Apple announced on Sept. 12, 2023, that it plans to adopt the USB-C connector for all four new iPhone 15 models, helping USB-C become the connector of choice of the electronics industry, nine years after its debut. The move puts Apple in compliance with European Union law requiring a single connector type for consumer devices.

A team of Purdue University researchers has received a $1 million (AU$1.5m) grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) to improve feed efficiency and consistency on dairy farms by using automated video analytics systems.

“Farmers are trained to make a lot of decisions based on things that they see,” said Amy Reibman, the Elmore Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, who specializes in video analytics for animals. “I’m an engineer. I want to solve problems. We should be able to design a system that can augment their abilities.”

A microelectronics workforce program involving Hoosier universities will receive $19 million from the U.S. Department of Defense to ramp up research and add new partners.

The United States is trying to shore up domestic semiconductor supply chains and address challenges in staffing. The Semiconductor Industry Association forecasts that by 2030, the field will face a shortage of 67,000 engineers, technicians and computer scientists.

Santiago Torres-Arias runs in-toto, an open metadata standard framework for supply chain attestation, and Sigstore, a standard for signing, verifying, and protecting software.

A team of researchers has designed a completely new camera imaging system based on AI interpretations of heat signatures. Once refined, “heat-assisted detection and ranging,” aka HADAR, could one day revolutionize the way autonomous vehicles and robots perceive the world around them.

“They’re trying to send a strategic message, without any doubt,” said Vijay Raghunathan, a professor and director of semiconductor education at Purdue University. “They are looking at the levers that are available in their control, and something at the right level where it’s not a dramatic escalation but at the same time it sends a very clear message.”

The Krach Institute for Tech Diplomacy at Purdue continues to expand its deep network of technology experts with the addition of Purdue Assistant Professor Christopher G. Brinton as a Research Fellow, who brings expertise at the intersection of networking, communications, and machine learning.

A growing number of Russian cyberattacks have targeted businesses, schools and federal agencies in the U.S. The Department of Defense is putting pressure on software producers to be more transparent about what is inside their products.