Universities in the United States, India, and South Korea are launching specialist talent programmes to boost their domestic chipmaking sectors.

As the field matures, its researchers are finding practical applications in solar-energy harvesting, chemical manufacturing, optical refrigeration, and energy-efficient computing.

Purdue University researchers have improved upon traditional solar energy structures used in agrivoltaic farming, a sustainable system that generates electricity from the sun while row crops like corn, rice, soybeans and wheat concurrently grow on the same land.

Purdue is partnering with tech companies and researchers in Europe, Japan and India to share knowledge and prepare students for careers in advanced semiconductor technology and microelectronics.

AI black boxes refer to AI systems with internal workings that are invisible to the user. You can feed them input and get output, but you cannot examine the system’s code or the logic that produced the output.

On June 27, 2010, the FBI arrested 10 Russian spies who lived and worked as American professionals near New York City. The case, which unraveled an intricate system of false identities and clandestine meetings, exposed one of the largest spy networks in the U.S. since the Cold War ended and inspired the show The Americans.

Purdue Ventures on Monday announced its investment in Ixana, a West Lafayette-based startup that has developed a high-speed silicon chip it says provides wearable smart devices with the ability to securely communicate via touch.

The CHIPS Act, as well as the ongoing need for talent, is causing both industry and academia in America to rethink engineering education, resulting in new approaches and stronger partnerships.

“We need to … move the needle in the next few years. We need to convince more of these students to come, to consider, and prepare for careers in the semiconductor industry,” said Mark Lundstrom, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at Purdue University, during panel discussions last month to discuss the U.S. CHIPS and Science Act at the university.

If you’ve paid attention to business and technology news over the past two or three years, you’ve probably heard about hardtech—even if you’re not quite sure what it is.