Second Annual Emerging Technology Awards Recognize Technological Advances

Five ascending technologies and the innovators behind them were recently named as the winners of Mechanical Engineering magazine’s 2018 Emerging Technology Awards. The winners were announced at the IMECE keynote session earlier this month in Pittsburgh, Pa., and are highlighted in both this month’s issue of Mechanical Engineering and on ASME.org.

Launched last year, the Emerging Technology Awards recognize an innovator in each of ASME’s five core technology areas: clean energy, bioengineering, robotics, manufacturing and pressure technology.

The winner of the Emerging Technology Award this year in the clean energy area was Vincent Schellings of GE Renewable Energy for developing the world’s largest wind turbine, the Haliade-X, which is capable of generating 12 megawatts of electric power. The award for bioengineering went to Alex Kipman of Microsoft for the wearable holographic computer HoloLens, a mixed reality headset that blends computer-generated images with the real-world view of the user. RoboKind and its founder Richard Margolin were named the winners of the Emerging Technology Award for robotics for developing the Milo, a lower-cost robot that is being used to help teach children with autism. The award in the manufacturing category went to Airbus Emerging Technologies and Concept Group’s Bastian Schäfer, for creating the 3D-printed partition for separating the seating and galley areas on the Airbus A320. The Emerging Technology Award in the fifth area, pressure technology, was given to Boris Liberman of Israel’s IDE Technologies for developing an energy-efficient process for the reverse osmosis desalination of seawater.

In his essay that introduces the “Emerging Technology Awards” section of Mechanical Engineering this month, ASME Executive Director Tom Costabile writes, “The technologies honored this year are incredibly diverse. They run the gamut from being as gigantic as a skyscraper to being intimate enough to place on your head. One connects with hard-to-reach children one-on-one, while another is designed to provide for entire cities. And yet another reimagines a hidden component, finding a way to manufacture it, so that it weighs much less without giving up any of its necessary strength.”

To read more of Costabile’s essay — or to read ME magazine articles and watch video clips honoring the five Emerging Technology Award winners — visit 2018 emerging technology awards.