The Institute

1 week ago | spectrum.ieee.org | Evan Ackerman

Video Friday is your weekly selection of awesome robotics videos, collected by your friends at IEEE Spectrum robotics. We also post a weekly calendar of upcoming robotics events for the next few months. Please send us your events for inclusion.

1 week ago | spectrum.ieee.org | Tim Hornyak

Scientists have tried to create more precise timekeeping devices even after the International System of Units adopted specific cesium-133 radiation in its 1967 definition of the second. Atomic clocks have been widely applied since then, but the quest for greater accuracy continues. Now a Japanese company has commercialized one approach: An optical lattice clock it claims is the most accurate on the market.

1 week ago | spectrum.ieee.org | Dexter Johnson

This is a sponsored article brought to you by Amazon. The cutting edge of robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) doesn’t occur just at NASA, or one of the top university labs, but instead is increasingly being developed in the warehouses of the e-commerce company Amazon. As online shopping continues to grow, companies like Amazon are pushing the boundaries of these technologies to meet consumer expectations.

1 week ago | spectrum.ieee.org | Charles Choi

A microchip with nearly 6,000 transistors, each only three atoms thick, is the most complex microprocessor made from a two-dimensional material to date, scientists in China say. The new device was made using the semiconductor molybdenum disulfide, which consists of a sheet of molybdenum atoms sandwiched between two layers of sulfur atoms. Scientists hope 2D materials such as molybdenum disulfide will allow Moore’s Law to continue once it becomes impossible to make further progress using silicon.

1 week ago | spectrum.ieee.org | Samuel K. Moore

Like the industry he covers, Shawn DuBravac had already had quite a week by the time IEEE Spectrum spoke to him early last Thursday, 10 April 2025. As chief economist at IPC, the 3000-member industry association for electronics manufacturers, he’s tasked with figuring out the impact of the tsunami of tariffs the United States government has planned, paused, or enacted.