innovation Tag

New Report: Improving Upon Our Dig Laws

30 Apr 2020, Posted by bdierker in All Posts, Blog Posts, Press Releases

Washington D.C, District of Columbia – April 30, 2020 – The Alliance for Innovation and Infrastructure (Aii) today released a new report for industry leaders and public officials entitled ‘Improving Upon Our Dig Laws: Excavation Damage, Data, and Trends for Industry and Policymaker Analysis (2018 Data)’ analyzing the increasing excavation…

Passenger-Free High Speed Rail

17 Apr 2020, Posted by bdierker in All Posts, Blog Posts

In November 2018, Italy inaugurated the world’s first high-speed rail service dedicated to … carrying no passengers. Rather than cart people from one place to another at ultra high land speeds, this rail service blasts cargo and freight faster than traditional rail, truckers, or ships ever could. The Italian rail…

The Promise of 3D Printing During COVID-19

10 Apr 2020, Posted by bdierker in All Posts, Blog Posts

As COVID-19 continues to ravage the nation, Americans have found themselves on a new frontier of fear and uncertainty. As experts began to understand the true severity of the virus, dire actions like closing the economy and ordering individuals to stay home in attempt to flatten the curve became warranted….

Airless Tires: Fashion or Function?

25 Mar 2020, Posted by bdierker in All Posts, Blog Posts

Airless bike tires may sound like an oxymoron, but they are a functional product becoming an increasingly plausible reality. In 2018, the first 3D-printed airless bicycle tire was released, designed using a thermoplastic elastomer that is specially designed to render 3D-printed objects that retain pliability. The airless tire is both…

COVID-19 May Strain Our Infrastructure

16 Mar 2020, Posted by bdierker in All Posts, Blog Posts

As our nation faces a public health crisis in the form of the Novel Coronavirus or COVID-19, many are working or studying from home. With this mass transition from corporate or college life to homes and communities, the nation’s telecom and digital infrastructure could be under new and unprecedented use,…

Your Home as a Power Plant

04 Mar 2020, Posted by bdierker in All Posts, Blog Posts

Residential solar systems are becoming an increasingly popular trend in the United States. By the end of 2018, the U.S. had installed enough solar panels to power 12.3 million homes, and the solar industry managed to generate a $17 billion investment in the economy. These statistics indicate that the implementation…

Looming Highway Trust Fund Insolvency

24 Feb 2020, Posted by bdierker in All Posts, Blog Posts

    The Highway Trust Fund is the federal fund for road and bridge maintenance and repair. It once built the Interstate Highway System and helped keep our roads safe and smooth. Now, it is under the shadow of looming insolvency, with revenue failing to keep pace with spending. The…

Has the Car of the Future Arrived?

17 Jan 2020, Posted by bdierker in All Posts, Blog Posts

  Throughout the past century, the public has sought to predict what the ‘car of the future’ would entail. And, with the release of the VISION AVTR, a new concept car from Mercedes-Benz, any past predictions have been completely surpassed. This show vehicle was developed in tandem with the upcoming…

Congress Moves forward with NDAA, blocking Chinese metro and bus activity

12 Dec 2019, Posted by bdierker in All Posts, Blog Posts

Congress has moved forward with reauthorization of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), with the House voting to include language known as the Transit Infrastructure Vehicle Security Act (TIVSA). This language blocks certain foreign powers from access to federal taxpayer dollars in public infrastructure bidding contracts. At issue is the…

3 Unintended Consequences For Regulators to Consider

26 Nov 2019, Posted by bdierker in All Posts, Blog Posts

Everyone makes mistakes, but regulators have a higher responsibility to be careful and deliberate. Institutional speed bumps help keep the pace slow, reducing the speed at which bad decisions can be made and forcing more deliberation over good ones. Some of these features like checks and balances or notice and…

Data as a solution to potholes

26 Nov 2019, Posted by bdierker in All Posts, Blog Posts

  hile it may not be the main reason that roads across the country are in disrepair, lack of information is one starting point to find solutions. Simple intuition suggests that officials cannot know about every pothole, collapsed sign, or damaged median. While perfect knowledge is impossible, we have the…

Down to Earth: Ohio’s Geothermal Energy Innovation

21 Nov 2019, Posted by bdierker in All Posts, Blog Posts

Miami University, a public research university located in the small city of Oxford, OH, has been making unprecedented progress in the field of geothermal energy. Up until 2010, Miami had relied on carbon-intensive steam to heat almost all buildings on its 2,100 acre campus. Currently, 49 percent of those buildings…

A perfect storm for wholesale electricity prices

30 Oct 2019, Posted by bdierker in All Posts, Blog Posts

Summer temperatures and tensions were high across the state of Texas, at least for some. While every resident of the Lone Star State dealt with immense heat during August, some Texans found themselves with ludicrously high electricity bills as well. This spike in price only affected a certain sector of Texas’…

October is National Cybersecurity Awareness Month

09 Oct 2019, Posted by bdierker in All Posts, Blog Posts

Beginning in October 2004, National Cybersecurity Awareness Month has continually drawn attention to the issue of cybersecurity and the resources available to ensure Internet safety on a national scale. Since its creation by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the National Cyber Security Alliance, National Cybersecurity Awareness Month (NCSAM)…

Weathering Climate Change Through Resilient Infrastructure

08 Oct 2019, Posted by bdierker in All Posts, Blog Posts

Hurricanes, floods, and other natural disasters can be truly devastating. Not only are precious lives lost, but property damage can decimate local communities and business activity. As concerns over climate change cause many to fear stronger or more frequent storms, one simple solution stands ready to protect lives, economic activity,…