Tinkering for the future
With their developments and innovations, engineers and IT specialists play a crucial role in shaping our world of tomorrow. Four examples.
AutoNOMOS
In autumn 2015, a milestone in autonomous driving was reached: the AutoNOMOS vehicle developed at the Free University of Berlin covered a distance of around 2,400 kilometers in Mexico. Motorways, cities and construction sites had to be passed through – without any human intervention. The team of scientists, led by computer science professors Raúl Rojas and Daniel Göhring, had been preparing the test drive for almost a year.
The Ocean Cleanup
When the Dutchman Boyan Slat went diving on vacation in Greece in 2011 and saw more garbage than fish underwater, the idea for his project The Ocean Cleanup was born. Goal: 50 kilometers long, V-shaped tubes floating on the surface of the water are intended to “capture” up to 90 percent of the plastic waste in the oceans. The concept was developed together with around 100 researchers and engineers at the University of Delft - Slat previously studied aerospace engineering there - raised two million US dollars via crowdfunding and is scheduled to go into operation in 2016 in the waters between Japan and South Korea.
Video Ted Talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROW9F-c0kIQ
Transporter drone for Africa
Moses Bangura, an engineering scientist at the University of Canberra, has been researching drone aerodynamics for years and has just won the “Challenge of Invention to Innovation” research award at the Next Einstein Forum (NEF). His idea is a transport drone specifically for Africa. Cities that are clogged with traffic jams and impassable stretches of land could be “bypassed” in this way, e.g. B. bring vital medicines from A to B in his home country of Sierra Leone.
Blood vessels from the 3D printer
Tissue engineering is still in its infancy, but projects for the artificial production of biological tissue are already causing a stir around the world. Among other things, Antivasc 3D, a project from the Aachen Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology (ILT). Local researchers have succeeded in producing artificial, biocompatible blood vessels using a 3D printer. In the future, they will ensure blood supply when cultivating the skin system. This would mean quick help for large-scale skin injuries - and replace animal testing in the pharmaceutical industry.
Tinkering for the future: With their developments and innovations, engineers and IT specialists play a decisive role in shaping our world of tomorrow. Four examples.
