Category Technology/Electronics

Left: A simplified representation of a small part of the brain: neurons receive, process and transmit signals through synapses. Right: a crossbar array, which is a possible architecture of how this could be realized with devices. The memristors, like synapses in the brain, can change their conductivity so that connections can be weakened and strengthened.
Credit: Spintronics of Functional Materials group, University of Groningen

Computer bits are binary, with a value of 0 or 1. By contrast, neurons in the brain can have all kinds of different internal states, depending on the input that they received. This allows the brain to process information in a more energy-efficient manner than a computer...

A recent development would make electricity generation from the sun’s heat more efficient, by using ceramic-metal plates for heat transfer at higher temperatures and at elevated pressures.
Credit: Purdue University illustration/Raymond Hassan

Scientists have developed a new material and manufacturing process that would make one way to use solar power – as heat energy – more efficient in generating electricity. Solar power accounts for less than 2% of U.S. electricity but could make up more than that if the cost of electricity generation and energy storage for use on cloudy days and at nighttime were cheaper.

A Purdue University-led team developed a new material and manufacturing process that would make one way to use solar power – as heat energy – more efficient in generating electricity...

Purdue University researchers have created wearable electronic devices that someone can easily attach to their skin. They can be used to monitor physical activity and alert a wearer about possible health risks in real time.
Credit: Ramses Martinez/Purdue University

Researchers have created wearable medical electronic devices that someone can easily attach to their skin. The devices are made out of paper to lower the cost of personalized medicine. Heart surgery can be traumatic for patients. Having to continuously monitor your status without a doctor when you are back home can be even scarier. Imagine being able to do that with a simple sticker applied to your body.

“For the first time, we have created wearable electronic devices that someone can easily attach to their skin and are made out ...

A single silicon beam (red), along with its drive (yellow) and readout (green and blue) electrodes, implements a MEMS capable of nontrivial computations.
Credit: Guillaume Dion

A group of researchers reports the construction of the first reservoir computing device built with a microelectromechanical system. The neural network exploits the nonlinear dynamics of a microscale silicon beam to perform its calculations. The group’s work looks to create devices that can act simultaneously as a sensor and a computer using a fraction of the energy a normal computer would use.

As artificial intelligence has become increasingly sophisticated, it has inspired renewed efforts to develop computers whose physical architecture mimics the human brain...