Dear Readers, It is a real pleasure for me to welcome you to this special issue of the Magazine on “Instrumentation and Measurement in 2020.”

The field of Instrumentation and Measurement (I&M) is constantly and rapidly changing. These changes manifest themselves as evolutions of technologies and techniques but also as innovations. They come from the technical creativity of people in this field and also from advances in other fields. Conversely, advances in I&M also lead to advances in other fields. Given this two-way relationship, while

2019 was a big year for metrology. The international system of units was revised on World Metrology Day, May 20 th , that year [1]. What will 2020 bring? In this article we discuss five promising advances that we have on a watchlist for 2020. First, we describe the measurement of volume and gas pressure using electromagnetic waves. These measurements rely on the fixed value of the speed of light in

It is rare for someone in the engineering or science fields not to have heard of the Internet of Things (IoT). IoT has been disrupting many industries by providing an unprecedented approach for a (potentially large) number of distributed components connected over a network to collect data, collaborate, and perform tasks with almost no human intervention. Spending in IoT is forecasted to reach US $1

Recently, we have observed an impressive evolution in the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI) which aims to reach any area of human activities to reduce the efforts of people related to boring daily jobs. AI is defined as the capacity of a computer to perform tasks commonly associated with human beings.

Currently, size of data is celebrated while only their usefulness in decision-making is actually important. Principles, methodologies and techniques of metrology are crucial to ensure proper and effective collection and use of data. Unfortunately, the fundamentals of metrology are seldom offered in educational degree programs, including those in scientific and technological subjects. Consequently,

In this paper, we explain how the requirements for rigorous, well-defined standard operating procedures, and simple, robust, inexpensive and easy-to-use detection equipment affect key aspects of instrumentation and measurement (I&M) systems applied to landmine detection in humanitarian demining. We also show how fundamental knowledge in physics and I&M, as well as industry's practical know-how (accumulated

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In the world of globalization, it is always interesting to exchange best practices, to build synergies and to create a common framework for a better fertilization. And this is particularly true in the research field where a constructive contamination could be the means for a disruptive activity.

Nowadays, Instrumentation and Measurement (I&M) play a very important role in all science domains and industry. The involved researchers around the world from universities, metrology institutes, and industry work on the development of new accurate measurement techniques, very low uncertainty instruments, and smart sensors and the evaluation of their performances. Also, current measurement standards

This paper presents a brief overview of the current state-of-the-art of Josephson junctions for Quantum-based Voltage Standards fabricated with High-Temperature Superconductors (HTS). A short introduction on the history and technical evolution of Low Temperature Superconductors (LTS) technology is provided for non-specialists. Then HTS technology is summarized and discussed in the context of quantum

The number of measurements performed in an airport is probably countless and of paramount importance for airport and flight security and safety. Measurements are performed following strict rules and best practice in metrology, otherwise our skies would not be as highly safe as they are. However, there is a small number of measurements, related to passengers' luggage that have a non-negligible and sometimes

Oceans exploration and inspection are a great challenge for the industry nowadays. The underwater instrumentation and measurements are improving due to the current technologies, or by development of new ones, to cover the demand of the new industry offshore. The Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV), a subcategory of submarine, is used to perform subaquatic tasks. This vehicle provides advantages for

Spectrum Instrumentation has added six new Arbitrary Waveform Generators (AWGs) to its recently released M2p.65 xx series of PCIe cards. The new AWGs extend the product families' capabilities by boosting the available output range, so that waveforms can be generated with amplitude swings of up to ±12 V into 1 MΩ or ±6 V into 50 Ω. To achieve the higher output voltage ranges, the cards have been fitted

Presents a listing of the editorial board, board of governors, current staff, committee members, and/or society editors for this issue of the publication.

Measuring receivers are used for measurement of radio disturbance in the frequency range typically 9 kHz to 18 GHz. Such receivers can be either electromagnetic interference (EMI) receivers or spectrum analyzers with the quasi-peak (QP) detector [1], [2]. Requirements for measuring receivers are discussed in European CISPR documents (Comité International Spécial des Perturbations Radioélectriques)

Teaching activities in the Instrumentation and Measurement (I&M) field, for both undergraduate and postgraduate students in the engineering domains, should be correlated with the industry requirements [1]—[3]. In this way, students can understand actual industry needs and gain skills in solving I&M problems occurring in associated activities.

Smart environmental monitoring networks are a growing part of the Internet of Things (IoT). They are useful to detect, forecast and assess human impacts on the environment as well as the effects of climate change on society. As climate uncertainty grows, we will increasingly rely on these networks to address significant societal challenges including the reduction of available drinking water, diminished

To grow crops in areas with arid climates, porous karst soils, or increasingly unpredictable seasonal droughts, farmers struggle for their yield and spend precious water resources on irrigation. This ecological and economic problem of excessive water usage in agriculture may be alleviated by application of precision irrigation techniques. Precision irrigation implies precise spatial and temporal control

For more information on the meetings, please go to the I&M Society Web site at www.ieee-ims.org.

The IEEE 21450 standard family [1] has been developed to ease the use of smart transducers in various applications. The transducer electronic datasheet (TEDS) defined in the standards provides descriptions of the sensor and actuator channels in terms of physical quantities, data representation, measurement range, uncertainty, calibration, etc. Consequently, such electronic datasheets can be seen as

Almost all time keeping laboratories maintain the 5071A Cesium (Cs) frequency standard for generating their national time scales. The frequency stability of this standard is limited by different types of noise, especially the White Frequency Modulation noise. These noise types affect the stability of the resultant average Time Scale (TS). Kalman Filter (KF) is still applied until now within the time

Measurement systems suffer from problems due to the imperfectness of sensory devices and measuring channels, and the shortage of available information concerning the investigated phenomena itself. This imperfectness and shortage result in unwanted alterations and perturbations of the measured values and/or signals. Better results can be achieved if these alterations and perturbations are counteracted

The emergence of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is creating new dimensions and redefining the concept and meaning of work in industrial settings. Documented success has been reported where AI is transforming industrial scenes such as scaling large operation processes, speed of execution, flexibility of processes where rigid manufacturing by dumb robots is replaced with smart individualized production

Cell exposure to high-voltage, short-duration electric pulses can lead to temporary formation of hydrophilic pores in the plasma membrane and an increase in the membrane's permeability which consequently increases the transmembrane transport of molecules that are otherwise unable to cross the membrane. This phenomenon, termed membrane electroporation, is currently an applicable technique in different

Smart Metrology is the subject of a work we wrote and published with the Association Française de Normalisation (AFNOR, French Standardization Association) in 2016 [1]. In this new work, we offer a very different vision of the role of metrology in industry from the traditional view, which tends to focus on the management of a stock of measuring instruments. The emergence of Big Data and Artificial

This issue of I&M Magazine is dedicated to IEEE Region 8 that includes Europe, the Middle-East and the African continent. Looking at the map reported on the dedicated website (www.IEEER8.org), you can realize that it is the largest IEEE Section.

Coins are used as a measure of size in scientific publications. Over one hundred examples are collected. Although standardized procedures for using coins as a measure of size do not exist, use among scientists is so widespread that some form of consensus has formed in the community. Contemporary usage patterns of coins as a measure of size are analyzed qualitatively. Several rules and predictions are

The Nyquist-Shannon sampling theorem states that if all that you know about a signal is that its highest frequency is no greater than B, then if you want to sample the signal without any loss of information, you must sample it at a rate that is greater than 2B. If we call the rate at which we sample Fs, then we find that B < Fs/2, and Fs/2 is called the Nyquist frequency. For a simple proof of the