Energy

As you plan your agenda, artificial intelligence (AI) is undoubtedly a hot topic on your list. This year we have a lot of great technical content on AI, machine learning (ML), and deep learning (DL)--with over 200 breakout sessions, hands-on workshops, deep-dive chalk talks, and more. You'll hear success stories about machine learning on AWS firsthand from customers and partners such as Sony, Moody's, NFL, Intuit, 21st Century Fox, Toyota, and more. This year's re:Invent also includes the AI Summit, where thought leaders in the academic community will share their perspectives on the future of AI. Here are a few highlights of this year's lineup from the re:Invent session catalog to help you plan your event agenda.

A project from Google's secretive X division that uses giant plane-like kites to generate renewable electricity may be about to be launched. Makani Power has been developing airborne wind turbines with the support of the Internet giant's research and development facility founded to pursue "moonshot" ideas. If successful the plan would negate the need for costly construction materials and labour that is required for ground-based wind turbines. But after more than 10 years of development, the kites are yet to be used beyond testing. The I.F.O. is fuelled by eight electric engines, which is able to push the flying object to an estimated top speed of about 120mph.

AJ Abdallat is a serial entrepreneur. He loves to create and the businesses he puts his hands on tend to succeed. Abdallat's latest company is Beyond Limits, a leading developer of advanced artificial intelligence solutions and leading the way in developing the technology in innovative ways. Abdallat took over the CEO reins of Beyond Limits in 2014. During his time with the company, the entrepreneur has pushed the brand to tackle industrial and enterprise challenges. A graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, Abdallat has been working with dynamic companies since 1988 as co-founder or CEO of several Caltech/Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) startups. With a long track record in AI, Abdallat hopes to steer Beyond Limits -- and the world -- into a future that finally fulfills the promises of technology.

In 2003, Mother Nature turned off the lights on the East Coast. The reason: a short circuit a hot summer day caused on by a chance encounter between an overgrown tree branch and a sagging power line. The problem quickly cascaded through the system, triggering the biggest blackout in North American history. The outage left 50 million people in the U.S. and Canada without power and by some estimates cost more than $6 billion. But the truth is, most people don't give much thought to our electrical grid until something goes wrong.

Thermal Imaging sensors are commonly referred to terminology such as thermal camera, temperature camera, heat vision camera, infrared camera, thermal imaging sensor, heat signature camera, and even thermal heat vision sensor. In this post we will refer to this type of imaging as infrared or thermal imaging. Infrared energy is generated by the vibration of atoms and molecules. The higher the temperature of an object, the faster its molecules and atoms move. This movement is emitted as infrared radiation which our eyes cannot see but our skin can feel. Thermal imaging is the use of a special infrared camera sensors to illuminate a spectrum of light invisible to the naked eye.

Chinese carmaker NIO, the world's newest electric vehicle unicorn, has a big idea: battery swapping. In theory, the process is quicker and more convenient than a fast charge. A driver rolls into a battery swap station, and a robot replaces the drained battery with a fully charged spare. But even though NIO's battery swapping stations are already deployed in major cities across China, retail investors don't seem to be taking NIO's swap network seriously. Levi Tillemann is the author of The Great Race: The Global Quest for the Car of the Future.

For Ferrero, OpenAg created what it calls a hazelnut computer--an indoor farm, made from structural steel and Styrofoam panels, that resembles a giant walk-in freezer. Inside, 16 hazelnut trees are maturing. LED lights simulate the sun, and every variable--air temperature, humidity, pH and carbon dioxide levels, water circulation--is controlled and optimized by artificial intelligence. Once OpenAg's algorithm determines the ideal hazelnut-growing recipe, Ferrero will compare it with climate and soil data from around the world as the company searches for a new place to farm. "We call it climate prospecting," says Caleb Harper, age 36, the founder and director of OpenAg.

Artificial intelligence research has a lot to learn from nature. My work links biology with computation every day, but recently the rest of the world was reminded of the connection: The 2018 Nobel Prize in Chemistry went to Frances Arnold together with George Smith and Gregory Winter for developing major breakthroughs that are collectively called "directed evolution." One of its uses is to improve protein functions, making them better catalysts in biofuel production. Another use is entirely outside chemistry – outside even the traditional life sciences. That might sound surprising, but many research findings have very broad implications.

In September, after one of the most violent wildfire seasons in California history, Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill that would allow utility companies to charge customers for future legal settlements from the 2017 wildfires--even if they were the utility company's fault. Consumer advocates have criticized it as a bailout, with utilities having to augment their efforts to reduce the risk of fires. Furthermore, the law requires to pay the entire cost of accidental fires if they fail to properly maintain electrical transmission stations and distribution power lines.

The future of the oil and gas industry is not as bleak as many are predicting it to be, with technology set to play a major role in how the industry is set to evolve, said Abdul Nasser Al Mughairbi, group SVP of digital at Adnoc. Speaking in a conference session at the 38th Gitex Technology Week exhibition, he noted that the speed of technology development has never been faster or its potential impact as powerful. "We don't see oil as ending anytime soon; we might not use it as an energy source much in the future, but oil and gas will continue to play an indispensable role in fuelling global energy demand," he said. He added: "Big data is going to be the foundation of all our future digital transformation strategies. Our studies show that 80 per cent of oil and gas data will be unstructured by 2020. We see opportunities created by new technologies everywhere, ranging from optimising our production capacity to enhancing our drilling performance."