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CHINA WATCHChina’s Lead in Advanced Sensors Is Overwhelming
China’s research in several advanced sensor technologies vital to military navigation and targeting is overwhelmingly ahead of the three AUKUS partners, the United States, United Kingdom and Australia. Even if the three team up with likeminded Indo-Pacific countries Japan and South Korea, they do not match the Chinese output in high-impact research.
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POWER GRIDDOE Invests $39 Million to Support a 21st Century Electric Grid
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced up to $39 million for projects across DOE’s National Laboratories to help modernize the electricity grid. The investments will support the development and deployment of concepts, tools, and technologies needed to measure, analyze, predict, protect, and control the grid of the future while incorporating equity and the best available climate science.
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WATER SECURITYWith Automated Treatment, Affordable Water from Nontraditional Sources Can Flow to Underserved Communities
Researchers are developing advanced automation techniques for desalination and water treatment plants, enabling them to save while providing affordable drinking water to small, parched communities without high-quality water supplies.
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MICROCHIPSU.S. Investment in Semiconductor Manufacturing: Building the Talent Pipeline
To reverse the three decade long decline in the United States’ share of semiconductor manufacturing, a concerted effort is required. Right now, the United States does not have the talent pool to support the ambitious goals of the August 2022 CHIPS Act.
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AIWalking the Artificial Intelligence and National Security Tightrope
Artificial intelligence (AI) presents nations’ security as many challenges as it does opportunities. While it could create mass-produced malware, lethal autonomous weapons systems, or engineered pathogens, AI solutions could also prove the counter to these threats. Regulating AI to maximize national security capabilities and minimize the risks presented to them will require focus, caution and intent.
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INFRASTRUCTURE ROTECTIONSovereignty in Space
The EU wants to establish its own satellite network by 2027, with the aim of increasing the resilience of the European communications infrastructure and gaining technological sovereignty in space. Achieving this will require novel solutions.
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ARGUMENT: FALLING SHORT ON CYBERSECURITYA Review of NIST’s Draft Cybersecurity Framework 2.0
Cybersecurity professionals, and anyone interested in cybersecurity, have noted that the gold standard of cybersecurity is getting a needed polish. “But all that glitters is not gold,” Melanie Teplinsky writes. NIST’s voluntary cybersecurity framework leaves organizations vulnerable to the nation’s most capable cyber adversaries. NIST’s proposed overhaul won’t change that.
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DEEPFAKESDeepfake Threats Advisory from NSA, U.S. Federal Agencies
The National Security Agency (NSA) and U.S. federal agency partners have issued new advice on a synthetic media threat known as deepfakes. This emerging threat could present a cybersecurity challenge for National Security Systems (NSS), the Department of Defense (DoD), and DIB organizations.
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GROUND COLLAPSEPreventing Ground Collapse Through New AI-based Monitoring
As severe urban overcrowding is trending worldwide, many underground development projects are being carried out in metropolitan centers worldwide. Accident prevention has become a major challenge since accidents in underground spaces have occurred due to various causes.
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AIWhy Humans Can’t trust AI: You Don’t Know How It Works, What It’s Going to Do or Whether It’ll Serve Your Interests
AI is alien – an intelligent system into which people have little insight. Humans are largely predictable to other humans because we share the same human experience, but this doesn’t extend to artificial intelligence, even though humans created it. If trustworthiness has inherently predictable and normative elements, AI fundamentally lacks the qualities that would make it worthy of trust.
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ARGUMENT: NEW ERA FOR AIRSHIPS NEARSCanada Should Develop Zeppelin Technology for Northern Resource Sector
When we think of airships, images of the Goodyear blimp, the zeppelin, or the Hindenburg come to mind. But the technology which appeared to have peaked a century ago is making a comeback, with investors and researchers showing growing interest.
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WEAPON SYSTEMSU.S. Military Plans to Unleash Thousands of Autonomous War Robots Over Next Two Years
The United States military plans to start using thousands of autonomous weapons systems in the next two years in a bid to counter China’s growing power. The so-called Replicator initiative aims to work with defense and other tech companies to produce high volumes of affordable systems for all branches of the military. The scale and scope of the US plan makes clear the future of conflict has changed: the age of warfighting robots is upon us.
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ENCRYPTIONBetter Cybersecurity with New Material
Digital information exchange can be safer, cheaper and more environmentally friendly with the help of a new type of random number generator for encryption developed at Linköping University. The researchers behind the study believe that the new technology paves the way for a new type of quantum communication.
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WILDFIRESWIFIRE Lab Forms New Partnership with DHS
For the past 10 years, the WIFIRE team at the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) at UC San Diego has been focused on meeting the growing needs of hazard monitoring, mitigation and response. Most recently, the team has partnered with DHS to integrate edge computing – a strategy emphasizing data collection and analysis at the site of or geographically near data sources. Joint effort aims to demonstrate workflows utilizing edge computing for wildfire monitoring, response and mitigation.
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ENERGY SECURITYSignificant Design Advances Across Floating Offshore Wind Sector
The UK’s renewable energy sector is well placed to take advantage of the expected boom in floating offshore wind technology. Studies highlight the huge advances in platform technology which have taken place over the past two decades.
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The long view
AIAI-Controlled Weapons Should Be Banned from the Battlefield: Experts
AI expert says autonomous systems being used in the current Ukraine conflict need to be prohibited in the same way as chemical and biological weapons. “I’m quite hopeful that we will, at some point, decide that autonomous weapons also be added to the lists of terrible ways to fight war like chemical weapons, like biological weapons. What worries me is that in most cases, we’ve only regulated various technologies for fighting after we’ve seen the horrors of them being misused in battle,” he says.
AIUsing Quantum Computing to Protect AI from Attack
Despite their incredible successes and increasingly widespread deployment, machine learning-based frameworks such as AI remain highly susceptible to adversarial attacks – that is, malicious tampering with their data causing them to fail in surprising ways. AI can thus be fooled into making mistakes, sometimes risking lives — but quantum computing could provide a strong defense.
CYBEREDUCATIONTraining Students to Succeed in the “Fourth Industrial Revolution”
Transformational changes are already underway in the manufacturing industry as technological advancements, such as artificial intelligence (AI) and smart devices from the “fourth industrial revolution” or Industry 4.0., inspire a digital-first approach to engineering. University of Missouri researchers are using a $1 million grant to support the development of an Industry 4.0 lab, training engineering students for the future of digitization in manufacturing.
ENERGY SECURITYTech Breakthrough Could Increase States’ Use of Geothermal Power
Lawmakers in some states have been laying the groundwork to add geothermal power to the electrical grid and pump underground heat into buildings. Now, a technological breakthrough could dramatically expand those ambitions — and perhaps unleash a new wave of policies to tap into geothermal sources. If the technology’s promise is fulfilled, geothermal could power as much as 20% of the U.S. grid.
DISASTER RELIEFUsing Hydrogen to Power Disaster Relief
A new vehicle will not only get emergency responders safely to the site of an emergency, but also directly provide power at the scene for up to 72 hours as they assess next steps. And it does all this running on hydrogen—a much more sustainable solution for our environment.
WATER SECURITYWastewater Can Help Tackle Water Shortages
Europe has experienced severe heat and drought over the last few summers, and 2023 has been no different. Vast swathes of Central and Southern Europe are simply too dry from a lack of rainfall. Water shortages are causing tensions in some countries. But, for now, there’s enough water to go around. Using the precious resource more efficiently is key.
FLOODSSediment Movement During Hurricane Harvey Could Negatively Impact Future Flooding
Enormous amounts of sediment, or sand and mud, flowed through Houston waterways during Hurricane Harvey in 2017, due in part to modifications made by humans to bayous, rivers and streams over the past century. Harvey was the largest rainfall event in U.S. history, and it moved 27 million cubic meters of sediment, or 16 Astrodomes, through Houston waterways and reservoirs. This could seriously impact future flooding events and be costly to the City of Houston.
ARGUMENT: FALLING SHORT ON CYBERSECURITYA Review of NIST’s Draft Cybersecurity Framework 2.0
Cybersecurity professionals, and anyone interested in cybersecurity, have noted that the gold standard of cybersecurity is getting a needed polish. “But all that glitters is not gold,” Melanie Teplinsky writes. NIST’s voluntary cybersecurity framework leaves organizations vulnerable to the nation’s most capable cyber adversaries. NIST’s proposed overhaul won’t change that.
FLOODSSediment Movement During Hurricane Harvey Could Negatively Impact Future Flooding
Enormous amounts of sediment, or sand and mud, flowed through Houston waterways during Hurricane Harvey in 2017, due in part to modifications made by humans to bayous, rivers and streams over the past century. Harvey was the largest rainfall event in U.S. history, and it moved 27 million cubic meters of sediment, or 16 Astrodomes, through Houston waterways and reservoirs. This could seriously impact future flooding events and be costly to the City of Houston.
ARGUMENT: FALLING SHORT ON CYBERSECURITYA Review of NIST’s Draft Cybersecurity Framework 2.0
Cybersecurity professionals, and anyone interested in cybersecurity, have noted that the gold standard of cybersecurity is getting a needed polish. “But all that glitters is not gold,” Melanie Teplinsky writes. NIST’s voluntary cybersecurity framework leaves organizations vulnerable to the nation’s most capable cyber adversaries. NIST’s proposed overhaul won’t change that.