IO’s Weekly recap: Inventive Fire Fighters

Why we write this weekly recap:

In our weekly recap on Sunday, we, as editors, look back at the past seven days. We do this at the suggestion of our cartoonist Albert Jan Rasker. He chooses a subject, makes a drawing, and we take it from there. If you received this mail from someone else, but would also like to receive it every Sunday morning, just subscribe here.

Albert Jan Rasker’s cartoon is based on this interesting news article. Scottish scientists designed an AI fire helmet that provides firefighters real-time information about the fire. This new gadget will support performing safer and more efficient rescue missions in critical scenarios using this technology. Indeed, that’s great news, hopefully executed differently than our cartoonist fears.

Of course, there was much more. Click here to see everything we published last week. These articles were our favorites:

When the Beatles released Here comes the sun back in 1969 as part of the album Abbey Road – the idea of installing solar cells in cars already existed. Lightyear nowadays is one of the leaders in solar cars. It is headquartered at the Automotive Campus of Helmond, Netherlands. Founded in 2016, it made headlines for its way of envisioning sustainable mobility.

Albert van Breemen, whose company recently won a Gerard & Anton Award, guided his audience through the hidden tracks of Artificial Intelligence and deep learning.

When it comes to food waste, the numbers are horrifying. Not for ReBread: with two tonnes of unsold bread it creates its signature product: distillate Krast, which is the very first craft alcohol made of stale bread in Poland. It is not just innovative for the Polish market, but also highly appreciated by the experts from the alcohol industry.

You can generate your own electricity in lots of ways. One way that is becoming increasingly popular is microhydropower. The Belgian company Turbulent supplies all you need for it.

Solar and wind power are part and parcel of a sustainable energy system. At the same time, we are struggling with an overloaded power grid, so these renewable sources are not always being used efficiently. This is why (farming) companies and the Province of Groningen have started the H2-Agri pilot project aimed at producing green hydrogen from electricity generated by farmers.

The Netherlands is a country of cyclists, but riding a bike is not without risks. In 2020, more than 200 cyclists were killed. That asks for new safety solutions.

Enjoy your Sunday, and have a safe and innovative week!