The top five tech innovations to come out of unis
First published at Hijacked on 28 May 2015.
Most — if not all — of us were told that a university degree would give us the best chance to get that office job working for the man. But some of us have shown that we don’t have to routinise ourselves post-university — instead we can choose to create solutions and revolutions while we’re still there. Unis are a breeding ground for stellar new technologies, and these are some of the best.
Cochlear implants: first step to bionic humans
What do a seashell and a blade of grass have in common with bionic ears? They inspired the multi-channel cochlear implant, the brainchild of Graeme Clark. It began as a literature review for his PhD at the University of Sydney in the late 1960s, but eventually led the cochlear implant to become recognised as one of the most significant medical developments created for being able to prosthetically restore brain function.
Invisibility cloaks: fantasy no more
It appears we may not need to attend Hogwarts to have cloaks of invisibility after all. In 2014, scientists at the University of Cambridge described how metamaterials can be created by stitching gold, or plasmonic, nanoparticles strings with light to create what appears to be an invisible cloak. In layman’s terms, it simply means that light going through this metamaterial is refracted and passes through it at an angle, showing mostly the background behind the material. This results in appeared invisibility. When this technology becomes mainstream — if ever — is unknown, but you can be sure defence departments around the world would want a piece of it.
Read the full article at Hijacked.
