McKinsey Technology Trends Outlook 2023

The McKinsey Technology Trends Outlook 2023 is available for download at no charge. Visit https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/mckinsey-digital/our-insights/the-top-trends-in-tech to download your copy.

Reading the McKinsey report is so worth your time, for so many reasons. But because the overarching theme of the Desulfurization Blog (www.desulf.blogspot.com ) is to help you enhance your online research effectiveness, I want to focus on the authors’ description of the research methodology they used to prepare the report.

You might find it a useful design for your own investigations.

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McKinsey Technology Trends Outlook 2023
Research methodology
To assess the development of each technology trend, our team collected data on five tangible measures of activity: search engine queries, news publications, patents, research publications, and investment. For each measure, we used a defined set of data sources to find occurrences of keywords associated with each of the 15 trends, screened those occurrences for valid mentions of activity, and indexed the resulting numbers of mentions on a 0–1 scoring scale that is relative to the trends studied. The innovation score combines the patents and research scores; the interest score combines the news and search scores. (While we recognize that an interest score can be inflated by deliberate efforts to stimulate news and search activity, we believe that each score fairly reflects the extent of discussion and debate about a given trend.) Investment measures the flows of funding from the capital markets into companies linked with the trend. Data sources for the scores include the following:
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Patents. Data on patent filings are sourced from Google Patents.
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Research. Data on research publications are sourced from the Lens (www.lens.org ).
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News. Data on news publications are sourced from Factiva.
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Searches. Data on search engine queries are sourced from Google Trends.
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Investment. Data on private-market and public-market capital raises are sourced from PitchBook.
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Talent demand. Number of job postings is sourced from McKinsey’s proprietary Organizational Data Platform, which stores licensed, de-identified data on professional profiles and job postings. Data is drawn primarily from English-speaking countries.

In addition, we updated the selection and definition of trends from last year’s study to reflect the evolution of technology trends:
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The generative-AI trend was added since last year’s study.
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We adjusted the definitions of electrification and renewables (previously called future of clean energy) and climate technologies beyond electrification and renewables (previously called future of sustainable consumption).
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Data sources were updated. This year, we included only closed deals in PitchBook
data, which revised downward the investment numbers for 2018–22. For future of
space technologies investments, we used research from McKinsey’s Aerospace &
Defense Practice.
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SUGGESTION: Consider adapting the McKinsey research methodology to enhance your particular research objectives. And, of course, you might want to contact McKinsey directly to help with that research.

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Jean Steinhardt served as Librarian, Aramco Americas (https://americas.aramco.com/ ), Engineering Division, for 13 years. He now heads Jean Steinhardt Consulting LLC, producing the same high quality research that he performed for Aramco.

Follow Jean’s blog at: http://desulf.blogspot.com/ for continuing tips on effective online research
Email Jean at jstoneheart@gmail.com with questions on research, training, or anything else

Conference alert-Baker Institute Annual Energy Summit 2023

Houston is arguably the single most influential geographic center for the business of oil & gas. So when an institution like Rice University's Baker Institute explores the "evolving energy mix" at its annual energy summit, it might be worth the time to take a listen.

And, get this ... it's FREE!

Here are details, from an email that landed in my inbox ...

TIP: subscribe to Baker Institute’s alerts (https://riceconnect.rice.edu/baker/subscribe ).

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Annual Energy Summit — The Evolving Energy Paradigm
Co-hosted for the seventh consecutive year by the Baker Institute Center for Energy Studies and Baker Botts L.L.P., the 2023 Annual Energy Summit will focus on the evolving energy mix and address the challenges and opportunities for countries and companies worldwide as they work to manage energy transitions — while also ensuring energy security, commercial and financial viability of new innovations at scale, and meaningful reduction of CO2 emissions.
The two-day conference will feature international and domestic perspectives through keynote addresses and discussions with energy experts in industry, government, and academia.
Day 1
Wednesday, October 4, 2023
9:00 am – 2:30 pm
Welcome Remarks
Keynote Address — A Global Energy Outlook
Fireside Chat — Energy Perspective: Europe
Panel — Achieving Energy Security and Sustainability
Fireside Chat — Energy Perspective: Latin America
Fireside Chat — Energy Perspective: Middle East
Panel — Natural Gas and the Future of Energy
Keynote — Sustainability is Multifaceted
Please click here for a more detailed agenda for Day 1.
Day 2
Thursday, October 5, 2023
8:30 am – 2:45 pm
Keynote — New Energy, Innovation and Development
Panel — Levers of Policy and Finance
Keynote — Emerging Carbon Markets
Keynote — U.S. Energy Policy
Fireside Chat — Resource Development: The Experience in British Columbia
Fireside Chat — The Evolving Role of Solar Power
Panel — The Future of Fuels for Mobility
Fireside Chat — Energy and U.S. Foreign Policy
Closing Remarks
Please click here for a more detailed agenda for Day 2.
This event is free, but registration is required. Click below to attend this event either in person or virtually via Zoom.
               
ATTEND IN PERSON

ATTEND VIA ZOOM

For registration assistance, contact us at 713-348-2183 or bipprsvp@rice.edu.

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Google® Better!
Jean Steinhardt served as Librarian, Aramco Americas (https://americas.aramco.com/ ), Engineering Division, for 13 years. He now heads Jean Steinhardt Consulting LLC, producing the same high quality research that he performed for Aramco.

Follow Jean’s blog at: http://desulf.blogspot.com/ for continuing tips on effective online research
Email Jean at jstoneheart@gmail.com with questions on research, training, or anything els

Breakthrough Alert: MIT Technology Review 35 Innovators Under 35

“In finance, other people’s money, or OPM, is a slang term that refers to financial leverage” – Strategic CFO

MIT’s 35 Innovators Under 35 list for 2023 has hit the digital shelves. This is exciting news for anyone interested in discovering useful new technologies as they emerge from the fevered brains of their creators.

MIT’s free newsletter The Download offers a sneak preview of the list. For full access, a subscription to the MIT Technology Review is well worth the price.

Using OPM – Other People’s Money – is a way to achieve financial goals that might be difficult to achieve using one’s own resources. As long as we are dealing in good faith, and are successful, everybody wins. As Dolly Parton famously sang, “Ain’t nothing dirty going on.”

By the same token, we can use OPR – Other People’s Research – to achieve goals we could not reach on our own. As long as we don’t claim that we performed the research, and provide proper attribution, everybody wins.

In that spirit, here is a link to The Download’s preview of the list …

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MIT Technology Review 35 Innovators Under 35
Source:
https://www.technologyreview.com/supertopic/2023-mit-technology-reviews-innovators-under-35/?truid=36d06cee295f2d97fb732a7572a23410&utm_source=the_download&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=the_download.unpaid.engagement&utm_term=&utm_content=09-12-2023&mc_cid=f8a4a36418&mc_eid=76363cef0a
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The Spark, another free MIT newsletter, highlights a few of the innovators on the 2023 list …

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The Spark
By Casey Crownhart • 09.13.23
Hello hello, welcome back to The Spark!
A lot of bright minds are working on solutions to climate change. You can find some of them in the latest edition of our annual 35 Innovators Under 35 list, which was just published yesterday.
We’ve highlighted a lot of innovators over the years, usually before they become household names. Sergey Brin of Google was on the list in 2002. JB Straubel was honored in 2008 when he was CTO of Tesla. That year also saw Andrew Ng make the list (he’s one of the biggest names in AI right now, and he came back this year to write an intro essay, which I highly recommend.)
As I looked through the folks who made the list in the climate and energy category in 2023, I noticed a few trends. In particular, there was a concentration in two areas I think a lot about: batteries and fuels. So let’s take a closer look at a few of this year’s innovators and consider what their work could mean for the future of climate action.
Charging up
As you probably know if you’re a frequent reader here, I see batteries as one of the most crucial pieces of technology in the fight to address climate change. Not only are powerful, long-lasting batteries crucial to electrifying vehicles and other forms of transportation, but they are expected to play a growing role on the grid, storing energy from intermittent renewable sources like wind and solar for when it’s most needed.
Batteries have come a long way in recent years, and prices have plummeted. (They just fell to under $100 per kilowatt-hour for the first time in two years, continuing a downward trend that’s lasted for a decade.)
However, there’s huge potential for more progress, especially in battery materials. And two innovators on this year’s list are looking to new materials to help make batteries more useful in more ways.
Tongchao Liu of Argonne National Lab is working on making batteries last longer.
Over time, batteries tend to wear out as they charge and discharge. Liu developed a diagnostic system to determine where that failure takes place and identified part of the battery called the cathode as the major culprit. He and his team then came up with an alternative cathode material based on perovskites. (You may have heard of perovskites in the context of solar cells.) In lab tests, battery lifetimes tripled with the new material.
David Mackanic of Anthro Energy is developing bendy batteries, which could power things like wearable devices as well as EVs.
One of the most crucial parts of a battery is the electrolyte, the material that charge moves through in a cell. Many batteries, including the lithium-ion cells that power EVs and laptops today, use a flammable liquid as an electrolyte. But Mackanic and his team invented a flexible polymer electrolyte, which can bend without compromising battery performance.
It’s not easy to bring new battery inventions to the market, and there’s a long path ahead for both of these projects, but I’ll definitely be watching to see how they turn out.
Fueling up
Another trend I noticed among the innovators this year was a focus on fuels. Like batteries, fuels store energy, but they tend to pack more energy into a smaller space than many batteries can, making them easier to transport. So fuels could be the best solution on the table for industries like aviation and shipping.
Peter Godart of Found Energy has a vision of using aluminum as a fuel. He developed a process to pull apart the metal with water, producing both heat and hydrogen that can be used as energy sources. His startup’s initial plans are to work with aluminum producers to help them use scrap to partially power aluminum recycling.
Stafford Sheehan of Air Company developed a process to convert carbon dioxide into alcohol, which can then be used to make jet fuel. The company has a deal with the US military and hopes to sell its fuel more widely in the next few years.
Young Suk Jo of Amogy wants to power ships using ammonia. The chemical is typically used in fertilizer, but it could also be used as a handy way to store hydrogen, a leading clean fuel. Jo and Amogy invented a reactor that can pull ammonia apart into nitrogen and hydrogen that can be used onboard vehicles. The company has tested its system in a drone, a tractor, and a semi-truck and plans to power a tugboat using ammonia later this year.
You might remember Young Suk Jo from an earlier edition of the newsletter—I spoke with him in June, when I visited Amogy’s headquarters in Brooklyn. I also wrote a longer profile of him that was just published yesterday, which you can read here.
A lot of innovators are working on batteries and fuels, but even these fields are a small piece of climate action overall. There are also folks on the list who are tackling demand response on the grid, satellites for climate monitoring, and materials for carbon capture, not to mention all the people in the biotechnology, AI, robotics, and computing categories. Be sure to check out the full list of 35 Innovators Under 35 to get all the details.
Thermal battery startup Antora just flipped on its first commercial-scale system. The company’s technology could help power industrial plants that require high heat and constant power. (Bloomberg)
There’s lots of big news in steel this week. H2 Green Steel raised $1.6 billion in equity to help build its planned green steel plant in Sweden. (Canary Media) And Boston Metal, a startup working to electrify production of one of the world’s most used and most polluting materials, raised a $262 million funding round. (Bloomberg)
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Google® Better!
Jean Steinhardt served as Librarian, Aramco Americas (https://americas.aramco.com/ ), Engineering Division, for 13 years. He now heads Jean Steinhardt Consulting LLC, producing the same high quality research that he performed for Aramco.

Follow Jean’s blog at: http://desulf.blogspot.com/ for continuing tips on effective online research
Email Jean at jstoneheart@gmail.com with questions on research, training, or anything else