Syzygy: Illuminating the future of the hydrogen industry Sweetwater Energy: Cost-effective, environmentally friendly biomaterials & biochemicals Kebotix: Advanced materials and chemicals invented with analytics and robotics Equota Energy: Smart Systems for Energy Management Robotics & Digital
Akasha Imaging: Computer Vision for robotic assembly & safety BlockTEST: Optimizing blockchain solutions to enhance the flow of materials, data, and finance Catalia Health: Social robot for managing diseases including Covid-19 CareAcross: Digital health coach for cancer patients
what these next-gen systems are and how they change the game what security looks like in these new systems how all this changes AI and the value of data.
Throughout human history, progress has almost never been made by individuals acting alone, but rather by the power of groups. Thomas Malone calls these groups “superminds” – entities like hierarchies, communities, markets, and democracies that can accomplish far more by drawing upon their collective abilities to create, learn, and make decisions together. In this talk based on his recent book, Superminds, Malone uses striking examples and case studies to show how computers can help create much more intelligent superminds, not just with artificial intelligence, but perhaps even more importantly with hyper-connectivity: connecting people to one another at massive scales and in rich, new ways.
Decarbonizing Industry Lightning Talks Envisioning Commercial Air Transportation With Near-Zero Environmental Impacts Florian Allroggen Executive Director, MIT Laboratory for Aviation and the Environment Senior Strategic Advisor, MIT’s Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics
To meet ambitious environmental goals while continuing to connect the world, the air transportation sector needs to increase the level of ambition in mitigating its environmental impacts. In this talk, Dr. Allroggen outlines what an air transportation system with near-zero impact on global warming and air pollution could look like. For this purpose, he first provides a strategic perspective on the key impacts which need to be mitigated to meet near-zero goals. He then connects such mitigation measures to new technologies and operational measures which will target the most significant impacts. The analysis concludes by providing insights into the technical feasibility and economic viability of the resulting air transportation system which can achieve near-zero environmental impacts.
Sustainable Steel Cem Tasan POSCO Professor of Metallurgy, Department of Materials Science and Engineering
Solid state consolidation has tremendous potential for steel making from steel scrap, without remelting. In this talk, the scientific fundamentals and engineering solutions associated with a particular process invented at MIT will be introduced, focusing on the successful examples of several different ferrous and non-ferrous alloys.
Design and Computational Strategies for Reusable Building Components Caitlin Mueller Associate Professor, MIT Civil and Environmental Engineering Associate Professor, MIT Architecture
New computational design and digital fabrication methods for innovative, high-performance buildings and structures will enable a more sustainable and equitable future. By focusing on the creative interface of architecture, structural engineering, and computation, Prof. Mueller’s research group has developed strategies for unconventional material use in building structures.
This presentation will focus on algorithmic design approaches, such as those incorporating underutilized wood sources and reassembleable concrete parts. The PixelFrame system, for example, targets circularity strategies for reducing the material footprint of concrete. Connections are dry-jointed, avoiding the use of grout or mortar. The conventionally fused assembly of steel and concrete is separated, allowing each material to respond independently to tensile and compressive forces without impeding the longevity or function of the other. Through structural element reuse, PixelFrame can achieve more than 50% embodied carbon savings up-front.
Sustainable Transportation: Low Carbon Trucking Sayandeep Biswas PhD Graduate Student, MIT
Hydrogen is a promising fuel to drive the decarbonization of long-haul trucking. However, the high cost of distribution as a compressed gas or cryogenic liquid has stunted its wide-scale adoption. Liquid Organic Hydrogen Carriers (LOHCs) can be a cost-competitive option but have inefficiencies from endothermic dehydrogenation and compression needs. We are building a novel powertrain system to mitigate these drawbacks and establish LOHC as a cost-competitive diesel alternative.