Editorial Meats and Machines

STEVENGISLAM |

Meat and Machines

Through the swelter and heat of the glorious weather, we bring this summer’s edition of Industry Europe. As ever, it comes packed with cross-sector news, features, and interviews, this time with a special focus on Consumer Goods and Healthcare.

Synthetic Meats – Are they the future?

The first focus comes courtesy of our star reporter Ash Jones, and it looks at the rise of synthetic meats and asks the question; are they the future?

While the concept of alternative meats has been around for a long time, it wasn’t until 2013 when the first-ever lab-grown meat was served up at a conference in London at a cost of $300,000.

The industry has come a long way since then, recently being valued at around $500 million by Polaris Market Research.

The decline in animal-based meat products happens to come at a time when more and more people are switching to vegetarianism or veganism, or simply cutting down on meat in their diet.

Considering that just 20 years ago, meat was a staple on the plates of most households, it can truly be described as a revolution in the food industry, caused by increased awareness of the environmental impact that the meat sector has. Deforestation, methane, carbon emissions, not to mention animal welfare – anyone who has seen one of those slaughterhouse videos online will tell you how stomach churning that part is.

Meat alternatives are almost certain to grow in popularity – and in labs. Nonetheless, only time will tell whether or not it will take over from the traditional meat industry. Read the full story on page 6

Four ways AI and Tech are transforming Healthcare

AI and tech are increasingly being adopted by a sector that millions of people place their trust in every single day – healthcare. From bespoke medical implants to wearable tech, to cancer treatment, to drug discovery, the applications for artificial intelligence in the sector are growing fast. In our next focus feature, I took a look at four of the main developments that AI and technology has brought to the healthcare sector over the past few months and years.

One of these areas is drug discovery, something which traditionally took years, even decades, and with a price tag running into the billions, using AI to discover new drugs has sped the process up considerably. It has also democratised the sector, which was previously only accessible to major pharmaceutical companies because of the sheer cost involved.

Another area I take a look at is robotics, in particular in surgical settings. A number of surgeons have taken to using robots to do the work in the operating theatre because they are more precise than a human could ever be. By combining this precision with the surgeon’s know-how, many are expecting robotic surgeons to be a staple of hospitals before long.

AI is also being used for disease detection, in particular, cancer, largely because of its accuracy in predicting tumour growth, detecting breast cancer during screening, cutting hospital error rates and reducing the waiting time for results.

Last but not least, AI and robotics have the potential to improve the quality of life for millions of people, especially those with debilitating diseases or physical health problems. Read the full story on page 8

“Europe has not been smart”

Back in April, as the world was still reeling from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, I spoke to Prof. Marco Taisch of the Politecnico di Milano, where he teaches Advanced and Sustainable Manufacturing Systems, and Operations Management to get his take on how the war will impact Europe, China and beyond.

By now, we have all seen our energy bills rise, not to mention the cost of food in the supermarkets. This is, however, just the tip of the iceberg.

According to Taisch, we all got a little bit too used to the cost benefits that supply chains based on lean principles brought with them, and those halcyon days of cheap products may be coming to an end.

This doesn’t have to be a bad thing necessarily. A younger, more environmentally aware generation of consumers is starting to enter the workforce across the world, and it’s one that values sustainability over low prices.

Taisch argues that the war in Ukraine has already begun accelerating the move towards circular economies and, more crucially, digitalisation, which he believes is critical for the green transition. Read the full story on page 10

The healthcare tech that can help the energy transition

There is currently a huge gap in the market for real-time data processing and it could open new avenues to deal with sustainability issues that would typically go under the radar.

In our final main focus, Ash Jones spoke to Mika Tienhaara, the CEO of Finnish tech firm Rocsole, who believes that tomography – the technology used in healthcare for imaging – can help businesses reach net-zero.

Repurposing tomography to the factory floor can bring a wealth of sustainability benefits to manufacturers, especially in the areas of optimisation and energy savings. By filling that gap in the market for data processing, Tienhaara believes that it can be used to monitor and fix “harsh and dirty” conditions within the sector. The process can be especially useful in hardto-abate industries like fossil fuels, which are crying out for optimisation. Read the full story on page 12

Cyberselves’ Animus: The ‘teleportation’ tech that may spark a robotics revolution

And if all that isn’t enough for you, in the magazine’s Technology & Innovation section, you’ll find a bonus interview, which (if I do say so myself) is probably one of the most interesting interviews I’ve conducted in a long time.

UK-based robotics company Cyberselves don’t make robots, putting them in a unique positon in the sector. What they have made, however, is Animus – an Operating System that can work with any robot, on any platform, in any programming language.

I spoke to CEO Daniel Camilleri and COO Michael Szollosy, co-founders of Cyberselves about Animus and its myriad applications.

The tech can be used to “teleport” users into a robot’s body on the other side of the world, giving them control over the machine, allowing them to feel physically present and have control over its movements, which as well as having some incredible applications for industry, especially in dangerous environments, throws up some pretty brain-stretching questions with it. Read the full story on page 64