The Oguz-Gabala-Baku water pipeline project dates back to plans from the 1970’s. Baku’s growth was historically driven by the booming oil industry and required the import of drinking water from outside of the city. Before the construction of the pipeline, some 60 percent of the city’s households received water for only a few hours daily. After completion of the project, 75 percent of the two million Baku residents are now served around the clock with potable water, based on World Health Organization (WHO) standards. The 262-kilometer pipeline requires no pumping station, but uses the altitude differences between the Caucasian mountains and the capital to supply 432,000 m³/d to the Ceyranbatan water reservoir. To the people of Baku, the pipeline is “the most important project not only in 2010, but of the last 20 years.”

The ability to learn is a precondition for autonomy. With this in mind, Siemens researchers are developing knowledge networks based on deep learning-related simulated neurons and connections. Such networks can be used to generalize information by identifying associations between extraordinarily complex realms, such as the publicly accessible Internet and a company’s internal information systems. Far-reaching and generic, this technology appears to hold the potential of mimicking what humans call intuition.