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Apple to invest over $1 billion in new Munich silicon facility
Apple is investing a billion euros over the next three years in a German research and development project that will see it build a European Silicon Design Center for 5G tech in Munich.
High-speed camera captures a fluid behaving like a solid
Researchers have used a high-speed camera to catch a fluid behaving like a solid, which could shape the future of engineering.
MIT fit tens of thousands of artificial brain synapses on a single chip
MIT engineers put tens of thousands of artificial brain synapses on a single chip that's smaller than a piece of confetti.
AI-powered Lego sorter knows the shape of every brick
For some people, rummaging through a bunch of Lego bricks is part of the fun. But if you've got an enormous collection or take on complicated builds, you probably have a system for sorting your pieces. Your solution probably doesn't involve AI, though. YouTube user Daniel West combined his love for Lego with his engineering skills to build a universal Lego sorter that uses a neural network to identify, classify and organize the plastic pieces more efficiently than a human could.
BILL-E is a cute robot that builds structures block by block
A new robotics breakthrough could revolutionalize how we build everything from airplanes to bridges and even massive superstructures. A team of researchers at the Massachusettes Institute of Technology's Center for Bits and Atoms have created a new type of robot.
Apple's Seattle workforce will quintuple by 2024
Apple is doubling down on the number of employees it plans on hiring in its new Seattle site. The company announced at a Monday news conference that it would be bringing 2,000 jobs to the city by 2024 -- twice the number it initially planned. The new roles would focus on software and hardware and effectively multiply Apple's existing workforce by five. Currently, there are roughly 500 Apple employees in Seattle, focused mainly in its retail stores and machine learning hub. The expansion would also give Apple a significant presence in Washington State, right alongside competitors Amazon and Microsoft.
An engineer allegedly falsified inspection reports for SpaceX rockets
Federal investigators believe a quality assurance engineer responsible for inspecting parts for SpaceX had been falsifying reports. The engineer works for New York-based PMI Industries and is accused of forging signatures on at least 38 inspection reports for parts intended for use in SpaceX's Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets. Authorities also found at least 76 parts that were rejected or not inspected but shipped to SpaceX anyway.
This guy built his own smartwatch and so can you
DIY projects can be a lot of fun, and if Raspberry Pi has taught us anything it's that people love to tinker. But for most folk, forays into the world of build-it-yourself tech start and end with a specific kit and a whole bunch of instructions to help them along. Not so for one inquisitive Redditor, who recently revealed that he built an entire smartwatch from scratch. And since he's been kind to enough to share details of the process down to the smallest minutiae, you can too.
Researchers designed a shape-shifting airplane wing
If you've had a window seat next to the wing of an airplane, you've probably watched as flaps on the wing engage and disengage as a plane takes off and lands. That's because in each phase of flight -- take off, landing, cruising and maneuvering -- the ideal wing parameters vary. Until now, we've made do by modifying rigid wings with hinged surfaces. But imagine if the entire wing could change shape -- that's what researchers led by NASA and MIT are working towards.
UK report details new and existing Huawei security issues
The US has been vocal about its qualms with Chinese tech giant Huawei -- going as far as to charge it with a laundry list of crimes, from stealing trade secrets to wire fraud. But European governments have taken a more moderate approach. That might be changing though. A new report reveals that the UK is unhappy with Huawei's tech and concerned about the risks it brings to the country's telecommunications networks.
AI-guided material changes could lead to diamond CPUs
Scientists know that you can dramatically alter a crystalline material's properties by applying a bit of strain to it, but finding the right strain is another matter when there are virtually limitless possibilities. There may a straightforward solution, though: let AI do the heavy lifting. An international team of researchers has devised a way for machine learning to find strains that will achieve the best results. Their neural network algorithm predicts how the direction and degree of strain will affect a key property governing the efficiency of semiconductors, making them far more efficient without requiring educated guesses from humans.
Creator of viral glitter bomb video admits parts of it were staged
This week, it seemed the entire Internet rejoiced after a former NASA engineer created a custom glitter bomb designed to strike back against package thieves. His impressive invention resulted in a hilarious video of would-be criminals being coated in glitter and having their nostrils assaulted with a fart spray. But it seems the clip, which racked up more than 42 million views in just a few days, was a little too good to be true -- its creator admits parts of it were staged, seemingly without his knowledge.
NASA engineer creates glitter bomb package to thwart parcel thieves
Because we live in a world where we can't have nice things, package theft is a real problem, and in recent times unscrupulous individuals stealing parcels from porches have prompted police sting operations, as well as longer-term tech innovation, such as Amazon's smart locks. But neither of these things do a whole lot for theft victims longing for sweet, sweet revenge. Now, former NASA engineer Mark Rober has devised a frankly glorious solution that guarantees instant vengeance.
Robots are learning to carefully peel lettuce leaves
Technology is designed to improve and streamline every facet of life, and that inevitably includes areas most people would never even think about. Such a lettuce peeling. A random issue for many, perhaps, but for the agriculture industry, a new development in this field is a big deal. Researchers from Cambridge University have developed the first robotic lettuce leaf peeling system, which not only demonstrates advances in automation, but addresses increasing food and labor demands.
UK oversight board discloses potential Huawei security issues
Chinese phone maker Huawei continues to get quite a bit of scrutiny as it tries to push into western markets like the US and UK. The FBI, CIA and NSA have warned against buying the company's phones, AT&T backed out of reported plans to bring the handsets to the US and Best Buy stopped ordering its smartphones. In the UK, the annual report from the Huawei Cyber Security Evaluation Centre (HCSEC) oversight board says that it has continued concerns with Huawei's software engineering processes and the possible risks it could cause UK telecommunication networks.
MIT engineers give RFID tags chemical-sensing capabilities
Engineering specialists from MIT have devised a way to make RFID (radio-frequency identification) tags more reliable and pick up on chemicals in the surrounding environment -- without needing the typical battery.
MIT experts pioneer a way to recover drinking water from power plants
Water accounts for around 70 percent of the Earth's surface, but it's still not reaching those who need it most: three billion people live in water-stressed areas or lack access to drinking water. Things are starting to look up, however. Recent efforts from CSIRO, Belgian university researchers, and now, a system envisioned by MIT engineers are all pioneering new ways to generate clean H2O.
FCC Chairman Pai appoints a new chief technology officer
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai announced that Eric Burger would be joining the commission as its new chief technology officer. He's set to take over the position this month. Burger will be replacing Henning Schulzrinne who is returning to a Columbia University professorship after serving a second round as CTO since the end of 2016. He was also the FCC CTO from 2011 to 2014.
Researchers create robots that can team up when they touch
To make robots cooperate with each other and work together, you have a couple of options. The first is to program them to work with information from their surroundings, with which individual robots can sort of organize and work towards a larger goal. However, that's not so easy to do. A second option is have one central command center that organizes all of the individual robots itself, but that leaves the system open to widespread failure if that central command goes down for some reason. But researchers have developed a method that bridges those two methods and their work was published today in Nature Communications.
ASU students live with Echo Dots while learning voice-control tech
Engineering students at Arizona State University can opt into an interesting new program meant to give students access to voice-controlled technology while they learn about it in the classroom. Students living in the campus' new engineering residence hall, Tooker House, can get a free Amazon Echo Dot and take courses aimed at developing the technology. "Our focus is putting this technology into the hands of our students in a way that will build an ecosystem that supports voice technologies throughout the ASU campus," said ASU's Octavio Heredia in a statement.
