IEN Radio

It might seem challenging enough to control an 850 Horsepower race car with conventionally abled hands and feet… and for a quadriplegic, perhaps impossible. Until now. In an effort described as “tremendous,” a student at Miami Dade College has demonstrated the capabilities of new technology enabling him to speed around a track in a NASCAR race car using the power of his mind. Honduran native Germa...

A recent study conducted by Adobe suggests that half of the total workforce wants “complete flexibility” when it comes to how and when they do their jobs. For many manufacturers who have long dealt with a talent shortage, this is an added barrier: how to attract and retain a workforce for onsite roles in factories when workplace culture changes increasingly reject being tethered? Despite the hurdl...

Noticing those vehicle dashboard lights illuminating to indicate an issue might not seem so intimidating after seeing the car troubles this Tesla driver endured.  Jamil Jutha was driving a 2021 Tesla Model Y in North Vancouver when, all of a sudden, the vehicle lost all power to the electronic components and shut down. However, Jutha could not exit the car because the doors would not open and the...

It’s not surprising that no one yet has driven an electric vehicle from the North Pole to the South Pole. It’s a difficult journey and there’s likely long stretches without convenient charging stations. And, given the abundance of oceans, it’s probably a lot simpler to just take a boat. But next year, British adventurer Chris Ramsey is going for it. He and his team will set out from the magnetic N...

When you’re driving, there’s acceleration and there’s testing the very bounds of time, space and human endurance. The upcoming Bentley EV will tilt toward the latter. In an interview with Automotive News Europe , Bentley CEO Adrian Hallmark promised that his company’s electric vehicle will sport 1,400 horsepower and go from 0-60 mph in a bonkers 1.5 seconds. Most current lists have even the fastes...

Earlier this year, Ford made headlines after it came to light that the American automotive titan was considering spinning off its rapidly expanding electric-vehicle operations from its conventional, internal-combustion engine ones. A complete split was quickly ruled out – likely amid opposition from the Ford family – and the company instead announced plans to create two separate businesses — sort...

On Wednesday, Abbott Laboratories said that production at a troubled infant formula plant in Michigan could restart within two weeks. In February, Abbott recalled baby formulas made at its plant in Sturgis after complaints of bacterial infections in infants who drank specific Similac products. As a result, two infants died, and several babies were hospitalized.  Once the company gets the go-ahead,...

The baby formula supply problem is not getting better. In fact, it is getting worse. Manufacturers claim production is at full capacity, but it still is not meeting the current demand.  In the first half of 2021, the out-of-stock rate for baby formula sat between 2% and 8%. However, the rate skyrocketed between November 2021 and early April of this year to 31%. CNN Business reports that the number...

Cannabis use, both recreational and medicinal, has increased dramatically in the United States. As more people incorporate it into their lives, businesses remain concerned about protecting their workforce from impaired employees on the job. To combat cannabis intoxication, some companies have turned to breathalyzers ; it's a familiar tech, and they are accurate when testing for the presence o...

Lordstown Motors has struggled with a moving target of challenges over the past few years, among them multiple lawsuits that accused the EV maker of breach of contract, conspiracy and outright fraud. It seemed for a moment the company was destined for bankruptcy, when a unique opportunity arose. Foxconn, the global electronics contract manufacturing giant based in Taiwan, handed the company an off...

On April 25, 2022, Urban-Air Port and Supernal unveiled the Air-One in the United Kingdom. The Air-One is a proprietary deployable operations hub that could provide quick multimodal infrastructure for eVTOLS and other passenger travel – think small turnkey airport, or, as they call it, a vertiport. Unfortunately, this one is for viewing purposes only, though they plan to hold drone demos to show p...

Bre Pettis, co-founder of MakerBot and current CEO of Bantam Tools , says the U.S. must bring prototyping and manufacturing back in-house, close the skills gap and build an independent manufacturing workforce.

Cameras on drones is not a new concept but Snapchat’s just announced Pixy offers an interesting take on the product category. Instead of being controlled by the user, the Pixy flies itself and follows the user like an adorable little creeper. The device, which is about the size of a CD case, pairs with a smartphone and uses its four propellers to take off from and land in a user’s hand. The compan...

It was hard to look away from the Elon Musk-Twitter chronicles that spanned a few weeks. Musk became the social media platform’s biggest shareholder . Then Musk was set to join Twitter’s board. And then he wasn’t .  Then, it looked like he was set to buy Twitter and take it private, then it didn’t . Then it did again. Now, as Musk and Twitter are looking to close the $44 billion buyout offer, each...

You may recall that there was a lot going on in 2020. A lot. So in case you missed this one, we’ll offer up a quick recap: In May of that year, just a scant two months into the U.S. COVID-19 pandemic, Nissan quietly announced that it would be winding down its Datsun brand – a big reveal that may not have registered amid the din, not to mention the fact that Datsun has been down this road before. T...

Wind energy has the potential to dramatically reduce the world’s dependence on carbon-emitting energy sources, and governments across the globe are racing to develop new wind power facilities amid efforts to curb global warming. But setting up a wind farm isn’t just a matter of putting up a windmill here or there; they can comprise hundreds of turbines across farmland or sea, and the turbines them...

Tesla has continued to absolutely floor it, with revenue in its 2022 first quarter outpacing last year’s by seven times . But according to recent comments by CEO Elon Musk, vehicles might not be Tesla’s chief breadwinner for long. In an earnings call with investors, Musk referenced an in-development robot that he believes will be worth more than Tesla’s car business as soon as 2023. The humanoid r...

An Amazon warehouse collapsed and six workers died after a tornado struck the facility in Edwardsville, Illinois on Dec. 10. The company is still facing repercussions from decisions that were made that day.  In a press statement , attorneys filed two lawsuits on behalf of victims involved in the deadly disaster. Plaintiffs include four Amazon drivers: Jamarco Hickman, Evan Jensen, Jada Williams an...

Newark, California-based Lucid Group burst onto the electric vehicle scene with their Air model, which touts an industry-leading 520-mile range. You might also remember the company commencing manufacturing last spring at their recently completed 500-acre production facility in Casa Grande, Arizona. This time Lucid is turning heads with the most powerful electric vehicle available in North America...

It’s been nearly 20 years since the end of the Concorde put supersonic passenger air travel on hold, but startups and industry giants alike are working on ways to not only fly beyond the sound barrier, but potentially much faster — into the realm of hypersonic travel. The most ambitious efforts in recent years floated the possibility of flying at Mach 4 or 5, up to five times the speed of sound —...

Cooking oils are crucial for frying all the foods that make life so worth living. But after they fulfill their destiny and get our jalapeno poppers nice and golden brown, they are also often used as a sustainable fuel. And not just for cars, but also jumbo jets. Airbus recently flew a three-hour test flight in France using a commercial jet outfitted to run on Sustainable Aviation Fuel or SAF, whic...

This might come as a surprise to some of you, but SpaceX is not the only name in privatized space launching services. For example, Long Beach, CA-based Rocket Lab has had 25 successful launches since 2017, and deployed over 100 satellites into orbit for clients that include NASA, DARPA and Canon. While their scale is smaller than the aforementioned competitor, their focus on innovation is definite...

The U.S. Department of Labor’s investigators and attorneys are working to prevent companies along the United States-Mexico border from exploiting Mexican workers.   Wage and Hour Division investigators recently discovered three San Diego-area customs warehouses were violating the Fair Labor Standards Act. The employers, OMG Global Logistics, Atlas Freight Forwarding and Columbia Export Group PDSA,...

Night shift workers at a New Zealand french fry factory were rattled by an unusual discovery last week that ended with a call to the bomb squad. Richard Teurukura, a worker at the Mr Chips factory in Aukland was reportedly observing the conveyor line when an object caught his eye for being a bit oddly shaped.  100,000 potatoes had just been delivered and were running down the belt when Teurukura s...

Another tough headline is about the last thing Boeing needed. The entire global aviation sector suffered in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, but Boeing has also faced production issues with its 787 Dreamliner and the grounding of the 737 Max after two deadly crashes. A crash of a Boeing 737-800 in China last month remains under investigation, and, this week, reports surfaced of a production mish...