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Elvis Chipiro picked common reminiscence (from the 2005 record). The imaginative and prescient was for one reminiscence tech to rule all of them—flash, random-access reminiscence, and arduous disk drives can be subsumed by a brand new methodology that relied on tiny buildings referred to as carbon nanotubes to retailer much more bits per sq. centimeter. The corporate behind the expertise, Nantero, raised vital funds and signed on licensing companions however struggled to ship a product on its acknowledged timeline.
Nantero bumped into challenges when it tried to provide its reminiscence at scale as a result of tiny variations in the way in which the nanotubes have been organized might trigger errors. It additionally proved tough to upend reminiscence applied sciences that have been already deeply embedded inside the business and properly built-in into fabs.
Mild-field images (from the 2012 record), chosen by Cherry Tang, allow you to snap a photograph and modify the picture’s focus later. You’d by no means take care of a blurry picture ever once more. To make this attainable, the startup Lytro had developed a particular digital camera that captured not simply the colour and depth of sunshine but additionally the angle of its rays. It was one of many first cameras of its variety designed for customers. Even so, the corporate shut down in 2018.
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Finally, Lytro was outmatched by well-established incumbents like Sony and Nokia. The digital camera itself had a tiny show, and the pictures it produced have been pretty low decision. Readjusting the main focus in pictures utilizing the corporate’s personal software program additionally required a good quantity of guide work. And smartphones—with their helpful built-in cameras—have been changing into ubiquitous.
Many college students over time have chosen Mission Loon (from the 2015 record)—one of many so-called “moonshots” out of Google X. It proposed utilizing gigantic balloons to exchange networks of cell-phone towers to offer web entry, primarily in distant areas. The corporate accomplished subject checks in a number of nations and even supplied emergency web service to Puerto Rico throughout the aftermath of Hurricane Maria. However the firm shut down the venture in 2021, with Google X CEO Astro Teller saying in a weblog submit that “the street to industrial viability has confirmed for much longer and riskier than hoped.”
Sean Lee, from my 2025 class, noticed the explanation for its flop within the firm’s very mission: Mission Loon operated in low-income areas the place clients had restricted buying energy. There have been additionally substantial industrial hurdles that will have slowed improvement—the corporate relied on partnerships with native telecom suppliers to ship the service and needed to safe authorities approvals to navigate in nationwide airspaces.
ANDREJ SOKOLOW/PICTURE-ALLIANCE/DPA/AP IMAGES
Whereas this particular venture didn’t change into a breakthrough, the general objective of constructing the web extra accessible via high-altitude connectivity has been carried ahead by different firms, most notably Starlink with its constellation of low-orbit satellites. Typically an organization has the fitting concept however the mistaken method, and a agency with a distinct expertise could make extra progress.
As a part of this class train, we additionally ask college students to select a expertise from the record that they assume would possibly flop sooner or later. Right here, too, their decisions could be fairly illuminating.
Lynn Grosso selected artificial information for AI (a 2022 decide), which implies utilizing AI to generate information that mimics real-world patterns for different AI fashions to coach on. Although it’s change into extra in style as tech firms have run out of actual information to feed their fashions, she factors out that this follow can result in mannequin collapse, with AI fashions skilled solely on generated information finally breaking the connection to information drawn from actuality.
