Author: Zech

8. Circularity as a climate change strategy for health workers The combined burden of a growing and ageing population and rising rates of chronic diseases creates a great need for sustainable models of care, exacerbated by the energy crisis. Paradoxically, the global healthcare system accounts for 4% of global CO2 emissions. [6]While it produces more waste than the aviation and shipping industries, it also produces excessive amounts of waste. Sustainability-conscious healthcare leaders are increasingly turning to medical technology to break this destructive cycle.In medical technology, “looping” is broadly associated with closing the hardware loop. But the adoption of smart digital…

While the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) says there are no self-driving cars (and we say so ourselves), there are some cars on the road today that allow for hands-free driving for periods of time, including General Motors models with their evolving Super Cruise technology. But no system, whether Super Cruise, Tesla’s Autopilot, or other systems offered by other automakers, can drive on every road in the U.S. – not at all.That day is approaching; it’s just a question of when. Though it may take decades, the ultimate goal of advanced automated driver assistance systems is to completely eliminate…

The dream of seeing fleets of driverless cars efficiently delivering people to their destinations has captured consumers’ imaginations and fueled billions of dollars in investment in recent years. But even after some setbacks that have pushed out timelines for autonomous-vehicle (AV) launches and delayed customer adoption, the mobility community still broadly agrees that autonomous driving (AD) has the potential to transform transportation, consumer behavior, and society at large. Because of this, AD could create massive value for the auto industry, generating hundreds of billions of dollars before the end of this decade, McKinsey research shows. To realize the consumer and…

As mass layoffs continue at big tech companies, workers can find opportunity, purpose and a surprising skill fit in the health care sector. Faced with rising costs and widespread economic uncertainty, big tech companies continue to lay off skilled workers en masse. From Meta to Twitter, Amazon to Stripe, AirBnB to Zillow, network-effect-driven platforms across industries are weathering the highest inflation in 40 years and right-sizing their workforces while facing the effects of overemployment in recent years. But there is a silver lining in the dark clouds of Big Tech consolidation, and it’s in the healthcare industry. Layoffs at big…

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. (April 3, 2024) — Ground warfare is fast, complex, and deadly. As the Department of Defense’s land warfare force, the U.S. Army must find ways to safely perform reconnaissance and related high-risk missions in these environments. Significant technological advances in robotics and self-driving vehicles are making it possible to use autonomous systems to support high-risk missions and reduce risk to combat forces during military operations. The U.S. Army is partnering with the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) to prototype autonomy software and processes to adapt unmanned vehicle technology to a variety of diverse and challenging military environments. The…

The road to fully self-driving cars is long and fraught with technical challenges, from the cost of developing the technology and deploying it commercially to concerns about public acceptance and safety — and that’s if people ever want to stop driving in the first place. But there’s one thing that could help with this transition and bridge the gap between self-driving believers and skeptics: remotely operated vehicles. We’re not talking about toy cars – these are real, adult-sized, remote-controlled automobiles. In this article, we explain how these cars work, their commercial and technical implications, and whether they may help point…

The two-year Defense Innovation Unit contract will support automation of future ground vehicles performing high-risk missions such as reconnaissance and surveillance.MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. , Dec. 6, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Kodiak Robotics, Inc., a leading autonomous trucking company, today announced it has been awarded a $49.9 million, 24-month contract from the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) to support the automation of future U.S. Army ground vehicles led by the Army’s Robotic Combat Vehicle (RCV) program. The effort will support vehicles designed for reconnaissance, surveillance and other high-risk missions. Kodiak Robotics has been awarded a $49.9 million, 24-month contract by the U.S.…

“Has NHTSA ever acted on its own, or in cooperation with cities or other local governments, to limit or prevent Chinese companies from collecting sensitive information from American infrastructure, including sensitive government or military information, and then sharing such information overseas?” Pfluger wrote.China certainly has such misgivings about U.S.-made smart and electric vehicles. Earlier this year, for example, Beijing imposed strict restrictions on where Teslas can operate, particularly around military facilities, amid a meeting of senior Communist Party officials.In his letter, Plueger stressed that China could use “autonomous and connected vehicles as a means to integrate its systems and technologies…

EnergyTech senior editor Rod Walton discusses ERCOT pilot projects that will impact microgrids.FERC 2222 is coming to the Lone Star State.The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), the system operator that manages the Texas electric grid, has approved a pilot project to evaluate the participation of aggregated distributed energy resources (DERs) in the ERCOT wholesale electricity market. The approval follows a directive from the Public Utility Commission of Texas to study the impact of DERs on the competitive grid market.This could ultimately allow the Texas system to include megawatts (MW) and potentially gigawatts of generating capacity from rooftop solar, residential…

The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Technology Transition recently launched the second round of the American-Made EnergyTech University Prize (EnergyTech UP), a challenging competition in which multidisciplinary student teams develop and present business plans leveraging high-potential energy technologies. Student teams participating in the EnergyTech Up competition will have the opportunity to present their plans to a panel of industry judges and compete for a total prize pool of $370,000. The Syracuse Center of Excellence (CoE) is again hosting the DOE’s EnergyTech UP innovation awards this year, which challenge student teams to identify an energy technology, evaluate its market…