Biljana Ognenova

About:

Biljana received a bachelor's degree in criminal law and a master's degree in psychology from Ss. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje. Since then, she's served as a logistics and protocol manager for the British embassy in Skopje and a content writer for Cosmic Development. She's particularly interested in renewable and alternative energy technologies and resources, and she likes to write about how technology changes lives. Other areas of interest for her include IoT, sensors, access control, IT security, AI, and blockchain. Biljana currently resides in Macedonia.

Articles

The EU Has Pushed for a ‘Battery Passport’ to Support Its Green Energy Goals — But Is This Enough?

Policymakers require comprehensive, circular sustainability in devices’ battery life cycles. They must ensure that batteries are given a second (if not, a third) life. We discuss the EU’s potential answer to this, namely its Battery Passport, and ask how viable such a passport could be.

one week ago
Opinion

Various Sensors and Their Applications for Smart Farming and Robotics

Smart farming is a form of agriculture that is informed by robotics and smart sensors, whose data acquisition capabilities enable them to feed crops with precisely what they need to ease the farmer’s job of cultivation. We look at the various sensor technologies required for modern, IoT-based agriculture.

one Month ago
Research

How the University of Kentucky and Lexmark’s Vertical Recycling Project Shows Promise in E-Waste Management

The global dedication to a circular economy and sustainable electronics has been impaired by geopolitics and the trade wars, driving engineers and manufacturers to find new vertical solutions. Accordingly, the University of Kentucky and Lexmark have been working together to introduce novel e-waste (electronic waste) recycling methods.

one Month ago
Opinion

Regenerative Braking: an Increasingly-Promising Technology for EVs and More

Regenerative braking systems are able to charge automobiles through the energy developed by their friction, thus promising a future of safer, longer, and greener commuting—particularly for EVs, or electric vehicles. We look at the technology behind this promising solution to vehicle battery charging on the go.

3 months ago
Research

When GPS Fails: Advantages of Quantum Navigation with Quantum Gyro Sensors

High-precision, high-risk, costly moving objects lack a backup navigation solution. Mostly reliant on GPS—or the Global Positioning System—they present two major weaknesses: low accuracy and poor security. Such problems can be improved with quantum gyro sensors and other elements of quantum positioning systems.

3 months ago
Research

Beyond Conventional E-Studies: Immersive Learning Opportunities for Electrical Engineers

Virtual reality and augmented reality (or VR and AR) are just two examples of human-machine interfaces (HMIs) that are integral to immersive learning. Using industry-focused simulations, such HMIs can educate both prospective and experienced electrical engineers for practical work—and ultimately help companies to safely and affordably take on engineering graduates.

4 months ago
Opinion

GM Plans to Transform Its Lordstown Assembly Plant into an EV-Focused Ultium Battery Site

With General Motors’ slogan ‘Our Electric Future is Now’ used to promote its new Ultium battery that has a 600-mile driving range, the company has announced its intentions to become a serious contender on the electric vehicle market.

4 months ago
News

Former RAF Base in South Wales to Hold The UK’s First Location for a Large-Scale EV Battery Plant

A former RAF (Royal Air Force) site in Bro Tatham, South Wales will be the grounds for the United Kingdom’s first supersized EV (electric vehicle) battery production plant. The £1.2 billion investment is a strong injection that could alleviate the current shortcomings of the UK car industry.

5 months ago
News

The Problem with Maglev Trains: A Red Light for Frictionless Travel

Major maglev projects run by the U.S. and the U.K. have eventually been stopped. Is it because of infrastructure costs, lack of market opportunities, or something else?

about 8 months ago
Opinion

Miniature Molybdenum Disulfide and Iron Magnets Enable Spin + Charge Transistor Technology

The two-dimensional molybdenum disulfide material combines ferromagnetism and semiconductivity to help set the stage for future logic and memory devices based on spintronics.

8 months ago
News

How Difficult Is It to Design Electrical and Electronics Equipment for Space?

The minutiae required in the work of satellite and space electronics engineers is unlike that of their colleagues that design terrestrial systems —the challenge is to consider environment, power generation, safety, and reliability.

8 months ago
Opinion

The UK Makes A Final Decision to Phase Out Huawei Involvement in 5G Data Network

The UK government has announced a complete removal of Huawei’s telecom equipment from the deployment of its 5G network, despite the intention for the company’s involvement in 35% of the national operators’ RAN (Radio Access Network).

about 9 months ago
News

A Guide to Spintronics for the Electronics Industry

Spintronics are taking an exciting turn forward as quantum interfaces, nanostructures, and condensed-matter physics become an important research area.

9 months ago
Research

How Far We Have Come with Electroacoustic Transducers

Today’s devices feature hundreds of electroacoustic transducers the average user interacts with daily, knowingly or unknowingly. From smartphone assistants to voice control in autonomous vehicles and voice-activated robots, the field is open for design to EEs.

9 months ago
Research

GW Researchers Develop a GHz-Fast Electro-Optical Modulator

New types of optical neural networks and optical computing hardware might be closer than we think thanks to this super-fast micro-modulator.

about 10 months ago
News

Graphene Ink May Be The Next Solar Cell Module Improvement

Perovskite-based solar cells stacked on a silicon sheet with the help of graphene ink could just turn a new page for cell efficiency and lower manufacturing costs.

about 11 months ago
Opinion

Interested in Mechatronics? Here is What You Need to Know

Mechatronics is a promising career field for electronics and electrical engineers if you know where to look for what matches your interests and skills.

11 months ago
Opinion

A Tribute to The World’s First Electrical Engineers

Electrical engineering (EE) has a flurry of notable figures throughout history. Looking back, we cannot fully grasp the restraints they must have met while bringing forth the discipline from other technical sciences.

11 months ago
Opinion

Designing Intelligent Electrical Networks for Large Wastewater Plants

Wastewater plants are major electricity consumers. Applying intelligent electrical plant design principles could greatly reduce their power consumption and improve operational efficiency.

one Year ago
Opinion

What MicroLED Technology Will Do for the Future of Displays

MicroLED technology is transforming today’s display screens with better contrast, brighter colours, and greater sharpness.

one Year ago
Opinion

General Electric Beats Tesla in Building the Largest Battery Storage System in South Australia

General Electric (GE) Renewable Energy will deliver a 100MW/300MWh big battery for the 200MW photovoltaic plant in South Australia. Expected as early as 2021, the massive storage system will beat the current champion, Tesla’s Hornsdale Power Reserve, for its longer energy duration properties.

one Year ago
News

How Can the EU Roadmap 2050 Objectives Benefit EEs?

The European energy roadmap for 2050 has posed ambitious carbon emission reduction goals for the next 30 years.

one Year ago
Opinion

Actionable Ways for Electrical Engineers to Make a Global Impact on Climate Change

Alongside policymakers, regulators, and environmentally-conscious companies, EEs (electrical engineers) have a key role to play in tackling climate change worldwide. Indeed, EEs continue to bring about the change in actionable ways to improve the global state of carbon emissions.

one Year ago
Opinion

TRACO POWER TRI 3 Series DC-DC Converters

The new TRACO Power TRI Series DC/DC converters have recently been released on the market, featuring 5 variations, namely the 3.5, 6, 10, 15, and 20W models.

one Year ago
Product Highlights

Can Layered Perovskite Solar Cells Replace Batteries in RFID Sensors?

In expectance to the billions of sensors necessary for setting up the IoT infrastructure in the next couple of years, we witness innovative ways to optimize sensor costs.

one Year ago
Research

Advancements in Solar Technologies Help Meet Low-Cost and Sustainable European Energy Goals

In the race for renewable energy, solar photovoltaic cells are among the first-place contenders. At the same time, they pose considerable challenges in terms of manufacturing costs, efficiency, and scalability.

one Year ago
Opinion

University of Warwick Researchers Develop Less Toxic Solar Cells for Manufacturing Solar Panels

Despite the benefits of solar cells, their manufacturing process involves many expensive and unsustainable practices. The University of Warwick has set a milestone in combating both the harmful chemicals and the costs of solar cell production: enter its new method for patterning copper and silver, based on selective metal vapour condensation—enabled by organofluorine compounds.

one Year ago
News

Showa Denko Advances Epitaxial Wafers Development for SiC Power Semiconductors and Modules

Thanks to the fact that silicon carbide (SiC) semiconductors and power modules offer unique capabilities, such as their ability to increase power supplies’ energy and temperature efficiency, plus their overall performance advantages over silicon-only semiconductors, they are continuing to be widely adopted in the industrial power supply and electronic components markets.

one Year ago
News

The Importance of Mentorship for Electrical Engineers

For engineering, there are common techniques that recruiters use to weed out candidate applications. They try to find candidates that will fit well within the job role, of course—but also the team, and the company culture. It’s a threefold test.

one Year ago
Opinion

The Growing Problem of Counterfeit Electronic Components

The electronics components industry is flourishing—with new suppliers showing up daily, many from abroad, and it becomes a greater challenge for companies to detect fake pieces and distinguish between the real deal and a bland, low-quality copy...

one Year ago
Opinion

Challenges UK Electrical Engineers Face in Operating Offshore Wind Power Sources

Now that the UK government has announced its plans to invest in renewable energies and supply a third of its electricity from offshore wind farms by 2030, wind energy engineering has reached new heights.

one Year ago
Opinion

Do We Need Speed Limiters? European Union Requires Speed-limiting for All Vehicles by 2022

Despite claims that driving at below average speeds increases the risk of accidents because drivers lose focus, speed is still a major contributor to motor vehicle accidents.

one Year ago
Opinion

The Case for Early-Stage Development of Recyclable Electronic Devices

The current design processes for developing electronics often don’t factor in the result of a significant amount of material waste.

one Year ago
Opinion

The Greatest Hazards Engineers Face in Work Environments

Engineers just leaving university are a vulnerable workforce in terms of health and safety and other work-related hazards for several reasons...

one Year ago
Research

AC-DC Power Filters That Amplify Electronics Performance at Lower Cost

It’s common to face at least a few, if not an array of typical problems with electrical circuit performance. Electromagnetic interference (EMI) is just one we point out as a common issue of poor-performing power circuits that in turn affects the components of the electronic device they belong to.

one Year ago
Product Highlights

Why Europe is More Primed for Autonomous Vehicles Than China

The KPMG Autonomous Vehicles Readiness Index places four European countries among the top ten best prepared to deal with autonomous vehicles. China is ranked 16th on the index of 20 countries, which includes four factors in the total score calculation: policy and legislation, technology and innovation, infrastructure, and consumer acceptance.

about 2 years ago
Opinion

Solutions to the Shortage of Skilled Workers in the UK Engineering Sector

The UK Government’s Industrial Strategy, Building a Britain Fit for the Future, elaborates the four key challenges the UK faces now: AI and the data revolution, mobility, clean growth, and the ageing population. Even without a substantial engineering interest or background, it is evident that engineering jobs will play a crucial role in the aftermath of the practical implementation of this strategy.

about 2 years ago
Research

STEM Fields Are Lacking Diversity in Europe

Diversity, in many ways, is important. Even the most frugal researchers would agree that considering a hypothesis from multiple viewpoints contributes to its viability. A new perspective can arise from differences in age, ethnicity, gender, culture, socioeconomic background, access to education, and even from micro-differences such as individual upbringing.

about 2 years ago
Opinion

EU Commission Approves $2 Billion Public Funds for High-End Chips and Driverless Cars Research

IoT technologies have added another layer to the meaning of a digital single market, a policy the European Union has been pushing forward since the adoption of the Digital Single Market Strategy in May 2015. The Internet of Things is connecting virtual and physical touch points and dissolving many of the previously unshakable cross-border limitations and will continue to do so, thus changing the tapestry of societies as we know them.

2 years ago
Opinion

Why Is Planned Obsolescence and End of Support a Part of Component Manufacturing?

In the world of electronics, sales and marketing have changed the way products are created. Planned obsolescence is common, and consumers are conflicted about it. How can engineers meet demand by creating new and exciting products that also last longer than two years?

2 years ago
Opinion

In Defence of Autonomous Vehicles: Why Self-Driving Cars Are Closer Than You Think

Autonomous vehicles have been a hot topic for some time now, but even still, they're met with the disdain from many engineers. Despite this lack of support, these vehicles are coming, and there are only a few roadblocks in their way.

2 years ago
Opinion

Hardware Companies Owe Engineers Better End-of-Life Support

The availability of smartphones, computers, vehicles, and other modern technology has exponentially increased over the last decade. However, the lifespan of these devices isn't what it should be. Why are hardware companies failing to create better end-of-life expectation for everyday tech?

2 years ago
Opinion

Next-Gen Smart Sensors Are Tinier and More Accurate Than Ever

In the micronic world of IoT, collecting and interpreting data needs to be fast, accurate, and inexpensive. How do smart sensors meet these requirements, and how are they being implemented in innovative engineering projects?

2 years ago
Product Highlights