Approaching the 25-year mark of the 21st Century, let’s realize that we’re pretty far in. Technological progress is all around but sometimes gets lost in the e-shuffle, unless we shine a light on it … like in our year-end review of engineering progress and prowess around the globe.
- EQUIPMENT: THE CHESHIRE CATBOX Alphabet/Google’s progress in quantum computing is an important indicator that the future of computing has wild possibilities. Their Willow chip announcement, with an advance in AI-informed algorithms for correcting quantum computing anomalies, cited impressive speeds. This has noteworthy implications for the pacing of development in the cybersecurity and fintech industries.
- HEALTH: FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH? There was an explosion of academic discipline and structured energy in the study of aging and extending human healthy lifespan, as measured by the number of conferences for the exchange of ideas and outputs.
- MATERIALS: E-CYCLE Reclaiming value from e-waste is an opportunity that is piling up. The UK’s Royal Mint has waded in with a new capability for extracting gold from e-rubbish in South Wales.
- ENERGY: CAN’T WaiT Big Tech went nuclear over rising demands for energy required to fuel its AI ambitions. Microsoft wants Three-Mile Island out of mothballs. Facebook seeks nuclear-capacity partners. It remains to be seen if this will push the greenward pace for energy or just add environmental risk to the current carbon trajectory.
- CLIMATE: OPENING THE SINK Because countries are having difficulty meeting their carbon-reduction goals, CO2 sequestration efforts will have increasing importance. This year, we saw progress in different approaches: startup of the Climeworks carbon-capture plant in Iceland. Wood ‘vaulting’ is talked-up as a twist on the tree-hugging perspective. And sponging with olivine rock is literally pitched on farms.
- TRANSPORTATION: ELON-G FOR THE RIDE Video of the SpaceX Rocket booster return, an impressive feat, was everywhere! Yet the global reach for the stars continues to be so close, and yet so far, as the pros/cons of the Japan SLIM moon mission showed.
- INFRASTRUCTURE: DALI’S BRUSH The Baltimore Bridge was destroyed by a wayward ship, evidence of an aging and fragile physical framework in the United States. The tragedy was a reminder of the need for the US congressional infrastructure legislation that was enacted to shore up the systems that undergird this (aspiring-to-be) modern society.
As 2025 rolls in, let’s continue to advocate for positive Engineering impacts on communities, to compensate for any self-centeredness that may distract our species. And we’ll continue to spotlight those brave advances.
