Janie Slaven: LEFT TO MY OWN DEVICES: Let's say smarter phones, cars, cities
Dec. 10—Over the weekend I had the pleasure of teaching a handful of graduate and doctoral students pursuing their advanced IT education. It was a 22 1/2 -hour program between Friday at 5:00 p.m. and Sunday at 1:00 p.m., so it was also onerous. I had the easy part sitting at the head of the class. There was more than exhaustion, though, since through these scholars' minds and imaginations I could see how the next generation of innovators will be affecting the societal construct as it relates to technologies solutions.
Note that my class was not a typical experience such that everyone shared a textbook and the brilliance of my well-prepared, homogenous lessons. This experience was more supported and guided by me for a half dozen students researching variations on an IT theme. There was work being done in cybersecurity. One project aimed at providing solutions for cloud computing's known issues. The majority of the work chosen by the students focused on "smart" technologies. I'll drop the air-quotes henceforth, but you can envision how smartness attributes to tech differently than your own smarts play out.
Although it was not statistically significant enough to really characterize the bulk of the work having surrounded smart technologies, the fact that more students worked on that topic than any other, added to the fact that a couple projects not homing in on smartness also broached the topic, was meaningful to me. I saw it as a sign of the future. A sign that joins many other signs if reviewing current technologies literature. After all, you cannot take in the phrase "artificial intelligence," another most popular subset of IT developments ongoing, without invoking the concept of smartness. Intelligence and smarts, whether in your own persona or in tech, go hand-in-hand.
One of these sage scholars, with her intelligence and smarts engaged, explored the current topics and the futuristic possibilities of smart highways and roadways. Another related branch on the techie tree of wisdom, dealt with smart vehicles. There was an entire other project, which was aspirational in scope considering a couple dozen hours invested, about smart cities. How dumb everything we're wrapped up in—especially roads, cars, and cities—must seem to these budding inventors and visionaries!
It was all quite fascinating to me. Rest assured that as fanciful as some ideas may have been, there is no doubt that some of it will come into fruition. Some already is in development, or in a trial phase. On the more fanciful and fantastical side, one angle synthesized smart highways and vehicles, at least two-wheeled transportation. The idea was that with the right hardware—e.g., roadways and infrastructure—and the right software—i.e., motorcycles and their riders—technologies can be developed that maintain the balance of a motorcycle no matter the driving circumstances. Wet, snowy, or otherwise compromised surfaces? No problem. Drag effects from heavier semi-tractors blasting by too close for comfort? Upright as ever. Happenstance that gives the rider no chance but to track over a "gator skin?" Still, no problem, but let me digress in case you're unaware, as I was, that in motorcycle culture a gator skin might be in the roadway even north of Florida or Louisiana. These are the retreads from semis. Rather than replace the whole tire, sometimes truck drivers have their worn tires re-tread, and when done improperly or left in service too long they might detach. We've all seen road gators, maybe even traveled over them. For two-wheeled riders, it can be devastating.
Imagining a technology that maintains a motorcycle's upright stance no matter the environment seems ambitious. Yet, there's no telling whether that might come to be. Some of the other ideas under the weekend's research lens are much closer to reality, though.
In Michigan, there is currently a smart highway solution under development by an Israeli company that has a quite focused ability that benefits electric vehicles. During the past five or 10 years we have seen smartphone technology evolve similarly—again, I never realized how dumb our old phones were, though even as a kid I knew it was dumb while I lived in the sticks and shared a party line. Charging phones nowadays doesn't always require connection to a cable and plug. We can charge phones magnetically, of course. So too is the Michigan experiment. For around $3 million, one mile of roadway is being constructed in a manner that as you traverse it your EV gets charged. Economies of scale being what they are, the costs are estimated to fall to around $500,000 give or take per mile, which seems astounding still. Until, that is, you can envision what my student did, which was that in the right location, zero time and cost expended by millions of vehicles every day could nevertheless keep cars charged. Time and costs are heavy on the front end, of course, and surely a savvy capitalist will figure out a way to profit from this.
In Chicagoland, another smart highway solution is in the works. With six or eight lanes of traffic, and travelers of all ilks—shaky motorcycles, heavy trucks, commuters, buses, etc.—using those lanes 24/7/365, the various usages wax and wane throughout the day and seasons. Thus, the project aims to convert petabytes (don't think too hard ... it's A Lot) of data gets processed through machine learning to determine what purpose each lane is best suited for at any given time. Sensors in the hardware and software keep usage under control, and efficiently utilize the lanes.
Smart cities ... Well, now we're talking about such a scope that leaves me no space to elaborate. Whether it's all coming? Hard to tell. The very smart students I engaged are headstrong and have strong minds. We'll see how dumb of a world we're living in now.
Ed Zuger is a professor of cybersecurity, an attorney, and a trained ethicist. Reach him at edzugeresq@gmail.com.
