Visionaries of the week, 15/07/2022
Cargo sous terrain by Switzerland
This week, a project to build an underground freight tunnel network stretching from Geneva to St Gallen, was given a start date of 1 August 2022. The Cargo sous terrain (CST) project will connect Switzerland’s key hubs starting in 2031. CST aims to take the strain off the road and railway networks, reduce the environmental impact of transport and improve the delivery of goods across the country. The project includes a three lane underground tunnel network with automated, driverless electric transport vehicles travelling at 30km an hour operating 24 hours a day. In addition, there will be a rapid overhead roof track will deliver smaller packages.
Stout Agtech
Today, farmers have a number of options for cultivating their crops. Herbicides and genetically modified crops are one cultivation method that has gone out of fashion due to market pressure from consumers. For organic-certified farms, the only option for cultivation is to use a mechanical means of removing weeds. However, mechanical weed removal can be labor-intensive and expensive.
Stout uses vision cameras and artificial intelligence to identify crop plants and weeds in the ground. Then, both machines leverage robotic, articulated blades in the ground to cut up weeds and preserve the crop plants.
GPT 3 x Gothenburg University
An AI algorithm known as GPT-3, completed a 500-word academic thesis about itself with references and citations included. Swedish researcher Almira Osmanovic Thunström said the work, which it managed to do in two hours, looked like something you would find in a fairly good scientific publication, another example of the growing capacity of artificial intelligence. It was asked if it consents to publish its work, to which it answered «yes», then it was asked if it had any conflicts of interest, to which it replied «no». She thinks that there is a possibility academic publishing will need to adjust for a future when this is more common.
Yale School of Engineering and Applied Science
Poor access to safe drinking water is a major issue for a third of the world's population, especially for those living in rural areas. Because of the abundant sunlight in many of these regions, solar disinfection technology has great promise. Disinfection is the most important treatment goal in many cases because waterborne diseases are one of the leading causes of mortality and morbidity around the globe. As part of their analysis, the researchers conclude that solar pasteurization may hold the most promise. It's less dependent on breakthroughs in materials, less affected by the types of pathogens, and it achieves a much larger disinfection capacity on average.
https://seas.yale.edu/news-events/news/harnessing-sun-disinfect-water
Xpeng Robotics
Last year, Xpeng Robotics launched a ridable four-legged “robot unicorn” as its first side project. While Xpeng’s primary focus is still on growing its electric vehicle sales in China and more recently abroad, the company has been keeping one eye on the future via spin-off entities. He Xiaopeng, CEO of XPeng, sees robotics and passenger drones as an extension of the company’s focus on transportation.
Hasbro & Formlabs
Have you ever imagined your face appearing on the body of a Ghostbuster or a Power Ranger? Now you can, because of an inventive collaboration between Hasbro and 3D printing experts Formlabs. Users will use their phones to scan their faces for the Hasbro Selfie Series, which will then produce and ship an action figure that looks just like them.
