BUSINESS
Moravian-Silesian Innovation Center Asks…
prof. Ing. Ivo Vondrák, CSc.
Governor of the Moravian-Silesian Region
What do you consider to be the key innovation of the last
decade and why?
The last ten years have been marked by dynamic
technological development in various fields and without
any doubt digitalization is their common denominator. Any
innovation should always help us to improve our life. With
regards to the difficult times that we all are going through
right now, I consider health the most important field.
And the approach to health care has drastically changed
in the last decade. Surgery is performed by laser or even
by a robot with the use of high-performance computing
systems; telemedicine is also on the rise. These are the key
innovations that have moved us forward the most.
Ing. Ladislav Glogar
Managing director of
Automotive Cluster c.a.
the
Moravian-Silesian
What do you consider to be the key innovation of the
last decade and why?
I consider the enormous development of social networks
on the basis of using the internet with smartphones to
be the key innovation. This innovation (a change that
has spread across the whole globe at breakneck speed)
provided us the possibility to be in continuous contact
prof. RNDr. Václav Snášel, CSc.
Rector of the VšB-TU
What do you consider to be the key innovation
of the last decade and why?
A few years ago, I read an interesting article in
which experts in the field of mathematics searched
for new things that were discovered in this field in
the last 100 years. They found five fundamental
discoveries. This is why it is not easy to list the
key innovations in the last decade. Generally, we
can mark the combination of materials research
and artificial intelligence as the key innovations.
For example, LED lighting brought us brand new
opportunities in energy saving and lifespan. The
most visible changes are in the space industry-the reusable launchers, which are able to land
vertically, give a totally new dimension to space
research. Space research, together with industry,
influences us more than we usually think. The maps
in the mobile phones and navigations--we basically
cannot live without them-work only on the basis of
signals from satellites.
What innovations do you think that will influence
people’s lives the most in the upcoming decade?
We are slowly moving from the need to save something,
whether it is money or time, towards social needs, such
as the protection of the environment. In the next ten
years, the hydrogen economy will be on the rise and a
greater emphasis will be laid on a connection with nature
and its processes. I see the future, for example, in a more
intensive use of circular economy, net production and
mobility. Undoubtedly, our life will interact more with
artificial intelligence, but I still see it as a supplement for
making the things we do easier, not as a predominance.
Modern technology and innovations will help us to
return to basic values and respect for nature and its
resources in the end.
with the events in the world. It has a very positive
aspect, but also a more negative aspect, as it is related
to the amount of data and information that need to be
distinguished.
What innovations do you think that will influence
peoples’ lives the most in the upcoming decade?
New technology in the medical field (robotics,
miniaturization, remote monitoring, 3D printing,
enhanced reality, etc.); digitization and intelligent systems
in all spheres of human life.
What innovations do you think will influence people’s
lives the most in the upcoming decade?
The world around us is changing totally inconspicuously.
The machines in the books from Jules Verne were full of
clocks, buttons and valves. Gear shifting with a double
clutch, choke and lately also gear selectors gradually
disappeared. Autonomous steering without the driver’s
intervention is already a reality. Car propulsion will change
in the future. Electromobility is sometimes mistakenly
connected to batteries. The electricity in a vehicle can be
obtained from hydrogen through direct transformation to
electric energy. When comparing space modules from
companies like Boeing and SpaceX, we can see that Boeing
still believes in a large amount of control devices, contrary
to SpaceX. In the upcoming decade, artificial intelligence
will gain more ground, in a way that will lead to the easier
control of the devices that surround us. Energy issues will
gain more importance. The biggest challenge is energy
storage, the search for a supercapacitor. The method of
gene cutting, called CRISPR/Cas9, brings us brand new
possibilities of genetic manipulation. This method is used
in lung cancer treatment. It can prospectively be used
in the treatment of many human diseases. The future is
therefore in environmentally-friendly technologies.
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