DIGITAL ISSUES

Hirschtick on the cloud, CAD, and the future I attended the recent Robotics Summit & Expo in Boston, and one of the highlights was hearing Jon Hirschtick’s keynote. Hirschtick is General Manager, Onshape and Atlas, PTC — and is famous in engineering circles as being the fellow who created Solidworks. He was also a member…

A frequency you can count on There are few constants in life, but what few there are might include death, taxes, and a U.S. grid frequency that doesn’t vary by more than ±0.5 Hz. However, the certainty of the grid frequency is coming into question, thanks to the rising percentage of renewable energy sources that…

Is China’s manufacturing future in trouble? At the recent NFPA Annual Conference, I was eager to hear Peter Ziehan, the famed geopolitical analyst, and his take on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Ziehan has been predicting this type of aggression from Putin for years, based on his country’s terrible societal demographics, which indicate a country slowly…

5G IN 2022: AN ENGINEER’S PERSPECTIVE Welcome to EE World’s 2022 5G Handbook. We gathered a new collection of articles, some 15 in total that appear in the electronic version. The articles in this year’s handbook look at 5G across hardware and software. If you’re an IoT device designer that needs to connect to a…

EVs AS MOTION DESIGN KIN It’s deeply satisfying when new (and burgeoning) industries adopt the electric motors we in the motion-control industry know so well — especially for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), autonomous ground vehicles (AGVs), passenger hybrid vehicles, and all-electric vehicles (EVs). Multiple decades in the motion industry have imparted in this author a…

Back in person … finally! While we’re not quite past the Covid-19 pandemic, and many areas of the world are still struggling with this virus, it’s hopeful to see that business travel in the United States has picked up — and getting back together in person is becoming possible once again. After two-plus years of…

Can you help us recognize excellence? We’re always looking to engage with our readers, and we have a few ways that you can play a role in future projects — things that are fun and may even look pretty nice on your resume! First off is our annual Women in Engineering special print issue. We’re…

How to turn off a smart meter the hard way Potential cyber attacks have a lot of people worried thanks to the recent conflict in Ukraine. So it might be appropriate to review what happened when cybersecurity fi rm FireEye’s Mandiant team demonstrated how to infiltrate the network of a North American utility. During this…

The Pandemic Continues To Shape Trends In Motion Control In the first months of the new year, our motion control team takes stock of the current climate in the industry and looks ahead to what’s in store for the coming year. To that end, we ask leading suppliers of motion control components to give our…

Motion control continues to adapt In January, as part of our Engineering Week virtual event, our motion control editors (Lisa Eitel, Miles Budimir, and Danielle Collins) discussed with me some of the more interesting trends they are seeing, along with guest panelists Dan Zachacki of Mitsubishi Electric Automation and Nik Brightwell of Akribis Systems. I…

Up in the sky! It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s a flying battery! According to a company called Joby Aviation, in a few years you’ll be able to summon up an air taxi on your Uber phone app for trips of 25 miles or so. And you won’t have to feel guilty about the…

More on engineering and science Last month, I talked about how engineers and scientists really are kindred spirits, as they play on the same team of knowledge seekers. Hopefully, you read the fascinating “Leadership in Engineering” feature article on Dan Arvizu, the Chancellor of New Mexico State University, who has been a leader and a…

Leadership in Engineering Any time a manufacturer listens to and partners with its customers, its engineers will design and build the kind of products that can accelerate innovation. Engineers want to solve problems, whether with custom or off-the-shelf solutions — but they want their products to be reliable. After all, no one would build himself…

Engineering and science — together Although I am a degreed engineer, I’ve always felt a kinship with scientists; I suppose it’s that we’re playing for the same team of knowledge seekers. As a kid, I was attracted to subjects like meteorology and astronomy, and on many nights, you could find me in the backyard or…

Looking for a positive year ahead After a rough 18+ months, I think we’re all ready for positive news in the coming year. And 2022 is showing some upward trending signs. I recently attended an economic outlook talk given by Jim Meil of ACT Research Co., LLC, presented by the NFPA, and came away feeling…

COVID-19 AND THE GREAT RESIGNATION SPUR AUTOMATION ADOPTION With no end to COVID-19-related supply-chain and labor woes in sight, myriad industries — from semiconductor manufacture to fast food and retail — have increased adoption of factory and process automation. It’s a response first observed to lesser extents during the past decade’s SARS and Ebola outbreaks,…

Amazon underwhelms with Astro There have already been several failed attempts at multipurpose home robots. Amazon’s consumer robot will likely suffer the same fate. How ROS 2 is easing hardware acceleration for robotics The ROS 2 Hardware Acceleration Working Group is creating acceleration kernels based on open standards. 3 tips to developing outdoor robots for…

Taking automation from the factory floor to … everywhere? One of the constant threads we hear about in the manufacturing world is how much automation is taking over processes that were once manual in nature. That’s a good thing for motion control component manufacturers, as it means more business. And while some decry the potential…

Engineering a career in robotics and flight Years ago, in 1979, Ella Atkins was one of the first students to participate in a Johns Hopkins University SMPY program, which began in 1971. In this program, she would study mathematics. A grad student from Johns Hopkins was assigned to her as a mentor. Proving that “Black…

Manufacturing vs. politicians At last month’s NFPA International Economic Outlook Conference, John Manzella, of the Manzella Report, spoke on “Labor, International Trade, and What’s Ahead,” an insightful talk to the 200-ish attendees, many of whom were manufacturing executives in the fluid power realm. Manzella had few kind words for politicians on either side of the…

Talk of EV fires still smolders The latest figures from the National Fire Protection Association show that only about 20% of all vehicle fires arise from problems in the vehicle electrical system—most fires have something to do with the fuel system. Seeing as electric vehicles will do away with problematic petrol, you might wonder whether…

2022 indications bode well for manufacturing At the National Fluid Power’s annual International Economic Outlook Conference, Alan Beaulieu of ITR Economics spoke on “U.S. & Global Macro Trends and Impacts,” and the overall outlook is positive for the manufacturing world. In examining the U.S. economic leading trends, it seems clear that there will be a…

Continuing to grow The additive manufacturing industry is riding a wave of success in 2021. The ongoing pandemic has not slowed activity in this industry, just shifted it. New product development is being outpaced by mergers, acquisitions, and partnerships among additive vendors. A number of these business moves are being funded by Special Purpose Acquisition…

ON BRITNEY SPEARS, ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, AND AUTOMATION Recently, Britney Spears has been in the news concerning the court-ordered conservatorship imposed on her stemming from her infamous 2008 mental health breakdown. As details of the story emerged, the public reacted with astonishment at the setup that essentially limits her freedom to make her own choices and…

How to manage in an uncertain economy After a full 15 months of being homebound, it was exciting — and a little daunting — to take my first business trip since the COVID-19 pandemic began. But it was great to see other fully vaccinated people meeting and networking at the NAHAD Annual Convention in Scottsdale,…