Industry News

July 2021
C&K Acquisition Creates New Military/Aero Division
C&K has entered into an agreement to acquire E.I.S. Electronics, industry specialists in the design and manufacture of Electrical Wiring Interconnection Systems (EWIS) for avionics, defense and aerospace applications.  In conjunction with this transaction, C&K announced the creation of a new div
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Date:
07/28/2021
University of Sheffield Wins Formula Student Competition
A team of engineering students from University of Sheffield won the Formula Student 2021 racing car competition, beating off fierce competition from over 30 teams at event held at Silverstone Race Circuit at the weekend. The competition, which is organised by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, returned
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Date:
07/28/2021
Spin-sonics: Acoustic Wave gets the Electrons Spinning

Representation of the spin of a nanoscale acoustic wave. Credit: Maximilian Sonner, Institute of Physics at the University of Augsburg

Researchers have detected the rolling movement of a nano-acoustic wave predicted by the famous physicist and Nobel prize winner Lord Rayleigh in 1885. This phenomenon can find applications in acoustic quantum technologies or in so-called “phononic” components, which are used to control the propagation of ac
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Date:
07/28/2021
US and German Collaboration to Produce Efficient Green Hydrogen

A new research project that aims to produce green hydrogen more efficiently brings together a multidisciplinary team comprising professors Hong Yang and Nicola Perry at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and Professor Andreas Klein at the Technical University of Darmstadt.

Through a new award program, the U.S. National Science Foundation and the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research Foundation, DFG) have joined forces to award the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and Technical University of Darmstadt a three-year $720,000 research grant ($500,000 from NSF) to explore opportun
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Date:
07/27/2021
Meeting Climate Targets to Lead to 8 Million More Energy Jobs by 2050

The figure shows the changes in energy sector jobs by energy technology comparing different scenarios (see axis description) and across the different SSPs.

Researchers created a global dataset of job footprints in 50 countries and used a model to investigate how trying to meet the Paris Agreement global climate target of staying well below 2°C would affect energy sector jobs. They found that action to reach said target would increase net jobs by about 8 million by
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Date:
07/27/2021
Training the Next Generation of 'Cybercops'
Not so long ago, a strong password felt mighty enough to keep you safe and your computer data private. But we now live amid heightened risks in malware, phishing, spearphishing and denial-of-service attacks. Even scarier, it is possible for computer terrorists to wreak global havoc by commandeering your personal co
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Date:
07/27/2021
Tweezers of Sound can Pick Objects up Without Physical Contact

A hemispherical array of ultrasound transducers with phase and amplitude control is driven to create an acoustic field which can trap and lift a polystyrene ball off a reflective surface.

Researchers from Tokyo Metropolitan University have developed a new technology which allows non-contact manipulation of small objects using sound waves. They used a hemispherical array of ultrasound transducers to generate a 3D acoustic fields which stably trapped and lifted a small polystyrene ball from a reflective su
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Date:
07/27/2021
IIoT Connectivity Solution for Floating Solar Plants
Over the past few years, countries that lack the land mass required for solar plants are turning their attention to the water-based alternative, floating solar islands. By placing solar panels on floating platforms in water bodies, valuable land is freed. As the cooling properties of water allow the panels to p
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Date:
07/23/2021
Machine Learning Helps Photovoltaics Find its Place in the Sun

Integrating photovoltaic systems into existing power grids is not straightforward and requires accurate predictions of the power they will generate to allow for proper grid management.

With the looming threat of climate change, it is high time we embrace renewable energy sources on a larger scale. Photovoltaic systems, which generate electricity from the nearly limitless supply of sunlight energy, are one of the most promising ways of generating clean energy. However, integrating photovoltaic sys
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Date:
07/21/2021
General Electric Agrees to Net-Zero-by-2050 Target

Danielle Fugere, President & Chief Counsel, As You Sow

After a 98% shareholder vote on an As You Sow resolution on May 4, General Electric (GE) announced a major commitment to transition its business to address climate change by setting a target to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050. This target not only encompasses GE’s operations but importantly includes its Scope 3 emissions from customers’ use of the products it sells, including power generation equipment, which account for a significant portion of the company’s emissions. This announcement marks an important shift in GE’s business plans as a major manufacturer of fossil fuel power generation technologies, including thermal power plants and jet engines. GE announced in late 2020 that it will exit the new build coal power market. As You Sow supports this major step
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Date:
07/15/2021
Crowley to Build, Operate First Fully Electric U.S. Tugboat
Crowley Maritime Corporation will lead the next generation of industry sustainability by building and operating eWolf, the first all-electric powered harbor tugboat that can complete a job without expending a drop of fuel. “The eWolf represents everything Crowley stands for: innovatio
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Date:
07/12/2021
Cirrus Logic, Inc. announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire California-based Lion Semiconductor for $335 million in cash. This acquisition brings unique intellectual property and products for power applications in smartphones, laptops and other devices and accelerates growth of
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Date:
07/08/2021
Pressure is off + High Temperature Superconductivity Remains

Paul Chu (right) is Founding Director and Chief Scientist at the Texas Center for Superconductivity at the University of Houston (TcSUH). Liangzi Deng (left) is research assistant professor of physics at TcSUH.

In a critical next step toward room-temperature superconductivity at ambient pressure, Paul Chu, Founding Director and Chief Scientist at the Texas Center for Superconductivity at the University of Houston (TcSUH), Liangzi Deng, research assistant professor of physics at TcSUH, and their colleagues at TcSUH conc
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Date:
07/08/2021
Strong Kinship of Nickelate's Magnetism w/ Cuprate Superconductors

The first measurements of magnetic excitations rippling through a nickelate superconductor show it has a strong kinship with cuprate superconductors, like the one at left, as opposed to the more distant neighborly relationship depicted at right. The study by researchers at SLAC, Stanford and Diamond Light Source revealed important similarities and subtle differences between the two materials, which conduct electricity with no loss at relatively warm temperatures.

Ever since the 1986 discovery that copper oxide materials, or cuprates, could carry electrical current with no loss at unexpectedly high temperatures, scientists have been looking for other unconventional superconductors that could operate even closer to room temperature. This would allow for a host of everyday app
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Date:
07/08/2021
Advancing Understanding of new Solar Panel Technology

Joshua Stein, front, a Sandia National Laboratories engineer and director of a new Perovskite Photovoltaic Accelerator for Commercializing Technologies Center, and Charles Robinson, a Sandia technologist, examine a solar module. The new center will determine the best performance and reliability tests for perovskite solar modules.

The Department of Energy recently awarded $14 million to form a Sandia National Laboratories-led center to improve the understanding of perovskite-based photovoltaic technologies and determine the best tests to evaluate the new solar panels' lifetimes. The efficiency of perovskite-based solar cells has reached 25%
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Date:
07/08/2021
New Radio Receiver Opens Wider Window to Radio Universe

Distribution of CO isotopologues in the Orion molecular cloud observed simultaneously with the newly developed broadband receiver.

Researchers have used the latest wireless technology to develop a new radio receiver for astronomy. The receiver is capable of capturing radio waves at frequencies over a range several times wider than conventional ones, and can detect radio waves emitted by many types of molecules in space at once. This is expected to
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Date:
07/08/2021
Stress-Free Metallic Films Pave the way for Next-Gen Circuitry

(top left) An illustration of the HiPIMS process (top right) The energy distribution of tungsten ions arriving at the substrate over time. At short times, there are a large proportion of ions with high energy. (bottom) Stress-free tungsten films created with the selective pulsed bias technique. (a) Plan view transmission electron microscopy (TEM) image of the film; (b) a higher resolution image; (c) reconstructions of the selected area in (b) based on inverse Fourier transforms, with two regions magnified.

Researchers from Tokyo Metropolitan University have used high power impulse magnetron scattering (HiPIMS) to create thin films of tungsten with unprecedentedly low levels of film stress. By optimizing the timing of a "substrate bias pulse" with microsecond precision, they minimized impurities and defects to
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Date:
07/05/2021
Bologna and Robots: Smart City Robotics Challenge is coming up

Universita di Bologna

A horde of robots is about to invade Bologna, but fear not, they come in peace. Bologna will host the Smart City Robotics Challenge (SciRoc Challenge) from the 6th - 11th September 2021. This international competition will test the most recent and advanced robotics applications developed by firms and labs worldwi
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Date:
07/05/2021
Smart Technology is not Making us Dumber

Anthony Chemero is a 2019 UC Faculty Awards Distinguished Researcher award winner. His first book, "Radical Embodied Cognitive Science" earned praise as a landmark work in philosophy and cognitive science.

There are plenty of negatives associated with smart technology -- tech neck, texting and driving, blue light rays -- but there is also a positive: the digital age is not making us stupid, says University of Cincinnati social/behavioral expert Anthony Chemero.  "Despite the headlines, there is no scientifi
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Date:
07/05/2021
Andre Tauber to become Head of Media Relations at Infineon
He reports to Susanne Kochs, who heads the Corporate Communications department.   Andre Tauber joins from the Stiftung Familienunternehmen where he was Head of Communications. He has more than 15 years of experience in public relations and economic journalism. As business correspondent for the nati
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Date:
07/01/2021
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