Group C B1 - Anthony Yau

TOPIC: 3-D Printing

The Voxel8 printer, developed by Jennifer Lewis from Harvard University, has taken contemporary 3-D printing, which has mostly been used for printing of plastics using ABS polymer filament, can print out electronics such as hearing aids made specifically for a person's ear. The breakthrough that Lewis has made is not related to the printer itself, which functions similarly to the way typical 3-D printers work now. The innovation is thanks to the conductive ink that is used to form the electronic circuits, which can be extruded through the nozzle of a 3-D printer at room temperature. With this ink, Lewis has already printed lithium-ion batteries, synthetic human tissue, and a quadcopter drone. In terms of intelligent building, this new technology will no doubt be enhanced to print even more advanced, larger parts such as smartphones, computer components, TVs, or even construction materials (like beams, and columns). 3-D printing is definitely one of the most interesting modern developments and will benefit society technologically (many will argue that many jobs will be lost to machines, but let's not get into that topic).

TOPIC: Artificial Intelligence

The most innovative development in artificial intelligence would be deep learning, which attempts to replicate human thought patterns with relation to images. DeepMind, AI software founded by Demis Hassabis and later acquired by Google this year, is capable of learning tasks through experience just as human would. The only difference between a human and DeepMind is that it learns at an incredibly faster rate and excels far better than a human who would be considered an expert at the task. Although the field may not be at this stage yet, deep learning will most likely be integrated into intelligent building to design "perfect" structures and products in the future.

TOPIC: Robotics

Vehicle automation has been researched in order to enhance fuel efficiency and prevent accidents due to human mistakes. Vehicles connected to the internet through 3G wireless allows the driver to sit back and relax while the car takes full control of driving the automobile. The article presents an interesting question that may instigate some controversy: "what if—via autonomous vehicles—the solution wasn’t to stop texting while driving, but rather to stop driving while texting?" If autonomous vehicles become widespread worldwide, thousands of intelligent metal machines could drive through the streets while we (as their masters) watch Family Feud comfortably in our seats, totally unaware of what's happening in our surroundings. That right there may the closest we get to the meaning of life my friends.

TOPIC: Future

All of these topics relate to how we will function as a society with dramatic increase in autonomous technology that does not rely on human intervention, but instead supplements human interaction. This technology, which can be defined as intelligent building, has been designed with the purpose of increasing human productivity by making certain tasks easier for us. Robots may one day replace construction workers on site, drones will pilot themselves from Point A to Point B, and buildings may never require maintenance.

References:

[1] Finley, Klint. "The Internet of Anything: The 3-D Printer That Can Spit Out Custom Electronics." Wired.com. Conde Nast Digital, 05 Jan. 2015. Web. 12 Jan. 2015.

[2] Simonite, Tom. "2014 in Computing: Breakthroughs in Artificial Intelligence."MIT Technology Review. N.p., 29 Dec. 2014. Web. 11 Jan. 2015.

[3] Guccione, Leia. "Car & (No) Driver." Car & (No) Driver. N.p., 18 Jan. 2013. Web. 12 Jan. 2015.

Response to Angelina Castro:

I believe that the sight-seeing jacket is technology that can only benefit society by, for example, offering people who are blind a way to see their surroundings (without actually seeing anything). By combining electronics with apparel, humans will either work more efficiently due to the benefits of easily accessible applications or become easily distracted. Either way, this is an exciting time for innovative products to modify human activity.

Response to Dmitriy Voznyak:

I have very little experience working with building information modeling, but from what you have described software like Revit are allowing architects, engineers, and construction managers to work together where transparency is held at the upmost priority. As someone who hopes to become very experienced with BIM, I can’t wait for this type of software to become more advanced so that I can enjoy the complete list of improvements in design that you mentioned in your post.

Response to Husain Ibrahaim:

While I agree that robots cannot be completely human-like in terms of intelligence, I disagree that robots can NEVER be as smart as humans. It’s already been demonstrated that artificial intelligence, such as DeepMind and the IBM developed Watson, can beat any human player at a game of Pong and answer trivia questions better than the best Jeopardy player, respectively. At the rate technology is evolving, I am pretty sure that human equivalent robots will exist by the end of the century (not implying that the robot apocalypse is coming).