• Ford invests $11.4bn to add electric F-150 plant, three battery factories

    The two companies intend to create nearly 11,000 jobs by opening assembly and battery plants in Stanton, Tennessee, and two additional battery factories in Glendale, Kentucky, as part of Ford's previously announced plan to spend more than $30bn between now and 2030 on electrification. Plants on both sites are slated to open in 2025. Following the announcement - which represents the single-largest manufacturing investment in the company's 118-year history - Ford said that it expects to have 40 to 50 per cent of its global vehicle volume to be all-electric by 2030, up from its previous forecast of 40 per cent. The Tennessee assembly and battery complex will be approximately three times the size of Ford's sprawling, century-old Rouge manufacturing complex in Dearborn, Michigan, said Lisa Drake…

  • Oil will be ‘number one energy source for decades’, says Opec

    Opec's bullish pronouncement comes as nations prepare to gather for the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow to discuss ways in which the world's population can continue to limit the negative effects of climate change , with the primary goal of limiting temperature rises to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. In its annual 'World Oil Outlook' (WOO) report, Opec acknowledged that increasing the number of electric vehicles on the world's roads and the push for alternative and renewable energy will indeed usher in an era of declining demand for oil in rich countries. However, the report also noted that the long-term energy needs of expanding economies in other parts of the world will still leave oil as the world’s number one source of energy until at least the year 2045. The long-term report was…

  • Crackdown on criminals using e-scooters pursued by government

    A call for ideas that “enhance the ability of UK police to prevent e-scooters and e-bikes from being used to commit criminal acts” has been issued after a rise in reports of such incidents. The Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA) – the part of the Ministry of Defence (MoD) tasked with finding and funding technology for the armed forces, police and security services – is carrying out the so-called “market exploration” on behalf of the Home Office and described the subject as a “problem that has ministerial interest”. The government is particularly interested in ways the devices could be brought to a stop without putting the rider, police or the public at risk; how stationary e-scooters could be rendered “incapable of moving”, and suggestions for tracking down suspects electronically…

  • NHS Scotland uses AI to guide heart operations

    During PCI operations, tiny stents are placed in coronary arteries to keep them open and maintain blood flow towards the heart. This non-surgical procedure helps patients with coronary artery disease whose arteries have been narrowed by plaque build-up. Now, cardiologists at NHS Golden Jubilee Hospital in Clydebank, West Dunbartonshire, have become the first in Scotland to perform the procedure with guidance from AI technology. The clinicians carried out planned PCIs using Ultreon 1.0 software, which combines the imaging technique Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) and computer vision, gaining a comprehensive and accurate view inside arteries and helping them determine the best decisions. The software speeds up the operation, using infrared lasers and AI to measure how much of the artery…

  • Superconducting flakes could outperform quantum computer parts

    The researchers made the discovery while exploring the junction between two layers of a superconductor - niobium diselenide - after the layers were cleaved apart, twisted 30° with respect to one another and then stamped back together. This process created a superconducting quantum interferometer device (aka 'SQUID'): an extremely sensitive sensor used to measure magnetic fields. SQUIDs, which are based on superconducting loops, are crucial components in MEG imaging and are also used in MRI; cardiography; mineral exploration; scanning microscopes; gravitational wave detection, and in commercial quantum computers. Although this work remains at an early stage, these new superconducting flakes have the potential to play an important part in the development of quantum computing in coming years…

  • Light-powered microscopic metavehicles ready to roll

    Light has an inherent power to move microscopic objects – a property previously used to develop the Nobel prize-winning research idea of ‘optical tweezers’, which use a highly focused laser beam to control and manoeuvre tiny particles with incredible precision. Now, a research group at Chalmers University of Technology and the University of Gothenburg, both of Sweden, has shown how even an unfocused light can be used to manoeuvre microscopic particles in a controlled manner. Their research has been published in the journal Nature Nanotechnology . The researchers manufactured vehicles at a scale of 10 micrometres wide and 1 micrometre thick (one thousandth of a millimetre). The vehicles consisted of a tiny particle, coated with a ‘metasurface’. Metasurfaces are ultra-thin arrangements of…

  • Battery bends and stretches like a snake

    A snake’s individual scales, while rigid, can fold together to protect against external impacts. They possess structural characteristics that allow them to stretch and move flexibly. It is this unique set of properties that researchers from the Ministry of Science and ICT’s Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials decided to replicate in a mechanical meta structure. Unlike conventional wearable devices, in which the device’s frame and battery are combined in a tight formation, this new device enables flexible movement by connecting several small, rigid batteries in a scale-like structure. To ensure its safety, the researchers optimised the structure to minimise deformation of the material from which the battery was made. The shape of each battery cell is optimised to achieve high capacity…

  • Ultrathin QLED can be folded into origami structures

    QLEDs use quantum dots (nanoscale semiconductor particles) for the emission of light. Thanks to their outstanding electroluminescence, they have attracted considerable attention as a candidate for the next generation of display technologies. QLED displays do not require any bulky components such as backlight units, potentially allowing them to be manufactured with ultrathin form factors. A research team of experts from Seoul National University and the Institute for Basic Science presented a prototype QLED in 2015 that had a thickness of just 3μm. Thanks to its thinness, it had outstanding mechanical flexibility, which allowed it to be applied in wearable devices such as electronic tattoos. The team has now presented the next stage of this technology - a foldable variant of the ultrathin…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • US tests Raytheon hypersonic weapon, as China unveils military drones

    The test by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) took place as the US and its global rivals quicken their pace to build hypersonic weapons - the next generation of arms that rob adversaries of reaction time and traditional defeat mechanisms. In July this year, Russia said it had successfully tested a Tsirkon (Zircon) hypersonic cruise missile, a weapon President Vladimir Putin has touted as part of a new generation of missile systems without equal in the world. The US' free flight test of its Hypersonic Air-breathing Weapon Concept (HAWC) occurred last week, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, said in a statement. "This brings us one step closer to transitioning HAWC to a program of record that offers next generation capability to the US military…

  • Pandemic boosts public’s faith in technology, but suspicion lingers over AI

    The 'Consensus for Change' report found that a slender majority of people interviewed wanted to see more advanced technology such as artificial intelligence (AI) and data analytics used to boost public safety. The study - conducted by Motorola Solutions and a research team at Goldsmiths, University of London – found that more than three-quarters of people in the UK (76 per cent) believe technology should be used to help emergency services predict risk, while 72 per cent said technology such as video cameras, data analytics, cyber security and cloud computing needed to be more widely used to address the challenges of the modern world. The report said that in the wake of the pandemic and the high-speed innovation it sparked in the name of public safety - e.g. accelerated vaccine development;…

  • How augmented reality is putting people in the picture

    Where are all the workers? That’s the question that many manufacturing leaders are asking right now, as labour shortages and skill deficits put the brakes on their ambitions for post-pandemic recovery. New ideas and bold thinking are urgently needed, given the extent of these problems. Labour shortages are creeping upwards in the European Union and manufacturing companies report that it’s getting harder to hire. At the same time, 79 per cent report skills shortages, according to a 2020 report from technology industry trade body Digital Europe . “New graduates lack work-ready competences. Experienced ones got trained in a pre-digital, traditional manufacturing world,” write the report’s authors. The pressure is on for manufacturing companies to offer better and more satisfying jobs, and…

  • National Space Strategy outlines long-term hope for UK space sector

    The UK’s space sector is worth over £16bn. The UK currently wields a six per cent share of the global space market and aims to expand this to 10 per cent by 2030 by identifying and developing high-growth markets and increasing exports. The Space Strategy [PDF] sets out the government’s long-term ambition for the UK to become a leader in space, as the global space economy is projected to grow from £270bn in 2019 to £490bn by 2030. It aims to encourage innovation by British space businesses by unlocking private finance while positioning the UK at the frontier of space research. The four pillars of the strategy are: unlocking growth in the UK space sector; collaborating internationally to become an “international partner of choice in space activities”; growing the UK as a “science and technology…

  • UK hopes to squeeze China’s nuclear company from Sizewell C

    Plans for Sizewell C, which would sit beside Sizewell B, have been under way for more than a decade. The £20bn Sizewell C station, which is planned as a “near replica” of Hinkley Point C in Somerset, would generate 3.2GW of power and together the two stations would provide an estimated 13 per cent of the UK’s electricity needs. While Hinkley C is being constructed, Sizewell C remains in the planning and development stage and faces opposition from local campaigners. Sizewell C is being developed by EDF, which is majority-owned by the French government. CGN has a 20 per cent stake in the civil nuclear project, and has also thrown considerable investment behind Hinkley C. The US government has been applying pressure on its ally to blacklist CGN from its major infrastructure projects, citing…

  • Sponsored: Trends, innovations, and human impacts of artificial intelligence

    Left: Prof. Nick Colosimo, BAE Systems - AI & Autonomy Technical Specialist, and Lead Engineer Future Combat Air System (FCAS) for Technology. Right: Jos Martin, MathWorks - Director of Engineering for Parallel Computing and Cloud Platform Integration How MathWorks and BAE Systems work together Jos, Nick, thank you for joining me. I wondered if maybe Nick you could give us a brief introduction to how MathWorks and BAE Systems are working together? Nick Colosimo BAE Systems and MathWorks are working together to understand and solve the engineering challenges of the future, whether that is in the development of a Future Combat Air System, the Navy’s next submarine, or in the application of Digital Twin technologies and DevSecOps methodologies. MathWorks products are deployed across almost…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • Why it’s time to bust the myths that are hampering digital twin adoption

    In 1970, the Apollo 13 mission suffered a terrible mid-flight malfunction. To diagnose and remediate the problem, Nasa engineers built a ‘mirrored’ system to simulate the spacecraft and test various courses of action before deciding what to do next. The astronauts were saved, largely thanks to what many believe is the first example of a ‘digital twin’ being employed to solve a problem. With innovations in artificial intelligence and simulation modelling, today’s digital twin technology looks very different. Enabling something of a virtual testing laboratory, a digital twin will run alongside and in constant sync with a live system and offers the prospect of real-time monitoring as well as improvements in process efficiency. Fed by data from across an organisation's workflow and ERP (enterprise…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • Cleanliness sensor helps autonomous robots find dirty areas to clean

    Developed by researchers from the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD), the sensor works by pressing a white adhesive tape onto the floor and scanning for dirt particles in the tape. By measuring the degree of dissimilarity between the photo of the tape before and after it was pressed, the team came up with a dirt score that can be assigned to the area. The sensor could also count the number of pixels corresponding to dirt on the photo of the tape, providing insight into the area’s dirt density. “With this sensor that assigns a dirt score to an area using the touch-and-inspect analogy, what we need to do next is design the robot that could ‘touch’ a huge region,” explained first author Thejus Pathmakumar. One strategy is to let the robot roam everywhere, checking every…

  • AR system shows nuclear reactor damage in real time

    The system uses microscopy data to detect and quantify radiation-induced problems such as defects and swelling. The researchers hope the system could speed up the development of components for advanced nuclear reactors, which may play a critical role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. “We believe we are the first research team to ever demonstrate real-time image-based detection and quantification of radiation damage on the nanometre length scale in the world,” said Professor Kevin Field, a Michigan nuclear engineer and VP of machine vision start-up Theia Scientific. The new technology was tested at the Michigan Ion Beam Laboratory. By directing beams of ions at material samples, the lab can quickly emulate the damage sustained after years or decades of use in a nuclear reactor. The team…

  • Solid-state battery promises high energy density

    The team said that initial tests have demonstrated that the battery is safe and long lasting and believe it holds promise for applications such as grid storage or electric vehicles. Silicon anodes typically have an energy density around 10 times greater than the graphite anodes most often used in lithium ion batteries. But the anodes also expand and contract as the battery charges and discharges and degrade quickly with liquid electrolytes. Until now, these factors have kept all-silicon anodes out of commercial lithium ion batteries despite their tantalising energy density. “With this battery configuration, we are opening a new territory for solid-state batteries using alloy anodes such as silicon,” said Darren HS Tan, the lead author on the paper. Next-generation solid-state batteries…

  • Engineers make Martian fuel using CO2 reactor

    Professor Jingjie Wu and his students used a carbon catalyst in a reactor to convert carbon dioxide into methane. This process, the Sabatier reaction, is used on the International Space Station to 'scrub' CO2 from the air its inhabitants breathe and generate rocket fuel to keep the station in stable orbit. Wu, who began by studying fuel cells for electric vehicles, started looking at CO2 conversion in his lab 10 years ago. “I realised that greenhouse gases were going to be a big issue in society,” he said. “A lot of countries realised that carbon dioxide is a big issue for the sustainable development of our society. That’s why I think we need to achieve carbon neutrality. [US decarbonisation targets] mean we’ll have to recycle carbon dioxide.” Wu and his students experimented with catalysts…

  • View from Brussels: Horizon Europe’s expansion begins

    Horizon Europe’s €95bn six-year run of funding research, innovation and development kicked off in 2021 and will last until 2027. Fully open to researchers within the EU, the programme also accepts applications from third-party countries. On Friday, the European Commission announced that negotiations had wrapped up with Iceland and Norway, meaning they can be granted associated country status under the same conditions enjoyed by the EU’s 27 member states. It makes the two Nordic countries the first non-EU states to get the full Horizon Europe privileges and means that researchers can start applying for funding. Margrethe Vestager, the EU’s tech tsar, said that “by joining forces with Iceland and Norway, we will pursue a series of actions in support of the green, digital and public health…

  • Preserve the past: locating and protecting historic sites

    A shackled male skeleton discovered in June this year by house builders in a garden in Rutland suggested a gruesome history – rare evidence of slavery in Roman Britain nearly 2,500 years ago. With feet bound by iron fetters, the body seemed to have been thrown in a ditch. When builders dig, the past pops up - as the hundreds of archaeologists working on the new high-speed rail link HS2 know only too well. The archaeological sector is bolstered by money from road and rail builders obliged to investigate the history of the land they build upon. As HS2 progresses, the body count is mounting: tens of thousands of bodies famously were disinterred from a burial ground beside London’s Euston Station in 2018 to make way for construction. In 2019, a 19th-century burial ground at HS2’s rail station…

  • AI helps to detect and count puffins

    The project, which is supported by Microsoft, Avanade and nature reserve NatureScot, could transform the way animal colonies are counted when companies such as those building developments want to understand the impact on local wildlife, the operator said. The trials are taking place on the Isle of May off the coast of Scotland. In order to count puffins, traditionally rangers would lie on the ground and put their hand into burrows to feel for a pair of puffins and their egg. But very often, the birds would give these rangers a bite or a scratch. The rangers would check tens of thousands in an area. While they are not at imminent risk of extinction, puffins are on the Birds of Conservation Concern 4 Red List, meaning that there are serious concerns over numbers in the wild. One reason for…

  • View from India: Entrepreneurship and collaborations in the biotech industry

    What the pandemic has also done is to try and break the boundaries between academia and startups. “These broken silos are enablers. They can help academia-startups-industry to work together. The industry and apex bodies may well collaborate to create the necessary infrastructure for the country to move forward and position itself as a biotech destination,” said Dr Renu Swarup, Secretary, Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science and Technology, addressing the online audience at the CII Life Sciences Conclave 2021. Biotech startups need an impetus. “India is home to 5,000 startups, so we could probably look at expanding their tribe. Wishfully, some of these startups become unicorns and make it to the global list. All this may perhaps pave the way for biotechnology to grow into a $100bn…

  • WHO tightens air pollution guidelines in bid to reduce early deaths

    The WHO said the new guidelines reflect the damage that air pollution can inflict on human health at even lower concentrations than previously thought. It recommends reducing levels of key air pollutants, some of which also contribute to climate change. The WHO last updated its air quality guidelines in 2005, but there has been a marked increase of evidence that shows how air pollution affects different aspects of health since then. After reviewing the latest evidence, it adjusted almost all of its maximum recommended airborne pollutant levels downwards, suggesting that if properly adhered to, they could save millions of lives. Every year, exposure to air pollution is estimated to cause seven million premature deaths and results in the loss of millions more healthy years of life. In children…

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