Industry

UK rocket company Orbex secures £40m funding UK-based spaceflight company Orbex has secured £40.4m for its Series C funding round, led by a new investor, the Scottish National Investment Bank. The new round of funding will allow the company to scale up its resources as it counts down to the first vertical launch from UK soil, as well as unlocking additional funding to support future projects. Orbex recently revealed its Prime rocket in its final form, making this the first full orbital micro-launcher to be unveiled in Europe. Prime is a 19-metre long, two-stage rocket designed to transport small satellites...

8 New Ways to Improve Energy Efficiency Schneider Electric’s EcoStruxure Energy Hub. (Source: Schneider Electric.) Amid an energy and climate crisis, Schneider Electric is capitalizing on the current momentum around building electrification with the release of several new products to increase energy efficiency. At the recent annual North American Innovation Summit, the digital transformation and energy management company announced products to accelerate sustainability by reducing emissions in commercial buildings, homes, infrastructure and data centers. The aim is to push toward a net-zero goal in which the built environment doesn’t contribute any net greenhouse gas emissions into the environment. However, to...

Siemens Makes Big CAE Play with EDA Acquisition and New Cloud Offering Two interesting announcements target CAE users. Within the last few days, Siemens Digital Industries Software has made two interesting announcements that target its CAE users. The first was the launch of Simcenter Cloud HPC software and the second was the acquisition of Avery Design Systems for its electronic design automation (EDA) and integrated circuit (IC) verification technologies. Let’s go over the news one by one. VIP EDA Offering Coming to Siemens Xcelerator With the EDA acquisition, Siemens plans to add Avery’s technology to the Siemens Xcelerator portfolio to...

Ford and the Argo-not. Automaker Drops Autonomous Vehicle Startup Argo AI burns through $3.6 billion of funding and finding no additional investors, will shut down. A Ford Focus outfitted with Argo autonomous vehicle technology navigates Austin, Tex., as the company rolled out a robotaxi service with Lyft, the ride-sharing service, in September. (Picture courtesy of Argo.ai.) Ford signaled that it has lost interest in fully autonomous vehicles when it announced last week that it was pulling out of Argo AI, its joint venture with Volkswagen, forcing the Pittsburgh-based startup to close its doors. Argo had employed as many as 2,000...

Jaguar Land Rover Chooses Silicon Carbide for Next-Gen EVs The automaker partnered with Wolfspeed to use its wide bandgap semiconductors in future vehicles. Jaguar Land Rover plans to use Silicon Carbide in its EV powertrain inverters. (Source: Jaguar Land Rover.) As part of its Reimaginestrategy to become an electric-first, decarbonized automaker by 2039, Jaguar Land Rover this week announced a strategic partnership with Wolfspeed to power its next generation of electric vehicles (EVs). Jaguar Land Rover will harness Wolfspeed’s silicon carbide semiconductors to help deliver increased powertrain efficiency and extended driving range to its Range Rover, Discovery, Defender and Jaguar...