Semiconductors, Data Centers & AI

Recent progress in renewables has bordered on the surreal. At ICREN Barcelona recently we were invited to consider those giant wind turbines sweeping 200 meters of sky. Up there the wind is stronger and more consistent and that size of turbine is more efficient.

Single crystal silicon photovoltaics will now be very affordable, obsoleting polycrystalline Si PV by having efficiency much higher. Laminating it onto supercapacitor sheeting will form a load bearing material that both makes and stores electricity, delivering it exceptionally fast when needed.

Agriculture is facing major long-term challenges. Some forecasts suggest that world population is set to grow by 2.3 billion by 2050. This, together with rising global income levels that typically increase food demand per capital, would require raising food production in 2050 by 70% compared to 2005 levels.

The market for transparent conductive films and materials has been rapidly changing.

Metal Matrix Composites (MMCs) have been known and explored for a very long time, but new innovations and an increased demand for high-performance lightweight materials means that they are finally ready to make it beyond their previous false starts.

Sensel creates next-generation touch technology. Multi-touch, highly sensitive, low power, and mobile, Sensel's PressureGrid™ makes computing more comfortable and creative.

In the past five years or so several major research groups have demonstrated that robots can learn to grasp novel varied objects with accuracy levels around 80-85%. Still performance levels, even in the labs, are sub-human but this is changing fast.

Trucking is a big business. In this article we will demonstrate how and why trucking driving is going autonomous.

This article covers a number of topics to highlight how robotic technology within agriculture is altering the landscape.

Raghu Das introduced the technologies covered and an introduction to the IDTechEx Show! USA 2017