to be $1tn by 2030 and the data economy could be the driving force. Data is stored and processed and memory storage is central to it. Data-driven economies could be characterised by 5G networks, complex 3D designs, advanced AI and intelligence edge,” said Sanjay Mehrotra of Micron Technology at Semicon India 2022. Data memory and storage may be tapped by the auto industry, given that electric vehicles are increasing the advanced driver safety features as well as infotainment options. Data memory and storage could be used to improve agricultural productivity. Memory and…

E+T Magazine in Semiconductor Technology
Robot chef is able to ‘taste’ food to make recipe improvements

They believe the results could be useful in the development of automated or semi-automated food preparation by helping robots to learn what tastes good and what doesn’t. The robot chef, which has already been trained to make omelettes based on human tasters’ feedback, tasted nine different variations of a simple dish of scrambled eggs and tomatoes at three different stages of the chewing process, and produced ‘taste maps’ of the different dishes. The researchers found that this ‘taste as you go’ approach significantly improved the robot’s ability to quickly and accurately assess the saltiness of the dish over other electronic tasting technologies, which only test a single homogenised sample. “Most home cooks will be familiar with the concept of tasting as you go – checking a dish throughout…

E+T Magazine in Research and Innovation
Does space travel lead to blood clots? Nasa gives the answer

Are astronauts more likely to develop blood clots? That’s the question Nasa is trying to answer alongside UNC School of Medicine’s Professor Stephan Moll MD. A new publication in Vascular Medicine shows the results of an occupational surveillance programme that took place after an astronaut developed a blood clot during a mission to the International Space Station (ISS). This was the first time a blood clot had been found in an astronaut in space, so there was no established method of treatment for deep vein thrombosis ( DVT) in zero gravity. Therefore, Nasa called upon Moll, a member of the UNC Blood Research Center, for his knowledge and treatment experience of DVT on Earth. "Knowing there are no emergency rooms in space, we had to weigh our options very carefully,” Moll said. In…

E+T Magazine in Space
US to place ‘seismic’ human rights-related sanctions on China’s Hikvision

The Biden administration is considering placing human rights-related sanctions on the Chinese company and has begun briefing its allies, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday, citing four people familiar with the matter. The world’s largest manufacturer of surveillance equipment has been accused of enabling human rights abuses. Hikvision reportedly supplied the Chinese government with surveillance cameras that facilitate the repression of one million Uyghurs who have been detained in camps in the north-western region of Xinjiang. Both the Trump and Biden administrations have accused Beijing of committing “genocide”, although China has consistently denied the accusations. If the decision to sanction were taken, it would amount to the first time the US has imposed such sanctions on…

E+T Magazine in Ethical Aspects
Wi-Fi, coming to a lamppost near you!

The researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) found that the optimal height of installation depends on transmission frequency and antenna design. Attaching equipment at lower heights of around 4m is better for traditional wireless systems with omnidirectional antennas, the team said, whereas higher locations 6-9m up are better for the latest systems such as 5G using higher, millimetre-wave frequencies and narrow-beam antennas. An international group, the Telecom Infra Project, is promoting the idea of making Wi-Fi available over the unlicensed 60GHz frequency band by installing access points on lampposts. A technical challenge, however, is that signals in this band, which are higher than traditional cellphone frequencies, are sparse and tend to scatter off…

E+T Magazine in Research and Innovation
Meta opens access to its massive AI language model

Facebook-owner Meta Platforms Inc is opening up access to its massive language model for artificial intelligence (AI) research. 'Large language models' are natural language processing systems that are trained on massive volumes of text, and are capable of both understanding and generating texts. With 175 billion parameters, Meta’s Open Pretrained Transformer (OPT-175B) was designed to share both the groundbreaking abilities and potential flaws of OpenAI’s pioneering neural network GPT-3. By giving researchers free access to the model, as well as data about its training, Meta hopes to drive AI research forward, as well as reduce the ethical risks that come with these technologies. “We strongly believe that the ability for others to scrutinise your work is an important part of research…

E+T Magazine in Research and Innovation
Rail funding cuts increase risk of major accidents on the network, TUC says

Network Rail plans to cut annual expenditure by £100m, mainly through the loss of 2,500 rail maintenance jobs. A previously unpublished analysis of Network Rail data by the RMT union found that this could lead to 670,000 fewer hours of maintenance work annually. The cuts come after a Spending Review from the Chancellor at the end of 2020 that saw Network Rail’s budget cut by £1bn for the 2019-2024 period, down nearly 10 per cent on the £10.4bn for the previous five-year period. In its latest report, the TUC said it was impossible to make those cuts without losing many safety-critical jobs. Network Rail responsibilities include track maintenance and maintaining signals to ensure trains are on time and prevent collisions as well as ensuring a consistent electricity supply to the network…

E+T Magazine in Railways
London’s Elizabeth Line will finally launch later this month after years of delays

Passengers will be able to travel on the new line from 24 May 2022 and will see improved transport links from Abbey Wood in the south-east, Shenfield in the north-east and extending to Reading in the west. The Elizabeth Line should also help to cut journey times and provide additional capacity on London’s tube network. It will initially operate as three separate railways, with services from Reading, Heathrow and Shenfield connecting with the central tunnels from autumn this year. In the coming weeks, signage for the line will be uncovered across the network in preparation for the start of customer service. The updated Tube and Rail map will also be released later showing the new central section stations connected with the rest of the TfL network for the first time. …

E+T Magazine in Railways
Ofqual to explore online testing for exams

According to the regulator Ofqual, the move – set to take place over the next three years – could be the first step on the path towards online GCSEs and A-levels. It said it will explore novel approaches to assessment, including the use of technology, and will work with exam boards to “explore the role of adaptive testing”, where digital exams automatically adjust to suit a candidate’s ability level. Ofqual added it will “remove regulatory barriers where innovation promotes valid and efficient assessment”. It plans to oversee the reintroduction of full public exams in 2022 while being “ready to implement contingency arrangements if needed”. Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, welcomed the move away from “Fort Knox-style security arrangements…

E+T Magazine in STEM Education and Skills

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