Communications of the ACM
Singularity Taps Students' Technology Ideas
Credit: Singularity University
The first graduates of Singularity University, a new school supported by NASA, Google, and others, recently unveiled their visions for leveraging emerging technology to solve some of humanity's problems. The university's mission is to develop leaders who will build on rapid advances in and convergence across areas such as biotechnology, supercomputing, nanotechnology, and robotics to solve major hurdles. During the course of the nine-week interdisciplinary graduate studies program, the 40 graduating students were asked to develop projects that could improve the lives of 1 billion people within 10 years.
The students were divided into four teams and focused on different challenges. One team developed new systems to facilitate communications following disasters, including smartphone applications that provide global positioning system-based evacuation guidance or relay a patient's vital signs from "e-triage" bracelets. Another team plans to take advantage of advances in three-dimensional printing technologies to create the actual components of affordable housing from materials such as cement or polymers. The third team developed a text message-based, information-sharing system for use in marketplaces, job boards, and other means of accelerating economic growth in developing countries. The fourth team proposed an intelligent transportation grid that would make vehicle use safer and more efficient by using sensors and cell phones to provide real-time travel updates, enabling owners to rent their vehicles when not using them, and eventually incorporate autonomous or self-driving vehicles.
From San Francisco Chronicle
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