New developments in Technology & Innovation

person, which enables truly individual treatment for each and every patient.

6G could accelerate this type of care, and it can be applied to many instances. For example, wearable devices could be used to monitor the vital parameters for both the healthy and the sick. 6G could allow in-body devices to communicate with wearables outside, which in turn can securely transport the data to the healthcare providers as needed.

A more sustainable world

Finally, 6G has the potential to accelerate our transition to net zero. This technology can take us to a greener world in several ways; the starting point is by making the network itself more sustainable.

Ocanuse mobile phones to join a meeting thou sands of miles away at the touch of a button. So when the industry sets out to invent the next generation of mobile connectivity, we must not only address the emerging needs that current technology might not meet but also envision entirely new opportunities, services and industries. More importantly, we must envision how we’ll make this technology a real force for good in the world.

However, we cannot achieve this alone. Collaboration will be instrumental, and companies are keen to play their parts. One of the ways Intel is doing this is through participation in the EU 6G flagship research project Hexa-X — a broad, collaborative initiative to frame the 6G research agenda. Funded by the European Commission, this project will set the stage to make 6G a reality by 2030.

With 6G, we can expect to see the convergence of communications, computing and artificial intelligence (AI). Critically Intel’s technology will allow for computing and AI to be natively integrated into the 6G system instead of just running as an application on top of network infrastructure. Users will be able to access almost infinite compute power and AI/ML resources through Intel’s Compute-as-a-Service (CaaS) and AI-as-a-Service (AIaaS) interfaces.

A healthier world

Ageing populations, increasing risk of extreme weather injuries and the potential for further pandemics are making remote and accessible healthcare more vital than ever.

Today, medicine typically follows a onesize-fits-all approach to disease treatment and prevention strategies. In contrast, precision healthcare considers the individual variability in the genes, environment and lifestyle of each

Wearable, remote technology also could help those with vision impairments to navigate the world. For example, wearables equipped with sensors could be leveraged to infer and identify objects, street furniture and other possible hazards so that users can navigate their surroundings independently.

Finally, the convergence of communications, computing and AI has the potential to support processing images and diagnosing patients. For example, AI that follows the artificial intelligence as a service (AIaaS) concept could process a picture of a patient’s skin and instantly identify whether there is a suspicious pattern relating to skin cancer. While this wouldn’t replace doctors, it certainly could create new efficiencies.

A more collaborative world

With the potential to achieve speeds over 1,000 times faster than 5G networks, this new near-instant wireless technology can take digital collaboration to new heights.

Through 6G-enabled mixed reality and holographic telepresence, silos could be shattered across remote office locations, teleconsultations and educational e-learning environments. The interactions of tomorrow could even include haptic connections — communication involving touch as well as sight and sound.

Admittedly, such telepresence meetings would require tremendous data bandwidth. They also would need considerable compute and AI power to record, transmit and reconstruct corresponding holographic images of colleagues. But meetings that were once confined to sci-fi films could become the reality of every office.

Underpinned by 6G, these digital replicas could allow us to perfectly optimise traffic flow, build houses capable of withstanding predicted extreme weather events and drive seamless public transport operations.

Admittedly, networks such as 6G are tremendously difficult to parameterise and operate optimally. This is because the environment, the needs and the conditions of the network are always changing. To make it more energyefficient — and therefore more sustainable — natively integrated AI technology can be deployed to constantly observe it and adapt its parameterisation. This means the 6G network can enhance user performance without compromising sustainability.

Outside the network, this technology can also play an important role in protecting and monitoring the environment. 6G could allow us to deploy bio-friendly energy-harvesting sensors anywhere with cost-effective connectivity, providing invaluable near-real-time monitoring of key environmental statuses. This could involve observing changing weather patterns or animal migrations.

A global telemetry system could be used to create early warning systems for natural disasters, flooding or landslides. It also could improve surveillance and monitoring of ecosystems and endangered species to protect them from threats such as illegal logging and poaching.

Use of these sensors could be combined with digital twins to create more sustainable food production practices. The health, needs and ailments of crops and livestock could be monitored and addressed in real time. And by adding AI to the mix, nutrients and minerals could be added to ensure that yields stay healthy yet sustainable — autonomously.

The road ahead

Our research with Hexa-X is not just about changing the world. We hope it can change the world for the better.

Intel’ solutions will be natively integrated into the 6G system instead of running as applications on top of the network infrastructure, converging communications, computing and AI.

Users will be able to access almost infinite compute power and help break down the silos between human, physical and digital existences. Through 6G, we can build a more hybrid, sustainable, collaborative and healthier world.

Smart technology enables odour mitigation at Paris WtE plant

Awasteto energy (WtE) plant in northern Paris, known as the ‘L'étoile Verte’ or ‘Green Star’ waste recovery facility, which was originally built in an industrial area, is now surrounded by residential development. This has presented a number of challenges; not least of which is odour. The company ELLONA has therefore been contracted to establish a smart continuous odour and gas monitoring network, so that the sources of odour can be identified, and improvement measures can be underpinned by scientific data.

“The ELLONA monitoring network was established for a number of reasons,” says Claire Bara, Syctom Director of Urban Ecology and Environmental Regulation. “Firstly, it was clear that we would need continuous monitoring to be able to identify odour events. Secondly, air quality monitoring alone would be insufficient because of the complexity involved with odour detection and perception. Thirdly, the identification of peaks would enable us to correlate odours with specific processes and locations within the plant. So, by identifying the main sources of odour, we would be able to implement improvements that would also be monitored by the ELLONA network.

“Classical modelling tools would not be able to accommodate the complexities of the urban environment, so one of the main aims of the tool was to be able to identify every odour source – both on-site and in the surrounding neighbourhood,” Claire explains.

Importantly, ELLONA worked in partnership with the high-performance computing and modelling company NUMTECH to model the complex air flows that take place in the plant and in the surrounding urban environment.

Each of the nineteen ELLONA monitors (WT1) at Green Star features a comprehensive array of sensors measuring temperature, humidity, pressure, hydrogen sulphide, ammonia and VOCs. Other important variables are wind speed and direction, which have obvious effects on odours.

The WT1 units store measurements internally, but the data are also transferred to the Cloud every 10 seconds for processing. Data from the physical sensors and from the virtual sensors (created from the physical sensors’ data and mathematical models) provide information on air quality, odour identity, intensity and duration. The measurements and the derived odour information are provided in real-time to Syctom via a dedicated website, which also provides the ability to view historical data.

Looking forward, odour nuisance will be reduced further by implementing and assessing mitigation measures. The constituents of household waste may change, but with the monitoring system in place, Syctom will be able to respond appropriately to any variations in odour generation.

For New Vehicles

Digitised

mechanical and environmental performance of recycled short glass-fibre reinforced PP compounds supports the transition to more sustainable vehicles.

Hexagon’s Manufacturing Intelligence division and Sumika Polymer Compounds Europe (SPC Europe), a leading manufacturer of thermoplastic compounds, have partnered to digitise the performance of new sustainable automotive-grade polypropylene (PP) compounds, enabling engineers to design components that are more recyclable and offer a lower carbon footprint for future vehicles.

Sumika Polymer Compounds’ short glassfibre polypropylene (GF-PP) THERMOFIL HP and recycled polypropylene (GF-rPP) THERMOFIL CIRCLE materials benefit from sustainable manufacturing and recycling processes and offer carmakers performance equivalent to incumbent engineering plastics, but with an up to 60% lower carbon footprint. A growing proportion of today’s PP components are recovered and recycled compared to polyamides (PA), of which up to 70% are utilised in waste-to-energy initiatives or finish up in landfill, but there remains substantial room for improvement. These new Sumika recycled

PP compounds are designed for the circular economy, contributing to plastic waste reduction at vehicle end-of-life.

Plastics can contribute up to 20% of the total weight of a car, and their application is escalating with the continuing replacement of metals. The automotive industry’s shift to eMobility has increased the need for lightweighting components to maximise the energy efficiency of vehicles and mitigate the considerable weight of battery packs, but their environmental performance throughout the lifecycle must also be considered by product development teams.

“Our THERMOFIL short glass-fibre reinforced polypropylene compounds offer equivalent performance to traditional engineering plastics while providing a much lower carbon footprint, which makes them highly suitable to meet design challenges that sustainable eMobility brings,” said Bruno Pendélio, marketing manager for SPC Europe. “Combining our efforts with Hexagon allows us to support the race towards carbon neutrality by further lightweighting our customers’ automotive components, reducing physical material testing and prototyping.”

Hexagon conducted a detailed and rigorous testing and physical validation programme with SPC Europe to produce highly accurate multi-scale behavioural models of its THERMOFIL® HP grades and THERMOFIL CIRCLE™ portfolio of recycled PP grades. Each material grade has a model that simulates the materials’ mechanical and environmental performance throughout a component’s lifecycle. The encrypted proprietary material models can be accessed by SPC Europe customers through Hexagon’s Digimat software. Digimat is interoperable with popular computer-aided engineering (CAE) software tools, such as MSC Nastran, Marc, and third-party software, empowering engineers to perform accurate analyses using established digital engineering workflows.