[brobak]

MIT issues call to arms on energy
http://news.com.com/MIT+issues+call+to+arms+on+energy/2100-1008_3-6068262.html?tag=nefd.top

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'C')AMBRIDGE, Mass.--The Massachusetts Institute of Technology issued a preliminary report on Wednesday that calls for technology development and government policies to avert a "perfect storm" forming around energy.

MIT's Energy Research Council report (click here for PDF) was the result of a year-long study. It concluded that industrialized nations need to accelerate a switch to cleaner and more efficient sources of fuel, a transition that could take 50 years.

During a presentation at the university on Wednesday, MIT President Susan Hockfield said that addressing the world's energy problems "is one of the most urgent challenges of our time."

The university intends to create a permanent energy laboratory or center within five years, which it will do over several phases. Its report calls for the creation of several multidisciplinary programs, each requiring up to several million dollars in funding per year.

Hockfield said that interest in energy is higher than it has been in a generation, and she expects that interest to remain high in the coming years.

She said a combination of rising energy demand around the world, security issues related to energy, and environmental problems--notably global warming and climate change--from pollution "are not going away."

"I think the energy challenge is far more pressing than the energy challenge that presented itself 20 years ago," Hockfield said.

In her inaugural university address last May, Hockfield called for the creation of the 16-member Energy Research Council, which involves all of MIT's schools.

Council co-chair Ernest Moniz, from MIT's physics and engineering systems divisions, said that the worldwide energy picture is very complex and resists a single solution.

Instead, during a presentation on Wednesday, he called for research in a broad range of topics, including nanomaterials to improve the conductivity of fuel cell catalysts as well as improvements in renewable energy and energy storage.

"There is no silver bullet," said Moniz. "All of this is really about options, technologies and policies to provide to the marketplace to respond."

Moniz said the council will involve faculty from several different disciplines and will work with both government and industry partners.

[Specop_007]

I'm not one to fall into the camp of "Science will save us" but if anybody can bang out a solution based on science, for damn sure bet its gonna be those MIT boys.

[XOVERX]

Goodness, MIT won't even be geared up for another 5 years.

Too little, too late? Or better late than never?

[grabby]

President Susan Hockfield:

No soup for you.
50 years is too late.
30 years is too late
20 years is too late..

And, by the way, can you tell us what the problem is exactly? You didn't seem to clearly elucidate it, I'm just interested.

[Novus]

Nobody can exactly state the problem or atleast not publicly. No doubt this is a call to fight the peak oil crisis. To openly state the problem is to discuss the Malthusian delema that is at its heart. The human population has overshot the long term carrying capacity of the planet. This overshoot has been sustained and subsidized by cheap and abundent oil. Unless we find another power source to replace oil the surpluss human population will die off. This Idea is too dangerous to let fly on the public and will be kept secret until the very end.

The only thing that separates the current calm of civilization from a shitstorm breaking out tomorrow is Ignorance.

[AirlinePilot]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Novus', 'T')he only thing that separates the current calm of civilization from a shitstorm breaking out tomorrow is Ignorance.

[DigitalCubano]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Specop_007', 'I')'m not one to fall into the camp of "Science will save us" but if anybody can bang out a solution based on science, for damn sure bet its gonna be those MIT boys.

[kochevnik]

Oh, yay.

It took them A YEAR to write a report that they could have compiled in one evening spent here at PO.com.

And in 5 YEARS they're going to put together yet another 'institute' to get right into studying the problem. Higher education institutions in the USA are nothing more than glorified brothels, pimping their supposed education in the quest of yet one more round of funding.

25, 30, 35 YEARS AGO, as a boy I watched the world crumble as high oil prices, manipulated for political reasons, crushed the global financial system. During that time, the rats flooded out of the woodwork, CONVINCED that they, and they alone had THE ONE great idea that would solve all of our energy problems forever.

Well, guess what ?

They didn't come up with a single fucking viable alternative to oil.

And now it's 3 decades later, and DC and his 'edukated' friends are gonna pull our collective asses out of the fire, because they are just so goddamn smart after years of kissing ass and killing brain cells in the halls of academia.

Well, you excuse me if I don't get a tingly feeling all over - because I don't think I'll be in the front of the line to get boned all over again.

In 5 years, (assuming the fat lady has not, in fact already left the stage) you better be well on the way to food self-sufficiency, with crops in the field, your debts paid off and located well away from wonderful metro areas like Boston, or you are going to be one of the sorriest MF's on this planet.

[SoothSayer]

Don't make me laugh. Academics will not save us.

As an example, just look at the history and (lack of) future of hydrogen fusion. The academics have been working on fusion since about 1954 .... that's over FIFTY effing years. Nothing to show for it ... and they say they need ANOTHER 50 years. Fusion has just been an alternative to the dole for unemployable physicists. As an ex-physicist myself I really, really do think that the fusion crowd should be totally ashamed of themselves.

And why should we expect any more from MIT or similar organisations with regard to PO?

I am loosely involved with a venture capital organisation ... and it common knowledge there that university spinout ventures are much less successful than other ventures. The academics are very clever .. but often fail miserably implementing anything.

(IMHO they also seem a bit averse to the 24/7 hard work required in the high pressure startup environment needed to actually get anything done. Holidays, days-off, conferences, other interesting projects always seem to get in the way of the REAL work)

Nope, we need to give the task to profit making corporations ... and not the established lazy, greedy ones which are close to goverment.

As PO sets in, I sincerely hope that many eco energy startups will be set up by talented, hard working, entrepreneurial engineers with vision ...

[MacG]

Time to revisit one of my favourites. The concluding remark in Post-Soviet Lessons for a Post-American century

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Dmitry Orlov', 'A')mericans are not yet willing to simply succumb to circumstance. Because many of them lack a good understanding of their national predicament, their efforts to mitigate it may turn out to be in vain, but they are virtually guaranteed to make a valiant effort, for “this is, after all, America.”

[JustinFrankl]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('SoothSayer', '(')IMHO they also seem a bit averse to the 24/7 hard work required in the high pressure startup environment needed to actually get anything done. Holidays, days-off, conferences, other interesting projects always seem to get in the way of the REAL work)

[JustinFrankl]

The people at MIT are indeed highly intelligent, but MIT and most of academia are highly specialized and very segmented. It is enough of an endeavor to keep up with advancements in just one's chosen field that things happening outside your field may as well be happening on another planet.

I'm reminded of some people I knew at MIT a few years ago, one a doctoral candidate in aerospace, one in the master's program in operations research. The aerospace guy gave some specifications to be "optimized" to the OR guy for a specific wing design. The OR guy did an analysis and presented the results which said among other things that the wing's optimum lift coefficient should be negative, completely missing the fact that because of this the "optimum" design would never achieve flight.

[Ludi]

If anyone can get (and spend) a TON of money for wanking off, it's the guys at MIT.

Enjoy the wankfest!

[SoothSayer]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('JustinFrankl', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('SoothSayer', '(')IMHO they also seem a bit averse to the 24/7 hard work required in the high pressure startup environment needed to actually get anything done. Holidays, days-off, conferences, other interesting projects always seem to get in the way of the REAL work)

[Bobbotov]

This is BS. To think that one of the leading schools for science is just waking up to the energy crisis now after a good thirty year heads up means only one thing. It is telling its graduates - follow the money and get in on the juicy grants and funding that will be made available to do your work. That's the only thing that motivates these people.

[MacG]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('SoothSayer', '(')As I said, I am a Physicist, and also an Engineer with commercial & managerial experience in driven high tech companies so hopefully I am speaking with at least a bit of valid background)

[SoothSayer]

>> Noone is perfect - but a team.

Perfectly correct.

I didn't mention it earlier, but an effective, focussed, driven, highly capable team is essential.

This makes recruitment of staff for startups very difficult ... the applicant needs high IQ, excellent skills, extensive experience, much drive, stamina etc which can lead to arrogance.

However they also need to be able to deactivate/suspend their arrogance so that they can work in a multi-skill team.

Finding people with ALL these attributes WHEN you need them is VERY VERY difficult.

University academics are usually miles away from the required profile.

It becomes almost impossible to find suitable "hires" if you are short of cash, so I usually offered 2 -5 times a "typical" salary for the very rare suitable candidates. (They had to sign away their souls to the company for 2 - 5 years 'tho!)

[Specop_007]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Bobbotov', 'T')his is BS. To think that one of the leading schools for science is just waking up to the energy crisis now after a good thirty year heads up means only one thing. It is telling its graduates - follow the money and get in on the juicy grants and funding that will be made available to do your work. That's the only thing that motivates these people.

[Specop_007]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('SoothSayer', '[')b]>> Noone is perfect - but a team.

Perfectly correct.

I didn't mention it earlier, but an effective, focussed, driven, highly capable team is essential.

This makes recruitment of staff for startups very difficult ... the applicant needs high IQ, excellent skills, extensive experience, much drive, stamina etc which can lead to arrogance.

However they also need to be able to deactivate/suspend their arrogance so that they can work in a multi-skill team.

Finding people with ALL these attributes WHEN you need them is VERY VERY difficult.

University academics are usually miles away from the required profile.

It becomes almost impossible to find suitable "hires" if you are short of cash, so I usually offered 2 -5 times a "typical" salary for the very rare suitable candidates. (They had to sign away their souls to the company for 2 - 5 years 'tho!)