THE BIG QUESTION
Where should infrastructure investments in the U.S. start?
ADRIANNE FLYNN SENIOR LECTURER AND INTERNSHIPS AND CAREER DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR, PHILIP MERRILL COLLEGE OF JOURNALISM
— GREGG
VANDERHEIDEN
PROFESSOR AND TRACE RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT CENTER DIRECTOR, COLLEGE OF INFORMATION STUDIES
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Start with ensuring that everyone can access and use the internet. That includes not just the final mile (hooking up to their house) but the final foot (an interface that each person can use regardless of age, disability or technical skill).
MARVIN A. TITUS ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF HIGHER EDUCATION, COLLEGE OF EDUCATION
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More physical capital investment is needed to maintain aging buildings or construct new ones at public higher education institutions, which face extremely high deferred maintenance costs. This is particularly the case at historically Black and other institutions serving underrepresented minority students.
ALBERT “PETE” KYLE CHARLES E. SMITH CHAIR PROFESSOR OF FINANCE, ROBERT H. SMITH SCHOOL OF BUSINESS
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Infrastructure investment should look forward into the 21st century, including improving roadways for self-driving cars and building bullet-train infrastructure, battery technology for storing solar, wind and nuclear energy, aircraft monitoring technology for managing skies filled with drones, personal aircraft and large airplanes, and super-high-speed internet.
CARMEN CANTEMIR-STONE BIOLOGY LECTURER, COLLEGE OF COMPUTER, MATHEMATICAL, AND NATURAL SCIENCES
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When I am stuck in traffic to cross the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, I think about the waste of fuel, time and energy. What a sensible solution a ferry/bus line would be: Park on one side, jump on the ferry, grab a bus on the other side connecting to buses that run up and down the coast.
JUNGHO KIM
Healthy people = healthy nation. So let’s include access to health care as “infrastructure”: reduced-cost insurance, medication, mental health care, and child care with art and sports programs, fresh food and veggies in food deserts, and access to clean water and safe housing.
PROFESSOR OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING, A. JAMES CLARK SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING
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Billions of dollars flow out of windows every year in the form of energy losses. We can cut these losses by at least half by eliminating the gas between the glass panes and using the resulting vacuum to produce windows whose performance approaches that of the walls around them. We have been developing these windows that are low-cost, reliable and extremely energy-efficient.
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