Industrial News

A young engineer called Robert Sansone won the first prize, and winnings of $75,000, at this year’s Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF), the world’s largest international high school STEM competition. As per Smithsonian Magazine, his new invention could one day transform the electric vehicle (EV) industry. It is a synchronous reluctance motor with improved performance over previous models. Typically these types of motors are used for pumps and fans, but they aren’t powerful enough for EVs. Sansone’s new model improves the torque of these motors, which don’t require costly and often unethically sourced rare-earth metals. A promising young engineer [...]

Semiconductors stocks tumbled after Micron Technology Inc. became the latest chipmaker to warn about slowing demand, triggering concern the industry is heading into a painful downturn. In the US, the Philadelphia semiconductor index sank 4.6% on Tuesday with all 30 members in the red, its biggest fall in about two months. In Asia, chip stocks slumped from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. to Samsung Electronics Co., SK Hynix Inc., and Tokyo Electron Ltd. Investors are growing increasingly skittish the notoriously cyclical industry is hurtling toward a prolonged slump after years of widespread shortages that led to heavy investments in capacity. “We [...]

It looks like the Philippines could be on its way to producing its own batteries for electric cars. With Republic Act No. 11697 or the ‘Electric Vehicle Industry Development Act’ now a law, several companies are already busy taking advantage of the recently passed bill. One of those companies is San Miguel Corporation (SMC) which has plans to build a USD 500 million (or PHP 27.75 billion) electric car battery plant in the Dinagat Islands province. This was confirmed by Governor Nilo Demerey Jr. who recently got to meet with SMC president and CEO Ramon S. Ang last Thursday. According to Demerey, [...]

After contending with a global pandemic, geopolitical tensions and conflict further complicate an already uphill battle for the global manufacturing industry. IPC’s industry sentiment report shows us its main pain points for each region.  The electronics manufacturing industry is a major cog in the global economy. To the multitudes working outside it, we ordinarily take its machinations and complexities for granted. Though we may not be aware of much about it, we not only feel its impact every day, we are direct contributors to how it develops by simply using everything around us that is powered by electronics. When major [...]

BRITISH technology company Dyson Ltd. is planning to open a software lab in Alabang, Muntinlupa City, creating 400 software engineering jobs for research and development (R&D) work over the next three years. The project is part of a global Dyson research expansion, in which £2.75 billion (P177 billion) will be invested into developing new technologies and products over five years. Scott Maguire, Dyson chief operating officer, said in an online press conference on Thursday that the company plans to tap into the talent pool from local technical universities. “The investment that we’re putting in there is very much around us [...]

Numerous chipmakers pulled in funding in November 2020, with investors putting money into interconnects, memories, AI hardware, and quantum computing. Launching from stealth was a startup aiming to combine AI and 5G. Autonomous delivery did well, too, with one company raising a massive $500M. This month, we take a look at 28 companies that raised a collective $1.1B. Semi & design Connectivity company Kandou drew $92.3M in Series C funding led by Bessemer Venture Partners and joined by new investors Climb Ventures and Swiss Select Opportunities among other existing investors. Kandou provides ultra-short reach (USR) SerDes PHY IP using its Chord multi-wire signaling approach to improve signal integrity and latency. [...]

Carvey Maigue of Mapua University has been shortlisted for the James Dyson Award 2020 for his system called AuREUS, a device that transforms rotten fruit and vegetables into clean, renewable electricity. His invention was among 1,800 entries from young inventors and design engineers from 27 countries around the world. The brief was simple: Design something that solves a problem. Despite the pandemic, students met virtually to come up with solutions to global problems. From all these entries, only 20 were chosen to be potentially crowned as International Winner, Sustainability Winner, or International Runners-Up by the James Dyson Foundation. Maigue's AuREUS system [...]

Dutch financial giant ING and the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) have selected five promising local fintech startups that will receive fresh funding and mentorship under their joint program that scouts for ground-breaking and scalable solutions that will benefit the financially excluded and hardest-to-reach communities. Agriculture marketplace provider Agrabah, remittance platform provider BeamAndGo, education technology firm Educ4All, microinsurance provider Reach52 and microinsurance enabler Saphron qualified for ING Bank and Unicef’s “Fintech for Impact” program. “In the Philippines, over nine million children live below the poverty line. They not only suffer from poor health and nutrition but also miss out on [...]

Semiconductors, also known as microchips and integrated circuits (ICs), are essential components in every electronics product, whether it be a simple remote control unit for changing channels on the television, or a supercomputer used to simulate weather patterns. While chips themselves are resilient, made to handle extreme temperatures, vibrations and other external shocks, the global semiconductor supply chain is relatively fragile, prone to disruptions from natural and man-made shocks. The supply of chips cannot be turned on and off with a switch. Multibillion-dollar wafer fabrication plants are finely tuned and run 24/7, 365 days a year. Changing the production line [...]

When we first learned that Honda was looking at replacing the Jazz (international name: Fit) in the Philippine market, we felt it was a shame. Honda had just premiered a new generation Jazz/Fit which included a crossover-inspired variant at the 2019 Tokyo Motor Show. Now the news is official: Honda Cars Philippines, Inc. (HCPI) has just announced that they are discontinuing the Jazz for our market. The Jazz was first launched in the Philippines in July 2004, meaning the nameplate is about to celebrate its 17th birthday in our market. Internationally, the Jazz/Fit will be turning 20 as it was first launched [...]