Top 7 must-read IE+ stories of 2025

The article "Top 7 must-read IE+ stories of 2025" highlights a pivotal year in engineering marked by a shift from experimental prototypes to practical, scalable solutions across various sectors. Key themes include the maturation of humanoid robots from curiosities to effective industrial tools addressing labor shortages and reshoring challenges, as well as the continued relevance of propulsion expertise in commercial spaceflight exemplified by SpaceX veteran Tom Mueller’s contributions. The article emphasizes that these stories reflect where investment, talent, and urgency are converging, signaling real-world impact in factories, orbit, and energy infrastructure. Among the featured stories, humanoid robots are gaining traction in factories by solving bottlenecks through precision and safety alongside human workers, driven by labor scarcity and the need for automation in reshored production lines. In space, Tom Mueller’s journey from amateur rocketry to leading engine design at SpaceX underscores the importance of propulsion innovation and reuse in reducing launch costs and enabling in-space mobility. Additionally, the article touches on