technology 24 for you

Thursday, August 20, 2026

Grok exfiltrates user data when malicious instructions are encrypted

Earlier this week, researchers outlined an attack that used a secret input provided by Microsoft 365 Copilot for enterprise to cause the AI assistant to exfiltrate a password present in the user’s inbox. Now, a separate team has devised a similar attack against Grok. The new data theft hack employs a deceptively simple trick to force the Elon Musk-owned LLM to steal user chats and other personal information. At the time this post went live, the assistant continued to cough up the data, despite xAI being informed of it in June. The lesson from both this week’s episodes—and the countless other ones that have come before it—is that LLMs are incapable of solving the root causes for prompt injections, the most severe vulnerability classes they’re most prone to. That leaves AI developers with no other option but to build a guardrail that steers the model away from the harmful actions. As I noted in <a href="https://arstechnica.com/security/2026/08/microsoft-copilot-reveals-secret-input-that-allowed-it-to-be-hacked/">Tuesday’s story</a>, the approach is tantamount to a road traffic safety engineer erecting a protective rail around a dangerous bend rather than banking the curve. <h2>Cryptographic Context Injection in the house</h2> Prompt injections exploit LLMs' training to comply with user requests whenever possible. Attackers can capitalize on the predilection by smuggling harmful instructions into emails or webpages the assistant is instructed to summarize. Because LLMs can’t reliably distinguish between content in an email sent by an untrusted party and user instructions entered directly into a prompt, the overly solicitous LLM faithfully follows them. To date, Grok and other LLMs' only recourse is to create guardrails that flag suspicious instructions and forbid them from being executed.<a href="https://arstechnica.com/security/2026/08/grok-exfiltrates-user-data-when-malicious-instructions-are-encrypted/">Read full article</a> <a href="https://arstechnica.com/security/2026/08/grok-exfiltrates-user-data-when-malicious-instructions-are-encrypted/#comments">Comments</a> Reference : https://ift.tt/WQhPU5L

Wednesday, August 19, 2026

Gaining Leadership Backing for Your Innovations

<img src="https://spectrum.ieee.org/media-library/conceptual-illustration-of-three-different-hands-placing-puzzle-pieces-together-in-the-shape-of-a-lightbulb.jpg?id=67643651&width=1245&height=700&coordinates=0%2C187%2C0%2C188"/> This article is part of our exclusive career advice series in partnership with the IEEE Technology and Engineering Management Society.Imagine this: You have a strong idea for a new product for your company. Your coworkers encourage you to move forward because they believe it could be the organization’s next big success. The idea clearly falls outside your department’s responsibilities, however, and you have no role in the product line.What should you do? Sit and wait for “the right group” to pick it up, or push the idea forward without knowing how or what it might mean for your current position?Such situations occur frequently. Many end up as missed opportunities, even though they could have significantly advanced the company’s technological or market position.Some organizations actively support such initiatives, allocating specific periods during the workday for employees to focus on developing their own ideas.Companies known for that include <a href="https://about.google/company-info/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Google</a> and <a href="https://www.3m.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">3M</a>. They allow employees to pursue projects with a portion of their time, such as one day per week. <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/caim.12309" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Research</a> that I conducted indicates it pays off for employee performance.<h2>Bootlegging and skunkworks</h2>At some companies, managers know such projects exist, but they deliberately turn a blind eye, allowing them to continue.Some employees persist through bootlegging or skunkworks projects.Bootlegging projects have not been approved by a manager or funded by the company.Skunkworks projects involve a small team within the company that has been given authority and funding to secretly research and develop potentially groundbreaking innovations during their off-hours. The term comes from <a href="https://www.lockheedmartin.com/en-us/who-we-are/business-areas/aeronautics/skunkworks.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Lockheed’s Skunk Works</a> division, set up in 1943 in a rented circus tent to build the P-80 fighter jet in secret. It took just 143 days.The 3M <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-it_note" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Post-it Note</a> came out of the company’s “15 percent culture,” described as a permitted bootlegging policy. It gives employees paid time off to pursue their own ideas.The company traces the philosophy to its longtime president and later chairman <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1978/03/05/archives/william-l-mcknight-who-built-a-sandpaper-company-into-3m-from-the.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">William L. McKnight</a>. Company scientist <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Fry" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Arthur Fry</a> used the policy in 1974 to turn a colleague’s dormant adhesive into the first Post-it prototypes, after his own bookmarks kept falling out of his hymnal.There are several examples of high-visibility skunkworks projects. At <a href="https://www.apple.com/supply-chain/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Apple</a>, <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/steve-jobs" target="_self">Steve Jobs</a> pulled roughly 20 people—pirates, as he called them—out of the company to build the original <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/apple-macintosh" target="_self">Macintosh</a> computer in a building nicknamed Texaco Towers. In <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Isaacson" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Walter Isaacson</a>’s biography <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Steve-Jobs-Walter-Isaacson/dp/1451648537" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Steve Jobs</a>, he frames the idea as modeled on the skunkworks approach.<a href="https://support.google.com/mail/answer/56256?hl=en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Google’s Gmail</a> system is frequently—and incorrectly—cited as a product of the company’s “20% time” policy. In a 2014 <a href="https://time.com/43263/gmail-10th-anniversary/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">interview</a> with Time magazine, the system’s creator, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Buchheit" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Paul Buchheit</a>, said Gmail was in fact an official assignment. What the Gmail incubation did share with classic skunkworks projects was secrecy: For much of its three years in development, it was kept hidden from most people inside the company.If you want to drive change in your organization, build a promoter triad around your idea.At <a href="https://abc.xyz/" target="_blank">Alphabet</a>, Google X—now known simply as <a href="https://x.company/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">X</a>—operated as a secretive “<a href="https://www.entrepreneur.com/science-technology/8-of-the-coolest-projects-to-come-out-of-x-googles/326836" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">moonshot</a>” lab, kept hidden from most Google employees, according to a 2011 <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/14/technology/at-google-x-a-top-secret-lab-dreaming-up-the-future.html?_r=1" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">article</a> in The New York Times. Google’s self-driving car project graduated from X to become <a href="https://waymo.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Waymo</a>, and <a href="https://x.company/projects/glass/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Google Glass</a> was likewise incubated there. The X team is now developing the second edition of <a href="https://developers.google.com/glass-enterprise" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Glass Enterprise</a>, a successor aimed at industrial rather than consumer use.<a href="https://developers.google.com/glass-enterprise" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Amazon</a> runs a comparable model through <a href="https://www.amazon.jobs/content/en/teams/devices-and-services/lab126" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Lab126</a>, which, according to an <a href="https://www.fastcompany.com/3040383/following-fire-phone-flop-big-changes-at-amazons-lab126" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">article</a> in Fast Company, evolved from a small skunkworks Amazon subsidiary into a hardware maker with nearly 3,000 employees. Lab126 delivered the <a href="https://www.amazon.com/kindle/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Kindle</a> in 2007 and the <a href="https://www.amazon.com/alexa/shop-echo-devices" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Echo</a> in 2015.Then there are so-called submarine projects, which employees work on without permission and despite explicit disapproval. They can lead to disciplinary action and termination. <h2>Innovation management</h2>Innovation management theory offers a more structured and robust approach. It argues that successful organizational change requires support at several levels, according to “Teamwork for Innovation: The ‘Troika’ of Promoters,” published in <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/14679310" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">R&D Management</a>. The promoter theory, developed around 25 years ago, consistently shows that change projects are far more likely to succeed when they are supported on multiple organizational levels. A good idea alone is not enough; you need a network of technology, process, and power promoters to turn a concept into a fully implemented, scalable solution.First, you need a technology promoter: the person who has the idea, such as a new product, and possesses technical expertise and specific knowledge about the field or industry. Art Fry at 3M would be such an individual.How can you put that into practice as an individual? Start by clearly formulating your idea into a concise concept paper or one-page summary including benefits, technical feasibility, and potential business impact.Identify potential technology promoters (experts who can validate and refine your idea), and approach them early to strengthen the technical foundation.In parallel, map the relevant stakeholders and decision-makers, and identify process promoters who understand how decisions are made in your company. They could be colleagues in innovation, R&D, or business development who understand your idea and how it can benefit the company.The second is a process promoter: someone who might not know all the technical details but understands the organization’s formal and informal networks and knows how to navigate its processes, committees, and decision-making paths. This person can ensure the idea reaches the right stakeholders at the right time.In the 3M case, it would be a person from the organizational management department, often called an innovation manager. The key role here is to connect inventors such as Fry with people from other departments needed for further project development, such as manufacturing, quality control, and sales.Lastly, there’s the power promoter: a person in a leadership position who might not know the technical details but can allocate resources, eliminate obstacles, and maneuver through the company’s political dynamics. This individual has hierarchical power and acts as a sponsor of the idea or project. In the case of Fry, the person could be, say, the chief technology officer, but it also could be a middle manager who has the power for an individual field of action.The three-level promoter structure applies regardless of whether the change concerns a new product, new service, or internal process innovation.Engage potential power promoters by presenting a low-risk, small-scale pilot and a clear value proposition. Leaders are more likely to support ideas that are well prepared, vetted for potential risks, and backed by a small coalition. <h2>Building the promoter triad</h2>In short, don’t work in isolation. Systematically build alliances across expertise, networks, and hierarchical levels to create lasting change. If you want to drive change in your organization, build a promoter triad around your idea.The tech experts and leadership promoters are easier to identify. Process promoters are often found in corporate innovation management, R&D management, or strategy functions, but they also can emerge in line units with strong internal networks.Innovation management, as the promoter model describes it, looks nothing like the management structure most engineers are trained to expect. Traditional technical management runs on a single reporting line. With the promoter model, influence is spread across three people—technology, process, and power promoters—who may be in different departments, at different levels of seniority, and who might never share a reporting line.What holds the trio together isn’t a formal structure; it’s the idea itself, for as long as it takes to move the idea forward.That makes innovation management closer to networked, matrix-style leadership than to the pyramid most engineers picture when they hear the word management. It’s worth understanding both models before you decide which kind of impact you’re actually optimizing for.The Institute has covered the tension from the individual’s side in “<a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/thinking-like-an-entrepreneur" target="_self">Tips for How to Think Like an Entrepreneur</a>,” “<a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/management-versus-technical-track" target="_self">Management Versus Technical Track</a>,” both published in partnership with the <a href="https://www.ieee.org/membership-catalog/productdetail/showProductDetailPage.html?product=MEMTEM014" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">IEEE Technology and Engineering Management Society</a>, and “<a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/ic-or-manager" target="_self">What to Consider Before You Accept a Management Role</a>” from the <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/files/81653/careeralert-06-02-25.html" target="_self">IEEE Spectrum Career Alert</a> newsletter. All are worth a look if you’re weighing a formal management track against staying close to the technology itself.Remember: You don’t have to build your promoter network alone or only inside your own company. IEEE <a href="https://www.ieee.org/communities-connection/societies-councils-and-communities/societies" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">societies</a>, <a href="https://www.ieee.org/communities/geographic-activities" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">sections and chapters</a>, and <a href="https://www.ieee.org/communities/societies/about-technical-communities" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">technical committees</a>, as well as the networking platform <a href="https://www.ieee.org/about/collabratec-volunteers" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">IEEE Collabratec</a>, function as a ready-made cross-company network. They are practical places to find technology promoters with deep expertise in a field you don’t fully own yet, or to meet process and power promoters at other organizations who have built a promoter coalition around a similar idea.For more tips on how to advance your career, check out our <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/collections/career-advice/" target="_self">Career Advice for Engineers, From Engineers collection</a>. Reference: https://ift.tt/EPoqAiO

Tuesday, August 18, 2026

Microsoft Copilot reveals secret input that allowed it to be hacked

It’s not every day that attackers can force a frontier AI model to cough up user passwords and other sensitive data without user confirmation. That’s exactly what researchers recently did to Microsoft 365 Copilot Enterprise. Even more unusual is the source they tapped to discover the critical vulnerability that made their exploit possible. Rather than employing reverse engineering or other traditional vulnerability-hunting methods, they asked Copilot. The LLM assistant readily complied. Researchers at security firm Varonis knew they wanted to create an exploit that would exfiltrate user data when a user did nothing more than click on a link. Like most AI assistants today, Copilot steadfastly refused and made clear that sensitive prompts like that require explicit user consent in the form of a gesture, such as pressing a return key or other key. In response, the researchers peppered Copilot with questions about the guardrails that required user confirmation before the assistant can execute powerful commands. <h2>Loose lips sink ships</h2> The dialog was like a game of 20 questions. Each answer provided a new clue that divulged information about the complex safety mechanism. Why was auto-execution impossible, they asked. What URL structures and deep links were involved? What happens when a page is loaded with input already in the prompt field? Each answer provided a deeper view into the guardrail and its limits. Eventually, Copilot provided a stunning Microsoft trade secret—an undocumented prompt parameter that completely bypassed the requirement for user consent.<a href="https://arstechnica.com/security/2026/08/microsoft-copilot-reveals-secret-input-that-allowed-it-to-be-hacked/">Read full article</a> <a href="https://arstechnica.com/security/2026/08/microsoft-copilot-reveals-secret-input-that-allowed-it-to-be-hacked/#comments">Comments</a> Reference : https://ift.tt/AYtxKpv

Monday, August 17, 2026

IEEE Presidents’ Scholarship Honors Teen Innovators

<img src="https://spectrum.ieee.org/media-library/three-high-school-students-posing-with-their-individual-award-plaques-next-to-a-middle-aged-white-woman.jpg?id=67634200&width=1245&height=700&coordinates=0%2C156%2C0%2C157"/> About 16 percent of the global population—more than 1 billion people—live with some form of disability, according to the <a href="https://www.who.int/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">World Health Organization</a>. Many of the disabilities affect independence and mobility.Three high school students working on inventions to help people with disabilities restore movement, translate thoughts, and navigate rough terrain had their work showcased at Regeneron’s <a href="https://www.regeneron.com/responsibility/fueling-stem-innovators/isef" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF)</a>, held in May in Phoenix. Their projects earned them this year’s <a href="https://www.ieee.org/education/preuniversity/scholarship" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">IEEE Presidents’ Scholarship</a> awards.IEEE President <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/u/maryellen-randall" target="_self">Mary Ellen Randall</a> presented the awards at a <a href="https://youtube.com/watch?v=HW1uGgQk_7U" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">ceremony</a> held during the fair. They also received an IEEE President’s coin, which students said was a highlight of their experience.Hollie Tang won this year’s IEEE Presidents’ Scholarship of US $10,000 for her <a href="https://isef.net/project/sftd046-tonguage-tongue-based-hmi-for-motor-disabilities" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">wheelchair navigation system</a>. The award is payable over four years of undergraduate university study and includes a complimentary IEEE student membership.<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/partap-sidhu-2a3561358/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Partap Sidhum</a>, the second-place winner, received a $600 scholarship for his mind-controlled lower-limb exoskeleton. Third-place winner <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/calvinshung/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Calvin Shang Hung</a> received a $400 scholarship for his rough-terrain robot. Sidhum and Hung also got complimentary IEEE student memberships.Established by the <a href="https://www.ieeefoundation.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">IEEE Foundation</a> and administered by <a href="https://ea.ieee.org" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">IEEE Educational Activities</a>, the <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/ieee-presidents-scholarship" target="_self">Presidents’ Scholarship</a> recognizes high school students who demonstrate an exceptional grasp of electrical engineering, computer science, or another IEEE field of interest.<h2>Controlling movements with a tongue</h2> <img alt="An Asian-American high school student standing in front of her research poster about tongue-based HMI for motor disabilities." class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="b92a5c4100d9d27533604722317a5248" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="d6f87" loading="lazy" src="https://spectrum.ieee.org/media-library/an-asian-american-high-school-student-standing-in-front-of-her-research-poster-about-tongue-based-hmi-for-motor-disabilities.jpg?id=67634203&width=980"/> Holly Tang won the 2026 IEEE Presidents’ Scholarship of US $10,000 for her Tonguage project, which is a noninvasive, computer-vision-based human-machine interface.Lynn BowlbyTang, a sophomore at <a href="https://wihs.hlpschools.org/" target="_blank">Wilson High School</a> in Hacienda Heights, Calif., secured the top prize for her <a href="https://isef.net/project/sftd046-tonguage-tongue-based-hmi-for-motor-disabilities" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Tonguage</a> project: a noninvasive, computer-vision-based human-machine interface. Using tongue movements and a standard camera, the interface lets users control a computer and other digital tools as well as assistive technologies including wheelchairs. The tongue pad, one of the system’s core features, allows the user’s tongue to function as a directional cursor, while eye blinks serve as mouse clicks.Tonguage translates the person’s tongue and eye motions into actionable commands in several ways, such as the tongue’s position inside the mouth and continuous movement patterns. The system’s multimodality combines input from the tongue with other facial cues.The system includes a face-tracking feature for error prevention that verifies commands are coming from the intended user, disregarding anyone else who moves into the camera’s frame.That is a critical safety measure for a wheelchair-navigation application, Tang says.Accessibility was central to Tang’s mission. She built the system to run on relatively affordable, readily available laptop cameras rather than more costly specialized hardware.“Mobility conditions don’t discriminate,” she says. “They can affect anyone of any income, gender, and socioeconomic status.”Tang initially imagined Tonguage as a simple substitute for a keyboard and mouse. The more research she did, though, the more she realized that it could offer autonomy through applications such as wheelchair navigation, robotic arm control, and gaming, she says.“We’re so focused on trying to give people autonomy over just basic human tasks that we often leave out things like gaming,” she says. “They deserve the freedom to play games and enjoy entertainment as well.”Tang, who plans to pursue biomedical engineering, says a visit to a rehabilitation center solidified her purpose.“Including empathy in your technological solution is so important,” she says. “Empathy is hard to teach in a classroom, but it can be learned through experience, and through actually meeting people whose lives your work might change.”<h2>Mind-controlled exoskeleton </h2>Sidhu, a junior at <a href="https://www.bethpagecommunity.com/o/bhs" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Bethpage High School</a>, in New York, took second place for <a href="https://isef.net/project/robo024-mind-controlled-lower-limb-pneumatic-exoskeleton" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">NeuroGait</a>, a mind-controlled, lower-limb <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/soft-exoskeleton-motor-free" target="_self">exoskeleton</a>. He says he was inspired by his volunteer work at a community center that lacked elevators. He saw individuals with mobility issues struggle to navigate the three flights of stairs.NeuroGait operates by reading the Bereitschaftspotential (BP), a faint electrical pattern that emerges one to two seconds before a person consciously initiates movement. Using a custom electroencephalogram (EEG) headset and a convolutional neural network (CNN), the system classifies intended movements and sends commands to a 3D-printed exoskeleton. Rather than rigid motors, the suit relies on pneumatic artificial muscles that Sidhu designed to mimic human anatomy.“The pneumatic artificial muscle in itself is so compliant that it’s able to adjust to the limitations of the human body,” he says.The technical specifications are striking: The CNN achieves a 99.9 percent accuracy in detecting a person’s intended movement, while the full system—from the brain’s signal to physical movement—operates at 95.2 percent accuracy, according to the results from 500 trials Sidhu conducted. Perhaps most impressively, Sidhu built the entire system for about $276, less than 1 percent of the $40,000 to $100,000 price tag of commercial exoskeletons, according to a <a href="https://www.rootsanalysis.com/reports/medical-exoskeleton-market.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">2025 revenue report</a> from Roots Analysis.He says he hopes to bring NeuroGait to the community center where the idea for the project began.He attributes his success to staying current with research from institutions and organizations such as <a href="https://bostondynamics.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Boston Dynamics</a> and <a href="https://www.mit.edu/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">MIT</a>.“To be successful in research,” he says, “you have to know what’s being done right now.”<h2>A spider-inspired robot </h2>Hung, a sophomore at <a href="https://ecgauchos.wccusd.net/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">El Cerrito High School</a>, in California, took third place for <a href="https://www.societyforscience.org/press-release/regeneron-isef-2026-special-awards-ceremony/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Math Into Motion: Robotic Hexapod for Hazardous Environments</a>. The six-legged robot is designed to traverse terrain too unstable for humans or conventional robotic systems.With only weeks before the science fair deadline for entries and no prior electrical engineering experience, Hung began with an idea inspired by his interest in spaceflight: an insectlike robot. He had spent years watching rovers such as <a href="https://science.nasa.gov/mission/msl-curiosity/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Curiosity</a> and <a href="https://science.nasa.gov/mission/mars-2020-perseverance/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Perseverance</a> struggle on uneven surfaces, leading him to hypothesize that a hexapod design would be better for rugged ground.As the project progressed, the humanitarian applications for his robot became clearer, he says. Watching news reports of the earthquake that struck Türkiye in 2023, as well as conflicts around the globe, Hung adapted his robot for use in disasters. The hexapod’s stable tripod walking gait, in which three legs stay grounded while the other three move, makes it well suited for navigating in collapsed buildings to locate survivors or to carry sensitive supplies such as insulin in conflict zones.The current version moves using three mathematical techniques. Inverse kinematics converts a target leg position into the motor angles needed to reach it. Linear interpolation breaks each movement into a series of smaller steps for smoother motion. And Euclidean transformations translate the robot’s travel direction into instructions that each leg can follow, regardless of the way a leg happens to be facing.Hung taught himself how to design a printed circuit board. He also taught himself 3D modeling, coding, and soldering. Figuring out the complicated mathematical transformations to coordinate legs facing different directions proved to be the toughest hurdle, he says.After seven months of development and trial and error, a critical circuit board failure in his third version nearly ended the project, he says.“There was a really strong moment of ‘Should I just give up?’” he recalls.He simplified the design and rebuilt it from the ground up.“I just decided to double down,” he says. The fourth version of the robot was the first that successfully walked across his living room floor.He advises aspiring engineers that “if you find the right project and it truly becomes your passion, designing it almost starts to feel like fun, and that’s what carries you through.”As the three young innovators demonstrate, the future of engineering goes far beyond technical ingenuity. Much is rooted in empathy and a commitment to human welfare.Through initiatives such as the IEEE Presidents’ Scholarship, the IEEE Foundation showcases and nurtures bright minds poised to shape the next era of assistive technology and robotics.For Tang, Sidhu, and Hung, the ISEF stage is just the beginning. They can look forward to impactful careers dedicated to advancing technology for the benefit of humanity. Reference: https://ift.tt/MyoiBQC

Digital Signal Processing Pioneer Bede Liu Dies At 91

<img src="https://spectrum.ieee.org/media-library/portrait-of-an-elderly-asian-man-softly-smiling-in-a-suit-jacket-and-tie.jpg?id=67609508&width=1245&height=700&coordinates=0%2C62%2C0%2C63"/> Bede Liu, a digital signal processing pioneer, died on 7 May. He was 91.Liu was widely regarded as one of the founders of modern digital signal processing, a field that applies mathematical algorithms to analyze, modify, and transmit signals including sound, images, and video.The IEEE Life Fellow taught electrical engineering at <a href="https://www.princeton.edu/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Princeton</a> for more than 50 years. From 1994 to 1997, he chaired the university’s <a href="https://ece.princeton.edu/front" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">electrical and computer engineering department</a>.Liu’s research aided the transition from analog to digital processing of sound, images, and video. His work helped establish many of the mathematical and engineering techniques that underpin modern communications, multimedia systems, and consumer electronics.Although little known outside engineering circles, his work is embedded in technologies used by billions of people. The low-power digital signal processors that make cellphone calls, streaming video, and Internet communications possible can be traced to research he conducted in the 1970s and ‘80s.Liu received the 2018 <a href="https://corporate-awards.ieee.org/award/ieee-jack-kilby-signal-processing-medal/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">IEEE Jack S. Kilby Signal Processing Medal</a> for “sustained contributions to the analysis and the development of low-complexity realizations of digital signal processing algorithms.”“We stream music and video. We take photos with our phones, and we send them around. We don’t even think about it,” IEEE Life Fellow <a href="https://ece.princeton.edu/people/h-vincent-poor" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">H. Vincent Poor</a> said in an <a href="https://engineering.princeton.edu/news/2026/06/24/bede-liu-pioneer-digital-signal-processing-and-beloved-mentor-dies-age-91" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">obituary for Liu</a>. “But it’s all because of the signal processing, image processing, and video processing that’s been developed over the years, as well as other technologies that have grown up beside it and enabled it, like semiconductors. The development of these processing advances was exactly what Bede was a major part of.” Poor is a professor of electrical and computer engineering at Princeton.<h2>An impactful scholar and teacher</h2>Liu was born in Shanghai in 1934. During his childhood, his family relocated to Taiwan amid the upheaval of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Civil_War" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Chinese Civil War</a>. His father, Henry Liu Sr., was an electrical engineer.Liu earned his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering in 1954 from the <a href="https://www.ntu.edu.tw/english/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">National Taiwan University</a>, in Taipei. After graduating, he and his family moved to the United States. Liu and his father attended the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn (now the <a href="https://engineering.nyu.edu/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">New York University Tandon School of Engineering</a>) together. They earned their master’s degrees in electrical engineering in 1956. Liu continued his studies at the school, earning a doctoral degree in electrical engineering four years later.In 1959 he was awarded a <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/7-bell-labs-ieee-milestones" target="_self">Bell Labs</a> <a href="https://www.nokia.com/bell-labs/institute/media/bell-labs-fellows/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">fellowship</a> and worked at the company’s Murray Hill, N.J., location until he joined Princeton in 1962.“Liu was a highly impactful scholar and teacher—always thinking ahead of future needs and changing technologies,” said IEEE Life Fellow <a href="https://ece.princeton.edu/people/peter-j-ramadge" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Peter J. Ramadge</a>, a Princeton professor emeritus of engineering.Cellphones make use of a considerable amount of digital signal processing, Liu once noted. Many of the field’s advances, he added, involved making sophisticated processing practical on devices with limited computing power—which is the challenge that confronted generations of engineers designing portable electronics.Liu’s research contributions helped shape both the theory and practice of digital signal processing. With <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abe_Peled" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Abe Peled</a>, a former graduate student, he authored the 1976 textbook <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Digital-Signal-Processing-Theory-Implementation/dp/0471019410" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Digital Signal Processing: Theory, Design, and Implementation</a>, which is a standard reference for engineers. Published before digital signal processing had fully emerged as a distinct discipline, it helped define the subject for practitioners and students around the world.Liu also published 250 technical papers and was granted 12 U.S. patents. His papers are available to read on the <a href="https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/author/37087189074" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">IEEE Xplore Digital Library</a>.The first patent granted to him and Peled was in 1976 for a hardware design that processed bits in parallel, rather than in sequence. The innovation greatly increased computing efficiency for data including sound and communication signals.Peled says Liu “demonstrated an openness to new ideas and a willingness to challenge the orthodoxy of the EE department at that time—which leaned heavily toward more theoretical information theory.”<h2>A mentor to well-known engineers</h2>Liu’s influence extended beyond his own research. He advised 53 doctoral students, many of whom went on to distinguished careers in academia and industry, including leadership positions at <a href="https://about.google/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Google</a> and <a href="https://www.ibm.com/about" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">IBM</a>. One former student, computer scientist <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/bob-kahn-2667754905" target="_self">Robert Kahn</a>, helped create the architecture of the modern Internet. Kahn, an IEEE Life Fellow, received the 2024 <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/medal-of-honor-bob-kahn" target="_self">IEEE Medal of Honor</a>.“His former students were very successful,” Poor said of Liu, “and I think that’s a testament to his skill as a mentor.”“Liu was a highly impactful scholar and teacher—always thinking ahead of future needs and changing technologies.”—Peter J. RamadgeTogether with several Ph.D. students, Liu developed methods of filtering and compressing digital signals to mitigate errors and dramatically reduce the computation needed for signal processing.As digital signal processing moved from laboratories into commercial products, the impact of Liu’s ideas spread across industries. His research helped spawn the development of lower-cost and lower-power electronics and contributed to advances in mobile communications, multimedia technology, industrial automation, and biomedical imaging.<h2>A focus on media integrity and copyrights</h2>In the 2000s, Liu turned his attention to media integrity and copyright issues.“With the increasing accessibility of digital media source material, the protection of ownership and the prevention of unauthorized alteration has become an important concern,” he wrote in his 2002 book, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Multimedia-Data-Hiding-Min-Wu/dp/0387954260" target="_blank">Multimedia Data Hiding</a>. The book, which he co-wrote with his former doctoral student IEEE Fellow Min Wu, discussed the theory, techniques, applications, and security of digital watermarking—hidden signals that could identify a genuine copy of a song, image or video to prevent unauthorized distribution or tampering.A Princeton team that included Liu, Wu, and another of his doctoral students uncovered serious vulnerabilities in watermarking technologies being considered by an industry consortium. They found that the standardization efforts were immature and would not protect against digital piracy.“Now nearly every copy of a Hollywood film given to a critic or theater carries a unique digital forensic watermark to prevent unauthorized redistribution,” said Wu.<h2>A force in the community</h2>Liu, an active IEEE volunteer, served on the <a href="https://www.ieee.org/about/corporate/board" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">IEEE Board of Directors</a> in 1984 and 1985. He was the 1982 president of the <a href="https://ieee-cas.org/welcome" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">IEEE Circuits and Systems Society</a>.He was a member of the U.S. <a href="https://www.nae.edu/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">National Academy of Engineering</a>, an academician of China’s <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/136208a0" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Academia Sinica</a>, and a foreign member of the <a href="https://english.cas.cn/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Chinese Academy of Sciences</a>.Outside the classroom, he was recognized for his humility, humor, enthusiasm, and generosity. When thinking of Liu, IEEE Life Fellow <a href="https://www.cs.princeton.edu/~ken/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Kenneth Steiglitz</a> says, cheer is the first word that comes to mind.Liu was “always ready with a positive remark, a quick smile or, maybe, some tips on the right way to cook a duck,” says Steiglitz, professor emeritus of computer science at Princeton.Liu encouraged his students to take on ambitious, unconventional projects, and he inspired students and colleagues with his adventurous spirit. Reference: https://ift.tt/e0XBbGz

Nvidia discloses $21B stake in SpaceX

Nvidia has disclosed that it owns nearly 123 million shares in SpaceX, further highlighting the chipmaker’s entangled financial relationships with some of its biggest customers. The $5.5 trillion company owned SpaceX stock worth nearly $21 billion at the end of June, according to an SEC filing on Friday. Elon Musk’s rocket conglomerate’s shares have fallen sharply since its June initial public offering, meaning Nvidia’s stake would now be worth $17 billion. The disclosure marks a huge pay-off on Nvidia’s investment in xAI, completed in January, shortly before Musk combined the AI lab with SpaceX.<a href="https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2026/08/nvidia-discloses-21b-stake-in-spacex/">Read full article</a> <a href="https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2026/08/nvidia-discloses-21b-stake-in-spacex/#comments">Comments</a> Reference : https://ift.tt/TleonjU

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