Category: Computers and Software

Making the Zero-G plane more accessible to deaf and hard-of-hearing researchers

July 1, 2024

The weightlessness aboard the Zero-G Corp.’s modified Boeing 727 is helping the AstroAccess project with its goal of making space friendly to people with disabilities, including those who are deaf or hard of hearing. Brenda Williamson tells the story of her undergraduate project to create an automated lighting system to warn when the weight is coming back.

4 reasons to root for quantum computing

By Jon Kelvey

July 1, 2024

How close are researchers to building quantum computers that are practical outside the lab and can reliably perform their promised calculation miracles? Jon Kelvey looks at the state of the technology and potential applications that have engineers and scientists excited.

Meet the Pentagon’s software modernization evangelist

By Jan Tegler

June 1, 2021

The U.S. Defense Department’s process for updating weapon software is notoriously ponderous, and this threatens to put the country at a disadvantage, if it hasn’t already. What if updates could be developed and dispatched almost continuously to all forces, perhaps even to aircraft in flight? Jan Tegler interviewed the man who wants to make it a reality.

Visualizing electrical loads

By Cat Hofacker

July 1, 2019

Navigating without the “surly bonds”

By Amanda Miller

October 31, 2018

Spacecraft in deep space must exchange signals with ground stations so that their owners know where they are. That approach is not going to work if humanity sends swarms of spacecraft to the moon.

All aboard the blockchain train

July 1, 2018

A digital transformation is underway in the aerospace industry toward blockchain information technology, a secure method of storing and sharing high volumes of data. Companies that want to compete effectively in a transformed industry should embrace the technology quickly but in a systematic way. Blockchain researcher and contractor Sam Adhikari explains.