“Start looking around for problems that haven’t been discovered or solved, where you can use your expertise to make society better.” — Charlotte Smith
ENVIRONMENTAL CHALLENGES
Plastic Reuse – Plastic was thought to be a boon, but it turned out to be a bane. However, we can make good use of its non-biodegradable properties into some useful innovation such as plastic fuel, building material, historical sculptures, and statues etc.
Carbon sequestration – Many countries are working towards achieving goal of carbon neutrality by 2050. We need to find efficient ways of capturing & storing the billions of tons of carbon dioxide and further recycling it into products, like synthetic fuels, carbon fiber, polymers, and concrete.
Earthquake/ Tsunami prediction – We can predict the weather conditions days much in advance, but we are clueless in predicting earthquakes or Tsunami. Predicting natural disaster with some self-assurance would help us to discover some long-lasting solutions. The warning even before few hours can save millions of lives.
Source of Energy – Solar and Wind energy systems are being used in some countries however, there is still needed to innovate for other energy resources to meet the growing demand. Algae powered small devices and Radioactive Diamond Batteries are recent examples of innovation in this area.
Ocean exploration – The earth has abundance of water in form of ocean hence, there is growing demand to explore ocean by Seafloor mapping and leverage the use of ocean water by making it usable for irrigation with the innovative membranes and electrochemical techniques. Similarly, this is the high time to invent Energy-efficient purification technologies to create drinking water from the ocean.
SOCIAL CHALLENGES
Dementia treatment – With the increasing average age of human, the problem of Dementia or Alzheimer’s in elderly becomes quite common. There is need to slow down or prevent the effects of such diseases with the advancement in understanding of genetics and neuroscience.
Radicalisation and social polarisation – There are need to address issues related to extremism, polarisation, mind manipulation of people by controlling content recommendation system, social media overuse, fake news/media identification etc.
Drug waste – Pharmaceutical waste is any leftover, unused or expired medication that is no longer needed or can no longer be used. Handling of drug waste is a major challenge while many countries are deprived of basic medication.
Food security – The world population is expected to grow more than 10 billion by 2050, and hence the increase in the demand for food for such population. Innovative solutions required to meet such demand such as drip farming, utilization of deserted land or sea surface for farming and lab-grown meat etc.
Fighting the pandemic – The range of innovations and solutions related to Universal flu vaccine, exchange of medical supplies, telemedicine etc. are required to tackle the pandemic and its long-term consequences.
INNOVATE FOR A BETTER FUTURE
Future of Mobility – There are various means of transportation that require standard and framework such as Electric Vehicle infrastructure, Secure driverless vehicles, Urban Air mobility, personal water transport and concept of teleportation.
Data Complexity – It’s important to handle the large chunks of increasing DATA and find innovative ways to automatic identification and deletion of junks.
Security of Personal Information – The privacy of genetic data such as Fingerprint, Voice Signature, DNA is important because these are the blueprint of physical or biological identity.
Intent based AI – The advance artificial intelligence may depend on an ability to relate internal computational processes to actual things in the physical world as people and animals do based on their intent or feelings.
Brain Computing – Understanding brain to decode cause of various mental disorders and ways to communicate via brain to brain and brain to computer.
