The Race to Counter The 3D-Chip Tech That’s The Rocky Road FOR THE

Deepfake Porn Can new Saving Moore’s Law to the First Fitbit Let’s just TECHNOLOGY
INSIDER
tech and new rules keep up? Hybrid bonding steps up say, mistakes were made
P. 5 P. 34 P. 40 SEPTEMBER 2024

IBM’s Bold Vision for a

Quantum-Centric Supercomputer
 Find out more

Unlock the Full Spectrum.

From DC to 8.5 GHz.
Your Application. Measured.

Nanotechnology &
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 VOLUME 61 / ISSUE 9 SEPTEMBER 2024

40
Engineering
the First
Fitbit
It took three years for the
fitness tracker to go from aha
moment to breakout product.
By Tekla S. Perry

00
Dim Enihil Int
Uptatem Quidebi
Tatur Loremis
Laut experrovidi aliquia sdis eum idit
latibusant eiusam dionsequ.
By First Lastname

IBM’s Vision for the

Quantum Future
24 THE INSTITUTE
54 HANDS ON
Forgo proprietary
16
Inspired by smart-home tech
Integrating quantum hardware Ham Radio with this DIY panel.
with classical supercomputers
is a promising path forward. A student’s retro hobby CAREERS 19
By Ryan Mandelbaum, sparked his interest in Erika Cruz designs
Antonio D. Córcoles & engineering. reliable components for
Jay Gambetta Whirlpool appliances.
EDITOR’S NOTE 2
5 QUESTIONS 22
The Copper
Connection
34 Illustrator Carl De Torres
has mastered the art of Richard Garwin played
a pivotal role
collaboration.
Hybrid bonding may in nuclear weapons.
save Moore’s Law. NEWS 5
PAST FORWARD 68
By Samuel K. Moore Deepfake Protection Industry
The First Public
Tiny Solar-Powered Drone
Demo of TV
ISTOCK

ON THE COVER: This Robot Sucks

Image by IBM

SEPTEMBER 2024 [Link] 1

 EDITOR’S NOTE BY HARRY GOLDSTEIN

A Match Made
in Yorktown
Heights
How one artist fostered a visually
stunning collaboration
contact Spectrum’s creative director, Mark Mont-
gomery, with an idea.
“I thought, ‘You know, I think IEEE Spectrum

I
t pays to have friends in fascinating places. You “I really loved would love to see this work,’” De Torres told me.
need look no further than the cover of this issue this process “So with Jay’s permission, I gave Mark a 30-second
and the article “IBM’s Big Bet on the Quan- pitch. Mark liked it and ran it by the editors, and
tum-Centric Supercomputer” [p. 24] for evi-
because I they said that it sounded very promising.” De Torres,
dence. The article by Ryan Mandelbaum, Antonio got to bring members of the IBM Quantum team, and Spectrum
D. Córcoles, and Jay Gambetta came to us courtesy together editors had a call to brainstorm what the article
of the article’s illustrator, the inimitable graphic two of my could be. “From there everything quickly fell into
artist Carl De Torres, a longtime IEEE Spectrum favorite place, and I worked with Spectrum and the IBM
contributor as well as a design and communications clients Quantum team on a visual approach to the story,”
consultant for IBM Research. to create De Torres says.
Story ideas typically originate with Spectrum’s something As for the text, we knew it would take a deft edi-
editors and pitches from expert authors and free- torial hand to help the authors explain what
really
lance journalists. So we were intrigued when De amounts to the peanut butter and chocolate of
Torres approached Spectrum about doing an article
special.” advanced computing. Fortunately for us, and for
—Carl De Torres
on IBM Research’s cutting-edge work on quan- you, dear reader, Associate Editor Dina Genkina
tum-centric supercomputing. has a doctorate in atomic physics, in the subfield
De Torres has been collaborating with IBM in a of quantum simulation. As Genkina explained
variety of capacities since 2009, when, while at to me, that specialty is “adjacent to quantum com-
Wired magazine creating infographics, he was asked puting, but not quite the same—it’s more like
by the ad agency Ogilvy to work on Big Blue’s adver- the analog version of QC that’s not computationally
tising campaign “Let’s build a Smarter Planet.” That complete.”
project went so well that De Torres struck out on Genkina was thrilled to work with De Torres to
his own the next year. His relationship with IBM make the technical illustrations both accurate and
expanded, as did his engagements with other media, edifying. Spectrum prides itself on its tech illustra-
such as Spectrum, Fortune, and The New York Times. tions, which De Torres notes are increasingly
“My interest in IBM quickly grew beyond helping rare in the space-constrained era of mobile-media
them in a marketing capacity,” says De Torres, who consumption.
owns and leads the design studio Optics Lab in “Working with Carl was so exciting,” Genkina
PORTRAIT BY SERGIO ALBIAC

Berkeley, Calif. “What I really wanted to do is get to says. “It was really his vision that made the article
the source of some of the smartest work happening happen, and the scope of his ambition for the story
in technology, and that was IBM Research.” was at times a bit terrifying. But it’s the kind of story
Last year, while working on visualizations of a where the illustrations make it come to life.”
quantum-centric supercomputer with Jay Gam- De Torres was happy with the collaboration, too.
betta, vice president and lead scientist of IBM Quan- “I really loved this process because I got to bring
tum at the Thomas J. Watson Research Center in together two of my favorite clients to create some-
Yorktown Heights, N.Y., De Torres was inspired to thing really special.”

2 [Link] SEPTEMBER 2024 Photo by Winston Struye

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 CONTRIBUTORS

 EDD GENT
Gent is a freelance journalist,
originally from the United Kingdom
EDITOR IN CHIEF Harry Goldstein, [Link]@[Link] IEEE BOARD OF DIRECTORS
but now based in Bangalore, India. PRESIDENT & CEO Thomas M. Coughlin, president@[Link]
EXECUTIVE EDITOR Jean Kumagai, [Link]@[Link]
As an IEEE Spectrum contributing +1 732 562 3928 Fax: +1 732 981 9515
MANAGING EDITOR Elizabeth A. Bretz, [Link]@[Link]
editor he writes about computing, PRESIDENT-ELECT Kathleen A. Kramer
CREATIVE DIRECTOR TREASURER Gerardo Barbosa
robotics, and quantum technology. SECRETARY Forrest D. Wright
Mark Montgomery, [Link]@[Link]
He’s also been profiling engineers PAST PRESIDENT Saifur Rahman
DIRECTOR OF DIGITAL INNOVATION
for the Careers column [p. 19] Erico Guizzo, eguizzo@[Link] VICE PRESIDENTS
since 2023. “It’s been fascinating EDITORIAL DIRECTOR, CONTENT DEVELOPMENT
Rabab Kreidieh Ward, Educational Activities; Deepak Mathur,
Member & Geographic Activities; Sergio Benedetto,
speaking to so many interesting and Glenn Zorpette, [Link]@[Link]
Publication Services & Products; Manfred J. Schindler,
inventive people and discovering the SENIOR EDITORS Technical Activities; James E. Matthews, President, Standards
Evan Ackerman (Digital), ackerman.e@[Link] Association; Keith A. Moore, President, IEEE-USA
myriad ways engineers are putting
Stephen Cass (Special Projects Director), cass.s@[Link]
their skills to good use,” he says. Samuel K. Moore, [Link]@[Link]
DIVISION DIRECTORS
Yong Lian (I); Kevin L. Peterson (II); Stefano Bregni (III); Alistair
Tekla S. Perry, [Link]@[Link]
P. Duffy (IV); Christina M. Schober (V); Kamal Al-Haddad (VI);
Eliza Strickland, [Link]@[Link]
Christopher E. Root (VII); Leila De Floriani (VIII); Aylin Yener (IX);
 RYAN MANDELBAUM ART & PRODUCTION Stephanie M. White (X)
DEPUTY ART DIRECTOR Brandon Palacio, [Link]@[Link]
Mandelbaum is the editor in chief REGION DIRECTORS
PHOTOGRAPHY DIRECTOR Randi Klett, [Link]@[Link]
Bala S. Prasanna (1); Andrew D. Lowery (2); Eric Grigorian (3);
of the IBM Quantum blog and is ONLINE ART DIRECTOR Erik Vrielink, [Link]@[Link]
Vickie A. Ozburn (4); Anthony M. Francis (5); Kathy Herring Hayashi
PRINT PRODUCTION SPECIALIST
responsible for how the world Sylvana Meneses, [Link]@[Link]
(6); Thamir F. Murad (7); Vincenzo Piuri (8); Jenifer P. Castillo
understands IBM’s quantum ­Rodriguez (9); ChunChe Fung (10)
MULTIMEDIA PRODUCTION SPECIALIST
computers. A birdwatcher, Michael Spector, [Link]@[Link] IEEE STAFF
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR & COO Sophia A. Muirhead
Mandelbaum was excited to join the NEWS MANAGER Michael Koziol, [Link]@[Link]
+1 732 562 5400, [Link]@[Link]
IBM team when they learned that SENIOR ASSOCIATE EDITOR CHIEF OF STAFF TO THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Kelly Lorne
Margo Anderson, [Link]@[Link] +1 732 562 6011, [Link]@[Link]
the processors were named after
ASSOCIATE EDITORS GENERAL COUNSEL & CHIEF COMPLIANCE OFFICER
birds. This month, they teamed Dina Genkina, [Link]@[Link] Anta Cissé-Green +1 212 705 8927, [Link]-green@[Link]
up with Antonio D. Córcoles, IBM Willie D. Jones (Digital), [Link]@[Link] INTERIM MANAGING DIRECTOR,
TECHNICAL ACTIVITIES Kenneth Gilbert
Quantum’s principal research Emily Waltz, [Link]@[Link]
+1 732 562 3856, [Link]@[Link]
scientist, and Jay Gambetta, its vice SENIOR COPY EDITOR Joseph N. Levine, [Link]@[Link]
CHIEF MARKETING OFFICER Karen L. Hawkins
COPY EDITOR Michele Kogon, [Link]@[Link]
president, to write about their vision EDITORIAL RESEARCHER Alan Gardner, [Link]@[Link]
+1 732 562 3964, [Link]@[Link]
MANAGING DIRECTOR, PUBLICATIONS Steven Heffner
for a new computing paradigm, ADMINISTRATOR Jose Zambrano, [Link]@[Link] +1 212 705 8958, [Link]@[Link]
one that weaves classical and DIRECTOR, PRODUCT AND AUDIENCE DEVELOPMENT STAFF EXECUTIVE, CORPORATE ACTIVITIES Donna Hourican
quantum computing together into a Tim Warder, [Link]@[Link] +1 732 562 6330, [Link]@[Link]
MANAGING DIRECTOR, CONFERENCES,
supercomputer that’s greater AUDIENCE DEVELOPMENT MANAGER
EVENTS AND EXPERIENCES Marie Hunter
than the sum of its parts [p. 24]. Laura Bridgeman, [Link]@[Link]
+ 1 732 465 5889, [Link]@[Link]
CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Rina Diane Caballar, Robert N. Charette, MANAGING DIRECTOR, MEMBER & GEOGRAPHIC ACTIVITIES
Charles Q. Choi, Tom Clynes, Peter Fairley, Edd Gent, W. Wayt Gibbs, Cecelia Jankowski +1 732 562 5504, [Link]@[Link]
Mark Harris, Lucas Laursen, Allison Marsh, Julianne Pepitone, ­ MANAGING DIRECTOR, EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITIES
 ALLISON MARSH Matthew S. Smith, Lawrence Ulrich Jamie Moesch +1 732 562 5514, [Link]@[Link]
MANAGING DIRECTOR, IEEE STANDARDS Alpesh Shah
Marsh is a public historian at the THE INSTITUTE
+1 732 465 6467, [Link]@[Link]
EDITOR IN CHIEF Kathy Pretz, [Link]@[Link]
University of South Carolina, in CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER Thomas R. Siegert
ASSOCIATE EDITOR Joanna Goodrich, [Link]@[Link]
Columbus. A Spectrum contributing +1 732 562 6843, [Link]@[Link]
SUBSCRIPTION SERVICES CHIEF INFORMATION AND DIGITAL OFFICER Jeff Strohschein
editor, she has been writing the IEEE Members member-services@[Link] +1 732 562 5332, [Link]@[Link]
Past Forward column since 2018. Non-members +1 866 363 2304 CHIEF HUMAN RESOURCES OFFICER Cheri N. Collins Wideman
This month, she looks at the first DIRECTOR, PERIODICALS PRODUCTION SERVICES Peter Tuohy +1 732 562 5335, [Link]@[Link]
ADVERTISING PRODUCTION MANAGER MANAGING DIRECTOR, IEEE-USA Russell T. Harrison
black-and-white television, invented +1 202 530 8326, [Link]@[Link]
Felicia Spagnoli, [Link]@[Link]
by the Scottish engineer John Logie
ADVERTISING PRODUCTION +1 732 562 6334 IEEE PUBLICATION SERVICES & PRODUCTS BOARD
Baird [p. 68]. The TV set ties EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD, IEEE SPECTRUM Sergio Benedetto, Chair; Derek Abbott, Nazanin Bassiri-Gharb,
into another project of Marsh’s: Harry Goldstein, Chair; Ella M. Atkins, Yedukondala N. Dwith Chenna, Stefano Galli, Maria Sabrina Greco, Lawrence O. Hall, James
Irvine, Fabrice Labeau, Yong “Peter” Lian, Aleksandar Mastilovic,
a video collaboration with the Sangyeun Cho, Hugh Durrant-Whyte, Matthew Eisler, Shahin F ­ arshchi,
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popular YouTube channel Daniel Hissel, Jason K. Hui, Benjamin Kroposki, ­Michel M. Maharbiz, Gaurav Sharma, Sarah Spurgeon, Steve Yurkovich, Weihua Zhuang
Asianometry on the history of Somdeb Majumdar, Ramune Nagisetty, Paul Nielsen, Sofia Olhede, IEEE OPERATIONS CENTER
color TV. Check out the videos at Amit K. Singh, Christoph Stiller, Mini S. ­Thomas, Wen Tong, Haifeng 445 Hoes Lane, Box 1331, Piscataway, NJ 08854-1331 U.S.A.
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4 [Link] SEPTEMBER 2024

 THE LATEST DEVELOPMENTS IN TECHNOLOGY, ENGINEERING, AND SCIENCE SEPTEMBER 2024

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I
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE t’s horrifyingly easy to insert anyone
into deepfake pornography, thanks to

Defending Against today’s generative AI tools. A 2023

report by Home Security Heroes (a
company that reviews identity-theft pro-
Deepfake Pornography tection services) found that it took just
one clear image of a face and less than 25
An industry emerges minutes to create a 60-second deepfake
pornographic video—for free.

as regulations falter The world took notice of this new

GETTY IMAGES

reality in January, when graphic deep-

fake images of Taylor Swift circulated on
social media platforms, with one image
BY ELIZA STRICKLAND receiving 47 million views before it was

SEPTEMBER 2024 [Link] 5

 NEWS

removed. Others in the entertainment people really distressing images and cre-
industry, most notably Korean pop stars, ating more stress,” she says.
have also seen their images taken and Liu says she’s currently negotiating
misused—but so have people far from the with Meta about a pilot program, which
public spotlight. There’s one thing that she says will benefit the platform by
virtually all the victims have in common, ­providing automated content modera-
though: According to the 2023 report, 99 tion. Thinking bigger, though, she says
percent of victims are women or girls. the tool could become part of an “infra-
This dire situation is spurring action, structure for online identity,” letting
largely from women who are fed up. As people check for things like fake social
Nadia Lee, CEO of the Australia-based media profiles or dating site profiles set
startup That’sMyFace, puts it: “If safety up with their image.
tech doesn’t accelerate at the same pace

R
as AI development, then we are screwed.” emoving deepfake material
While there’s been considerable research from social media platforms is
on deepfake detectors, they struggle to hard enough—removing it from
keep up with deepfake-generation tools. porn platforms is even harder.
What’s more, detectors help only if a plat- To have a better chance of forcing action,
form is interested in screening out deep- advocates for protection against image-
fakes, and most deepfake porn is hosted based sexual abuse think regulations are
on sites dedicated to that genre. required, though they differ on what kind
“Our generation is facing its own of regulations would be most effective.
Oppenheimer moment,” says Lee. “We Susanna Gibson started the nonprofit
built [generative AI], and we could go MyOwn after her own deepfake horror
this way or that way with it.” Lee’s com- story. She was running for a seat in the
pany is first offering visual-recognition Virginia House of Delegates in 2023
tools to corporate clients who want to be when the Republican party of Virginia
sure their logos, uniforms, and products mailed out sexual imagery of her that
aren’t appearing in pornography. But her had been created and shared without her
long-term goal is to create a tool that any consent, including, she says, screenshots
woman can use to scan the entire Inter- of deepfake porn. After she narrowly lost
net for deepfake images or videos bearing the election, she devoted herself to lead-
her own face. ing the legislative charge in Virginia, and
Another startup founder had a per- then nationwide, to fight back against
sonal reason for getting involved. Breeze image-based sexual abuse.
Liu was herself a victim of deepfake por- Her first win was a bill that the Vir-
nography in 2020; she eventually found ginia governor signed in April to expand
more than 800 links leading to the fake the state’s existing “revenge porn” law
video. She felt humiliated, she says, and to cover more types of imagery. “It’s
was horrified to find that she had little nowhere near what I think it should be,
recourse: The police said they couldn’t do but it’s a step in the right direction of pro-
anything, and she herself had to identify tecting people,” Gibson says.
all the sites where the video appeared and While several federal bills have been
petition to get it taken down—appeals “If you can’t introduced to explicitly criminalize the
that were not always successful. There
had to be a better way, she thought. “We
remove the nonconsensual distribution of intimate
imagery, and deepfake porn in particular,
need to use AI to combat AI,” she says.
Liu, who was already working in tech,
content, you’re Gibson says she doesn’t have high hopes
that those bills will become the law of
founded Alecto AI, a startup named after just showing the land. There’s more action at the state
a Greek goddess of vengeance. The app
she is building lets users deploy facial
people really level, she says.
“Right now there are 49 states, plus
recognition to check for wrongful use of
their own image across the major social
distressing D.C., that have legislation against non-
consensual distribution of intimate
media platforms. Liu aims to partner images and imagery,” Gibson says. “But the prob-
with those platforms so her app can also
enable immediate removal of offending
creating more lem is that each state is different, so it’s a
patchwork of laws. And some are signifi-
content. (She is not ­considering partner-
ships with porn platforms.) “If you can’t
stress.” cantly better than others.” Gibson notes
that almost all of the laws require proof
remove the content, you’re just showing —BREEZE LIU, ALECTO AI that the perpetrator acted with intent to

6 [Link] SEPTEMBER 2024

 harass or intimidate the victim, which
can be very hard to prove. “Our generation to implement the new rules. In Australia,
a 2021 law made it a civil offense to post
Among the different laws, and the
proposals for new laws, there’s consid-
is facing its own intimate images without consent, but a
newly proposed law aims to make it a
erable disagreement about whether the Oppenheimer criminal offense, and also aims to explic-
distribution of deepfake porn should be
considered a criminal or civil matter. And moment.” itly address deepfake images. South Korea
has a law that directly addresses deep-
if it’s civil, which means that victims have fake material, and unlike many others,
—NADIA LEE, THAT’SMYFACE
the right to sue for damages, there’s dis- it doesn’t require proof of malicious
agreement about whether the victims intent. China has a comprehensive law
should be able to sue the individuals restricting the distribution of “synthetic
who distribute the deepfake porn or the content,” but there’s been no evidence of
platforms that host it. the government using the regulations to
Beyond the United States, there is an crack down on deepfake porn.
even larger patchwork of policies. In the While women wait for regulatory
United Kingdom, the Online Safety Act, action, services from companies like
passed in 2023, criminalized the distri- Alecto AI and That’sMyFace may fill the
bution of deepfake porn, and an amend- gaps. But the situation calls to mind the
ment proposed this year may criminalize rape whistles that some urban women
its creation as well. The European Union carry so they’re ready to summon help
recently adopted a directive that combats if they’re attacked. It’s useful to have
online violence against women, which such a tool, sure, but it would be better
includes the distribution of deepfake if our society tried to make sure that the
porn, but member states have until 2027 attacks don’t happen in the first place.

JOURNAL WATCH could knock out this vital Along with developing phone base stations.
resource. the software for this tech- Notably, the data wasn’t
In Test Flights, “GNSS jamming and nique, Kassas and his team processed in real time
spoofing incidents have created a receiver that can during these test flights,
Cell Signals been bubbling over the detect more than 100 cell- but afterward. “Once the
Sub for GPS past decade,” says Zak phone signals at once from research matures, we could
Kassas, professor of thousands of feet in the start thinking of taking
IN MARCH 2020, a team of electrical and computer air. Kassas says the cellular this into real time, which
U.S. Air Force pilots took engineering at Ohio State signals were “surprisingly is more of an engineer-
flight on a plane with a University. In 2021 alone, powerful” at altitudes up ing design problem than
completely novel backup more than 10,000 spoofing to 23,000 feet, and at hori- a research [problem],”
navigation system—it and jamming attacks took zontal distances exceeding Kassas says.
utilized cellphone signals. place globally. 100 kilometers from cell- —Michelle Hampson
The experiment was a huge Kassas has been work-
success, pointing to a new ing for more than a decade
and much-needed poten- to devise GNSS alterna-
tial alternative to GPS. tives. He and his team
The navigation system piloted their novel tech-
allowed the plane to track nique, called radio simul-
its position for more than a taneous localization and
hundred kilometers at vari- mapping (radio SLAM), in
ous altitudes, with preci- partnership with the U.S.
sion below 10 meters. The Air Force.
results were published in The radio SLAM system
June in IEEE Transactions works by detecting the
on Intelligent Transporta- constant signals emitted by
OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY

tion Systems. surrounding cellphone base

It’s hard to imagine life station towers. Each signal
without global navigation is actually an array of multi-
satellite systems (GNSSs), ple different omnidirectional
including GPS. But there radio signals that the SLAM
A test flight estimated its position using cell signals
are many natural and system can use to create a [red line] and was often just meters off from its actual
man-made threats that map of its surroundings. location [green line], as shown in this visualization.

SEPTEMBER 2024 [Link] 7

 NEWS

CoulombFly is a
minuscule drone
that can fly as
long as the sun
shines, thanks to
its tiny rotor on
top, an electro-
static motor in
the middle, and
the small solar
panels below.

AEROSPACE ered MAV capable of sustained flight.

The new ultralight MAV, C ­ oulombFly,

Tiny Solar-Powered has a mass of just 4.21 grams and a wing-

span of 20 centimeters. That’s about
one-tenth the size and 1/600 the weight
Drone Flies Forever* of the previous smallest sunlight-powered
aircraft, a 2.6-kilogram quadcopter that’s
*As long as the sun shines 2 meters wide. The researchers described
their work in the journal Nature.
“My ultimate goal is to make a super
tiny flying vehicle, about the size and
BY CHARLES Q. CHOI weight of a mosquito, with a wingspan
under 1 centimeter,” says Mingjing Qi, a
professor of energy and power engineer-

S
cientists in China have built other possible applications. However, ing at Beihang University, in Beijing. Qi
what they claim is the smallest MAVs are currently limited by their short and the engineers who built CoulombFly
BEIHANG UNIVERSITY/NATURE

and lightest solar-powered flight times. Many ultralight MAVs— developed a prototype of such an aircraft,
aerial vehicle. It’s small enough those weighing less than 10 grams—can’t measuring 8 millimeters wide and 9 milli-
to sit in the palm of your hand, weighs stay aloft for more than 10 minutes. grams in mass, “but it can’t fly on its own
less than a U.S. 5-cent coin, and can fly One potential way to keep MAVs power yet,” he says. “I believe that with
indefinitely while the sun shines on it. flying longer is to power them with a the ongoing development of microcircuit
Micro aerial vehicles (MAVs) are consistent source of energy such as technology, we can make this happen.”
insect- and bird-size aircraft that might ­sunlight. Now, researchers have devel- CoulombFly employs an electro-
prove useful for reconnaissance and oped what they say is the first solar-pow- static motor, which produces motion

8 [Link] SEPTEMBER 2024

 using electrostatic fields. Electrostatic CONSUMER ELECTRONICS
motors are generally used as sensors

New Fiber-Optic Tech

in ­ microelectromechanical systems
(MEMS), not for aerial propulsion. Nev-
ertheless, with a mass of only 1.52 grams,
CoulombFly’s electrostatic motor has a
lift-to-power efficiency two to three times
that of other MAV motors.
Shatters Data-Rate
Above CoulombFly’s electrostatic
motor is a propeller 20 cm wide and con-
nected to the rotor. Below the motor are
Record 402 terabits
two high-power-density thin-film gallium
arsenide solar cells, each 4 by 6 cm, with a
mass of 0.48 grams and an energy-conver-
per second, baby!
sion efficiency of more than 30 percent.
The electrostatic motor itself has two BY MARGO ANDERSON
nested rings. The inner ring is a spinning
rotor that possesses 64 slats, each made

A
of a carbon fiber sheet covered with alu- n international team of Puttnam says the researchers could
minum foil. The outer ring is equipped researchers has smashed the exploit these new portions of spectrum
with eight alternating pairs of positive world record for communica- courtesy of a range of new optical ampli-
and negative electrode plates, also made tions through commer- fiers and components developed, in part,
from carbon fiber sheets bonded to alu- cial-grade optical fiber. At 402 trillion by Nokia Bell Labs and the Hong Kong–
minum foil. On the edge of each electrode bits per second, the champion data rate based company Amonics. Six separate
plate is a brush made of aluminum that is four times as fast as existing commer- optical amplifiers sent signals through the
touches the inner ring’s slats. cial systems and 33 percent better than infrared C-band—the workhorse optical
CoulombFly’s outer ring is electrically the previous world record. communications band—as well as sev-
charged courtesy of the solar cells, and The researchers’ success derives eral additional bands in the near-infrared
its 16 plates generate electric fields. The in part from boosting signals in com- and s­ hort-wavelength-infrared sections
brushes on the outer ring’s plates touch munications bands that conventional of the electromagnetic spectrum.
the inner ring, charging the rotor slats. The f iber-optics technology hasn’t yet
­ Altogether, the combination of bands
electric fields of the outer ring’s plates exert used. “It’s just more spectrum, more or enabled the technology to push a stag-
force on the charged rotor slats, making the less,” says Ben Puttnam, chief senior gering 402 terabits per second through
inner ring and the propeller spin. researcher at the National Institute of the same kinds of fiber-optic cables that
In tests under natural sunlight con- Information and Communications Tech- are already in the ground and under the
ditions—about 920 watts of light per nology (NICT) in Koganei, Japan. oceans. The team reported their record
square meter—CoulombFly successfully
took off within one second and sustained
flight for an hour. Potential applications
for sunlight-powered MAVs may include
long-distance and long-duration aerial
reconnaissance, the researchers say.
CoulombFly’s propulsion system can
lift up to 5.8 grams. This means it could
support an extra payload of roughly 1.59
grams, enough to accommodate the
smallest available sensors or cameras,
says Qi. “There’s still a lot of room to
improve things like motors, propellers,
and circuits, so we think we can get the
extra payload up to 4 grams in the future.
If we need even more payload, we could
switch to quadcopters or fixed-wing
designs, which can carry up to 30 grams.”
Qi adds that “it should be possible for
GETTY IMAGES

the vehicle to carry a tiny lithium-ion bat-

tery.” That means it could store energy
from its solar panels and fly even when
the sun isn’t shining.

SEPTEMBER 2024 [Link] 9

 Conventional band (C-band)
NEWS 1,530 nm to 1,565 nm

Ultralong-
Long-wavelength wavelength
Original band (O-band) Extended-wavelength Short-wavelength band (L-band) band (U-band)
1,260 nanometers band (E-band) band (S-band) 1,565 nm 1,625 nm
to 1,360 nm 1,360 nm to 1,460 nm 1,460 nm to 1,530 nm to 1,625 nm to 1,675 nm

The new transmission-rate record for optical fiber was set using a wide range of transmission frequencies across
several bands, most of which are not typically used in commercial fiber.

earlier this year at the Optical Fiber set by NICT and international partners This and previous efforts to increase
Communication Conference 2024, in last year. fiber-optic bandwidths have often relied
San Diego. Puttnam says that more bandwidth on what are called doped-fiber amplifi-
“The highest data-rate commercial can still be squeezed out of existing ers (DFA)—in which a stretch of fiber
systems are 100 terabits per second,” cables. “If you really pushed every- has been doped with a rare earth ion like
Puttnam says. “So we’re already doing thing and filled in all the gaps, you could erbium. A pump laser then pushes the
about four times better.” The record probably reach about 600 [Tb/s],”
­ dopant into higher energy states. That
also bests a 301-Tb/s accomplishment ­Puttnam says. allows photons from the optical signal

TELECOM After testing the waters in 2019 with the

Qualcomm-powered Surface Pro X, Mic-

Windows on Arm
rosoft and Qualcomm committed fully.
The Copilot+ PC is the result.
The launch didn’t go according to

CPUs Are Here to Stay plan. Microsoft pitched Copilot+ PCs

on the strength of on-device AI perfor-
mance, courtesy of a neural processing

Despite a rough start, unit (NPU) included in Snapdragon X.

But Microsoft bungled the software,
going so far as to recall the headline

Microsoft embraces feature (ironically known as Windows

Recall) over security and privacy con-

a new architecture
cerns. Sag said that cast a dark cloud
over the launch. “Recalling Recall was a
very weird overcorrection...I think they
would’ve been fine shipping it disabled
by default.”
BY MATTHEW S. SMITH The Snapdragon X CPU, on the other
hand, met and surpassed expectations.

F
or the first time in history, there’s Sag, principal analyst at Moor Insights & The Surface Laptop 7, like other C ­ opilot+
a good chance your next Win- Strategy. “We are getting better products PCs with Snapdragon X chips, benefits
dows laptop won’t have an x86 from the industry because of competi- from an advantage Arm chips often
chip inside. tion, and ultimately that’s the best thing hold when compared to Intel’s x86:
Microsoft launched a new generation for everyone. It’s driving better products, efficiency. Laptops with Snapdragon
of AI-focused Windows laptops, called prices, software, and the users win.” X can last over 20 hours on battery, yet
Copilot+ PCs, in June 2024. Controversy Microsoft launched Windows for meet or beat x86 alternatives in perfor-
surrounding one of Microsoft’s key AI Arm in 2012 with the Surface 2-in-1, mance benchmarks. Tests have found
features made for a shaky debut, but powered by Nvidia’s Tegra 3. It didn’t Snapdragon X is up to 50 percent more
that feature is built on a sound foun- catch on. The original Surface was slow, efficient than comparable x86 chips in
dation: Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X, buggy, and ran an Arm-only version of single-core workloads and 20 percent
a system-on-chip based on the Arm Windows called Windows RT. Microsoft more efficient in multicore. That trans-
­instruction-set architecture that goes retreated to x86 with the release of the lates not only to long battery life but also
toe-to-toe with the best x86-based Intel-powered Surface Pro in 2013. less heat, less fan noise, and better per-
CPUs from AMD and Intel. Its debut But Windows on Arm crawled for- formance on battery power.
represents a seismic shift in the Win- ward with a new strategy. Instead of Leonard Lee, executive analyst and
dows world. building another new version of Win- founder at the consulting company
“It’s the most exciting time for PCs dows, Microsoft would bring Arm to neXt Curve, says the launch was “a big
I’ve seen in my entire life,” says Anshel the Windows everyone already used. win” for Qualcomm, though he cau-

10 [Link] SEPTEMBER 2024

 passing through the fiber to trigger a fier’s performance and improves the ing 402 Tb/s of data down a commer-
stimulated emission from the dopant. signal quality. cial-grade fiber-optic line. Instead, the
The result is a stronger signal exiting the Chigo Okonkwo, associate professor team tested separately each individual
DFA than the one that entered it. of electrical engineering at TU Eind- bandwidth chunk and all the various
Bismuth has been the dopant of hoven, in the Netherlands, says that amplifiers and filters on the line that
choice for the near-infrared E-band— more new optical amplifiers need to be would need to be implemented. Summed
one of the bands used to set the data- developed for wavelengths outside the together, those improvements would
rate record. But even bismuth DFAs are C-band. But too much amplification, or result in the 402 Tb/s mark.
still just the least-bad option for boost- amplification at the wrong place, in a But what matters most, Puttnam
ing E-band signals. Compared to C-band length of fiber can be too much of a good says, is the inherent utility of this tech
amplifiers, they can be inefficient, with thing. “If more photons...are injected for existing commercial-grade fiber.
higher noise and other limitations. into the fiber,” he says, “it changes the “Adding more wavelength bands is some-
So Puttnam says the team devel- conditions in the fiber—a bit like the thing that you can do without digging up
oped a DFA that is co-doped with both weather—affecting photons that come fibers,” he says. “You might ideally just
bismuth and germanium. Then the afterward, hence distorting the signals change the ends—the transmitter and the
team added an optical device called they carry.” receiver. Or maybe halfway, you’d want
a gain-flattening filter, developed by Puttnam stresses that the research to change the amplifiers. And that’s the
Nokia, that optimizes the E-band ampli- team didn’t send one signal contain- most you would [need to] do.”

tioned it’s too early to know how well

­Qualcomm-powered laptops have sold.
Sag agrees. “My experience with the
[Copilot+] PCs that I’ve used so far has
been overwhelmingly positive,” he says.
The launch of Qualcomm’s Snap-
dragon X puts x86 at a disadvantage, at
least for the moment.
“We don’t know when Intel and
AMD are going to come on board with
­Copilot+,” says Sag. “I think the best-
case scenario is the end of Q4 2024, but
to be realistic, it’s probably going to be
the beginning of next year.”
Lee is more optimistic about x86’s
reply. “Intel and AMD will fight tooth and
nail to be relevant,” he says. “My early
thinking is Intel’s Lunar Lake [architec-
ture] will be a stabilizing entry for Intel.
And they have an ecosystem and soft-
ware backing them up.”
Qualcomm is likely to announce
Microsoft’s latest AI-powered Surface notebooks had a shaky launch in May,
more Arm chips for Windows PCs later but they still paved the way for Windows’ Arm-based future.
this year. The Consumer Electronics
Show, to be held in January 2025, will
see PC makers announce the next wave After decades of lopsided competi- for years to come. Some developers may
of C­ opilot+ PCs—some with Arm chips, tion between Intel and AMD, the field choose to rely on a Windows emulator,
GRANT HINDSLEY/THE NEW YORK TIMES/REDUX

and some with x86. could expand to include a half dozen which can run x86 software on Arm but
And while Qualcomm was Mic- chipmakers (or more). Each chip will at reduced performance. Other develop-
rosoft’s partner for the Copilot+ PC have an integrated GPU and NPU, too, ers—especially those building apps that
launch, other Arm chipmakers are likely ­further expanding what Windows PCs require high performance—must take
to join in. MediaTek, Nvidia, Broadcom, can accomplish. on the burden of optimizing software
and Samsung are among the big names Software developers, on the other for both.
that could design their own chips for hand, should expect trouble. “The ground hasn’t settled yet. We’re
­Windows. Even x86 stalwarts may get Unlike Apple, which leaned on ver- going to have a couple years of this
into the Arm action; Sag points out that tical integration to transition the Mac uncertainty,” says Sag. “Arm vendors
AMD had an Arm chip in development, from x86 to its own Arm-based chips will add more complexity, and compe-
though it was never released. within a three-year period, Windows tition, to the PC space than we’ve ever
That’s exciting news for the PC. must support both Arm and x86 PCs seen before.”

SEPTEMBER 2024 [Link] 11

 NEWS

ROBOTICS The researchers’ vacuum-footed robot

is distinct from, for example, robots that

Robot Dog Vacuums

can open doors with their feet, because in
those situations, the robot momentarily
stops using its foot as a foot and instead

With Its Feet uses it as a manipulator.

VERO (for “ Vacuum-cleaner
Equipped RObot”) is about more than

Walking and cleaning just vacuuming up cigarette butts. If a

robot can simultaneously use its feet as
both feet and not-feet, it opens up plenty

at the same time is a of other possibilities, including spraying

weeds in crop fields, inspecting cracks

new trick for robots

in infrastructure, and placing nails and
rivets during construction.
VERO, developed in Claudio Semini’s
lab at IIT, is based on an AlienGo quadru-
pedal robot from the robotics manufac-
BY EVAN ACKERMAN turer Unitree, with a commercial vacuum
mounted on its back. Hoses extend from
the vacuum down each leg to a custom

R
oughly 6 trillion cigarettes are pedal robot with litter-cleaning vacuums 3D-printed nozzle that puts as much suc-
smoked every year, and over 4 attached to its feet. tion near the ground as possible without
trillion of those cigarette butts There are more efficient ways of auto- tripping up the robot. While the vacuum
wind up tossed on the ground, mating litter cleanup. But most of that and use case are novel, the real contri-
according to one estimate by research- automation relies on robots with wheels, bution is how the robot autonomously
ers. Each one of those butts leeches which won’t work on the many beautiful locates butts and other things on the
thousands of different chemicals, many beaches (and many beautiful flights of ground and then plans how to interact
toxic, into the environment. stairs) of Genoa. As the researchers write with those things using its feet.
To help address this problem, roboti- in a paper published in the Journal of Field First, an operator designates an area
cists from the Dynamic Legged Systems Robotics, this is “the first time that the legs for VERO to clean. After calculating an
unit at the Italian Institute of Technology of a legged robot are concurrently utilized exploration path for the entire area, the
(IIT), in Genoa, have designed a quadru- for locomotion and for a different task.” robot uses its onboard cameras and a
neural network to detect cigarette butts.
This is trickier than it sounds: There
VERO uses a vacuum on its back and a nozzle may be a lot of cigarette butts, and they
on each foot to suck up cigarette butts on
the rocky beaches of Genoa, Italy. all look more or less the same, and the
system has to recognize when multiple
cameras are seeing the same butt. Next,
VERO puts the vacuum side of one of its
feet right next to each cigarette butt while
calculating a safe, stable pose for the rest
of its body. Since this whole process
can take place on sand or stairs or other
uneven surfaces, VERO has to prioritize
not falling over before it decides how to
vacuum. The final collecting maneuver is
fine-tuned using an Intel RealSense depth
camera mounted on the robot’s chin.
The team’s initial testing showed that
VERO could successfully collect just under
90 percent of cigarette butts across dif-
ferent environments. It’s not particularly
quick at the task, but unlike a person, it will
never get tired of its work. And with the
software developed by the IIT research-
ers, it’s possible for a robot like VERO to
someday have a different tool on each foot
IIT

and accomplish multiple tasks at once.

12 [Link] SEPTEMBER 2024

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 THE BIG PICTURE

Laser Embeds
Nanoscale
Device
in Silicon
By Edd Gent

A team of engineers
at Bilkent University,
in Ankara, Türkiye, has
built a nanoscale optical
element not on top of a
silicon wafer, but rather
in a layer below the
surface. To achieve this,
they used a special type
of laser known as a Bessel
beam, whose light can pass
through the surface of a
wafer and interact with
the silicon below. Because
the Bessel beam’s light
doesn’t diffract, it’s
now possible to create
two-dimensional structures
inside the silicon as
small as 100 nanometers.

PHOTOGRAPH BY PHOTONIC
DEVICES LABORATORY

FOR MORE ON NANOSTRUCTURES

EMBEDDED IN SILICON WITH
LASERS, see [Link].
org/big-pic-sep24

14 [Link] SEPTEMBER 2024

SEPTEMBER 2024 [Link] 15
 TECH TO TINKER WITH

This industrial-
chic panel puts
you in charge of
your smart home.

Take Control of Your Home

O
ver the last few years, I’ve
added a fair amount of smart-

Escape proprietary
home technology to my house.
Among other things, I can
control lights and outlets, monitor the
smart-home tech with status of various appliances, measure
how much electricity and water I’m us-
this DIY panel ing, and even cut off the water supply in
the event of a leak. All this technology is
coordinated through a hub, which I orig-
inally accessed through a conventional
BY ALAN BORIS browser-based interface. But scrolling

16 [Link] SEPTEMBER 2024 Illustrations by James Provost

 SEPTEMBER 2024

and clicking through screens to find the

reading or setting I want is a) slow and
b) boring. I wanted an interface that was
fast and fun—a physical control panel
with displays and buttons.
Something like the control room in
the nuclear power plant in 1979’s The
China Syndrome. I was about 10 years A
old when I saw that movie, and my over-
whelming thought while watching Jack
Lemmon trying to avert a meltdown was,
“Boy, those panels look neat!” So they
became my North Star for this design.
Before I could work on the aesthetic
elements, however, I had to consider how
my panel was going to process inputs
and outputs and communicate with B
the systems in my home. The devices
in my home are tied together using the
C
open source Home Assistant platform.
Using an open source platform means
I don’t have to worry that, for example,
I suddenly won’t be able to turn on my
lights due to a forced upgrade of a pro-
prietary system, or wonder if someone
in the cloud is monitoring the activity in
my home.
The heart of my Home Assistant
setup is a hub powered by an old PC D
running Linux. This handles wireless
connections with my sensors, appliances,
and other devices. For commercial off-
the-shelf equipment—like my energy
meter—this communication is typically
via Z-Wave. My homebrew devices are E
connected to the GPIO pins of a Rasp-
berry Pi, which relays their state via
Wi-Fi using the MQTT standard proto-
col for the Internet of Things. However, I
decided on a wired Ethernet connection
between the control panel and my hub
PC, as this would let me use Power over
Ethernet (PoE) to supply electricity to The different types of tons and LEDs. Each is fitted with a $20
the panel. components used in the control add-on PoE “hat” to draw power from
panel include a touchscreen
In fact, I use two Ethernet connec- display [A], LED displays [B],
its Ethernet connection.
tions, because I decided to divide the Raspberry Pis [C], Power over Driving all the buttons and LEDs
functionality of the control panel across Ethernet boards [D], and an requires over 50 I/O signals, more than
two model 3B+ Raspberry Pis, which emergency stop button [E]. can be accommodated by the GPIO
cost about US $35 each (a complete bill header found on a Pi. Although this
of materials can be found on my GitHub header has 40 pins, only about 26 are
repository). One Pi drives a touchscreen usable in practice. So I used three $6
display, while the other handles the but- I2C expanders, each capable of handling

SEPTEMBER 2024 [Link] 17

 HANDS ON

Buttons Buttons LEDs Input and output

functions are split
Touch- across software
screen containers running
on the panel’s
Raspberry Pis.
These communicate
Raspberry Raspberry with a hub to send
Pi 1 Pi 2 commands and get
status updates.
Kiosk
Button Diagnostic Web Button LED
script Web server browser script script

Home
Assistant
hub

16 I/O signals and relaying them back via

a two-wire data bus.
I don’t have to ­container-based approach. You can run
Docker containers using the stock Rasp-
The software that drives each Pi also
has its functionality separated out. This is
worry that I berry Pi OS, but BalenaOS makes it easier
to manage containers, including starting,
done using Docker containers: software suddenly won’t be stopping, and updating them remotely.
environments that act as self-contained
sandboxes. The Pi responsible for the able to turn on You might think that this software
infrastructure is overkill for simply read-
touchscreen has three containers: One
runs a browser in kiosk mode, which
my lights due to a ing the state of some buttons and illumi-
nating some lights, but I like containers
fetches a graphical display from the Home forced upgrade. because they let me work on one subsys-
Assistant hub. A second container runs a tem without worrying about how it will
local Web server: When the kiosk browser affect the rest of the system: I can tinker
is pointed to this local server instead of with how button presses are sent to the
the hub, the screen displays internal hub without messing up the touchscreen.
diagnostic information that is useful for The buttons and various displays are
troubleshooting. A third container runs mounted in a set of 3D-printed panels.
a Python script, which translates inputs I first mapped these out, full size, on
from push buttons beside the screen into paper, and then created the 3D print files
commands to, say, load a page from the in ­TinkerCAD. The labels for each con-
diagnostic Web server. trol, as well as a schematic of my home’s
The other Pi has two containers run- water pipes, were printed as indentations
ning Python scripts. One handles all the in each segment, and then I filled them
button inputs and sends commands to with white spackle for contrast. I then
the hub. The other requests status infor- mounted the array of panels in an off-
mation from the hub and updates all the the-shelf $45 “floater” frame.
LEDs accordingly. By a small miracle of the maker spirits,
These containers run on top of the panel segments and the frame all fit
BalenaOS, an operating system that’s together nicely on the first try. I mounted
designed for running these sandboxes the finished panel in a hallway of my
on edge as well as embedded devices home, somewhat to the bemusement of
like the Pi. Full disclosure: I’m the edge my family. But I don’t mind: If I ever have
AI enablement lead for Balena, the com- a water leak, I’ll get to press the big emer-
pany responsible for BalenaOS, but gency button to shut off the main valve
I started using the operating system with all the aplomb of Jack Lemmon
before I joined the company because of its trying to stop a nuclear meltdown!

18 [Link] SEPTEMBER 2024

 SHARING THE EXPERIENCES OF WORKING ENGINEERS BY EDD GENT

Careers
Erika Cruz
She keeps Whirlpool’s machines
spinning smoothly

F
ew devices are as crucial to people’s every-
day lives as their household appliances.
Electrical engineer Erika Cruz says it’s her
mission to make sure they operate smoothly.
Cruz helps design washing machines and
dryers for Whirlpool, the multinational appliance
manufacturer.
As a member of the electromechanical compo-
Erika Cruz, an electrical engineer at Whirlpool,
nents team at Whirlpool’s research and engineering oversees the development of electromechanical
center in Benton Harbor, Mich., she oversees the components for the company’s washers and dryers.
development of timers, lid locks, humidity sensors,
and other components.
More engineering goes into the machines than
is obvious. Because the appliances are sold around of their complexity and impact. That’s how I got
the world, she says, they must comply with different interested in technology.”
technical and safety standards and environmental In 2010, Cruz enrolled in Colombia’s Industrial
conditions. And reliability is key. University of Santander, in Bucaramanga, to study
“If the washer’s door lock gets stuck and your industrial design. But she quickly became disen-
clothes are inside, your whole day is going to be a chanted with the course’s focus on designing objects
mess,” she says. like fancy tables and ergonomic chairs.
While appliances can be taken for granted, Cruz “I wanted to design huge machines like my father
loves that her work contributes in its own small way did,” she says.
to the quality of life of so many. A teacher suggested that she study mechanical
“I love knowing that every time I’m working on engineering instead. But her father was concerned
a new design, the lives of millions of people will be about discrimination she might face in that career.
improved by using it,” she says. “He told me it would be difficult to get a job in
the industry because mechanical engineers work
Cruz grew up in Bucaramanga, Colombia, where her with heavy machinery, and they saw women as being
father worked as an electrical engineer, designing fragile,” Cruz says.
control systems for poultry processing plants. Her Her father thought electrical engineers would be
childhood home was full of electronics, and Cruz more receptive to women, so she switched fields.
says her father taught her about technology. He paid “I am very glad I ended up studying electronics
her to organize his resistors, for example, and asked because you can apply it to so many different fields,”
ESTEVAN VELASQUEZ

her to create short videos for work presentations Cruz says. She received a bachelor’s degree in elec-
about items he was designing. He also took Cruz and tronics engineering in 2019.
her sister along with him to the processing plants.
“We would go and see how the big machines While at university, Cruz signed up for a program
worked,” she says. “It was very impressive because that allowed Colombian students to work summer

SEPTEMBER 2024 [Link] 19

 CAREERS

jobs in the United States. She held a variety of “I love knowing that every time
summer positions in Galveston, Texas, from 2017
to 2019, including cashier, housekeeper, and hostess.
I’m working on a new design,
She met her future husband in 2018, an American the lives of millions of people
working at the same amusement park as she did. will be improved by using it.”
When she returned the following summer, they
started dating, and that September they married.
Since she had already received her degree, he was
eager for her to move to the states permanently, but other engineers about the components’ function
she made the difficult decision to return to and design.
Colombia. Cruz then helps select the groups of components
“With the language barrier and my lack of engi- to be used in a particular application—combining,
neering experience, I knew if I stayed in the United say, three temperature sensors with two humidity
States, I would have to continue working jobs like sensors in an optimized location to create a system
housekeeping forever,” she says. “So I told my hus- that finds the best time to stop the dryer.
band he had to wait for me because I was going back

1948
home to get some engineering experience.” Cruz loves her job, but her father’s fears about her
Cruz applied for engineering jobs in neighboring entering a male-dominated field weren’t unfounded.
Brazil, which had more opportunities than Colom- Discrimination was worse in Colombia, she says,
WHIRLPOOL CORP.
bia did. In 2021, she joined Whirlpool as an electrical where she regularly experienced inappropriate
INTRODUCES THE
engineer at its R&D site in Joinville, Brazil. There, FIRST AUTOMATIC comments and behavior from university classmates
she introduced into mass production sensors and WASHING MACHINE. and teachers.
actuators provided by new suppliers. Even in the United States, she points out, “As
Meanwhile, she applied for a U.S. Green Card, a female engineer, you have to actually show you
which would allow her to work and live perma- are able to do your job, because occasionally at the
nently in the country. She received it six months beginning of a project men are not convinced.”
after starting her job. Cruz asked her manager about In both Brazil and Michigan, Cruz says, she’s
transferring to one of Whirlpool’s U.S. facilities, not been fortunate to often end up on teams with a
expecting to have any luck. Her manager set up a majority of women, who created a supportive envi-
phone call with the manager of the components ronment. That support was particularly important
team at the company’s Benton Harbor site to dis- when she had her first child and struggled to balance
cuss the request. Cruz didn’t realize that the call was work and home life.
actually a job interview. She was offered a position “It’s easier to talk to women about these strug-
there as an electrical engineer and moved to Mich- gles,” she says. “They know how it feels because they
igan later that year. have been through it too.”

Designing a new washing machine or dryer is a Working in the consumer electronics industry is
complex process, Cruz says. First, feedback from rewarding, Cruz says. She loves going into a store or
customers about desirable features is used to visiting someone’s home and seeing the machines
develop a high-level design. Then the product design that she’s helped build in action.
work is divided among small teams of engineers, A degree in electronics engineering is a must for
each responsible for a given subsystem, including the field, Cruz says, but she’s also a big advocate of
hardware, software, materials, and components. developing project management and critical think-
Part of Cruz’s job is to test components from ing skills. She is a certified associate in project
different suppliers to make sure they meet safety, management, granted by the Project Management
reliability, and performance requirements. She Institute, and has been trained in using tools that
also writes the documentation that explains to facilitate critical thinking. She says the project man-
agement program taught her how to solve problems
in a more systematic way and helped her stand out
in interviews.
Employer: Education: It’s also important to constantly update your
Whirlpool Bachelor’s degree in electronics
engineering, Industrial University knowledge, Cruz says, “because electronics is a dis-
Occupation: of Santander, in Bucaramanga, cipline that doesn’t stand still. Keep learning. Elec-
Associate electrical engineer Colombia tronics is a science that is constantly growing.”

20 [Link] SEPTEMBER 2024

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 Q & A

5 Questions
Richard
Teller. He was on the physics faculty of the Uni-
versity of Chicago. I went to Edward and I said,
“What is the progress on your ideas for burning

Garwin
deuterium?”
He told me that he had met with the mathemati-
cian Stanislaw Ulam, who worked for him. He said
that he had written up the meeting he had had with
The designer of the first hydrogen Stan and that Ulam had proposed acoustic lenses, of
bomb on creating “the Sausage” which we had 32 on the original implosion weapon.
[Editor’s note: The acoustic lenses were used to shape
the shock waves from conventional explosives so that
they evenly compressed the plutonium sphere at the

B
y any measure, Richard Garwin is one of Richard Garwin is an heart of the fission bomb.]
the most decorated and successful engineers IBM Fellow Emeritus, So [Teller] told me about his report, and that was
an IEEE Life Fellow,
of the 20th century. The IEEE Life Fellow the end of the conversation, except that he said what
and the designer
has won the Presidential Medal of Freedom, of the first working he really needed was a small experiment to prove to
the National Medal of Science, France’s La Grande hydrogen bomb. the most skeptical physicists that this was the way
Médaille de l’Académie des Sciences, and is one to build the atomic bomb and the hydrogen bomb. I
of just a handful of people elected to all three U.S. took that as a challenge. I started and tried to make a
National Academies: Engineering, Science, and Med- 20-kiloton experiment, but I couldn’t make one that
icine. At IBM, where he worked from 1952 to 1993, was sufficiently convincing and decided to make it
Garwin was a key contributor or a facilitator on some full scale. So that’s what I did. I published my report
of the most important products and breakthroughs of the Sausage based on the concepts current at the
of his era, including magnetic resonance imaging, time. I wrote that up and published it in the classified
touchscreen monitors, laser printers, displays, and report library on July 25, 1951.
the Cooley-Tukey fast Fourier transform algorithm.
And all that was after he did the thing for which Why do you think Edward Teller entrusted you
he is most famous. At age 23 and at the behest of with coming up with a design for the hydrogen
Edward Teller, Garwin designed the very first work- bomb?
ing hydrogen bomb, which was referred to as “the Garwin: He challenged me. He didn’t entrust me. He
Sausage.” It was detonated in a test code-named Ivy didn’t know that it could be done. But he said, “I’d
Mike at Enewetak Atoll in November 1952, yielding like a small experiment that would persuade the
the explosive equivalent of 10.4 megatons of TNT. most skeptical and that this is the way to do it.” And
Starting in the early 1950s and continuing in par- it persuaded the person who counted—It persuaded
allel with his career at IBM, Garwin also served as [Los Alamos Director] Norris Bradbury, and Norris
an adviser or consultant to U.S. government agencies Bradbury [then allocated resources for continued
on some of the most vital tech-related issues, and work on hydrogen bombs], without asking anybody
some of the most prestigious panels, of his times. else, because that’s how things worked then. Truman
That work continues to this day with his service as a had said, “We’re going to build a hydrogen bomb.”
member of the Jason group, the elite panel that offers And nobody knew how to build it—but Truman
technical and scientific advice, often classified, to the didn’t say that. People thought that Edward Teller
U.S. Defense Department and other agencies. At age probably knew how to build it. But he had been
96, Garwin continues to write and speak on issues working on it since 1939, and he didn’t know how
related to nuclear proliferation and arms control, and to build it, either.
he answered IEEE Spectrum’s questions on his life
and singular role in the history of nuclear weapons. Why did Teller choose you over the many other
physicists at Los Alamos?
How did you get the assignment to build the first Garwin: Well, he probably was influenced by some-
hydrogen bomb? thing that I found out only in 1981. [Enrico] Fermi
Richard Garwin: When I got to Los Alamos for the had told people very publicly that I was the only true
second time, in 1951, I had already known Edward genius he had ever met.

22 [Link] SEPTEMBER 2022 Photo-illustration by Stuart Bradford

 BY GLENN ZORPETTE

The United States is now on the verge of restart- things. It’s just that they don’t want to be caught
ing plutonium production for the first time in short when the Russians resume testing or the Chi-
32 years. And they’re building a new warhead out nese resume testing. People would say, “Look, the
at L
­ awrence Livermore called the W87-1. What do Russians are testing,” and “the Russians have man-
you think of that? ufactured plutonium, and you aren’t.” They don’t
Garwin: That’s very bad, but it’s a matter of monkey really need new plutonium.
see, monkey do. It’s not that we need to do these
What’s it like to hold plutonium in your hands?
Garwin: You can put plutonium in your pocket if it’s
coated with nickel, as were the original plutonium
“Truman had said, ‘We’re going to hemispheres for the atomic bomb. I’ve held it in
build a hydrogen bomb.’ And nobody my two hands. And it was a very dangerous thing
to do. But at Los Alamos, you could be admitted to
knew how to build it—but Truman the sanctum and hold the nickel-plated plutonium
didn’t say that.” in your hands. It’s warm, like a rabbit.

SEPTEMBER 2024 [Link] 23

24 [Link] SEPTEMBER 2024 Image by IBM
Recent advances point the By Ryan Mandelbaum, Infographics
way to useful classical- Antonio D. Córcoles by
quantum hybrids & Jay Gambetta Optics Lab

IBM’s Big Bet on the

Quantum-Centric
Supercomputer

Back in June 2022, Oak Ridge National Laboratory advances have allowed quantum computers to
debuted Frontier—the world’s most powerful super- finally reach a performance level where their clas-
computer. Frontier can perform a billion billion sical counterparts are struggling to keep up, at least
calculations per second. And yet there are compu- for some specific calculations.
tational problems that Frontier may never be able For the first time, we here at IBM can see a path
to solve in a reasonable amount of time. toward useful quantum computers, and we can begin
Some of these problems are as simple as factor�- imagining what the future of computing will look
ing a large number into primes. Others are among like. We don’t expect quantum computing to replace
the most important facing Earth today, like quickly classical computing. Instead, quantum computers
modeling complex molecules for drugs to treat and classical computers will work together to run
emerging diseases, and developing more efficient computations beyond what’s possible on either
materials for carbon capture or batteries. alone. Several supercomputer facilities around
However, in the next decade, we expect a new the world are already planning to incorporate
form of supercomputing to emerge unlike anything ­quantum-computing hardware into their systems,
prior. Not only could it potentially tackle these prob- including Germany’s Jupiter, Japan’s Fugaku, and
lems, but we hope it’ll do so with a fraction of the Poland’s PSNC. While it has previously been called
cost, footprint, time, and energy. This new super- hybrid quantum-classical computing, and may go
computing paradigm will incorporate an entirely by other names, we call this vision ­quantum-centric
→ new computing architecture, one that mirrors the
strange behavior of matter at the atomic level—
quantum computing.
For decades, quantum computers have struggled
supercomputing.

At the heart of our vision for a quantum-centric

supercomputer is the quantum hardware, which we
to reach commercial viability. The quantum behav- call a quantum processing unit (QPU). The power
iors that power these computers are extremely sen- of the QPU to perform better than classical process-
IBM's quantum sitive to environmental noise, and difficult to scale ing units in certain tasks comes from an operating
chips are at the
to large enough machines to do useful calculations. principle that’s fundamentally different, one rooted
heart of its
vision for a But several key advances have been made in the last in the physics of quantum mechanics.
quantum-centric decade, with improvements in hardware as well as In the standard, or classical, model of computa-
supercomputer. theoretical advances in how to handle noise. These tion, we can reduce all information to strings of

SEPTEMBER 2024 [Link] 25

 ↱
binary digits, bits for short, which can take on values
of either 0 or 1. We can process that information using Putting Qubits
simple logic gates, like AND, OR, NOT, and NAND,
which act on one or two bits at a time. The “state” of a to Work
classical computer is determined by the states of all its
bits. So, if you have N bits, then the computer can be in
just one of 2N states.
But a quantum computer has access to a much richer
repertoire of states during computation. A quantum How bits work
Classical computers use transistors to store and manipulate
computer also has bits. But instead of just 0 and 1, its information as strings of binary digits, or bits. A bit can be
quantum bits—qubits—via a quantum property known either a 0 or a 1.
as superposition, represent 0, 1, or a linear combination
of both. While a digital computer can be in just one of
One classical bit 0 or 1
those 2N states, a quantum computer can be in many
logical states at once during the computation. And the
superpositions the different qubits are in can be cor-
related with one another in a fundamental way, thanks How qubits work
to another quantum property known as entanglement. Quantum computers use hardware One qubit
At the end of the computation, the qubit assumes just mimicking the behavior of atoms to
store and manipulate information as 0
one state, chosen based on probabilities generated
quantum bits, or qubits
during the running of the quantum algorithm.
It’s not obvious how this computing paradigm can
outperform the classical one. But in 1994, Peter Shor,
a mathematician at MIT, discovered an algorithm that, 1
using the quantum-computing paradigm, could divide
large numbers into their prime factors exponentially SUPERPOSITION
faster than the best classical algorithm. Two years later, Instead of just 0 and 1, qubits can compute with quantum
Lov Grover discovered a quantum algorithm that could states representing 0 and 1 in superposition. At the end of
the calculation, 0 or 1 will be measured with a probability
find a particular entry in a database much faster than
corresponding to its contribution to the superposition.
a classical one could.
Perhaps most importantly, since quantum comput- One quantum bit in superposition
ers follow the laws of quantum mechanics, they are the
0
right tool for simulating the fundamentally quantum
phenomena of our world, such as molecular interac- Measurement
tions for drug discovery or materials design. 0 or 1

75% 25%
Before we can create a quantum-centric supercom- 1 chance chance
puter, we have to make sure it’s capable of doing some-
thing useful. Building a capable enough QPU relies on
constructing hardware that can re-create counterintui- ENTANGLEMENT
If you add more qubits to a calculation, every possible combi-
tive quantum behaviors.
nation of the qubits’ values can also be in a superposition. In
Here at IBM, the basic building block of a quantum some cases, these superpositions produce states where the
computation—the qubit—is made out of supercon- qubits don’t act independently. For these entangled states,
ducting components. Each physical qubit consists of the qubits behave in a strongly correlated way.
two superconducting plates, which act as a capacitor,
Two entangled quantum bits in superposition
wired to components called Josephson junctions,
which act as a special lossless, nonlinear inductor.
50%
The current flowing across Josephson junctions is Measurement 1 1
chance
quantized—fixed to discrete values. The Josephson
50%
junctions ensure that only two of those values (or their 0 0 chance
superpositions) are realistically accessible. The qubit is
encoded in two current levels, one representing a 0, the
Not possible
other a 1. But, as mentioned, the qubit can also exist in
to measure
a superposition of the 0 and 1 states. 01 or 10
Because superconductors need frigid temperatures to
maintain superconductivity, the qubits and some of their
control circuitry are held inside a specialty liquid-helium
fridge called a dilution refrigerator.
We change the qubit states and couple qubits together
with quantum instructions, commonly known as gates.

26 [Link] SEPTEMBER 2024

The anatomy of an IBM quantum chip The QPU
At the heart of an IBM quantum computer is a multilayer A quantum processing unit is more than just a
semiconductor chip etched with superconducting circuits. chip. It includes the interconnects, amplifiers,
These circuits comprise the qubits used to perform and signal filtering. It also requires the classical
calculations. Chips are divided into a layer with the qubits, hardware, including the room-temperature
a layer with resonators for readout, and multiple layers of classical computers needed to receive and
wiring for input and output. apply instructions and return outputs.

Josephson
junction 1

6
1. Dilution refrigerator
2. Filters
7 3. Amplifiers
2 4. Chip
5. Interconnects
3 8
4 6. Control electronics
7. Instruction memory
5
8. Data memory

Qubit Quantum computer

No calculation is purely quantum. Connected to the QPU is a rack of classical
Superconductor computers for calibration, result storage, error mitigation, suppression,
channels and in the future, error correction.

9. Calibration
9
and result
storage

10 10. Error
mitigation

11 11. Result
Qubit processing
layer

Resonator Quantum system

layer A quantum computing system is the quantum computer
combined with the cryogenic infrastructure.

Multilayer
wiring for I/O

SEPTEMBER 2024 [Link] 27

28 [Link] SEPTEMBER 2024 Photos by IBM
 These are a series of specially crafted microwave respond to different frequencies so that they wouldn’t
waveforms. A QPU includes all of the hardware react to microwave pulses meant for other qubits. But
responsible for accepting a set of quantum instruc- this made it too difficult for the qubits to perform the
tions—called a quantum circuit—and returning a essential task of talking to one another, and it also
single output represented by a binary string. The QPU made the processors slow. With tunable couplers, we
includes the qubits plus components that amplify don’t need the frequency-specific fabrication.
signals, the control electronics, and the classical com- Instead, we introduced a sort of “on-off” switch,
putation required for tasks such as holding the using magnetic fields to decide whether or not a qubit
instructions in memory, accumulating and separating should talk to another qubit. The result: We virtually
signals from noise, and creating single binary outputs. eliminated cross-talk errors between qubits, which
We etch components like qubits, resonators for read- allows us to run much faster, more reliable gates.
outs, output filters, and quantum buses into a super- As our hardware improved, we also demonstrated
conducting layer deposited on top of a silicon chip. that we could deal with some noise using an error-­
But it’s a challenge trying to control qubits at mitigation algorithm. Error mitigation can be done
the supersensitive quantum level. External noise, in many ways. In our case, we run quantum pro�-
noise from the electronics, and cross talk between grams, analyze how the noise in our system changes
control signals for different qubits all destroy the the program outputs, and then create a noise model.
fragile quantum properties of the qubits. Con- Then we can use classical computing and our noise
trolling these noise sources has been key in reach- model to recover what a noise-free result would look
ing the point where we can envision useful like. The surrounding hardware and software of our
quantum-centric supercomputers. quantum computer therefore includes classical com-
puting capable of performing error mitigation, sup-
No one has yet conclusively demonstrated quantum pression, and in the future, error correction.
advantage—that is, a quantum computer that out-
performs the best classical one on a real-world rel-
evant task. Demonstrating true quantum advantage
would herald a new era of computing, where previ- Error Correction
ously intractable tasks would now be within reach. Qubits are extremely sensitive to external sources
→

of noise and are therefore prone to errors. Error-

Before we can approach this grandiose goal, we
correction techniques allow us to encode information
have to set our sights a bit lower, to a target we call into redundant physical qubits, where check qubits
quantum utility. Quantum utility is the ability of work together to monitor data qubits. The check qubit
quantum hardware to outperform brute-force clas- information is then used to correct errors.
sical calculations of a quantum circuit. In other
The IBM Quantum words, it’s the point where quantum hardware is CLASSICAL ERROR CORRECTION
System Two is better at doing quantum computations than a tra- Encode Decode
located at the ditional computer is.
IBM Research 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 1
This may sound underwhelming, but it is a nec-
T.J. Watson
essary stepping-stone on the way to quantum advan-
Research Center,
in Yorktown tage. In recent years, the quantum community has QUANTUM ERROR CORRECTION
Heights, N.Y. finally reached this threshold. Demonstrating quan�-
tum utility of our QPU, which we did in 2023, has
convinced us that our quantum hardware is advanced
→ enough to merit being built into a quantum-centric
supercomputer. Achieving this milestone has taken
a combination of advances, including both hardware
and algorithmic improvements.
Encode

Checks
Since 2019, we’ve been incorporating advances in
semiconductor fabrication to introduce 3D integration
Left: A cryogenic to our chips. This gave us access to qubits from a con-
system allows the troller chip placed below the qubit plane to reduce the
quantum computer
to run at near-
wiring on the chip, a potential source of noise. We also
absolute zero. introduced readout multiplexing, which allows us to
access the information from several qubits with a Measure
Right: Connected single wire, drastically reducing the amount of hard-
to the QPU is a ware we have to put in the dilution refrigerator. 50% 50%
rack of classical 1 1 or 0 0
In 2023, we implemented a new way to perform chance chance
computers for
quantum gates—the steps of a program that change
calibration, Qubits work together to store an entangled state
result storage, the value of the qubits—on our hardware, using com-
[black squiggle]. Check qubits [pink squiggles]
error mitigation, ponents called tunable couplers. Previously, we pre�- return 0 if there’s an error, 1 if there’s no error.
and suppression. vented cross talk by fabricating the qubits that

SEPTEMBER 2024 [Link] 29

 ↱
Alongside ever-improving hardware advances, we
teamed up with the University of California, Berkeley, Building Bigger,
to demonstrate in 2023 that a quantum computer run� -
ning our 127-qubit quantum chip, Eagle, could run cir- Better Chips
cuits beyond the ability of brute-force classical
simulation—that is, methods where the classical com-
puter exactly simulates the quantum computer in order
to run the circuit, reaching quantum utility. And we did
so for a real condensed-matter physics problem—
namely, finding the value of a property called magne-
M-coupler
tization for a system of simplified atoms with a structure BIGGER CHIPS FROM SMALLER CHIPS
that looked like the layout of our processors’ qubits. The m-coupler is a close-range interconnect that
transmits quantum information between adjacent
chips. It allows for higher data-transmission rates than
We were able to demonstrate the ability of our quantum the l-coupler, but the chips must be adjacent.
hardware outperforming brute-force classical simula-
tion without leveraging the most powerful area of
­quantum-computing theory: quantum error correction.
Unlike error mitigation, which deals with noise after
a computation, quantum error correction can remove Qubits
noise as it arises during the process. And it works for a
more general kind of noise; you don’t need to figure out
a specific noise model first. Plus, while error mitigation
Close-range
is limited in its ability to scale as the complexity of quan- interconnect
tum circuits grows, error correction will continue to
Quantum
work at large scales.
communication
But quantum error correction comes at a huge cost:
It requires more qubits, more connectivity, and more
gates. For every qubit you want to compute with, you
may need many more to enable error correction. Recent
advances in improving hardware and finding better
error-correcting codes have allowed us to envision an
error-corrected supercomputer that can make those
costs worthwhile.
Quantum error-correcting schemes are a bit more
involved than error correction in traditional binary
computers. To work at all, these quantum schemes
require that the hardware error rate is below a certain
threshold. Since quantum error correction’s inception,
theorists have devised new codes with more relaxed
thresholds, while quantum-computer engineers have
developed better-performing systems. But there hasn’t IBM Crossbill
yet been a quantum computer capable of using error chip configuration
correction to perform large-scale calculations.
Meanwhile, error-correction theory has continued
to advance. One promising finding by Moscow State
University physicists Pavel Panteleev and Gleb Kalachev
inspired us to pursue a new kind of error-correcting
code for our systems. Their 2021 paper demonstrated
the theoretical existence of “good codes,” codes where
the number of extra qubits required to perform error
correction scales more favorably.
This led to an explosion of research into a family
of codes called quantum low-density parity check
codes, or qLDPC codes. Earlier this year, our team IBM Quantum
published a qLDPC code with an error threshold high System Two
enough that we could conceivably implement it on
near-term quantum computers; the amount of
required connectivity between qubits was only slightly
beyond what our hardware already supplies. This code
would need only a tenth the number of qubits as pre-

30 [Link] SEPTEMBER 2024

Quantum communication via interconnects
Realizing a full-scale quantum computer means building a system with chips modularly and to perform error correction. The company plans to
millions of physical qubits. However, hardware constraints make scaling demonstrate l- and m-couplers by the end of 2024 with proof-of-concept
single chips challenging. Therefore, IBM is developing interconnects that chips called Flamingo and Crossbill, respectively. It plans to demonstrate
can move quantum information between chips, allowing them to scale c-couplers by the end of 2026 with a chip called Kookaburra.

L-Coupler C-Coupler
CONNECTING OVER LONGER RANGES INCREASING CONNECTIVITY
The l-coupler is a longer-range interconnect that can route quantum New error-correcting codes require qubits to be able to
information between more distant chips, such as those on different communicate with other, distant qubits. To implement
platforms inside of the same cryostat. Transmitting data over longer these codes, c-couplers permit data transmission between
distances necessitates decreased transmission rates. non‑neighboring qubits on the same chip.

Long-range
interconnect
Quantum
communication Quantum
communication
between
distant
qubits

IBM Kookaburra
chip configuration

IBM Flamingo
chip configuration

IBM Quantum IBM Quantum

System Two System Two

SEPTEMBER 2024 [Link] 31

↱
The Quantum-Centric
Supercomputer Quantum chip
with l-, m-,
and c-couplers

Combining the strengths

of quantum and classical
Quantum-centric supercomputing leverages
quantum and classical resources in parallelized
workloads to run computations larger than
what was possible before. A quantum-centric
supercomputer is a system optimized to
orchestrate work across the quantum computers
and advanced classical compute clusters in the
same data center.

QPU
Qiskit
runtime
primitives
Scheduler

4
HPC workload
manager
5

3
1

Quantum
computer

Classical
cluster

1 2 3 4 5
User Classical layer Advanced QPU Parallelized
writes orchestrates classical QPUs
code on work across compute
laptop QPUs and CPUs processing

32 [Link] SEPTEMBER 2024

↱
Quantum-centric vious methods to achieve error correction at the computing. But we still don’t think it’ll be enough
supercomputers same level. to tackle the largest, most valuable problems. For
will include
These theoretical developments allow us to envi- that reason, we’ve also introduced a new way of
thousands of
error-corrected sion an error-corrected quantum computer at exper- running algorithms, where multiple quantum cir-
qubits to unlock imentally accessible scales, provided we can connect cuits and distributed classical computing are woven
the full power enough quantum processing power together, and together into a quantum-centric supercomputer.
of quantum leverage classical computing as much as possible. Many envision the “quantum computer” as a
computers.
single QPU, working on its own to run programs
Here’s how we’ll
get there. To take advantage of error correction, and to reach with billions of operations on millions of physical
large enough scales to solve human-relevant prob- qubits. Instead, we envision computers incorporat-
lems with quantum computers, we need to build ing multiple QPUs, running quantum circuits in
2024 larger QPUs or connect multiple QPUs together. We parallel with distributed classical computers.
Heron also need to incorporate classical computing with Recent work has demonstrated techniques that
the quantum system. let us run quantum circuits much more efficiently
-> 156 qubits
Last year, we released a machine we call the IBM by incorporating classical computing with quantum
-> 5K gates before Quantum System Two, which we can use to start processing. These techniques, called circuit knitting,
errors set in
proto­typing error mitigation and error correction in break down a single quantum-computing problem
a scalable quantum computing system. System Two into multiple quantum-computing problems and
2025 relies on larger, modular cryostats, allowing us to place then run them in parallel on quantum processors.
Flamingo multiple quantum processors into a single refrigerator And then a combination of quantum and classical
with short-range interconnects, and then combine computers knit the circuit results together for the
-> Introduce ->
l-couplers -> -> multiple fridges into a bigger system, kind of like final answer.
between chips adding more racks to a traditional supercomputer. Another technique uses the classical computer
-> Connect 7 chips
Along with the System Two release, we also detailed to run all but the core, intrinsically quantum part of
for 7 x 156 = a 10-year plan for realizing our vision. Much of the the calculation. It is this last vision that we believe
1,092 qubits early hardware work on that road map has to do with will realize quantum advantage first.
-> 5K gates before
interconnects. We’re still developing the interconnects Therefore, a quantum computer doesn't just
errors set in required to connect quantum chips into larger chips include one quantum processor, its control electron-
like Lego blocks, which we call m-couplers. We’re also ics, and its dilution refrigerator—it also includes the
developing interconnects to transfer quantum infor- classical processing required to perform error cor-
2027 mation between more distant chips, called l-couplers. rection and error mitigation.
Flamingo We hope to prototype both m- and l-couplers by the We haven’t realized a fully integrated quantum-­
-> l-couplers end of this year. We’re also developing on-chip cou- centric supercomputer yet. But we’re laying the
between chips plers that link qubits on the same chip that are more groundwork with System Two, and Qiskit, our full-
-> 7 x 156 = 1,092 distant than their nearest neighbors—a requirement stack quantum-computing software for running large
qubits of our newly developed error-correction code. We quantum workloads. We are building middleware
-> Improved plan to deliver this c-coupler by the end of 2026. In capable of managing circuit knitting, and of provision-
hardware and error the meantime, we’ll be improving error mitigation so ing the appropriate computing resources when and
mitigation that by 2028, we can run a quantum program across where they’re required. The next step is to mature our
-> 10K gates before seven parallel quantum chips, each chip capable of hardware and software infrastructure so that quantum
errors set in performing up to 15,000 accurate gates before the and classical can extend one another to do things
errors set in, on 156 qubits. beyond the capabilities of either.
We’re also continuing to advance error correc- Today’s quantum computers are now scientific
2029 tion. Our theorists are always looking for codes that tools capable of running programs beyond the
Starling require fewer extra qubits for more error-correcting brute-force ability of classical simulation, at least
-> 200 qubits power and allow for higher error thresholds. We must when simulating certain quantum systems. But we
-> l-, m-, and also determine the best way to run operations on must continue improving both our quantum and
c-couplers information that’s encoded into the error-correcting classical infrastructures so that the combination is
combined code, and then decode that information in real time. capable of speeding up solutions for problems rel-
-> Error correction We hope to demonstrate those by the end of 2028. evant to humanity. With that in mind, we hope that
That way, in 2029, we can debut our first quantum the broader computing community will continue
-> 100M gates
computer incorporating both error mitigation and researching new algorithms incorporating circuit
error correction that can run up to 100 million gates knitting, parallelized quantum circuits, and error
2033 until the errors take hold, on 200 qubits. Further mitigation in order to find use cases that can benefit
BlueJay advances in error correction will allow us to run a from quantum in the near term.
-> 2,000 qubits
billion gates on 2,000 qubits by 2033. And we look forward to a day when the Top
500 list of most powerful supercomputers will
-> Error correction The ability to mitigate and correct errors removes include machines that have quantum processors
-> 1B gates a major roadblock in the way of full-scale quantum at their hearts.

SEPTEMBER 2024 [Link] 33

 Hybrid bonding makes high-density 3D connections between the copper interconnects
on two chips. In this case, Imec managed to make connections every 400 nanometers.

34 [Link] SEPTEMBER 2024

 SEMICONDUCTORS

The
Copper
Connection
HY BR ID BO NDING IS
THE 3D- CHIP TECH
THAT’ S SAV ING
M O O R E’ S LAW

BY SAMUEL K. MOORE

C
hipmakers continue to
claw for every spare nano-
meter to continue scaling
down circuits, but a tech-
nology involving things
that are much bigger—
hundreds or thousands
of nanometers across—could be just as
significant over the next five years.
Called hybrid bonding, that technol-
ogy stacks two or more chips atop one
another in the same package. That allows
chipmakers to increase the number
of transistors in their processors and
memories despite a general slowdown
in the shrinking of transistors, which
once drove Moore’s Law. At the IEEE
IMEC

Electronic Components and Technol-

ogy Conference (ECTC) this past May in
Denver, research groups from around the
world unveiled a variety of hard-fought
improvements to the technology, with a
few showing results that could lead to a
record density of connections between
3D stacked chips: some 7 million links
per square millimeter of silicon.
 1. Hybrid
bonding
MAKING HYBRID starts with
two wafers or
BONDING BETTER a chip and a
wafer facing
Copper Oxide Copper

each other. The

mating surfaces
are covered in
oxide insulation
and slightly
recessed copper Interconnects
pads connected to
Silicon
All those connections are needed the chips’ inter­
connect layers.
because of the new nature of progress
in semiconductors, Intel’s Yi Shi told Initial bond
engineers at ECTC. Moore’s Law is now
governed by a concept called system
technology co-optimization, or STCO,
whereby a chip’s functions, such as cache
2. The wafers
are pressed
together to
memory, input/output, and logic, are fab- form an initial
ricated separately using the best manu- bond between
facturing technology for each. Hybrid the oxides.
bonding and other advanced packaging
tech can then be used to assemble these
subsystems so that they work every bit as
well as a single piece of silicon. But that
can happen only when there’s a high den-
sity of connections that can shuttle bits
Anneal
between the separate pieces of silicon
with little delay or energy consumption.
Out of all the advanced-packaging
technologies, hybrid bonding provides 3. The stacked
wafers
are then heated
the highest density of vertical connec-
slowly, strongly
tions. Consequently, it is the fastest grow- linking the
ing segment of the advanced-packaging oxides and
industry, says Gabriella Pereira, technol- expanding the
ogy and market analyst at Yole Group. The copper to form
an electrical
overall market is set to more than triple to
connection.
US $38 billion by 2029, according to Yole,
which projects that hybrid bonding will
make up about half the market by then,
although today it’s just a small portion.
In hybrid bonding, copper pads are
built on the top face of each chip. The
copper is surrounded by insulation, usu- neers at the European microelectronics-research
ally silicon oxide, and the pads them- institute Imec have created some of the most dense
selves are slightly recessed from the wafer-on-wafer bonds ever, with a bond-to-bond
surface of the insulation. After the oxide distance (or pitch) of just 400 nanometers. But
is chemically modified, the two chips are Imec managed only a 2-micrometer pitch for chip-
then pressed together face-to-face, so on-­wafer bonding.
that the recessed pads on each align. This The latter is a huge improvement over the
sandwich is then slowly heated, causing advanced 3D chips in production today, which have
the copper to expand across the gap and connections about 9 μm apart. And it’s an even
fuse, connecting the two chips. bigger leap over the predecessor technology: “micro-
Hybrid bonding can either attach bumps” of solder, which have pitches in the tens of
individual chips of one size to a wafer full micrometers.
of chips of a larger size or bond two full “With the equipment available, it’s easier to align
wafers of chips of the same size. Thanks wafer to wafer than chip to wafer. Most processes for
in part to its use in camera chips, the microelectronics are made for [full] wafers,” says
latter process is more mature than the Jean-Charles Souriau, scientific leader in integration
former, Pereira says. For example, engi- and packaging at the French research organization

36 [Link] SEPTEMBER 2024 Illustration by Mark Montgomery

 A A. To form more secure bonds, engineers are
flattening the last few nano­meters of
oxide. Even slight bulges or warping can break
dense connections.

SEMICONDUCTORS
B B. The copper must be recessed from the
surface of the oxide just the right
amount. Too much and it will fail to form a
connection. Too little and it will push the
wafers apart. Researchers are working on ways
to control the level of copper down to single
atomic layers.

C
Silicon
Silicon oxide carbonitride

Si Si Si C. The initial links between the wafers

are weak hydrogen bonds. After annealing,
the links are strong covalent bonds [below].
O O Researchers expect that using different types
H O H H O H of surfaces, such as silicon carbonitride,
which has more locations to form chemical
Si Si Si bonds, will lead to stronger links between
the wafers.

D D. The final step in hybrid bonding can take

hours and require high temperatures.
Researchers hope to lower the temperature and
shorten the process time.

E
E. Although the copper from both wafers
presses together to form an electrical
connection, the metal’s grain boundaries
Si Si generally do not cross from one side to the
other. Researchers are trying to cause large
O O single grains of copper to form across the
boundary to improve conductance and stability.
Si Si

CEA Leti. But it’s chip-on-wafer (or die-to-wafer) the whole wafer has to be nearly perfectly flat. If it’s
that’s making a splash in high-end processors such bowed or warped to the slightest degree, whole sec-
as those from AMD, where the technique is used to tions won’t connect.
assemble compute cores and cache memory in its Flattening wafers is the job of a process called
advanced CPUs and AI accelerators. chemical mechanical planarization, or CMP. It’s
In pushing for tighter and tighter pitches for both essential to chipmaking generally, especially for
scenarios, researchers are focused on making sur- “I think it’s producing the layers of interconnects above the
faces flatter, getting bound wafers to stick together possible transistors.
better, and cutting the time and complexity of the “CMP is a key parameter we have to control for
whole process. Getting it right could revolutionize
to make hybrid bonding,” says Souriau. The results presented
how chips are designed.
a more- at ECTC show CMP being taken to another level, not
than-20- just flattening across the wafer but reducing mere
WoW, Those Are Some Tight Pitches layer stack nanometers of roundness on the insulation between
The recent wafer-on-wafer (WoW) research that using this the copper pads to ensure better connections.
achieved the tightest pitches—from 360 to 500 nm— technology.” Other researchers focused on ensuring those
involved a lot of effort on one thing: flatness. To bond –HYEONMIN LEE, flattened parts stick together strongly enough.
two wafers together with 100-nm-level accuracy, Samsung They did so by experimenting with different sur-

SEPTEMBER 2024 [Link] 37

Imec used plasma etching to dice up chips
and give them chamfered corners. The technique
relieves mechanical stress that could
interfere with bonding.

face materials such as silicon carbonitride instead

of silicon oxide and by using different schemes
to chemically activate the surface. Initially, when
wafers or dies are pressed together, they are held
in place with relatively weak hydrogen bonds, and
the concern is whether everything will stay in place
during further processing steps. After attachment,
wafers and chips are then heated slowly, in a process
called annealing, to form stronger chemical bonds.
Just how strong these bonds are—and even how
to figure that out—was the subject of much of the
research presented at ECTC.
Part of that final bond strength comes from the
copper connections. The annealing step expands the
copper across the gap to form a conductive bridge.
Controlling the size of that gap is key, explains
­Samsung’s Seung Ho Hahn. Too little expansion, and
the copper won’t fuse. Too much, and the wafers will
be pushed apart. It’s a matter of nanometers, and
Hahn reported research on a new chemical process
that he hopes to use to get it just right by etching away
the copper a single atomic layer at a time.
The quality of the connection counts, too. The
metals in chip interconnects are not a single crystal;
instead they’re made up of many grains, c­ rystals ori-
ented in different directions. Even after the copper
expands, the metal’s grain boundaries often don’t
cross from one side to another. Such a crossing
should reduce a connection’s electrical resistance
and boost its reliability. Researchers at Tohoku Uni-
versity in Japan reported a new metallurgical scheme
that could finally generate large, single grains of
copper that cross the boundary. “This is a drastic
change,” says Takafumi Fukushima, an associate
professor at Tohoku. “We are now analyzing what
underlies it.”
Other experiments discussed at ECTC focused
on streamlining the bonding process. Several sought
to reduce the annealing temperature needed to form
bonds—typically around 300 °C—to minimize any
risk of damage to the chips from the prolonged heat-
ing. Researchers from Applied Materials presented
progress on a method to radically reduce the time
needed for annealing—from hours to just 5 minutes.

CoWs That Are Outstanding in the Field

Chip-on-wafer (CoW) hybrid bonding is more
useful to makers of advanced CPUs and GPUs at the
moment: It allows chipmakers to stack chiplets of
IMEC

different sizes and to test each chip before it’s bound

 SEMICONDUCTORS

At ECTC, Samsung engineers showed that

hybrid bonding could yield a 16-layer HBM stack.
“I think it’s possible to make a more-than-20-layer
stack using this technology,” says Hyeonmin Lee,
a senior engineer at Samsung. Other new CoW
technology could also help bring hybrid bonding to
high-­bandwidth memory. Researchers at CEA Leti
are exploring what’s known as self-alignment tech-
nology, says Souriau. That would help ensure good
CoW connections using just chemical processes.
Some parts of each surface would be made hydro-
phobic and some hydrophilic, resulting in surfaces
that would slide into place automatically.
At ECTC, researchers from Tohoku University
and Yamaha Robotics reported work on a similar
scheme, using the surface tension of water to align
to another, ensuring that they aren’t dooming an Chip-on-wafer 5-μm pads on experimental DRAM chips with better
expensive CPU with a single flawed part. hybrid bonding is than 50-nm accuracy.
more useful than
But CoW comes with all of the difficulties of
wafer-on-wafer
WoW and fewer of the options to alleviate them. bonding, in that The Bounds of Hybrid Bonding
For example, CMP is designed to flatten wafers, not it can place dies Researchers will almost certainly keep reducing the
individual dies. Once dies have been cut from their of one size onto pitch of hybrid-bonding connections. A 200-nm
source wafer and tested, there’s less that can be done a wafer of larger WoW pitch is not just possible but desirable,
to improve their readiness for bonding. dies. However, Han‑Jong Chia, a project manager for pathfinding
the density of
Nevertheless, researchers at Intel reported CoW connections that
systems at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing
hybrid bonds with a 3-μm pitch, and, as mentioned, can be achieved Co., told engineers at ECTC. Within two years, TSMC
a team at Imec managed 2 μm, largely by making is lower than for plans to introduce a technology called backside
the transferred dies very flat while they were still wafer-on-wafer power delivery. (Intel plans the same for the end of
attached to the wafer and keeping them extra clean bonding. this year.) That’s a technology that puts the chip’s
throughout the process. Both groups used plasma chunky ­power-delivery interconnects below the
etching to dice up the dies instead of the usual surface of the silicon instead of above it. With those
method, which uses a specialized blade. Unlike a power conduits out of the way, the uppermost levels
blade, plasma etching doesn’t lead to chipping at can connect better to smaller hybrid-bonding bond
the edges, which creates debris that could interfere pads, TSMC researchers calculate. Backside power
with connections. It also allowed the Imec group to delivery with 200-nm bond pads would cut down
shape the die, making chamfered corners that relieve the capacitance of 3D connections so much that a
mechanical stress that could break connections. measure of energy efficiency and signal speed would
CoW hybrid bonding is going to be critical to the be as much as eight times better than what can be
future of high-bandwidth memory (HBM), accord- achieved with 400-nm bond pads.
ing to several researchers at ECTC. HBM is a stack At some point in the future, if bond pitches narrow
of DRAM dies—currently 8 to 12 dies high—atop even further, Chia suggests, it might become practical
a control-logic chip. Often placed within the same to “fold” blocks of circuitry so they are built across
package as high-end GPUs, HBM is crucial to han- two wafers. That way some of what are now long
dling the tsunami of data needed to run large lan- connections within the block might be able to take a
guage models like ChatGPT. Today, HBM dies are vertical shortcut, potentially speeding computations
stacked using microbump technology, so there are and lowering power consumption.
tiny balls of solder surrounded by an organic filler And hybrid bonding may not be limited to silicon.
between each layer. “Today there is a lot of development in silicon-to-­
But with AI pushing memory demand even “It’s difficult silicon wafers, but we are also looking to do hybrid
higher, DRAM makers want to stack 20 layers or to say what bonding between gallium nitride and silicon wafers
more in HBM chips. The volume that microbumps the limit will and glass wafers…everything on everything,” says
take up means that these stacks will soon be too tall be. Things CEA Leti’s Souriau. His organization even presented
to fit properly in the package with GPUs. Hybrid are moving research on hybrid bonding for quantum-computing
bonding would shrink the height of HBMs and also very fast.” chips, which involves aligning and bonding super-
make it easier to remove excess heat from the pack- conducting niobium instead of copper.
—JEAN-CHARLES
age, because there would be less thermal resistance SOURIAU, “It’s difficult to say what the limit will be,” Souriau
IMEC

between its layers. CEA Leti says. “Things are moving very fast.” 

SEPTEMBER 2024 [Link] 39

 The fitness
tracker’s creators
had a billion-
dollar idea—and
ENGINEERING
a lot to learn
about hardware
By Tekla S. Perry
THE

FIRST

FITBIT

t was December 2006. Twenty-

I
nine-year-old entrepreneur James
Park had just purchased a Wii game
system. It included the Wii ­Nunchuk,
a US $29 handheld controller with
motion sensors that let game players interact by
moving their bodies—swinging at a baseball, say,
or boxing with a virtual partner.
Park became obsessed with his Wii.
“I was a tech-gadget geek,” he says. “Anyone
holding that nunchuk was fascinated by how it
worked. It was the first time that I had seen a com-
PETER DASILVA/THE NEW YORK TIMES/REDUX

pelling consumer use for accelerometers.”

After a while, though, Park spotted a flaw in the
Wii: It got you moving, sure, but it trapped you in
your living room. What if, he thought, you could take
what was cool about the Wii and use it in a gadget
that got you out of the house?
“That,” says Park, “was the aha moment.” His
idea became Fitbit, an activity tracker that has
racked up sales of more than 136 million units since
its first iteration hit the market in late 2009.

40 [Link] SEPTEMBER 2024

 ENGINEERING THE FITBIT PROTOTYPE
FIRST FITBIT
2008

But back to that “aha moment.” Park quickly called his friend
and colleague Eric Friedman. In 2002, the two, both computer
scientists by training, had started a photo-sharing company
called HeyPix, which they sold to CNET in 2005. They were
still working for CNET in 2006, but it wasn’t a bad time to think
about doing something different.
Friedman loved Park’s idea.
“My mother was an active walker,” Friedman says. “She had
a walking group and always had a pedometer with her. And
my father worked with augmentative engineering [assistive
technology] for the elderly and handicapped. We’d played with
accelerometer tech before. So it immediately made sense. We
just had to refine it.”
The two left CNET, and in April 2007 they incorporated the
startup with Park as CEO and Friedman as chief technology
officer. Park and Friedman weren’t trying to build the first step
counter—mechanical pedometers date back to the 1960s. They
weren’t inventing the first smart activity tracker—BodyMedia, a
medical device manufacturer, had in 1999 included accelerome-
ters with other sensors in an armband designed to measure calo-
ries burned. And Park and Friedman didn’t get a smart consumer
tracker to market first. In 2006, Nike had worked with Apple
to launch the Nike+ for runners, a motion-tracking system that
required a special shoe and a receiver that plugged into an iPod.
Park wasn’t aware of any of this when he thought about get-
ting fitness out of the living room, but the two quickly did their
research and figured out what they did and didn’t want to do.
“We didn’t want to create something expensive, targeted
at athletes,” he says. “Or something that was dumb and not
connected to software. And we wanted something that could “We wanted to start with something familiar to people,”
provide social connection, like photo sharing did.” Park says, “and people tended to clip pedometers to their belts.”
That something had to be comfortable to wear all day, be easy So a clip-on device made sense. But women generally don’t
to use, upload its data seamlessly so the data could be tracked wear belts.
and shared with friends, and rarely need charging. Not an easy To do what it needed to do, the clip-on gadget would have to
combination of requirements. contain a roughly 2.5-by-2.5-centimeter (1-by-1-inch) printed
“It’s one of those things where the simpler you get, the harder circuit board, Amit recalls. The big breakthrough came when
it becomes to design something well,” Park says. the team decided to separate the electronics and the battery,
which in most devices are stacked. “By doing that, and elon-
he first design decision was the biggest one. gating it a bit, we found that women could put it anywhere,”

T
Where on the body did they expect people to Amit says. “Many would put it in their bras, so we targeted
put this wearable? They weren’t going to ask the design to fit a bra in the center front, purchasing dozens
people to buy special shoes, like the Nike+, or of bras for testing.”
wear a thick band on their upper arms, like The decision to design for women also drove the overall
BodyMedia’s tracker. look, to “subdue the user interface,” as Amit puts it. They hid
They hired NewDealDesign to figure out some of these a low-resolution monochrome OLED display behind a contin-
details. uous plastic cover, with the display lighting up only when you
“In our first two weeks, after multiple discussions with asked it to. This choice helped give the device an impressive
Eric and James, we decided that the project was going to be battery life.
JAMES PARK

geared to women,” says Gadi Amit, president and principal They also came up with the idea of a flower as a progress
designer of NewDealDesign. “That decision was the driver of indicator—inspired, Park says, by the Tamagotchi, one of the
the form factor.” biggest toy fads of the late 1990s. “So we had a little animated

42 [Link] SEPTEMBER 2024

 THE FIRST FITBIT, THE FITBIT FLEX,
A CLIP-ON A WRIST WEARABLE

2009 2013

flower that would shrink or grow based on how active you developing software. And then they’d go off to Asia and get it
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: DAVID PAUL MORRIS/BLOOMBERG/GETTY IMAGES;

were,” Park explains. miniaturized there,”

And after much discussion over controls, the group gave Casciola recalls. “But
the original Fitbit just one button. one revision led to
another.”
ark and Friedman knew enough about elec- Casciola ended

P
tronics to build a crude prototype, “stuffing up working on circuit
ISTOCK; PETER DASILVA/THE NEW YORK TIMES/REDUX

electronics into a box made of cut-up balsam designs for Fitbits

wood,” Park says. But they also knew that they virtually full time
needed to bring in a real electrical engineer to until the sale of the
develop the hardware. company to Google,
Fortunately, they knew just whom to call. Friedman’s father, announced in 2019
Mark, had for years been working to develop a device for use and completed in
in nursing homes, to remotely monitor the position of bed- early 2021.
bound patients. Mark’s partner in this effort was Randy “We were just two
­Casciola, an electronics engineer and currently president of little guys in a little
Morewood Design Labs. office in Pittsburgh,” FITBIT’S FOUNDERS
Eric called his dad, told him about the gadget he and Park Casciola says. “Before
envisioned, and asked if he and Casciola could build a Fitbit came along, we 2009
Fitbit cofounders James Park [left]
prototype. had realized that our and Eric Friedman released their
“Mark and I thought we’d build a quick-and-dirty proto- nursing-home thing first product in 2009, when this
type, something they could get sensor data from and use for wasn’t likely to ever photo was taken.

SEPTEMBER 2024 [Link] 43

 ENGINEERING THE
FIRST FITBIT

be a product and had started taking on some consulting work.

I had no idea Fitbit would become a household name. I just
like working on anything, whether I think it’s a good idea or
not, or even whether someone is paying me or not.”
The earliest prototypes were pretty large, about 10 by
15 cm, Casciola says. They were big enough to easily hook up
to test equipment, yet small enough to strap on to a willing
test subject.
After that, Park and Eric Friedman—along with Casciola,
two contracted software engineers, and a mechanical design
firm—struggled with turning the bulky prototype into a small
and sleek device that counted steps, stored data until it could
be uploaded and then transmitted it seamlessly, had a simple
user interface, and didn’t need daily charging.
“Figuring out the right balance of battery life, size, and
capability kept us occupied for about a year,” Park says.
After deciding to include a radio transmitter, they made
a big move: They turned away from the Bluetooth standard
for wireless communications in favor of the ANT protocol,
a technology developed by Garmin that used far less power.
That meant the Fitbit wouldn’t be able to upload to comput-
ers directly. Instead, the team designed their own base sta-
tion, which could be left plugged into a computer and would
grab data anytime the Fitbit wearer passed within range.
Casciola didn’t have expertise in radio-frequency engi-
neering, so he relied on the supplier of the ANT radio chips:
Nordic Semiconductor, in Trondheim, Norway.
“They would do a design review of the circuit board
layout,” he explains. “Then we would send our hardware to
Norway. They would do RF measurements on it and tell
me how to tweak the values of the capacitors and conductors
in the RF chain, and I would update the schematic. It’s half
engineering and half black magic to get this RF stuff
working.”
Another standard they didn’t use was the ubiquitous USB
charging connection.
“We couldn’t use USB,” Park says. “It just took up too
much volume. Somebody actually said to us, ‘Whatever you
do, don’t design a custom charging system because it’ll be a
pain, it’ll be super expensive.’ But we went ahead and built
one. And it was a pain and super expensive, but I think it
added a level of magic. You just plopped your device on [the
charger]. It looked beautiful, and it worked consistently.”
Most of the electronics they used were off the shelf, includ-
ing a 16-bit Texas Instruments MSP430 microprocessor, and
92 kilobytes of flash memory and 4 KB of RAM to hold the
operating system, the rest of the code, all the graphics, and
at least seven days’ worth of collected data. FINAL FIXES AT THE FACTORY
The Fitbit was designed to resist sweat, and they gener-
2009
ally survived showers and quick dips, says Friedman. “But
JAMES PARK

Fitbit cofounder James Park [top, right, and

hot tubs were the bane of our existence. People clipped it to center, standing in white coat] helps debug
their swimsuits and forgot they had it on when they jumped devices shortly before launch. Early production
into the hot tub.” units are partially assembled [bottom].

44 [Link] SEPTEMBER 2024

 FITBIT’S PROGRESS FLOWER

2009
“Data collection was difficult,” Park says. “Initially, it was a
The first Fitbits showed progress in
the form of a growing flower. lot of us wearing prototype devices doing a variety of different
activities. Our head of research, Shelten Yuen, would follow,
videotaping so we could go back and count the exact number
p to this point, the company was surviving on of steps taken. We would wear multiple devices simultaneously,

U
$400,000 invested by Park, Friedman, and a few to compare the data collects against each other.”
people who had backed their previous company. Friedman remembers one such outing. “James was tethered
But more money would be needed to ramp up to the computer, and he was pretending to walk his dog around
manufacturing. And so a critical next step would the Haight [in San Francisco], narrating this little play that he’s
be a live public demo, which they scheduled for the TechCrunch putting on: ‘OK, I’m going to stop. The dog is going to pee on this
conference in San Francisco in September 2008. tree. And now he’s going over there.’ The great thing about San
Live demonstrations of new technologies are always risky, Francisco is that nobody looks strangely at two guys tethered
and this one walked right up to the edge of disaster. The plan together walking around talking to themselves.”
was to ask an audience member to call out a number, and then “Pushing baby strollers was an issue,” because the wearer’s
Park, wearing the prototype in its balsa-wood box, would arms aren’t swinging, Park says. “So one of our guys put an
walk that number of steps. The count would sync wirelessly ET doll in a baby stroller and walked all over the city with it.”
to a laptop projecting to a screen on stage. When Friedman Road noise was another big issue. “Yuen, who was working
hit refresh on the browser, the step count would appear on the on the algorithms, was based in Cambridge, Mass.,” Park says.
screen. What could go wrong? “They have more potholes than we do. When he took the bus,
A lot. Friedman explains: “You think counting steps is easy, the bus would hit the potholes and [the device would] be bounc-
but let’s say you do three steps. One, two, three. When you bring ing along, registering steps.” They couldn’t just fix the issue by
your feet together, is that a step or is that the end? It’s much looking for a regular cadence to count steps, he adds, because
easier to count 1,000 steps than it is to do 10 steps. If I walk 10 not everyone has a regular cadence. “Older people tend to have
steps and am off by one, that’s a glaring error. With 1,000, that an irregular cadence—to the device, older people look a lot like
variance becomes noise.” buses going over potholes.”
After a lot of practice, the two thought they could pull it off.
Then came the demo. “While I was walking, the laptop crashed,” consumer gadget means mass manufactur-

A
Park says. “I wasn’t aware of that. I was just walking happily. ing, potentially in huge quantities. They talked
Eric had to reboot everything while I was still walking. But the to a lot of contract-manufacturing firms, Park
numbers showed up; I don’t think anyone except Eric realized recalls. They realized that as a startup with an
what had happened.” unclear future market, they wouldn’t be of inter-
That day, some 2,000 preorders poured in. And Fitbit closed est to the top tier of manufacturers. But they couldn’t go with the
a $2 million round of venture investment the next month. lowest-budget operations, because they needed a reasonable
Though Park and Friedman had hoped to get Fitbits into level of quality.
users’ hands—or clipped onto their bras—by Christmas of “We saw some pretty scary manufacturers,” Park said. “Dirty
2008, they missed that deadline by a year. facilities, flash marks on their injection-molded plastics [a sign
of a bad seal or other errors], very low precision.” They eventu-
art of Fitbit’s challenge of getting from proto- ally found a small manufacturer that was “pretty good but still

P
type to shippable product was software devel- hungry for business.” The manufacturer was headquartered
opment. They couldn’t expect users to walk as in Singapore, while their surface-mount supplier, which put
NEWDEALDESIGN

precisely as Park did for the demo. Instead, the components directly onto printed circuit boards, was in Batam,
device’s algorithms needed to determine what Indonesia.
was a step and what was a different kind of motion—say, some- Working with the Singapore manufacturer, Park and Fried-
one scratching their nose. man made some tweaks in the design of the circuitry and the

SEPTEMBER 2024 [Link] 45

 ENGINEERING THE
FIRST FITBIT

shape of the case. They struggled over how to keep water—

and sweat—out of the device, settling on ultrasonic welding for
the case and adding a spray-on coating for the circuitry after
some devices were returned with corrosion on the electronics.
That required tweaking the layout to make sure the coating
would get between the chips. The coating on each circuit board
had to be checked and touched up by hand. When they realized
that the coating increased the height of the chips, they had to
tweak the layout some more.
In December 2009, just a week before the ship date, Fitbits
began rolling off the production line.
“I was in a hotel room in Singapore testing one of the first
fully integrated devices,” Park says. “And it wasn’t syncing to
my computer. Then I put the device right next to the base sta-
tion, and it started to sync. Okay, that’s good, but what was the
maximum distance it could sync? And that turned out to be
literally just a few inches. In every other test we had done, it
was fine. It could sync from 15 or 20 feet [5 or 6 meters] away.”
The problem, Park eventually figured out, occurred when
the two halves of the Fitbit case were ultrasonically welded
together. In previous syncing tests, the cases had been left
unsealed. The sealing process pushed the halves closer together,
so that the cable for the display touched or nearly touched the
antenna printed on the circuit board, which affected the radio
signal. Park tried squeezing the halves together on an unsealed
unit and reproduced the problem.
“I thought, if we could just push that cable away from the
antenna, we’d be okay,” Park said. “The only thing I could find FIRST FITBIT IN THE PACKAGE
in my hotel room to do that was toilet paper. So I rolled up
some toilet paper really tight and shoved it in between the 2009
cable and the antenna. That seemed to work, though I wasn’t
really confident.”
Park went to the factory the next day to discuss the prob-
lem—and his solution—with the manufacturing team. They
refined his fix—replacing the toilet paper with a tiny slice of
foam—and that’s how the first generation of Fitbits shipped. forcing a reset; you don’t want to have someone waiting six
days for the battery to run out before restarting.”
he company sold about 5,000 of those $99 The reset that Casciola designed was “a button on the

T
first-generation units in 2009, and more than 10 charging station that you could poke with a paper clip. If you
times that number in 2010. The rollout wasn’t did this with the tracker sitting on the charger, it would reset.
entirely smooth. Casciola recalls that Fitbit’s Of course, we had to have a way for the tracker to see that
logistics center was sending him a surprising signal. When I designed the circuit to allow for that, I ended
number of corroded devices that had been returned by cus- up with a nominal voltage on one pin.” This low voltage was
tomers. Casciola’s task was to tear them down and diagnose causing the corrosion.
the problem. “If you clipped the tracker onto sweaty clothing—remem-
“One of the contacts on the device, over time, was growing ber, sweat has a high salt content—a very tiny current would
a green corrosion,” Casciola says. “But the other two contacts flow,” says Casciola. “It was just fractions of a microamp,
were not.” not enough to cause a reset, but enough, over time, to cause
It turned out the problem came from Casciola’s design greenish corrosion.”
NEWDEALDESIGN

of the system-reset trigger, which allowed users to reset the On the 2012 generation of the Fitbit, called the Fitbit One,
device without a reset button or a removable battery. “Inev- Casciola added a new type of chip, one that hadn’t been avail-
itably,” Casciola says, “firmware is going to crash. When you able when he was working on the original design. It allowed
can’t take the battery out, you have to have another way of the single button to trigger a reset when it was held down for

46 [Link] SEPTEMBER 2024

some seconds while the device was sitting on the charger. That he Flex’s interface was even simpler than the

T
eliminated the need for the active pin. original Fitbit’s one button and OLED screen:
The charging interface was the source of another early It had no buttons and no screen, just five LEDs
problem. In the initial design, the trim of the Fitbit’s plastic arranged in a row and a vibrating motor. To
casing was painted with chrome. “We originally wanted an change modes, you tapped on the surface.
actual metal trim,” Friedman says, “but that interfered with “We didn’t want to replace people’s watches,” Park says. The
the radio signal.” technology wasn’t yet ready to “build a compelling device—one
Chrome wasn’t a great choice either. “It caused problems that had a big screen and the compute power to drive really
with the charger interface,” Park adds. “We had to do a lot of amazing interactions on the wrist that would be worthy of that
work to prevent shorting there.” screen. The technology trends didn’t converge to make that
They dropped the chrome after some tens of thousands of possible until 2014 or 2015.”
units were shipped—and then got compliments from purchas- “The amount of stuff the team was able to convey with just
ers about the new, chrome-less look. the LEDs was amazing,” Friedman recalls. “The status of where
Evolution happened quickly, particularly in the way the you are towards reaching your [step] goal, that’s obvious. But
device transmitted data. In 2012, when Bluetooth LE became [also] the lights cycling to show that it’s searching for some-
widely available as a new low-power communications stan- thing, the vibrating when you hit your step goal, things like that.”
dard, the base station was replaced by a small Bluetooth com- The tap part of the interface, though, was “possibly some-
munications dongle. And eventually the dongles disappeared thing we didn’t get entirely right,” Park concedes. It took much
altogether. fine-tuning of algorithms after the launch to better sort out
“We had a huge debate about whether or not to keep ship- what was not tapping—like applauding. Even more important,
ping that dongle,” Park says. “Its cost was significant, and if some users couldn’t quite intuit the right way to tap.
you had a recent iPhone, you didn’t need it. But we didn’t want “If it works for 98 percent of your users, but you’re growing
someone buying the device and then returning it because their to millions of users, 2 percent really starts adding up,” Park
cellphone couldn’t connect.” says. They brought the button back for the next generation of
The team closely tracked the penetration rate of Bluetooth Fitbit devices.
LE in cellphones; when they felt that number was high enough,
they killed off the dongle. n 2010, its first full year on the market, the

I
Fitbit sold some 50,000 units. Fitbit sales
fter several iterations of the original Fitbit peaked in 2015, with almost 23 million devices

A
design, sometimes called the “clip” for its sold that year, according to Statista. Since then,
shape, the fitness tracker moved to the wrist. there’s been a bit of a drop-off, as multifunc-
This wasn’t a matter of simply redesigning the tional smartwatches have come down in price and grown in
way the device attached to the body but a popularity and Fitbit knockoffs entered the market.
rethinking of algorithms. In 2021, Fitbit still boasted more than 31 million active users,
The impetus came from some users’ desire to better track according to [Link]. And Fitbit may now be riding
their sleep. The Fitbit’s algorithms allowed it to identify sleep the trend back to simplicity, as people find themselves wanting
patterns, a design choice that, Park says, “was pivotal, because to get rid of distractions and move back to simpler devices. I
it changed the device from being just an activity tracker to an see this happening in my own family: My s­ martwatch-wearing
all-day wellness tracker.” But nightclothes didn’t offer obvious daughter traded in that wearable for a Fitbit Charge 6 earlier
spots for attachment. So the Fitbit shipped with a thin fabric this year.
wristband intended for use just at night. Users began asking Fitbit went public in 2015 at a valuation of $4.1 billion. In
customer support if they could keep the wristband on around 2021 Google completed its $2.1 billion purchase of the com-
the clock. The answer was no; Fitbit’s step-counting algo- pany and absorbed it into its hardware division. In April of
rithms at the time didn’t support that. this year, Park and Friedman left Google. Early retirement?
Meanwhile, a cultural phenomenon was underway. In the Hardly. The two, now age 47, have started a new company that’s
mid-2000s, yellow Livestrong bracelets, made out of silicone currently in stealth mode.
and sold to support cancer research, were suddenly every- The idea of encouraging people to be active by electronically
where. Other causes and movements jumped on the trend tracking steps has had staying power.
with their own brightly colored wristbands. By early 2013, “My father, who turned 80 on July 5, is fixated on his step
Fitbit and its competitors Nike and Jawbone had launched count,” Friedman says. “From 11 at night until midnight, he’s
wrist-worn fitness trackers in roughly the same style as those in the parking garage, going up flights of stairs. And he is in
trendy bracelets. Fitbit’s version was called the Flex, once better shape than I ever remember him.”
again designed by NewDealDesign. What could be a better reward than that?

SEPTEMBER 2024 [Link] 47

 m b e r
Me
o u n t s
Disc

EXCLUSIVE
OFFERS &
DISCOUNTS.
ANOTHER BIG
PLUS TO YOUR
IEEE MEMBERSHIP.

[Link]/discounts
 NEWS OF THE IEEE
VOLUME 48 / ISSUE 3

Spotlight on the Student Project Cleans the

Air in Mongolia P. 57
Next Generation Teens Learn to Code by
Creating Real Apps P. 63
of Engineers
Photo-Illustration by Nadia Radic SEPTEMBER 2024 THE INSTITUTE 49
 PRESIDENT’S COLUMN

contacts and a community that offers

support, advice, and mentoring,
independent of where they work.
IEEE is here to support members at
each stage of their professional journey.
Within the organization, there are young
people just starting to explore their
professional passions. But there are also
active engineers currently working in
industry, government, and academia, as
well as retired professionals who have
a wealth of acquired knowledge and
experience to share.

An expansive network
Through its technical societies,
IEEE also has a tremendous reach
that spans areas including circuits,
communications, computers, power
and energy, semiconductors, and more.
Whatever your focus is, there is a
community within IEEE that will meet
your needs.
For students and early-career
practitioners, membership can help
expand one’s professional network
and elevate one’s professional image.
It can lead to meaningful collaborative
research opportunities that jump-start

Why Students and advance one’s career, and it can

provide professional-development
pathways that refine skills through

Should Stay
leadership opportunities.
Many of the key benefits of
volunteering can also help with skills
critical to continued professional

With IEEE
success. Volunteering can advance your
knowledge in all aspects of technology
and science, provide opportunities to
help guide the evolution of numerous
fields, and network with others from
I WOULD LIKE our student members and personal—that can help them around the world.
to know that IEEE is much more than advance within their field and discover Serving as a volunteer can also help
just a club you join at school. It is an new interests. They will also have the empower members to champion their
international community that can help opportunity to build soft skills, raise ideas and hone their communication
students build and sustain successful their visibility, and make friendships and presentation skills, as well as
careers as technical professionals after that last a lifetime. All these resources management experience, which are
they graduate. and experiences, and more, will be of important for professional development.
For more than 40 years, IEEE value in their life and work.
has been a great place to build A bright future
my personal brand and to create Lifelong professional home There are great career opportunities
a valuable professional network. I The students of today likely will have in technology and engineering. The
know it can do the same for the next many jobs across different organizations number of jobs in science, technology,
generation of engineers. throughout their career. IEEE can engineering, and mathematics fields
By maintaining their membership be their lifelong professional home is increasing, and many of them
after graduation and throughout their and help them meet their long-term are lucrative, as they are essential
careers, students will have access to technical and professional needs. The components of today’s competitive
IEEE

more resources—both professional organization provides professional global economy.

50 THE INSTITUTE SEPTEMBER 2024

 A career in these areas enables IEEE
members to make a significant impact in
the world, as STEM fields are imperative
to solving some of the grand challenges
facing society, such as climate change,
cyberwarfare, and public health.
IEEE is committed to empowering
and inspiring the next generation of
engineering and technology leaders.
Members, from students to retirees, will
play a pivotal role in not only helping IEEE’s
Strategic
the organization continue to flourish
but also in advancing technology for the
benefit of humanity. They are the future
of IEEE.
The best way to realize the true value
Refresh
of the organization is by engaging with
IEEE colleagues. Get involved. Volunteer THE IEEE 2020–2025 strategic plan has set the direction for the organization
with your local section or engage with a during the past five years. As we approach 2025, work to refresh the plan is
society or technical community or work well underway. The refresh is focused on updating the goals of the plan, but
on an IEEE standard. Become an active the mission and vision remain constant over long periods of time. The IEEE
participant—whether it be with affinity Strategy and Alignment Committee will bring recommendations for the refresh
groups, humanitarian efforts, continuing to the IEEE Board of Directors, which has ultimate ownership of the plan.
education, or a standards working group At all our Board of Directors meetings this year, IEEE leaders have been
and make IEEE your professional home. spending significant time on strategic discussions on how we can best gain
perspectives from all the organization’s stakeholders to determine our
—TOM COUGHLIN aspirational goals for the next five years and what we need to do to achieve
IEEE president and CEO them.
Following approval at the end of this year, the rollout will include
Please share your thoughts with me:
communication with all levels of the organization.
president@[Link].

IEEE President Tom Coughlin with attendees at this year's IEEE Region 8
Students and Young Professionals Congress in Grenoble, France.
IEEE

SEPTEMBER 2024 THE INSTITUTE 51

 CURRENT IEEE REGIONS Region 1 Region 3 Region 5 Region 7 Region 9
Region 2 Region 4 Region 6 Region 8 Region 10

NEWS Region 2 will be electing the IEEE

Region 2 director-elect for the
How Region Realignment 2025–2026 term (serving as director
in 2027–2028). The elected officer will

Will Impact IEEE Elections first serve as director of the current

Region 2 in 2027, and then in 2028 as
director of the new Region 2.
BY IEEE MEMBER AND GEOGRAPHIC ACTIVITIES The eligible voting members residing
in Region 10 will be electing the IEEE
Region 10 director-elect for the term
THE WORK OF restructuring IEEE’s The restructuring of IEEE’s 10 2025–2026 (serving as director in
geographic regions is well underway. geographic regions will provide a more 2027–2028). The elected officer will
Six U.S. regions will be consolidated equitable representation across its first serve as director of the current
into five, joining together the current global membership, as outlined in The Region 10 in 2027 and then in 2028 as
IEEE Region 1 (Northeastern U.S.) and Institute’s February 2023 article, “IEEE director of the new Region 10.
Region 2 (Eastern U.S.) to form Region Is Realigning Its Geographic Regions.” IEEE Member and Geographic
2 (Eastern and Northeastern U.S.). The realignment will impact this Activities is continuing to coordinate
IEEE Region 10 (Asia and Pacific) will year’s annual IEEE election process, the transition in tandem with the
be split into two to form Region 10 which runs through 1 October. other IEEE organizational units in
(North Asia) and Region 11 (South Asia In this year’s IEEE annual election, preparation for the realignment, which
and Pacific). eligible voting members residing in takes effect in January 2028.

Notice to Membership
THE IEEE ETHICS AND MEMBER CONDUCT Subsection 8 of the IEEE Code of Ethics, and Section
COMMITTEE (EMCC) received complaints through 4 and Section 5e of the IEEE Code of Conduct.
its Ethics Reporting Line against Mr. Mojtaba Sharif The IEEE Board of Directors sustained these
Zadeh [also known as Sharif Zadeh], a member of findings and imposed the sanction of Expulsion from
the IEEE. IEEE membership on Mr. Zadeh, in accordance with
Following an EMCC investigation, a hearing board IEEE Bylaw I-110.5. The IEEE Board of Directors
appointed by the IEEE Board of Directors found also determined that this notification to the IEEE
cause that Mr. Zadeh violated Section I and Section II, membership should be made.
IEEE

52 THE INSTITUTE SEPTEMBER 2024

 IEEE PROGRAMS

Empowering
Students
Boosts This
Society’s
Membership
BY KATHY PRETZ

WHAT’S A SECRET to getting more

students to participate in an IEEE
society? Give them a seat at the Enrica Tricomi [back row, middle], chair of the IEEE Robotics and
table so they have a say in how the Automation Society's students activities committee, with some
organization is run. of the group’s members.
That’s what the IEEE Robotics
and Automation Society has done. fairs, travel grants, and networking conferences. More than 200 travel
Budding engineers serve on the opportunities with researchers. grants were awarded to the 2023 IEEE
RAS board of directors, have voting Student members now can serve International Conference on Robotics
privileges, and work within technical on IEEE technical committees that and Automation, Tricomi says.
committees. involve robotics in the role of student “It’s very important for them to be
“They have been given a voice in representatives. there, presenting their work, gaining
how the society runs because, in the Student representatives also help visibility, sharing their research, and
end, students are among the main organize conference workshops. also networking,” she says.
beneficiaries,” says Enrica Tricomi, In addition, the students had a The IDEA (inclusion, diversity,
chair of the RAS student activities hand in creating a welcome kit for equity, and accessibility) travel grant
committee. The SAC is responsible conference attendees—which lists for underrepresented groups helps
for student programs and benefits. It each day’s activities and their location. students who are not presenters to
also makes recommendations to the attend conferences. It also helps
society’s board about new offerings. Job fairs and travel grants increase diversity within the robotics
“You feel listened to and valued Several new initiatives have been field, Tricomi says.
whenever there are official decisions rolled out at the society’s flagship The Member Support Program is
to be made, because the board also conferences. an initiative that provides financial
wants to know the perspective of Some luncheons have included assistance to attend the annual
students on how to offer benefits to sessions on career advice from leaders International Conference on Intelligent
the RAS members, especially for young in academia and industry, or from Robots and Systems. It is available
ENRICA TRICOMI/IEEE ROBOTICS AND AUTOMATION SOCIETY

researchers, since hopefully they will startup founders—giving the students to members and students who have
be the society’s future leaders,” says a sense of what it’s like to work for contributed to the society’s mission-
Tricomi, a bioengineer who is pursuing such organizations. related activities. The projects include
a Ph.D. in robotics at Heidelberg Conferences now include career organizing workshops, discussions,
University, in Germany. fairs, where students can meet with lectures, or networking events at
The society’s approach has paid hiring companies. conferences or sponsored events;
off. Since 2018, student membership The society also developed serving on boards or committees; or
has grown by more than 50 percent to a software platform that allows writing papers that were accepted for
5,436. The number of society chapters candidates to upload their résumé publication by conferences or journals.
at student branches has increased onsite. If they are a match for an open The society also gets budding
from 312 in 2021 to 464. position, interviews can be held on engineers involved in publication
The ability to express opinions the spot. activities through its Young Reviewers
isn’t the only reason students are A variety of travel grants have been Program, which introduces them to
joining, Tricomi says. The society made available to students with limited best practices for peer review. Senior
recently launched several programs resources so they can present their reviewers assign the students papers
to engage them, including career research papers at the society’s major to check and oversee their work.

SEPTEMBER 2024 THE INSTITUTE 53

 PROFILE

Student’s Retro
Hobby Sparks
Engineering Path
Ham radio has been Gerard Piccini’s
passion since grade school
BY KATHY PRETZ

MANY COLLEGE STUDENTS

participate in sports, listen to music,
or play video games in their spare
time, but IEEE Student Member
Gerard N. Piccini prefers amateur
radio, also known as ham radio.
He’s been involved with the two-
way communication system, which
uses designated frequencies, since
his uncle introduced him to it when
he was a youngster. His call sign is
KD2ZHK.
Piccini, from Monroe Township,
N.J., is pursuing an electrical
engineering degree at the University
of Scranton, in Pennsylvania. The
senior is president of the university’s
W3USR amateur radio club. He’s also
a member of Scranton’s IEEE student
branch, the IEEE Club.
Another of his passions is
robotics. He captained one of
the university club’s teams that
participated in the Micro Mouse
competition held during the October
ORIGINAL PHOTO: MARGARET SCHAIRER

IEEE Region 2 Student Activities

Conference, hosted by Marshall
University in Huntington, [Link]. The
Scranton team competed against
other student branches to build and
program small robots to navigate a
maze in the shortest time possible.
The team placed second.
“The contest was a great
opportunity for me,” Piccini says, “to
learn how to apply the skills I’ve been

54 THE INSTITUTE SEPTEMBER 2024 Photo-Illustration by Nadia Radic

 learning from classes into a project that
I designed myself.”

Ham radio researcher

Piccini joined Scranton’s amateur
radio club when he was a freshman.
Overseeing the club is IEEE Member
Nathaniel Frissell, who has taught
Piccini physics and electrical
engineering. Frissell noticed Piccini’s
interest in radio technology and
asked the student to assist him with
research. Piccini now is helping
to develop a low-cost, low-power
system to send a signal into the
ionosphere and measure the time it
takes to return.
“The system will allow us to collect
more data about the ionosphere,
which is an ionized layer of the
atmosphere and is important for radio Student Member Gerard Piccini [second from left] with teammates
propagation,” he says. “Right now from the IEEE Club student branch who competed in the IEEE Region
there are not that many full-sized 2 Micro Mouse contest.
ionospheric sounding systems. If we
can make them cheap enough, we
could get ham radio operators to set
them up and increase data points.”
Piccini is active with Ham Radio hardware that he chose engineering. encourages students to explain the work
Science Citizen Investigation, which And although he still enjoys coding, they’ve done during their internships.
includes amateur radio enthusiasts and he says he’s glad he ultimately chose To give members professional
professional scientists who collaborate electrical engineering: “I like it when I boosts, the club holds résumé-writing
on research. have a project and have to try to find a sessions, conducts mock interviews,
“The idea behind HamSCI is getting solution on my own.” He is minoring and has the students practice their
citizens involved in science,” Piccini in mathematics and physics. public-speaking skills.
says. The branch also encourages
His research, he says, has led him An IEEE student leader its members to get involved with
to consider a career in RF engineering Piccini says he joined IEEE because he community projects.
or digital signal processing, either in felt “trapped in a bubble of academia.” Piccini is secretary of the student
academia or industry. As an underclassman, he recalls, he branch. The position has given
didn’t really know what was going on in him leadership experience, he says,
A born problem-solver the field of engineering or in industry. including teaching him how to organize
Since his youth, Piccini has enjoyed “Being involved with IEEE helps and run meetings and coordinate
taking things apart and figuring out give you that exposure,” he says. events—skills he wouldn’t have picked
how to put them back together again. He is a member of the Lambda Nu up in his classes.
Neither of his parents are engineers, chapter of IEEE’s honor society, IEEE— As captain of the Micro Mouse
but they encouraged his interest by Eta Kappa Nu. team, he was responsible for mentoring
buying him engineering kits. Scranton’s IEEE Club offers younger students, overseeing the design
A high school physics class presentations by engineering companies of the robot, and setting the agenda so
inspired him to study electrical and technical talks. The club also the team would meet the competition’s
engineering. It covered circuits and deadlines.
wave mechanics, a branch of quantum Member grade Student member;
He notes that the IEEE Student
physics in which the behavior of IEEE-HKN Lambda Nu chapter member Activities Conference is a great way to
GABRINA GARANGMAU

objects is described in terms of their College University of Scranton, in meet fellow students in the region.
wavelike properties. Pennsylvania Being active in IEEE, he says, is “a
He initially was undecided about School grade Senior great opportunity to network, meet
whether to pursue a degree in physics Major Electrical engineering people, and learn new skills that you
or engineering. It wasn’t until he Minors Math and physics might not have—or already have but
learned how to code and work with want to develop further.”

SEPTEMBER 2024 THE INSTITUTE 55

 NEWS

Student Membership
At a Glance

IEEE STUDENT MEMBERS are undergraduate and

graduate students who are enrolled in a science,
technology, engineering, or mathematics program.
They account for almost one-third of the
global IEEE membership. The organization’s
IEEE PROGRAMS Using age-appropriate language, student branches provide its members with
the video, which is posted on opportunities to network, attend technical
New Climate TryEngineering’s climate change meetings, and take part in special projects.
Change Resources page, explores the issue through Here is a breakdown of this year’s student
visual models and scientific membership.
for Kids explanations.
BY ROBERT SCHNEIDER “Since the industrial
revolution, humans have been STUDENT STUDENT
digging up fossil fuels and MEMBERS BRANCHES
WHEN IT COMES to addressing burning them, which releases 128,000 3,714
climate change, the “in unity CO2 into the atmosphere in
there’s strength” adage certainly unprecedented quantities,” By region By region
applies. the video says. It notes that in
To support IEEE’s climate the past 60 years, atmospheric 2% 14% 2%
14%
change initiative, which carbon dioxide increased at
highlights innovative solutions a rate 100 times as fast as 56% 49%
20% 21%
and approaches to the climate previous natural changes.
crisis, IEEE’s TryEngineering The video explains the
8% 14%
program has created a impact of pollutants such as
collection of lesson plans, lead and ash, and it adds that
activities, and events that cover “when we work together, we can
electric vehicles, solar and wind change the global environment.” Regions
power systems, and more. The video encourages students 1–6 United States
TryEngineering, an IEEE to contribute to a global solution
7 Canada
Educational Activities program, by making small, personal
8 Africa, Europe, Middle East
aims to cultivate the next changes.
generation of technology “We’re thrilled to contribute 9 Latin America
innovators by providing to the IEEE climate change 10 Asia and Pacific
preuniversity educators and initiative by providing IEEE
students with resources. volunteers and educators access

IEEE TRYENGINEERING/MUSEUM OF SCIENCE/MOMENT FACTORY

To help bring the climate to TryEngineering’s collection,
AREAS OF STUDY Technical
change collection to more so they have resources to use communications,
students, TryEngineering has with students,” says Debra education,
partnered with the Museum Gulick, director of IEEE student management,
of Science in Boston. The and academic education law and
policy: 1%
museum, one of the world’s programs.
largest science centers, reaches “Working with prominent Engineering: 66% Biological
nearly 5 million people annually partners like the museum, we and medical
sciences: 1%
through its physical location, are committed to energizing
nearby classrooms, and online students around important Physical
Computer sciences: 1%
platforms. issues like climate change sciences and
TryEngineering worked with and helping them understand Mathematics:
information
technologies: 1%
the museum to produce a nearly how engineering can make a
28% Other: 2%
four-minute educational video difference.”
created by Moment Factory, a
multimedia studio specializing Robert Schneider is an education
program specialist for IEEE
in immersive experiences. Educational Activities. SOURCE: IEEE MEMBER AND GEOGRAPHIC ACTIVITIES

56 THE INSTITUTE SEPTEMBER 2024

 The Project Koyash team displays the parts for its solar-powered filtration system to improve air quality for
nomads living in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.

IEEE PROGRAMS (TFCF). The project was done through

the Fulton Engineering Projects in

How to Use
Community Service in IEEE group.
EPICS in IEEE provided a US $10,000
grant in July 2022 to deploy the systems.
The EPICS program provides

the Sun to
nonprofit organizations with
technology to improve and deliver
services to the local community while
broadening undergraduate EE students’

Clean the Air

hands-on experiences. The program,
administered by IEEE Educational
Activities, is made possible through
generous donations via a partnership
with the IEEE Foundation.
Solar-powered filter helps Mongolian Paying homage, raising awareness
nomads breathe better Project Koyash was named after the
mythical Turkic sun god in order to
BY EPICS IN IEEE pay homage to Mongolian culture,
says team leader Bryan Yavari, a
neuroscience student at ASU’s Barrett
A TEAM OF students from the lung functions that are 40 percent honors college, in Tempe, as well as to
Fulton Schools of Engineering at lower than those living in rural areas, raise awareness about air pollution in
Arizona State University is helping to according to UNICEF. Ulaanbaatar.
ORIGINAL PHOTO: LAUREN KOBLEY

improve the air quality for nomadic The Project Koyash team at ASU The students launched the initiative
communities in Mongolia. designed a solar-powered air-filtration in 2020 after reading an article about
A drought in the country has led system that autonomously cleans the city’s air pollution in the Bulletin of
to food shortages, prompting the polluted air in less than an hour. The the World Health Organization.
nomads to migrate to the Ger district system is being used in the mobile To improve air quality, burning
in the capital of Ulaanbaatar, one homes of those living in nomadic unrefined coal for heat was banned.
of the world’s most polluted cities. communities. Project advisor Shamsher “Shami”
During the past few years, children The team worked with the nonprofit Warudkar says it was a choice between
living in the polluted district have Taiwan Fund for Children and Families staying warm and having breathable air.

Photo-Illustration by Nadia Radic SEPTEMBER 2024 THE INSTITUTE 57

 “In a city already plagued by the air-quality index from 325 to 80 “Our team has been adaptable
pollution,” he says, “we at least within 90 minutes. The higher the AQI, and passionate about learning other
wanted to provide them with clean air the greater the level of air pollution. fields,” he says.
at home.” Warudkar is an associate One of the project’s biggest Warudkar adds: “We’ve all learned
aeroelasticity engineer at Virgin successes, Yavari says, was “having so much, and we’re all bringing
Galactic, in Los Angeles. An alumnus our system work seamlessly with so different items and skills to the table.”
of the ASU engineering school, he has many different components while With 13 units already in use, the
been involved with the project from the accomplishing the daunting task of team is continuing the deployment
beginning. purifying the air.” phase. Team members plan to
In the team’s initial discussions Warudkar credits the system continue testing in order to enhance
with the Mongolian consulate about air engineering process with helping the the system, and the group is working
quality and the logistics of the project, team discover the correct path forward. with TFCF to develop a local
it was clear the country was looking “I’m proud that we were able to supply chain for the components. It
for solutions but “there were not many explore and iterate to eventually come eventually could provide the filtration
groups trying to find them,” Yavari says. to this solution,” he says. systems to the more than 800,000
The team designed its filtration “The engineering process was well residents in the Ger district.
system to be solar-powered worth it after talking to the families “This local supply chain will help
because Ulaanbaatar gets an and hearing their appreciation that us implement a more sustainable,
average of 290 days of sunlight they are able to breathe clean, filtered perpetual solution for the residents,”
each year. The system includes a air for the first time,” Yavari says. “It Yavari says.
solar panel, a battery, an Arduino is the most rewarding experience we Working with the nonprofit has
microcontroller, an inverter, and a have had.” been invaluable, the two say. TFCF
filter. All the components are housed connected with the community, set
in a 3D-printed weatherproof box to Multidisciplinary talent up the 13 units, and obtained data
protect them. Having a team that was on how the system was working,
“The system is designed to run multidisciplinary was a factor in the Warudkar says.
autonomously so that the residents project’s success, Yavari says. The “Without a local partner, we could
don’t have to turn it off and on or move group included students studying not do what we’re doing,” he says.
anything,” Yavari says. aerospace engineering, computer Koyash is now registered as a
When the team tested the system science, industrial design, and nonprofit—which has helped to
in 2022, it purified the air and reduced mechanical engineering. provide the residents with long-term
support through additional systems,
supply-chain development, and
ongoing assistance.

Adaptability is critical
Reflecting on lessons learned during
the project, Yavari and Warudkar
agree that patience and adaptability
have been critical.
“When you have an international
project, there are lots of roadblocks
that no one anticipates or controls,
but we made sure the project is still
progressing,” Yavari says.
The project “didn’t just fall in our
TAIWAN FUND FOR CHILDREN AND FAMILIES

laps,” he says. “This was something

that we had to deliberately go out
there and figure out.
“When people are at home
watching a documentary about how
climate change affects the world, they
often say, ‘Oh man, that sucks, but I
can’t do anything about it.’ But when
you really put yourself out there and
Members of the Taiwan Fund for Children and Families set up one of do the work, you can accomplish so
the air-filtration systems inside a mobile home in Ulaanbaatar's Ger much. It’s important to keep trying no
district. matter what obstacles are faced.”

58 THE INSTITUTE SEPTEMBER 2024

 IEEE-HKN by the
Numbers
As IEEE-HKN marks its 120th
anniversary, here’s a breakdown
of its 2023 membership, chapters,
volunteerism, and events.

Members by IEEE Region:

Regions 1–6
Sampathkumar Veeraraghavan [left], 2023 IEEE-HKN president, and Cecilia
Paredes Verduga, Escuela Superior Politécnica del Litoral rector, were on United States 46,459
hand to install the school’s Nu Zeta chapter.

Region 7
NEWS chapter debuted at Purdue University
Northwest, in Hammond, Ind.
Canada  167
IEEE’s Honor So far this year, chapters were Region 8
formed at the Escuela Superior
 1,134
Society
Africa, Europe,
Politécnica del Litoral, in Guayaquil, Middle East
Ecuador; Hampton University

Celebrates in Virginia; Óbuda University, in

Budapest; and Polytechnic University
Region 9
Latin America  413
120 Years
of Puerto Rico in San Juan, the second
chapter in the territory. Hampton is a Region 10

BY KATHY PRETZ
historically Black research university. Asia and
Pacific
 1,143
Career services

2,242
IEEE-HKN’s benefits have expanded
THE IEEE–ETA KAPPA NU honor over time. The society now focuses
society for engineers celebrates its more on helping its members with
120th anniversary this year. Founded in career development. Career-related Number of inductions
October 1904, IEEE-HKN recognizes services on the society’s website
academic experience as well as include a job board and a resource
excellence in scholarship, leadership,
and service. Inductees are chosen
center that aids with writing résumés
and cover letters, as well as interview
278 5 16
based on their technical, scientific, and tips and career coaching. Number of New Reactivated
leadership achievements. There’s also the HKN Career chapters chapters chapters
In 1950 HKN established the Conversations podcast, hosted by
category of eminent member to honor society alumni. IEEE-HKN’s mentoring
those whose contributions significantly
benefited society. Membership
extends beyond just students. It now
program connects recent graduates
with alumni. IEEE professionals
are paired with graduate students
245
Number of collaborative events
includes professional members who based on technical interest, desired with IEEE student branches
are engineering leaders and technology mentoring area, and personality.
pioneers. IEEE-HKN is celebrating its
The society has changed
significantly over the years. Global
expansion resulted from the merger
anniversary on 28 October, Founders
Day, the date the society was
established.
108,739
Total hours spent volunteering
of North America–based HKN with If you were ever inducted into
IEEE in 2010. Several chapters have IEEE-HKN, your membership never
been established in recent months. expires. Check your IEEE membership
10,489
IEEE-ETA KAPPA NU

The Nu Eta chapter at the Sri Sairam record. The honor society’s name
Engineering College, in Chennai, should appear there if you've been
Total hours spent on STEM
India, was founded in September inducted, but if it does not, complete outreach events
2023, becoming the fourth chapter in the form at [Link]/ieee-hkn-
the country. In October the Nu Theta alumni-reconnect-form. SOURCE: IEEE-HKN 2023 ANNUAL REPORT

SEPTEMBER 2024 THE INSTITUTE 59

 PROFILE

IEEE Honor Society

Gave Joseph Greene
a Leg Up
The network he built scored him a prestigious internship
BY KATHY PRETZ

WHEN JOSEPH GREENE was inducted into

IEEE–Eta Kappa Nu almost a decade ago, the
undergraduate EE student never imagined the
impact IEEE-HKN would have on his life.
As a member of the Kappa Sigma chapter
at Boston University, he learned leadership
and communications skills while accepting
different roles. Through his network of honor
society members, he also found a mentor who
helped him get an internship at a major research
institute in Georgia.
“What I find incredibly alluring about IEEE-
HKN,” Greene says, “is that not only can I
engage with this organization that’s brought so
many benefits to me, but I also get to work with
others to have an impact outside the walls of the
honor society.”
Now armed with a doctoral degree in
computational imaging from BU, the IEEE
graduate student member continues to be
involved with IEEE-HKN by mentoring grad
students and organizing events to engage alumni.

An active volunteer
Greene says he picked up his love of engineering
from the science fairs he participated in
throughout middle school and high school in
Westford, Mass. Also, his father, a senior sales
ORIGINAL PHOTO: JOSEPH GREENE

manager for Thermo Fisher Scientific, a provider

of medical equipment headquartered in Waltham,
Mass., exposed Greene to the field of medical
imaging by bringing him along to trade shows.
“It was there that I got to explore and engage
with a diversity of different engineers,” Greene
says. “It was really those experiences that helped
show me the fascinating products you can realize
and the amazing applications you can apply

60 THE INSTITUTE SEPTEMBER 2024 Photo-Illustration by Nadia Radic

 those technologies to with a little bit conferences, where he
of engineering know-how.” was a presenter and
While a freshman in high school, keynote speaker.
Greene took a mechanical engineering
course, which he says solidified his Helping grad students
decision to pursue an engineering Even after earning his
career. bachelor’s degree in EE
He got involved with IEEE-HKN in in 2018 and a master’s
2014 after attending an event held by degree in electrical and
the Kappa Sigma chapter at BU, where computer engineering
he was pursuing a bachelor’s degree in in 2019, Greene
electrical engineering. continued to volunteer.
“I really enjoyed spending time He launched and IEEE Graduate Student Member Joseph Greene
with the community,” he says, “so runs a number of events and IEEE-HKN’s program director, Nancy Ostin,
when I had the opportunity to join its and programs for his display the honor society’s banner at the
2022 IEEE-HKN Student Leadership Conference.
ranks and have an impact on the local fellow grad students to
campus and bond more with my peers, show them the value
I was ecstatic.” of their membership
After that he became active in and keep them involved
the chapter’s events such as tutoring with IEEE.
students for upcoming tests and One is a professional-to-student remote sensing tools. He credits
finding speakers from the university mentoring program that partners his mentor—M. Ryan Bales, IEEE-
or local companies to talk about their people from industry and academia HKN president—for helping him
research projects to students. with students to build working get the internship. The IEEE senior
He also created relationships between member is a chief scientist with the
several programs for the the two as well as provide GTRI’s Sensors and Electromagnetic
Employer Georgia
honors society, including career, technical, and Applications Laboratory.
Tech Research
an Arduino and coding Institute in personal advice. After graduating with his Ph.D. in
workshop for high school Atlanta Another of his creations July, Greene was hired by the GTRI as
students and BU undergrads. Title Research is the IEEE-HKN GradLab a full-time research engineer.
One of his favorite activities, engineer YouTube podcast series, He says he believes every student
Member grade
he says, has been building which he says covers needs a mentor.
Graduate student
a sense of community “everything about grad “What I found most rewarding
member; IEEE-
among the honor society’s HKN’s Kappa school that they don’t teach about having a mentor is they offer a
members. Sigma chapter you in a classroom.” much broader perspective than just
“When our chapter member The series addresses your collegiate needs,” he says.
was struggling during Alma mater topics such as how to Greene credits IEEE-HKN with
Boston
the COVID-19 pandemic, survive the first semester, giving him the soft skills that many
University
I held virtual town hall ways to mitigate conflict, employers are looking for.
meetings and game nights, and learning what it takes “College teaches you how to invest
where students could congregate, to transition from graduate school to well in your technical skills,” he says,
talk about their concerns in an open a career in industry or academia. “and it does a phenomenal job of
environment, have some fun, and preparing you for the workforce.
forget about their worries for a brief Mentorship and soft skills “However, there are many other
moment,” he says. Greene earned a Ph.D. in aspects I found from my internships
Kappa Sigma received the computational imaging this year. that go into being a complete
2021 IEEE-HKN Outstanding Chapter He describes the technology as a professional, such as the leadership,
Award for its activities. mixture of optical design, algorithms, project management, and soft skills I
Greene has held several leadership and deep learning to try to push was able to grow through IEEE-HKN.
positions for the society, including the physical limits of conventional “If you want to make sure that
vice president, president, and student systems. you’re on the forefront of engineering
governor on the IEEE-HKN board. He was a graduate research intern leadership, you should definitely
“The thing that’s impacted me at the Georgia Tech Research Institute, consider joining IEEE-HKN,” he
most about IEEE-HKN is that by in Atlanta. There he applied his adds. “The organization, staff, and
JOSEPH GREENE

engaging as a volunteer, you’re taken knowledge of computational imaging volunteers are dedicated toward
seriously,” he says. to remote sensing technologies, and making sure you have the opportunity,
Greene participated in several he explored the effects of atmospheric resources, and network to thrive and
of the society’s student leadership propagation and turbulence on succeed.”

SEPTEMBER 2024 THE INSTITUTE 61

 IEEE PROGRAMS SCHOLARSHIPS
Students studying the history
IEEE Grants, The IEEE Women in Engineering
Frances B. Hugle Scholarship
of technology or engineering can

Fellowships, awards $2,500 to a student member

become a research fellow at the
IEEE History Center through its
who has completed two years
Elizabeth and Emerson Pugh Young
and Scholarships of undergraduate study at an
ABET-accredited school in the
Scholar in Residence Award. The
recipient also receives a stipend
for Students United States. The initiative is
supported by donations to the
of $5,000.

IEEE Foundation’s WIE Frances B.

IEEE OFFERS A variety of financial Hugle Memorial Fund.
assistance programs and opportunities The IEEE Vehicular Technology
to get hands-on experience for Society's Daniel E. Noble
Fellowship Award is given to
undergraduate and graduate students. The IEEE Power & Energy Society
Scholarship Plus Initiative a full-time graduate student
That includes contests, grants, pursuing a degree within the
provides scholarships and work
fellowships, and scholarships. Here is a experience to undergraduates who society’s fields of interest.
look at a few of the programs. are interested in an engineering The recipient receives a $5,000
career in power and energy. stipend.
The initiative is supported by
OPPORTUNITIES FOR donations to the IEEE Foundation.
UNDERGRADUATES SCHOLARSHIPS

CONTESTS The IEEE Power & Energy Society

OPPORTUNITIES FOR recognizes graduate student
Administered by the IEEE Industry
members who are pursuing a career
Applications Society, the Myron GRADUATE STUDENTS
in electric power and energy
Zucker Undergraduate Student Design
engineering with its Outstanding
Contest seeks both individual and GRANTS
Student Scholarship in the amount
team projects focused on electrical
The IEEE Nuclear and Plasma of $10,000.
systems, equipment, and services.
Winning projects are awarded Sciences Society's Glenn F.
cash prizes and monetary travel Knoll Graduate Educational
assistance to attend the society’s Grant awards $5,000 to students
annual meeting. pursuing a career in nuclear The IEEE Power Electronics
science instrumentation, Society’s Graduate Studies
medical instrumentation, or Scholarship and IEEE PELS Jan
The IEEEXtreme programming instrumentation for security Abraham “Braham” Ferreira
competition is a 24-hour virtual applications. The funding covers Scholarship awards seven recipients
contest in which teams of up to travel and registration fees to $5,000 each. Recipients must be
three IEEE student members compete conferences, workshops, and summer from an underserved country or
to solve a set of computer coding schools or can be used for special region. The scholarship provides
problems. Each member of the research projects. educational opportunities to those
first-place team gets an all- who cannot afford the expenses of
expenses-paid trip to an IEEE studying in another country.
conference of their choice.
The IEEE Power Electronics
Society’s Ph.D. Thesis Talk Awards
GRANTS provide five students with $1,000
The IEEE Systems Council James
each toward a doctoral thesis in
The IEEE Antennas and Propagation O. Gray Scholarship recognizes
areas related to power electronics
Society's Eugene F. Knott Memorial students pursuing graduate studies
such as energy storage, smart
Pre-doctoral Research Award in process control systems
grids, and wireless power transfer.
provides up to five US $2,000 engineering, plant automation,
grants to undergraduate students or instrumentation measurement.
who want to pursue careers in Recipients receive $6,000 and a
FELLOWSHIPS
electromagnetics. certificate.
The IEEE Life Members Graduate
Study Fellowship in Electrical
The IEEE Signal Processing Society Engineering is awarded annually to
scholarship program awards up to a full-time, first-year graduate
$7,000 of consecutive support of student pursuing a master’s For more programs,
up to three years to students who or doctoral degree in EE. The
check [Link]/
are pursuing a career in signal recipient is given a stipend of
processing. The award is funded by $10,000, which can be renewed for membership-benefits or
donations to the IEEE Foundation a second year for the same degree your student branch’s
Signal Processing Society Student based on the recipient’s progress
society chapters.
and Young Professionals Fund. in their graduate program.

62 THE INSTITUTE SEPTEMBER 2024

 Paula Ferguson, a Code Girls United volunteer, oversees a student building a mobile app using the MIT App Inventor,
a block-based visual programming language.

STARTUP

Girls Learn to Code While

Creating Real Apps
A Montana police department is already using their software
BY JOANNA GOODRICH

WHEN MARIANNE SMITH was teaching and three of the state’s Native American learning a coding language by typing it,
computer science in 2016 at Flathead reservations. students drag and drop jigsaw puzzle–
Valley Community College, in Kalispell, Smith has plans to expand the like pieces that contain code to issue
Mont., the adjunct professor noticed nonprofit to South Dakota, Wisconsin, instructions. She incorporated building
the female students in her class were and other states, as well as more an app with general computer science
severely outnumbered, she says. reservations. concepts such as conditionals, logic
Smith says she believed the disparity flow, and variables. With each concept
was because girls were not being A rapid expansion learned, the students built a more
introduced to science, technology, Smith wanted to teach girls the set of difficult app.
engineering, and mathematics in logic and communication skills gained “It was perfect,” she says, “because
elementary and middle school. by learning programming. the girls could make an app and test it
In 2017 the IEEE member decided At first she wasn’t sure what the same day.”
ORIGINAL PHOTO: CODE GIRLS UNITED

to do something to close the gap and subjects to teach, she Twenty-eight girls signed
started an after-school program to says, reasoning that Java Founded 2019 up for the weekly classes,
teach coding and computer science. and other programming Headquarters which were held in a diner.
What began as a class of 28 students languages were too Kalispell, Mont. Students had to bring their
held in a local restaurant is now a advanced for elementary Employees 10 own laptop.
statewide program run by Code Girls school students. At the end of the first
United, a nonprofit Smith founded She came across MIT App Inventor, 18 weeks, the class was tasked with
in 2018. The organization has taught a block-based visual programming creating apps to enter in the annual
elementary, middle, and high school language for creating mobile apps for Technovation Girls competition. The
students across 38 cities in Montana Android and iOS devices. Instead of contest seeks out apps that address

Photo-Illustration by Nadia Radic SEPTEMBER 2024 THE INSTITUTE 63

 The department was tracking the
location of its police cars on paper,
“Seventy-two percent of the which made it challenging to get up-

program’s first participants are to-date information about which cars

were on patrol, available for use, or
pursuing a degree in a STEM being repaired.
The objective of the app was
field, and quite a few are pursuing to streamline day-to-day vehicle
operations.
computer science.” Visual Studio Code, React Native,
Expo Go, and GitHub were used to
program the app.
The department’s administrators
now more easily can see each vehicle’s
issues including animal abandonment, community to tackle. Next they write availability, whether it’s at the repair
safely reporting domestic violence, and a business plan that includes devising shop, or if it has been retired from duty.
access to mental health services. a marketing strategy, designing a logo, “It’s a great privilege for the girls
The coding program soon outgrew and preparing a presentation. A panel to be able to apply the skills they’ve
the diner and moved to a nearby of volunteer judges evaluates their learned in the Code Girls United
elementary school computer lab. From work, and the top six teams receive a program to do something like this for
there classes were held at Flathead scholarship of up to US $5,000, which is the community,” Smith says. “It really
Valley Community College. The split among the members. brings our vision full circle.”
growing program soon expanded to The organization has given out more
schools in other Montana towns. than 55 scholarships. Teaching Native American students
The COVID-19 pandemic prompted “Some of the girls who participated Code Girls United’s program is
the program to become virtual— in our first education program are also taught to high school girls
which was “oddly fortuitous,” Smith now going to college,” she says. on Montana’s Native American
says. After she made the curriculum “Seventy-two percent of participants reservations through workshops.
available for anyone to use via Google are pursuing a degree in a STEM field, The organization is working with
Classroom, it increased in popularity. and quite a few are pursuing computer the Blackfeet reservation, the Salish
That’s when she decided to launch science.” and Kootenai tribes on the Flathead
her nonprofit. With that came a new reservation, and the Nakota and Gros
curriculum. An app for tracking police cars Ventre tribes at Fort Belknap.
Last year Code Girls United’s advanced The workshops tailor technology
Teaching more complicated concepts class held in Kalispell created an app for Native American culture. In the
Beginner, intermediate, and advanced that helps the city’s Police Department newest course, students program
classes were introduced. Instructors of manage its vehicle fleet. a string of LEDs to respond to
the weekly after-school program the drumbeat of tribal songs
are volunteers and teachers using the BBC’s Micro:bit
trained by Smith or one of the programmable controller.
organization’s 10 employees. The The lights are attached to the
teachers are paid a stipend. bottom of a ribbon skirt, a
For the first half of the school traditional garment worn by
year, students in the beginner young women. Colorful ribbons
class learn computer science are sewn horizontally across
while creating apps. the bottom, with each hue
Once students master the having a meaning.
course, they move on to the “Montana’s reservations are
intermediate and advanced levels, some of the most remote and
where they are taught lessons resource-limited communities,”
in computer science and learn Smith says, “especially in regard
more complicated programming What began as a class of 28 students to technology and educational
concepts such as Java and Python. held in a diner in Kalispell, opportunities.
CODE GIRLS UNITED

During the second half of Mont., has grown into a statewide “It’s important to give girls
the year, the intermediate and program run by Code Girls United. who live on the reservations
The nonprofit has taught coding
advanced classes participate in and computer science to more than
educational opportunities to
Code Girls United’s App Challenge. 1,000 elementary, middle, and high close the gap. It’s the right thing
Teams choose a problem in their school students. to do for the next generation.”

64 THE INSTITUTE SEPTEMBER 2024

 The World’s Best
Robots Guide Just Got Better!

LEFT: REACHY BY
POLLEN ROBOTICS;
RIGHT: AMECA BY
ENGINEERED ARTS

IEEE Spectrum’s Robots Guide

features almost 250 robots from
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66 [Link] SEPTEMBER 2024

 What + If = IEEE

420,000+
IEEE WIEmembers in world’s
is one of the 160 countries.
leaders in changing the face
of engineering.
Embrace Our global,
the largest, global network
technicalconnects over 20,000
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#IEEEmember
 HISTORY IN AN OBJECT BY ALLISON MARSH

The
Mechanical
TV
In 1885, German engineer
Paul Nipkow patented
the idea of capturing and
transmitting a picture by
dividing it into lines, using
a spinning disk with a
spiral of perforated holes
to scan the lines. The lines
were turned into electrical
signals, and a receiver
then turned the signals
back into light. Nipkow
never commercialized his
“electric telescope,”
but decades later,
Scottish inventor
John Logie Baird took
the idea much further.
Baird’s electromechanical
system transmitted images
using a spinning Nipkow
disk fitted with glass lenses
and a photoelectric cell.
A companion Nipkow disk
in the receiver re-created
the lines of the image
and projected them onto
a ground glass plate. On
26 January 1926, select
members of the Royal
Institution gathered at
Baird’s lab in London to
witness the transmission
of a small but clearly defined
image of a ventriloquist
dummy’s face. The event
is often heralded as the
SCIENCE MUSEUM GROUP

Part of the first public demonstration

apparatus that the of television.
Scottish inventor
John Logie Baird used
in his 1926 public FOR MORE ON BAIRD’S TV,
demonstration SEE [Link]/
of television. pastforward-sep2024

68 [Link] SEPTEMBER 2024

There’s more to LTC than just
where you receive care.

Expertise when your loved ones need help.

1-800-493-IEEE (4333)
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MATLAB
FOR AI
Boost system design and simulation with explainable and
scalable AI. With MATLAB and Simulink, you can easily train
and deploy AI models.

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