Technology

Remarkable Advances in Electrical and Computer Engineering

Published

9 years ago

May 26, 2015

Jeff Desjardins

Remarkable Advances in Electrical and Computer Engineering

It is the incredible science that is behind our technology that makes future business and investing success possible. Today’s infographic looks at some of the remarkable advances in electrical and computer engineering.

Nanotube transistors are expected to replace the current generation of silicon-based transistors. They are smaller in size and are only nanometers long, yet they offer higher processing speeds and lower power consumption.

Meanwhile nanodevices are between the size of glucose particles and antibodies. Yet, they have the ability to lead to widespread improvements in biotechnology and DNA sequencing.

Electric cars are no longer in the domain of having restricted battery life. Tesla, as an example, is building a $5 billion gigafactory to bring down the cost of these longer-life batteries and kickstart the electric revolution. They are not alone, as many other battery manufacturers move towards scale, with lithium-ion production to triple by around 2020.

Quantum computing has also debuted, although it is under some scrutiny. The price of these computers is unconfirmed, but it is estimated that they are around $10 million, and customers such as NASA, Lockheed Martin, and Google have bought them so far.

3d printing is also changing the way manufacturers do business. Specialized parts, such as NASA’s injectors, usually cost $10k and take six months to build. 3D printing can do it in three weeks for half the cost.

Original graphic by: Ohio University

Related Topics:technology electrical engineering computer engineering

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Technology

Visualizing AI Patents by Country

See which countries have been granted the most AI patents each year, from 2012 to 2022.

Published

1 day ago

April 24, 2024

Marcus Lu

Visualizing AI Patents by Country

This was originally posted on our Voronoi app. Download the app for free on iOS or Android and discover incredible data-driven charts from a variety of trusted sources.

This infographic shows the number of AI-related patents granted each year from 2010 to 2022 (latest data available). These figures come from the Center for Security and Emerging Technology (CSET), accessed via Stanford University’s 2024 AI Index Report.

From this data, we can see that China first overtook the U.S. in 2013. Since then, the country has seen enormous growth in the number of AI patents granted each year.

Year	China	EU and UK	U.S.	RoW	Global Total
2010	307	137	984	571	1,999
2011	516	129	980	581	2,206
2012	926	112	950	660	2,648
2013	1,035	91	970	627	2,723
2014	1,278	97	1,078	667	3,120
2015	1,721	110	1,135	539	3,505
2016	1,621	128	1,298	714	3,761
2017	2,428	144	1,489	1,075	5,136
2018	4,741	155	1,674	1,574	8,144
2019	9,530	322	3,211	2,720	15,783
2020	13,071	406	5,441	4,455	23,373
2021	21,907	623	8,219	7,519	38,268
2022	35,315	1,173	12,077	13,699	62,264

In 2022, China was granted more patents than every other country combined.

While this suggests that the country is very active in researching the field of artificial intelligence, it doesn’t necessarily mean that China is the farthest in terms of capability.

Key Facts About AI Patents

According to CSET, AI patents relate to mathematical relationships and algorithms, which are considered abstract ideas under patent law. They can also have different meaning, depending on where they are filed.

In the U.S., AI patenting is concentrated amongst large companies including IBM, Microsoft, and Google. On the other hand, AI patenting in China is more distributed across government organizations, universities, and tech firms (e.g. Tencent).

In terms of focus area, China’s patents are typically related to computer vision, a field of AI that enables computers and systems to interpret visual data and inputs. Meanwhile America’s efforts are more evenly distributed across research fields.

Learn More About AI From Visual Capitalist

If you want to see more data visualizations on artificial intelligence, check out this graphic that shows which job departments will be impacted by AI the most.