The Solve conference, taking place on the MIT campus October 5-8, 2015, seeks to answer the hard questions of our time, questions that must be addressed now to prepare for a future that is just a short time away.
Solve will investigate challenges in the context of four content pillars: LEARN, CURE, FUEL, and MAKE. Each pillar focuses on one central objective and identifies a series of questions that approach that objective by breaking it into smaller pieces. These questions are at the center of the conference, where each will be explored to help us understand both the opportunities for progress toward our objectives and the barriers to achieving it.
FUEL — Double energy and food production, halve carbon output by 2050, and set a path to net-zero carbon emissions by 2100.
- How can we build a scalable, safe new nuclear reactor design by 2025?
- How will we provide clean water and food sustainably to 9.6 billion people?
- How do we efficiently distribute and store electricity so that advanced renewable energy sources can meet most of our power needs anywhere in the world?
- How do we mitigate the impact of climate change now and in the future?
“How do we go from a fossil-energy fueled economy—80 percent of the world’s energy comes from fossil fuels—how do we make the transition from those fossil energy sources to carbon-free sources in as short a period a time as possible? That’s the challenge that calls us together.”
Robert Armstrong — co-curator, FUEL
“I’m positive that the energy storage issue will be solved. I’m positive that we will have solar cells that can meet our needs.”
Angela Belcher — co-curator, FUEL