Tech Briefs

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ed editorial coverage. If it is an engineering breakthrough that will help to create great products, it’s reported in Tech Briefs.

11/06/2025

Cutting-Edge Computing Goes Spaceborne

When Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co. (HPE) sent an unmodified high-performance computer to the International Space Station in 2017, no computer expert thought it would last a week. Over a year and a half later, Spaceborne Computer-1 returned home, having operated successfully for its entire mission.

“No one in the aerospace industry thought this was going to work,” said Mark Fernandez, now Principal Investigator for Spaceborne Computer-2 at Spring, TX-based HPE. “The longest publicly stated life expectancy for Spaceborne-1 was four days, because we did nothing to the hardware at all.”

Unaltered, off-the-shelf computers don’t last long in space due to radiation that the atmosphere protects us from on Earth. When high-energy particles or photons strike microchips, they can alter the voltage in nearby transistors, corrupting data, changing the computer’s behavior, and eventually destroying its electronics.

Learn more: https://ow.ly/c1aN50XnK6w

11/05/2025

Machine Learning Leads to Stronger 3D-Printed Alloy

MIT engineers have developed a printable aluminum alloy that can withstand high temperatures and is five times stronger than traditionally manufactured aluminum.

The new printable metal is made from a mix of aluminum and other elements that the team identified using a combination of simulations and machine learning, which significantly pruned the number of possible combinations of materials to search through. While traditional methods would require simulating over one million possible combinations of materials, the team’s new machine learning-based approach needed only to evaluate 40 possible compositions before identifying an ideal mix for a high-strength, printable aluminum alloy.

When they printed the alloy and tested the resulting material, the team confirmed that, as predicted, the aluminum alloy was as strong as the strongest aluminum alloys that are manufactured today using traditional casting methods.

Learn more: https://ow.ly/CWvF50Xn1Ze

11/04/2025

5Ws of Dex: A Mobile Humanoid Robot

What: Richtech Robotics unveiled Dex, its mobile humanoid robot for industrial use, at GTC 2025 in Washington, D.C., in October. Accelerated by the NVIDIA Jetson Thor, Dex can operate in dynamic environments, adapt with real-time reasoning, and perform complex tasks with detailed precision. By combining real-world data with NVIDIA Isaac Sim, an open reference robotics simulation framework, Dex can learn tasks virtually and implement behaviors into a live industrial environment. Dex combines the autonomous mobile robot (AMR) technology of Richtech’s Titan delivery series with the two-armed precision of the ADAM service robot line, creating a platform that’s designed to be both mobile and dexterous.

Its dual production arms feature modular end-effectors for hands, clamps, or specialized tools. A four-camera vision system allows Dex to navigate and perform tasks in a rapidly changing environment. According to the company, it made a conscious decision, driven by both engineering and operational efficiency, to opt for wheels rather than legs. Dex’s wheeled AMR platform is designed to run for hours on a single charge and deliver fast braking, tight maneuvering, and stability in shared human environments. It features a four-hour battery life in mobile mode and can run continuously 24/7 from a static base.

Learn the other four Ws: https://ow.ly/QM7v50Xmpwq

11/03/2025

Solving Space, Power Challenges with PoE-Enabled Panel PCs

Semiconductor manufacturing environments operate under strict regulatory and operational constraints that dictate every aspect of their design, including computing solutions. Unlike conventional production facilities, these spaces require sterile conditions, efficient workflows, and strict regulatory adherence, necessitating the careful optimization of every square inch. Computing systems must be compact, compliant, and seamlessly integrated into space-constrained environments.

These manufacturing facilities require highly specialized equipment for each stage of production, and the strategic placement of this equipment is critical to ensure compliance with cleanroom standards. Expanding these facilities is rarely an option, as cleanroom construction is expensive, and many operate in high-cost urban or industrial areas where space is a premium resource. As a result, manufacturers must maximize limited floor space while preserving seamless, contamination-free workflows.

Compounding this challenge is the limited availability of power sources in production areas. Regulatory requirements emphasize smooth, sealed surfaces to maintain cleanliness. Additional power sources can increase the risk of dust accumulation, microbial growth, and contamination.

Learn more: https://ow.ly/6ukT50XlHIM

10/30/2025

My Opinion: What’s AI Good For?

In my last blog, “AI is Great — Is There Enough Electricity to Feed It?” I discussed the serious problem that unsustainable amounts of electrical and water resources are needed to run the data centers required by the exponential growth of generative AI. And I didn’t see much hope for solving the problem. But then I ran across an article in the Harvard Business Review that got me thinking in a new direction — rather than trying to feed that exponential growth, how about reducing it?

According to the article, a report from the MIT Media Lab found that 95 percent of companies that have incorporated generative AI tools into their workplace “see no measurable return on their investment in these technologies.” The article says that one possible reason is that employees are using AI tools to create low-effort, passable-looking work that ends up creating more work for their co-workers. “We refer to this phenomenon as ‘workslop.’ We define workslop as AI-generated work content that masquerades as good work but lacks the substance to meaningfully advance a given task.” And that requires receivers of this work to waste time “interpreting, correcting, or redoing it.”

That leads me to think about applications for which generative AI does indeed make sense, so we can make smart decisions about where it is useful it and where it is a waste. To gain some insight, I asked a software engineer I know, who happens to be my son Jeremy, how he uses AI in his work. The following is his answer:

Learn what SAE Media Group's Ed Brown thinks AI is good for: https://ow.ly/O9b150XkfAI

10/29/2025

Using Street Lamps as EV Chargers

A team of researchers at Penn State created a scalable framework to develop, analyze, and evaluate using streetlights as a low-cost, equitable EV charging option. They then installed 23 streetlight charging units in Kansas City, MO, and tested their framework. The researchers found that streetlight charging stations, compared to traditional EV charging stations, were more cost- and time-effective, had fewer negative environmental impacts, and were more convenient and accessible.

Learn more: https://ow.ly/7Usr50XjEme

10/28/2025

Researchers have used the centuries-old idea of pinhole imaging to create a high-performance mid-infrared imaging system without lenses. The new camera can capture extremely clear pictures over a large range of distances and in low light, making it useful for situations that are challenging for traditional cameras.

“Many useful signals are in the mid-infrared, such as heat and molecular fingerprints, but cameras working at these wavelengths are often noisy, expensive, or require cooling,” said Research Team Leader Heping Zeng from East China Normal University. “Moreover, traditional lens-based setups have a limited depth of field and need careful design to minimize optical distortions. We developed a high-sensitivity, lens-free approach that delivers a much larger depth of field and field of view than other systems.”

In Optica, the researchers describe how they use light to form a tiny “optical pinhole” inside a nonlinear crystal, which also turns the infrared image into a visible one. Using this setup, they acquired clear mid-infrared images with a depth of field of over 35 cm and a field of view of more than 6 cm. They were also able to use the system to acquire 3D images.

Learn more: https://ow.ly/SxIs50XiXT2

10/27/2025

Autonomous Targeting Systems for a New Autonomous Ground Vehicle

Bryan Bockmon, CEO of AimLock, is the guest on this episode of the Aerospace & Defense Technology podcast to discuss their new partnership with Overland AI and the future of autonomous targeting systems in modern warfare.

Listen now: https://ow.ly/epQI50XifSh

10/24/2025

Test Your Knowledge About Small Satellites

Small satellites, often referred to as smallsats, are satellites with a lower mass and size compared to traditional satellites. Smallsats are revolutionizing space-based services due to their affordability, faster development cycles, and flexibility. Smallsats are increasingly being used for Earth observation, telecommunications, military and defense, as well as scientific research.

Take the below quiz to test your knowledge about smallsats.

https://ow.ly/Aeav50Xhsuz

10/23/2025

Meet HandProxy: A Digital, Voice-Controlled Hand that Aims to Enhance AR/VR

HandProxy allows VR and AR users to interact with digital spaces by commanding a disembodied hand. Users can ask the hand to grab and move virtual objects, drag and resize windows, and perform gestures, such as a thumbs up.

"The way it works is the user speaks virtual commands to tell the hand what to do, what actions to take, what movements, the speed, etc. Then the system decomposes it into a set of primitives, which generates the corresponding gestures that the user is commanding. Then the hand uses these gestures to control the environment."

Learn more: https://ow.ly/FvBV50XgQhq

10/22/2025

3D Printing Ultrastrong Materials

An EPFL team has pioneered a 3D printing method that grows metals and ceramics inside a water-based gel, which results in dense-yet-intricate constructions for next-gen energy, biomedical, and sensing technologies.

"One important distinction of our method is that because the metal salts are only introduced into the hydrogel after printing, we can transform a single hydrogel into an almost infinite number of different materials — from composites to ceramics and metals."

Learn more: https://ow.ly/VVm050Xgcsq

10/21/2025

How to Make Data Centers More Efficient

Applications for AI are growing by leaps and bounds, which means we need many more data centers to handle the vast computing workload. Providing power to run all of them is a serious challenge. Part of the solution is to reduce their energy load by making them more efficient. The computing circuits could be designed to minimize losses, and the most efficient semiconductors can be chosen. But there is an upper limit to the efficiency of the electronics — there will always be losses in the form of heat.

Laura Schaefer, the Burton J. and Ann M. McMurtry Chair of Mechanical Engineering along with her team at Rice University, has been working on renewable energy in general and concentrating solar energy in particular. Solar collectors use the energy of the sun to heat a liquid that can be used directly for space or water heating or indirectly to drive a turbine connected to an electric generator.

In considering different applications for concentrating solar energy, her team had the idea that it could be used as a source of free energy for improving the efficiency of data center cooling. In a paper in the journal Solar Energy authored by Schaefer and graduate student Kashif Liaqat, they point out that “studies have revealed that 30 – 50 percent of the total energy consumed in data centers is attributed to cooling systems.”

Learn more: https://ow.ly/KSjq50XfvxI

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