U. of Michigan Develops Self-Healing Concrete

Researchers at the University of Michigan have developed a new form of concrete that is able to heal itself when it cracks. Surprisingly, no human intervention is required, just water and CO2. The self-healing concrete works by enabling the infrastructure to form microcracks instead of larger ones that cause failure from strain on the system. The result is more durable concrete that may be able to save buildings from earthquakes around the world.

“It’s like if you get a small cut on your hand, your body can heal itself. But if you have a large wound, your body needs help. You might need stitches. We’ve created a material with such tiny crack widths that it takes care of the healing by itself. Even if you overload it, the cracks stay small,” said Victor Li, the E. Benjamin Wylie Collegiate Professor of Civil Engineering and a professor of Materials Science and Engineering.

“We found, to our happy surprise, that when we load it again after it heals, it behaves just like new, with practically the same stiffness and strength,” Li said. “Self-healing of crack damage recovers any stiffness lost when the material was damaged and returns it to its pristine state. The material can be damaged and still remain safe to load.”

This is a perfect example of a technology developed in a university lab that provides entrepreneurs an opportunity to commercialize and develop into new a product. It seems there is a direct correlation between engineering and technology level at schools and the type of startups that emerge. Technology enables society to create higher degrees of leverage between man and machine. Thus, enabling entrepreneurs to create products that provide enhanced value that pushes civilization forward.

I think this may be one of the reasons why entrepreneurs from MIT are so successful. They are simply exposed to more technologies and ideas that they can use to build companies. Most startups from undergrad are student-centric. As entrepreneurship in school continues to expand, there should be increased efforts to introduce the right students to the right technologies. I'm sure there's many technologies sitting on the shelf waiting to be commercialized. In fact, technology is advancing so fast that humans are having trouble applying them to society - it's one of the reasons why Singularity University was formed .

Hopefully, the rise of student-managed venture funds and business plan competitions will help make the bridge.