Innovation & Tech Today -- Fall 2021 by Innovation & Tech Today

VALERIE TAYLOR REMEMBERS JAWS

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THE DARK SIDE OF GAMING

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ELECTRIC MOTORCYCLES

on Life, Competition, and the Pursuit of Magic

FALL 2021

2021: A Space Reality Gaming’s New Frontier Innovations for Pampered Pups Legendary Explorer Talks Innovation Tech Zone: Colorado

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FROM THE PUBLISHER

Charles Warner, Publisher/ Editor-in-Chief

“ As billionaires duke it out to be remembered as space pioneers, we will eventually be the winners.”

The Future Has Arrived As we look forward to the future, I often wonder what kind of changes will wander into our daily life. When putting together a new issue, that vision that forms in my mind always changes slightly. With this issue, I’m left wondering at what point space travel could be as commonplace as air travel. On December 17, 1903 — just 118 years ago — Wilbur & Orville Wright successfully lifted an airplane into the sky. It wasn’t very far, and it wasn’t very long. But that’s the catalyst. As William Shatner flew to space on Blue Origin’s rocket, I found myself reflecting on that moment and the change that will almost certainly follow. Barely more than a century ago, the skies were empty except for birds and the cosmos. How many jet trails do you see in the sky on an average day now? The funny thing about technology is it tends to develop exponentially. Instead of simply minor developments over time, there are times when there are significant leaps. Despite the year’s many flaws, it will undoubtedly be remembered as the year space travel became a reality. Currently, NASA sends astronauts to the International Space Station via Russia. Seats can be purchased on the Russian Soyuz rocket for about $81 million — which NASA considers a significant bargain. William Shatner’s seat (for a much shorter flight, obviously) can be bought for $250,000-$500,000. That’s 1/324th of NASA’s current bargain rate. It’s not a manageable price for the average man, but very little tech is in its early stages.

INNOVATION & TECH TODAY | FALL 2021

As billionaires duke it out to be remembered as space pioneers, we will eventually be the winners. Imagine a flight from New York to China that skirts just outside the atmosphere and takes an hour or so. The Wright brothers’ plane couldn’t have traveled to China under any circumstances, and it barely held one person. Today, hundreds can fly around the world in a matter of hours. Current air travel does not exist without that moment. This year marks that moment for space travel. Now, imagine the next 118 years to improve this technology. The possibilities are nearly limitless. I know many people feel like this is just a group of billionaires waving their trophies around when the world has other problems to deal with, and maybe it is. We always have and always will have significant issues that need our attention. Should there be higher social priorities? Absolutely. Are some of them inexcusable? Yes. But it doesn’t mean we should quit innovating as a society. We need to be able to solve the issues individuals face every day, but we should also be able to walk and chew gum simultaneously. But in 2021, space travel appears to be here to stay — and I hope I’m still around when it becomes mainstream. My inner 8-year-old is primed and ready. Either way, Innovation & Tech Today will be there to cover it.

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SINCE LAST ISSUE

The hits kept coming during the summer of 2021 with new COVID-19 variants as well as James Gunn’s release of The Suicide Squad. Photo: iStockphoto.com/Nevena1987

THE SUMMER OF 2021 HAS PROVEN TO BE A MEMORABLE ONE. COVID-19 reared its head once again with the worst wave seen to date, and then began to retreat. We don’t know for how long, but I think it’s safe to say everyone was ready for a break. The nation currently sits about half vaccinated, and it appears that’s where it’s going to sit for a good long while. But it hasn’t all been so bleak. In the history books, the Summer of ’21 will likely be remembered as the season that ushered in consumer space travel. While it’s been met with a fair amount of criticism, what this means for future generations can not be understated. Somewhere in the future will come a day where space travel will be similar to air travel. A flight to China will hop into orbit, taking an hour instead of three layovers and what feels like a month. When William Shatner stepped out of the Blue Origin space capsule, one of the first things he leaned in to say to Jeff Bezos was “Everyone needs to see this.” He repeated the statement again, and he is correct. In this issue, you will find an in-depth article about the rise of consumer space travel by Chris Mellides. He spoke with streamers finding success around the blossoming industry and brings you a clear, concise report about what this means for the future. Another hot button in topic has to do with the less-dressed side of gaming. Sara Brittany Somerset dove into how gamers feel about people based on their “assets,” and not necessarily their gaming skills. Another interesting article not to miss is our interview with Bob Ballard, the man who discovered the Titanic and what he’s up to now. He may be getting older, but he is definitely not slowing down.

PUBLISHER/EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Charles Warner cwarner@goipw.com CREATIVE DIRECTOR Shane Brisson shane@goipw.com MANAGING EDITOR Corey Noles ASSOCIATE EDITORS Patricia Miller Jeremy Glowacki AUTOMOTIVE EDITOR Michael Coates TECH ZONE EDITOR Robert Yehling CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Steve Broback Jordan French Dan Martin Taylor McLamb Chris Mellides Chynna Pearson Sara Brittany Somerset David Wallach CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER Mary Roche V.P. BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT Steven Higgins V.P. EAST COAST OPERATIONS Dave Van Niel ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES Justin Jaffe James Smith VIDEO/PODCAST PRODUCER Dalton Brown EDITORIAL AND PR COORDINATOR Taylor McLamb SOCIAL MEDIA COORDINATOR Crystal Segovia Gomez SENIOR DIRECTOR, DEVELOPMENT David Marble Distribution CMG Printing Publication Printers

We also have a nice piece on Valeria Taylor. Taylor has spent her lifetime playing with sharks and even helped work on the eternally famous, JAWS. She is the subject of a NatGeo Disney+ film called Playing with Sharks. It’s worth a watch. There’s so much more packed in this issue, you won’t want to miss a page.

SPECIAL THANKS TO: Brian T. Boothe, Glenn Alai, Chris Mellides, Sara Brittany Somerset, Sarah Findlay

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INNOVATION & TECH TODAY – Issue 32, Fall 2021. Innovation & Tech Today is published quarterly for $19.95 per year by Innovative Properties Worldwide, 1750 Wewatta Street, #1821, Denver CO 80202 POSTMASTER: Send address changes to INNOVATION & TECH TODAY, 1750 Wewatta Street, #1821, Denver CO 80202

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INNOVATION & TECH TODAY | FALL 2021

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contents

FALL 2021

FEATURE STORY 54 Penn & Teller Magic’s best-dressed duo talks life, tech in magic, and 46 years of genuine friendship. Photo: Francis George

Departments 8 Event Wrap Ups 10 By the Numbers 12 Quick Bytes 16 DENT Files 18 Blockchain 20 Pet & Family Tech 24 Streaming 84 Product Revolution 86 Events/Coming Next Issue 88 The Lighter Side

26 Innovator Profile Juke Audio

32 Outdoor+ Adventure Tech Playing with Sharks 36 The Man Who Found Titanic — Bob Ballard 42 Outdoor+Adventure Guide

18 36

44 Health Tech Omron Introduces VitalSight

INNOVATION & TECH TODAY | FALL 2021

National Geographic/Emory Kristof

Courtesy of GM

The Tipping Point of Electrification 30 Your Robotaxi is Not Here

iStock/Just_Super

28 Connected Car

contents FALL 2021

iStock/Gabriele Maltinti

Courtesy of Region 9/Diaz Suspension

46 Gaming + Entertainment The Dark Side of Gaming 48 Gaimin’s New Frontier for Gamers

50 Connected Life 2021: A Space Reality

58 Tech Zone: Colorado

Courtesy of Midas Photo courtesy of Tracy Fanara

Colorado: The Tech Zone that Keeps Getting Hotter 62 Natural Beauty Brings Natural Growth in Stunning Region 9 64 Doing Business in Colorado? 68 Xcel Energy Powers Colorado 70 City of Greeley — ‘This is Where America Prototypes’ 72 Grand Junction’s Tech and Remote Worker Boom

74 International Tech Zone: Manchester, U.K. Manchester Powers Global Innovation

76 Sustainability Today Green Speed — Anthony Cross’ Love of Sustainable Innovation 78 Does the Ban on Gas-Powered Lawn Tools Make Sense?

80 STEM Today Rising Superstars of the STEM World FALL 2021 | INNOVATION & TECH TODAY

Event Wrap-Ups

E3 2021 The E3 2021 live broadcast wrapped up earlier this week, capping a four-day long livestream of publisher press conferences, new game reveals, in-depth discussions and more. The first-ever all virtual E3 2021 culminated with the Official E3 2021 Awards Show, as Forza Horizon 5 from Xbox Game Studios was named the Most Anticipated Game of E3 2021. The full list of winners can be found on the E3 website.

Green Sports Alliance The Kansas City Sports & Sustainability Symposium was one of the organization’s first in-person event of 2021. We were able to safely convene regional professional sports teams, venues, concessionaires, business representatives and public leaders to explore how the sports industry can make plays to advance healthier, more sustainable communities. The event took place at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, home of the Kansas City Chiefs. The event featured a plethora of speakers and special guests who addressed a variety of issues surrounding sustainability in sports and its adjacent industries.

Outdoor Retailer 2021 The attendance numbers for Outdoor Retailer Summer 2021, which took place Aug. 10-12, may have been down, but they were still robust considering the ongoing pandemic. Over 7,600 attendees—including over 2,220 retailer buyers and importers/distributors—came to the Show from all 50 states and 29 countries.

A total of 338 exhibitors, including 125 new exhibitors set up for three days in the Colorado Convention Center. That was a significant drop from the usual numbers, but that allowed some newer and smaller companies like Thread, Noso Patches, Alpine Fit, and Alpinecho to shine on the upper level.

X-Fest X-STEM All Access — presented by AstraZeneca, Discovery Channel, and the U.S. Space Force — was an entertaining and educational, online STEM experience for 6-12th graders. Through a series of daily livestream events, students will hear from an exclusive group of visionaries who aim to inspire kids about careers in science, technology, engineering, and math.

The floor space was largely cut back and many exhibitors that are normally downstairs and in hallways had the chance to share the main floor. Venture Out, where Summit Coffee was slinging espresso and affogato, was only steps away from the SOURCE materials area.

Our moderator, Justin Shaifer (Mr. Fascinate), took kids on a STEM adventure that is anything but boring with a new set of engaging speakers, brain breaks and Q&A’s each day.

INNOVATION & TECH TODAY | FALL 2021

Outdoor activities have long been a major part of American culture. From hikes to fishing to cycling, people come out in droves to make the most of the outdoors around them. This month in By The Numbers, we’re taking a look at how those numbers break down among the population. What really is the most popular? What’s the most expensive outdoor hobby? Follow the numbers below for the breakdown.

63.3%

OUTDOOR ACTIVITIES BY AMERICANS RANKED Running, Jogging, or Trail Running

of responding participants reported their recreation being within 10 miles of home.

19.2% Freshwater, Saltwater, and/or Fly Fishing

16.4%

of the total population spend % 17.9 time outdoors once per week.

Cycling

15.9%

Female outdoor participation has increased by an average of over five years.

1.7%

Hiking

15.9% Camping

13.9% 0

THE AVERAGE OUTDOOR ENTHUSIAST

36.2

Years Old

53.9% Male

15 25

10.2

In 2018,

billion outdoor outings took place, marking a 6.5% decrease over the previous three years.

IN 2019, AMERICANS SPENT …

(In Billions)

$23.6 $18.6

73.7 % Caucasian

$73,049

Household Income

48.8%

At Least Some College

$6.3

$8.6

INNOVATION & TECH TODAY | FALL 2021

$9.4

Snow Activities

Equestrian Motorcycles/ Sports RVs

Source Data: 2019 Outdoor Participation Report & the 2019 US Bureau of Economic Analysis Report on Outdoor Recreation

$9.2

Hunting/ Shooting

Camping

Boating/ Fishing

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01001100100110010010011001 QUICK BYTES

Crypto Miners Debating Relocation Motivated by Easing U.S. Regulations The cryptocurrency market is constantly evolving, and not just due to new technologies, but new regulations and politics as well. For example, earlier this year, after the crackdown of the Chinese government on crypto mining, Bitcoin miners in China have begun looking to relocate their operations to U.S. states like Texas, South Dakota, and Tennessee, The Washington Post reported.

Photo courtesy of Lightyear

The U.S. is now the new hub of the Bitcoin mining market. In fact, it is the second-biggest mining destination on the planet, accounting for nearly 17% of all the world’s Bitcoin miners as of April 2021. That’s a 151% increase from September 2020, according to CNBC. Overall, the approach of financial institutions, businesses, and even certain governments has significantly changed in recent years, as commercial payments are slowly warming up to the prospects of Bitcoin. One of the major reasons for this is that a Bitcoin payment is faster, cheaper, safer, and less volatile than the local currencies in many countries. In addition, some of the problems that the crypto market was recently facing are already being resolved.

Lightyear Raises $110 Million for its Solar-Powered EV The next generation of electric cars is closer than you think. Lightyear, a Netherlands startup designing electric solar cars, announced today it has received $110 million from its recent fundraising efforts. In 2019, the company announced its Lightyear One, an electric sedan with solar cells aimed to increase the car’s range up to 450 miles. Company leaders hope to deliver the first cars in 2022. The current base cost is listed as $149,000. Private investor Joop van Caldenborgh also invested in Lightyear. Caldenborgh is a Dutch industrialist and entrepreneur, and one of the first SPAC (Special Purpose Acquisition Company) investors in the Netherlands. Van Caldenborgh is also an art collector and founder of the prestigious Museum Voorlinden. Lightyear is currently exploring several options (both public and private) for further fundraising for the mass market model of Lightyear, which is planned to go into production in 2024.

Tesla is Now China’s Most Subsidized EV Maker Electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla received enough money from China in 2020 for electric car subsidies to make it the most subsidized maker in that nation. Teslarati is reporting the company received $325 million USD in total subsidies for 2020. Approximately 68% of the 101,000 Tesla’s sold in China that year were granted subsidies. According to a Chinese media report, 584,900 electric vehicles qualified for subsidies, some 43% of total sales. The spike in sales led to the 12-fold increase in subsidies awarded in 2020. Despite that, the government has since cut subsidy amounts and changed the eligibility requirements. This left a number of other manufacturers struggling to meet the imposed thresholds. Geely Auto, a China-based manufacturer, received only 4,247 subsidies for the 68,000 electric cars it sold in 2020.

INNOVATION & TECH TODAY | FALL 2021

Photo courtesy of Tesla Motors

01001100100110010010011001 QUICK BYTES Insider Trading at NFT Marketplace OpenSea? Yep. After some sleuthy detective work from a customer, NFT marketplace OpenSea is admitting an employee has committed what is essentially insider trading. The employee was accused of purchasing high-profile NFTs just before they become available on the website. He would then quickly flip while the hype was high to turn a quick profit. OpenSea said in a statement that it is conducting a review and deciding on additional steps so it does not happen again.

Photo iStockphoto.com/gesrey

“We do not take this behavior lightly. Upon learning of this conduct, we immediately commissioned a third party to conduct a thorough review of the incident and make recommendations on how we can strengthen our existing controls,” the statement reads. “That review is ongoing but we are committed to quickly implementing its recommendations.” Due to the deregulated nature of cryptocurrency, there is no statutory punishment for the worker’s actions. The statement from OpenSea confirms the company “asked for and received” the employee’s resignation.

Photo courtesy of Amazon

Amazon Biometric Palm Reader Debuts at Red Rocks Amphitheater

Amazon is taking a deeper dive into biometrics with the launch of Amazon One. Amazon One is the company’s palm reader technology. Once a person signs up, a simple wave of the hand is all it takes to purchase items. At Red Rocks, it was used to allow entry into the facility and users had a dedicated, faster entry line. Fans simply hover their hand over the device, give their unique palm signature, and then gain entry. It’s the first time the Amazon One service is available outside Amazon and Whole Foods Market stores. It’s also the first time it’s been used for entry into an entertainment venue. According to a press release, Amazon executives expect the entry option to be available at other venues in the near future. The system works in conjunction with AXS, a digital ticketing company. In addition to AXS, Amazon One is now available at more than 60 locations at select Amazon Go, Whole Foods Market, Amazon Books, Amazon 4-star, Amazon Fresh, and Amazon Pop Up stores.

INNOVATION & TECH TODAY | FALL 2021

Photo courtesy of SpaceX

SpaceX Installs 29 Raptor Engines in One Night In what was an impressive and unexpected feat, SpaceX installed 29 Raptor Engines on Starship’s booster in just one night. It took less than 14 hours for the team to complete what was a heavily choreographed feat of engineering and construction. The company took delivery of five Raptor engines the day of the install. Early in the day, they began rolling out the engines into lines to prepare for installation. In a single 12-hour shift, the team managed to install 27 engines. The remaining motors were installed immediately following shift change. The 29 engines mean that Super Heavy Booster 4 has the potential to be the most powerful rocket booster in history. The rocket should be able to produce 5,400 tons of thrust — putting it substantially beyond the Soviet N1 that currently holds the crown.

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Embracing Chaos By Steve Broback The Taoist view of being reflects the eternal balance between chaos and order. The yin-yang symbol visually represents this dualist theme. Intuitively, one might strive to minimize or eliminate chaos, but the Dao-centric worldview directs us against that. Instead, it encourages achieving a balance between the two opposing states. Too much chaos can be stressful and unhealthy, if not outright dangerous. Too much order and structure are dull and could also stifle the challenges we need to grow and succeed. I had a conversation recently with author and neuroscience educator Ellen Petry Leanse about this balance. She said she had also been focusing on this duality in cognitive science. Along with many scientists and doctors, she believes our two opposing hemispheres map closely to chaos vs. order paradigm. She also believes that in modern western society, we have prioritized the left brain and its focus on certainty and structure to the degree it is counterproductive. Leanse is in good company. Dr. Iain McGilchrist is a psychiatrist, writer, and former Oxford literary scholar. He is also the author of The Master and his Emissary, which details how the right hemisphere is primarily exploratory and opens us up to possibility. McGilchrist and Leanse see a world where prioritizing formal mathematics, language, and quantified science has increasingly relegated right-brain thinking (the rightful “master”) to a subordinate position

INNOVATION & TECH TODAY | FALL 2021

in our day-to-day lives. In contrast, the left hemisphere perceives the world as “static, separable, bounded, but essentially linear and reductive.” McGilchrist says while the left side of the brain is specific, certain, and closed, the right brain is specialized for “the live, complex, embodied, world of individual, always unique beings, forever in flux, a net of interdependencies, forming and reforming wholes, a world with which we are deeply connected.” While that hemisphere may not be great at solving math problems, it is more adept, system-oriented, and capable of dealing with a messy, chaotic world. There is compelling evidence to suggest the abilities of the right brain are broader and more vigilant than that of the left. Italian researchers discovered that stroke patients who had suffered damage to the right side of their brains (and only had the left side to depend on), could only name buildings on the right side of a familiar street scene researchers asked them to visualize. Those with profound left-brain damage (thus, depending on the right brain) could name all the buildings. Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor, a Harvard neuroanatomist, one of TED’s top speakers, is the author of a breakthrough new book on the hemispheres. She is also the survivor of a debilitating left hemisphere stroke. Her work supports her story with both research and personal experience that compellingly illustrates

Photo iStockphoto.com/Dumitru Ochievschi

DEPARTMENTS / DENT Files

the roles of the hemispheres — and the price we pay for moving increasingly toward a left-brainoriented world. Assuming we live in a world where years of education and work have us inordinately focusing on left-brain efforts, what can we do to better activate and engage the right sides of our brains? Experts prescribe several activities that can help balance brain activity. One is meditation. Multiple studies have found a greater degree of right hemisphere activation for those who regularly meditate than those who don’t. Creative efforts like drawing and playing a musical instrument are also recommended. Another recommendation: unplug from whatever the linear, answer-centric, or resultoriented tasks that tend to occupy more and more of our professional and personal time. You may experience some difficulty as you experiment with this shift — after all, the brain is inherently a survival mechanism that wants nothing more than to keep you surviving by doing more of whatever it’s become accustomed to doing already. Yet, ironically, as Leanse, McGilchrist, and Bolte Taylor agree, linear drive is threatening our very survival on a larger scale. Whatever approach you take, I encourage you to “rebalance” your mind and embrace the nonverbal, chaotic, ill-defined aspects of the world we live in and integrate them into your experience. ■

DEPARTMENTS / Blockchain

5 Reasons to Stay Bullish on Crypto After a rough stretch, it’s time to start thinking about the future.

Photo iStockphoto.com/Just_Super

By Jordan French

The crypto market is recovering after having gone through some difficult months following an incredible run back in May. Now that the worst has passed, there are many reasons to stay bullish on crypto. Major Growth Potential While cryptocurrencies are commonly talked about in mainstream media, the truth is that most cryptocurrencies are more than just digital money competing with Fiat. Unlike traditional money, they not only reflect the growth of the blockchain ecosystem backing them up, but also provide governance over them in a way similar to stock, as well as providing a variety of features, securities, and currency Fiat just can’t deliver. Big Updates are Coming to Major Networks Some of the industry’s biggest projects are due

INNOVATION & TECH TODAY | FALL 2021

for an update in the near future, with Cardano, Polkadot, and Solana being some of them. These upgrades, which are due this year, are expected to increase adoption. Ethereum, the second-largest blockchain network, has recently implemented the “London Hard Fork” which already had a positive impact on its coin. Now, its team is working on Ethereum 2.0, a major upgrade to the network. Environmental Concerns are Being Addressed One of the major pains for the crypto industry in the past months has been concerns about the environmental impact of mining. With Ethereum transitioning to a proof-of-stake consensus and groups like the Bitcoin Mining Council being formed, sustainable crypto mining seems to be a close reality.

NFT’s Popularity is Soaring Non-Fungible Tokens have become an integral part of pop culture over the past years as celebrities and organizations start joining the ecosystem. Some of the last NFT collections to be launched were announced by Marvel Comics and Fortune magazine, with British auction house Christie’s also showing an increasing interest in the technology. Regulators Seem to be Supportive of Crypto Despite failing a last-minute attempt to amend the Infrastructure Bill introduced in the U.S. Senate, the cryptocurrency industry received major support from U.S. lawmakers. With only one Senator opposing the amendment, which was enough to kill it, it seems the U.S. Senate is aware of the importance of the growing crypto industry. ■

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DEPARTMENTS / Pet & Family Tech

Apps and Innovations for Pampered Pooches By Sara Brittany Somerset The advent of the pandemic has seen a massive rise in pet adoptions, as more people feel the pangs of isolation while working remotely or from home. Along with an increase in adoptions of new fur friends come engaging gadgets and apps designed to promote a pet’s health and well-being. Spend time interacting with your beloved best friend with some of the following innovations. Aslan, a four-year-old, 82lb German Shepherd, happily tested each product.

Pawscout

Link Whistle Fit

Whistle – The perfect pet app for the Tiger (dog) Mom (or dad). With Whistle Fit, this tiny fitness tracker is fun for those who fancy themselves a bit of a gym rat or exercise buff and want to include their pets into their fitness routines, such as jogging or running. The Whistle is essentially a range of Fitbits for Fido and Fifi. PROS: The hardware is approximately a square inch and attaches to a pet’s collar. The correlating app has a relatively comprehensive list of features. It monitors the number of calories a pet burns in a day and the distance s/ he travels. The app sent a notification that Aslan reached a goal of traveling 100 miles of steps. The app also calculates most of an animal’s behavior, such as the amount of time it spends drinking, licking, scratching, resting, and sleeping. Activity goals are easy to set and revise. Additionally, Whistle Fit calculates whether or not such activities are being under or overperforming. For example, if a pet is sleeping too much and not drinking enough for its weight, the app will inform the owner. A food portion calculator with customized portions based on

INNOVATION & TECH TODAY | FALL 2021

the pet’s daily activity is included. CONS: Users may realize their pet is a lot more active and physically fit than they are. When Aslan’s owner “chatted” with a veterinarian through the app, the recommendation was to ask his local veterinarian the same question. It’s probably not a good idea to have any Wi-Fi device that emits electromagnetic fields (EMFs) attached to your pet’s collar 24/7. We suggest taking it off when he is sleeping, to give him a break from radiation. Link is a pet tracker wearable in beta testing. PROS: Like Whistle, the Link pet tracker and fitness monitor comes with a correlating app that monitors your pet’s activity and makes recommendations to make sure Fido is eating right and getting enough exercise. Link pinpoints how many minutes your pet is active by calculating how many steps s/he’s taken and miles s/he’s walked. CONS: Link needs to access your cell phone’s location permissions 24/7 – even if you are not with your pet. The hardware is a larger device. The wearable required a call to customer service to get the device set up and paired to a cell;

although, the call was with the most chipper customer service person imaginable. Pawscout Pawscout is marketed as a free app to help find lost pets. According to PawScout, most lost pets don’t go far — which is why it’s crucial to rally their community. Pawscout’s app attempts to connect local pet lovers to those searching for missing pets. The Bluetooth-enabled tag alerts users when a lost pet is nearby. PROS: Pawscout’s digital pet tag functions to help try to find lost pets. When one goes missing, it is primarily a way to network with other local pet owners — the digital equivalent of putting up flyers. The more people who join, the more comprehensive the search network is. A detailed medical profile helps a pet finder care for someone’s lost buddy until it can reunite with its owner. CONS: Pawscout isn’t a GPS tracker and can only approximate a missing pet’s location. The device needs a battery replacement quite often. It is frustratingly difficult to open the device when a battery replacement is necessary. (No

DEPARTMENTS / Pet & Family Tech

Wisdom Panel Premium Rover

amount of twisting worked. The testing team contemplated smashing it instead.) It is also challenging to pair the device to a cell phone if other Bluetooth devices emit frequencies nearby. It only works if an owner or anyone they designate via the “approved list,” such as other family members’ paired cell phone, is within 300 feet of the missing pet. If your household has a budget for multiple pet wearables, and you are willing to make exchanges if necessary, then go for it. Otherwise, go for a Whistle or Link. Doggie DNA Adopting a shelter dog and trying to discern its origins may be a bit of a mystery. Those who are wondering what kind of mix their new mutt may is in luck. A whole crop of affordable doggie DNA testing kits is available. Think of them as 23andMe for FiFi. Wisdom Panel Premium Dog DNA Test Unlock the secrets of a furry friend’s past and future with the Wisdom Panel Premium Dog DNA Test. PROS: The Wisdom test lets owners know about their dog’s ancestry, potential health risks, and genetic predisposition for various traits. The test draws upon a database of doggie DNA to help you learn which of 350 different breeds, types, and varieties his forebears are. The test will trace his ancestry as far as his greatgrandparents. Wisdom claims a user can find out which species are present in their dog’s genes through comparison to a DNA database built from samples of over 1.7 million other dogs. Wisdom claims that it also informs owners whether Rex might be at a higher risk for inherited disease with tests for over 200 genetic conditions. It also includes the MDR1 medication sensitivity test to discover potential adverse reactions to certain commonly used medications.

INNOVATION & TECH TODAY | FALL 2021

Additionally, Wisdom educates owners about their pet’s genetically derived ideal weight range. With Wisdom, owners may deepen their knowledge about their furry friends in fascinating ways and potentially prepare themselves better for what may lie ahead. CONS: The price for different levels of testing kits range from $85-$160. Wag! the dog Most new furry friends need to walk daily, up to three times a day. Quite frankly, sometimes their human companions can be tired, lazy, ill, or not in the mood to take their pup for a walk. Have no worries nor a need to feel guilty for taking a break from 24/7 pet ownership responsibilities. A couple of cool walk apps will arrange to take Balki Barktokomous off his parents’ hands for an hour, a weekend, or while away on vacation. Rover app Download the Rover app from the Apple or Google Play store. PROS: Rover lets you peruse a list of dog walkers and sitters in your area and choose one by appointment for either a one-off or regular walk or play date. While Rocky is outside sniffing around the city, you can check the app’s map to see his whereabouts. After each walk, the app generates a Rover “report card” to inform you if he successfully went number one and two. The walker will also provide a photo or two of his adventures. Tiger dog moms will feel secure knowing they can peek in on what their pet is up to while away from home. CONS: The photos that the walkers take of pets aren’t downloadable through the app, so an owner will have to take the extra cumbersome step of taking cell phone screenshots to keep the pix or post them on social media. Many walkers forget to update their availability calendars. The app sometimes shows

Wag!

walkers who aren’t available, even if their calendar says they are. It also sometimes indicates walkers who aren’t in a user’s area, which is a waste of time. The app is a bit clunky to navigate. After ten requests, if no walkers or sitters are available (which happens more often than one would expect), the user is frozen out of making further booking requests and has to call customer service for a manual override. An average rate for a one-hour walk in New York City is upwards of $30, so hiring a daily walker can quickly add up. Wag! app After trying both apps, we prefer the functionality of Wag! to Rover. With Wag!, not only can you follow your pet’s progress in realtime, you have the option to book a service ASAP. After trying the ASAP feature a few times, local walkers arrived in as little as 15 minutes and usually within half an hour. PROS: You can schedule and book a walk for durations as short as 15 minutes, specifically for an elimination break or for up to a full hour, to take the pup to a dog run. Home visits and training sessions are also available. CONS: After a user agrees to book a Wag! walk with an “estimated” price, the walker, aka “caregiver,” can change the price to reflect whatever amount they choose. For example, a walk booked for $27 upfront will end up being $32 two-thirds of the time (if the walker feels like it). A person who hates being nickel-anddimed or gets annoyed when their Uber bill doesn’t reflect the upfront price shown will dislike the dishonesty of Wag! ’s pricing flexibility according to the walker’s retroactive whim. (Customer service will say this policy is in the fine print). Users who pay $100 for a “premium subscription” to receive a 10% discount on walks are wasting their money because any walker can adjust the final price to counteract the “discount” essentially. ■

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DEPARTMENTS / Streaming

AI in Streaming Services The shows you ‘choose’ to watch aren’t entirely your decision. By Taylor McLamb

Since the start of the pandemic, many of us have turned to our trusty friend Netflix to dissociate from the troubling current events of the world. Sure, it may be 1 a.m., but one more episode of New Girl to live vicariously through the lives of a group of friends who have the luxury of spending their nights at the local bar maskless is fine. Since Netflix recommended it to me, it’s okay. After countless hours spent watching your favorite television shows, you might have started to notice how Netlflix’s recommendations are starting to get eerily specific. It’s almost as if the streaming service truly knows you. You’re not going crazy. It’s a fact. Netflix and other streaming services use artificial intelligence (AI) to create a more personalized experience for the user. AI isn’t the horrific, world-ending robotic villains that Hollywood has portrayed. It’s simply a powerful computer system that simulates human intelligence processes and quickly adapts to new data that it is fed. With Netflix, for example, the AI will take in all of your user data and will be able to give you a recommendation based on that. It may not know you personally, but it definitely knows what shows can make you waste a whole day. Todd Yellin, the vice president of product innovation at Netflix, described in an interview

INNOVATION & TECH TODAY | FALL 2021

with Wired just how the process works and compared it to a three-legged stool. The three legs would be built from data from Netflix members, tags that specify themes about the show to understand the content better, and the machine learning algorithms that take all of the data and find you new things to watch that you don’t have to come up with on your own. Netflix is not the only online streaming service that uses AI. Due to the competitive nature of streaming services, each service does all it can to enhance a viewer’s experience and stay on top of the game. Amazon Prime Video has the Amazon X-Ray feature, which includes using an image analysis service called Amazon Rekognition API that works to identify faces in the video you are watching. The service, which is part of the Amazon AI family, then shows you the name and photos of the actors in the scene. If you’re the type of person who can’t focus on a movie because you’re racking your brain wondering where the heck you’ve seen that guy before, this will make your movie experience a lot more enjoyable. Disney+ isn’t just known for bringing some of our favorite superheroes to life; they’re also making a name for themselves due to their relationship with AI technology. Laura Evans, the SVP of Data for Disney Streaming Services, even tells Forbes that, “Good AI is like a best

friend, you don’t know why they know you so well, but they just know what you like.” Disney+ uses data points to personalize recommendations based on what you watched and what you didn’t watch, as well as to understand their viewers better and create content that the audience would love. However, it’s not just about what you watched that week but how it relates to what other Disney+ members watched as well. “Given that likeness, what should we recommend next? If your rich history looks a lot like my rich history, you would probably like this because I watched it. So it’s not just your own viewing history but also how people are using the product in general,” Evans said. While the thought of a computer program knowing your next move may sound a bit creepy, it’s completely harmless. The use of AI helps companies like Netflix or Disney get a better taste of what an audience would like in a film or television show so that you won’t jump ship to one of the other streaming services available. While this article may or may not have been an attempt to get everyone to watch Happy Endings on Netflix to influence another season, it also conveys that we don’t necessarily need to be afraid. If AI will take over the world, at least it gave us five perfect seasons of Breaking Bad. ■

One app. Three streams. Unlimited excitement.

Innovator Profile

Born Out of a Specific Need

Juke Audio Offers More Affordable Eight-Zone Amplifier for Powering Architectural Speakers By Jeremy Glowacki Like so many entrepreneurial endeavors, Juke Audio was born out of a need to solve a technical challenge. Back in 2015, father and son company founders Brad and Colton Forth had moved into a new house with distributed audio ceiling speakers and in-wall speakers, but nothing to power them. They explored available amplifier options that would be easy to install and could connect to wireless streaming music sources from a mobile phone or tablet. “We didn’t really see anything that fit the bill,” Colton Forth said. “So, my father, who had been an electrical engineer before moving into finance later in his career, designed what would eventually become a prototype for Juke. Initially, it was only used to power the speakers in our own house.” As time went by and more and more people inquired about what was driving the music coming out of the ceiling speakers in the Forth home, Brad and Colton realized that there could be broader interest in what they had created. “It didn’t even have a name because it was just for our own use,” Forth recalled. After Colton graduated from the University of Southern California, he set aside his music manager/agent career objectives, sticking with the hot hand to begin commercializing Juke Audio with his dad and firmware

INNOVATION & TECH TODAY | FALL 2021

engineer, Yutong Gu, Forth’s fellow Trojan, who graduated with top honors and a Master’s degree from the University’s Viterbi School of Engineering. The first commercialized product, called the Juke-8, arrived in November 2019 with a lot of improvement to what the “prototype” had included. Listed at $1,399, it is an eight-zone (16-channel) amplifier for powering architectural speakers throughout an entire home or building. The product also serves as a receiver and allows up to four people to stream simultaneously to any combination of rooms via Wi-Fi. There is no app, but rather a web interface that can be accessed by a device that is on the same Wi-Fi network as the Juke-8. You utilize the Juke interface to allocate any of the four streaming inputs that Juke has built in.

Colton Forth

“It doesn’t take up any more energy to leave the zones turned on, so the intent is for the user to leave the zones turned on that they tend to listen to most and just stream directly within their normal music streaming app,” Forth said. “We want to keep the user in the streaming apps they are already most comfortable with rather than forcing them to learn something new.” Since going to market, Forth says, the Juke-8 has been installed in approximately 1,500 houses, with 75% of sales direct to consumers and the other 25% builders and low-voltage installers. “We’re seeing situations very similar to the one we were in moving into our house, with people who have ceiling speakers, are not sure what to do with them, then coming across our product either online or via referrals,” Forth noted. “We’re also getting repeat professional clients who did their first install and found that their customer base loved it. Now they’re feeling more comfortable pitching it to their clients.” According to Forth, many of Juke’s initial customers are seeking an audio amplifier that can power multiple rooms and allow more simplistic wireless streaming from a mobile phone but “doesn’t cost an arm and a leg.” After initially “bootstrapping” the start-up by running product assembly and shipping out of Brad Forth’s Southern California home, Juke Audio’s four-employee staff moved operations to a Texas-based contract manufacturer.

The Juke-8 is a 16-channel eight-zone amplifier for powering architectural speakers throughout an entire home. The amplifier also serves as a receiver allowing four people to stream simultaneously. It lists for $1,399.

Although Forth believes that Juke-8 handles “about 90%” of what consumers are looking for from it, future plans may also include Amazon Alexa, Apple Homekit, and Chromecast integration. Until then, Juke Audio hopes to keep things simple, enabling quick installs that are just a matter of connecting the speaker wires and running an Ethernet cable to the Juke-8. “You don’t need a different hardware piece for every single room,” Forth said. “With a single hardware piece that’s about the size of a textbook, you can power eight rooms with audio.” ■

FALL 2021 | INNOVATION & TECH TODAY

CONNECTED CAR

We’re at the Tipping Point of Electrification Everything is Going to Change — the Only Question is How Quickly By Michael Coates We’ve just been through (or maybe are still going through) an pandemic, which was started by a single infected person and spread worldwide. The tipping point, as identified by author Malcolm Gladwell, is that “magic moment when an idea, trend, or social behavior” (or disease) passes from being an isolated phenomenon to reach a critical mass and spreads “like wildfire.”

2022 Ford F-150 Lightning Pro.

Our premise here: this is where we’re at with electric vehicle adoption. It’s clearly started, but is at a limited threshold of acceptance — stronger in areas like China, Norway, and California, but barely noticed elsewhere or in many broader markets. We’ll focus on the U.S. market, where we believe this tipping point is about to take hold. “That is the paradox of the epidemic: that in order to create one contagious movement, you often have to create many small movements first.” — Gladwell, The Tipping Point. Modern electric vehicles have only been around in volume production for a little more than a decade, ushered in by the first-generation Nissan Leaf and Chevrolet’s plug-in hybrid Volt. The market during the intervening years has grown steadily, but took a solid jump in the U.S. and around the world with the introduction of the “affordable” Tesla Model 3. EV sales represent around 2% of the overall American market and almost five times that in California. Choice Explodes & the Market Will Follow As Gladwell pointed out, the path to a tipping point often comes with multiple smaller movements in the same direction. The Model 3 explosion of popularity (it was the seventh bestselling car overall in the U.S. in the last quarter of 2019), the ongoing popularity of EVs in other

INNOVATION & TECH TODAY | FALL 2021

Photo courtesy of Ford

markets (EU and China), and the coming explosion of available models are some of those smaller movements. A wild card that plays into this equation is the growing influence of the belief that we are in a climate crisis and should do everything we can to reduce our individual and collective greenhouse gas footprint. The indicators of the coming tipping point show up in market research reported by Cox Automotive, a provider of services to automobile dealers. Pickup trucks are the most popular vehicles in the American market, routinely holding down the top spots in sales. The conventional wisdom of a half-decade ago said pickups would be late to the EV market (if they ever entered it), but announced automaker products and Cox’s research say otherwise. Cox (which it presented as “directional” as opposed to definitive market predictions) found that among a group of pickup intenders looking to purchase a new truck in the next two years

two-in-five (40%) are seriously considering an electric model. It’s logical since in two years there should be no less than four electric pickups to choose from — two from established automakers (Ford Lightning and General Motor’s GMC Hummer brand) and two from well-funded start-ups (Tesla and Rivian). Pre-production interest in those four models is already high with more than one million folks already putting down deposits to get in line. Those four are the tip of the iceberg as additional models from other OEMs and start-ups are due soon after those initial ones hit the market. The Secret Sauce The explosion of electric pickups is only one indicator of the approaching tipping point for EV adoption. Each of the major automakers has its own approach that will play into creating the critical mass for electric vehicles to hit the mainstream. Ford and GM, the two traditional

CONNECTED CAR

One of the first EVs to market will be the GMC HUMMER EV Edition 1, offering GM-estimated 1,000 horsepower and unprecedented off-road capability. After that, the Cadillac LYRIQ is scheduled to arrive in the first half of 2022. Virtual engineering and the flexibility of the Ultium system (bottom right) have accelerated the speed with which several GM EVs will come to market. Photos courtesy of GM

heavyweights of the U.S. market, are taking different approaches, but both play into the presumption that the tipping point is now — and will be a factor in making it happen. Ford thinks it has found the secret sauce for profitable electric vehicle production — but it’s really not much of a secret. The Ford secret sauce is volume. The company’s founder, Henry Ford, made it his mantra when he launched his mass-produced Model T. Ford’s global electrification manager, Darren Palmer, told Innovation & Tech Today the reason the F-150 Lightning EV will be “cash positive” from day one rests on its shared components with two other high-volume lines, one historically profitable and the other aiming for the same territory. The Ford F-150 Lightning shares a substantial amount of its components, including basics like most of the hardware in the interior that the customer touches — seats, seat belts, airbags, the steering wheel, and much more — with the rest of the high-volume and highly profitable F-150 lineup. That mainstay of Ford’s business has honed its business over the past 44 years as America’s best-selling pickup by driving down component prices and adding millions in revenue to the company’s bottom line. While Ford has made modifications to the Rouge plant to accommodate the Lightning, much of the model’s production will share the assembly line with standard F-150s, further reducing costs. The second part of the Lightning profitability strategy covers the bulk of the rest of the model

— its unique electric vehicle components. It shares many of those — electric motors, battery cells, and other related pieces — with the already successful Mustang Mach-E and the coming E-Transit, both also designed as highvolume vehicles. By using common components under the hood in the company’s electric lineup, the volume has increased to the area where costsavings — and profitability — are possible. That allows Ford to bring the Lightning to market with a retail price — roughly $40,000, including standard four-wheel drive, 426 horsepower, and 775 pound-feet of torque — that is not only competitive with other electric pickups but places it in a competitive space within Ford’s own lineup. Palmer said that is the key to getting the kind of consideration that will drive the volume — the Lightning has to do everything its gas and diesel siblings can do — and more. Then Ford’s EV thrust will be a positive addition to the corporate coffers. General Motors Starts at the Bottom General Motors’ way of getting to EV volume and profitability starts under the floorboards of its coming lineup of electric pickups, SUVs, and sedans. GM began with the battery pack, the biggest expense and most critical component for an electric vehicle. The company’s also working on the customer side to smooth the integration of EVs into the workplace. GM partnered with LG Chem, one of the world’s biggest battery makers, to form Ultium Cells LLC to develop the kind of battery packs that could serve as the foundation for a variety

of different vehicles. Part of this development was sheer dollars and sense, money spent upfront to reduce costs down the line. As a major automaker, GM has been able to direct its ample resources to this and related projects all aimed at volume production, for example: • $2.2 billion to turn an old manufacturing plant in Detroit into the state-of-the-art EV-only Factory Zero. • $2 billion to retooling a Spring Hill, Tenn., plant to produce Cadillac EVs. • $2.3 billion for a joint venture with LG Chem to build batteries in a new facility in Lordstown, OH. • A “multi-million dollar” investment in an Australian mining company planning to extract lithium in California, since lithium is a critical battery component. • Creating a new business, BrightDrop, designed to help fleets integrate EVs by helping with charging infrastructure deployment. There Are Other Examples The GM investments are only a part of the picture, but it underscores the ambitious scale GM, like Ford, hopes to achieve. We’re about to see that tipping point as established car companies and a raft of start-ups all contribute to the explosion of electric vehicles that are just beginning to hit showrooms and ride the wave of adoption. Many small and large movements are beginning to coalesce into that wildfire that is a serious, sustained EV market. ■ FALL 2021 | INNOVATION & TECH TODAY

CONNECTED CAR

YOUR ROBOTAXI IS NOT HERE Autonomous technology is moving forward, but it’s not ready for prime time. By Michael Coates Autonomous vehicle technology is moving forward on a variety of fronts — most visibly with Cruise and Waymo starting to offer driverless rides to paying customers. A more concrete symbol of progress may be the multiple millions of dollars that have poured into this sector in support of the diverse set of autonomous vehicles, ranging from mini-food delivery robots to campus shuttles up to heavy-duty long haul trucks. The promised deadlines for the appearance of robotaxis that could be summoned at will to transport us to our daily destinations have come and gone. One might blame the worldwide pandemic, but on closer examination, the reality is the technology is not yet ready for prime time — or general public use. That does not mean autonomous or selfdriving vehicles are not progressing — and in some cases edging into revenue-generating service. While Elon Musk in his inimitable fashion predicted his cars would be able to function as taxis for hire last year, he’s more recently admitted that his Full Self Driving option is really nothing more than really good adaptive cruise control. The Bench Mark One of the impediments for autonomous vehicles (AV) is the truly challenging task of replacing a human driver with all of his or her complex sensing capabilities with a variety of mechanical devices backed with computers aiming to replicate the human decision-making process. The promise is intriguing — and laudable. After a year of on-road carnage where fatal accidents rose while overall mileage dropped, any tool that can bend that unanticipated spike in driving deaths will be welcomed. Some in the industry have proposed a somewhat fanciful, if poignant, way to measure

INNOVATION & TECH TODAY | FALL 2021

the efficacy of a self-driving vehicle. Alex Roy, director of special operations at Argo.ai, one of the top contenders in the AV race, put it simply. In his estimation, a vehicle is autonomous if you can sleep in it on the way to your destination. Others feel it is less about technology or customers’ perceptions of it than it is about “getting butts in seats.” That’s the view of Mark Rosekind, chief safety innovation officer at Zoox, one of the companies now licensed to field its vehicles without drivers. Moving Toward AV The supporting technology is getting better and cheaper. Hardware/software maker AEye says, working with the large automotive supplier Continental, it will have its software-driven adaptive lidar system in volume production by 2024.

Photo courtesy of John Deere

On another AV front, tractor maker John Deere acquired Bear Flag Robotics to advance the company’s ability for its machines to work in the field autonomously. Jahmy Hindman, CTO at Deere, said it’s all about “enabling farmers to leverage their resources strategically to feed the world and create more sustainable and profitable operations.” That profit motive is driving AV advances in an area not everyone saw coming — over-theroad trucking. TuSimple and other companies have vehicles on the road and the technology appears to be doing all that’s asked of it. The move makes sense — interstate highways have limited cross-traffic, well-defined roadways, and limited turns. Moving freight generates revenue to pay for the technology upgrades. The industry is also dealing with an ongoing driver shortage that AVs can help tackle. Self-driving vehicles are on the move — just don’t expect to summon one to your driveway too soon. ■

Photo courtesy of Cruise

Photo courtesy of Waymo

The arrival of robotaxi's has been anticipated for several years now, but so far they haven't shown en masse. The technology is there, but where is the robotaxi?

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Whether it’s around the corner or across an ocean, relocating or expanding your business in a new location is never easy. The New Mexico Partnership is here to help. Serving as your single point of contact throughout the state, we provide crucial information consultation and connections – all confidentially and free of charge – to help make your decision with confidence.

Playing with

Sharks By Robert Yehling

This is the time in her life when Valerie Taylor should be kicking back, reflecting on 70 years of dives with sharks, fish, moray eels, and other creatures of the sea. She should be playing back the countless experiences that led to more than five dozen photography and film shoots for National Geographic, Time-Life, IMAX, movies like Jaws and Jaws II, and culminating with the Disney+ epic documentary Playing With Sharks, her life story that premiered in mid-summer (and continues to stream on Disney+). But that’s not the case. Sadly, due to a public perception that sharks are the source of a delicacy (shark fin soup), an interfering force for commercial fishermen, and deadly dangerous predators, the world’s shark population is approaching a critically low level. As much as she’d like to step back, Valerie cannot. It’s not in her nature, as her decades of establishing protected areas in her native Australia well prove. Plus, sharks have been her friends since she was a teenager. So, at age 85, she continues to voice her concerns. “I really feel that sharks worldwide should be totally protected,” says the subject and star of Playing with Sharks. “According to what I’ve read, we have only 10 percent of the shark

INNOVATION & TECH TODAY | FALL 2021

Valerie Taylor began swimming with sharks as a teenager. Now, 70 years later, she reflects on her amazing journey as the world’s greatest living shark expert and protector of the species.

population that once existed. They’ve been taken mainly for their fins for shark fin soup. We don’t need shark fin soup; we need sharks. Nature put them in the ocean to do a job. They’re apex predators, top of the food chain. They keep the marine animals alive and fit by eating the diseased, sick, unwary, and stupid.” Playing with Sharks is a 90-minute documentary masterpiece, produced by Bettina Dalton and written and directed by Sally Aikman — both keen followers of Valerie’s career since their own began. The movie combines priceless archival footage, shot primarily by Valerie’s late husband, acclaimed documentary filmmaker Ron Taylor, who passed in 2012. In it, Valerie interacts with bull sharks, tiger sharks, great whites, and numerous others — often playfully. Playing games with sharks? Negotiating whether you or the shark is getting the fish you just speared? Getting rides by holding onto dorsal fins? It’s all in here. The Taylors’ historic footage is mixed with live-action and candid and sassy voiceover, reflective of Valerie’s personality. The action includes a memorable return visit in 2020 to one of Valerie’s favorite spots in Fiji, and the remarkable relationship she’s forged with the

ocean’s apex predators. In many ways, it was a reunion among old friends. “Really early on, we filmed that scene in Fiji as our first scene, even though it’s later in the movie,” Aikman said. “On the dive boat on our return journey, we got the most extraordinary image of Valerie in repose, on the boat, looking out on the ocean. Then in the archival footage, there’s this image of Valerie in the 1960s, in Fiji, looking on the ocean in the same way. That night, on the rushes, I put up the shot of Valerie looking on the ocean alongside the archival image from the 60s. That’s when I realized there’s really something in this relationship of a life with the sharks that we can explore.” A host of memories flooded back to Valerie during the Fiji shoot, including one of her most poignant experiences in decades of swimming with, filming, photographing, painting, and playing with sharks. To listen to her tell it, with the emotive sweep of her storyteller’s voice, is breathtaking. “The one I’ll always remember is Nursie, who I came to know when we were working in the Coral Sea for the U.S. Navy, testing shark repellents. Along came Nursie, a very big shark, big but not dangerous… unless you put your

(Facing page) Valerie Taylor wards off an overly curious shark while wearing a chain mail suit in 1982. Top row: Valerie, in scuba gear, reading the novel Jaws on top of a shark cage; she and her husband Ron, filmed the movie’s underwater sequences. Ron and Valerie with Jaws author Peter Benchley, standing next to a set of jaws in 1971. Bottom row; Valerie, Ron and others a holding a model shark. Portrait, 1964. (Photos: Ron & Valerie Taylor)

foot in its mouth,” she chuckled. “My husband said, ‘get this thing out of here; it’s not a dangerous shark. We only want the potentially dangerous ones.’ So I put some fish on a string and swam away, and Nursie followed me. I put the fish under a dead coral. By the time I swam back to where we were working, she was with us again. I took her away again, as far as I could swim on the air I had, then swam back — and 10 minutes later, she rejoined us. After that, I’d take her out with some fish, put the fish under a cave, hold it down with coral, and she’d remove the coral and suck out the fish. Then she’d let me hold her dorsal fin as we swam back to where Ron and I were working, saving me some air.” “The next day, when we went back to the same place, she was waiting. I got criticized for riding that shark, but by this time, we were quite friendly. I put my arm around her, pushed her around, she didn’t mind, never tried to bite. We did this for three days. Well, we came back to the spot six months later — and found she’d been taken for her fins. Every shark we worked with there was taken; one of the fishermen told us.”

For that reason, the second half of Valerie Taylor’s career has been as much about protecting sharks and all marine life as filming and photographing her underwater friends. Make no mistake, either: she has a voice as big as the world when it comes to the ocean environment and wildlife concerns. She is to the study and filming of sharks what Jacques Cousteau was to sea exploration at large, and what Jane Goodall is to the study of primates: a singular protective force that has changed everything from public awareness to perception to policy. She’s spent the past 70 years in the water studying, taking photographs, filming, swimming, and playing with sharks of numerous breeds. She also is responsible for the existence of two of Australia’s marine national preserves, one of which protects what Americans know as sandbar tiger sharks. On the job, Valerie and Ron filmed the underwater shots for movies like Jaws and Jaws II, The Blue Lagoon, The Year of Living Dangerously, Honeymoon in Vegas, and The Island of Dr. Moreau. They also filmed two dozen documentaries in their native Australia,

beginning with 1962’s Playing with Sharks (the title was reprised in an homage to Valerie) and including shows for Time-Life, as well as the 1982 IMAX movie The Great Barrier Reef. Not to mention footage on dozens of Australian TV shows. This treasure trove of archival footage plays a big part in the 2021 version of Playing with Sharks. Aikman and producer Bettina Dalton said that more than 60 percent of the movie consists of archival footage, reflecting their desire — and Valerie’s — to show the ocean the way it once was. “To make this 90-minute movie, besides live-action with Valerie, we had about 5,000 hours of Ron’s footage at our disposal,” Aikman said. “And this wasn’t just raw footage you can race through. When he filmed, he edited daily for the rushes. Everything in there is a usable shot. Then there were thousands of Valerie’s photographs, and going through all of her journals, which date back to the 1960s.” “In terms of the way we filmed, a lot was done by Ron historically. The way Ron filmed sharks FALL 2021 | INNOVATION & TECH TODAY

(Left) Valerie Taylor underwater wearing a chain mail suit in 1982. (Above) Ron Taylor filming a great white shark in 1964. Valerie Taylor underwater in a shark cage in 1968. (All photos: Ron & Valerie Taylor)

Valerie Taylor on the Jaws film set standing next to a shark prop in 1974. (Photo: Ron & Valerie Taylor)

INNOVATION & TECH TODAY | FALL 2021

Left, Valerie Taylor underwater with camera equipment, 1970. (Photo: Ron & Valerie Taylor) Valerie Taylor framed by shark teeth, 1957. (Photo: David Mist Photography)

was never him pursuing a shark with a camera. It was always him positioning himself so that the shark glides past. That immediately conveys a sense of the benign, of sharing a world with the sharks, not ‘I’m going to show you how terrifying they are’ and throw yourself among them. There’s none of that. Ron and Valerie were really at one in the ocean with the sharks, without the rapidly beating heart of fear. When they were filming, they were at peace in their environment, and the sharks were at peace having them there,” Aikman added. This long association with sharks paid off for the crew in 2020, as Aikman recalled. “They knew the sharks, and the sharks knew them. So when we were in Fiji in 2020, one of the sharks came playfully toward Valerie, who was trying to reach out to touch it. It gave a gentle flick of its tail, Valerie’s mask comes off, and she’s just laughing underwater… I mean, you can’t construct it or rehearse it. That’s the way it was. I think the film conveys her ease with being in their world, and we portray them not as something terrifying, but as sentient beings with every right to be there.” How does one become so comfortable with sharks? It began with spearfishing. Valerie tells of her first encounters with sharks while spearfishing in her native New South Wales in the 1950s, again at a time when fish teemed everywhere and we were far from the need for marine national parks and preserves to protect them. “I’m not a person who gets afraid,” she said. “If something goes wrong, I get angry, frustrated. I want to fix it. I got used to sharks when I used to

spearfish. There was a time in New South Wales where, if you spearfished, it was guaranteed a shark would eventually come and want your fish. I learned very early you could keep your fish and fight the shark off, that you could look it in the eye and swim towards it. No predator expects its potential prey to swim toward it. If that didn’t work, I gave the shark the fish, and everyone was happy.” “When I started working with sharks with Ron on film, this stood me in good stead. I knew quite a bit about the behavior of the potentially dangerous sharks.” Likewise, Valerie does not mince words when addressing the growing incidents of shark attacks on beaches around the world. She’s just as likely to be protective of the potentially dangerous sharks as she is the humans who subject themselves to bites. “Of course, there are potentially dangerous sharks — great whites, bulls, hammerheads. If you’re worried about them, stay onshore,” she said. “When you go into the ocean, that’s your decision. You’re deciding to go into the backyard and world of another wild animal. It’s one thing to go into the backyard of an animal on land — you can run away, climb a tree, shoot it dead to defend yourself — but in the ocean, it’s a different story. We’re very awkward, splashing around, frantic looking, even at our best. Most people bitten by sharks are bitten on the surface. The damage comes when they try to pull away and panic, and they bleed. If they got the same type of initial bite and damage from a land animal? They wouldn’t die.”

Valerie’s mountain of work and her conservation efforts have made her a major role model and influence for three generations of women and girls in Australia, not the least of which is her producer on Playing with Sharks. “I saw a NatGeo of Valerie and Ron, her in a chain mail suit and her arm in a blue shark’s mouth,” Bettina Dalton recalled. “It was an organizing moment for me and my career to see that image. She looked like a model superhero, a major influencer – I’m not the only one who had that response. And I went on to become a natural history filmmaker. About 20 years ago, I was asked by National Geographic to make a film on Ron and Valerie’s life’s work. Got to spend a lot of time with them, looking at the film archive, Ron at the lathe making his own camera housings, Valerie’s photographic and art collection, seeing her as an artist. That series went onto play on NatGeo.” And now, they’re back together again, with a film that will let America and the Disney+ universe know what Australia and the ocean environment world have known for 60 years: Valerie Taylor is one of a kind, and the best friend the shark population has on this planet. “I hope this film gives the general public a better understanding of not just sharks, but the marine world in general,” Valerie said. “There was so much not in the film I wanted to be there, but we had so much to work with… a lot of tough decisions to decide what stayed in. The film is a great success, but you want to see every animal that you know in there. That makes a big difference, to know them.” ■ FALL 2021 | INNOVATION & TECH TODAY

THE MAN WHO FOUND TITANIC

Bob Ballard Explorer Talks Shipwrecks, Sea Creatures, and STEM By Corey Noles

he man who found Titanic. That phrase may be why you began reading this story, but there is so much more to Dr. Bob Ballard than simply that single fact.

President John F. Kennedy’s PT-109, the USS Yorktown, USS Scorpion, USS Thresher, the site of the Battle of Guadalcanal, and countless others.

In Bob Ballard: An Explorer’s Life, he tells the tale of his life as a professor, a scientist, and, yes, an explorer. The show premieres Monday, June 14, on National Geographic. A 350-page companion book, Into the Deep, also hits shelves this week.

In a chat with Innovation & Tech Today, we talked about Titanic, as well as some of his other discoveries — and they’re big.

The Titanic discovery turned out to be a mixed bag for Ballard when he returned home in 1985. While TV appearances and interviews bombarded him immediately upon arrival, they also came at a cost. That cost is that Ballard will always be remembered as the man who found Titanic. He’s also the man who proved plate tectonics in the 1970s and discovered hydrothermal vents as well as the man who led the first crew to the floor of the ocean. In addition, he and his crew discovered the Nazi battleship Bismarck,

INNOVATION & TECH TODAY | FALL 2021

Innovation & Tech Today: Did the flood of attention that came with Titanic kind of pull attention away from some of your other projects and discoveries? Did it sour the experience for you at all? Bob Ballard: No, no. It changed my life. And as you know, we have a companion book that’s 350 pages that goes into things deeper, called Into the Deep. Yeah, the Titanic is a mixed bag. Clearly got your attention. It does get people’s attention. In fact, when we were talking about the title for the book, they said they had to say, “The man who found the Titanic.” But in the epilogue and as you saw in the film when they interviewed my mom, she says, “Too bad he found that rusty old

(Left) Rusted bow of the R.M.S. Titanic ocean liner in the North Atlantic. (National Geographic/ Emory Kristof)

Robert Ballard in the control room of the E/V Nautilus while on the expedition in the South Pacific. (National Geographic/ Gabriel Scarlett)

box, I mean school, those rules are stacked against us. So, I had to get out of the box, and it turns out that that’s what successful dyslexics do. Most self-made millionaires are dyslexic. But then there are certain fields, if you happen to go down the road in engineering, for example, at MIT, they call dyslexia the MIT disease because of the high, high percentage of dyslexic. Architecture, the arts. In my business, field geology, we’re visual creatures, so anything that takes advantage of our ability to see an image and imagine is where our strengths are. In fact, there’s a great book, The Dyslexic Advantage that explains how our brains work, and why we’re good at certain things and not good at other things. And I was lucky to have a dream, to be Captain Nemo, and to go in pursuit of that dream and succeed. So, yeah, but there’s so many that are, the majority of people in prison are dyslexics.

that stood out as a moment that you felt should have been a bigger deal than the attention it got?

I&T Today: That’s one of the most terrifying things on Earth.

I&T Today: It looks like you’ve managed to turn your career into your hobby at the same time.

It’s a yin and yang, you know? And so, I’m now reaching out to dyslexics, the 20%, that’s a big number, that are considered underrepresented like any other percentage, and saying, “You know, there is a path to success. Here’s the road to go down, and don’t go down that one.” It’s something I’m doing. This late in my life it’s time to pay back for the wonderful life I’ve been able to live.

BB: I was. I think it’s because I’m dyslexic, and I had to leave the box. Because of the rules in the

I&T Today: That’s awesome. You’ve done so many things in your life. Is there anything

boat.” Because I am a pretty serious scientist. I’ve done a lot of major discoveries in academia. I’m a professor and I did initially, I don’t get it so much anymore. I used to catch a lot of flack from my academic colleagues: “Why are you wasting your time writing articles for National Geographic, and talk shows and blah, blah, blah.” I have a response. I remember I was walking down the hall and one of my colleagues says, “Oh! I now know what you do. I read all about it in National Geographic magazine. And my comeback was, “Oh, I now know the journals you read. You missed the same thing in Nature and Science,” which are the top journals in the world. I’ve always known I’ve had to publish four times more academically-refereed journal articles than my colleagues because of that. And I say, “What’s your citation index number?” And that is the killing question to an academician. In other words, how often are your academic papers referenced? And I have a very high citation index record. So I had to fight that, but it’s okay. They stopped doing that because now people are insisting scientists tell them what they’re doing.

BB: Thirteen-foot-long worms with humanlike blood that ingest poisonous gas, and replicate photosynthesis in the dark, and tell us there’s life throughout the universe, and even within our own solar system. I would say that trumps the Titanic big time. I&T Today: That’s like running into H.P. Lovecraft out in the ocean somewhere. When I was listening to you tell that story, I kept flashing back to his old novels. Sea monsters and all this stuff that no one had ever seen before. BB: Can you imagine a worm that’s 13 feet tall, has human-like blood, sticks out its lung and inhales poisonous gas? Out went the biology book on that one.

BB: Well, it was pretty, I wouldn’t say it was terrifying because I like fishing. Can you imagine the fish you can catch with a 13-foot worm? My gosh. It was so funny when we brought up the first worm, there weren’t any biologists because no one expected it. And I called back to Woods Hole [Oceanographic Institution] to get some biologists. FALL 2021 | INNOVATION & TECH TODAY

They said, “Put it in formaldehyde.” I said, “We’re geologists. We don’t have any formaldehyde.” And they said, “Well, what do you got?” And I said, “We got bourbon, scotch.” They said “Great. Put it in whiskey!” So when I went around and collected, because I was chief scientist. I went around and had to collect because it’s supposed to be a dry ship and everyone had it in their stash, and he says, “I’ll help you with this, but just don’t bring up another one.” I&T Today: What was it like that first time you saw the ocean floor when you came across all of these things? BB: It was really, as you saw in the movie, and you’ll certainly read in the book, Into the Deep, it was seeing the movie 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. I mean, I didn’t read the book because I’m dyslexic, so the last thing I’m going to do is pick up a book. Now I get them in audio, and now they have them in a dyslexic font which helps a lot. But it was seeing the movie 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, and when Kirk Douglas got aboard of the Nautilus and is sitting there. There’s no one on the Nautilus, and he goes down to Captain Nemo’s quarters. He hits the button, and that window opens like the iris of a lens. He saw Nemo and his team walking on the bottom of the ocean. They had the big lead foot, big helmets, and they were… Can you imagine a kid that’s only looked at the ocean like this and you see someone walking? I got fixated. Do you know how kids can just get fixated on something? And I said, “The ocean has a bottom!” And not only does it have a bottom, but it also has the largest mountain ranges. It has tens of thousands of volcanoes. I mean, we have canyons in the ocean that make the Grand Canyon look like a ditch. I went down one continuous wall off the Cayman Islands — a 20,000-foot wall. Find one of those on land! A shear wall, 20,000 feet tall. I&T Today: My gosh. BB: That’s the bottom of the ocean. Like heck, it’s the bottom of the ocean. I just got fixated on wandering around down there. And with a dyslexic mind, I can see in the dark. I can image and take in all the sensor systems. So, I’m very comfortable.

INNOVATION & TECH TODAY | FALL 2021

(Top) View of the propeller of the R.M.S. Titanic from the Mir submersible porthole. View through a porthole of the submersible Alvin exploring seafloor.

(Photos National Geographic/Emory Kristof)

But we’re scientists that are all over because we don’t know what we’re going to find. So we have what’s called doctors on call, like a hospital. You don’t know what the ambulance is going to deliver. So when we make a discovery, I’ll call you. And I’ll call you when you’re in bed and I’ll boot up your laptop and stream it on your laptop, patch you into the pilot. We’ll have a conversation and you’re in bed. We say one-way video. But anyway. And then you decide whether to get out of bed and run to one of these things. So, that’s where we are now. It’s all robotics.

I&T Today: Wow! That is amazing. You’ve been doing this for a long time now. How has it been to watch and influence the major technological changes that have come along the way? BB: The Geographic and Titanic. The fact that I’m the guy that found the Titanic, and that I’m associated with the best storytelling organization on the planet with National Geographic, whether it’s books, televisions, magazines, you name it — is they made me who I am because I enjoy communicating. I enjoy sharing. I’m a hopeless sharer of things. My

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Another view of the rusted bow section of the R.M.S. Titanic ocean liner in the North Atlantic. (National Geographic/Emory Kristof)

fan and things really go bad, you never know how other people are going to react. The person you thought was going to be cool, panics. And this person over here that you thought might panic, is solid as a rock. I love those moments quite honestly, as long as no one dies. Knock on wood. Good to go so far. I love moments when we test a person’s mettle. And I’m always surprised at who stands strong. Commonly, are the ones you thought wouldn’t, that do, and it’s really nice. And when things go bad, I sort of see the world slow down. It’s like everyone’s moving. And I get very calm and I’m looking around a lot, and I actually crave those moments. They’re pretty amazing. I&T Today: Well, that’s where you learn a lot about yourself, as much as anything, too.

mother would never look in my pockets when I came back from a walkabout because there was probably a lizard in there or some snake. I always would come home with things in my pocket, and she did not want to put her hands in my pocket. Because I’m just a sharer and I enjoy exciting people. I enjoy letting people know. It’s an epic journey that we talk about. You dream, you prepare yourself, you go forth on your journey. You overcome obstacles, you gain truth and you come back and share the truth. It releases you to go on your next journey. And like I say, my spiritual guru is Joseph Campbell, who said, “Life is the act of becoming. You never arrive.” So, I’m constantly becoming, until I’m not. I&T Today: Until you’re not. You’ve been, it looks like, from the video especially, a real champion for the STEM subjects and helping get youth interested again. What do you think is the issue there? BB: It’s fun. I think the key is that kids have got to understand I’m living my dream. I honestly feel like I’ve never worked. I’ve always done what I love, but I had a passion. And the kids say, “Well, what should I do?” And I say, “Follow your passion,” It doesn’t matter what it is. It doesn’t matter what mountain you climb in life. It’s the act of climbing. But here’s the point. When you fall down, you won’t get up unless you want to get up. So don’t follow your parents’ “I want you to be a doctor. I want you to…” To heck with them, okay. You’ve got to follow your

INNOVATION & TECH TODAY | FALL 2021

passion and you shouldn’t let anyone talk you out of it, because it’s the energy you need to keep you going. Because you’re going to fail. Failure is the greatest teacher you’ll ever meet, but you have to pick yourself up. And if you don’t want to get up, you won’t get up. I&T Today: That’s right. That’s right. One other thing that stood out to me in the film, was watching you go down in the Ben Franklin. That was, as a guy who’s a little claustrophobic, I was like, this is wild. To think five days in that little capsule. BB: Actually, the Ben Franklin itself was like, it was like 40 feet long. It was the biggest submarine I’ve ever been in, until I went into a nuclear submarine. It had bunks. The guy that built it, Piccard, was 6’5″ so the bunks were like seven feet long. They had a porthole. We had a shower so that spoiled me. Because that was my first dive and then the next one I’m in is boom, I’m in this little capsule. Now, I love the Ben Franklin. It was when I went down in a bathysphere at 20,000 feet and crashed. I think my combat training as an infantry officer, when the bullets are flying the last thing you do is run and scream. You have to contain it. And how do you contain fear, control fear, and not panic? Because in my business, if you can’t control panic, you’re dead. Same with diving. When you’re diving in scuba and going to great depths and there’s a problem, you’ve got to lock on and stay calm. I’ve always been in a situation when it hits the

BB: Absolutely. And you know, it does help to have done a lot. Plus, and for some reason, I have an iron stomach when it comes to going on a ship. As long as you don’t release diesel fumes around the air zone. But I always sort of looked at rocking and rolling on a ship is as like a ferris wheel or something. And yeah, I feel sorry for people that have chronic seasickness. But now you don’t even have to go to sea anymore, you can use robots now, and you’ll never get seasick. I&T Today: Oh, I bet it has. So what’s the future looking like? Still going strong? BB: Oh yeah. One of the reasons for wrapping this whole thing up was so the next one can get moving. We have just been commissioned, this is pretty cool, by our government to mount the second Lewis and Clark expedition. Most people don’t know that 50% of America, half our nation is underwater, and we have better maps of Mars than half the United States. And so we’re literally doing what Lewis and Clark did when Jefferson doubled the size of the United States. When Reagan signed the law of the sea, he doubled the size of America, and yet we need to find out what we own. So, I put together a tremendous dream team of explorers and we won this big competition for $100 million dollars over five years, and then renewed for another $100 million to map and characterize America’s underwater land. We’re not calling it the Lewis and Clark Expedition, because 50% of my team are women in leadership positions. In fact, most of the top leadership of my organization are women, so we’re calling it the Lois and Clark expedition. ■

“FABRIC OF AMERICA” with Gretchen Philyaw

www.fabricofamerica.co

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GEAR GUIDE weBoost Drive Reach — Drive Reach is a powerful, in-vehicle cell signal booster. It’s designed to reach the farthest cell towers in remote areas, delivering the strongest coverage possible on the road. Installed in minutes without tools, Drive Reach stops dropped calls while also improving voice quality, data speeds, and streaming capability. Drive Reach works on all U.S. carrier networks and is compatible with all phones and cellular devices as it simultaneously supports multiple users. WeBoost is committed to the 5G movement, ensuring all our products work with 5G and support the latest in 5G technology. $500 Terrain Heated Camping Chair — Built on an ultra-durable steel frame, this heated camping chair allows you to set your ideal temperature with three heat settings: low (113°F), medium (122°F), and high (131°F). Your chosen heat level is delivered to two heat zones made up of conductive-thread technology sewn into a durable 600/300 Denier Polyester and located in the seat and lower back of the chair. Thanks to an efficient 7.4V 6,500 lithium polymer battery (that doubles as a phone charging port, by the way) you’ll enjoy a warm backside for up to 9 hours on low, 6 hours on medium, and 4.5 hours on high. $200

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FALL 2021 | INNOVATION & TECH TODAY

Health Tech Presented By

VitalSight

Omron Introduces Cutting-Edge Remote Patient Monitoring Service By Corey Noles

patients. The goal is for it to lead to more active condition management and more patient-tophysician dialogue.” Fillipp pointed out one aspect that excites OMRON is its availability at little to no cost for patients, depending on their Medicare coverage. VitalSight launched at CES 2021 back in January and has since partnered with major medical institutions around the country. The system is currently in pilot programs at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, and Northwestern Medicine in Chicago.

Keeping tabs on your blood pressure is about to get a lot easier and more efficient, thanks to a new release from OMRON Healthcare, Inc. OMRON has been releasing an extensive range of home health care products for years, including their popular blood pressure monitors you can find just about anywhere. Now, they’re bringing that into the 21st century. OMRON created VitalSight, a remote patient monitoring program, for high-risk hypertension patients. It’s an easy-to-use service that physicians can use to enroll patients with highrisk levels of hypertension or uncontrolled high blood pressure. Patients receive a kit delivered directly to their homes. The kit includes an OMRON-connected blood pressure monitor and data hub pre-set to securely share measurements with the patient’s physician and care team. The data from

INNOVATION & TECH TODAY | FALL 2021

VitalSight can be integrated directly with their existing Electronic Medical Record (EMR) system or through the OMRON Doctor Dashboard. Doctors are notified if their pre-selected blood pressure thresholds are met and sent automatic notifications through the EMR that signal when a patient has readings that indicate if action is needed. “Hypertension statistics are remarkable in the U.S. and globally,” said Bill Fillipp, senior marketing communications and brand manager. “The American Heart Association estimates that nearly 116 million U.S. adults are in the hypertensive range, and the CDC reports that 37 million of them have uncontrolled Stage 2 hypertension — that means they’re at a higher risk of heart attack and stroke. OMRON created VitalSight for those high-risk hypertensive

“Early feedback from physicians shows that VitalSight is quickly helping doctors improve engagement with patients on their treatment plans,” Fillipp said. “It’s the latest offering from OMRON that works toward our corporate mission of Going for Zero — the elimination of heart attack and stroke.” Fillipp knows the goal is a lofty one but said the company is constantly pushing to get closer and closer to that number through more innovative products and services. OMRON is a Japanese company with local operations in various locales across the globe and products reaching 120 countries. In 2020, the company reported $5.9 billion in global sales. OMRON also has corporate legs stretching into other industries, including industrial automation, social systems, environmental solutions, and mechanical components. OMRON was first established in 1933 as Tateisi Electric Manufacturing Co. when the company got its start producing X-ray timers. ■

THE DARK SIDE OF GAMING Women face an interesting landscape in gaming, but sexism isn’t the only issue. By Sara Brittany Somerset Despite its name, there is more to gaming than just fun and games.

Streamers and gamers alike face a variety of challenges — and they aren’t necessarily what you might expect. In a world filled with young men and women, how far is too far to go to get viewers?

There is a controversial dark side of gaming that sometimes leads to a battle between the sexes. While PC gaming has a competitive advantage over console gaming due to faster processing speeds and less lag time, many gamers complain of another unfair competitive advantage — scantily-clad, sexy female gamers. While gaming has a reputation for being hostile toward women, especially in the past, it’s necessary to unpack this scenario. While some men merely can’t handle being beaten in competition by a woman, the resentment is not necessarily, solely due to sexism. The issue derives from a perceived unfair competitive advantage that female gamers achieve by using their (ahem) assets to gain more online views and subscribers than their male competitors. Not everyone can earn a living from gaming tournaments, which are separate from everyday online gaming. People who can’t make a living from tournaments (as only the winners and finalists get paid) can potentially earn a living by gaming with spectators, similar to how people earn money on their YouTube channels where the number of subscribers and views drive up their potential value to advertisers. According to Quartz, “Twitch, the Amazonowned platform that live-broadcasts gamers playing video games, is the undisputed champion of its arena. It hosts 91% of all video game streaming, dwarfing competitors from YouTube and Facebook.” On Twitch.tv, subscribers can watch for free.

INNOVATION & TECH TODAY | FALL 2021

Photo: iStockphoto.com/luza studios

However, attractive women outshine their male counterparts often by enticing people to make a one-time donation or become a channel patron for a monthly or annual fee. Women are earning (some would say soliciting) more donations due to being overtly sexy and not necessarily due to their gaming skills. While some would argue that no one is forcing anyone to watch them play, parents are crying foul as their kids buy gift cards and make donations with their allowance or parents’ money.

More nefariously, some women in their late 20s to early 30s do their hair and makeup to appear much younger and appeal to a young demographic. Needless to say, if men in their 30s were dressing like teenagers to solicit money from young girls, this scenario would cause much more of an uproar. However, since women are perceived to be doing the luring, it continues unchecked. Many channels now have a warning screen stating, “The broadcaster has indicated that this

Photo: iStock.com/BrendanHunter

“ W hen I’m gaming, I just want to play … I enjoy it as a mindless way to wind down after work. It disturbs me to see opponents my daughter’s age dressed like porn stars.” ~ Eric Marc

channel is intended for mature audiences.” However, there is no way to verify if the users are mature.

“But I’m not watching just to look at the girls. If I want to see boobs, there are much better sites for that.”

When Twitch was acquired by Amazon, they began age verification. Still, there is no way to confirm the accuracy of a person’s age. Kids can easily lie about their age to get on the platform and give away their allowance by buying tokens for adult gamers.

In these scenarios, women and disturbingly underage girls are much more popular and achieve more views, which generates higher ad revenue due to a higher number of subscribers.

In response to this scenario, women gaming in athleisure wear with a full camel toe and cleavage more suited for the adult section of a “blockbuster” video store, on-camera can claim all they see are usernames, and as such, they have no idea if kids or adults are providing the donations. Some women wear t-shirts over just panties, then make excuses to get up from their console to show off their “assets.” This can be interpreted as borderline sexual role-playing, such as the cheeky “teenager” in her “Catholic high school uniform” answering her phone or getting a drink of water in a thong. While conceivably some people do game in their undies, doing it live appeals to voyeurs. By comparison, male gamers tend to dress effortlessly or more “come as you are” in sweatpants. “I watch gaming videos to see people who are better than me, male or female,” said Colton Bostic, an 18-year-old gamer from the Midwest.

Unsurprisingly female gamers bristle at the thought of being “slut-shamed.” Many view their outfits as cosplay, (think outfits inspired by Harley Quinn, Ghost in the Shell, or Æon Flux, for example) or an extension of their gaming fantasies. However, these costumes are viewed by some as “camming light” or dressing and acting in a sexually provocative manner to elicit donations and drive up their viewers. “When I’m gaming, I just want to play. I’m in my 40s and I enjoy it as a mindless way to wind down after work. It disturbs me to see opponents my daughter’s age dressed like porn stars. I only let my kids game in the living room, rather than in their bedrooms, so I can see what they are wearing, who they are playing with, and if their opponents are age-appropriate,” said Eric Marc, an avid gamer. “My prime gaming days were 2004-2007. Many more people are involved in watching other people game with the advent of Twitch and gaming influencers. The community aspect has grown a lot more. The hardware and

graphics have improved and become more cinematic,” said Halo player Roger Robinson. While financially speaking, a console is arguably more affordable than a PC, visually speaking, a PC is able to be “spec’d out” to give almost 3D-like quality images at almost zero latency. A better spec’d PC will perform better against an inferior PC. Sometimes it is almost like cheating to play against someone with an inferior PC. Consoles allow everyone to compete at a similar level. It’s understandable if someone is willing to invest their time and up to $5,000 into a superior gaming system, they don’t want to level the playing field, they want to dominate it. If that investment is completely laid waste by a hot girl who uses her cleavage to score tokens, resentment can build quickly. “I’m honestly not much of a gamer,” said Berj Joulyaian. “I have a Switch that was good for playing Zelda during the pandemic. My sense about the PC/console divide is that you can build a much more powerful desktop than the modern consoles. But, like, Xbox and PlayStation are a much better-tailored gaming solution, in terms of the titles, interface, etc., MS seems to be eating Sony’s breakfast on the cloud gaming side. “However, none of that matters if I get distracted by boobs.” ■ FALL 2021 | INNOVATION & TECH TODAY

THE NEW FRONTIER OF GAMING Gaimin has developed an innovative solution to a modern computing problem. By Corey Noles

The world needs more computing power. It’s not an assumption, it’s a fact. Scientists have been watching for years as we neared the limits of computing — at least with respect to speed and power. On Jan. 23, 2018, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, stated that, “the world is running out of computing power.” In an all-connected digital world, computing power is everything. Animated movies need additional power to be able to render. The stock exchange creates astronomical demand at the global level with constantly updating prices and transactions. Then came cryptocurrency. While cryptocurrency is gaining momentum on the world stage, it is simultaneously swallowing up massive amounts of computer power resources. In addition, the advent of other items is only further pressing that limit. Artificial intelligence, cloud computing, telemedicine, blockchain, 3D modeling, big data, and robotics all create massive demand.

INNOVATION & TECH TODAY | FALL 2021

Gaimin.io, a European startup, has developed a creative solution. For much of the past decade, the group has been designing and testing a system that would allow gamers to essentially

sell their excess computing power. Typically, a small to medium-sized company’s e-commerce department will pay in the thousands of dollars each month to rent

Martin Speight Gaimin, CEO & co-founder

processing power (and hard drive space) to run applications that allow them to run web hosting, email services (for newsletters), analytics software, and much more, all of which are very processor intensive. This trend of renting processing power is growing daily.

can control the game items they earn in Gaimcraft with tokenized assets on Hedera. The HBAR Foundation is excited to see gamers introduced to the Hedera network through our latest gaming partner, Gaimin.” said Donald Thibeau, Chief Strategy Officer.

Rather than spending billions of dollars on building dedicated resource farms, Gaimin.io are accessing the worldwide gaming community, and utilizing and rewarding this global network of untapped, globally distributed resources of 1.5 billion processing power providers, connected by high-speed internet connections, which can be aggregated, consolidated and then utilized to satisfy any of the myriad of profitable current, and future, needs for processing power.

Currently coming out of a 1,000 user beta test, Gaimin.io will be an application for which gamers sign up and download for free, then have access to computational monetization.

That service could be working with an auction house, a busy news site, or even a company trying to speed up the processing of an animated film.

“Gaimin approached Venly with their users already in beta mode,” said Tim Dierckxsens, cofounder and CEO at Venly. “Gaimin trusted in Venly’s ability to execute and has constantly been a driving factor to improve our technology and drive our product/market fit. I’m excited about their undoubtedly bright future, especially now knowing the team behind the company.”

Best we can tell, you likely won’t even notice it is running.

Withdrawing your tokens is also an option, but as is the case with all crypto, there is a cost involved with transferring it over to an exchange for withdrawal. While it may be small in the beginning, there is the potential to make enough earnings to handle monthly in-game assets, NFTs, new computer parts, or pick up your game subscriptions at the very least.

The only game the team has publicly “begun development on and has produced an integrated API, is Minecraft, which they have cleverly called Gaimcraft”. This uniquely allows users to create NFTs that seamlessly cross between the Gaimin marketplace and their Minecraft inventory.

The app runs entirely in the background. When you have spare computing power during times when you’re not playing, or even when playing lower-demand games, one can simply open the app and turn it on. Gaimin.io then begins sharing your computer power to companies with which it has an agreement in place.

The sign-up process is simple and what’s more, it is absolutely FREE. Start by visiting www.gaimin.gg and clicking to place yourself into the queue for when Gaimin officially launches. For that, the Gaimin team is giving away 1,000 GMRX tokens to each of the first 100 signups. ■

The Gaimin.io project connects the world’s largest supply of GPU processing power, which belongs to the 1.5 billion gaming PCs in the global gaming community, with the rapidly growing, worldwide demand for massive processing power. Gamers will be rewarded for participating in the “processor power supply network” with a blockchain-based crypto token they can use to spend on their in-game purchases, their gaming platform incorporating blockchain, NFTs, metaverse, interoperable games, tokens, GaimCraft directly in Gaimin’s marketplace and via their network of gaming partnerships. “Gaimin’s offering brings together the market of GPU power providers and consumers. Their use of Hedera showcases how providers can be compensated for idle GPU powers and players

The system also offers different options for how to use your newfound funds. Members will have access to special Gaimin — exclusive in-game perks and rewards. This will give users a chance to earn exclusive in-game content produced specifically for this project.

FALL 2021 | INNOVATION & TECH TODAY

connected life

2021: A Space Reality The Rising Battle of Conquering Consumer Space Travel By Chris Mellides

Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket preparing for launch. Photo: Blue Origin

As the VMS Eve two-plane mothership hurtles higher into Earth’s atmosphere, it leaves the New Mexico desert basin shrinking in the distance below. The aircraft soars and continues its climb. Faster. Faster. Suddenly, a woman’s voice pierces through the intercom static and is heard saying, “Three. Two. One. Release, release, release!” At that moment, the mothership jettisons the VSS Unity spaceplane carrying its two pilots and four passengers. The VSS Unity achieves a speed of Mach 3 after breaking away from the main aircraft and continues its ascension to space, reaching an altitude of 53.5 miles. Among its crew of respected mission specialists, Virgin Galactic founder and billionaire tycoon Sir Richard Branson chuckles with glee as he begins to make out the Earth’s curvature below while peering through one of the spaceplane’s 12 large windows. The pilot’s voice sounds the command. “You are clear to unstrap,” followed by “welcome to space!” All passengers, save for Branson, marvel at their weightlessness and float about the craft’s cabin while the mustachioed Branson continues

INNOVATION & TECH TODAY | FALL 2021

to observe the wondrous view from the comfort of his seat.

construction on June 19, 2009, to the tune of $225 million.

“To all you kids down there,” he begins. “I was once a child with a dream looking up to the stars and now, I’m an adult in a spaceship with lots of other wonderful adults looking down to our beautiful, beautiful Earth. For the next generation of dreamers, if we can do this, just imagine what you could do.”

Since then, there have been several advancements in research and engineering to account for the various spaceplane and carrier aircraft that led to the recent 22nd test flight of the VSS Unity, which also marked its first launch with a full crew in the cabin that, of course, included Branson himself.

On July 11, Virgin Galactic successfully achieved its first crewed spaceflight, and the world watched with bated breath as the event was broadcasted live for all to see.

“Our mission is to make space more accessible to all,” Branson said. “In that spirit, and with today’s successful flight of VSS Unity, I’m thrilled to announce a partnership with Omaze and Space for Humanity to inspire the next generation of dreamers. For so long, we have looked back in wonder at the space pioneers of yesterday. Now, I want the astronauts of tomorrow to look forward and make their own dreams come true.”

Founded in 2004, Virgin Galactic Airways is the brainchild of Branson, whose interest in searching for vehicles to launch tourists on suborbital flights dates back to 1999. In the years that followed the company’s emergence, Branson and former New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson solidified plans to locate the spaceflight company’s world headquarters at a custom-built spaceport near Truth or Consequences, NM. Dubbed ‘Spaceport America,’ the hub stretches across 27 square miles of state land and began

Virgin Galactic partnered with Omaze, a charity fundraising platform, and Coloradobased Space for Humanity (S4H) in offering the unique opportunity for two ordinary people to partake in suborbital flight. This sweepstakes began on July 11 and ended on September 1.

connected life

July 20 marked the 52nd anniversary of the 1969 moon landing by the Apollo 11 and became the day that Bezos, his brother Mark Bezos, 82-year-old American aviator Wally Funk and an 18-year-old recent high school graduate named Oliver Daemen boarded the crew capsule connected to the New Shepard reusable launch booster rocket with their sights set on the stars.

(Top) The interior of the New Shepard’s capsule is plush and comfortable, a stark contrast to the shuttle days. (Bottom) The Blue Origin capsule travels to the ground suspended by three parachutes to a safe landing. Photos: Blue Origin

The Blue Origin team traveled more than 60 miles above Earth, flying just past the Kármán line, which represents the internationally recognized boundary of space. This travel distance was larger than what the VSS Unity achieved during its flight. Bezos and company reached sub-orbit and observed the planet below for a total of 11 minutes, during which they experienced weightlessness and delighted in their shared experience before safely returning to Earth. “Today was a monumental day for Blue Origin and human spaceflight,” said Bob Smith, CEO, Blue Origin. “I am so incredibly proud of Team Blue, their professionalism, and expertise in executing today’s flight. This was a big step forward for us and is only the beginning.”

Those interested were able to enter the contest on the Omaze website, which directed applicants to a page asking for a donation to support S4H. While participants could have donated any amount they wished, a donation was not necessary to enter or win the sweepstakes. The winner and guest will be announced on September 29, and the spacefaring experience should take place in early 2022. S4H was founded by Dylan Taylor in 2017, with a mission statement that reads: “Through our citizen spaceflight program, leadership training, and collaborative efforts to educate the public, we are setting the stage to create the world we want, both here on Earth and throughout the cosmos.” S4H is an organization that embraces advances in commercial space travel and human spaceflight and plans to work directly with launch providers to meet the goal of truly democratizing space. S4H plans to fly with both

Virgin Galactic, Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin and Space Perspective. “Space compels us to ask deeper questions and what Space for Humanity is doing is working to expand the opportunity for more people to shift their perspective to then catalyze meaningful conversations that ideally spark positive change,” Taylor said in a statement. The path toward commercial space travel is not exclusive to Virgin Galactic alone. Just nine days after the successful launch of the VSS Unity, former Amazon CEO and magnate Jeff Bezos and his space company Blue Origin answered back by completing their first crewed space flight. Blue Origin was founded by Bezos in 2000 with the goal of creating a future where millions of people are capable of living and working together in space for the benefit of mankind, while also making spaceflight more costeffective and accessible.

In October, Blue Origin sent William Shatner to space. At 90, the former Captain Kirk became the oldest person to leave the earth’s atmosphere. The trip brought unprecedented media coverage to space travel as the future. While media outlets were abuzz with the successes of Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin in achieving their first crewed space flights, SpaceX dared to think bigger. Historically, SpaceX has worked closely with The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and has been delivering precious cargo and other useful materials to and from the International Space Station (ISS) since 2012. On September 15, SpaceX launched its first all-civilian spacecraft crew into Earth’s orbit from a launchpad at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The mission, called Inspiration4, saw a diverse crew of four space tourists spending a total of three days in a modified 27-by-13-foot Dragon capsule; though it has been stated that the crew could remain in orbit for about a week if needed. FALL 2021 | INNOVATION & TECH TODAY

connected life The mission was funded by young billionaire entrepreneur, Jared Isaacman, who spent an estimated $200 million to make the voyage a reality. One of the goals for the mission was to also raise awareness and funds for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital with a fund-raising drive coinciding with the mission. What makes this spaceflight mission particularly significant is that it is the highest altitude voyage in more than 20 years. It surpasses distances set by the ISS and the Hubble Space Telescope with the Inspiration4 crew soaring to orbit some 360 miles up. Perhaps the biggest question is how much will be becoming an astronaut cost you? Well, about 600 tickets have already been purchased for a spaceflight with Virgin Galactic, with prices ranging from $200,000 and $250,000 for early customers. It was recently announced by Virgin Galactic that tickets to the public will now start at $450,000 a seat. Meanwhile, Blue Origin has sold nearly $100 million in tickets for future participants, according to Bezos. And while his space company has yet to let on exactly how much a single seat will cost the public, Bezos has said that, “The demand is very, very high.” Some might argue that commercial space travel is too costly and that the money leaving the hands of billionaires could be better put towards eliminating problems that impact most people living on our planet. Yet there are others like Dr. Moriba Jah, a space scientist and aerospace engineer who thinks that things are a little more complicated than they seem. Dr. Jah’s field of expertise is astrodynamics and before he became an associate professor at the University of Texas at Austin, he worked as an Air Force cop and at NASA in his late twenties as a graduate of the University of Colorado. “You can do good things to give people education, healthy water and you can [still] go to space,” says Jah, who also argues that the billionaire class-leading commercial space travel efforts are already helping to ease societal woes through the work they do at their foundations. “It’s a false equivalency because they’re already doing [the work],” he says. “This is a good sign, and you should embrace it and encourage it to happen more,” Jah continued. “Because the sooner we get through the tsunami of rich people that do this, then this becomes normalized, and space becomes accessible to you and me.” ■

INNOVATION & TECH TODAY | FALL 2021

Scenes from Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson’s first trip to space. Photos: Virgin Galactic

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FEATURE STORY

Penn & Teller

Magic’s best-dressed duo talks life, tech in magic, and 46 years of genuine friendship. By Corey Noles

Photo: Francis George

INNOVATION & TECH TODAY | FALL 2021

Penn & Teller have been gracing stages together for 46 years. Donning impeccable three-piece suits, both carry a stagemanship that is tough to parallel in the age of strobe lights, jumbotrons, and fireworks. Penn Jillette and his powerful voice have been the exciting side of the duo. He can work a crowd like few today and not just grab but hold its attention. Teller, simply by being silent and through his body language, has a way of mesmerizing an audience with what feels like a delightful mystery. Their record-breaking Las Vegas show at The Rio has an impressive eight wins as “Las Vegas Magicians of the Year” and was called “The single best show in Vegas,” by the Los Angeles Times. The duo will appear in season two of The World According to Jeff Goldblum, which launches on Disney+ on November 21, 2021. The pair sits down with Goldblum to discuss magic as a craft and includes a field trip to perform in front of UCLA neuroscientists. We won’t spoil the rest, so watch it for yourself. The current hit series Penn & Teller: Fool Us! for The CW Network, on which both up-andcomers and magic veterans try to fool Penn & Teller for a chance to star in the pair’s hit Las Vegas stage show, was nominated for a Critic’s Choice Award. The controversial Showtime series, Penn & Teller: BS!, was nominated for 13 Emmys and was the longest-running series in the history of the network. The show highlighted the pair’s ardent skepticism by tackling the fakes and frauds behind such topics as alien abduction, psychics, and bottled water. Recently, Innovation & Tech Today had the opportunity to sit down individually with both Penn and Teller (editor’s note: yes, of course, he speaks. Very eloquently, I might add.) Innovation & Tech Today: In your episode of The World According to Jeff Goldblum, you spoke about blurring the line in magic, lying, and how you guys insist on keeping your show an honest one. And I was wondering, was that intentional? Penn Jillette: That was completely and utterly

Top: Jeff Goldblum (R) talks about magic with Penn (L) and Teller (center). Bottom: Penn (L) and Teller (R) during a magic trick. Photos: National Geographic

intentional. That is the mission statement of Penn and Teller. Magic has until the past 10 years, five years, been in the United States and really throughout the world, predominantly the realm of white men. And usually starting with a boy, usually about 12, trying to get status and ego in being able to fool people. It starts out, many magic careers start out, deeply unpleasant. They started out with Jerry Seinfeld, who has a line like, “Here’s a quarter. Now it’s gone. You’re a jerk. Now it’s back. You’re an asshole. Show’s over.” But that’s all magic. And because when I was young, I was not into magic. Really was not into magic. I was a juggler. And even though juggling and magic are in the same strata at the bottom of show business, they are philosophically exactly the opposite. In magic, you claim to do something you can’t do. In juggling, you claim to do something you can do. Music, of course, falls in between there, because with music you’re not talking about just the skill, you’re talking about also the emotional component. So, magic didn’t interest me. It did

not get into my psychological bedrock the way it gets into other magicians. And then a shitty magician who called himself a scientist, Kreskin, put out an ESP set, which he claimed you could do stuff. And I found out he was a fraud by stumbling onto a book that showed how he did the trick. I flew into a rage. And I not only was not interested in magic, but I explicitly disliked magic, explicitly disliked magicians, thought that the form itself was morally suspect. Then I met Teller and then I met Amazing Randi. And Teller said two things to me, Randi mostly said that magic could be done morally, and Teller underlined that. And then Teller said that magic was essentially an intellectual art form, which seemed like nonsense when you get a greasy guy in a tux with a lot of birds, torturing women in front of mylar with bad, rip-off Motown music. To see that as intellectual was really weird, but that conversation continued. And there was no way that I was going to be FALL 2021 | INNOVATION & TECH TODAY

FEATURE STORY / Penn & Teller charming competition, a genteel, playful game going on. And we wanted to pick up that spirit.

Penn (L) and Teller (R) perform a magic trick with an assistant (center). Photo: National Geographic

Penn: Yes, very honest. And there have been, we’ve had hundreds of people on, hundreds. There’ve been a couple of people who were contentious, but a couple of people contentious out of hundreds, it’s noise. But if you were to see the rough edits, people know in two seconds. I mean I play the suspense, but they know. And that’s the way things should be, right? Competition shows have become so deeply unpleasant trying to get the zinger in, which to me is total bullshit. It’s your show. This poor bastard’s coming on to your show. You have all the muscle. You own the show and then you get them good. What is that? That’s a bully. There’s no other way to see that.

“ There is such a difference to a magician between [competition shows and] coming on our show where they know that they will be treated respectfully.” — Teller Photo: Jacob Kepler/The CW

involved in a magic show that was, what I felt, was immoral. So if you talk to David Blaine, and I really believe I’m not misrepresenting. David Blaine, I think last I talked to him, will tell you that he thinks it’s important to blur the lines of reality to be a magician. I don’t mean that we’re trying to do one thing and others don’t care about it. I mean we’re trying to do one thing, and others are explicitly trying to do something else. Now, David Blaine is a friend of ours. I like him as a person, but I don’t agree with his particular philosophy. I know the United States has fallen away from having friends with who you disagree with profoundly. But, I still do that. I&T Today: I have really enjoyed Fool Us, and it’s had a good long run. Did you expect it to be as big and hang on as long as it has? Teller: You never expect that in TV. You expect maybe less than two seasons if you’re really lucky. But Fool Us is our rebellion against typical competition shows because typical competition shows: A. Are often rude.

INNOVATION & TECH TODAY | FALL 2021

B. Are always judged by people who are unqualified. C. Have no criteria by which the actor is judged. Right? The “Oh, I really liked him. He was really cute!” Kind of nonsense. Yeah, so basically, they’re a pastime with no substance. And we thought it would be interesting to do a show in which: A. Everyone was treated very well. B. The people who are judging know something about the art form. C. There is an actual criteria by which the act is being judged. So what we ended up finding was that the best magicians in the world were fascinated by the prospect of this kind of gentlemanly game. We’ll often have famous magicians and famous performers of all kinds, from Steve Martin to everybody else, backstage after our show. But we often find the famous magicians will come to our show, and they’ll hang with us afterward. And they’ll go, “By the way, have you happened to see this? And this, this, this?” Sort of a

When someone comes into your home to try something, to give you a gift, I mean how were these people brought up? Your reaction must be to say, “Thank you. That’s so kind of you. And oh, by the way, I do know how you did it, but thanks for coming on the show. We love you. Come again on, da, da, da, da, da.” Or it’s, “You got us!” And the person does not go “Ha, ha you stupid assholes. I took you down.” They go, “Great!” And then everybody shakes hands. Everybody’s happy. I&T Today: The show has kind of transformed even less to be about fooling Penn and Teller and more about showcasing young, new, and exciting magic acts that aren’t being seen on national television. Teller: Absolutely. Absolutely. There is such a difference to a magician between coming on our show where they know that they will be treated respectfully. And also, our producers are very good at finding excellent people. So nobody gets on the show who’s not very good to start with. And then our producers, if it’s someone who’s relatively new to magic on television, will also work with the person, rehearse with the person, improve the act, so that by the time the act gets on TV, it’s really, really good. But yes, it has launched many careers. The most prominent, I suppose, is Piff the Magic Dragon. Piff the Magic Dragon was on America’s Got Talent, but that didn’t get him where he is today, which is, he has his own show on the strip in Las Vegas. I&T Today: Something that’s always really been inspiring in your act is that you and Teller seems to have such a genuine

FEATURE STORY friendship as part of this as well in over 40, 50 years? That’s a long time. Penn: 46 years, yes. You know, it’s funny, because Teller and I have a deep friendship because we never tried for it. We always tried to be business partners. We will always arrive on time. We’ll always do our jobs. We will always do our jobs the best we can. That’s all that’s required. Friendship was never required. And if we have an argument or a disagreement or we’re getting on each other’s nerves, there’s a show to do at that time. And there’s work to do here. We’re like two guys who own a 7-11. Now that being said, after 46 years the first person outside of the family to hold my two children was Teller. When my mother and father died, I talked with Teller. When Teller’s mother and father died, he talked to me. I mean the friendship is very deep, but we still don’t socialize that much. We still have our own circle of friends because there’s nothing to say. We work together 50 hours a week. So if we went out to dinner, we’d say, hey, Teller, what did you do today? Same thing you did stupid! We were there the whole time. Many acts actively hate each other. And that’s a big difference.

time. But they take great pains to conceal the possibility that they might be using them. To lead you away from the idea that you might be using a magnet or some form of radio communication. And there are ways to sort of rule those things out. I mean, I’ve actually been fooled once on Fool Us by a woman who said, “Now, just to prove that I’m not using any earpieces, I want you to look at my ear.” Right? So she had me looking at her ear, and I said, “Okay, I don’t see anything there.” Well, she was using the tiniest damn earpiece ever.

Well, it is being lifted by a thread. The trick lies in the handling of the hoop. And the same thing holds for electronics and in modern media, in magic, that magicians use these methods all the

Now, it would be untrue to say that we don’t use any technology for the last 100 years. There are a couple of things, very carefully hidden technology that we then disprove that we’re not using. So there is a servo motor here or there. And there is some queuing here and there that would not have been able to be done 100 years ago. But if you took all technology from the past 100 years out of the Penn and Teller Show, we could still do 90 minutes tonight. I&T Today: Did you guys ever in your wildest dreams imagine that you would still be doing the same thing and putting on shows?

I&T Today: How has tech changed magic over the last several decades? Teller: Problem is, nowadays everybody knows about technology, and everybody knows more about technology than magicians do. But that’s not really a disadvantage. That doesn’t mean one doesn’t use this technology. It means that one uses it the same way one uses a piece of thread. Everybody knows the thread is thin. Everybody knows that against the right background, you can’t see a piece of thread, so you can make something apparently float. But unless you disprove that to the audience, unless you convince the audience that you’re not using a piece of thread, you don’t have a magic trick. However, if you do, if you can find a way to convince the audience that you’re not using this familiar thing, a piece of thread, you might have a sort of miracle. Hence, the way magicians would in that circumstance, maybe pass a hoop back and forth over the object to prove that it’s not being lifted by a thread.

information quickly, it’s by three minutes, not time to do a bit.

Photo: Francis George

Penn: [Technology] has closed more doors than it’s opened. It used to be, there were acts that dealt with knowing things. Those acts have all gone away because with Google anyone can do it instantly. Also, you can’t do any effect that could be accomplished with technology even if you don’t use technology. You’ve got to close that door. Magicians used to be at the forefront of technology. They were the first movies. The first movies were all magicians. They were magnetism, all that stuff. But now technology’s become so egalitarian. You ask anybody about major breakthroughs in speech recognition or visual recognition or biometrics, any of that stuff. Everybody knows it. There’s a special on TV. It’s the front page of The New York Times. They know that. So, whereas magicians had a few years with movies all to themselves, in a few years electromagnetism all to themselves, not any longer. I mean, I was tied in with visiting scholars at MIT. I was hanging out at Bell Labs. I have a lot of friends in the sciences. If I get any

Penn: Bob Dylan’s son once told me that if his dad had never made it, was completely unknown, he would still be writing those same songs. He had no doubt about that. All I wanted to do from a fairly young age was to be in the arts. I do not say magic but in the arts. And I’m from a small town where the first person I met in show business was me. We had no live performances at all. We had television. And when I first told my parents I wanted to go into show business their reaction was, “You think you’re Johnny Carson?” And they had no idea that there were any other jobs. I never aspired to do a magic show. I never aspired to work in Las Vegas. Those were not on my list of things to do until they happened. I mean not really even 15 minutes before they happened were those my ideas. But I always desperately wanted to perform. And I do believe that if I were not here, I would be somewhere doing some performance. If you talk to Howard Stern, Paul McCartney, Lady Gaga, Stephen Colbert, they will all tell you that they should be more successful than they are. They should be more famous than they are. Paul McCartney actually says the Beatles weren’t given enough credit. He’s actually said that sentence. These are people with an absolute power drive to be more and more famous. Reading a biography of Houdini years and years and years ago, I realized I didn’t have that drive. If you told me you’re going to be doing this show, but it will be much less money, much less fame. I’m not saying some sort of hair-shirt suffering, but if you said you’re going to be 1/10 of where you are, I would say groovy. ■ FALL 2021 | INNOVATION & TECH TODAY

TECH ZONE

COLORADO

Presented By

COLORADO: The Red-Hot Tech Zone

That Keeps Getting Hotter Compiled and Written by Robert Yehling

Photo: iStockphoto.com/ThomasVogel

INNOVATION & TECH TODAY | FALL 2021

COLORADO It’s no mirage. The buildout of Denver toward the Wyoming state line continues unabated, a very visible metaphor for how innovation and technology have fundamentally reshaped Colorado’s economy in the past 10 years. A decade ago, Colorado’s economy was primarily built on oil and minerals, transportation and logistics, agriculture, medical and health services, construction, and recreation and tourism. There were strong hints of a sea change in the tech sector, but it had not exploded yet. Now, it has. Today, those seven pillars of the economy still remain — but they are dwarfed, in some cases, by booming business in advanced manufacturing, aerospace, biosciences, creative industries, defense & homeland security, electronics, infrastructure engineering, and technology & information. All of which rely on technology and are STEM-based. Not to mention being the first state in the country to legalize recreational marijuana, which has turned into a multi-billion-dollar agriculture and retail footprint on its own. Add it all up, and Colorado presents one of the nation’s hottest and fastest-growing statewide economies. The massive buildout in Denver and other areas, and the exodus of companies moving from both coasts, plus native-grown companies, make Colorado a national leader in health, cybersecurity, aerospace, cloud, intelligence, data, sports and green sports technology, engineering, renewable energy, and more. Average tech sector wages have jumped from $54,000 to $115,000, the quality of living is high, and the growth continues at warp speed. Nearly 11,000 tech companies are now located in Colorado. With a population of 5.8 million and a median age of 37.5, the state is perfectly positioned demographically to maintain this momentum for years to come. A quick sweep of recent deals illustrates just how widespread, diverse, and influential Colorado-based tech businesses are in the business and investment world: • In 2021, sports merchandise company Fanatics raised $325 million to bring their total valuation to $18B, nearly tripling their valuation in one year. Jay-Z, Sof Bank, MLB, TWG Sports Media & Entertainment, and others participated

TECH ZONE

in the funding round. Fanatics is going from vertical commerce to digital assets, sports betting, iGaming, media, and NFTs. • Accenture invested in Pipeline, a SaaS startup with the mission of closing the gender equity gap. “Our investment in Pipeline aligns with Accenture Ventures’ commitment to cultivate the latest technologies, enhanced by human ingenuity, that solve for our clients’ most important challenges,” Tom Lounibos, a managing director at Accenture Ventures, said in a statement. “Pipeline can help our clients stop unconscious bias in the workplace and increase financial performance, allowing them to do well while doing good.” • Reserve Trust, a financial tech that company works with businesses that embed and crossborder B2B payments, raised another $30 million. • Tetra Insights of Boulder, which transcribes video and audio files, and helps product managers automate research operations and streamlines data analysis, received $5 million in funding. To support all of this growth, and the jobs it creates, Colorado’s cities and metro areas have created some of the most diverse and creative Economic Development programs in the country, several of which we profile in this issue. Further, the Colorado Technology Association serves as the major logistics and information clearinghouse, point of contact, and resource center, with more than 300 members and a network of 18,000 leaders. Built In Colorado, Choose Colorado, and the Colorado Chamber of Commerce are also major resource centers. Colleges, universities, community colleges, and trade schools throughout the state feature STEM and tech-centric curricula, and research and development continues strong with organizations like the Rocky Mountain Center of Innovation & Technology, located in Loveland, 50 miles from Denver. In the following pages, we celebrate Colorado’s ascension to become the largest tech zone between the coasts, and the third fastest-growing in all 50 states. We look at the trade associations, the economic development programs of Greeley, Grand Junction and Durango, and companies at the cutting edge of technology, such as Zaiser Motors, that will grow our business and society deep into the 21st century. ■ FALL 2021 | INNOVATION & TECH TODAY

TECH ZONE

COLORADO

Presented By

MEGAGROWTH: 8 RED-HOT COLORADO TECH COMPANIES

45. GCI Liberty, Englewood — Communications provider.

3,867% GROWTH

Every year, Deloitte & Touche releases its Fast 500 report, a look at the fastest-growing tech companies in the nation based on total revenue growth over a four-year period. The most recent report, covering the years 20162019, lists eight Colorado companies — all of which enjoyed explosive growth.

56. Dispatch Health, Denver — Medical devices.

2,591% GROWTH

108. Quantum Metric, Inc., Colorado Springs — Software as a Service (SaaS).

1,096% GROWTH

196. Helix Technologies, Greenwood Village — Operating services platform for legal cannabis industry.

The companies on the Deloitte & Touche Fast 500, their rank, location, services, and total growth from 2016-2019:

621% GROWTH

197. BillingPlatform, Centennial — Cloud-based platform to simplify billing and help businesses get paid.

617% GROWTH

212. Liqid, Broomfield — composable infrastructure software platform.

566% GROWTH

277. Mersive Technologies, Denver —SaaS.

400% GROWTH

388. Zynex Medical, Englewood — Medical devices.

242% GROWTH COLORADO TECH ZONE, BY THE NUMBERS

The Colorado Tech Zone has been one of the great business success stories of the past 10 years. How hot and prominent are business and tech life in the Rocky Mountain State? A look at national rankings compared to other states:

#1 in Entrepreneurship and Innovation (U.S. Department of Labor)

#2 in State Technology and Science Index (Milken Institute)

#3 in Startup Early Job Creation (Kauffman Foundation)

#1 in Labor Supply (Forbes magazine)

#2 State for Educational Attainment (WalletHub)

#3 Best State for Business (24/7 Wall St.)

#2 High-Tech Job Concentration (Colorado Technology Assn.) #2 Best State to Start a Business (FitSmallBusiness.com) #2 Startup Rate (U.S. Department of Labor)

INNOVATION & TECH TODAY | FALL 2021

#4 #4 in Concentration of STEM Workers (U.S. Census Bureau)

#6 #6 in Concentration of Creative Class Occupations (U.S. Census Bureau)

THE BEST OF COLORADO IS

The outdoors powers our entrepreneurial culture. There is no better time to take your idea and create and grow your business here. Region 9 can help you Dream Big and Plan Well.

Photo: Bryan Burton

135 Burnett Drive, Unit 1, Durango, CO 81301 970-247-9621 | www.region9edd.org

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COLORADO

Presented By

Natural Beauty Brings Natural Growth in Stunning Region 9

Photo: Anthony D’Amato

Southwest Colorado grabs the eye immediately with its stunning natural beauty. Between the steep, rugged Alps-like San Juan Mountains, sprawl of open land, waterways, and postcard perfect vistas, the area grabs recreation enthusiasts on sight alone. Which is precisely how the Region 9 Economic Development District of Southwest Colorado (www.region9edd.org) promotes the area. In a region where cities and towns are spread apart, some by the mountains, tourism and recreation has become the nucleus of a wide-reaching, sophisticated strategy touching everyone from major corporations to gig workers moving into the area.

INNOVATION & TECH TODAY | FALL 2021

It is that movement that has the Region 9 office hopping — and evolving. “Tourism and recreation represent our No. 1 industry,” said Executive Director Laura Marchino. “But we also realize tourism-related jobs are often low-paying service jobs. We’re working hard to create more high-paying jobs. We get a lot of intelligent, talented people because they love outdoor recreation but need to find or create jobs when they get here.” Durango, long a retiree haven, is the largest city in Region 9, followed by Cortez and the hot springs haven of Pagosa Springs, but the district reaches out to deeply involve Archuleta, Dolores, La Plata, Montezuma, and San Juan

counties, as well as serving the Southern Ute and Ute Mountain tribes. Visitors often come for historical gems such as Mesa Verde, national parks and monuments, hiking or bike trails, hot springs or ice climbing areas. Then many of them decide to stay; the area’s demographic makeup is largely comprised of college-educated professionals and retirees. From longstanding district business icons like Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory to hot newer operations like Tailwinds (hydration products for runners and cyclists), Voormi (an REI-like outdoor retailer), and Cold Case (all-temperature cell phone storage cases), the district is growing new businesses in a variety of ways.

COLORADO

Tops among the initiatives, and the direct impact of Region 9 EDD to assist business development, is SCAPE, which could be described as a next-gen incubator. “We only take southwestern Colorado companies, in order to build our local ecosystem,” Marchino said. “Then we do an annual showcase, where companies pitch to investors every September.” Established in 2013, SCAPE takes an average of five startups a year through an intensive sixmonth mentoring and business modeling program, in order to launch locally. They also make development funds available through an ambitious fund-raising and investor outreach program. In all, 43 businesses have been assisted by SCAPE, with $25 million raised for their development and 182 jobs created. During the five years Marchino has been Executive

Director, an additional funding source, microloans, have increased as well, from $3 million to $8 million. “We try to assist businesses to either start here and stay here; or to move here and grow locally, nationally or internationally from Region 9,” Marchino said. “It’s a very dynamic time. We still have a youthful population overall, and we do everything we can to keep them here early in their careers. All of our recreation makes us very attractive. I’ve seen a lot of startups that are really thriving.” However, any mountainous area is not without its challenges; namely, in transportation logistics. With several local and regional airports, but no international airport nearby, Region 9 deals with winter road closures in the mountain passes. When the primary transportation mode for distribution is truck, innovative solutions come into play.

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Take the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. Now franchising its operation, the company had trouble getting chocolate in and out of the area during winters. They started their own trucking company, which now brings back full truckloads for other companies so that they don’t waste a trip with an empty return haul. “I’m really noticing how helpful, diverse, and resilient our Region is,” Marchino explained. “We have a real diverse economy, so if we have a bad tourism year, we’re still strong. There are many pieces of the economic pie here now — energy, timber, agriculture, and financial and retail services as well. Our communities have very different needs. We have an excellent relationship with all 17 of our local governments; we help them with prospects and finding financing.” ■

FALL 2021 | INNOVATION & TECH TODAY

TECH ZONE

COLORADO

Presented By

Doing Business in Colorado? 4 Organizations to Contact Are you doing business in Colorado’s bustling tech zone — or any of the 15 thriving economic sectors in the state? Are you planning to relocate you and your company to the Rocky Mountain State, create a satellite office, work remotely, or start a new business or initiative? Several support organizations are waiting to help. They include local and regional Economic Development Departments and accelerator/incubator programs throughout the state (some featured in this issue), but also four groups designed for this very service: the Colorado Technology Association, Built In Colorado, Choose Colorado, and the Colorado Chamber of Commerce. A closer look: Colorado Technology Association (coloradotechnology.org) The Colorado Technology Association is a service network dedicated to the state’s vibrant technology sector, which totals more than 1 million workers. Currently numbering more than 300 members and an active network of 18,000 leaders, the CTA creates meaningful networks and relationships, advocates for smart policy, fosters growth, and offers forums for relationship building. It also partners with private and public sector companies to connect them to the information and resources to be successful, agile, and innovative. One of the CTA’s biggest services is its ongoing event, seminar, and webinar series. Upcoming are the October Womenar: Overcoming Imposter Syndrome (Oct. 13), an orientation of the association, CTA 101 (Oct. 20), and Insights Series: Diversity and Inclusion in Tech (Oct. 28). They also produce the popular Women In Technology conference annually. The CTA website is loaded with networking opportunities, resource and economic information, and other material to help businesses continually expand their markets and their reaches in the community. Founding, platinum- and gold-level investors of the CTA include Oracles, Lumen, PWC, Accenture, Arrow Electronics, CapTech, Comcast, DaVita, Dell Emc, Dish Network, Flexential, Google, Okta, and Zayo.

INNOVATION & TECH TODAY | FALL 2021

Built In Colorado (builtincolorado.com) Built in Colorado is the state’s resource hub for startups and technology. Over the years, they’ve worked with 4,100 startups and helped secure more than 2,000 local and remote jobs. They also work with startups to secure seed funding; one of the latest wins is a $21-million capital raising effort by FirstMile Ventures, which will be used to preseed and seed 30 tech companies. Built in Colorado also networks with tech hubs in seven other vibrant locations — Austin, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York City, San Francisco, and Seattle. The Built in Colorado website features hubs for employers seeking employees (and the reverse), best places in Colorado to work and receive good benefits packages, and a series of four Colorado Business Guides — Best Companies, Coolest Tech Offices, Best Perks, and Women in Colorado Tech. The site also includes a valuable series of staff-written articles and blogs within the 15 primary economic tech sectors in the state.

YOUR BUSINESS GROWTH. OUR ENERGY SOLUTIONS.

Xcel Energy is here to energize your business growth in Colorado and beyond. Nearly 90 available real estate options, including more than 35 sites and buildings in Colorado. A dedicated Economic Development Rate to protect your bottom line. One of the nation’s top providers of clean power. Learn more about our available real estate, custom energy solutions and economic development programs at economicdevelopment.xcelenergy.com. © 2021 Xcel Energy Inc.

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COLORADO

Presented By Choose Colorado (choosecolorado.com) Choose Colorado is the website of the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade. The office works with statewide partners to encourage dynamic economic development and sustainable job growth. The office’s primary services to communities and businesses include: • Building a strong public-private approach statewide for economic development activities • Monitoring economic conditions statewide and strengthening regional economies • Supporting entrepreneurs and small businesses • Increasing quality job creation by expanding and attracting businesses • Retaining existing jobs through responsive programs and a supportive business climate • Positioning Colorado as a global leader in tourism, aerospace, bioscience, and renewable energy • Assisting the state’s economy, while preserving the quality of life “One of our priorities right now is to make sure we retail our local kids when they enter the job force,” said Durango EDD Executive Director Laura Marchino, president of the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade. “Because of our tech boom and business boom the past ten years, they don’t have to leave anymore. We’re making sure we’re upskilling our native population as necessary, so they receive the same opportunities as the kids that migrate from other states for these prime jobs and our lifestyle.”

Colorado Chamber of Commerce (cochamber.org) The Colorado Chamber of Commerce has seen the state through economic upturns and downturns alike since it formed in 1965. Their mission: to grow the business footprint of Colorado and tout its many benefits statewide and nationally. The 3,000 member-strong association works with the state legislature and lobbying on behalf of businesses to improve the cost of doing business, advocating for probusiness state governance, increasing the quality of workers, and strengthening Colorado’s critical infrastructure. The Chamber is the only business association that advocates for businesses of all sizes from a statewide, multi-industry perspective. Through its Resource Center, the Chamber provides updates to members on recent legislation and regulations. It fills and also shares the latest news on policy councils for economic, governmental affairs, healthcare, labor & employment, and tax issues. It also serves as the Colorado representative of the National Association of Manufacturers. Partner members of the Colorado Chamber of Commerce include Mission Trustees Ball, Pinnacle and Molson Coors; and Gold partners AAA Colorado, Climax Molybdenum, Google, HealthOne, Lockheed Martin, Wells Fargo, and Innovation & Tech Today marketing partner Xcel Energy.

INNOVATION & TECH TODAY | FALL 2021

KATE & BILL MCDONALD

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COLORADO

Presented By

How Xcel Energy is Powering the Future of Colorado Communities It’s a time of change and opportunity when it comes to the ways we power our lives and communities. Since its inception as the Denver Gas Co. in 1869, Xcel Energy has been innovating to serve its 1.5 million electric and natural gas customers as well as power Colorado’s communities. One innovative move? Xcel Energy was the first major U.S. power company to announce a vision to provide customers with 100% carbonfree electricity by 2050, with an interim goal to reduce carbon emissions 80% by 2030. The company has already reduced carbon emissions 51% from 2005 levels, but looking beyond 2030, Xcel Energy recognizes and embraces the need for advanced, carbon-free, 24/7 power technologies. No innovative technology is off the table to eliminate the remaining 20% of carbon from the system. From advanced wind and solar or zerocarbon fuels like hydrogen to advanced nuclear energy or carbon capture — Xcel Energy is partnering with industry, government, and its customers to drive innovation further, faster. The team is also working to bring innovation to the streets. Transportation is now the largest source of emissions in the country, and Xcel Energy is playing a crucial role in reducing emissions from that sector while providing new electric vehicle options for its customers and communities. “We have programs launching this summer that span solutions for home, multi-family, commercial fleet, and community-based charging, plus rebate programs and an EV school bus program,” said Kelly Flenniken, community relations director for Xcel Energy in Colorado. “Our EV infrastructure investments create jobs and grow our Colorado economy.” Colorado’s growth and the economic effects of

INNOVATION & TECH TODAY | FALL 2021

the COVID-19 pandemic have highlighted the importance of enhancing economic development. For many businesses, energy is a top consideration in where they locate – it may be their largest expense or the focus of corporate sustainability goals. As one of the top providers of clean energy among U.S. power companies, according to the American Clean Power Association, Xcel Energy is also ready to help new and expanding companies, too. Xcel Energy’s real estate programs help communities attract capital investment and create new, high-paying jobs. A robust and credible certification protocol results in a broad inventory of sites and buildings throughout the state. “When businesses are equipped with the Photos courtesy of Xcel Energy knowledge gathered during our due diligence process, they can move faster as companies with a discount for up to 10 years. they evaluate a Colorado location and available With innovative programs, clean energy real estate,” said Tom Bailey, senior director leadership, and a steadfast commitment to its of corporate economic development at communities, Xcel Energy gives Colorado a leg Xcel Energy. “We also coordinate with up in deals with new, relocating, or expanding municipalities and local economic development companies. organizations, which streamlines the process.” In addition, Xcel Energy’s Economic Development Rate can provide eligible

There’s no doubt: Colorado’s future is bright. Xcel Energy is proud to power it. ■

Greeley, CO

Greeley

Colorado

WHERE AMERICA PROTOTYPES

Helping founders turn good ideas into great businesses Colorado FABtech - supporting next-gen food, agtech, energy, IT & bioeconomy startups Dr. Phil McCready | (970) 397-3440 | Philip.McCready@GreeleyGov.com

Business & Education

AgTech/Food & Manufacturing

Energy & Water

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COLORADO

Presented By

‘This Is Where America Prototypes’ Weld County and Greeley continue to expand impressively in new and established industries by building on a 150-year-old manufacturing and technology backbone. By Robert Yehling

Photo courtesy of Jordan Energy

They started arriving at the old Union Colony after 19th-century newspaperman Horace Greeley’s famous clarion call, “Go West Young Man.” Now, 150-plus years later, Greeley and Weld County continue to provide the structural, innovation, and development backbone for some of America’s most critical industries. “We have a great confluence of really smart people sharing ideas that rally around an opportunity,” said Benjamin Snow, the Director of Economic Health and Housing for the City of Greeley. “The opportunity, as we see it, is our future business and history. Between 2010 and 2019, we were the fourth fastest-growing region in the country – behind Austin, the Villages, and St. George. Currently, we have the land and water to be able to have a city of a quarter-million.” Not only does the spacious region set up ideally, but leaders have made it advantageous for businesses to move in. A 30,000 square foot

INNOVATION & TECH TODAY | FALL 2021

enterprise zone lies next to Greeley Regional Airport, along with opportunity zones in downtown Greeley and the industrial sector. The City of Greeley, Weld County, and another development group, Upstate Colorado, are all growing the area. Numerous other incentives exist — not to mention lower costs, a healthy, recreation-based workforce, hundreds of miles of running, hiking, and bike trails, and stunning outdoor beauty. “I like to say that this is where America prototypes. The amount of brainpower here … a huge amount of opportunity,” said Dixon Dick, CEO of CoSolve, which creates IoT stacks, financing and networking avenues for businesses. “We do IoT, and have a venture cap fund to try to create a virtuous circle of backers’ money staying in Greeley or Weld County, not going to the coasts.” Not only are business leaders of Weld County

and Greeley innovative and influential amidst two of the fastest-evolving systems in the economy – agriculture production and new and natural energy development — but they’re also great networkers. “We are literally bridging energy and food,” said Dallas Everhart of University of Northern Colorado’s Montfort School of Business. “We’re building out an economic ecosystem for the next decades,” said Economic Development Manager Philip McCready, also co-founder of innovation cluster Colorado Fab Tech and the Colorado Hemp Industries Collaborative. “Within that ecosystem, you see some of the country’s brightest leaders developing tools for decades to come and doing innovative things in all parts of their businesses.” One of those people is Jason Suntych, the COO and co-founder of Xiant Technologies, a biotech firm with applications to control plant

COLORADO businesses when it comes to renewable energy,” COO Jake Yurek said. “That began exclusively with solar, but with improvements, now it means solar plus other efficiency solutions, like battery storage. More businesses are looking at producing energy themselves and not pulling it from the grid; when you can produce your own, it's going to unlock unique opportunities for businesses as the technology continues to improve.” Photos courtesy of Xiant Technologies

and animal behavior for agricultural purposes using light. Xiant has lit 4 million commercial laying hens around the U.S. and are studying applications in open-air feedlots. Even larger trials are coming. “By modulating light and creating recipes of different wavelengths and frequencies, you can grow the plant with much less stress,” Suntych said. “All the hardware is created from ground up; no off-the-shelf technology. “Our investment is coming from ag or oil and gas minded investors in NE Colorado – we’re up to $24 million after the latest $8 million funding. We found Greeley and Weld County an outstanding place to create the business we’ve created.” A century ago, Weld County and its 2.5 million farmable acres (now 1.75 million) were home to 25% of America’s sugar industry. “We’re fortunate to be building on the backbone of a long, successful track record in manufacturing and industry,” McCready said. Such is the case with Jordan Energy and Food Enterprises, which started in the northeast in 2009 and has set up a western hub in Weld County. The company has finished its first solar project in Weld County. “We are developing comprehensive solutions for agriculture

Perhaps the hottest new technology pertains to creating renewable natural gas (RNG) from farm biowaste. Pairing solar with anaerobic digestion is one such opportunity. The solar array can provide renewable energy to the digester and generate lease revenue for the land the dairy doesn't otherwise farm, providing diversified income,” Yurek said. Not every operation in Greeley and Weld County is out front — but the contributions are still outsized on a regional and national level. When it comes to CNE Creative Enterprises, “I can guarantee virtually no one has heard of us, because we’re basically a ghost company,” CEO Eric Fitzsimons said. “Our job is to come alongside other small businesses and help them be successful, and let them take all the credit. We have 1,500 water purification plants running systems we designed, we’ve done arrays for oil and gas, camera arrays, police products, geofence designs … a variety of Dallas Everhart things. “We’re unique in that we have one of those facilities where you could dream it up in the morning and probably have it in your hands at night. Own 3D printing lab, machine shop, steel fab shop, plastic fab shop, circuit board production line, we source or create our own tools and machines,” he added. Weld County’s vast agricultural space and predominately sunny weather make it prime growing land for cannabis and hemp farms. Two years ago, Vantage Hemp (featured in the Summer 2020 edition of our sister publication, Cannabis & Tech Today) moved into the area as Harv Johal’s 10th business startup. “And my last,” he quipped. “I don’t have the gestational fortitude to start another business like I did in my 20s.”

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Vantage has built two buildings totaling 60,000 square feet in preparation for an August 2022 open as a 24/7 grow facility with 120 staff. While the bulk of the business is built on APIs (Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient), they’re also doing formulation for pharma companies nationally. The company also recently signed a pair of agreements to manufacture finished product. “What we’re seeing is a rich economic ecosystem coming together, to where businesses can turn within the county for innovative solutions to help apply to areas where they’ve created their own wealth,” Johal said. “We’ve been strengthening in all six of our core areas, which are construction, agriculture, energy, education, healthcare, and manufacturing,” Snow noted. “For Phil and I, we have to find ways to innovate within and across these industries. That’s where our job growth is focused.” At the University of Northern Colorado (Monfort College of Business), located in Greeley, Dallas Everhart focuses on getting students ready for all of this, with a twist — he’s focusing on entrepreneurial development. “Our mantra at UNC (MCB) is ’preparing career-ready leaders,’” he said. “My primary target market is employers; students don’t have a future if we don’t have a relationship with employers. We want them to be able to elevate.” To do that, Everhart and his team run an Entrepreneurial Challenge, a higher education event rather than a Shark Tank-like pitch competition. Some 24 student managers coordinate activities, which draw up to 500 high school students to see and learn of ideas of college students from throughout the state. “We’re giving them tools to be successful, then teaching them how to use them, then having them apply the tools. Some entrepreneurs do business as naturally as the sun coming up in the east, but to the rest of us, what they do is scary! These skills are valuable even if you’re not going to be an entrepreneur; businesses everywhere need creative thinkers,” Everhart said. ■ FALL 2021 | INNOVATION & TECH TODAY

TECH ZONE

COLORADO

Presented By

Grand Junction’s Tech and Remote Worker Boom By Robert Yehling building out capacity. Every quarter, we do a bigger event as well.”

Before COVID-19 shut everyone down in 2020, the Grand Junction Economic Partnership (GJEP) was already showing strong tech and outdoor recreation growth to go with agriculture and core industries that have sustained the area since it was settled.

As for businesses, three major players came to town: • CloudRise, the cloud-based software services provider, expanded operations from Denver.

During the pandemic, that dynamic not only changed, but did something amazing. Out-ofstate tech and digital economy workers saw the many lifestyle advantages to moving to Colorado’s westernmost city, sold their houses and moved to town — starting what is now a booming remote worker presence. That was coupled with a sharp jump in sales among the more than 20 outdoor recreation businesses in the area.

• Pax8, a cloud business software platformer and consultant, expanded from Greenwood Village, CO to Grand Junction and hired inoffice and remote workers. (One of those was former GJEP official Mara Hardy.) • Hayden Data, with offices in Sydney, Australia and Chattanooga, TN, opened up in Grand Junction. They make sensors that are fixed atop power lines to detect movement, temperature, degrading wood, power outages, fires, and wind. Along with them, a manufacturer started building aluminum boxes for the sensors — bringing in another 200+ employees between them.

“They brought their tech jobs and talent into the community. We had what they wanted — greater quality of life, lower business costs, and the chance to adopt a healthier lifestyle and mindset,” GJEP Deputy Director Steve Jozefczyk said. “A big migration of tech workers wanted to connect with our business community, which led to a big uptick in coworking spaces, and tech groups being created organically.” What an accomplishment for a region that the Brookings Institute predicted would be among the hardest-hit by COVID-19, in deaths and business decline. One year later, the Brookings Institute offered a far different assessment: Grand Junction was ranked #57 on its list of Best Performing U.S. cities. The city is also #12 in job growth in Colorado. What’s behind this? First, GJEP pivoted and leaned into what was working in 2020. Which meant tech, the digital economy, migrating workers, and outdoor recreation. They coordinated or advised on think tanks, work

INNOVATION & TECH TODAY | FALL 2021

Photos courtesy of Grand Junction

sessions, and virtual networking events, started the Welcome Wagon (a play on the Wild West) to connect newcomers with local businesswomen and men, and provided additional resources and assistance. “The Welcome Wagon has been a huge success,” Jozefczyk said. “We put 20 newbies together with locals for a year to help find friends, colleagues and help people get integrated. This was our capacity; we have more than 20 on our waiting list now, so we’re

Moving forward again is Riverfront de Las Colonias, Grand Junction’s beautiful riverfront recreation facility, park, living community, and industrial park. The first industrial park tenant, Bonsai Designs, brought in CloudRise to occupy part of its facility. An engineering firm, KLJ, also moved in. Jozefczyk added that GJEP is working with another tenant to bring together NPOs with ties to outdoor recreation and river conservation — a nod to Grand Junction’s focus on sustainability and healthy living. On the west side of Grand Junction’s River District, construction for Riverfront Dos Rios — the western “bookend” of the development, with Riverfront de Las Colonias on the eastern side — is underway. It will feature residential, commercial, restaurant and retail houses, and businesses. ■

Manchester was at the heart of the Industrial Revolution and continues to be a driving force of innovation through the realisation of Atomic Theory, In Vitro Fertilisation, and Graphene. As the UK’s top digital tech city, a leading location for foreign direct investment and recently voted as the UK’s most entrepreneurial city, Manchester offers pioneering companies the perfect environment to commercialise fresh ideas, with access to:

– – – –

World class science and research institutes Expert talent A collaborative and integrated ecosystem Up to 40% lower operating costs than London – Leading international connectivity – Access to finance and funding

Find out more investinmanchester.com/powering-innovation @MIDAS_MCR | #CityToScaleMCR

TECH ZONE

INTERNATIONAL

Manchester Manchester, the city that drove the original Industrial Revolution in the mid-19th century, is powering innovation across global markets and our journey toward a Net Zero future. With a metropolitan economy worth £62.8 billion (GVA) ($85.6 billion USD), it’s one of the UK’s fastest growing cities and home to thriving business and tech communities — from life sciences to advanced manufacturing and low carbon. The goals: to increase global business opportunities, international R&D influence and local prosperity, while leading the way in more climate-friendly solutions. They’ve met all — yet in the most crucial way, the effort is just beginning. Drivers of Manchester’s stature as a leading international region for innovation must feel like they’ve run an ultramarathon on an obstacleriddled course — having continued to rapidly build upon their globally leading R&D and innovation capabilities despite the pandemic shutting down the UK for vast periods of time. Manchester, a city-region of 2.8 million in the north of England, has emerged with a sway of opportunity, investment and expertise from some of the world’s brightest minds. Here are some of the many big stories behind

INNOVATION & TECH TODAY | FALL 2021

Powers Global Innovation — Making New Thinking A Reality

Manchester’s rise up the global manufacturing, R&D, and innovation ladder: Advanced Materials Of The Future As home to world-leading institutes, such as the Henry Royce Institute and the Advanced Machinery & Productivity Institute (AMPI), Manchester has grown a strong advanced manufacturing community. There is a significant focus on graphene-based innovation. The superstrong material is a truly Manchester story, with two Manchester scientists awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics for first isolating it in 2004. There has been huge investment since, with over £300 million ($410.1 billion USD) put into world class facilities like the National Graphene Institute (NGI) and the Graphene Engineering Innovation Centre (GEIC), a commercialization and pilot production facility for companies to develop new products. These are led by James Baker, CEO, Graphene@Manchester — a world leader on the subject. From aerospace engineering to digital electronics and biomedicine, the lightweight material can be used in a wide range of applications. Manchester’s investments could transform cities and manufacturing worldwide. Recent breakthroughs include new sustainable construction materials, water filtration

technologies, and revolutionary farming systems. Manchester recently hosted the world’s first exterior pour of graphene-enhanced Concretene — using graphene to produce stronger concrete with reduced volumes of material required and potentially longer lifespan of infrastructure, dramatically reducing the carbon footprint of concrete. Thriving Life Science and Health Tech The city is a strong supporter of healthcare innovation with a history of firsts here, too — including introducing in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment to the world and pioneering the first total hip replacement surgery and bionic eye implants. Today, the innovation continues, and the city is a center of world-leading research with the largest clinical academic campus in Europe. With a £6 billion ($8.2 billion USD) devolved health and social care budget, it is leading innovation for its own healthcare services as well as innovation across the healthcare sector. The

This activity is part-funded by European Regional Development Funds within the 2014-2020 England Operational Programme

Presented By University of Manchester, in partnership with Health Innovation Manchester, the National Health Service, and other partners, recently launched the multimillion-pound Christabel Pankhurst Institute to focus on healthcare collaborations with business around digital health and advanced materials. Work on graphene-enhanced medical and public health innovation is happening, too, including the development of graphene as a medical solution for reconstructive surgery. Mission To Net Zero Innovation With plans underway for the city to reach its own 2038 Net Zero target, Manchester is also developing low carbon innovation for global markets. Retrofitting homes with renewable heat and energy storage, installing solar PV and district heat networks across municipal buildings, and increasing sustainable travel methods in the city, are just a start. For example, as a leader in sustainable and smart packaging, Manchester is well positioned to help the UK meet its goals to make 100% of plastic packaging recyclable, compostable or reusable by 2025. With three quarters of the world’s Top 25 food and drink companies operating in the region, many skilled graduates from the area’s four leading universities are entering the industry and the University of Salford’s Autonomous Systems and Robotics facility is also playing a role here. Already named as one of the most innovative cities in the world, Manchester has reinforced its status across tech, manufacturing, financial services, education, life sciences and healthcare. The city recently introduced Innovation GM — a collaboration with government which aims to create £7 billion ($9.6 billion USD) economic benefit, 100,000 jobs and a boost to R&D investment. This is a city with a clear vision for progress and a solid support network for businesses that choose it as a base. The inward investment agency for Manchester — known as MIDAS — provides free support, consultation, and expertise to help businesses who are expanding in the city region or establishing new roots there.

Some of the current innovations that are being studied in Manchester include; (from top) Vertical farming, hydrogen fuel cells, and healthcare. Photos courtey of Midas

As international attraction to this city continues to strengthen, Manchester’s pace of innovation shows no sign of slowing. ■ To find out more visit investinmanchester.com/ powering-innovation or view our innovation video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7W5hH96Quhg

FALL 2021 | INNOVATION & TECH TODAY

GREEN SPEED Anthony Cross’ Love of Sustainable Innovation The Colorado-based former magazine publisher returns to his love of vehicles with Zaiser Motors and a fresh new look at electric motorcycles. By Robert Yehling When the pandemic hit, Anthony Cross faced a daunting choice: do I keep publishing Salt magazine, or venture into something equally or more beneficial for the community? The Colorado-based publisher leaned into his lifelong love of cars and desire for a more sustainable world and hit upon an idea — a new way forward in electric motorcycle manufacturing, featuring partially interchangeable parts. Then he found a full team expert and willing to jump in and set off in the bustling Colorado Tech Zone to fulfill his new dream. This brings us to Zaiser Motors, a testament to the power of innovation and entrepreneurship — and to Cross’ pivoting speed. In September, after introducing the Silhouette, the world’s first Electrocycle, Zaiser announced a platform redesign to produce a smaller second motorcycle, the Arrow, thanks to a WeFunder page campaign that hit its goals in just six weeks. The Arrow has a 160-mile range and 100 mph top speed, while the Silhouette has a 300-mile range and 120 mph top speed. Each Electrocycle saves up to 12,000 pounds of C02 emissions annually due to the bike’s 100% electric fueling. The Electrocycle is expected to begin rolling off the line in 2022, with the Arrow to follow. The technology is hot and new — as Cross pointed out. “Electric motorcycles have been sort of in the background with our push to renewable and alternate energy vehicles,” he said. “But they’ve been around. We wouldn’t even be able to think about something like our bikes were it not for Zero, which has been

INNOVATION & TECH TODAY | FALL 2021

around (since 2008). They blazed the trail, so much so that legislation is just now starting to catch up to the things they’ve been doing. It was hard to convince legislators 10 years ago that electric motorcycles were right around the corner, but now that the technology has been proven, and we’re thinking much more about climate-saving solutions, everything’s gotten so much better. It’s more tangible; you can reach out and touch it.” Zaiser Motors’ unique modular system allows for maximum personalization and sustainability/replaceability of parts, including the battery, to meet expectations of other rapid development cycles within the industry and further extend the lifespan of each vehicle. With this design, Cross notes, the company can quickly pivot on two things that are going to rapidly evolve as the decade continues — fuel sources; and the sustainability and recyclability of the bike components themselves. “Our biggest expenses are the batteries and the motors, particularly the batteries,” Cross said. “We’re working with a couple of people to try to move past lithium a little bit. We’re looking for ways to recycle what’s already out there and make them the best and most efficient. All of our components have to have some level of removability/recyclability. You’re building an EV with components potentially damaging to the environment, so it’d be foolish to market yourself as a green solution without looking at the future of these batteries. We really want the whole body to be recyclable in the future.” One of the most satisfying aspects of Cross’ whirlwind transition from publisher to electric motorcycle manufacturer and CEO, he says, is the type of community that comes with renewable energy, sustainable product manufacturing, and creating future solutions for very major current problems. Having something as hot-topic as getting around

with less fuel and more efficiency doesn’t hurt, either. “It’s a hot technology, and when you have a hot technology, you have a lot of networking and a lot of ideas that one person might not think much of, but someone else sees its use,” he said. “Right now, it’s very communal and very collaborative. You have to be involved with other businesses, have relationships with them, know a lot of people This goes for our suppliers, too, our battery suppliers. I love that. That’s how stuff gets done, as opposed to gatekeeping and being ultracompetitive.” To that, one of Zaiser’s near-term goals is to make the assemblies of the Silhouette, Arrow, and future models partially interchangeable, so that customers don’t have to replace entire models just to get upgraded or latest versions of specific parts. “If you bought a bike in 2022, then came back in 2025, we could swap out batteries, or motors, or whatever, to keep it on the road in the future,” Cross said. “That’s key to sustainability as well, and doesn’t have as big of an economic impact as people think.” It all plays into Cross’ life as an entrepreneur who seems to find ways to create and tinker in business settings, whether music production and recording (he’s also a musician), to magazine platforms to electric motorcycle frames and fuel sources. “I’ve been guided by the wind in some ways,” he said. “When Salt was no longer viable… my entire goal has always been to help the community and planet while generating the funds to be able to achieve this goal. The timing for Zaiser was perfect. The team fell into place immediately. I’ve always had a technical background, worked on classic cars and motorcycles, always been a tinkerer and fixer, always liked engineering as well. I’ve always loved bikes, the design of bikes and designing things in general, so this was a light bulb moment.” ■

Photos courtesy of Zaiser

The Arrow

The Silhouettte

FALL 2021 | INNOVATION & TECH TODAY

Does the Ban on Gas-Powered Lawn Tools Make Sense? That’s up to you. Here is some information, ideas, and products that we thought we would share. By David Wallach In 2005, the Organic Gardener launched with a few simple goals in mind: help families, schools and restaurants grow organic vegetable gardens in the Chicago area.

in the nation with a blanket ban on the devices, which would take effect on Jan. 1, 2022.

Founded in 2005 by Verd and Jeanne Nolan, their business grew quickly with corporations, schools, restaurants, and non-profit organizations interested in developing a sustainable garden-to-table approach.

In Burlington, VT, a new ordinance prohibits using gas-powered leaf blowers from Memorial Day to Labor Day. Only electric or battery-powered blowers under 65 decibels per lot may be used. Many other cities around the country are adapting similar laws.

The company name is more than a cool slogan, it’s the Nolans’ way of life. It’s something they like to share with customers and friends. “Our approach is rooted in the idea that anyone, anywhere, can grow their own food,” Verd said. “Whether we are working with at-risk youth, high-end chefs, or a family down the block, we work toward a common goal. Each project connects us to the larger good food movement growing within Chicagoland and throughout the nation.” With their electric cars, work vehicles, and tools, the Organic Gardner’s were early adapters to a movement that is taking root (see what we did there) across the country as more and more cities are pushing for green initiatives in homes, industrial lawn work and gardening. From Vermont to California, the push to move to battery-powered lawn tools is no longer an idea but remains a movement that cities are getting behind. A new bill introduced in the Illinois General Assembly would ban the sale of gas-powered leaf blowers in Illinois retail stores and slap residents caught using them with a $500 fine. Senate Bill 3313, filed Feb. 14, would put a statewide prohibition on gas-powered leaf blowers that contain either a two- or four-stroke engine. It appears Illinois would be the first state

INNOVATION & TECH TODAY | FALL 2021

For Kevin Kittoe of Oswego, IL, the ban could cost him his budding lawn care business. “This is how [people] pay their bills and feed their families,” he said. “This is it. This is all they have.” He serves around 20 clients in his hometown, Verd (pictured above) and Jeanne Nolan founded Organic Gardener in primarily middle-class 2005 to create a sustainable Garden-to-Table approach.(Bottom) The Ryobi residential properties and 18V ONE+ HP Brushless 350 CFM leaf blower. small businesses. “They don’t consider the little Until recently, gas-powered tools meant man trying to get by. This power, while electric tools meant less noise and is going to directly affect my son and my wife.” emissions, but lacked in performance. The basic argument that resonates is noise As Verd points out, the technology has and pollution. evolved to a point where it’s hard to tell the Gas-powered blowers operate at 90 decibels. difference. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Ryobi, sent some of their lawnmowers, leaf Prevention says that level of noise can cause blowers and hedge trimmers with a simple hearing damage after two hours of exposure. challenge “beat the hell out of them.” Gas engines also contribute to air pollution in So we did … a lot. residential neighborhoods.

left to right to ensure a comfortable fit for any arm and hand. With a blowing force of 145 mph and 57 decibel sound output, it’s quiet, strong, and built to get the job done. At a $249 price point, it’s competitive with the higher-priced gas models in the same class. The Ryobi 18V ONE+ HP Brushless 350 CFM Blower ($149.00) is a great, easy-to-use tool for the shop, yard, getting junk off the trampoline, and even blowing the heck out of dog hair in the car.

The Ryobi 40V 21” Brushless Self-Propelled Mower Kit. One touch of a button lets you control the speed while providing an impressive amount of power.

Leaf Blowers They sent us the 18V ONE+ HP Brushless 350 CFM Blower and the insanely powerful 40V Brushless 625 CFM Whisper Series Backpack Blower. The Ryobi backpack blower made me realize that change can be good. It is quieter, easier to assemble, equally as strong as my big gas monster (now for sale on Marketplace, BTW). Powered by two-40V batteries, the assembly was quick and easy. The Ryobi backpack blower passed every test that we put it through. The way it performed in helping blow away the spring goop and postwinter mess from our yard was as easy as a gas-powered blower, and I didn’t smell like gas when I was done. The trigger controls the variable speed throttle, and the cruise control can be set to save wear and tear on ones’ finger. The Turbo Boost function is excellent and really gets those hardto-shift leaves flying. The joystick type control can be moved forwards, backward, and turned

Weighing in at 7 lbs. it’s lightweight and blows at 110 MPH, packing a punch in a little package. One battery, and it’s ready to go.

lets you control your speed while providing the power to get the job done through thick grass, up hills, and the general agony of having to push a mower. It comes with a bag, mulch option, or a traditional side discharger. My favorite option is storage. Since there is no gas or carburetor to gunk up, Ryobi has made these “foldable” so you can store them standing up or vertically, taking up much less space. Each mower is much quieter and comes with a 5-year warranty. And I know this shouldn’t matter, but it does, because you know we’re “humans.” The mowers are good-looking. If the Mandalorian didn’t always live on some sort of dusty planet, you could see him using this mower to mow his yard. A big light on front and slick design make it look cool. The battery thing may be an issue if you have a larger yard. I had to stop and replace my batteries. That being said, if you have a smaller yard or an urban yard, this is a great option.

The boost button adds additional power when you need it. At 62 decibels, it’s super quiet to keep the neighbors happy. It would be great if it had an additional nozzle attachment to get lower to the ground, but it’s not a deal-breaker.

The Hedge Trimmer My brother-in-law is a “Michigan Guy.” Gaspowered, fuel-injected, loud, and proud. I gave the battery-powered hedge trimmer to him to see what he thought of such an alien product. At first, he was hesitant to pick it up, but as he started to play with the angel adjustments, and 26” cutting blades, he decided to give it a whirl.

The Lawn Mower Ryobi sent us their 40V 21-inch Brushless, Self-Propelled Mower Kit, to do battle with my ¾ of an acre yard, which is about what they claim their batteries should last per mow.

Snap-in the battery, turn this sucker on, adjust the angle and start trimming and cutting. It’s really that easy. With a cut speed of 3,200 strokes per minute and a cut capacity of 1,” the bush didn’t stand a chance.

Now, I have an old Toro riding mower that I love. The idea of schlepping a push mower around my yard is not a good one. It feels like Ryobi did their research and have made an easyto-use mower that solves many of the traditional issues.

Within 15 minutes, the bush was trimmed to an actual bush. He didn’t smell like gas and wasn’t exhausted.

The 7-Position Single-Point Height Adjustment is a single lever used to adjust all four wheels at the same time, which is fantastic. Instead of having to adjust each wheel separately, the Ryobi mower makes it easy to reach and adjust the deck height. This mower is easy to use. One-touch of a button, and it’s on. The self-propelled system

Ryobi isn’t the only brand out there making top-quality electric products for your yard work. Verd uses the Milwaukee m18 line and swears by the quality and power. With all electric technology, it comes down to battery life and power. Speed chargers and everincreasing battery power are closing the gap. A good rule of thumb if you decide to switch to electric-powered yard tools, is extra batteries at the ready to keep you from running out of power and on task. ■ FALL 2021 | INNOVATION & TECH TODAY

PRODUCED IN PARTNERSHIP WITH

Rising Superstars of the STEM World

NOAA Scientist Dr. Tracy Fanara and Mythbusters Co-Host Tamara Robertson love fashion, the ocean, superheroes and tinkering with things. They’re also two of the most prominent scientists promoting and mentoring kids in STEM. By Robert Yehling Tracy Fanara remembers the day she knew what she wanted to do. An elementary teacher was talking about the 1978 Love Canal disaster, in which barrels of chemicals from a toxic landfill dislodged and bled into the Niagara Falls, NY water table and leached into backyards, basements and a schoolyard. The disaster resulted in the creation of the EPA Superfund and a host of new regulations. “That’s what sparked my interest in environmental engineering,” she recalled, “protecting people from natural disasters, making sure they have clean water and food to survive.” As for Tamara Robertson? It took a little longer, but the way it happened was equally random. “I grew up taking things apart — not always a good thing!” she laughed. “I’ve always been a tinkerer, naturally curious. Only when I was a sophomore in college, did I realize engineering could be an option, but at the time, the only thing I knew about it was that Scotty was an engineer on Star Trek.” Two amazing careers germinated from these casual early brushes with science — part of the point they make every day in their work with younger STEM students. Dr. Fanara manages coastal and national modeling efforts for NOAA, a most crucial job in these times of sealevel rise and coastal change. Dr. Robertson is the co-host of the Science Channel’s Mythbusters Jr. with Adam Savage, former co-host of Mythbusters 2.0, and engineering consultant and wardrobe designer — a fascinating Photo courtesy of Tracy Fanara

INNOVATION & TECH TODAY | FALL 2021

Tracy Fanara and Tamara Robertson

PRODUCED IN PARTNERSHIP WITH

combination. Together, they presented a virtual session in the recent SciFest All Access, produced by USA Science & Engineering Festival; Tamara co-hosted the entire event as well. They also co-publish the Seekers of Science comic, a fun mixture of cool animation and sound, teen-grabbing science, which has a circulation of hundreds of thousands and is a huge hit among students and parents alike. “SciFest All Access is amazing,” Fanara said. “It’s a great resource for students to get connected with people in the STEM and science fields. Everyone has a unique story, and it’s important to hear of STEM successes, because it’s not all rainbows and butterflies; in fact, there are a lot of obstacles, and it is hard at times. But it’s all worth it in the end. You get through things you might not ordinarily; it builds character and work ethic.” While both women place high importance on mentorship and working with kids — they run a STEM camp together in Florida — Robertson has made it a major part of her life’s calling. Besides Mythbusters, she’s a board member for a number of STEM organizations, and devotes much of her consultancy to creating platforms to maximize student involvement — particularly girls and young women. “I wanted to champion women, and I realized during my corporate life, in five tiers of management, there were no women,” she said. “On my own, I did research, and realized so many young girls quit STEM based learning and programs before even entering high school. Something had to be done.” Enter Mythbusters, interactive projects — and Superhero Science, which she’s championed through ComiCon panels, outreach camps with Tracy, and keynote speeches to inspire more young women to seek STEM careers. “My main outreach is Superhero Science, comic books etc., so as an example of what I love to do, I was doing a science prank show, tied into Mythbusters, at the Clipper SciFest in LA. There was no ability for a full stage show, so

we pivoted to a booth and a show floor, with pretty talented kids. You could get a photograph and autograph if you asked a superhero science questions. I became like this Magic 8 Ball. I invited the physics department from UCLA to take up half my booth, worked with the science editor of Big Bang Theory and retrofitted a Jazzercise bike to illuminate light bulbs, to show the amount of energy it takes to light something. Projects like this draw in kids and keep them interested.” In a world that will need more and more engineers as climate, infrastructure and other challenges continue to mount, Tracy believes the way to the hearts of tomorrow’s scientists — particularly girls — is to tell her story and then put it right to work with students. And within her story is part of the secret sauce to creating value and achieving greatness: find a way to create a better approach or method for the world.

“I chose a career in science and the environment,” she said. “With science, you get to see something you’ve never seen every day, and you’re going to lose, often — that’s what happens with experiments. Until you win. When you win, though, you have the potential to change the world. My degrees combine design and environmental engineering, water and the environment. If you look at every catastrophe in the U.S., you see scientists and engineers not talking to each other, just staying in their specific corners. Well, I’m an environmental engineer, and I am also a hydrologist and ocean scientist, focusing on coastal resilience; I do both. “I really enjoy mentoring students. I had over 40 interns in my previous job, including 13 in one summer. The kids did what they wanted to; this was not an internship where they do monotonous tasks. They explore science and

FALL 2021 | INNOVATION & TECH TODAY

PRODUCED IN PARTNERSHIP WITH

learn what drives them. They research and then build the piece, learning they can build the world around them.” Robertson’s career followed an entirely different arc. She was a licensed chemical and biocmolecular product engineer for more than a decade for Fortune 500 companies. Her areas of experience include global tech transfers, process and facilities design, pandemic vaccine manufacturing, patented additive technology development, and product design. While working with the likes of Starbucks, McDonald’s, and Tupperware, she also launched Women in Leadership mentoring programs, started plant-based product initiatives, and engineered shifts to more sustainability in product design and manufacturing. However, the tireless, diminutive scientist with endless personality also was something else — a card-carrying member of the Screen Actors Guild. When 2015 rolled around, she made her move into full-time consultancy, speaking and presenting — and eventually onto Mythbusters. “I always had this creative spark, whether choreographing dance, doing art, or being an engineer,” Robertson said. “I did commercial acting in the Southeast while in college, and it’s been a side hobby since, but I was never able to land the roles I wanted, a nerdy science/ engineer, you know, Amy Farrah Fowler in The Big Bang Theory. “I’d go for these roles, and they’d say, ‘you don’t look like a scientist or engineer.’ I’d say back, ‘Would you like to see my degrees?’ Instead, I only got ‘girl next door’ roles.” Now, she’s spent the past several seasons on screen, in a much different way than she expected — but it does combine camera and science. “Every engineer hopes to explode conventional myths. What most don’t realize is that Mythbusters really is reality TV. It was a whole new branch of TV that I, as an actor, never knew I would be going toward. I was so surprised. I never thought I’d land in a TV show like it, getting to play while I hosted, getting to tinker with things. Really cool,” she said. ■

INNOVATION & TECH TODAY | FALL 2021

CALLING ALL K-12 EDUCATORS

TAKE A COFFEE BREAK WITH US

SERIES

Join us for 15 minute “sparks” of inspiration videos for teaching STEM in the classroom. Learn more at usasciencefestival.org FREE SERIES ON THURSDAYS:

Nov 11, Nov 18, Dec 2, Dec 9, Dec 16

A PROGRAM OF

PRODUCT REVOLUTION Tivoli Audio Model One Digital (Gen. 2) — Modern style with the latest technology built-in, the Model One Digital (Gen. 2) streaming radio easily connects to Wi-Fi with AirPlay 2 and Google Chromecast to play music from any app with built-in support. You can also stream via Spotify Connect. Switch to radio mode and enjoy your local broadcasts with Tivoli Audio’s renowned reception or quickly connect a device via Bluetooth. With all these listening options, the Model One Digital will fill any space in your home with clear and dynamic audio quality and seamlessly fit into your daily life. Available in walnut/grey, black/ black, and white/grey. $350

Solios Solar Watch — The Solios Solar perfectly combines aesthetic, green technology, and durable materials. The 8mm thin silvercolored 316L stainless steel case is topped by a black dial with a minimalist style and offers a water resistance of up to 30 meters. The hardened mineral glass is covered with a robust sapphire crystal to limit scratches. At the heart, a solar cell allows the watch to recharge by itself and offers a six-month energy reserve. In addition to promoting slow fashion with style, you’ll never have to change your battery. $270

Jumpstart 10-in-1 Multi-tool — The JumpSmart 10-in-1 is powerful enough to jump start most cars, trucks, SUV’s, boats, motorcycles, lawn mowers, ATV’s, and more. Instantly jump a drained vehicle battery by clamping the Smart Jumper Cables with the mini flashlight directly onto the vehicle battery terminals. It’s powerful 29,600 mWh (8000mAh) 4-cell, high-grade LithiumPolymer battery is more powerful than ever before with DC 12V 200A (start) – 800A (peak). $140 VAVA 4K UHS Dash Cam — Stay Safe with the VAVA Dash Camera. Protect your car from theft, enjoy clear video playback, and snap a quick pic of your favorite road trip crew with this camera that films both your interior and the road ahead. It is a dual 1080P dash camera with night vision. Compact design and super easy to install and connects to the VAVA dash app. $200

INNOVATION & TECH TODAY | FALL 2021

PRODUCT REVOLUTION Lion Eclipse — The Eclipse is a portable wireless charger and power bank. You can use the wireless charger to charge smartphones, earbuds, and smartwatches. It also has USB and USB-C charging ports for charging cablebound cell phones and other USB devices. Compact enough to easily carry around in your bag for recharging on the go. $230

Nexvoo NexPad Pro T530 — Nexvoo’s newly launched NEXPAD Pro T530 is a high-end smart conference tablet integrating audio, video, and applications. It has an 8-inch multi-touch Retina-level FHD (full high-definition) capacitive screen and an 8-megapixel highdefinition camera, built-in Bluetooth 4.2 module, and Wi-Fi module, integrated high-power speakers, dual microphone arrays, providing high-definition audio and video experience. At the same time, it also greatly improves the efficiency of group collaboration and personal office. NEXPAD™ Pro T530 is based on Android 10.0, the interface operation is more convenient, smooth, and intelligent. $599

Modula5 — Modula5 Charging System can be used to charge any Qi-enabled device, with the option to chain up to seven pods at once! Charge your iPhone, AirPods, Android device, and more. Each pod easily snaps into place and distributes power to all your devices using just one cable. Need a wireless charger on the go? No problem, every pod has a dedicated input, which means you can easily detach one pod, grab a cable, and you’re set! Other pods, like the Apple Watch Pod and MagSafe Pod (coming soon), are available below and connect seamlessly to the Modula5 system. $30

REACT 7-in-1 — Get prepared for the unexpected with the React Powered by ChargeHub. This 7-in-1 multi-tool was designed for use in a variety of emergency situations, big or small. It is the ultimate all-in-one portable solution that is capable of charging a dead mobile device, providing a flashlight, sending an S.O.S. signal, and even escaping a vehicle in an emergency with the window breaker and seatbelt cutter. Every second counts in an emergency, it is all about how you REACT. $50

FALL 2021 | INNOVATION & TECH TODAY

Events

December Nov. 30-Dec. 1

Blockchain Expo Europe Virtual

Connected Health Summit Virtual

11-13

MedTech Impact Las Vegas

14-15

Future of Video: OTT. Pay TV, and Digital Media Virtual

29-30

Dent Connect 2021 Virtual

January CES 2022 Las Vegas and Virtual

13-15

Intersolar North America Long Beach, CA

18-20

Commercial UAV Expo Europe Amsterdan, Netherlands

31-Feb. 2

A3 Business Forum Orlando, FL

February 6-8

Geo Week 2022 Denver, CO

23-25

Comic-Con International San Diego, CA

INNOVATION & TECH TODAY | FALL 2021

Top 50 Most Innovative Products

Get ready for this one. We’ve been gathering the hottest tech and saving the best for last. In our winter you will find the hottest gadgets from around the world of tech. You can expect the best in outdoors and active gear, health tech, gaming tech, life tech, and an expanded Product Revolution section. You won’t want to miss this one.

Drones for Everything

It wasn’t long ago that drones were an exciting new toy. Quickly, they became a tool for the military. UAV’s have made countless strikes around the world with (usually) pinpoint accuracy. In the decade or so that followed, they have transformed into a vital element of many businesses — large and small, alike. Companies are rapidly looking for ways to work drone deliveries into their services. From film crews to Amazon, from pizza delivery to survey work, we’re only now just beginning to unlock the full potential of what drones will mean to our society in the long run.

Tech for Boomers

5-8

Next Issue

The Baby Boomer generation brings to light an interesting new subject. This will be the first generation of (mostly) tech savvy senior citizens. It’s a new situation we haven’t faced as a society and will likely come with its own advantages — and struggles. We will be looking deeper into the topic for the next issue as we look for tech designed with seniors in mind, as well as what it will mean for less tech-savvy seniors. Will it affect activity levels or memory function in old age? And what about the seniors who are more reluctant to dive into new technology?

Working and Learning from Home

Covid-19 has created yet another exploding new industry that will be worth watching closely. As more and more people find themselves working and learning from home, a large crop of businesses have sprouted up with ways to make your life easier. From conference call devices to new software solutions, the world is filling up with ways to make working from home feel a little more like going to the office. We’ll be chatting with a number of people in the industry and make sure you’re up-to-date with everything you need to know.

The intersection of

geospatial the built world

Accomplish a year’s worth of geospatial business in just one week by attending Geo Week 2022 Imagine a single powerhouse event that champions the coming together of geospatial technologies and the built environment. Where professionals from a range of disciplines network and gain insight into the increasing confluence of their worlds. Where cutting-edge technology offers new possibilities, improved efficiencies, and better outcomes. And where education opens the door to the future just ahead.

FEBRUARY 6-8, 2022 DENVER, CO - USA geo-week.com

AEC Next Technology Expo & Conference, International Lidar Mapping Forum, and SPAR 3D Expo & Conference, along with partner events ASPRS Annual Conference and USIBD Annual Symposium, are coming together in 2022 to form Geo Week. Each event features its own unique conference programming and combines in a single exhibit hall and inclusive networking activities. Welcome to Geo Week!

Learn more!

Use code SAVE100 for $100 off a conference pass or a free exhibit hall pass!

geo-week.com

INDUSTRIES SERVED

Architecture, Engineering & Construction

Asset & Facility Management

Disaster & Emergency Response

Earth Observation & Satellite Applications

Land & Natural Resource Management

Urban Planning/ Smart Cities

PARTNER EVENTS

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The Lighter Side

OF THE STRANGEST THINGS ABOUT WORKING FROM HOME

By Corey Noles Working from home can be a glorious thing — for some people.

7. Your pets get to see you more — and you see a lot more of them. Our little dachshund

If you’re a person who can roll with the punches, laugh off weirdness, are very much a self-starter and don’t really need to be in contact with other humans — then it might be for you.

remains as sweet as can be, but our cats have taken a particular interest in my work. They often like to stomp across my keyboard, stare deeply into a zoom camera, or use my back as a scratching post in an important meeting.

The freedom of working from home in a comfortable environment is awesome until, of course, you realize that you’re working … from your home. It has all of the people you love, the things you love, and even the opportunity for a bed lunch.

6. Technology regularly becomes possessed. With five devices in arm’s reach capable of handling an important meeting or interview, there is a direct correlation between their failure rate and the importance of the meeting I’m attending.

becomes the office. This means not only do you work from home, you’re also at the office when you’re not working. So, while you’re trying to veg out and enjoy the latest episode of whichever crappy sitcom has sucked you in, your desk is taunting you with all of the tasks you didn’t quite finish during the day.

day only to realize I forgot lunch, and breakfast, and even snacks. The real benefit of working at home is the ability to chow down steak and eggs while you go through your emails. In about 8 years, I haven’t done it once. But, damn, what a fantasy.

dungeon you’ve chosen for an office, you might decide to venture out. The sun will burn your eyes and skin, but this is only the first part of your transformation into a vampire.

1. Your lovely family needs you — all the time. Those same sweet folks who barely speak to you in the evening, have consistent needs during the day. Important things, like the need to discuss Minecraft for an hour, why homework is unreasonable and they shouldn’t be expected to do school work at home, and the ever famous: Will you run to the store for me?

bunnies that sit right outside my office window.

Photos iStockphoto.com

INNOVATION & TECH TODAY | FALL 2021

just assuming that because I’m home, I’m available. I’ve worked from home for years, and they are well aware, but somehow people around you seem to think you’re “working” and not actually working.

5. A trip to the convenience store seems like a treat. After many hours in whatever

4. You become friends with the wildlife around your home. For me, it’s a family of

3. People can’t seem to understand that you’re working. Friends call on random days

2. Suddenly, you realize you only eat at supper. Countless days I have wrapped up my

But it can be a double-edged sword for a whole host of reasons.

8. Your workspace is omnipresent. Home

I named them Ralph, Oscar, and Smithy. A friend recently suggested a rabbit hunting trip, and I felt like he was encouraging me to go commit war crimes.

While working from home has its challenges, once you properly train those around you, it can be a great experience. But never, ever, let your kids bring up Minecraft.

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