Engineers of Tomorrow Will Learn Architecture, Anthropology, Sociology
Sitting in his office in the German university town of Chemnitz, Arved Huebler often thinks of the poor in rural India. Huebler is a physicist, a professor at the Chemnitz University of Technology and director of the Institute for Print and Media Technology in the university. He runs an exchange programme with Manipal University and has a lab there, but that isn't why he has Indian villages on his mind. Huebler is developing a product that will be useful for the poor, those who do not have electricity connections or cannot afford them. Called printed electronics, it is set to pervade a substantial part of our lives soon.
Huebler's research team is trying to print solar cells on paper, just the way we have printed this newspaper for you. Actually, when fully developed, it won't be nearly as difficult or expensive as a newspaper to print. Huebler imagines a future where thousands of mom-and-pop shops in India install printers that his team has developed, printing solar cells on demand that can be installed at home for instant electricity. "Our vision of the future is not about making silicon-based solar cells in clean rooms," says Huebler, "but to have them everywhere at low prices." It is simple, cheap, exquisitely sophisticated, and intensely disruptive.
Printed electronics will be big business in future. According to IDtechEx, a market research firm, the market for printed and flexible electronics will increase from $9.46 billion last year to $63.28 billion in 2022. Future products will include omnipresent RFID tags, intelligent packaging, labels that light up to tell you a story on touch, interactive toys and books, clothes that monitor your health, and hundreds of other things that make life easier.
Crossing boundaries
Printed electronics technology, however, is built on ideas so sophisticated that only an intellectual army can develop them in a reasonable time. Huebler has a team of physicists, chemists, material scientists, electrical engineers,
Huebler's research team is trying to print solar cells on paper, just the way we have printed this newspaper for you. Actually, when fully developed, it won't be nearly as difficult or expensive as a newspaper to print. Huebler imagines a future where thousands of mom-and-pop shops in India install printers that his team has developed, printing solar cells on demand that can be installed at home for instant electricity. "Our vision of the future is not about making silicon-based solar cells in clean rooms," says Huebler, "but to have them everywhere at low prices." It is simple, cheap, exquisitely sophisticated, and intensely disruptive.
Printed electronics will be big business in future. According to IDtechEx, a market research firm, the market for printed and flexible electronics will increase from $9.46 billion last year to $63.28 billion in 2022. Future products will include omnipresent RFID tags, intelligent packaging, labels that light up to tell you a story on touch, interactive toys and books, clothes that monitor your health, and hundreds of other things that make life easier.
Crossing boundaries
Printed electronics technology, however, is built on ideas so sophisticated that only an intellectual army can develop them in a reasonable time. Huebler has a team of physicists, chemists, material scientists, electrical engineers,