Vol. 1, No. 19 | August
4, 2015 | AAI Foresight
Inside Foresight Signals:
> Printed Flight: Engineers Test-Fly 3-D Printed Aircraft
> Europe Advances in Wind Energy Capacity
> Harnessing the Skills of Senior Workers: Report from
Timothy C. Mack
> Worldfuture 2015 Conference Highlights
Printed Flight: Engineers Test-Fly 3-D Printed Aircraft
Engineers at Britain’s University of Southampton have test
flown a 3-D printed unmanned aerial vehicle from the deck of a Royal Navy ship,
demonstrating the possibility of manufacturing simple, lightweight UAVs while
at sea.
Project Triangle researchers printed the vehicle in four
parts using laser-sintered
nylon and assembled it without the use of tools. The short flight demonstrated
the potential for using simpler designs and production processes, according to
the researchers.
“The key to increased use of UAVs is the simple production
of low cost and rugged airframes,” said Andy
Keane, a professor at Southampton’s Engineering and the Environment Department,
in a press statement. “We believe our pioneering use of 3-D printed nylon has
advanced design thinking in the UAV community worldwide.”
Details: University
of Southampton
Signals: 3-D
printing; drones; UAVs
Europe Advances in Wind Energy Capacity
The EU’s electricity grid reached 129 GW cumulative capacity
in 2014, meeting 8 percent of European electricity demand (roughly the
equivalent of the combined consumption of Belgium, the Netherlands, Greece, and
Ireland). Growth in EU wind capacity is on target to provide 12 percent of
electricity within the next five years, reports the European Commission’s Joint
Research Center.
Wind power has seen the widest development and growth in the
last two decades, and costs are on a downward trend. JRC concludes that wind
energy will thus contribute significantly to EU’s goal for at least 20 percent of
energy derived from renewable sources by 2020. The EU has now set a target of 27
percent for renewable energy and energy savings by 2030, along with a 40
percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions compared with 1990 figures.
With growing capacity from onshore and offshore wind
installations, six countries—Denmark, Portugal, Ireland, Spain, Romania, and
Germany—generated between 10 and 40 percent of their electricity from wind.
Details: European
Commission, Joint Research Center; image © EU
Signals: electricity,
energy, Europe, wind power
Harnessing the Skills of Senior Workers: Report from Timothy C. Mack
An aging
but healthier population includes accomplished leaders who are increasingly
interested in public service. Many in this group seek meaningful contributions
rather than income, but there is an absence of established pathways.
Thought-leaders
in higher education have proposed developing new “schools for advanced institutional
leadership” that offer more than retraining for new careers. But this approach views
senior workers as a fully developed resource that stands ready for direction
and a few new skills, ignoring their financial, health, and even psychological
challenges.
Should we
commit to harnessing a resource that by its nature is diminishing at an
increasing rate? And by “diminishing,” I mean the natural decline of
productivity of individual workers as their age increases. The fact that this issue
falls into the “wicked problem” category should not in any way diminish the
moral and social necessity to find solutions. Read more
Timothy C. Mack is
managing principal of AAI Foresight Inc.
This article is excerpted from the Foresight Signals blog.
Worldfuture 2015 Conference Highlights
Worldfuture 2015, the annual conference of the World Future Society, took place July 24-26
in San Francisco, and groups such as The
Millennium Project and the Association
of Professional Futurists also used the gathering to conduct separate business meetings
and development sessions.
One reporter writes: “The opening plenary was well attended and
the reception packed, with ‘so great to see you again’ everywhere. And many of
the presentations [were] comfortingly familiar…. Speakers such as Peter Schwartz (Salesforce), Paul Saffo (Discern Investment
Analytics) lit their audiences on fire.”
Other familiar futurists inspiring enthusiasm among
attendees included Jim Dator
(University of Hawaii), Brian David
Johnson (Intel) Janna Q. Anderson
(Elon University), Marc Goodman (Future Crimes).
APF activities included a professional development forum and
announcements of the year’s most-significant futures work, such as Stuart Candy and OCAD’s game “The Thing
From The Future,” which won in the methodology category.
At The Millennium Project’s Planning Committee meeting,
co-founder and CEO Jerome C. Glenn
previewed the 300-page 2015-16 State of
the Future. “This contains the greatest assemblage of data, information,
intelligence, and wisdom about the future ever organized in one source,” Glenn
stated in a press release. The report may be ordered from The Millennium
Project.
As Tweeted:
Blanca E. Duarte
(@blancaedu): @JannaQ I Loved the presentation - lots to think about. My
dinner party conversations r going to get a lot more interesting. Thank you
Janna Q. Anderson
(@JannaQ): Fabulous presentation by Marc Goodman @FutureCrimes at #WF2015.
Tracey Wait (@TraceyWait):
Science meets Fiction with @grayscott brilliant! My personal fav so far at
#wfs2015
Richard Yonck (@ryonck):
Great talk @ #WF2015 by @ramez "Radical Optimism w/ Very Real
Concerns"> "the cost of tech trends toward zero"
SciFutures (@scifutures):
Standing room only for @IntelFuturist brilliant session at #WFS2015 'the future
of the American dream'
__________
Special Publications Project
AAI Foresight’s special publications project, Foresight Reports,
produces white papers, futures-research work, and long-form essays on a variety
of future-oriented topics. The purpose is to demonstrate foresight methodology
in action as it is applied in all fields of interest to public-policy analysts,
academicians, entrepreneurs, and public and private decision makers.
The reports are published periodically, with an expected
frequency of four to six per year. All reports are offered as a free public
service for the foresight and policy-making community, so authors are not
offered remuneration at this time.
Manuscripts and inquiries may be submitted to AAI Foresight consulting
editor Cindy Wagner at CynthiaGWagner@gmail.com
and should include the author’s brief bio and contact information.
__________
Send us your signals!
News about your work and other tips are welcome, as is feedback on Foresight Signals. Contact Cynthia G. Wagner, consulting
editor.
Want more signals from AAI Foresight? Check out the blog! Log in to add comments.
Feel free to share Foresight Signals with your networks and
to submit any stories, tips, or “signals” of trends emerging on the horizon
that we can share with other stakeholders and the foresight community.
__________
© 2015 AAI Foresight
Foresight Signals is a publication of AAI
Foresight
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#1172
Freeland, WA 98249
Managing Principal:
Timothy C. Mack
tcmack333@gmail.com | 202-431-1652
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