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High-tech industries power the modern digital world, but their supply chains are particularly vulnerable to geopolitical and economic disruption. Urgent action is needed to improve supply-chain resilience.

Substantial improvements in computing energy efficiency, by up to ten orders of magnitude, will be required to solve major computing problems — such as planetary-scale weather modelling, real-time, brain-scale modelling and human evolutionary simulation — by the end of this century.

While academic research into resistive switching materials continues to grow, Intel recently shut down its resistive switching memory manufacturing plant. What does this mean for the future of nanoelectronic technologies based on resistive switching devices?

Optical interfaces could be used to address challenges related to scaling, precision and invasiveness in the development of brain–machine interfaces.

The responsible development of brain–computer interface technology requires careful consideration of issues related to access, equity and the management of expectations.

The use of electric vehicles has increased substantially in recent years but the development of an appropriate charging infrastructure remains a challenge. Roads with dynamic wireless charging could provide an answer.

Technical and economic developments in battery and fast-charging technologies could soon make fuel cell electric vehicles, which run on hydrogen, superfluous in road transport.

Cities are central to increasing the uptake of electric vehicles. A range of situational and contextual factors will influence this process, and cities need to use a variety of mechanisms — including policies and incentives — to drive the necessary change.

Electric vehicles could help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and deliver a sustainable transport system. But the full life cycle of electric vehicles needs to be considered in order to avoid creating resource issues while trying to achieve the necessary climate goals.

Autonomous vehicles are not a panacea for the issues that currently plague transportation systems. Smart policies — which are flexible enough to deal with emerging technologies — are required to help cities and states realize the benefits of these vehicles.

Solid-state electronic components that control and convert electrical power are key to the energy management and lifetime of electrified transport.

Unique circumstances in Taiwan led to the creation of the foundry model, where an integrated circuit manufacturer has no products of its own and its plants produce only customer designs. The model has reshaped the global semiconductor industry and is well positioned to be at the heart of technological innovation in the industry.

With careful planning and a focus on developing expertise, government policy has helped Taiwan become a centre for semiconductor innovation.

Through a combination of talent cultivation and innovative research and development, the integrated circuit design industry in Taiwan now plays a central role in global electronics.

The increasingly prominent — and inescapable — role of digital technologies during the coronavirus pandemic has been accompanied by concerning trends in privacy and digital ethics. But more robust protection of our rights in the digital realm is possible in the future.

The coronavirus pandemic has forced students and educators across all levels of education to rapidly adapt to online learning. The impact of this — and the developments required to make it work — could permanently change how education is delivered.

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought an infodemic of misleading and unreliable information. In response, social media platforms have taken unprecedented steps to moderate content and promote official sources of information, which, combined with new policies and appropriate communication, could help tackle misinformation.

The potential of digital contact tracing to slow the spread of a virus had been quietly explored for over a decade before the COVID-19 pandemic thrust the technology into the spotlight. But can it actually be effective in the hard-to-model complexity of real-world social networks?

Progress towards low-power electronics based on negative capacitance has been slow. For the field to develop, the gap between fundamental research on ferroelectric materials and the engineering of practical devices needs to be bridged.

Modern cars have an array of sensors that allow different objects to be recognized, including large and small animals. They thus have the potential to become a tool for monitoring biodiversity and improving driver safety. But to achieve this various challenges in computing, communications and privacy need to be addressed.