Impact Lab – Page 301 – A Laboratory of the Future Human Experience

This year’s college grads think they’ll earn over $100,000 from their first job. In reality, they’ll make half as much

May 6, 2022

By Jane Thier

The average starting salary for college graduates is $55,000, but current college students think they’ll earn nearly double that amount from their first job out of school.

The students said they expect to make almost $104,000, according to a recent survey of 1,000 undergrads by real estate data company Clever.

The lofty expectations are a fairly new development. The class of 2019, for example, had expected to earn nearly $50,000 less, Danetha Doe, an economist at Clever, tells Fortune. “They’re asking for more, so they can enjoy the financial comfort other generations have been able to afford,” she says, though most students clearly are having to settle for far less.

City Planning, Science & Technology News

The Design for the World’s First Floating Sustainable City Unveiled

May 6, 2022

by Otilia Drăgan

“Floating infrastructure” and “waterborne urbanism” sound like things from a Sci-Fi movie, but they are being brought to life in a truly groundbreaking project. The world’s first floating city that’s also 100% sustainable was announced a couple of years ago, and its future design was recently unveiled.

As it is in most cases, while some are lobbying for a return to minimalistic, simple dwellings that are as close to nature as possible, others are taking a radically opposite approach, envisioning futuristic urban communities that are unlike anything that’s been done before. Neom is one of the most recent projects of this kind, which is currently being built in the Tabuk province of Saudi Arabia.

But there’s no other floating city concept except for Oceanix Busan. UN-Habitat, the Busan Metropolitan City of the Republic of Korea, and Oceanix (a New York-based blue technology company) teamed up to create this futuristic city that is by no means a simple experiment, but a potential solution to a very serious problem.

new technology

Neural network can read tree heights from satellite images

May 5, 2022

Researchers at ETH Zurich have developed a world map that for the first time uses machine learning to derive vegetation heights from satellite images in high resolution.

by Stéphanie Hegelbach

Using an artificial neural network, researchers at ETH Zurich have created the first high-resolution global vegetation height map for 2020 from satellite images. This map could provide key information for fighting climate change and species extinction, as well as for sustainable regional development planning.

Last year marked the beginning of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration. This initiative is aimed at halting the degradation of ecosystems by 2030, preventing it going forward and, if possible, remedying the damage that has already been done. Delivering on these kinds of projects calls for accurate foundations, such as surveys and maps of the existing vegetation.

In an interview, Ralph Dubayah, the Principal Investigator of NASA’s Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (GEDI) mission, explains: “We simply do not know how tall trees are globally. […] We need good global maps of where trees are. Because whenever we cut down trees, we release carbon into the atmosphere, and we don’t know how much carbon we are releasing.”

Analyzing and preparing precisely this kind of environmental data is what the EcoVision Lab in the ETH Zurich Department of Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering specializes in. Founded by ETH Zurich Professor Konrad Schindler and University of Zurich Professor Jan Dirk Wegner in 2017, this lab is where researchers are developing machine learning algorithms that enable automatic analysis of large-scale environmental data. One of those researchers is Nico Lang. In his doctoral thesis, he developed an approach—based on neural networks—for deriving vegetation height from optical satellite images. Using this approach, he was able to create the first vegetation height map that covers the entire Earth: the Global Canopy Height Map.

3D Printer

Desktop Metal launches S-Max Flex – a Robotic Sand 3D Printing technology

May 5, 2022

Above: ExOne S-Max® Flex is an affordable and easy-to-use robotic additive manufacturing system/Image Source: Desktop Metal

Desktop Metal, a leader in mass production and turnkey additive manufacturing solutions, announced the launch of ExOne S-Max Flex, a scalable, large-format binder jetting system for sand 3D printing used by foundries to quickly cast complex metal designs for the aerospace, automotive, and energy industries, among others.

ExOne (now a part of Desktop Metal) is the leading provider of digital sand printing solutions for foundries. The new S-Max Flex combines ExOne’s sand printing expertise in process and materials with proprietary Desktop Metal SPJ technology in an affordable architecture to bring new value to foundries that have long desired an S-Max but have found the premium price out of reach.

Elon Musk

Elon Musk Doubles Down On Claim That Brain Chip Can Treat Morbid Obesity

May 5, 2022

Elon Musk keeps talking about Neuralink as a treatment for morbid obesity, but how likely is it and when will it be available for medical use?

Elon Musk really seems to believe that a brain chip can treat morbid obesity, something that scientists have weighed in on as well. The device is, of course, the Neuralink, a computer interface that’s implanted into the brain. It’s suggested that this might someday be a quick and simple procedure, enabling all sorts of futuristic possibilities. A real chance of bypassing spinal cord injuries to restore movement seems exciting, and has a basis in reality, but other ideas seem less likely to come anytime soon.- Advertisement –

It’s no surprise that Neuralink made headlines since it’s one of Elon Musk’s companies. However, despite its early surge of interest, the company has been relatively quiet since its launch in 2015. Musk occasionally throws out a tidbit of information about progress but only a few demonstrations have been seen so far. Animal tests with rats, pigs, and monkeys have shown that the device is capable of connecting to the brain and picking up signals that can be processed by a computer. Human testing is supposedly the next step.

Futurati Podcast, Science & Technology News

Episode 83 withe gary rockis

May 5, 2022

Watch our interview with Gary Rockis on Youtube.

Gary Rockis has been highly successful in providing leadership in collaborative efforts among business, industry, and education. He is the recipient of numerous national and state awards, and has written three textbooks. Much of his recent work has focused on the internet of things and smart homes.

Science & Technology News, Space

China Will Test Planetary Defense by Crashing a Spacecraft into An Asteroid

May 4, 2022

China’s plans are similar to a NASA mission that will slam into an asteroid later this year.

By Becky Ferreira

China plans to crash a spaceship into an asteroid that is potentially hazardous to Earth to alter its trajectory, a maneuver that caps off a multi-step planetary defense strategy that was outlined by a representative of the nation’s space agency on Sunday, reports SpaceNews.

The asteroid deflection mission is scheduled for launch sometime in the mid-2020s, according to Wu Yanhua, deputy director of the China National Space Administration (CNSA), who described the project during a celebration of China’s Space Day, which commemorates the launch of the nation’s first satellite, Dongfanghong-1, on April 24, 1970.

Stem cells

Jab inside your ear to restore hearing! New drug prompts stem cells to grow into hair-like cilia cells to reverse hearing loss

May 4, 2022

By ALICE JAFFE

A gel that’s injected into the ear could reverse hearing loss. Called FX-322, the one-off jab works by encouraging dormant stem cells inside the ear to grow into healthy new auditory cells capable of transmitting sounds to the brain.

Stem cells are immature cells found throughout the body, and many have the capacity to grow into virtually any type of tissue.

The new drug prompts these dormant cells to grow into cilia. These tiny hair-like cells pick up sounds and turn them into electrical impulses that are sent along the auditory nerve to the brain for processing.

Around 11 million people in the UK are affected by hearing loss, eight million of whom are aged 60 or older. Short-term hearing loss can occur as a result of ear infections or wax build-up.

Stem cells are immature cells found throughout the body, and many have the capacity to grow into virtually any type of tissue. The new drug prompts these dormant cells to grow into cilia

But while this is treatable, hearing loss due to damage to the cilia — for example, from repeated exposure to loud noise or changes in the inner ear as we age — is largely untreatable because the cells cannot repair themselves.

drones

Eindhoven living lab to test five use cases for autonomous drone services over six months

May 4, 2022

The Dutch High Tech Campus Eindhoven (HTCE) in the Netherlands started the first demonstrations of autonomous drone services in March 2022. HTCE is one of the consortium partners of the EU-funded FF2020 project that is developing a state-of-the-art geospatial UAM ecosystem by incorporating UAM within the geospatial data infrastructure of cities. Besides Eindhoven, FF2020’s solutions will also be tested in another four living labs during the project: Milan (Italy), Oulu (Finland), Tartu (Estonia) and Zaragoza (Spain).

The drone operations will continue until the end of September 2022. The five use cases tested on campus focus on security support, building inspection, meal delivery, express shipping and emergency automated external defibrillator (AED) delivery.

The first use case involves the use of drones for campus surveillance to assist security personnel. In the second use case, drones will be scanning and inspecting buildings to assess their condition. The remaining three use cases concern the last-mile delivery of goods such as meals, packages and AEDs to the rural part of campus.

Robots, Science & Technology News

JACK IN THE BOX IS PILOTING MISO’S HAMBURGER-COOKING ROBOT

May 3, 2022

By Brian Heater

You’ve got to hand it to Miso — the company knows how to sell the sizzle, as they say in the meat-cooking business. The robotics firm has been striking high-profile deals with some of the U.S.’s biggest fast food chains, from White Castle to Panera Bread. Today it adds Jack in the Box to that list.

The king of the late-night hamburger/taco combo is set to pilot a pair of Miso robots. That includes the newish drink machine, Sippy and the company’s old standby, Flippy 2, which helps augment line cook roles by flipping burgers. It’s still an extremely limited pilot, at one of the chain’s San Diego locations, but if things go well, there will be a further rollout in “the months ahead.”

“This collaboration with Miso Robotics is a steppingstone for our back-of-house restaurant operations. We are confident that this technology will be a good fit to support our growing business needs with intentions of having a positive impact on our operations while promoting safety and comfort to our team members,” said Jack in the Box COO Tony Darden.

Robots, Science & Technology News

ZIPPEDI IS USING ROBOTS TO DIGITIZE INVENTORY FOR LAST-MILE DELIVERY

May 3, 2022

By Brian Heater

Luis Vera believes the third time is the charm. The self-proclaimed serial entrepreneur admits that his vision for digitizing retail was a decade or two early when he started his journey in the 90s. Through a pair of startups — Prospect and SCOPIX — he tried a variety of methods to help capture store inventory, including placings cameras on shelves and a ceiling-based system where one ran on tracks.

He was, effectively, attempting to compete with Amazon well before Amazon was, well, Amazon — at least in any meaningful sense. Computer vision, machine learning and the like have caught up a lot since then, of course. The notion of competing directly against Amazon is a seemingly impossible order, but Zippedi’s vision utilizes the geographical benefit of brick and mortal locations to help facilitate last-mile deliveries.

The company utilizes an inventory robot to keep tabs of what’s on shelves, creating a “digital twin” online. When someone orders something for, say, DoorDash, a shopper knows not only what is on the shelf, but where to find it. The system can both offer direction to items and provide a prioritized shopping list, so they can be in and out as quickly as possible. It’s easy to see how the company could incorporate AR in the future (and that’s on the roadmap), but we’re getting ahead of ourselves a bit here.

Futurati Podcast, Science & Technology News

Ep. 82 with eric yates

May 3, 2022

Watch our interview with Eric Yakes on Youtube or listen on the Futurati Podcast website.

Eric Yakes graduated with a double major in finance and economics from Creighton University, and 3 years later earned his CFA charter. He began his career at FTI Consulting in their Corporate Finance and Restructuring group and then moved to Lion Equity Partners, a distressed buyout private equity fund. All the while he intently followed Bitcoin, and its development eventually led him to author the book “The 7th Property: Bitcoin and the Monetary Revolution”.