Brian Fuchs TED Talk Review (Self-Healing Asphalt)

I know it's a week early, but...

This is a review of Dr. Erik Schlangen’s demonstration of self-healing asphalt that he developed. This video can be found on the TED talk website at https://www.ted.com/talks/erik_schlangen_a_self_healing_asphalt. It was seen on April 27, 2014.

This is a short video – only six minutes long. However, I picked it because it directly relates to Materials Engineering and successfully solves a problem. Dr. Schlangen presented his findings at a TED talk in the Netherlands in 2012. This review will focus on Dr. Schlangen’s presentation, which was successful in its pitch. This finding has excited me on a personal level, as it demonstrates my personal favorite form of creativity; applying old techniques to new applications.

The style of the talk is a combination of a demonstration and a sales pitch. Dr. Schlangen’s purpose is to show the world his cool new research. This has the possibility to reach hundreds of thousands of people, especially given the popularity of TED talks.\

Dr. Schlangen talks about asphalt roads and the problems they face – water build-up, noisy, and they crumble easily. Some of these problems have already been solved; porous asphalt reduces water build-up and noise. However, this too faces the problem of crumbling over time. So how does that get fixed? Dr. Schlangen introduces two material-related topics: induction heating and self-healing materials. His team basically wove steel fibers into the asphalt along with some heat-induced self-repairing material. With this technique, a strong electric coil can cause the steel wires to heat up and induce the repairing reactions in the asphalt. Dr. Schlangen demonstrates this technique by breaking a piece of his asphalt in half, then putting it in a microwave. When he removes the piece, it has healed itself back together.

Dr. Schlangen’s pitch is rather successful. Most helpful was the successful demonstration of the self-healing asphalt, which was accomplished using a rather simple microwave. This in particular helped to sell it; most of the audience knows what a microwave is. The idea that something that “simple” could be used to heal roads is fascinating. If this actually makes it onto major roadways, it will be a simple manner to “heal” them rather than replacing them every 10 years.

Unfortunately, Dr. Schlangen did not go into the science behind induction or self-healing materials. As a Materials Engineering student, I understand what they are, but it looks like hand-wavy magic to those on the outside. I really was hoping he would get into the science behind it. However, he chose correctly based on his audience – many people would care what the actual science is as long as it works.

In terms of “sales pitch” TED talks, this talk was better than some of the other ones that I’ve seen. Sometimes, the talker just looks at his demonstration, or his feet, but Dr. Schlangen engaged the audience well. He faced the crowd, did some cool demonstrations that involved liquid nitrogen, and cracked a couple jokes.

As I said before, this is my favorite type of creativity: taking old ideas and applying them to new applications. From what Dr. Schlangen described, these are fairly simple techniques – induction heating has been used in industry for decades, and self-healing materials, while still a topic of research, are also in use. Dr. Schlangen took these two concepts, took an existing material (porous asphalt) and combined them to make an even better material. It’s the same thing I hope to do in the future. While I’m not really interested in asphalt specifically, I am interested in composite materials. Much like this asphalt, composites take the best of two worlds – e.g. the toughness of a polymer and the hardness of a ceramic – and combine them to make a material that is tough, strong, and lightweight. The newest planes – things like the Boeing 787 – are being made using a material called “black aluminum,” a combination of carbon fibers and epoxy. There’s this whole field out there that just focuses on combining things to make them stronger, and that’s right where I’m heading.

In conclusion, Dr. Schlangen gave a good pitch for his asphalt. While he did not go into the science behind it, he had a successful demonstration of its effectiveness. This is the type of science/research that makes me excited for my future. 

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