Will Robots Help End the Crisis of Concussions In
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QUANTUM DOTS: THE FUTURE OF THE DARK SIDE OF JACK KILBY’S CANCER KILLERS? THE SUPERCAR LED STREETLIGHTS OTHER INVENTION Shining a light on Acura’s NSX shows Losing sleep over After the IC, malignant tumors the way forward “ghostly” bluish lights a decade-long dream P. 26 P. 32 P. 44 P. 50 FOR THE TECHNOLOGY INSIDER | 10.16 BASH WILL ROBOTS ME HELP END THE CRISIS OF CONCUSSIONS IF YOU IN AMERICAN FOOTBALL? CAN P. 38 10.Cover.NA [P].indd 1 9/16/16 1:22 PM If your 5G idea works here... it will work here. 50,000 soccer fans streaming live-action mobile video. All at once. Soon it will be reality. A world connected as never before. Always on. Amazingly fast. Massive traf c. Instant information. That’s the promise of 5G. New spectrum. New waveforms. Millimeter-waves. Massive MIMO. More. Keysight offers the world’s rst 5G simulation, design and test environment able to emulate your real-world 5G wireless thesis. With deep expertise to help you tackle 5G risk and complexity. So you can go from 5G ideas to 5G reality faster. HARDWARE + SOFTWARE + PEOPLE = 5G INSIGHTS Get the latest app notes, 5G white papers and tutorials www.keysight.com/find/5G-Insight US A: 800 829 4444 CAN: 877 894 4414 © Keysight Technologies, Inc. 2016 10a.Cov2.NA [P].indd 2 9/7/16 2:10 PM FEATURES_01.13FEATURES_10.16 38 THE HARD- KNOCKS BOT Engineering students at Dartmouth College wanted to make tackling practice safer for American football players. So they invented a mobile robot to take the hits. by elliot kastner Fighting Cancer 26 With Quantum Dots Tiny chunks of semiconducting material could help extend lives. By Imad Naasani Supercar 2.0 32 The Acura NSX combines electric and gasoline propulsion to do things never before possible. By Lawrence Ulrich The Early-Adopter 44 Blues LED streetlights have riled residents and disturbed wildlife. Now, cities are taking a second look. By Jeff Hecht The Little-Known 50 History of Jack Kilby’s Misadventure in Solar Power In his post-TI career, the coinventor of the integrated circuit toiled for years to bring solar energy to homes. By Cyrus C.M. Mody On the cover and above Photographs for IEEE Spectrum by Nathaniel Welch SPECTRUM.IEEE.ORG | NORTH AMERICAN | OCT 2016 | 01 10.Contents.NA.indd 1 9/13/16 4:35 PM SMART DEVICES REQUIRE SMARTER AUTOMATED TEST SYSTEMS The old approach to automated test isn’t scaling, but you already knew that. Look at your balance sheet. To test smart devices, you need a smarter test system built on a platform of NI PXI, LabVIEW, and TestStand. More than 35,000 companies deploy NI technology to lower their cost of test—what are you waiting for? Prepare for the future at ni.com/smarter-test NI PXI, LabVIEW, and TestStand ©2016 National Instruments. All rights reserved. LabVIEW, National Instruments, NI, ni.com, and NI TestStand are trademarks of National Instruments. Other product and company names listed are trademarks or trade names of their respective companies. 25611 10a.p2.NA25611_AT_Ad_8x11.indd [P].indd 2 1 4/11/169/7/16 12:21 2:12 PMPM DEPARTMENTS_01.13DEPARTMENTS_10.16 081909 Online News Resources Opinion Spectrum.ieee.org Wind Battles Coal for Access Integrated Circuits Are STEM Crisis? What About Controversy Over to China’s Grid for Wimps the STS Crisis? Pacemaker Hack Coal interests oppose technolo- James Newman built his own Scientists and engineers bear A cybersecurity firm claims to have gies and rules that would prevent CPU—out of 42,300 hand- responsibility for the technical hacked cardiac devices made the waste of pollution-free power. soldered transistors. futures they are creating. by St. Jude Medical to prove that By Peter Fairley By Stephen Cass By Susan Hassler they’re riddled with vulnerabilities, and predicts that class-action 11 The Next High-Performance 21 Careers: Finding and 04 Back Story lawsuits could cost the company Transistor Retaining Minority Engineers 06 Contributors US $6.4 billion. But medical device 12 The Internet of Fewer Things 22 Hands On: A New Musical 24 Numbers Don’t Lie: The Success- security expert Kevin Fu says 14 Lidar for the Rest of Us Instrument Is Born ful Failure That Is Nuclear Energy the evidence isn’t strong. See 16 The Big Picture: Bot-Built 72 Past Forward: Nuking 25 Technically Speaking: his takedown at http://spectrum. Superstructure on Display Sandwiches, Circa 1946 The Language of IoT ieee.org/pacemaker1016 ADDITIONAL RESOURCES Tech Insider / Webinars The Institute Available at spectrum.ieee.org/webinar Available at theinstitute.ieee.org Simulation of Planar Magnetic Components—Possible or SOCIAL ENGINEERING Hackers don’t always have to rely on their Impossible?—4 October computer skills to break into a system—some simply ask victims the right questions to gather personal information. Researchers used this tactic to Simulation of RF Interference in Electronics—13 October HOTO P K check for security vulnerabilities in one of the largest telecommunication C TO MA STER BOND RESOURCE LIBRARY companies in Croatia. S http://spectrum.ieee.org/static/master-bond-resource-library N EW PRODUCT RELEASE LIBRARY PROTECTING WHISTLEBLOWERS When software engineers find a EWMAN; I EWMAN; N http://spectrum.ieee.org/static/new-product-release-library security flaw in a system or device, they shouldn’t have to think twice about W HITE PAPERS bringing it to the developer’s attention. But they often face a legal dilemma. http://spectrum.ieee.org/whitepapers ES; JAMES JAMES ES; G FILLING A GAP Many computer science students aren’t being trained MA I in cybersecurity. That’s why IEEE Member Roy Wattanasin helped create a cybersecurity and policy program at Brandeis University, in Waltham, Mass. IEEE SPECTRUM (ISSN 0018-9235) is published monthly by The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. All rights reserved. © 2016 by The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc., 3 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10016-5997, U.S.A. Volume No. 53, issue No. 10, North American edition. The editorial content of IEEE Spectrum magazine does not represent official positions of the IEEE or its organizational units. Canadian Post International Publications Mail (Canadian Distribution) Sales Agreement No. 40013087. Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to: Circulation Department, IEEE Spectrum, Box 1051, Fort Erie, ON L2A 6C7. Cable address: ITRIPLEE. Fax: +1 212 419 7570. INTERNET: [email protected]. ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTIONS: IEEE Members: $21.40 included in dues. Libraries/institutions: $399. POSTMASTER: Please send address changes to IEEE Spectrum, c/o Coding Department, IEEE Service Center, 445 Hoes Lane, Box 1331, Piscataway, NJ 08855. Periodicals postage paid at New York, NY, and additional mailing offices. Canadian GST #125634188. Printed at 120 Donnelley Dr., Glasgow, KY 42141-1060, U.S.A. IEEE Spectrum circulation is audited by BPA Worldwide. IEEE Spectrum is a member of the Association of Business Information & Media Companies, the FROM LEFT: CHINA PHOTOS/GETTY PHOTOS/GETTY CHINA LEFT: FROM Association of Magazine Media, and Association Media & Publishing. IEEE prohibits discrimination, harassment, and bullying. For more information, visit http://www.ieee.org/web/aboutus/whatis/policies/p9-26.html. SPECTRUM.IEEE.ORG | NORTH AMERICAN | OCT 2016 | 03 10.Contents.NA.indd 3 9/13/16 4:35 PM BACK STORY_ EDITOR IN CHIEF Susan Hassler, [email protected] EXECUTIVE EDITOR Glenn Zorpette, [email protected] EDITORIAL DIRECTOR, DIGITAL Harry Goldstein, [email protected] MANAGING EDITOR Elizabeth A. Bretz, [email protected] SENIOR ART DIRECTOR Mark Montgomery, [email protected] SENIOR EDITORS Stephen Cass (Resources), [email protected] Erico Guizzo (Digital), [email protected] Jean Kumagai, [email protected] Samuel K. Moore (News), [email protected] Tekla S. Perry, [email protected] Philip E. Ross, [email protected] David Schneider, [email protected] DEPUTY ART DIRECTOR Brandon Palacio, [email protected] PHOTOGRAPHY DIRECTOR Randi Klett, [email protected] A SSOCIATE ART DIRECTOR Erik Vrielink, [email protected] PHOTOGRAPHY ASSISTANT Yuki Mizuma, [email protected] The Old College Try SENIOR ASSOCIATE EDITORS Rachel Courtland, [email protected] Eliza Strickland, [email protected] A SSOCIATE EDITORS t’s not very often that an engineer gets thrust into the Celia Gorman (Multimedia), [email protected] white-hot spotlight of American late-night TV. But that’s exactly Willie D. Jones (News), [email protected] Amy Nordrum, [email protected] what happened to Elliot Kastner on 8 October 2015. Kastner (at VIDEO PRODUCER Kristen Clark, [email protected] left in photo) was then not quite a year and a half past earning an SENIOR COPY EDITOR Joseph N. Levine, [email protected] C OPY EDITOR Michele Kogon, [email protected] engineering degree at Dartmouth College, where he had turned EDITORIAL RESEARCHER Alan Gardner, [email protected] his senior-year project into a business building tackling robots ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT intended to help American football teams train more safely. Ramona L. Foster, [email protected] His early prototype robots, or “dummies,” attracted plenty CONTRIBUTING EDITORS I Evan Ackerman, Mark Anderson, John Blau, Robert N. of media attention. But it was still a shock to get a call on Tuesday, Charette, Peter Fairley, Tam Harbert, Mark Harris, David Kushner, Robert W. Lucky, Paul McFedries, Prachi Patel, 6 October—the middle of the Ivy League football season—asking if Kastner Richard Stevenson, Lawrence Ulrich, Paul Wallich and Dartmouth football coach Eugene F. “Buddy” Teevens could appear DIRECTOR, PERIODICALS PRODUCTION SERVICES Peter Tuohy on “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert.” In New York City.