Model Airplanes

The Fabrication City concept puts manufacturing back in the hands of communities — using 3D printers. It could have far-reaching implications for economic development, environmental sustainability, inclusion and other benefits. The use of 3D printing provides cities with opportunities through their local innovators and entrepreneurs.

The process of 3D printing layers materials to create three-dimensional objects using digital equipment. Local makers are given access to fabrication labs equipped with technology to learn and this incubation environment can develop future entrepreneurs.

The fabrication city model emerged around 2011, developed by the MIT’s Centre for Bits and Atoms and by over 1,000 Maker Centres that give local makers access to 3D printing and other production tools. There are also neighbourhoods and city clusters that facilitate the maker movement.

There are opportunities for individuals and groups to create and market products from used or new materials using a digital device and additive technology. By facilitating these activities, cities can radically transform the way production and consumption happens within their region. Interconnecting people and processes to create local and regional inclusive innovation and economic growth while also reducing environmental impacts. What might we re-use if we practice more inclusive innovation and how might we change the local economy if we support local sourcing?

Printing the future

In our upcoming book, Innovative Solutions for Creating Sustainable Cities, the fabrication city section explains that going forward, we cannot follow the same principles as before by moving materials — or focus on the pursuit of efficiency (less investment

Article source: https://www.econotimes.com/Print-your-city-3D-printing-is-revolutionizing-urban-futures-1505488

Airbus Vahana fixed/rotor hybrid in test flightCredit: Airbus

Sebastian Thrun is considered one of the true fathers of modern self-driving car technology. His Stanford team won the DARPA Grand Challenge in 2005, and he created Google’s self-driving car team that is now Waymo, as well as the online university Udacity and its self-driving spinoff Voyage. My meeting with him in 2005 was what inspired me to get involved with robocars. A few who worked under him have now got billion dollar net worths (on paper) due to their self-driving work, and he could have easily done the same.

So what’s he doing now, the man who may be the world’s top expert on self-driving cars?

He’s CEO of Kitty Hawk, working on bringing you your “flying car” — or e-VTOL as many prefer to call them. (Like robocars, a name will have to be settled on.) Most people are quite skeptical, as they were when I started preaching robocars in 2007.

Flying cars are at about the stage Robocars were in 2007. Just starting to get real. Unlike 2007 robocars, however, there are many hundreds of teams trying to build them. The idea of the “flying car” is perhaps older than the robocar, and has become a staple of futurism — and the symbol of futurism overextending itself. “Where’s my flying car?” has become a popular refrain to express that the future is coming more slowly than people predicted or expected.

Sebastian Thrun, CEO of Kitty HawkCredit: Brad Templeton

Your flying car

Article source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/bradtempleton/2019/03/04/wheres-my-flying-car-coming-in-for-a-landing-soon/