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Baidu’s autonomous electric carmaker Jidu raises $400 million in Series A financing

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Baidu’s intelligent electric vehicle arm Jidu has closed its Series A financing, raising nearly $400 million.

This round of financing was backed by Baidu and its strategic partner multinational auto manufacturer Zhejiang Geely Holding Group.

With the completion of financing, Jidu is set to continue accelerating the progress in R&D and achieving mass production. [Read more…] about Baidu’s autonomous electric carmaker Jidu raises $400 million in Series A financing

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  • Tau invents wire that doubles the power of electric motors and raises €10.25 million
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    Tau invents wire that doubles the power of electric motors and raises €10.25 millionA startup company called Tau, which specializes in materials science and automotive electrification, says it has delivered a prototype wire that enables electric motors to double their power output without changing their size.  The technology could mean that electric vehicles and machines of all kinds can keep going for longer…
    Tags: industry, engineering, news

Applied Automation Technologies wins software contract with leading aircraft manufacturer

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Applied Automation Technologies has secured what it describes as “a major software contract” with a leading North American aircraft manufacturer.

The agreement involves the integration of AAT’s CAPPSNC software to directly interface with controllers on large CNC machines to provide dimensional metrology data for CMM reports, adaptive work offsets, and adaptive tool offsets for 3-5 axis closed-loop manufacturing.

Ray Karadayi, president and CEO of Applied Automation Technologies, says: “This CAPPSNC software is truly Factory 4.0 smart manufacturing technology because it is using metrology information throughout the manufacturing process for adaptive control.” [Read more…] about Applied Automation Technologies wins software contract with leading aircraft manufacturer

Taif University using ClearOne Beamforming microphone arrays to improve distance learning

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Driven by a variety of market forces, distance learning is becoming more and more of a mainstay at institutions of higher education around the world, including Taif University in Saudi Arabia, which recently completed a major upgrade of its audio capabilities in partnership with Smart Cities Technologies (SCT) and ClearOne, a global market leader enabling conferencing, collaboration, and network streaming solutions.

“When it comes to distance learning at a Taif, instructors use video conferencing in the lecture halls to collaborate with the undergraduate and graduate student population of Taif University’s women’s campus,” explained Moath M Yousef, senior audiovisual pre-sales and product manager of SCT. “And university staff members were facing many problems with the audio, mainly echo and disconnection issues.”

In addition, according to Yousef, classes with many students found it very difficult to constantly move the microphone between participants for the far end of the room to clearly hear questions and discussions. In fact, these video collaboration classes often required dedicated supervisors to be present to move the microphones between participants to ensure that classes would run smoothly. [Read more…] about Taif University using ClearOne Beamforming microphone arrays to improve distance learning

Smart technology is not making us dumber

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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 scientific evidence that shows that smartphones and digital technology harm our biological cognitive abilities,” says the UC professor of philosophy and psychology who recently co-authored a paper stating such in Nature Human Behaviour.

In the paper, Chemero and colleagues at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management expound on the evolution of the digital age, explaining how smart technology supplements thinking, thus helping us to excel. [Read more…] about Smart technology is not making us dumber

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  • Your paper notebook could become your next tablet
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    Your paper notebook could become your next tabletInnovators from Purdue University hope their new technology can help transform paper sheets from a notebook into a music player interface and make food packaging interactive. Purdue engineers developed a simple printing process that renders any paper or cardboard packaging into a keyboard, keypad or other easy-to-use human-machine interfaces. This…
    Tags: paper, technology, smart, university
  • The Earth is flat. Everything else is just fake news. Or is it?
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    The Earth is flat. Everything else is just fake news. Or is it?‘Is Western culture balancing on a tightrope between science and humanities?’ asks Carlos Elias, author of new book Science on the Ropes, which explains why science has been dethroned from its prestigious position in Western culture and replaced by pseudoscientific conjecture and fake news Pseudoscience is on the rise and…
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  • Estonian company Auve Tech launches ‘world’s first’ autonomous hydrogen vehicle
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    Estonian company Auve Tech launches ‘world’s first’ autonomous hydrogen vehicleWhat has been described as “the world’s first autonomous hydrogen vehicle” has now been officially launched. Created by the Estonian enterprise Auve Tech in cooperation with University of Tartu researchers, the vehicle was presented to the public for the first time in Tartu, a city in eastern Estonia. The first…
    Tags: features, technology
  • New electronic paper displays brilliant colours
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    New electronic paper displays brilliant coloursImagine sitting out in the sun, reading a digital screen as thin as paper, but seeing the same image quality as if you were indoors. Thanks to research from Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, it could soon be a reality. A new type of reflective screen – sometimes described as…
    Tags: paper, technology, digital, university, features

Novel fast-beam-switching transceiver takes 5G to the next level

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Scientists at Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo Tech) and NEC Corporation jointly develop a 28-GHz phased-array transceiver that supports efficient and reliable 5G communications.

The proposed transceiver outperforms previous designs in various regards by adapting fast beam switching and leakage cancellation mechanism.

With the recent emergence of innovative technologies, such as the Internet of Things, smart cities, autonomous vehicles, and smart mobility, our world is on the brink of a new age. [Read more…] about Novel fast-beam-switching transceiver takes 5G to the next level

Researchers create world’s most power-efficient high-speed ADC microchip

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To meet soaring demand for lightning-quick mobile technology, each year tech giants create faster, more powerful devices with longer-lasting battery power than previous models.

A major reason companies like Apple and Samsung can miraculously pull this off year after year is because engineers and researchers around the world are designing increasingly power-efficient microchips that still deliver high speeds.

To that end, researchers led by a team at Brigham Young University have just built the world’s most power-efficient high-speed analog-to-digital converter (ADC) microchip. An ADC is a tiny piece of technology present in almost every electronic piece of equipment that converts analog signals (like a radio wave) to a digital signal. [Read more…] about Researchers create world’s most power-efficient high-speed ADC microchip

Six out of every 10 teachers believe that changing the design of the classroom is key to improving learning

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The image of rows of chairs and desks facing a teacher at a blackboard has been a reality for decades. However, research reveals that this way of organizing the classroom furniture in schools is not the best way for favouring the learning process.

Especially if the needs of 21st-century students are taken into account, who, according to the OECD, require a social environment that fosters autonomy, flexibility, decision-making capacity and the connection of knowledge by individual students or through teamwork.

It is also the opinion of 6 out of every 10 teachers that changing the design of the classroom is key to improving learning. [Read more…] about Six out of every 10 teachers believe that changing the design of the classroom is key to improving learning

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    Pandemic teaching transitions back to classroom with lessons learnedThe COVID-19 pandemic created numerous changes and challenges for many people. In the education field, teachers were asked to re-create lesson plans and student interactivity in a virtual realm, something many had never experienced. During the 180th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America, which will be held virtually June…
    Tags: classroom, students, teachers, education, changes, news

NTU Singapore scientists design ‘smart’ device to harvest daylight

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A team of Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) researchers has designed a ‘smart’ device to harvest daylight and relay it to underground spaces, reducing the need to draw on traditional energy sources for lighting.

In Singapore, authorities are looking at the feasibility of digging deeper underground to create new space for infrastructure, storage, and utilities. Demand for round-the-clock underground lighting is therefore expected to rise in the future.

To develop a daylight harvesting device that can sustainably meet this need, the NTU team drew inspiration from the magnifying glass, which can be used to focus sunlight into one point. [Read more…] about NTU Singapore scientists design ‘smart’ device to harvest daylight

Smart cruise control steers drivers toward better decisions

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Vehicle manufacturers offer smart features such as lane and braking assist to aid drivers in hazardous situations when human reflexes may not be fast enough. But most options only provide immediate benefits to a single vehicle.

What if, like a murmuration of starlings, our cars and trucks moved cooperatively on the road in response to each vehicle’s environmental sensors, reacting as a group to lessen traffic jams and protect the humans inside?

This question forms the basis of Kuilin Zhang’s National Science Foundation CAREER Award research. Zhang, an associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at Michigan Technological University, has published “A distributionally robust stochastic optimization-based model predictive control with distributionally robust chance constraints for cooperative adaptive cruise control under uncertain traffic conditions” in the journal Transportation Research Part B: Methodological. [Read more…] about Smart cruise control steers drivers toward better decisions