MIT World

Psychiatric illness and neurological disorders such as autism, depression, and Alzheimer’s disease cause countless families to suffer, and require prodigious economic resources to manage. Now, thanks to major advances in genomics, systems neuroscience, and human brain imaging, says Robert Desimone, scientists are unlocking key secrets in how the human brain functions, work that may herald new and more effective therapies for neural disorders.

In his keynote address, Desimone pays tribute to McGovern Institute researchers who are tackling a common problem: understanding the neural circuit.
Ed Boyden works with different wavelengths of light to turn targeted cells on and off in living brains, “much the way a conductor controls musicians in an orchestra,” says Desimone. Boyden has focused in particular on the “straightforward circuit” of the retina, replacing dead photoreceptors with genetically manipulated, light-sensitive molecules so that mice with impaired vision see light again. Someday, this research could help people with similar kinds of blindness.

McGovern researchers are also untangling the more complex neural circuitry associated with psychiatric diseases and developmental disorders. Michale Fee’s model of the neural basis for bird song identified a brain structure that has an exact parallel in mammals -- a loop connecting the cortex and basal ganglia in which motor sequences move through a chain of neurons in precise order, “like dominoes falling.” A mistake in this circuit in humans could result in behavioral disorders.
Guoping Feng demonstrates that a single malfunctioning synaptic protein can wreak havoc on the basal ganglia, disrupting learning in humans. He has also determined that related circuits bearing gene mutations create behavior in mice that remarkably mirrors obsessive compulsive disorders in humans.

Yingxi Lin has identified a gene that helps the brain regulate the excitatory and inhibitory synapses, keeping neurons in balance, the way a thermostat regulates temperature in a room. Without this gene, mice “get too much excitation” and develop seizure disorders. She has discovered a comparable gene in autistic people, who also are prone to seizures. Other McGovern researchers are developing next generation diagnostic tools.
John Gabrieli has mapped out the circuits central to high level cognitive functions, and will soon be deploying a new kind of imaging that gives a precise picture of dynamic changes in brain states, measured in milliseconds. And Alan Jasanoff uses genetic engineering techniques to create new molecules that act as sensors, showing the release and flow of chemicals in the brain that can highlight both healthy and diseased circuitry. Insights from McGovern research, says Desimone, “will lay down the foundation for therapeutics of the future.”

Who better to comment on current realities of real estate investment than practitioners immersed in the business at the highest level? Moderated by prominent real estate economist Ray Torto, this panel includes five senior executives with well over a century of collective experience at major development and investment firms and an industry information organization.

Kicking off the discussion from the audience, Jacques Gordon of LaSalle Investment Management asks about the stark contrast in previous panels between views of academics espousing the “complexity” of markets, historical data and prognostications, and the “simplicity” of the perspective of renowned developer Gerald Hines. The consensus is that quantitative analysis and technical skills are dazzling, but it is essential to streamline and make a case that real estate investors can easily comprehend. Joseph Azrack tells his staff, “You’ve got to be able to figure it out on a piece of paper. Don’t give me all the spreadsheets.” Lynn Thurber acknowledges that complexity is inevitable but you have “to focus, to make a decision and…course correct when the information later on tells you that you’re going the wrong way.”

Torto invites the panelists to nominate one key term to epitomize what students must learn for real estate careers. Tom Garbutt offers “global” -- adding, “Get experience outside the US … See how decisions are made in other cultures.” Thurber’s mantra is “risk management”; investment success comes from “being able to understand that risk and price that risk correctly.” Brad Case stresses discipline. Firms must have mechanisms in place to “minimize the opportunities to destroy value.” Azrack, citing renegade musician Frank Zappa, believes in being contrarian. He advises departing from conventional wisdom to identify fruitful investment opportunities in out-of-favor assets and markets.

On the critical topic of the impending trillion dollar debt rollover, Doug Linde refutes doomsayers, forecasting that well-located properties will provide redeeming value. “As long as the financial system has maintained enough cushion,” declares Linde, “I don’t think systemically we are going to be into this sort of Armageddon.” With measured optimism, Garbutt concurs that in today’s climate the risk premium for investors in real estate is better than in alternative assets, and high quality properties should create inflation protection.

All the speakers embrace environmental sustainability as paramount to their business. Energy efficiency is an ever-present consideration, and measuring a carbon footprint is common parlance. Azrack states, “If you have a choice between a LEED building and another one…you’re going to go with the LEED.” Thurber agrees that green buildings help “attract and retain tenants…reduce our operating expenses…and our investors are interested in the subject matter. Sustainability is going to be an integral part of everything we do…to make sure that our assets remain competitive.” Garbutt draws an analogy to the 1950s when air-conditioned office buildings came into vogue; without this amenity, “you were in big trouble,” unable to satisfy tenant demand.

In closing, Torto asks for research ideas that might enhance the real estate industry. Case proposes “a set of indexes…that will bring a lot more transparency to the market,” and the development of effective hedging instruments. He would also like to learn which methods of entering the asset class produce superior returns -- for example, REITs versus private funding.

Who better to comment on current realities of real estate investment than practitioners immersed in the business at the highest level? Moderated by prominent real estate economist Ray Torto, this panel includes five senior executives with well over a century of collective experience at major development and investment firms and an industry information organization.

Kicking off the discussion from the audience, Jacques Gordon of LaSalle Investment Management asks about the stark contrast in previous panels between views of academics espousing the “complexity” of markets, historical data and prognostications, and the “simplicity” of the perspective of renowned developer Gerald Hines. The consensus is that quantitative analysis and technical skills are dazzling, but it is essential to streamline and make a case that real estate investors can easily comprehend. Joseph Azrack tells his staff, “You’ve got to be able to figure it out on a piece of paper. Don’t give me all the spreadsheets.” Lynn Thurber acknowledges that complexity is inevitable but you have “to focus, to make a decision and…course correct when the information later on tells you that you’re going the wrong way.”

Torto invites the panelists to nominate one key term to epitomize what students must learn for real estate careers. Tom Garbutt offers “global” -- adding, “Get experience outside the US … See how decisions are made in other cultures.” Thurber’s mantra is “risk management”; investment success comes from “being able to understand that risk and price that risk correctly.” Brad Case stresses discipline. Firms must have mechanisms in place to “minimize the opportunities to destroy value.” Azrack, citing renegade musician Frank Zappa, believes in being contrarian. He advises departing from conventional wisdom to identify fruitful investment opportunities in out-of-favor assets and markets.

On the critical topic of the impending trillion dollar debt rollover, Doug Linde refutes doomsayers, forecasting that well-located properties will provide redeeming value. “As long as the financial system has maintained enough cushion,” declares Linde, “I don’t think systemically we are going to be into this sort of Armageddon.” With measured optimism, Garbutt concurs that in today’s climate the risk premium for investors in real estate is better than in alternative assets, and high quality properties should create inflation protection.

All the speakers embrace environmental sustainability as paramount to their business. Energy efficiency is an ever-present consideration, and measuring a carbon footprint is common parlance. Azrack states, “If you have a choice between a LEED building and another one…you’re going to go with the LEED.” Thurber agrees that green buildings help “attract and retain tenants…reduce our operating expenses…and our investors are interested in the subject matter. Sustainability is going to be an integral part of everything we do…to make sure that our assets remain competitive.” Garbutt draws an analogy to the 1950s when air-conditioned office buildings came into vogue; without this amenity, “you were in big trouble,” unable to satisfy tenant demand.

In closing, Torto asks for research ideas that might enhance the real estate industry. Case proposes “a set of indexes…that will bring a lot more transparency to the market,” and the development of effective hedging instruments. He would also like to learn which methods of entering the asset class produce superior returns -- for example, REITs versus private funding.

Few better personify the vitality and ambition fueling China’s economic surge than Charles C-Y Zhang. In this energetic and revelatory talk, Zhang relates his personal evolution from MIT physicist to leading Chinese entrepreneur.

An industrious student from a poor family, Zhang was one of the fortunate few in his university to qualify for an education in the U.S. “In terms of IQ, I’m OK. Everywhere, smart kids were studying physics and math,” he says. While completing a Ph.D. at MIT in the early ‘90s, Zhang discovered “the wonderland of computers.” During post-doctoral research, he became involved in a program fostering MIT/China cooperation, and decided to make a career of the “two big trends of the time”: an emerging China and the internet.

“For a Chinese student in 1995, returning to China was considered crazy,” says Zhang. He joined an internet company opening offices in emerging markets, and set off for China on his 31st birthday, committed to making “major changes in my life.” With his MIT background, Zhang found he was well situated to “crack open the wall” in Chinese society and forge a path for this new company. But Zhang soon became restless, convinced that the internet could be more than just a means of communicating financial information. He set about raising money for his own startup, leveraging investment and help from such MIT friends as Ed Roberts and Nick Negroponte. In 1996, Zhang’s new company, Internet Technologies China, went online, using China’s first internet backbone (a $1000 PC running Linux).

Zhang’s directory of links as well as navigation assistance to sites on China’s early internet, became SOHU.com in 1998 -- a company, Zhang proudly recounts, of many “firsts.” It was China’s first free and open website; the first Chinese company to use venture capital, and professional marketing. Says Zhang, “The first few years, I ran SOHU like a presidential campaign operation, and I became the digital power boy and messenger of China.”

Many internet entrepreneurs followed hard on Zhang’s heels, and a group of companies now jockey for dominance in China. So Zhang is intent on recreating his company in the next two years, to establish unassailable market share in online video content, microblogs, and gaming among China’s 400 million+ internet users. To achieve this, Zhang says he must inject “more technology genes” into the company, broaden management talent, and continue pushing China for judicial relief from intellectual property “piracy.” Says Zhang, “We either become an internet giant…or we will shrink into history. There is no middle position -- winner takes all.”

Few better personify the vitality and ambition fueling China’s economic surge than Charles C-Y Zhang. In this energetic and revelatory talk, Zhang relates his personal evolution from MIT physicist to leading Chinese entrepreneur.

An industrious student from a poor family, Zhang was one of the fortunate few in his university to qualify for an education in the U.S. “In terms of IQ, I’m OK. Everywhere, smart kids were studying physics and math,” he says. While completing a Ph.D. at MIT in the early ‘90s, Zhang discovered “the wonderland of computers.” During post-doctoral research, he became involved in a program fostering MIT/China cooperation, and decided to make a career of the “two big trends of the time”: an emerging China and the internet.

“For a Chinese student in 1995, returning to China was considered crazy,” says Zhang. He joined an internet company opening offices in emerging markets, and set off for China on his 31st birthday, committed to making “major changes in my life.” With his MIT background, Zhang found he was well situated to “crack open the wall” in Chinese society and forge a path for this new company. But Zhang soon became restless, convinced that the internet could be more than just a means of communicating financial information. He set about raising money for his own startup, leveraging investment and help from such MIT friends as Ed Roberts and Nick Negroponte. In 1996, Zhang’s new company, Internet Technologies China, went online, using China’s first internet backbone (a $1000 PC running Linux).

Zhang’s directory of links as well as navigation assistance to sites on China’s early internet, became SOHU.com in 1998 -- a company, Zhang proudly recounts, of many “firsts.” It was China’s first free and open website; the first Chinese company to use venture capital, and professional marketing. Says Zhang, “The first few years, I ran SOHU like a presidential campaign operation, and I became the digital power boy and messenger of China.”

Many internet entrepreneurs followed hard on Zhang’s heels, and a group of companies now jockey for dominance in China. So Zhang is intent on recreating his company in the next two years, to establish unassailable market share in online video content, microblogs, and gaming among China’s 400 million+ internet users. To achieve this, Zhang says he must inject “more technology genes” into the company, broaden management talent, and continue pushing China for judicial relief from intellectual property “piracy.” Says Zhang, “We either become an internet giant…or we will shrink into history. There is no middle position -- winner takes all.”

This group of luminaries from the formative years of the laser expresses both wonder and delight at the astonishing ubiquity this technology has achieved in their lifetime. They recount their parts of a 50-year tale, and convey the excitement of scientific discovery and the pleasures of advancing knowledge in a new field.

Writer Jeff Hecht kicks off the celebration with a fast-paced, illustrated tour of laser technology. Although Einstein theorized early in the 20th century that photons could be excited to produce radiation, it was not until the 1950s that the race began in earnest to demonstrate this physics. Charles Townes and James Gordon came up with a microwave-based version of the technology, but it was graduate student Gordon Gould at Columbia who figured out it was possible to amplify visible light, says Hecht. Gould also coined the term LASER, for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation.

In May 1960, Theodore “Ted” Maiman cooked up the first actual device, using a synthetic ruby crystal inside a coiled flash lamp. Newspapers heralded the achievement with typical, Cold War hyperbole: “LA Man Builds Death Ray.” From that moment, breakthroughs in the technology came in a rush: the first gas laser, emitting a continuous beam; semiconductor diode lasers; green light and argon-fluorine excimer lasers (deployed in eye surgery); lasers used in 3D holography; supermarket scanners; millions of CD and DVD players; and fiber optic cable. While the Reagan-era “Star Wars” defense envisioned orbiting laser battle stations, says Hecht, the only real laser weapon has been the “anti-mosquito laser.”

Hecht pays tribute to “laser dignitaries” in the audience who were integral to these and other laser applications. He also notes two central figures sadly absent:
Michael Feld, Director of MIT’s George R. Harrison Spectroscopy Laboratory, and Charles Freed, who developed the first stable carbon dioxide laser at Lincoln Lab, and who donated to the MIT Museum a laser used to verify the Nobel Prize-winning work of Charles Townes and his collaborators. Both Feld and Freed died in 2010.

Among the pioneers who speak are Peter Moulton, who describes early failures while working to find “broadly tunable” materials for solid state lasers. Moulton helped develop a “cool” titanium sapphire laser, and his work continues to have a major impact in the scientific laser industry.

Richard M. Osgood, Jr. worked with gas lasers, which he found “tremendously exciting” because they had “a tremendous amount of optical power.” As a U.S. Air Force Captain, he helped develop a carbon monoxide laser that emitted a wavelength 10 times longer than extreme light and was the most efficient laser of its time.

Dick Williamson describes the challenge of moving from his original perch at Lincoln Lab developing surface acoustic wave devices to taking over a laser group there: “It was my ultimate Dilbert moment. I knew nothing about lasers.” He oversaw work to expand the wavelength range of diode lasers. “That’s where I got my kicks.”

Starting at Bell Labs in the 60s and during his MIT career, Erich Ippen has been intrigued with creating super short flashes of laser light, measured in femtoseconds (one quadrillionth of a second). This research permits greater accuracy with time-keeping (it has revolutionized the clock, says Ippen), 3D imaging of cells in real-time, and is opening up the field of optical biopsy. “Still at it, trying to make shorter pulses,” says Ippen; it continues to be “a wonderful ride.”

This group of luminaries from the formative years of the laser expresses both wonder and delight at the astonishing ubiquity this technology has achieved in their lifetime. They recount their parts of a 50-year tale, and convey the excitement of scientific discovery and the pleasures of advancing knowledge in a new field.

Writer Jeff Hecht kicks off the celebration with a fast-paced, illustrated tour of laser technology. Although Einstein theorized early in the 20th century that photons could be excited to produce radiation, it was not until the 1950s that the race began in earnest to demonstrate this physics. Charles Townes and James Gordon came up with a microwave-based version of the technology, but it was graduate student Gordon Gould at Columbia who figured out it was possible to amplify visible light, says Hecht. Gould also coined the term LASER, for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation.

In May 1960, Theodore “Ted” Maiman cooked up the first actual device, using a synthetic ruby crystal inside a coiled flash lamp. Newspapers heralded the achievement with typical, Cold War hyperbole: “LA Man Builds Death Ray.” From that moment, breakthroughs in the technology came in a rush: the first gas laser, emitting a continuous beam; semiconductor diode lasers; green light and argon-fluorine excimer lasers (deployed in eye surgery); lasers used in 3D holography; supermarket scanners; millions of CD and DVD players; and fiber optic cable. While the Reagan-era “Star Wars” defense envisioned orbiting laser battle stations, says Hecht, the only real laser weapon has been the “anti-mosquito laser.”

Hecht pays tribute to “laser dignitaries” in the audience who were integral to these and other laser applications. He also notes two central figures sadly absent:
Michael Feld, Director of MIT’s George R. Harrison Spectroscopy Laboratory, and Charles Freed, who developed the first stable carbon dioxide laser at Lincoln Lab, and who donated to the MIT Museum a laser used to verify the Nobel Prize-winning work of Charles Townes and his collaborators. Both Feld and Freed died in 2010.

Among the pioneers who speak are Peter Moulton, who describes early failures while working to find “broadly tunable” materials for solid state lasers. Moulton helped develop a “cool” titanium sapphire laser, and his work continues to have a major impact in the scientific laser industry.

Richard M. Osgood, Jr. worked with gas lasers, which he found “tremendously exciting” because they had “a tremendous amount of optical power.” As a U.S. Air Force Captain, he helped develop a carbon monoxide laser that emitted a wavelength 10 times longer than extreme light and was the most efficient laser of its time.

Dick Williamson describes the challenge of moving from his original perch at Lincoln Lab developing surface acoustic wave devices to taking over a laser group there: “It was my ultimate Dilbert moment. I knew nothing about lasers.” He oversaw work to expand the wavelength range of diode lasers. “That’s where I got my kicks.”

Starting at Bell Labs in the 60s and during his MIT career, Erich Ippen has been intrigued with creating super short flashes of laser light, measured in femtoseconds (one quadrillionth of a second). This research permits greater accuracy with time-keeping (it has revolutionized the clock, says Ippen), 3D imaging of cells in real-time, and is opening up the field of optical biopsy. “Still at it, trying to make shorter pulses,” says Ippen; it continues to be “a wonderful ride.”

An iconic figure in real estate development,
Gerald D. Hines relates lessons learned over his half-century career to an admiring industry audience.

Leveraging know-how in mechanical systems and project management, and not a small amount of chutzpah, Hines opened a one-man office in 1957 Houston, intent on buying, renovating and managing his own buildings. From this tiny start-up, the Hines development business has grown into an international powerhouse, controlling $22 billion in assets, and employing 3,300 people in 245 cities dealing with hundreds of millions of square feet of commercial, residential and mixed-use projects.

Hines ticks off a handful of reasons for this spectacular success. First, he believes in “quality architecture” and mechanical systems that provide good service at low cost. When buildings embody these principles, he says, you can “mitigate risk in any economic cycle.” Such architects as Philip Johnson and Kevin Roche have drawn tenants to his buildings. You want to be the “last to lose occupancy and the first to gain it back,” says Hines. Second, he advocates a steadfast commitment to sustainable technologies, which also “makes good business sense.” Even in the era prior to LEED standards, Hines sought ways to streamline buildings for greater operating and energy efficiencies. Other lessons he imparts: there are opportunities in acquiring existing buildings if you are “sure you can add value;” and “mixed use development makes for better communities and a better world.”

The average tenure for Hines’ employees runs in the decades, and the company’s organizational structure contributes in great part to this retention rate, as well as to its global successes. Hines describes the autonomy top managers enjoy in their various divisions. The company also offers these managers 50% of equity in new ventures. The “people leading the project have something to lose,” says Hines, and a great deal to gain as well.

Hines sees a real estate landscape that is a lot tougher to break into today, and one fraught with great uncertainty, especially in current economic times. He was chairman of the Dallas Federal Reserve Bank in the early 1980s, and witnessed a bust that “wiped out the real estate industry.” He sees parallels today to those times, and warns his listeners, “Button down your hatches, guys, it could come overnight.”

An iconic figure in real estate development,
Gerald D. Hines relates lessons learned over his half-century career to an admiring industry audience.

Leveraging know-how in mechanical systems and project management, and not a small amount of chutzpah, Hines opened a one-man office in 1957 Houston, intent on buying, renovating and managing his own buildings. From this tiny start-up, the Hines development business has grown into an international powerhouse, controlling $22 billion in assets, and employing 3,300 people in 245 cities dealing with hundreds of millions of square feet of commercial, residential and mixed-use projects.

Hines ticks off a handful of reasons for this spectacular success. First, he believes in “quality architecture” and mechanical systems that provide good service at low cost. When buildings embody these principles, he says, you can “mitigate risk in any economic cycle.” Such architects as Philip Johnson and Kevin Roche have drawn tenants to his buildings. You want to be the “last to lose occupancy and the first to gain it back,” says Hines. Second, he advocates a steadfast commitment to sustainable technologies, which also “makes good business sense.” Even in the era prior to LEED standards, Hines sought ways to streamline buildings for greater operating and energy efficiencies. Other lessons he imparts: there are opportunities in acquiring existing buildings if you are “sure you can add value;” and “mixed use development makes for better communities and a better world.”

The average tenure for Hines’ employees runs in the decades, and the company’s organizational structure contributes in great part to this retention rate, as well as to its global successes. Hines describes the autonomy top managers enjoy in their various divisions. The company also offers these managers 50% of equity in new ventures. The “people leading the project have something to lose,” says Hines, and a great deal to gain as well.

Hines sees a real estate landscape that is a lot tougher to break into today, and one fraught with great uncertainty, especially in current economic times. He was chairman of the Dallas Federal Reserve Bank in the early 1980s, and witnessed a bust that “wiped out the real estate industry.” He sees parallels today to those times, and warns his listeners, “Button down your hatches, guys, it could come overnight.”

The built environment consumes a very large share of the nation’s energy, and so offers rich opportunities for reducing our overall carbon footprint. MIT researchers share innovations that could soon radically alter the energy profile, as well as form and function, of buildings. Their work may prove invaluable to those in the real estate or construction industries seeking not just efficiency, but a good investment.

Pumping gas into a car, we can get a good sense of its energy costs, says John Ochsendorf. But when it comes to buildings, which are huge capital investments, “we have practically no literacy” around energy performance. Now we are entering a “new frontier,” says Ochsendorf, as pressure builds to achieve substantial, swift reductions in energy consumption. He is helping to develop new metrics for measuring the amount of energy a building uses over its entire lifespan, from construction through many years of occupancy.

Ochsendorf maps the material and energy flow involved in producing a can of Coke, from the extraction of minerals for aluminum smelting, to the French beets used in its sugar syrup, and suggests that this level of detail should be available for our buildings as well. This means “lifecycle assessment with rigorous benchmarking of building performance,” down to the CO2 emissions per square foot. Ochsendorf is working with concrete and cement manufacturers to help them achieve steep reductions quickly, and to design buildings that use local waste material such as clay, and operate with zero net energy use.

The value of buildings derives from their capacity to “protect and enhance the health, safety and well-being of occupants and communities,” says Sarah Slaughter. There are measurable benefits, too: Acoustically quiet classrooms improve student retention, and reinforced buildings can withstand hurricanes and earthquakes. Slaughter is interested in using “low impact development” for healthy, resilient buildings. She takes a “system of systems” approach, examining first the interaction of systems within a building. Could use of rainwater capture, for instance, decrease the need for non-potable water, or could “daylight harvesting” permit the downsizing of artificial lighting? Slaughter next considers the building’s connections to the larger environment, including its neighborhood and region.

She sees a “value-added chain” that ultimately includes municipalities and state and federal agencies. By targeting the right links in the chain, one can achieve both performance enhancement and cost efficiencies. This leads to “clearly demonstrable bottom-line benefits -- less than a year payback for some upgrades” as well as improved buildings that “allow people to complete their organizational missions more effectively.”

Alex (Sandy) Pentland hopes to make buildings more productive and efficient, but focuses on people rather than structures. He has devised methods for mapping human activities, following cellphone and other wireless signals. For example, Pentland can track face to face meetings taking place in an organization, and troubleshoot areas of low-productivity. He describes changing the time for coffee breaks in a Bank of America call center, and saving that business $15 million. He has detailed how “tribes” of people move about in cities, and can make astonishingly accurate predictions about where and when these groups go to eat and the kinds of things they buy. Real estate developers could look at transportation patterns, for instance, and build stores in places convenient to a target group. These tools are powerful enough to reveal socioeconomic patterns, such as crime rates, disease and even life expectancy among different groups. Data mapping, believes Pentland, will prove increasingly useful to many institutions, although it presents some perils around privacy issues.

The built environment consumes a very large share of the nation’s energy, and so offers rich opportunities for reducing our overall carbon footprint. MIT researchers share innovations that could soon radically alter the energy profile, as well as form and function, of buildings. Their work may prove invaluable to those in the real estate or construction industries seeking not just efficiency, but a good investment.

Pumping gas into a car, we can get a good sense of its energy costs, says John Ochsendorf. But when it comes to buildings, which are huge capital investments, “we have practically no literacy” around energy performance. Now we are entering a “new frontier,” says Ochsendorf, as pressure builds to achieve substantial, swift reductions in energy consumption. He is helping to develop new metrics for measuring the amount of energy a building uses over its entire lifespan, from construction through many years of occupancy.

Ochsendorf maps the material and energy flow involved in producing a can of Coke, from the extraction of minerals for aluminum smelting, to the French beets used in its sugar syrup, and suggests that this level of detail should be available for our buildings as well. This means “lifecycle assessment with rigorous benchmarking of building performance,” down to the CO2 emissions per square foot. Ochsendorf is working with concrete and cement manufacturers to help them achieve steep reductions quickly, and to design buildings that use local waste material such as clay, and operate with zero net energy use.

The value of buildings derives from their capacity to “protect and enhance the health, safety and well-being of occupants and communities,” says Sarah Slaughter. There are measurable benefits, too: Acoustically quiet classrooms improve student retention, and reinforced buildings can withstand hurricanes and earthquakes. Slaughter is interested in using “low impact development” for healthy, resilient buildings. She takes a “system of systems” approach, examining first the interaction of systems within a building. Could use of rainwater capture, for instance, decrease the need for non-potable water, or could “daylight harvesting” permit the downsizing of artificial lighting? Slaughter next considers the building’s connections to the larger environment, including its neighborhood and region.

She sees a “value-added chain” that ultimately includes municipalities and state and federal agencies. By targeting the right links in the chain, one can achieve both performance enhancement and cost efficiencies. This leads to “clearly demonstrable bottom-line benefits -- less than a year payback for some upgrades” as well as improved buildings that “allow people to complete their organizational missions more effectively.”

Alex (Sandy) Pentland hopes to make buildings more productive and efficient, but focuses on people rather than structures. He has devised methods for mapping human activities, following cellphone and other wireless signals. For example, Pentland can track face to face meetings taking place in an organization, and troubleshoot areas of low-productivity. He describes changing the time for coffee breaks in a Bank of America call center, and saving that business $15 million. He has detailed how “tribes” of people move about in cities, and can make astonishingly accurate predictions about where and when these groups go to eat and the kinds of things they buy. Real estate developers could look at transportation patterns, for instance, and build stores in places convenient to a target group. These tools are powerful enough to reveal socioeconomic patterns, such as crime rates, disease and even life expectancy among different groups. Data mapping, believes Pentland, will prove increasingly useful to many institutions, although it presents some perils around privacy issues.