Industrial Revolution because of its potential Design What You Need. Materials today are to improve standards of living while possibly undergoing a revolutionary transformation, disrupting traditional industries, jobs, supply shifting from o昀昀-the-shelf materials to opti- chains, and business models. mized materials and processes designed for Materials and manufacturing are inextrica- custom products. Combined with additive bly linked in a long-standing virtuous cycle, manufacturing, materials-by-design will en- where advances in one drive advances in the able great strides in making everything from other. Although this cycle alone could contin- airplanes to cell phones stronger, lighter, and ue to drive progress for decades to come, it more durable. most likely will be accelerated by convergent Assemble What You Need. The coming advances in high performance computing, decades will see advances in the development materials modeling, AI, and bio-materials. of new materials with previously unobtainable Increased connectivity will complement this properties, enabling previously unreachable growth by allowing advances to be distributed levels of performance for many applications. and accessible across the globe. Two-dimensional materials, metamaterials, Increased Design Options. Additive man- and programmable matter will have unusu- ufacturing (AM), more commonly known as al strength, 昀氀exibility, conductivity, or other 3D printing, is being used to fabricate an properties that enable new applications. increasing variety of materials, from titanium Biotechnology Enabling Rapid Innovation to explosives, in smaller facilities and with less Improved capability to predictably manipulate expertise, bringing advanced manufacturing biological systems, augmented by advances capabilities to small companies and individu- in automation, information, and materials als worldwide. Despite some technical hurdles sciences, is spurring unprecedented innova- and questions of reliability, AM is driving a rev- tion in health, agriculture, manufacturing, and olution in modern manufacturing by enabling cognitive sciences. By 2040, biotechnology rapid prototyping, highly customized parts, on- innovations most likely will enable societies site production, and the fabrication of shapes to reduce disease, hunger, and petrochem- that would otherwise be impossible. ical dependence and will transform how we Adapting On The Fly. Advances in informa- interact with the environment and each other. tion systems, including computational mod- Societies will be challenged to harness these eling and machine learning, combined with bene昀椀cial advancements while addressing the advanced physical systems, such as a robust market, regulatory, safety, and ethical con- industrial Internet of Things and advanced cerns surrounding these technologies—for ex- robotics, are likely to enable fully integrated, ample, genetically modi昀椀ed crops and foods. collaborative manufacturing systems that Biotechnology is likely to make signi昀椀cant con- respond in real time to meet changing condi- tributions to economic growth during the next tions in the factory, in the supply network, and two decades, potentially a昀昀ecting 20 percent in demand. of global economic activity by 2040, notably in agriculture and manufacturing, based on 60 GLOBAL TRENDS 2040