Top 10 emerging technologies

Third Quarter 2024 Editor's Choice

The World Economic Forum (WEF) has identified ten technologies likely to make a significant positive impact in the next three to five years. These are detailed in the ‘Top 10 Emerging Technologies’ report, which explains each technology’s potential for addressing global challenges and the factors that will shape the future and revolutionise connectivity still further. They range from advancements in materials science to carbon-capturing microbes, to genically engineered organs for transplants.

Here are the technologies that feature in the report:

• AI for scientific discovery: While artificial intelligence (AI) has been used in research for many years, advances in deep learning, generative AI, and foundation models are revolutionising the scientific discovery process. AI will enable researchers to make unprecedented connections and advancements in understanding diseases, proposing new materials, and enhancing knowledge of the human body and mind.

• Privacy-enhancing technologies: Protecting personal privacy, while providing new opportunities for global data sharing and collaboration, ‘synthetic data’ is set to transform how information is handled, with powerful applications in health-related research.

• Reconfigurable intelligent surfaces: These innovative surfaces turn ordinary walls and surfaces into intelligent components for wireless communication, while enhancing energy efficiency in wireless networks. They hold promise for numerous applications, from smart factories to vehicular networks.

• High-altitude platform stations: Using aircraft, blimps and balloons, these systems can extend mobile network access to remote regions, helping bridge the digital divide for over 2,6 billion people worldwide.

• Integrated sensing and communication: The advent of 6G networks facilitates simultaneous data collection (sensing) and transmission (communication). This enables environmental monitoring systems that help in smart agriculture, environmental conservation, and urban planning. Integrated sensing and communication devices also promise to reduce energy and silicon consumption.

• Immersive technology for the built world: Combining computing power with virtual and augmented reality, these technologies promise rapid improvements in infrastructure and daily systems. This technology allows designers and construction professionals to check for correspondence between physical and digital models, ensuring accuracy and safety, and advancing sustainability.

• Elastocalorics: As global temperatures rise, the need for cooling solutions is set to soar. Offering higher efficiency and lower energy use, elastocalorics release and absorb heat under mechanical stress, presenting a sustainable alternative to current technologies.

• Carbon-capturing microbes: Engineered organisms convert emissions into valuable products like biofuels, providing a promising approach to mitigating climate change.

• Alternative livestock feeds: Protein feeds for livestock sourced from single-cell proteins, algae and food waste could offer a sustainable solution for the agricultural industry.

• Genomics for transplants: The successful implantation of genetically engineered organs into a human marks a significant advancement in healthcare, offering hope to millions awaiting transplants.

Originally published on the World Economic Forum at www.tinyurl.com/w3bmj86c

To view the full report visit www.instrumentation.co.za/ex/wef.pdf

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