Engineering as a Driving Force Behind the Design Thinking Movement

Extremely interesting blog by Bob Sutton on Engineering as a Driving Force Behind the Design Thinking Movement

http://ow.ly/YrwS

Eradicating Poverty – Maybe easier than we think

I have been blogging on Smart Cars, Grids, Buildings, Health and cities.

Now that I come to think of it, it may be better to devote our resources to eradicating poverty.

Lets see, what the the minimum requirements for a person who is living in poverty to go to the next level.

• Nutritious food
• Clothing
• Health care
• Education
• Interesting work
• Comfortable habitat
• Reasonable means to commute

Food:

• Nutritious food cooked at home can be really low in cost
• We have the know how to design extremely balanced meals from readily available produce in all parts of the world.
• We have the knowhow for creating community kitchens with Solar Power.
• Example Auroville’s Solar Kitchen
• http://www.auroville.org/society/solarkitchen.htm
• We have the technology to grow produce even in cities from lessons learned from Smart Farming technologies for communal kitchens

Clothing

• Good strong functional clothing can be manufactured at low cost
• Strong wearing textiles can be developed

Health care

• With nutritious food people will have better health
• New regenerative cures can be developed at lower cost eliminating costly surgeries
• Online databases could have expert systems dole out medical care

Education

• Excellent free education is available and more can be developed
• http://www.khanacademy.org/
• We have an untapped resource in the Social Media to create more free educational resources

Interesting Work

• Social networks can come up with innovative means to create interesting work
• Most activities in the process of eradicating poverty will feed on itself to creat additional opportunity
• Free online education will give quality education to the masses and the ripple effect will be creation of innovative services for gainful employment

Comfortable Habitat

• Technology is available for building mass produced comfortable habitats
• Design thinkers will donate their time to create interesting sustaining designs
• Communities can donate the required land
• Most city planning can be done online by all of us

Commuting

• This is a great opportunity for creating pedal power products
• Solar energy can be used here to the fullest extent

All this does not have to ask for funds from government agencies

This can be done with people power

Community by community one at a time

Let us dream about it and achieve it

Brand New Future of Servicing of Electric Vehicles

Electric Vehicles are in. Very soon the roads will be flooded with economical personal transport. Electric Vehicles do not have to be serviced as frequently as the present internal combustion engined mobiles. Looks like the recommended frequency will be at least a year.

Now, I know dealers will try and get creative to get servicing to be a lucrative deal.

This is not going to happen with the predominance of social media. There will be a brand new way for servicing .

• Faulty Modules will be exchanged for factory reconditioned modules.
• There will b no such thing as a labor charge
• There will be a fixed price including replacement by robots
• Most problems can be diagnosed by wireless internet on a real time basis
• Most components will be interchangeable between different makers
• Online databases will keep track of changes
• Online databases will give instant quotes on replacement items
• Customers can also upgrade new module rather than change the whole mobile
• Software changes to tablet PC’s can be downloaded for enhancements

Let me see what suggestions come from our readers

Electric Vehicles – A Case for a Modular Approach

The Electric Vehicle is a reality now. We will have many players in the market. We will have many succeed. Many will fail. The time has now come to emulate the PC market in terms of modularity. This will help bring down the cost as well as help after market service for failed brands.

What is modularity in a Electric Vehicle?

• Battery packs. This could be a standardized pack which could be mass produced.
• Human Machine Interface. Why not make this a open source tablet. Users could customize their driving experience.
• Wheels. This could be a motorized plug in component to the chassis with built in brakes.
• Chassis. This could be aluminum extruded per user configuration. So one could extrude a sports car version or a golf art version.
• Body. This allows the maximum scope for displaying the emotions of the user. We could use the body to embed solar cells or even ink jet them on to the surface in various color combinations for aesthetics.
• Electrics could be modular connectors much like the PC to printer cable.
• LED light clusters could be modular and even ink jet-able.
• In essence this could be a web configurable version.
• Orders will be transmitted to the local 3D printing facility for generation and self assembly
• Media system for the EV could be again a modular plug in component.
• Virtual manufacturing with virtual companies

Reference:

http://dancrissco.wordpress.com/category/sustainable-cities/pemmpod/

Building Smart Railways – From China to USA – Reverse Innovation?

Take a look at China’s High Speed Rail system at http://www.technologyreview.com/energy/24341/page1/#comments

Look at the Ballastless Track Systems pioneered by the Germans

http://www.railone.com/en/main-nav/products/railways-and-commuter-traffic/ballastless-track-systems.html

And IBM’s foray into a Rail Road Innovation Center

http://asmarterplanet.com/blog/2009/06/new-rail-innovation-center.html

Classic case of Reverse Innovation. Now look at what can happen if the American’s go and start building Smart Railways all over the country. We could transform our recession into an opportunity.

It would revitalize cities, communities and states. It would give a boost to industry and endless rounds of innovation. No to say about tourism and a new hope for the future.

It was the railways which built the early part of the country and now it may come back and rebuild it again.

Well, did Warren Buffet have a long term plan?

It could be the opportunity of the century and lets not miss it.

Google Smart Railways

RT @GreenbizStartup: The Energy Collecti

RT @GreenbizStartup: The Energy Collective: Top10 #cleantech promises to watch for in 2010 http://bit.ly/50S9VD RT @tweetmeme @goodwillharvest #in

Sun Smart Schools http://www.fsec.ucf.ed

Sun Smart Schools
http://www.fsec.ucf.edu/en/research/photovoltaics/pv_for_schools/index.htm

Zero Energy Homes http://www.fsec.ucf.ed

Zero Energy Homes http://www.fsec.ucf.edu/en/

Halifax ended the year with an economic bang! – SmartCity Blog

Halifax ended the year with an economic bang! – SmartCity Blog

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Benefits for an end customer living in a Smart City

I have been writing about the technologies to be used in a smart city as well as showing interesting links pertaining to Smart City content.

One of my friends recently asked me a question.

1. Can you name some simple benefits for end customers like me?

2. Where can I find more info on Smart Cities

3. Give me a list of potential applications for Smart cities.

Let me start with the benefits for a Smart City inhabitant.

• Benefit from a Smart Grid with no black outs, competitive price structure for use of energy during non peak hours, intelligent use and diagnosis with state of the art software, access to Smart Meters. Here is a link to some of my blogs on the subjects. http://dancrissco.wordpress.com/category/smart-city/
• In a Smart City one could benefit from an optimized traffic control system, on demand or intelligent transportation and even a car less commute.
• Excellent health care where our health providers will be discussing each other prior to diagnosing and prescribing treatment to our ailments.
• Excellent Education for children and adults based on state of the art research
• Close to a crime free society with state of the art emergency response.
• Intelligent commercial buildings, offices and homes optimized for climate control, maintenance and cost
• Innovative recreation areas conducive to educating children rather than a ride oriented society
• Educational entertainment

Here is a link to IBM’s Smart City site

http://www.ibm.com/smarterplanet/

As far as potential application go I believe it is up to us and the sky is the limit.

What do you think?