This Week in Engineering

Engineering.com

This Week in Engineering explores the latest innovations and tech trends in engineering from academia, government, and industry. We cover topics in energy, transportation, aerospace, manufacturing, infrastructure, and much more.

New episodes uploaded weekly.

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168 episodes
Updated Oct 22, 2024

Episodes168

Newest first

Jan 25, 2022 · 5 min
5G Threatens Aircraft Systems and Fourth-Generation Micro Reactors Move Forward
5G is the enabling technology for a new generation of smart phones and IoT connected devices, promising low latency, high-bandwidth communications. The commercial potential for the technology is massive, and as it rolls out in the US, an unexpected consequence of 5G has emerged: interference with aircraft radar altimeters. Radar altimeters are safety critical, basic flight instruments for commercial airliners, and the use reflected beams of radiofrequency radiation there similar to the signals emitted by wireless service providers. 5G towers operating the vicinity of airports could jam radar altimeters signals during final approach to a runway, which in low visibility conditions could be safety critical. The FAA is scrambling to certify which radar altimeter models and aircraft are safe for use in 5G environments, but not all airplanes have yet been approved, and regional jets are still under study. Small modular reactors represent the new wave of nuclear fission technology which promises to deliver clean, carbon free power at low cost. Compared to traditional light and heavy water reactor designs, SMRs are designed to operate without large containment structures or the complex and layered safety systems necessary for traditional reactors. Hyundai Engineering has taken a $30 million equity stake in Seattle-based Ultra Safe Nuclear Corporation, were building a test reactor to demonstrate the company’s novel single pass uranium fuel cycle. Using encapsulated TRISO fuel, the design will deliver 5 MW-e in HR transportable form factor that can be deployed almost anywhere. The reactors pre-fuels at the factory and is simply replaced after 20 years of operation. The high-temperature gas cooled design requires minimal human monitoring and shows interesting possibilities for process and space heating applications as well as thermal power generation. The test unit is scheduled to go online in 2026 at Chalk River in Ontario, Canada. Access all episodes of This Week in Engineering on engineering.com TV along with all of our other series.
Jan 18, 2022 · 5 min
Goodyear’s Low Carbon Tire Project Makes Progress and U.S. Steel bets $3B on America
Pneumatic tires have been a fundamental technology in Western civilization for well over a century. They are essential for modern transportation, and their manufacturing has a significant CO 2 footprint. In 2020, the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. launched a project to develop an entirely carbon neutral tire, a very difficult task. The company has unveiled a test tire demonstrating progress to date, and it has achieved a 70% reduction in net carbon emissions. To achieve this, the Goodyear team substituted biological materials such as rice husk derived silica and soybean oil as synthetic compund substitutes, and significantly, has developed alternate methods for producing the most critical tire additive, carbon black. Several different methods of low-impact carbon black production have been explored, including combustion of biological materials and synthesis directly from carbon dioxide itself. The global steel industry is dominated by Asian producers, particularly China. But steel can be cost-effectively made in America through mini mills which use scrap as the primary input to produce higher value products such as high strength sheet and strip for the automotive and consumer goods industries. U.S. Steel, following up on the company’s recently acquisition of Big River steel in Arkansas, is investing $3 billion on an advanced mini mill with two electric arc furnaces capable of producing 3 million tons per year. Access all episodes of This Week in Engineering on engineering.com TV along with all of our other series.
Jan 11, 2022 · 5 min
Robot Tractors Hit the Field and Will Sony be the Next Major EV Manufacturer?
Sony Corporation became famous for innovation in the consumer electronics space, developing the first truly popular transistor pocket radio and of course the Walkman series of portable cassette and CD players. The company has expanded considerably from that consumer sector to include technologies such as electronic materials and smart phones, but much of the company’s recent strategy is centred on entertainment, specifically feature films and gaming through the PlayStation platform. The company has revealed their second electric vehicle prototype, following a year of road testing in Europe and appears to be ready for series production. EV sector is crowded with multiple startups, but Sony appears to be using a slightly different strategy from other startup automakers: they plan to use self driving electric vehicles as delivery systems for an immersive user experience that includes Sony’s entertainment products. If successful, the project may change the fundamental economics of the auto industry from that of selling transportation, to delivering data. Self driving cars and trucks are reality today with companies such as Cruise, Waymo, Argo AI and TuSimple fielding autonomous vehicles on public roads today. Autonomously guided vehicles are also common sight in factories and warehouses around the world, but what about agriculture? What prototypes have been built and tested, at the 2022 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, John Deere unveiled a production ready optionally driven tractor based on the companies 8R design. The tractor uses a hybrid approach to autonomy, using multiple sensors for obstacle detection and geo-mapping for location to within 1 inch. Operators drive the tractor to the field, then move on to other tasks. In a tight labor market in the agriculture sector, autonomy be essential for sustained productivity and cost control. Access all episodes of This Week in Engineering on engineering.com TV along with all of our other series.
Dec 14, 2021 · 5 min
New Tech Decarbonizes Gas Production and Toyota Builds Big Battery Plant
Decarbonization of the economy is a primary goal of nations worldwide to reduce the effects of global warming. Efforts so far have focused on reducing the burning of fossil fuels through alternates like hydrogen, solar, wind and nuclear energy. But demand for oil and gas are still increasing, and will do so for some years before new technologies render them obsolete. And oil and gas production themselves are large carbon emitters. Paris-based Technip Energies, an oil industry process engineering firm has partnered with Vancouver-based Svante, a CO2 remediation technology company, to develop carbon sequestration systems for the oil industry in turnkey packages. The Svante technology uses a proprietary adsorbent with mechanical CO2 extraction and recycling system to pull CO2 out of flue gas to be compressed and stored or reused. A candidate project is a new, very large gas field near Abu Dhabi. Toyota has been notably quiet during one of the most revolutionary periods in the automotive industry: the switch to electrification. Many analysts attribute this to Toyota’s very public experiments with hydrogen fuel cells, notably the Mirai series of small sedans, but in fact the company has funded significant research into battery technology, notably solid-state batteries with Panasonic. But a new announcement this week suggests that Toyota may be moving in a new direction. The company will create a $1.3 billion lithium-ion battery manufacturing facility near Greensboro North Carolina, with an initial production capacity sufficient to support 200,000 vehicles, rising to 1.2 million vehicles per year when fully completed. The operation is in close proximity to Toyota’s Georgetown, Kentucky assembly complex, and the company has not ruled out selling batteries as a Tier 1 supplier to other companies. Does this mean that Toyota is shifting away from fuel cell technology? The company has not announced any slowdown in hydrogen technology development and may now pursue both carbon free technologies simultaneously. Access all episodes of This Week in Engineering on engineering.com TV along with all of our other series.
Dec 8, 2021 · 4 min
NASA throws a DART at an Asteroid and Green Hydrogen for Ammonia Energy
NASA has launched the DART mission to intercept an asteroid and deflect its path. The purpose is to demonstrate how satellites can be used as kinetic energy impactors to alter the course of asteroids and comets that may be on a collision path with Earth. The European Space Agency is collaborating, and the Italian national space agency has supplied a ride along cubesat to photograph the impact. The mission also contains an important development, a test version of an Aerojet Rocketdyne built xenon ion thruster that may form the basis for a new class of deep space satellite propulsion for missions with durations of a decade or more. Fuel cell technology has been around for decades but has been overshadowed by battery storage and electric motors for transportation purposes. But the field is far from obsolete, and a new way to power them they remove many of the obstacles created using pure hydrogen. New York-based Plug Power has opened a Rochester giga factory to produce hydrogen from electrolysis of water in support of fuel-cell technology and is supplying systems to multinational fertilizer consortium Fertiglobe for an Egyptian plant that will pioneer large-scale green ammonia production. Ammonia is a promising carrier for hydrogen and can itself be a green fuel for combustion engines and in fuel cells. Access all episodes of This Week in Engineering on engineering.com TV along with all of our other series.
Dec 1, 2021 · 5 min
The World’s Fastest Electric Airplane and GM Invests in Electric Boat Technology
Aviation industry stalwart Rolls-Royce has announced that a joint program of the UK Aerospace Technology Institute, the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy and Innovate UK called ACCEL, has set new records for speed and time to climb for electric powered aircraft. The single seat aircraft called ”Spirit of Innovation” travelled a 345 mph for 3 km, achieving a peak speed of 387 mph. The records were set with a bespoke 6000 cell triple battery pack built by electric aviation specialist Electroflight and a 500 hp axial flux motor developed by automotive EV supplier YASA. Electrification of cars and trucks is ongoing, but electric watercraft are only now developing. This may accelerate as General Motors has announced a 25% stake in Seattle-based Pure Watercraft, a maker of electric outboard motor systems. Pure watercraft’s current technology uses a 50 hp equivalent power unit mounted on a conventional transom, powered by one or more modular batteries that can be fitted anywhere in the hull of most recreational watercraft. GM expects to help Pure Watercraft scale production with the automaker’s assembly line expertise and supply chain management knowledge. Access all episodes of This Week in Engineering on engineering.com TV along with all of our other series.
Nov 23, 2021 · 5 min
IBM Approaches Quantum Advantage and a Liquid Sodium Next Generation Reactor Gets the Go Ahead
Moore's Law famously predicted the rapid rate of increase in integrated circuit gate density. As gate sizes are falling into the low single digit nanometre range however, physical constraints on future development are likely. Quantum computing promises to deliver orders of magnitude better performance than conventional binary devices, and IBM has launched a new quantum processor called Eagle, which promises to approach quantum advantage, the point at which quantum computers clearly outperform their conventional counterparts. Nuclear energy startup TerraPower and GE Hitachi Energy Systems have chosen the site for the first demonstration reactor of Natrium liquid sodium fission technology. The pilot plant will be built in western Wyoming on the site of a coal plant nearing decommissioning. The Natrium concept uses a simplified reactor design that uses substantially less material and low enrichment uranium fuel to produce power more cost-effectively than current pressurized water designs. A prominent investor is Bill Gates, and the pilot plant should be ready in seven years. Access all episodes of This Week in Engineering on engineering.com TV along with all of our other series.
Nov 17, 2021 · 4 min
Zero Emissions Mining Goes Electric and GE Becomes Three
Mining is both an essential human activity, and a surprising contributor to global CO2 emissions, at 4 to 7 percent of global production. Caterpillar is working with Canadian mining firm Nouveau Monde Graphite to create a fully carbon neutral mine using electric vehicle technology. Access to zero carbon hydroelectric power at the miner’s Québec site is a major enabler, and other firms are working to help the industry transition from diesel technology. Iconic engineering firm General Electric has announced that the 129-year-old company will split itself into three separate corporations, one each serving the healthcare, energy and aviation industries. This move follows years of divestment from GE’s formerly very wide portfolio of divisions, including the entertainment industry, nuclear weapons technology, finance, computing, automation and plastics. The three remaining industries are all in profitable sectors and are all engineering related. Access all episodes of This Week in Engineering on engineering.com TV along with all of our other series.
Nov 9, 2021 · 4 min
Another New EV Automaker Launches Three, and Driverless Electric Trucks Coming to America
Swedish technology company Einride has inked a deal with Haier owned GE Appliances to grid a network of SAE level for self-driving electric cargo carriers for intracompany use. The units include a box truck and a flatbed capable of carrying standard 20-foot shipping containers. Einride expects to hire 2000 as the firm expands from its New York-based to include technology centres in California and Texas and in the Southeast. Two Taiwan based major manufacturers have teamed up to launch a new line of electric vehicles. Hon Hai Technology Group and Yulon Motor Group have launched three new EV's under the Foxtron brand. The lineup includes a crossover SUV, a luxury sedan and an urban route bus. Technology was designed entirely in-house, and the Foxtron joint venture is itself teaming with Japanese electric motor maker Nidec to create a line of electric vehicle powertrain components as a Tier 1 supplier to the industry. Hon Hai is no stranger to mass production. In the West, it is better known as Foxconn, the maker of Apple iPhones. Access all episodes of This Week in Engineering on engineering.com TV along with all of our other series.
Nov 2, 2021 · 5 min
Tesla Talks Artificial Intelligence and Nuclear Micro-Reactors for the USAF
The U.S. Air Force has announced that Eielson Air Force Base in Alaska will be the site of the services’ first micro-nuclear reactor. The vendor has not yet been announced, but the selection represents the first firm commitment for production type transportable nuclear power systems for base use. The Pentagon is operating a joint force development program for micro-reactors called Project Pele in parallel, with an eye toward a mass producible reactor design by 2022. If successful, the programs may create a new generation of shipping containers sized, truck and air transportable intrinsically safe power systems in the single digit megawatt output range. The road to self driving has proven much more difficult than many developers in the computer industry originally thought. Tesla is using a unique approach, with cameras only and the lack of radar or lidar images requires systems that must understand video images at a very high level of reliability. To achieve this, Tesla has developed an in-house artificial intelligence system called Dojo. The company has just released a white paper describing a new framework for coding in dojo that replaces an older IEEE standard that was notoriously heavy on processor and memory capacity. Google Brain, Google’s similar in-house AI unit, has their own standard. This could be a VHS versus Beta moment. Access all episodes of This Week in Engineering on engineering.com TV along with all of our other series.
Oct 26, 2021 · 4 min
Stellantis & LG Energy Announce a Major Battery Venture for America and a Former Boeing Test Pilot is Indicted in the 737 Max MCAS Affair
LG Energy is General Motors partner of choice for the firm's broad new Ultium battery program, but the company has just announced a new joint venture with Stellantis to produce EV batteries at a yet undisclosed American location. The project is substantial in size and will supply multiple Stellantis brands. LG has a relationship with Stellantis going back to 2014 when the firm supplied batteries and control systems for the Chrysler Pacifica hybrid. Former Boeing engineering test pilot Mark Forkner has been indicted in a Fort Worth, Texas Federal Court on multiple charges stemming from his involvement in the development of the MCAS system used in Boeing 737 Max airplanes. Prosecutors allege that Forkner deliberately concealed details of the MCAS system from FAA regulators, resulting in the exclusion of it from Boeing pilot operating manuals. Allegations claim that this omission was an important contributory factor to the crashes of two Max airplanes with the loss of all aboard. This is the first indictment of an individual in the Boeing MCAS saga. Access all episodes of This Week in Engineering on engineering.com TV along with all of our other series.
Oct 18, 2021 · 4 min
Samsung IC Production in Texas and GM Raises the Stakes in Battery Innovation
With much of the world’s auto industry now crippled by a serious shortage of integrated circuits, the search for a solution to the dual problems of Covid related supply chain breakdown and limited global foundry capacity is on, in earnest. The stakes are high, with some analysts estimating that production of popular models could be cut by 1/3, with billions of dollars in lost revenue. Samsung, already a major foundry and contract manufacturer for fabless IC firms, has chosen central Texas for a very large facility that will likely produce single digit nanometre scale devices. While this will stabilize supply in the future, best estimates of facility start up are about two years, typical for large, complex foundry operations. Auto shortages may persist. While integrated circuits are an immediate problem for the auto industry, finding ways to make electric vehicles affordable and profitable is a larger, longer-term issue. General Motors has announced a new technical center in Warren, Michigan for cell and battery development that will include manufacturing techniques for use in GM plants and at GM/LG joint-venture operations in Tennessee and Ohio. Targets are aggressive, a 60% reduction in battery cost compared to GM’s current generation Ultium devices. The research center will encompass all aspects of cell and battery production, from basic chemistry to fabrication and durability testing. Access all episodes of This Week in Engineering on engineering.com TV along with all of our other series.
Oct 11, 2021 · 4 min
Ford Makes a Massive EV Investment and a Hypersonic Missile Breakthrough for the US Military
With the race to replace internal combustion engines with electric vehicles heating up, the question of where this new production will come from is the pressing issue for the industry. Will it be new facilities or the conversion of existing plants? Ford appears to be doing both, with a major conversion of the existing facilities and the announcement of two very large new operations, an assembly plant in Tennessee and a joint venture with SK Innovation for battery production in Kentucky. Sustained hypersonic flight has been a hot topic of research in aerospace for decades, and hot on the heels of recent Chinese advancements in scramjet technology, Raytheon and Northrop Grumman have announced the successful test of an air breathing hypersonic missile built for the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency. While current scramjet technology is suitable only for short duration use in weapons, similar technologies are under development that could be scaled to allow true single-stage to orbit performance with hybrid engines. Access all episodes of This Week in Engineering on engineering.com TV along with all of our other series.
Oct 5, 2021 · 4 min
Autonomously Guided Vehicles on the Farm, and Lucid Motors Rolls Out Their First EV
While large-scale farming of crops such as grains and pulses lend themselves readily to automation, a major portion of the global agriculture industry is based on orchard and nursery crops. These industries are still highly labour-intensive, but small Philadelphia-based startup called Burro has developed an autonomously guided vehicle that’s designed to assist human pickers in fruit, vegetable and nursery operations. The devices shuffle the crops of the fields or orchards, freeing humans to pick, and pack. There are many luxury electric vehicle offerings on the market today, and a new, high-performance rival has just entered production. Lucid Motors has rolled the first vehicle off the firm’s Casa Grande, Arizona assembly line, with customer deliveries expected to begin in late October. The $77,000 Lucid Air carries an EPA estimated range of over 500 miles and can be charged to 300 miles of range in 20 minutes. The company is already expanding production facilities to produce a new SUV product in 2023. Access all episodes of This Week in Engineering on engineering.com TV along with all of our other series.
Sep 27, 2021 · 4 min
World's Largest Two-Wheeler Futurefactory and Boeing's Drone Refuelling Tanker
Electric vehicles are the highest topic in mobility today, with the primary focus on automakers like Tesla as well as legacy manufacturers. But for much of the world today, two wheeled mobility, specifically scooters and small motorcycles are the vehicles of choice, especially in urban areas. The segment is ripe for electrification, and Indian company Ola has announced a world first: a massive, 10,000 employee mass production facility employing entirely women. The facility is expected to produce 15% of all the world's electric scooters and is expected to start production next year. In a different form of transportation news, Boeing has announced a new production facility at MidAmerica St. Louis Airport in Illinois, where the Navy's new drone tanker, the MQ-25 Stingray will be assembled. The heavily automated factory is expected to employ 300 at peak production building an initial U.S. Navy order of 70 airframes. Both new factory announcements note advanced systems engineering, Industry 4.0 and automation as keys to production. Access all episodes of This Week in Engineering on engineering.com TV along with all of our other series.
Sep 21, 2021 · 5 min
MIT Develops the World's Strongest Magnet and Manufacturers Want Flexibility Post Covid-19
A research team at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has achieved a breakthrough in electromagnetics, producing the most powerful magnet in the world. Working with MIT spinoff Commonwealth Fusion Systems, the high temperature superconducting magnet can generate a sustained magnetic field of more than 20 T, which the team believes is enough to allow Commonwealth’s compact tokamak to achieve net energy from fusion. If successful it will be a historic first for fusion energy. Industry advocacy group the Manufacturer’s Alliance has released a survey of US manufacturers about their challenges during Covid-19 and beyond. With strained supply chains and rising costs, flexibility is the watchword, and workers agree. Novel labor arrangements and new ways to organize production processes will be needed for manufacturers to staff their operations optimally in a labor short US market. Access all episodes of This Week in Engineering on engineering.com TV along with all of our other series.
Sep 14, 2021 · 4 min
Mechanical Neurons for AI and Can AI be a Person Under the Law
A French research team has proposed a radical innovation in artificial intelligence: electromechanical artificial neurons. The team has developed technology that mimics the function of mammalian neurons closely, using graphene to trap water molecules in a similar way to the internal flow of ions within nerve cells. Simulations suggest that the water molecules will assemble themselves under the influence of electric fields in ways that show a memristor effect, very promising for both storage and information processing applications. In a different yet similarly significant AI development, the US Patent and Trademark Office has rejected an inventor’s application that a neural network be named as inventor on a patent application. That rejection was upheld by a federal court, but the appeals process is ongoing. The situation in Australia is exactly the opposite, with lower courts ruling that AI can be named inventor, with that nation’s patent authorities appealing that decision. The outcomes may have a profound effect on how we define invention and innovation in the 21st century. Access all episodes of This Week in Engineering on engineering.com TV along with all of our other series.
Sep 7, 2021 · 4 min
IBM Launches a Fraud Fighting Chip and the Outer Space Threat to Quantum Computers
IBM has launched a novel processor that is optimized for a special application: finance. The new Telum processor is built for AI integration, which with the right software, can perform real-time analyses of financial transactions and stop fraud as it happens. IBM predicts that the technology will similarly be useful for real-time credit approval for online banking and transaction settlement with very little latency. The processor is built around eight 5 GHz cores and contains an incredible 22 billion transistors. A global team of university and industry researchers have discovered the root cause of a serious problem in the development of quantum computers: correlation. Detecting and correcting errors is a major roadblock in quantum computer development, and the team’s discovery that single errors can affect a large number of qubits simultaneously is a significant step forward in developing practical quantum computers. Just as significant is the discovery that a major source of these errors are cosmic rays, highly energetic and difficult to screen. Future quantum computers may require heavy radiation shielding for optimum performance. Access all episodes of This Week in Engineering on engineering.com TV along with all of our other series.
Aug 31, 2021 · 4 min
Boston Dynamics’ Atlas Tackles Parkour and the Tesla Android
Advanced robot maker Boston Dynamics is famous for four and two-legged robots that mimic the movement of dogs and people respectively. The bipedal humanoid robot, Atlas is a YouTube sensation with the capability of very sophisticated motion that mimics advanced human movements such as dancing. In its latest development, the company puts Atlas through a parkour course, demonstrating how the sensor suite and algorithms adapt to the local environment. Elon Musk’s much-anticipated AI day was held August 19, and two key announcements were noteworthy. One is the development of a scalable and modular processor array for the company’s Dojo supercomputer program, but the other is perhaps more significant: a humanlike robot program. Musk announced that the firm is hiring talent for the robotics program immediately, and expects to produce a human -sized, bipedal and useful machine the prototype ready in 2022. It’s a very ambitious timeline and much depends on the success of Dojo. Access all episodes of This Week in Engineering on engineering.com TV along with all of our other series.
Aug 24, 2021 · 5 min
Two Nuclear Fusion Breakthroughs and First Steps to Atomic Cargo Ships
Two significant developments in fusion technology were announced this week. At the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory in the US, the National Ignition Facility announced that their laser compression device achieved greater than 1 MJ fusion energy output, six times higher than the team’s previous best and a strong indicator that the technology can be scaled to make practical levels of power. A much older fusion technology, the stellarator, is enjoying a new lease on life with recently published experiments from the Max Planck Institute in Germany which show dramatically higher efficiencies, consistent with conventional tokamak devices. Nuclear propulsion for commercial cargo ships has been expected since the birth of naval nuclear propulsion in the mid-1950s, but with the exception of the experimental NS Savannah, no cargo ship has been powered by atomic energy. With the increased urgency of CO2 reduction however, the technology is under assessment again and shows promise both for environmental reasons and because of higher oil prices. Earth 300 Ventures, a Singapore-based environmental group, plans to launch a large research vessel in 2025 which is designed to accept an advanced reactor, possibly a molten salt design, some 5 to 10 years later. In the meantime, the UK is revamping Maritime regulations to be ready for commercial atomic vessel traffic. Access all episodes of This Week in Engineering on engineering.com TV along with all of our other series.