www.siemens.com/pof

Pictures of the FutureThe Magazine for Research and Innovation | Spring 2010

MolecularDetectives

Open Innovation

Far-sighted technologies for buildings and urban infrastructures

Targeting pathogens and pollu-tants with new technologies

Cost-effective, collaborative roads to knowledge

Building Greener Cities

Pictures of the Future | Spring 2010 3

Pictures of the Future

Contents

Open InnovationMolecularDetectives

Green Cities

Sections

112 Scenario 2040 Master of the hanging gardens

114 Trends Urban nature

117 European Green City IndexRanking environmental compatibility

120 Copenhagen Europe’s greenest city

122 Oslo and TrondheimGreen milestones

124 Madrid An alcázar of sustainability

126 Lisbon: Sun, wind, and a tram128 South Africa

Preparing for kickoff130 Vilnius: Baroque pearl in a green ring132 Yekaterinburg: Nyet to waste133 Paris: Fast tracks, bright lights134 Facts and Forecasts

Green cities: A growing market 135 Interview: Paul Pelosi

The president of San Francisco’s Commission on the Environment

36 Interview: Daniel LibeskindA star architect on livable cities

37 Masdar and Abu DhabiA desert full of contrasts

138 ChinaMegacities come of age

142 Interview: Oscar NiemeyerBrazil’s legendary architect on creating the conditions for human dignity

144 SingaporeGreen testbed

146 CO2 RecyclingTurning carbon into cash

149 Vertical FarmsGrowing food where it’s needed

151 Energy ManagementA holistic approach to buildings

152 Organic Light Emitting DiodesWalls of light

154 LED StreetlightsPutting Regensburg in the right light

160 Scenario 2020 Happy forever...

162 Trends Targeting the nano frontier

65 Interview: Dr. Charles M. LieberA Harvard scientist explores the con-vergence of nanoelectronics and cells

166 Identifying Invisible Invaders When the 2009 H1N1 virus struck, Siemens scientists pinpointed the organism’s unique identity

168 Image FusionThe combination of CT and PET supports early detection of cancer

170 Infrared Spectroscopy IR light can be used to detect the quality of coal and the characteristics of cells

172 Environmental SensingSiemens is developing systems designed to download satellite data

174 Cell-Based SensingInnovative sensors can discover danger-ous substances quickly and on the spot

177 Facts and ForecastsDetecting water-based threats

178 Tunnel SecurityRFIDs and thermal imaging identifyrisky vehicles before they enter tunnels

184 Scenario 2020 Unlimited wisdom

186 Trends: Tapping new worlds of ideas 189 Interview: Prof. Dr. Frank Piller

An expert discusses the value of open innovation

190 Soft Tissues Revealed Phase-contrast X-ray imaging

192 All Charged UpIntegrating electric cars into the grid

195 Collaboration with Denmark’s DTU Pollutants in the crosshairs

196 Russia: Innovative IdeasDeveloping technologies with partners

199 Facts and ForecastsHow open innovation affects success

100 Technology-to-Business CentersAmazing ideas from young companies

104 Tongji-University in ShanghaiChina’s model future

105 Nanotechnology 106 Nuclear Fusion: Here comes the sun108 Saudi Arabia’s Newest University

An oasis of education109 Energy Research in the U.S.

CO2’s future underground economy111 C02 Separation:

Winning scrubbing agent

184 Short Takes News from Siemens Labs

186 Interview: Amory Lovins The founder of the Rocky Moun-tain Institute on energy

188 Solar Thermal Power What Solel means for Siemens

157 Prof. Dennis MeadowsIs “Sustainable Development” an Oxymoron?

158 Lord Nicholas SternThe author of the Stern Report on climate protection

180 Drier Dishes with Zeolite Saving energy in the kitchen

181 Green Finance Investing in climate protection

182 Delphi Study 2030 The value of digital data

114 Feedback/Preview

Pictures of the Future | Editorial

Anna Kajumulo Tibaijuka, Executive Di-rector of the United Nations HumanSettlements Programme (UN-HABITAT),summed up a crucial trend of our timewhen she said, “2007 was the year inwhich Homo sapiens became Homo ur-banus.” That year marked the first time inhistory that the number of city dwellerssurpassed the number of people living inrural regions — and the urbanization processis far from over. In Asia alone, the popula-tion of major cities is expected to grow by80 percent by 2030, from 1.6 billion todayto almost 2.7 billion. China already has 175cities with over a million inhabitants, andevery year settlements accommodating an

Dr. Heinrich Hiesinger is CEO of

the Industry Sector and a member

of the Managing Board of Siemens AG.

the company has created the EuropeanGreen City Index (p. 17), which comparesenvironmental friendliness and associatedmeasures in the continent’s 30 most im-portant cities. The Scandinavian cities ofCopenhagen (p. 20), Stockholm, and Oslo(p. 22) top the list, while the eastern Euro-pean city of Vilnius (p. 31) got very goodmarks for its air quality and buildings.

But conurbations outside Europe andChina are also doing pioneering work tocreate sustainable cities for their citizens —in many cases with help from Siemens. Forexample, for many years we have beensupporting the city-state of Singapore’s ef-forts to become a world-class “green” city

Cover: Swinging into tomorrow’sworld — an arch as tall as a 30-storybuilding stretches over the MosesMabhida Stadium in Durban. Shiningbrightly, thanks to 15,000 LEDs fromOsram, it symbolizes the new SouthAfrica and demonstrates the multi-faceted possibilities associated withenergy-efficient urban design.

additional 13 million are literally shootingout of the ground.

The slogan of the EXPO 2010 world fairin Shanghai — “Better City, Better Life” — isthus very appropriate. Only sustainable ur-ban development can ensure that tomor-row’s cities will remain decent places tolive. From May to October 2010, 240 coun-tries, cities, and international organizationswill demonstrate energy-efficient and envi-ronmentally friendly urban solutions toEXPO’s expected 70 million visitors. Noother company can offer as broad a spec-trum of such solutions as Siemens.

Siemens has received orders worth over€1 billion in connection with EXPO 2010.Around 90 percent of this sum is based onenvironmental technology. The orders in-clude 50,000 energy-saving light-emittingdiodes (LEDs) on the EXPO grounds, newmetro lines and parking guidance systems,plus intelligent building technology forbuildings inside and outside the exhibitiongrounds. Siemens also helped to build theWaigaoqiao power plant, which covers al-most one third of Shanghai’s electricity re-quirements and is one of the world’s mostefficient power plants (p. 38).

This issue of Pictures of the Future docu-ments how ultramodern solutions for sus-tainable urban development are being im-plemented all over the world (pp. 12-55).For example, in conjunction with TongjiUniversity in Shanghai, Siemens develops“eco-city models” (p. 104) that will enableurban growth and environmental protec-tion to go hand in hand in China. In Europe,

A Hallmark of Sustainability

2 Pictures of the Future | Spring 2010

(p. 44). Our input includes help with a cen-ter of expertise for urban development andefficient solutions for treating wastewaterand drinking water. Here, we also plan toinaugurate a pilot plant that uses electricalfields to desalinate saltwater in a highly ef-ficient process — and consumes less thanhalf the energy required by the best con-ventional methods.

In South Africa, Siemens is playing a keyrole in modernizing the infrastructure intime for the soccer World Cup (p. 28). Theprojects in which we are participating in-clude communication technology for traf-fic and safety systems, turbines for thepower supply, and thousands of LEDs forthe 350-meter-long arch that rises highabove the Moses Mabhida Stadium in Dur-ban. The latter example demonstrates that“enhanced energy efficiency does not con-flict with a beautiful form of architecture,”as star architect Daniel Libeskind remindsus (p. 36).

His claim is also supported by many ofthe outstanding pavilions at EXPO 2010 inShanghai. The Theme Pavilion, the EXPOCenter, the Culture Center, as well as thegigantic China Pavilion, all have one thingin common: Thanks to ultramodern build-ing technology from Siemens, they con-sume up to 25 percent less energy thanconventional buildings, while their operat-ing costs are cut by up to 50 percent. Afterthe world fair is over, these buildings willremain a hallmark of sustainability that willsymbolize the significance of Shanghai andChina.

86 Tapping New Worlds of IdeasPartnerships are important forcompanies striving to use the latest results of fundamental andapplied research. In addition,firms have recently started to exploit other open innovationmethods. Pages 86, 89.

92 All Charged UpThe Technical University of Denmark (DTU) is one of Siemens’most important partner universi-ties. Priorities of a joint research agenda include ways of integrat-ing electric vehicles into tomor-row’s power grids and new solutions for drinking water processing. Pages 92, 95.

104 China’s Model FutureEvery year, 13 million Chinesemove from rural regions intocities. Shanghai’s Tongji Universityand Siemens are working togetherto develop Eco-City models thatlink environmental protection tourban growth.

108 An Oasis of EducationSiemens has co-founded an in-dustrial collaboration program at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in Saudi Arabia.

109 Underground EconomyWorking with international re-search partners, Siemens is study-ing how CO2 can be separated andcommercially exploited.Pages 109, 111.

Highlights

2020The concept of open innovation was first

conceived about 20 years ago. Today it’s an

essential aspect of the work being done in

research laboratories all over the world. Open

Innovative is a company that specializes in

development projects of all kinds. Managing

director Diego is showing Johannes Quistorp

how the company performs even the most

complex tasks with the help of its knowledge

network and the Internet.

Open Innovation | Scenario 2020

I can only nod at this point, but Diego hasalready started to tell me about his company:“Open Innovative provides companies in everysector with research partnerships and develop-ment solutions of every kind — but of courseyou already know that. To achieve our aims, allwe need are some smart employees, storagespace, and computing power in the cloud — inother words, in virtual space.” I begin to blush.It seems as if my new boss is reading my mind.

Diego leads me to a wing of the villa andplaces his palm against a security panel. The

Unlimited WisdomBrazil 2020: A Brazilian company develops complexsolutions for corporate customers all over the

world. In its operations itcombines the advantages

of a gigantic global knowl-edge network with those of

virtual space. That savestime and money and mini-

mizes risk. A look at IT spe-cialist Johannes Quistorp’s

first day on the job.

Welcome to Open Innovative! I’m Diego,the Managing Director.” A taxi has justdeposited me at the gates of a slightly dilapi-dated beach house, and I can hardly believemy eyes. I’m a recent graduate of an interdisci-plinary program in IT and engineering in Bre-men, Germany, and not long ago I applied for ajob with the global market leader in the area ofopen innovation (OI) in the city of Niterói inBrazil. To my amazement, I immediately gotthe job. Even in this virtual age it’s still goodform to show up in person for a job, so I’ve

flown to Brazil — partly because this countryhas always fascinated me.

I don’t know what I expected the headquar-ters of a global market leader to look like, butthis beach house is a disappointment. Nor did Iimagine I would be meeting a man dressed in aHawaiian shirt, shorts, and flip-flops, but therehe is, slap-slapping his way toward me. Am Ireally in the right place? I did check the addresson the card several times, didn’t I? — But I’mbrought back to the here and now when theman calls out, “You must be Johannes, right?”

84 Pictures of the Future | Spring 2010 Pictures of the Future | Spring 2010 85

Henry Ford was a technology pioneer. Hefounded one of the most successful auto-mobile companies and was the first to introduceassembly line production, which revolutionizedmanufacturing industries. Despite his capacity forinvention, though, Ford was for the most part un-able to develop his ideas alone.

And he recognized this. One of his most fa-mous statements, in fact, was an assertion that“coming together is a beginning; keeping togetheris progress; working together is success.” He tookhis idea for the assembly line, for instance,from the conveyor belt used in Chicago slaugh-terhouses, which required each worker to performonly a few tasks. Ford expanded on this idea forhis own purposes, and the rest, as they say, is his-tory.

Today “working together” is still an effectiveway to accelerate the development of new tech-nologies. And this is especially true for compa-nies whose business success depends on inno-vations. Such companies often have to rely on theexpertise of others, particularly when the work

in question involves the latest findings in basicor applied research.

And naturally, this is true of Siemens aswell. Every year the company enters into over1,000 cooperative projects with universities,research institutes, and industrial partners in aneffort to strengthen its portfolio of innovationsfor the long term.

In the Energy Sector, for example, Siemens isdeveloping the technology for carbon dioxide cap-ture in power plants, and is striving to make itready for commercial use in collaboration withenergy suppliers in Germany and Finland andwell-known research institutes in the Netherlands(see p. 111).

At the same time, Siemens is testing the in-tegration of electric cars into the power grid withseveral companies, as well as Denmark Techni-cal University (DTU) in Copenhagen. Here, the ob-jective is to get electric cars hooked up to sock-ets as soon as possible so they can be used as astorage medium for fluctuating quantities of wind-generated electric power (see p. 92).

Meanwhile, in the healthcare sector, Siemensis working with partners to develop new types ofphase-contrast X-ray systems that can render alarge variety of soft tissues in minute detail — animprovement that makes diagnoses more precise(see p. 90).

At Siemens Corporate Technology (CT) aspecialized department focuses on the vital in-terface between the company and its universi-ty collaborators. The department coordinates thework carried out with partners, including activ-ity parameters. “Together with our strategicproject partners, we want to move innovationsforward,” explains Department Head Dr. NataschaEckert. “Our principal task in that regard is to workwith the Siemens Sectors and Corporate Tech-nology to constantly identify new opportunitiesand forms of collaboration with universities.”

The University as Partner. Siemens thusforges links worldwide with top universities,for example by entering into strategic partner-ships with them. The aim is to pursue researchtogether, encourage talent, and establish net-works. With this in mind, Siemens has set upso-called “Centers of Knowledge Interchange”(CKIs) on the campuses of a number of univer-sities (see Pictures of the Future, Fall 2006,p. 66). “Each CKI is supervised by a Siemens-paid key account manager at the university,”says Eckert. “This person coordinates coopera-tive work locally, identifies partners, organizesworkshops, and nominates students forSiemens programs for scholars.” Siemens cur-rently operates eight CKIs, which are located atMunich Technical University, Berlin TechnicalUniversity, and the RWTH Aachen in Germany;at DTU in Copenhagen; at Tsinghua Universityin Beijing and Tongji University in Shanghai; aswell as in the U.S. at the Massachusetts Insti-tute of Technology (MIT) in Boston, and theUniversity of California, Berkeley.

CKIs reflect the technologies and markets thathave a promising future for Siemens,” saysEckert. In addition to its expertise in renewableenergies research, DTU, for example, is alsoengaged in research with Siemens focused onmembrane technologies for water treatment (seep. 95). Munich Technical University contributesits expertise in the field of health care technol-ogy for the development of phase-contrast X-raysystems. And scientists at the prestigious TongjiUniversity in Shanghai are working with Siemenson the development of “eco-city” models. It ishoped that these models will help to reconcilethe extraordinarily rapid growth of Chinesecities with environmental protection needs (seep. 104).

Of course, these cooperative projects bene-fit not just Siemens but also its partners. Scien-

Pictures of the Future | Spring 2010 87

As Siemens strengthens its portfolio for the long term

with some 1,000 cooperative projects a year, the com-

pany and its partners at universities around the world

gain insights from each other’s fields of expertise.

| Trends

Tapping New Worlds of IdeasPotentially, game-changing innovationsare everywhere. Theyare hidden in the mindsof employees and cus-tomers and in projects atuniversities and researchinstitutes. Tapping thesesources is somethingemployers are doing toan ever increasing ex-tent. As they do so, theyare opening the doors oftheir labs, exchangingideas with external part-ners, and creating aworld of synergies.

86 Pictures of the Future | Spring 2010

Open Innovation | Scenario 2020

door opens and we enter a room with a roundtable standing in the center. “This is our show-room,” explains Diego. He presses a button,which causes a three-dimensional hologram torise up out of the table. The hologram shows astrange structure that seems to be a confusedtangle of connected points and lines. “This isour trump card,” Diego tells me proudly. “It’sour gigantic knowledge network. Each of thesetens of thousands of points stands for an ama-teur inventor, a scientist or a complete re-search institute that has registered on our In-ternet platform and will make its knowledgeavailable upon request. The countless linesshow how all of these points are communicat-ing with one another. The center of the struc-ture is our company, because this is where allthe communications ultimately meet.”

“What’s actually new about that?” I interject.“Internet service providers have been applyingthis principle for years.” Diego nods in agree-ment. “You’re right, but our services go far be-yond those offered by other OI providers. Wedon’t just help our customers to find individualsolutions for various small problems. We alsooffer them the option of having us developcomplete solutions of every kind for them.” Hemakes a steering movement and a camerathat’s hidden somewhere obviously interpretsit correctly, as the hologram of a virtual labora-tory immediately appears. “I’ll show you a cur-rent example,” says Diego. “The United Nationshas commissioned us to take models of eco-cities — in other words, plans for sustainableurban development with customized infra-structures — and to transfer them to virtualspace in a way that is true to life. Then we haveto harmonize their individual elements, suchas transportation, water supply, and buildingtechnology, with one another down to thesmallest detail and optimize their efficiency.Urban growth and environmental protectionshould go hand in hand.”

Diego once again makes a hand movementthat resembles turning a page in a book, andthe hologram shows some new details. “Aswith every commission, the customer sent usdetailed requirements, including the maxi-mum costs for materials and operation. We fedthese figures into our knowledge network —including the amount of the award that will begranted for the best solutions. At that point weopened up a virtual laboratory on the Internet,as we do for every one of our projects. De-pending on the complexity of the order andthe knowledge they can contribute, individualOpen Innovators who have registered with uscan then log into these virtual labs, no matterwhere they are located. Our innovators can getthe virtual components they need for their

work from an online database of products andprocessing techniques. This is where we alsostore information about the customer’s re-quirements. In the case of eco-cities, this infor-mation includes 3D models of individual infra-structure elements, including prices, theweather parameters of various regions, andthe green requirements that must be fulfilledby construction materials. Using this informa-tion, our researchers can build up true-to-lifemodels of everything in virtual space within afew weeks, test it, and optimize it.”

It’s clear to me how enthusiastic Diego isabout these processes. “A particular highlightof this project was the infrastructure we creat-ed for the eco-cities,” he continues. “We had tointegrate large and small power plants, renew-able energies, electric automobiles, storagedevices for heat and cold, smart buildings, andthousands of electric meters. Then we had tosimulate consumer behavior in the region andconnect the system up with further new solu-tions that we had developed in secondary proj-ects.”

He points to parts of the hologram. “For ex-ample, major research institutes in Russia con-tributed their latest synthesis gas turbines, anda U.S. university had just developed a highlyefficient method of CO2 separation for thistype of turbine. A brilliant architect fromMadagascar suggested to us how we could usecaptured greenhouse gas to boost harvests inthe agricultural areas he had built into hisgreen high-rises. As you see, these are all verycomplex aspects that we have to optimizethrough the interaction of our worldwide ex-perts. To make sure all these interactions pro-ceed smoothly and that creativity and produc-tivity go hand in hand, we need ouradministrators. And that’s exactly the job wewant you to do. As part of a virtual team, youcan of course do your work on any computeranywhere in the world.”

Diego notices that I can hardly wait to startmy new job, and he decides to slow down myenthusiasm just a bit. “We’re going to start youoff on an easy project. A hospital operator islooking for a university to work with on a pilotproject involving knowledge databases for car-diovascular diseases. So we’re going to launchan ideas competition in which universities cansubmit their concepts to our network. You’regoing to coordinate that project.”

Diego then adds with a smile, “But first, asyour new boss I have to find out if you knowhow to surf.” I look at him in amazement. Helaughs and points to the wall at the other endof the room. “I don’t mean surfing the Inter-net!” he exclaims. “Grab a surfboard — we’reoff to the beach!” Sebastian Webel

Lackner hopes to pursue open innovationmethods further within Siemens as well, becausethey provide a vehicle for discussing futuretrends with large numbers of employees and toalso identify the best ideas. Another two-monthidea competition is therefore set to start in midApril, and will be dedicated to the topic of sus-tainability. Says Lackner: “No matter how differ-ent the individual OI methods may be, they haveone thing in common. They complement tradi-tional research and development by integratingthe creativity and expertise of many peopleinto the innovation process. They thereforebroaden the R&D horizon in a relatively simpleway.” Sebastian Webel

Pictures of the Future | Spring 2010 89

Prof. Frank Piller, 40, hasheld the Chair in Technol-ogy and Innovation Man-agement at RWTH Aachen,Germany, since 2007. Prof.Piller received his doctor-ate in business administra-tion in Würzburg and ledthe Customer Driven ValueCreation research group atMunich’s Technical Univer-sity. Until his appointmentin Aachen, he was a Re-search Fellow at the SloanSchool of Management atthe Massachusetts Insti-tute of Technology inBoston, Massachusetts.

Who practices open innovation?Piller: Often it’s companies that lack a largecorporation’s development capacity. But bigcompanies have discovered OI too. HewlettPackard (HP), for example, runs its own OIplatform on the web — the “Idea Lab.” With its“Emotionalize your Light” idea competition,Osram generated new design ideas for lampsand created a best practice in Germany. Buteven if used internally, OI can represent agreat opportunity, especially for companiesthat operate worldwide and have lots of in-house expertise — like Siemens. In this casethere aren’t any problems with confidentialityor patents because everything stays within thecompany. Researchers from a wide variety ofdepartments who might otherwise nevermeet can use OI to pool their knowledge andquite easily create synergy effects. At present,only a few companies are making use of thisOI potential in a systematic way.

Can OI replace the traditional in-houseapproach to development? Piller: No, OI will complement the traditionalapproach by offering very efficient develop-ment alternatives. It will probably take severalyears before it becomes firmly embedded ininnovation processes. It’s the same as withmany new approaches to management —they’re discussed with great enthusiasm andthen not implemented on a broad basis forfive or ten years.

Interview by Sebastian Webel

What is open innovation?Piller: “OI” represents a completely new way to organize the innovation process. In-stead of a company relying exclusively on itsown R&D capabilities, it calls upon the assis-tance of external problem-solvers and inte-grates them into the innovation process. As aresult, developers use the outside world to enhance their potential for innovation. In thisway, companies acquire expertise and solu-tions without huge expenditures. This appliesto B2B as well as to consumer products. Com-panies use OI to ensure that their productsmeet the needs of customers, thereby lower-ing the risk of flops. They specifically ask whatcustomers want, or they might even activelyinclude them in the development of a product— for instance with traditional idea competi-tions.

Doesn’t OI endanger the intellectualproperty rights of the developer?Piller: OI operates within the existing patent-ing process as long as the rules of the proce-dure are properly defined, such as with non-disclosure agreements or waivers of rights. Butcompanies aren’t the only ones to have theseconcerns. Today most amateur inventors areglad to be actively involved in the develop-ment of a product, in exchange for waivingrights. But over time, they will become moreassertive, and a company will then have to al-low them to enjoy a share in the success of aproduct.

explains Prof. Piller. Nevertheless, he believes thatcompanies will never expose all their expertiseto outsiders, in part because of the issue of patentprotection. In his opinion, OI will therefore onlysupplement the classic approach of in-house de-velopment instead of replacing it.

OI specialist Lackner is planning to bring abouteven greater integration of the various open in-novation tools at Siemens. The success thatSiemens has so far enjoyed with OI makes himconfident. In February 2010 the company wasranked second for its knowledge managementand its OI activities in the European Most AdmiredKnowledge Enterprises (MAKE) study by inter-national market research firm Teleos. This marks

the sixth time since 2001 that Siemens has beenamong MAKE’s top finalists. Lackner is nowconsidering organizing new idea competitions atBosch und Siemens Hausgeräte GmbH, Osram,and at universities. Colleges could submit pro-posals for research projects, and the one with themost promising concept would then be award-ed a partnership with Siemens.

“Whereas idea competitions identify the bestnew ideas, which are later implemented, e-bro-kers locate solutions that already exist,” says Lack-ner. “This is especially useful in the case of com-plex technical problems relevant to the SiemensSectors that work with power plants, industrialfacilities, and medical devices.”

| Interview

Open Road to Innovation

88 Pictures of the Future | Spring 2010

tists working on CKI projects benefit from ex-posure to issues of practical interest to industry,thus allowing them to go beyond purely academicresearch. What is more, it’s not at uncommon foryoung scientists at partner institutions to find jobsat Siemens later on.

The Internet as Research Platform. In addi-tion to cooperative projects, there is another wayfor companies such as Siemens to broaden theirresearch horizons: a paradigm known as “openinnovation” (OI). “In contrast to a classic researchpartnership with a framework agreement, in thiscase the developer searching for a solution callsfor bids via the Internet and thereby integrates

scribe their problem on an e-broker website, suchas NineSigma or yet2com, and offer a cash rewardfor the best solution. And that solution can comefrom a large IT company in India or from an am-ateur developer in Germany. Approximately halfof the problems are successfully solved in this way.So it’s not surprising that large companies likeBASF, Novartis, and Nestlé are likewise using thismethod of finding solutions.

In addition, Siemens has developed its owntool to foster networking among employeeswithin the company. “When it comes to theprocess of finding solutions, our internal Siemenstool, which is called TechnoWeb, more or less cor-responds to the e-broker principle,” says Lackn-

working platform to take part in a vote arrangedby Japanese noodle maker Acecook to determinewhich flavors consumers like most. In much thesame way, fans of automaker Fiat had a chanceto contribute design ideas for the new Fiat 500.

Consumer goods manufacturer Procter &Gamble plans to put special emphasis on cus-tomer input through crowdsourcing. Over thelong term, the company intends to generate halfof all new products by means of customer feed-back. “With crowdsourcing, companies can takethe needs of customers into account morequickly and react rapidly to dynamic market con-ditions. That leads in some cases to a huge com-petitive advantage,” says Rudzinski.

Siemens lighting subsidiary Osram has alsogained experience in the OI field. In 2009 Osramset up its “LED — Emotionalize your Light” ideacompetition. The competition gave profession-al designers and amateurs alike an opportunityto submit, inspect, and discuss their lighting ideasonline. The overall goal was to identify practicaland affordable lighting solutions that are easy forusers to operate and install. Prizes were award-ed for the best ideas.

Entries included a floating scallop lamp thatprovides relaxing hues of light in the bathtub, andthe “chromatic ball” (see images above), whichuses acceleration sensors to change the color ofits light when rotated. “More than 600 ideas weresubmitted during the competition, and most ofthem are technically feasible,” says Lackner,who is confident that Osram will implement oneor more of these ideas in the not-too-distant fu-ture.

Despite these successful scenarios, manycompanies are still reluctant to open up their in-novation processes, because they fear a loss ofintellectual property or worry that it may not bepossible to patent OI products. “But OI takes placeentirely within the existing patenting process ifthe rules are defined properly — such as with anon-disclosure agreement or a waiver of rights,”

er. “Put simply, it works like an Internet forum inwhich any registered employee can post a spe-cific problem. Whether it’s a complex technicalmatter or just a question about how to use Mi-crosoft Word — every user can see and answerthese questions. That speeds up the work routinesof individual users an awful lot.”

The Customer as Development Partner. Themost widespread method of open innovation,however, is called “crowdsourcing.” “In this case,companies outsource their inventiveness, as itwere, by getting customers actively involved inthe innovation process through networkingplatforms or idea competitions, for example,” saysCaroline Rudzinski from Management ZentrumWitten (MZW), which has been dealing with thesubject of collective intelligence for some timenow and is analyzing the use of open innovationin the business market.

The list of companies now using crowd-sourcing is long. In 2008, for example, approx-imately 4,000 people used a dedicated net-

external problem-solvers, and sometimes foreignones, into its innovation process,” explains Prof.Frank Piller, an innovation management expertat RWTH Aachen (see p. 89), a prestigious tech-nical university in northwestern Germany. Thisstrategy of open innovation is already being im-plemented in various ways by many differentcompanies — including Siemens.

One type of open innovation is known as the“innovation jam.” Web-based, and usually in-house, these moderated discussions with hun-dreds or even thousands of participants are de-signed to find and evaluate new ideas. “Towardthe end of 2009 we set up a jam, where we askedour employees in what ways future IT and com-munications technologies such as cloud com-puting could change the way Siemens does busi-ness,” says CT researcher Dr. Thomas Lackner, whois responsible for open innovation issues atSiemens. “Thanks to roughly 1,000 contributionsfrom those who took part, we were able to de-velop some initial concepts for responding tothese evolving trends.”

Siemens is making use of OI methods in re-search as well. When faced with particularly trickyproblems, Siemens researchers sometimes turnto “e-brokers,” who team up with external prob-lem-solvers. In such cases, developers publicly de-

Open Innovation | Trends

Open innovation makes it relatively easy for

developers to enhance their potential for innova-

tion. Osram, for example, used an ideas competition

to garner over 600 proposals for lighting solutions,

as was the case with this chromatic ball.

tional —and in this instance exactly known —phase shift. This is what makes it possible for thephase information contained in the X-rays to bedeciphered by means of the third grating. Like thefirst grating, the third one consists of silicon andgold. To measure wave intensity, this grating ismoved relative to the second grating, and a de-tector records the signals. The measured values

Soft Tissues RevealedThey’re used every day in hospitals, but X-ray imagesdon’t really offer the kind of detail needed to deter-mine the size and structure of a tumor. With a newtechnique called “phase-contrast X-ray imaging,”however, this may be about to change.

Pictures of the Future | Spring 2010 91

Franz Pfeiffer (left, above) uses a new radiography

technique to create images with greater detail than

conventional X-ray systems allow — as the photos of

a fish and a Kinder surprise egg show (right).

An experienced radiographer can read muchmore from the gray tones of an X-ray imagethan can a lay person. But it can be difficult foreven a trained eye to determine the exact sizeand structure of a tumor. This information,however, is vital for selecting the right treatment.In a joint project established in 2008 with the sup-port of Germany’s Federal Ministry of Educationand Research (BMBF), researchers from Siemens,the University of Erlangen-Nürnberg, the Instituteof Technology in Karlsruhe, and the Technical Uni-versity of Munich (TUM) are now investigatinga promising new imaging method known as“phase-contrast X-ray imaging.”

Unlike conventional radiography, which isbased on the absorption of X-rays, this techniquecould reveal various types of soft tissue such asmuscles and tendons, all in high contrast. Con-ventional radiography exploits the fact thatbone and tissue absorb X-rays to differing degrees.

An X-ray image of the head, for example, willclearly reveal the bones of the skull, which ab-sorb a lot of radiation, but not much of the brain,which shows up as just a uniform patch of gray.With higher soft tissue contrast, however, indi-vidual areas can be clearly distinguished, includingany tissue abnormalities — such as a tumor. Thetechnique could therefore reveal the size and po-sition of a lesion at an early stage, enabling doc-tors to determine the right treatment, includingthe precise dosage of radiation therapy. The sameapplies to mammograms. Here, too, the new tech-nique could improve the contrast of blurry imagesof breast tissue.

This improved performance is based on thefact that phase-contrast imaging not only meas-ures X-ray absorption, but also shifts in thephase of the waves. Like visible light, X-rays canbe regarded as both particles and waves. Where-as pure absorption-based radiography records

particle accelerator and that from a conventionalX-ray source is similar to the difference be-tween laser light and an incandescent lightbulb. The waves of light emitted by a laser oscillateexactly in time with one another — that is, theyare perfectly in phase. In similar fashion, the X-ray light from a synchrotron is almost completelysynchronous. By contrast, the X-ray sourcesused in hospitals produce too much interference,because they radiate a spectrum of wavelengthsin all directions. This is why the scientific worlddeclared in 2004 that phase-contrast imaging wasimpossible with conventional X-ray sources.

But scientists hadn’t reckoned with physicistFranz Pfeiffer, Professor of Biomedical Physics atthe TUM. Back in 2004, Prof. Pfeiffer was re-searching at the Paul Scherrer Institute in Switzer-land, where he went on to publish his revolu-tionary findings in 2006. Pfeiffer also used syn-chrotron radiation for his initial research, but inconjunction with a Talbot-Lau interferometer, apiece of equipment primarily found in atomicphysics rather than X-ray physics. His ground-breaking idea was to also use the interfero meter

whether X-rays penetrate anatomy or not, phase-contrast imaging measures the effect that pass-ing through bodily tissue has on their phase —in other words, how much the (X-ray) waveformis shifted with respect to its original position. Thesame principle makes air bubbles visible in wa-ter, for instance, due to the different refractiveindices of the two media. This phase shift is veryrevealing because it varies depending on thenature of the tissue through which the radiationis refracted. This effect is very small, though, andmust be amplified.

However, until recently this was impossiblewith conventional X-ray systems. The first ap-proaches to this problem emerged over 20 yearsago and involved the use of special crystal optics.The method only works with monochromaticradiation, however, like that generated by anexpensive synchrotron source. The differencebetween the radiation produced by this type of

90 Pictures of the Future | Spring 2010

Open Innovation | Phase-Contrast X-Ray Imaging

In 2004, experts declared that phase-contrast imagingwas impossible — but Pfeiffer proved them wrong.

grating the interferometer into an X-ray sys-tem. The demands placed on the componentspose special challenges. Medical imaging re-quires the use of high-energy X-rays, so thegratings’ slits have to be finer than those inPfeiffer’s system — in this case, no more than2.5 micrometers across. Similarly, the gaps be-tween the gratings, X-ray source, and detector

with a normal X-ray tube. His first phase-contrastimages showed a fish at an unprecedentedlevel of precision.

Pfeiffer’s Talbot-Lau interferometer consists ofthree gratings made of silicon. These look likesmall plates with slits cut into them at intervalsof only a few micrometers. The first grating’s slitsare filled with gold. It is placed between the X-ray source and the object under examination, andits job is to make the chaotic radiation emittedby the X-ray source as synchronous as possible.The gold absorbs the X-rays, while silicon letsthem pass through, resulting in a large numberof quasi-coherent X-ray waves. When thesewaves strike tissue, they alter their phase. The sec-ond grating consists purely of silicon. Its job is torecombine the individual partial waves — aprocess known to specialists as interference.

At the same time, the part of the radiation thatpasses through the silicon undergoes an addi-

ognized the potential of Pfeiffer’s development.The remaining partners came on board in 2008,the year the project was launched. “Integratingphase-contrast X-ray imaging in a conventionalX-ray system for human diagnostics was a radi-cal idea — and it still is,” says Hempel. “But wesucceeded in showing that it works. And that’swhy we won in the BMBF Innovation Competitionfor the Advancement of Medical Technology.”

Low Radiation. The project’s goal is an instru-ment that will seamlessly integrate into every-day hospital procedures. To do that, it must beno larger than a conventional system and mustnot exceed the time or cost of today’s examina-tions. With this in mind, the Karlsruhe Instituteof Technology is enhancing the gratings, andthe University of Erlangen-Nürnberg is improv-ing the detectors. Siemens researchers, mean-while, are working with Pfeiffer’s team on inte-

optimal combination here is the job of re-searchers led by Prof. Gisela Anton of the Uni-versity of Erlangen-Nürnberg. They aim to improvethe detector and the parameters of the gratingstructure so that the best image can be achievedwith the least possible radiation exposure.

The project is scheduled for completion in2012, but that won’t be the end of the research.Unlike absorption radiography, which can drawon many years of experience, the field of phase-contrast X-ray imaging is largely unexplored.“That’s what’s so fascinating,” says Anton. “There’sso much to investigate.” For her and the other sci-entists, the biggest motivation is knowing thebenefit that this new technique will bring to doc-tors and patients alike. For as soon as phase-con-trast imaging works in clinical practice — andnone of the partners sees any reason to doubtthis — it will likely open up a host of new diag-nostic possibilities. Helen Sedlmeier

are compared to measurements made withoutthe object. The difference between the two is thephase contrast, and it is visible in the image aslevels of gray.

In 2006, shortly after Pfeiffer had publishedhis image of a fish, he started working withSiemens. His initial encounter occurred at a tradefair for X-ray systems. Siemens researchers, in-cluding Dr. Eckhard Hempel, at that time with thecompany’s Healthcare Sector, immediately rec-

could be freely modified in Pfeiffer’s originalsetup. In the new system, all these compo-nents will have to fit into less space.

The detectors will also have to be adapted tothe new specifications. As with a digital camera,the images from the new X-ray system aremade up of pixels. The more radiation and thegreater the number of pixels, the better the im-age quality. In the interest of patients, however,radiation dosage must be minimized. Finding the

Gratings for sharper images

X-ray source

Grating1

Object Grating2

Grating3

Detector

Open Innovation | Electric Vehicles

ilege. And the problem could get worse, sincethe share of electricity generated by wind pow-er is increasing in both the Harz and Denmark.The latter hopes to have around 50 percent ofits average electricity demand covered by windby 2025.

Electric vehicles could help solve the prob-lem by acting as a virtual surplus electricitystorage system. Specifically, thousands of elec-tric cars would recharge their batteries whenwinds are strong, primarily at night. Converse-ly, during periods of calm, they could resupplythe grid at higher prices. It’s a great idea — butcan it work? For example, how can electric carsand the power grid communicate reliably?How can vehicles be recharged quickly and

All Charged UpMajor cooperative projects are paving the way for the launch of electric vehicles. Experts from industry and universities are creating the technological basis for link-ing vehicles to the power grid. In fact, field tests are now under way, especially inDenmark and Germany. One key objective is to use electric cars as energy storageunits that can compensate for fluctuations in wind power.

As recently as five years ago, the idea thathundreds of thousands of electric carscould be on the road in Europe by 2020 wasconsidered a futuristic scenario. Hardly anyonebelieved that the idea of driving with electricitycould be implemented so quickly, and on sucha grand scale. Times have changed, however,and work on readying electric cars for everydayuse is proceeding at full speed. At the sametime, some components of their energy source— the power grid — are being completely re-defined (see Pictures of the Future, Fall 2009,p. 44). Two European regions in particular areleading the way to the future of electric mobil-ity — Denmark and Germany’s Harz region inthe country’s middle. Both already obtain a

large portion of their electricity from renew-able sources, especially wind. In Denmark, thefigure is 20 percent; in the Harz, wind, biogasand solar facilities cover 50 percent of energyneeds. As a result, both regions often face thesame problem: too much wind energy.

When strong wind causes turbines to reallyget moving, they can actually meet more than100 percent of each region’s electricity de-mand. To prevent the grid from overloading,wind facilities in Harz are shut down — muchto the annoyance of their operators. Danishenergy suppliers, however, are legally requiredto use the excess wind power, which they passon to their European neighbors. What’s more,they have to pay transmission fees for the priv-

There’s still a long road ahead before electric cars like the

eRuf Stormster (below) can recharge on wind-generated

electricity. Siemens and Danish company Lithium

Balance are helping the vision become a reality (right).

92 Pictures of the Future | Spring 2010

safely? And how is everyone to be billed? Twomajor cooperative projects in Denmark and theHarz are seeking answers to these questionswith the help of Siemens experts.

One project is headquartered at the Risø re-search center at the Technical University ofDenmark (DTU), not far from the famousViking Ship Museum in Roskilde. The centerhouses wind turbines, solar photovoltaic sys-tems, a transformer station, and a vanadium-ion liquid battery the size of a shipping con-tainer. Here, the energy consumers are electricheating units in the center’s office buildings,hybrid cars, and several small batteries thatsimulate additional vehicles. The research cen-ter thus has a miniature power grid that can beused to test the interaction between variouscomponents.

Risø is home to Denmark’s EDISON (“Electri-cal vehicles in a Distributed and Integratedmarket using Sustainable energy and OpenNetworks) project, the world’s first major effortfor bringing a pool of vehicles to power out-lets. Practical testing will begin in 2011 on theisland of Bornholm. “We’re focusing mostly onthe question of how electric vehicles can becharged quickly, safely, and efficiently,” says

the charging time. That’s why Holthusen’steam of researchers is developing 120 kWtechnology, which reduces the charging timeto just a few minutes. However, with chargingcurrents of up to 300 amperes and 400 volts ofalternating current (a.c.), the load is equivalentto powering nearly 20 households.

“Heat generation during recharging witha.c. is one of the biggest challenges at the mo-ment,” explains Holthusen, who is testingcharge controllers that would be installed in

ing the software infrastructure for linking de-centralized components, the Eurisco develop-ment firm, and energy suppliers Dong Energyand Østkraft. The latter are mainly interestedin practical solutions for feeding wind powerinto the net; Østkraft is also organizing a fieldtest on Bornholm. With wind energy continu-ing to expand worldwide, Holthusen and hiscolleagues believe all the technologies they’reworking on have good chances of market suc-cess. In the Outside Car area alone, they esti-

Siemens researchers are working on a 120 kW systemfor recharging electric vehicles in just a few minutes.

Pictures of the Future | Spring 2010 93

Sven Holthusen, who is responsible for theEDISON project at Siemens’ Energy Sector.Holthusen and his colleagues analyze, for ex-ample, how a vehicle can be recharged at dif-ferent types of charging stations or how alarge number of batteries can be recharged si-multaneously.

Holthusen knows that electric cars will be-come truly attractive to consumers only whenthey can travel long distances and berecharged within a few minutes. Electric carsthese days are normally charged at an 11 kilo-watt (kW) outlet. A typical battery with a 25-kilowatt-hour (kWh) storage capacity thustakes more than two hours to fully recharge.Increasing the charging power would lower

No one knows which charging technologywill gain the upper hand. That’s why Siemensis developing different technologies in parallelin its Inside Car and Outside Car electric mobil-ity teams. The teams develop and test compo-nents for vehicles and grid technologies.Holthusen is also looking at direct current(DC), since it allows batteries to be chargedwithout a controller. “However, DC is moredangerous, mainly because of the arcing thatoccurs in the event of a short circuit. Common-ly used AC fuses cannot be used for protectionin such a situation.” Holthusen is thus workingon new, safe approaches for DC supply.

Along with the DTU and Siemens, EDISONproject partners include IBM, which is develop-

Siemens is providing technology for the next-generation charging infrastructure — includ-ing fast charging — and SWM is supplying“green” electricity. Siemens has also launcheda project in Berlin in which electric vehicles arebeing used on a daily basis as company cars.The project includes six electric smart modelsprovided by Daimler, which can “fill up” at 20charging stations at the main Siemens loca-tions in Berlin. Siemens has its own mediumand low-voltage network here, which cancharge or discharge the cars.

Fast Charging. The Harz.EE-Mobility projecthas 15 partners. They include several researchinstitutes and universities, public utilities, pow-

vehicles as well as those that would be part ofcharging stations. Onboard controllers offerthe benefit of not having to be integrated intothe power pump, which reduces infrastructurecosts. Such controllers also ensure that eachvehicle optimally controls the charging processin line with its battery’s requirements. Externalcontrollers, on the other hand, are better atdissipating heat, thus enabling higher charg-ing currents.

mate that global demand for electronic com-ponents capable of expanding the power gridand charging infrastructure will total over tenbillion euros by 2020.

The German government is funding the ex-pansion of electric mobility in eight regions. InMunich, Siemens is participating in a pilot proj-ect with BMW and the local municipal utility(SWM). Here, BMW plans to expand its trialfleet of “Mini-E” electric vehicles to at least 40,

treatment steps with activated carbon arerequired to remove extra chemicals and by-products.

Experts from Siemens Water Technologiesin Günzburg, Germany, are now developing amuch more efficient and economical system. Toachieve their goals, they are working with spe-cialists at the Technical University of Denmark(DTU) in Copenhagen. Chemist Henrik RasmusAndersen’s team has been researching AOPunits for years and has developed first-rate an-alytical procedures for detecting mere micro-grams of endocrine disruptors or antibiotics inwater. The team is now working with Siemenson a new reaction chamber that will be moreefficient than comparable systems. Becauseradicals are extremely short-lived, the flows inthe system — the fluid dynamics — have aconsiderable influence on the cleansing effectof the chamber. The geometry of the chambermust therefore be designed accordingly. Ulti-mately, the objective is to optimize the systemas a whole, so that the best result can beachieved while using only small amounts ofchemicals and energy.

Reliable Partners. It is no coincidence thatthe Germans and the Danes have chosen towork together on this project. The DTU is oneof eight outstanding international universitieswith which Siemens maintains close research

Taking Aim at PollutantsBefore long, oxidation systems will be used to destroy pesticides, hormones, and antibiotics in drinking water. To this end, Siemens experts are developing efficient, energy-saving solutions in collaboration with researchers at the DTU in Copenhagen.

Pictures of the Future | Spring 2010 95

Dr. Dieter Wegener, CTO of Siemens Industry

Solutions (left), and experts at the Danish Technical

University discuss how endocrine disruptors

in water can be neutralized.

| Drinking Water

partnerships. Several years ago, Siemens setup a CKI program (Center of Knowledge Inter-change) to foster such relationships, which arebased on a common framework agreementwith the universities in question (p. 86). TheDTU, which has been a leader in the develop-ment of environmental technology for manyyears, has been a CKI university since 2006.

“With the CKI program, we try to achieveloyal, long-term cooperation giving rise tomany individual joint research projects,” saysDr. Dieter Wegener, chief technology officer ofSiemens Industry Solutions. For a long time,companies in the industrial sector were cau-tious when it came to working with externalpartners; they were worried about the effectsof transferring knowledge to outsiders.Siemens has liberated itself from this fear. “Ifyou want to make big advances in develop-ment and you’re aiming for radical innovations,you have to rely on the expertise of universi-ties,” says Wegener. In addition to technical ex-pertise, another key to success is personal rap-port. This can be cultivated in the CKIs, whichare designed to last many years.

“First, we met with experts at Siemens todiscuss which fields of technology we can bestcooperate in,” says Henrik Søndergaard fromthe DTU, who oversees the cooperative proj-ects at the university as CKI manager. “That re-sulted in projects like AOP systems technology,

No one really knows how dangerous theyare. They flow with waste water out ofplastics factories, or pass into sewage pipeswhen toilets are flushed. The intractable chemi-cals in question even survive bacteria insewage treatment plants. They are called “en-docrine disruptors,” and these long-lived com-pounds are suspected of having an effect onthe hormonal systems of humans. They in-clude plant pesticides, active agents in birthcontrol pills, and chemicals from the syntheticresins industry. Some of them can cause can-cer, while others are believed to cause malefish to turn into female fish.

Because they cannot be destroyed withconventional biological sewage treatmenttechnology, they accumulate in the environ-ment. To get rid of them, heavier weaponry isneeded: hydrogen peroxide or ozone, for ex-ample, which form aggressive radicals andthereby decompose the contaminant mole-cules into harmless constituents. There are cur-rently only a few reference systems on themarket that are designed to attack endocrinedisruptors with oxygen.

The technology that decomposes thesemolecules is called “Advanced OxidationProcess” (AOP). It uses ultraviolet lamps forradical formation. Although contaminants areeffectively decomposed, the process uses agreat deal of power. In addition, elaborate post-

94 Pictures of the Future | Spring 2010

Open Innovation | Electric Vehicles

er grid operator E.ON Avacon, Deutsche Bahn,Siemens, and mobile radio company Voda-fone. Together, these partners are paving theway for future electric mobility in the Harz re-gion. The project seeks to identify ways ofmaking recharging convenient, intelligent, andreliable. The partners have already installedthe first power pumps not only in the Harz butalso in Copenhagen, Denmark, where vehicles

with many companies — including RWE, EDF,Better Place, BMW, Daimler, Renault, Toyota,Honda, and Ford — on international ISO/IECstandardization of a communication protocol.Such a protocol would make it possible forpower pumps and vehicles from all automak-ers to exchange data via the pump’s cable or awireless link. The protocol is to include a sys-tem for multi-stage vehicle authentication,

ous charging at the Magdeburg railway stationparking garage. Deutsche Bahn, which oper-ates car-sharing fleets, is very interested in theresults.

Intelligent Grid. “When you include all thewind turbines, biogas and solar energy facili-ties, small power plants, and cars, our projectwill link around 2,000 electrical units,” saysHeuer. “There’s never been a project that bigbefore.” With the help of communication solu-tions that align supply and demand, it mayeven be possible to increase the share of eco-friendly electricity involved to more than 50-percent by adding locally-produced energyfrom renewable sources. That energy wouldthen no longer have to be exported. “With sucha large number of electricity producers andconsumers involved, it isn’t practical to estab-lish an overriding control center like the tradi-tional ones used in centralized networks andmajor power plants,” says Heuer. In otherwords, nothing will work without intelligentcommunication technologies and predictive al-gorithms. Researchers are particularly interest-ed in how the grid will behave when electriccars link up and disconnect. To this end, proj-

munication between the vehicle and powerpump. Europe now has a standardized connec-tor that includes not only a charging cable ca-pable of handling up to 44 kW but also a data-exchange channel. The power pump uses acommunication protocol to determine when avehicle is ready for charging. Conversely, thepump tells the vehicle how much chargingpower it can provide.

An additional communication channel forautomated payment or the transfer of othervehicle data can also be activated. “If a largenumber of vehicles recharge simultaneously ina parking garage, we could have a local over-load,” says Heuer. “That’s why vehicles need tobe able to communicate and coordinate theirrequirements.” Siemens is therefore working

study the extent to which movement profilesof electric vehicles can reveal informationabout potential demand for electricity atplaces like park-and-ride lots or parkinggarages,” says Heuer. “The grid needs to be ca-pable of reacting should demand rapidly in-crease at any of these locations.” In 2010,some 30 Audi A2 models retrofitted as electricvehicles will hit the road in Harz and surround-ing regions and cities that are also participat-ing in the project. Project staff will use the carsto act out various scenarios. For example, theywill simulate peak demand during simultane-

ect staff are developing mathematical rulesthat use the principles of probability theory topredict when, where, and how many vehicleswill require electricity.

To make recharging easier, the project con-sortium includes experts in user-friendliness.“Drivers will have to choose between a maxi-mum of only three or four charging modes,”Heuer says. In fact, two modes — “Charge atMaximum Speed” and “Charge at MinimumCost” — might be all that’s necessary. Use ofthe charge pump will be automatically billedvia cell phone. Harz.EE-Mobility will reachcruising speed in 2011. That’s when the last ofthe test’s electric cars will hit the road todemonstrate that recharging is as easy as fill-ing up today. Tim Schröder

At the Risø research center, scientists from the

Technical University of Denmark and Siemens are

testing how electric cars, power grids, and renewable

energy generation systems can operate in harmony.

Without coordination, the simultaneous recharging ofmany vehicles could overload local grids.

from the EDISON project also recharge. EDI-SON and Harz.EE-Mobility thus complementone another and share results. Whereas theEDISON partners focus mainly on power elec-tronics and fast charging technology, the Harzproject is concentrating on the chargingprocess and vehicle-grid communication.

“The most important thing for users is thatcharging should be fast and simple,” says Dr.Jörg Heuer, who is responsible for the Harzproject at Siemens Corporate Technology.Achieving this goal will require automatic com-

which would prevent misuse and electricitytheft. Heuer also serves as a consultant in vari-ous standardization bodies.

Vodafone is involved in the Harz.EE-Mobili-ty project because charging at various stationsresembles cell phone roaming between differ-ent wireless providers. Given that the futurebilling process might therefore be similar,Vodafone is contributing its experience withmovement profiles. After all, it’s relatively easyto find out where a cell phone is and where itgoes when it’s on. “In our project, we want to

In a nearby lab, Siemens and TISNCM re-searchers are working on the refinement ofmaterials, but this time the subject is so-calledthermoelectric components. These are electri-cally conductive substances that can eithergenerate an electric voltage and from that anelectric current when a temperature differenceis established at two locations, or generatethermal energy when a voltage is applied. Thescientists have combined the thermoelectricreference material bismuth telluride withfullerenes. “We think that we will be able togenerate a power output of about 50 wattsfrom a 10 cm x 10 cm thermoelectric devicewith a temperature difference of 100 degreesCelsius,” says Saraev.

Such a development would enable manytypes of devices to generate electricity fromtheir waste heat, thus substantially reducing

Pictures of the Future | Spring 2010 97

CT Russia’s cooperative projects with

universities set the tone for innovations, such

as development of a nanostructured bismuth

telluride coating for frictionless bearings.

A Cushion of Air. Meanwhile in Moscow,about 30 kilometers away, Siemens is involvedin another partnership. There, a CT team head-ed by Dr. Viacheslav Schuchkin is working withDr. Alexander Vikulov from the Institute of Me-chanics at Lomonosov Moscow State Universi-ty on turbomachines mounted on air bearingsthat can replace conventional high-mainte-nance oil bearings in small turbines and com-pressors. Turbomachines rotating at speeds ofup to 180,000 revolutions per minute can beused for such things as gasoline or diesel en-gines or in the oil industry for the treatment ofwastewater with compressed air.

To produce maintenance-free bearings, theresearchers designed extremely thin Teflon-coated lamellae. “At roughly 15,000 revolu-tions per minute, the lamellae reach the speedat which they lift off from the rotor’s axle by

improve the hardness and strength of alloyswhile retaining their very good electrical andthermal properties.”

One to one-and-a-half percent by weight offullerenes, as these new particles are known, isenough to obtain the material properties thatBlank is seeking. Fullerenes are molecules thatcontain 60 carbon atoms (C60) and resemblesoccer balls. What makes them so suitable fornovel materials is their high mechanicalstrength at a low weight.

“The new nanostructured aluminum com-posites are almost three times as hard as nor-mal composites but substantially lighter inweight,” says Siemens Corporate Technology(CT) project manager Dr. Denis Saraev. This su-permetal composite is particularly well suitedfor enhancing the performance of compres-sors, turbochargers, and motors.

Power cables made of nanostructured alu-minum composites could one day replace ca-bles made of pure aluminum. The new cableswould have the same electrical propertieswhile being thinner, thus saving material andcosts, in particular when compared to expen-sive copper cables. TISNCM researchers pro-duce the new material using a specially hard-ened planetary mill. Aluminum and C60 aremilled in an argon atmosphere to the size ofnanoparticles, with the powders combiningduring the process to form the new material.Blank expects that the development of alu-minum material with fullerenes specifically foruse in superconducting cables will soon becompleted. Such cables could provide benefitsin magnetic resonance imaging systems andcompact motors, for example.

their energy costs. For example, thermoelec-tric power generators could use not only thewaste heat from gas turbines or steel mills, butalso from the processors in computers or auto-mobile engines and batteries — the lattercould, for example, supply power for coolingand for information, navigation, and entertain-ment electronics. Devices equipped with thistechnology could also help to reduce the useof gases in refrigerators and freezers that areharmful to the climate — and quite incidental-ly to also reduce associated noise, because thetechnology is silent. The researchers have al-ready reached a key milestone. “We have im-proved the thermoelectric ‘goodness factor’ by20 percent with our nanostructured bismuthtelluride,” says Saraev, “and that is currentlytops worldwide.”

Building Networks of Innovative IdeasSiemens researchers areworking with partners inRussia to develop newtechnologies. On tap arenanoparticles in an aluminum metal matrixthat improve the hardnessand strength of alloys, refinements in thermo-electric components thathold the promise of generating electricity fromwaste heat, and softwarethat learns as it monitorsproduction.

T he city of Troitsk near Moscow has an ex-citing past. It was one of the science centerswhose existence the Soviet Union wanted to con-ceal. The research conducted here in nuclear en-gineering and materials research was top-notch.The city’s Technological Institute for Superhardand Novel Carbon Materials (TISNCM) has sinceattained official status. It continues to be aworld leader — but today it is part of a worldwidenetwork that also includes Siemens.

One of the most important areas of re-search in Troitsk is the development of materi-als that are expected to make power genera-tion and transmission more efficient.“Materials research in nanotechnology is veryattractive from a financial point of view,” saysProfessor Vladimir Blank, head of the TISNCM.“For example, we are incorporating carbonnanoparticles in an aluminum-metal matrix to

96 Pictures of the Future | Spring 2010

| CT RussiaOpen Innovation | CT Russia

and the EDISON project, which is studying howelectric cars can interact with the power grid”(p. 92). In another example, experts from In-dustry Solutions and Siemens Corporate Tech-nology have worked with the DTU and Berlin’sTechnical University to develop the “Eco CareMatrix” — a new assessment methodology thatidentifies the economic and ecological value ofgreen products and solutions.

For water technology experts at Siemens,the CKI partnerships have many benefits. “Wecan fall back on experts that we don’t have in-side the company,” says Klaus Andre, a researchdirector in Günzburg. “We also meet young sci-entists who could work for Siemens after theirstudies.” With regard to AOP development, oneshouldn’t forget that DTU has expensive analyt-ical equipment, such as mass spectrometers.“Endocrine disruptors have been the subject ofdetailed study for about ten years — particularlysince the technology became available to detectthese substances relatively quickly and easily,”says Andre’s colleague Cosima Sichel, a processengineer.

The U.S. — especially California — Germanyand the EU are promising markets for AOP tech-nology, because awareness of the issue is al-ready widespread. “Hormones and antibioticsare mostly expelled by human beings and endup in the water,” says Sichel. In the case of an-tibiotics, it is thought that they can lead to thedevelopment of resistant infectious germs. Andhormonally-active substances are consumed byhuman beings in drinking water. At present,ecotoxicologists do not yet know exactly whateffects that may have. Prudence would thereforedictate that endocrine disruptors should be re-moved from drinking water.

The AOP system that is currently being de-veloped with the DTU for market launch withinthree years is expected to solve this dilemma. Itis suitable for drinking water purification at wa-ter works. In the chemical and pharmaceuticalindustry, it can process contaminated effluentsbefore they are discharged into the primarywaste water stream. And in the microelectron-ics industry, it can produce ultra-pure water toclean sensitive components.

Systems of different sizes will be used, de-pending on the application. A simple systemfor drinking water purification will supply about200 cubic meters of water per hour. It is still dif-ficult to estimate the size of the future market,says Andre. “The AOP systems will be used on alarge scale as soon as they are mandated bylaw.” There are few such regulations in effectnow, Andre adds. But the potential is huge. InGermany alone, there are around 10,000sewage treatment plants and over 6,000 watersupply companies. Tim Schröder

98 Pictures of the Future | Spring 2010

Open Innovation | CT Russia

several thousandths of a millimeter,” saysSchuchkin. “An extremely thin cushion of airforms between the bearing and the lamellae,thus allowing the turbine to run with essential-ly zero resistance. At that point it is mainte-nance-free.” In order to accomplish this, the re-searchers had to compute not only the optimallamella size, but also the best angle of deflec-

complete as possible and thus environmentallyfriendly. To address this problem, Polikhov andProfessor Sergey Gubin from the MEPhI areworking on a simulation of the gas turbinecombustion process that incorporates criticalparameters such as gas flow rates, gas mixtureratios, combustion chamber pressures, andcombustion speed. Such simulations allow re-

All available data are input once into thelearning system. For a metals plant, for exam-ple, this would comprise data on hundreds ofproduction parameters such as temperature,pressure, quantity, and material composition,as well as the optimal combination of thesedata. The system not only autonomously mon-itors production and detects impending faults,but can intervene to prevent them.

Learning systems can be universally de-ployed. They have been in use since 2008 tomonitor the gearboxes of Siemens wind powerplants and the level of St. Petersburg’s NevaRiver. Such systems can be used to providecontinuous tracking of river levels and earlywarning in the event of danger.

An example is the “Urban Flood” project, aninternational research study funded by the Eu-ropean Commission to increase the reliabilityof dams and dikes. “We want to improve thequality of forecasts and further improve the

headed by Dr. Stepan Polikhov is hoping to usea new turbine technology to increase the effi-ciency of IGCC plants with carbon capture fromtoday’s 30 percent to between 40 and 45 per-cent. Researchers at the Moscow EngineeringPhysics Institute (MEPhI) are providing sub-stantial support. Synthesis gas — a mixture ofcarbon monoxide and hydrogen — is used asthe fuel.

“The goal is to reduce carbon dioxide emis-sions of such turbines burning a gas mixture tothe level of power plants fired with naturalgas, while reducing the costs of CO2 capture,”says Polikhov. Coal-fired power plantsequipped with this technology would then beas clean as natural gas-fired power plants. Thetechnical challenges are substantial, however.Synthesis gas contains large amounts of hy-drogen, which causes flashback, flickering, orspontaneous ignition, all of which make itmore difficult to achieve combustion that is as

with Russian institutions in St. Petersburg aswell as in Moscow. At the St. Petersburg StatePolytechnical University, CT researcher Bern-hard Lang is working with Professor Dimitrii Ar-seniev and Professor Vyacheslav Potekhin —both specialists in distributed intelligent sys-tems — to develop new software solutions.The goal of this collaboration is to develop self-managing learning software that monitors theoperation of production plants. The software isbeing designed to automatically recognize andreport failures before they occur. It should alsomonitor the quality of each production step,continuously checking against data providedby a planning system to ensure that productionis always in line with orders, the supply chainand current market prices.

monitoring of rivers and lakes so that we canincrease people’s security even during periodsof extended, heavy rains,” explains CorporateTechnology’s Lang. The study will examine an-nual precipitation and wind over the Gulf ofFinland with a view to providing early warning.Intelligent warning systems will also be usedto protect London and Amsterdam.

“Since the establishment of Siemens Corpo-rate Technology in Russia in 2005, collabora-tion between Siemens and top Russian univer-sities has had many successes,” says Dr. MartinGitsels, head of CT Russia. “They range fromsolutions for shortening development timesfor gas-insulated high-voltage switches tosmart software for monitoring wind turbines. Iam convinced that the skills of our Russianpartners will enable us to soon develop addi-tional innovations in areas such as coal gasifi-cation, high-speed turbines, and the integrat-ed factory.” Harald Hassenmüller

tion and the ideal arrangement of the lamel-lae. In the future, it should be possible to applythis development to larger turbines as well.

Siemens Corporate Technology Russia isalso active in the field of integrated gasifica-tion combined cycle (IGCC) power plants (seep. 109). For instance, a team of CT researchers

searchers to derive a burner design that is opti-mized for a specific gas mixture. Successfultests of a mixed-gas burner in a real combus-tion chamber have already been carried out.

Intelligent Operating System. Siemensmaintains successful research partnerships

Researchers are developing technologies designed toboost the efficiency of IGCC power plants by about 15%.

Andrey Bartenev (center) shows Martin Gitsels, head

of CT Russia, experiments with a gas burner (left).

Researchers are also working on maintenance-free

bearings and fault analysis software.

Pictures of the Future | Spring 2010 99

For years, companies have been working closely withexternal partners. For example, through joint projectswith universities, they gain access to the latest findings

from pure and applied research, which can be used by

their internal research and development organizations.

Open Innovation (OI), however, goes one step further and

integrates external problem-solvers into the innovation

process – a methodology that is also taking place at

Siemens (p. 86). In this case, a company’s R&D depart-

ment is no longer its only source of innovation; cus-

tomers, suppliers, other companies, and online communi-

ties also play a part in the development process.

As global competition intensifies, development and

product cycles become shorter and shorter, thus driving

up the risks of innovation and thereby the associated

costs. One of the prime objectives of OI is thus to cut the

time it takes to introduce new products and services —

and to thoroughly canvass customer opinion in order to

slash the number of products that flop.

IBM and consumer goods corporation Procter & Gam-

ble (P&G) were among the first enterprises to open their

innovation processes several years ago. P&G, for example,

operates its own “Connect + Develop” website, where cus-

tomers can submit ideas and help to solve concrete prob-

lems. This process led to the creation of the “Swiffer”

duster, for example. In 2004, 35 percent of new products

from P&G resulted from external sources. The company’s

aim is to increase this figure to 50 percent. By 2006, pro-

ductivity at R&D had improved by around 60 percent and

the product success rate had doubled. At the same time,

investment in R&D had fallen from 5.8 to 3.4 percent of

sales.

Alongside its managers, researchers, and develop-

ment engineers, a company’s most important source of

ideas is its own customers. This is the finding of a study

conducted by Grant Thornton International. Almost half

of all respondents in the Asia Pacific region said customers

were an important source of innovation, compared to 40

percent in Western Europe, and 35 percent in the U.S.

Moreover, a significant proportion of respondents world-

wide identified open innovation as successful and a strat-

egy that they will continue to adopt. At 35 percent, agree-

ment with this claim was highest in Western Europe,

compared to 30 percent in North America, the original

home of open innovation.

One OI pioneer, U.S. company Threadless, develops all

of its products on the basis of customer suggestions. In

fact, the Threadless community generates around 1,000

ideas a week. If a T-shirt design is actually printed, the cre-

ator of the design receives $2,000. And if an Internet sur-

vey demonstrates that a T-shirt is particularly popular, its

designer can earn up to $20,000.

Another type of OI is to commission an external serv-

ice provider. Such companies have built up a global net-

work of experts and can command substantial fees of

anything up to $1 million for taking on a specific research

problem.

A prime example of this is the U.S. open innovation

company InnoCentive and its online platform InnoCentive

Challenge. The company was launched in 2001 and now

mobilizes over 180,000 challenge-solvers worldwide. To

date, this community has been able to solve 400 of the

some 900 challenges posed by 150 companies around

the world. Forrester Research investigated the financial

impact of this technique in a study based on SCA, a

Swedish hygiene group. According to its findings, queries

to the expert InnoCentive network generated average

yields of 74 percent and paid back the initial investment in

under three months.

Nevertheless, a lot of companies are still uneasy with

OI when it comes to intellectual property rights. The 550

experts surveyed in the international Delphi Study 2030

(“The Future Prospects and Viability of Information and

Communication Technology and the Media”) identify an

inadequate culture of innovation and data-protection is-

sues as the biggest hurdles to OI in the corporate world.

At the same time, the majority of respondents said that OI

as a new R&D paradigm would greatly increase in signifi-

cance by 2024 at the latest and enhance the efficiency of

innovation processes.

Nikola Wohllaib

| Facts and Forecasts

Open Innovation as a Success Factor

Origins of the Best Ideas

Percentage of companies surveyed

Customers41483540

Heads of business units35433528

Employees33313334

In-house R&D team33303434

CEO27242828

Business partners and suppliers26312128

Sales17171322

WorldwideAsia / PacificNorth AmericaWestern Europe

Sour

ce: G

ran

t Th

orn

ton

, EIU

(Ec

onom

ist

Inte

llige

nce

Un

it)

Companies’ Opinions of Open Innovation

By region: percentage of companies surveyed

We have successfully appliedthe concept and will continueto do so.

33343035

Have never heard of it.16151914

Never considered it — our ownintellectual property is toovaluable to share.

14111416

Explored the concept but can’tbenefit from it.

13111414

Open Innovation is too compli-cated or expensive for us toadopt.

1113

910

Appointed internal specialiststo work on open innovationstrategy.

8888

Applied it in the past withoutsuccess and will not consideragain.

6854

WorldwideAsia / PacificNorth AmericaWestern Europe

Sour

ce: G

ran

t Th

orn

ton

, EIU

(Ec

onom

ist

Inte

llige

nce

Un

it)

Siemens’ Technology-to-Business Centers are providing support to a range of youngcompanies. On tap are energy-stingy LEDs capable of outshining metal halide lamps,PV panels that use one tenth the silicon of conventional models, battery-powered vehicle detection systems that last ten years, and an ultra-efficient transmission.

Pictures of the Future | Spring 2010 101

Ahmed Shuja (above) and Praveen Medis (center)

have developed the world’s brightest LED source

(left). Rated at 15,000 lumens, it not only outshines

metal halide lamps, but uses 60 percent less energy.

100 Pictures of the Future | Spring 2010

Open Innovation | Siemens TTB

Light emitting diodes (LEDs) have a reputa-tion for running cool. Touch one and allyou’ll feel is a serene glow. But just try andpack dozens of them together in a tight spaceand they’ll get so hot that they can burn outwithin seconds. Now, however, ProgressiveCooling, a startup company funded by Sie -mens’ Berkeley, California-based Technology-to-Business Center (TTB), has developed a so-lution that makes it possible to pack over 80 ofthe brightest white LEDs onto a one-square-inch circuit board. The result: A light sourcesignificantly brighter yet far more energy effi-cient than the metal halide or sodium lampsnow used to light factories, warehouses,

a height of 18 to 30 feet, resulting in an ideal30 foot candles on the work surface. “To putthat in perspective,” says Progressive CoolingSenior Scientist Dr. Praveen Medis, “a 100-Wattincandescent bulb typically produces 1,200 lu-mens. So what we are saying is that we havepacked the equivalent of twelve100-watt bulbsinto a flat one-square-inch device, making itthe brightest LED source in the world.”

In addition, the device cuts energy demandby 60 percent compared to conventional metalhalide lamps, and, thanks to the fact that it canbe addressed wirelessly and dimmed from zeroto 100 percent, its power demand can be re-duced by an additional 20 to 25 percent in re-sponse to changing lighting requirements.

Reduced maintenance costs are anothermajor advantage. While metal halide lightstypically last 12 to 18 months, ProgressiveCooling’s device is rated to last five years andhas been designed to screw into an existingmount. “That’s a key feature,” says Shuja, “be-cause changing high-bay lights at a height of18 feet requires a scissor jack and two experi-enced workers.” Plans call for Progressive Cool-ing to begin seeding the market with its mer-cury-free LED product this year.

Banyan: Focus on the Sun. Probably thebiggest barrier facing widespread implementa-tion of photovoltaic energy is the high cost of

streets and airport runways. “In the U.S. alonethere are about 100 million so-called ‘high-bay’fixtures in commercial buildings and about 60million bulb changes per year,” explains Pro-gressive Cooling CTO and founder Dr. AhmedShuja.

The technology that allows tightly-packedLEDs to keep their cool is a patented microthermal management engine that containssome 60 million vertically-etched uniformpores per square centimeter on a flat siliconsubstrate. The technology allows capillaryforce to efficiently channel heat away fromdiodes and into a halo of fins that surroundProgressive Cooling’s light source.

Originally developed at the University ofCincinnati to reduce the cooling requirementsfor microchips on miniature satellites and sub-sequently adapted to server farms (see Pic-tures of the Future Spring 2008, page 22), Pro-gressive Cooling’s concept has been “re-vec t-ored to the LED market to take advantage ofthe fact that a totally integrated LED fixturewill have significant competitive advantage inthe commercial illumination market over tradi-tional metal halide bulbs,” says Shuja.

Based on Osram’s newest Oslon LED, whichcan be driven to produce up to 200 lumens,Progressive Cooling’s new device delivers some15,000 lumens over an 80-degree angle from

silicon panels. With this in mind, five formergraduate students of the University of Califor-nia at Berkeley and Stanford University have for -med Banyan Energy, a company whose patent- ed technology and proprietary intellectualproperty promise to reduce the area of siliconphotovoltaic material in a standard module by90 percent while producing the same amountof power as a conventional module. What’smore, the inventors calculate that the cost ofproduction facilities for such modules will be75 percent lower than for today’s facilities.

Funded by an investor group led by Sie -mens, the company has been selected by the

the technology.” Simply put, Banyan’s conceptis to replace expensive silicon cell material witheconomical optics. Ghosh explains that whilemany other companies have attempted toadapt clumsy magnification systems to PV pan-els, Banyan’s “aggregated total internal reflec-tion” concept uses a sheet of optical elementsthat is only 1 cm thick.

“The energy falling on the optics is aggre-gated and delivered to a focal area, which iswhere the photovoltaic material is located. Thekey is that the collection process is performedby the optical layer rather than by the siliconcells,” says Ghosh.

The brightest LED source worldwide, the device packs theequivalent of twelve 100-watt bulbs on one square inch.

U.S. Department of Energy for a technologydevelopment subcontract and is already work-ing with the U.S. National Renewable EnergyLaboratory. “Siemens TTB not only invested inus from the start,” says Banyan CEO ShondipGhosh, “they really drove the process and didthe due diligence.” Adds Ayman Fawaz, PhD,Director of Venture Technology at TTB Berke-ley, “We are helping Banyan demonstrate thattheir technology is viable. The next step will beto see if Siemens’ solar organization will adopt

Since the technology can be integrated intothe standard dimensions of current PV panels,it offers numerous downstream advantages,including identical shipping, handling, installa-tion, and cleaning requirements. But perhapsits greatest advantage is that it reduces thecapital expenditure of manufacturing the pan-els themselves. Today, such panels are coveredwith silicon wafers. The wafers are sliced fromingots and then processed and mounted. “Tobuild a conventional fabrication facility with a

From Concepts to Companies

will cost one third less than a motor and a con-ventional transmission in hybrids and electricvehicles.”

Although applicable to the automotivemarket, EDI’s technology is initially being fo-cused on the needs of the light- medium- andheavy-duty hybrid commercial vehicle market,which includes everything from deliverytrucks and airport shuttle vans to hybrid busesand excavators. “Our CVT is rated at 220 kW,which makes it one of the biggest around. Butit can easily be scaled up to