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24 IBM WATSON, HEAL THYSELF Artificial intelligence may revolutionize medicine, and IBM aimed to lead the charge. But creating an AI doctor proved harder than anyone expected. By Eliza Strickland

44 A MEDICAL MINI-ME Chip-scale copies of living organs are helping scientists discover new drugs and could one day help doctors pick the perfect treatment for what ails you. By Yu Shrike Zhang

06 NEWS 14 RESOURCES 21 OPINION

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04.19 A 400,000 oreven 500,000 ayear from cars asinglefactory, usingas DESERVES A GREAT CAR EVEN A NON-MILLIONAIRE world. are Thecars better, days, These themanufacturing. andsois any design, quality,design, andtechnology. andexecuted,designed butthat regular peoplelike afford.” mecan He early ’80s, backwhen Detroit’s offerings were at alow ebbin terms of thingsaboutof thebest my discoveringthat’s jobis acar brilliantly continues to make human workers redundant, at interms least offactory assembly,” says. Ulrich “It’s asad irony, butthere’s nogoing back.” namesake who worked presses—and fingers had themetal missing generation family ofDetroit autoworkers, includingagrandfather and exampleprime ofadvanced andaffordability. technology points to theHonda InsightHybrid, year’s inthis Top 10Tech Cars,asa global automaker—well, perhaps notTesla—can routinely churn out to show himselfdidtimeonaproductionlineinthe Ulrich for it. trouble-free, best-performing, most technically advanced cars in history trouble-free, mosttechnicallyadvanced best-performing, inhistory cars few as3,000 workers. that sametechnology hasgiven “The usthemost The business hascome backsincethen,inDetroitThe business andaround the Ulrich livesUlrich inBrooklyn days, these but hehailsfrom athree- BACK STORY_ driving the latest electric cars orany cars othermodelthatdriving brings thelatest electric nother day, another supercar. Lawrence Lambo) hasdrivenLambo) more exotic automobiles thanhecan automotive (that’s contributor him,next to theUS$525,000 new andexciting to technology themasses. recall. Butheswears that hegets almostasbigakickfrom there have ofletdowns,” beenplenty says “Soone Ulrich. “Any that costssixfiguresis supposed car and to beamazing,

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CHARLIE MAGEE CONTRIBUTORS_

EDITOR IN CHIEF Susan Hassler, [email protected] ADVERTISING PRODUCTION MANAGER EXECUTIVE EDITOR Glenn Zorpette, [email protected] Felicia Spagnoli, [email protected] EDITORIAL DIRECTOR, DIGITAL SENIOR ADVERTISING PRODUCTION COORDINATOR Mark Anderson Harry Goldstein, [email protected] Nicole Evans Gyimah, [email protected] MANAGING EDITOR Elizabeth A. Bretz, [email protected] Anderson, an IEEE Spectrum contributing editor, EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD, IEEE SPECTRUM says the first and only time he ever used a 3D SENIOR ART DIRECTOR Susan Hassler, Chair; Steve Blank, David C. Brock, Sudhir Dixit, Mark Montgomery, [email protected] Shahin Farshchi, Limor Fried, Robert Hebner, Jason K. Hui, printer was at a local maker’s event, where his SENIOR EDITORS Grant Jacoby, Leah Jamieson, Mary Lou Jepsen, Deepa Kundur, kids used one of the available machines to print Stephen Cass (Resources), [email protected] Norberto Lerendegui, Steve Mann, Allison Marsh, Sofia Olhede, out a plastic doodad. “It wasn’t anything useful,” Erico Guizzo (Digital), [email protected] Jacob Østergaard, Umit Ozguner, John Rogers, he recalls. Now that the novelty of 3D printing Jean Kumagai, [email protected] Jonathan Rothberg, Umar Saif, Takao Someya, is wearing off, manufacturers are focusing on Samuel K. Moore, [email protected] Maurizio Vecchione, Yu Zheng, Kun Zhou, Edward Zyszkowski Tekla S. Perry, [email protected] mainstream uses, Anderson says. He writes Philip E. Ross, [email protected] EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD, THE INSTITUTE about recent progress in 3D-printed metals for David Schneider, [email protected] Kathy Pretz, Chair; Qusi Alqarqaz, John Baillieul, Philip Chen, this issue [p. 9]. 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with tests typically used in animal cog- nition research. “An AI can be great at one task,” Crosby says, “but can it solve similar tasks that it hasn’t seen before?” Just about everyone thinks that, eventually, AI will transform society from top to bottom—yet no one knows when AI agents will be smart enough to really shake things up. Recent AI tri- umphs in the world of games have cre- ated inflated expectations, as hyped-up media reports fast-forward too quickly to a world run by machines. One societal domain that could be transformed by AI is health care. Health data is increasing exponentially: IBM has estimated that the average per- son will generate 1 million gigabytes of How Smart Is Artificial Intelligence? health-related data in his or her lifetime, doubling the amount of health data in Are today’s best artificial-intelligence systems existence every two to five years. With as smart as a mouse? A crow? A chimp? all that data now stored in electronic A new contest aims to find out health records, the industry seems per- fect terrain for an AI that can mine vast quarries of data and discover gold nug- he Animal-AI Olympics, which will begin this June, aims to gets therein. Many medical experts are anticipating “benchmark the current level of various AIs against different ani- AI systems that can find hitherto unseen patterns mal species using a range of established animal cognition tasks.” that improve patient outcomes and make health At stake are bragging rights and US $10,000 in prizes. The care more efficient. project, a partnership between the University of ­Cambridge’s In this issue, “IBM Watson, Heal Thyself” [­ p. 24] Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence and GoodAI, tells the story of IBM’s effort to turn its AI tech- a research institution based in Prague, is a new way to evalu- nology into a variety of tools for intelligent medi- T ate the progress of AI systems toward what researchers call cine. IBM was one of the first companies to make a artificial general intelligence. ¶ Such an assessment is necessary, the serious push to bring AI into hospitals and clinics, organizers say, because recent benchmarks are somewhat deceiving. and the challenge has proved harder than any- While AI systems have bested human grandmasters in a host of chal- one expected. Medical data is messy, as messy as lenging competitions, including the board game Go and the video game human biology—but somehow physicians man- StarCraft, these matchups only proved that the AIs were astoundingly age to cut through the mess to make diagnoses good at those particular games. AI systems have yet to demonstrate and treatment plans for their patients. IBM knew the kind of flexible intelligence that enables humans to reason, plan, going in that its Watson AI wasn’t as smart as an and act in many different domains. If you asked the ­StarCraft-playing expert doctor—but as our story makes clear, the AI to devise an investment strategy for your retirement, for example, it company is still trying to figure out exactly how would give you the digital equivalent of a blank stare. ¶ Animals may smart it is, and what it’s good for. Watson still has not be planning for retirement, but they can generalize, transfer les- a lot of learning to do, at least when it comes to sons learned to new circumstances, and engage in creative problem practicing medicine. —Eliza Strickland solving—as anyone who has ever watched a squirrel stage an attack on a bird feeder can testify. Matthew Crosby, one of the contest’s orga- The editorial content of IEEE Spectrum does not represent official positions of IEEE or its organizational units. This article is based in part on our Tech Talk nizers and a postdoctoral researcher at the Leverhulme Center and at blog post “Animal-AI Olympics Will Test AI on Intelligence Tasks Designed for Crows and Chimps.” Imperial College London, says he’s eager to see if any of the AI agents

entered in the contest can display similar abilities when confronted ↗ POST YOUR COMMENTS at https://spectrum.ieee.org/smartai0419 IMAGES MEJER/EYEEM/GETTY DARIUSZ

04 | APR 2019 | SPECTRUM.IEEE.ORG IoT calls for fast communication between sensors.

Visualization of the normalized 3D far-field pattern of a slot-coupled microstrip patch antenna array.

Developing the 5G mobile network may not be the only step to a fully functioning Internet of Things, but it is an important one — and it comes with substantial performance requirements. Simulation ensures optimized designs of 5G-compatible technology, like this phased array antenna. The COMSOL Multiphysics® software is used for simulating designs, devices, and processes in all fields of engineering, manufacturing, and scientific research. See how you can apply it to 5G and IoT technology designs. comsol.blog/5G Roughly 300 million citizens lacked power INDIA RACES when Modi was elected in 2014. At first, he reaffirmed his predecessor’s goals of bring- TOWARD UNIVERSAL ing power to every village and hooking up their health and community centers and schools by 2018. Then Modi upped the ante ELECTRIFICATION in 2017, vowing to plug in every household in India by this year. Crash program links every Indian household More than 25 million households received to a troubled power grid a free or heavily subsidized link to the national grid and its big generating stations under Modi’s new effort, dubbedS­ aubhagya, which is Hindi for “good fortune.” This Indian prime minister Narendra Modi is crisscrossing his ­country, pushed the percentage of electrified households declaring that his government has eliminated the nation’s persistent in India to 99.99 percent according to the proj- electrification gap. Modi hopes this potent political message will help pro- ect’s online dashboard. pel his party to another victory in India’s April and May national elections. The government’s statistics, however, overlook But energy experts and entrepreneurs advise taking the party’s elec- some serious gaps. Recent surveys by ISEP in four trification claims with large lumps of salt—particularly any assertions of northern states identified many villagers who failed a nonstop power supply. “Supply quality has improved over time. But to apply for or receive a connection. 24/7? Definitely not,” says Johannes Urpelainen, who runs the Initiative for Many rural enterprises, which were not offered ­Sustainable Energy Policy (ISEP) at Johns Hopkins University, in Baltimore. discounted connections, also remain without

He visited Indian villages in January where power flowed just 2 hours daily. power. That’s a missed opportunity since busi- IMAGES MUKHERJEE/BLOOMBERG/GETTY ANINDITO RIGHT: TOP AND ABOVE

06 | APR 2019 | SPECTRUM.IEEE.ORG will likely power just a few lights and charge phones. And, despite such low usage, many villagers may struggle to pay for it along with their monthly service fee. There is a risk that electrification may backslide as state grid com- panies disconnect households that fail to pay. Weak revenues for state distribution compa- nies that must maintain Modi’s grid expansions may, in turn, lead to more rolling blackouts and low-voltage conditions. In other words, the self-reinforcing negative feedback loop that already afflicts India’s rural power systems may require a more targeted fix. Urpelainen of Johns Hopkins offers one: a national power-quality monitoring system to hold the government and distributors account- able. With such a system in place, “anybody in India could look at how their village is doing relative to the rest of the country,” he says. Pune-based consumer advocate Prayas Energy Group is proving the p­ ower-monitoring concept via a network of several hundred sen- sors across India. And ISEP is separately devel- oping cheaper Internet-connected sensors that Urpelainen estimates could be deployed in 100,000 villages to create a high-resolution nationwide network for less than US $20 million. One group that is not pushing for a quick GRID LINES: Businesses such as barbershops [left] are not part of India’s grid reliability fix is India’s entrepreneurial solar-power sup- ambitious electrification plan. However, many rural residents now have pliers, for which rolling blackouts offer a lifeline. Less than electricity in their homes and villages [top]. A sign in Fateh Nagla, in Uttar Pradesh, announces the program [bottom]. ­2 percent of households electrified via Saubhagya received a home solar system in lieu of a regional grid connection. nesses are an engine for development. Some research has ­Urpelainen, Wolfram, and other energy experts say that even questioned the benefits of residential electrification, extending the grid was cost effective for rural India, which notes Catherine Wolfram, an energy policy expert at the Uni- is densely populated compared with, for example, Africa’s versity of California, Berkeley. “There’s reason to believe that powerless regions. “Most unelectrified villages were in areas connecting enterprises would lead to more economic gains where the grid was nearby,” says Urpelainen. than connecting households,” she says. But rather than being killed off by Modi’s grid build-out, Wolfram calls Modi’s electrification push a “huge achieve- off-grid solar providers are pivoting to survive as a reliable ment,” but she says it could be 5 to 10 years before ­Saubhagya’s backup for those village residents who can afford to pay more success transforms rural life in India. “Getting all that equip- for better service. ment to remote villages is impressive. Getting electricity to One example is the Kolkata-based Mlinda Sustainable Envi- actually flow over the wires is another challenge,” says Wolfram. ronment, which operates 25 village-scale solar minigrids in India has plenty of generation available and decent distri- Jharkhand. Vijay Bhaskar, Mlinda’s managing director, says bution infrastructure. The challenge is primarily economic: they provide two services that most village grids do not: freeing debt-ridden power distributors and their cash-strapped round-the-clock supply as well as the three-phase electric- consumers from a self-reinforcing cycle of low power demand, ity needed to run heavy machinery. As Bhaskar puts it: “We low distribution revenues, and poor reliability. work to increase demand mainly on the productive side that Villagers who got new connections are unlikely to plug much improves livelihoods and incomes.” —Peter Fairley RIGHT: PRASHANTH VISHWANATHAN/BLOOMBERG/GETTY IMAGES VISHWANATHAN/BLOOMBERG/GETTY PRASHANTH RIGHT: in for the foreseeable future. For most, appliances such as

BOTTOM refrigerators and fans are prohibitively expensive, so the grid ↗ POST YOUR COMMENTS at https://spectrum.ieee.org/indiapower0419

NEWS

SPECTRUM.IEEE.ORG | APR 2019 | 07 FACEBOOK PUSHES NETWORKING TECH The company’s Terragraph technology will soon be available in commercial gear

For years, Facebook has through the air. To do that, telcos are To get around these issues, providers been developing a technol- eyeing high-frequency bands, which typically use fixed wireless networks, in ogy to improve the way data have more bandwidth available than which a base station transmits to a sta- is organized and routed in crowded lower frequencies that have tionary receiver installed on a building’s wireless networks. Now, that technology long been used for consumer electronics. exterior. From there, Ethernet cables is being integrated into commercially Of interest to Facebook is the V-band, distribute service indoors. available 60-gigahertz small-cell base commonly referred to as simply 60 GHz, Last year, Facebook teamed up with a stations. And if service providers sign though it technically spans from 40 to subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom to test on, it could soon help deliver over-the- 75 GHz. This band is unlicensed in many Terragraph in two villages in Hungary. air Internet to homes and businesses countries, which means it’s free for any- In the first of those trials, technicians around the world. one to use. connected about 100 households. With The Facebook technology, called While indoor equipment supporting Terragraph, residents enjoyed average ­Terragraph, provides a way for a cluster 60 GHz as a Wi-Fi alternative has been Internet speeds of 500 megabits per sec- of base stations broadcasting at 60 GHz available for years, outdoor gear is just ond, as opposed to the 5 to 10 Mb/s they to autonomously manage and distribute now beginning to appear. Many Internet had been getting through DSL. Facebook traffic among themselves. If one base service providers are considering using is now completing trials with operators station goes down, another can take 60 GHz to bridge the gap between exist- in Brazil, Greece, Hungary, Indonesia, over in an instant—and they can work ing infrastructure and new locations Malaysia, and the United States. together to find the most efficient path they’d like to reach, or to add capacity The technology itself consists of a suite for information en route. to places they already serve. of software based on the IEEE 802.11ay Half a dozen equipment vendors, “It’s definitely interesting,” says standard and includes features such as including Cambium Networks, Com- Swetank Kumar Saha, a research assis- time-division multiple access, which mon Networks, Nokia, and Qualcomm, tant and Ph.D. candidate in computer sci- dices up a channel into time slots on have now pledged to roll out commer- ence at the University at Buffalo, in New which multiple base stations can trans- cial gear that integrates Terragraph. The York, who has studied the performance mit in rapid succession. In the seven- latest announcements came in February of 60-GHz consumer gear for indoors. “A layer Open Systems Interconnection at the MWC Barcelona trade show. If it lot of people have struggled to commer- Model, Terragraph works at Layer 3, the works as promised, Terragraph should cialize 60 GHz. There’s been a lot of talk.” slice that has to do with routing infor- make Internet access faster and more One problem is that signals at mation between IP addresses. affordable in places where it’s deployed. ­millimeter-wave frequencies (roughly With Terragraph, Facebook took its Increasingly, broadband that was once 30 to 300 GHz) do not travel as far as expertise in routing data around its distributed through expensive fiber- those at lower frequencies, are readily fiber backbone and applied that exper- optic cables buried deep underground is absorbed by rain and foliage, and cannot tise to wireless networks, says Chetan

being beamed to homes and businesses pass through windows or walls. ­Hebbalae, a senior director at Cambium. FACEBOOK

08 | APR 2019 | SPECTRUM.IEEE.ORG WIRELESS WORLD: Technicians in Mikebuda, Hungary, install Terragraph-enabled small-cell base stations for a trial that began in May 2018. NEW METALS SHINE NEWS In 2017, the project came full circle when IN 3D PRINTERS ­Facebook made the underlying routing software open source. Called Open/R, it With novel materials, 3D printing can was initially designed for Terragraph but build more products is now also used by Facebook to shuttle information around its own data centers. There are still limits to the technology, It’s been five or so years But, Wohlers says, aerospace and however. Each Terragraph-enabled base since 3D printing was at medical devices occupy a special station can transmit only up to distances peak hype. Since then, the tech- niche because they must be espe- of about 250 meters, and all routes must nology has edged its way into a cially strong, durable, and precise. be line-of-sight with no foliage, walls, or new class of materials and started In the United States, these indus- other obstacles in the way. Anuj Madan, to break into more applications. tries are also subject to oversight by product manager for Facebook, says the Today, 3D printers are being seri- the Federal Aviation Administra- company has tested Terragraph in rain ously considered as a means to tion and the Food and Drug Admin- and snow, and that weather “has not pre- produce stainless steel 5G smart- istration. So they have adopted sented an issue so far” for performance. phones, high-strength alloy gas- cutting-edge 3D printers, some- But, just in case, Hebbalae says, many turbine blades, and other complex times at higher costs. 60-GHz base stations are designed to metal parts. Wohlers Associates, in its annual temporarily switch back to standard The technology for 3D printing 3D-printing industry reports, Wi-Fi frequencies of 5 GHz or 2.4 GHz if (or additive manufacturing) of met- keeps close watch on the average there’s too much loss. als is finally hitting its stride. Two selling price of these machines. A spokesperson for Sprint said the industries—aerospace and medical Today, Wohlers says, the price of a company plans to test Terragraph equip- appliances—have already adopted conventional 3D printer that might ment and is exploring the 60-GHz band it. Lawrence Gasman, president of produce polymer or ceramic parts for its network. A representative of AT&T Charlottesville, Va.–based industry at an industrial scale is US $94,250. said it has performed lab tests involving analyst SmarTech Publishing, says, Whereas, he says, the average sell- 60 GHz but currently has no plans to “There are no big aerospace compa- ing price of an industrial-size metal incorporate the band into its network. nies that don’t use 3D printing for 3D printer is currently $407,880. Saha, of the University at Buffalo, is major parts in their aircraft. Obvi- Yet, says Jonah Myerberg, chief optimistic about Terragraph’s chances ously, there are some things that will technology officer of Desktop of breaking out into the world. “These never be 3D-printed, but it’s quite Metal, newer 3D metal-printing companies will look at the cost at the remarkable how much actually is.” technologies are in fact reduc- end of the day, and if the cost is better Many medical devices are also ing costs, increasing through- than going for fiber, then they will defi- now 3D-printed—including hip put, and maintaining the same nitely go for it,” he says. cups, prosthetics, and dental ­high-­precision standards for many Cambium’s Hebbalae says his compa- appliances, says Terry Wohlers, companies that try them. ny’s first Terragraph-enabled base station president of Wohlers Associates, Consider, for instance, a smart- is currently in the “design and develop- in Colorado, a consulting firm that phone. Some 4G phones, Myerberg ment phase” and will likely be available specializes in 3D printing. says, are made of aluminum. But later this year. The company’s goal is to offer Terragraph as a software feature that can be easily switched on or recon- figured from afar. “Hopefully, if we talk six months from now, I’ll be able to talk about pilots and trial deployments with customers,” he says. —Amy Nordrum

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DESKTOP METAL DESKTOP terragraph0419

ASSEMBLY NOT REQUIRED: Desktop Metal’s Production System is designed to use 3D printing to manufacture complex metal parts at a competitive cost.

SPECTRUM.IEEE.ORG | APR 2019 | 09 REGULATORS SEEK WAYS TO DOWN ROGUE

transmitting signals at the higher ATTENTION TO DETAIL: These blades DRONES frequency bands used by many 5G were produced by Siemens engineers using 3D printing and installed in a Growing antidrone industry phones will work only with mini- 13-megawatt gas turbine. mal interference from the phone’s offers radar, remote ID, and metal body. The acceptable level with older, laser-based 3D metal- other tools of interference may be lower than printing techniques. “­ Siemens what aluminum can deliver. is doing some interesting work Phone companies are now consid- with ground-based gas tur- Drone sightings at Lon- ering a shift to stainless steel instead, bines,” Wohlers says. In printing don’s Gatwick Airport dis- Myerberg says. Because it’s stron- the turbine blades with a laser- rupted operations there for ger than aluminum, less is needed. based 3D metal printer made three days last December, And that means less interference and by EOS, “they’ve consolidated and in January, rumored sightings near more room for the battery. 13 parts into one,” he says, “which Newark [N.J.] Liberty International Air- But there’s a hitch. “Switch- means they’ve eliminated many port delayed incoming air traffic tem- ing the material from aluminum welds, reduced [build time] from porarily. These incidents highlighted to steel takes 10 times as long to 26 weeks to 3 weeks, and reduced a growing problem with small drones: machine,” Myerberg says. “Because weight by 22 percent.” Miscreants, or just clueless operators, the steel is so much stronger than Both BMW and Ford are investors can make real trouble by flying these aluminum, it’s hard to cut.” in Desktop Metal. “We work very machines where they’re not allowed. So Desktop Metal has a 3D metal- closely with them,” ­Myerberg says— Rogue drones have been a long-­ printing system that, he says, could although neither has announced standing worry for regulators, who have be competitive with traditional any plans to use 3D metal printing pursued a wide array of ideas to address manufacturing in this situation. in its car production lines. A tool the issue. Now, the U.S. Federal Aviation The Burlington, Mass.–based com- company has, however. Administration is preparing a new report pany’s Production System uses a Milwaukee Tool makes a spe- on the matter. The FAA Reauthorization jet of metal powder and an oven to cialty auger drill bit that will be Act of 2018, passed last ­October, called fuse the printed metal. The system 3D-printed on a Desktop Metal for a careful study of tools to counter boasts what the company is billing ­Production System. Milwaukee Tool drones, or unmanned aircraft systems as the fastest metal 3D printer in had previously required 20 steps (UAS), and required the FAA to review the world, at 12,000 cubic centi­ to make this one drill bit. 3D metal its counter-UAS activities and report the meters of printed output per hour— printing reduces that to four. results to Congress. 100 times as fast as older, laser-based “I don’t think 3D printing is going It’s not yet clear what will be in that 3D metal-printing techniques. to offset traditional manufactur- report, due out in the next two months, The Production System prints ing the way we all think it will. It’ll but it’s not too soon to speculate. Surely, stainless steel. “That’s one of the rea- come in and find its place, along- the report will describe the state of the sons we started using stainless steel side all these other manufacturing art in detecting when a drone is some- first,” Myerberg says. “The demand processes,” Myerberg says. “But I place it shouldn’t be. Various strategies from the consumer electronics mar- think that type of adoption is going can be used for that, but the primary ket was so great that…stainless steel to happen very quickly.” tool—not surprisingly—is radar. was right there at the top.” —Mark Anderson It’s not technically difficult to detect On the other hand, other indus- even a small drone with suitable radar ↗ POST YOUR COMMENTS at https://spectrum.ieee.

tries have lately found success org/metalprint0419 equipment. “Almost all radars can detect SIEMENS

10 | APR 2019 | SPECTRUM.IEEE.ORG San Diego–based SkySafe, for one, is pursuing a safer approach: Take control over the drone and force it to land or fly back to the operator. “We’re entirely RF based,” says Grant Jordan, CEO of SkySafe. “In the domes- tic context, you can’t have a big jam- mer stomping on the spectrum.” He and his colleagues have reverse-engineered many commercial drones to figure out the proprietary protocols they use for telemetry and to transmit commands so that SkySafe’s equipment can wrest con- trol of a rogue drone from its operator. This strategy wouldn’t work for custom- made drones, or ones under full autono- mous control. But it could address the vast majority of incidents. Why not just ask the drone manufac- turers to supply the information needed for authorities to commandeer a way- ward drone? These manufacturers could even be required to build in “back doors” that would allow authorities to take over control at the flick of a switch. “That doesn’t seem like a good solution,” HIGH-FLYING HAZARDS: Drones are a based phased-array radar, which has says Brendan Schulman, vice president of nuisance for airports [top]. Officials placed beams that can be electronically focused policy and legal affairs for DJI, the world’s counter-UAS technology on the roof of London’s Gatwick Airport after drones were spotted in and steered. leading drone manufacturer. “Then you’d the area [bottom]. Of course, a bird circling in a thermal have serious concerns about hacking.” updraft and a fixed-wing drone won’t Instead, the industry’s emphasis is a drone,” says Tom Driscoll, who is produce such readily apparent differ- on devising a system that would allow chief technical officer and a cofounder ences in their radar signatures. How can drones to be remotely identified. Such of Echodyne Co., a startup based in authorities deal with that? “The right a remote-ID system would not only ­Kirkland, Wash., that is selling a radar answer is to put a camera on it to tell reveal the location of the drone itself; it system specifically tailored to detect me whether it’s a hawk or a drone,” says would also locate the operator, making it small drones. The tricky part is distin- Driscoll. And that’s just what is often straightforward for authorities to inter- guishing them from birds, which have done—tracking the drones with both vene when necessary. “Providing remote about the same radar cross section. And radar and cameras. ID is most of the solution,” says Schulman. for that, “the subtleties are important,” Once a drone has been spotted flying The FAA’s upcoming report to the U.S. says Driscoll. someplace it shouldn’t be, there are all Congress should hold some clues about Birds flap their wings at a rate of a sorts of ways to neutralize it—at least in the future of remote identification for few hertz, whereas multicopters use theory. Strategies include jamming the drones as well as the use of counter­ propellers spinning at thousands of drone’s control signals, targeting it with measures, but it’s not likely to have all rotations per minute. Their overall tra- bazooka-like contraptions that throw the answers. “There are still a lot of jectories as they fly through the air are nets, chasing it down and capturing it open questions,” says SkySafe’s Jordan. also different. The signals recorded by with larger drones, loosing trained rap- “We haven’t yet figured out as a society the right radar will register these dif- tors to attack it, and even using powerful where we want this to go.” ferences. ­Echodyne’s system operates solid-state lasers to burn it out of the sky. —David Schneider in the K-band, with frequencies around Such dramatic countermeasures ↗ POST YOUR COMMENTS at https://spectrum.ieee.org/

TOP: PRESS ASSOCIATION/AP; BOTTOM: JOHN STILLWELL/PA/GETTY IMAGES STILLWELL/PA/GETTY JOHN BOTTOM: ASSOCIATION/AP; PRESS TOP: 24 gigahertz, and uses a metamaterials- entail some obvious risks, which is why antidrone0419

NEWS

SPECTRUM.IEEE.ORG | APR 2019 | 11 12 | APR 2019 | SPECTRUM.IEEE.ORG PHOTOGRAPH BY Giorgos Georgiou/NurPhoto/Getty Images FORM OVER FUNCTION

JAPANESE ARTIST Ryoji Ikeda is renowned for using data as the medium for his vibrant audiovisual installations. In his most recent work, called Data Flux [12 XGA version], Ikeda used the concrete, matter-of-fact language of mathematics to create stunning visual effects rivaling those produced by sculptors who etch away bits of clay, or by photographers who emphasize light and shadow. Twelve projectors aimed at the walls inside the Onassis Cultural Center, in Athens, showed off the aesthetic side of data. Among the effects was the onscreen interpolation of sound— including sound waves transformed into pulsating pixels and changing sound frequencies morphed into continuously updating data tables. The blizzard of data came alive in undulating patterns that were described as arresting and hypnotic.

THETHE BIG BIG PICTUREPICTURE newsNEWS

SPECTRUM.IEEE.ORG | APR 2019 | 13 BECOME AN E-INK STAINED WRETCH BUILD A SIMPLE TYPEWRITER WITH A MAKER-FRIENDLY DISPLAY

Y ENTIRE PROFESSIONAL LIFE AS AN ENGINEER IS SPENT ON, OR ADJACENT TO, A GLOWING M laptop. I use the same computer to code, research, design, and document, and even to waste time. Hour upon hour, ev- ery day of the week, every week. So I push to have my creative time be analog: Coming home to do some creative writing, only to sit down at the exact same computer, feels more exhausting than restful—oh joy, more screen time. But while I find words

RESOURCES_HANDS ON • as easy to read on paper as on a screen, writing does not translate to the analog world so well. After years of typing on a keyboard, writing in a notebook is slow and hand-crampingly painful. With the relatively recent availability of maker-friendly electronic-paper displays of the sort used by devices like the Amazon Kindle, I fantasized about a device that would bring together the best of both worlds, combining a keyboard with the static, daylight-readable surface of an electronic-paper screen. A device that would make me feel the same about writing as I did about picking up a book, with no eyestrain, notifications, or YouTube distractions. And I could do better than the old dedicated word processors of the 1990s—I’d blast past them with 10 gigabytes of SD card storage, triple the display size, and crisper contrast and custom formatting. • However, I quickly found that there were some serious issues I’d have to resolve before banging out a prototype. The first, and most glaring, was the dismal refresh rate of the e-paper screens I was buying— upwards of 2 seconds, if you used the original firmware. If you tried to go faster with custom firmware, you’d get persistent screen

burn. It turned out that this was the major reason I hadn’t seen my fantasy word processor already on the market—the few similar (5) KLETT RANDI

14 | APR 2019 | SPECTRUM.IEEE.ORG commercial attempts had received harsh user reviews regarding the lag between pressing a key and seeing a result. I decided to step back and take a differ- ent approach. After all, users need rapid up- dates only on the text they’re directly editing. So why not add a standard character LCD un- derneath the main display? Then the bulk of the document would be crisp and clear on the main display. Add on a keyboard, SD card file system, and even a little printer to chug out my drafts for redlining with a pen, and I’d have myself an electronic-paper typewriter with- out the dragging input delays. But this led to another problem: My de- vice was now going to incorporate at least five discrete subsystems, each with a differ- ent communications protocol. On top of that, the dual-display setup would make it imprac- tical to use an existing text editor like Nano or Emacs running on a Raspberry Pi. So I was also looking at writing my own text editor on a STRIPPED-DOWN SYSTEM: The prototype SPUDwrite chassis is made of wood and cardboard microcontroller from scratch. If I had to rein- [top right]. It uses a fast LCD display for editing vent the word-processing wheel from device and an e-ink display for reading [above]. Text can drivers on up, the project could take years. I be printed [top] or saved to an SD card [right]. A more polished assembly is intended for the needed to find a platform that would let me next version, with a reflective LCD display. use some existing code. An obvious source of such code is the files, handling the trade-off between the LCD about where the incentive had come from. Peo- ­Arduino ecosystem. However, the Atmel AVR and the e-paper displays, and formatting text. ple who tried the SPUDwrite for themselves chips that power most Arduino microcon- The printer—which outputs text onto a roll of had sharply split reactions; some leaped on the trollers are too limited for word processing; 5.7-centimeter-wide thermal paper—added concept excitedly, while others seemed almost for example, the Arduino Uno can barely fit an especially goofy finish, and felt fitting to the offended at its restrictiveness compared with two paragraphs of text in its 2-kilobyte RAM. theme: My device was a hack, but it was a fun a modern PC. I found the split was most promi- I landed on Mbed instead, a firmware frame- hack, with lots of playfully unnecessary parts nent with age: Those who liked it the least were work I’d used at a previous startup. Mbed has and work-arounds that nonetheless hit a ba- parents and mentors who had never felt the im- enough similarities to Arduino to make it pos- sic level of functionality. pact of Internet addiction, while it got a better sible to port over existing LCD and keyboard As it neared completion, I also determined response from my peers and younger relatives utility code. But instead of using Atmel AVR the name: SPUDwrite, or Single Purpose User who were resentful of the ever-present grip chips, Mbed is designed for the Arm archi- Device, writing edition. SPUDwrite could be that their devices had on their lives. tecture, allowing me to use an embedded sys- the first of a whole line of purposefully anach- I had built the project for myself. But I was tem based on the far more powerful Cortex ronistic distraction-free devices—restricted surprised by the investment others had in the M4 family. A US $10 board from ST Microelec- yet full of surprises. SPUDphone, SPUDcode, idea. Like me, they saw SPUD as an oppor- tronics has enough RAM to hold a full chapter SPUDtv.... Even as I finished coding the text tunity to escape and step back a bit, without at a time, along with flash memory for longer editor, I was already thinking of the fixes I’d abandoning their modern skill sets and base documents. Mbed also had code for my type- bring into version 2—swapping the transmis- requirements for functionality, such as digital writer’s communication systems using I2C sive LCD I’d ordered by mistake for a daylight- file storage. They wanted devices that held and SPI, and it included the crucial C++ librar- readable reflective one, adding a tactile scroll back on delivering everything in favor of de- ies I needed to load and save on the SD card. wheel and a huge red “print” button—more livering one thing, properly. They wanted the The project had a reasonable time frame features, more work-arounds, more ways to modern trappings of our online world—just again, and for the next six months I focused improve my Internet-free little ecosystem. strictly one at a time. —LUCIAN COPELAND on getting the core features I needed into the But what was it really for? As I started actually POST YOUR COMMENTS at https://spectrum.ieee.org/ text editor, such as selecting and creating using my SPUD for creative writing, I thought spudwrite0419

SPECTRUM.IEEE.ORG | APR 2019 | 15 RESOURCES_CAREERS

MAN AND MASCOT: Shawcroft is leading the development of CircuitPython, an embedded version of Python intended for ease of use.

hardware,” Shawcroft says. “Limor said it would take about three weeks, but I did it in half that time because I couldn’t put it down.” Adafruit agreed to set Shawcroft up with enough work to keep busy full time, and he was only to work on MicroPython. So George started receiving a lot of code submissions from Adafruit, and he had “some appre- hension about us coming in and changing things,” says Shawcroft. In talking with George about technical con- siderations, Adafruit realized that its perspec- tive on the future of the language differed from PROFILE: SCOTT SHAWCROFT his. They didn’t agree on MicroPython’s trade- off between performance and ease of use, THIS DEVELOPER IS and Shawcroft wanted to focus heavily on li- SQUEEZING PYTHON braries, anticipating MicroPython as an alter- native to the compiled software ecosystem INTO MICROCONTROLLERS that has sprung up around the Arduino family of microcontrollers. “Damien’s going for the core C folks; he’s a firm believer that yes, Python can be fast,” ython is one of the most popu- never programmed in their lives,” says Shawcroft explains. “But that’s not at all P lar programming languages. It’s Shawcroft, explaining that CircuitPython Adafruit’s audience.” Consequently, Adafruit known for its large collection of makes it easy to get a simple project running. decided to fork from MicroPython, and utility libraries, and because the language is “I love folks just being able to jump right in.” CircuitPython was officially born in mid-2017. interpreted on the fly, Python programs can Shawcroft says he took an interest in The CircuitPython community has been be quicker to debug than those that must programming in his teens as “part of the growing steadily since. For Shawcroft, man- be compiled before execution. Python can first generation that got into programming aging that burgeoning community poses the be found at companies such as Instagram, through the Web.” Shawcroft went on to in- greatest challenge in his work. “As an open- Google, Spotify, and YouTube. tern at Creative Commons and Google while source maintainer, how do you handle it As Python’s domination of the desk- obtaining a computer engineering degree, when people come to you wanting this and top and the cloud continues, two camps— and he joined the Google Maps team in 2009 that to happen, especially in a rude and en- MicroPython and CircuitPython—are for a six-year stint. He left in 2015 to launch titled way?” Shawcroft says. working on har­ dware-centered versions a drone flight-controller company. “I made A formal code of conduct helps. “It’s a of the interpreted language for embedded a small production run in 2016, and like 10 critical baseline for any modern, civil open- projects such as micr­ ocontroller-based people bought it,” Shawcroft says, chuckling. source project,” Shawcroft says. “And then gadgets. Traditionally, the tight computing Shawcroft came to the attention of you have to have the teeth to back it up. We’ve constraints of embedded hardware favors Adafruit’s creative director, Phillip Torrone, wielded the ban hammer a bit.” compiled languages, but more-powerful by participating in the company’s weekly For those interested in contributing to a microcontrollers are shifting that equation. live video series “Show and Tell,” which in- language like CircuitPython, Shawcroft says CircuitPython’s development is spear- vites people to share their projects. “Even- the key is practice. “Write a lot of code, and headed by Scott Shawcroft, of the open- tually I said on one, ‘I need a job!’ ” he says. participate in communities like Adafruit as source hardware company Adafruit Torrone contacted Shawcroft about port- much as possible,” he says. “I used to be one Industries. (Adafruit’s CEO, Limor Fried, ing the then two-year-old MicroPython, a lean- of those people who said you have to love it, is a member of IEEE Spectrum’s editorial er version of Python developed by physicist and that’s not fair. If you love it, it’s just easier ­advisory board, but she had no involvement Damien George, to a particular microcontroller. to want to practice.” —JULIANNE PEPITONE in the preparation of this article.) “I hadn’t heard of MicroPython, but I was in- POST YOUR COMMENTS at https://spectrum.ieee.org/

“[Adafruit’s] audience is people who have stantly sold on the idea of putting Python on shawcroft0419 ADAFRUIT

16 | APR 2019 | SPECTRUM.IEEE.ORG RESOURCES_GEEK LIFE

be to use a vintage H2S indicator display. ect, along with “a container full” of therm- REPLICA Unfortunately, while the Imperial War Mu- ionic tubes. “So we built modern circuitry RADAR seum does have an original display in its around the old [cathode-ray] tubes, but as collection, it is illegal to modify it in any far as we could using the original method THE IMPERIAL way. However, “we did have supplies of of doing everything. Which was quite fun.” WAR MUSEUM the old cathode-ray tubes,” explains John Because the static, ground-based exhibit LETS VISITORS Moore, the technical lead on the H2S proj- would have no actual radar hooked up, Moore PLAY WITH A

PIONEERING New Version! BOMBER DISPLAY

sk a layperson about technol- A ogy developed during the sec- ond World War and you’ll likely get answers referring to the invention of atomic bombs, long-range ballistic missiles, or perhaps digital code breaking. Ironically, radar is often forgotten, despite it having a dramatic and direct impact on aerial com- bat during the war, and being a much bigger part of modern daily life than, say, atomic bombs or rockets. A Duxford Radio Trust team at Britain’s Im- perial War Museum Duxford is offering visi- tors some hands-on experience of World War II radar by giving them the warts-and- all view of the radar display as seen by a navigator on a Lancaster bomber. Thanks to an amazing hodge-podge of technolo- gy, visitors can operate the dim displays of the influential British H2S radar system on a simulated flight. The H2S was the first ground-scanning ra- dar to be mounted on an aircraft, and made it possible to bomb long-range targets at Over 75 New Features & Apps in Origin 2019! For a FREE 60-day night and in bad weather from 1943 on. As a Over 500,000 registered users worldwide in: evaluation, go to first-generation piece of technology, it had a ◾ 6,000+ Companies including 20+ Fortune Global 500 OriginLab.Com/demo number of interesting quirks, such as a blank ◾ 6,500+ Colleges & Universities and enter code: 8547 circular zone at the center of its display, with ◾ 3,000+ Government Agencies & Research Labs a radius that reflected the plane’s altitude above the ground. The operator had to man- ually adjust an altitude-compensation dial to 25+ years serving the scientific & engineering community eliminate the zone. The most direct way to ensure that visitors would have an authentic experience would

SPECTRUM.IEEE.ORG | APR 2019 | 17 in 4to6weeks. published author Become a • • • • • • • journal thatallowsyouto: Access isamultidisciplinaryIEEE products toaglobalaudience. recent developments,methods,ornew for authorswhowanttoquicklyannounce Published onlineonly, Access IEEE the IEEE. of worthy journal that’s open access a multidisciplinary Access... IEEE ieeeaccess.ieee.org Learn moreat: only $1,750perarticle Publishwithoutapagelimitfor Connectwithreadersthroughcommenting citation dataforeachpublishedarticle multimediaandtrackusage Integrate in oneoftheSpecialSections contributing totrending,interdisciplinarytopics Establishyourselfasanindustrypioneerby Web ofScience(andhasanImpactFactor) Accessisincludedin a keyfactorwhyIEEE Expectarapidyetrigorouspeerreview— neatly intraditionaljournals thatdonotfit Submitmultidisciplinaryarticles IEEE IEEE Reachmillionsofglobalusersthroughthe Xplore ® digital librarywithfreeaccesstoall digital

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17-PUB-013 3/17 from the laptop are then fed into built. A laptop and a waveform generator provide a simulated input signal. cathode-ray tubes and the original schematics, but the electronics are newly OLD AND NEW: Channel. The digitalradar traces worked out a way to feed the dis terrain surrounding the English the radar shadows produced by the English Channel, and wrote a the elderly Windows XP operat Moore took a4096xgray mountains, itdoesproduce plau - not duplicate suchphenomenaas radial traces for any given position program running on a laptop that play a simulated signal that mim generator in turn addssomesim- generator via aUSB link. This generator. An older 208-pin dimensional satellite imagedoes and altitude. While usinga two- uses the image to generate 670 ulated noiseand feeds ananalog a custom-made radar waveform chip at the heartof the waveform sible results for the relatively flat scale satellite imagecentered on seen asheflew over actual terrain. signal into the H2Sdisplay. lected, since current chipsusea ­surf ics what anavigator would have ing system becauseof the FPGA The laptop software runsunder ace-mount FPGA was se-

The replica ground-radar display [middle box] uses WWII-era - - - - for usein the darkbowels of a manyoriginal that ful to visi the —STEPHEN CASS —STEPHEN God, those guys were clever.” to solder by hand.Fortunately, that could bereused for the sim- that usedadriver not available on tors find the display—intendedtorsfind the the display to beprojected ona the bright lights of the museum, Moore hadused the chipearli- H2S] from scratch at the time.scratch fromH2S] er inhiscareer asanEEandhad older USBcommunications chip ed with a webcam. This allowsa webcam. This ed with op [the replica]—longer[the op thanthe en usabout two years to devel- ball grid array that’s impractical more recent versions of Windows. bomber—difficult to seeunder keen appreciation for the original brighter screen. Building the rep- ulator. But the design required an guys that actually developed [the creators of the H2S:“Ithas tak lica simulator hasgiven Moore a some code and device drivers so aremovable hood was add- POST YOURCOMMENTS ieee.org/h2sradar0419 The resulting setup isso faith-

at https://spectrum. - -

JOHN MOORE RESOURCES_Q&A

INTEL LABS’ RICH UHLIG E.A.: What’s so great about the brain that we want to mimic it with neuromorphic A NEW DIRECTOR computing? FOR NEW COMPUTER R.U.: The brain processes highly complex information in real time, and does so with ARCHITECTURES very little energy. Our goal is not necessar- ily to mimic the brain but to understand the principles that give the brain such impressive and efficient functionality, and then to apply those principles to chips we can build. ntel has done pretty well for it- factured a 49-qubit superconducting chip, I self by figuring out ways to make which allows us to begin integrating the E.A.: Why is probabilistic computing CPUs faster and more efficient. quantum processing unit (the QPU) into a important enough to Intel to be listed Now, with the end of Moore’s Law lurking on system where we can build all of the com- alongside quantum and neuromorphic? the horizon, Intel has been exploring new ponents that will be required to make the R.U.: Probabilistic computing allows us ways to compute at Intel Labs. qubits work together in tandem to improve to deal with uncertainty in the natural data Rich Uhlig became the director of Intel Labs efficiency and scalability. around us. Predicting what will happen next in December 2018. IEEE Spectrum contrib- in a scenario, as well as the effects of our ac- uting editor Evan Ackerman spoke with Uhlig tions, can be done only if we know how to about the labs’ research into quantum, neuro- model the world around us with ­probability morphic, and probabilistic computing. distributions. Augmenting deep learning with probabilistic methods opens the door Evan Ackerman: According to Intel’s to understanding why AI systems make the timeline of quantum computing, we’re decisions they make, which will help with is- currently in the “system phase.” What sues like tackling bias in AI systems. does that mean, and how will we transi- tion to the commercial phase? E.A.: Will you need new kinds of ­devices Rich Uhlig: We’re focused on developing for neuromorphic and probabilistic a commercially viable quantum c­ omputer, computing? which will require more than the qubits R.U.: We believe the innovations inspired by

INTEL themselves. We have successfully manu- THE ARCHITECT: Intel Labs’ Rich Uhlig these new computing paradigms can provide

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SPECTRUM.IEEE.ORG | APR 2019 | 19 meaningful gains for chips manufactured with today’s process technology. However, in the years to come, we will need device-level ad- vances. For both neuromorphic and probabi- listic computing, the ultimate efficiency gains will likely require devices and circuits that har- ness physical sources of noise to directly em- body stochastic dynamics.

E.A.: What do you think are likely to be the first practical applications of quan- tum and neuromorphic computing? R.U.: Quantum computing will solve prob- lems that would take traditional computers months or years to solve, or that are com- pletely intractable today. This could include issues such as drug development, financial modeling, and climate forecasting. For neu- romorphic chips, the first applications will ILLUMINATE ENGAGE likely be those that require real-time custom- the possibilities a wider audience in ization of pretrained functions, dependent on of technology by appreciating the value the unique environment of a particular de- using it to address and importance of vice. For example, neuromorphic chips may global challenges engineering and technology enable speech-recognition systems to au- tonomously adapt to recognize users with strong accents, or to control robotic arms in EDUCATE ENERGIZE dynamic environments. the next generation innovation of innovators by celebrating E.A.: What about how this technology is and engineers technological excellence evolving keeps you awake at night? R.U.: As with any new technology, there can be unintended consequences. As an exam- ple, one potential application of quantum The world’s most daunting challenges require computing is to break widely used crypto- innovations in engineering, and IEEE is committed graphic algorithms, putting sensitive data to finding the solutions. at risk. Although we haven’t reached that point yet, it’s not too early to begin develop- The IEEE Foundation is leading a special campaign ing new cryptography that will be robust in a to raise awareness, create partnerships, and generate post-quantum-computing world. We should financial resources needed to combat these be similarly mindful of how advances in AI will global challenges. change our relationship with data and how we make decisions, as well as when we del- Our goal is to raise $30 million by 2020. egate certain decisions to machines. The real challenge may be to retain awareness and to be intentional about those choices, as op- posed to just letting them happen. DONATE NOW ieeefoundation.org An extended version of this interview appears on our Tech Talk blog.

POST YOUR COMMENTS at https://spectrum.ieee.org/labs0419 INTERNET OF EVERYTHING_BY STACEY HIGGINBOTHAM OPINION

ucts (PSAPs), and biomonitoring appli- cations. Dave Fabry, chief innovation officer at ­Starkey Hearing Technolo- gies, says that the company, which makes traditional hearing aids, has been building attractive consumer tech into the companies’ products since 2014. That’s when it introduced a hear- ing aid compatible with iPhones, so that a related app can provide rele- vant data, such as dementia or cog- nitive decline, that may be useful to the wearer. This year it announced a new hearing aid that not only improves hearing but also has an activity tracker, a heartbeat monitor, heart-rate vari- ability monitoring, and fall detection. Much of this research is a direct response to the encroachment of over- the-counter hearing aids and hearables entering the market, but it’s also a response to customer expectations. Fabry says that the current generation of hearing aid wearers is accustomed to being able to customize settings using apps and to recharge a device rather than replace batteries. NOW HEAR THIS Speaking of power, it remains the big- gest challenge facing the next genera- tion of devices. Traditional hearing aids FORGET FITBITS AND SMART WATCHES. In the next few years, the use replaceable zinc-air batteries, but most advanced fitness and medical monitor will be your headphones. Fabry says the ability to recharge bat- Smart headphones, or “hearables,” will do way more than pump teries will come. Unlike headphones, a up the bass—they’ll monitor your heartbeat, detect when you’re hearing aid user expects to wear them stressed, and track your brain waves. • That’s not to say that the technology all the time, which means a single already inside headphones isn’t tremendous. My beloved Jabra Elite 65t earbuds charge needs to last all day. Starkey is are Bluetooth enabled, sound nice, and have a 5-hour battery life; also, each ear- already experimenting with a combi- piece is equipped with two mics. An algorithm detects the direction from which nation of AI and sensors that detect the outside noise is coming, and then selects the best mic to pick up my voice. • And noise in the environment and power this is technology that chipmaker NXP, who provides the silicon inside these down when there’s nothing to hear. headphones, showed off two years ago! Today, headphone makers are show- Even if you don’t need hearing aids ing off designs that include capacitive touch on the side of earbuds, integrated or PSAPs, the rise of smart hearables voice recognition for Amazon’s Alexa and Google Assistant, and even infrared will still offer improvements. Not only scanners that can take a snapshot of your ear to optimize the sound. • These will you be able to hear conversations developments could lead to a convergence of medicine and consumer tech. The better, you’ll be able to call using Alexa, ear is a great place to track steps, heart rate, falls, and even brain waves that customize settings so that your music can indicate focus. It’s also a good spot to place galvanic skin response sensors sounds the way you like it, and rely on that can detect stress. • Companies such as Apple—whose next generation of these devices to contact a friend if you AirPods is expected to include health-monitoring sensors—are eager to partici- fall. That sounds good to me. n pate in this new market, while existing hearing aid companies are preparing ↗ POST YOUR COMMENTS at https://spectrum.ieee.org/ for the convergence between hearing aids, personal sound amplification prod- hearables0419

ILLUSTRATION BY Stuart Bradford SPECTRUM.IEEE.ORG | APR 2019 | 21 NUMBERS DON’T LIE_VACLAV SMIL OPINION

lamps (fluorescent lights)—were intro- duced during the 1930s, but they came to widespread use only in the 1950s. Today’s best fluor­ escent lights with electronic ballast can produce about 100 lm/W; high-pressure sodium lamps put out up to 150 lm/W, and lo­ w-pressure sodium lamps can reach 200 lm/W. However, the low-pressure lamps produce only mono- chromatic yellow light at 589 nm, which is why they aren’t used in homes but rather for street illumination. Our best hope now rests on light-­ emitting diodes (LEDs). The first ones were invented in 1962 and provided only red light; a decade later came green and, during the 1990s, high-intensity blue. By coating such blue LEDs with fluorescent phosphors, engineers were able to con- vert some of the blue light into warmer colors and thus produce white light suit- able for indoor illumination. The theoret- ical limit for bright white LEDs is about 300 lm/W, but commercially available lamps are still a long way from achieving that rate. Philips sells LEDs in the United States—which has a 120-volt standard— LUMINOUS EFFICACY that offer a luminous efficacy of 89 lm/W, for 18-W soft white and dimmable bulbs (replacing 100-W incandescent lights). In YOU CAN ROUGHLY TRACK THE ADVANCE of civilization by the state Europe, where the voltage ranges from of its lighting—above all, its power, cost, and luminous efficacy. That last 220 to 240 V, the company sells a 172 lm/W element refers to the ability of a light source to produce a meaningful LED tube (replacing the 1.5-meter-long response in the eye, and it is the total luminous flux (in lumens) divided European fluorescent tubes). by the rated power (in watts). • The luminous efficacy of direct sunlight rises with High-efficacy LEDs are already deliver- the solar altitude, going from 70 to 105 lumens per watt, and for diffuse skylight it ing significant electricity savings world- ranges from 110 to 130 lm/W, for an overall global mean rate of around 105 lm/W. wide—and it also helps that they can Under photopic conditions (that is, under bright light, when the retina’s rods are satu- provide light for 3 hours a day for about rated and only the color-sensitive cones discriminate among wavelengths) the lumi- 20 years. But, much like all other sources nous efficacy of visible light peaks at 683 lm/W at a wavelength of 555 nanometers. of artificial light, they still cannot match That’s in the green part of the spectrum—the color that seems, at any given level of natural light’s spectrum. Incandescent power, to be the brightest. • For millennia, our sources of artificial light lagged three lights gave out too little blue light, and orders of magnitude behind this theoretical peak. Candles had a luminous efficacy fluorescent lights had hardly any red; of just 0.2 to 0.3 lm/W, coal gas lights did five or six times as well, and the carbon LEDs have too little intensity in the red filaments of Edison’s early bulbs hardly did better than that. By 1898 Carl Auer von part of the spectrum and too much in the Welsbach introduced the first metal filament, and his osmium lights had an efficacy blue part. They don’t quite please the eye. of 5.5 lm/W. After 1901 the lumen/watt ratio for tantalum filaments reached 7, and So, although light efficacies have a decade or so later tungsten radiating in a vacuum got up to 10. Putting a tungsten improved by two orders of magnitude filament in a mixture of nitrogen and argon raised the efficacy of common house- since 1880, replicating sunlight indoors hold lamps to 12 lm/W. The use of coiled tungsten, beginning in 1934, helped to bring still remains beyond our reach. n incandescent efficacies to more than 15 lm/W for 100-W lamps. Lights based on • ↗ POST YOUR COMMENTS at https://spectrum.ieee.org/ different principles—low-pressure sodium lamps and­ low-pressure mercury vapor lightingefficiency0419

22 | APR 2019 | SPECTRUM.IEEE.ORG ILLUSTRATION BY Greg Mably ADVERTISING Growth of World-Class Cleantech Cluster Fueled by New York State $5 billion investment supporting technologies to advance solar, wind, energy storage, energy efficiency and other cleantech fields

Electricity production, the longtime leading source of the planet’s greenhouse gases, has finally dropped to second The state’s commitment to job growth has benefited its place, behind transportation. But, this change isn’t due to businesses with the boom of a growing cleantech cluster. an increase in pollution from transportation; it’s linked to Since 2011, NYS has: cleaner electricity generation, thanks to the use of cleaner • Invested significantly in infrastructure, energy sources in the United States. including airports, roads, bridges, train stations and broadband. JFK International Airport, for As more states recognize the need for renewable energy, example, will have on-site solar facilities providing New York State (NYS) is making major shifts to strengthen lectricity at reduced rates to local communities. its infrastructure and establish itself as a leader in the renewable energy revolution. New York’s recently • Reduced taxes and regulations, making NYS a announced comprehensive energy strategy, the Green New more business-friendly environment. Deal, aims to build a cleaner, more vibrant industry to be served by a modernized system allowing for distributed • Invested in workforce education and training electric generation. The goal of this nation-leading clean to provide skilled talent to meet the needs of a energy and jobs plan: ensuring that New York secures 100 changing economy. percent of its electricity from renewable resources by 2040. • Launched 76West, an unparalleled competition focused on growing entrepreneurs and attracting Through a combined investment of $5 billion across energy resources from the U.S. and around the world to build technologies announced in 2016 and spanning the next clean energy business and jobs in New York, offering decade, NYS is committed to spurring economic development $20 million in prize money to the winning businesses and reducing harmful emissions. This investment spans solar, wind, energy storage and other cleantech fields within • Ensured fiscal stability by reducing state spending, the sector. Offshore wind projects are a large piece of this state debt, and improving bond ratings. investment, the first phase of which includes obtaining 800 • Designed a approach to economic MW of offshore wind by this year, which will create thousands locally driven development through 10 Regional Economic of new jobs across the state. Development Councils, comprised of local business, A $150 billion infrastructure plan, announced by Governor academic and community leaders, to develop long- Andrew Cuomo in June 2018, will support infrastructure term strategic plans for regional growth and to initiatives across the state that include rebuilding establish a competitive process for state resources. . transportation and mass transit, building new and better • Created public/private partnerships and helped fund schools, creating new environmental and park facilities, and Centers of Excellence and Centers for Advanced supporting the state’s sustainable energy future. Technology at colleges and universities to develop “After a half century of neglect and inaction, New York is and commercialize new products and technologies. once again building for the future, and our infrastructure • Launched downtown revitalization initiatives to investments are already creating hundreds of thousands develop attractive, livable communities. of jobs,” Governor Cuomo said. “This record commitment to infrastructure, which builds on our already thriving $100 billion program, will drive our momentum forward and New York State has long been known for its quality of life demonstrates yet again that with vision and ambition, New and diverse workforce and is now seeing more professionals York is setting an example for the rest of the nation to follow.” committed to staying in the state after graduation. Ranked third In addition to fostering a business-friendly environment, NYS for high-tech employment, NYS is leading the way in the clean has committed $27.5 million for clean energy workforce energy industry’s groundbreaking, emerging fields. Now more development and training programs, growing a vast and than ever, clean energy companies looking to build, expand or diverse statewide talent pool. The state ranks first in the relocate their business in New York are realizing the benefits of Northeast for STEM graduates, second in the United States the thriving cleantech industry in NYS. for physical science undergrad and doctorate degrees, and To learn more about how New York State is becoming a clean third nationwide in engineering students. energy leader, visit esd.ny.gov/cleantech. New York is home to the largest public university system in the country, creating strong, innovative academic partnerships that are advancing opportunities for clean energy businesses across the state. By partnering with eligible schools, businesses can have direct access to advanced research laboratories, development resources and key industry experts. These businesses could even be eligible for 10 years of tax-free operations on or near university campuses. 24 | APR 2019 | SPECTRUM.IEEE.ORG

IBM Watson, Heal Thyself How IBM overpromised and underdelivered on AI health care

By ELIZA STRICKLAND ILLUSTRATIONS BY EDDIE GUY GUTTER CREDIT GOES HERE GOES CREDIT GUTTER

PHOTOGRAPH BY Firstname Lastname SPECTRUM.IEEE.ORG | APR 2019 | 25 N 2014, IBM OPENED swanky new headquarters abilities. “They came in with marketing first, for its artificial intelligence division, known as IBMW­ atson. product second, and got everybody excited,” Inside the glassy tower in lower Manhattan, IBMers can he says. “Then the rubber hit the road. This is bring prospective clients and visiting journalists into the an incredibly hard set of problems, and IBM, “immersion room,” which resembles a miniature plane- by being first out, has demonstrated that for tarium. There, in the darkened space, visitors sit on swiv- everyone else.” eling stools while fancy graphics flash around the curved At a 2017 conference of health IT profession- screensI covering the walls. It’s the closest you can get, IBMers sometimes als, IBM CEO Rometty told the crowd that AI “is say, to being inside Watson’s electronic brain. real, it’s mainstream, it’s here, and it can change One dazzling 2014 demonstration of Watson’s brainpower showed off almost everything about health care,” and added its potential to transform medicine using AI—a goal that IBM CEO Virginia that it could usher in a medical “golden age.” Rometty often calls the company’s moon shot. In the demo, Watson took She’s not alone in seeing an opportunity: Experts a bizarre collection of patient symptoms and came up with a list of pos- in computer science and medicine alike agree sible diagnoses, each annotated with Watson’s confidence level and links that AI has the potential to transform the health to supporting medical literature. care industry. Yet so far, that potential has pri- Within the comfortable confines of the dome, Watson never failed to marily been demonstrated in carefully controlled impress: Its memory banks held knowledge of every rare disease, and experiments. Only a few AI-based tools have its processors weren’t susceptible to the kind of cognitive bias that can been approved by regulators for use in real hos- throw off doctors. It could crack a tough case in mere seconds. If Watson pitals and doctors’ offices. Those pioneering could bring that instant expertise to hospitals and clinics all around the products work mostly in the visual realm, using world, it seemed possible that the AI could reduce diagnosis errors, opti- computer vision to analyze images like X-rays mize treatments, and even alleviate doctor shortages—not by replacing and retina scans. (IBM does not have a product doctors but by helping them do their jobs faster and better. that analyzes medical images, though it has an Outside of corporate headquarters, however, IBM has discovered active research project in that area.) that its powerful technology is no match for the messy reality of today’s Looking beyond images, however, even health care system. And in trying to apply Watson to cancer treatment, today’s best AI struggles to make sense of one of medicine’s biggest challenges, IBM encountered a fundamental complex medical information. And encoding mismatch between the way machines learn and the way doctors work. a human doctor’s expertise in software turns IBM’s bold attempt to revolutionize health care began in 2011. The day out to be a very tricky proposition. IBM has after Watson thoroughly defeated two human champions in the game of learned these painful lessons in the market- Jeopardy!, IBM announced a new career path for its AI quiz-show win- place, as the world watched. While the company ner: It would become an AI doctor. IBM would take the breakthrough isn’t giving up on its moon shot, its launch fail- technology it showed off on television—mainly, the ability to understand ures have shown technologists and physicians natural language—and apply it to medicine. Watson’s first commercial alike just how difficult it is to build an AI doctor. offerings for health care would be available in 18 to 24 months, the com- pany promised. The Jeopardy! victory in 2011 showed ­Watson’s In fact, the projects that IBM announced that first day did not yield remarkable skill with na­ tural-language process- commercial products. In the eight years since, IBM has ing (NLP). To play the game, it had trumpeted many more high-profile efforts to develop AI- to parse complicated clues full PROJECT: Oncology powered medical technology—many of which have fizzled, of wordplay, search massive tex- Expert Advisor and a few of which have failed spectacularly. The company tual databases to find possible spent billions on acquisitions to bolster its internal efforts, MD Anderson Cancer Center answers, and determine the best but insiders say the acquired companies haven’t yet con- partnered with IBM Watson one. Watson wasn’t a glorified to create an advisory tool for tributed much. And the products that have emerged from oncologists. The tool used search engine; it didn’t just return IBM’s Watson Health division are nothing like the brilliant natural-language processing documents based on keywords. AI doctor that was once envisioned: They’re more like AI (NLP) to summarize patients’ Instead it employed hundreds of electronic health records, then assistants that can perform certain routine tasks. searched databases to provide algorithms to map the “entities” “Reputationally, I think they’re in some trouble,” says treatment recommendations. in a sentence and understand the Robert Wachter, chair of the department of medicine at Physicians tried out a prototype relationships among them. It used in the leukemia department, the University of California, San Francisco, and author of but MD Anderson canceled the this skill to make sense of both the the 2015 book The Digital Doctor: Hope, Hype, and Harm at project in 2016—after spending Jeopardy! clue and the millions of the Dawn of Medicine’s Computer Age (McGraw-Hill). In part, US $62 million on it. text sources it mined. he says, IBM is suffering from its ambition: It was the first “It almost seemed that Watson company to make a major push to bring AI to the clinic. But could understand the meaning it also earned ill will and skepticism by boasting of Watson’s of language, rather than just rec-

26 | APR 2019 | SPECTRUM.IEEE.ORG IBM began its effort to bring Watson into the and institutions; some worked on consumer So Far, Few health care industry in 2011. Since then, the apps. While many of these alliances have not company has made nearly 50 announcements yet led to commercial products, IBM says Successes about partnerships that were intended to the research efforts have been valuable, and develop new AI-enabled tools for medicine. that many relationships are ongoing. Here’s a Some collaborations worked on tools for doctors representative sample of projects.

DATE IBM PARTNER PROJECT CURRENT STATUS

2011 Feb. Nuance Communications Diagnostic tool and clinical-decision support tools No tools in use

Sept. WellPoint (now Anthem) Clinical-decision support tools No tools in use

2012 March Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center Clinical-decision support tool for cancer Watson for Oncology

Oct. Cleveland Clinic Training tool for medical students; No tools in use clinical-decision support tool

2013 Oct. MD Anderson Cancer Center Clinical-decision support tool for cancer No tool in use

2014 March New York Genome Center Genomic-analysis tool for brain cancer No tool in use

June GenieMD Consumer app for personalized medical advice No app available

Sept. Mayo Clinic Clinical-trial matching tool Watson for Clinical Trial Matching

2015 April Johnson & Johnson Consumer app for pre- and postoperation coaching; No apps available consumer app for managing chronic conditions

April Medtronic Consumer app for personalized diabetes management Sugar.IQ app

May Epic Clinical-decision support tool No tool in use

May University of North Carolina, others Genomic-analysis tool for cancer Watson for Genomics

July CVS Health Care-management tool for chronic conditions No tool in use

Sept. Teva Pharmaceuticals Drug-development tool; consumer app for No tool in use; no app available managing chronic conditions

Sept. Boston Children’s Hospital Clinical-decision support tool for rare pediatric diseases No tool in use

Dec. Nutrina Consumer app for personalized nutrition No app available advice during pregnancy

Dec. Novo Nordisk Consumer app for diabetes management No app available

2016 Jan. Under Armour Consumer app for personalized athletic coaching No app available

Feb. American Heart Association Consumer app for workplace health No app available

April American Cancer Society Consumer app for personalized guidance No app available during cancer treatment

June American Diabetes Association Consumer app for personalized diabetes management No app available

Oct. Quest Diagnostics Genomic-analysis tool for cancer Watson for Genomics from Quest Diagnostics

Nov. Celgene Corp. Drug-safety analysis tool No tool in use

2017 May MAP Health Management Relapse-prediction tool for substance abuse No tool in use

ognizing patterns of words,” says Martin Kohn, by giving it thousands of Jeopardy! clues and responses that were labeled who was the chief medical scientist for IBM as correct or incorrect. In this complex data set, the AI discovered pat- Research at the time of the Jeopardy! match. terns and made a model for how to get from an input (a clue) to an out- “It was an order of magnitude more power- put (a correct response). ful than what existed.” What’s more, Watson Long before Watson starred on the Jeopardy! stage, IBM had consid- developed this ability on its own, via machine ered its possibilities for health care. Medicine, with its reams of patient learning. The IBM researchers trained W­ atson data, seemed an obvious fit, particularly as hospitals and doctors were

SPECTRUM.IEEE.ORG | APR 2019 | 27 could enable doctors to keep up, too. In lieu of a AI’s First Forays Into Health Care Jeopardy! clue, a physician could give Watson a Doctors are a conservative bunch—for good reason—and slow to adopt new patient’s case history and ask for a diagnosis or technologies. But in some areas of health care, medical professionals are optimal treatment plan. beginning to see artificially intelligent systems as reliable and helpful. Here are a few early steps toward AI medicine. Chase worked with IBM researchers on the prototype for a diagnostic tool, the thing that dazzled visitors in the Watson immersion ROBOTIC SURGERY CLINICAL-DECISION SUPPORT room. But IBM chose not to commercialize it, Currently used only for routine Hospitals are introducing tools for steps in simple procedures applications like predicting septic and Chase parted ways with IBM in 2014. He’s like laser eye surgery and hair shock, but they haven’t yet proved disappointed with Watson’s slow progress in transplants. their value. medicine since then. “I’m not aware of any spectacular home runs,” he says. He’s one of many early Watson enthusiasts IMAGE ANALYSIS VIRTUAL NURSING who are now dismayed. Eliot Siegel, a profes- Experts are just beginning to use Rudimentary systems can check on sor of radiology and vice chair of information automated systems to help them patients between office visits and systems at the University of Maryland, also col- examine X-rays, retina scans, provide automatic alerts and other images. to physicians. laborated with IBM on the diagnostic research. While he thinks AI-enabled tools will be indis- pensable to doctors within a decade, he’s not confident that IBM will build them. “I don’t GENETIC ANALYSIS MEDICAL ADMINISTRATION think they’re on the cutting edge of AI,” says With genome scans becoming a Companies are rushing to offer routine part of medicine, AI tools AI-enabled tools that can increase Siegel. “The most exciting things are going on that quickly draw insights from the efficiency in tasks like billing at Google, Apple, and Amazon.” data are becoming necessary. and insurance claims. As for Kohn, who left IBM in 2014, he says the company fell into a common trap: “Merely prov- ing that you have powerful technology is not suf- PATHOLOGY MENTAL HEALTH ficient,” he says. “Prove to me that it will actually Experimental systems have Researchers are exploring such do something useful—that it will make my life proved adept at analyzing applications as monitoring better, and my patients’ lives better.” Kohn says biopsy samples, but aren’t yet depression by mining mobile approved for clinical use. phone and social media data. he’s been waiting to see peer-reviewed papers in the medical journals demonstrating that AI can improve patient outcomes and save health systems money. “To date there’s very little in switching over to electronic health records. While some of that data can the way of such publications,” he says, “and be easily digested by machines, such as lab results and vital-sign mea- none of consequence for Watson.” surements, the bulk of it is “unstructured” information, such as doctor’s notes and hospital discharge summaries. That narrative text accounts for In trying to bring AI into the clinic, IBM was about 80 percent of a typical patient’s record—and it’s a stew of jargon, taking on an enormous technical challenge. But shorthand, and subjective statements. having fallen behind tech giants like Google and Kohn, who came to IBM with a medical degree from Harvard University Apple in many other computing realms, IBM and an engineering degree from MIT, was excited to help Watson tackle needed something big to stay relevant. In 2014, the language of medicine. “It seemed like Watson had the potential to the company invested US $1 billion in its Watson overcome those complexities,” he says. By turning its mighty NLP abili- unit, which was developing tech for multiple ties to medicine, the theory went, Watson could read patients’ health business sectors. In 2015, IBM announced the records as well as the entire corpus of medical literature: textbooks, peer- formation of a special Watson Health division, reviewed journal articles, lists of approved drugs, and so on. With access and by mid-2016 Watson Health had acquired to all this data, Watson might become a superdoctor, discerning patterns four health-data companies for a total cost of that no human could ever spot. about $4 billion. It seemed that IBM had the “Doctors go to work every day—especially the people on the front lines, technology, the resources, and the commit- the primary care doctors—with the understanding that they cannot possi- ment necessary to make AI work in health care. bly know everything they need to know in order to practice the best, most Today, IBM’s leaders talk about the Watson efficient, most effective medicine possible,” says Herbert Chase, a profes- Health effort as “a journey” down a road with sor of medicine and biomedical informatics at Columbia University who many twists and turns. “It’s a difficult task to collaborated with IBM in its first health care efforts. But Watson, he says, inject AI into health care, and it’s a challenge. could keep up—and if turned into a tool for “clinical decision support,” it But we’re doing it,” says John E. Kelly III, IBM

28 | APR 2019 | SPECTRUM.IEEE.ORG “Diagnosis is not the place to go. That’s something the experts do pretty well. It’s a hard task, and no matter how well you do it with AI, it’s not going to displace the expert practitioner.”

–AJAY ROYYURU, IBM’s vice president of health care and life sciences research

senior vice president for cognitive solutions and IBM research. Kelly has guided the Watson effort since the Jeopardy! days, and in late 2018 he also assumed direct oversight of Watson Health. He says the company has pivoted when it needs to: “We’re continuing to learn, so our offerings change as we learn.” The diagnostic tool, for example, wasn’t brought to market because the business case wasn’t there, says Ajay Royyuru, IBM’s vice president of health care and life sciences research. “Diagnosis is not the place to go,” he says. “That’s something the experts do pretty well. It’s a hard task, and no matter how well stand ambiguity and don’t pick up on subtle clues that a human doctor you do it with AI, it’s not going to displace the would notice. Bengio says current NLP technology can help the health expert practitioner.” (Not everyone agrees with care system: “It doesn’t have to have full understanding to do something Royyuru: A 2015 report on diagnostic errors incredibly useful,” he says. But no AI built so far can match a human doc- from the National Academies of Sciences, Engi- tor’s comprehension and insight. “No, we’re not there,” he says. neering, and Medicine stated that improving diagnoses represents a “moral, professional, IBM’s work on cancer serves as the prime example of the challenges and public health imperative.”) the company encountered. “I don’t think anybody had any idea it would In an attempt to find the business case for take this long or be this complicated,” says Mark Kris, a lung cancer medical AI, IBM pursued a dizzying number of specialist at Memorial Sloan Kettering projects targeted to all the different players in Cancer Center, in New York City, who the health care system: physicians, administra- PROJECT: Cognitive has led his institution’s collaboration tive staff, insurers, and patients. What ties all the Coaching System with IBM Watson since 2012.

threads together, says Kelly, is an effort to pro- The sportswear company Under The effort to improve cancer care had vide “decision support using AI [that analyzes] Armour teamed up with Watson two main tracks. Kris and other preemi- massive data sets.” IBM’s most publicized project Health to create a “personal nent physicians at Sloan Kettering trained health trainer and fitness focused on oncology, where it hoped to deploy consultant.” Using data from an AI system that became the product Watson’s “cognitive” abilities to turn big data Under Armour’s activity-tracker Watson for Oncology in 2015. Across the into personalized cancer treatments for patients. app, the Cognitive Coach was country, preeminent physicians at the intended to provide customized In many attempted applications, Watson’s training programs based on a University of Texas MD Anderson Can- NLP struggled to make sense of medical text— user’s habits, as well as advice cer Center, in Houston, collaborated with as have many other AI systems. “We’re doing based on analysis of outcomes IBM to create a different tool called Oncol- achieved by similar people. The incredibly better with NLP than we were five coach never launched, and Under ogy Expert Advisor. MD Anderson got years ago, yet we’re still incredibly worse than Armour is no longer working with as far as testing the tool in the leukemia humans,” says Yoshua Bengio, a professor of IBM Watson. department, but it never became a com- computer science at the University of Montreal mercial product. and a leading AI researcher. In medical text doc- Both efforts have received strong crit- uments, Bengio says, AI systems can’t under- icism. One excoriating article about

SPECTRUM.IEEE.ORG | APR 2019 | 29 Watson by the numbers

83/ 17 Bumrungrand Intl Hospiotal Thailand

Watson by the numbers

73/27 India Manipal Hospital 83/ 17 Bumrungrand Intl Hospiotal Thailand

Watson by the numbers

DO YOU AGREE? Bumrungrad International Manipal Comprehensive Gachon University The realization that Watson couldn’t Hospital, Thailand: Cancer Center, India: Gil Medical Center, South Several studies have com- independently extract insights from pared Watson for Oncol- 83% concordance 73% concordance Korea: 49% concordance ogy’s cancer ­treatment breaking news in the medical litera- 49/ 51 Korea’s Gachon University recommendations to 73/27 India Manipal Hospitalture was just the first strike. Research- 83/ 17 Bumrungrand Intl Hospiotal Thailand those of hospital oncolo- ers also found that it couldn’t mine gists. The concordance 83 73 49 percentages indicate how information from patients’ electronic often Watson’s advice health records as they’d expected. 211 patients with breast, colorectal, 638 patients with 656 patients with matched the experts’ gastric, and lung cancer breast cancer colon cancer At MD Anderson, researchers put treatment plans. Watson to work on leukemia patients’ health records—and quickly discov- ­Watson for Oncology alleged that it ­provided useless and sometimes ered how tough those records were to work with. 73/27 India Manipal Hospital dangerous recommendations (IBM contests these allegations). More49/ 51 Korea’sYes, Gachon Watson University had phenomenal NLP skills. But in broadly, Kris says he has often heard the critique that the product isn’t these records,Watson data by themight numbe32/68: be missing, UNC/Watson written Genomicsrs “real AI.” And the MD Anderson project failed dramatically: A 2016 audit down in an ambiguous way, or out of chrono- by the University of Texas found that the cancer center spent $62 million logical order. In a 2018 paper published in The on the project before canceling it. A deeper look at these two projects Oncologist, the team reported that its Watson- reveals a fundamental mismatch between the promise of machine learning powered Oncology Expert Advisor had vari- and the reality of medical care—between “real AI” and the requirements able success in extracting information from text of a functional product for today’s doctors. 49/ 51 Korea’s Gachon University documents in medical records. It had accuracy Watson for Oncology was supposed to learn by ingesting the vast medi- scores ranging from 90 to 96 percent when deal- cal literature on cancer and the health records of real cancer patients.Watson by theing numbe32/68: with clear concepts UNC/Watson like Genomicsrs diagnosis, but scores The hope was that Watson, with its mighty computing power, would of only 63 to 65 percent for ­time-dependent examine hundreds of variables in these records—including demograph- information like therapy timelines. ics, tumor characteristics, treatments, and outcomes—and discover pat- In a final blow to the dream of an AI super- terns invisible to humans. It would also keep up to date with the bevy of doctor, researchers realized that Watson can’t journal articles about cancer treatments being published every day. To compare a new patient with the universe of Sloan Kettering’s oncologists, it sounded like a potential breakthrough cancer patients who have come before to dis-

in cancer care. To IBM, it sounded like a great product.Watson by “I the don’t numbe32/68: think UNC/Watsoncover Genomicsrs hidden patterns. Both Sloan Kettering and anybody knew what we were in for,” says Kris. MD Anderson hoped that the AI would mimic Watson learned fairly quickly how to scan articles about clinical stud- the abilities of their expert oncologists, who ies and determine the basic outcomes. But it proved impossible to teach draw on their experience of patients, treatments, Watson to read the articles the way a doctor would. “The information and outcomes when they devise a strategy for a that physicians extract from an article, that they use to change their care, new patient. A machine that could do the same may not be the major point of the study,” Kris says. Watson’s thinking type of population analysis—more rigorously, is based on statistics, so all it can do is gather statistics about main out- and using thousands more patients—would be comes, explains Kris. “But doctors don’t work that way.” hugely powerful. In 2018, for example, the FDA approved a new “tissue agnostic” can- But the health care system’s current stan- cer drug that is effective against all tumors that exhibit a specific genetic dards don’t encourage such real-world learning. mutation. The drug was fast-tracked based on dramatic results in just MD Anderson’s Oncology Expert Advisor issued 55 patients, of whom four had lung can- only “evidence based” recommendations linked cer. “We’re now saying that every patient to official medical guidelines and the outcomes with lung cancer should be tested for this PROJECT: Sugar.IQ of studies published in the medical literature. If

gene,” Kris says. “All the prior guidelines Medtronic and Watson Health an AI system were to base its advice on patterns have been thrown out, based on four began working together in 2015 it discovered in medical records—for example, patients.” But Watson won’t change its on an app for personalized that a certain type of patient does better on a diabetes management. The app conclusions based on just four patients. works with data from Medtronic’s certain drug—its recommendations wouldn’t be To solve this problem, the Sloan Ketter- continuous glucose monitor, considered evidence based, the gold standard in ing experts created “synthetic cases” and helps diabetes patients medicine. Without the strict controls of a scien- track how their medications, that Watson could learn from, essen- food, and lifestyle choices affect tific study, such a finding would be considered tially make-believe patients with cer- their glucose levels. The FDA- only correlation, not causation. tain demographic profiles and cancer approved app launched in 2018. Kohn, formerly of IBM, and many others think characteristics. “I believe in analytics; I the standards of health care must change in believe it can uncover things,” says Kris. order for AI to realize its full potential and trans- “But when it comes to cancer, it really form medicine. “The gold standard is not really doesn’t work.” gold,” Kohn says. AI systems could consider

30 | APR 2019 | SPECTRUM.IEEE.ORG many more factors than will ever be repre- veillance instead of aggressive treatment for certain sented in a clinical trial, and could sort patients patients with metastatic cancer. ↗ POST YOUR COMMENTS at into many more categories to provide “truly These studies aimed to determine whether W­ atson https://spectrum.ieee. org/watson0419 personalized care,” Kohn says. Infrastructure for Oncology’s technology performs as expected. must change too: Health care institutions must But no study has yet shown that it benefits patients. agree to share their proprietary and privacy- Wachter of UCSF says that’s a growing problem for the company: “IBM controlled data so AI systems can learn from knew that the win on Jeopardy! and the partnership with Memorial Sloan millions of patients followed over many years. Kettering would get them in the door. But they needed to show, fairly According to anecdotal reports, IBM has had quickly, an impact on hard outcomes.” Wachter says IBM must convince trouble finding buyers for its Watson oncology hospitals that the system is worth the financial investment. “It’s really product in the United States. Some oncologists important that they come out with successes,” he says. “Success is an say they trust their own judgment and don’t article in the New England Journal of Medicine showing that when we used need Watson telling them what to do. Others Watson, patients did better or we saved money.” Wachter is still waiting say it suggests only standard treatments that to see such articles appear. they’re well aware of. But Kris says some phy- Sloan Kettering’s Kris isn’t discouraged; he says the technology will sicians are finding it useful as an instant sec- only get better. “As a tool, Watson has extraordinary potential,” he says. ond opinion that they can share with nervous “I do hope that the people who have the brainpower and computer power patients. “As imperfect as it is, and limited as stick with it. It’s a long haul, but it’s worth it.” it is, it’s very helpful,” Kris says. IBM sales reps have had more luck outside the United States, Some success stories are emerging from Watson Health—in certain with hospitals in India, South Korea, Thailand, narrow and controlled applications, Watson seems to be adding value. and beyond adopting the technology. Many of Take, for example, the Watson for Genomics product, which was devel- oped in partnership with the University of North Carolina, Yale University, and other institutions. The tool is used by genetics labs that generate “As a tool, Watson has reports for practicing oncologists: Watson takes in the file that lists a extraordinary potential. patient’s genetic mutations, and in just a few minutes it can generate I do hope that the people a report that describes all the relevant drugs and clinical trials. “We who have the brainpower enable the labs to scale,” says Vanessa Michelini, an IBM Distinguished Engineer who led the development and 2016 launch of the product. and computer power Watson has a relatively easy time with genetic information, which stick with it. It’s a long is presented in structured files and has no ambiguity—either a muta- haul, but it’s worth it.” tion is there, or it’s not. The tool doesn’t employ NLP to mine medi- cal records, instead using it only to search textbooks, journal articles, —MARK KRIS, lung cancer specialist, Memorial Sloan drug approvals, and clinical trial announcements, where it looks for Kettering Cancer Center, New York City very specific statements. IBM’s partners at the University of North Carolina published the first these hospitals proudly use the IBM W­ atson paper about the effectiveness of Watson for Genomics in 2017. For 32 per- brand in their marketing, telling patients that cent of cancer patients enrolled in that study, Watson spotted potentially they’ll be getting AI-powered cancer care. important mutations not identified by a human review, which made In the past few years, these hospitals have these patients good candidates for a new drug or a just-opened clinical begun publishing studies about their experi- trial. But there’s no indication, as of yet, that Watson for Genomics leads ences with Watson for Oncology. In India, phy- to better outcomes. sicians at the Manipal Comprehensive Cancer The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs uses Watson for Genomics Center evaluated Watson on 638 breast can- reports in more than 70 hospitals nationwide, says Michael Kelley, the cer cases and found a 73 percent concordance VA’s national program director for oncology. The VA first tried the sys- rate in treatment recommendations; its score tem on lung cancer and now uses it for all solid tumors. “I do think it was brought down by poor performance on improves patient care,” Kelley says. When VA oncologists are deciding metastatic breast cancer. Watson fared worse on a treatment plan, “it is a source of information they can bring to the at Gachon University Gil Medical Center, in discussion,” he says. But Kelley says he doesn’t think of Watson as a robot South Korea, where its top recommendations doctor. “I tend to think of it as a robot who is a master medical librarian.” for 656 colon cancer patients matched those Most doctors would probably be delighted to have an AI librarian at of the experts only 49 percent of the time. Doc- their beck and call—and if that’s what IBM had originally promised them, tors reported that Watson did poorly with older they might not be so disappointed today. The Watson Health story is a cau- patients, didn’t suggest certain standard drugs, tionary tale of hubris and hype. Everyone likes ambition, everyone likes and had a bug that caused it to recommend sur- moon shots, but nobody wants to climb into a rocket that doesn’t work. n

SPECTRUM.IEEE.ORG | APR 2019 | 31 Self-driving and electric technologies are infiltrating everyday cars—slowly By Lawrence Ulrich

32 | APR 2019 | SPECTRUM.IEEE.ORG LIKE A BORED CHILD on a long car trip, an advanced-vehicle enthusiast can be forgiven for asking, “Are we there yet?” The rollout and adoption of cars that use alternative energy or that drive themselves has been maddeningly slow. IEEE Spectrum’s Top 10 Tech Cars has also been posing and pondering that question every year. • Alternative-energy cars, at least in the United States, face L head winds in the form of cheap gasoline and the Trump administration’s efforts to loosen fuel- economy standards and other climate-change-related regulations. On the self-driving front, it’s become painfully clear that the hype has far outrun the reality. • Even so, electric cars really are trickling down to mainstream buyers and budgets. A fine example is the Hyundai Kona Electric crossover, which was a clear choice for our Top 10. And self-driving technology itself really is infiltrating almost every new car on the road, sometimes in ways that aren’t immediately apparent to owners: If your new car is equipped with adaptive cruise control, automated emergency braking, or a lane-keeping system, it is locking onto a path toward full autonomy. It’s just not as far down that path as some have suggested we’d be by now. This year, though, an important milestone comes in the form of a BMW 3-Series car that can take all the guesswork out of tricky reverse maneuvers. But now, eyes front for this year’s Top 10.

BMW 3-SERIES

ENGINE POWER BASE PRICE Reverse assistant gets you 3.0-L in-line 6 285 kW (382 hp) US $41,245 right back where you started from

SPECTRUM.IEEE.ORG | APR 2019 | 33 BMW’s franchise model, as driving between giant trucks. its 3-Series sport sedan, has The built-in Intelligent Personal been slipping in sales and Assistant follows orders like reputation. It’s been hammered an onboard Siri. Blue‑laser- lately by the Alfa Romeo Giulia, powered high beams can among other sporty chariots. But illuminate the road ahead for an all-new 3-Series has armored a remarkable 600 meters. itself for the battle with loads And a plug-in hybrid version, of new tech. First things first: designated 330e, heads to The new 3-Series is fun to drive, showrooms in 2020. in the way BMW fans demand. Now, let’s back up and talk I learn this firsthand in Portugal about Reversing Assistant: while romping an M340i on the At speeds below 35 kilometers devilish Portimao circuit. per hour (22 miles per hour), The car’s 285 kilowatts the BMW records the car’s (382 horsepower) are a nearly path in continuous 50-meter 20 percent jump from last increments. Go ahead, drive year, even though the car has a along that dead-end forest similar 3.0-liter in-line 6 at its path, a steep uphill driveway, core. The upgrades focus on the trickiest courtyard or the turbocharger: Fuel-injection parking garage. You can even pressure is nearly doubled, and park the BMW and get a good the twin-scroll unit is lighter and night’s sleep. When you return, more efficient, inhaling exhaust the BMW will automatically steer gas at a toasty 1,000 °C. itself to mirror the inbound path When drivers aren’t pushing at up to 5.5 km/h, with the driver the BMW’s limits, they can touching only the brake and relax and enjoy the tech treats. throttle. The system worked like Semiautonomous functions, a charm, precisely reversing and including hands-off driving on scanning for pedestrians, cars, highways, are managed through or obstacles, while I monitored radar and three bundled its progress on a display screen; cameras from MobilEye, an all without me having to crane Israel-based Intel subsidiary my neck and worry about

that produces imagers and crunching into something. If (710 horsepower) software for driver-assistance every car had the BMW’s system, from just 3.9 liters systems. Another feature, called insurance claims due to reverse of displacement, in a Ferrari that weighs Narrow Passage Support, maneuvers gone wrong would just 1,382 kilograms keeps the BMW centered in drop faster than a shorn-off (3,047 pounds). That’s white-knuckle maneuvers, such side mirror. n W 6 percent lighter than a 488 GTB, the standard version of Ferrari’s When I get my first midengine marvel. The knee-wobbling glimpse diet that slimmed down of the 488 Pista and the Pista included its zesty racing stripes, carbon-fiber wheels I’m not thinking about that weigh 40 percent technology, I have to less than standard rims. confess. But when I The result is a new strap aboard the Pista at idea of insanity in a Ferrari’s fabled Fiorano street-legal Ferrari: test circuit in Maranello, The 0-to-100- Italy, I’m soon saying kilometer-per-hour grazie for the sheer run (62 miles per hour) technical prowess of takes 2.85 seconds. the fastest V-8 Ferrari You get to 200 ever produced. km/h (124 mph) in A midmounted, dry- 7.6 seconds, which is WHERE YOU’VE BEEN: The display screen shows where the car’s going sump, twin-turbo V-8 faster than many cars

while the Reversing Assistant backs up along the previously traveled path. spools up 529 kilowatts take to reach 100 km/h. MANUFACTURERS BY PROVIDED PHOTOS ALL

34 | APR 2019 | SPECTRUM.IEEE.ORG FERRARI 488 PISTA

ENGINE 0–100 km/h (62 mph) BASE PRICE It’s a turbo with the satisfying V-8, 529 kW (710 hp) 2.85 seconds US $350,000 sound of an air-breathing monster

Engineers trimmed GTB, a major challenge Endurance Racing. where air intakes engine-speed limiters, 23 kg (50 lbs) from the as supercars switch Compared with a mounted just below Ferrari says, cut off engine alone, using en masse to more- standard GTB, the the rear spoiler take the fuel well before carbon-fiber intake efficient turbocharged Pista enjoys a huge advantage of the high- the engine gets to its plenums and titanium power plants. 20 percent gain in aero pressure atmosphere redline. In the Pista, connecting rods, just Engineers also efficiency, including there; the 488’s there’s no sudden like in Ferrari’s F1 added more “color” up to 240 kg (529 lbs) signature cleavages in slump in power, the racers. The engine’s to the sound of the of downforce at rear fenders are now dispiriting thrustus total rotational engine by augmenting 200 km/h (124 mph). put to use feeding air interruptus that you inertia—created by its the richer, more- Giant carbon-ceramic into turbo intercoolers feel when a car’s moving parts and by pleasing frequencies. brakes feel strong and cooling the engine bangs off the friction—is reduced Turbocharger speed enough to halt Earth’s engine bay. The rear rev limiter. Instead, the by 17 percent for sensors on each rotation. The S-Duct, a diffuser incorporates Ferrari continues to faster, more-joyous cylinder bank measure Ferrari showroom first, three active flaps accelerate right up to revving. The Inconel- how well it’s working channels air through that can rotate the engine’s peak, and alloy exhaust manifold in real time to enable the front fascia and up to 14 degrees holds it there. All 710 of is just 1 millimeter engine controllers over the hood to clamp to minimize drag, these prancing ponies wide at its thinnest to maximize power, front tires to the road hastening runs to the are on tap, anywhere sections, and it saves regardless of altitude or surface. Front radiators car’s top speed of from 6,750 rpm to the nearly 9 kg (20 lbs). ambient temperature. are inverted and canted 340 km/h (211 mph). 8,000-rpm redline. The design minimizes The Ferrari takes rearward to direct hot The result is a track- Ferrari will build energy losses incurred aerodynamic and air along the underbody day carnival. just 500 Pistas for the when the engine handling cues from but well away from side The car’s coolest world’s consumption. If pumps out exhaust. It Ferrari Challenge intercooler intakes. hand-me-down from only technology could also helps deliver the racers, along with As in Challenge cars, racing tech may be make the Pista multiply fortissimo sound that the 488 GTBs that the engine is actually the new “wall effect” while sharply reducing went missing in the have dominated FIA fed from the rear, rev limiter. Traditional the price. n

SPECTRUM.IEEE.ORG | APR 2019 | 35 Designed from scratch AUDI E-TRON for electric propulsion

0–97 km/h (60 mph) TOP SPEED BASE PRICE 5.5 seconds 124 mph (200 km/h) US $74,800

Each axle, front and a hydraulic backup Robust thermal which intends to have and rear, gets its own system can restore a management makes up to 500 DC fast electric motor, to enable direct link in the event it possible to use chargers in place or in the all-wheel-drive of catastrophic failure. a 150‑kW DC fast development by this that Audi fans demand. An ingenious charger, for an coming July in 40 U.S. The 95-kilowatt-hour thermal-management­ 80 percent charge in states. Owners of T battery, built at E-tron’s scheme cools the about 30 minutes, Audi E-trons will receive ­factory in ­Belgium, battery via a layer says. And Audi’s parent 1,000 hours of free packs 36 shoebox- of heat-conductive company, Volkswagen, charging at these sites The Audi E-tron is size cells from LG into gel beneath each has committed to over four years, giving the company’s first a rigidity-boosting ­aluminum-encased building a network of potential buyers an electric vehicle with ­structural member. cell module; the gel such fast chargers in alternative to Tesla’s a clean-sheet design, Audi credits up to transfers heat to liquid-­ the United States, as it’s Supercharger network, and it’s a science fair on 30 percent of the filled cooling tubes. doing already in Europe, whose proprietary wheels, with 300 all- driving range to ultra- (Teslas, in contrast, run in tandem with BMW, connector renders it wheel-drive kilowatts efficient regenerative ribbons of piped coolant Daimler, and Ford. It’s unusable for owners of (402 horsepower) brakes. They are part through the battery a telling indication that other electric vehicles. and 400 kilometers of the first by-wire cells themselves.) Audi VW has finally and fully Under the E-tron’s (248 miles) of range by braking system in any says that separating embraced EVs. hood, a breath­ European standards. EV; it saves weight by cooling channels Credit this taking level of (The less-generous U.S. eliminating the physical from the fortresslike turnaround to VW’s systems integration estimate should come connection between cell modules ensures notorious Dieselgate divvies electricity in at around 200 miles.) the brake pedal and safety in a catastrophic scandal. As part of to control motors, But although this the brakes themselves. accident, because the multibillion-dollar brakes, suspension, electric SUV is complex, A digital simulator cooling fluid would legal settlement, the transmission, and the its operational mantra replicates the feel of a never come into contact company is funding Quattro all-wheel drive. is ease and simplicity. traditional brake pedal, with battery cells. Electrify America, The Audi offers seven

36 | APR 2019 | SPECTRUM.IEEE.ORG HYUNDAI KONA ELECTRIC Surprisingly muscular, with plenty of range

EV fans in the United States 201 horsepower, with 400 who’ve tired of the long waits newton meters (295 pound- for a Tesla Model 3 might want feet) of instant-on torque. to kick the tires of Hyundai’s The Kona’s nearly half-­ new Kona Electric. It has a base metric-ton lithium-ion battery price of US $29,995, after a sits below the floor, where $7,500 U.S. tax credit. For it doesn’t steal a whit of the comparison, the base-model passenger and cargo space Tesla 3 starts at $35,000, after you’d get in the gasoline- a $3,750 U.S. credit, which is powered version. The battery already phasing out. And yet stores 64 kilowatt-hours the Kona delivers a no-fooling versus the Chevy’s 60 kWh. 415 kilometers (258 miles) of And you get a DC fast-charge electric driving range—65 km connection as standard more than the standard Tesla’s equipment, a welcome touch range and 32 better than the (it costs $750 extra on the Bolt). Chevrolet Bolt’s. It also has a Find a 100-kW fast charger whopping 174-km edge over and you’ll get an 80 percent the latest Nissan Leaf. charge in about 54 minutes. Last December, I drove a One niggle: The brake pedal Kona from Brooklyn to the could use a smoother transition wilds of Long Island, blissfully from its energy-harvesting unconcerned about range and regenerative stoppers to its untaxed by the calculations mechanical-friction brakes. that run through your head On the plus side, the Kona never with the shorter-hop electric comes off as a cost cutter inside: cars. I found the Kona to be Its suite of standard safety gear different driving modes, a rearward view to surprisingly muscular, squirting includes automated emergency including­ one that fully interior displays. disables traction control, Early reviews are from 0 to 97 km/h (60 mph) in braking and lane keeping, and its a first for an EV. That’s mixed, including about 6.4 seconds, courtesy of infotainment runs Apple Car Play critical to off-roading, journalistic complaints a liquid-cooled, 150-kilowatt and Android Auto. It all goes to in which you may need over lack of visual a bit of wheel spin to clarity, and a tough motor. In old-school terms, show that the age of affordable, churn through deep learning curve for that’s the equivalent of no-sacrifice EVs is dawning. n sand, snow, or mud. drivers. However, none Inside, Audi’s latest of this applies to buyers MMI (Multi Media in the United States, Interface) system, with where ultracautious its stacked haptic- regulators still require feedback center conventional mirrors. screens, remains But Audi’s latest semi- perhaps the best autonomous systems infotainment in the are definitely on board, business for beautiful including hands-off graphics and easy driving on highways operation. The E-tron and automatic speed debuts Audi’s Virtual adjustments based on Side Mirrors, which road-mapping data replace conventional and local speed limits. mirrors, a major culprit The E-tron reaches in aerodynamic drag, U.S. showrooms in May. with streamlined Take a test drive, and cameras that beam bring your lab coat. n

SPECTRUM.IEEE.ORG | APR 2019 | 37 PORSCHE 911 GT3 CUP CAR Swapping spark plugs for microwaves

There are a few truly remarkable MWI claims that in the optimal case it can automotive-tech breakthroughs that have save 30 percent of the fuel, with smaller not yet found their way into an automobile, gains already realized in testing on one- actual or concept. One of the most and two-cylinder engines. That means a stunning of these is the microwave ignition similar cut in carbon dioxide emissions, from MWI AG. If that company is successful, with cooler cylinder temperatures the spectacular, factory-built Porsche 911 suggesting measurable cuts in nitrogen GT3s that run in Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup oxide emissions. Critically, microwave racing will adopt this Radarange of a ignition can work with existing engine system to stay on the track longer between designs, and with any fuel: gasoline, diesel, pit stops while producing fewer emissions. or biofuels. As the company moves into the It’s the brainchild of renowned test-vehicle phase, it’s reportedly found automotive engineer Armin Gallatz, CEO another partner in Fach Auto Tech, a prime of MWI (Micro Wave Ignition), in Empfingen, team in Porsche Supercup racing, the Germany. Backers include Wendelin international series that uses identically Wiedeking, the former CEO of Porsche. prepared 911 GT3’s. The tech aims to beat spark plugs, a “It’s absolutely great,” says Alex Fach, the surprisingly inefficient way to burn liquid fuel team principal, of the microwave-ignition in cylinders. Reason: About 80 percent of tech. “We saw it on a two-cylinder engine the combustion is completed before useful in testing, where it produced a 26 percent mechanical work can be done. During that reduction in fuel consumption at the same critical lag, a transition between “laminar” level of power, and a 100 °C reduction in and “turbulent” stages of combustion, exhaust temperatures.” cylinders heat up and emit more pollutants. Fach will collaborate with MWI to develop To eliminate that lag by triggering an the technology, which—like any radically all‑at-once burn—effectively one big new tech—faces enormous hurdles to turbulent stage—engineers have tried to be accepted in racing, let alone by major light the fire with other matches—a laser, an automakers. But with engineers working to ionized gas, even an electric field (corona squeeze the tiniest incremental gains from ignition). But pulsed microwaves may well internal combustion engines, microwave be the best trick because they ignite even ignition could be a big breakthrough that the tiniest clusters of fuel throughout the helps extend the life of the IC engine, both cylinder, not just in a favored spot. on roads and on the track. n T

The 2019 Ram has been garnering early praise for several technologies unheard of in full-size pickup trucks: a Tesla-like touch screen, a coil- spring rear suspension and self-leveling air suspension. But its best tech trick is under the hood: mild hybrid power. It’s called eTorque, and it’s

38 | APR 2019 | SPECTRUM.IEEE.ORG Frugal with fuel in stop-and-go traffic RAM 1500

RANGE FUEL ECONOMY (COMBINED CITY/HIGHWAY) BASE PRICE 1,000 km (624 miles) 13.5 L/100 km (21 mpg) US $33,390

standard on every V-6 wave in automotive (in Crew Cab models) 227-kW (305‑hp) once associated Ram and an option on electricals, with a with more legroom Pentastar­ V-6 adds with family cars. Hemi V-8 models. DC/DC converter and a than any full-size luxury variable intake-valve lift The V‑6 Ram has an Mild hybrids can’t compact, 0.4-kilowatt- sedan, and you realize and cam phasing­ that EPA fuel economy propel themselves on hour lithium-ion battery. how far we’ve come can run the efficient of 12.4 liters/100 electricity alone, but That 48-V system from the days when Atkinson­ combustion kilometers (19 miles they can supplement permits the use of the General Motors cycle, familiar from per gallon) on gasoline power and engine stop/start GMT 400 was hailed hybrids like the Toyota local roads and trim fuel consumption. tech that cycles so for having independent Prius. The 295-kW 9.8 L/100 km (24 mpg) On the Ram, a seamlessly that it’s front suspension with (395‑hp) Hemi V-8 on the highway, and liquid-cooled motor/ nearly undetectable: torsion bars. adds its own goodies, an unmatched driving generator connects The Ram rolls from Ram says the including fuel-saving range of 1,000 km to the Pentastar stoplights under eTorque system cylinder deactivation, (624 miles) on a tank V-6’s crankshaft to electric power before saves 5 centiliters electronic mass of gasoline. Even the deliver an electric it cranks the gasoline (1.7 ounces) of fuel for dampers on frame rails burly V-8 eTorque boost of 8.9 kilowatts engine to whispery life, every 90-­second stop. and active cabin-noise model manages (12 horsepower) without the shuddering Do that just 10 times cancellation, the latter up to 17/23 mpg, and as many as or noise that make a day and you’re two techs designed to in a truck that can 122 newton meters typical stop/start conserving 190 liters erase telltale vibrations tow a whopping (90 pound-feet) of systems so annoying. (50 gallons) of fuel a when the Ram runs on 5,783 kilograms, torque. It’s powered Throw in an year. It also saves energy just four cylinders. or approximately by a 48-volt electrical incredibly creamy through regenerative The upshot is the one African bull system, the new ride, and a back seat hybrid brakes. The latest, kind of fuel economy elephant. n

SPECTRUM.IEEE.ORG | APR 2019 | 39 LAMBORGHINI AVENTADOR SVJ

ENGINE 0–100 km/h (62 mph) BASE PRICE Slips through the air with 6.5-L V-12 2.9 seconds US $517,770 the greatest of ease

Germany’s benchmark, energized, as does reduced internal And the company the 20.8-kilometer the 2.9-second sprint friction, the engine claims a 30 percent Nürburgring circuit. to 100 km/h. Maurizio has more than brute gain in aerodynamic My own scorching Reggiani, the company’s force going for it. Yet downforce versus that introduction takes place chief technology officer, those factors alone of the old Aventador at Circuito do Estoril, the has vowed to preserve can’t explain the SV, much of it derived T former home of Formula these ultrahigh-revving, SVJ’s astounding from ALA 2.0, for 1’s Portuguese Grand naturally aspirated performance at the Aerodinamica Prix, where the SVJ engines in an era ’Ring, where it has Lamborghini Attiva. The tale of the escorts me to 280 km/h that’s seen every rival shaved nearly a full This active-handling Lamborghini Aventador (174 mph) on a long switch to turbocharged minute off the time of system incorporates SVJ is an inspiring story straightaway, blowing power. “I will never give its predecessor, setting a soaring rear wing of endeavor, failure, my mind along the way. up,” he says, though the a record of 6 minutes, unlike anything the and perseverance. The sheer speed isn’t writing is already on 44.97 seconds. Look industry has seen Back in 2011, the surprising, considering the wall. Reggiani and instead to the car’s before: It is Lambo’s original Aventador the 6.5-liter V-12, Co. are developing the more slippery, stable, patented “forged seemed as powerful with its 566 kilowatts Aventador’s successor, and agile bearing. New composite” of a and fantastical as a (759 horses). Rather, a gas-electric V-12 rear-wheel steering polymer, stiffened by Klingon warship— it’s the way the Lambo hybrid whose electric makes the car easier to carbon fiber. Forging it’s a Lamborghini, lets drivers access that boost is designed dial into corners. The makes the thing after all—but it had power with gains in to keep pace with slick all-wheel-drive shapeable enough to no real business on a balance and stability. downsized turbo system can switch to a allow for hollowed- racetrack. Its successor, One earful of this rivals in power, fuel rear-wheel-only mode, out air channels the Aventador SVJ, bellowing V-12 bull, economy, and carbon freeing up the front in the wing. That has evolved into the mounted directly dioxide emissions. wheels and so making capability makes fastest production behind my helmeted With its titanium steering sweeter and for some interesting car ever tested on head, leaves me connecting rods and more precise. aerodynamic finesses.

40 | APR 2019 | SPECTRUM.IEEE.ORG LEXUS ES 350 Who needs mirrors when you’ve got cameras?

For years, automakers have teased us with sleek concept cars that ditch conventional side mirrors in favor of digital cameras. Now, Lexus becomes the first automaker to bring the technology to showrooms, albeit only in Japan for now: The all-new ES 350 sedan will beat the Audi E-tron’s “virtual mirrors” to market by mere months. Lexus calls theirs the Digital Side‑View Monitor: a pair of slender exterior stalks housing digital cameras that beam a high-definition view to 5.0‑inch LCD screens mounted on either side of the cabin. The main benefit is to save fuel by reducing the aerodynamic drag of chunky conventional mirrors and damping the wind noise that’s been a longtime challenge for car designers. Lexus says the cameras and interior monitors deliver better visibility in foul weather, with the lenses heated and tucked into housings to ward off raindrops, ice, or snow. Drivers can adjust screen perspectives, or the camera can automatically adjust— When ALA is off, front and sharply reduces in real time by the zooming in when drivers hit their turn and rear flaps stay shut, drag, for enhanced Lamborghini’s big brain signals, or highlighting and alerting to and air flows over the acceleration toward and inertial sensors, hood to boost front-axle an epic 350-km/h which can adjust ALA cars that loom in blind spots. downforce. That max- (217-mph) top speed. flaps in less than half a Now, if only American motorists could downforce setting pins Front flaps redirect second—far faster than get a peek. Though regulators in Japan the car to pavement air through vortex any motorized wing, whenever I squeeze the generators below the and without added and Europe have already approved brakes or carve through car, further smoothing weight or complexity. the digital cameras, U.S. regulations Estoril’s tricky corners. the aero profile. And don’t overlook prohibit them. n Magnetorheological Aero vectoring is the tires. Pirelli devel- dampers do their part, the final trick: Turn oped an exclusive tire stiffening or relaxing right, for example, compound for the SVJ’s at any of four corners at speeds above tires, the very same to keep the body flat 71 km/h (44 mph)— rubber—20 inchers­ even as its momentum any slower and there’s up front, 21s in the shifts enormously. no meaningful air rear—that helped When ALA switches pressure—and the the SVJ negotiate the on, flaps open, air right-hand deck-lid flap ’Ring without crashing blasts into the wing’s closes while the left flap and burning. hollow, vertical pivots open. Now you’ve Lamborghini will stanchion, and then got downforce on the build just 900 ­copies, it’s forced through inside rear wheel but each priced from narrow slits on the lower pressure on the $517,770. It’s a king’s wing’s underside. outside, which helps the ransom, but not unrea- That pressurized Lambo pivot through the sonable for a genuine airflow stalls the wing corner. It’s all controlled racetrack king. n

SPECTRUM.IEEE.ORG | APR 2019 | 41 HONDA INSIGHT It adds electricity in three ways

Trivia question: What was 25 percent more than the the first hybrid automobile Prius’s 90 kW (121 hp). delivered to the United Accelerate slowly from a States, back in 1999? If you stoplight and the Insight will run answered, the Honda Insight, exclusively on battery power, congratulations! The Insight with the combustion engine beat Toyota’s Prius to market decoupled from the drivetrain. by a few months, but Honda’s The Insight is a serial hybrid, hybrids have mostly languished with electricity alone propelling in Toyota’s shadow ever since. the wheels while the engine The new Insight deserves to putters discreetly to generate change that impression. It more juice for the motor or to matches the Prius’s EPA rating charge the battery. But under of 4.5 liters/100 kilometers hard acceleration, the Honda (52 miles per gallon) combined can also run as a parallel hybrid: city/highway driving, and it A mechanical clutch connects triumphs in design, power, the engine directly to the front price, and performance. wheels to supplement the The Insight’s hybrid electric motor. system starts with a 1.5-liter, In my test drive, the complex 80-kilowatt (107-horsepower) system worked in pleasing gasoline engine for which fashion, aside from some small- Honda claims an impressive engine racket when you really 40.5 percent thermal efficiency. mash the gas pedal. My own test ↗ POST YOUR COMMENTS That engine is paired with the mileage was even better than the at https://spectrum.ieee.org/toptechcars0419 industry’s first permanent- EPA’s: I got about 4.3 L/100 km magnet drive motors that (55 mpg) in the city and better contain no heavy rare-earth than 50 mpg overall.

metals. A powerful motor drives Best of all, the Insight starts undercard for the FIA’s the front axle and a secondary at just US $23,795. If there’s a Formula E, included motor operates as a starter and better, below-$30,000 hybrid pro women—such as Katherine Legge with generator. Combined, the two on the market today, I haven’t the Rahal Letterman produce 113 kW (151 horses), driven it. n Lanigan Racing team— M competing against men in the kingdom for the first time. Making an electric I did my laps in car go fast in a straight that same car at the line on the street is Silverstone circuit in one thing; making one the United Kingdom. that can withstand And if the I-Pace the rigors of racing isn’t the fastest is another. Jaguar’s race car I’ve tested— I-Pace eTrophy showed give this technology the difference in time, please—it was December by kicking definitely the quietest. off the world’s first all- As I shot around electric, production- Silverstone’s Stowe based championship Circuit, I could barely with a historic run in hear the motor’s gentle Saudi Arabia. That whir above the groans eTrophy series, a global of the suspension

42 | APR 2019 | SPECTRUM.IEEE.ORG JAGUAR I-PACE eTROPHY

DUAL MOTORS, 0–97 km/h (60 mph) BASE PRICE A production EV, 294 kW (394 hp) 4.5 seconds US $260,000 refitted for the racetrack

and the rumbling of road-going version’s I’m strapped into the emergency workers impressive for a two- the 56-centimeter hefty 1,965 kg. car, sharing its safety are equipped with metric-ton crossover: (22‑inch) Michelin Pilot In this newfangled cage with the battery, rubber gloves, mats, The racing I-Pace Sport tires. series, durability and which is cradled and specialized gear to scoots to 97 km/h Jaguar’s Special safety matter as much inboard for safety. aid the driver and car. (60 mph) in 4.5 Vehicle Operations as performance: Gasoline fire has To maximize cooling, seconds, with a top has built 20 of these Motors are designed always been a prime the race version speed twice as high, at groundbreaking to last for the series’ danger in racing, but has hood and fascia 121 mph. racers, which use entire three years, or the Jaguar’s electrical openings larger than But this competition as a starting point 30 races, with only system, with 389 volts those in the showroom is also about putting the same electric the battery getting and up to 550 amperes, car, as well as double Jaguar on the EV map, I-Pace you see in replaced after each brings its own the A/C system according to James showrooms. The season. The Terra challenges: If I crash, capacity, the better to Barclay, director racers have the same 51 Charge Station, a I’ll need to toggle cool the battery pack. for the Panasonic 90-kilowatt-hour DC fast charger with separate switches that Regenerative brakes Jaguar Racing Team. battery, for example, roughly 50 kW of power, trigger two levels of create up to 0.4 g’s of “We have 9,500 and also the same dual is custom-designed to electrical isolation and deceleration. When the engineers in [England] synchronous motors be compact and easily minimize the chance I’ll battery is fully charged, developing this with 294 kilowatts portable, for transport be electrocuted. Lights no energy recovery technology,” Barclay (394 horsepower) and and racing. Those races on the Jag’s exterior is possible, but as says. “As a British 700 newton meters last for 25 minutes and dash glow green the race proceeds, company, we’re the of torque. Despite a plus one lap, or roughly when there’s no live drivers can adjust the first to have gone 610-kilogram battery, 100 kilometers electricity but glow regenerative brake racing with our electric the racers trim (62 miles), depending blue or red for potential over 11 settings. The car, and we’re very 225 kilos from the on the course. threats. In that case, results are pretty proud of that.” n

SPECTRUM.IEEE.ORG | APR 2019 | 43

A Medical Mini-Me One day your doctor could prescribe drugs based on how a biochip version of you reacts by yu shrike zhang

PHOTOGRAPH BY The Voorhes SPECTRUM.IEEE.ORG | APR 2019 | 45 You’ve fallen ill,

but neither you nor your doctor know which treatment will work. Which would you rather do—try five different drugs, one at a time, until you find one that treats your illness without serious side effects, or take one drug that’s guaranteed to work? You’d opt for that one drug, of course. Right now, though, there’s no way to know for certain that a particular medi- cation will work in your particular case. But someday, before you ever take that drug, it could be tested on a version of you small enough to fit in your pocket. These miniaturized copies of you would be enabled by improvements to technolo- gies that are currently in development in labs around the world. These organ-on-a- chip devices—usually made on substrates of plastic or rubber, not silicon—contain living cells. These cells are organized to form a 3D bit of artificially grown tissue, often called an organoid, that operates like a human organ but on a scale of cubic millimeters. A liver organoid might be functional enough to metabolize the painkiller paracetamol. A lung organoid could simulate breathing. An organoid on its own is useful, but in your body, no single organ works in iso- Today scientists are using these sys- in biofabrication, but this most personal lation. Your organs are in constant com- tems to figure out how drugs work inside of approaches to personalized medicine munication. Your nervous system sends the body, find new therapies, and under- is definitely in sight. commands to the rest of the organs to mod- stand how cancer spreads, among many ulate their behaviors; your heart pumps other things. And one day research- ••• blood to other organs to deliver oxygen ers will be able to use your own cells and nutrients; the pancreas produces insu- in these systems to predict how drugs The first organ-on-a-chip sys- lin that tells everything else how much will work in you and how to defeat your tems were created in the early 2000s glucose to take in. And we can’t know for cancer. That’s important because the to study the interaction of drugs. Called sure the real therapeutic value of a new same drug can have a different effect— micro cell culture analogs (microCCAs), drug or its side effects unless we can test or side effect—on you than it would on they consisted of living cells either on a it in a system more complex than just one somebody else, even someone in your surface or embedded in a 3D matrix of organ. So researchers, including my group own family. There are indeed still many hydrogel and connected to fluid flow by at Harvard­ Medical School and at Brigham mysteries about how relatively common channels with dimensions measured in and Women’s Hospital, in Boston, have drugs work, and a number of blockbuster hundreds of micrometers. been developing chip-based systems with drugs help only a fraction of those to Since then the technology has grown multiple organoids—systems with a minia- whom they are prescribed. in both scope and complexity. Today’s ture heart, a diminutive liver, even a basic Getting to the point where we can devices are made of multiple types of brain. Many of these are 3D printed and all produce person-specific systems that cells, and they now closely mimic some of are connected by a circulatory system of can solve these mysteries will require the internal microstructure and function microfluidic pumps and channels. advances in stem-cell research as well as of the organs they represent. Although

46 | APR 2019 | SPECTRUM.IEEE.ORG PHOTOGRAPH BY The Voorhes the terminology of what microCCAs have light. But in reality, it’s more complex become is somewhat fluid, we call them than that. Cells are sensitive, and they microphysiological systems. react—sometimes strongly—to mechan- Getting the right type of cell to survive ical forces, such as sheer stress. So the in the right place requires precise con- printer’s flow rate and other parameters trol of many variables at multiple scales. must be carefully controlled. In your body, biomolecules that make The right mix of hydrogel is important. up functioning tissue at atomic scales For example, together with scientists in assemble themselves into nanoscale Europe, we recently produced a 3-D bio- macromolecule­ s. Those macromole- printed mini-brain organoid. Hoping to cules then create micrometer-scale build- explore how a type of cancer cell invades ing blocks and then tissues and organs. the brain, we gave our mini-brain a tumor. When your body builds a liver, for exam- The mix of ink was crucial. It had to be ple, it combines several types of cells. thick enough to give the organoid and The main liver cells, called hepatocytes, its tumor a shape before it was fixed in are assembled with hepatic stellate cells place. And once it was fixed, the gel had

(which lie dormant unless the liver is to form pores big enough for the tumor LIVER LOBULES: The hexagonal damaged) and Kupffer cells, which are cells to communicate with the ordinary structure of liver tissue can be immune system cells that live in the liver. brain-residing immune cells. mimicked by the photolithographic patterning of liver cells. Together these cells form hexagonal units Using 3D bioprinting, photolithogra- of tissue called lobules. Lobules contain phy, and a range of other techniques, ducts that secrete bile for digestion, as research teams have created all sorts of well as blood vessels that deliver oxy- organoids that reproduce certain func-

gen, remove CO2, and carry substances tions of their counterparts in the human absorbed by the gastrointestinal system body—intestines that absorb nutrients, for the liver to metabolize. The lobules cancers that invade other tissue, heart are closely packed together to produce muscle that contracts, even a lung that the ­macroscale structure of your liver. inhales cigarette smoke. Replicating such levels of tissue com- But the real value comes when you plexity and their associated biological link organoids together. Michael Shuler’s LIVING INK: A 3D printer can functions on a chip is not a trivial exer- group at Cornell University built a micro- be modified to print living cells cise, but it can be done. To reproduce physiological system that contains three encapsulated in a photosensitive the liver lobule’s hexagonal microstruc- types of organoids—liver, bone marrow, hydrogel ink [pink]. ture, researchers adapted the chipmak- and a tumor of the colon—on a single ing technique photolithography. The liver chip with closed circulation. Research- cells can be encapsulated in a biocompat- ers used it to examine the metabolism ible photosensitive hydrogel, a substance of a decades-old anticancer drug called made of water-loving molecular chains 5-fluorouracil (or 5-FU). When 5-FU is that bind into a web when exposed to the administered orally, its effects are limited right color of light. The cells are loaded because the amount that actually gets to into a specially designed milliliter-scale the tumor has proved unpredictable. To chamber, and a repeating few-hundred- solve this issue, researchers developed micrometer­-wide hexagonal pattern of a more stable molecule that the body light is cast onto them, setting the hydro- metabolizes to become the active drug. gel and fixing the cells in place. Tegafur is one of these prodrugs of 5-FU. Three-dimensional bioprinting is By itself, Tegafur isn’t toxic to the another promising technique for turn- patient or the cancer. But when metab- ing a collection of cells into an organized olized by an enzyme in the liver, it organoid. This is similar to 3D printing, becomes effective against the cancer except that the final structure is liv- and remains active in the body much ing tissue. Fundamentally, you’re just longer than oral 5-FU does. Using a extruding or otherwise printing a pat- liver–colon ­cancer–bone marrow sys- METABOLIC MICROSYSTEM: tern of ­“bioink”—that is, cells in a photo- tem, researchers managed to repro- A reconfigurable microphysiological system [top] links together sensitive hydrogel precursor—and fixing duce the way the liver metabolizes the individual organoids [bottom] for

“LIVING INK”: JUN LI AND FENG CHENG/ZHANG LAB; ALL OTHERS: Y. SHRIKE ZHANG/ZHANG LAB LAB ZHANG/ZHANG SHRIKE Y. OTHERS: ALL LAB; CHENG/ZHANG FENG AND LI JUN INK”: “LIVING the pattern in place by zapping it with Tegafur. As expected, the Tegafur itself pharmaceutical experiments.

SPECTRUM.IEEE.ORG | APR 2019 | 47 did not harm the colon cancer organ- oid, whereas after liver metabolism, the modified drug proved fatal to it. It was A Reconfigurable also pretty toxic to both the liver organ- oid and the bone marrow organoid. The experiment was one of the first to show Microphysiological how multiple-organoid systems can reca- System pitulate human responses to drugs. Pneumatic control lines [green] can reconfigure the ••• flow of fluid [red] through a system that can contain Linking multiple organoids multiple organoids. An electrochemical sensing together is tricky. Because these micro- chip [far left] can connect to the system to detect physiological systems are miniatur- ized, their operating parameters can different biochemicals in the fluid. be way off from those of human organs, which are thousands of times larger and heavier. You probably know that small PNEUMATIC mammals usually have faster heart rates VALVE BUBBLE TRAP and metabolisms than do large ones. As ORGANOID 1 ANTIBODIES we try to re-create functional human AND OTHER systems on small artificial chips, we cer- SENSING CHEMICALS tainly do not want to create something ELECTRONIC PUMP that is made of human cells but metabo- INTERFACE lizes like a mouse. FLUID So properly scaling down these sys- RESERVOIR tems is crucial. You have to solve two problems. One is the scaling of the organ- ORGANOID 2 oids relative to their human counter- parts. This concerns how you go about PHYSICAL AND translating real patient dosages of drugs CHEMICAL MONITORING into the concentrations of those drugs tested on the chip. The other problem is scaling the flow rate of fluids among the organoids so that they reproduce how the drugs get distributed and metabo- lized in the human body. Scaling has usually been done accord- ing to the relative sizes of the organs in 1 2 3 question and the flow rates they expe- rience. But more recently, a new scal- ing strategy has been developed that 4 may deliver better results. This strat- egy proposes that microphysiological systems should be designed based on a

1. ELECTRODES SENSE the presence 3. THE MOLECULE [purple] binds combination of their purpose and how of a particular molecule as a change in to the antibody, causing a change in they actually achieve that purpose. For resistance. But first the electrode must resistance in the electrode. example, if an animal’s gut is known to be loaded with the proper chemicals to enable that sensing. 4. THE ELECTRODE’S chemical absorb a set of drugs at a particular rate coating can be removed and a new one and its liver metabolizes those drugs at 2. A SERIES of chemicals are affixed reloaded in order to sense a different a certain rate, then a microphysiologi- to the electrode, including an antibody molecule. [yellow] that is uniquely sensitive to the cal system that includes a miniature gut molecule you’re looking for. and a miniature liver should be scaled to do its work at those same rates. Then when the system is used to explore the

48 | APR 2019 | SPECTRUM.IEEE.ORG ILLUSTRATION BY James Provost actions of new drugs, it will likely tial to become any type of cell— have been scaled correctly. neuron, bone, liver, skin, anything. Another challenge is measuring When researchers first began what’s happening in a multiorgan- studying them in the 1980s and oid system. In daily life, patients 1990s, stems cells were difficult may undergo a series of medical to procure, requiring the manip- exams, from noninvasive tests ulation of embryos. A little over using a stethoscope to invasive a decade ago, however, Shinya tests requiring surgical biopsies. Yamanaka and researchers in his For today’s organoids, testing isn’t lab at Kyoto University discovered just invasive; it’s usually destruc- a much easier way. (And he won a tive. Most analyses rely on stain- Nobel Prize for it.) By manipulat- ing the organoids with chemicals ing a set of four genes, Yamanaka that bind to specific biomolecules— turned an ordinary adult skin cell an irreversible process that means into the equivalent of a stem cell. the system can’t be reused. These repurposed cells, called Other analyses remove fluid induced pluripotent stem cells, MINI-BRAIN, MEET MINI-TUMOR: from the system to measure bio- In order to study a type of brain cancer, we can be manipulated to make any molecules secreted into the cell 3D-bioprinted a millimeter-scale brain using type of tissue you want. Most culture medium. Although that’s immune-system cells called macrophages. In a important for future diagnostic cavity of the mini-brain, we bioprinted cells from similar to blood tests done in a glioblastoma tumor—the most aggressive organ-chips is that the organ- human patients, it’s not quite cancer that initiates in the brain. The two cell oids created from these cells are suited for the miniaturized organ- types interacted, with the tumor recruiting the a genetic copy of whoever sup- macrophages to help it grow and spread. on-a-chip systems, because the lat- plied the original cells. Right now, ter typically require much more this process is time-consuming, frequent monitoring than the taking weeks that a patient might human body does, and each measure- the electrode’s resistance increases not have, but it is improving. ment requires a comparatively large vol- in a way that indicates the chemical’s Organoid fabrication methods ume of fluid. Imagine the impracticality concentration. will have to improve as well. No one and discomfort of giving a patient 5 to 10 What’s unique to our system is that the approach is likely to suit every need: blood tests per day, and each time draw- same electrode can be reused for differ- ­3D-bioprinting can produce intricate ing 50 to 100 milliliters of blood. The ent targets while the experiment is still structures, but it’s typically a low- average human body has only about 5 running. A network of automated micro- throughput technology compared with liters of blood, and you’d probably be fluidic channels and pneumatic valves photolithography. Other techniques dead after losing 2 liters. supplies the mixtures needed to remove such as molecular self-assembly—where A more rational approach for measur- the old coating from the electrode and the chemical nature of polymers and ing organoid performance is to build min- apply a new coating. other molecules causes them to form iaturized sensing units that are part of the nanoscale or microscale structures with- same microfluidic circuit that connects ••• out outside guidance—may need to play the organoids. The sensors can be inte- a part. As is often the case, a combina- grated into the micro­physiological sys- How will we move from today’s tion of technologies may be required. tems themselves. That way, a minimal research-grade multiorganoid chips to a Despite the gulf between what we can volume of liquid is sampled, and mul- chip-scale duplicate of a person that can do now and what’s wanted, personal- tiple samples can be taken from what is be used to test drug effectiveness and scan ized microphysiological systems are now a reusable system. for potential side effects? One challenge worth the effort. We are all biologically To that end, my team and collabora- is that the chip’s organoids must be made individuals. A painkiller that works well tors have built a reusable electrochem- from the patient’s own cells. For a chip that for you may not work for even your ical sensing system that registers the includes a cancer organoid, that means closest family member, and that in presence of target molecules by a change performing a biopsy on the tumor, some- turn may mean a danger of overdose. in resistance. Electrodes in this micro­ thing that’s often done in the course of The ability to accurately understand fluidic chip can be coated with a series diagnosis anyway. But for other types of our uniqueness, despite the extreme of chemicals, including antibodies that organoids, such as the liver or lungs, it complexity of human physiology, could are designed to bind only to the mole- means turning one type of cell into another. make all the difference. n cules you want to measure. When those The body has a way to do just that. ↗ POST YOUR COMMENTS at https://spectrum.ieee.org/

PHOTO: MARCEL HEINRICH MARCEL PHOTO: target molecules bind to the electrode, Stem cells are cells that have the poten- organonchip0419

ILLUSTRATION BY James Provost SPECTRUM.IEEE.ORG | APR 2019 | 49 ARL Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellowships TENURE-TRACK AND TENURED POSITIONS ShanghaiTech University invites highly The Army Research Laboratory (ARL) Distinguished Postdoctoral qualified candidates to fill multiple tenure- Fellowships provide opportunities to pursue independent research track/tenured faculty positions as its core that supports the mission of ARL. The Fellow benefits by having the founding team in the School of Information Science and Technology (SIST). opportunity to work alongside some of the nation’s best scientists and We seek candidates with exceptional academic records or demonstrated strong potentials in all cutting-edge research areas of information science and technology. engineers. ARL benefits by the expected transfer of new science and They must be fluent in English. English-based overseas academic training or technology that enhances the capabilities of the U.S. Army and the background is highly desired. warfighter in times of both peace and war. ShanghaiTech is founded as a world-class research university for training ARL invites exceptional young researchers to participate in this future generations of scientists, entrepreneurs, and technical leaders. Boasting excitement as ARL Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellows. These Fellows a new modern campus in Zhangjiang Hightech Park of cosmopolitan Shanghai, must display extraordinary abilities in scientific research and show ShanghaiTech shall trail-blaze a new education system in China. Besides establishing and maintaining a world-class research profile, faculty candidates are also expected clear promise of becoming outstanding future leaders. Candidates to contribute substantially to both graduate and undergraduate educations. are expected to have already successfully tackled a major scientific or engineering problem during their thesis work or to have provided a new Academic Disciplines: Candidates in all areas of information science and technology shall be considered. approach or insight, evidenced by a recognized impact in their field. ARL offers five named Fellowships honoring distinguished researchers and Compensation and Benefits: work that has been performed at ARL. Three of these positions are open Salary and startup funds are highly competitive, commensurate with experience and academic accomplishment. We also offer a comprehensive benefit package for the 2019 competition. to employees and eligible dependents, including on-campus housing. All regular The ARL Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellowships are one-year ShanghaiTech faculty members will join its new tenure-track system in accordance appointments, renewable for up to three years based on performance. with international practice for progress evaluation and promotion. The annual stipend is $100,000, and the award includes benefits and Qualifications: potential additional funding for the chosen proposal. Applicants must • Strong research productivity and demonstrated potentials; have completed all requirements for a Ph.D. or Sc.D. degree by the • Ph.D. (Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, Financial Engineering, Signal Processing, Operation application deadline and may not be more than five years beyond their Research, Applied Math, Statistics or related field); doctoral degree as of the application deadline. For more information and • A minimum relevant (including PhD) research experience of 4 years. to apply, visit www.nas.edu/arl. Applications: Online applications must be submitted by May 31, 2019 at 5 PM EST. Submit (in English, PDF version) a cover letter, a 2-page research plan, a CV plus copies of 3 most significant publications, and names of three referees to: sist@ shanghaitech.edu.cn. For more information, visit http://sist.shanghaitech.edu. cn/2017/0426/c2865a23763/page.htm Deadline: The positions will be open until they are filled by appropriate candidates.

Director Naval Center for Space Technology www.nrl.navy.mil

Senior Executive Service Career Opportunity – Tier 2 WEST VIRGINIA UNIVERSITY, The Benjamin ES-830, 855, 861 or 1301: $126,148 - $189,600 per annum* (2019 salary) M. Statler College of Engineering and Mineral *Actual salary may vary depending on the scope and complexity of the Resources (Morgantown, WV) seeks a dynamic position and the qualifications and current compensation of the selectee. leader with outstanding technical expertise and a proven, ongoing track record of internationally Become a member of an elite research and development community recognized scholarly accomplishments for an involved in basic and applied scientific research and advanced endowed chair in the field of digital health. We technological development for tomorrow’s Navy and for the Nation. invite such applications from candidates currently The Naval Center for Space Technology (NCST) located at the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) in at the rank of tenured Professor or tenured Washington, DC plays a crucial role in the United States (US) space program. The Center is comprised Associate Professors who have demonstrated of two departments, each headed by an SES member; the Space Systems Development Department and exceptional achievement and continuing promise. the Spacecraft Engineering Department. The Center’s mission is to preserve and enhance a strong space We also welcome candidates that have at least technology base and provide expert assistance in the development and acquisition of space systems. 5 years of equivalent experience in the private Technology transfer is a major goal and motivates a continuous search for new technologies and capabilities sector or national laboratories/institutes. The and the development of prototypes demonstrating the integration of such technologies. NCST has 301 successful applicant must hold an earned Ph.D. civilian employees and operates an annual budget of $423M and substantially influences an additional $2B. in engineering, computer science or a very closely related field; or a MD/Ph.D. degree. They must The Director makes recommendations and predictions so as to guide higher management in policy have demonstrated professional and interpersonal decisions concerning NRL’s degree of involvement in the US space program. The Director provides skills that can help build and lead interdisciplinary reviews and briefings for top Navy and Department of Defense management and national authorities. research teams, consortia and/or centers or show The Director is responsible for obtaining support for NCST programs. The Director is a national evidence of industrial collaborations or experience authority figure on matters relating to naval space technology and a scientific consultant to the Navy, supported by patents and/or technology transfer other departments of the Government, allied foreign governments and various interested groups. The activities. For the complete position description Director is expected to have international recognition in naval space technology. and how to apply, please see www.jobs.wvu.edu. For more information and specific instructions on how to apply, go to www.usajobs.gov, from Applications will be reviewed upon receipt. 01 April 2019 through 30 April 2019 and enter the following announcement number: DE-10431877-19-JS. West Virginia University is an Equal Opportunity/ Please carefully read the announcement and follow instructions when applying. The announcement Affirmative Action Employer and the recipient of closes 30 April 2019. Please contact Lesley Renfro at [email protected] for more information. an NSF ADVANCE award for gender equity. The E-mailed resumes cannot be accepted. University values diversity among its faculty, staff and students, and invites applications from NRL is an Equal Opportunity Employer all qualified individuals, including minorities, NRL – 4555 Overlook Ave SW, Washington DC 20375 females, individuals with disabilities, and veterans.

50 | APR 2019 | SPECTRUM.IEEE.ORG Opportunity to work in India & enjoy the hospitality & cultural diversity Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT), India has grown from a modest student strength of 180 in 1984 to 39000 students from 29 states, 7 union territories of India and 50 countries across the world in 2018 in its four campuses - Vellore, Chennai, Amaravati (Andhra Pradesh), Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh). It offers ABET, USA accredited programs and has 200 strong global academic partnerships. VIT has published the highest number of research publications in India in 2016, 2017 and 2018 as per Elsevier (Scopus) database. VIT acquires an international acclaim. VIT sets the record, as three of the subjects made way to the prestigious Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Rankings (WUR) by Subject in 2019. Three subjects of VIT - Computer Science and Information System, Electrical and Electronic Engineering and Chemistry are ranked within the top 550 Universities of the world. While the two engineering subjects are ranked within the top 500 universities of the world, Chemistry emerged in the top 550. VIT is the first institute of India to receive QS four star in overall category and five star in teaching, employability, facilities, innovation and inclusiveness. VIT, Vellore India is recruiting Full Time/Tenure Faculty in Engineering/Management/Science areas. • Selected candidates will be involved in Teaching and Research. • Furnished accommodation, Boarding and Two way travel will be provided to foreign citizens in addition to salary commensurate with experience. • Conducive ambience to do world class research is available at VIT.

Interested candidates may send CV to [email protected].

Sr. Quantitative Risk Analyst (Regions - Birmingham, AL) The Quantitative Risk Analytics Group w/in Risk Mgmt is seeking a quantitative analyst to develop, enhance & maintain loss estimation models. This hands-on role involves translating economic theory into meaningful models that estimate portfolio losses based on adverse One of the most macroeconomic conditions. Min Reqs: influential reference Master’s deg or foreign deg equiv in resources for engineers econ or rel field & 2 yrs exp in job offered around the world. or 2yrs in an academic quantitative research position. Exp may have been For over 100 years, Proceedings of the IEEE obtained concurrently & must incl: 2 yrs has been the leading journal for engineers of exp in Econ theory; 2yrs exp building looking for in-depth tutorial, survey, and econometric time series models; 2yrs review coverage of the technical exp testing model performance, in developments that shape our world. model design & for ongoing monitoring; 1yr research exp in banking & financial institutions; 2yrs exp working w/any of the following: R, SAS, SQL, or VBA; 1y exp analyzing bank data from the Federal To learn more and start Reserve; & 2yrs exp w/ either technical your subscription today, visit writing or model documentation. Must ieee.org/proceedings-subscribe have legal authority to work in U.S. Any suitable combo of edu, training or exp is acceptable. Resume to Regions Bank, Attn: Scott Ewert, Corporate HR, 1900 5th Ave N, 7th Fl, Birmingham, AL 35203

SPECTRUM.IEEE.ORG | APR 2019 | 51 PAST FORWARD_BY ALLISON MARSH

Homing pigeons have been delivering messages for thousands of years. Leave it to the Central PIGEON: Intelligence Agency to turn them into spies. In the 1970s, the CIA’s Office of Research and Development created a small, lightweight camera that could be strapped to a pigeon’s breast. Upon release, the bird IMPOSSIBLE would fly over its intended target, en route to its home base. A battery-operated motor advanced the film and clicked the shutter. With a flight path just a few hundred meters above the ground, a pigeon could shoot significantly more detailed photos than could spy planes or satellites. We still don’t know where the pigeon cam was deployed or whether the missions were successful. The CIA files remain classified. ■ ↗ For more on the technology of pigeons, go to https://spectrum.ieee.org/pastforward0419 CIA MUSEUM CIA

52 | APR 2019 | SPECTRUM.IEEE.ORG OP2 Courtesy of The World’s ROBOTIS Best ROBOTS GUIDE Is Here! ROBOTS.IEEE.ORG

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