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

Further reading:

PC-based control for additive machine tools
Beckhoff Automation Editor's Choice Electrical switching & drive systems & components
IRPD is a specialist in additive machine tools. Development is heavily focused on high system throughput and consistently high process quality. This goal was achieved with the help of PC- and EtherCAT-based control and drive technology from Beckhoff.

Read more...

---

A guide to common hydraulic system contaminants
CT Hydraulics (Nqoba) Editor's Choice Hydraulic systems & components
Every engineer, machine designer and maintenance professional understands that the heart of any reliable hydraulic system is its fluid. But the moment that fluid is compromised, your system’s life expectancy and your peace of mind drop dramatically.

Read more...

---

Compressed air piping design
Artic Driers International Editor's Choice Pneumatic systems & components
When designing a compressed air pipeline, remember that size matters. The internal size of the pipe, along with the pressure and air volume, determine the velocity of the compressed air in the pipeline.

Read more...

---

Top questions about pressure gauges
SA Gauge Editor's Choice Pneumatic systems & components
Some questions never go out of date, and in our industry, a few have been asked for decades. At SA Gauge, we hear them every week. Here are the ten questions we hear most often, and the practical answers that can save time, money and frustration.

Read more...

---

A technological leap with the proportional valve terminal
Festo South Africa Editor's Choice
Festo continually makes bold technological leaps to keep pace with global advancements. Controlled Pneumatics is redefining the boundaries of compressed air technology to meet the demands of today’s most advanced applications.

Read more...

---

PC-based control optimises robotic parts handling on plastics machinery
Beckhoff Automation Editor's Choice
NEO is a cartesian robot developed by INAUTOM Robótica in Portugal for parts removal on plastics machinery. Its aim is to increase system productivity. NAUTOM Robótica has entered into a strategic partnership with Bresimar Automação to increase the working speed of the cartesian robots using advanced control and motion solutions from Beckhoff. The result is a comprehensive, future-proof automation solution for its entire family of cartesian robots.

Read more...

---

Heavy impact, smart control
Axiom Hydraulics Editor's Choice Hydraulic systems & components
Every now and then a project lands on your desk that’s equal parts heavy machinery and fine control - a tantalising mix for any engineer. A client approached Axiom Hydraulics with a project exactly like this.

Read more...

---

Driving fluid power forward
Editor's Choice
The National Fluid Power Association is developing its latest Industrial Technology Roadmap for 2025, showing how hydraulics and pneumatics are changing to meet new industrial demands.

Read more...

---

World’s hottest engine
Editor's Choice Electrical switching & drive systems & components
Scientists have built the world’s smallest engine. It’s also the world’s hottest. It could provide an unparalleled understanding of the laws of thermodynamics on a small scale, and provide the foundation for a new, efficient way to compute how proteins fold.

Read more...

---

Reinventing the wheel
Editor's Choice Electrical switching & drive systems & components
Once a curiosity in the early automotive age, in-wheel motors are now re-emerging with real promise. From electric cars to commercial vehicles and even aircraft, they are on the verge of transforming transportation engineering.

Read more...

---