The Digital Evolution

MRS Bulletin ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 31 (11) ◽  
pp. 906-913 ◽  
Author(s):  
Craig R. Barrett

AbstractThe following article is an edited transcript based on the plenary address given by Craig R. Barrett, chair of the board of Intel Corp., on April 19, 2006, at the 2006 Materials Research Society Spring Meeting in San Francisco. Since before the industrial revolution, technology has changed lives, opportunities, and economies. Similarly, the digital evolution has touched nearly every aspect of modern life and is reshaping economies around the world. As more and more of the world's people engage in the digital economy, both competition and opportunities will grow. Competitiveness in the global economy will be determined by how people and nations position themselves in the digital evolution. What lies ahead for us in the next 10 years? What new technologies will alter the technology landscape? What are the opportunities going forward, and how do we prepare? How can materials research and development help us to move forward faster?

2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 339-351
Author(s):  
Konstantin V. Blokhin

Article analyzes predictive estimates and concepts presented by the Western intellectual community, regarding prospects for development of new trends in the global economy, caused by the fourth industrial revolution. Author draws on a variety of sources, including reports from US think tanks, works by representatives of global financial and technocratic elite, and works by American intellectuals. Methodological basis of the study is a theory of the world system of I. Wallerstein, which allows to identify dynamic and conflicting lines of interaction between two geopolitical centers of the world - the United States and China. Based on an analysis of current trends, modern experts predict revolutionary changes in modern technologies that can decisively affect socio-political stability, not only in Western countries, but in developing countries as well. Author shows that the new technological structure is changing not only sector structure of the economy, but also has a strong impact on employment. According to American analysts, new technologies can destabilize socio-political stability in any country, especially in countries where cheap labor is a traditional tool. Robotization and automation of production can become a competitive advantage of the United States and Western countries in competition with China. Article notes that Russia is only at the very beginning of technological revolution, behind big five leading countries. Overcoming its lag in the field of AI and robotics requires adoption of comprehensive measures of economic, scientific and political nature. Ignoring realities of technological progress is fraught with increase in threats to national security.


MRS Bulletin ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 32 (9) ◽  
pp. 710-716
Author(s):  
Frank W. Gayle

This article is based on an edited transcript of a presentation given by Frank W. Gayle (National Institute of Standards and Technology) on April 12, 2007, in Symposium X at the Materials Research Society Spring Meeting in San Francisco.The NIST investigation of the World Trade Center disaster addressed many aspects of the catastrophe, from occupant egress to factors affecting the ability of the Twin Towers to remain standing after being hit by the airplanes, with the goal of gaining valuable information for future best practices in building materials, building design, and emergency response. The presentation addressed the structure of the towers, the analysis of the recovered steel, and special issues faced during the investigation. The probable collapse sequence for each of the towers was also discussed.


Author(s):  
I. Dezhina

The article evaluates science sectors and effectiveness of scientific research in the countries forming the BRICS group, as well as the current state of scientific and technological cooperation among the group members. The science sectors of the countries under consideration differ markedly, while facing similar problems relating to government regulations and external environments. The differences exist in total expenditures on research and development (as a share of GNP), in the scope of governmental funding (large in Russia and India, but small in China), and in the distribution of allocations among various areas and types of R&D activities. China appears to have the most well-adjusted science sector among the BRICS members. It includes not only strong universities but also high-tech companies that invest actively into research and development. The overall impact (inferred from citation indexes) of fundamental and exploratory research performed in BRICS countries remains low. BRICS's scientists prefer to collaborate with their colleagues from the world-leading countries rather than with their fellows from BRICS. Yet, in contrast to the world trend, in all BRICS countries, except Russia, a share of internationally co-authored publications is now decreasing. BRICS members have more similar interests and priorities in technological development, including infrastructural and large technological projects, than in science. Currently, bilateral cooperation in technology prevails, while the projects involving all members of the group still remain at the stage of preliminary evaluation and discussion. Russia cooperates most closely with China and India, including joint projects in such high-priority directions as new materials, photonics, biomedical, space and information technologies. For Russia, cooperation in technological development appears to be of most interest because it can lead not only to introduction of new technologies but also help to create large Russian innovative companies. Development of successful multilateral cooperation in science and technology among the BRICS members is the key for this group, originally formed for geopolitical reasons, to evolve into an effective economic union.


Author(s):  
Janice M. Burn ◽  
Karen D. Loch

Many lessons from history offer strong evidence that technology can have a definite effect on the social and political aspects of human life. At times it is difficult to grasp how supposedly neutral technology might lead to social upheavals, mass migrations of people, and shifts in wealth and power. Yet a quick retrospective look at the last few centuries finds that various technologies have done just that, challenging the notion of the neutrality of technology. Some examples include the printing press, railways, and the telephone. The effects of these technologies usually begin in our minds by changing the way we view time and space. Railways made the world seem smaller by enabling us to send goods, people, and information to many parts of the world in a fraction of the time it took before. Telephones changed the way we think about both time and distance, enabling us to stay connected without needing to be physically displaced. While new technologies create new opportunities for certain individuals or groups to gain wealth, there are other economic implications with a wider ranging impact, political and social. Eventually, as the technology matures, social upheavals, mass migrations and shifts in economic and political power can be observed. We find concrete examples of this dynamic phenomenon during the Reformation, the industrial revolution, and more recently, as we witness the ongoing information technology revolution.


2007 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 63-86 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph E. Inikori

The article examines the debate on globalization as a historical process and provides a context for the assessment of western Africa’s long-run contribution to the process, the main subject of the article. It argues that the process began in the Atlantic basin in the sixteenth century; in the nineteenth, it gave rise to an integrated Atlantic economy, the nucleus of the modern global economy. The process involved the transformation of the predominantly subsistence economies of the Atlantic basin in 1450 to market-based economies before their integration by the Atlantic market could occur. Large-scale specialization of the plantation and mining economies of the Americas was central to the transformation process. Because of abundant land, large-scale plantation agriculture in the Americas was made possible by coerced African labour. In the end, the unique characteristics of the export slave trade that supplied coerced African labour to the Americas retarded the development of the market economy in western Africa and kept the region’s economies out of the integrated commodity production processes of the Atlantic economy until that trade ended in the mid-nineteenth century. The analysis of the commercializing process in the Atlantic basin and its causal link to England’s Industrial Revolution, with its new technologies, and to the establishment of the integrated nineteenth-century Atlantic economy presents a powerful argument that places Africa at the centre stage of the globalization process


MRS Bulletin ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-49 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia M. Phillips

Nanoscience has, in many ways, grown up in parallel with the Materials Research Society. Although “nanoscience” and “nanotechnology” are buzzwords that were “discovered” in Washington, D.C., and in the capitals of countries around the world a number of years ago, nanoscience has actually been developing for several decades. The emergence of nanoscience as a fascinating and fruitful area of research has occurred primarily for two reasons: (1) materials have new and unpredictable properties at the nanoscale; and (2) it is now possible to make things controllably on the nanoscale and to see them.


Author(s):  
Nhi Thi Nguyen ◽  
Thanh Van Thai ◽  
Huong Thi Pham ◽  
Giang Chau Thi Nguyen

In the context of the Industrial Revolution 4.0 and integration of the Vietnamese economy into the global economy, Vietnam's education and training has been increasingly developed and increasingly deeply integrated into the world. The development of teacher training programs is considered an urgent issue, a prerequisite to contribute positively to the development of education and training in the country. However, the first period of integration shows that teachers have many limitations in practical skills, soft skills, and foreign languages when working in a modern environment. These limitations are due to many factors; one of the basic factors is that the training programs at teacher training facilities are mainly focused on knowledge towards approaching content. Therefore, the development of training programs in general and teacher training programs in particular in the direction of developing necessary skills that society requires learners to have, in order to work and develop their qualities after graduation, to meet the integration needs in the context of the industrial revolution 4.0 is an important trend in the world and especially for Vietnam in the current period. CDIO stands for words: Conceive, Design, Implement and Operate. It is a solution to improve the quality of training to meet social requirements, on the basis of determining the outcome standards, developing programs and training plans; It is also the idea of universities, technical institutes of the United States and Sweden in the early 90s of the last century with the intention of training students after graduation with full knowledge and skills such as: communication skills, personal skills ... and immediate access to the labor market, meeting the needs of the business. In this article, we focus on the solution to develop teacher training programs under the CDIO approach to meet the requirements of the Industrial Revolution 4.0 in higher education institutions in Vietnam.


MRS Bulletin ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-27 ◽  
Author(s):  
George M. Whitesides ◽  
Amy P. Wong

AbstractThis article is based on the plenary address given by George M. Whitesides of Harvard University on March 30, 2005, at the Materials Research Society Spring Meeting in San Francisco. Materials science and biomedicine are arguably two of the most exciting fields in science today. Research at the border between them will inevitably be a major focus, and the applications of materials science to problems in biomedicine—that is, biomaterials science—will bud into an important new branch of materials science. Accelerating the growth of this area requires an understanding of two very different fields, and being both thoughtful and entrepreneurial in considering “Why?” “How?” and “Where?” to put them together. In this fusion, biomedicine will, we believe, set the agenda; materials science will follow, and materials scientists must learn biology to be effective.


MRS Bulletin ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 29 (11) ◽  
pp. 805-813 ◽  
Author(s):  
Herb Goronkin ◽  
Yang Yang

AbstractThis article introduces the November 2004 issue of MRS Bulletin on the state of the art in solid-state memory and storage technologies.The memory business drives hundreds of billions of dollars in sales of electronic equipment per year. The incentive for continuing on the historical track outlined by Moore's law is huge, and this challenge is driving considerable investment from governments around the world as well as in private industry and universities. The problem is this: recognizing that current approaches to semiconductor-based memory are limited, what new technologies can be introduced to continue or even accelerate the pace of complexity? The articles in this issue highlight several commercially available memories, as well as memory technologies that are still in the research and development stages. What will become apparent to the reader is the huge diversity of approaches to this problem.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document