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FROM THE PUBLISHER
Charles Warner, Publisher/ Editor-in-Chief
“ What if, as a society, we honored the truth-tellers while at the same time shunning those who spout lies and half-truths?”
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INNOVATION & TECH TODAY | WINTER 2017
Valuing Truth. Simple, Right? When I asked Kevin O’Leary what he thought about being the “meanie” on Shark Tank, he reminded me that he is not mean; he just tells the truth. He tells it like it is. That used to be a given, or the norm. Not anymore. Does that make the truth, facts, and those who tell the truth more valuable than ever? More valuable than Bitcoin even? I think so. If we are living in a post-fact era where everyone embraces their own truth and where alternative facts are readily available, then perhaps we as a culture should renew an emphasis on facts. What if, as a society, we honored the truth-tellers while at the same time shunning those who spout lies and halftruths? A new renaissance of sorts? Wouldn’t that benefit us all?
good at it. But it is not just O’Leary who tells it like it is. How about Neil deGrasse Tyson (pg. 80), everyone’s favorite astrophysicist? He is another one we should celebrate because he drops knowledge in a post-fact era. That’s also why real fact-based journalism should be celebrated and supported. Without a baseline for facts, everything is up for debate and whoever shouts the loudest is right. I don’t think anyone wants that to be the new norm. We should be better than that. So, with that said, I hope you enjoy this issue of Innovation & Tech Today, and I hope you will continue to celebrate those who tell it like it is and operate on facts not opinions. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, just not their own facts.
Let’s be honest, some facts should be common knowledge, but with people getting their news from social media and with the proliferation of fake news, we are inundated with slickly packaged lies meant to divide. We are more connected than ever, yet we’re drowning in false truths and alternative facts. Even the highest institutions now espouse alternative facts.
Please support good, independent journalism because in a rapidly advancing technological society, “fake news” will get more confusing than ever. Have you seen the new fake videos they can manipulate and distribute that look like the real thing? Oh boy. Zuck help us all…because if we don’t have trusted sources that tell the truth, we’re gonna be in big trouble.
As O’Leary suggested, some things are simply binary. That’s how he evaluates business opportunities, and he is pretty damn
Let’s leave fiction to fantasy. Let’s celebrate innovators, science, and facts. Cheers!
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PUBLISHER/ EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Charles Warner cwarner@goipw.com
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contents
WINTER 2017
154 Person of the Year Jane Goodall
118 Mr. Wonderful’s World By Charles Warner Photo courtesy of Kevin O’Leary
Departments 18 Since Last Issue 20 By the Numbers 22 Event Wrap-Ups 24 Quick Bytes 32 Women in Tech 34 Social Media
36 3D Printing 38 Social Impact Spotlight 162 Product Revolution 172 Events 174 Coming Next Issue 176 Lighter Side
40 Innovator Profile Heather Blease’s Comeback
42 Connected Car The Three Revolutions 46 C ities and Autonomous Vehicles
48 Global Tech Zone Cyber Literacy in New Brunswick
50 Security O, Data, Where Art Thou? 52 Cybersecurity and Healthcare
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INNOVATION & TECH TODAY | WINTER 2017
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contents
WINTER 2017
56 Outdoor+Adventure Tech Jeremy Jones and the Unridden Line 61 Eric Larsen’s Ultimate North 64 Josh Bertrand and Modern Fishing 66 Gear Guide
70 Health Tech Med Tech in the Developing World 74 A Better Butter? 75 Sleep Tech 78 Top 50 Most Innovative: Health Tech
80 Gaming+Entertainment Neil deGrasse Tyson’s Space Odyssey 84 A Look at Lost Media 86 DreamHack in Denver 88 Tales of Video Game Composing 92 will.i.am and AR 94 Joe Perry’s Rock of Ages 96 T op 50 Most Innovative: Gaming+Entertainment
98 Tech Zone Maryland, The Surge by the Sea 100 Bowie State’s Cyber Syllabus 102 The Communites of Frederick 104 Harford and Tech Disruption 106 The Need for Cloud Computing 108 M edTech and Cybersecurity in Maryland
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INNOVATION & TECH TODAY | WINTER 2017
The Genovation GXE makes it’s world debut this January at CES N HALL BOOTH # 3938 Las Vegas Convention Center January, 2018
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INTRODUCING THE GENOVATION GXE. A tribute to an American engineering icon, our high-performance, all-electric GXE supercar is based on the C7 Grand Sport Corvette. Designed and built in the USA, its aerodynamic, lightweight and cutting edge clean technology promises exhilarating performance with a minimal footprint. At Genovation, we don’t believe in sacrificing performance for sustainability. Which is why we’ve been able to achieve what no other car company has—the world’s first street legal electric supercar to exceed 200mph. With an official top speed of 209 mph1, our GXE proves that exceptional performance can be achieved with green technology. Learn more about the Genovation GXE, visit: GenovationCars.com
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Speed certified by the International Mile Racing Association (IMRA).
DRIVEN TO INNOVATE. POWERED BY PASSION.
contents
WINTER 2017
111 Connected Life A Guide to Presidential Twitter 114 Creating a Cause-Based Brand 116 Top 50 Most Innovative: Connected Life
118 Business Innovations 126 Tips From Brad Feld and Chris Moody 128 Grand Junction Brings Two Worlds Together 130 IMDb’s Col Needham 132 The Voice of VR
134 STEM Today
Produced in Partnership with the USA Science & Engineering Festival
Talking with the Founders of Vsauce 142 A Lawmaker’s Guide to the Galaxy 146 Mayim Bialik on and off the Screen
148 Sustainability Today Produced in Partnership with Sustainable Brands
Saving Coral Reefs 150 Rethinking our Plastic Planet
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INNOVATION & TECH TODAY | WINTER 2017
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Since Last Issue
On the Red Carpet for Jane
We were on the red carpet for the premiere of National Geographic’s Jane, a look at the life and work of Jane Goodall. Check out our YouTube channel for interviews with Jamie Lee Curtis, Jane Lynch, Howie Mandel, Brett Morgan, and Jane Goodall herself.
Andy Serkis Shares the Big News
Andy Serkis, star of the Lord of the Rings, Planet of the Apes, and Star Wars franchises, shares the news of his cover feature!
Kimbal Musk on Sustainable Restauranteering
Executive Editor Paul French talks to serial entrepreneur Kimbal Musk at the 2017 Denver Startup Week.
Fun and Games at Dreamhack 2017
We had a blast at this ultimate gameathon. Our Editor-in-Chief Charles Warner was in attendance to cover the event and, of course, show off our latest issue. Check out Innovation & Tech Today on social media!
innovationandtechnologytoday 18
INNOVATION & TECH TODAY | WINTER 2017
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A look at the metrics shaping the technology market — and our lives Artificial intelligence is the wave of the future, raking in billions in investments and threatening countless occupations. Let’s take a look at some essential stats as we make our way into the future of automation.
Between 2010 and 2014, global investments into AI technology grew from
AI STARTUPS ACQUIRED SINCE 2012 11
$1.7 billion to $14.9 billion.
7 5
N O I L L I B s to t 0 n a i 3 g $20spe-nt by t2e0c1h6. wasest in AI In e an t of v a inv h ay ac
AI m omic imp , 5 2 0 BY 2 ual econ ann
5 3 The Future of
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
n o i l l i r t 20% 16% 3 $ 3 $14- ing is used 60% learnost widely rprise 85% e n i h c e m a t M econd- ong en , the s ology am t 24% onal 95% technnizations a tual pers ir a org wed by v 5%. follo tants at 1 sult e assis r l l , AI wi LION st. 0 2 L co 0 By 2 9 TRI ployment in a $ tion in em reduc
jobs eliminated with every robot introduced into the workforce:
6
SOURCES: Statista, Economist, Marketing AI Association, Servion, Emarketer, Recode, Gartner Infographics images: Vecteezy.com and freepik.com
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INNOVATION & TECH TODAY | WINTER 2017
of business content will come from ai by 2018
of american jobs will be of AI platforms replaced by will be hosted ai by the end by amazon,alphabet, of the decade ibm, & microsoft
of customer interactions will be human-free by 2020 of all customer interactions will be driven by AI by 2025
Forecasted cumulative global artificial intelligence revenue 2016-2025, by use case (in Billions) Static image recognition, classification, tagging $8.10
$7.54 $7.37 $4.68 $4.20 $3.71 $3.66 $3.57 $3.17 $2.47
Algorithmic trading strategy performance improvement Efficient, scalable processing of patient data Predictive Maintenance Object identification, detection, classification, tracking Text query of images Automated geophysical feature detection Content distribution on social media Object detection & classification - avoidance, navigation Prevention against cybersecurity threats
Healthcare
changing lives
Constant innovation for better patient outcome We’re constantly challenging and evolving our ideas to improve the lives of people around the world. From imaging technology and medical informatics to biopharmaceuticals, regenerative medicine and pharmaceutical solutions, we develop and design products and services to improve patient outcomes. We nurture innovation, as we’ve always done, leveraging the expertise in our core technologies to bring new capabilities across the entire care pathway including prevention, diagnosis and treatment. Fujifilm may be known as a photographic company, but Fujifilm healthcare technology has always been a part of Fujifilm and is rooted in its unique core fundamental technologies. See how Fujifilm Healthcare is changing lives across the globe. www.fujifilmhealthcare.com
core technologies Digital Radiography I Women’s Health I Endoscopy I Ultrasound I Healthcare IT Contract Development and Manufacturing I Regenerative Medicine I New Drug Development FUJIFILM is a trademark of FUJIFILM Corporation and its affiliates. Fujifilm makes no representation that products in this advertisement are commercially available in all countries. Approved uses of products vary by country and region. Specifications and appearance of products are subject to change without notice. ©2017 FUJIFILM Holdings America Corporation. All rights reserved.
[ Event Wrap-Ups ]
CEDIA
The technology market is evolving constantly, which makes it all the more impressive that CEDIA has become the international cornerstone for 3,700 tech and IoT companies. Dedicated to residential technology, CEDIA 2017 brought more than 18,000 home tech pros and over 500 exhibitors to San Diego in order to bring the residential tech industry to the forefront of business.
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INNOVATION & TECH TODAY | WINTER 2017
Solar Power International
Las Vegas, a city with no shortage of sun, rightfully hosts the nation’s largest solar power conference. Solar Power International 2017 hosted a breadth of industry experts, with over 18,000 solar energy professionals from 80+ countries. Peer-led education, idea exchange, solar energy promotion, and opportunities for industry expansion made SPI the premier expo on solar power.
Images courtesy of their respective events.
Denver Startup Week
Once again, the spirit of entrepreneurship settled upon the Rocky Mountains as Denver Startup Week returned for its fifth year. The event brought out some industry giants such as Mark Cuban, Dish Network CEO Charlie Ergen, and The Kitchen CafĂŠ Owner Kimbal Musk. The event also partnered with many local businesses. Featuring a variety of educational sessions, Denver Startup Week has quickly become the leading event for all things entrepreneurial.
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Photo: Joseph Hidalgo, The Aerospace Corporation.
Know Thyself, Smell Thyself
One Giant Heap for Mankind Space is now in danger of becoming overpopulated by trash. It’s so bad, in fact, that one NASA executive said that the final frontier was pretty close to becoming “unusable.” The problem speaks to how far we’ve come since merely breaching the atmosphere just over 50 years ago. And, if you saw Gravity, you know that the 500,000 pieces of space junk currently being tracked (which, according to NASA, can travel at speeds of up to 17,500 mph) pose an extreme threat to astronauts. However, the experimental Brane Craft may be the cleanup crew we need. This ultra-thin spaceborne sheet is designed to eliminate trash by enveloping it and then pushing it into the atmosphere, where it will be incinerated. The Brane Craft, set to launch in 10 years, will be solar-powered and may even have asteroid mining applications. Now if only we could have floating, sustainable garbagemen back on Earth.
We’ve all seen videos of dogs barking at themselves in mirrors. It’s funny because, “Aw, he thinks it’s another dog.” Our domesticated friends have never been able to pass the “mirror test,” which many scientists believe proves whether a creature is self-aware. But, as Professor Cazzolla Gatti said in an interview with Daily Mail UK, dogs, “being much less sensitive to visual stimuli… cannot pass the mirror test because of the sensory modality chosen by the investigator to test the selfawareness.” Now, new research carried out by the Department of Psychology of the Barnard College is testing dogs’ ability to recognize themselves using their keenest sense: smell. Using 36 domestic dogs, the study confirmed that canines distinguish between the olfactory “image” of themselves when modified – that is, they would investigate their own odor for a greater duration when it had an additional odor accompanying it, rather than when it was by itself. The behavior implies that the dog recognized the odor as its own. It turns out our furry friends may be wiser than we thought.
Mental Mozart Writing things down is so early 2000s. Nowadays, scientists have developed intricate brain-computer interfaces that can make manual composition obsolete. These interfaces were originally created to write, but a team from the Graz University of Technology’s Institute of Neural Engineering has tweaked the system to allow people to compose scores with the power of thought. All the user needs is a special cap that measures brain waves, composition software, and, well, at least some previous composition knowledge. Called P300, the interface flashes various options – letters, notes, pauses, chords, etc. – one after the other on a table. A trained brain can focus on the desired option, creating minute changes in brain waves, and allowing the interface to read those changes and choose the option.
Image courtesy of journals.plos.org
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INNOVATION & TECH TODAY | WINTER 2017
The 18 subjects used to test the interface were all healthy and possessed basic musical and compositional knowledge. After a short training session, all of them were able to compose music using the interface. Finally, we have something that can literally get that song out of your head.
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Lovable, Clumsy Oafbot 3000
What happens when a robot malfunctions? In science fiction, the glitches of our robot friends can result in the unfortunate demise of the entire human race. Barring that extreme, however, robotic faux pas seems to have a strangely positive effect. “To Err is Robot” is the clever title of a recent study that examined the effects of purposeful mechanical error on human-robot interactions. Originally published in Frontiers in Robotics and AI, the experiment had a robot perform simple LEGO construction under observation. However, unbeknownst to the participants, the bot had been programmed to make certain errors on purpose – which had the surprising effect of increasing its overall “likability” score when the observers rated it. Owing to the psychological phenomenon known as the pratfall effect, this result could give developers insight into traits that make robots better companions. Speaking of…
Attack Of The Killer Sex Robots! Sex robots are officially available for purchase, eliminating the most inefficient part of making love: human interaction. However, is it possible that something cold, lifeless, and lacking a conscience could also commit violence? According to cybersecurity expert Nick Patterson, like other devices connected to the internet, sex robots can be hacked and controlled. Additionally, according to Patterson, while under control, hacked romance-bots can even hold objects such as knives. So, whatever you do, don’t get caught cheating with your neighbor’s sex robot.
Photo: Center for Human-Computer Interaction
Booger Ballots Ready to talk about elections again? Of course you are! The election process has been a hot topic of discussion recently, with many wondering if the format needs to be changed in order to avoid any tampering. Well, as it turns out, we could probably learn a thing or two from African wild dogs on that front. Bet you didn’t see that coming.
Gesundheit!
Photo: pixabay.com
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INNOVATION & TECH TODAY | WINTER 2017
Results from a Swansea University study of endangered dogs revealed that, when making decisions for the pack, African wild dogs will “vote” by sneezing. Additionally, not all voting sneezes are quite the same. The research also detailed how some sneezes are actually more important than others, so a dominant member of the pack can be mostly responsible for a decision. Interestingly enough, though, they also abolished the electoral college decades ago.
As technology improves, hackers will continue to learn ways to hijack it. However, having someone take a look at your browsing history is a little different than the physical threat of a murderous 200-pound knifewielding pleasure robot. And so, if you start considering a sex robot purchase, just do the sensible thing: hide all your cutlery.
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The Vampire Ant From Hell The “hell ant” sure lives up to its name. Living in the Cretaceous Period, these were an especially brutal species of ant. Instead of regular mandibles, these demonic insects had upward-facing blades – something which has never been found on a living species. They had hairs around their mouths, which, when triggered by prey, snapped upward, hooking the prey and driving it into a horn on the ant’s head.
Photos P. Barden & D.A. Grimaldi
CT scans revealed that the Linguamyrmex vladi’s horn was reinforced with metal, which probably kept it from being damaged by repeated impact.
Photos pixabay.com
But, that isn’t the end of this ant’s hardcore hunting ritual. When the mandibles moved upwards, they formed a gutter, which in turn could have funneled haemolymph (insect blood) into its mouth. Luckily, these devilish ants have been long extinct, (hopefully) never to walk the earth again.
Red Sox Caught Red Handed While cheating in sports is nothing new, a Boston-area team was caught cheating for the very first time. Well, except for the time the New England Patriots were accused of spying on another team’s practice in 2007. Or the time they were accused of using performance enhancing drugs. Or the time they were accused of using deflated footballs. According to a recent report, the Boston Red Sox used Apple Watches to gain an unfair advantage by quickly communicating what type of pitch was coming their way. The investigation stemmed from a short series with the New York Yankees, in which they provided a complaint and even video to support their claims. While Boston-area sports teams have had a bit of controversy recently, it’s interesting that Apple’s name is in the same conversation as cheating. That hasn’t happened since they were discovered cheating on their taxes in 2016. Or the time they were accused of cheating customers by reselling refurbished products as new in 2011…
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INNOVATION & TECH TODAY | WINTER 2017
Beam Me Up, Mickey The notorious Holodeck from Star Trek: The Next Generation is now closer than ever to becoming a reality. Developed as a collaboration among European researchers, the FreemoVR uses flexible computer displays on the walls and floor of a cylindrical encasement to create an artificial habitat for mice and fish. “We wanted to create a holodeck for animals so that they would experience a reactive, immersive environment under computer control, so that we could perform experiments that would reveal how they see objects, the environment, and other animals,” said lead researcher Andrew Straw for Science Daily. So far, studies have indicated that mice and fish in FreemoVR react as if they were experiencing these stimuli in the wild. In fact, in one experiment the aliens from the classic Space Invaders were projected into a tank of fish, causing the fish to attempt to school with the pixelated ships. Photo: IMP/IMBA Graphics Department
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Game_of_Thrones.exe George R. R. Martins’ Game of Thrones is also, for many fans, a game of patience. Viewers of the HBO show and readers of the popular series of fantasy novels will both have to wait a while for the next installment to hit screens and shelves (possibly until 2019). To understand how far fans will go to to stave off their GoT hunger, look no further than software programmer Zack Thoutt, whose Khaleesi cravings culminated in the invention of a program that, using a form of AI, would write the next novel. Thoutt fed his program the entirety of Martins’ franchise (5,376 pages) so that it could learn the tics and tropes of the writing style (and even the characters themselves). As this is written, the AI has produced six chapters of the novel that, while imperfect, have nonetheless captured a few essential aspects from the series -- even confirming several fan theories. Credit: HBO
Sticking to the Past Neanderthals have always been considered a simple species compared to us homosapiens. But, they may have had more ingenuity than previously thought. In fact, the world’s oldest known glue was made by the Neanderthals 200,000 years ago. And now, Leiden archaeologists have discovered the possible ways that they did so.
Credit: Kozowyk et al. Scientific Reports
The glue was used primarily in making tools, such as fastening a spearhead to a stick. For this, Neanderthals used tar from birch bark, a material that researchers often assumed was complex and difficult to make. However, these 200,000-year-old mammals found a way to extract the tar with fire. The archeologists recreated the experiments with their own bark and fire and were able to extract small amounts of tar. It is believed that the Neanderthals started with this simple method, and later adopted more complex methods to obtain higher yields. It’s too bad that, even with all of that glue, they weren’t able to stick around.
Emotion Granted There are over 2,500 different emojis currently available on smartphones, meaning you can convey quite a few moods with the click of a button. However, as it turns out you may not need over 2,473 of those emojis, because science has now determined 27 distinct emotional categories a human can have, nearly five times as many as previously believed. Two of those said emotions are interest and excitement, which you are no doubt feeling after reading this paragraph. A University of California Berkeley study recently published in the Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences has revealed envy, joy, sexual desire, and even aesthetic appreciation to be just a few of these 27 distinct categories. This new number of quantifiable emotions dwarfs the old estimate of six, determined by psychologist Paul Ekman decades ago – long before the language of emotion evolved into smiley faces and … eggplants.
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DEPARTMENTS / Women in Tech
Developing Diversity: A Tale of Two Companies
iStockphoto/bowie15
In the wake of Silicon Valley’s diversity fallout, other companies work hard to create and maintain inclusive workspaces By Alex Moersen It’s no secret that the tech world struggles with gender diversity. This year saw Uber under investigation, which led to the firing of over 20 employees as sexual harassment complaints against the company went viral. And, of course, there was the infamous Google Memo (titled “Google’s Ideological Echo Chamber”) critiquing the company’s diversity tactics and policies. However, while the tech community as a whole has a lot of room to grow in the realm of diversity, there are companies that are prioritizing the issue, pioneering initiatives and setting examples through a variety of different strategies.
Hewlett Packard: The Top-Down Approach In early 2017, Blendoor, which assists companies in unbiased hiring processes, released a report analyzing a variety of tech companies’ diversity statistics. One of the top companies on the list was the tech giant Hewlett Packard. According to the study, HP’s leadership (board members, C-level executives, etc.) is composed of 29 percent women and 14 percent minorities. While 29 percent may not sound very notable, it is a far cry from companies like Pandora (16 percent), or even Amazon (only 13 percent). HP’s success comes from their top-down
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initiative, implementing policy from the leadership level so that it trickles down to the rest of the company. In 2016, the company established their first Global Diversity Advisory Board to bring a range of perspectives and drive strategic initiatives. That same year, they launched their Belong, Innovate, and Grow (BIG) initiative in order to bolster their inclusive culture. One of the major successes from this campaign included increasing the representation of women in top marketing positions to 50 percent. The company has also worked to support STEM education for girls and minorities through various partnerships: the National Center for Women and Information Technology and the Silicon Valley Young Women’s Leadership Summit to name a few. HP’s case exemplifies that, no matter how ingrained a company’s culture is (the veteran has been around since 1939), there is always room for improvement and change.
Twilio: From the Grassroots While many companies’ diversity plans came from the top executives, others implemented their strategies from the ground up, by initiative of the employees. One such example of this is the communications company Twilio. According to a case study by Project Include,
when the startup was first founded in 2008, there were no diversity strategies in place. Their process was organic and happened over time. In 2014, two female engineers wanted to start having conversations about diversity. With the support of their manager, they were able to set up a monthly lunch where a group could discuss these topics. Eventually, the manager brought in the HR department, which began funding the lunches and building a broader program, leading to the hiring of two diversity leads. What started as a small discussion group became a company-wide culture shift. As the discussion filtered up through the company, even to the CEO, more concrete strategies and actions were able to take place. Out of this effort, teams wrote and published Twilio’s first Code of Conduct. They’ve updated their hiring processes, editing their job postings for potentially biased language. The company hosts regular inclusive workshops and supports several events including Maven, a queer youth tech bootcamp based in Oakland. While HP changed their culture with strategic planning and company initiatives, Twilio’s approach was catalyzed by two employees who simply wanted to discuss an issue. By creating a culture of support, Twilio was able to build a strong, inclusive company out of just a few lunch meetings.
DEPARTMENTS / Social Media
The
By Anthony Elio
It’s happened to everybody. You start up your new social media account, begin unloading your revolutionary thoughts onto the world, and you get the wonderful notification that a complete stranger wants to follow your social media activity. However, you then quickly find out that the follower is a programmed bot, a barely-used account, or a scammer using someone’s bikini-clad image as their profile picture. In other words, someone that doesn’t care what you had for breakfast this morning. Fake users dominate the internet. According to The Atlantic, over half of internet traffic is due to bots. And social media is no different. Business Insider reported on a 2015 study that discovered nearly 8 percent of all accounts on Instagram are, in fact, fake spam bots. Twitter has faced this issue as well, with 2017 research from the University of Indiana and the University of Southern California theorizing that up to 15 percent of Twitter users are, in fact, fake accounts believed to be owned by bots. Even President Donald Trump, owner of the particularly notorious Twitter account @ realDonaldTrump, has been speculated to have a sizeable fake following, with the online tool Twitter Audit claiming nearly half of his followers to be inauthentic.
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Of Fake Followers
However, these fake accounts do more than just gunk up one’s follower base. Fake followers have also disrupted the billion dollar industry of influencer marketing, where a company will invest in a social media account to promote its product. Just how much do you get for acclimating followers and participating in influencer marketing? According to Forbes, an Instagram account with 100,000 followers can usually make $5,000 for a sponsored post. However, this gets complicated once fake followers are accounted for. In fact, in order to prove just how easy it is to take advantage of influencer marketing, internet marketing agency MediaKix used some previously existing images and stock photos to create Instagram accounts, purchasing followers and engagement. The accounts accumulated thousands of fake followers, even going on to generate their own sponsorship deals, with free products and even cash offered to the (fake) owners of the fabricated accounts. This also proves one of the largest issues within the community: using money to expand a social media following. Derek Muller, host of YouTube’s Veritasium, explained in a 2014 video the two different ways followers are purchased, either directly from “click farms”
(where underpaid workers engage with social media online) or through legitimate paid posts on Facebook. Through an experiment in the same video, he discovered that, while his following had definitely grown through legitimate post promotion, his posts didn’t get any additional engagement. This is because, interestingly enough, many of his new followers seemed to be from these same click farms, resulting in his organic posts remaining unseen by many of his actual followers. Because of this, page admins are encouraged to spend more money on promotions so that followers can actually see their posts, meaning they literally have to pay for fans to see their content. This fake follower economy definitely has farreaching consequences. Not only does it damage the influencer marketing world; it has also turned social media growth into another money-making opportunity for the platforms. Luckily, there are ways to avoid gaining a follower base of purely bots, scammers, or both. Online tools such as the aforementioned Twitter Audit can help users identify how real those followers can be. With “fake news,”and, now, “fake people,” it’s up to internet users to stay informed and savvy in the modern era of online mistrust.
iStockphoto/Juanmonino
Faulty Economy
DEPARTMENTS / 3D Printing
Revving Up the 3D-Printed Car
3D printing is entering the world of car manufacturing, posing a potential revolution.
By Alex Moersen Few sectors are as closely tied to manufacturing innovation as the automobile industry. In 1913, Henry Ford popularized the moving assembly line to build his Model Ts. Then, over 50 years later, a new industry standard came to fruition with Taiichi Ohno’s Toyota Production System, which concentrated on reducing waste at all levels of production. As this production system became the new benchmark for factory efficiency, a new technology was already in development. In 1983, Charles W. Hull invented stereolithography, the initial 3D printing technique which originally cost $100,000 or more per machine. Now, 3D printing has become increasingly mainstream, especially in producing one-off prototypes, allowing companies to make changes to their product more easily and cheaply by tweaking a printer’s software rather than resetting entire factory tools. However, with innovation almost always comes skepticism. Those skeptics claim that 3D printers are too slow and too expensive to mass produce complex objects. But, what are those skeptics to say to GE, which just invested $1.5 billion in 3D printing technology to make parts for jet engines. The technology is advancing, showing the ability to overcome some of its shortcomings,
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Photos: Courtesy of Blade Supercar/Mel Lindstrom
and many corporations, especially in the automobile industry, are beginning to take notice. Kevin Czinger, founder and CEO of Divergent 3D, is one of the leaders at the forefront of this shift in manufacturing. With 3D manufacturing, “you change to low-capital intensity, much faster product cycle, much greater design flexibility,” Czinger outlined. In this new system, a once rigid structure is made much more flexible. As Czinger explained it, in a typical manufacturing process, the design of the vehicle is frozen into metal stamping tools, making future changes inefficient and expensive to enact. This is where 3D printing begins to show off its advantages. “All of the data is not embodied in tooling,” Czinger explains. “It’s just data that gets sent to a machine, and that machine doesn’t care whether it’s printing something for a two-seat electric vehicle or for a pick-up truck. So the same equipment is not stuck with one design. It has complete design flexibility.” In the case of Divergent 3D, additive manufacturing has allowed for them to create any kind of customized design, while still using high-quality materials like carbon fiber, honeycomb paneling, and aerospace adhesives. Of course, one of the most exciting byproducts of this manufacturing system is its reduced
environmental impact. While the automobile industry is shifting its focus to electric vehicles, Czinger sees a larger issue at play: “You can say, ‘Hey, there’s no tailpipe exhaust.’ And you can miss the bigger picture and destroy the planet.” That bigger picture is the environmental impact of automobile manufacturing. Compared to a 3,000-pound, dry weight vehicle (a Honda Civic, for instance), Divergent is able to produce their Blade Supercar with 40 percent less PM2.5 emissions, 25 percent less SOx emissions, 30 percent less NOx emissions, and a 30 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. And, the materials used in the process result in a vehicle structure that is 50 percent lighter than the standard, requiring less fuel to drive. Czinger believes that 3D printing will completely disrupt manufacturing as we know it, and since Divergent 3D closed a $23 million deal with Horizon Ventures earlier this year, he isn’t the only one keeping the faith. He believes this shift can help localize car manufacturing jobs back to the U.S. Similar to Taiichi Ohno’s revolutionary Toyota Production System, 3D printing is slated to reduce waste in all stages of manufacturing, and it may not be long before these vehicles hit the streets. Top: CEO Kevin Czinger with his Blade Supercar. Right: The 3D printed chassis of the Blade
DEPARTMENTS / Social Impact Spotlight
Shopping.Gives In each issue, The Social Impact Spotlight will feature one organization that is moving the needle in the world of tech and innovation. Shopping.Gives exists with a singular mission: to turn everyday shopping into fundraising for those who need it most. Each year, millions of marketing dollars are spent by retailers to drive traffic to their websites, and Shopping.Gives CEO and Founder Ronny Sage realized there was a way to put that money to better use: placing it in the hands of organizations and individuals engaged in fundraising. By creating their fundraising campaign through the Shopping.Gives platform, these groups enable their supporters to give up to 40 percent back every time they shop at over 750 popular retailers, including Target, Jet.com, Macy’s, Barnes & Noble, and Home Depot. The fundraising organizations additionally benefit, as they receive a full-service approach to their mission. Shopping.Gives offers an analytics dashboard for each group to track their progress, as well as a comprehensive suite of marketing
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materials, including social media graphics, email templates, weekly deals, and fundraising best practices. These tools allow the fundraising groups to focus on engaging their supporters in a new way. Instead of simply reaching out to ask for money, organizations can meet their constituents where they already are. “By creating a way for individuals to support their favorite causes through their everyday shopping, those supporters are empowered to give back in a new way and on an ongoing basis,” said Sage. “This opens the door for fundraising groups to not only have more supporter engagement but to raise more money for their cause outside of having to simply ask their constituents for more donations.” Since launching to the public in June 2017, this Chicago startup has been working directly with numerous nonprofits, including The Holiday Heroes, Lumity, GoCivic Chicago, Project HOPE, and Komen Wisconsin. These partnerships have allowed Shopping.Gives to work with retailers to give even more back during the holidays. They launched their 5 Days of Giving campaign in early November, with a goal
of helping organizations fundraise even more between Black Friday and #GivingTuesday. “Throughout November and December, shoppers spend a substantial amount of money online for the holidays, and every year that amount grows,” said Sage. “Furthermore, the season is a key time for many to do their charitable giving. We’re excited to be working with so many great groups to help them with their holiday fundraising.” Shopping.Gives’ partnered retailers include popular stores like TopMan, Clark’s, Dell, and Moosejaw, with each offering increased cash back amounts to fundraisers during these peak shopping and giving days. During Cyber Monday and #givingtuesday, these retailers offer increases as high as 200 percent of their normal contribution back to the fundraising organization. Learn more about Shopping.Gives, including current featured fundraisers, or start your free fundraising campaign by visiting www.shopping. gives. Additional resources and the Shopping. Gives blog can be found at www.resources. shopping.gives.
innovator profile
Heather Blease’s Corporate Comeback By Anthony Elio
How one entrepreneur went from running a multi-million dollar company, to filing for bankruptcy, and right back to running a multi-million dollar company. Heather Blease’s story is one containing lucrative highs, challenging lows, and a price tag in the millions. One day she was starting college and launching her career as an electrical engineer. The next she was in control of a multi-million dollar company, signing contracts with giant tech companies. However, a string of unfortunate incidents would result in Blease filing Chapter 11, seeing her family torn apart, and spending a weekend in jail. This makes the third act of her story that much sweeter, as she eventually came back stronger than ever with a new company and a new lease on life. Upon graduating from the University of Maine, Blease spent some time working at the Digital Equipment Corporation in Massachusetts before returning home to Maine. After the company was sold in the mid90s, Blease was directionless. This inspired her to take charge, as she soon launched EnvisioNet in 1995, a company that provided remote technical support for the technology industry. Within a few years, EnvisioNet had grown to become a $30 million company employing over 2,000 people, with Blease going on to be recognized as Maine’s 1999
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Economic Developer of the Year. When new client Microsoft required so many new agents, this proved to be quite an investment for Blease and EnvisioNet, and one that proved to be pivotal for the company. Even with a contract in place, they couldn’t count on their massive client to deliver. According to Blease, “They said at one point, ‘Eh, we’re not gonna keep doing this. Yes, we are breaking our contract terms. Go ahead and sue us.’” While a lawsuit may have been an option for Blease and EnvisioNet, the company’s small size and lack of resources made it too difficult to take on the tech Goliath. This not only meant the inevitable demise of EnvisioNet, but also ensured Blease would never get justice for her company after the damage had been done. The fallout from this failed contract was devastating. Without the proper funds, Blease was forced to file Chapter 11, resulting in EnvisioNet eventually being sold to another company. After the sale and transition, Blease left with the intention to spend time with her family, assist other startups, and serve as a board member for a number of companies. But even her first day away from EnvisioNet
proved to be challenging. According to Blease, “after that seven-year rollercoaster of a journey, my very first day where I didn’t have to report to work, I was done. That was September 11, 2001 … What I was wanting to do after all of the ups and downs with Envisionet was just to spend some time with my children and get grounded after that, but that was quite a memorable first day not on the job.” The troubles with EnvisioNet, which would be too much to handle for many entrepreneurs, wasn’t even the biggest hurdle for Blease. As she told us, “The more challenging period was some of the personal losses that tore me up emotionally, including losing my father, who really was a pillar in my life, and supporting my mom with dementia, the breakup of my family, a harsh divorce. These were a lot more difficult to work through.” The problems wouldn’t stop there, as two drinks on an empty stomach resulted in spending a few nights in jail over a holiday weekend. These adversities, though, would manifest themselves as a positive change within Blease. As she told us, “I did come to a moment when I realized that I needed to actually reach within
Rising from the ashes of her former company, Heather Blease has successfully built her new venture, SaviLinx, into a multimillion dollar company years after filing Chapter 11.
myself for strength and perseverance and, at that point, I think I was just reacting to things. But I actually had to make the positive change start from within me.” This new perspective would lead Blease into her future ventures. In 2013, Blease launched SaviLinx, a new tech support company based in Brunswick, Maine, the same city she grew up in. The company offers an array of services, including customer care, tech support, customer retention, and more. Taking advantage of federal government funds set aside for startups, Blease was given a second chance at building her ideal business. However, that doesn’t mean there weren’t pitfalls along the way. As she told us, “I found myself right back as an entrepreneur starting a company again…I can’t count on one hand
how many times I drew what little money I had in my 401K to cover payroll. These are the challenges of the first years of starting up a company.” Despite this, SaviLinx quickly proved to be successful, becoming profitable only two years in and eclipsing $11 million in their third year.
Blease’s comeback didn’t go unrecognized. In addition to contributing advice for startups to Foundr Magazine in early 2017, Blease recently detailed her story to Inc. Furthermore, she was recently given the Growth Master Award by the U.S. Women’s Chamber of Commerce, causing her to “step back and [feel] very humbled and grateful for the recognition.”
Listening to Blease talk about her new company, you can sense the passion she has for this new venture. “I see growth, diversity, diversity of clients and profitability is really important to me…But, I also think that one of the things that differentiates us is our focus on our employees…Yes, we are focused on the bottom line but we realize that most importantly in the success of our business is the success of the employees that work for us.”
While the road was by no means easy, Heather Blease’s return to the business world is not only a sign of her personal strength and savvy but of the essential tools needed to make it as an entrepreneur. Blease’s journey is an example of how the past, no matter how difficult, can shape you into who you are. As Blease said herself, “My past continues to follow me, but it makes me appreciate those that believed in me.” ■
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THE 3 REVOLUTIONS By Michael Coates
A look into the possible futures (good and bad) of each of these disruptive automotive technologies. “I’ve been in the transportation field for decades, and, to be honest, not much innovation happened. Now, we’re seeing so much innovation.” So says Dan Sperling, founding director of the Institute of Transportation Studies at the University of California, Davis and a longtime expert in the transportation field. According to Sperling, the automotive world is on the brink of a new age, one characterized by three revolutions in transportation – the advent of autonomous vehicles, the proliferation of electric powertrains, and the explosion of shared mobility, as evidenced by companies like Uber and Lyft and car sharing organizations like Zipcar, Car2Go, and others. While there is a consensus regarding the occurrence of these revolutions – and plenty of real world evidence – there isn’t a consensus about where they are leading us. Sperling and his university colleagues, for instance, have laid out two different paths. The key issue is that the technologies are the same, but their implementation and integration are what result in divergent outcomes.
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// AUTONOMOUS
// ELECTRIC
// SHARED Photos courtesy of Waymo, Nissan, Chevrolet and Car2Go
THE HAPPY FUTURE This is the future we hear about the most. Autonomous cars are at our beck-and-call. Traffic deaths plummet, and the costs of vehicles decline. The environment thrives, and the air is cleaner. The space formerly occupied by parking garages is reassigned to new businesses and homes. People are more productive as commuting becomes a thing of the past. It’s a utopian vision. But the key, as pointed out in papers produced by ITS at UC Davis, is for government policymakers and private businesses to manage this transition to maximize cost savings and environmental benefits. The critical elements are:
THE NIGHTMARE SCENARIO The so-called nightmare scenario could happen in a variety of ways. Companies could push gasoline-powered autonomous cars onto the market, and those autonomous cars could be privately owned. This combination would lead to: • Autonomous cars becoming the province of the wealthy, so their freedom, flexibility, and productivity are enhanced, but the impact doesn’t flow down to the less well-off. • More congestion as conventional car owners compete with more intensively used, but often empty, autonomous cars waiting for their owners (privately owned autonomous cars would either park themselves or just cruise around waiting for their owners’ next trip). • More urban sprawl as people opt for longer commutes since they can spend the time working. • More air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions as vehicle numbers increase. Some of this may already be playing out. In San Francisco, the micro-transit company Chariot, which was acquired by Ford Motor
THE ROLE OF GOVERNMENT The ITS at UC Davis group, with its tight ties to the California state government, sees a strong role for regulations and incentives (or disincentives) to promote the “happy future” scenario. The goal, as they see it, is to minimize individual vehicle usage and reduce traffic congestion, air pollution, and inequality between mobility haves and have-nots. Running against these goals are the trends of declining transit ridership and a widening mobility gap. However, there is hope that new pooled ridership choices, such as Lyftline and Uberpool, might integrate with existing modes like rail and bus services, but evidence of this happening is scant, as seen in the Chariot story. Pricing is also seen as a big impediment to progress here. Autonomous vehicles may be cheaper than transit but don’t really reduce congestion or emissions from travel, and thus don’t represent a step forward. Government regulations or incentives might steer
• Autonomous cars and shared electric bicycles becoming more widely available. • Ridesharing costs dropping as a result of vehicle standards meeting passenger needs. • Ensuring better access to healthcare, retail services, education, and general transportation. • Creating more livable communities. That’s if everything goes right. One key revelation the UC Davis researchers uncovered in their models of a transportation future was that all three elements needed to happen in combination to create this positive future. In other words, if autonomous cars are not electric and shared across the board, the environmental and societal benefits will not be apparent.
Company, bills itself as an enhancement or augmentation of existing transit systems. It uses gas-powered vehicles for its shuttle service. The company hit a snag when its drivers failed three inspections and it had to temporarily suspend its service. In addition, Chariot has been under fire from the City of San Francisco for duplicating bus and trolley routes, poaching transit customers and adding to congestion. The likelihood that this negative scenario could play out is relatively high given the lack of consistent direction from government agencies. Right now, different states have different rules for autonomous vehicles; some have welcomed them; others have been much more hesitant about seeing this new technology on their roads. Similarly, many states (led by California) are promoting electric vehicles, while others either have a neutral or outright negative stance on them. Finally, regulation of new mobility systems has been even more haphazard. Uber has been banned from some cities and airports, while it and similar companies operate with little oversight in other places.
developments in the “positive” direction here, potentially incentivizing shared, autonomous electric vehicles over other travel modes. The biggest challenge appears to be in human behavior. Recent polls and statistical data show that Americans don’t like to ride along; carpooling went from 20 percent of trips in 1980 to less than 10 percent today, despite carpool lanes and other incentives, according to the most recent Census Bureau data. Public transit use dropped by 19 percent over the same period. Additional studies pointed out that rural and urban communities will have different solutions in this space, due to different needs for workers, parents, seniors, and low-income travelers. The bottom line from this research is not only can we shape the future of the transportation system, but we must shape it. Left to the “free market,” it is not clear that the three revolutions will serve to help the broader public – or even make driving easier or cleaner. ■ WINTER 2017 | INNOVATION & TECH TODAY
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CONNECTED CAR
EVS KEEP PACE There is no denying that we are entering the age of the electric car. This year alone, major car companies like Jaguar, Volkswagen, and Volvo have committed, in one way or another, to developing more EVs. However, with this shift of industry focus, there are some that are concerned about the state of the supercar. Can the electric car really produce the same amount of power as the internal combustion engine? Luckily, there are car companies that have proven that the electric car can keep up, one of the most prominent examples being Genovation Cars. The goal of the company is to create electric cars in order to curb humanity’s role in climate change, air pollution, ocean acidification, and other anthropogenic environmental issues. However, with their concentration on sustainability, performance has not fallen by the wayside. In fact, Genovation produced the world’s first street-legal electric supercar to exceed 200 mph.
Photo: Genovation Cars
In February 2017, on the Space Shuttle Runway at the Kennedy Space Center, Genovation’s GXE Supercar reached a top speed of 209 mph, certified by the International Mile Racing Association. This record places the GXE inside the top 25 fastest street-legal cars in the world, according to DigitalTrends, proving that electric vehicles can keep pace. So, while the world continues to transition to the electric age, companies like Genovation add to the validity of EVs, all while putting the internal combustion engine to rest.
AUTOLIV GOES AUTONOMOUS Ola Boström, Vice President – Research for Autoliv, gives his two cents on the future, safety, and advancements of autonomous vehicles. [Quotes taken from an exclusive interview] FUTURE OF AUTONOMY Everyone talks about autonomous vehicles, but we think that the period of semi-autonomous will be quite long. And also the area of human/machine interaction and how you can ultimately trust your car to be more of a partner than a mechanical tool. It’s going to be important for the success of these technologies. SAFETY We have actually done the research and looked at what will really help bring the safety element of autonomous driving. But if you could also make the driver and the car completely trust each other – a very soft concept, I
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Photos: Autoliv
know – then that could dramatically, according to our estimates, reduce the number of accidents. That would be the real game changer so to speak, because then you could see that when you let the technologies do their job, in the future with autonomous vehicles or even semi-autonomous, you could really drive down accidents. AUTONOMOUS TRENDS Fully autonomous will take time, but semi-autonomous will come more quickly than we thought maybe a year ago. And then for us, the focus turns not necessarily away from the technology of self-driving – making the car steer itself and so on and so forth, important that that works – but we are focusing harder on the actual interaction between car and driver and the user experience. And I think that’s a trend that you can see for 2017 – that it’s not only about the hardcore tech and making the car drive itself but, more and more, the industry is turning towards the actual user experience and making the technology trusted. ■
CONNECTED CAR
CITIES HOPEFUL, BUT HAVE MUCH TO LOSE WITH AUTONOMOUS VEHICLES By Michael Coates
Photos courtesy of Delphi and UBER
Autonomous cars are coming. Publications from Motor Trend to The New York Times are now focused on reporting the details of both the technological advances and consumer reactions to this revolution. Meanwhile, the Department of Transportation and National Highway Safety Traffic Administration released new autonomous vehicle (AV) guidelines in September that streamline the path to testing and deployment of these technologies. Car companies from Ford to Tesla to Uber have cars on the road and, around 2020, plan to offer them more broadly on the market. The Petri dish for testing and early deployment of autonomous vehicles is the city – that’s where the likely market for AVs already exists. Cities are aware AVs are coming, but they also know they’re not ready. The National Association of City Transportation Officials, which represents 55 cities, has thrown down the gauntlet in their plan, Promised Land. They see “the potential to make our cities safer, more efficient and more economically productive,” but, as a group, they also want cities to have more control. The concern is making sure AVs don’t end up draining mass transit of riders or making streets less safe because of immature technology and congestion.
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For instance, at present, AV technology still has problems distinguishing two common urban features: pedestrians and bicyclists. And then there are financial issues. For example, if AVs are cruising around waiting for their owner’s dinner to end, parking revenue drops. Even more significant is the need for cities to invest in critical infrastructure to support the high-tech communication critical to AVs. The fear here is that cities will be left behind in the sea change. As Peter D. Norton, author of Fighting Traffic, once warned, “There is a naïve view that AVs are in themselves beneficial. They can be beneficial only if we deliberately make them so.” Additionally, Bloomberg Philanthropies, a nonprofit spinoff of the Bloomberg data and media empire, has looked deeply at what’s happening to cities in its “Taming the Autonomous Vehicle” report. “AVs will … have widespread financial impacts,” it concludes. They may take away revenues like parking and threaten some city jobs (in both the government and private sectors) but also present opportunities for new employment – e.g., construction replacing parking structures or other work building the infrastructure AVs require.
Cities are already looking at ways of dealing with this transition to a new mobility. Congestion pricing is already being implemented in London. And, while current fees are based on the emissions level of an engine, in the future they could be tied to autonomous operation. Other preferential pricing could either encourage AVs, discourage other vehicles, or shape the type of AVs that cruise into the city. The building of the city of the future is already underway, but there are still two divergent paths AVs could take. One is the “promised land,” where the downtown is revitalized through better land use and everyone has access to AVs that flow seamlessly through town. The alternative is a dystopian city of uncontrolled driverless vehicles draining city coffers, clogging traffic lanes, harming pedestrians and bicyclists and killing off mass transit. The choice between those two paths will be determined by decisions city residents and leaders make over the next few years. Autonomous vehicles are already starting to appear, but whether they’re welcomed and channeled to become a productive part of a new city or a thorn in the municipality’s side will be up to the direction of each city. ■
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GLOBAL tech zone
Cyber Literacy Journeys North In this special Global Tech Zone feature, we take a look at what’s behind New Brunswick, Canada’s booming cybersecurity sector.
Brian Burke
By Everin Draper
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“Cybercrime, by definition, is the greatest threat to every profession, every industry, every company in the world.”
toolset for automated security analysis and risk management.
This was the bold statement made by IBM CEO and Founder Ginni Rometty at the 2015 IBM Security Summit in New York City. This claim isn’t without support. Cybersecurity Ventures released a study suggesting that the cost of cybercrime could increase to $6 trillion globally by 2021. And this news is only made worse by the security firm ISACA’s 2016 report claiming there will be a global shortage of cyber security professionals of 2 million by 2019. This gulf between the severity of the problem and society’s lack of cyber knowledge has led security companies like IBM to expand their operations and further promote the importance of cybersecurity – and not just in the U.S. In fact, in 2009, IBM purchased the Fredericton-based cybersecurity firm Q1 Labs for an estimated $600 million, one of the largest technology acquisitions in Canadian history. Shortly after that, IBM invested in a multimillion-dollar collaborative research agreement with the University of New Brunswick (UNB) Information Security Center of Excellence to develop an intelligent
But, what was it about New Brunswick that caught the lasting attention of one of the largest cybersecurity firms in North America? One of the main factors at play is the province’s long-term investment in computer science. As David Shipley, CEO of Beauceron and past cyber lead at UNB claimed, “There’s a bit of a track record of innovation in cybersecurity in New Brunswick.”
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In the 1960s, UNB hired their first faculty member to officially begin their computer science program, which has now grown into one of Canada’s leading computer science faculties and catalyst of the Canadian Institute for Cybersecurity. In order to accommodate the growing knowledge industry, Fredericton began developing Knowledge Park in 1995, which is Atlantic Canada’s largest technology and research park, hosting a bevy of companies, including CyberNB. In the ‘00s, Fredericton made some significant investments in digital infrastructure, making it the first city in Canada to provide free wireless connectivity. These investments have paid off, attracting
global companies through Canada’s Startup Visa Program, and earning Fredericton’s recognition as the ‘Startup Capital of Canada’ in 2016 by Startup Canada. “The government in New Brunswick decided that cybersecurity was a key economic development growth area,” explained Shipley. With a diverse array of industries and numerous global headquarters, New Brunswick became an ideal lab for cybersecurity innovation. “We’ve benefitted tremendously by having a culture and a business community here in New Brunswick that’s been very open to adopting new technologies,” Shipley said. “They’re feeling the pain of cybersecurity and they’re willing to try new approaches to make that pain better.” The key in New Brunswick is the combination of those developing cybersecurity technology with those willing to test and provide feedback on the products. Shipley, who founded Beauceron as a startup, admits that the government was very supportive by collaborating with them to ensure all parties
GLOBAL tech zone benefitted: “When we were an early adopter platform, they worked with us and they provided fantastic feedback to us on how to make our technology better. We delivered back to them significant value and risk reduction.”
understanding that “cybersecurity isn’t primarily a technology issue. It’s about people, process, and culture, just as much as it is about technology.” So, UNB and companies like Beauceron work to make cybersecurity accessible to all industries, creating a more cyber literate society. “Some of the things that we’re trying to do here in the province are create an empowered and aware society across the board, so general awareness is reducing our vulnerability, and then identifying the people who could ... protect others or organizations,” explained Shipley.
And, as the province’s cybersecurity industry grew, so did its workforce. Because of this, UNB began working to create an education pipeline into the industry. In a partnership with IBM, this first came to fruition with IBM’s Center for Advanced Studies, a collaborative research center shared by IBM and UNB. Most recently, in 2016, IBM Security brought their cybersecurity AI, Watson, to UNB in order to help with its development, making UNB one of only three institutions in Canada assisting IBM in training Watson.
gswell Ron Co
The key to cybersecurity education, according to Shipley, is
The combined effort of local government, education teaching coding in the K-12 school system, and local business have allowed New Brunswick to continue to be a leader in the cyber world. And, if cybercrime truly is the “greatest threat to every profession,” then it is vital that communities like New Brunswick continue to prioritize cybersecurity in order to eventually create a cyber sufficient, cyber literate society. ■
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O Data, Where Art Thou? By Everin Draper Not long after this story was written, it made its way to the cloud – shared with editors and designers before any ink hit the page. This manner of document sharing is in no way unique. Many workspaces and individuals are likely familiar with cloud-based services like Google Docs, iCloud, and Dropbox. Why pass USBs back and forth when you can just store and share content remotely? However, all of that information that we store in the cloud may not be as secure as we think. In the information age, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to keep track of personal data on the internet. While the cloud has made storage and computing more convenient for companies and individual users alike, it’s also brought along issues regarding the spreading and sharing of personal data. And, even with the increased usage of the cloud, many people still struggle to grasp the technology. According to Statista, the number of people who use the cloud is set to hit nearly two billion by 2018. The reality is that very little of the information posted or stored on the internet is completely private.
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Major hacking incidents (such as the recent Equifax breach) have forced U.S. citizens to realize that their personal information may not be as safe as they previously thought. And, when it comes to the cloud, many people don’t fully understand how to keep their storage secure. “I think the vast majority of Americans speak about the cloud, but far fewer truly understand what it is, possibly as little as 10 percent,” Dan Phillips, CEO and co-founder of CloudHealth Technologies, told Fox Business. While storing things in the cloud may be convenient, it may not be as straightforward as people believe. For example, refer to Google’s Terms of Service as of October 25, 2017: “When you upload, submit, store, send or receive content to or through our Services, you give Google (and those we work with) a worldwide license to use, host, store, reproduce, modify, create derivative works, … communicate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute such content.” The Terms of Service regarding storage for companies like Facebook and Dropbox read similarly, with users having to sacrifice security, privacy, and ownership in the name of convenience.
And, even though it’s unlikely that companies like Google, Facebook, or Dropbox would use personal information maliciously, it’s been proven time and time again that even large companies are vulnerable to hacking. Cloud storage has arguably exposed users to hacking risks more than ever before. Of course, logging off completely is one way to keep your information private, but, that just isn’t possible for most people. A more realistic option? One could establish their own personal cloud. There are companies out there that are currently working on developing technology that will allow people the convenience of cloud usage without the risk. One such example is Daplie, which establishes an in-home cloud service for your storage needs. By creating a personal cloud with Daplie Connect, users can store information while maintaining complete control over the data – meaning they can share whatever they want with whomever they choose. As the cloud only gets busier and leakier, it’s comforting to know that users are able to keep their most sensitive data close to the chest – that is, keeping their personal information personal. ■
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How Much is Your Life Worth?
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By Shawn Key
In the last year or so, I’ve seen a significant uptick in ransomware cases that involved the healthcare industry. Of all the 2016 malware attacks on the healthcare industry, 72 percent were caused by ransomware, according to the Verizon 2017 Data Breach Investigations Report. Most of the reports made public involve affected Windows systems along with attempts to collect crypto-currency payments to release the data which was encrypted by the various hackers. However, there is a much more sinister type of ransomware attack that is occurring. In fact, it may be deadly. I was contacted in 2017 to perform a security assessment for a French biomedical firm. This group was interested in a general assessment of its security posture, but more importantly, I was tasked to assess the security of critical medical devices, specifically kidney dialysis and life support systems which they manufactured. What I was able to hack was daunting. Modern scanners like Nessus yielded a small amount of moderate vulnerabilities. Upon deeper inspection, using manual processes and scripts of
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my own design, I was able to access the devices and assume control. I could modify settings. With little trouble, I could flat out shut the devices down. All of this I did remotely. Imagine getting a call from the hospital. “Mr. Smith, your father’s life support system was deactivated and we are sorry to inform you that your father has passed.” If this occurred via an exploit and ransomware infected the system, would the hospital pay the ransom in time? Depending on the dollar amount, could the hospital even afford the ransom demand? Would the hackers even release the control over the device once compensated? Would you or your loved one be physically harmed or even killed by this cyber attack? This scenario is terrifying. It’s also a possible reality. While the above scenario is a hypothetical, disruptive cyber attacks within the healthcare industry are occurring now. A Bayer Medred device was compromised via an electronic attack. A Bayer spokesperson confirmed it had received
two reports from customers in the U.S. with devices hit by the ransomware, but would not say which specific products were affected. “Operations at both sites were restored within 24 hours,” the spokesperson added. Twenty-four hours may be too long depending upon the medical device. In this case, a muchneeded MRI could have been delayed, causing irreparable harm or death to a critical patient. If this was a different type of device, such as a life support system component, fatality could occur within minutes. Going back to my assessment scenario, had I controlled the settings and chose not to alert anyone to a ransomware demand, I could have affected the speed of blood delivery and an array of other critical device tasks. My point is that a nefarious individual could choose a much more murderous path as opposed to simply demanding money. I always take my security engagement seriously. This one hit a little closer to home. You see, I have an implanted heart monitor. I rely on it to send data about my heart rhythms to a remote center
that analyzes my heart for arrhythmias. Like millions of IoT devices, my device is at risk. As I’ve often written and said, “the Internet of Things is also the Internet of Threats.” So what do we do? Are we once again simply at the mercy of security experts and product vendors to protect us? To a point, the answer is yes. But there is a rapidly growing technology cybersecurity sector referred to as “Specialized Threat Assessment and Protection” (STAP) that I believe is going to be a disruptive game changer. STAP doesn’t rely on signatures like anti-virus and anti-malware solutions do. It seeks out anomalous and polymorphic activity that hackers use to circumvent detection. While existing safeguards and countermeasures miss the mark, STAP solutions can detect the slightest change in a malicious file and alert administrators in near realtime. It also can work as an application plug-in (API) or indicator of compromise (IoC) funnel and work with an existing framework to quarantine or disable the malicious code. What
this means is this evolving, forward-thinking technology can be integrated into existing enterprise platforms and frameworks, leveraging the existing capital investments of an organization. This is a huge step forward for cybersecurity solutions as it allows the files on the enterprise and endpoints to be managed like data assets. The organization typically knows what and where its hardware devices are. It understands its software licensing. How often, though, does it really understand a real time picture of its files? Never. STAP solutions will now allow the continuous monitoring of every file on every device and will look for the slightest change in files that may be indicative of an attack. In a world where the difference between enterprise-wide infection and proliferation can be seconds, getting the jump actively as opposed to pro-actively can be the difference between an immediate quarantine of a device as opposed to a complete loss of availability across the enterprise.
iStockphoto/Natali_Mis
Cybersecurity and the devastating effects of hacks on the healthcare industry.
Per the aforementioned medical device security concerns, STAP can identify an attack before it propagates and affects the enterprise. Early identification is key, and by monitoring for and identifying anomalous activity, potential harm to the organization can be headed off. While no single solution can mitigate all vulnerabilities, it is encouraging to know that solutions like STAP are evolving to defend against attacks that equally are evolving in impact levels from nuisance to life threatening. Remember, we have to get it right every time. The hacker only has to get it right once. It’s more imperative than ever that the good guys win this battle. Your life may very well depend on it. ■ Shawn R. Key is the CEO and President of 21st Century Technologies, Inc., a HUBZone certified, small business cybersecurity company based in Luray, Virginia. He currently heads the training certification program at Stratford University.
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Google Gone Phishing
Major hacking events, like Equifax and WannaCry, have become mainstream occurrences. However, while these incidents garner the attention of the media, there are a bevy of small-scale, personal cyberattacks that do not receive as much press. In 2014, Google released a study showing just how pervasive individual account hacking was. At the time, according to the study, 30 percent of Google’s 294 participants had an email or social network account accessed by an unauthorized party. This shocking discovery may have set the stage for Google’s 2017 research, which eventually led to enhanced protection for millions of users.
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Using Google accounts as a reference, the company teamed up with UC Berkeley to improve their understanding of how hijackers steal information. For a whole year, from March 2016 to March 2017, researchers were able to track several black markets trading in third-party password breaches and blackhat tools used for phishing and keylogging. In total, the researchers discovered 788,000 credentials stolen by keylogging, 12 million by phishing, and 3.3 billion by third-party breaches. Additionally, they learned that 82 percent of phishing tools were capable of learning a user’s IP address and location, while 18 percent of phishing tools collected phone numbers as well as the device make and model.
iStockphoto/Anatoliy Babiy
At the end of the study, the researchers ranked phishing as the greatest risk to users, followed by keylogging, and, finally, third-party breaches. However, the report proved useful, allowing the company to secure 67 million vulnerable accounts. These disconcerting numbers indicate that, while the talk of the town may be centered around major hacking events, it’s vital that the public take notice of the breaches that happen at an individual level. ■
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Will the Face be the New Passport?
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In this digital age, it isn’t uncommon for personal privacy to be sacrificed in the name of convenience and security. For instance, TSA Precheck allows applicants to submit personal information and biometrics (fingerprints and facial images) in order to experience an expedited airport security process. Recently, however, TSA has set out to upgrade their system, and possibly change air travel all together.
iStockphoto/Spencer_Whalen
Starting in the summer of 2017, TSA launched pilot programs at the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport and the Denver International Airport that would determine whether fingerprints couldbybe used as the sole presented identification at airport security checkpoints. The participants were volunteers already accepted into the Precheck program. Now, TSA, among some airlines and airports, is looking to expand this operation, moving past fingerprints to facial recognition technology for identity verification. In fact, in early October 2017, U.S. Customs and Border Protection announced the temporary testing of facial recognition technology at the JFK International Airport. The system takes a photo of the traveler and then compares it to its database. A security process like this would almost completely negate the need for boarding passes and even identification while traveling. And, while this new process may help streamline airport security, there are many doubts. For instance, a key concern involves data breaches, where both government and private entities have proven vulnerable. When it comes to these breaches, a worst-case scenario is losing social security and bank account numbers, though, both of which can be replaced. Biometrics, however, are not so easy to just replace. And, of course, the new programs have faced many concerns regarding personal privacy. Regardless, this could be the very first nail in the coffin of paper ID. â–
Un rid Th e de n Snowboarding pioneer Jeremy Jones discusses his passion for pushing the envelope on the slopes.
By Kelsey Elgie-Domier Photo: Scott Serfas-Red Bull Content Pool
Jeremy Jones is a master of his craft and a force (on behalf) of nature. In addition to being one of the pioneers of big mountain riding, Jones has collected accolades like National Geographic’s prestigious “Adventurer of the Year” and Snowboarder Magazine’s “Best Big Mountain Rider of the Year” 10 times over. He’s also earned recognition from President Barack Obama for founding Protect Our Winters, a non-profit environmental organization charging towards positive climate action. As a globetrotting veteran of the sport, Jones has witnessed firsthand the grave effects of climate change on routine stops to some of the most remote terrain imaginable. Innovation & Tech Today: Mountain riding is about exploration and taking huge risks. Do you think this is the type of relentless pursuit that shapes a true big mountain rider? Jeremy Jones: I’ve spent my life kind of focused on going to places no one’s snowboarded before, and I think, at the heart of big mountain riding, that is a very important point to it. Always breaking new ground. It’s funny, I used to not be
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super concerned with, say, riding first descents, but over time I realized that you are definitively breaking new ground. When you are riding a mountain that’s never been ridden before … There’s no denying you’re going where no one has ever gone before. And so new lines are a big part of that. I&T Today: You seek the unridden, ultimate terrain. Could you describe what this looks like to you? JJ: It’s really interesting when you go into this unridden, untraveled part of the planet … It’s just the difference between being the second person to ride something and the first person that’s significant. There’s all this unknown, and there’s all this, “Guys, is this a good idea or a bad idea? Should I not be doing this?” And it’s one of those things, if you do make a mistake, and you don’t come home, it’s like, “God, why would you ever even think about riding that line?” But, if you go where you’re able to ride the mountain clean and beautifully, then, next thing you know, people are lined up to go and hit that line after you.
I&T Today: Since you’ve ceased using helicopters to get to your lines, you’ve really been able to sharpen your mountaineering skills. How has this strengthened your relationship with the mountains? JJ: Climbing these mountains under your own power and not using these machines, you have a stronger connection to the mountain. It’s much more important to have that stronger connection. Instead of, say, being on this hazardous slope for a couple minutes riding down, now you’re on the slope for hours on end. So, being really locked into the mountains is important and it is amazing … The really serious lines, I like to camp right in front of and just learn the moods, understand every little breath of wind that hits that mountain, or exactly how much snow falls in these storms, and it’s just made this much stronger connection to the mountains. I&T Today: How has tech aided in your search for the next big monster run? JJ: Tech continues to play a key role in both equipment – the snowboards that we’re riding,
Li ne Image courtesy of Clif Bar
Image courtesy of Clif Bar
specifically the splitboards which have been around for awhile – and then there’s been everything from bindings to skins to poles, this huge progression the last probably eight years. So the equipment’s better, the boots are better, the bindings are better, boards are better. And then also we’re seeing a much welcomed innovation on the backcountry front, or the snow-science front I should say. There’s been more tools on how to read the snowpack. There’s more people out there documenting what they’re seeing, so it’s kind of on all fronts … We have more tech and innovation to help us make better decisions out there. But still at the root of it is to get connected to the mountains, listen to what they’re telling you, wait for that right moment, and go and do what we’re trying to do and come home safe. I&T Today: You’re considered one of the pioneers of big mountain riding. What is one thing you’ve learned over the years that you wish you knew at the beginning of your career? JJ: [Laughs] Well, I’m considered a leader in
Image courtesy of Clif Bar
this space, but it is really important to note [that] I consider myself just one of many moving the ball a little bit forward from past generations, and I continue to always look to the generation in front of me, and the elders, and learn from them. And if I could tell myself one thing, it … I mean it’s tough, because you need all those hard lessons, and so I’m pretty fortunate to be here, exactly where I am now today, and you kind of can’t get there without those highs and lows. Just really taking care of my body is critical. You know people ask me like, “So what are you going to do when you’re done being a pro?” And it’s like, “I’m going to go snowboard.” There’s never been like this endgame of like, “Let’s put it all on the line and beat up your body and be a pro as long as possible and then you can retire.” For me, there’s a time when I won’t be getting a paycheck to snowboard, but that will not change my going out and snowboarding on a daily basis. I&T Today: You established yourself in the sport of snowboarding well before today’s technology was in play. Can you tell us what
this road has been like? How has tech enabled you to go further, deeper, and higher? JJ: Tech brings some convenience on a lot of fronts. The technology and the equipment we’re using, the technology in being able to read the snow also helps. It’s still hard to get out of a warm sleeping bag and go and climb up these mountains. To properly read the mountains you have to be really connected with the mountains, so in some ways tech really helps. Like for me, when I go into the mountains, I am going into a portal, and that is a spot to turn technology off. And occasionally there’s scenarios, whether it’s mapping or getting weather reports from a satellite device or what have you, where tech definitely helps, but it doesn’t replace common sense and being connected with the mountains. ■ To access the extended video interview or how you can get involved with Protect Our Winters, please visit www.innotechtoday.com/protectourwinters WINTER 2017 | INNOVATION & TECH TODAY
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Unplugged Spotlight: Redding, CA You wake up and you immediately gravitate to your phone, beginning to respond to the stockpile of notifications. Throughout the day, you find your eyes jumping from your phone screen to your computer screen and back. It’s time for a timeout from technology and the place to escape from it all is in Redding, California. Separate yourself from the screen by truly enjoying the fresh air of the great outdoors. Located in the heart of UpState California, Redding’s 225 miles of trails are waiting to be explored. Home to majestic waterfalls as tall as 220 feet and national and state parks with pristine mountain lakes, crystal clear rivers, and volcanoes, Redding’s beauty is unrivaled. And with Forbes referring to the area as one of the “Top 10 TroutFishing Towns in North America,” there’s at least one tech-free experience for you to try out right out of the gate. It’s not always easy to turn your smartphone off and realize the beauty of the world around you. However, an unplugged adventure through a destination like Redding can help you recharge your mind and body without having to recharge your iPhone. Whether you’re kayaking or boating across Whiskeytown Lake or Shasta Lake, trekking through trails on a mountain bike, or going for an easy stroll over the Sacramento River on the famous Sundial Bridge – one of the world’s largest sundials – Redding is the ideal spot to pick your head up from your phone screen and let the world around you slow down.
Point and Shoot
As discussed (see article above), the outdoors are often viewed as an off-thegrid refuge from our our constantly plugged-in world. However, entrepreneur Aaron Mayer felt that marrying high tech with low tech could work to enhance the outdoor experience and even encourage others to join in the fun. Installing an array of high-definition cameras, along with a sophisticated network of fiber optic cables, Mayer established High-Tech Hunts on a preserve in Bronson, Michigan. His goal? Turning what many view as a daunting feat (tracking game, learning terrain, and so on) into something accessible for casual participants. According to Mayer, who is himself an experienced hunter, information is perhaps the most critical aspect of the sport. For instance, without a deep knowledge of the area, along with herd movements, etc., it can be difficult to locate quarry. By introducing live video in key areas throughout the preserve’s hundreds of acres, Mayer’s enterprise gives hunters some high-tech help – all while incentivizing them to share their videos and experiences on social media. For enthusiasts, this amounts to something like starring in your own hunting show, airing on BuckFace, a hunting-focused social media platform where friends and family can follow the journey. For non-hunters, this dynamic also lifts the veil on the experience, potentially attracting newcomers to the sport and making sure that this tradition keeps pace with the times.
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Polar explorer Eric Larsen describes what it’s like to be one of the few to make the expedition to the North Pole, an increasingly changing climate. By P.K. French
With occupations ranging from “polar adventurer” to “expedition guide” to “dog musher,” Eric Larsen is truly a man without boundaries. A resident of Boulder, Colorado, Larsen led his very first expedition in 2008, traversing almost 600 miles in a mere 41 days while exploring the South Pole. In 2010, he also became the first person to ever complete the “three poles” challenge, visiting the North Pole, South Pole, and summit of Mt. Everest in the course of a year. We spoke with the experienced polar explorer about how traversing Everest differs from exploring the North Pole, climate change’s effect on nature, and the tech that helps him take on unbelievable adventures. Innovation & Tech Today: I think most people are familiar with Everest as the pinnacle of difficulty when it comes to exploration. How would you compare the trip up Everest to the expedition to the North Pole? Eric Larsen: I personally think it’s 10 times more difficult to go to the North Pole than Mt. Everest. Mt. Everest – now don’t get me wrong there’s objective hazards there. There’s ice fall that can happen; you can get crushed regardless of whatever you do.
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Top Left/Right: The rigorous journey to the North Pole requires an impressive amount of equipment. In order to manage it all, Larsen utilizes sleds for transportation. Right: Other than equipment, Larsen also recruits the help of fellow explorers and adventurers. Photo: Eric Larsen Explore
Climbing Mt. Everest, realistically, as it is now, there’s not a lot of work that you’re doing as a paying client, which is how most people are going now. They have a guide service; people are fixing ropes; Sherpas are carrying up their gear… They’re on Everest maybe 15 days [out of about] a two-month-long expedition. Those other times you’re in base camp. With the North Pole, on the other hand, every step is uncertainty. You’re always going into unknown conditions, and it’s just this very extreme environment that destroys everything. It destroys your gear eventually; it destroys your spirit; and it’s stressful because you don’t know what you’ll get into. And then the other part of it is simply just the camping is very difficult. It’s a super humid environment, surprisingly. We’re trying to constantly manage moisture. We can’t allow frost or moisture to build up in our clothes, so we have a limited amount of resources. I don’t want to say that Everest isn’t difficult, it’s just that the scale and scope of what that North Pole expedition is, it’s just so different than most trips today. It’s still a throwback to that old style where you’re literally on your own. I&T Today: Your expeditions north have brought a lot of light to the issue of climate change. Did you notice any significant changes between some of your recent trips?
EL: A lot of people think expeditions are my life (and they are), but I started out as a teacher – an environmental educator, more or less. I felt like it was a good experience, but we were only reaching a certain amount of people. I actually spent some time as a substitute teacher as well, and I didn’t really fit in a classroom, obviously… I have more on-the-ice, first-hand perspective in the Arctic than anybody else in recent times. I have [more than] a 10-year span from 2006 to [now]. I was just actually up at the North Pole last year. In simple terms, the character and the nature of the sea ice has changed dramatically. It’s thinner now. You don’t see it from the surface; you see it in some of the leads in the cracks in the ice block. You see that the surface is rougher, consistently…The temperatures are warmer too. Significantly warmer. I&T Today: With those conditions, gear is especially important. How has the technology involved in these expeditions evolved over the years? EL: There are two things about that trip. One thing is that the basic technology has not changed. You’re just literally brute force pulling your gear across the ice. On the flip side, the technology has changed dramatically in the things we can do. Obviously, the use of Kevlar in
our sleds, so we can have a sled that’s very lightweight as well as very strong. Some of the high-density plastics for runners as well. Then you just look at the electronics side of it, which is off the charts. I can be at the North Pole and be texting my wife. I&T Today: Have you ever Tweeted up there? EL: Yeah, actually I have. Almost every day we send out that stuff. And that sounds silly, but… I&T Today: It gets more people involved. EL: Exactly, and that’s the unique time we live in today. Not everybody has the desire to go to the North Pole and not change your underwear for two months. But that doesn’t mean that people aren’t interested in all these places. I think, even more so now, one of the thrilling things about adventure is to be able to share these experiences in real time, so the technology is critical. We used to do things where we would create a website based around this one trip and then try to get everybody to come to that website, and it was a huge effort to get an eyeball. Then we’d get done with the expedition, and we’d have to build up a new website and do the same thing. Now, social media just provides us these really robust platforms, and we can reach these different [ continues on page 170 ]
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Where Fun Meets
Adventure
Your daring side is itching to get out and explore Redding, an outdoor haven. Bike and hike our 225+ miles of trails that the San Francisco Chronicle called the “gem of the U.S. trail system.” For the truly adventurous try climbing Mt Shasta or Lassen Peak - the views wil leave you breathless! If you’re feeling courageous, your next vacation can become a reality in Redding – where fun meets adventure.
For more information, call (530) 365-7500 or go to VisitRedding.com
JOSH BERTRAND By P.K. French
HOOKED ON MODERN FISHING
A proud member of Bassmaster’s 30 Anglers Under 30, Josh Bertrand is a veteran of over 60 tournaments with multiple top 10 finishes. In addition to his superior fishing talents, Bertrand’s skill in securing sponsorships has benefitted his career tremendously, with his early partnership with Smokey Mountain Snuff helping to defray the costs of expensive equipment necessary for the tournament trail. We spoke with the pro angler about the influence of tech on the world of fishing. Innovation & Tech Today: People often view fishing and other outdoor activities as a way of getting unplugged. In the professional fishing world, how would you describe the relationship between technology and the sport? Josh Bertrand: It’s funny, because I totally agree with you, and it’s a great way to still get out and forget about what else is going on in life. For me, I do it for a living and any advantage I can find to help me catch bass is something that I need to use. Today’s day and age, there’s a lot more available than even 10 to 15 years ago. We’ve seen a big change in the amount of electronics that we use on and off the water, and it’s really important. And now it’s one of the things that, if you’re fishing competitively, it’s not necessarily even an advantage. It’s just
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literally what you have to do to keep up, because everyone does it. I&T Today: What’s an example of some specific technology that has helped advance the sport? JB: So, the main products that we use are the electronics on our boat. Sonar, mapping, basically, GPS fish finders. [I have] four 10- and 12-inch screens on my boat. And even going back 15 years, a seven-inch screen was huge, and it didn’t have near the capability that these units have.
“YOU’RE ABLE TO GET A REALLY GOOD IDEA OF WHERE TO START WORKING BEFORE YOU EVEN PUT YOUR BOAT IN THE WATER.”
…Even with all this stuff, the fish still have the edge. But, we’re able to see a lot more underwater than we used to. Basically, sonar companies like Garmin have gone out and they’ve taken their boat and put them on these bodies of water and charted the fishery. They’ve run sonar, and they build these really accurate underwater maps of the contours. And that helps an angler who’s going to a new
lake to know what the lake topography looks like and you kind of learn what you’re looking for depending on what kind of year, what type of lake, what type of fish…You’re able to get a really good idea of where to start working before you even put your boat in the water. I&T Today: How has social media influenced the sport? JB: It’s had a huge effect on who’s fishing, and the popularity. I was in high school not that long ago…It really wasn’t cool to be a fisherman back then. I didn’t go bragging to all my buddies on my baseball team that I liked fishing more than baseball. But now high school fishing has absolutely blown up. They have high school tournaments around the country that are getting three-, four-, five-hundred boats. I get messages from high school anglers daily. It’s actually been really awesome for the sport. A lot of people would probably assume that fishing is more or less a redneck sport, and the tournaments are not good for the fishery and stuff with so many guys going out there and catching fish. But we catch and release everything, and the more popular everything is on social media, the more we’re able to share that we care a lot about the conservation of the sport. ■
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GEAR GUIDE Power-Pole VISION Marine Accessory Management and MultiMedia Tablet - Winner of the 2017 IBEX Innovation Award for Marine Electronics, the PowerPole VISION allows multiple boat accessories to be connected and wirelessly controlled by one smart device. VISION is built on the Android platform for access to the web and thousands of apps via WiFi or cellular hotspot.
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Medical Tech in the Developing World A look at how new devices and applications are bringing more advanced healthcare to areas in need. By Scott Jung, Senior Editor of Medgadget While many smartphone users spend the majority of their screen time with apps like Angry Birds and Candy Crush, these pocket-sized supercomputers have so much more to offer for those with real needs – as evidenced by their use in the developing world’s healthcare system. Phone cameras, for instance, have even been repurposed for blood analysis. Indeed, with 400 million people lacking access to adequate care according to the World Health Organization, the search for resourceful ways to treat patients in poverty-stricken areas has led to incredible ingenuity. From paper microscopes to 3D-printed prosthetics, here are the ways new tech is revolutionizing healthcare for nations in need.
In just 90 seconds, the Paperfuge can sufficiently separate a blood sample as part of the process to diagnose malaria and other diseases, all for only 20 cents.
Paper or Plastic? Paper may slowly be disappearing when it comes to documents, books, and shopping bags, but it could one day be the way doctors diagnose some of a country’s most rampant diseases. One company called Foldscope has developed a microscope made largely of paper that costs as little as $0.57. During a pilot program in 2014, Foldscope distributed 50,000 microscopes to 135 countries. Recipients were able to identify counterfeit medicine, bacteria in water, and many other organisms that could potentially be harmful. Another Stanford company called Paperfuge has developed a 20-cent paper-based centrifuge, a kind of device that spins at high speeds to separate biological liquid samples. While most
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laboratory centrifuges use electricity and motors, Paperfuge is essentially a version of the classic whirligig toy made from paper, plastic, and string. A blood sample is placed in the middle of the Paperfuge disk which is then spun up to 125,000 revolutions per minute by pulling on two strings. In just 90 seconds, Paperfuge can sufficiently separate a blood sample as part of the process to diagnose malaria and other diseases. Additionally, a team of researchers at MIT have developed a $2 strip of paper that can diagnose ebola, dengue fever, and yellow fever. Using what is known as lateral flow technology (also used in pregnancy tests), a patient’s blood serum is applied to the strip and flows through it like
coffee through a filter. The serum interacts with special nanoparticles embedded in the strip which turn a specific color in the presence of a disease.
Powered by the Sun Realizing that many developing nations lack enough electricity to power the medical equipment we take for granted, a team out of MIT has harnessed the power of the sun by creating a solar-powered autoclave, a device common to hospitals and surgery centers that is used to sterilize surgical instruments. Called SolarClave, this autoclave doesn’t require any additional fuel or electricity and costs only about $400. By simplifying the process of sterilizing
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Top Left/Top Center: The Solar Ear allows users to recharge any type of hearing aids with the power of the sun. Top Right/Bottom Left: 3D printed hands from the e-NABLE project. Bottom Center/Bottom Right: This portable attachment allows any smartphone to immediately become a scope that can be used examine eyes, ears, and the mouth.
surgical instruments, the number of surgical procedures that rural clinics are able to perform could drastically increase as more sterilized instruments are available to use at a given time. Solar power is also restoring hearing to some of the 400 million hearing-impaired living in developing countries. A Brazilian company called Solar Ear has developed a hearing aid that uses a solar-powered charger and a rechargeable battery that can last up to two years instead of disposable batteries that typically last only a week. The company is focusing their efforts especially on children whose hearing impairment can severely affect their development.
Printing Medical Devices On-Demand 3D printing technology has already changed the way design and manufacturing is done, and it has huge potential to also disrupt healthcare by making devices more accessible, affordable, and personalized for the patient. Splints and casts for sprains and fractures can be printed on-demand directly at the clinic. Broken wheelchairs, crutches, and mobility aids can be quickly
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repaired with 3D-printed replacement parts. Companies such as Not Impossible Labs and e-NABLE are promoting the use of 3D printing to create prosthetic arms and other extremities that can be printed quickly and cheaply. And while the technology is still being researched here in the United States, it’s only a matter of time before we’ll see 3D-printed drugs and fully functional 3D-printed body parts.
Smartphone, M.D. According to a 2015 Pew Research report, over 24 percent of people living in developing nations own a smartphone. That’s a staggering statistic, considering that another study revealed that 11 percent of people worldwide lack access to safe and clean drinking water. But in many ways, access to smartphones is a good thing (see the article, “Smartphone, M.D.,” in our Summer 2017 issue). In many developing countries, the smartphone is becoming a hub for medical information, allowing rural doctors to diagnose patients and treat diseases in the most remote parts of the globe. One Pennsylvania-based company called Rijuven has developed an entire “Clinic in a Bag”
that contains up to eight smartphone-connected medical devices that can easily be carried to any location for a full medical exam. The “Clinic in a Bag” was trialed in rural Hyderbad, India in late 2015, where doctors were able to diagnose heart issues within minutes after an examination had taken place. Other companies are utilizing a smartphone’s powerful and portable camera by developing attachments that can turn the camera into a scope to examine the eyes, ears, and skin for a host of diseases. Another type of technology turns the smartphone into a portable diagnostic laboratory. Commonly referred to as “lab-onchip” technology, these devices are powered by a smartphone or the user themselves to analyze samples of blood or other biological fluids. By applying mechanical and electrical forces, the samples can be separated, mixed with other chemicals, imaged with sensors, and analyzed for the presence of diseases such as HIV and breast cancer. Best of all, labs-on-chips can be extremely inexpensive to manufacture; one version from Stanford costs as little as a penny and can be partially made with a standard inkjet printer. ■
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A Better Butter? By Louie Fox
Although it may not be common knowledge, a peanut allergy is much more than not being able to enjoy a PB and J or a peanut-packed candy bar. For people afflicted with peanut allergies, it means meticulously analyzing everything they eat for fear of contact with peanut products. And life with this condition can have dire consequences, as it also presents a constant risk of anaphylaxis, which constricts the airway and can even lead to death. While most parents are aware of the dangers of peanut allergies, they may not be aware that the condition is on the rise. Between 1997 and 2010, the number of children affected by peanut allergies grew from 0.4 to 1.4 percent, according to Mount Sinai Hospital food allergists. That number has increased since, with research from the American College of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology proposing that peanut allergies have grown 21 percent among children since 2010, with almost 2.5 percent of children in the U.S. now living with an allergy to peanuts. But why is this happening? It used to be a common belief that infant exposure to peanuts could play a part in peanut allergies down the road. In fact, according to The New York Times,
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Sandwich: iStockphoto/mphillips007
With peanut allergies growing more and more over the past 20 years, a proper alternative is needed now more than ever. pregnant and nursing women in the year 2000 were advised to stay away from ingesting peanuts. Interestingly, this way of thinking has reversed in recent years, as a recent study cited by the Times has claimed expectant mothers who consumed nut products had a lower risk of spreading allergies to their children. With the growing amount of children afflicted with peanut allergies and Food Allergy Research & Education reporting that approximately 40 percent of children with food allergies have experienced extreme reactions such as anaphylaxis, it’s time for a proper alternative. And WowButter looks to be just that. Made in a facility free of peanuts, gluten, tree nut, egg, and even dairy, WowButter is looking to have a spot in the pantry for peanut-free families. Rather than the standard ingredients that leave regular peanut butter out of reach for so many, WowButter is a mixture of whole toasted soy, cane sugar, sea salt, pressed soy oil, and palm oil. It may come as no surprise that peanuts are not included on that list. However, WowButter isn’t just looking to be a simple offshoot of peanut butter. Instead, they want to improve upon peanut butter. According
to WowButter President Scott Mahon, “We wanted to be a better-for-you spread for everybody. Something that they like the taste, the texture, and the nutrition aspects of. So, there’s a lot of people that are looking for something better than your traditional peanut butter.” With the growing number of children affected by peanut allergies and the strive to improve hypoallergenic foods, WowButter has found a way to take the “peanuts” out of peanut butter and attempt to improve it so that anyone, allergic or not, can enjoy it. ■
Health Tech
Techno-Lullabies Presented by
By James Dern
Vlue | Dreamstime.com
With sleep deprivation officially ‘a public health problem,’ tech companies are stepping up to create a solution.
In American work culture, sleep deprivation is both a badge and a bane. Everyone knows that not getting enough sleep is a generally negative thing, yet those who burn the candle at both ends are also acknowledged for their stalwart work ethic. For instance, how many rags-toriches stories include the detail “and all while getting plenty of shuteye?” The current president of the United States, as a former butler recalled somewhat boastfully, has a habit of sleeping only four hours a night. Tales of extremes like this notwithstanding, the problem of everyday Americans not catching Zs represents a very real concern. According to the CDC – which made headlines last year for dubbing sleep deprivation “a public health
problem” – nearly one third of Americans get fewer than the minimum seven hours of sleep. It’s a deficit that poses risks for a variety of health concerns, including diabetes, obesity, and even heart disease. Of course, there are other problems associated with not getting your recommended dream dosage, problems that can affect one’s performance in the world of work, where staying late at the office is so praiseworthy. According to a study published by the National Center for Biotechnology Information, sleep deprivation can impair attention, long-term memory, decision-making, and vigilance. It’s no surprise then that last year The Harvard Business Review cited research indicating that a lack of sleep could
severely harm a working dynamic, concluding that “sleep-deprived leaders are less inspiring, and sleep-deprived team members are harder to inspire.” The causes for this national epidemic seem to be myriad, with scholars citing everything from increased work hours to a problem with America’s cultural conception of sleep in general. According to neuroscientist Dr. Amy Serin, who spoke with us on a variety of issues related to sleep, “People assume that they’re just not going to sleep. ‘Everybody is struggling with sleep. Sleep is so hard.’ It’s like this elusive thing now in our culture. It’s so interesting because it’s quite a natural state. I think we need to change that mindset.”
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Health Tech Presented by
[ Techno-Lullabies con’t ]
Technology plays a large part in this conversation. According to a study commissioned by the National Sleep Foundation, many people across the U.S. use computers and TVs right before they fall asleep. However, even though old episodes of Star Trek may have a somniferous effect, researchers have pointed out that the addition of artificial light can work to interrupt one’s natural sleep cycle by affecting melatonin levels. According to Dr. Serin, “People think, ‘Oh, if I just lower or dim my screen, then that’ll be okay.’ It’s still not okay…There’s enough blue ultraviolet light to trick your body into thinking that it’s daytime.” By contrast, there have been many technological aids released in the last few years to alleviate America’s sleep problem. Aside from what you’d expect (new mattresses and pillows), there are numerous specialized gizmos that promise to help people get to sleep. For instance, companies like Sleepace, Fatigue Science, and Reverie are just a few of the brands promoting their products’
ability to induce, enhance, or track sleep habits. The surge of sleep tech over the last few years has even had an effect on the YouTube market, with the emergence of “ASMR” channels, where YouTubers can make a career merely by whispering into a microphone for four hours in an attempt to trigger autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR), a state that can be therapeutic for people who need sleep. As this is written, the YouTube channel “ASMR Darling” has accrued over one million subscribers. For her part, Dr. Serin co-founded the company, The Touchpoint Solution, to create unique stress wearables that can also be used to instate deep sleep and to improve the onset of sleep. “There’s a network in your brain called the salience network,” Serin says. “This network decides what to do with sensory information … It’s picking and choosing not only what you’re supposed to be paying attention to, but it’s also picking and choosing what to do with your nervous system activation. It’s deciding whether or not you’re
calm or stressed based on what’s coming in. By safely and non-invasively altering what this network does, wearable gadgets can actually help the user fall asleep and get better quality sleep.” So, by finding the right frequencies, Dr. Serin and her team have been able to use micro-vibrations on a wearable device to cause a shift in how a person feels while he/she is trying to get to sleep: “They’re reporting 71 percent stress reduction in 30 seconds. That’s with the sample of 1,087 users, actual users,” she says, “this replicates our clinical findings and also brain maps that show a reduction in fast wave activity that is counterproductive when you are trying to sleep.” It seems that, as Americans become more aware of the sleep deprivation problem, more companies are stepping up to solve it, naturally taking advantage of an increasingly lucrative consumer base. Safe to say, this is definitely not an industry anyone should sleep on. ■
FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies Preparing for emerging pandemics starts with a next-generation manufacturing facility The onslaught of modern pandemics such as bird flu, Ebola, and SARS, prompted by globalization has led to an increased spread of viruses across the globe. To combat the next major pandemic, the U.S.’s plan for readiness starts with vaccine manufacturing. In fact, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is helping to improve the nation’s pandemic influenza preparedness through well-established domestic vaccine manufacturing. Emerging disease threats require the production of a large number of viral-based products at relatively small scale. New challenges call for new measures; a novel type of vaccine manufacturing is required to fill the contract development and manufacturing role for live viral vaccines/products. Achieving cost-effective and rapid production of various new vaccines under high-containment conditions calls for the next-generation vaccine
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manufacturing facility. In 2018, FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies will begin operations in its new manufacturing facility in College Station, Texas. The site will include a dedicated viral products facility. Fujifilm’s manufacturing capabilities include viral and microbial vaccine production, with state-of-theart segregation and containment in flexible purpose-built facilities. Just like Fujifilm’s new innovative facility is equipped for viral vaccine production, all nextgeneration manufacturing facilities should include the following four elements: 1. Zone Control: A design philosophy that provides for proper airflow, movement of personnel, and containment of live viral agents. 2. Controlling Spills: Facility design should intrinsically limit the impact of spills with
advancements such as welded floors, walls, and down ramps to control infectious materials. 3. Design with Procedures in Mind: From the outset, senior stakeholders should be in compliance with employee, environment, and government regulations when designing facility. 4. Mobile Cleanrooms: Implementing prequalified, prefabricated, and standardized mobile cleanrooms provides the flexibility, scalability, and high-containment levels required for viral manufacturing. With the right implementation of mobile cleanrooms, design elements, and people, these next-generation manufacturing facilities can be used to potentially save many lives. ■
Health Tech Presented by
The Hidden Threat of Office Bullying A hostile work environment, as you can imagine, is a detriment to productivity and office morale alike, making the place where people spend 40 plus hours a week a living nightmare. However, a recent study may show that bullying and violence in the workplace can have effects well beyond one’s mental state. According to a new research, working in such an environment can increase one’s risks of type 2 diabetes. The research, which was published in the European Association for the Study of Diabetes’ journal Diabetologia, resulted from a study conducted by the University of Copenhagen’s
Tianwei Xu, along with collaborators. The study was carried out by distributing questionnaires to 19,280 men and 26,625 women to determine the link between type 2 diabetes and workplace bullying, including everything from colleagues’ unpleasant behavior to violent threats and even violent actions. The researchers discovered that those bullied at work are 46 percent more at risk for type 2 diabetes. As the study’s authors claimed, “Being bullied is regarded as a severe social stressor that may activate the stress response and lead to a range of downstream biological processes that may contribute towards the risk of diabetes.”
Interestingly enough, this isn’t the first time that studies have linked workplace issues to a heightened risk of diabetes, as lack of job security and extended hours have similarly been associated with the condition. Clearly, this is an issue that needs more widespread recognition as, in 2015, the American Diabetes Organization reported that nearly 10 percent of the U.S. population suffered from diabetes. Considering Forbes reported in 2016 that nearly 75 percent of surveyed employees have been victims of workplace bullying, clearly some positive changes need to be made.
■
iStockphoto/chargerv8
Touchpoints – Harnessing a frequency scientifically proven to reduce stress in as few as 30 seconds, these bracelets by Touchpoint Solution offer a drug-free way to catch some Zs. And, with sleep deprivation affecting over half of U.S. citizens, they couldn’t have come at a better time. $135
Health Tech Presented by
Reverie Bed Of The Future – It may sound like science fiction, but Reverie’s Bed of the Future allows you to control its features with mind control or voice command. Unidirectional speakers allow bedmates to listen to different audio, and maybe even drown out your partner’s snoring. [concept features not yet available in retail]
Bloomlife – The very first of its kind, Bloomlife is a pregnancy wearable that provides vital information to expectant mothers. Comfortable to wear, Bloomlife allows you to track contraction patterns, discover your baseline, and even watch contractions in real time. $57 (Initial Setup)
Ring Relief – If you suffer from tinnitus, you know how uncomfortable the ringing and pounding in your ears can be. Luckily, Ring Relief is here to help. Coming in drops and tablets, this solution will put you on the path to relief. $10
LifeSpan Bike Table – Revitalize your office with a table that can keep people moving together. The LifeSpan Bike Table allows for both ease in movement and collaboration while working long days. This table will allow you to create an office culture of activity and engagement.
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INNOVATION & TECH TODAY | WINTER 2017
NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON
GETS IN THE GAME WITH
SPACE ODYSSEY
By John Gaudiosi
Photos courtesy of What Not Entertainment
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N
eil deGrasse Tyson has conquered books, radio, television, and even movies, showcasing his scientific prowess throughout. And now, the worldrenowned astrophysicist is making a foray into the gaming world. He’s partnered with developer Big Red Button Entertainment to create a new PC and virtual reality game, Space Odyssey. The project recently passed a Kickstarter funding round of over $350,000 and is currently in full development. Tyson, who came up with the idea for the game that will blend science with traditional gameplay, talks about his venture into science and gaming in this exclusive interview. Innovation & Tech Today: Can you explain how real science plays a part in this game?
Neil deGrasse Tyson: One of my guiding edicts is drawn from Mark Twain, who said, “First, get your facts straight; then distort them at your leisure.” This is how movie producers should do it, if they’re about the science. Do you get the science right and then use your imagination to go beyond that, and distort them in the proper foundations that you were given? I see the laws of the universe as liberating on the creative mind, not as constraining it. There was a biologist philosopher named J.B.S. Haldane who said the universe is not only stranger than we have imagined; it may be stranger than we can imagine. So, I see Space Odyssey as landing in what is otherwise a very rich landscape of highly entertaining, highly challenging games, but you will get to apply laws of physics. So, you come for the entertainment, but you stay
for the science literacy. We spend so much free time playing games, but also time we should have [spent] studying or working. So at least Space Odyssey will allow you to come away more deeply and more insightfully connected to what science is and how and why it works, and the full operations of nature. I&T Today: There’s a huge number of gamers today, and 25 percent of them are over 50. How are you developing this game for a diverse audience? NdT: That’s a very important question because when we design museum exhibits we have the same challenge. I’m also director of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History, and the challenge is “Here’s a family with kids, parents, and grandparents.” Some like science and some WINTER 2017 | INNOVATION & TECH TODAY
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Neil deGrasse Tyson takes players to a myriad of unique worlds ripe for exploration.
don’t. What is the balance of information that intersects such that everybody gets something meaningful out of it? If the kids are curious, as most kids age 7, 8, and older are, they’re old enough to start questioning whether an adult is correct in what they say. So there’s no reason why a game couldn’t reach that age group because there are certain laws of physics that are a little more accessible than others. So you end up playing the game with the command of nature that is commensurate with your life experience, and as your life experience in the game grows, you then bring on more and more tools at your disposal and you’ll know how to use them for your own benefit, how to use them to block others and their efforts if it’s a conflict zone.
future of virtual reality as currently conceived will be. I don’t claim sufficient expertise for that uncertainty to carry any weight at all. With regard to virtual reality, it’s more just my personal skepticism based on casual consumerism. There are occasions where there is value to experience something as a group, and of course with gaming where there are other gamers and all you need are goggles, I get that. But, at the end of the day, I just wonder whether it’s the same kind of hopeful thing as 3D was in the movie theaters back in the 1950s, with its revival in recent decades. But now it’s not every movie that’s in 3D as they had predicted even just five or 10 years ago, so I just wonder if it’s something that will have the staying power that people imagine for it. But, regardless, we want to put a stake in that space.
I&T Today: What are your thoughts on virtual reality?
I&T Today: Where does VR fit into the overall Space Odyssey franchise that you’re building?
NdT: It’s been said that a planetarium experience was the very first virtual reality thing ever, and of course that would have been before virtual reality came to us via goggles or any other headset. I’m still not completely certain what the
NdT: We have very real VR opportunities in this instance, which will serve dual purposes. It’s to stake a claim in that space literally and figuratively, but also it allows us to start building
assets that we know will have value in the PC game itself. It would not make sense if there was not an overlap of these two exercises. It needs to be deep and it needs to be real and it needs to be palpable. I’m sort of making this up at this early stage, but you can imagine we would have full data sets for some of these planets and you would go check it out first in a VR experience. That would be more of a recon mission. Then coming out of the VR experience you would then enter the gaming world itself, where you build and explore and create and fight, whatever are the parameters set up for where you’re going and why. Now it could morph to be something more significant, but right at this moment that’s how I’m imagining it. And, by the way, I’m quite responsive to others who are deeply in the gaming community whose expertise has been brought to the table on this because my primary role in this is to bring the scientific and educational sensibilities and expertise that I’ve gleaned. I’m not programming the computers. I’m not the gaming wizard. We used Kickstarter to ask gamers if they were interested in supporting this idea. I&T Today: How are you reaching out to other scientists for Space Odyssey? NdT: I don’t claim full expertise in all these branches of science. I’ve also brought the Star Talk All-Stars in for this game, who are fellow scientists from different fields that have the expertise to talk about these topics. In our stable of scientists we have anthropologists, primatologists, neurologists, neurophysicists, and planetary geologists. They will all be tapped to contribute in their own particular expertise and infuse the game with the scientific detail that it needs and requires in our vision. ■
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RAIDERS OF THE LOST MEDIA
Media artifacts you will never see, play, or listen to. By Anthony Elio In the internet era, it seems as though nothing is truly lost. Whether it’s an episode of a shortlived television show or a bootleg performance from a concert, a simple search lets you immediately view incredible amounts of older media. However, that doesn’t mean that absolutely everything is readily available. Whether they were never officially released, cancelled, or even stolen, here are the pieces of media you’ll most likely never get your hands on.
Super Metallica Bros. When you think of Metallica and lost media, you’d probably expect some kind of unreleased song or album. Well, as it turns out, shredding solos and aggressive live shows weren’t hardcore enough. Featuring the band members living in a post-apocalyptic wasteland, Metallica: Damage Inc. was a developing video game that included elements of Grand Theft Auto before cancellation. One can only assume the final boss would have been Napster’s Sean Parker.
Jimi’s Missing Riffs Jimi Hendrix is acclaimed as one of the greatest guitarists in rock ‘n’ roll. Before his passing in 1970, Hendrix had recorded 16 songs under the title Black Gold with nothing more than an acoustic guitar, giving the tapes to his drummer Mitch Mitchell, who held onto them for decades.
While some songs from the recordings were eventually released, the remainder of Black Gold remains unavailable to the public. One could only hope these riffs will someday see the light of day, effectively bringing world peace.
Boba Fett Begins Disney’s purchase of LucasFilm has been undoubtedly successful so far. However, a little over a year after the acquisition, Disney shut down video game development studio LucasArts, the company responsible for Grim Fandango and a number of Star Wars games. This also guaranteed the cancellation of Star Wars 1313, a heavily hyped LucasArts game in production. The game would be a mature take on the franchise, following the mysterious Boba Fett through the seedy underbelly of the galaxy’s bounty hunting community. With a boring premise like that, surely nobody would have bought it.
Super Mario Real World Super Mario games generally take place in imaginative cartoon worlds, complete with talking dinosaurs and size-altering mushrooms. So, of course, the next logical step would be taking the platforming plumber into the mundane real world. Titled Mario Takes America, the Phillips CDi game looked to combine the
classic platformer with real-world photography. However, between the commercial failure of the Phillips CDi, funding slashes, and a repossession of all assets by the Canadian Imperial Bank of Canada, whatever remains of the game is believed to be in the Bank’s archives. Barring a National Treasure-style heist, that’s where they will likely remain.
Garfield vs. The Apocalypse Garfield is your typical comic strip that focuses on a gluttonous feline with a distaste for Mondays and love of lasagna. So, naturally, it is the ideal franchise for a grim end-of-the-world storyline. Entitled Garfield: Judgment Day, the rumored partially completed animated film was intended to explore why animals don’t actually speak to humans and whether that should change amidst the coming of a deadly storm. Ahh, classic Garfield.
A Dark Day For Green Day Before their gigantic rock opera American Idiot, Green Day was on pace to release a 2003 album entitled Cigarettes and Valentines. Although the recording was nearly completed, the tapes were reportedly stolen from the studio before the album saw an official release. To the thief’s credit, it was 2003 – not everyone was stealing music online yet. ■
Photos: Metallica: Damage, Inc./Calum Alexander Watt, Jimi Hendrix/Wikipedia Commons, Boba Fett/Original character ©Lucas Films, Mario courtesy of Nintendo, Garfield/©Jim Davis, Green Day/ Frank-Maddocks|BB Gun Press
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DREAMHACK DESCENDS ON DENVER
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Since holding its first event in 1994 in Malüng, Sweden, DreamHack has become known for its focus on all things gaming. Since then, the event has grown into “the world’s largest digital festival,” attracting huge crowds of gamers to events in Sweden, France, Germany, and the United States. However, this October saw the event making its first appearance in Denver, bringing competitive gaming to the massive National Western Complex. Featuring competitions in some of the most competitive eSports games around, such as Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Hearthstone, and Street Fighter V, the event had a focus well beyond the casual crowd. And these matches were for much more than just bragging rights. The Halo tournament alone, which originally featured a $100,000 prize, doubled to $200,000 due to a crowdfunding push. And to think your parents told you those hours of gaming were a waste of time. Innovation & Tech Today didn’t just cover the event. Executive Editor Paul French, our own amateur Tekken player, challenged DreamHack Fighting Game Community (FGC) Director Alex Jebailey to the competitive
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fighting game. Pulling off a major upset, French defeated Jebailey using capoeira warrior Eddy Gordo. “Hooray for button mashing!” the victorious editor announced. Additionally, members of our team challenged Jason “Mew2King” Zimmerman, who Red Bull named the highest earning Super Smash Bros player in 2016, to a game of his top title. Unsurprisingly, three casual Super Smash Bros players were no match for someone who makes hundreds of thousands of dollars playing the game. In addition to housing a large number of gaming celebrations, DreamHack Denver 2017 also presented the opportunity for a large number of independent developers to show off their projects in the Indie Zone area. Some of these include the multiplayer game Battlesloths 2025: The Great Pizza Wars, the multisports-equipment title Super Slam Dunk Touchdown, and even the tabletop game Hey There, Fatty. It’s just a shame the developers decided to go with such boring names.
Another major highlight of the 2017 event was the DreamHack Cosplay Contest. Featuring three tiers of cosplayers, the contest kept the same air of competitiveness as the eSports events. Additionally, the convention’s numerous cosplayers ended up being a benefit to all event-goers, as they were able to see Princess Peach, the Ghostbusters, and Mega Man traverse the complex. How many events can say that? The three-day event was capped off on Sunday with two major names in the world of comics: Kris Wilson and Shen, creators of Cyanide & Happiness and Owlturd Comix respectively. Tackling the complexities of controversial humor, the two creative minds provided their insight at the DreamArena panel area. While it may not be common knowledge, the DreamHack 2017 keynote showed that people that enjoy video gaming often also enjoy comics. Who would have known? ■ Find out if DreamHack is coming to a city near you in 2018 at www.dreamhack.com WINTER 2017 | INNOVATION & TECH TODAY
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SCORING HIGH SCORES
WE SPEAK TO SOME OF THE VIDEO GAME INDUSTRY’S CATCHIEST COMPOSERS. By Anthony Elio
Think about the first time you played Super Mario Bros. Hands wrapped around the NES controller, you found yourself hopping over enemies and collecting power-ups and coins along the way. However, while you were invested in getting the 8-bit plumber through the level, you may have realized a certain sense of synergy between the sounds around you and the virtual worlds you explored. This is thanks to one of the catchiest themes of all time playing in the background, a piece of music as synonymous with video gaming as the title it appears in: the World 1-1 theme. This is the wonder of video game composing, an essential piece of smartphone indie titles and triple-A console releases alike. We had the opportunity to speak with three of the greatest composers in video gaming, getting inside perspective on what it’s like to provide the background sound as you jump from platform to platform, adventure through expansive worlds, and gather every collectible you can. 88
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DAVID WISE GREATEST HITS: “Stickerbrush Symphony” from Donkey Country 2, “Darkmoon Caverns” from Diddy Kong Racing, “Dark Ice Mines” from Star Fox Adventures START: I was working at a music shop in the Midlands in the U.K., and two gentlemen came in to buy some audio gear. I sold them a sequence, a Yamaha certified music computer, a keyboard, few of the bits, and they asked if I had an office. So I thought, okay…so we went upstairs to the office, and they wanted to employ me seeing as I knew how to use the gear. That’s how I got my break, and that was Tim and Chris Stamper from Rare. PROCESS: Normally it runs something like this…People phone me up and say, “We’ve got a great idea for a game.” And I go, “Okay, fine. Let’s have a look.” They’ll either send me a video or they’ll send a build if we’re really lucky, or when things have progressed a bit. We take it from there, and normally I’ll start playing the game without any music at all just to get a feel for the way it plays. You get an idea of the rhythm that the game will need at that point. As soon as I see and start
INON ZUR GREATEST HITS: Fallout 4 soundtrack, “Leliana’s Song” from Dragon Age: Origins, “Healed Land” from Prince Of Persia START: I was pretty heavily involved in music, producing music for TV and some movies, but mainly TV, and kid’s programming. In fact, from ‘93 to 2001 I wrote [music for] hundreds of kids’ TV episodes, mainly for Power Rangers, Beetleborgs, Eskaflowne, Mystic Knights of Tir Nor Nog, and others. I was contacted about it by a person who then became my first agent, Bob Rice, who in 1996 presented himself as an agent for composers for video game music. And I was like, “Really! Nothing that I could relate to … I don’t think I’m really interested.” But I was lucky that he was really persistent, and he told me about all the opportunities in this new field. And eventually, I was convinced and since then, I never looked back.
PROCESS: The process is a bit different. I mean, you need to write a piece of music. But, when it comes to video games, it’s a bit more involved. And in many cases, you maybe get some descriptions of what’s going on. Maybe you get some artwork, maybe you get the synopsis of the story. But other than this, you don’t see anything. When I’m composing for film or TV, I see the picture, and right away I can hear the music that should play and support it.
playing a game I’m getting ideas and start writing almost immediately.
INSPIRATION: At some point a composer will get stuck. I’m very fortunate in that I don’t normally have that problem. It’s normally the opposite where I’ve got far too many ideas and I’m having to sift through the ones that I like the best or the ones that I can ditch. It’s normally when you see all the graphics. There’s some incredibly talented people that we work with, and when you see some of the concept art, it immediately brings ideas to mind, and you can almost hear the music as you’re looking at the images that they’re supplying. It’s very good to work in a creative environment because people are always bringing different things to the party.
ADVICE: Give up. Become an accountant… No. I think it’s great for anybody wanting to go into a creative industry. Obviously they’ve got to learn their craft, and it’s very hard because there’s a lot to learn. For me, I think the biggest nugget of advice I could give anybody wanting to learn is, especially if you were another musician, don’t hang around with other musicians. Hang around with artists. Hang around with game designers. Hang around with everybody but musicians, and go and make yourself useful.
With video games, it’s very, very different. So, the process starts from understanding what exactly we want to say. What is the story behind the scene? What is the whole story behind the game? And how can the music basically support the story, and in what way?
INSPIRATION: First is just the sheer story, the emotions behind the story. This is something that really always gets my juices going. And the other thing is actually preliminary art work. Even just basically location shots of where these things are taking place always evoke in me something that helps bring the music to life. ADVICE: Nobody could step into our industry right now without really having a lot of knowledge in music and computers, and in everything that has to do with scoring. No matter if it’s movies, TV, or computer games. You’ve got to be really capable…you’ve got to really love what you’re doing. If you don’t love what you’re doing, then this industry, in particular, and anything that has to do with composition, is a tough world. The competition is so hard. But, if you love it, you will keep on fighting, and then eventually, you’ll find what you’re looking for. WINTER 2017 | INNOVATION & TECH TODAY
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GRANT KIRKHOPE GREATEST HITS: “DK Rap” from Donkey Kong 64, “Spiral Mountain” from Banjo Kazooie, “Bedtime Story” from Viva Piñata 2 START: It was by complete fluke. So, after leaving college, I left at 22 and I spent 11 years after that sort of on and off employment benefit. Played in rock bands and different bands with varying degrees of success. My friend, who was a keyboard player in one of the local bands that I played for, got a job at Rare as a composer. So he said to me, “You know, Greg, you’ve been on unemployment benefit for such a long time. Don’t you think you should maybe try to get a job? Why don’t you try to do what I’m doing? I’m working at Rare writing music for video games.” I spent about a year writing music that I thought was appropriate for games. And I sent Rare five cassette tapes over the course of that year. And I never got a reply. And then out of the blue I got a letter saying, “Please come to interview.” I couldn’t believe it.
PROCESS: You know, we haven’t changed that since the day I started. My first day at Rare was ‘95 October. And I haven’t changed from that day really. I just sit down at my keyboard and write up a sample of a french horn or a bassoon or some strings or whatever. I just mess around until I hear something that I like. I really just do that. I think that being a staff composer at Rare for 12 years, I got into a really good mindset. It’s a job, right? You go to work at nine in the morning and you start at nine and you start writing music on the dot and you finish at five. INFLUENCE: When I first started back at Rare, I think Danny Elfman was a big influence on me. His score, that turned on the light at the top of my head. Going, “Wow, this is amazing, you know.” …it taught me a thing about how to write dark music, but in a jolly way. So, I listened to Beetlejuice a lot back then. So that showed how you could make some really dark harmony out of really kind of jaunty, jolly nature. Which was great for writing spooky levels in Banjo Kazooie. Because I could use dark harmony and not scare anybody, because it was going on in “oompa, oompa, jolly jolly.” It was a great way of disguising the dark harmony. By giving it kind of an upbeat rhythmic feel to it. So people could really identify with it… And I got that all from Danny Elfman.
ADVICE: Make sure that you can write in every different style available. Because just being a dance guy isn’t going to get you anywhere. We used to get quite a lot of EDM stuff, you know, sent to Rare. And it was always fantastic. But that was the only thing they could do. As a games guy you’ve got to be able to write everything. And second, I’d say always say yes. Even if you haven’t got a clue what they want you to do. Or the style of music. Just say, “Yeah, I write that all the time; it’s my favorite style of music, I’ll do it all day.” Even if you don’t know what it is. Just never say no. Don’t even say, “Um.” Because if you kind of go “uhh,” there’s a guy behind you that will say yes and do it straight away. ■
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WILL.I.AM Has a Feeling About Augmented Reality By John Gaudiosi
William James Adams is better known as will.i.am to millions of music fans around the world for hits like “Let’s Get it Started” and “Where is the Love?” among many others. However, this singer-songwriter has also branched out into a diverse array of media. In fact, the co-founder of The Black Eyed Peas recently made the trek to the San Diego Comic Con to launch his new Marvel comic book, Masters of the Sun, and VR Con, a celebration of cutting-edge virtual and augmented reality technologies. Furthermore, Adams recently invested in AR startup Mira, which launched its Prism AR smartglasses this fall for iPhone and iPad users. That investment has inspired The Black Eyed Peas to integrate AR into their 2018 world tour. In this exclusive interview, Adams talks about the impact this new technology will have on live music and his specific plans for incorporating it into his band’s upcoming tour. Innovation & Tech Today: AR is going to change the way people experience concerts. Can you talk about what you have planned for The Black Eyed Peas tour? will.i.am: Yeah, if you’ve been to a concert recently, you know damn well that everyone is watching the show through this little freaking lens [brandishes his phone]. Why do we do that? The reason we do that is because we know in our freaking DNA that something is coming. And that something is an AR layer that is going
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to make sense of everyone’s behavior of watching a show through their phone. From when you wake up until you go to sleep, you have this new lens that we’re all thumbing through and it’s conditioned us to look through that same lens when we go to concerts and live events. It’s like we forgot that we could just experience concerts with our eyes, but it’s cool. The augmentality is going [to] change the concert experience, and it makes sense because everyone is already putting a screen up. It’s the age of the screen. We’re all screenagers, and the augmentality is going to change it all. I&T Today: How do you see that impacting the concert experience and the choreography of what you are doing up on stage? WA: So, before, if I was doing [sings], “I’ve got a feeling…boom!” Now, before “boom,” I’d do that move [motions arms outward] because it looked cool. Now if I do this [repeats movement] through your phone, you’re going to see energy bursts that come from my fists. And when I go “Whoo hoo!” you’ll see explosions and freaking frequencies coming out through my dome piece. It’s going to be awesome. I&T Today: We’ve seen the dawn of VR, video games being at the forefront. AR also has video games in development for Mira Prism. How do you see AR changing the way people play video games?
WA: Right now, Pokémon GO is king. In 2018, a thousand [games similar to Pokémon GO] are about to freaking hit the world. Watch. Right now, Pokémon is sitting pretty. They’re the only ones in the space. Now Apple’s ARKit is going to change that. Mira Prism is going to change it all. I&T Today: Does that mean the LED screens behind you are going to be obsolete? WA: So, think about it. The Rolling Stones, the Beatles … when they toured there was no LED screens. So here we are. You don’t even have to be a great performer. You get up on stage. Michael Jackson didn’t have big LED screens in 1980 when he performed. He was the LED. He was the freaking light. So great. I think what’s going to come now is a whole new dimension that allows the performer to truly be a performer again, and take advantage of the space between me and the person with the phone in the air and the camera. And the choreography will change forever. New jobs will be created. There will be an AR person for every live event. ■
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©2017 Ascion, LLC.
JOE PERRY’S ROCK OF AGES
Providing the catchy riffs for hits like “Sweet Emotion,” “Dream On,” and “Dude (Looks Like A Lady),” Joe Perry is considered a rock god. The cofounder, co-producer, and lead guitarist for Aerosmith has had a career that’s spanned decades, and he’s not done yet. In his spare time, he composes original material and tours with Alice Cooper and Johnny Depp in the group Hollywood Vampires. Perry’s most recent side project has been working with music technology company Monster on a new line of audio equipment (the Rocker Blaster boom box, for instance, which was designed with classic rock in mind). In this exclusive interview, the rock legend talks about the dynamics of digital music and classic rock while reminiscing on his storied career. On Digital Platforms and Classic Rock What I’m seeing everywhere – from listening to what my kids listen to…They’ve never really worked in an analog world. It’s all been computers and laptops, but they love listening to music from the ‘60s and ‘70s just for the sound of it, and I don’t think anything sounds like that now. Over the years, in the interest of convenience, people have forgotten what it really sounds like. Now, people once again are loving the actual music and starting to really appreciate the way stuff sounds because it was recorded so well…
The Aerosmith guitarist and 2001 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee chats with us about this generation’s relationship with classic rock. By John Gaudiosi (c) Gregory108 | Dreamstime.com
When it comes to rock and roll, I don’t think anything sounds better than vinyl and total analog, and that’s how stuff was recorded back then. On the Key to his Longevity in the Music Industry Durability. It’s kind of like trying to stay true to what got me going in the beginning, as long as you feel like there’s a bit of your soul in there and you’re not compromising too much… Something a friend of mine pointed out is that the music that you make stays there. It’s just the trends that change. Sometimes it’s not the most popular music, and then it comes back…There was a time when it was really, really popular and it’s still there. There are great players out there. They tour, but they just don’t make the headlines. You don’t see them at the Super Bowl halftime, but they’re out there making that music and there are plenty of fans that want to hear it. I can listen to some of my earliest recordings with Aerosmith and I kind of cringe at some of the stuff, because as a player I like to think I’ve progressed. But there’s a certain kind of emotion and reality to just reflect the same things that I’m trying to do today. So, I guess it’s sticking to your guns all through it. ■
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Religion and Government: A Dangerous Mix
Build a Firewall Between Church and State When government and religion mix, both become corrupted. The most-trusted security hygiene for both is the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which Thomas Jefferson said builds “a wall of separation between Church & State.” It will require our best efforts to safeguard freedom of conscience, secular government, scientific progress, and civil and personal liberties. Help ensure reason will prevail. Support FFRF’s vital work to keep religion out of government, laws, public schools and social policy.
Join the FREEDOM FROM RELIGION FOUNDATION
DEFENDING FREETHOUGHT & THE WALL OF SEPARATION FOR 40 YEARS FFRF is a national membership association for freethinkers (atheists, agnostics, skeptics) working to educate the public about nontheism, and to preserve the constitutional principle of separation between religion and government. FFRF’s legal department ends hundreds of entanglements between state and church every year, working to keep our government virus-free. FFRF is a 501(c)(3) educational nonprofit with more than 29,000 members.
Join at ffrf.org/antivirus Or call 800-335-4021 for information and a free copy of Freethought Today, FFRF’s newspaper FFRF preserves privacy and will not sell, share, or divulge your contact information. Dues and donations are deductible for income-tax purposes.
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tech zone
MARYLAND
THE SURGE BY THE SEA By Anthony Elio
In Maryland, we consider ourselves pro-growth Americans.
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Sepavo | Dreamstime.com
This was said by former Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley in 2012 after being honored with an Arbor Day Award. This statement holds more meaning now than ever. The future wasn’t always bright for the East Coast state. As recently as 2013, Maryland ranked 49th in the country in terms of economic development, seeing absolutely no growth throughout the year. This, along with recent unrest in the city of Baltimore costing the economy $20 million, would have been economically devastating for many other states. But, despite these issues, Maryland’s future, especially for the tech community, looks the brightest it has in years. According to a 2016 Forbes article, Maryland is currently the third highest-paying state for tech workers, right behind Virginia and Washington, D.C. Despite California being known for Silicon Valley, Maryland and the rest of the East Coast are clearly growing. These high wages for tech employees look to have translated to continued expansion, as seen with the booming population of the Maryland tech community. According to the Baltimore Sun, Maryland added 1,335 tech jobs in 2016, bringing the total number of industry jobs to 182,539. Additionally, these tech positions are much more lucrative than other industries in terms of payment, with the average tech job paying 87 percent more than the average state wage of Maryland. Outside of the tech community, the entire Maryland economy is beginning to look towards a bright future. This is best evidenced by the city of Baltimore, which has gone from hosting unused GM buildings to housing popular companies such as Under Armour and Amazon. Since 2014, over 12,000 jobs have been added to the economy of Baltimore, with incomes in the city growing by an overall 4.3 percent. A large part of this newfound growth is thanks to the city’s tax subsidies, including everything from expanded credit for building apartments and specialized programs to help develop poverty-stricken areas. With the growing job market, high wages, and economic comeback of cities such as Baltimore, Maryland is quickly establishing itself as a major tech hub of the East Coast. For this Tech Zone, we will be showcasing the continually climbing Maryland tech community, focusing on the people, places, and companies that are shaping the tech world of the Old Line State.
WINTER 2017 | INNOVATION & TECH TODAY
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Developing the Cyber Syllabus By Everin Draper off any cyber attack.”
Professor Jackson utilizing SWAMP’s cybersecurity tools in the classroom
WannaCry. Petya. Equifax. These are just a few of the major hacking incidents of 2017 that affected individuals, corporations, and governments across the world. But, even as major cyberattacks have become a regular occurrence, cybersecurity curriculum isn’t a priority for many U.S. universities. This lack of urgency was evidenced in a 2016 study in which the security firm CloudPassage looked at the integration of cybersecurity education in the top U.S. computer science programs. Of the top 10 programs in the U.S., not a single one required a cybersecurity course to graduate. In fact, only three schools out of Business Insider’s top 50 required a cybersecurity course for graduation. Using this data, CloudPassage assigned a grade to each of the universities. Only three schools received a B. Not a single one earned an A. While organizations are focusing on building their cybersecurity divisions, the lack of education from universities has created a skills gap. However, it’s imperative now more than ever that universities incorporate cybersecurity skills into their curriculums in order to fill this gap. As governments, corporations, and even homes begin to automate and connect to the internet, the risk increases greatly. As outlined by Lethia Jackson, professor of computer science at Bowie
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To bolster their curriculum, Bowie State partnered with The Software Assurance Marketplace (SWAMP), a national cybersecurity facility housed in the Morgridge Institute for Research in Madison, Wisconsin. The SWAMP offers accessible software security tools that Bowie has been able to integrate into their coding courses, giving students the opportunity to examine code for security weaknesses.
State University, hackers are not just “breaking in to get furniture and stuff like that. They’re going into your accounts. They’re getting your social security number. They’re getting your banking information.” And the danger grows as more and more devices connect to the internet. Jackson explains, “Everything on the edge of the computer that’s connected… will have an IP address.” In order to handle the volume of devices that need protection, cybersecurity needs to be at the forefront of education. That is why Bowie State University has stepped up as a leader in this field. The school is one of 13 historically black colleges and universities awarded $25 million over five years to develop a pipeline for minorities to study cybersecurity starting in middle school through college. “We do a lot of outreach,” Jackson said regarding their relationship with local middle and high schools. “We bring in social engineering cyber security, and we talk about different terms – phishing, catfish, vishing, smishing, whaling – and help them understand that your brain is the best thing that you have to ward
Major hacks that have become common occurrences serve as a reminder that the digital age has brought a new plain of warfare and it is critical that universities follow the likes of Bowie State in ensuring that their computer science curriculums prepare students to handle these new threats. As Carroll Reed III, graduate of Bowie’s computer science program who now works in the tech industry at Customer Value Partners, explained it, “As more industries and companies look to integrate technology into their everyday operations, there will be more of a need for cybersecurity specialists to fill these positions.” Companies rely on universities to supply the talent they need to protect themselves. Universities like Bowie State work hard to ensure that the students of today can defend against the threats of tomorrow. ■
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tech zone
MARYLAND
The Collaborating Communities of Frederick By Everin Draper
Above: A digital rendering of the new ROOT collaborative concept building
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It takes a village to nurture a prominent tech community. Tech hubs like Silicon Valley don’t develop overnight. The initiative of an entire community is required in creating a culture of innovation. One such example of this can be found in Frederick, MD, whose tech industry dates back nearly 75 years. Less than 50 miles east of Baltimore, Frederick has earned a reputation as one of the go-to cities for all things bioscience. Today, the bio-city is home to 80 different bioscience companies and much of the nation’s biological defense programs. Research organizations like NCI’s Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research and the National Biodefense Analysis and Countermeasures Center are complemented by private sector bioscience employers like AstraZeneca, Leidos, Life Technologies, Lonza, and Thermofisher.
Material Command, the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, and the National Interagency Confederation for Biological Research – all where biological agent production plants once stood.
While it may be impressive now, this tech community has been in development for a long time, starting back in 1943. During World War II, Fort Detrick was established as the center for America’s biological warfare effort. But, as culture and the rules of war changed, the fort’s focus shifted to biological defense in 1969. Now the fort hosts the U.S. Medical Research and
Whether it’s The Fort Detrick Alliance hosting breakfasts for students at Hood College or Mount St. Mary’s University or the city’s support of startups, collaboration and cooperation can be found everywhere in Frederick’s tech community. The most pronounced example of this can be found in FITCI’s office, located in the heart of downtown
INNOVATION & TECH TODAY | WINTER 2017
Now, almost 50 years later, the people of Frederick County work together to continue to build their biotech community. “[Frederick is] a big city, with a small town approach,” explained Kathie Callahan Brady, CEO of the Frederick Innovative Technology Center, Inc (FITCI). “Everybody cares about economic development, community, and job growth.” And this community approach is exemplified in many ways. Sitting on FITCI’s board are 36 local CEOs who have volunteered their time to help over 100 companies work their way through Frederick’s incubator and accelerator.
in a new concept building named “ROOT.” As Callahan Brady explained it, “The incubator and accelerator is on the first floor, and the Frederick County Chamber of Commerce is also an anchor tenant … Our universities are all there, Fort Detrick is represented, both the city and the county are there.” All of these different stakeholders work together in building up Frederick’s tech industry. The community of Frederick exemplifies the importance of collaboration when it comes to growth. The collaborative effort of local government, local business, educational institutions, and the Army at Fort Detrick have helped produce many successful companies, including RoosterBio, Bioelectronics, and Columbia Biosciences. This balanced approach to local business matches the county’s balanced lifestyle. As Jon Rowley, founder and CTO of RoosterBio, put it, “Frederick is a nice combination of high tech and rural small town. The farms, rolling hillsides, and mountains, not to mention the lack of big city traffic, make for a beautiful commute… Where else could I work at an innovative stem cell manufacturing company and have all of that?” ■
TOOLS FOR INNOVATORS
BUILDING SUCCESS IN HARFORD COUNTY, MARYLAND
WORKFORCE AND MENTORING From one-on-one guidance for startups to expert business
advice, Harford County enables partnerships and tailors programming to the individual needs of the innovator.
FUNDING HELP Our team connects you with the right funding options for your business or idea. We offer loan, finance, and tax credit programs, as well as workforce technical training grants, tourism-related grants, and cost-saving energy programs. RESOURCES AND SUPPORT Harford County provides the resources and support for innovators and entrepreneurs to succeed, including fast-track permitting, site selection assistance, industry data and research, fiber optic broadband access, and support through milestone celebrations. GROWTH AND NETWORKING We have the tools to help entrepreneurs and their innovations grow and thrive. Our ties to Aberdeen Proving Ground─with a 100 year history of innovation─mean innovators always have an audience for their ideas. From collaborative workspaces to business incubator spaces, we offer the environment to foster innovation. BARRY GLASSMAN
COUNTY EXECUTIVE
KAREN HOLT, DIRECTOR
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
HARFORD COUNTY ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
www.harfordcountymd.gov/OED | 410-638-3059 2021D PULASKI HIGHWAY | HAVRE DE GRACE, MD 21078
MARYLAND
iStockphoto/Xavier Arnau
tech zone
Harford, Home of Tech Disruption? By Everin Draper With the constant flow of new tech, it’s important that communities are always prepared for what’s coming next. One such example is Harford County, Maryland, home of the Northeastern Maryland Technology Council (NMTC), which has nearly 30 years of sponsoring innovation. Currently, the NMTC has over 200 members and supporters, making it the fastest growing tech association in the state, helping tech companies, academic institutions, and government organizations collaborate, innovate, and look to the future. This specialized grouping of thought leaders in the NMTC has allowed the organization to promote innovation and disruption in the county. It’s Maryland’s diverse array of companies and institutions that have allowed the tech industry to grow and thrive there. “Maryland is probably one of the few states that has such a high concentration of research institutions, both federal and academic … Like Fort Meade, which is NSA, and Fort Detrick and the biochemical area” explained NMTC Executive Director John Casner. And, indeed, government sponsored research and
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development in the region has promoted tech innovation in a variety of industries. Specifically, in the case of Harford County, the Aberdeen Proving Ground (APG), which just celebrated its 100th anniversary, set the stage for technological innovation during the early 1900s. Now, APG continues to develop the latest in army tech. “It’s the Army’s headquarters for research and development … Their electronic and computer command is located there as well. And, of course, the Army’s research lab,” said Casner. “If a soldier drives it, shoots it, wears it, uses it, communicates with it, they develop it.” Such a large operation has led APG to become the largest employer in the county, hosting 95 different tenant organizations. The significant involvement of the defense sector in Harford inspired NMTC to promote collaboration among the government, academia, and the tech industry. “We look at the things that neither one is doing well on its own, but collectively and collaboratively could do something good,” said Casner. Recently, automation and artificial intelligence have been a major focus of the
NMTC as they look towards the future. This culminated recently in their annual Disruptive Technology Summit, titled “Harnessing the Power of Artificial Intelligence.” Working with the APG, NMTC Member Technology Industries, and various academic partners, NMTC’s goal is to present these new AI technologies and how they will impact the future success or failure of business and government. “The whole purpose of the event … is to inspire thinking that may lead to improving your business model, or recognizing the concerns that may affect your business model, and … hopefully a new business will come out of it,” Casner concluded. Harford’s success is derived from the desire to innovate and improve within a variety of sectors: defense, academic, and private. This has laid the groundwork for organizations like the Northeastern Maryland Technology Council to engage the industry and prepare those stakeholders for disruptive technologies. In an industry that is constantly changing and updating, it is as important as ever to be prepared for whatever is coming next, and places like Harford are making sure they are. ■
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© 2017 University of Maryland University College
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iStockphoto/phive2015
tech zone
Need for Expertise in Cloud Computing is Sky High
In Maryland, cloud-based solutions are rapidly transforming the way organizations do business.
By Alex Kasten
Over the past 15 years, the cloud has transitioned from a space where a few innovative companies experimented in software and service delivery to a critical and rapidly growing part of today’s IT landscape. Global enterprises are quickly investing in cloud computing service. According to the International Data Corporation (IDC), worldwide spending on public cloud services and infrastructure will have reached $122.5 billion by the end of 2017, an increase of 24.4 percent over 2016. The IDC also predicts that cloud spending will eclipse $203.4 billion worldwide by 2020. While consumers have been using cloudbased services for some time, businesses are increasingly recognizing that a move to the cloud to store, manage, and process data means less time and money spent on computer infrastructure and more time on what they do best— their core business. University of Maryland University College (UMUC), a leader in IT, cybersecurity, and information-assurance education programs, is now providing the essential skills for
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professionals in this rapidly growing field. The first in the Washington metro area to do so, UMUC began offering the Master of Science in cloud computing architecture in 2017 to meet the demands of the boom in cloud computing investment. The program emphasizes the opportunity to work with cloud technologies in hands-on applications and focuses on emerging topics in the field. To stay current, UMUC continuously updates the curriculum with input from employers and industry experts. Students combine theory with practice, using real-world applications and developing skills they can apply on the job right away. “In addition to the technical aspect of designing and managing cloud infrastructure, we also provide students with a broad understanding of cloud technology and its relationship to business processes, including financial management, procurement, and communications,” said Jeff Tjiputra, UMUC’s cloud computing program chair. “This is what sets us apart. And as the market for cloud computing technology expands, professionals
with the well-rounded skills to design, operate, and manage cloud computing environments as well as understand the business aspects of cloud adoption and migration will be valuable assets to any organization.” Classes in the UMUC cloud computing program are taught by faculty members – combining first-rate academic credentials with a wealth of experience so that they can transform organizations’ infrastructures and deliver valuable services via the cloud. “Our faculty are working in this dynamic field and bringing current challenges and issues directly into the curriculum through discussions and assignments,” added Tjiputra. “In this environment, students are able to stay ahead of the curve and excel in this new field.” Keeping up with today’s digital transformation is paramount. The alternative is to fall too far behind the next technology wave. UMUC’s Master of Science in cloud computing architecture enables professionals to learn about cutting-edge cloud solutions that are in high demand in today. ■
tech zone
MARYLAND
Cybersecurity and MedTech Meld in Maryland By Louie Fox While the phrase “tech community” may bring up images of Silicon Valley, New York City, and Seattle, Maryland is beginning to make its name known in the world of technology. This is due in part to the great ambition of the area’s tech and science research community, which is tackling everything from ebola antibodies and spacecrafts to black holes and the human genome. You can definitely see this growth in the way the tech community in Maryland has changed over the past few years. According to Todd Marks, President and CEO of Mindgrub, “Because we have a lot of companies like Mindgrub and Under
Biotech and cybersecurity, in particular, are two major areas that can be seen excelling in Maryland. Two large pillars of the tech world, these industries are as vital as ever, with cybersecurity necessary to combat hacking and biotech innovating everything from fuel to medicine. Biotech has been a major force in adding people to the Maryland tech community, as evidenced by employment figures: for instance, medical device company BD Diagnostics (1,580 employees) and biologics R&D company MedImmune (2,920 employees). These are just a few of the many
University of Delaware Alumni Relations
“We’re seeing new startups launch here, investors accelerating the growth of companies, and a regional brand take shape.” The state’s additional focus on cybersecurity is also helping to bring the Old Line State to the 21st century. This can be seen with the many educational institutions found in Maryland that focus on keeping people safe online. Some examples include the UMBC Center for Cybersecurity and the Johns Hopkins University Information Security Institute, which are educating and researching everything from cybersecurity and cyber development to medical security and cryptography. While cybersecurity and biotech are clearly an important part of the Maryland tech community, it’s where they intersect that has the most significance. According to Iron Bow Technologies President and CEO Rene B. Lavigne, the two industries living in harmony is ideal because “Cybersecurity is touching anything technology oriented and the biotech market is increasingly dependent on the advances in the information technology space. The two worlds will accelerate [their] collaboration as we move forward. Highly sensitive data is always vulnerable and therefore, elevated protection and proactive analyses are mandatory.”
Armour and Black & Decker…it’s really providing a lot of opportunity for kids to stay in Baltimore.” The presence of these companies may also be a large reason that Time named Baltimore the tenth best new city for tech jobs in 2017.
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companies that make up the large life sciences community in Maryland, which currently consists of 2,360 organizations generating over $17 billion. As MedImmune’s Senior Sr. Director of Partnering & Strategy Jarrod Borkhat put it,
While they are only two pillars of the multilayered world of tech, cybersecurity and biotech have found a home together in Maryland. As Lavigne said, “Bio requires a highly secure environment in a space where exchange of highly sensitive information is ongoing. A robust technology strategy encompassing cybersecurity is paramount to future success. Exciting times are ahead!“ ■
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connected life
The (Unfortunately Necessary) Guide to the President’s Twitter Account By Hilary Cranford and Anthony Elio Beginning well before his November 2016 election, President Donald Trump’s Twitter activity has been a constant topic of coverage throughout the media. On a near-daily basis, the 45th President of the United States will compose a Tweet that will enrage, delight, or confuse his over 40 million followers. However, for those who may be new to the musings of Twitter user @ realDonaldTrump, you may want a how-to on understanding the complexities of following our new Commander-in-Chief ’s social media presence. In this piece, we will take a look at how to get retweeted, how to get blocked, and how to understand the most notorious Twitter account in political history. In addition to retweeting articles about the economic changes since last year’s election along with news stories and images relevant to his presidency, Donald Trump will generally retweet a number of different types of posts. One such example is anyone criticizing the mainstream media, as done by many political pundits such as Sean Hannity and Bill O’Reilly. Another common retweet is seen in the interesting amount of memes made about him, showcasing everything from photoshopped images of a train wearing a “Make America Great Again” hat to edited GIFs of him hitting Hillary Clinton with a golf ball.
How To Get Blocked By The President Almost as infamous as the President’s Twitter output has been the amount of users he has blocked on the platform. Many wellknown Twitter users have claimed that their Tweets have led to a block from Trump’s Twitter account, including model Chrissy Teigen, comedian Rosie O’Donnell, and author Stephen King. While it’s impossible to know exactly why the users have been barred from seeing Trump’s Twitter activity, it is speculated that Tweets criticizing his actions while in office have generally led to a swift presidential block. However, these blocks have also led to a widespread debate regarding the legality of the POTUS blocking people on Twitter. In fact, a lawsuit from Columbia University’s Knight First Amendment Institute accuses Trump of unconstitutionally quelling opposition with his blocks. While the White House did not officially comment, the situation did spark a new debate in the ever-changing world of social media and politics. WINTER 2017 | INNOVATION & TECH TODAY
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Photo: Donkey Hotey/Gage Skidmore's/Via Flickr
Personal VS. POTUS
How To Read The President’s Tweets (as of November 15, 2017)
“Loser” —
234 tweets
“Dumb” or “dummy” —
@realDonaldTrump
41 million followers
20.8 million followers
(as of 10/23/17)
@POTUS
Commonly used words:
222 tweets “Terrible” — 204 tweets
183 tweets “Weak” — 156 tweets “Fake news” — 144 “Stupid” —
tweets
Source: www.trumptwitterarchive.com Widely known for his colorful use of language, President Trump reflects his bold views through his Twitter dialect. In addition to “fake news,” the pejorative he has used to describe certain media stories and outlets, words such as “loser,” “terrible,” and “weak” tend to dominate the Twitter timeline of @realDonaldTrump.
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The Covfefe Conundrum While the President blocking different users on Twitter has been a source of debate, his deleted Tweets are another point of controversy. Trump’s infamous deleted tweet with the word “covfefe” may have become a popular meme, but it is also a possible example of a larger issue. Interestingly, deleting Tweets while in office has been speculated to violate the Presidential Records Act. In fact, June of 2017 saw the National Security Archive and the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington file a lawsuit in response to the deletions. Additionally, Rep. Mike Quigley (D-IL) has introduced “the COVFEFE Act,” which would archive the President’s social media activity as presidential records. ■
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connected life
Creating a Cause-Based Brand From academics to environmentalism, Jasco’s range of charity work provides a model for how a major company can make a major difference. In this extended discussion, we get CEO and President Cameron Trice’s perspective on what it means to be a cause-based brand in the tech industry. [The following quotes were taken from an exclusive interview.]
ON THE MISSION In 2016 and 2017, we really started -- beyond our employees -- also engaging with our customers, and often our business partners, which was great. So, outside of the walls of Jasco, we were getting questions from other companies and businesses, and often our customers will have foundations or charities that they’re invested in, and they want to know more about our charities. Often, we might partner with them to support theirs through the Jasco Giving Foundation. So, expanding outside the walls of Jasco in ‘16 and ‘17, we started collaborating with our customers on various giving initiatives or great causes, engaging with cause-minded consumers through our new EcoSurvivor brand and our partnership with Water4 to be their next frontier of Jasco’s cause-based giving. Our EcoSurvivor brand of rugged outdoor tech gear and lighting products is a great example of
starting a brand that is dedicated to a specific cause, which is the water crisis. Above and beyond what we already give, 50 percent of the net proceeds for the EcoSurvivor brand go to support clean water projects led by a local nonprofit, Water4. At the end of the day, Jasco has made hundreds of millions of products over the years, and 50 percent of the proceeds on all those products go to some great cause. And there’s about 80 percent of people out there who would prefer to choose a brand that they know gives to some great social or environmental cause.
ON CORPORATE CULTURE We ultimately made our team members a leading part of giving back by doing things to take care of them and their families. For example, we support spiritual and physical programs for employees, relationship programs, marriage enrichment, and other programs that our people can attend, where Jasco basically picks up the tab. We did things like Dollars for Doers and Dollars
for Donors, which were basically Jasco matching programs. So a team member contributes $500 to their favorite charity and Jasco’s going to match that. Or they spend a certain number of hours giving back, and Jasco’s going to contribute a certain amount of money to their favorite cause.
TO COMPANIES THAT WANT TO GIVE BACK We didn’t start at 50 percent of net profits. We started at a fraction of that. My advice would be to just get started, to take that first step, see where it leads you, maybe you give away nothing today and you start with a small percent. Or maybe you have a cause that you believe in ... maybe something that’s impacting you locally and you want to make a specific donation to that cause corporately. We believe that other people would have a similar experience if they just get started. We were very quiet about it at first and then, as it became more known, people had a lot of questions and interest. Ultimately, consumers care, right? Causebased brands are the future. People care, and that can lead to great things. ■
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ELK-6030 Motion Sensor — As stories of hacking into homes and IoT devices become more commonplace, it helps to be prepared. With two-way wireless technology (which helps to protect against outside hacking and jamming attacks), this motion sensor will bring your home security into the 21st century. Prices vary
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Oomi Starter Kit — If you’re looking to automate your home, there’s no better place to start than with an Oomi Home starter kit. Easily secure and upgrade your home with smart sensors, lighting, night-vision camera and more. Conveniently control it all with the provided tablet, apps or your voice. $499
Ecovacs Deebot R95 – For those people who hate spending Saturdays vacuuming the house, Ecovac developed the Deebot R95. With both vacuuming and mopping capabilities, this bot will ensure your floors are always clean. And, with smartphone connectivity, you can make sure that you can have total control at your fingertips. $549
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BUSINESS INNOVATIONS
By Charles Warner
Shark Tank’s Kevin O’Leary, AKA “Mr. Wonderful,” Doesn’t Mince Words. Get Ready for Some Tough Medicine From a Top Shark. What would a show called Shark Tank be without bite? With his trademark wit and trenchant critiques, Kevin O’Leary is well-known for his unfiltered approach to business. Indeed, the show’s nine seasons are brimming with would-be entrepreneurs cut down by the man ironically dubbed “Mr. Wonderful.” However, in our interview, O’Leary insists that he’s merely telling these up-and-comers exactly what they need to hear: the truth. “What is the point,” he asks, “of encouraging somebody to continue on a business plan to zero?” It’s tough medicine from a professional who wasn’t born with a fast route to fortune. In fact, it’s possible that O’Leary’s harsh candor owes itself to the lessons of working his way up from a modest upbringing. The bedrock of his mission for “personal freedom,” he once claimed while speaking to Business Insider, was his termination at an ice cream shop while he was in high school. “It was the end of the day of my second day of work, and the woman who owned the ice cream parlor said to me, ‘Listen, before you go, scrape all the gum up between the tiles,’” O’Leary said. Not wanting to be humiliated in front of his friends, he declined, arguing that the janitorial work was not in his job description. Naturally (but to his surprise at the time), he was fired. “I realized then that when you work for somebody else, you’re basically their slave,” he said, “From that day on, I swore I’d never work for anyone else. That was the beginning of my journey.” And, after trial and error, doubts, and close calls with disaster, O’Leary eventually got his first taste of the Shark life. In the 90s, O’Leary took The Learning Company, something he started in a Toronto basement and transformed it into a multi-billion-dollar acquisition by Mattel. Ever since, O’Leary has been involved in a variety of successful ventures and, with millions of Shark Tank viewers worldwide, “Mr. Wonderful” has become a household name.
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“ I’m telling the truth. Nothing mean about that.”
“ You think I’m tough in Shark Tank, wait ‘til the real world gets a hold of you. It’ll chew you to pieces.”
“ …if you want another friend, buy a dog.”
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exactly a perfect fit for me, Mr. Wonderful. I&T Today: We’ve spoken with Daymond Johnn and Robert Herjavec. It seems like you guys really do get along off camera, and you guys really are a family. Would you agree with that? KO: I would. Think about Barbara [Corcoran], for example. I’ve known her for 10 years. The only reason she gets anywhere on time these days is I bought her a new broom. She loves that joke, by the way. I&T Today: Speaking of which, do you relish your role as being kind of the lovable meanie on the show?
Innovation & Tech Today: Do you think security is going to become even more important as our lives get more connected, for companies and individuals? KO: Definitely. There’s a lot of interest. You’ve got to remember that what Shark Tank is so good at now, going into its second decade, is we have tens of millions of eyeballs watching us every week. Not only in the U.S., but the tape is in other countries, so it’s become a global platform. When we get a product that’s applicable to consumers, and, you’re right, security, biometrics technology, all of that is very, very interesting to our viewers. When we find products like BenjiLock, which are very easy to understand … Everybody gets why this product is useful, and how it works. Everybody has a situation where they forgot a combination or they lost a key. It’s so perfectly simple and yet uses technology that’s so applicable to today. The idea that you can store multiple fingerprints, and that it tests for how many times people try and open it that way – all of that is so great that we think it’s going to be a monster hit. A monster. That’s why we think we want to support him, and we’ve begun the journey. We have multiple lock companies interested in the technology, and that’s what I bring to the table. This is what I’ve done my whole life. This is
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KO: You know, I’m not mean. I just tell the truth. The one thing that differentiates me, versus the other Sharks, is they just don’t have the guts to tell these people the truth. What is the point of encouraging somebody to continue on a business plan to zero? I’m telling the truth. Nothing mean about that. I&T Today: Getting a participation trophy doesn’t fly in the business world, does it? KO: No. Business is binary. Either you make money or you lose it. You think I’m tough in Shark Tank, wait ‘til the real world gets a hold of you. It’ll chew you to pieces. I think it’s a great thing to get in front of investors like in Shark Tank, who should be at arm’s length and unbiased, so they’ll tell you the truth. But I think there’s a lot of concern about people’s feelings. Screw all that! This is about business. I’m not trying to make friends. I’m trying to make money. If I want friends, or if you want another friend, buy a dog. I&T Today: What process do you use to get through the hype and determine if an idea can be a business? KO: Well, I like to use anecdotal data because I’ve got a whole team that does due diligence, obviously, when I have to, because we look at so many different deals all the time. But I like to actually use the product myself. I love to invest in products or services that I actually pay for and use myself.
So if I’ve got a product that looks interesting – like BenjiLock, for example – I’m going to buy BenjiLock for my lake house, and many of my other homes because I have that problem. I have lost the key for the lock on my boathouse garage. Well, that’s a real pain in the butt, and I wish I had the ability just to use a fingerprint to open it up. I mean, even if it’s been sitting there for two years, and you can charge the battery up and push your finger on it again. Bingo! That saves so much of a headache, and I think it’s so brilliant. Now that kind of a thing is easy for me to make a decision on, because I know I would use it. It doesn’t mean it’s going be a great investment, but in the case of something that solves a problem globally. I mean, pad locks are used from Cambodia to Cameroon to the United States to Ethiopia to Cypress. They’re used everywhere. We don’t see that too often on Shark Tank – where we can take a product and blow it up globally. I&T Today: This seems to be a really exciting time. You’ve been around business for a long time, and you’ve seen a lot of booms and busts. How would you describe this climate? KO: Well, there’s lots and lots of great ideas. There’s no question technology is completely disrupting many different industries. You can see it in retail all across America, for example. What we’re missing a lot of is executional skills. Shark Tank really highlights something that’s important for entrepreneurs to understand. There’s three elements to a deal. Number one is a great idea. And then there’s the concept of executional skills – to actually execute the deal itself. Just because you have a great idea doesn’t mean you’re going to be successful. Much harder is to execute on the vision and being able to pivot when things don’t work out. We really struggle with that, even on Shark Tank. I have great ideas with weak entrepreneurs, and I have to make changes in their companies over time. Then I’ve got incredible entrepreneurs that come out with ideas that I think are mediocre, that end up being very successful because they have such amazing entrepreneurial or
BUSINESS INNOVATIONS executional skills. So, it’s kind of a combination of both. What we need more in America – and any country would – but definitely we’ve got great ideas, but we need more great entrepreneurs with executional skills. Because you can start to see after a couple of years on a great idea, if the people that are driving it don’t know what they’re doing, it’s not successful. I&T Today: Do you think there’s a little bit more accountability, as far as investing in these tech ideas and these companies that aren’t turning a profit goes? KO: There’s always risk in investing in a company that has no profit, and can’t distribute any capital back to shareholders. Because the only way you can profit on companies like that is on the momentum that others want to own the stock at a higher price, even though there’s no profit supporting it. So, what happens is when that story deflates, or when investors have a different sentiment about it, you can have major corrections. It doesn’t mean they’re not good companies, or the products are bad. It just means there’s a very speculative nature to that purchase. I prefer to be an investor not a speculator, so I generally value companies on cash flow. I’ve learned over a long period of time, cash flow is what people actually want to invest in – not speculation. There’s a period when speculation works, and then all of a sudden it doesn’t. Then you’re down 38 percent the next day. That’s a negative aspect to that. I&T Today: It’s kind of like that other shoe that drops whenever you’re the one on Shark Tank who says, “So … tell me about your sales.” KO: Right. Well, you know, I’m the guy that asks them about valuation a lot because I love the exuberance of a great idea. And somebody says, “Well, this idea’s worth $10 million, and I haven’t sold anything yet.” Well, I know with certainty that reality will strike; gravity will strike. I don’t tend to invest in that kind of a situation. I want … I love companies that come on Shark Tank that have revenue and profits. Then I know that I can take my money, regardless of how much it is, and pour it on the business model and expand that dramatically.
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That’s what’s so interesting. Once in a while, I’ll take a flier, and I do. But if you look at the companies that I invest in, they tend to be more conservative in nature, and they’re running real businesses. I like that. I&T Today: What’s the best advice you would give a person who thinks they have a great idea, and they want to blow it up? KO: Be an apprentice for two years. Take a sector you like and go work in it and prove to the people there that run a real business that you’re a great value to them. This is something that Europeans do very well. Many people in Switzerland, for example … And I’m well aware of how that country works. They leave college, and they work for two years as an apprentice. If they like the biotech sector, they go there. If they like the pharma sector, they go there. What I’ve learned in life is that great entrepreneurs understand the value equation. In other words, if you’re very good at what you do, and you can add value to a business, you become, yourself, a primary asset. The reason that’s important is, when you go out there to raise your own money, and you have a bit of a track record as a successful element of a company that’s made in the sector you’re interested in. In other words, you’ve worked for
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BUSINESS INNOVATIONS
Tank history, the majority of my returns have come from the companies run or owned by women. I’ve learned a lot from working with them, because they tend to be extremely good at managing time. There’s that old adage, “If you want something done, give it to a busy mother.” But they also set goals that are achievable. They have lower staff turnover. The have higher IRRs for me. So I’ve really started to try and institutionalize some of their philosophies into all of my businesses. ■
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somebody in a sector that you’re now asking to break out in and get funded for. That’s very interesting for me as an investor. I like to see executional skills. I said that earlier. Executional skills are what I invest in. And because great entrepreneurs with executional skills know how to pivot, they know how to solve problems, they know how to do things to keep their dream alive. I love to invest in people like that. I&T Today: Are you always on your phone? Or are you pretty good at segmenting, or breaking away from the business side of things, when you need to take some time away? KO: Well, I talked about the value of success in entrepreneurship is it provides for personal freedom. So the rule I have in my family is, on the weekends we always gather together. I can afford to do that. Last week it was in Paris. The week before that, Geneva. This weekend, it’ll be New York. I’ll bring my kids to be with me, and the rest of my family. We try and get together as often as we can. I try and shut down for those two days. I do get up pretty early in the morning, because I’m a chairman of O’Shares. We’re a global investor. We run ETFs on the New York Stock Exchange, and we invest all around the
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world. I like to look at the European and Asian markets, so I get up pretty early. About five o’clock, and I do it from a bike. I ride for an hour, and try and burn off 600 calories. Do my stretches. Get caught up with the market. I got a routine that I really enjoy, and that quiet time in the morning … probably between 5:00 and 7:30am is when I get 90 percent of my work done, because then the phone starts ringing. Crazy stuff happens, and I do the TV stuff. But, in that early morning, I just love to be in my office and do my thing. Just watching the world go through with emails, and all my trading screens, and everything else. I think it’s very interesting. I&T Today: You kind of get in that genius mode, huh? KO: You know, I think there’s a lot to be said about personal productivity. What I do – and I teach this too now – I write on just a yellow sticker three things I’ve got to get done before I accept a phone call or write an email. It’s just three things that are going to happen. You can’t believe how productive you get when you’ve just put your top three things … Could be anything. When you get those done before you do anything else, you become extremely productive. I learned that from one of my women CEOs. It’s rather remarkable in Shark
Photo courtesy of Kevin O'Leary
BUSINESS INNOVATIONS
Capital Culture By P.K. French
Foundry Group’s Brad Feld and Chris Moody on building diversity in the startup world, drawing inspiration for work and life, and pitching with millions on the line.
On Diversity in the Startup World Brad Feld: There’s a lot of clichés that have existed in the startup world for a long time about what makes an ideal founder. And there are some very famous ones that are quite distasteful, like, “We’re looking for Harvard or Stanford dropouts who are nerdy white guys,” and it doesn’t really do a service to anybody to have that kind of frame of reference, because innovation comes from anywhere. If you’re really thinking about the idea of building a broad, diverse startup community that’s inclusive of anyone who wants to engage in any way, you have to have a lens that’s much wider than that. And that lens covers geography. So not just urban entrepreneurs but rural entrepreneurs. Not just coastal entrepreneurs but entrepreneurs across the U.S. Not just big cities but small cities. Not just the U.S.…
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I mean, you go in all the other dimensions… And when you then back into the frame of reference involved with biases (both conscious and unconscious) that we have as human beings, as an entrepreneur or as an investor and entrepreneur, working hard to overcome those biases in the beginning of evaluations is critically important. And I think one of the best ways to do that is to expose yourself to lots of different kinds of people and lots of different kinds of places.
surface or if you haven’t woken up to it, sound normal.
Chris Moody: I think it’s interesting that Brad used the word “cliché.” I think it’s funny how we almost operationalize these clichés that lead to homogenous working environments. So, one thing that’s very popular to say is “Well, we’re hiring people that are a good culture fit.” And that is often just a mask for, “We’re hiring people that look and feel exactly like us.” I think in some ways we’re just kind of waking up to realizing all of these clichés that people use that, on the
BF: The cognitive bias, again, like Chris just described, is…if I’m looking for people to culture-fit, anybody that looks different, acts different, comes from a different frame of reference, whatever the perspective, I’m going to immediately be biased against them.
Why wouldn’t you want to hire somebody that’s a culture fit? But you’re eliminating people that are going to maybe have a dissenting opinion, or people that are going to have a totally different background or perspective around a particular issue. I think one thing that the data bears out is that more diverse teams make better solutions.
CM: I think the number one thing is just awareness. People have to understand that everyone has unconscious bias, and just getting over that hurdle of understanding that that bias
exists and then doing simple practices to eliminate it. A lot of companies now are turning towards [a procedure where], as resumes come in, whoever does the intake eliminates the name and address and all of the PII [personally identifiable information] from the resume so that you don’t know whether you’re actually looking at the resume of a man versus a woman, or what their Photos: Foundry Group ethnic background is. And also masking things like dates so we don’t necessarily know how old the person is. So, there’s really simple practices that businesses do. We don’t have to wait till robots take over the world before we get started addressing the problem.
On Work and Drawing Inspiration BF: I believe we get one shot at this life thing, and at the end they stick you in the ground and maybe they print a couple of words about you in the newspaper and then everybody keeps doing whatever they’re doing. CM: He didn’t give me this pep talk when we talked about joining Foundry Group. “You’re going to end up in the ground.” [laughter] BF: As a result, I don’t really think about the stuff that I do as “Does this enhance my work or not?” I view it more holistically as, “Is this how I want to live my life?” And I think that, for example, the reading that I do, whether it’s science fiction or history or poetry, all of those things are additive because they allow me to use my brain in a way that I think results in me synthesizing things – better being able to be of a broader perspective. Learn, and grow, and develop myself. So, I guess I don’t really separate them and think deliberately, “Is my time spent on this activity enhancing my work?” But, instead, I’m choosing how I spend my time and then weighing as to whether or not it’s satisfying for my life. CM: Yeah, I think essentially Brad and I are
there, and, even if I don’t lose interest, you just spent a lot of your time and my time with that. Third: Get the right balance between form and substance. I think way too many people get tangled up in form and don’t have substance behind it. So, you start pressing on what you’re being presented with, what you’re being pitched, and there’s not really a lot of substance there.
both self-identified and self-acknowledged introverts in the classic sense, right? And, for me, I’m very fortunate in that most of my inspiration comes from working with really smart people that are working on really interesting problems. Whereas Brad, I think, gets a lot of inspiration from being a way more avid reader than I am and has lots and lots of data inputs. You know, I think I have fewer data inputs, and I really focus a lot of my inspiration on just the CEOs that are in the leadership teams with the companies that we’re trying to help grow. The way I process it is, I spend a bunch of time out working along with the leadership teams with these companies and then coming back and really trying to process what I’ve learned from those interactions.
On How to Pitch Your Company BF: First thing is do your research on whoever it is that you’re pitching so you actually know what they’re interested in. It’s remarkable to me the amount of people who show up without having really spent any time understanding what I’m interested in, or what Foundry Group is interested in. So, step one is: Do your research. I’d say another is: Start with a punchline. Tell me what you’re doing and why I should care. Try to get through that quickly. Because, if it’s something that’s not interesting or relevant to me, or I don’t think I’m a good fit, I can tell you that very quickly. But, if it takes a long time for you to wind up to that, for starters, I’m probably going to lose interest before you get
You can go too far the other way, which is to have substance that has absolutely no form, and that, generally, I would say, is a negative indicator, usually, of a lack of an organized mind. But, get the right balance between those, so that you’re really supporting whatever it is you’re doing with real substance. And, last is: Don’t know it all. I think so many entrepreneurs feel like they have to have an answer to every question. They feel like they have to have it all figured out, and, in a lot of cases, you don’t. And recognize that a lot of times investors are exploring your thought process, rather than looking for a specific answer. CM: I think Brad nailed it. I don’t think there’s a bunch to add. I would maybe encapsulate a lot of what Brad said into the simple thing, which is “Don’t oversell.” To Brad’s very first point about knowing who you’re pitching: I get a ton of emails that aren’t even in English. Not even in the character set that I know. I mean, I don’t know what percentage of things have… “I know you care about this” or “I read what you said, and this inspired me to reach out.” No work whatsoever to actually know who you’re pitching…that’s a large percentage of the inbound. And, the thing is, you know, most VCs have huge egos, so we talk about ourselves all the time. So, it’s not hard to get to know who you’re pitching. I mean, if you want to know anything about me, or Brad, you could probably find it out there. We’ve already said it ourselves. So, it’s not like we’re these mysterious beings that you can’t know. We talk about ourselves all the time. [laughter] ■
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Grand Junction Gives Tech Companies the Best of Both Worlds By Louie Fox for quicker cellular and internet connections in remote areas, is one example, joining the area’s tax credit program in May of 2017. Another sign that Grand Junction is home to a quickly growing tech community is its recent attempts to become an official ‘Smart City,’ improving efficiency through advanced technology. This will be done in a collaboration among Grand Junction, the state of Colorado, and ProStar Geocorp, yet another innovative tech company happy to call Grand Junction its home.
Photo courtesy Jeremy Poland
When you think of a tech scene, you might imagine imposing gray skyscrapers full of identical offices. Inside those offices, you likely imagine fluorescently-lit rooms where employees haven’t had fresh air all day, surrounded by a concrete jungle. For the evergrowing tech industry, this is definitely not an ideal way to work. And Grand Junction, Colorado is looking to change that vision. Located in the Grand Valley nearly 300 miles west of Denver, Grand Junction is known for its many outdoor destinations, such as the Horsethief Bench Trail and the Grand Mesa National Forest. In addition to its hiking and biking trails, one of the main draws of the area is its many gorgeous sights, such as the Colorado National Monument and Mt. Garfield. These natural settings are a burnt out developer’s dream, and are likely among the reasons Grand Junction is becoming an unlikely tech hub. One story that shows off what makes Grand Junction so attractive to tech personalities is that of Erica Witherspoon. The founder and CEO of
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Omnifica, Witherspoon had an interesting journey to Grand Junction. After working in Seattle for companies such as Microsoft and Nintendo, she found herself in need of a change. In a video for the Grand Junction Economic Partnership, Witherspoon said, “I went on a very intentional search to find a small community with quick access to the outdoors with a laid back lifestyle … I ended up coming through the Grand Valley … I found everything I was looking for, and I just love the tight-knit community here.” There are myriad reasons Grand Junction is drawing tech companies, aside from its beautiful sights and outdoor activities. For instance, the Jump-Start Tax Credit Program, which offers a tax holiday to tech companies, has also drawn more members of the industry to the city. The program, which was originally launched in Mesa County, CO, looks to continue expanding the number of promising tech companies in the Grand Junction area. Adaptive Towers, a company that produces communications towers
Grand Junction is drawing in members of the tech community for very good reason. In addition to its tech company-friendly initiatives, the city’s beautiful sights and massive amount of outdoor activities make it an ideal spot for developers that value their time offline as much as their work online. Even though the city is located approximately 1,000 miles away from Silicon Valley, the two areas have more similarities than you think. ■
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IMDboss By P.K. French
We Talk to
Col Needham, Founder of IMDb and “Hollywood’s Most Influential Brit.” Wait…who is that? I’ve seen that guy before. I know it. Quick, IMDb that! You know your website’s made the big league when its URL becomes a verb. In a mere decade, Col Needham’s Internet Movie Database (IMDb) went from a personal hobby horse to an indispensable resource for consumers and producers alike. Offering trivia, cast info, and forums for general movie fans while also providing production data and contacts for industry professionals, IMDb had begun to develop an audience so large and diverse that Jeff Bezos and Amazon decided to acquire it as a subsidiary for a whopping $55 million back in 1998. However, the multi-million-dollar wealth IMDb has generated over the years hasn’t steered its founder and current CEO away from what drove him to start the site in the first place. In fact, if anything, the site’s explosion has allowed Needham to indulge in his love of film even more. For instance, it was shortly after the site celebrated its 25th anniversary that Needham was celebrating a different (and perhaps more significant) figure: watching his 10,000th movie. Furthermore, the
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professional connections Needham has forged through the site have given him significant standing within the industry itself, leading The Guardian to eventually dub him “the most powerful Brit in Hollywood.” In this exclusive interview, Needham tells us about the early days of IMDb, his personal experiences with film, and his favorite piece of movie trivia. Innovation & Tech Today: What has it been like to watch what started out as a pet project transform into a staple of the internet community? Col Needham: We had no idea. It was the early days of the internet. I had been collecting film credits for my own private film collection since the early 80s and ran into some likeminded people in a film discussion group. We were essentially providing and collecting the information just for use by other people within the group. Now, it’s just such an honor to have seen it grow from a few thousand people perhaps using it per week to 150 million per month on such a wide array of devices and interfaces. Things we could never have imagined back in those days.
“ One of my favorites is Robert Pattinson being cast in the Twilight movies as a result of an IMDb Pro search.”
hands of the customer to make that choice. For example, I prefer not to know so much about a film before I see it. In my particular case – because I have both a passion for film and… since I know I’m going to see almost everything, I can go in there and still maintain that particular mystique. One of my team in the UK, she won’t go and see a movie unless she knows everything about it. From that perspective, IMDb actually adds to her engagement with the film. Given it was 1990, we predate the world wide web. It was downloadable software. The idea that you might one day be able to watch a whole movie or a whole TV show online was the work of pure science fiction. I&T Today: What was it like to go from being a fan to an influencer? Was there a moment when you realized, “I’m not just watching the community, I’m a part of the film community?” CN: I guess there were several steps along the way. I guess the first time we really realized it was one day – this is like all the way back in 1995. I got home from my day job. IMDb was still a hobby project till this point. My wife says, “The New York Times have called. They want to interview you.” Really?! I called the number in New York, and I spoke to the reporter. He was telling me how everyone in the film industry was using IMDb. That was
one kind of step along that way there. Then I guess by the end of the 1990s, sort of 1999-2000, we realized we had a large audience base spread throughout the world of all kinds of different customers. Within that customer set, there was a very passionate and engaged set of people within the film industry using IMDb to help them do their job, to help them make casting decisions, help them make hiring decisions, help them find people with whom they wanted to work... One of my favorites is Robert Pattinson being cast in the Twilight movies as a result of an IMDb Pro search. Those kinds of decisions were being made all of the time. I&T Today: Do you think all of this internet marketing, all this online media, has taken away some of the mystique of a new film coming out? Do you find that, with all this coverage and hype, that something is lost? CN: I think at the end of the day, it’s in the
Of course, the fun thing for me sometimes is, I read all of this stuff, and immediately it makes me want to go watch the movie again. I’m someone who’s of the opinion that you can never have too much information. It’s up to the reader or the consumer to determine how much of it they consume. Certainly, IMDb wants to be there and make sure that if you want to know absolutely everything, like my team member, IMDb can help you do that. If you want to know absolutely everything after you’ve seen it, then of course we can help you do that too. I&T Today: You’re a big fan of movie trivia, obviously. Do you have a favorite factoid? CN: Yeah, yeah, I do. Of course, I have to pick from millions of trivia writings that we have. I’m a huge fan of the director Alfred Hitchcock. We have a great piece of trivia on Psycho from 1960. This is 1960, so Psycho is the first U.S. movie to show a flushing toilet. ■
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The Voice of VR Virtual reality innovator Manuel Gutierrez-Novelo discusses the state of this burgeoning industry. Once considered science fiction, VR has now become a mainstay of household entertainment. However, there have been some innovators who began working with VR early and have played a key role in its now growing success. One such thought leader is Manuel Gutierrez, president and co-founder of Immersion VRelia. In 2003, Gutierrez-Novelo founded TDVision, working to bring HD 3D into the home through Head Mounted Displays. Ten years later, he received the International 3D Society’s prestigious honor, the Lumiere Award for his codec – an essential patent of the standardized 3D Blu-Ray format Multiview Video Coding. Today, he is deeply immersed in VR and has even worked on developing an AI program named AILEEN (Artificial Intelligence Logical Electronic Emulation Neural Network), a personal assistant within the VR environment that you can interact with and ask questions. We had the opportunity to speak with this industry veteran on the current state of VR and how AI and VR intersect.
Immersion VRelia’s Pro-DG1 allows users to completely engage everything from video games to streaming content.
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[The following quotes were taken from an exclusive interview] On the Current State of VR Certainly 2017 gave us a lot of reality checks regarding the adoption of virtual reality, augmented reality, mixed reality, and artificial intelligence. The expectations and the bar set a couple of years ago for the adoption of virtual reality were very high. And the reality has passed the romantic period of early adoption and the period of believing that virtual reality was going to go mainstream within the first three years. The reality of things is that that didn’t happen, but that doesn’t mean that it’s bad. What it means is that we have now a cool-headed, realistic view of how the virtual reality, the augmented reality, and the mixed reality are being adopted, and how artificial intelligence is now considered a tool, an essential tool, that will
become relevant for every single industry that implements neural networks for analysis of correlated data. So, based on that, 2017 was a great year to really understand the market for many key leaders in the industry. In the gaming area for instance, we have PlayStation VR selling more head-mounted displays in virtual reality than many other companies that are creating head-mounted displays … Also, there are other indicators, like the number of titles that have been released that support virtual reality. In fact, the industry is slowly, but steadily, adopting virtual reality, On the Importance of Content I was part of the 3D standardization world with the 3D Blu-Ray, 3D movies, and 3D video games. During that period of time, it was clear to me that content was the key for adoption. And there was a big problem with the content that was
created for the 3D industry. The content was not up to par with the expectations of the users and they were disappointed. And there was some kind of stigma associated with bad content. So, the same thing is happening right now with virtual reality and video games for virtual reality. We see that the marketplace for content is now clearly setting the rules. There has to be content, and it has to be compatible. Content
cannot be sub-par. It has to be according to the expectations of the users. So, based on that, 2017 gave us a reality check… On the Crossroads of VR and AI In the path of virtual reality, mixed reality, and augmented reality, and of artificial intelligence with neural networks, they come across in many ways … For instance, when you’re immersed in a virtual reality environment, you
need to interact with your hands, or you need to react to the virtual world somehow. Some of the companies like HTC or others are providing controllers and some sensors to interact with the virtual world. But what happens when we put artificial intelligence and a couple of cameras in our device [called the Pro-DG1]? We use those cameras to see with a neural network for artificial intelligence – to identify the hands, to identify the objects in such a way that you can naturally, with your own hands, interact with the virtual world. That’s all a neural network that is taking care of creating a virtual environment. They send you a reality that surrounds you and acknowledges the objects in front of you, creating a three-dimensional visual world. This neural network [called GREM] analyzes your hands so closely that if you’re making a gesture, that small neural network is powerful enough to enable a direct interaction between your hands in real life and the interaction of your hands in the virtual world. So that’s one part where it comes across. ■
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The three voices of YouTube’s most popular science channels reveal their approach to creating viral educational content. By Anthony Elio
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There are currently 300 hours of video uploaded to YouTube every minute. But that doesn’t exactly mean there’s 300 hours of quality content uploaded every minute. Most of the videos you may stumble across will consist of webcam footage of people unboxing items they got at the store or smartphone recordings of concerts that no one will ever watch. However, when it comes to the wide open world of online video, the cream can really rise to the top, as evidenced by the YouTube channel Vsauce. Providing their viewers with informational content across three separate channels, Vsauce answers every question from “What If The Earth Stopped Spinning?” to “Could You Survive Home Alone?” Initially launched in 2010, the three channels under the Vsauce banner have amassed over 18 million subscribers and 2 billion views on YouTube. In addition, the Vsauce team has expanded into other ventures, such as a tour with Mythbusters’ Adam Savage and a quarterly subscription box in the form of the Curiosity Box. We spoke with the three main Vsauce hosts Michael Stevens, Kevin Lieber, and Jake Roper about their video creation process, advice for future content creators, and ability to combine entertainment and education.
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Episode Ideas I’m often inspired by things I’ve read that surprise me or seem counter-intuitive. Sometimes ideas come from questions like, “What if everyone jumped at once?” or “If you were born in outer space…what nationality would you have?” They might sound a bit silly and useless, but attempting to answer such questions can lead to a lot of learning and can attract a lot of eager listeners. Balancing Education and Entertainment I don’t think they need to be balanced. They aren’t mutually exclusive. I don’t have to add “jokes” or unnaturally sweeten up what I discuss with “fun” because there’s already a deep pleasure we all get from finding things out. That doesn’t mean that everyone wants to learn the same things, of course. But we’re all curious people. YouTube is unique in that viewers can decide what they want to watch. That means anyone who clicks on one of my videos has already shown interest in the topic. If I’m afraid people might not be interested, I don’t ask myself, “How do I make this more entertaining?” Instead, I ask, “How can I make sure people leave this episode realizing that the world is different than they thought before and how can I make these new thoughts of theirs easy for them to share?”
Keeping That Balance Something drew me to the topic in the first place and as long as I make sure to emphasize what that was and why, my video will be authentic and my interest and passion will be as contagious as possible.
Avoiding Burnout I’m lucky in that I can pick any topic I want to investigate. If I pick one, it’s because I’m in love with it. Topics I pick can be anything: physics, chemistry, language, history, philosophy, etc. so it’s hard to ever get bored.
YouTube as a Teaching Tool I think YouTube, like any source of video content, is great for classrooms and autodidacts. The more people and voices and styles in which you hear something explained, the closer you’ll get to an intuitive understanding. Videos can’t replace teachers who actually work hands-on with students and can guide them individually, but, as an additional tool or resource for further study, they’re amazing!
Favorite Episode The Banach-Tarski paradox took me a long time to wrap my head around. There’s more I’d like to do with it, but this episode really showed that people are smart. They want to learn new, weird things and so long as you’ve shown them how important and weird something really is (and everything is weird in some way), they’ll be eager to do the work it takes to understand it.
“Who Owns the Moon?”
Most Fascinating Topic Infinity. There’s more than one size of infinity and in order to take a trip towards larger and larger infinities, you have to step back and ask, “What is math?” By doing that, I think you gain a great appreciation for just how powerful and creative mathematics is. Advice For Content Creators Make a lot of videos. The more videos you make and upload, the more lessons you’ll learn. That’s vital in the beginning. Don’t worry about being too precious at first, just make and release. Also, make videos for yourself. As soon as you start worrying about what you “think” audiences want, your videos will cease to have authentic passion. Don’t worry: your videos are not just cool to you. There are millions of people out there who love what you love and who you are.
Photo courtesy of VSauce / Mindy Tucker
Video Production Every video I make begins with something that I’ve found that confuses but delights me. I investigate it by speaking with experts, reading, and sharing it with others. Until I feel like I understand it well enough to explain it, I’m not done. It can take time to feel ready to go to production. I want my scripts to not only explain but also connect. My videos shouldn’t just repeat what’s already in books or online; they should clear up what I found difficult in the literature that’s already out there and should be able to connect a topic to other things. The more ways I can connect something to other interesting things, the more likely I am to hook the largest number of viewers.
MICHAEL STEVENS
What made you decide to start the Curiosity Box? Videos can only show so much. Getting your hands on scientific tools and interacting with the world is even better. I grew up surrounded by gyroscopes and prisms and microscopes and puzzles and I loved it! I want to share that experience with everyone so for each box I and the Vsauce team pick items that we’ve learned a lot from and that made us who we are today. WINTER 2017 | INNOVATION & TECH TODAY
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Video Production It begins with realizing I don’t [know] the answer to something that is a normal part of my everyday life. Why do we flush the toilet with clean water? What are dragons? Why do people collect things? I then fall down a research rabbit hole trying to read every book, article, and scientific study I can get my eyeballs on. Once I’ve noticed enough patterns, a story emerges and I write the script. I then reach out to scholars to vet what I’ve written so it’s historically or scientifically accurate. Finally, the video process begins, which includes designing a set, shooting the video, and editing it using a mixture of public domain photos/ videos and original graphics. Episode Ideas Questions I’m curious about and would like to investigate that I think many other people would be interested in learning about. Balancing Education and Entertainment Entertainment is important because you need to keep the viewer engaged. If I feel like areas of the script are becoming too much of an “info dump,” I will rewrite or remove entire sections. I also try to make the transitions between subjects silly to break away from the academic parts which can be a bit dry. Keeping That Balance It can be difficult to know “is this section going to be boring for the audience?” I typically read through my script dozens of times trying to imagine myself as a viewer hearing the information for the first time. YouTube as a Teaching Tool It’s arguably the most powerful teaching tool human beings have created. The printing press absolutely changed the world forever. I think
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KEVIN LIEBER
YouTube, perhaps subtly, is doing the same thing. If you have an internet connection you can instantly learn anything from how to fix your specific model of dishwasher to what Michio Kaku has to say about string theory.
“Why Do We Laugh When Someone Falls?”
Avoiding Burnout By being inspired and excited by the next topic. Having an insatiable hunger for understanding our complex world and telling stories keeps the fire burning. Favorite Episode The newest video is always the one I’m most proud of, but I think “The Cure We Forgot” has seemed to resonate the most with people. It’s about the strange journey of curing scurvy but not understanding the science behind that cure. Ultimately we needed science to advance to finally comprehend scurvy’s cure. It’s an interesting story that expresses how we don’t always know why or how things work and that can be detrimental in the long run. Most Fascinating Topic The topic most fascinating to me has been the origin of the dragon. The dragon is a universal concept humans created as a metaphorical representative of the ultimate predator. It’s a meta symbol that has existed for thousands of years. I find those types of icons to be endlessly fascinating, and I’d love to research more of them. Advice For Content Creators Make videos that you need to make. Making videos is one of the most labor-intensive forms of disseminating ideas so you better be excited about what you’re making. Always try to make your next video better than your last and don’t be afraid to try new formats.
Photo courtesy of VSauce / Mindy Tucker
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Video Production Research. I spend about a month reading, watching, discussing, absorbing as much as I possibly can about a topic until I know this one specific thing inside and out. After that comes writing. I turn multiple pages of notes into a, hopefully, cohesive script. Filming usually takes a day or two and post-production takes about a week. Episode Ideas By watching movies, playing video games, or reading a book. From those I always have a question I want answered so I decide to answer it!
“How Much Does Thor’s Hammer Weigh?”
Balancing Education and Entertainment I like to think of it as accidental learning. I want to create a narrative story where the meat of it is information. It is a ride that never fully stops but gives you enough time to absorb your surroundings. Keeping That Balance Nope. If the information I’m trying to get across can’t fill a video then it doesn’t get made. YouTube as a Teaching Tool YouTube is wonderful for teaching because it allows the viewer to find whatever they want, either intentionally or by accident. It takes the classroom to the world. Avoiding Burnout This is a tough one. I try to add variety to the way I make my videos so it never gets boring. Favorite Episode “What if Quicksilver Ran Past You?” I got to write and direct the Muppets which was a dream come true. I can’t believe they wanted to make a video with me. It’s The Muppets!! Most Fascinating Topic Right now I’m focusing on reality and our perception of it. That to me is interesting because we don’t realize what we don’t realize. Advice For Content Creators The hardest part of starting is starting. Don’t worry if you will be popular or if people will instantly like your content. Make it for you. Because you have to. Because it is a part of you that needs to be shared. ■
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JAKE ROPER
INSPIRING FUTURE INNOVATORS
Dr. Ashok Gadgil, National Inventors Hall of Fame Inductee, Inventor of Water Disinfecting Device, poses with a group of kids from Camp Invention.
Inspired by the Inductees of the National Inventors Hall of Fame, our preschool through college level programs are designed to impact young minds through fun, hands-on activities infused with the spirit of innovation!
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800.968.4332 | NIHFatmyschool@invent.org In partnership with the United States Patent and Trademark Office
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The Natural Solution By Jayme Cellitioci, Creativity and Innovation Strategist for the National Inventors Hall of Fame One afternoon, my Director at the National Inventors Hall of Fame posed a challenge to me over a video call. He said that we were enhancing our National Monument to Innovation, the National Inventors Hall of Fame Museum located at the United States Patent and Trademark Office, and that we needed an elegant solution to honor our nation’s greatest innovators. Knowing that we would continue to induct inventors, this display needed to have the capability of expansion, yet appear complete upon viewing. My mind immediately went to the (empty) paper wasp nest resting on my shelf.
Nature had already found us the perfect solution
The National Inventors Hall of Fame provides
to represent the growth, layering, expansion, and
hands-on, invention-based programming for
iterating nature of invention. Our lead engineer
children in PreK-9, leadership opportunities for
turned the concept into a reality—a Gallery of
high school and college students, a Collegiate
Icons. He designed a configuration that allows
Inventors Competition, and a corporate
the hexagons, which are backlit by LEDs, to
Intellectual Property Power program. In our
seemingly float in a perfect pattern in the
commitment to walk our talk in the promotion of
museum window.
IP literacy, we have two design patents and a
Each Inductee’s name, featured invention, and patent number are inscribed on a hexagon,
pending utility patent for our Gallery of Icons. The responsibility, privilege, and opportunity to
creating a tessellation that represents the progress
honor innovators is our direct motivation to
of the useful arts and sciences in our society.
innovate.
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‘Making’ Entrepreneurship Entrepreneur Larry Sears knows how to highlight the importance of makerspaces: “If a picture is worth a thousand words, a prototype is worth a thousand pictures.” An alumnus and trustee of Case Western Reserve University, he believes so strongly in the concept that he and his wife committed $10 million to support a campus innovation hub also open to the public. The 50,000-square-foot Richey Mixon building, now known as Sears think[box], offers top-of-the-line 3D printers, milling and metalworking machines, welding equipment, and a water jet that can cut through steel and
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granite. It is, as think[box] Managing Director Ian Charnas explains, “a tinkerers’ playground.” Makerspaces have become increasingly common across the country – and not only for their advantages for entrepreneurs. Found in universities, K-12 schools, public libraries, and more, these centers give people of all ages a place to imagine, invent, and bring their ideas to life. Some use them to make presents for others (or, in one instance, carve a marriage proposal in wood), while others learn how to turn a concept into a tangible object. Still, many seek more concrete
outcomes, such as research advances – or a startup success. Sears think[box], for example, provides project and meeting space, training, and, through the support of the Burton D. Morgan Foundation, access to business advice, mentors, and high-profile competitions. Over the past five years, these resources have helped launch 60 student startups, which in turn drew $10.1 million in external support. No wonder the space draws 5,000 visits a month – and nearly two-thirds of its student users cite think[box] as a determining factor in their decision to enroll. ■
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A Lawmaker’s Guide To The Galaxy By Alex Moersen
At the 2017 International Astronautical Congress, Elon Musk boldly announced his goal to land two rockets on Mars by 2022, then the first crews by 2024. As space settlements are becoming more of a reality, the issue has begged many questions and concerns: “Who owns space?” “Who can settle the moon?” To understand the current state of space expansion, one first has to be familiar with the recent history of colonization. The post-WWII international system had a strict anti-colonialism stance, with territories in Africa and Asia decolonizing and the U.N. assisting these territories in their transition. With Resolution 1514, the U.N. Special Committee on Decolonization declared “the necessity of bringing to a speedy and unconditional end to colonialism in all its forms and manifestations.” Since the practice is something that is no longer recognized by the international community, the idea of colonizing the moon becomes controversial. This new attitude set the stage for
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the origins of space law. Talks of an interstellar legal system began in the late 1950s, when space became the new theoretical battlefield for two conflicting superpowers. Although the U.S. would eventually be the first on the moon, the Soviet Union was the first to send a satellite into space. What was so concerning about the launch of Sputnik was not the satellite itself, but the rocket that was able to transport it. If the rocket could carry a satellite into space, surely it could carry a nuclear weapon anywhere in the world. This concern motivated the U.N. to pursue the first of space treaties, leading to the formation of the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOUS). According to Joanne Gabrynowicz, professor emerita of space law and editor-in-chief-emerita of the Journal of Space Law, the goals of COPUOUS were very clear: “To ban nuclear weapons from space.” The first major milestone to come out of
COPUOUS was the Outer Space Treaty (formally known as the “Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, Including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies”), ratified in 1967. After much deliberation and negotiation, the terms of the treaty prohibited parties from placing nuclear arms or other weapons of mass destruction space. Additionally, nations could not claim sovereignty over space, the Moon, or other celestial bodies. However, as a counterpoint, you may recall Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin planting the U.S. flag on the Moon. But, as Gabrynowicz explains, “We planted a flag but we did not make a territorial claim … The flag was there to represent a national achievement, but it was not a national claim.” Now, 50 years later, the Outer Space Treaty is still as important as it was back then. However,
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what has changed is the engagement of the private sector in space exploration. The treaty did touch on this issue a bit in Article VI: “The activities of non-governmental entities in outer space … shall require authorization and continuing supervision by the appropriate State Party to the Treaty.” But, now that private companies actually have the ability to explore space, the issue has become controversial. “As of now, it’s still not clear how authorization and supervision will happen for activities that occur completely on-orbit or on another celestial body. That is very much what’s at issue today,” explains Gabrynowicz. That is why this issue has become a hot topic during the annual meeting of the Legal Subcommittee of COPUOUS, highlighted by an excerpt from their 2017 report: “The Subcommittee reiterated that it was important to take into account the increased level of commercial and private activities in outer space…, in particular with respect to the responsibilities of States regarding the
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authorization and supervision of nongovernmental entities conducting space activities.” Although nothing has been officially decided on at the international level, the issue will be of increasing interest as companies like SpaceX continue their voyage into space. And, as countries have differing opinions – which will most likely be voiced at next year’s subcommittee meeting – some have already begun to update their laws to make room for commercial space travel.
private companies, making the small country a
For example, in 2015, the U.S. passed the Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act, promoting “the right of U.S. citizens to engage in commercial exploration for and commercial recovery of space resources.” This covers the extraction and commercialization of water and minerals from space, a feat that is being pursued by companies like Planetary Resources and Deep Space Industries. Similarly, in July of this year, Luxembourg’s Chamber of Deputies passed a law that recognized the legal ownership of resources mined in outer space by
account for mining and research, there has not
potential hub for commercial space companies. However, while the U.S. law accepts a national approach to defining space mining rights, Luxembourg’s legislative body is debating the validity of national approaches to the regulation of commercial space mining in the absence of an international framework. While countries like the U.S. and Luxembourg are beginning to evolve their space laws to been any concrete national legislation passed regarding space settlement. As of right now, nation states still cannot claim territory and private companies still fall under the authorization and supervision of their respective states. However, if Musk isn’t planning on sending crews to Mars until 2024, the international system and COPUOUS have some time to address how private corporations are going to fit into space.
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I’M A SCIENTIST
AND I PLAY ONE ON
TV
The Big Bang Theory’s Mayim Bialik on being a scientist, both on-screen and off. By Gerry Strauss
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In 1989, she got her first acting role at the age of 12. In 2000, she earned a BS from UCLA in Neuroscience. In 2007, she finished her doctorate, which examined the role of oxytocin and vasopressin in OCD. And in 2010, she returned to acting, with the opportunity to play a neuroscientist on TV’s biggest sitcom. Oh, and she’s also a mother of two. It’s hard to imagine that these feats could all be accomplished by one person. But, for Mayim Bialik, who plays neurobiologist Dr. Amy Farrah Fowler from The Big Bang Theory, it came naturally. In addition to her acting and science career, she’s also a known feminist and STEM advocate. We had the opportunity to speak to Bialik about her journey through science and acting, as well as the state of STEM in today’s world.
Innovation & Tech Today: You are a strong supporter of increased STEM education. How do you think our society’s attitude toward science has changed since your formative years? Mayim Bialik: We talk about STEM in the first place, and that’s huge progress! I think our world has become so much more techprominent, and so it’s much more a part of the vernacular. And we are introducing it – as we should – earlier and earlier to kids, which is necessary! I&T Today: What are some ways you’ve scratched your scientific “itch” since returning to acting? MB: I can’t avoid being drawn to science in the news; it just is part of me to want to know more. I read a bit, but not as much as I’d like. I am a lactation educator counselor, which actually typically involves explaining anatomy and physiology as well as some attachment theory, so that’s nice! And also being with my kids and teaching them neuroscience, which I started as a monthly thing last year. I&T Today: When did you first fall in love with science, and how did that fit into your early career as a child actor? MB: I was 15. Cell biology. I was on set getting my education during Blossom and, as a woman raised to believe we don’t have to choose one thing to be, I instantly knew I wanted to pursue it after I was done with my contract. I&T Today: Do you think that The Big Bang Theory and particularly your character have helped to acclimate viewers to the idea of choosing science as a career?
MB: I suppose so. It’s the highest-ratedshow and we depict scientists having careers, love lives, and social interactions that are positive. That’s a whole picture of life as a scientist! I&T Today: How important is it that the show portrays science and those who work in it in an accurate way? MB: Well, David Saltzberg is in charge of a lot of that. And sometimes we have to cut corners for TV’s sake…visuals need to show up on camera in an engaging way. But our writers are a pretty smart bunch. And, thanks to the internet, a lot of things we all need to know are at our fingertips! I&T Today: You’ve discussed moving away from a scientific career due to your own needs as a parent, and, obviously, your eventual shift back to acting. What steps do you think the scientific community could take in general to allow more qualified people to be involved without causing them to sacrifice other vital aspects of their lives? MB: Well, the realization I came to was that I could not physically be in two places at once. I could not care for my infants the way I wanted to and also pursue a post-doc. Some of those decisions may always be there for women in particular to make. In theory, a fulltime mother’s assistant (nanny) in the lab with me all day would have been swell, but that’s a very expensive solution! Places to safely pump and have time with your baby would be great if it was more institutionalized. [Doing] maternity and paternity leave the way many northern European countries do it would help.
These are hard things to implement, but my hope is one day they can happen. I&T Today: Are you comfortable being a role model or ambassador for the scientific community due to your unique status as both an accomplished scientist and celebrity? MB: I guess. It’s hard because I am not a practicing neuroscientist and I respect my field so much. I don’t want to capitalize on it, as it were. But I just wrote Girling Up, and that book has a lot of science for young girls, so I feel like if I can use my celebrity for that, it’s great. I&T Today: Someday, the cast of The Big Bang Theory will take their final bow. When that happens, do you anticipate continuing to act, or are you eyeing an eventual shift back to science? MB: I can’t really take a position after being out of the field for so long. I imagine I will continue to find ways to be an advocate while still being a public celebrity, as it were. And I am looking to make more YouTube videos about science as well for my channel. I&T Today: Is it more difficult to maintain attention on STEM education within a particularly divisive political climate? MB: With a president who consistently questions the scientific method, it’s harder right now. ■ WINTER 2017 | INNOVATION & TECH TODAY
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Beauty and Horror Produced in partnership with
Chasing Coral director Jeff Orlowski reveals the veiled consequences of climate change
By Alex Moersen
“ U.S. researchers believe worst event on record is ending but fear coral won’t recover in time before oceans warm again.” So read the subtitle of an article published by The Guardian in June, 2017. Other headlines read similarly. “Great Barrier Reef ‘cooking and dying,’” read CNN only a couple months prior. “Worst-ever coral bleaching event continues into fourth year,” read another. Partial credit to these headlines could be attributed to media sensationalism, but there is no denying that there is something going on beneath our oceans. Something that has warranted adjectives such as “shocking” and “catastrophic.” Bleaching happens when corals are stressed by changes in their conditions, such as temperature, sunlight, or nutrient intake. They expel the symbiotic algae living in their tissue, causing them to turn completely white. That whiteness is essentially the bone structure of the coral, now revealed by the expulsion of the algae that was previously living on it. Bleaching causes coral to be more susceptible to disease, and, while many
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reefs can recover from an incident of bleaching, many others die completely. The increasing anthropogenic warming of the Earth has caused corals to bleach at unprecedented levels, often never to recover. According to the ARC Center of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, a 700-kilometer region in the northern part of the Great Barrier Reef lost two-thirds of its shallowwater corals in 2016. The New York Times reported that 22 percent of the entire reef was lost that same year. Jeff Orlowski is a documentary filmmaker from Boulder, CO who caught on to this phenomenon a few years ago. His first documentary, Chasing Ice, followed environmental photographer James Balog on his mission to capture images of glaciers and tell a visual story of the Earth’s changing climate. By deploying time-lapse cameras throughout the Arctic, James Balog and The Extreme Ice Survey Team were able to capture a multi-year record of the world’s receding glaciers. Only a short time after the release of Chasing Ice, Orlowski was approached by Richard Vevers, founder of The Ocean Agency, who noticed something strange happening to coral reefs. They were bleaching and dying, turning from bright vibrant colors to a pure white, eventually decaying completely.
Reefs that were once teeming with life were now completely barren. Orlowski and Vevers joined together to show the world this very hidden problem. “Out of sight, out of mind” is the subconscious attitude of many towards climate change. Such was the case with the coral reefs. The bleaching and dying was happening underwater, something that very few people in the world were able to observe. Where there was a hidden problem, Orlowski saw something he described as both “beautiful and devastating.” As he explained to me, “By being able to showcase both the beauty and the horror of what’s happening in the oceans right now, we knew there was ripe material for a film.” The beauty shows the world that the ocean deserves saving, while the horrors prove that the ocean needs saving. So, Orlowski, Vevers, and a team of divers, scientists, and photographers set out to capture one of the most pressing – and underestimated – consequences of climate change. The goal was similar to that of Chasing Ice: capture the long-term effects of global warming with timelapse cameras. However, leaving cameras
Bottom Left/Top Right: Director Jeff Orlowski had to employ a variety of high-tech cameras in order to capture the vastness of this environmental event. Top Left: A before and after representation of a once healthy reef that succumbed to bleaching.
the numbers: If present rates of destruction are allowed to continue,
60 percent of the world’s coral reefs will be destroyed over the next 30 years (World Wildlife Fund)
underwater for months at a time can bring unique challenges. “Technology doesn’t like salt water, as it turns out,” Orlowski explained. “For Chasing Ice, the challenges were the cold weather and cold conditions. Here, it was keeping things waterproof.” The challenge needed an equally complicated solution. The team had special waterproof camera systems designed by another Boulder company, View Into The Blue. The system involved an underwater dome with an automatic windshield wiper to keep the glass clean. In the end, they only lost two cameras during the entirety of the project, well worth the beautiful images they were able to capture. The more they filmed and invested in the cause, the more they realized how widespread and dire the situation was. “We were getting alerts that all these different parts of the planet were bleaching,” he explained. “We knew that we couldn’t go everywhere at the same time… So we did a callout where we were asking scuba divers or underwater photographers to shoot images in their own reef and document what was happening and share that with us.” In the end, they received 150 different submissions from 50 different countries. “These are just citizen-scientists,” he continued. “These are just
scuba divers. These are individuals who cared about the reef, that could go out to their backyard and document. So, it was this huge global effort to share this story.”
Counting only the economic value of fisheries,
Chasing Coral took over three years to shoot, requiring 500+ hours underwater and the support from 500 people from various locations around the world. While the documentary may prove disheartening at times, that’s not the main takeaway. The reefs can still recover. They’re being attacked with heat and other stressors, but global temperatures can still be stabilized and reduced – although fast action is still required. Due to the existing momentum of global warming, even if all countries stopped emitting fossil fuels today, it would continue to warm for a period of time, with optimistic projections at around 40 years. Orlowski himself is quite hopeful: “I am optimistic for a number of reasons. The youth get it. The youth know what’s going on, so that’s hugely encouraging. On top of it, the solutions to this are already here. They’re already taking hold. In many cases, the solutions are cheaper than the existing status quo. We’re seeing these shifts happen in such a positive way and such a fast way. It’s just a matter of will we enable, will we enact these solutions faster than the destruction that we’re seeing.” ■
over a 25-year period
tourism, and shoreline protection, the costs of destroying 1km of coral reef ranges between
US$137,000-1,200,000 The world has lost
(World Wildlife Fund)
roughly half of its 30 years
coral reefs in the last
(Independent UK)
90 percent
Scientists expect that more than of corals will die by 2050 (Independent UK) Researchers have identified nearly
4,000
kinds of fish and tens of thousands of invertebrates that thrive and depend on some 800 types of known coral.
(Reefs at Risk)
Many U.S. coral reefs were alive and thriving centuries
before the European colonization of the nearby shores. Some reefs are even older than our old-growth redwood forests (NOAA)
4,270
At years old, the deep-water black coral (Leiopathes sp.) is the oldest living skeletal-accreting marine organism known (LLNL). The oldest giant sequoia is only about
3,200 years old
(LA Times)
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Rethinking Our Plastic Planet Produced in partnership with
By Anthony Elio
Examining the environmental dangers of plastics and the international startups that could revolutionize three forms of it. You start your day by brushing your teeth with a plastic-handled toothbrush. You pack your lunch and insert it into a plastic container, including some disposable silverware. You pick up a soda in a plastic bottle, carrying it around in a plastic bag. This may not be your exact routine, but parts of it may sound familiar. And there’s many reasons for that. Plastic is cheap, malleable, and easy to manufacture. In fact, according to the IEA World Energy Outlook 2014, it only costs slightly over two cents to manufacture a single water bottle. However, the financial cost of plastic is by no means the issue. It’s the environmental cost that truly makes plastic a controversial material. Currently, 50 percent of plastic – which will take anywhere from 500 to 1,000 years to biodegrade – is used just once and then thrown away. Additionally, plastic has proven harmful to many living creatures, as oceanic plastic kills one million seabirds each year, along with 100,000 sea animals. In fact, according to The Washington
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Post, over half of the world’s sea turtles have ingested plastic in one way or another, which kills them by damaging and blocking their intestines, as well as due to the toxic chemicals contained in the material. While this number is daunting, it is dwarfed by the approximately 90 percent of seabirds that have ingested plastic. Additionally, recycling plastic is slowly becoming a less economically friendly practice. In fact, in 2016, Business Insider reported that recycling was actually becoming more expensive than the actual manufacturing of plastics. This has led to many companies favoring newly manufactured plastic rather than recycled materials, damaging the recycled material market. Three of the largest offenders of plastic waste come in the forms of cutlery, plastic bags, and disposable water bottles. Plastic cutlery, commonly found in fast food and casual dining restaurants, is commonly used once before ending up in a landfill. In order to combat this unsustainable practice, France has made positive
steps to reduce this impact, looking to ban plastic forks by the year 2020. Water bottles constitute another infamously unsustainable use of plastic, as nearly a million
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Left: Based in London, the Skipping Rocks team is looking to to rethink water bottles with Ooho! Right: 100% composed of plants and seaweed, Ooho is completely biodegradable and even edible.
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are purchased every minute, with environmental impact some compare to that of climate change. The industry also shows no signs of slowing down, with a 2016 report predicting that the plastic water bottle industry would grow to over $10 billion dollars by the year 2024. Produced in partnership with
Plastic grocery bags may be one of the most notorious manifestations of the material, especially when it comes to environmental impact. This is partially due to the large volume in which the materials are produced, as currently over 380 billion plastic bags and wraps are used in the U.S. each year. Unfortunately, plastic bags are often disposed of incorrectly and can eventually end up in the ocean. With recycling becoming more expensive and plastic waste continuing to pile up, one new idea is beginning to gain steam: changing the material itself. International startups have begun focusing their energy on changing the way we eat food, drink water, and carry groceries, and could forever change how we look at using plastic. One of these companies is Bakey’s Edible Cutlery, a startup that debuted in 2010. The company, which launched in India, looks to change the way we eat food on the go. Using a baked mixture of sorghum, rice, and wheat flours, Bakey’s creates forks and spoons you can consume at the end of your meal. Coming in flavors such as savory and sweet, the spoons could exponentially reduce the amount of wasted plastic cutlery, which tends to be a singleuse plastic. Skipping Rocks Lab is another company looking to improve upon a commonly wasteful form of plastic. The London-based company has created Ooho, a spherical liquid container
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composed of natural materials. Made of plants and seaweed, the Ooho container is completely edible after usage and biodegradable after four to six weeks. Add in the fact that the material is actually cheaper than plastic, and we could be seeing the next major shakeup in sustainable materials. Finally, EnviGreen is showing promise in revolutionizing the environmentally dangerous plastic industry. Looking to find a biodegradable replacement for plastic, the company is manufacturing everything from trash bags to aprons made of their alternative material. Interestingly enough, this plastic is created with fairly simple ingredients: vegetable waste, vegetable oil derivatives, and natural starch. One of the greatest aspects of this material is its lack of effect on living creatures, as they are
completely edible and harmless to animals. The bags are also completely chemical-free, even utilizing organic paint for the exterior printing. A world without plastic may be nearly impossible considering how much the material has become a part of everyday life. However, with sustainable alternatives like the ones we’ve been looking at, it’s not impossible to imagine life with a much smaller plastic footprint: You unwrap your lunch from its biodegradable bag. After finishing your meal, you devour your fork and spoon, enjoying its complementary taste. You wash it down with water from a fully biodegradable spherical bottle, consuming it as well. You leave the lunchroom, and get on with your day ignoring the trash can and recycling bin along the way. ■
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Jane Goodall and infant chimpanzee Flint reach out to touch each other's hands. Flint was the first infant born at Gombe after Jane arrived. With him she had a great opportunity to study chimp development—and to have physical contact, which is no longer deemed appropriate with chimps in the wild. (National Geographic Creative/ Hugo van Lawick)
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P E R S O N O F T H E Y E A R 2 0 17:
Jane Goodall Produced in partnership with
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By Anthony Elio
A detailed look at Jane Goodall, the influential primatologist we are happy to name our Person of the Year. 2017 has seen plenty of ups and downs throughout the world. Times seem incredibly dark for some, with a divided country and an increasing sense of distrust regarding issues that could affect the planet forever. However, one person went above and beyond to keep alive feelings of positivity, hope, and giving to the world: Jane Goodall. Known best for her extensive research in the field of wild chimpanzees, Jane Goodall’s fascinating career and commitment to improving the world make her an obvious choice as Innovation & Tech
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Today’s official Person of the Year for 2017. Born in 1934, Goodall grew up with a special place in her heart for animals, which would eventually grow into her career path. According to Livescience, she was reported missing at the age of four, only to be found in a henhouse, watching the animals and discovering how they laid eggs. Eventually, an invite from a family friend would be the catalyst for a trip to Africa, which would begin her life’s work of studying chimpanzees. What made Goodall’s work memorable was how it challenged so many preconceived notions of science. Upon her entry into the field, there was still not very much research on chimpanzees, let alone their relation to human beings. Rather than attempt to study them from afar, Goodall got up close and personal with the creatures, allowing her to understand their behaviors and
emotions, providing a springboard for her extensive research. This led to a number of groundbreaking discoveries, such as the fact that chimpanzees use tools, something previously believed to be exclusive to humans. This discovery, which led to more research on the relationship between humans and chimpanzees, was called “one of the greatest achievements of 20th-century scholarship” by paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould. However, there are still many achievements the general public may not be aware of. In addition to her extensive work as a primatologist, Goodall also helped to redefine how we view conservation. She founded the Jane Goodall Institute in 1977, an extension of her own beliefs and commitment to the enviornment. In addition to assisting her chimpanzee research, the Institute also aids in two very important pillars
Saving One Animal May Not Change The World... But Surely... For That One Animal... The World Will Change Forever!
Help Change Their World
WildAnimalSanctuary.org
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of its founder’s beliefs: protecting chimpanzees in the wake of rapidly declining populations and addressing the predicament of deforestation. In 1991, Goodall co-founded Roots & Shoots, collaborating with youth in 100 countries to encourage them to embrace their dreams for a bright future for the planet and its inhabitants. Produced in partnership with
While her impressive career spans many decades, 2017 brought with it a new wave of admiration for Goodall’s work, as seen with the theatrical release of Jane. The film, officially released on October 20, 2017, chronicles Goodall’s long career, utilizing over 100 hours of footage that has never been seen before. Kept in the National Geographic archives for over 50 years, the footage provides visual insight to her story, detailing her incredible life in the world of conservation and primatology. Produced in partnership with
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The film itself was in great hands, as Jane was directed by Brett Morgen, best known for his work on 2015’s Cobain: Montage of Heck (chronicling the life of Nirvana singer Kurt Cobain) and 2002’s The Kid Stays In The Picture (a look at the career of Paramount producer Robert Evans). The official premiere of the event, which featured red carpet appearances by stars such as Howie Mandel and Jane Lynch, was a perfect reflection of Goodall’s influence throughout her career. As actress and author Jamie Lee Curtis said in an interview with Innovation & Tech Today, “There’s a wow factor to her and her work and her passion… not a lot of people in my life have had that impact on me.” Beyond the influence of Goodall’s work, many stars also gave insight into how the film itself will inspire those in the audience. On what people will take from the documentary, actress Jane Lynch told Innovation & Tech Today, “the wonderful research she’s done on the behavior of primates and how they’re so very close to us. There’s a lot for us to learn…I don’t think anybody has that much research or is responsible for that much knowledge for this particular area of wildlife. ” And, even after decades of hard work, Goodall is still as committed to improving the role of humans in the world as ever. As Goodall said herself at the film’s premiere, “How bizarre that
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this intellectual species is destroying our planet. And we need to get together and make things different. And I hope this film will inspire people to join together to try and make that happen quickly.” In an uncertain time when protecting the planet has been a large point of contention, the iconic primatologist’s words ring true now more than ever. Goodall’s work has no doubt been revolutionary to the wildlife community and inspirational to the general public. It’s this dedication to sustainability, environmentalism, and wildlife conservation that makes Innovation & Tech Today proud to announce Jane Goodall as the official Person of the Year for 2017. While nobody quite knows what 2018 will bring, the spirit of hope, passion, and caring that Jane Goodall provides will continue to inspire. ■
Top Row: A young Jane Goodall poses for a picture in her school uniform. David Greybeard was the first chimp to lose his fear of Jane, eventually coming to her camp to steal bananas and allowing Jane to touch and groom him. As the film Jane depicts, Jane and the other Gombe researchers later discontinued feeding and touching the wild chimps. 2nd Row, Jane Goodall and Hugo van Lawick during their wedding. Jane watches as Hugo van Lawick operates a film camera. 3rd Row, Jane formed a close bond with young Fifi. "Flint" peeks into a tent at Jane Goodall. Final Row: (left) Director, Writer, and Producer Brett Morgen (right) Composer Phillip Glass
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“All In” at Greenbuild “All In.” This was the theme of the 2017 Greenbuild expo, the world’s largest conference and expo dedicated to sustainable building. And the conference definitely lived up to the slogan. With over 18,000 attendees, 550 exhibitors, and 93 countries represented, the expo works to bring together industry leaders and experts as well as newcomers to the industry. And, with prestigious speakers like President Bill Clinton and Neil deGrasse Tyson, it’s easy to understand why Greenbuild is so popular.
moment when the setting sun aligns perfectly with the Manhattan grid. He invoked the words of Carl Sagan, asking audiences to cherish this pale blue dot that we inhabit. The night before saw Clinton discussing a variety of policies in the vein of sustainability. And, despite recent political friction in the realm of sustainability – dropping out of the Paris Agreement, for instance – his stance was hopeful. Clinton emphasized the need for everyone to come together in the face of adversity. Aside from those big names, Greenbuild also saw presentations from George Bandy, VP of Sustainability for Mohawk, and Mahesh Ramanujam, president and CEO of the U.S. Green Building Council.
Tyson wrapped up the conference on the final night, delivering a poetic and inspiring presentation on the relationship between the natural and built environments. To highlight this, he explained “Manhattanhenge,” a term he coined to describe the
In the face of political strife and environmental struggles, Greenbuild had an air of hope for a better future. However, it also carried a charge – one that claimed that, if we are to preserve our home, we need to be all in.
Vancouver’s Values Hosting over 500 events each year, the Vancouver Convention Centre is a staple of the downtown Vancouver area. The 466,500 square foot Convention Centre features a large focus on dynamic sustainable practices, making it the perfect site for events such as the upcoming Sustainable Brands Vancouver event and SIGGRAPH 2018. Taking place June 4-7, Sustainable Brands’ 2018 Vancouver event is a celebration of sustainable practices on a corporate level. The event looks to spread awareness of sustainable campaigns to different brands while celebrating companies that have adjusted to the modern era of environmental friendliness. This collaboration makes perfect sense, as, in
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addition to the convention center’s use of a black water treatment plant to reuse water, their six acre roof also features a unique design that doubles as an insulator. The complex itself has also recently been awarded as the world’s very first double LEED platinum convention center. According to David Fiss, Sustainable Brands’ executive producer of live events, the company’s ISO certification “demonstrates a commitment to integrating sustainability into our planning process, engaging all stakeholders, and focusing on continual improvement year after year.” This commitment will help make the 2018
Sustainable Brands event an amazing celebration of sustainable practices in a fittingly sustainable place. And Sustainable Brands isn’t the only example of innovative events coming to the Vancouver Convention Centre. From August 12-16, the SIGGRAPH 2018 Computer Animation Festival, focusing on the future of everything from animation to gaming and more, will bring its emphasis on the tech of tomorrow to the massive complex. Whether you’re interested in sustainability, advanced tech, or both, these are two events you won’t want to miss.
Canada’s Epicentre for Cybersecurity As a leader in cybersecurity, CyberNB is proud of our collaboration with Blue Spurs and the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development in the advancement of IoT training for high school students.
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Is Maple Syrup the Most Sustainable Sweetener?
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The sugar industry has been under significant pressure in recent years to undergo a transformation. Because of the incredible volume of resources required to farm and process sugarcane, many are wondering if it’s possible to have something natural that’s both sweet and sustainable. Produced in partnership with
This has compelled some to look toward an American classic: good old maple syrup. For instance, unlike sugar harvesting, which requires cane fields to be chopped down before any sugar can be gathered, maple syrup production only requires tree tapping, which doesn’t do any Produced in partnership with
permanent harm. As Steve Anderson, CEO of longstanding company Anderson’s Maple Syrup, said, “We do less damage tapping a tree for 30 years than what one broken limb would do.” Adding to Anderson’s point was Dave Chapeskie, executive director of the International Maple Syrup Institute. “Healthy maple forests provide the foundation for sustainable maple syrup production, and these forests have been managed sustainably for generations,” said Chapeskie. “Today’s maple producers are even better equipped with knowledge of the science and the best practices necessary to maintain healthy and productive forests for future generations.” What’s more, advocates like Anderson and Chapeskie claim that, in a time when high-
fructose corn syrup is a major sticking point of healthy dieting, traditional maple syrup represents a positive alternative. “Pure maple syrup contains over 54 antioxidants and several compounds that are similar to compounds used in fighting cancer cells,” Anderson mentioned, while adding, “and it tastes awesome on ice cream!”
Indeco Gives a New Kind of Power to Cryptocurrency True to its name, currency is in a constant state of change. From cash and checks to Venmo and credit cards, how we use money has undoubtedly evolved throughout the years. Lately, the most intriguing iteration is that of cryptocurrency, a digitally focused form of capital. This new method of exchanging funds has been popular because of its ability to transcend geographic boundaries, eliminating exchange rates. And, with the value of the cryptocurrency Bitcoin rapidly increasing, the market has encouraged other players to enter the game. Indeco, for instance, looks to bring an essential driving factor to the industry: fundamental asset value. Indeco’s main form of currency, the indecoin, represents a new form of realism for cryptocurrency. Unlike Bitcoin, which is completely intangible, each indecoin stores a value of a solar power capacity watt. This is due to the fact that, upon purchase, the funds used for an indecoin will go into developing solar power capacity. Because of this, not only are you investing in a sustainable energy source, your value will also fluctuate with the ever-growing market of solar energy, which the International
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iStockphoto/Rick_Jo
Energy Agency called the fastest-growing global energy source in 2016.
needed now more than ever. With the forward-
With the currently intangible world of cryptocurrency still struggling to make it to the mainstream, a new concept such as indecoin is
forth by this new currency, there’s good reason
thinking concept and sustainable mindset set that Indeco refers to indecoin as the “#woketoken.”
■
CAR: 2018 Buick Envision
ELECTRIC VEHICLE: Tesla Model X
• Luxury crossover SUV; emphasis on the luxury • Provides a smooth ride accompanied by the latest tech
• 0 to 60 in 2.9 seconds with up to 295 miles of range • Self-driving mode, plush luxury, and falcon wing doors
CONSOLE: Nintendo Switch
PHONE: Samsung Galaxy S8
VIDEO GAME: Super Mario Odyssey
• Innovative design allows for home and mobile play • An already robust lineup of critically acclaimed games
• A sleek look combined with efficient functionality • Comes water-resistant and with wireless charging capabilities
• Charming high-definition graphics • Modern take on the classic video game series
SERVICE: Clear
SMARTHUB: Amazon Echo Spot
• Makes security lines a thing of the past • Available at large events as well as many airports
• Sleekly designed to fit wherever you need • Connects to Amazon Alexa for smart home control
WEARABLE: Motiv Ring • Waterproof, durable, and comfortable • Tracks everything from physical activity to sleep and heart rate
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Trident 3 Arctic (GTX 1080) – The 2018 CES Best of Innovation Award winner is the perfect gaming solution for those looking for a stylish, console-sized gaming PC that has the power of a full-size desktop. Equipped with the latest Intel 8th Generation CPU and NVIDIA GTX 1080 alongside MSI’s Silent Storm Cooling 2, this PC offers the best-in-class gaming performance. [Prices Vary]
Cordinate Decor Extension Cords – Offering convenience and functionality, Cordinate gives you an extra 10 feet of room to power up your electronics. Featuring both USB charging and grounded power outlets, this surge-protected extension cord lets you take power anywhere you need. $10
TCL 55” P607 – Combining 4K UHD picture quality with Dolby Vision, this award-winning television is exactly what you need to complete your entertainment system. With Roku built right in, you’ll have access to over 450,000 movies and TV shows with their easy to use interface. $649
Escort MAX 360c – The Escort MAX 360c connects directly to your car’s Wi-Fi and automatically connects to Escort LIVE, the exclusive, real-time ticket protection network. Stay aware of local speed limits and alerts from other users with the newest in connected car tech. $699
Cue by Wonder Workshop – They don’t call Cue “the clever bot” for nothing. Allow Cue to help build your programming skills with games and challenges that suit all skill levels. With different personalities to choose from, Cue’s witty sense of humor and interactive learning components guarantee endless fun. $199
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RIVA Festival - This multi-room wireless speaker is about as close to a live music experience you can get. With multiple connectivity options and easy setup through the Google Home app, this speaker marries convenience with high quality sound. $399
playDXTR – Utilizing smart magnetic building blocks to teach children everything from memory to mathematics during playtime, playDXTR allows you to see what areas your child excels in. With 27 app-connected blocks to encourage creative playtime, playDXTR provides building blocks for the 21st century. $199
Enbrighten Seasons Cafe Lights – Offering 16 different colors and over 120 different combinations, the Enbrighten Seasons Color Changing Cafe Lights allow your lighting to reflect your mood with a press of a button. Perfect for holiday get-togethers and relaxing nights alike, Enbrighten will light up any area with personality. $99
CIS-NW-POE Router – Perfect for both the home or workplace, this router’s Wi-Fi Manager can handle and control any number of access points. Ensure that your connections are secure with business class VPN, creating secure access to automation systems, surveillance, and other applications that run within a local network. (Prices vary)
Circuit Scribe Maker Kit – While screen-learning is important, hands-on activities can exercise different parts of our brains, connecting what we learn to everyday life. Circuit Scribe Maker Kit includes everything in the box to start doodling circuits; kids learn how to power the world with the stroke of a pen. $79 WINTER 2017 | INNOVATION & TECH TODAY
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PIQS TT Virtual Touch Projector – For those who have to take work on the go, presentations can pose a special challenge. Fortunately, the PIQS TT provides users with a slim, lightweight, and portable option that can create a sharp picture up to 200 inches wide. $549
Vortex G25 – Power and form are no longer two conflicting characteristics in personal computers with the Vortex G25. Again, MSI has redefined desktop gaming in this compact, 2.5 liter chassis, all while harnessing the best in the latest gaming hardware. $1,499
VEIU Doorbell – Introducing the world’s smartest doorbell. The three-part system features a doorbell camera, a monitor, and an app. With this product, you’ll always be able to see who is at the door from your smart devices, helping to make your house more secure. $249
MyQ Smart Garage Hub — The MyQ Smart Garage Hub adds smartphone control to most major garage door opener brands. Get peace of mind knowing the main access point to your home is secure. Check the status or control your garage door from anywhere so you never have to worry if you left your garage door open. Simple to install and easy to use. $100
ChargeHub USB Chargers – A lack of outlets and a low battery are no match for the ChargeHub by Limitless Innovations. The product line features three models, allowing you to charge up to three, five, or seven devices at once. The ChargeHub is ideal for home and office alike.
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CES Tech West Booth #42935 Sands Level 2
The future called. It said your litter box is full.
2018
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MOHP-00CR – Give your long-cord headphones the storage they deserve with the MOHP-00CR cord organizer. This headphone partner comes with a cable reel, making it perfect for audiophiles, DJs, and even gamers.
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SparkFun Inventor’s Kit 4.0 – This bundle is perfect for those who want an introduction to programming. The Kit will teach you how to read sensors, display information on an LCD screen, drive motors, and more. The guidebook contains everything you need to take your first step towards programming. $99
SmartGurlz – Designed by a mother concerned about the lack of educational toys for her daughter, SmartGurlz is ideal for the young girl who wants a more constructive trip to the toybox. Continuing the STEM tradition of encouraging young girls to learn coding, SmartGurlz are as educational as they are fun. $80
Tovala Smart Oven – Whether you’re too busy or just cooking-challenged, the Tovala Smart Oven makes high quality meals easy. Just scan the barcode on the ready-tocook meal shipped to you and you’re in for restaurant-quality meals. $399
Litter-Robot III Open Air – The LitterRobot III Open Air is an automated litter box for cats that eliminates the need to constantly scoop out your litter box. There is also an option to connect the Litter-Robot to your smartphone to receive notifications when it’s time for the unit to be emptied. $450
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INSPIRING ACTIVE PLAY
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Uscooters – Ditch the traffic and get around conveniently with this zero-emission, lightweight, and fully foldable electric scooter. With a top speed of 18 mph and a range of 20 miles, Uscooters will transport you to the new era of urban mobility. $999
The MotherBox – The MotherBox is the first wireless charger that can power up your devices with no contact required. Omnidirectional, with the capability to charge your devices while they move, the MotherBox is the world’s first 3D inductive charging pad. Charge your iOS and Android devices simultaneously and never worry about charging cables again. $89
Altec Lansing Versa Speaker – This Amazon Alexa-enabled speaker is compatible with a number of music streaming apps, allowing you to do everything from order groceries to listen to music. And, with 8 hours of battery life and resistance to water, snow, and dirt, this speaker is perfect for your house or on the go. $129
Stratus Sofa - Expand Furniture has made owning large fixtures a lot more convenient with this adjustable set. Combining two single chairs, two corner pieces, and an ottoman, this fully customizable sofa might be all your living room needs. $2,995
Lytro Immerge – Create high quality, fully immersive live action VR content with Lytro Immerge. At one meter across, it features a 95 camera lens array, allowing for many different viewpoints and directions to be filmed at once. [For professional studios; prices vary]
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” YOU REALIZE THAT YOU’RE JUST THIS LITTLE DOT IN THIS HUGE SPACE, BARELY SCRATCHING AWAY AT THIS RELATIVELY ARBITRARY GOAL.”
[ continued from page 62 ]
demographics so easily. But again, there’s an opportunity to be able to engage people in real time. And that’s literally my ultimate goal. I want to bring people on that trip. I&T Today: The poles have been associated with spirituality in a lot of cultures, including our own in a way with Santa Claus. As someone who’s visited both, do you understand why? EL: I’m not a very spiritual person. I’m pretty practical, pragmatic. But there’s a couple of things that happen when you’re a small person in that big space, and if you think about our lives today…We have all these different stimuli that we’re exposed to throughout our day. And on most trips, you’re literally doing the same thing 10, 12, 15 hours a day, and then you wake up and you do it again the next day. Obviously, many people go to a job every day, but even that’s different. They’re interacting with different people; they might drive a different route, or whatever. They might go over to their friend’s one night. But to do that singular thing for six or eight weeks, that’s just not our world. So, you have this real…I don’t know how to describe the feeling, but it’s just you out there, so you really understand how insignificant you are…You realize that you’re just this little dot in this huge space, barely scratching away at this relatively arbitrary goal. It can make you feel very small. It also really allows you to understand what’s important to you because, when you’re out on your own and nothing that you do is comfortable and you’re fearful for your basic safety, you start to realize what the important things in your life are. For me, it definitely comes back to my family. But it’s very easy to just be like, “This trip is stupid. Why should I even be out here?” I’ll say, lastly, that I feel lucky to be in those places. It’s an incredible experience in an incredible wilderness. ■
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There’s no shortage of outdoor activities to be enjoyed in Colorado. However, venture to the southeast corner of the state and you will discover a very well-kept secret in the little town of Silverton, Colorado. While you’re there, check out Rock Pirates Backcountry Adventures, whose knowledgeable and friendly staff will help you cruise through the town in a brand new Polaris RZR. Shortly thereafter, you’ll find yourself zipping up trails to the peaks of the San Juans. With breathtaking views, stunning scenery, and a bit of history in the old mining camps, it couldn’t be easier to conquer some of the most majestic mountains in Colorado. Just make sure you stay on the trails and Tread Lightly. With no guardrails or safety fences, one wrong turn and you could find yourself making the “Wiley Coyote Scream” down a mountain face. To be fair though, that little bit of danger is what makes this excursion an editor’s choice and a hell of a lot of fun for thrill-seekers of all ages.
Events
Missing your technology fix between issues of Innovation & Tech Today? We don’t blame you. Luckily, it’s not hard to find a gathering of innovative people in a city near you. Have an event you’d like us to include? Email submit@innotechtoday.com
JANUARY 8
9-12
Check out these events with a local presence around the country: // 1 Million Cups // TEDx // Maker Faire
FEBRUARY 4-6
5-6 ®
Consumer Telematics Show at CES, Las Vegas, NV
22-25
CES Las Vegas, NV
25-28
24-25
IOT Evolution Expo Orlando, FL
Gamesforum, London
Outdoor Retailer Winter Market, Denver, CO
DENT Conference, Napa Valley, CA
5-6
13-14
Wearable Tech Show London
26-29
Smart Cities Connect Conference & Expo Kansas City, MO
15
19- 21
Digital Entertainment World, Los Angeles, CA
MARCH
27-28
IoTBuild San Francisco, CA
CONNECTIONS - Smart Energy Summit, Austin, TX
APRIL 7-8
C-Level @ Mile High Denver, CO
Solar Power Northeast Boston, MA
USA Science & Engineering Festival, Washington, D.C.
18-19
IoT Tech Expo - Global 2018,London
18-19
AI Expo-Global London
30-May 4
Interop ITX, Las Vegas, NV
When it comes to tech events, we always have our eyes on the next big thing. Wait, make that things. Be sure to check out CES 2018 on January 9 in Las Vegas and the USA Science & Engineering Festival on April 7 in Washington, D.C.
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Spring 2018 Tech Zone: New York’s Capital Region
Prepare to get reacquainted with the capital of the world. In our spring tech zone, we’ll be examining the companies and people making sure this longstanding business mecca stays ahead of the pack in the world of tech.
STEM
To celebrate the return of the USA Science & Engineering Festival in Washington D.C., we’re gathering some of the best minds in the world of STEM to discuss the future of education, along with exciting scientific topics.
Sustainability
What’s the next step in solar power? You’ll have to read Innovation & Tech Today to find out. Sustainable technology is paving the way to even more breakthroughs than we thought possible, so that’s why we’re paying special attention to this fertile area of innovation in our next issue.
Best of CES
We’ll be covering the Consumer Electronics Show as it’s happening on our website, but that doesn’t mean we’re done there. The event is just too massive to be ignored, so we’re devoting a special portion of our issue to provide an in-depth discussion of the implications of all this new tech.
Gaming & Entertainment
Paul Sableman
Section editor John Gaudiosi previews what’s to come at the next E3 conference, while giving us exclusives with some of the biggest names in Hollywood. Get ready to explore innovations in VR, AR, and beyond in our next star-packed issue.
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The Lighter Side
Hope and Laughter on the Internet By Jim Breuer The only way I thought I would ever get exposure as an entertainer was through television, which I eventually achieved for the most part. But by 2012, while I was back on the road touring full-time, I realized the times were changing. I had a very difficult time grasping the social media world. I didn’t understand it. “You have to Tweet.” “You have to make videos for Facebook.” That’s all I ever heard. In the beginning, most of us entertainers did whatever we could to become stars. I wanted leather pants and a kangaroo driving in a hot rod convertible on the cover of every magazine! Just so I could hear everyone say, “Wow, that guy is successful! What a star!” But, God’s truth, it was really my gift to make someone laugh in their darkest moments that inspired me to be a comedian. I have specific moments in my life – from my friend’s funeral as a teenager to a bitter breakup – and no matter how dark the moment, my mission was to kill the dark with laughter! That was my initial drive in life. To be passionate, healing, funny, and inspiring. In the spring of 2015, I was going through a tough period in my life. My wife was in chemo with her second bout with breast cancer. My father was in his last days. And it was at this moment that I forced myself to engage with the new world of technology. I made a few videos and posted them on my Facebook page. For the most part, they were family stuff. “Look at the kid’s messy room!” Blah blah. In April 2015, it was chemo day for my wife, and we had just gotten back home from the hospital. She was sick and exhausted. A few hours of opening day of baseball was the perfect mental escape for me for what was going in our lives. My New York Mets were playing the Washington Nationals. I watch every game like it’s the end of the world. I was yelling at the Nationals as if they were in the room. “I thought you were the big bad Max Scherzer that’s going to the World Series. Well, say hello to big sexy Bartolo Cologne!!!” You get the idea. The Mets are about to win the opener when I notice my wife, barely enough energy to sit up, grinning and shaking her head. I asked what she thought was so funny, and she said, “This is what you should be making videos of. You’re so passionate and funny watching this. People will love it. Not just this game, all the games.” A lightbulb came on in my head. This was brilliant! I made the video, no editing, without thinking, just flying with true passion, and posted it on Facebook. By that evening, I was talking to Mets fans as if I knew these people my whole life. The Mets posted it on their site. I did every game that year and, by sheer luck, they went to the World Series. By then, almost two
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million viewers a night would wait patiently for my recap of the game. It built a community and new fanbase. Not only was I doing something I was so passionate about but I was enjoying engaging with everyone on the site. During chemo sessions I would make my wife laugh in the room along with the other patients. My wife again encouraged me to make the funny videos at the hospital. I felt uncomfortable with that, but she reminded me that it was healing and people needed it, including her. So I would make videos of myself acting annoyed while my wife was getting chemo: “So does this mean you’re not cooking tonight and we have to order out … AGAIN?!” “So, no intimacy? Not feeling that either? Ugh.” She would belly-laugh along with some of the patients around us. Now after my shows, I hear, “Thank you for those videos,” “Tell your wife we love her,” “I discovered you through your Facebook videos,” “You made me watch baseball.” The power of passion, healing, laughter, and inspiration is back for me and my career … and I owe it to social media … but I still don’t know what I’m doing half the time! ■ Known as one of today’s top entertainers, comic storyteller Jim Breuer, came to national attention during his years on Saturday Night Live and in Half Baked. Today, Breuer can be seen alongside Kevin James on Kevin Can Wait (CBS) and heard on “The Jim Breuer Podcast.” Breuer will kick off his upcoming 2018 “United We Laugh” tour, and begin his 1-year residency at the Paramount Theatre in New York, starting Feb. 17.