Forward-focused. Far-reaching. Fearless. This year’s 
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Get Inspired By This Year’s Future 50
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To select this year’s Future 50, PMI reached out to hundreds of experts and stakeholders across the globe for nominations. Among the impressive young leaders forging hope in a post-COVID world:
The Future 50 project leaders celebrated this year are dedicated to making the world a better place, turning ideas into reality with tangible benefits. These creative, bold—and young—individuals embody the skills and attitudes needed to succeed in The Project Economy. Get inspired and read about all of the 2021 Future 50 Rising Leaders here. |
Aptera Goes Far With Solar
Categories:
Innovation
Categories: Innovation
| In another recent indication that the auto industry is being swept by major transformations, Ford has announced that it will convert all of its passenger vehicles in Europe to electric power by 2030. News like this bodes well for not only the environment, but also for innovative electric vehicle (EV) manufacturers such as Aptera. Startups are built on bright ideas, a concept that rings especially true for Aptera, which powers its EVs by harnessing the sun’s power. Leveraging solar panels installed on its exterior, these innovative cars cut down on charging time while offering a greater driving range. Needless to say, this stellar combination of less time plugged in to a battery and more time on the road is highly attractive to EV drivers. However, while the sun’s rays drive Aptera’s vision for a better, greener vehicle, solar power is just the start. For example, the vehicle is constructed from just four parts and features three wheels. As a result, many federal automotive standards don’t apply, thanks to the three-wheel configuration. In addition, the car’s front end is shaped more like an airplane than a traditional automobile, a clue to its aerodynamic design. To date, demand has been high. Within a week of its debut, Aptera had already received more than 3,000 orders for the vehicle. Currently, Aptera is gearing up to start deliveries of its EV in 2021. To keep up with expected demand, the company will ramp up production at its new factory in San Diego, California, USA. Plus, there are two more development projects in the works. You can read more about this breakthrough Project of the Week here. Learn how Aptera has navigated the road to secure funding, and where the company is heading in the future.
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Most Influential Projects 2020
| Project Management Institute has unveiled the 2020 edition of the Most Influential Projects, which highlights 259 efforts, each a distinct masterclass in how to navigate change and deliver results. The projects demonstrate many pivots born of the global pandemic, but also shifts in response to pre-coronavirus forces, from sustainability to quantum computing. The honorees—an overall Top 50 as well as Top 10s in 30 categories—represent the creative spirit shaping how the world collectively reimagines a new future. What’s more, they describe an emerging playbook for impact and success in a world that will never be the same. Four key elements of that playbook are summarized in “Why Projects Matter More Than Ever”:
The Most Influential Projects offer a unifying theme: the ability to turn bold ideas into a new reality. As Melati Wijsen, the 19-year-old co-founder of UpLink member Bye Bye Plastic Bags put it: “We don’t look at today’s challenges as a burden. We look at them as an opportunity.” You can explore the entire list, including Top 10 lists in 21 industries and nine regions, here, the home of the Most Influential Projects 2020. And the No. 1 Most Influential Project of 2020? It's the US$125 million COVID-19 Therapeutics Accelerator, which aims to identify, accelerate and scale potential COVID-19 treatments by coordinating R&D efforts.
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Inclusion in Action
| What do a new line of doll kits for kids, a mental health care app, and a rehabilitation center in China have in common? They are all innovations inspired and developed with inclusion as their guiding force. In the latest digital exclusive from PM Network, you can learn about four projects that committed to inclusive design, from planning to user engagement to final outcome. What is inclusive design? Kat Holmes, author of Mismatch: How Inclusion Shapes Design, says her favorite definition of inclusive design is “creating a diversity of ways for people to participate in a shared experience with a sense of belonging in that experience.” What's it look like in the world of projects? >> In China, a $153 million rehabilitation center, set to open in 2023, will provide services to people with disabilities aged 16 to 60, including recreation, art events and education. An Italian architecture firm is using therapeutic green spaces throughout the complex, which will connect directly to a light mobility system. >> For marginalized people and intersectional communities, finding a therapist who can relate to their needs can be challenging. A new app called Ayana uses a questionnaire and algorithm to connect users to licensed therapists of similar values and backgrounds, including gender, ethnicity and orientation. The Los Angeles-based team built in end-to-end protocols to protect patient privacy and is seeking partnerships with nonprofits to make the app free for those who can’t afford it. >> “Toys are a reflection of culture and as the world continues to celebrate the positive impact of inclusivity, we felt it was time to create a doll line free of labels,” says Kim Culmone, a senior vice president at Mattel, which launched Creatable World, the world’s first gender-inclusive doll kits, a year ago. Four months later, the company expanded the line to include dolls without hair, with the skin condition vitiligo and with prosthetic limbs. Throughout development, Mattel consulted with physicians, experts in gender identity, and children who identify as transgender, gender nonbinary or gender fluid. That kind of empathy-based, user-focused feedback is “inclusion in action” in the world of project management. And it’s a rock-solid guiding principle for any project to follow. |
3 Projects Making a Difference
| Have you checked out the latest Projects of the Week from PM Network’s new home for digital content? From a sustainable, semi-autonomous economic hub in Honduras, to a fleet of balloons providing internet access in Africa, to a resuable top-grade mask for healthcare workers, these ongoing projects promise to make a positive difference in the world. In Africa, where internet usage is the lowest in the world, high-flying balloons will act at floating cellphone towers to try to close that digital divide. The Loon-led effort leans heavily on machine-learning algorithms. And as the project expands, it could be a life-saver for countless communities that haven’t been reliably connected to emergency services—not to mention the possibilities for remote education, telemedicine and much more. In the U.S., a team of scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Brigham and Women’s Hospital has developed a new face covering designed to work as effectively as the top-grade N95 mask—but it can be used over and over again. The iMasc is cost-effective, scalable and, according to healthcare workers who tested it, comfortable. And off the coast of Honduras, hopes are high that an adaptive residential complex known as Roatán Próspera will strengthen and diversify the local economy. The joint public-private partnership leans on modular design and traditional building techniques to boost sustainability and increase integration with Caribbean customs and culture. All three of these efforts lean heavily on project management, creative problem-solving and direct stakeholder engagement. They address immediate, real-world challenges. They help people and communities. And by making a positive impact in 2020 and beyond, they’re inspiring others along the way. |