“Man, sometimes it takes you a long time to sound like yourself.”
– Miles Davis
1. Eliminating Zombies
"Zombie servers," that is. Luckily, these zombie servers aren't after our brains – they're just idle machines in data centers, wasting electricity, not doing any useful work. To kill these zombies, data centers can use digital twins to identify and remove or repurpose them. By optimizing their infrastructure, adjusting cooling and power, and removing these energy-draining servers, data centers can cut costs and improve efficiency. Some would say it’s a no-brainer!
2. Robots and Reliability
That’s what I think of when I hear Boston Dynamics and Toyota. While I tend to fangirl over Toyota, daily driving these paragons of reliability for 20 years has left my AAA membership underutilized. Anyway, Boston Dynamics and the Toyota Research Institute (TRI) are partnering to advance the development of general-purpose humanoid robots. Using TRI’s large behavior models and Boston Dynamics' Atlas robot, they aim to solve key challenges in robotics, focusing on whole-body manipulation and human-robot interaction.
3. PrintMon: You Can’t Catch Them All
In the world of Pokémon, the goal is always to "catch 'em all!" But in real life, collecting every AI-generated model on Bambu Lab’s PrintMon Maker might be more about creativity than completion. While you can design and personalize as many as you'd like, the real fun might just be in the surprises each model holds – like opening a mystery box every time!
4. Hydrogen Fuel Cartridges
I mentioned I like Toyota, right? I swear they don’t pay me (even though they’re an AMT member). Toyota has introduced swappable hydrogen fuel cartridges that can extend electric vehicle range. These lightweight, portable cartridges can power EVs, homes, and industrial applications with clean hydrogen, which emits no carbon. Why didn’t we do this from the start with battery EVs? “But the infrastructure!” Battery-swapping stations could totally have been a thing alongside plug-in stations, and I’ll die on that hill.
5. ‘IMTS Unwind: Marking Milestones’
Recorded during the final days of IMTS 2024, this episode of “IMTS Unwind” hits some big milestones. Alex Tholl, co-founder and CEO of DIVE Design, talks about their cool work in additive manufacturing, including custom pet prosthetics. We also celebrate 10 years of the Manufacturing USA program and take a look at all it’s done so far. Plus, AMT’s Cathy Ma and Ryan Kelly dive into reshoring manufacturing and what that could mean for your business.
To get the latest tech developments delivered directly to your inbox, subscribe to the weekly Tech Report here.
To access Tech Trends, log in to or register for an MTInsight account at https://www.mtinsight.org/
