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Sponsored: Where Electronics, IoT Connectivity and Embedded Systems Converge

There will be an audience of over 2000 people at the event - comprised of engineers, business leaders, technology journalists, industry analysts and investors. 75 influential companies and organisations will be exhibiting, and there will be a series of informative presentations, valuable networking sessions and lively panel discussions too. Among the numerous companies participating in the exhibition will be semiconductor vendors like Onsemi, NXP, STMicroelectronics, Nordic Semiconductor, Analog Devices and Sony Semiconductor, plus wireless module manufacturers such as Quectel, Telit Cinterion, and RAKwireless. IoT connectivity providers like Kigen, 1NCE and Wireless Logic will also be involved. Massimo Banzi, the visionary Co-founder and CTO of Arduino, will be among the speakers taking…

E+T Magazine in Internet of Things
UK must invest in green steel and protect its industry, ministers warned

Labour MP Stephen Kinnock urged ministers to follow EU proposals designed to protect the steel industry within the trade bloc, or face a “flood” of foreign steel into the UK. The Aberavon MP, whose constituency covers the Port Talbot steelworks, was speaking in the House of Commons a day after steelworkers from across the UK demonstrated in Parliament Square. They were calling for a “proper industrial strategy” for the sector, as new figures show almost 150,000 jobs have been lost in the industry over the past 40 years. The GMB union said its research suggests that between 1981 and 2021 almost 80 per cent of jobs in the entire steel sector have gone. Kinnock told the Commons: “Hundreds of steel workers gathered in Westminster yesterday to make it absolutely clear they feel that the government…

E+T Magazine in Sustainable Development
Hands-on review: Majority Quadriga Internet Radio Music System

The Quadriga connected music system, from Cambridge-based brand Majority, is the bigger brother of the similarly spec'ed Bard but with the addition of a CD player and heftier speakers. Depending on your aural predilections - and possibly your age - the need for a CD player would probably be what sways your choice between the two models, as they are essentially the same otherwise. Sure, the Quadriga goes louder, but the Bard still has the potential to bother the neighbours when cranked. We've had the Quadriga on test, mostly because we have hundreds of CDs that have been sitting in a cupboard for far too long, their only compatible player in these modern times now being the car stereo. Delving back into the collection in a domestic situation has been quietly thrilling - and the Quadriga…

E+T Magazine in Signal Processing
Book review: ‘The Chemical Code’, by Fiona Erskine

There can’t be many characters in fiction who couldn’t care less about inheriting a goldmine. But Maria Jaqueline Ribeiro da Silva, protagonist of ‘The Chemical Code’ (Point Blank, £9.99, ISBN 9780861542031) has more important things on her mind. So pressing that they scarcely fade into the background even while being attacked and drugged by three goons in an agrochemical plant in São Paulo, Brazil. The henchmen unambiguously want to kill Jaq Silver, but she’s too smart for that. Recalling Shakespeare’s Hermia, though Jaq “be but little she is fierce”. And clever. Too clever for these bruisers, as she employs her senses to outsmart them, navigating her way out of trouble by using the laws of physics, her encyclopaedic knowledge of the smells of improvised anaesthetics and processed sugar…

E+T Magazine
‘Walking’ through lost neighbourhoods possible with 3D digital maps

By turning old maps into 3D digital models of lost neighbourhoods, the researchers aim to drive forward urban research and provide users with a view of the cities of the past. The programme would allow people to use a virtual reality headset to “walk” through long-gone neighbourhoods – seeing the streets and buildings as they appeared decades ago, before they were lost to urban development projects or natural disasters. But the digital models will be more than just a novelty – they will give researchers a resource to conduct studies that would have been nearly impossible before, such as estimating the economic loss caused by the demolition of historic neighbourhoods. “The story here is we now have the ability to unlock the wealth of data that is embedded in these Sanborn fire atlases…

E+T Magazine in Research and Innovation
Final safety inspection begins at Fukushima before treated wastewater is released

The inspection at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant began today (Wednesday), one day after the plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings (Tepco) had installed the last piece of equipment needed for the release – namely, the outlet of the undersea tunnel dug to discharge the wastewater one kilometre offshore. Tepco said the Nuclear Regulation Authority inspectors were to examine the equipment related to the treated water transfer and its safety systems as part of their three-day inspection from today until Friday. The permit for releasing the water could be issued around one week later, allowing Tepco to start discharging the water soon after, although an exact date has not yet been decided. The plan has faced fierce protests from local fishing groups concerned about safety…

E+T Magazine in Nuclear Power
Labour will take difficult choices on home-building, shadow housing secretary says

Nandy used a speech in Manchester to criticise the Conservatives for being “too cowardly to take on a land market that inflates prices” and argued that the current system is “rigged against first-time buyers”. She vowed to “tilt the balance of power back” in favour of those looking to get on the housing ladder, pledging to use central government support to “help them make the leap into home ownership”. In an address to the Housing 2023 conference, the shadow minister said that Labour will deliver a “refreshed model of housebuilding” that will “put social and genuinely affordable housing at the very heart of our plans to jump-start the housebuilding industry”. She also told developers they can expect “transparent, long-term planning frameworks, quicker decisions and a more stable political…

E+T Magazine
Steelworkers stage protest outside Parliament

The GMB union said its research suggests that between 1981 and 2021 almost 80 per cent of jobs in the entire steel sector have gone. Workers from across the country marched from Trafalgar Square to Parliament Square calling for a “proper industrial strategy” and relief from the energy costs unions say are crippling the steel sector. Charlotte Childs, GMB national officer, said: “Under this government’s watch, the UK’s proud steel industry is being allowed to wither and die. Almost 150,000 jobs have gone – close to 80 per cent of the entire steel workforce. “A lack of industrial strategy and no support for crippling energy costs have left the industry at risk of ‘steel dumping’ from overseas. We need action now or the industry as we know it will cease to exist.” Image…

E+T Magazine in Manufacturing
Book review: ‘Age of the City’ by Ian Goldin and Tom Lee-Devlin

There are just two points I’d like to take issue with the authors and editors of this topical and otherwise beautifully written book about. Both relate to the front cover and are therefore hard to ignore – the title and the subtitle, both of which strike me as vague and potentially misleading. Let me explain. ‘Age’ is a polysemantic word that can mean, among other things, an epoch or era as well as duration or length of life. ‘Age of the City’, therefore, constitutes a classic, if unintended, double entendre – not a welcome thing on a book’s front cover. The authors must have had the former meaning (‘era’) in mind, but the title can be easily misconstrued as referring solely to the cities’ history. And whereas ‘Age of the City’ (Bloomsbury Continuum, £20, ISBN 9781399406147) does offer a…

E+T Magazine
Hands-on review: VKTRY Gold Insoles

Athletes and sportspeople, both amateur and professional, will do a lot to boost their performance. You can spend many hours training to shave off milliseconds or add millimetres. And while you can’t buy elite performance... $200 is not much if it truly gives you an edge. These carbon-fibre sports insoles replace the factory-fitted insoles in your trainers. They’re designed to return the energy an athlete generates as explosive power, speed and agility. They also give more support, stability and shock absorption than the stock insoles found in most trainers, reducing sports injuries. The baseplate is 100 per cent aerospace-grade carbon fibre, with flexibility customised based on age, gender, body weight and sport. The top is also customised (3, 5 or 7mm thick) to suit the sport and shoe…

E+T Magazine
AI models could improve lung cancer diagnosis, research finds

AI algorithms could greatly improve the diagnostic accuracy in detecting lung cancers on chest X-rays and increased human acceptance of AI suggestions, according to a new study. In order to analyse this performance, the Seoul National University team asked a group of radiologists to analyse X-rays with and without the help of an AI model. The group of doctors consisted of 30 readers, including 20 thoracic radiologists with five to 18 years of experience and 10 radiology residents with only two to three years of experience. Of the 120 chest radiographs assessed, 60 were from lung cancer patients (32 males) and 60 were controls (36 males). Patients had a median age of 67 years. The results showed that the use of high-accuracy AI improved readers’ detection performance to a greater extent…

E+T Magazine in Biotechnology
Harrison Ford ‘Dials’ down on use of creative AI in film industry

However, the Hollywood actor said the AI techniques used to de-age him in the latest instalment of the franchise had not been at the expense of live-action filming. Ford has returned this summer for the final time as the whip-cracking, globe-trotting archaeologist in ‘Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny’, alongside Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Mads Mikkelsen and Toby Jones. Although most of the film is shot in a modern setting, it also contains flashbacks to 1944, when Indy was in his Nazi-fighting prime. You can catch Ford on his final swashbuckling adventure in ‘Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny’ in UK cinemas on 28 June Image credit: Landmark Media When asked about the use of de-ageing techniques at the film’s London premiere on Monday (26 June) this week…

E+T Magazine
Italy rolls out ‘tribrid’ battery trains in a first for Europe

The completion of these trains - branded as ‘Blues’ by their operator, Trenitalia - concludes the first tranche of an order that sits within a €1.23bn framework agreement between Hitachi Rail and Trenitalia for up to 135 Masaccio trains that will run across Sicily, Sardinia, Calabria, Tuscany, Lazio and Friuli Venezia Giulia. The Masaccio’s cutting-edge hybrid technology allows the train to seamlessly draw from battery, electric and diesel power. While Hitachi Rail already uses diesel-electric hybrid technology – pioneered on the UK’s Intercity Express fleets – this is the first time batteries have been deployed as a major power source on a train fleet for commercial use anywhere in Europe. The ability to recharge while in service using the pantograph or traction motors means it can deliver…

E+T Magazine in Power Conversion
UK faces being ‘starved’ of North Sea power, energy boss warns

Last week, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said the party would grant no licences to explore fresh fields in the North Sea if elected, calling a wait until UK oil and gas runs outs a “historic mistake”. But Gilad Myerson, executive chairman of Ithaca Energy, which has the bulk of its investment in the North Sea, has warned that such a ban and existing taxation policy were putting off investors and threatening energy security. Myerson said: “By a new government imagining they’ll be able to stop licences and oil development in the UK, ultimately what that means is that they’ll be starving the UK of energy, and it will become very dependent on energy from abroad. “Politicians keep making statements which spook investors. You have to make sure that the environment is stable because this is…

E+T Magazine in Security in the Modern World
Lithium-ion battery inventor John B Goodenough dies, aged 100

Goodenough is remembered as a dedicated public servant, a sought-after mentor and a brilliant yet humble inventor. His discovery led to the wireless revolution and put electronic devices in the hands of people worldwide. In 2019, Goodenough made national and international headlines after being awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry for his battery work, an award many of his fans considered a long time coming, especially as he became the oldest person to receive a Nobel Prize. “John’s legacy as a brilliant scientist is immeasurable – his discoveries improved the lives of billions of people around the world,” said Jay Hartzell, president of UT Austin. “He was a leader at the cutting edge of scientific research throughout the many decades of his career and he never ceased searching for innovative…

E+T Magazine in Power Conversion
‘Irreplaceable habitats’ could be saved with £1bn five-year plan

The charity warned that this is the last generation with the time to protect and restore unique habitats such as the temperate rainforests in the west of the UK. Its plan, which it said would cost four per cent of the Government’s road building budget and one per cent of HS2 ’s price tag, sets out how to reverse the problems identified in its 2021 report State of the UK’s Woods and Trees. That report showed how only 9 per cent of England’s native woods are in good condition and one third of woodland species are diminishing. The lesser spotted woodpecker has declined by 83 per cent since 1970 and hazel dormice by 48 per cent in the last 10 years while hedgehogs, once a common nocturnal garden visitor, have declined by 70 per cent since 2000, the report found. According to the Woodland…

E+T Magazine in Climate Change
Gadgets: TooA Milano gelato maker, Dyson Airstrait and more

TooA Milano This Italian gelato maker is the size of a food processor but makes a single-serve ice cream from a ready-made ‘brick’ of mix (packs of two cost £3.50) in just five minutes. You tell the companion app the flavour, the machine does the rest. From £369 tooa.com Read Caramel’s full hands-on review. VKTRY Gold Insoles These carbon-fibre sports insoles return energy for a higher vertical, faster speeds, fewer injuries. Silver are more affordable. Platinum, VKTRY’s latest, are a custom orthotic version of the Gold, tailored to your foot impressions. A game-changer. £138 vktrygear.com Dyson Airstrait North America gets Dyson’s new...

E+T Magazine
Hands-on review: TooA Milano gelato maker

You can get a handle on some products just from looking at a photo. Others, not so much. This Italian kitchen appliance looks like a retro food mixer – and comes in some beautiful colours, including a Barbiecore pink that’s very summer 2023 – but first impressions are wrong. It has just one purpose: making small, fancy ice creams. It’s designed to make a single serving of gelato super-fast, from ready-made mix, which you buy in single portions. These 80ml TooABriks of gelato mix cost £3.50 for a pack of two, at the time of writing. They’re long life, in a Tetra Pak, and small: smaller than a juice box. It only takes five minutes to make a gelato, with app control. But you can only make one portion at a time, evoking the ‘single-serving friend’ in 'Fight Club'. It’s OK for one person or…

E+T Magazine
How tech employers can hone their competitive edge through professional apprenticeships

The UK technology sector is, by many measures, world-leading. At the end of 2022, the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport estimated that the level of investment in UK tech companies outstrips tech investment in France and Germany combined, while the UK is only the third country to hit a trillion-dollar tech industry value, after the US and China. The UK tech sector is also in the throes of a serious talent shortage. Almost 95 per cent of employers looking for tech talent say they have have encountered a skills shortage during the past year. In 2022, according to labour market analytics platform Lightcast there were 569,000 job postings for software developers, while the Office for National Statistics’ Nomis service reported that there were only 553,800 software development professionals…

E+T Magazine
Companies urge Government to ‘step up’ plans to deliver insulation targets

According to a new analysis carried out by Frontier Economics, the Government is on track to insulate just one sixth of the homes needed to meet its target of reducing energy consumption by 15 per cent. WWF UK and ScottishPower said there is a “substantial gap” emerging between what is on course to be delivered and what is needed to reach the Government’s target. As well as five million more homes insulated by 2030, the analysis estimates that 1.5 million homes will need heat pumps instead of gas boilers with a further 600,000 homes connected to low-carbon heat networks. The Government has made £288m available as part of its Green Heat Network Fund, which awards cash to those building systems that take heat from air, solar, or geothermal energy and provide it to multiple homes, removing…

E+T Magazine in Sustainable Development
Australian police raid offices of new Britishvolt owner

Australian entrepreneur David Collard purchased parts of defunct Britishvolt out of administration earlier this year, with the promise of reviving its plans to build a large-scale battery factory in Blyth, Northumberland. Collard’s company, Recharge Industries, said the Britishvolt scheme to build the battery gigafactory will create up to 3,000 jobs. However, Collard is yet to purchase the land for the plant, despite the announcement in February. The tax fraud investigation relates to SaniteX, a business owned by Collard that provides services to some of his other companies, including Scale Facilitation, the entity that owns Britishvolt. Tax investigators from the Australian Federal Police arrived at offices shared by SaniteX and Scale Foundation last Friday (23 June) to seize IT and…

E+T Magazine in Power Conversion
View from India: New aviation prospects propel country forward

The new opportunities are the outcome of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent visit to the US at the invitation of President Joe Biden and the First Lady Jill Biden. GE Aerospace and Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) have forged ties to produce fighter jet engines for the Indian Air Force (IAF). GE Aerospace’s memorandum of understanding (MoU) with HAL is to produce fighter jet engines for the IAF. This could lead to a joint production of GE Aerospace’s F414 engines in India. “The decision by General Electric to manufacture engines through technology transfer in India is a landmark agreement. This will also open up new employment opportunities in both the countries,” said Modi. Employment opportunities in both countries could unfold, giving better clarity on defence cooperation…

E+T Magazine in Aerospace
Meta to block access to news content in Canada

Meta, the parent company of Instagram and Facebook, has elected to block access to news content in Canada in response to the passing of the country’s Online News Act. This regulation would require social media platforms and search engines to pay news publishers for the content posted on their sites. According to the Canadian federal government, the new bill is necessary "to enhance fairness in the Canadian digital news market" and to allow struggling news organisations to "secure fair compensation" for news and links shared on the platforms. The country's ministers have welcomed the passing of the legislation, with Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez tweeting, “Exciting news! (No pun intended)." Meta has called the law "fundamentally flawed legislation that ignores the realities of how…

E+T Magazine in Space
Church of England to divest from fossil fuel companies

By the end of the year, the Church said it will have removed its £10.3bn endowment fund from all oil and gas companies unless they are in genuine alignment with limiting global temperatures to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. BP, Ecopetrol, Eni, Equinor, ExxonMobil, Occidental Petroleum, Pemex, Repsol, Sasol, Shell and Total will be excluded from the Church’s investments, joining 20 others that were excluded in 2021. The Church Commissioners for England, which manages the endowment fund, and the Pensions Board, said they had made their decision to divest after attempts to engage oil and gas majors on decarbonisation had failed. Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby said: “The climate crisis threatens the planet we live on and people around the world who Jesus Christ calls us to love…

E+T Magazine in Ethical Aspects

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