Navigating Rapid Change: 3M's Vision for the Future of Technology
In an era marked by rapid technological evolution, globalization, and economic uncertainty, the pace of change is unprecedented. To better understand which technologies will shape the way we live, work, and interact, 3M recently conducted an extensive study. The result? Six transformative technology categories emerged as pivotal: artificial intelligence and computational technologies, immersive experiences, nanotechnology, energy solutions, environmental advancements, and electronic innovation.

These areas are poised to significantly influence the trajectory of both digital and material science, guiding society from current capabilities toward future breakthroughs. Ben Watson, R&D Strategy Leader at 3M’s Corporate Research Labs, led the “Technologies for the Future” initiative, which reviewed 80 anonymized proposals and identified 30 standout technologies. These were then organized into the six overarching themes.

3M’s innovation pipeline aligns closely with these core areas and aims to drive both present-day developments and what’s on the horizon. "At 3M, our relentless drive for inventive solutions, supported by a strong global collaborative culture, allows us to constantly redefine the boundaries of material science," said John Banovetz, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer. "Our expertise empowers us to address pressing challenges in mobility, safety, the workforce, and energy, while envisioning a future shaped by transformative technologies."
 
The Future of Mobility: AI, Computational Power, and Nanotech Lead the Way
With over a billion vehicles on the road, transportation continues to inspire innovation. The expansion of electric vehicles (EVs) has become a catalyst for material innovation across the automotive sector, from battery tech to interior components.

Meeting Current Needs
3M is tackling today’s automotive challenges with advancements in battery materials, thermal management, adhesives, and display technologies. For instance, 3M Glass Bubbles reduce the weight of composites; thermal management solutions help control heat in EV batteries; adhesives aid in efficient battery disassembly and recycling; and optical films improve in-car display performance and connectivity.

Artificial intelligence is also speeding up the discovery of new materials like nanocomposites that improve energy efficiency, reduce costs, and enhance overall vehicle performance.

Looking Ahead
“AI will help uncover high-performance materials tailored to extend EV battery life and performance, addressing common range anxiety,” explained Tom Clausen, Global Lab Director of Computer Science at 3M. Additionally, ultra-high refractive index nanocomposites will enhance screen clarity, while next-gen passive cooling materials could reduce the need for heavy and costly climate control systems.
 
Connecting Safety with Innovation: Electronics and Environmental Technology
Safety remains a cornerstone of industrial and community well-being. Increasingly, manufacturers are embracing advanced technologies to mitigate long-standing risks and create safer work environments.

Today’s Innovations
3M has long been a leader in safety, producing essential products like the N95 respirator and offering VR-based safety training tools. Their high-visibility materials also improve roadway safety for drivers and pedestrians alike.

The Future Outlook
“Artificial intelligence is making factories smarter—enhancing production efficiency, monitoring real-time conditions, and improving worker safety,” said Brian Brooks, Senior Staff Scientist at 3M. Cyber-physical materials—smart substances that react to changes in pressure, heat, or light—will play a major role in this transformation, seamlessly integrating with digital systems to boost both safety and operational performance.

Advanced materials will also be developed for extreme environments, helping ensure the reliability of transportation and energy components while keeping workers safe under harsh conditions, according to Matt Frey, Senior Staff Scientist at 3M.
 
Driving a Cleaner Tomorrow: Energy Technology and the Future Grid
As the global energy demand grows, countries are racing to modernize infrastructure, improve energy efficiency, and secure sustainable power sources. Innovative materials and scalable solutions are crucial to achieving these goals.

Current Focus
3M is making significant contributions to energy infrastructure, including advanced materials like ACCR (Aluminum Conductor Composite Reinforced) cables that allow more electricity to travel over longer distances without building additional towers. Their hydrogen catalysis technology is also helping to produce clean hydrogen fuel, supporting global clean energy targets.

What’s Next
"Imagine buildings that double as energy generators," said Bill Weber, Director of Business Development at 3M Ventures. He predicts wider adoption of solar technologies embedded into construction materials, drastically cutting urban carbon emissions. Meanwhile, Silicon Photonics will support energy-efficient data transmission—reducing the power demands of AI applications and digital infrastructure.
 
Closing the Skills Gap: Immersive Technologies in Workforce Development
According to the National Association of Manufacturers, a shortage of skilled labor could leave over 2 million manufacturing roles unfilled by 2030. Even though many recognize the importance of tech-related skills, there’s still widespread concern that automation could displace jobs.

How 3M Is Helping
3M is addressing these concerns through programs that cultivate the next generation of STEM professionals. Initiatives like the Manufacturing and Academic Partnerships (MAP), SkillsUSA, and WorldSkills connect industry with education to prepare workers for high-tech roles.

What the Future Holds
Immersive technologies such as Neural Radiance Fields (NeRF) offer potential game-changing ways to train workers, allowing users to explore realistic 3D environments recreated from basic visual data. Kevin Gotrik from 3M’s Corporate Research Lab believes such tools could significantly enhance hands-on training.

Additionally, materials readable by AR and VR devices could further blur the lines between the physical and digital worlds, increasing both safety and efficiency on the job.
 
Beyond the Forecast: Embracing the Unexpected
While 3M’s strategic roadmap focuses on six foundational technology domains, the company remains open to unexpected breakthroughs—whether in quantum computing, synthetic biology, or entirely new material classes.

Jayshree Seth, 3M’s Chief Science Advocate, reminds us that the future will likely include surprises. These “wildcards” have the power to reshape our understanding of what’s possible. By fostering collaboration and imagination, 3M aims to shape a future where innovation uplifts industries, communities, and the planet.

Dailycsr.com – 19 August 2020 – Stephanie Walden writes that doctors in Washington had to leave their elective surgeries and had to revisit their “emergency-response skills” through virtual reality which even though they had learned in medical schools but haven’t kept in touch since then.
 
Similarly, in the New York City, the nursing students who were forced to remain homebound turned to “online simulations” to learn about proper ways of wearing PPE, personal protective equipment”. The COVID-19 health crisis made healthcare professionals, whether “udding or established”, to pivot their “studies and skills” whereby they had to let go off their traditional classroom or hospital rooms.
 
Talking about these trying times the chief executive officer of virtual reality “medical training platform” at Health Scholars, Cole Sandau said the company had to address “near-constant” health workers’ request seeking “educational resources”. He recounted:
“Our chief medical officer got a phone call from a colleague who is a rheumatologist. He said, ‘I haven’t been in a hospital since I finished my residency 25 years ago, and in a few weeks I have to be in an ICU.’”
 
More and more organisations are turning to virtual reality trainings to train the healthcare professionals so that they are equipped with the ongoing “surreal situation and the effects”. The WHO estimates that at present there are nearly “a global shortage of 6 million nurses”, while some cities even experience “a shortage of physicians” for treating “COVID-19 patients” as the doctors need “varying skill sets” to deal with spread of the pandemic.
 
On the other hand, VR provides a “relatively low-risk environment” for the professionals to learn and relearn “critical skills”. In the words of the Global Lead for Virtual Reality in Healthcare at HP, Mary Kate Mahoney:
“In the six months leading up to the crisis, we were already seeing increased interest in VR to deliver patient information and for surgical planning. Now, we’re hearing ‘We need to educate in a new way.’”
“Even for people who work in the ER, now there’s a need to reorient how they perceive what’s going on around them and how they deliver care. COVID-19 is just not the same as what anyone is used to seeing.”
 
Through VR, the healthcare professionals get to practice “complex and life-saving skills”. Keeping the present crisis in mind, Health Scholars create a programme for helping professionals prepare for “advanced cardiac life support (ACLS) scenarios”, a condition often associated with “severe COVID-19 infections”. Sandau further added:
“It’s so immersive, it really creates the entirety of the environment. Not only do we use VR to process visuals and sound, but with NLP, we also virtualize speech. You’re not using hand controllers; you’re actually telling people what to do — and they do it.”
 
For more information, kindly click on the link given below:
https://garage.hp.com/us/en/innovation/covid19-vr-training-nurses-healthcare.html
 
 
 
References:
3blmedia.com

Dailycsr.com – May 31, 2019 – The Saatchi Gallery of London present a “brain-tickling” experience through “We Live in an Ocean of Air” wherein one can immerse the sense for a walk into a “redwood forest”. And it is hard to explain what really grabs your attention whether the earthly forest smell, the moss-covered roots, the massive tangled trunks of sequoia tree or simply your own exhilarating breath.
 
Well, all these outside exploration can be lived inside starting from experiencing forest scents to “listening to a rainstorm”. The viewer becomes an integral part of the experience as the breath exhaled by him turns into “blue bubbles” which can be waved around while they “turn red”, signifying the “exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide between you and the virtual natural world”.
 
The experience lasts for about twenty minutes which has been conceived and designed by “Marshmallow Laser Feast”. The immersive world of VR is playing a big role in “connecting people to the planet”, which is sometimes termed as “environmental communication”. The “Ocean of Air” is a “second installation” while the first in the series is called “Treehugger” which bagged the “Tribeca Film Festival Storyscapes Award in 2017”.
 
The Founding Director of “Stanford University’s Virtual Human Interaction Lab”, Professor Jeremy Bailenson said:
“A challenge of climate change is that people don’t have a direct connection to it. They haven’t seen the poles melting or the rainforest destroyed. VR is an experience generator. You’re turning your head to look or using your body to walk around. VR takes the notion of climate change and makes it visceral and now, not the future.”
 
Immersive virtual reality experience enables the viewers witness the phenomena of climate change forefront from the melting glaciers in Greenland, endangered elephants of Africa, acidification of ocean to the “dying coral reefs” from up-close. The capacity of VR to envelope the audience into its world makes it a “tool for positive change”.
 
The creators of VR films aim to influence people’s behaviour and mind. It is the direct experience of the natural world which so far has been unknown to the mass which the VR provides enables it to be an instrument to help people “understand climate change or biodiversity or desertification” for that matter.
 
Erika Woolsey holds a Ph.D. in marine biology who has made “360 VR film IMMERSE” in the capacity of The Hydrous’ chief executive that explores the “delicate coral reefs off the island nation of Palau in Micronesia”. In Woolsey’s words:
“People’s reactions are transformative. I've seen some strong reactions and some people even cry. As a scientist, I want to measure these effects and prove that it makes a difference.”
 
Her work continues as “an Ocean Design Fellow at Stanford University”, while Professor Bailenson has joined her as a “National Geographic Explorer”. Dr. Woolsey further commented:
“My co-founders and I identified this unfortunate disconnection between people and the ocean, between scientific discovery and public action. VR has the power to show you places you will never go or see. It’s important to make the abstract concrete and that translation is a way to solve these problems.”
 
Nonny de la Peña is the head “360 VR film” maker of “Greenland Melting”, talked about his film:
“You are with the scientists dropping thermometers from the NASA plane, it’s active. You can see the glacier recede in front of your eyes and it demystifies the experience.”
 
It is a form of immersive journalism which allows people to get connected to complex issue and “Telling what’s going on with the planet is one of the most pressing journalistic stories of our era.”
 
“Ocean of Air” is powered by “HP’s powerful Z VR backpacks”, while the Creative Director of “Marshmallow Laser Feast”, Barney Steel added:
“The HP solution is really robust and doesn’t overheat which is super important when you have a high turnover”.
 
The Location-based VR Entertainment’s Head ay HP, Joanna Popper said:
“Projects like these combine creativity, innovation and technology with a message that inspires reflection on what’s around us, our impact and how best to take care of environment”.
 
Furthermore, Dr. Woolsey explained:
“I’ll be able to narrate live while they are in the experience. While some understandable criticism of VR is that it can be isolating. I found it to be a really social and compellng tool that invites conversation. I don’t want to convince people with data, but connect with them through shared experiences.”
 
Talking about “Ocean of Air”, Steel added:
“The awe of the biodiversity translates in VR in a way it doesn’t in video or photography. You can see your breath leave your lungs — where does your body begin and end? People will learn not to hurt nature.”
“We can help decision makers make the right decisions since climate change is already here”.
 
And Dr. Woolsey is also of the opinion that:
“The tech is powerful and scalable. This is how I get everyone to protect and care about the ocean.”
 
 
References:
3blmedia.com

Dailycsr.com – 14 January 2019 – The “International Labour Organization” reported that over three hundred forty million “occupational accidents” are recorded annually on a global scale. However, in comparison to the “other industries”, the construction sector’s statistic figures seem to show a “disproportionately high rate” of such accidents.
 
There is an industry wide effort in the “engineering, procurement, and construction” sectors, wherein Bechtel also plays an active part, to seek new ways of overcoming these onsite “health and safety challenges”. Similarly, in the attempt of educating the construction workers and making them situational aware, more and more businesses are investing in the technology of extended reality.
 
Explaining the concept of extended reality, Marvin Johnson wrote:
“Extended Reality (XR) is the industry catch-all technical term referring to all superimposed real-world and immersive virtual environments”.
He also added the term included the realm of Virtual Reality, in short VR, Assisted Reality, in short AR, and Mixed Reality, in short MR.
 
At Bechtel, the improvement of workers’ safety conditions which adds up to reduce the “overall rate of work-related accidents” take a front seat of priorities. With the help of XR technologies, the company is able to address these challenges besides “significantly improving project efficiency and exploring new ways to design and build structures”.
 
Giving some example, Bechtel talked about its “VR Training for Crane Operators” initiative, whereby adding:
“Bechtel is collaborating with Industrial Training International to increase quality and reduce the cost of craft training through immersive virtual experiences and the use of videogame-like controls. Combining VR and input from industry experts, the training module provides in-depth real-life scenarios. The new system is expected to improve the screening and selection process for crane operators, supporting our zero accidents philosophy while simultaneously protecting equipment and saving money”.
 
Among other such initiatives, there are “AR-Assisted Lockout Tagout Procedure”, and “Immersive Jobsite Walkthrough Experience”, as mentioned by Bechtel.
 
However, adopting to these technologies present some practical hurdles, as they depend on “wearables, like glasses or gloves, or mobile devices to deliver information to the user”, while the construction sites come with “noise pollution, extreme temperatures, humidity, dust, and other environmental concerns” which do not create viable environment for these technology driven solutions.
 
Besides environmental issues, incorporating these technologies into the existing form create practical complexities, while Johnson cautions:
“situational awareness is critical in a busy construction site. If XR systems distract users from what is occurring in their surroundings, the technology solution could pose more risk than the problem it’s attempting to address”.
 
Therefore Bechtel is heavily relying on learning from every pilot projects with the objective of learning and sharing the knowledge with “technology providers” so as to “drive the industry forward in adoption and shape the hardware requirements to realize the jobsite of the future”.
 
 
References:
3blmedia.com