Moravian-Silesian Innovation Center Asks

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. POSITIV 4/2020 ǀ 49