Over the years, new challenges, needs, and opportunities have arisen to keep pace with the world’s technological advances.
Addressing climate change is among the most pressing and urgent challenges facing humanity in this century.
Climate change is undoubtedly one of the greatest threats to the survival of humanity. No nation is immune to its dangerous consequences, such as rising temperatures, greenhouse gas emissions, and waste, which severely affect ecosystems and primary activities such as agriculture and human health, among many other things.
In view of this situation, it’s imperative that we adopt urgent measures. To this end, sustainable development has become the way to prevent and combat climate change and its effects.
Some of the measures that have been taken in recent years include educating people to raise awareness on the subject, as well as strengthening the so-called “pillars” of sustainable development: the economy, society, and the environment, by searching for new green production and manufacturing models to achieve a production model based on sustainable manufacturing.
In order to strengthen these areas, Tecnológico de Monterrey has therefore created the Institute of Advanced Materials for Sustainable Manufacturing, an interdisciplinary space whose goal is to apply disruptive technologies, innovative processes, and state-of-the-art science to different productive industries.
Through scientific and technological research, this new Institute aims to develop new sustainable materials and innovative eco-friendly production processes with an interdisciplinary approach, i.e., integrating and applying technologies ranging from Nanotechnology and Biotechnology to Cognitive Sciences and Disruptive Information Technologies.
The Institute of Advanced Materials for Sustainable Manufacturing is divided into four multidisciplinary research units, made up of experts in different fields working together on disruptive projects. These units are: 1) Competitive Intelligence and Public Policies for Sustainable Manufacturing, 2) Accelerated Materials Development, 3) Manufacturing Processes for Advanced Materials, and 4) Enabling Technologies for the Development of Advanced Materials.
Each unit focuses on a key topic, together sharing Tecnológico de Monterrey’s 2025 vision of promoting research as a source of opportunities and innovative solutions for the economic, social, and environmental development of our country.
To that effect, the Enabling Technologies for the Development of Advanced Materials Unit for the Western Region, on Guadalajara Campus, seeks to develop technological platforms to discover, create, and develop materials and manufacturing processes in an accelerated manner through research into materials and their relationship to disruptive technologies with a specific focus on design, manufacturing, testing, and automation.
This is a strategy based on using science and transformation processes to develop advanced materials and apply these in conjunction with exponential technologies, as well as manufacturing with less traditional methods.
In today’s world, manufacturing a product using traditional manufacturing technology wastes 90% of raw materials, while using rapid prototyping technologies only wastes 4% of production materials. Achieving a reduction in losses from 90% to 4% reduces raw material costs, which means a reduction in waste.
Advanced materials offer several advantages, such as stiffness-to-weight ratio, better shock absorption, low thermal conductivity, and lower density. This has a direct impact on the energy costs that apply to industry, which can generate a sustainable impact when combined with artificial intelligence, robotics, and automation by reducing raw material waste, maximizing resource utilization, and developing new applications with less of a long-term negative impact on the environment.
In order to support both small producers and global industries, the Unit has set out to begin its research by incorporating some of the following technologies into its technological platforms: Artificial Intelligence; Metaheuristic Optimization; Augmented, Mixed, and Virtual Reality; Robotics, Digital Twins, Cyber-Physical Systems, and Intelligent Automation.
Made up of experts from the fields of automatic control, metamaterials, artificial intelligence, mechanisms, virtual reality, and computer vision, this Unit creates a space for all research on advanced materials and their relationship to disruptive technologies through scientific research and their application to agriculture, automotive, and biomedical areas.
Tackling climate change involves collaborative work between academia, the public sector, the private sector, and civil society. (Rita Quetziquel Fuentes Aguilar, leader of the Enabling Technologies for the Development of Advanced Materials Unit)
Kwa miaka mingi, changamoto mpya, mahitaji, na fursa zimetokea ili kushikilia mwendo wa maendeleo ya kiteknolojia ya ulimwengu. Kukabiliana na mabadiliko ya hali ya hewa ni moja ya changamoto muhimu zaidi na za haraka ambazo wanadamu wanakabiliwa nazo katika karne hii. Bila shaka, mabadiliko ya hali ya hewa ni mojawapo ya vitisho vikubwa zaidi kwa uhai wa wanadamu. Hakuna taifa ambalo halina kinga dhidi ya athari zake hatari, kama vile kuongezeka kwa joto, uzalishaji wa gesi za chafu, na taka, ambazo huathiri sana mifumo ya ikolojia na shughuli za msingi kama vile kilimo na afya ya binadamu, kati ya mambo mengine mengi. Kwa kuzingatia hali hii, ni muhimu kwamba tuchukue hatua za haraka. Kwa kusudi hili, maendeleo endelevu yamekuwa njia ya kuzuia na kupambana na mabadiliko ya hali ya hewa na athari zake. Baadhi ya hatua zilizochukuliwa katika miaka ya hivi karibuni ni pamoja na kuelimisha watu ili kuongeza ufahamu juu ya mada hii, na pia kuimarisha kile kinachoitwa nguzo za maendeleo endelevu: uchumi, jamii na mazingira, kwa kutafuta mifano mpya ya uzalishaji na utengenezaji wa kijani ili kufikia mtindo wa uzalishaji unaotegemea utengenezaji endelevu. Kwa hivyo, ili kuimarisha maeneo haya, Tecnológico de Monterrey imeanzisha Taasisi ya Vifaa vya Juu kwa Utengenezaji wa Uendelevu, nafasi ya interdisciplinary ambayo lengo lake ni kutumia teknolojia za kuvuruga, michakato ya ubunifu, na sayansi ya kisasa kwa viwanda tofauti vya uzalishaji. Kwa njia ya utafiti wa kisayansi na kiteknolojia, Taasisi hii mpya inakusudia kuendeleza vifaa vipya vya kudumu na michakato ya uzalishaji wa ubunifu wa mazingira na mbinu ya interdisciplinary, yaani, kuunganisha na kutumia teknolojia kuanzia Nanotechnology na Biotechnology hadi Sayansi ya Ujuzi na Teknolojia ya Habari ya Disruptive. Taasisi ya vifaa vya juu kwa ajili ya utengenezaji endelevu imegawanywa katika vitengo vinne vya utafiti wa taaluma mbalimbali, iliyoundwa na wataalamu katika nyanja tofauti wanaofanya kazi pamoja kwenye miradi ya kuvuruga. Vifaa hivi ni: 1) Ujasusi wa Ushindani na Sera za Umma kwa Utengenezaji wa Utekelezaji wa Utekelezaji; 2) Maendeleo ya Vifaa vya Kuongeza; 3) Utaratibu wa Utengenezaji wa Vifaa vya Juu; na 4) Teknolojia ya Kuwezesha Maendeleo ya Vifaa vya Juu. Kila kitengo kinazingatia mada muhimu, pamoja na kushiriki maono ya Tecnológico de Monterrey ya 2025 ya kukuza utafiti kama chanzo cha fursa na suluhisho la ubunifu kwa maendeleo ya kiuchumi, kijamii na mazingira ya nchi yetu. Kwa kusudi hilo, Kituo cha Teknolojia ya Kuwezesha Maendeleo ya Vifaa vya Juu kwa Mkoa wa Magharibi, katika Chuo cha Guadalajara, inatafuta kuendeleza majukwaa ya kiteknolojia ya kugundua, kuunda, na kuendeleza vifaa na michakato ya utengenezaji kwa njia ya kuharakisha kupitia utafiti wa vifaa na uhusiano wao na teknolojia za kuvuruga, na kuzingatia maalum juu ya kubuni, utengenezaji, upimaji na automatisering. Hii ni mkakati unaotegemea kutumia sayansi na michakato ya mabadiliko ya kutengeneza vifaa vya hali ya juu na kuzitumia pamoja na teknolojia za exponential, pamoja na utengenezaji na mbinu za kawaida. Katika ulimwengu wa leo, utengenezaji wa bidhaa kwa kutumia teknolojia ya utengenezaji wa jadi hutumia 90% ya malighafi, wakati kutumia teknolojia ya prototyping ya haraka hutumia 4% tu ya vifaa vya uzalishaji. Kupunguza hasara kutoka 90% hadi 4% hupunguza gharama za malighafi, ambayo inamaanisha kupunguzwa kwa taka. Vifaa vya hali ya juu hutoa faida kadhaa, kama vile uwiano wa ugumu kwa uzito, kunyonya vizuri mshtuko, conductivity ya chini ya joto, na wiani wa chini. Hii ina athari ya moja kwa moja kwa gharama za nishati zinazotumika kwa viwanda, ambazo zinaweza kuzalisha athari endelevu wakati zinashirikiwa na akili bandia, roboti, na automatisering kwa kupunguza taka ya malighafi, kuongeza matumizi ya rasilimali, na kuendeleza matumizi mapya na athari ndogo ya muda mrefu kwa mazingira. Ili kusaidia wazalishaji wadogo na viwanda vya kimataifa, kitengo hicho kimeanza utafiti wake kwa kuingiza baadhi ya teknolojia zifuatazo katika majukwaa yake ya kiteknolojia: Akili ya bandia; Uboreshaji wa Metaheuristic; Uongozi, Mchanganyiko, na Uhalisi; Robotics, Twins ya Dijiti, Mifumo ya Cyber-Physical, na Automation ya Akili. Kuundwa na wataalamu kutoka nyanja za kudhibiti moja kwa moja, metamaterials, akili bandia, mitambo, hali halisi, na maono ya kompyuta, kitengo hiki huunda nafasi kwa ajili ya utafiti wote juu ya vifaa vya juu na uhusiano wao na teknolojia ya kuvuruga kupitia utafiti wa kisayansi na matumizi yao kwa kilimo, magari na maeneo ya biomedical. Kukabiliana na mabadiliko ya hali ya hewa inahusisha kazi ya ushirikiano kati ya vyuo vikuu, sekta ya umma, sekta binafsi, na jamii ya kiraia. Rita Quetzalcoatl Fuentes Aguilar, Mkurugenzi wa Kitengo cha Teknolojia ya Kuwezesha Maendeleo ya Vifaa vya Juu