Former Acting Under Secretary of Energy Arun Majumdar is interviewed by Professor John Weyant. The United States has been delivering electricity in the same way for over a hundred years – exposed power lines on poles over vast distances. The system is outdated, overloaded, and under-maintained, leading to unfortunate events such as power outages and wildfires. With the continued adoption of electric vehicles, there is a sudden urgency to re-engineer the electric grid. The speakers explore the steps being taken to do this work and why it is so important, especially for climate change.
Course Description: The next wave of technological innovation and globalization will affect our countries, our societies, and ourselves. In the next economy, we will see a fusion of technologies and research that is blurring the lines between the physical, digital, and biological spheres.
We will see extraordinary technology advances that are commensurate with those of the first, second, and third industrial revolutions. These earlier industrial revolutions introduced the use of steam power to mechanize production, development of groundbreaking inventions in transportation, telecommunications, and manufacturing, as well as more recently, the introduction of the digital era.
As the next revolution is transforming humanity, MED/CEE 214: Frontier Technology explores the development and application of key emerging technologies in society: AI/ML; Smart Cities and Urban Mobility; Advanced Life Sciences; Telecommunications with 5G; and Data Privacy, Ethics, and Policy.
