In parts of the world like the US and Brazil where electric current oscillates at 60 Hz, there’s no larger and more efficient gas turbine than a machine that GE calls 7HA. So efficient, in fact, that when it swallows 3.3 tons of air and natural gas – equivalent to 23 tanker trucks – out comes a mere 6.3 fluid ounces of pollution, a volume slightly larger than a half- can of soda.

This is just one finding from three months of intense trials held at GE’s $250 million testing center in Greenville, South Carolina, where a team of approximately 200 engineers pushed a version of the turbine labeled 7HA.01 well beyond the level of normal operation to pass validation testing. When the rigorous examination ended in November, the turbine, nicknamed Harriet by GE employees, passed with flying colors.

Overall, validation tests rate the reliability of the latest technology to make it easier for projects using the machines to secure financing, insurance and trust among customers making the critical decision to buy the huge turbines.

GE Power’s off-grid, full-speed, full-load test bed used 4,500 sensors as engineers pushed the machine to operate in stressful conditions, such as running the turbine at 110 percent of its rated speed, mimicking a power surge in Mexico or extreme heat in Saudi Arabia. The turbine was tested operating at ambient temperatures ranging from minus 37 Celsius (minus 35 Fahrenheit) to 85 Celsius (185 Fahrenheit) — far beyond what it would encounter in service.

GE Power’s off-grid, full-speed, full-load test bed used 4,500 sensors as engineers pushed the machine to operate in stressful conditions, such as running the turbine at 110 percent of its rated speed. Image credit: GE Power

Jonathan Truitt, 7HA.01 product manager, says a crucial part of the testing was a new Axial Fuel Staging (AFS) fuel injection technology that included 3D printed parts. The result was better performance and lower emissions than previous combustion technology.

The testing facility is so demanding that GE needed to supplement existing infrastructure in the city of Greenville to support it. GE built a dedicated gasworks to store 180,000 gallons of liquefied natural gas to feed the test bed, and North America’s largest railroad turntable to maneuver the turbines inside it.

In 200 hours of testing, engineers collected nearly 5 terabytes of data. That’s more than all the data generated by 500 GE 7F.03 turbines operating in the field for one year, Truitt says.

When used in a combined cycle power plant configuration that couples one gas turbine with one steam turbine, the 7HA.01 produces nearly 420 megawatts (MW) of electricity — the equivalent power needed to supply more than 400,000 US homes. Another popular configuration, pairing two 7HA.01 turbines with one steam turbine, produces more than 840 MW of power.

Harriet’s combined cycle efficiency exceeds 61 percent— the Holy Grail in the industry. Turning such a large percentage of fuel into energy can significantly lower power production costs.

Harriet’s combined cycle efficiency exceeds 61 percent— the Holy Grail in the industry. Turning such a large percentage of fuel into energy can significantly lower power production costs. Image credit: GE Power

The unit also showed it can start and provide full power in less than 10 minutes (compared to a standard of 15-20 minutes), giving operators added flexibility to quickly meet changing grid demand. All this is important for incorporating into the grid intermittent renewable sources of energy like wind and solar power.

The testing is done in three phases. Validation puts the turbine through its normal operations and tests its efficiency and reliability. The demonstration stage studies the machine’s fuel and load flexibility, and pushes the turbine beyond its limits. The growth phase is used to try out new parts that may be used in subsequent turbines coming off the production line. “We blew away the target goals for the 7HA.01 in the validation and demonstration phases,” Truitt says. “Now, we’re taking what we’ve learned and modifying the test stand equipment and engine so we can really push the limits.”

Truitt says subsequent tests will use GE’s next-generation combustion system, which has been in development for years, and explore the limitations of the turbine compressor, the part that squeezes the air inside the machine. “We’re going to go well beyond what we specified for the machine for — we’re going to push much more flow through it, fire it at higher temperatures, ramp it faster, start it up quicker. We’re going to push it to its limits to see where those limits truly are.”

The huge HA turbines come in two varieties. The 7HA is engineered for countries such as the US and parts of Asia where electric current oscillates at 60 Hz. The 9HA, which passed validation in 2014, is used in regions operating at 50 Hz, such as Europe and most of the Middle East. The first 9HA will begin commercial operation in France next year while the first 7HA gas turbines are expected to begin commercial operation in both the US and Japan in 2017.

A 7HA.01 turbine during assembly in Greenville. Image credit: GE Power

The Harriet turbines combine materials developed by GE scientists for supersonic jet engines and other advanced technology — such as aerodynamic blades made from single-crystal alloys and thermal barrier coatings. GE calls this sharing of knowledge between businesses the “GE Store.”

To date, 23 HA units have been ordered among 78 that have been technically selected* for use in power plants being planned globally. GE spent more than $1 billion developing the new turbines.

*A technical selection is one of the first steps in developing a new power plant. It means that if the power plant is constructed and commissioned, it will use GE gas turbines. Following technical selection, a developer will proceed with securing financing, permitting and more.

Over the next decade, the global population is expected to grow by 1 billion people to more than 8 billion, and everyone will need electricity. GE expects demand for power to grow 50 percent over the next 20 years, by an additional 3,000 gigawatts (GW) of power-generation capacity.

Getting there will require some creative engineering — both reimagining the usual suspects like turbines and generators as well as deploying new cloud-based digital tools and data analytics. GE has a few ideas.

Soon, the company says, every plant can become a connected, high-tech hub where plant operators will use insights from data pooled in “data lakes” and stored in the cloud to help make better decisions to keep power flowing and lower the cost of power generation. The company has invested over $1 billion to develop Predix, a cloud-based platform for the Industrial Internet. It will serve as the digital backbone of the power plant of the future, allowing operators to write apps and drill into data for insights needed for more efficient operations. GE’s November acquisition of France-based Alstom’s power and grid business also gave GE the capability to deliver an integrated power plant system.

The power plant of the future will stand on two key pillars: the digital power plant and the modular power island, which GE calls AdvantEDGE (see infographic at the bottom of the story). GE’s modular power island design helps significantly simplify the construction of power plants, as pre-fabricated and pre-commissioned modules are delivered to site. That helps reduce the amount of manpower needed on site and helps accelerate the construction time. The digital power plant then brings the modules to higher efficiency. The end result is power plants that cost less to build and generate more, affordable power.

GE introduced the digital power plant at the Minds + Machines conference in San Francisco in September. The company was able to finish the modular power island design with technology it acquired from Alstom this fall. It brought the technology this week to Power-Gen International, the world’s largest energy-generation conference, held every year. “The reason why we can provide this modular power island is that we now have all of the core components in-house,” says Flor Rivas, senior product manager for combined-cycle power plants at GE Power.

The system works like a giant set of industrial building blocks. GE first builds and commissions modules for scope like the ejector system, pipe racks and blowdown tanks. It then ships those prefabricated units to the worksite for assembly. “This new approach will allow GE to deliver the plant in a simplified way,” says Andreas Brautsch, general manager of product management for Integrated Systems. “The modular power island cuts the time needed to build a plant by 25 percent and doesn’t require a huge amounts of highly sophisticated site engineers, which can be expensive and difficult to secure, for the erection of the plant.”

The other half of the power plant of the future is the digital power plant — adding software to power generation that, Rivas says, “will redefine the way customers operate their power plants.” Rivas says that sensors on equipment will constantly collect data about how well each component is working and send it to the cloud. Apps then analyze that data and provide engineers with crucial operational insights such as which parts to replace, which to fix and how to best maintain equipment to limit outages. It also helps them run plants more efficiently.

The data will also allow GE to build a “digital twin” of the entire plant in the cloud and run analytics and test scenarios before applying them in the real world. “With Alstom, we can be more accurate,” says Aaron Zurborg, portfolio architect for software solutions. “In fact, we can provide even greater accuracy across the entire generation fleet. From renewables, coal, nuclear and gas, we’re producing models that we can count on.”

But the technology will go beyond that and collect data from many plants. “With the digital power plant, you can run models and analytics for one plant and expand it across your portfolio,” Zurborg says.

Zurborg estimates that the digital power plant could deliver as much as $50 million in savings for existing combined-cycle gas-powered plants, which pair gas turbines with steam turbines, and up to $230 million in savings for a new plant. He says the digital power plant can be available for every kind of existing plant, even those that don’t run on GE equipment. Says Zurborg: “The world needs more power and we have a great way to get it done.”

Less than a week into its maiden voyage, the USS Zumwalt, the U.S. Navy’s largest and most advanced stealth destroyer, completed its first unplanned rescue mission on Dec. 12. The 610-foot, all-electric ship, which carries multiple GE technologies, rescued a Maine fishing boat captain who suffered chest pains some 40 miles southeast of Portland. “Thank you to all who helped save my life,” Portland Press Herald quoted the captain, Dale Sparrow. “That was me who got rescued by the new stealth destroyer.”

The Zumwalt itself is a heart-stopping sight. Named after the late Admiral Elmo “Bud” Zumwalt Jr., the ship is the Navy’s most advanced multi-mission destroyer. The Navy estimates the 15,600-ton vessel can hit a target at a range of more than 60 miles. The destroyer, which was built at the General Dynamics Bath Iron Works in Maine, also has a wave-piercing tumblehome design and unique superstructure that make it less visible to enemy radar at sea.

The ship is equally innovative below deck. Traditionally, the U.S. Navy powered its vessels with gas turbines driving controllable pitch propellers through large and complex gearboxes. But the new destroyer has on board a 78-megawatt power station supplying electricity to an advanced integrated power system (IPS). This “innovative and highly survivable” system was designed by GE Marine. It powers giant GE induction motors connected directly to the propeller shafts and routes electricity to a vast array of sensors, weapons, radar and other critical systems on board. GE said it could free up as much as 80 percent of the ship’s power that used to be dedicated to propulsion by getting rid of the gearbox. The captain can now send it wherever it’s needed.

As a result, the ship will have nearly 10 times more available power than its predecessors. In fact, the Zumwalt could become the first ship carrying next-generation weapons like electromagnetic railguns, which use a strong electromagnetic pulse, rather than gunpowder, to shoot projectiles. “We’re no longer restricting the engines to provide propulsion power only,” Adam Kabulski, director for naval accounts at GE Power Conversion, told GE Reports. “This design allows you to send electric power wherever you need it. You can access many megawatts in a short amount of time and convert it into energy. It’s instantaneous.”

The future USS Zumwalt (DDG 1000) is underway for the first time conducting at-sea tests and trials in the Atlantic Ocean. The multi-mission ship will provide independent forward presence and deterrence, support special operations forces, and operate as an integral part of joint and combined expeditionary forces. U.S. Navy photo courtesy of General Dynamics Bath Iron Works

The system is also highly redundant. Instead of the typical three-phase motors, the Zumwalt’s advanced induction motors have 15 phases. Kabulski said that by simply reversing the direction of the rotating magnetic field in the motor, for example, the shaft can turn in the opposite direction to give astern power. “The design is innovative, being smaller and quieter than traditional motors, and also highly survivable,” he said.

GE has been supplying electric propulsion technology to the shipping industry for a century. The Navy’s first electrically propelled ship, the aircraft carrier USS Jupiter, was commissioned in 1913.

The future USS Zumwalt (DDG 1000) is powering along the Kennebec River in Maine. U.S. Navy photo courtesy of General Dynamics Bath Iron Works

GE Marine technology is also operating on board the USS Makin Island, the Navy’s first hybrid-propelled ship. Similar technology also runs inside the Royal Navy’s Type 45 destroyer-class ships and numerous offshore, passenger and cruise vessels, including the Queen Mary 2.

The destroyer is currently going through sea trials in the Atlantic Ocean. The Navy said the “ship [would] provide independent forward presence and deterrence, support special operation forces, and operate as an integral part of joint and combined expeditionary forces.”

The future USS Zumwalt (DDG 1000) is powering along the Kennebec River in Maine. U.S. Navy photo

We are moving toward the fourth industrial revolution, in which mobile communications, social media and sensors are blurring the boundaries between people, the Internet and the physical world.

Data is increasingly building up on who we are, who we know, where we are, where we have been and where we plan to go. Mining and analysing this data lets us understand and predict how people behave at the individual, group and global level. These swathes of new digital data are as valuable for economies and societies as they are fraught with questions about privacy.

From Our Bank Details to Our Heart Rates

The types, quantity and value of data being collected are vast: from personal profiles on sites like Facebook or Instagram to demographic data, from bank accounts to medical records to employment profiles. Our web searches and sites visited, including our likes and dislikes and purchase histories; our heart rates, food intake, home temperatures, whether our lights are on or off. The list continues to grow.

Firms collect and use this data in order to monetise it by tailoring their services. Governments in turn use data to provide critical public services more efficiently and effectively. Researchers use it to speed up the way they develop new drugs and treatments. And we, the end users, ultimately benefit from free, personalised consumer experiences such as Internet search, social networking, buying recommendations, better health, etc. And that is just the beginning.

Increasing the control that individuals have over the manner in which their data is collected, managed and shared and used will spur a host of new services and applications. Data is emerging as a new asset class touching all aspects of society.

Data and the Post-Industrial World

At its core, data represents a post-industrial opportunity. Its uses have unprecedented complexity, velocity and global reach. As digital communications become ubiquitous, data will rule in a world where nearly everyone and everything is connected in real time. That will require a highly reliable, secure and available infrastructure at its core, and innovation at the edge. Stakeholders will need to embrace uncertainty, ambiguity and risk.

Most importantly, the fourth industrial revolution will demand a new way of thinking about individuals. Indeed, rethinking the central importance of the individual is fundamental. We may have to accept a trade-off where we sacrifice some aspects of personal privacy — within carefully agreed parameters — in order to benefit from the collective gains of our data.

As digital data increasingly becomes a critical source of innovation and value, business boundaries are being redrawn. Companies that automate and mine the vast amounts of data we continue to generate are getting ahead. However, how much value will ultimately be created, and who will gain from it, is far from certain. The underlying regulatory, business and technological issues are highly complex, interdependent and ever changing. But further advances are at risk.

Tensions About Trust

The rapid rate of technological change and commercialisation in using digital data is undermining confidence and trust. Tensions are rising. Concerns about the misuse of digital data continue to grow. Also mounting is a general public unease about what “they” know about us, as confirmed by the Snowden revelations. Fundamental questions about privacy, property, global governance, human rights – essentially around who should benefit from the products and services built upon digital data — are major uncertainties shaping the opportunities.

Yet, we can’t just hit the “pause button” and let these issues sort themselves out. Building the legal, cultural, technological and economic infrastructure to enable the development of a balanced data ecosystem is vitally important. We need to deepen the collective understanding of how a principled, collaborative and balanced data ecosystem can evolve.

The European Court of Justice’s ruling against Safe Harbour, in which American companies have one standard for managing the data of both U.S. and European consumers, shows that we don’t have the right mechanisms in place.

“We Are Abdicating Our Responsibility”

In today’s world, where digital transformation affects every industry, it is vital that people trust that their data is being adequately handled and protected. If one works with data, one must be accountable for data entrusted at a global level. The digital industries must embrace the change and go for a higher standard of protection. This will reassure consumers and citizens, benefitting the whole digital economy.

Politicians and business leaders need to work on concluding a set of international standards that allow the transfer and storage of data whilst empowering people to control how their data is used. We are abdicating our responsibility by allowing these matters to be determined in the courts.

The European Union is trying to move their single market into the digital world, yet the rules in place are being decided by judges, risking chaos and confusion that will stifle innovation. The EU and U.S. have different legal systems so they need to work together constructively to find a solution. And then we need to build upon this to include other states. We need to find solutions that allow different regimes to interoperate and support business and consumers both within and between countries.

The result of this ruling could be a patchwork of different regimes across Europe and different interpretations of how data should be stored and used. Court rulings often leave fragmentation in their wake, which could be more damaging for businesses and consumers in the long run. And the spillover to the rest of the world will add more pressure to the challenges of fragmentation.

Consumers and businesses just want some clear and consistent rules, and so far governments are failing in their responsibility to provide them. We need better, clearer standards on a global level if the fourth industrial revolution is to truly unleash the benefits of digital data.

(Top image: Courtesy of Thinktank)

This piece first appeared in the World Economic Forum Agenda blog.

Alan Marcus is Senior Director and Head of Information Technology and Telecommunications Industries at the World Economic Forum.

All views expressed are those of the author.

Dr. Waseem Faidi’s research playground looks an awful lot like a high-tech hospital room. There’s the large white doughnut of a computed tomography scanner and a medical bed surrounded by digital dials and other instruments seemingly ready to pronounce on biological data.

But here, at this sprawling block in GE Global Research in Niskayuna, New York, there aren’t any flesh-and-blood patients just machine parts made from advanced alloys and space-age ceramics. “We’re not looking for cancer or heart disease,” Faidi says. “What my team does is to assess and even predict the health or condition of functional parts of products like a jet engine. To do this, we use the same imaging tools as medical doctors. We may modify and adapt them, but much of what we have developed for our healthcare business we can turn around and apply to industrial inspection.”

GE scientists recently used their machines to image everything from fish to Rubik’s cube. Images credit: GE Healthcare

Faidi leads the nondestructive evaluation team at the GRC, which looks for the least invasive and most cost-effective ways to inspect critical industrial components and test the insides of parts made by the latest manufacturing methods like 3D printing.

Over the last decade, GE has built an entire inspection business by adapting new imaging applications originally developed for GE Healthcare. The unit, and Faidi’s research, are examples of what GE calls the GE Store: the idea that sharing the knowledge and expertise pooled inside its collection of businesses – which range from aviation and power generation to software and intelligent LED lighting – will make the whole company move faster.

Faidi and his team take from the store, but they also give back. GE Oil & Gas uses the technology to inspect pipelines and GE Aviation uses it to closely and quickly monitor complex jet engine parts during manufacturing.

New applications pop up everyday. Faidi and his team are testing an advanced high-energy x-ray system to image entire aircraft engines, including the world’s largest and most powerful engine, the GE90.

The diameter for this engine, which powers many Boeing 777 aircraft, is almost as wide as the body of a Boeing 737. Faidi is adapting his imaging machine to inspect and measure the clearances between parts inside the engine, and see if they yield insights into improving the design.

Faidi started his career in medical imaging as a medical ultrasound engineer, and still has the same goals as he did at the beginning. “We want to reach a time where doctors can tell patients exactly what is wrong with them and then prescribe exactly the right treatment to fix them or make them better,” he says. “The same is true with GE’s industrial machines.”

The medical world is moving toward preventive health care and away from the break-fix model, and machines are no different. “It’s much cheaper to cure a medical condition if you catch it early,” Faidi says. “Aircraft engines need to be serviced regularly to make sure they’re in peak operating condition and to make repairs when needed.”

Dr. Faidi (middle) and members of his team are moving a sample inside their CT scanner. Image credit: GE Global Research

GE Healthcare recently launched the Health Cloud to help hospitals gather and analyze medical data. It’s powered by Predix, a cloud-based software platform that GE Digital developed for the Industrial Internet. Faidi and his team are now using the same platform to collect deeper insights from the data produced by their inspection scanners. “Just like medical doctors, we want our patients to live healthy, happy and productive lives,” he says. “When the patients are machines that power and transport much of the world, the mission takes on an even greater importance.”

They can study the insides of the part on their monitor. Image credit: GE Global Research

New GE jet engines must pass a litany of hardships on the test stand — from bird strikes to hailstorms — before they get to take to the air.

But even then they are not finished. One of the steps required to win FAA certification actually looks like fun — though the engines might object. It involves flights on GE’s Flying Test Beds. GE has two of them, each one a converted Boeing 747 packed with computers, electronics and other gear. The newer one, which GE acquired in 2011, can safely climb as high as 45,000 feet, some 5,000 feet above maximum cruising altitude.

Earlier this year, when GE was testing LEAP and Passport engines, the engineers invited a photographer in a separate plane to join them for test flights over California’s Sierra Nevada. Take a look at the haul he brought back.

Top Image: GE Aviation acquired its original flying test bed (red stripe) two decades ago. That plane, called Clipper Ocean Spray, was the 16th Boeing 747 ever built and flew for two decades in Pan Am livery. Earlier this year, it was testing the new Passport engine GE developed for Bombardier’s Global 7000 and Global 8000 business jets. Above: GE’s two flying test beds over Sierra Nevada. All image credits: Wolf Air Vectorvision/GE Aviation

A Passport engine on wing of GE’s original flying test bed is powering through tests.

GE flies the planes from its Flight Test Operations Center in Victorville, Calif., located on the edge of the Mojave Desert.

GE bought its new flying test bed (blue tail) from Japan Airlines. After two decades in commercial service, GE spent 14 months puling out seats, rewiring the plane and installing state-of-the art avionics. The first test engine on wing was the next-generation LEAP.

The flying test beds and filled with computers and test equipment. The new plane holds nearly 900 miles of wiring and fiber optic cable.

The cables connect sensors embedded in the engines to rows of computers inside the economy cabin and help engineers analyze terabytes of complex data in flight.

The fiber optic cable will stream digital data from some 1,700 instruments and sensors monitoring thrust, temperature, fuel consumption and other readings from the engine.

The LEAP was developed by CFM International, a joint company between GE and France’s Safran (Snecma). Even though the engine won’t enter service until 2016, it’s already the best selling jet engine in GE’s history. CFM has have received more that 7,000 orders and commitments for the LEAP valued at more than $125 billion.

There will be three versions of the LEAP engine: LEAP-1A for the Airbus A320neo, LEAP-1B for Boeing 737MAX, and LEAP-1C for the Comac C919. It’s the first engine with GE technology that contains 3D-printed parts and components from a groundbreaking material called ceramic matrix composites.

GE engineers reinforced the wing structure of the new test bed, drilled new holes in the fuselage for extra cables and modified the wing leading edge around engine No. 2 (the engine on the left side closest to the body).

The changes will allow engineers to attach to the wing any of the new engines the company is developing, including the giant GE9X engine. With 132 inches in fan diameter, the GE9X is largest jet engine ever designed.

Besides the test engine, the new flying test bed uses GE’s CF6 engines, the same kind that power Air Force One.

GE Chairman and CEO Jeff Immelt says he uses his undergraduate degree in mathematics more often than his Harvard MBA. “I use my math major every day, I don’t use the MBA quite as much,” Immelt told Business Insider’s Henry Blodget at the publication’s IGNITION 2015 conference. “I think most things that are about companies are about problem solving,” Immelt said. “In essence … my intellectual curiosity goes more towards problem solving versus spreadsheets.”

Immelt said he was “curious about everything” and that the “inherent intellectual curiosity around math and physics” allowed him to view every situation as a problem to be solved. “I’ve never lost the passion for that as I’ve grown in my career,” he said.

Listen to Immelt’s talk at IGNITION and to his 2016 Annual Outlook for GE.

With the global market for apps taking off, exports are fast becoming an attractive proposition for U.S. software developers.

There are over 1 million U.S. software developers, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. It’s one of the fastest-expanding job categories in the United States, with projected growth of 22 percent through 2020.

Not all software developers create apps, of course, but it’s clear from even rough estimates that the global market demand for apps continues unabated. The global app economy is expected to reach $143 billion next year, up 170 percent from just four years ago.

A survey by Developer Economics found that North American app developers who export generate more than 60 percent of their revenues from sales in other markets.

Yet less than half of North American app developers currently export. Why?

For smaller, independent designers, there are some significant hurdles to leap. Apps must be marketed in multiple languages and use local social media, so global users can find it through the search terms and platforms they use most. The content must not only be translated into other languages, but also culturally adapted.

For developers gaining serious traction in overseas markets, experts advise surrounding the app with public relations and customer support — that generally means having a local staff and not just a digital presence in the market. Successful apps also require strong intellectual property protections in global markets to make a return.

U.S. developers may be sticking to their backyard because the app business has grown up in the Google and Apple environments. But European and Asian app developers are catching up in global market share and app-related revenues.

Wild West of China

China is the world’s largest smartphone market, providing U.S. app inventors fertile ground. But turning a profit in China is not for the faint of heart. China has many homegrown and nimble app developers who understand local consumers well. In-app purchasing is less common in China, since consumers are accustomed to app stores offering a great deal of digital content for free. China’s app stores also accept paid ads, intensifying competition and dampening the prospects for high returns.

California-based Evernote, which has established an office in Beijing, says it is prepared to invest for the long run, knowing full well that Chinese users aren’t upgrading from free to paid versions at the same rate as users in the U.S.

With Americans spending ever more time on their mobile phones, it’s unclear how aggressively U.S. developers will grow their overseas presence. But the app market may soon become a new frontline in international trade, as global appetite appears insatiable.

(Top image: Courtesy of OSTILL, iStock Editorial)

Andrea Durkin is Principal of Sparkplug, a consulting and advisory firm based in Washington, D.C.

All views expressed are those of the author.

GE Chairman and CEO Jeff Immelt took over Studio 8H inside New York’s 30 Rockefeller Plaza this afternoon to give his annual vision for the company in 2016 today. Addressing a crowd of investors and analysts who packed the theater – best known as the set of Saturday Night Live – Immelt outlined the steps he’s made to turn GE into the world’s largest digital industrial company. “We’re the only company that will have the machines, analytics and operating systems,” he said. “That’s how we’ll play the Industrial Internet.”Immelt said GE’s acquisition of Alstom’s energy and grid business, the largest industrial acquisition in its history, added to the company’s industrial strength and provided an opportunity to connect GE’s digital services to Alstom’s global industrial footprint. He also said GE was ahead of its plan to sell most of GE Capital’s assets and exit the majority of banking operations.

GE’s biggest task in 2016 will be to “keep executing on the digital industrial strategy,” Immelt stressed.  Here’s a look at some key milestones from 2015 and cornerstones for 2016:

Portfolio transformation:

GE Capital said it would sell assets valued at $200 billion by the end of 2017. As of today, the company has closed transactions valued at more than $100 billion and signed transactions valued at $154 billion. GE Capital also successfully completed the $20.4 billion public offering of Synchrony Financial. The deal will allow GE to return more than $90 billion to shareholders through dividends and share buybacks. But the company will still provide jet engine and infrastructure  financing for projects like the Caithness Moxie Freedom power plant in Pennsylvania, which will use a pair of America’s largest and most efficient gas turbines. The turbines, called 7HA, were developed by GE and like other GE technology, they can be connected to the Industrial Internet.

Last fall GE acquired the energy and grid business of Alstom , including Alstom’s huge Haliade offshore wind turbines shown above. Alstom was GE’s largest acquisition ever. Their combined power generation assets can now supply with energy 30 percent of the world. 

GE also launched GE Digital, the foundation for its transformation into the world’s largest digital industrial company. The new unit will work closely with all GE businesses and help them and their customers take advantage of the Industrial Internet. One new solution is the digital power plant  complete with the physical plant’s “digital twin.” The digital power plant will help operators reduce costs and predict problems before they lead to unplanned downtime.

In October, the company announced Current– a startup that combines energy hardware with digital intelligence. Current’s intelligent LED street lamps can already see and hear things and measure air quality.

GE can move fast because of the GE Store, which allows it to quickly transfer technology, expertise, talent, and culture across its global industrial businesses. The store holds next-generation components like silicon carbide chips. They will have applications in energy, aviation, healthcare and many other industries.

Transforming the World:

Last spring, as Egypt faced a record-breaking heat wave, GE supplied the country with turbines and other technology capable of generating 2.6 gigawatts of electricity.

The company also signed $2.6 billion deal to supply 1,000 trains to India. In 2015, GE unveiled the Evolution Series Tier 4 locomotive , the first freight train engine that meets the U.S. government’s strict Tier 4 emission standards.

A Vietnam Airlines Boeing 787 Dreamliner powered by a pair of GEnx engines.

GE Aviation won $35 billion in orders and commitments at airshows in Paris and Dubai.

GE also launched Predix, a cloud-based software platform for the Industrial Internet and opened it to outside developers. Predix is similar to iOS or Android, but built for machines. The platform allows developers to write apps for everything from CT and MRI scanners (above) to jet engines and help move GE, its customers and partners into the digital industrial era.

GE Healthcare launched the Predix-powered Health Cloud in November. The cloud and apps will help doctors diagnose and treat everything from stroke to diabetes and transform healthcare.

Subscribe to GE’s investor newsletter for more GE financial news. You can watch the replay of GE’s Annual Outlook Investor Meeting here.

Nobody wants to be told they are going to die. Yet that’s the prognosis Wayne Eskridge received from his doctors in 2010. The diagnosis was a stage-four case of cirrhosis of the liver. As he and his family despaired over the future, he received another medical opinion, saying this time that he was fine with no liver disease. He was counting his blessings, but later the emotional rollercoaster took another dive when the diagnosis reversed once more. “Over a period of four years I was told I was seriously ill and then told I was not and later I was told that I had a progressive liver disease caused by iron,” Eskridge said from his home in Boise, Idaho. “I did not know where I stood, but I gave seven liters of blood to treat the iron problem. Later that diagnosis was judged to also be wrong. I felt the information I was getting was insufficient but didn’t know where to turn. It’s a journey that drove my wife and me crazy.”

Eskridge’s nightmare finally ended in 2014 when a new MRI scan aided the doctors in their diagnosis of nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) – a “silent” liver disease afflicting people who drink little or no alcohol. Eskridge now knows he has stage-three/four cirrhosis — an advancing case of liver disease, but not necessarily a fatal diagnosis. He believes his prognosis would be better had he been diagnosed four years earlier.

Top and above: A 16 year old obese patient with elevated liver enzymes and fatty liver infiltration on ultrasound and MR. The MR elastography (MR Touch) was performed to evaluate tissue stiffness prior to a planned biopsy. The MRE showed normal liver stiffness, indicating the presence of simple steatosis, but no fibrosis or inflammation. The biopsy was cancelled. Image credit: GE Healthcare

Doctors performed an MRI scan with an imaging technique called MR-Touch. MR-Touch is a medical imaging technique that provides an elastogram – a color-coded anatomical image showing varying degrees of elasticity or stiffness in soft tissue which then aids the clinicians in their diagnosis of disease. In this case it was liver disease. GE developed MR-Touch in partnership with the Mayo Clinic. It can capture the image in just 14 seconds, a short time for most patients to hold their breath.

Eskridge’s liver trouble began in December 2010, after surgery to remove his gangrenous gallbladder. The initial diagnosis was based on obvious liver damage observed by his surgeon. A subsequent biopsy showed no liver disease, a finding that made little sense. That started Eskridge on his tortuous four-year journey of back-and-forth visits to primary care physicians, gastroenterologists and hematologists. He underwent a battery of tests, including blood draws, ultrasounds, biopsies and MRIs, and received diagnoses ranging from no liver disease to hemochromatosis — too much iron in the body resulting in stage 4 cirrhosis.

“We had several years of trying to figure out what was going on and not being successful,” he says. Frustrated, the 73-year-old engineer, who runs an online lighting business, went so far as to take a pathology course online at Tufts University to learn more about his liver.

MR Touch assesses the stiffness of a patient’s liver and is especially valuable in evaluating and assisting the clinician in their treatment plan for fatty liver disease. Image credit: GE Healthcare

In 2014, Eskridge’s liver mystery was solved when he and his wife, Rosemary, met Dr. Michael Charlton of Salt Lake City, who prescribed an MR-Touch scan that assisted the clinicians in their diagnosis of NASH and visualized the extent of the liver damage. NASH is difficult to detect because most patients are asymptomatic and don’t have high risk factors.

Eskridge believes that if he had not been diagnosed by his clinician using the MR-Touch imaging technique his disease likely would have progressed to a fatal stage-four case of cirrhosis. He now has hopes — and a fighting chance — of stopping the disease.

He’s keeping himself healthy through lifestyle changes, including increased exercise, weight loss and the elimination of harmful saturated fats. He instead consumes significant amounts of unsaturated fats in extra-virgin olive oil and liver-supportive supplements as part of a restricted Mediterranean diet — things he says he would have done earlier had doctors correctly diagnosed his illness. “Had I had the same counsel after my 2010 surgery, I probably would not be at stage-three/four cirrhosistoday,” he says.

At least 30 million people in the United States — one in 10 — have some form of liver disease. Medical imaging techniques like MR-Touch and new cloud-based software that precisely highlight what clinicians need to see for them to effectively treat liver disease could mean more precise care for patients and productivity for clinicians.

“Absent better diagnostic tools, my doctors did all that I could ask of them. My story is not unique as many people have silent liver disease. It’s a problem that may become more common as my generation, with our industrialized diet and poor habits, gets older,” Eskridge says.

Already the MR-Touch imaging technique and GE software called FlightPlan for Liver are helping doctors treat liver cancer. Previously, liver cancer was particularly difficult to deal with because the liver’s complex vascular structure made it hard for doctors to find which blood vessels fed a tumor. Using MR-Touch and the software, surgeons now have more detailed imaging to help them prepare for an embolization to surgically block blood vessels feeding a tumor.

Without sensible water prices, industry has no incentive to innovate and conserve.

Industrial users are not paying enough for water. The same goes for farmers, commercial businesses, municipal residents — and every other user group.

The way we price water in the United States may have made sense historically when water was abundant, but it makes no sense in the 21st century. It undermines our water security, creates a tragedy of the commons problem and impedes access to water for new and expanding businesses. Ironically, it drives up the cost of water, as water suppliers chase innovative but expensive alternatives to diverting surface water and pumping groundwater.

In the United States, we take water for granted because we enjoy the cheapest water rates in the world, excepting only Canada. When homeowners or apartment dwellers turns on the tap, out comes as much water as they want for less than they pays for cell phone service or cable television.

The truth is that no one pays for water. We pay only for the cost of service. If a residential, commercial or industrial user gets water from a municipal water department or from a private utility regulated by the state public utility commission, the money paid for water merely offsets the expenses incurred by the water provider to deliver it.

Most industries “self supply” water, meaning that they get water from a nearby river or from a groundwater well. In these situations, the companies directly pay the costs to divert, pump, treat and dispose of the water they use. But whether the water is self supplied or provided, there is no commodity charge for the water.

Even worse, for some domestic, agricultural and industrial users, there are no meters to measure their water consumption. Users pay a flat fee, often at a deep discount to the replacement cost of the water they consume. And some cities use decreasing block rates, with the price paid per unit of water declining as consumption increases. These pricing practices obviously incentivize wasteful consumption.

Can Water Pricing Unleash Innovation?

Even though water rates have not provided industrial users an incentive to conserve, industrial water use has declined significantly. Use fell by 12 percent in the five years leading up to 2010, according to the latest report by the U.S. Geological Survey. One driver behind this reduction was the Great Recession, which resulted in lower industrial production.

But industry also achieved greater efficiencies in industrial processes and placed more emphasis on water reuse and recycling. These two factors reflected, in part, efforts to reduce the costs of regulatory compliance. Mandates under the Clean Water Act, for example, have incentivized utilities and other businesses to devise ways to use less water which, in turn, means the companies have less water they need to treat onsite in order to comply with their federal permits.

The same phenomenon has occurred in the residential sector. E.P.A. standards for appliances from toilets to showerheads are gradually reducing the water used in homes and apartments. Government rules and regulations have played a significant role in reducing industrial and municipal water use.

Still, our water supplies are under stress. Population growth is a major factor, as is internal migration. People continue to move in the United States from where the water is to where it isn’t. As the impact of climate change becomes increasingly obvious, it becomes a national priority to mitigate the risks of water shortages.

The optimal tool in water suppliers’ portfolios of policy alternatives is to price water sensibly. Let’s create a life-line rate to protect access to water for basic needs and tiered rates for uses above that threshold. Not only would higher water rates encourage consumers, farmers and industry to conserve water, they would also unleash the creative impulse to drive innovations in water management, measurement and infrastructure.

As I travel around the United States, I often meet engineers and inventors who have built better water mousetraps. Their devices work. But what is so sad is that virtually none of these individuals has a viable business plan. The price of water is so low that homeowners, farmers and industrial users have little incentive to adopt new technologies.

Sitting on the shelf in labs around the world are drawings and models just waiting to be rolled out for commercial adoption. What is needed to bring these inventions and technologies to market are the right price signals.

(Top image: Credit: David McNew, Getty Images)

Robert Glennon is Regents’ Professor and Morris K. Udall Professor of Law and Public Policy at the University of Arizona. His books include: “Unquenchable: America’s Water Crisis and What To Do About It.”

All views expressed are those of the author.

As aging nuclear reactors require increased maintenance, and even shut down completely, the strain on their production is being felt far beyond the energy industry: inside oncology and cardiac clinics. But help is on the way.

Every year, doctors order as many as 40 million medical imaging scans that require a radioactive isotope called technetium-99m (Tc-99m). The scans help them diagnose cancer, heart disease and other serious maladies.

Tc-99m comes from molybdenum-99 (Mo-99), another isotope. Mo-99 is typically produced in nuclear reactors, but many of those reactors are working beyond their planned life spans, going offline and at times causing shortages that can severely delay medical imaging scans.

Moreover, the United States, which accounts for half of the world’s demand for Mo-99, imports all of its Mo-99 from reactors abroad. The reliance on isotopes from only a few reactors around the world has made the Mo-99 supply chain a delicate one. The end result: a steadily growing need to find alternative sources of Mo-99.

Above: The mineral molybdenite. Top: A decommissioned cooling tower of a nuclear power plant. Images credit: Shutterstock

GE Healthcare and SHINE Medical Technologies have done just that: they tested and verified a new way to manufacture Mo-99. Jan Makela, general manager of core imaging for GE Healthcare, and his team went out to the industry to find another source of Mo-99 that could help break through the bottleneck. SHINE answered with an innovative new way to produce Mo-99 in the United States, without relying on a nuclear reactor. The GE Healthcare team shipped in SHINE’s Mo-99 and tested it by processing it inside GE Healthcare DRYTEC generators to yield Tc-99m.

The team then used the Tc-99m to prepare two finished radiopharmaceuticals, confirming that SHINE’s Mo-99 could be an alternative source for their production.

Here’s why it matters: When a batch of Mo-99 arrives at a hospital or nuclear pharmacy, it decays to the medically usable isotope Tc-99m. Doctors then prepare imaging agents compounded with Tc-99m for injection into the body to highlight organs or specific parts of the body using medical equipment such as SPECT (single-photon emission computed tomography) cameras. These imaging procedures can assist in assessing heart disease or determining the stage of bone cancer progression by highlighting abnormalities picked up by the scan.

With a relatively short shelf life — 2.75 days for Mo-99, and only six hours for Tc-99m — suppliers must quickly manufacture, ship and deliver generators to make sure that patients can get the scans they need. There’s no “stocking up” of these materials to prepare for future shortages, so delays in production immediately impact the healthcare facilities that need a continuous supply. “Our customers — clinics, hospitals and imaging specialists — rely on a secure supply of technetium-99m from Mo99 to make sure that they can conduct important diagnostic imaging scans their patients need,” Makela said. “We are working hard to make this key isotope readily available and cost-effective for them.”

An image of the molybdenum atom. Image credit: Shutterstock

SHINE’s alternative Mo-99 can be integrated into today’s current Tc-99m production methods without making changes to the process. The company is expected to begin commercial production in 2019 using this new process, and expects to be able to produce enough Mo-99 to supply two-thirds of the country’s need.

A worker with Drytec generators. Image credit: GE Healthcare

A room filled with Drytec generators. Image credit: GE Healthcare

It’s hard to imagine, but there was a time when GE still needed to sell the general public on the value of artificial illumination. So it made sense for the company to devote an episode of the General Electric Fantasy Hour to a show about a little reindeer who saves the day with his bright red nose.

Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, still a staple of holiday TV, pranced onto the screen half a century ago with help from GE executive William Sahloff. He likely didn’t know that, just a couple of years earlier, a GE engineer had invented the red LED in the company’s labs.

Sahloff was the vice president of the company’s Housewares division and saw the TV special as a chance to hawk the company’s wares – note that the elves are wrapping up GE hair driers, vacuum cleaners, can openers and other household goods.

But he also wanted to promote the work of a friend.

Before he joined GE, Sahloff was a marketing executive with the mail order catalog Montgomery Ward. One of his copy writers, Robert May, came up with the Rudolph character and Sahloff started using him in Montgomery Ward’s Christmas brochures from 1939 until 1946.

The company also gave May the copyright to the most famous reindeer of all and Sahloff encouraged the writer to promote the story in print and on records.

Rudolph’s big TV breakthrough came on December 6, 1964. Sahloff, who had moved to GE, created the Christmas Spectacular to celebrate the reindeer’s 25^th anniversary.

He was so adamant about the show’s potential that he convinced Rankin Bass, the show’s producer, to bump the General Electric College Bowl football game from prime time until after the premiere. The rest is history.

Building a house or renovating an apartment typically involves brute force and noise, frayed nerves, busted budgets and, sometimes, poisoned relations with neighbors. But homeowners in Japan can now rely on software-enabled technology to take out some of the pain.

“Remodeling requires many specific capabilities and techniques, like how to install units without affecting other rooms; or, the ability to control construction noise and vibration,” says Isao Hihara of LIXIL, the Japanese manufacturer of housing materials and equipment. “Sometimes [you need] a team that can say, for example, ‘Let’s use a crane from the narrow alley to load the bathtub into the upper story.’”

Earlier this year, LIXIL Total Service, a subsidiary that handles installation and maintenance of LIXIL products — everything from bathtubs to high-tech toilets — started using Predix, GE’s cloud-based software platform developed for the Industrial Internet. Typically, Predix handles data generated by jet engines, gas turbines, CT scanners and other big machines. But the versatile platform can handle most professional tasks. LIXIL uses it to schedule and dispatch the right team to the correct job at the optimal time.

Top and above: A LIXIL bathroom. Images credit: LIXIL

That’s more complicated than it sounds. There are more than 13 million people living in Tokyo and Hihara says that LIXIL’s branch in the Japanese capital receives orders for some 1,000 bathroom jobs per month. The office has about 50 work teams, each specializing in a different aspect of construction. The mathematical possibilities of who should be where and when can quickly grow astronomical.

That’s where Predix comes in. Last fall, the Japanese telecom and Internet corporation Softbank became the first strategic global partner to license Predix. This year, LIXIL, GE and SoftBank developed a Predix-based app called Job Scheduler that assigns the optimal team for each construction site depending on certain conditions. They include site location, timeframe, past experience in handling a particular product, ability to use special machines and having skills that match the difficulty of the work. “Whether it was defining the ideal process or developing the user interface, we made sure that we always thought from the perspective of the customer and users,” says Keisuke Toda of GE Digital.

LIXIL has about 50 work teams in Tokyo, each specializing in a different aspect of construction. The mathematical possibilities of who should be where and when can quickly grow astronomical. Image credit: LIXIL

Predix also keeps gathering data, learning from it and keeping tabs on the accomplishments and skill levels of each construction team. The goal is to prevent construction schedule delays and reduce costs. To date, the app is in being used by LIXIL’s remodeling group and the company hopes to roll it out to other teams in the future.

Says GE Japan’s Tetsuya Nakamura, who leads the collaboration with SoftBank: “In the coming age, the Industrial Internet and software analytics will transform society and the economy in ways that will go beyond our imaginations.” In Japan, the transformation can start in your bathroom.

John Flannery, GE Healthcare’s chief executive officer, told the Financial Times that when he started his job last year, he “didn’t come with a mandate to do big M&A.” Instead, Flannery, who held many different GE jobs during his 27 years with the company, said he would be focusing on organic growth. He’s taking advantage of GE’s digital industrial transformation and the GE Store, the idea of applying the knowledge from one GE business across other units to speed up innovation and product development.

GE Healthcare has been primarily known for its imaging machines like MRI and CT scanners. “There will always be a need for imaging — if anything it’s going to grow as we have more testing and diagnostics in an ageing population,” Flannery told the FT earlier this week. “But it’s important we don’t just remain a technology box company selling pixels.”

That’s why Flannery introduced the GE Health Cloud earlier this month at the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA), the medical imaging industry’s largest trade show. Built on GE’s cloud-based software platform, Predix, the health cloud is designed to be an ecosystem connecting software, hardware and medical devices. It will host data and also help doctors and clinicians collaborate and compare notes and insights as easily as using a social network. Read more about the GE Health Cloud here.

Explore some of the more thought-provoking opinions and lively debates among contributors to our Perspectives section over the past year.

As 2015 draws to a close, it’s time to look back at some of the technological innovations and global challenges that sparked discussion and debate among thought leaders around the world — including on GE Reports.

In the Perspectives section, we featured the opinions of dozens of leaders from across industry, government, academia and the nonprofit world. We explored everything from the impact of trade and globalization, the future of work and industry, the challenges of achieving sustainable energy and water policies, and the promise and peril of artificial intelligence and cyborg technology. And the new debate platform fostered lively discussions around such timely topics as how technology is impacting humans, how the Internet of Things will evolve, and what role natural gas should play in a low-emissions energy future.

Here are 15 of the top Perspectives of 2015:

1. Jeffrey R. Immelt: The Importance of Growth

U.S. businesses are fighting an economic war for exports, says Jeffrey R. Immelt, chairman and CEO of GE. We need market access and tools to compete and win. (Image: Thinkstock)

2. Amb. Michael Froman: If We Don’t Write the Rules of the Global Economy, Others Will

America is at a crossroads in the world economy, says Michael Froman, the U.S. Trade Representative. If we don’t take the lead in writing the economic rules of the road through trade agreements like the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), other countries will. (Image: David Teran)

3. Dr. Tom Frieden: Protecting the World from the Next Pandemic

It wasn’t just luck that the Ebola epidemic didn’t spread once it reached Lagos, says Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Here’s what other countries can learn from Nigeria’s effective response. (Image: CDC)

4. Marco Annunziata: The Industrial App Economy Is Ready for Its Download

The industrial app economy will spur innovation by enabling a more seamless environment for people and machines to work smarter and more efficiently together, says Marco Annunziata, chief economist and executive director of Global Market Insight at GE. (GIF: GE)

5. Steve Bolze: Investing in the Future of Electricity

The world is in the midst of a major power shift, says Steve Bolze, president and CEO of GE Power & Water and co-Chair of the WEF Energy Utilities & Energy Technology community. Not political power, but actual electricity power being generated by an increasingly diverse and distributed range of sources — from natural gas to renewables. (GIF: GE)

6. Debate: What Role Should Natural Gas Play in Improving Access to Energy?

In a debate over the role of natural gas in improving access to energy for all, Charles McConnell, executive director of the Rice University Energy and Environment Initiative, argues that while renewable energy is important, natural gas is the key to improving access and sustainability. However, John Rogers, senior analyst at the Union of Concerned Scientists, says that while gas may have a supporting role to play in our transition to a low-carbon energy future, renewables and efficiency are the real stars. (Image: Getty Images)

7. Debate: Is Africa Still Rising?

There has been much talk of late about Africa’s growth potential. In the latest Perspectives debate, we consider Is Africa Still Rising? On one side, Simon Freemantle, senior political economist at Standard Bank, considers five elements investors should examine to assess whether growth across African markets is sustainable. On the other side, Alex Vines, head of the Africa Programme at Chatham House, urges us to “look westward” in Africa. (Image: Getty Images)

8. Debate: Are We Headed for One Internet of Things — Or Many?

In this debate over the future of the Internet of Things, Richard Soley, executive director of the Industrial Internet Consortium, says industrial machines equipped with advanced analytics have the potential to transform economic growth and innovation — if they can work together. But Jared Weiner, executive vice president and chief strategy officer of The Future Hunters, argues that despite the promise of the Internet of Things to redefine how we interact with the things around us, the reality may be closer to many competing Intranets of Things — each with its own network of users and products. (Image: Thinkstock)

9. Debate: Will the Integration of Robotics and People Create More Social Inequality?

In this debate, Amal Graafstra, founder and CEO of Dangerous Things, argues that instead of fearing cyborgs such as himself, we should be working toward a future when everyone has access to human-enhancing technologies. James J. Hughes, executive director of the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies, counters that robotics may promise to enhance human capabilities beyond our imagination, but for whom? (Image: Thinkstock)

10. Debate: Is Technology Making Us Less Human?

In this debate, L. Mark Carrier, co-founder and co-director of George Marsh Applied Cognition Laboratory, argues for a new set of social norms for the Internet era to prevent online interactions from doing more harm than good. On the other side, Steve Gullans, managing director at Excel Venture Management, says the pace of innovation may be accelerating, but our ability to adapt to the latest technologies remains undeterred. (Image: Thinkstock)

11. 3D Printing the Soul and Other Ideas From the Final Frontier — Q&A with Adam Steltzner of NASA

The Industrial Internet faces perhaps it’s biggest challenge in space — though also some of the greatest opportunities for breakthroughs in machine-to-machine communication and Big Data analytics, says Adam Steltzner, a fellow at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Chief Engineer of Mars2020. (GIF: NASA)

12. Aneesh Chopra: Startup Government

Beneath the noise of the Obamacare rollout, a quiet revolution was taking place in how government delivers digital services, says Aneesh Chopra, co-founder & executive vice president of Hunch Analytics. (Image: Thinkstock)

13. Driving a 3D-Printed Car Through Manufacturing — Q&A with Jay Rogers of Local Motors

From micro-manufacturing and co-creation to the first 3D-printed car, Jay Rogers, CEO and co-founder of Local Motors, is remaking the manufacturing process. (GIF: Local Motors)

14. Jim Lawton: When Humans and Robots Work Together

When you hear about innovative technological advances that are reshaping industries, chances are you aren’t thinking about a factory floor. Not much has changed there since the first industrial robots were deployed in the 1960s — until now. Jim Lawton, chief product and marketing officer at Rethink Robotics dishes on a new category of automation: collaborative robotics. (GIF: Rethink Robotics)

15. Freya Williams: 6 Reasons Why Green Is the New Black

Freya Williams, CEO, North America for Futerra, has spent a lot of time compiling evidence that brands can both maximize profit and be a force for social good. So what is the business case for sustainability? The answer: a $9 burrito. (GIF: GE)

All views expressed are those of the authors.

GE engineers started lighting the National Christmas Tree in Washington, D.C. in 1963, one year after their colleague Nick Holonyak invented the world’s first visible light-emitting diode (LED).

Today, GE LEDs illuminate not only the First Spruce outside the White House, but also streets in San Diego and Jacksonville. Those cities that have started testing the latest generation of an “intelligent” LED lighting system developed by Current, a new energy startup that GE launched last fall. GE scientists also found a way to make LEDs shine in more vivid colors.

The streetlights are equipped with cameras, microphones and other sensors. They stream sound, images and data over the Industrial Internet to Predix, GE’s cloud-based software platform. Apps built on Predix can help cities optimize traffic, improve parking and even fight crime.

The light bulb and electrical lighting, of course, were been the seminal breakthrough that allowed Thomas Edison and his partners grow GE into a global industrial powerhouse. Take a look at the history through the holiday lens.

Early GE Christmas tree lights advertisements. The history of Edison’s Christmas lights goes back to the winter of 1880, when Edison strung a line of electric lights outside his Menlo Park laboratory in New Jersey, enchanting travelers on passing trains. Just two years later, Edward H. Johnson, his partner in the Edison Illumination Company, hung the first string of 80 red, white and blue electric Christmas lights from a revolving tree in the parlor of his New York City home. All images credit: The Schenectady Museum of Innovation and Science.

Electric lights ceased being a novelty item and became more mainstream in 1895, when President Grover Cleveland had the White House family Christmas tree decorated with hundreds of multi-colored electric light bulbs, for the first time. However, it wasn’t until 1903 that GE began selling pre-assembled kits of Christmas lights to the general public. By then, electricity got cheaper and more ubiquitous and the market for electric lighting took off. Above, President Coolidge at the first National Christmas Tree in 1923. Image credit: Library of Congress

A box of Christmas tree lights from 1905. Image credit: The Schenectady Museum of Innovation and Science.

Christmas tree lights soon came in many shapes and colors. The selection above in from 1910. Image credit: The Schenectady Museum of Innovation and Science.

Christmas in 1919. Image credit: Museum of Innovation and Science Schenectady

GE illuminated the National Christmas Tree for 53 consecutive seasons. There are more than 60,000 LEDs on the tree, which stands at President’s Park in Washington, D.C. LEDs use 80 percent less energy than traditional bulbs and can last 20,000 hours. Photo credit: Paul Morigi for the National Park Foundation

New GE jet engines must pass a litany of hardships on the test stand — from bird strikes to hailstorms — before they get to take to the air.

But even then they are not finished. One of the steps required to win FAA certification actually looks like fun — though the engines might object. It involves flights on GE’s Flying Test Beds. GE has two of them, each one a converted Boeing 747 packed with computers, electronics and other gear. The newer one, which GE acquired in 2011, can safely climb as high as 45,000 feet, some 5,000 feet above maximum cruising altitude.

Earlier this year, when GE was testing LEAP and Passport engines, the engineers invited a photographer in a separate plane to join them for test flights over California’s Sierra Nevada. Take a look at the haul he brought back.

Top Image: GE Aviation acquired its original flying test bed (red stripe) two decades ago. That plane, called Clipper Ocean Spray, was the 16th Boeing 747 ever built and flew for two decades in Pan Am livery. Earlier this year, it was testing the new Passport engine GE developed for Bombardier’s Global 7000 and Global 8000 business jets. Above: GE’s two flying test beds over Sierra Nevada. All image credits: Wolf Air Vectorvision/GE Aviation

A Passport engine on wing of GE’s original flying test bed is powering through tests.

GE flies the planes from its Flight Test Operations Center in Victorville, Calif., located on the edge of the Mojave Desert.

GE bought its new flying test bed (blue tail) from Japan Airlines. After two decades in commercial service, GE spent 14 months puling out seats, rewiring the plane and installing state-of-the art avionics. The first test engine on wing was the next-generation LEAP.

The flying test beds and filled with computers and test equipment. The new plane holds nearly 900 miles of wiring and fiber optic cable.

The cables connect sensors embedded in the engines to rows of computers inside the economy cabin and help engineers analyze terabytes of complex data in flight.

The fiber optic cable will stream digital data from some 1,700 instruments and sensors monitoring thrust, temperature, fuel consumption and other readings from the engine.

The LEAP was developed by CFM International, a joint company between GE and France’s Safran (Snecma). Even though the engine won’t enter service until 2016, it’s already the best selling jet engine in GE’s history. CFM has have received more that 7,000 orders and commitments for the LEAP valued at more than $125 billion.

There will be three versions of the LEAP engine: LEAP-1A for the Airbus A320neo, LEAP-1B for Boeing 737MAX, and LEAP-1C for the Comac C919. It’s the first engine with GE technology that contains 3D-printed parts and components from a groundbreaking material called ceramic matrix composites.

GE engineers reinforced the wing structure of the new test bed, drilled new holes in the fuselage for extra cables and modified the wing leading edge around engine No. 2 (the engine on the left side closest to the body).

The changes will allow engineers to attach to the wing any of the new engines the company is developing, including the giant GE9X engine. With 132 inches in fan diameter, the GE9X is largest jet engine ever designed.

Besides the test engine, the new flying test bed uses GE’s CF6 engines, the same kind that power Air Force One.

Building a house or renovating an apartment typically involves brute force and noise, frayed nerves, busted budgets and, sometimes, poisoned relations with neighbors. But homeowners in Japan can now rely on software-enabled technology to take out some of the pain.

“Remodeling requires many specific capabilities and techniques, like how to install units without affecting other rooms; or, the ability to control construction noise and vibration,” says Isao Hihara of LIXIL, the Japanese manufacturer of housing materials and equipment. “Sometimes [you need] a team that can say, for example, ‘Let’s use a crane from the narrow alley to load the bathtub into the upper story.’”

Earlier this year, LIXIL Total Service (LTS), a subsidiary that handles installation and maintenance of LIXIL products — everything from bathtubs to high-tech toilets — started using Predix, GE’s cloud-based software platform developed for the Industrial Internet. Typically, Predix handles data generated by jet engines, gas turbines, CT scanners and other big machines. But the versatile platform can handle most professional tasks. LTS uses it to schedule and dispatch the right team to the correct job at the optimal time.

Top and above: A LIXIL bathroom. Images credit: LIXIL

That’s more complicated than it sounds. There are more than 13 million people living in Tokyo and Hihara says that LTS’s branch in the Japanese capital receives orders for some 1,000 bathroom jobs per month. The office has about 50 work teams, each specializing in a different aspect of construction. The mathematical possibilities of who should be where and when can quickly grow astronomical.

That’s where Predix comes in. Last fall, the Japanese telecom and Internet corporation Softbank became the first strategic global partner to license Predix. This year, LTS, GE and SoftBank developed a Predix-based app called Job Scheduler that assigns the optimal team for each construction site depending on certain conditions. They include site location, timeframe, past experience in handling a particular product, ability to use special machines and having skills that match the difficulty of the work. “Whether it was defining the ideal process or developing the user interface, we made sure that we always thought from the perspective of the customer and users,” says Keisuke Toda of GE Digital.

LIXIL has about 50 work teams in Tokyo, each specializing in a different aspect of construction. The mathematical possibilities of who should be where and when can quickly grow astronomical. Image credit: LIXIL

Predix also keeps gathering data, learning from it and keeping tabs on the accomplishments and skill levels of each construction team. The goal is to prevent construction schedule delays and reduce costs. To date, the app is in being used by LTS’s remodeling group and the company hopes to roll it out to other teams in the future.

Says GE Japan’s Tetsuya Nakamura, who leads the collaboration with SoftBank: “In the coming age, the Industrial Internet and software analytics will transform society and the economy in ways that will go beyond our imaginations.” In Japan, the transformation can start in your bathroom.

Nobody wants to be told they are going to die. Yet that’s the prognosis Wayne Eskridge received from his doctors in 2010. The diagnosis was a stage-four case of cirrhosis of the liver. As he and his family despaired over the future, he received another medical opinion, saying this time that he was fine with no liver disease. He was counting his blessings, but later the emotional rollercoaster took another dive when the diagnosis reversed once more. “Over a period of four years I was told I was seriously ill and then told I was not and later I was told that I had a progressive liver disease caused by iron,” Eskridge said from his home in Boise, Idaho. “I did not know where I stood, but I gave seven liters of blood to treat the iron problem. Later that diagnosis was judged to also be wrong. I felt the information I was getting was insufficient but didn’t know where to turn. It’s a journey that drove my wife and me crazy.”

Eskridge’s nightmare finally ended in 2014 when a new MRI scan aided the doctors in their diagnosis of nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) – a “silent” liver disease afflicting people who drink little or no alcohol. Eskridge now knows he has stage-three/four cirrhosis — an advancing case of liver disease, but not necessarily a fatal diagnosis. He believes his prognosis would be better had he been diagnosed four years earlier.

Top and above: A 16 year old obese patient with elevated liver enzymes and fatty liver infiltration on ultrasound and MR. The MR elastography (MR Touch) was performed to evaluate tissue stiffness prior to a planned biopsy. The MRE showed normal liver stiffness, indicating the presence of simple steatosis, but no fibrosis or inflammation. The biopsy was cancelled. Image credit: GE Healthcare

Doctors performed an MRI scan with an imaging technique called MR-Touch. MR-Touch is a medical imaging technique that provides an elastogram – a color-coded anatomical image showing varying degrees of elasticity or stiffness in soft tissue which then aids the clinicians in their diagnosis of disease. In this case it was liver disease. GE developed MR-Touch in partnership with the Mayo Clinic. It can capture the image in just 14 seconds, a short time for most patients to hold their breath.

Eskridge’s liver trouble began in December 2010, after surgery to remove his gangrenous gallbladder. The initial diagnosis was based on obvious liver damage observed by his surgeon. A subsequent biopsy showed no liver disease, a finding that made little sense. That started Eskridge on his tortuous four-year journey of back-and-forth visits to primary care physicians, gastroenterologists and hematologists. He underwent a battery of tests, including blood draws, ultrasounds, biopsies and MRIs, and received diagnoses ranging from no liver disease to hemochromatosis — too much iron in the body resulting in stage 4 cirrhosis.

“We had several years of trying to figure out what was going on and not being successful,” he says. Frustrated, the 73-year-old engineer, who runs an online lighting business, went so far as to take a pathology course online at Tufts University to learn more about his liver.

MR Touch assesses the stiffness of a patient’s liver and is especially valuable in evaluating and assisting the clinician in their treatment plan for fatty liver disease. Image credit: GE Healthcare

In 2014, Eskridge’s liver mystery was solved when he and his wife, Rosemary, met Dr. Michael Charlton of Salt Lake City, who prescribed an MR-Touch scan that assisted the clinicians in their diagnosis of NASH and visualized the extent of the liver damage. NASH is difficult to detect because most patients are asymptomatic and don’t have high risk factors.

Eskridge believes that if he had not been diagnosed by his clinician using the MR-Touch imaging technique his disease likely would have progressed to a fatal stage-four case of cirrhosis. He now has hopes — and a fighting chance — of stopping the disease.

He’s keeping himself healthy through lifestyle changes, including increased exercise, weight loss and the elimination of harmful saturated fats. He instead consumes significant amounts of unsaturated fats in extra-virgin olive oil and liver-supportive supplements as part of a restricted Mediterranean diet — things he says he would have done earlier had doctors correctly diagnosed his illness. “Had I had the same counsel after my 2010 surgery, I probably would not be at stage-three/four cirrhosistoday,” he says.

At least 30 million people in the United States — one in 10 — have some form of liver disease. Medical imaging techniques like MR-Touch and new cloud-based software that precisely highlight what clinicians need to see for them to effectively treat liver disease could mean more precise care for patients and productivity for clinicians.

“Absent better diagnostic tools, my doctors did all that I could ask of them. My story is not unique as many people have silent liver disease. It’s a problem that may become more common as my generation, with our industrialized diet and poor habits, gets older,” Eskridge says.

Already the MR-Touch imaging technique and GE software called FlightPlan for Liver are helping doctors treat liver cancer. Previously, liver cancer was particularly difficult to deal with because the liver’s complex vascular structure made it hard for doctors to find which blood vessels fed a tumor. Using MR-Touch and the software, surgeons now have more detailed imaging to help them prepare for an embolization to surgically block blood vessels feeding a tumor.