An innovating spirit and a futuristic vision are the core of all the latest and upcoming emerging technologies in engineering . Foreseeing how the industries of tomorrow will perform is changing the way engineers are developing products, improving services, and supporting human resources.
Emerging technologies are defined as new or evolving technologies with the potential to change societies functions as we know them, to the point where they became known as disruptive technologies. So which ones should we keep an eye on and leverage?
Emerging Technologies and Blockchain
This is not new for engineers but still needs to be mentioned as it is constantly developing. Many still assume that blockchain is the same as bitcoin, but it isn’t. Blockchain is the underlying technology that makes bitcoin possible, and it can be adapted to manufacturing. Within recent years, companies have been exploring ways to log timestamped data sent from sensors on a digital ledger, which is at the center of blockchain and instantly verifying it as being genuine. A deeper audit trail on a blockchain could help in the effective management of sensors and machines.
And because this technology has been revolutionary, it has created new job opportunities for developers and tech enthusiasts, giving rise to a new field of engineering called Blockchain Engineering. Blockchain Engineers specialize in creating and implementing digital solutions for organizations by utilizing this unique type of technology. These profiles are mostly responsible for developing the architecture of a blockchain system, designing consensus protocol and building decentralized applications that run on blockchain technology. As they become more in demand, top engineering schools are making sure their engineering students are equipped with the necessary tools to explore this side of the industry:
Mater’s degrees in engineering at ESiLV, particularly the “IBO” major trains general computer engineers who are able to master all data processing components. To answer the evolution of the company’s strategic needs, the future engineer will be trained to information systems, to the architecture of databases, to the mobility and the application development.
5G Robotics
With this technology emerging in Tokyo, Japan. An example of its use is the NTT DoCoMo that began demonstrating how the speed of 5G allowed robots mimic human movement almost instantly. 5G-enabled robots will find a home in medicine: with the right tools, a brain or cardiac surgeon is able to carry out operations from the other side of the world, which could be life-saving when time is short and transport impossible, such as a stroke patient in a rural community. In factories as well: industrial robots are already in use in certain areas, but the advent of 5G is that it will allow the creation of smart factory which will be equipped with sensors that provide a constant flow of information about each aspect of the manufacturing process. This volume of data would be too much for current mobile networks to handle, but one of the key advantages of 5G is the ability to divide bandwidth into ‘slices’, which could be allocated to particular tasks.
Augmented Identity
The key idea why augmented identity is one of the most important emerging technologies is that it is made to recognize people’s identity. A perfect example of its application is to prevent future car theft. As a matter of fact, IDEMIA a French company, wants to bring facial recognition for the authorized use of cars. The process is basically enrolling the user’s face in a system, and a car will unlock only if it recognizes this particular face since the technology uses sensors, location tracking, and software.
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