What the time of “intelligent interrogation” means for today’s workforce.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming education and learning – changing how we learn inside and outside of school, the workplace and other formal and informal settings.

Since the introduction of generative AI (GenAI) model in November 2022 and the release of the large language models (LLM), such as ChatGPT 4 in March 2023, and its later variations including ChatGPT 4o and ChatGPT 4o Mini on top of other GenAI apps and tools, the speed of the transformation is ever increasing.

The future best-in-class learning is expected to use AI-powered assistants and AI agents that are contextually aware of and fully integrated with the learning environment to deliver personalized, one-on-one guidance and feedback to learners at scale. The anchor term herein is “at scale.” The ready availability of GenAI and its continued development and advancement will propel new teaching and learning pathways, leading to heightened efficiency and effectiveness of on-campus learning, lifelong learning, professional upskilling and reskilling.

The outline of a PCB can serve as more than a simple perimeter.

The perimeter of a PCB defines the extent of whatever electronics have to be packaged therein. The outline can also serve other functions.

Printed circuit boards come in many shapes and sizes. The first thing the outline gives us is the resulting routable area. The positional variation of each layer in the stackup requires us to compensate with a little pullback of the metal from the edge.

These days, pulling the metal back from the edge by 8 mils (0.2mm) is sufficient for most fabricators. I went to a PCB conference walking from booth to booth and asked all the fabricators what their minimum pull back from the edge would be for production quantities. A few of them, call it 20%, said they could plate the board to within 5 mils (0.127mm) of the edge. In a special case, we used lasers to define the edge and had metal just 2 mils (0.05mm) away.

The next increment is to plate right to the edge and wrap copper around to the other side. Edge plating is used in cases where we want to create a more complete Faraday cage around a circuit. It’s also possible to pass voltage and ground from the top to the bottom around the edge of the board or even using a slot within the outline of a board.

The Internet of Bodies could reveal the truth about our health and protect us against misinformation.

It’s probably understandable that we are more obsessed with our health and longevity than any other aspects of our lives, including relationships, careers and money. It’s also probably fair to say that more advice is thrust at us on this subject than any other: what to eat or drink, how to exercise, when to sleep, how to avoid illness, how to live longer, happier and healthier.

Guidance on how to live better is changing continuously, as new scientific studies adjust previous conclusions and influencers leverage the power of the Internet to offer various theories ranging from convincing to crackpot (Breatharianism, anyone?). Who would believe it’s possible to survive on non-food substances including air, sunlight and cosmic energy? You can pay to be shown how, of course.

The Internet of Bodies (IoB) could transform our understanding of ourselves, as individuals and as a species. As an extension of the IoT, IoB adds value by aggregating information from the increasing number and diversity of biosensors available to us. By collecting more data about us from more and more diverse channels as new types of sensors and monitors are being marketed on a continuous basis, we can also analyze that data more quickly and in greater detail.

PCB designs will soon enter a new dimension in miniaturization.

Our industry has always been about creating cutting-edge, next-generation technology. Over decades this has been accomplished by striving to pack more capability in less space. The electronics industry, and printed circuits in particular, has accomplished this more often than not without specific definitions to either strive for, or be hindered by.

Such examples can be found by looking at the definitions, per Oxford Languages, for five simple words that have been used over the decades in our technologically driven businesses: