As we draw close to our United States holiday of Thanksgiving, it is always a good time to reflect on all of the things that we should be thankful for. With everything in the news this last month I figured that I could share some amazing things to be thankful for that you probably never even knew existed to supplement our thanks for family, friends, freedom and overstuffed turkey.
Thank you for a new way to get out of the traffic. AeroMobil has just finished their 40th test flight on their plane that drives and are looking to have it as an option in Europe to all driver/pilots in the future. Now add Uber and we should be at the airport in no time.
Thank you for a way to find more parking options. How about a self-balancing two wheel car, that drives like a motorcycle but is protected like a car? Two gyroscopes make the vehicle by LitMotors do just that. Their goal is to provide reliable, safe electric transportation without the body bulk and consumption of today’s automobiles.
Thank you for students in school who don’t skip class and take out-of-the-box thinking to a new level:
Katrina “Kasia” Sawicka started her creation of ImmunoMatrix the first needle free vaccine while an undergraduate in Stony Brook University. It is not just a painfree experience but can last up to 10 weeks without refrigeration providing solutions around the world that were not viable before.
The music box medical test, being co-developed by student George Korir and Professor Manu Rakash at Stanford University was conceived while turning the handle on a music box. Their creation will allow lightly trained medical providers in rural areas to diagnose diseases with a simple chip, hole punch paper and no electricity with just the turn of a crank.
12 year old Shubham Banerjee created the first low cost Lego model Braille printer as a way to help others. At 13, Braigo Labs Inchas his first round of funding and an Intel chip that translates words into Braille converting a 160 page document in 35 seconds.
I think we need to be thankful for Legos in general, they serve as another model for Alex Goad, who while an industrial-design student at Monash University in Australia created a cost effective artificial reef for any seafloor. It will help keep thousands of species safe as their natural reef homes have begun to disappear.
Finally, for those who don’t know where to start on their Thanksgiving meal, we suggest Pantelligent, the frying pan that teaches. Of course there always has to be an MIT graduate story and this is one of them. While discovering that one of their friends, Mike Robbins, didn’t know where to start to cook, he and his cooking buddy Humberto Evans, decided to invent something that could help. So they combined a pan that measures temperature with heat sensors and transmits data via Bluetooth in its handle. Combined with a smartphone app you are directed to the recipes next steps until you complete your healthy meal. Hey, a simple way to help eliminate surviving on Ramen and popcorn.
In summary, it goes to show that there are always things to be thankful for other than the 4th quarter Oracle discounts that make the licenses remotely possible. So hug your loved ones, throw back a toast and be thankful for the wonders of everything we have. Happy Thanksgiving.
