Friday, August 1, 2008

Inside Emerging Technologies

MIT researchers suggest life-changing ideas for a tough economy

By Vanessa R. Williams, Mass High Tech intern

With an eye on the current tough economic times, a group of MIT researchers recently shared their thoughts with the MIT News Office on how technology can help to kickstart the economy. Here are some of their suggestions for life-altering technologies of tomorrow: 

Leslie Bromberg
Principal research engineer at the Plasma Science and Fusion Center
Plasma fusion technology may lead to the answer to the energy crisis.  By using plasma to convert garden, forest and household wastes into hydrogen-rich gas that can be used to create liquid fuel, the U.S. can decrease its dependency on foreign energy, lower CO2 emissions, and decrease the amount of waste generated annually. “The question is: Can we make it small enough so that fuel can be generated in a distributed manner? And will the fuel be stable and have the characteristics necessary for use in internal combustion engines?” asked Bromberg.

Rodney Brooks
Professor of robotics
The use of robots to help with everything from military applications to household duties is becoming more popular and accessible. Robots will be the technology that impacts our daily lives in the next 25 years the way cell phones and personal computers have in the last 25 years. Brooks said, “From virtually no mobile robots deployed anywhere in the world six years ago we now have thousands on active duty in the U.S. military and millions cleaning the floors of American homes.”

Neil Gershenfeld
Director of the Center for Bits and Atoms
The digitization of fabrication will revolutionize our lifestyles by expanding access to resources (objects, information, and facilities) worldwide. Essentially, the technology will allow anyone to make anything anywhere, by personalizing fabrication in the same way that computing and communication have been in the last two decades.


Phillip Sharp
Institute professor
Today it is more important than ever that mankind make advances in engineering and biological technologies to produce better medicines and agriculture. “For the first time we are challenged not only to enhance our way of life but also to protect all life forms. Part of the response to this challenge will be increasing production of materials and foods by biologically based processes,” Sharp noted.


Paula Hammond
Professor of chemical energy
Advances in electrochemical energy technology, including manipulating the interfaces between organic and inorganic materials, can provide solar cells, capacitors, fuel cells and batteries with high storage capacity, leading to more efficient power. “In recent years, there has really been an explosion in the number of methods and the level of control over which we can do that. This could mean we’re on the cusp of very real achievement in this area,” she said.


Michael Strano
Associate professor of chemical engineering
Embedding electronics into everyday objects will transform our lifestyles by adapting to our environments to meet our individual needs.  This will change the way information is accessed, such as, through sunglasses with Internet displays in the lenses. “Everyday objects may sense, detect and constantly adjust to our environment, for example controlling temperature, lighting, noise level,” Strano said.


Mehmet Fatih Yanik
Assistant professor of electrical engineering
Extending human life spans by way of disease preventive and tissue-regenerative technologies will have a great impact in the next two decades.  As technological setbacks, as well as cost, legal, and ethical concerns are overcome, this scientific advance will become inevitable. “These technologies will probably span everything from small molecule therapies and nano- and microscale devices to whole organ replacement technologies using stem cells,” said Yanik.


Shuguang Zhang
Associate director of the Center for Biomedical Engineering
Securing our energy future is imperative, and developing affordable biosolar cells is one solution. By isolating or imitating the processes of thermophilic photosynthetic bacteria for proton harvesting, a simple biosolar nanodevice can be structured. “Nature has already made efficient photosynthesis molecular nanomachines in thermophilic photosynthetic bacteria, algae and plants. We can isolate or emulate them to stabilize them in extended time onto inexpensive semiconducting nanostructured surfaces in extremely high density to directly harvesting photons,” according to Zhang.


William J. Mitchell
Professor of architecture and media arts and sciences
More sustainable “smart” cities will emerge. “As with the Internet, the revolution will not result from a single technology, but from the timely convergence of multiple streams of technological development,” he said. He cited the replacement of the clunky, inefficient, dangerous gasoline-powered automobile with fleets of lightweight, “smart,” wirelessly networked electric vehicles; the emergence of clean, efficient, distributed systems for electricity generation, storage and distribution; and the embedding of networking capability and intelligence in buildings and products of all kinds, with ubiquitous networking tying everything together.