Latest Issue of "Pictures of the Future" (1/2008)

2008-May-13 |   The latest issue of Pictures of the Future focuses on the topics “Energy for Billions,” “Tailored Solutions,” and “Digital Assistants.” In the first area, our research magazine gives answers how to ensure a sustainable energy supply and to make coal-fired power plants more environmentally friendly, for example. The latter is a crucial task, given that coal is set to remain a key part of the energy supply in the future. In China, for example, a new coal-fired power plant currently comes on stream every two days. Every year, the Chinese commission almost the same amount of additional power-plant generating capacity as Germany possesses in total. The magazine also looks at how companies can achieve high manufacturing flexibility without letting costs spiral. Last but not least, Pictures of the Future presents some of the areas in which digital assistants are already in action, ranging from healthcare to industry and the financial world. In addition to interviews with experts such as Nobel Prize-winner Steven Chu, economist Andreas Oberheitmann of Tsinghua University in Beijing, and Tom Mitchell, an authority on artificial intelligence, the latest issue also features an article on a joint project between researchers from ETH Zurich and Siemens, who hope to reduce energy use in buildings with the help of local weather forecasts.

Sustainable Response to the Hunger for Energy

According to the UN, the world’s population will grow to eight billion by the year 2020. In turn, rising levels of affluence will lead many people to seek a higher standard of living. More than anything else, this will require tremendous amounts of energy. Pictures of the Future reports on climate-friendly technologies that can satisfy the hunger for energy — in industrialized and developing countries alike. Such methods range from ultra-efficient coal-fired generation and the capture and storage of CO2 to energy-saving buildings and floating wind farms far out to sea. The magazine also reports on the current boom in climate-friendly technologies in California. In an interview, Jackalyne Pfannenstiel, Chair of the California Energy Commission, explains the reasons behind the recent upsurge in innovation in this field.

Made-to-Measure Instead Mass Production

Today’s customers have increasingly individual needs. Manufacturers must therefore produce fast and flexibly while keeping a lid on their costs. Focusing on the example of the VW Tiguan, on show at the 2008 Hannover Messe, Pictures of the Future reports how this can be achieved by combining virtual and real manufacturing. Also read about how Siemens is able to provide complete customized solutions — along with suitable financing models — for airports, hotels, hospitals, and even entire city districts, such as in London. Software is also becoming increasingly customized in areas ranging from enhanced border security and detection of tax fraud to billing for electricity by the second. Also, Prof. Günther Schuh of RWTH Aachen University explains in an interview why the days of traditional mass production are numbered.

Digital Assistants That Are Permanently On Call

In the future, computers will have to be one thing more than anything else: invisible helpers, capable of assisting us in a range of tasks that overburden us. Pictures of the Future reports how such digital assistants are already being used to monitor offshore wind farms and Siberian pipelines — around the clock and under incredibly harsh conditions. Similarly, they also help doctors to evaluate and interpret the flood of data generated by today’s healthcare systems and are capable, for example, of scanning hundreds of images and automatically identifying anomalies. Other areas of application include the financial services sector, where Siemens uses its own IT systems to assess credit risks and tailor its financial decisions accordingly. At the same time, such digital assistants are becoming more intelligent all the time. In fact, according to an interview with Prof. Tom Mitchell, an expert in machine learning at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, by the year 2015 they will be smart enough to read and understand 80 percent of the information on the Internet.