Presents the front cover for this issue of the publication.

AS A RISK CONSULTANT FOR BUSINESSES and a slew of three-lettered U.S. government agencies, Contributing Editor Robert N. Charette has seen more than his share of languishing legacy IT systems. As a civilian, he's also been a casualty of a legacy system gone berserk. A few years ago, his bank's IT system, which he later found out was being upgraded, made an error that was most definitely not in his

ROCKET, A STARTUP THAT BUILDS AI-based tools for recruiters and offers recruitment services of its own, had been on the verge of profitability when the coronavirus pandemic hit. It quickly saw corporate recruitment dry up as the pandemic took hold. • With the halt in hiring affecting its main business, and mounting layoffs at tech companies, Rocket turned its efforts toward matching laid-off engineers

RFID tags are used across many industries, but when it comes to healthcare, there is a major design challenge: size. If wearable RFID tags are too big and bulky, they could cause patient discomfort. Or, if the tag is for a biomedical implant, it has to be smaller than a grain of rice! Design engineers can optimize the size of an RFID tag for its intended purpose using RF simulation.

Protests in the United States and in other countries have brought new attention to the impact of state violence and systemic racism. Economist Lisa D. Cook has directly measured that impact on innovation and invention, and the results are grim. Cook's research showed how segregation laws, lynchings, and state-supported violence suppressed African American invention during the 20th century. By tracking

During hot weather, it's nice to open a window to let in a breeze. Maybe not, though, if the window also lets in a cacophony from cars and trucks roaring past.

Two years ago, Amazon reportedly scrapped a secret artificial-intelligence hiring tool after realizing that the system had learned to prefer male job candidates while penalizing female applicants—the result of the AI training on resumes that mostly male candidates had submitted to the company. The episode raised concerns over the use of machine learning in hiring software that would perpetuate or even

Remember March, when stay-at-home orders and advisories first went into effect in many U.S. states and other places around the world? That month is generally not a big time for consumer electronics sales; gadgets may fly off shelves during the December holiday season, but then there's a bit of a lull.

The National Reconnaissance Office Director's Innovation Initiative (DII) Program funds cutting-edge scientific research in a high-risk, high-payoff environment to discover innovative concepts and creative ideas that transform overhead intelligence capabilities and systems for future national security intelligence needs. The program seeks the brightest minds and breakthrough technologies from industry

IT WAS ONLY A MATTER of time before we turned over to robots the care and feeding of the agricultural products that sustain us. Even with the sophisticated farming machinery introduced over the past century, farming is still decidedly labor-intensive. But sending people out into the fields to toil under the hot sun and take the risks associated with exposure to chemical fertilizers is unsustainable

I'll be honest: when the original AxiDraw came out from Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories in 2016, I thought it was cute but a curiosity. My thought was that if you were going to play around with reintroducing the venerable technology of the pen-and-paper X-Y plotter, why not do something really different, like the iBoardBot remote-controlled erasable miniature whiteboard? And the AxiDraw's US $475 price

As the COVID-19 pandemic began its explosive spread, tech workers were among the first to switch to working at home in mass numbers. By early March, before regional stay-at-home orders came into play in the United States, most tech professionals at Microsoft and Amazon had already switched to working at home, and others soon followed.

PLEASE NOTE the adjective above: This article is not about the perennial economic dream of never-ending growth but about indefinite or, more accurately, indeterminate growth, the kind that doesn't end at a certain date but rather continues for as long as an organism lives.

THE INTERNET of Things has the potential to usher in many possibilities — including a surveillance state. In the July issue, I wrote about how user consent is an important prerequisite for companies building connected devices. But there are other ways companies are trying to ensure that connected devices don't invade people's privacy.

FIX THE DAMN UNEMPLOYMENT SYSTEM!” • This past spring, tens of millions of Americans lost their jobs due to lockdowns aimed at slowing the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. And untold numbers of the newly jobless waited weeks for their unemployment benefit claims to be processed, while others anxiously watched their bank accounts for an extra US $600 weekly payment from the federal government.

Your personal and professional experiences with IEEE make you uniquely qualified to help bring in new members. With the Member Get-A-Member (MGM) Program you can get rewarded for word-of-mouth referrals. Earn incentives and awards while helping to grow IEEE membership.

A four-lane street narrows to two to accommodate workers repairing a large pothole. one worker holds a stop sign loosely in his left hand as he waves cars through with his right. human drivers don't think twice about whether to follow the gesture or the sign; they move smoothly forward without stopping.

• IN 2018, an article in Bloomberg Businessweek made the stupendous assertion that Chinese spy services had created back doors to servers built for Amazon, Apple, and others by inserting millimeter-size chips into circuit boards.

ELECTRIC AIRCRAFT ARE all the rage, with prototypes in development in every size from delivery drones to passenger aircraft. But the technology has yet to take off, and for one reason: lack of a suitable battery.

By the end of the 19th century, doctors recognized the antimicrobial benefits of sunlight. Niels Ryberg Finsen wondered if similar effects could be achieved with artificial light — in particular, the ultraviolet. In 1895, he partnered with the Copenhagen Electric Light Works and began producing electric carbon arc lamps, with which he systematically studied the effects of UV on patients suffering from

Presents the front cover for this issue of the publication.

Presents the table of contents for this issue of the publication.

ZACK PARISA [RIGHT] AND MAX NOVA HAVE BEEN APPLYING machine learning to a problem that might seem like child's play: counting trees. It's a tricky exercise, though, because the information sought by those who need to inventory their forests is not just the number of trees present, but also the species composition and size. While such an assessment may be easy enough to make for your backyard, when

THE GAP BETWEEN THE AVERAGE SALARY offered to black tech professionals and what's offered to white tech professionals is closing at a snail's pace. According to an analysis by the job search firm Hired, in 2019 black tech professionals were offered an average of US $10,000 a year less than white tech workers. That's slightly better than the 2018 gap of $11,000, but not much better. • Meanwhile, Hispanic

Developing the 5G mobile network may not be the only step to a fully functioning Internet of Things, but it is an important one — and it comes with substantial performance requirements. Simulation ensures optimized designs of 5G-compatible technology, like this phased array antenna.

Satellites nearing the end of their time in service may soon find themselves with a new lease on life. Earlier this year, a satellite on the verge of being decommissioned was put back into play thanks to Northrop Grumman's Mission Extension Vehicle-1 (MEV-1). Later this summer, MEV-2 will launch and service a second satellite, inaugurating the era of reusable orbiters.

Twenty years ago, engineers specializing in radio-frequency circuits dared to dream of an "ideal switch." It would have superlow resistance when "on," superhigh when "off," and so much more. It would be tiny, fast, readily manufacturable, capable of switching fairly high currents, able to withstand billions of on-off cycles, and would require very little power to operate. It would conduct signals well

This summer, a video game became available by prescription in the United States. This first-ever FDA-approved digital treatment builds on a tradition of gaming as a therapeutic tool that extends back more than a decade. Its game play gets good reviews, too.

For years, robotics company Boston Dynamics has been fielding questions about when its Spot robot, famous for its stunts on YouTube, was going to go on sale and how much it would cost. We finally have the answers: Boston Dynamics, in Waltham, Mass., has begun taking orders for Spot on its website, and the basic model is going for US $74,500.

IF YOU'VE EVER BEEN stuck in rush-hour traffic, you're aware that most people barely qualify to drive an ordinary passenger vehicle. But now, anyone can get behind the wheel of a Formula 1 race car with no concern for wrecking a multimillion-dollar machine. The world's first Official F1 Racing Centre opened in Utrecht, Netherlands, on 1 June. Sixty specially designed racing simulators are programmed

Many of us are spending more time videoconferencing than we've ever done before. And that situation probably won't be changing anytime soon.

Get a firsthand look at what is possible with multiphysics modeling and numerical simulation in a range of physics fields including electrical, mechanical, fluid flow, and chemical, whether you're an advanced user or just starting out.

A CRANE CAN LIFT A BURDEN, move it sideways, and lower it. These operations, which the Greeks employed when building marble temples 25 centuries ago, are now performed every second somewhere around the world as tall ship-to-shore gantry cranes empty and reload container vessels. The two fundamental differences between ancient cranes and the modern versions involve the materials that make up those cranes

GOVERNMENTS ARE setting ambitious renewable energy goals in response to climate change. The problem is, the availability of renewable sources doesn't align with the times when our energy demands are the highest. We need more electricity for lights when the sun has set and solar is no longer available, for example. But if utilities could receive information about energy usage in real time, as Internet

A LOT OF US HAVE recently become familiar with what what's being called Zoom fatigue—the drained feeling that follows hours spent performing before coworkers or clients or superiors, all while scanning a sea of faces that for some of us evokes the opening sequence from "The Brady Bunch." Seeing only disembodied squares of video, you have to work hard to make out the social cues that might reveal anyone

It would be an understatement to say it's been a turbulent year since the last time IEEE Spectrum broke out the digital measuring tools to probe the relative popularity of programming languages. Yet one thing remains constant: the dominance of Python.

The National Reconnaissance Office Director's Innovation Initiative (DII) Program funds cutting-edge scientific research in a high-risk, high-payoff environment to discover innovative concepts and creative ideas that transform overhead intelligence capabilities and systems for future national security intelligence needs. The program seeks the brightest minds and breakthrough technologies from industry

One of the most famous maxims in technology is, of course, Moore's Law. For more than 55 years, the “Law” has described and predicted the shrinkage of transistors, as denoted by a set of roughly biannual waypoints called technology nodes. Like some physics based doomsday clock, the node numbers have ticked down relentlessly over the decades as engineers managed to regularly double the number of transistors

In addition to helping you stay abreast of the latest developments, network with your peers, and gain access to high-quality resources, an IEEE Membership will also give you exclusive offers and discounts on products and services from many trusted brands.

IN 2007, ONE OF US (PARISA) FOUND HIMSELF standing alone in the woods of Armenia and fighting off a rising feeling of dread. Armenia, a former Soviet-bloc country, is about the size of Maryland. Its forests provide residents with mushrooms and berries, habitat for game animals, and firewood to heat homes during the cold winters. The forests also shelter several endangered bird species.

EACH MARCH, JULY, AND NOVEMBER, we are I reminded that the Internet is not quite the mature, stable technology that it seems to I be. We rely on the Internet as an essential tool for our economic, social, educational, and political lives. But when the Internet Engineering Task Force meets every four months at an open conference that bounces from continent to continent, more than 1,000 people from around

Space seems empty and therefore the perfect environment for radio communications. Don't let that fool you: There's still plenty that can disrupt radio communications. Earth's fluctuating ionosphere can impair a link between a satellite and a ground station. The materials of the antenna can be distorted as it heats and cools. And the near-vacuum of space is filled with low-level ambient radio emanations

Textile artist Suzanne Tick is known for incorporating unusual materials into her weaving: recycled dry cleaner hangers, Mylar balloons washed up on the beach, documents from her divorce. For this work, called Crossform Pendant Lamp, she used industrial fiber-optic yarn, a technology that was more than 150 years in the making. Back in 1841, the Swiss physicist Jean-Daniel Colladon first demonstrated

One day in late 2009, Patrick Mercier, along with a fellow graduate student at MIT and their Ph.D. advisor, sat down with surgeon Konstantina Stankovic to talk about next-generation cochlear implants and other sensors for patients with profound hearing loss. During this conversation, Stankovic pointed out a tiny region within the inner ear that she said had a relatively high concentration of ions.

IF YOU WERE TRYING TO IDENTIFY THE HANDFUL of companies that created a business out of the emergence of electrical engineering in the Victorian era, certainly the list would have to include General Electric. GE's lighting business was established by Thomas Edison in 1892, and it was just sold to engineering wunderkind Robert Madonna and his team at Savant Systems, in Hyannis, Mass. Savant builds high-end

If ever there was life on Mars, NASA's Perseverance rover should be able to find signs of it. The rover, scheduled to launch from Kennedy Space Center, in Florida, in late July or early August, is designed to drill through rocks in an ancient lake bed and examine them for biosignatures, extract oxygen from the atmosphere, and collect soil samples that might someday be returned to Earth.

Drivers can use a number of signals to communicate with other drivers: taillights, high beams, the horn. But car manufacturers envision a future where cars themselves will exchange messages about where they're going and where they've been.

A new study analyzing more than a million samples of Android malware illustrates how malicious apps have evolved over time. The results, published in IEEE Transactions on Dependable and Secure Computing, show that malware coding is becoming more cleverly hidden, or obfuscated.

Accurate, instant, cheap, and portable tests for the Coronavirus and its antibodies would allow frequent testing on a mass scale. But the road to such tools is long. Or is it?

Telecommunications can never be too secure. That's why researchers continue to explore new encryption methods. One emerging method is called ghost polarization communication, or GPC. Researchers at the Technical University of Darmstadt, in Germany, recently demonstrated this approach in a proof-of-principle experiment.

THE WORLD'S attention turned to space missions in May. That's when two NASA astronauts were the first to be launched into space by an entity other than a nation-state. They're also the first to travel from the United States to the International Space Station (ISS) since 2011, when the space shuttle program ended. But while most of us weren't looking, the important work aboard the space station was

When opportunity knocks, open the door: No one has taken heed of the adage like Nvidia, which has transformed itself from a company focused on catering to the needs of video gamers to one at the heart of the artificial-intelligence revolution. In 2001, no one predicted that the same processor architecture developed to draw realistic explosions in 3D would be just the thing to power a renaissance in

For more than seven years, Blessin Varkey has headed the accessibility lab at Tamana, a New Delhi-based nonprofit that runs two schools and a skill development center for individuals with intellectual, learning, and developmental disabilities. At the lab, his team creates tech tools for sharpening the cognitive, behavioral, and social skills of students. Varkey has been invited to speak about accessibility

AIR CONDITIONING was devised not for comfort but for industry, specifically to control temperature and humidity in a color printing factory in Brooklyn. The process required feeding paper into the presses a number of times, once for each of the component colors, and the slightest misalignment caused by changes in humidity produced defective copies that had to be thrown away.

CONSENT HAS BECOME a big topic in the wake of the Me Too movement. But consent isn't just about sex. At its core, it's about respect and meeting people where they are at. As we add connected devices to homes, offices, and public places, technologists need to think about consent.

"SPRING FESTIVAL. New virus. Spreading person to person. This one has everything." That's the whole of an email message that I dashed off to a friend, a fellow China watcher, on 21 January, after reading a BBC story about China's then-tiny COVID-19 epidemic. Something in that story rang alarm bells in my head.

SOME YEARS AGO, the three of us found ourselves together in a very long security line at Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C. Maybe, we joked, Superman could use his X-ray vision to help out the beleaguered Transportation Security Administration (TSA) employees and the traveling masses.

Admit it-you love your smart watch and all the amazing things you can do with it. But the task of keeping it charged can be annoying. A longer battery life would be great—but with batteries, the amount of energy stored correlates with volume, and bigger batteries add bulk and weight. All wearables, including fitness trackers, audio-enhancing hearables that go in your ear, and augmented-reality contact

On a cold March night last year in Portsmouth, England, an entirely new type of aircraft flew for the first time, along a dimly lit 120-meter corridor in a cavernous building once used to build minesweepers for the Royal Navy. • This is the Phoenix, an uncrewed blimp that has no engines but propels itself forward by varying its buoyancy and its orientation. The prototype measures 15 meters in length

BALANCING ACT: Electricity demand and generation near Onslow, in Western Australia, are continuously balanced thanks to a software-based microgrid controller. It monitors grid conditions at the millisecond scale, allowing efficient use of a 1-megawatt solar farm [left] and a 2.5-MW battery storage facility [middle]. A similar microgrid controller on Jeju Island in South Korea [right] maximizes the