Power/Performance Bits: April 16


Faster CNN training Researchers at North Carolina State University developed a technique that reduces training time for deep learning networks by more than 60% without sacrificing accuracy. Convolutional neural networks (CNN) divide images into blocks, which are then run through a series of computational filters. In training, this needs to be repeated for the thousands to millions of images... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: April 8


Designing metamaterials Sandia National Laboratories has developed an inverse-design software technology that automates the design of optical metamaterials. Metamaterials are artificial materials containing arrays of metal nanostructures or mega-atoms. Some metamaterials are able to bend light around objects, rendering them invisible. But they only interact with light over a very narrow ran... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: April 8


Predicting battery life Researchers at Stanford University, MIT, and Toyota Research Institute developed a machine learning model that can predict how long a lithium-ion battery can be expected to perform. The researchers' model was trained on a few hundred million data points of batteries charging and discharging. The dataset consists of 124 commercial lithium iron phosphate/graphite cells... » read more

System Bits: March 26


Swear to tell the truth Lots of lies are told on the Internet. Shuyuan Ho of Florida State University wants to unveil those falsehoods with an online polygraph. “The future of my research is an online polygraph that could be used many different ways,” said Ho, an associate professor in the College of Communication and Information. “You could use it for online dating, Facebook, Twitter... » read more

System Bits: March 11


Cryptography IC for the IoT Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers report their development of a cryptographic circuit that could be used to protect low-power Internet of Things devices when quantum computing takes hold. [caption id="attachment_24144905" align="alignleft" width="300"] Image Credit: MIT[/caption] The research team presented a paper at the 2019 International Sol... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: Feb. 26


Vitamin C chips Using vitamin C, Rice University has developed a process that turns gold nanorods into small gold nanowires. Nanorods are a type of structure, while nanowires are simply tiny wires. With the technology, Rice is able to produce nanowires with various lengths. These can be used in electronics as well as light-manipulating applications like plasmons. A “plasmon is a quantum o... » read more

System Bits: Feb. 19


Eco-friendly material for wireless IoT sensors Researchers at Canada’s Simon Fraser University and in Switzerland collaborated on developing a wood-derived cellulose material that could be used in a 3D printer, instead of the customary plastic and polymeric materials for electronics. With 3D printing, the material can offer flexibility to add or embed functions onto 3D shapes or fabrics, the... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: Feb. 19


Flexible energy harvesting rectenna Researchers from MIT, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, University Carlos III of Madrid, Boston University, University of Southern California, and the Army Research Laboratory created a flexible rectenna capable of converting energy from Wi-Fi signals into electricity to power small devices and sensors. The device uses a flexible RF antenna to capture e... » read more

System Bits: Feb. 11


Modeling computer vision on human vision University of Michigan scientists used digital foveation technology to render images that are more comprehensible to machine vision systems, while also reducing energy consumption by 80%. The effect is achieved by manipulating a camera’s firmware. “It'll make new things and things that were infeasible before, practical,” Professor Robert Dick s... » read more

December ’18 Startup Funding: Big Rounds As 2018 Ends


During the month of December, 16 startups had private funding rounds of $100 million and up, with half of them in the mobility area. Those 16 rounds totaled $3.2 billion as the year concluded. Before the holidays, the SoftBank Vision Fund invested $500 million in Cambridge Mobile Telematics, provider of the DriveWell platform used by insurers, vehicle fleets, wireless carriers, and others to... » read more

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