Author: Connected World

The current systems for food production, transportation, and storage involves a lot of waste—including food waste and resource waste. How can technology make a difference in these systems to reduce waste in all its forms? It’s a question worth answering and a problem worth solving, because in the U.S. alone, food waste is estimated by the USDA to be 30-40% of the food supply. The USDA estimates that a 31% rate of food loss at the retail and consumer levels equals about 133 billion pounds of food, valued at $161 billion. Imagine all the inputs that went into the production,…

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The statistics can be scary. 4,764 workers died on the job in 2020. Employees in construction and extraction occupations accounted for 20% of those deaths. While technology has continued to advance to address this very issue, many fatalities and injuries are still occurring. University of Houston computer scientists have set out to find a solution by developing ViPER+, which accurately tracks workers’ location using ultra-wideband technology. The ViPER+ system surmounts challenges of other ultra-wideband based realtime safety monitoring systems primarily because it overcomes non-line of sight situations. These are instances in which trucks, construction loaders, and other equipment block the…

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How digital twins and other emerging technologies are making grids work smarter. The electricity grid is a complex, critical infrastructure system, and globally, grids are under tremendous stress. Beyond the typical concerns of addressing reliability, resiliency, and capacity, experts say the grid needs to be “smarter.” How can utilities leverage technology to support the large-scale integration of renewable energy sources like wind and solar power, plus the electrification of transportation? What’s more, how can they do this while ensuring reliability of the power system and delivering the same service to end users? Emerging technologies are helping infrastructure, including power grids,…

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