Smeal Alumni Focus on the Future

Smeal alumni continue to follow future trends! Below are what my interns and I have been reading about thanks to our alumni. What are the positives that come with the future, what will the negatives be?

• 3D Printing
• Artificial Intelligence
• Bots/Robots
• Driverless Cars
• Drones
• Earth
• Machine Learning (Automation)
• Space - Who hasn't heard of the "Final Frontier!"

Will you be the first one on the ship to colonize Mars? Let's hear what the president has to say about the future!

Barack Obama on Artificial Intelligence, Autonomous Cars, and the Future of the World shared by Jimmy Biebel (‘12, Marketing) Apple Solutions Consultant- Trainer at Apple

“IT’S HARD TO think of a single technology that will shape our world more in the next 50 years than artificial intelligence. As machine learning enables our computers to teach themselves, a wealth of breakthroughs emerge, ranging from medical diagnostics to cars that drive themselves. A whole lot of worry emerges as well. Who controls this technology? Will it take over our jobs? Is it dangerous? President Obama was eager to address these concerns. The person he wanted to talk to most about them? Entrepreneur and MIT Media Lab director Joi Ito. So I sat down with them in the White House to sort through the hope, the hype, and the fear around AI. That and maybe just one quick question about Star Trek. —SCOTT DADICH”

If you are a Smeal alumni, please join Smeal’s official group and post about how you see the future. Remember, the LinkedIn group should say official in the title!

3D Printing - What will happen when 3D printing patents expire?

Articles shared by Wesley Hart (‘14 Supply Chain and Information Systems) Marketing Director at Imperial Machine and Tool Co.

--Elliott says to reject GE offer for metal 3D printing giant SLM Solutions: "Back in September, a shock announcement sent ripples through the 3D printing market. Industrial world leader General Electric made an unexpected offer of a combined $1.4 billion to take over two of the driving forces behind metal 3D printing, Arcam AB and SLM Solutions. While just the announcement made share prices rise throughout the industry, we will have to wait and see if this deal becomes a reality. The Elliot Management hedge fund of billionaire investor Paul Singer, who owns 20 percent of SLM shares, is now opposing the take-over. It is not known what this sudden move means for the Arcam deal."

--Adira to launch world's first Tiled Laser Melting metal 3D printer with biggest ever build volume: “Big things are happening in the metal 3D printing industry, where hardware is rapidly becoming ready for large volume production. For years, metal 3D printing technology has been seen as ‘not quite there yet’, in part thanks to material, size and build volume restrictions. But these limitations are systematically being dealt with.”

--Organovo launches second 3D bioprinted tissue service, the ExVive Human Kidney, premarket shares go up 7%: “3D bioprinting company Organovo has just announced that it has launched its latest bioprinted product, ExVive Human Kidney, which it will also begin commercial contracting for. In the wake of the announcement, the company has seen an impressive increase of 7% in premarket shares. The ExVive Human Kidney marks Organovo’s second 3D bioprinted tissue service, the first being the ExVive Human Liver, which was introduced in 2015.”

--Elon Musk Shows How 3D Printing Powers Mission to Colonize Mars: “3D printing is at the core of Elon Musk’s ambitious plan to transport more than a million people to Mars during the next forty to one hundred years. Musk has plans for 1,000 spaceships that will wait in earth’s orbit and be ready to depart every 26 months, the time it takes for optimal planetary alignment to occur.”

--Metal 3D Printing vs Traditional Machining: Optimizing an Aerospace Bracket: “This presentation investigates the redesign of an existing aerospace bracket based on topology optimization and metal 3D printing.”

--More 3D Printing Patents Are Expiring Soon: Here’s a Roundup: “The expiration of several key 3D printing patents in 2013, 2014, and 2015 was supposed to change the industry.  So what happened?”

--Here is How Extreme Functional Testing of 3D Parts Looks Like: “You take a motorcycle, a real one. You print durable parts from innovative materials using an advanced 3d printing technology, and assemble them on the motorcycle to perform real functional testing:...”

--BotFactory raises $1M to bring PCB 3D printer to your desktop: “BotFactory, the New York City-based manufacturer of the Squink Multilayer PCB Printer announced today that is has completed a $1M seed round of financing led by New York Angels. The funding is largely being allocated for expanding sales and marketing efforts as well as product development. New York Angels Director Larry Richenstein will join BotFactory’s Board of Directors.”

Articles shared by Ken McGraw (‘01 Marketing) Director of Sales at PrintSpace 3D

--Sightline Maps launch Kickstarter: "Sightline Maps is changing the way we view topographical mapping data with the help of 3D printing, and on the 8th of September they are launching a Kickstarter. The Californian based company created a web based platform that enables users to create custom 3D models of any area in the world."

--Small Companies Use 3D Printing to Carry Space Exploration to New Heights: “We write about CubeSats at 3DPrint.com a lot, for a few reasons. One, they’re often 3D printed, at least partially. Two, there’s never before been anything quite like them – small, lightweight satellites that can be fabricated inexpensively and launched into space for diverse purposes including Earth imaging, atmospheric research, and myriad other experimental and research purposes. CubeSats will likely help us to know more about space and our own planet than we’ve ever known before, which is incredibly exciting.”

ORNL Partners With Ingersoll Machine Tools to Develop Colossal 3D Printing System trending on Pulse: “The ORNL will collaborate with the Rockford, Illinois-based manufacturer Ingersoll Machine Tools Inc. to develop the Wide and High Additive Manufacturing (WHAM), a mammoth-sized additive manufacturing system that will have a build envelop of 23 x 10 x 46 feet, as well as targeted laydown rates of 1,000 lb/hr.”

Artificial Intelligence - How will the cloud work with AI?

Articles shared by Bob Frank (Marketing) Sales Director, Interactions LLC:

--4 Ways Every Business Needs to Use Artificial Intelligence: “The field of artificial intelligence got its start at a conference at Dartmouth in 1956. Optimism ran high and it was believed that machines would be able to do the work of humans within 20 years. Alas, it was not to be. By the 1970’s, funding dried up and the technology entered the period known as the AI winter.”

--Finding the right balance between human and machine: "Artificial intelligence gets a bad rap in pop culture. Whenever A.I. is mentioned in the news, the running joke is that humanity is near a Terminator-esque scenario where A.I. weapons take over the world. The truth, at least circa 2016, is much less entertaining — and, fortunately, much safer for the human race. Taking this more grounded approach to computer intelligence, how can it be used for business? And how can you strike a balance between automation and human decision-making?"

--The AI disruption wave: "Information technology evolves through disruption waves. First the computer, then the web and eventually social networks and smartphones all had the power to revolutionize how people live and how businesses operate. They destroyed companies that weren’t able to adapt, while creating new winners in growing markets."

--Art, Cooking, Game Shows: Here’s Where AI Has Already Shown Up: "The Sony Computer Science Laboratory in Paris recently announced that researchers have created artificial intelligence capable of writing entire songs. This development adds “musician” to AI’s resume. It also builds on the recommendation engines that power Spotify, Pandora, and iTunes, so we’re not too far away from the day when AI can write a bunch of songs and create a playlist for you, too. This sounds like it has potential to annoy, but we certainly have human friends like that."

--Combining Artificial Intelligence with Human Intelligence: “Artificial Intelligence (AI) is currently one of the most talked about topics – spanning various industries, companies, and applications. More recently, though, the conversation has shifted to begin acknowledging the role of humans behind all of this automation, particularly when it comes to ensuring accuracy and top performance.”

Salesforce Brings AI To The CRM Masses With Einstein shared by Angel Grant  (‘07 Marketing) Senior Manager, Digital Marketing at LG Electronics: "Salesforce wants to “democratize” the development of artificial intelligence (AI) applications. That is, making AI available to as many business users as possible."

Salesforce just stole Oracle's thunder on the eve of Oracle's huge annual conference shared by Tom Hammond (‘00 Marketing) Associate Vice President of Alumni Relations at Rutgers University: "Salesforce has unveiled Einstein, a platform upgrade that adds artificial intelligence and machine-learning capabilities to its core products — just two hours before Oracle's big annual OpenWorld event is set to kick off."

Can Artificial Intelligence Effectively Automate Electronic Records Management? Are We There Yet? Part 1 shared by Mike Smoyer (‘84 Marketing) President at Digital Government Institute: “These Cloud services have the promise to finally reap the power of AI for automating electronic records management (ERM). But is the market finally ready?”

Move Over Mobile, AI Has Arrived shared by Jared Wessner  (‘11 Marketing) Finance and Compliance Consultant at ADP.: “Chatbots, newsfeeds, conversational interfaces, data-mining tools, location-aware technologies, search engines, smart appliances, and self-driving cars. What do all these have in common? They all use a form of artificial intelligence (AI)”

Microsoft forms new AI Research Group led by Harry Shum trending on Pulse: "Artificial intelligence is quickly shaping up to be one of the key defining technology areas of our time. A day after announcing a new artificial intelligence partnership with IBM, Google, Facebook and Amazon, Microsoft is upping the ante within its own walls."

Bots/Robots - Will you use a LoweBot?

How a Robot Football Player Will Prevent Concussions shared by Renee DeMay (‘89 Business Logistics) Vice President of Customer Excellence at ANSYS, Inc.: “During practices, American football coaches typically stay on the sidelines, grim-faced, as they order their players through drills. But during an afternoon this past May, in the cavernous training facility for the Pittsburgh Steelers, head coach Mike Tomlin couldn’t resist getting in on the action. As a human-size robot sped over the artificial turf, the grinning coach ran onto the field and tackled it.”

Globalization, Robots, and the Future of Work: An Interview with Jeffrey Joerres shared by Phillip Mahla ('06 Marketing) Assistant Vice President at Jefferies: "When Jeffrey Joerres first joined Manpower, in 1993, the labor market was relatively stable and the company was still largely focused on traditional office, clerical, and industrial staffing. But since then, the employment landscape has been dramatically reshaped by globalization and rapid advances in technology."

Robot Assistants in Aisle 10: Will Shoppers Buy It? Shared by Kyle Skinner (‘15 Marketing) Account Development Associate at iQ Media Corp.: "This fall, customers cruising the aisles of Lowe’s home improvement stores in the San Francisco Bay Area may see a new type of employee taking inventory and assisting shoppers. You won’t find a name-tag on this worker, but you won’t confuse it with other employees, either. The new kid in town is the LoweBot, an autonomous retail service robot that scans and audits store inventory on the floor. It uses voice recognition to identify products for customers and lead them to the right shelf — in multiple languages."

Duolingo's chatbots help you learn a new language trending on Pulse: “Today’s chatbots, for the most part, aren’t all that useful, but what if you could use them to learn a new language? When it comes to learning languages, using what you’ve learned in the context of a conversation is extremely useful. If you are learning online, though, you often don’t have anybody to talk to. That’s why Duolingo today introduced chatbots to its app that allow you to have AI-powered conversations.”

Driverless Cars - What do federal officials want to aggressively shape?

Federal officials plan aggressive approach to driverless cars shared by Abigail Johnson (‘14 Marketing) Marketing and Business Development Coordinator at Bergman Engineering: "Federal officials say they intend to aggressively shape the emergence of driverless cars, increasing their role well beyond the traditional recalls of cars when they prove defective."

Drones - A fold away drone that fits into you backpack and doesn't run down your phone?

General Electric Introduces Raven Drone For Oil Companies shared by Raman Deep S. Hanjra (‘09, Supply Chain Management) Global Product Line Manager at A. W. Chesterton Company: “Drones can do many things people can’t. They can fly, which is neat, and they can carry chemical sensors, identifying airborne particles with far greater fidelity than human noses. And drones, unlike human workers, don’t have children to send to college, taxes to pay, or retirements to plan for--so they’re good for cutting costs. At least, that’s the pitch General Electric is making to oil companies, with their new leak-sniffing Raven drone.”

GoPro reveals Karma drone and new HERO5 cameras shared by Ryan Warrender (‘15 MIS) Mobile Solutions Lead at Google.: "The world’s biggest action cam firm has taken the step many expected – GoPro now makes its own drone. The Karma was unveiled at an event in California. The device can fold away and fit into your backpack, and comes with its own remote control so you don’t have to run down your phone by using it as the controller."

Flying High: Solving the challenge of drone connectivity shared by Diane Schwarztrauber (Business Logistics) Director of Marketing at Rajant Corporation: “In addition to the FAA regulations, which are numerous, there are challenges related to drone connectivity that will require a better network infrastructure than the status quo.”

Earth - What do you think the future earth will be like?

The Science is clear. The Future is not. shared by Daniel Bena (Webinar Presenter) Senior Director of Operations at PepsiCo: "Leonardo DiCaprio is embarking on the role of a lifetime, exploring climate change’s devastating impact on the planet and using his unprecedented access to speak with activists, scientists, and world leaders including Barack Obama, Elon Musk, and Pope Francis. Before The Flood premieres October 30th on National Geographic Channel and online."

Machine Learning: Can we teach computers to learn on their own?

Articles shared by Edwin Beyer (’85 Marketing) Regional Sales Manager at Splunk

--Machine Learning Becomes Mainstream: How to Increase Your Competitive Advantage: "First there was big data – extremely large data sets that made it possible to use data analytics to reveal patterns and trends, allowing businesses to improve customer relations and production efficiency. Then came fast data analytics – the application of big data analytics in real-time to help solve issues with customer relations, security, and other challenges before they became problems. Now, with machine learning, the concepts of big data and fast data analytics can be used in combination with artificial intelligence (AI) to avoid these problems and challenges in the first place."

--Cheat Sheet: 5 Things Everyone Should Know About Machine Learning: "Computer programming languages have evolved over the years, but the biggest step has been moving towards the elimination of complicated programming.  In other words, teaching computers to learn for themselves, dubbed machine learning."

Space - Would you want to live on Mars?

The UN plans to go to space in 2021 shared by Bill DeBoer (‘97 Business Management) Your Car Guy at DeBoer's Auto, Entrepreneur, and Inbound Practitione: “The United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs has been kicking around in one form or another since the late 50s, becoming fully official in 1962, when it was established under the Department of Political and Security Council Affairs as the wonderfully named Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space.”

Elon Musk Plans City on Mars shared by Wesley Hart (‘14 Supply Chain and Information Systems) Marketing Director at Imperial Machine and Tool Co.: "Buzz Aldrin, Bill Nye and other luminaries of the scientific and astronautic world were in Mexico’s second largest city, Guadalajara, to hear how the billionaire will accomplish this remarkable feat."