Applying Different Forms of Mentorship
This article is crossposted from IEEE Spectrum’s careers newsletter. Sign up now to get insider tips, expert advice, and practical strategies, written in partnership with tech career development company Parsity and delivered to your inbox for free!Asking someone to be your mentor is weird. Walking up to someone and asking, “Will you be my mentor?” has always seemed to me like the adult version of…
This Hi-Fi Tape Recorder Changed Radio Forever
A German engineer wanted a cheaper cigarette. The popular crooner Bing Crosby wanted a vacation. Satisfying both desires inadvertently led to the invention of the laugh track. Along the way there were Nazis, spoils of war, and more than one accidental encounter. Tying together this quirky history is the Magnetophon. What Was the Magnetophon? The Magnetophon was a high-fidelity reel-to-reel…
This DIY Bipedal Robot Used Pneumatic “Air-Muscles” Instead of Motors
In 1987, Richard Greenhill , a British photographer who was fascinated by (but had no actual training in) robotics, decided he wanted to build a life-size humanoid that could do useful things, like carrying luggage. He was working at a startup called Intergalactic Robots, but he couldn’t convince anyone there to build such a machine, so he set about building one himself, in his attic. To help…
Make a Soft Digital Clock Tick With Millifluidics
Electrons are great . We use them to move vehicles, illuminate cities, and, of course, compute. But computation is not confined to the world of electronics. And shifting to alternative nonelectronic realms can unlock unique advantages: Photonic chips, for instance, process information with light while generating little heat. Another compelling alternative is fluidics , which uses pressurized…
Finding Success in Industry as a Chip Designer
I have been an application-specific IC (ASIC) designer for almost three decades. Over that time, I’ve moved through the full academic trajectory, from graduate student to full professor; later, I transitioned to industry after an unsuccessful stint at entrepreneurship. When I made the switch to the private sector in 2019, I began focusing on a critically important aspect of the electronic…
Understanding Phase Noise and Its Impact on RF System Performance
A practical introduction to phase noise concepts, explaining how oscillator instability affects RF systems and how phase noise is measured, analyzed, and reported. What Attendees will Learn What phase noise is and why it matters — Learn how real-world oscillators differ from ideal ones, why short-term frequency instability arises, and why phase variations typically have a much greater impact than…
South Africa Has AI Leverage. Its Draft Policy Leaves It Unused
This article is adapted by the author with permission from Tech Policy Press . Read the original article . South Africa is not just another developing country struggling to govern artificial intelligence; it is the exception with leverage, and the window to act on it is closing. It holds approximately 88 percent of global platinum-group metal reserves , critical inputs to parts of the…
What It Takes to Preserve Floppy Disks
Floppy disks are several decades old—many of the disks are degrading and the data stored on them is at risk of being lost. In response, Leontien Talboom , a technical analyst at Cambridge University Libraries and Archives, led a roughly year-long project preserving floppy disks called “ Future Nostalgia ,” which concluded in January. Leontien Talboom Leontien Talboom is a technical analyst at…
Meet NASA Low Outgassing Standards With Adhesives for Aerospace and Optical Systems
This sponsored article is brought to you by Master Bond . Outgassing is the release of volatile substances from a cured adhesive over time. These released materials, which may include residual solvents, unreacted monomers, or other chemical species, can deposit on nearby surfaces, causing contamination that interferes with sensitive components. What Is Outgassing and How Is It Measured? The…