It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Friday, June 20, 2025
KAIST develops glare-free, heat-blocking 'smart window'... applicable to buildings and vehicles
The Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST)
In the building sector, which accounts for approximately 40% of global energy consumption, heat ingress through windows has been identified as a primary cause of wasted heating and cooling energy. Our research team has successfully developed a 'pedestrian-friendly smart window' technology capable of not only reducing heating and cooling energy in urban buildings but also resolving the persistent issue of 'light pollution' in urban living.
On the 17th of June, Professor Hong Chul Moon's research team at KAIST's Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering announced the development of a 'smart window technology' that allows users to control the light and heat entering through windows according to their intent, and effectively neutralize glare from external sources.
Recently, 'active smart window' technology, which enables free adjustment of light and heat based on user operation, has garnered significant attention. Unlike conventional windows that passively react to changes in temperature or light, this is a next-generation window system that can be controlled in real-time via electrical signals.
The next-generation smart window technology developed by the research team, RECM (Reversible Electrodeposition and Electrochromic Mirror), is a smart window system based on a single-structured *electrochromic device that can actively control the transmittance of visible light and near-infrared (heat).
*Electrochromic device: A device whose optical properties change in response to an electrical signal.
In particular, by effectively suppressing the glare phenomenon caused by external reflected light—a problem previously identified in traditional metal *deposition smart windows—through the combined application of electrochromic materials, a 'pedestrian-friendly smart window' suitable for building facades has been realized.
*Deposition: A process involving the electrochemical reaction to coat metal ions, such as Ag+, onto an electrode surface in solid form.
The RECM system developed in this study operates in three modes depending on voltage control.
Mode I (Transparent Mode) is advantageous for allowing sunlight to enter the indoor space during winter, as it transmits both light and heat like ordinary glass.
In Mode II (Colored Mode), *Prussian Blue (PB) and **DHV+• chemical species are formed through a redox (oxidation-reduction) reaction, causing the window to turn a deep blue color. In this state, light is absorbed, and only a portion of the heat is transmitted, allowing for privacy while enabling appropriate indoor temperature control.
*Prussian Blue: An electrochromic material that transitions between colorless and blue upon electrical stimulation.
**DHV+•: A radical state colored molecule generated upon electrical stimulation.
Mode III (Colored and Deposition Mode) involves the reduction and deposition of silver (Ag+) ions on the electrode surface, reflecting both light and heat. Concurrently, the colored material absorbs the reflected light, effectively blocking glare for external pedestrians.
The research team validated the practical indoor temperature reduction effect of the RECM technology through experiments utilizing a miniature model house. When a conventional glass window was installed, the indoor temperature rose to 58.7°C within 45 minutes. Conversely, when RECM was operated in Mode III, the temperature reached 31.5°C, demonstrating a temperature reduction effect of approximately 27.2°C.
Furthermore, since each state transition is achievable solely by electrical signals, it is regarded as an active smart technology capable of instantaneous response according to season, time, and intended use.
Professor Hong Chul Moon of KAIST, the corresponding author of this study, stated, "This research goes beyond existing smart window technologies limited to visible light control, presenting a truly smart window platform that comprehensively considers not only active indoor thermal control but also the visual safety of pedestrians." He added, "Various applications are anticipated, from urban buildings to vehicles and trains."
The findings of this research were published on June 13, 2025, in Volume 10, Issue 6 of ACS Energy Letters. The listed authors for this publication are Hoy Jung Jo, Yeon Jae Jang, Hyeon-Don Kim, Kwang-Seop Kim, and Hong Chul Moon.
※ Paper Title: Glare-Free, Energy-Efficient Smart Windows: A Pedestrian-Friendly System with Dynamically Tunable Light and Heat Regulation
※ DOI: 10.1021/acsenergylett.5c00637
This research was supported by the Nano & Material Technology Development Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Science and ICT and the internal research program of the Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials.
igure 1. Operation mechanism of the RECM smart window. The RECM system can switch among three states—transparent, colored, and colored & deposition—via electrical stimulation. At -1.6 V, DHV•+ and Prussian Blue (PB) are formed, blocking visible light to provide privacy protection and heat blocking. At -2.0 V, silver (Ag) is deposited on the electrode surface, reflecting light and heat, while DHV•+ and Prussian Blue absorb reflected light, effectively suppressing external glare. Through this mechanism, it functions as an active smart window that simultaneously controls light, heat, and glare.
Figure 2. Analysis of glare suppression effect of conventional reflective smart windows and RECM. This figure presents the results comparing the glare phenomenon occurring during silver (Ag) deposition between conventional reflective smart windows and RECM Mode III. Conventional reflective devices resulted in strong reflected light on the desk surface due to their high reflectivity. In contrast, RECM Mode III, where the colored material absorbed reflected light, showed a 33% reduction in reflected light intensity, and no reflected light was observed from outside. This highlights the RECM system's distinctiveness and practicality as a 'pedestrian-friendly smart window' optimized for dense urban environments, extending beyond just heat blocking.
Figure 3. Temperature reduction performance verification in a miniature model house. The actual heat blocking effect was evaluated by applying RECM devices to a model building. Under identical conditions, the indoor temperature with ordinary glass rose to 58.7°C, whereas with RECM in Mode III, it reached 31.5°C, demonstrating a maximum temperature reduction effect of 27.2°C. The indoor temperature difference was also visually confirmed through thermal images, which proves the potential for indoor temperature control in urban buildings.
The ETC-ACC control scheme addresses the practical issues of excessive communication traffic and low tracking accuracy by integrating composite learning, event-triggered technology, and asymptotic convergence control methods.
Researchers have developed an Event-triggered asymptotic composite neural tracking control scheme for intelligent vehicles, integrating radial basis function neural networks and a serial-parallel estimation model to compensate for system nonlinearities and uncertainties. Published in Advanced Equipment, this breakthrough has the potential to improve tracking precision of intelligent vehicles by ensuring asymptotic convergence of position error, enhance communication efficiency through event-triggered control, and boost system robustness against nonlinear dynamics and uncertainties, as validated by numerical simulations showing superior performance over traditional adaptive control methods.
High-precision tracking control for intelligent vehicles holds significant promise in advancing autonomous driving technology, yet it is challenged by system nonlinearities, uncertainties, and communication constraints that often lead to excessive traffic and low accuracy. Addressing this challenge, Professor Yingjie Deng from Yanshan University and Master's candidate Fangcheng Liu, in collaboration with researchers from the same institution, have developed an event-triggered asymptotic composite neural tracking control scheme that enhances both tracking precision and communication efficiency in intelligent vehicle systems. By integrating radial basis function neural networks, a serial-parallel estimation model, and integral-bounded functions, the scheme ensures asymptotic convergence of tracking errors while reducing communication traffic through variable threshold-based triggering conditions, with numerical simulations validating its superior performance in circular and abrupt trajectory scenarios.
“This control scheme marks a critical advancement in intelligent vehicle tracking," explains Professor Deng. "With reduction in communication traffic and a robust asymptotic convergence mechanism, this framework safely achieves high-precision tracking without compromising control efficiency, even in complex nonlinear driving scenarios."
"The newly developed control scheme delivers event-triggered updates, which are more communication-efficient than traditional continuous control methods. Its adaptive asymptotic convergence mechanism ensures compatibility with nonlinear vehicle dynamics, which are common in autonomous driving scenarios. Liu emphasizes, 'The event-triggered strategy significantly boosts communication efficiency and tracking accuracy, overcoming the challenges posed by system uncertainties and high-dimensional state spaces.'"
A major challenge in intelligent vehicle tracking is communication overload, which can lead to control delay and tracking deviation. The team addressed this by integrating a variable-threshold event-triggered mechanism and a serial-parallel estimation model into the control framework, reducing unnecessary communication updates during complex trajectory tracking.
While the team acknowledges the need for further research in addressing external disturbances and multi-vehicle coordination, this study represents a critical step toward more efficient and robust intelligent vehicle tracking control.
This paper ”Event-triggered adaptive neural network asymptotic tracking control of intelligent vehicles with composite learning” was published in Advanced Equipment.
Deng Y, Liu F, Wang S, Xu Y, Ni T, et al. Event-triggered adaptive neural network asymptotic tracking control of intelligent vehicles with composite learning. Adv. Equip. 2025(1):0002, https://doi.org/10.55092/ae20250002.
A market-based approach to managing water in the Colorado River basin could provide more reliable supplies for farmers, communities, and industry amid ongoing drought and excess demand. The right market design and a little extra investment could also help threatened fish species, researchers have found.
The study, published June 20 in Nature Sustainability, details a new system for leasing rights to water from the basin while reallocating some water to imperiled habitats.
Not enough river water to go around
When the seven states of the Colorado River basin first divided water rights in the 1920s, they allocated more than the river could reliably deliver, especially during periods of drought. Today, the basin supplies drinking water to 40 million people and irrigation to 5 million acres of farmland across the southwestern United States, 30 tribal nations, and parts of Mexico.
Climate change has exacerbated shortages, with studies indicating that recent Colorado River flows are near their lowest in at least 2,000 years. “The Colorado River is a marvel in terms of the scale of its impact on ecosystems, agriculture, economies, and people across the western U.S. and Mexico,” said Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability hydrologist Steven Gorelick, a senior author of the new study. “Given the overallocation of the river water, we explored how the needs of people and the environment can both be served.”
Two decades into a historic megadrought in the U.S. West, the immediate need for effective solutions has grown. Out of 49 fish species native to the Colorado River basin, 44 are already threatened, endangered, or extinct. Standing agreements governing Colorado River management among states and between the U.S. and Mexico are set to expire after 2026.
“By strategically directing river water to the right places, even under drought conditions, fish can be saved with targeted restoration at nominal additional cost,” Gorelick said.
Congress allocated more than $4 billion in federal funds under the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 for drought mitigation, largely through water market transactions that pay farms, cities, and industries in the region to use less water. “Those projects are not sufficient in many cases to meaningfully improve flow conditions for fish and ecosystems,” said the study’s lead author, water policy expert Philip Womble, who worked on the research as a graduate student and postdoctoral fellow at Stanford and is now an assistant professor at University of Washington.
Voluntary water markets
Under the 1922 Colorado River Compact, states in the river’s Upper Basin agreed that they would not cause the river’s flow toward the Lower Basin – just below the nation’s second largest reservoir, Lake Powell – to be depleted below a 10-year rolling average of 7.5 million acre feet per year.
Legal debates persist around whether the Upper Basin must deliver that amount of water amid climate-driven supply declines, and the possibility of U.S. Supreme Court litigation looms. “Under the interpretation that there’s a delivery obligation, the Upper Basin states basically bear the risk of climate change and climate change-driven reductions in water,” Womble explained.
In an effort to avoid the risk of sudden cutbacks, water users in the Lower Basin states have created systems for voluntary water market transactions. Upper Basin states including Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming, meanwhile, have explored a water market designed to reduce water consumption and keep water flowing to Lake Powell. But existing programs generally do not prioritize water for critical fish habitats.
Womble, Gorelick, and colleagues including Stanford’s Barton “Buzz” Thompson wanted to quantify the extra cost associated with strategically improving fish habitat.
The team developed a model to simulate transactions and ecological impacts in Colorado’s headwaters, which contribute nearly a quarter of the river’s natural average annual flow into Lake Powell.
In the proposed market model, water sellers – including farmers, irrigation organizations, and cities – would lease senior water rights to governments and nongovernmental environmental organizations to protect threatened fish habitat. Those senior water rights are critical for environmental protection because they are fully allocated before newer, junior water rights receive any water.
“One key characteristic of water law across the western U.S. is our ‘use it or lose it’ principle,” Womble explained. “That can be a disincentive to water conservation.”
Modeling future drought scenarios
The team evaluated six scenarios to understand potential outcomes in a future drought year. They compared a “protected” market – where newer water users are legally barred from diverting restored flows – to an unprotected market with no legal flow protections.
Simulations showed that without reductions in water consumption, fish populations could face dire conditions for at least one month of the irrigation season along nearly the full length of the river. In contrast, strategic water transactions that reduce water use would benefit more than 380 miles of restorable river reaches. Hundreds of the most ecologically significant miles could see at least partial restoration of fish habitats.
“Instead of only reducing water consumption, strategic environmental water transactions would simultaneously reduce water consumption and preserve fish habitat at the lowest cost to the buyer,” the authors write.
Additional modeling results suggest that moderate cuts to water use could be achieved with $29 million spent in a protected market. Aggressive reductions might cost approximately $120 million. Comparable reductions would cost about 12% more in an unprotected market.
One possible source of the nominal extra funding to strategically benefit fish, Womble said, could be the growing number of technology companies and other corporations seeking to offset water use from their operations, including data centers.
“Spending a little bit more money, especially in headwaters, could have outsized ecological impact,” Womble said. The model indicates that the most stringent market design – with aggressive water-use reductions and legal protections for conserved water – is 29% more cost effective than a less formal option. “Although unprotected markets may be well suited for localized environmental flow improvement,” the authors write, “our results suggest they impede effective large-scale programs to substantially reduce water consumption.”
Gorelick is the Cyrus Fisher Tolman Professor in the Doerr School of Sustainability’s Department of Earth System Science. Thompson is the Robert E. Paradise Professor of Natural Resources Law in the Stanford Law School and Professor of Environmental Social Sciences in the Doerr School of Sustainability. Gorelick and Thompson are also senior fellows in the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment. Gorelick directs the Global Freshwater Initiative, and Thompson is faculty director of the Water in the West program.
Co-author J. Sebastian Hernandez-Suarez was a postdoctoral scholar in the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability’s Department of Earth System Science in Gorelick’s Water Resources and Hydrogeology program.
This research was supported by the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment, Walton Family Foundation, the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability’s Emmett Interdisciplinary Program in Environment and Resources (E-IPER), a Stanford Interdisciplinary Graduate Fellowship, Ishiyama Family Foundation, Babbitt Center for Land and Water Policy, Robert and Patricia Switzer Foundation, a Landreth Family Grant, and a McGee/Levorsen grant from the Stanford School of Earth, Energy & Environmental Sciences.
The quantity of adaptation finance has been a controversial political issue, and a critical negotiating point for developing countries in international climate negotiations. At the United Nations climate conference (COP29) in Baku last year, developed countries agreed to provide more money for climate adaptation in emerging market and developing economies. ‘But it is not only the amount of money that counts. At present, we have no evidence whether the existing finance distributed has been effective, and what we are actually trying to achieve with this finance in terms of climate risk reduction,’ says Verschuur.
Capacity building ‘Despite good intentions and skilled people dedicated to adaptation, the lack of impact is in part due to the wrong incentives being in place’. There is strong tendency now to focus on increasing adaptation finance commitments by adding adaptation components to existing and planned development projects. At the same time, we have considerably less focus on programmes that help build capacity, making necessarily policy changes, and put countries in charge of their own adaptation plans. But without the latter, adaptation will simply not be impactful.
Measures to reduce CO₂ emissions are often universally applicable. Climate adaptation measures, on the other hand, are heavily influenced by regional circumstances, such as agricultural needs, the local economy, and regional stakeholders. For climate adaptation to be truly effective, initiatives should originate from the countries themselves. Looking at climate adaptation in the Netherlands: the Dutch Delta Works are more than just dikes — they are the product of a deeply rooted policy culture. We should create such culture to emerging countries that face climate risks.
Urgent shift is necessary Verschuur: ‘We provide five recommendations to improve adaptation programs and projects throughout the design cycle with adaptation finance, and the role of science to facilitate this. These recommendations range from improving risk identification to planning, monitoring and creating an enabling environment for finance to be impactful.
Eventually, all five recommendations rely upon much strengthened capacity building efforts within governments, economic sectors, and communities. Verschuur: ‘Instead of the piecemeal capacity building efforts currently done, we urgently call for large-scale, coherent, efforts to enhance capacity. The next COP in Belem this October could be a good starting point for this discussion.’
The study considered various combinations of posture, sleepwear, and ambient temperatures to examine the thermal insulation of beddings, using a heated thermal manikin and thermoregulatory simulation models
Credit: Research Associate Mizuho Akimoto from Waseda University, Japan
The temperature of our sleeping environment has a major impact on the quality of our sleep, and good sleep is essential for our overall health and well-being. The bedding micro-environment is a key factor in maintaining thermally comfortable conditions for sleep. This includes the ambient temperature, humidity, the heat generated by the human body, and the thermal insulation provided by bedding like quilts, blankets, sheets, etc.
In particular, the total thermal insulation, or the ability of the bedding systems to resist heat flow, significantly affects the thermal neutral temperature of sleeping environments. This refers to the ambient temperature range at which the human body can maintain a stable body temperature without needing to generate more heat (by shivering) or lose heat (by sweating). Despite its importance, there are currently no standardized methods for measuring the thermal insulation of bedding systems. Moreover, while a few studies have investigated bedding insulation, they have solely focused on the body as a whole, overlooking local thermal conditions of different body parts.
To address this gap, a research team led by Research Associate Mizuho Akimoto from the Advanced Collaborative Research Organization for Smart Society (ACROSS) at Waseda University in Japan systematically examined the total thermal insulation of bedding systems, both for the whole body and individual body parts. The team included Assistant Professor Jun Shinoda, Assistant Professor Mariya P. Bivolarova, and Professor Pawel Wargocki from the Technical University of Denmark, along with Professor Shin-ichi Tanabe from Waseda University. Their study was made available online on April 26, 2025, and will be published offline in Volume 279 of the journal Building and Environment on July 01, 2025.
“Since body posture and how much of the body is covered by the bedding can constantly change during sleep, it is essential to evaluate the local thermal conditions of each body part while measuring thermal insulation of bedding systems,” explains Akimoto. “In this study, we present a method for measuring thermal insulation of various combinations of bedding systems and sleepwear using a heated human manikin together with the open-source human thermoregulation model JOS-3.”
The team conducted a series of measurements on a heated thermal manikin in a climate chamber with 84 different combinations of beddings and sleepwear, including two postures: supine (lying straight on the back) and lateral (lying on the right side); two clothing levels: nude and pajamas; two types of quilts: blanket and duvet, and four body coverage rates ranging from 23.3%, which used only a mattress, sheet, and pillow, to 94.1%, including a blanket covering the entire body except the head. The measurements were made at three ambient temperatures of 18.6° C, 22.6° C, and 26.4 ° C based on the World Health Organization’s guidelines for well-balanced room temperatures and the CIBSE criteria for overheating.
The team measured the total thermal insulation of the bedding system, including the air layer around the body. Additionally, measurements were taken for both the whole body and 24 body segments. The results showed that the values for total thermal insulation ranged from 1.06 to 5.71 clothing insulation units (clo), depending on the posture, coverage, and materials.
Because the manikin used in the experiment cannot simulate sweating, the researchers used the JOS-3 model to simulate how sweating would affect skin temperature and heat loss in a real human body. The simulations, which used the manikin measurements as inputs, revealed that even when the total insulation of the whole body remained unchanged under different conditions, the local skin temperature of different body parts could vary greatly depending on which parts were covered or in contact with the mattress. The simulations also provided insights into the range of bedding adjustments that can be made to avoid sweating at a given ambient temperature.
“Our findings suggest that relying on total thermal insulation of the whole body is not enough, and new methods should be developed that account for both whole and local body effects,” notes Akimoto. “Further, these findings provide benchmarks for optimizing sleep environments and can serve as inputs for multi-segmental human thermoregulatory models, allowing predictions of thermal physiological responses such as heat stress during sleep.”
In summary, this study provides important insights into how bedding systems can be optimized to support better sleep quality and, in turn, better overall health.
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Reference Authors: Mizuho Akimotoa,b, Jun Shinodab, Mariya P. Bivolarovab, Shin-ichi Tanabec, and Pawel Wargockib DOI: 10.1016/j.buildenv.2025.113074 Affiliations: aAdvanced Collaborative Research Organization for Smart Society (ACROSS), Waseda University, Japan bDepartment of Environmental and Resource Engineering, International Centre for Indoor Environment and Energy, Technical University of Denmark, Denmark cDepartment of Architecture, Waseda University, Japan
About Waseda University Located in the heart of Tokyo, Waseda University is a leading private research university that has long been dedicated to academic excellence, innovative research, and civic engagement at both the local and global levels since 1882. The University has produced many changemakers in its history, including eight prime ministers and many leaders in business, science and technology, literature, sports, and film. Waseda has strong collaborations with overseas research institutions and is committed to advancing cutting-edge research and developing leaders who can contribute to the resolution of complex, global social issues. The University has set a target of achieving a zero-carbon campus by 2032, in line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by the United Nations in 2015. To learn more about Waseda University, visit https://www.waseda.jp/top/en
About Research Associate Mizuho Akimoto Ms. Mizuho Akimoto is currently a Research Associate at the Advanced Collaborative Research Organization for Smart Society (ACROSS) at Waseda University. She is also a member of the Shin-ichi Tanabe lab at Waseda University. She obtained her M.S. degree from the Department of Architecture at Waseda University in 2022. She has published over 20 articles, which have received over 230 citations. Her research is primarily focused on understanding bedroom environments for better sleep quality and wellness in residential buildings.
Researchers estimate that most elementary students will have jobs in the future that don’t exist yet, and those careers will require advanced knowledge of AI, something not every country is prioritizing.
Artificial intelligence is spreading into many aspects of life, from communications and advertising to grading tests. But with the growth of AI comes a shake-up in the workplace.
New research from the University of Georgia is shedding light on how different countries are preparing for how AI will impact their workforces.
According to previous research, almost half of today’s jobs could vanish over the next 20 years. But it’s not all doom and gloom.
Researchers also estimate that 65% of current elementary school students will have jobs in the future that don’t exist now. Most of these new careers will require advanced AI skills and knowledge.
"Human soft skills, such as creativity, collaboration and communication cannot be replaced by AI.” —Lehong Shi, College of Education
To tackle these challenges, governments around the world are taking steps to help their citizens gain the skills they’ll need. The present study examined 50 countries’ national AI strategies, focusing on policies for education and the workforce.
Learning what other countries are doing could help the U.S. improve its own plans for workforce preparation in the era of AI, the researcher said.
“AI skills and competencies are very important,” said Lehong Shi, author of the study and an assistant research scientist at UGA’s Mary Frances Early College of Education. “If you want to be competitive in other areas, it’s very important to prepare employees to work with AI in the future.”
Some countries put larger focus on training, education
Shi used six indicators to evaluate each country’s prioritization on AI workforce training and education: the plan’s objective, how goals will be reached, examples of projects, how success will be measured, how projects will be supported and the timelines for each project.
Each nation was classified as giving high, medium or low priority to prepare an AI competent workforce depending on how each aspect of their plan was detailed.
Of the countries studied, only 13 gave high prioritization to training the current workforce and improving AI education in schools. Eleven of those were European countries, with Mexico and Australia being the two exceptions. This may be because European nations tend to have more resources for training and cultures of lifelong learning, the researcher said.
The United States was one of 23 countries that considered workforce training and AI education a medium priority, with a less detailed plan compared to countries that saw them as a high priority.
Different countries prioritize different issues when it comes to AI preparation
Some common themes emerged between countries, even when their approaches to AI differed. For example, almost every nation aimed to establish or improve AI-focused programs in universities. Some also aimed to improve AI education for K-12 students.
On-the-job training was also a priority for more than half the countries, with some offering industry-specific training programs or internships. However, few focused on vulnerable populations such as the elderly or unemployed through programs to teach them basic AI skills.
Shi stressed that just because a country gives less prioritization to education and workforce preparation doesn’t mean AI isn’t on its radar. Some Asian countries, for example, put more effort into improving national security and health care rather than education.
Cultivating interest in AI could help students prepare for careers
Some countries took a lifelong approach to developing these specialized skills. Germany, for instance, emphasized creating a culture that encourages interest in AI. Spain started teaching kids AI-related skills as early as preschool.
Of the many actions governments took, Shi noted one area that needs more emphasis when preparing future AI-empowered workplaces. “Human soft skills, such as creativity, collaboration and communication cannot be replaced by AI,” Shi said. “And they were only mentioned by a few countries.”
Developing these sorts of “soft skills” is key to making sure students and employees continue to have a place in the workforce.
This study was published in Human Resource Development Review.
