DTN 172: Electric aviation is taking off

“For any academic weighing entry into the market, my single piece of advice is to get out and spend time in the commercial domain you're targeting. Build that network intentionally by going to the industry conferences and meeting people, because that network is where you'll eventually sell, recruit, and find the partners who help you develop the technology.”

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Electric aviation is taking off

“Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of electric flight, though, are car-size electric vertical-take-off-and-landing craft (eVTOLs). These have long been talked of, but are at last starting to be deployed. Being able to hover, eVTOLs are likely to replace helicopters for some operations, and work as air taxis carrying handfuls of passengers on short flights.

One such vehicle, made by Vertical Aerospace, a British producer, became the first eVTOL to fly at Farnborough. The company has started working on a hybrid version to provide greater range. A lot of development work remains ahead. But in one form or another electric aviation has started to reach for the sky.” (via The Economist)

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“Thirty seconds before kick-off, humanoid robot footballers in red and blue jerseys await the referee's signal in the South Korean port city of Incheon.

The match setting is RoboCup, branded as the world's largest robotics competition, where engineers are betting on a fully autonomous robot team that can one day defeat the FIFA World Cup champions.

Unlike remote-controlled machines, RoboCup's robots make decisions on their own once a game begins, testing dramatic recent advances in artificial intelligence. (via TechXplore)

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• Tempress raises $20M for thermal diffusion and deposition furnaces for semiconductors and power electronics
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