{"id":409,"date":"2023-03-10T20:12:56","date_gmt":"2023-03-11T01:12:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/engineeringearth.com\/?p=409"},"modified":"2023-03-28T19:45:56","modified_gmt":"2023-03-29T00:45:56","slug":"transitions-2022-year-in-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/engineeringearth.com\/?p=409","title":{"rendered":"Transitions \u2013 2022 Year in Review"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>After \u2018everyone\u2019 was hunkered down (introspectively) the previous year, 2022 kept ramping upward and onward.&nbsp;&nbsp;People came out of their homes and began looking again at the world around them.&nbsp;&nbsp;This list of major 2022 Engineering impacts shows directed efforts on worries old and new, with hope vs fear competing as driving catalysts.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>EQUIPMENT<\/strong>:&nbsp;<em>DRONES OF WAR<\/em>&nbsp;&nbsp;The war in Ukraine showcased&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2022\/07\/30\/1114024870\/russia-ukraine-war-drones\">new levels of drone use in warfare<\/a>, including the precise guiding of destruction as well as enhanced communication of outcomes. Through this, drone\/arms suppliers in other countries advanced their product-testing capabilities and their supply-chain agility.&nbsp;&nbsp;This disturbing demonstration reminds us of the importance of channeling Engineering constructively for positive impact.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>ENERGY<\/strong>:&nbsp;&nbsp;<em>FUSION IGNITION!<\/em>&nbsp;&nbsp;After careful analysis, the US National Ignition Facility announced observation of \u2018ignition\u2019 in their nuclear fusion development program. This milestone of positive productivity in the pellet test is an&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/newshour\/science\/what-a-breakthrough-in-nuclear-fusion-technology-means-for-the-future-of-clean-energy\">important watershed<\/a>&nbsp;in the hopeful path toward cleaner energy.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>HEALTH<\/strong>:&nbsp;<em>VACCINE TAILORING<\/em>&nbsp;&nbsp;The rapid development and mass production of 2<sup>nd<\/sup>-generation mRNA vaccines for Covid-19 were timely accomplishments.&nbsp;&nbsp;The approach was a \u2018bi-valent\u2019 tailoring to better optimize efficacy for both the original Covid-19 form and the more newly dominant omicron mutation. With&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nejm.org\/doi\/full\/10.1056\/NEJMc2215471\">efficacy of the bi-valent vaccine established<\/a>&nbsp;(although the full extent somewhat debated), the demonstration of the ability to tailor and \u2018blend\u2019 future new vaccine constructs was very important. These vaccine boosters have established a bridge to the \u201cannual flu-vaccine-like\u201d regimen anticipated by health experts to anchor the years ahead.&nbsp;&nbsp;(Recall that the flu vaccine is based on an annually \u2018blended\u2019 approach.)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>INFRASTRUCTURE<\/strong>:&nbsp;<em>WORLD CUP STADIUMS<\/em>&nbsp;&nbsp;Extensive scale and artistic vision combined to produce the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.stadiumguide.com\/tournaments\/fifa-world-cup-2022-stadiums-qatar\/\">showcase of unique stadiums<\/a>&nbsp;providing turf for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar.&nbsp;&nbsp;While the backstory of awful conditions for the builders opened many eyes, the resulting structures filled many vistas.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>CLIMATE<\/strong>:&nbsp;<em>TAKING ACTION<\/em>&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/the-quest-to-trap-carbon-in-stone-and-beat-climate-change\/\">Climeworks progress<\/a>&nbsp;on a carbon-capture plant plus the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/11\/19\/climate\/un-climate-damage-cop27.html\">UN agreement on financial \u2018leveling\u2019 of climate costs<\/a>&nbsp;showed that \u201cmicro\u201d and \u201cmacro\u201d levers of action on global climate warming are progressing.&nbsp;&nbsp;While the suitability of the pace of that progress is hotly debated, these separate demonstrations of industrial attention and global-political intent are important contributions to the path our species is trying to forge.&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>AUTOMATION:&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/strong><em>ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE<\/em>&nbsp;&nbsp;The emergent attention on&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/ChatGPT\">ChatGPT<\/a>&nbsp;coming shortly after news of the Google researcher let go over&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.scientificamerican.com\/article\/google-engineer-claims-ai-chatbot-is-sentient-why-that-matters\/\">disturbing assessments of potential AI consciousness<\/a>&nbsp;represent current bookends of the spectrum of hopes\/fears about the rapid evolution of AI.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>TRANSPORTATION<\/strong>:&nbsp;&nbsp;<em>UPWARD AND OUTWARD<\/em>&nbsp;&nbsp;In the US, NASA and SpaceX activity progresses \u2026 while&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/phys.org\/news\/2022-09-space-china-urgency-moon.html\">China<\/a>,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.japantimes.co.jp\/news\/2022\/12\/11\/national\/science-health\/japan-moon-mission\/\">Japan<\/a>, and&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/topics\/india-space-program\">India<\/a>&nbsp;all advanced their country-specific efforts toward conveyance from \u2018this mortal coil\u2019.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Now that we are into 2023, let\u2019s continue to strive for a positive Engineering impact, to counter the countervailing forces of entropy, self-interest, and close-mindedness.&nbsp;&nbsp;And we\u2019ll continue to cheer on our global colleagues in that positive direction.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After \u2018everyone\u2019 was hunkered down (introspectively) the previous year, 2022 kept ramping upward and onward.&nbsp;&nbsp;People came out of their homes and began looking again at the world around them.&nbsp;&nbsp;This list of major 2022 Engineering impacts shows directed efforts on worries old and new, with hope vs fear competing as driving catalysts.&nbsp; Now that we are&hellip;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"read-more-wrapper\"><a href=\"https:\/\/engineeringearth.com\/?p=409\" class=\"button button-primary\" rel=\"bookmark\">Read More &raquo;<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Transitions \u2013 2022 Year in Review<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","neve_meta_reading_time":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-409","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/engineeringearth.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/engineeringearth.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/engineeringearth.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/engineeringearth.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/engineeringearth.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=409"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/engineeringearth.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":440,"href":"https:\/\/engineeringearth.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409\/revisions\/440"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/engineeringearth.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/engineeringearth.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/engineeringearth.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}