text:
Please click finalist names for further info.
- Android (Andrew) Jones
Android (Andrew) Jones
Lyons, Colorado born Independent Artist Android Jones began studying art at age 8. He attended the Ringling School of Art and Design in Sarasota FL, where he trained in traditional academic drawing/painting and animation. Jones interned at George Lucas' Industrial Light and Magic and later founded Massive Black, an art development company based in LA. Android began his career as an Independent Artist in 2005. He now lives in his home town of Lyons, maintaining a large art studio in a re-purposed barn.
Best described as a "digital painter," Jones has created an immense body of work. He has become well known for his many layered, psychedelic works and live performances using a custom built digital set up. He participated in the Grateful Dead Fare Thee Well Tour and his work has been projected on the Sydney Opera House and the Empire State Building. A long time member of the Burning Man community, Android has traveled the world exhibiting his work and has contributed to events on 6 continents.
, Digital Artist, SelfSelf
No bio available at the moment - Christine Sun Kim
Christine Sun Kim
"Sound artist Christine Sun Kim makes kinetic installations that combine performance with scores of harmonies, cacophonies, and vibrations. Kim was born deaf and has made it her project to explore the physicality of sound. "I constantly questioned the ownership of sound, now I'm reclaiming sound as my property," Kim has said. The artist also makes paintings and drawings from her experiments with field recordings and breathing. For her "Seismic Calligraphy" works, she places canvases with ink-laden brushes on top of subwoofers. As sound is piped through the speakers, the brushes move and mark the canvas. The "Scores and Transcripts" series visualizes sound with poem-like compositions of words and syncopated lines on paper."
, American sound artist, SelfSelf
No bio available at the moment - Mark Pauline
Mark Pauline
"Mark Pauline (born December 14, 1953) is an American performance artist and inventor, best known as founder and director of Survival Research Laboratories. He is a 1977 graduate of Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida.
Pauline founded SRL in 1978 and it is considered the premier practitioner of "industrial performing arts", and the forerunner of large scale machine performance. SRL is known for producing the most dangerous shows on earth. Although acknowledged as a major influence on popular competitions pitting remote-controlled robots and machines against each other, such as BattleBots and Robot Wars, Pauline shies away from rules-bound competition preferring a more anarchic approach. Machines are liberated and re-configured away from the functions they were originally meant to perform.
Pauline has written of SRL, "Since its inception SRL has operated as an organization of creative technicians dedicated to re-directing the techniques, tools, and tenets of industry, science, and the military away from their typical manifestations in practicality, product or warfare." Since its beginning through the end of 2006, SRL has conducted about 48 shows.
In the summer of 1982, Pauline severely damaged his hand while experimenting with solid rocket fuel.[1] In August 1990, ArtPark, a state-sponsored arts festival in Lewiston, New York, cancelled a Pauline performance when it turned out he intended "to cover a sputtering Rube Goldberg spaceship with numerous Bibles" that would "serve as thermal protective shields" and be burned to ashes in the course of the performance.[2]
According to Pauline "I like to make machines that can just do their own shows... machines that can do all that machines in the science fiction novels can do. I want to be there to make those dreams real."[3]"
, Founder and Director, Survival Research LaboratoriesSurvival Research Laboratories
No bio available at the moment - Miller Puckette
Miller Puckette
Miller Puckette obtained a B.S. in Mathematics from MIT (1980) and Ph. D. in Mathematics from Harvard (1986). He was a member of MIT's Media Lab from its inception until 1987, and then a researcher at IRCAM (l'Institut de Recherche et de Coordination Musique/Acoustique), founded by composer and conductor Pierre Boulez. At IRCAM he wrote Max, a widely used computer music software environment, released commercially by Opcode Systems in 1990 and now available from Cycling74.com .
Puckette joined the Music department of the University of California, San Diego in 1994, where he is now professor. From 2000 to 2011 he was Associate Director of Center for Research in Computing and the Arts (CRCA) at UCSD.
He is currently developing Pure Data ("Pd"), an open-source real-time multimedia arts programming environment. Puckette has collaborated with many artists and musicians, including Philipe Manoury (whose Sonus ex Machina cycle was the first major work to use Max), and Rand Steiger, Vibeke Sorensen, and Juliana Snapper. Since 2004 he has performed with the Convolution Brothers. In 2008 Puckette received the SEAMUS Livetime Achievement Award.
, Professor, Mathematician, and Author of Max and Pure Data, Music Department, UCSDMusic Department, UCSD
No bio available at the moment - Casey Reas
Casey Reas
"Reas' software, prints, and installations have been featured in over one hundred solo and group exhibitions at museums and galleries in the United States, Europe, and Asia. Recent venues include the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Art Institute of Chicago, and recent commissions have been awarded by the Whitney Museum of American Art and the New World Symphony in Miami. Reas' work is in a range of private and public collections, including the Centre Georges Pompidou and the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Reas is a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. He holds a masters degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Media Arts and Sciences as well as a bachelors degree from the School of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning at the University of Cincinnati. With Ben Fry, Reas initiated Processing in 2001. Processing is an open source programming language and environment for the visual arts.
Reas recently co-wrote and designed the book 10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10 (MIT Press, 2013). Reas and Fry published Processing: A Programming Handbook for Visual Designers and Artists, a comprehensive introduction to programming within the context of visual media (MIT Press, 2007). With Chandler McWilliams and Lust, Reas published Form+Code in Design, Art, and Architecture (Princeton Architectural Press, 2010), a non-technical introduction to the history, theory, and practice of software in the visual arts. Reas' Process Compendium 2004—2010 documents six years of his work exploring the phenomena of emergence through software."
(source: http://reas.com/information)
, Artist, SelfSelf
No bio available at the moment - Helen Thorington
Helen Thorington
"Helen Thorington is the Co-Director of New Radio and Performing Arts, Inc., the founder and producer of the national weekly radio series, New American Radio (1987-1998), the founder and producer of the Turbulence.org and Somewhere.org websites (1996-); and co-founder with Jo-Anne Green of the blogs, Networked_Performance and Networked_Music_Review, and Networked: a (networked_book) about (networked_art) (2009). She is also a writer, sound composer, and radio producer, whose radio documentary, dramatic work, and sound/music compositions have been aired internationally for the past thirty years. She has been an invited speaker at numerous conferences including: MIT5: creativity, ownership and collaboration in the digital age, Massachusetts Institute for Technology (2007); Digital Arts Weeks, Zurich (2007); Music in the Global Village in Budapest (2009); and Sounding Cultures at Cornell University (2011). Her writings have been published in numerous periodicals including Contemporary Music Review (2005, 2006); and Intermedia Art (Tate Modern, London, 2008); she has contributed to numerous recent exhibitions of sound art in the US and abroad."
, Founder, New Radio and Performing Arts, Inc.New Radio and Performing Arts, Inc.
No bio available at the moment
- Nicholas Abbott
Nicholas Abbott
"Dr. Abbott is a Professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His research interests span colloid, interface, and surfactant science. A particular focus is directed toward the design of new surfactants that can be placed under active control, the use of liquid crystalline materials to amplify biomolecular interactions, and the design of interfaces with chemistry and topography patterned on nanometer dimensions. His work has been recognized by honors, which include a Presidential Early Career Award in Science and Engineering, a Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award and a Fulbright Fellowship. He has published in leading journals, including Science, Journal of the American Chemical Society, Physical Review Letters and Langmuir."
SOURCE: https://www.ocularservices.com/members/nicholas-l-abbott-phd
, Co-Founder, Imbed BiosciencesImbed Biosciences
No bio available at the moment - Thomas Barnes
Thomas Barnes
"Thomas Barnes is the CSO of Intellia Therapeutics.
Intellia is a leading genome editing company, focused on the development of proprietary, potentially curative therapeutics using a recently developed biological tool known as the CRISPR/Cas9 system. Intellia believes the CRISPR/Cas9 technology has the potential to transform medicine by permanently editing disease-associated genes in the human body with a single treatment course."
, CSO, Intellia TherapeuticsIntellia Therapeutics
No bio available at the moment - João Barroso-Batista
João Barroso-Batista
"Co-evolution between the mammalian immune system and the gut microbiota is believed to have shaped the microbiota's astonishing diversity. Here we test the corollary hypothesis that the adaptive immune system, directly or indirectly, influences the evolution of commensal species. We compare the evolution of Escherichia coli upon colonization of the gut of wild-type and Rag2_/_ mice, which lack lymphocytes. We show that bacterial adaptation is slower in immune-compromised animals, a phenomenon explained by differences in the action of natural selection within each host. Emerging mutations exhibit strong beneficial effects in healthy hosts but substantial antagonistic pleiotropy in immune-deficient mice. This feature is due to changes in the composition of the gut microbiota, which differs according to the immune status of the host. Our results indicate that the adaptive immune system influences the tempo and predictability of E. coli adaptation to the mouse gut."
, Graduate student, ITQB NOVA, an interdisciplinary research and advanced training institute of Universidade Nova de LisboaITQB NOVA, an interdisciplinary research and advanced training institute of Universidade Nova de Lisboa
No bio available at the moment - Kelly Gardner
Kelly Gardner
Kelly Gardner is currently Director of Marketing at ProteinSimple. Previously, she was CEO & co-founder at Zephyrus Biosciences, a venture-backed start-up company she spun out from her Ph.D. lab to commercialize a transformative microfluidics-based platform that can profile tumors at the single-cell level and provide high resolution views into the diverse cell types that make up an individual patient's tumor. She led Zephyrus from incorporation through to acquisition by ProteinSimple and was recently selected as a Global Innovator under 35 (TR35) by the MIT Technology Review for her work. Single-cell analysis was named the 2013 Method of the Year by Nature Methods, signaling the importance of this rapidly emerging field in biomedicine. In the future, the technology developed at Zephyrus will be used to identify the composition of an individual patient's tumor so that treatments can be prescribed to target metastatic, resistant, and other subtypes of cells. This will radically advance personalized medicine and lead to more effective targeted cancer therapies.
Kelly holds a Ph.D. in bioengineering from U.C. Berkeley, an MBA-equivalent from Cambridge University where she was a Gates Scholar, and a B.S. from Yale University.
, Director, Marketing, ProteinSimpleProteinSimple
No bio available at the moment - Dr. David Horning
Dr. David Horning
"David Horning, PhD, is a research associate in the Joyce Laboratory at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI). In 2012, with the support of the Fannie and John Foundation Fellowship, he received his PhD in biotechnology from TSRI. David's thesis, "Evolving Ribozymes to Make RNA Aptamers", detailed a new approach to develop an RNA enzyme that can copy RNA. This "replicase" could make any RNA enzyme, including itself, and could be used to form the core of RNA-based synthetic life. Although RNA enzymes exist that can copy short RNA sequences, none are active enough to copy the sequences of most (typically longer) RNA enzymes. The new method uses directed Darwinian evolution to adapt these enzymes to make much longer functional RNA sequences.
David is currently continuing as a postdoc at TSRI, using the method he developed to evolve RNA enzymes that can copy a variety of functional RNA sequences. In August 2016, along with his colleagues at TSRI, David published as first-author paper detailing the RNA replicating scientific breakthrough that he had been investigating. Their findings, reported in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), titled "Amplification of RNA by an RNA Polymerase Ribozyme", support key aspects of the widely accepted "RNA World" hypothesis, in which single-stranded RNA molecules are thought to have constituted one of the earliest forms of life – if not the earliest form of life -- some 4 billion years ago. In the longer term, David plans to continue in academic research, studying both the origin of life and synthetic biology.
SOURCE: http://hertzfoundation.org/dx/fellows/fellow_profile.aspx?d=10105"
(Research Associate, The Scripps Research InstituteThe Scripps Research Institute
No bio available at the moment) & Dr. Gerald Joyce (Researcher, The Scripps Research Institute)The Scripps Research Institute
No bio available at the momentDr. Gerald Joyce
"Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute say they have made a major advance toward the goal of producing life through test-tube evolution. Gerald F. Joyce and David P. Horning report having produced an RNA enzyme that both synthesizes complicated functional RNA molecules and replicates simpler RNA molecules. This effort is quantitatively different from earlier work that produced only simple RNA, Joyce said. The evolved enzyme, called a ribozyme, was selected for its ability to make functional RNA, but it cannot reproduce itself. Work toward that end continues, Joyce said. Such a self-replicating molecule would meet the essential criteria for life, he said. Self-replicating RNA is hypothesized to have existing before DNA, which carries the code of life in all living organisms. This "RNA world" is thought to have given way to DNA billions of years ago. Its existence is inferred from the properties of RNA, which acts both as a transmitter of genetic information and an enzyme that can perform functions of some proteins." source:http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/business/biotech/sdut-rna-world-origin-life-2016aug15-story.html - Patricia Kovatch
Patricia Kovatch
"Ms. Kovatch has been the Associate Dean for Scientific Computing at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine since October 2011. She is responsible for achieving the School's high-performance computing (HPC) goals, which are critical to the advancement of the School's research enterprise, filling an essential role by ensuring the efficient and effective delivery and maintenance of computational resources. Since joining the School, she has deployed a 7,000 core, high-performance cluster with 1.5Pbyte of shared disk space, which is already fully utilized by the School's genomic and biomedical research programs. She has also led a statewide collaboration to upgrade network infrastructure to accelerate data-intensive science with broad community benefit. In addition, she manages the Data Warehouse and the Research Information Technology groups."
, Associate Dean, Scientific Computing at the Mount Sinai School of MedicineScientific Computing at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine
No bio available at the moment - Stephen Turner
Stephen Turner
Stephen Turner, PhD co-founded Pacific Biosciences in July 2000. Dr. Turner served as our President and Chief Executive Officer from the company's inception until March 2004, when he assumed his current role as our Chief Technology Officer. He served as a member of our board of directors from inception until July 2010. Prior to founding the company Dr. Turner contributed to the establishment of the Nanobiotechnology Center at Cornell University in January 2000. Dr. Turner holds a PhD in Physics from Cornell University. He received B.S. degrees in Applied Mathematics, Electrical Engineering and Physics from the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
(Assistant Professor of Public Health, University of Virginia, and director of the School of Medicine's Bioinformatics CoreUniversity of Virginia, and director of the School of Medicine's Bioinformatics Core
No bio available at the moment) & Jonas Korlach (Chief Scientific Officer, Pacific Biosciences)Pacific Biosciences
No bio available at the momentJonas Korlach
"Dr. Jonas Korlach is Chief Scientific Officer at Pacific Biosciences. He co-invented the company's SMRT technology with Stephen Turner, Ph.D., Pacific Biosciences Founder and Chief Technology Officer, when the two were graduate students at Cornell University. SMRT technology dramatically improves the accuracy and speed of DNA sequencing. Dr. Korlach joined Pacific Biosciences as the company's eighth employee in 2004. Dr. Korlach is the recipient of multiple grants, an inventor on 33 issued U.S. patents, and an author of numerous scientific studies on the principles and applications of SMRT technology, including publications in Nature, Science, and PNAS. He received both his Ph.D. and his M.S. degrees in Biochemistry, Molecular and Cell Biology from Cornell, and received M.S. and B.A. degrees in Biological Sciences from Humboldt University in Berlin, Germany. SOURCE: https://www.whitehouse.gov/champions/immigrant-innovators/dr.-jonas-korlach-"
Communications Technology
- Polina Bayvel
Polina Bayvel
"Polina Bayvel is an electrical engineer who has made major contributions to the investigation and design of high-bandwidth, multi-wavelength optical communication networks. Formerly a Royal Society University Research Fellow (1993-2003), her research has focused on maximising the speed and capacity of optical fibre transmission systems, and the fundamental studies of capacity-limiting optical nonlinearities and their mitigation.
She was one of the first to show the feasibility of using the wavelength domain for routing in optical etworks over a range of distance- and time-scales. She has established the applicability of these new optical network architecture concepts, which have been widely implemented in commercial systems and networks. These systems and networks underpin the Internet, and the digital communications infrastructure - and are essential for its growth.
Polina Bayvel is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering (2002), and a recipient of a number of awards. These include the 2013 IEEE Photonic Society Engineering Achievement Award, 2014 Royal Society Clifford Paterson Lecture & Medal, and 2015 Royal Academy of Engineering Colin Campbell Mitchell Award."
(SOURCE: https://royalsociety.org/people/polina-bayvel-12845/)
, Electrical Engineer, Optical Communications & Networks in the Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering at University College LondonOptical Communications & Networks in the Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering at University College London
No bio available at the moment - James Messer
James Messer
James is a recognized expert in the cloud-based billing industry, having pioneered many of the concepts and solutions that are widely embraced and adopted in the global monetization space today.
Prior to founding goTransverse, James spent 25-years building monetization platforms for the world's largest telecommunications and IT businesses. He served as vice president for LHS Group, one of the largest implementation and support networks in the global customer care and billing marketplace with more than 300 customer sites worldwide and 18 global and regional partners. James also served as vice president for Sema Group plc, which became the world leader in communications software and solutions after the acquisition of LHS for $4.75 billion. Sema then surpassed all global billing competitors in revenue, subscribers, sites and solutions. Related to B/OSS, James also served in senior management positions for leading billing company CSG Systems (NASDAQ: CSGS), US Telecom Advanced Telecom Service (sold to CSG) and TechnoCom Wireless (now LocationSmart)– a leader in wireless location-based services. Additionally, James also founded and led Federal Programs for Schlumberger (NYSE: SLB), helped found CET Online, an early pioneer in Internet-distributed news, and served on the staff of U.S. Senate Leader Bob Dole focusing on telecommunications, IT and foreign policy.
In addition to serving as CEO of goTransverse, James also participates as a partner in Spectrum Five LLC, the largest holder of DBS spectrum with full U.S. coverage.
, CEO, GoTransverseGoTransverse
No bio available at the moment - Daniela Perdomo
Daniela Perdomo
"Daniela Perdomo is the co-founder & CEO of goTenna. Perdomo grew up in São Paulo, and lives in Brooklyn.
goTenna builds next-generation, decentralized communication technology.
goTenna's first device was the first and only way to enable communication on regular smartphones over practical long distances when when there's no service of any kind. The award-winning device is powered by the company's Aspen Prime protocol, which enables users to intelligently route messages to specific recipients, receive delivery confirmation receipts, and never have to worry about channels and interference.
The company's second consumer product, goTenna Mesh, announced in fall 2016, enables users to expand the reach of their networks by way of a first-of-its-kind mesh networking technology. goTenna's Aspen Grove protocol turns goTenna Mesh into the first 100% off-grid, mobile, long-range, consumer-ready mesh network. goTenna Mesh effectively enables users to relay messages through each other, extending range and utility all the while creating a network that actually does get stronger the more people join it. goTenna Mesh is the company's first product available internationally.
goTenna's mission is to create bottom-up, people-powered connectivity that can run parallel to top-down communications infrastructure. The company is set on redefining communication according to need as opposed to access, and committed to evolving its technology so that it becomes an essential part of the everyday communication stack, and critical to scaling resilient, accessible communication for disconnected people across the world.
, Co-founder & CEO, goTennagoTenna
No bio available at the moment - Thuan Pham
Thuan Pham
"Thuan Pham is the CTO of Uber.
Thuan demonstrates daily that hard work can be really fun and that success is more achievable with a talented team that is highly aligned and cohesive. He's scaling Engineering to address the challenges that arise with Uber's rapid growth.
Previously a VP of Engineering at VMWare, Westbridge and Doubleclick, Thuan has proven to be an inspirational leader who can deliver exceptional mission critical software and services. He holds a B.S. in Computer Science and Engineering and an M.S. in EE/CS from MIT. Beyond being a talented scholar, published author, amazing friend and father, he's also an avid ping-pong and tennis player.
SOURCE: https://www.crunchbase.com/person/thuan-pham#/entity"
, CTO, UberUber
The launch of Uber's self-driving pilot program in September 2016 marks the public unveiling of the company's secretive work in autonomous vehicles and the first time self-driving cars have been so freely available to the U.S. public." (source: http://fortune.com/2016/09/14/uber-self-driving-cars-pittsburgh/) - Evan Spiegel
Evan Spiegel
"Evan Thomas Spiegel (born June 4, 1990) is an American Internet entrepreneur. He is the co-founder and CEO of the mobile app Snapchat, which he created with Bobby Murphy and Reggie Brown while they were students at Stanford University."
(CEO + Co Founder, snapchatsnapchat
"Snapchat is an image messaging and multimedia mobile application created by Evan Spiegel, Bobby Murphy, and Reggie Brown[3] when they were students at Stanford University. The app's marketed product name was originally used to form the company Snapchat, Inc., which was later renamed Snap Inc. The corporate headquarters are located in Venice, California.[4][5][6][7] The prototype for Snapchat was started by Brown and Spiegel as a project for one of Spiegel's classes at Stanford, where Spiegel was a product design major. Beginning under the name "Picaboo", the idea was to create a selfie app which allowed users to share images that were explicitly short-lived and self-deleting. The temporary nature of the pictures would therefore encourage frivolity and emphasize a more natural interaction.[1][7] When, in April 2011, Spiegel floated the product idea in front of his class as a final project, the classmates focused on the impermanent aspect of the potential product, and balked at the thought of temporary photos.[7][8] Murphy was eventually brought into the project to write the source code for the application, and Picaboo first launched as an iOS-only app in July 2011 from Evan Spiegel's living room (who was still staying at home with his father when not away at school). The application was relaunched two months later under the name Snapchat.[7][8][9][10] Snapchat evolved into a mix of private messaging and public content, including brand networks, publications, and live events such as sports and music. Nevertheless, according to survey studies conducted in March 2016, the personal oriented messaging was still being accessed by users more than the publicly offered content that was being presented. 71% of users surveyed said that they preferred the app for its chat, messaging, and imaging services, versus 5% who almost exclusively chose the various events, published features, and media content on a daily basis. 24% responded that they accessed all features equally. However, about three quarters of those surveyed were also familiar with the events, media brands, and celebrity content, having a favorable opinion of those areas.[11]") & Bobby Murphy (Co-Founder, snapchat)snapchat
"Snapchat is an image messaging and multimedia mobile application created by Evan Spiegel, Bobby Murphy, and Reggie Brown[3] when they were students at Stanford University. The app's marketed product name was originally used to form the company Snapchat, Inc., which was later renamed Snap Inc. The corporate headquarters are located in Venice, California.[4][5][6][7] The prototype for Snapchat was started by Brown and Spiegel as a project for one of Spiegel's classes at Stanford, where Spiegel was a product design major. Beginning under the name "Picaboo", the idea was to create a selfie app which allowed users to share images that were explicitly short-lived and self-deleting. The temporary nature of the pictures would therefore encourage frivolity and emphasize a more natural interaction.[1][7] When, in April 2011, Spiegel floated the product idea in front of his class as a final project, the classmates focused on the impermanent aspect of the potential product, and balked at the thought of temporary photos.[7][8] Murphy was eventually brought into the project to write the source code for the application, and Picaboo first launched as an iOS-only app in July 2011 from Evan Spiegel's living room (who was still staying at home with his father when not away at school). The application was relaunched two months later under the name Snapchat.[7][8][9][10] Snapchat evolved into a mix of private messaging and public content, including brand networks, publications, and live events such as sports and music. Nevertheless, according to survey studies conducted in March 2016, the personal oriented messaging was still being accessed by users more than the publicly offered content that was being presented. 71% of users surveyed said that they preferred the app for its chat, messaging, and imaging services, versus 5% who almost exclusively chose the various events, published features, and media content on a daily basis. 24% responded that they accessed all features equally. However, about three quarters of those surveyed were also familiar with the events, media brands, and celebrity content, having a favorable opinion of those areas.[11]"Bobby Murphy
"Bobby Murphy cofounded photo and video messaging app Snapchat --renamed Snap Inc. in late September 201 6 - with fellow Stanford University fraternity brother Evan Spiegel. Nearly 40% of 18 to 34-year-old U.S. smartphone users access the app monthly. Snapchat lets users send friends photos or videos with captions and graphics that "disappear" in 10 seconds or less; it first started to take off in late 2011. "We weren't cool," Murphy once told Forbes, referring to his college days. "So we tried to build things to be cool." Investors valued the company at $18 billion in May 2016. SOURCE: http://www.forbes.com/profile/bobby-murphy/" - Niniane Wang
Niniane Wang
"Niniane Wang is the founder of Evertoon. Previously she was Chief Technology Officer of Minted, cofounder of Sunfire Offices, and an engineering manager at Google and Microsoft for a combined decade.
SOURCE: http://niniane.org/"
, Founder, EvertoonEvertoon
No bio available at the moment
- Behnaz Farahi
Behnaz Farahi
Exploring the potential of interactive environments and their relationship to the human body, Behnaz Farahi is interested in the implementation of emerging technologies in contemporary art/architecture practice. Her goal is to enhance the relationship between human beings and the built environment by implementing design/motion principles inspired by natural systems. Application areas include architecture, fashion and interaction design. She also specializes in additive manufacturing and robotic technologies.
Her work has been exhibited internationally (most recently at Ars Electronica, Linz) and has been featured in several magazines and online websites including WIRED, BBC, CNN, The Guardian, Motherboard, Dezeen, Frame Magazine, The Creators Project and many more. Ms Farahi has won several awards, including Kinetic Art Organization International First Prize in 2013, Student First Prize at Acadia 2013, Best Paper at Technarte 2016, and is the recipient of the Madworkshop Grant and the Rock Hudson Fellowship.
Ms Farahi has worked with leading firms such as Autodesk, Fuksas Studio, and 3DSystems / will-i-am. She has also collaborated with Professor Behrokh Khoshnevis on two NASA funded research projects developing a robotic fabrication technology to 3D print structures on the Moon and Mars.
She has been Artist in Residence at Autodesk Pier 9. Currently she is an Annenberg Fellow and PhD candidate in Interdisciplinary Media Arts and Practice at the USC School of Cinematic Arts. She has a Bachelor's and two Masters degrees in Architecture.
, Designer, Architect, and Annenberg Fellow, University of Southern California (USC)University of Southern California (USC)
No bio available at the moment - Nicholas Felton
Nicholas Felton
"Nicholas Felton works primarily with infographics, making charts and graphs for publications including Wired, the New York Times, and Esquire. With Ryan Case, he's also the co-creator of Daytum, an app that puts graphing tools in the hands of the masses, allowing anyone to track and organize their data, from fantasy football to diet to corporate sales figures. )
, Infographic Designer and Author, Personal Annual ReportsPersonal Annual Reports
No bio available at the moment - Tinker Hatfield
Tinker Hatfield
"After 28 years of brainstorming and 11 years of R&D, after many false starts, delays, and blown deadlines, after the vanquishing of internal skepticism, after innumerable prototypes, iterations, and redesigns, Nike's automatic electronic self-lacing shoe is scheduled to ship to stores this holiday season. The company is calling the technology "adaptive fit," and the sneaker is the HyperAdapt 1.0—each shoe has a sensor, battery, motor, and cable system that adjusts fit based on an algorithmic pressure equation. When a foot is inserted, the shoe tightens automatically until it senses friction points. There are a pair of buttons near the tongue to adjust fit as needed. That such high tech shoes, with a likely (though still TBD) high price tag to match, would be desirable in a country that spends billions a year on sneakers was almost taken for granted. That Hatfield, now Nike's vice president of creative concepts and probably the world's most celebrated designer of shoes, a human icon inside a corporate one, would lead the team behind them was only expected. And while no one will say how much the company has spent on the shoe's development—"a considerable amount of R&D dollars" is as specific as Parker, now the company's CEO, will get—Hatfield believes the HyperAdapt is the first step in a revolution in adaptive footwear and thus worth every red cent. "We're talking about a project that's maybe the most difficult in the history of footwear," Hatfield says. "I'm more excited about this than any project I've ever been involved with.")
, Vice President for Design and Special Projects, NikeNike
No bio available at the moment - Benjamin Hubert
Benjamin Hubert
Benjamin Hubert (born 11 March 1984, United Kingdom) is a British industrial designer. He is the founder of Layer, a strategic industrial design agency focused on experience-driven design for both the physical and digital worlds. He has partnered with a number of globally recognised brands, including Samsung, Braun, BMW, Oral B, Panasonic, Maggie's cancer charity, Fritz Hansen, and Herman Miller.
Benjamin graduated from Industrial Design & Technology at Loughborough University in 2006. He began his career at DCA Design, the largest design consultancy in the UK, before moving to London in 2007 to work for internationally renowned design consultancy Seymour Powell as senior industrial designer on a variety of projects, including Eurostar interiors. He then moved to Tangerine, the agency at which Jonathan Ive worked prior to joining Apple.
In October 2010, at the age of 26, Benjamin founded Benjamin Hubert Ltd. with the aim of creating products that would connect with people. It was during this period that Benjamin became a leading voice in the global design industry. Challenging the traditional royalty-based model of the lifestyle design industry, Benjamin created both a service and a retail platform for Benjamin Hubert Ltd.
In September 2015, Benjamin re-branded Benjamin Hubert Ltd as Layer, a new agency with a focus on creating meaningful experiences based on extensive research and human behaviours. The agency's practice incorporates diverse industries, including industrial design, mechanical and electrical engineering, user experience design, user interaction design, branding, and human-centred research. From app design and the next generation of wearables to smart domestic appliances, fast moving consumer goods, and intelligent furniture systems, Layer creates products that meet the demands of tomorrow today.
Benjamin has presented his work at leading events around the world – including London Design Festival, Milan, ICFF, and Tokyo Design Week – and has received a number of awards, including the RedDot Design Award, iF Design Award, and London Design Museum's Designs of the Year. He has also been invited to judge a number of prestigious awards programmes, including the BraunPrize 2015.
, Founder, LayerLayer
No bio available at the moment - Bas Van Abel
Bas Van Abel
"Planned obsolescence is a major problem in tech. Increasingly complex products are designed to degrade after a certain period of time; consumers keep buying new versions without considering how to fix their current model; and, as a result, the Earth is getting overrun with unnecessary e-waste. Fairphone 2 offers an alternative to that vicious cycle, with a durable, modular smartphone designed for ease of use (and reuse). Thanks to a streamlined hardware design with minimal component parts, users have the power to troubleshoot repairs with household tools, and in the process form a new relationship with their gadget. A broken screen takes less than a minute to replace, no tools required, and the camera, headphone jack, and micro USB connector can be fixed using a screwdriver.)
, Founder and CEO, FairphoneFairphone
No bio available at the moment - Iris van Herpen
Iris van Herpen
"The haute couture works of Dutch fashion designer Iris van Herpen can seem mind-bendingly ahead of their time. At Paris Fashion Week, in March, models in seemingly gravity-defying ensembles strode down a runway dotted with strategically placed optical screens that reflected and distorted
the models' appearance like high-tech fun house mirrors. Van Herpen's designs are sleek in a way that calls to mind marvels of evolutionary design, like stingrays or coral, combined with the type of repetitive structures one expects only a machine could produce.
Her silhouettes range from close-fitting to outsized and geometric. One outfit looked like a freeze frame of a dress swept upward by a strong wind. Another, with exaggerated shoulders and hips, had the shape of a moth with its wings spread. The show's focal dress was made from 5,000 individual pieces, each 3-D printed and then hand-woven together to evoke a glimmering, gothic needlepoint. Van Herpen has been hailed by the New York Times for her "different way of thinking," a high-concept designer who fuses an interest in fashion, art and architecture with cutting-edge technologies and fields of science as diverse as particle physics, robotics and microbiology. "Iris van Herpen's astonishing designs don't look like 'clothes,'" the Washington Post wrote last year. "They look like the future."
The 31-year-old van Herpen, who grew up in a small town in Holland, studied fashion design at the esteemed Dutch art academy Artez and had an internship during college with the pathbreaking fashion designer Alexander McQueen. She does think about the future, but less, perhaps, than many of her admirers might expect. "I don't find my work futuristic," says van Herpen, in a recent interview with Smithsonian. "It's bizarre how the mind works. Many of the concepts and explorations happening today," she says, like those she tries to conjure with the designs she puts on display at her fashion shows, "feel as though they are the future, not yet real."
Read more: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/iris-van-herpen-revolutionizi...
, Dutch fashion designer
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- John Paul (JP) Benini
John Paul (JP) Benini
John Paul Benini (JP) is the Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer of Elemental Path--the company making smart toys smarter through its flagship product, the CogniToys Dino. JP built the world's first cognitive toy using Elemental Path's own proprietary secret sauce and IBM Watson. Hoping to shake up the smart toy industry, JP works each and every day to improve how the Dino works and set an industry-wide standard for toys that don't just talk, but interact and get smarter over time.
(Source: https://cognitoys.com)
, Co-Founder and chairman, Elemental PathElemental Path
No bio available at the moment - Alexandra Bernadotte
Alexandra Bernadotte
"Beyond 12 was founded in 2009 by entrepreneur, Alexandra (Alex) Bernadotte, who drew inspiration to create the organization from her own experience as a first-generation college graduate. Born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Alex grew up in inner city Boston, the oldest daughter of immigrant parents who were determined to see her succeed. Like many first-generation college students, Alex struggled with the transition to college. Her first year at Dartmouth was tough. After years of hard work to get into college, Alex was shocked to realize that receiving her acceptance letter had been the easiest step. But she stuck it out, graduated in four years, and became the first in her immediate family to receive a college degree. The challenges Alex faced during those years at Dartmouth planted a seed for what she wanted to do: start a movement to ensure other first-generation college students wouldn't struggle as she had.
Alex has more than 18 years of executive management and strategic development experience in both the nonprofit and private sectors. Immediately before launching Beyond 12, she was an Entrepreneur in Residence at NewSchools Venture Fund where she conducted the research and developed the business plan for Beyond 12. Alex's previous professional experience includes serving as executive director of The Princeton Review's Silicon Valley office, co-founder and vice president of marketing and online strategy at educational travel startup Explorica, director of operations at EF Education, and operations manager at the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland, where she coordinated the efforts of an international youth substance abuse prevention foundation.
Alex was also the executive director of Foundation for a College Education (FCE). She currently serves on the FCE advisory board, as well as the board of directors of the Great Oakland Public Schools Leadership Center. Alex received her undergraduate degree from Dartmouth College and earned a master's degree with a concentration in policy and organizational leadership from Stanford. She is an Ashoka Fellow, a recipient of the 2011 NewSchools Venture Fund Entrepreneur of the year award, and a 2012 Jefferson Award for Public Service. In addition, Fast Company recently named Beyond 12 "one of the world's top 10 most innovative companies in education."
, Founder, Beyond 12Beyond 12
No bio available at the moment - Bharat Merdiratta
Bharat Merdiratta
Bharat Mediratta is the CTO and co-founder at AltSchool.
"AltSchool is designing a technology-enabled network that connects teachers, parents, and students to deliver a personalized, whole-child education. Our approach focuses on developing self-awareness, innate capability, and collaboration skills so all children can successfully navigate their future."
(CTO, AltschoolAltschool
No bio available at the moment) & Max Ventilla (Founder and CEO, Altschool)Altschool
No bio available at the momentMax Ventilla
"Typically, a tiny chain of six private schools doesn't warrant national attention and a $100 million investment led by Mark Zuckerberg's and wife Priscilla Chan's Founders Fund. But AltSchool is not your typical education setting. Conceived by cofounders Max Ventilla (CEO, formerly the head of personalization at Google) and Bharat Mediratta (CTO, also a former Googler), AltSchool takes the old-school concept of the one-room schoolhouse and uses technology and outsider thinking to offer students a hyper-personalized experience that it thinks could be the answer to the problems entrenched in the American education system. "Micro-schools" host a range of ages in one space, and students move through the day with their own tablet, completing individual and group activities from a "playlist" that's customized to address their needs and interests. As they work, AltSchool uses tracking software, cameras, and wearable devices to collect data points and develop software that will eventually allow the schools to automate educator tasks such as planning and assessment, freeing them up for actual instruction. But the ultimate goal is even bigger: AltSchool plans to bundle the solutions pioneered in its classrooms to create what Ventilla calls an "operating system for a 21st century education" that can be licensed to districts nationwide.) - Dr. Kimberly A. Scott
Dr. Kimberly A. Scott
Dr. Kimberly A. Scott is an Associate Professor in the Women and Gender Studies Department at Arizona State University (ASU) and Founder/Executive Director of ASU's Center for Gender Equity in Science and Technology (CGEST). Founded by Scott, the center is a one-of-a-kind research unit focused on exploring, identifying, and creating innovative scholarship about under-represented girls in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Center projects include the National Science Foundation-funded COMPUGIRLS; Gates-funded project on African American Families and Technology Use; and NSF-funded Culturally Responsive Co-Robotics Program. Scott is also an Affiliate Faculty in George Mason University's Center for Digital Media Innovation and Diversity located in Fairfax, Virginia.
Trained as a sociologist of education and childhoods, Scott's interdisciplinary work examines girls' of color (African American, Native American, Latina) social and academic development in informal spaces and their technosocial innovations. With nearly 50 publications in outlets such as the, International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, International Journal of Gender, Science, and Technology, Feminism and Psychology, Huffington Post, and Slate, to name a few, Kimberly is also co-author of the Rowman and Littlefield book Kids in Context and co-editor of the IAP published book, Research in Urban Educational Settings: Lessons Learned and Implications for Future Practice. Recently, she published Women Education Scholars and Their Children's Schooling (Routledge) and is completing COMPUGIRLS: Becoming Ourselves in This Digital Age (University of Illinois Press).
Prior to becoming an academic, Scott worked as an urban educator with international and national institutions including a center for girls in Chiang Mai Thailand; the Educational Law Center in Newark, New Jersey; and the National Museum of African Art-Smithsonian. Having written and successfully won over $4 million in grant funding to support research about and programs for girls of color and digital media use, Scott was named in 2014 as a White House Champion of Change for STEM Access. The same year, the publication Diverse Issues in Higher Education identified Kimberly as one of the top 30 women in higher education. Dr. Scott earned her B.A. from Smith College in Art History and French Literature, an M.S. from Long Island University in Curriculum and Instruction/Elementary Education and her Ed.D. from Rutgers University in Social and Philosophical Foundations of Education, and completed at Harvard's Business School the High Potentials Leadership Program.
, Associate Professor, Women and Gender Studies Department at Arizona State University (ASU)Women and Gender Studies Department at Arizona State University (ASU)
No bio available at the moment - Mr. Jay Silver
Mr. Jay Silver
"Jay Silver is the Founder/CEO of JoyLabz/Makey Makey and was the first ever Maker Research Scientist at Intel. Jay's MIT PhD topic was World as Construction Kit. He made many creative platforms such as Drawdio (Time's Top 15 Toys for Young Geniuses) and Makey Makey (Kickstarted for $500,000, Pop Sci Best of ToyFair). Jay has been a speaker at many TED events, exhibited artwork internationally, and been named a Top 100 Inspirational World Changer by DELL. He sits on the board of directors of Maker Ed, One Day on Earth, and Sunseed Food. Jay works with teens at places like Not Back to School Camp, and he believes that being a romantic is of the utmost importance.)
, Founder and CEO, JoyLabz/Makey MakeyJoyLabz/Makey Makey
No bio available at the moment
- Christine Ho
Christine Ho
""Christine Ho is the CEO of TerraPower®. TerraPower is a nuclear energy technology company based in Bellevue, Washington. At our core, we are working to raise living standards globally. The essential factor? Energy. In 2006, Bill Gates and a group of like-minded visionaries decided that the private sector needed to take action. They believed that business interests could develop a scalable, sustainable, low-carbon and cost-competitive energy source that would allow all nations to quicken their pace of economic development and reduce poverty. TerraPower's goal is to provide the world with a more affordable, secure and environmentally friendly form of nuclear energy.
Since 2008, TerraPower has been bringing together the strengths and experiences of the world's public- and private-nuclear energy sectors. With deep technical knowledge and commercial experience, TerraPower set out to develop a new nuclear technology called the traveling wave reactor (TWR). Mission-driven innovation has distinguished TerraPower from other nuclear energy endeavors. TerraPower's unique approach will greatly simplify the current nuclear energy supply chain and significantly mitigate many of the shortcomings of today's nuclear energy technologies. "
(source: http://terrapower.com/pages/about)
, CTO, Imprint EnergyImprint Energy
No bio available at the moment - Mercouri Kanatzidis
Mercouri Kanatzidis
Mercouri Kanatzidis was educated in the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece to earn a bachelor's degree in Chemistry. He received his Ph.D. degree in chemistry from the University of Iowa in 1984. He was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Michigan and Northwestern University from 1985 to 1987. He currently is a Charles E. and Emma H. Morrison Chair Professor at Northwestern University and a Senior Scientist at Argonne National Laboratory. Kanatzidis has been named a Presidential Young Investigator by the National Science Foundation, Alfred P. Sloan Fellow, Beckman Young Investigator, Camille and Henry Dreyfus Teaching Scholar, Guggenheim Fellow, and Alexander von Humboldt Fellow.
, Professor of Chemistry, NorthwesternNorthwestern
No bio available at the moment - Mark Keevers
Mark Keevers
"Dr. Mark Keevers is a solar researcher at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in Sydney, Australia. Keevers has a history of setting new records of sunlight-to-electricty conversion efficiency. Most recently, he achieved a conversion effeciency of 34.5%, nudging closer to the theoretical limits for unconcentrated light.
The record-setting UNSW mini-module combines a silicon cell on one face of a glass prism, with a triple-junction solar cell on the other. Multi-junction solar cells of this type are unlikely to find their way onto the rooftops of homes and offices soon, as they require more effort to manufacture and therefore cost more than standard crystalline silicon cells with a single junction. But the UNSW team is working on new techniques to reduce the manufacturing complexity, and create cheaper multi-junction cells.
SOURCE: http://newsroom.unsw.edu.au/news/science-tech/milestone-solar-cell-effic...
, Solar Researcher, University of New South Wales (UNSW) in Sydney, AustraliaUniversity of New South Wales (UNSW) in Sydney, Australia
No bio available at the moment - Geoff Ozin
Geoff Ozin
Geoffrey Ozin is renowned for his pioneering research in nanochemistry. His work has defined, enabled and popularized a chemical approach to nanomaterials. His career invention profoundly impacted defining, enabling and popularizing a chemical approach to nanomaterials for innovative nanotechnology in advanced materials and biomedical science. Past 6 years his innovation is focused on the following topics of CO2 utilization by ground breaking discovery of nanocatalysts.
2010s: Ultrathin inorganic nanowires – Discovery of a new class of nanowires with an unprecedented small diameter below 2 nm. These amazingly thin inorganic nanowires look, grow and behave like organic polymers. This work inspired a flurry of activity around the globe to explore the composition, structure, property and dynamics of these uniquely thin one-dimensional nanomaterials and raised the important question about how to expand and enrich the myriad applications enjoyed by organic polymers into the uncharted territory of ultrathin inorganic nanowires. Green nanochemistry – Separation of poly-dispersions of non-toxic QSE silicon nanocrystals into mono-disperse colloidally-stable fractions with tailored organic surfaces and bright, size-tunable visible to near infrared photoluminescence, provided their size-dependent chemical, physical and biological properties, creating opportunities for the development of novel advanced materials and biomedical devices. Solar Fuels – Research aimed at exploiting the boundless energy of the sun to make fuels and chemicals from carbon dioxide and a hydrogen source rather than the current practice of continuing to deplete our legacy fossil fuels, the ultimate goal being an energy transition from an unsustainable fossil fuels based economy to a sustainable one founded on solar powered CO2-to-fuels. ArtNanoInnovations – cofounded with artist Todd Siler www.artnanoinnovations.com. Using multimedia artworks and aesthetic experiences, the possibilities of nature-inspired innovations in nanoscience and nanotechnology are explored that can benefit humankind by meeting global challenges, This project considers new ways of synthesizing and responsibly applying nanomaterials and critiques the significant impact these developments are having on the built and natural environment—and on humanity. An inaugural exhibition was held at the Armory, New York City in 2014 followed by another in 2015 at the Boulder Art Museum sponsored by Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, New York.Geoffrey Ozin Curriculum Vitae
Short Form –NAME: Geoffrey Alan Ozin
BIRTH: London, England 23rd August 1943
POSITION: Canada Research Chair and Distinguished University Professor University of Toronto
ADDRESS: University of Toronto, Chemistry Department, 80 St. George Street, Toronto, Ontario M5S 3H6, Canada
CITIZENSHIP: British-Canadian
CONTACT: 1-416-978-2082, E-mail: email@example.com
RESEARCH WEB PAGE: http://nanowizardry.info/
SOLAR FUELS CLUSTER WEB PAGE: http://www.solarfuels.utoronto.ca
OPALUX INC, SPIN-OFF COMPANY WEB PAGE: http://www.Opalux.com
ARTNANOINNOVATIONS WEB PAGE: http://www.artnanoinnovations.com
B.Sc., Honors Chemistry, 1965, University of London, King's College, London, UK
D. Phil., Inorganic Chemistry, 1967, University of Oxford, Oriel College, London, UK
ICI Research Fellow, 1967-69, University of Southampton, Southampton, UKAREAS OF EXPERTISE: Materials Chemistry and Nanochemistry
SYNOPSIS OF RESEARCH ACCOMPLISHMENTS: Innovative and transformative fundamental scientific and technological advances in nanocrystals and nanowires, nanoporous materials and nanophotonic crystals, and nanomotors led to new nanoscale constructs capable of controlling electrons and photons, molecules and materials, and producing chemically powered motion in unprecedented ways, a genre of nanochemistry which shaped the course that nanotechnology is taking today. Published 717 papers with 22 in Science and Nature with ISI h index 92 and 38,415 citations, Google Scholar h-index 100, Citations 43,287, journal front covers for 49 papers, a portfolio of 53 patents filed and/or issued, wrote gold standard introductory undergraduate and advanced graduate textbooks on Nanochemistry, trained a cadre of around 300 top-rank students 45 of which have secured academic posts in universities around the world, generated a substantial portfolio of advanced materials and nanomaterials patents, co-founded Torrovap Industries Incorporated in 1985, a Toronto based spin-off company that manufactures scientific instrumentation (www.Torrovap.com), co-founded Opalux Incorporated in 2006, a Toronto spin-off company whose mission is to commercialize a portfolio of photonic crystal based products (www.Opalux.com), co-founded ArtNanoInnovations in 2010, a partnership with American artist Todd Siler dedicated to taking advances in nanoscience and nanotechnology into the art world (www.artnanoinnovations.com), and inaugural guest editor invited to write monthly Opinion Editorials for Materials Views Wiley-VCH family of materials journals: Advanced Science, Advanced Materials, Advanced Functional Materials, Advanced Energy Materials, Advanced Health Materials, Advanced Optical Materials, Advanced Engineering Materials, Advanced Interfaces, Advanced Science, Small, Particle www.materialsviews.com/author/gozin/
Canada Research Chair Tier 1, University of Toronto, 2001-2021
Alexander von Humboldt Fellow, 2005-2007
Senior Fellow of Massey College, 2007
University of Toronto Distinguished University Professor, 2004-
University of Toronto, University Professor, 2001-2004
Institute for Optical Sciences, University of Toronto, Founding Member, 2004-
Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, Founding Fellow, Nanoscience, 1999-
Isaac Walton Killam Memorial Fellow, 1995-97
University of Toronto, Professor, 1977-2000
Caltech, Sherman Fairchild Fellow, 1977-78
University of Toronto, Associate Professor with Tenure, 1973-77
University of Toronto, Assistant Professor, 1969-72VISITING ACADEMIC APPOINTMENTS
Global Chair, Bath University, England, 2014-2015
Distinguished Research Scientist, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany, 2010-2015
Guest Professor, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany, 2005-2009
Humboldt Fellow, Max Planck Institute for Colloid Science, Golm, Germany, 2005
External Associate London Centre for Nanotechnology, London 2004-2008
Honorary Professorial Fellow, Royal Institution, London, 2001-2008
Honorary Professorial Fellow, University College, London University, 2001-2008
3M Research Fellow, 3M Corporation Minneapolis Saint Paul, 1982-85
Sherman Fairchild Fellow Caltech, 1977-78PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS AND ACTIVITIES
Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry
, Canada Research Chair in Materials Chemistry and Distinguished University Professor, University of Toronto
Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada
Member of the Canadian Chemical Society
Member of the American Chemical Society
Member of the British Chemical Society
Member of the Materials Research Society
Member of the American Association for the Advancement of ScienceUniversity of Toronto
No bio available at the moment - Alan Weimer
Alan Weimer
Dr. Weimer is H.T. Sears Memorial Professor in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at CU-Boulder and is a world recognized expert in fluid-particle processing. He has over 100 peer-reviewed publications and is named inventor on 24 issued and eight pending U.S. Patents. Prior to joining the faculty at CU in 1996, he was Associate Research Scientist for The Dow Chemical Company (Midland, MI) where he had worked since 1980. While at Dow, Dr. Weimer co-invented, developed, and commercialized materials synthesis technology. For this work, Dr. Weimer received Dow's 1990 Ceramics Founder's Spangenberg Award, the 1993 Dow Central Research Inventor of the Year Award, and was named recipient of the 1995 Dow Chemical Company Excellence in Science Award. In 1993, Dr. Weimer was named recipient of the mid-Michigan Professional Progress Award by the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE). Dr. Weimer received both the College of Engineering and Applied Science and the CU campus-wide Faculty Research awards in 2005. In 2005, he also received the U.S. Department of Energy Hydrogen Program R&D Award. He is a Fellow of the AIChE and received their Fluidization Processes Recognition Award in 1997 and the 2009 AIChE Thomas Baron Award for Fluid-Particle Systems. Professor Weimer has delivered five invited Keynote addresses at International Conferences since 2005. He is a licensed Professional Engineer in the State of Colorado.
, Professor, Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at CU-BoulderDepartment of Chemical and Biological Engineering at CU-Boulder
No bio available at the moment - Peidong Yang
Peidong Yang
Prof. Peidong Yang received a B.S. in chemistry from University of Science and Technology of China in 1993 and a Ph.D. in chemistry from Harvard University in 1997. He did postdoctoral research at University of California, Santa Barbara before joining the faculty in the department of Chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley in 1999. He is currently professor in the Department of Chemistry, Materials Science and Engineering and a senior faculty scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL). He is S. K. and Angela Chan Distinguished Chair Professor in Energy.
He is the director for California Research Alliance by BASF, and co-director for the Kavli Energy Nanoscience Institute. He is one of the founding members for DOE Energy Innovation Hub: Joint Center for Artificial Photosysnthesis (JCAP) and served as its north director for the first two years. Yang is an associate editor for Journal of the American Chemical Society and also serves on editorial advisory board for number of journals including Acct. Chem. Res. and Nano. Lett. He was the founder of the Nanoscience subdivision within American Chemical Society. He has co-founded two startups Nanosys Inc. and Alphabet Energy Inc.
He was elected as MRS Fellow, and a member of National Academy of Sciences, and American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is a Honorary Fellow of Chinese Chemical Society, a Fellow of Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC), and a senior fellow for Canadian Institute for Advanced Research. He is the recipient of MacArthur Fellowship, E. O. Lawrence Award, ACS Nanoscience Award, MRS Medal, Baekeland Medal, Alfred P. Sloan research fellowship, the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Young Investigator Award, National Science Foundation Young Investigator Award, MRS Young Investigator Award, Julius Springer Prize for Applied Physics, ACS Pure Chemistry Award, and Alan T. Waterman Award. According to ISI (Thomas Reuters), Yang is ranked as No. 1 in materials science and No. 10 in chemistry for 2001-2012 based on average citation per paper, and he has an h-index of 125 (Web of Science). He is 2014 Thomas Reuters Citation Laureate in Physics.
, Professor, University of California, BerkeleyUniversity of California, Berkeley
No bio available at the moment
- Brandon Beck
Brandon Beck
"Riot Games is an American gaming company founded in 2006 that specializes in video game publishing and esports tournaments. Riot is known for its flagship League of Legends, a free-to-play, online battle game that has 67 million global players and culminates each year in a world championship as spectacular as any traditional sporting tournament: packed-stadium crowds, a million-dollar prize, and ESPN-like coverage courtesy of Riot's online esports network. Riot has been instrumental in helping to build the billion-dollar infrastructure of esports, taking loosely organized events that were initially created mainly by fans and turning them into a professional league of divisions and tiers. The company's annual collegiate series uLOL awards more than $660,000 in scholarships."
, CEO, Riot GamesRiot Games
No bio available at the moment - Paul Bettner
Paul Bettner
Paul Bettner has been creating entertainment for 20 years. In 2008, Paul and his brother David founded Newtoy, Inc. to create the smash hit Words With Friends and changed the landscape of mobile gaming forever. Before that Paul was at Microsoft where he helped create the blockbuster hits Halo Wars and Age of Empires.
In 2012, Paul founded a new studio: PLAYFUL CORP. Today, the team at Playful carries on this tradition of creating beloved entertainment, utilizing breakthrough technologies and platforms. Their first shipped title, Lucky's Tale, is a delightful platforming adventure designed exclusively for virtual reality and bundled with every Oculus Rift.
Paul is an avid pilot and devoted family man. He lives in a 110 year-old home in McKinney, Texas with his lovely wife and three adorable children.
, CEO, Playful CorpPlayful Corp
No bio available at the moment - Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Joseph Gordon-Levitt
"Joseph Leonard Gordon-Levitt is an American actor and filmmaker. He also founded the online production company hitRECord in 2004 and has hosted his own TV series, HitRecord on TV, since January 2014."
(source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Gordon-Levitt)
, Founder and CEO, hitRECordhitRECord
No bio available at the moment - Arnt Jensen
Arnt Jensen
, Founder, PlaydeadPlaydead
No bio available at the moment - Chris Milk
Chris Milk
"Beginning his career in music videos and photography, Chris Milk's work has expanded beyond the traditional: his art straddles experimental genres and unfamiliar mediums, turning new technologies, web browsers, ephemeral events and even physical gestures into new found canvasses. His work continues to test the frontiers of interactive technology and art as Founder and CEO of Within (formally Vrse), a virtual reality media company, and Founder and Creative Director of Here Be Dragons (formally Vrse.works), a virtual reality production company. Milk presented at TED in 2015 on the power of virtual reality as a medium to advance humanity.
Milk first gained recognition as a music video director, working with Kanye West, Arcade Fire, Beck, Jack White, U2, Johnny Cash, Gnarls Barkley, The Chemical Brothers, John Mellencamp, Courtney Love, and Modest Mouse. He has been honored with the top industry awards for his music video and commercial work, including the Grand Prix Cannes Lion, the D&AD Black Pencil, the Grand Clio, and SXSW's 'Best of Show', as well as multiple Grammy® nominations, MTV Moon Men, and the UK MVA Innovation Award.
In recent years, Milk has focused on using cross-media innovations to enhance emotional human storytelling, exposing the beauty in the things – physical, digital, intangible – that connect us all. "The Johnny Cash Project" and "The Wilderness Downtown" with Arcade Fire take the intensely personal, emotive power of music and use breakthrough technologies to create a visual experience that is interconnected to a global consciousness while still being individually meaningful and moving for each participant. Milk partnered again with Arcade Fire in 2011 for "Summer Into Dust," a kaleidoscopic, crowd-fueled installation that physically connected the audience and their collective emotional response with the band and their performance at Coachella, widely credited as the highlight moment of the festival. "This Exquisite Forest" is a collaborative online piece that turns branching stories into an endless forest of animated narratives, and was exhibited at the Tate Modern in London in 2012 and 2013.
"The Treachery of Sanctuary," currently touring the world with the 'Digital Revolution' exhibit, is a large-scale interactive triptych: a story of birth, death and transfiguration that uses shadows of the participants' own bodies to unlock a new artistic language. A special installment of "The Treachery of Sanctuary" is featured at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival.
Milk most recently has been building multiple projects with Virtual Reality as the canvas. His collaboration with Beck in January of 2013 called "Sound & Vision" represents the first live-action, fully spherical, virtual reality film. It has been exhibited in an Oculus Rift at the Future of Storytelling Summit, Sundance Film Festival, SXSW, and Tribeca Film Festival.
Milk subsequently launched the Vrse app platform at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival, creating the first home for premiere content in virtual reality. At the festival, Milk released "Evolution of Verse," a photo-realistic CGI rendered3D virtual reality experience. The project represents the sheer potential of virtual reality to transport audiences to new worlds in which they feel fully present.
Milk and Within have since partnered with the United Nations, The New York Times, Nike, Vice News, NBC, Apple Music and U2 amongst others to tell extraordinary stories in virtual reality.
Milk was born and raised in Glen Cove NY, and lives in Los Angeles."
, Co-Founder and CEO of Within, Co-Founder and Creative Director of Here Be DragonsCo-Founder and Creative Director of Here Be Dragons
No bio available at the moment - Gabe Newell
Gabe Newell
"Gabe Newell runs Valve Corporation, which plays a big role in PC game sales through its Steam digital game store; some liken it to the iTunes of video games. Through Steam, Valve sells licenses to 125 million users of its own and other developers' titles and collects a percentage of the sales. Newell has led Valve since he cofounded it in 1998 with former Microsoft colleague Mike Harrington; the company found initial success with games like Half-Life and Portal. Forbes estimates that Newell owns just over half the company, which operates out of Bellevue, Washington and is known for its flat organization and what some call "Valve Time," a tendency to postpone releases of its creations until long after their initial announcement. In April 2016 the private company ventured into new territory with the release of Vive, a Virtual Reality headset developed with Chinese consumer electronics company HTC, which has become one of the more popular brands in the booming VR-market."
, Co-Founder and Managing Director, ValveValve
No bio available at the moment - Jonas Norberg
Jonas Norberg
"Jonas Norberg is the inventor of The Pacemaker, the pocket-size DJ system and founder of Tonium, the company developing the product. Being an engineer and professional DJ, he started working on the Pacemaker in 2005, hoping to shrink the common DJ interface of two CD players and a mixer into something a bit larger than an iPod. "I wanted a PlayStation Portable for music," he said."
, Inventor, The PacemakerThe Pacemaker
No bio available at the moment
- Glenn Alers
Glenn Alers
"Dr. Glenn Alers is currently President of Soliculture Inc. Prior to Soliculture, Dr. Alers was president of APV Research and provided photovoltaic reliability characterization services to the solar industry for 4 years. In 2009, Alers was a visiting scientist at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) photovoltaic module reliability group. He has been an organizer and has given numerous tutorials on photovoltaics reliability for IEEE Reliability Physics Symposium, IEEE Integrated Reliability Workshop, SPIE Optics and Photonics and NREL PV Reliability Workshop. Prior to working on photovoltaic reliability, he was a principal engineer and senior process manager at Novellus Systems working on integration and reliability issues associated with copper / low k interconnects. Prior to Novellus Systems, he was a member of the technical staff at Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill for seven years. He received his PhD in 1991 from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and was a Research Associate in the Physics Department of Michigan State University for two years. He has published over 60 papers in refereed journals and has received 22 US patents."
, President, Soliculture Inc.Soliculture Inc.
No bio available at the moment - Mr. Maher Damak
Mr. Maher Damak
Maher is a PhD Candidate in the Mechanical Engineering department at MIT. In 2013, to pursue his interests in interfacial engineering and fluid mechanics, Maher then joined the Varanasi group at MIT where he has studied the impact of droplets on hydrophobic surfaces and investigated ways to solve the problem of poor retention of agricultural sprays on hydrophobic plant leaves.
, PhD candidate, MIT - Mechanical Engineering
When farmers spray their fields with pesticides or other treatments, only 2 percent of the spray sticks to the plants. A significant portion of it typically bounces right off the plants, lands on the ground, and becomes part of the runoff that flows to streams and rivers — often causing serious pollution. By using a clever combination of two inexpensive, natural and biodegradable additives to the spray, Maher and Prof. Varanasi found they can drastically cut down on the amount of liquid that bounces off. The findings have been published in the journal Nature Communications. The next steps are implementing large field studies, and commercializing the product through a startup that Maher and Prof. Varanasi plan to found.
Maher is also particularly interested in solving problems faced by the less privileged of this world. For his studies at MIT, he has been awarded a fellowship from the Tata Center of Technology and Design, which aims to address the challenges of resource-constrained communities, particularly in India. As part of this program, he participated in seminars on design, operations and innovation in emerging countries and traveled to India multiple times to see the problems farmers face on the ground and engage with various stakeholders. Maher's personal interests are travelling, with 29 countries visited so far, horse riding that he practiced intensively in college, and international relations.MIT - Mechanical Engineering
No bio available at the moment - Leonardo Dicaprio
Leonardo Dicaprio
"Following the success of Titanic in 1997 along with earlier films, 24-year-old DiCaprio established the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation in 1998, a non-profit organization devoted to promoting environmental awareness. Although concerned with all areas of the environment, it focuses on global warming, preserving Earth's biodiversity and supporting renewable energy. It has worked on projects in over 40 countries and has produced two short web documentaries, Water Planet and Global Warning.
Because of his active involvement in those causes, he has received praise from environmental groups. Among the accolades received were the Martin Litton Environment Award, in 2001, from Environment Now, and the Environmental Leadership Award in 2003 from Global Green USA."
, Founder, The Leonardo DiCaprio FoundationThe Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation
No bio available at the moment - Kendra Kuhl
Kendra Kuhl
Dr. Kendra P. Kuhl has committed the last eight years to studying the conversion of carbon dioxide into higher value chemicals and fuels. Kendra entered the PhD program at Stanford University in 2006 and soon after joined the lab of Prof. Thomas Jaramillo, where her research laid the groundwork for carbon dioxide conversion catalyst discovery by developing new methods allowing for accurate and sensitive quantitation of reaction products, including minor products that had not been previously reported. Kendra continued her research as a postdoctoral fellow with Prof. Anders Nilsson at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. At SLAC, she worked on in situ catalyst characterization and studied the effect of surface morphology on activity. In 2015, Kendra co-founded Opus 12, with the goal of commercializing CO2 conversion technology.
, CTO, Opus 12Opus 12
No bio available at the moment - Vilas Pol
Vilas Pol
Prof. Vilas Pol is Associate Professor at Purdue University's School of Chemical Engineering, USA. Before joining Purdue University, he was a materials scientist in the Chemical Sciences and Engineering Department at the Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory, IL, USA. He earned his M.Sc. and M.Phil. in Chemistry from Pune University and Ph.D. from Bar-Ilan University, Israel. He has 15 years of research experience in the fields of energy storage, materials science, chemistry, engineering and electrochemistry. He developed numerous synthetic approaches for the fabrication of various functional electrode materials including anodes and cathodes of Li-ion batteries, K-ion, Na-ion and Li-S batteries. At Argonne, he was a lead PI and Co-PI on several research projects. Currently he leads NASA, DOE and NAVY funded research projects. Prof. Pol's scientific breakthroughs have been featured in various media outlets including New Scientist, Discovery, Popular Science, ACS, MRS, DOE webpages and TV (NOVA, ABC7, Asia TV, and Univision) news. He has authored or co-authored more than 115 research publications (h index 35), authored 4 book chapters and an inventor on 15 US patents/applications. He is ACS Grand Prize winner, was honored with Argonne National Laboratory's distinguished 'Directors postdoctoral fellowship', MRS science as art first prize, Intel prize, Argonne's Near Hit Safety award, 2013 British Carbon Society's Brian Kelly award and is a 'Gold Medalist' in Sports. In 2015, his sustainable materials development technology own R and D 100 award (Oscars of Invention). In 2016, Pol is honored with 'Sustainable Engineering Forum research award' by American Institute of Chemical Engineers. In 2016, Prof. Pol's 'Upcarbon' technology is selected as Finalist for R and D 100 award.
, Associate Professor, Purdue UniversityPurdue University
No bio available at the moment
- Nick Bostrom
Nick Bostrom
"Nick Bostrom is a Swedish philosopher at the University of Oxford known for his work on existential risk, the anthropic principle, human enhancement ethics, superintelligence risks, the reversal test, and consequentialism. In 2011, he founded the Oxford Martin Programme on the Impacts of Future Technology, and he is currently the founding director of the Future of Humanity Institute at Oxford University.
He is the author of over 200 publications, including Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies (2014), a New York Times bestseller and Anthropic Bias: Observation Selection Effects in Science and Philosophy (2002). In 2009 and 2015, he was included in Foreign Policy' Top 100 Global Thinkers list. Bostrom's work on superintelligence – and his concern for its existential risk to humanity over the coming century – has brought both Elon Musk and Bill Gates to similar thinking."
, Director, University of OxfordUniversity of Oxford
No bio available at the moment - Kate Crawford
Kate Crawford
"Kate Crawford is a Principal Researcher at Microsoft Research New York City, a Visiting Professor at MIT's Center for Civic Media, and a Senior Fellow at NYU's Information Law Institute. Her research addresses the social implications of large scale data, machine learning and AI. Recent publications address the topics of data discrimination, social impacts of artificial intelligence, predictive analytics and due process, ethical review for data science, and algorithmic accountability.
In July 2016, she was the co-chair of the White House symposium AI Now: The Social and Economic Implication of AI in the Near-Term. The symposium addressed artificial intelligence across four domains: labor, health, social inequality and ethics. You can watch the talks and read the primers here: https://artificialintelligencenow.com.
Kate is a member of the World Economic Forum's Global Agenda Council on AI and Robotics, as well as the UN Thematic Network on Data for Development. She is co-PI of the NSF-funded Council for Big Data, Ethics, and Society, and she is on the editorial boards of several journals including Big Data & Society, Social Media & Society, and Fibreculture. For her work on big data and ethics, Kate was named a Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio fellow in 2013."
(source: http://www.katecrawford.net/)
, Principal Researcher, Visiting Professor, Senior Fellow, Microsoft Research, MIT's Center for Civic Media, and NYU's Information Law InstituteMicrosoft Research, MIT's Center for Civic Media, and NYU's Information Law Institute
No bio available at the moment - Frances Grodzinsky
Frances Grodzinsky
Frances Grodzinsky is a Professor of Computer Science and Information Technology at Sacred Heart University where she has developed and taught a wide range of courses including Computer Ethics, Software Engineering, Networking, Systems Analysis and Design and Theory of Programming Languages. She also serves as the Senior Thesis advisor. She is co-chair of the Hersher Institute of Ethics at Sacred Heart University, an institute dedicated to teaching faculty how to incorporate ethics into their courses. To that end, she has led reading groups, given workshops on ethics and presented a Ted Talk on Why Big Data needs the Virtues. Her papers have appeared in Luciano Floridi's Philosophy of Technology: Critical Reflections, Springer, Book Series: Philosophy & Engineering Book Series, ed Hilmi Demir, The Gender Politics of ICT, ed: Archibald, Emms, Grundy, Payne and Turner, Middlesex University Press, Readings in Cyberethics, Spinello and Tavani,, Computing and Philosophy, Journal of Information, Communication and Ethics in Society, Computers and Society , Philosophy and Technology, Journal of Experimental and Theoretical Artificial Intelligence, and Science and Engineering Ethics. She has given many presentations at major Computer ethics conferences and has been a keynote speaker at CEPE-IACAP 2015, invited speaker at the Research Center for Computing and Society, invited participant at the Workshop on the Philosophy of Computing Science and Information Lorenz Institute in the Netherlands and invited participant at the NSF workshop on Big Data. In 2006 she was invited to Ionian University to give three talks on ethical issues in Information Technology. She has been a Visiting Scholar at the Research Center on Computer Ethics and Social Responsibility, Southern Connecticut State University, New Haven, CT since 2000, and serves on the board of INSEIT (the International Society for Ethics and Information Technology) and COPE (Committee on Professional Ethics) of the ACM.
, Professor and Co-Director, Hersher Inst. of Applied EthicsHersher Inst. of Applied Ethics
No bio available at the moment - John Harris
John Harris
"John Harris is director of the Institute for Science, Ethics, and Innovation and of the Wellcome Strategic Programme in the Human Body, Its Scope, Limits, and Future at the University of Manchester, where is he is Lord Alliance Professor of Bioethics.
Harris is the author or editor of 20 books and over 350 papers. He has published in most of the leading philosophical journals in his field including The Journal of Medical Ethics, Bioethics, The Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics, The Hastings Centre Report, Philosophy, The Philosophical Quarterly, The Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, and Philosophy & Public Affairs. He has also published in many of the leading science journals including Nature, Nature Reviews Genetics, Nature Reviews Cancer, Science, Cell Stem Cell, Journal of Clinical Oncology, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, Lancet Oncology, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and The British Medical Journal. His books include The Value of Life; Wonderwoman and Superman; Clones Genes and Immortality; Bioethics; A Companion to Genethics: Philosophy and The Genetic Revolution (Blackwell's Companions to Philosophy Series); On Cloning; and Enhancing Evolution. His new book, How to Be Good, will be published in 2016."
(source: http://www.nationalacademies.org/cs/groups/genesite/documents/webpage/ge...)
, Lord Alliance Professor, Bioethics, University of ManchesterBioethics, University of Manchester
No bio available at the moment - Peter-Paul Verbeek
Peter-Paul Verbeek
Peter-Paul Verbeek (1970) is professor of philosophy of technology at the Department of Philosophy, vice dean of the School of Behavioral, Management, and Social Sciences, and co-director of the DesignLab at the University of Twente, The Netherlands. He studied Applied Physics in combination with Philosophy of Science, Technology and Society (1998 – 2004) and received his PhD from the University of Twente in 2000. In 2006 he was guest professor at Aarhus University, Denmark. From 2010 until 2012 he held the Socrates chair at Delft University of Technology. In 2016, he was guest professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China. Between 2013 and 2015 he was President of the Society for Philosophy and Technology; between 2011 and 2013 he was chairman of the 'Young Academy', which is part of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Verbeek's research focuses on the philosophy of human-technology relations, and aims to contribute to philosophical theory, ethical reflection, and practices of design and innovation. He explicitly combines his academic work in the ethics and philosophy of technology with concrete engagement with technological practices and societal discussions, e.g. by being a member of COMEST (UNESCO Commission on the Ethics of Science and Technology), the Supervisory Board of TNO (a major Dutch center in applied technological research), the board of the Rathenau Institute (Dutch office for Technology Assessment), and th Center for Ethics and Health of the Dutch Ministry of Health.Peter-Paul Verbeek is author of Moralizing Technology: Understanding and Designing the Morality of Things (University of Chicago Press, 2011), in which he analyzes the moral significance of technologies, and its implications for ethical theory and for design practices. He also published What Things Do: Philosophical Reflections on Technology, Agency, and Design (Penn State University Press, 2005), which investigates how technologies mediate human actions and experiences, with applications to industrial design. He is co-editor of the volumes Postphenomenological Investigations: Essays on Human-Technology Relations (Lexington 2015, with Robert Rosenberger), The Moral Status of Technical Artefacts (Springer 2014, with Peter Kroes), and User Behavior and Technology Design – Shaping Sustainable Relations between Consumers and Technologies (Springer 2006, with Adriaan Slob). He frequently receives international invitations for presentations and keynote lectures, including for example the McLuhan Centennial Conference (Brussels 2011); Applied Ethics (Sapporo 2013); Design for Interactive Systems (Vancouver 2014); Philosophy of Nursing (Stockholm 2015); Engineering for Society (Kalamazoo 2015); Society for Philosophy and Technology (Shenyang 2015); Well-Being@Work (Amsterdam 2016).
In 2014, he received a prestigious VICI-award from the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (EUR 1.500.000) to develop a theory of technological mediation in a team of six researchers, after having received a VIDI-award (2008, EUR 800.000), for studying the blurring boundaries between humans and technologies and a VENI-award (2004, EUR 200.000), for studying the moral significance of technology, and its implications for design. In 2012, he received the Borghgraef Prize (KU Leuven) in biomedical ethics.
Prof. Verbeek engages actively in many outreach activities. He explicitly addresses a wider audience with parts of his work, combining international scientific publications with Dutch-language popular publications, like his books De Grens van de Mens and Op de vleugels van Icarus. He gave talks at the Lowlands festival and De Zwarte Cross, a TV lecture on Heidegger and technology, participates in the philosophy talkshow Het Filosofisch Kwintet and played a central role in documentaries like 'De Volmaakte Mens' and a Tegenlicht documentary on drones. He frequently gives lectures and is a columnist for De Ingenieur and regional newspaper Tubantia.
Academic/research appointments to date including current appointment:
- 2009 – present: full professor Philosophy of Technology, University of Twente
- 2016 (July): guest professor Shanghai Jiao Tong University, School of History and Culture of Science
- 2009 – 2012: endowed full professor (bijzonder hoogleraar) Philosophy of Human Enhancement, TU Delft (0,2 fte) (Socrates chair)
- 2006 (Oct – Nov): guest professor Philosophy of Technology, Aarhus University, Denmark (Center for Studies of Science, Technology, and Society, Department of Information- and Media Studies, Faculty of Humanities)
- 2005 – 2009: associate professor (UHD) Philosophy of Technology, University of Twente
- 1998 – 2005: assistant professor (UD) Philosophy of Technology, University of Twente
- 1995 – 1998: PhD candidate (AiO), University of Twente, Dept of PhilosophyAdministrative positions:
, Professor, Vice Dean , Co-Director of DesignLab, University of Twente, The Netherlands
- Vice-dean, Behavioral, Management, and Social Sciences, University of Twente, 2015-present
- Co-director, DesignLab, University of Twente, 2015 – present
- Member of Supervisory Board (Raad van Toezicht) TNO , 2012 – present
- Member of Council for the Humanities (Raad voor Geesteswetenschappen, KNAW), 2011 – present
- Board member, Rathenau Instituut, 2016 – present
- President, international Society for Philosophy and Technology, 2013 – 2015
- Chairman (voorzitter) The Young Academy (De Jonge Akademie, KNAW), 2011 – 2013
- Member of the Executive Board of the Society for Philosophy and Technology, 2009 – 2013
- Chair, Department of Philosophy, University of Twente, jan 2013 – sept 2015
- Board member, DesignLab Twente, 2014 - present
- Member of Management Team of the Faculty of Behavioral Science (University of Twente), 2010 – 2011; 2013 – 2014
- Director of International Master Program Philosophy of Science, Technology, and Society (University of Twente), 2006 – 2011
Awards and recognition:
- president, Society for Philosophy and Technology (2013-2015)
- three prestigious awards for excellent researchers from Dutch Science Foundation NWO: VENI (2004, €200.000), VIDI (2008, €800.000), VICI (2014, €1.500.000)
- Borghgraef Prize in biomedical ethics (Leuven University, 2012)
- membership The Young Academy (early-career division of the Netherlands Academy of Sciences, 2009-2014)
- membership Koninklijke Hollandsche Maatschappij van Wetenschappen (2013-present)
- membership Dutch Academy for Technology and Innovation (AcTI, 2016-present)
- guest professorship Shanghai Jiao Tong University (one of China's top universities; 2016)
- guest professorship Aarhus University (2006)
- membership UNESCO Committee on the Ethics of Science and Technology (COMEST, 2016-present)
- membership Dutch Council for the Humanities, KNAW (2011-present)University of Twente, The Netherlands
No bio available at the moment
- Cyan Banister
Cyan Banister
"Cyan Banister is a partner at Founders Fund, where she invests across sectors and stages with a particular interest in heavily regulated industries, marketplaces, SaaS and businesses that help people with basic skills find meaningful work. Prior to joining Founders Fund, Cyan was an active angel investor with a portfolio including Uber, Thumbtack, SpaceX, EShares, Postmates and Affirm.
A self-taught engineer and entrepreneur, Cyan has held a number of technical leadership positions throughout her career. As an early employee at IronPort, which was acquired by Cisco, Cyan oversaw support infrastructure and performance for a global customer base.
Cyan has a passion for the arts and is a voracious film, documentary and media consumer. She is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Zivity, and the Co-founder of Signal Media Project, a nonprofit organization that promotes and facilitates the accurate portrayal of science, technology, and history in popular media."
, Partner, Founders FundFounders Fund
No bio available at the moment - Swati Chaturvedi
Swati Chaturvedi
Swati Chaturvedi founded the Propel(x) investment platform as a way to enable large-scale global investment in science and technology companies. As the CEO of Propel(x), Swati has helped close investments in 28 companies that are at the forefront of scientific innovation. She has also pioneered a systematic, data driven approach to investing. Prior to starting Propel(x), Swati founded the MIT Alumni Angel Investors group and drove the syndication of 8 investments within the first year of formation. Swati has worked as an investment professional in Private Equity and Venture Capital (Exigen Capital, Siemens Venture Capital, Temasek Holdings).
, Co-founder and CEO, Propel(x)
Swati has an MBA from the Sloan School of Management, an M.S. from MIT (Technology and Policy Program) and an M.S. from UC Berkeley (Civil Engineering). She holds a Bachelor's degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee.Propel(x)
No bio available at the moment - Matt Clifford
Matt Clifford
"Matt co-founded EF after being a consultant at McKinsey & Co. Prior to EF Matt spent his time studying at MIT fuelled by an obsession with R, Python and unusual datasets.
EF is the best place for Europe's top technical individuals to meet and build world-changing startups in London.They select purely on the basis of technical talent, so you can apply before you have a team or an idea. The intensive 6-month programme is designed to give you the best possible support in the first 200 days of your startup's life.
They have created over 40 startups now worth over $300 million. The startups are funded by some prestigious investors including Balderton Capital, Index Ventures, Octopus Investments and Y Combinator."(source:https://www.crunchbase.com/person/matt-clifford#/entity)
(Co-founder & Chief Executive, Entrepreneur FirstEntrepreneur First
No bio available at the moment) & Alice Bentinck (Co-founder, Entrepreneur First and Code First: Girls)Entrepreneur First and Code First: Girls
No bio available at the momentAlice Bentinck
"Alice Bentinck MBE is cofounder of Entrepreneur First and Code First: Girls. Entrepreneur First builds startups from scratch and over the last 5 years Alice has helped build more than 100 startups, now worth in excess of $450m. Entrepreneur First's most recent exit is Magic Pony Technology to Twitter for $150m after 18 months. In 2016, Entrepreneur First won the Europa for the Best Accelerator in Europe. The Entrepreneur First model is unique - they invest in individuals, before they have a team or an idea, and put them through an intensive six month process to get them to the stage where they can take on seed funding. They focus primarily on individuals with technical backgrounds (computer science or engineering) and aim to build and invest in deep tech startups. Alice also set up Code First: Girls, a not-for-profit that teaches young women to code for free. More than 4000 students and young professionals have been through the programme. Alice is a blogger for TechWorld, is on the Imperial College Computer Science Department Board and has advised the Prime Minister on startups at the Northern Future Forum. Alice has been recognised in the top 1000 most influential Londoners and the Management Today 35 under 35. Alice started her career as a management consultant at McKinsey & Company." (source: http://www.women-in-technology.com/speakers-bio) & Matt Wichrowski (Head of Funding, Entrepreneur First)Entrepreneur First
No bio available at the momentMatt Wichrowski
Matt Wichrowski serves as Entrepreneur First's Head of Funding and leads a dedicated service line to our portfolio for all things fundraising. Matt's primary task is to develop a robust US investor network with a mission to provide EF teams with a highly tailored guidance on the most relevant investors for their needs. Moreover, his approach aims at sharing EF's proprietary dealflow with investors that are eager to back the next generation of frontier technologies. In addition to network construction, Matt supports the portfolio with tool design, analysis, training and mentorship. Prior to EF Matt spent time at White Star capital, an early stage venture fund, where he focused on investments in the AI/machine learning and 3D printing space. Before that he spent several years as a management consultant, specializing in operations strategy, supply chain and cost reduction. Matt holds and MBA from London Business School and a Bachelors degree in Finance from Indiana University. Matt calls Boston home but travels frequently between London, New York and San Francisco. - Manny Fernandez
Manny Fernandez
"Fernandez is a rising investor star of Silicon Valley. He is co-founder/CEO of DreamFunded.com, which is an equity crowdfunding platform that provides access to pre-IPO companies. Manny is the winner of SF Angel Investor of the Year and equity crowdfunding leadership award."
(source: http://www.business.com/technology/silicon-valleys-most-well-known-inves...)
, Investor, CNBC's Make Me A Millionaire InventorCNBC's Make Me A Millionaire Inventor
No bio available at the moment - Deborah Quazzo
Deborah Quazzo
"Deborah Quazzo is the Founding and Managing Partner at GSV Acceleration in Chicago, has over 45 investments in disruptive technology companies and counting. The ASU GSV Summit she cohosts, now in its 8th year, brings together over 3,500 and has been called a "must attend conference for educational investors" by the New York Times."
(source: http://femaleentrepreneurs.institute/female_venture_capital_firms/)
, Founder and Managing Partner, GSV AdvisorsGSV Advisors
No bio available at the moment - Chris Sacca
Chris Sacca
"An accomplished venture investor, private equity principal, company advisor, entrepreneur, and public speaker, Chris manages a portfolio of over two dozen consumer web, mobile, and wireless technology start-ups as well as an array of mature enterprises through his holding company, Lowercase Capital. Among his representative investments is Twitter Inc., where Chris was one of the first investors and works with the company every week as a strategic advisor.
Previously, Chris served as Head of Special Initiatives at Google Inc. In that role, among other responsibilities, he founded and headed up the alternative access and wireless divisions. His most visible projects include Google's 700MHz and TV white spaces spectrum initiatives, the company's groundbreaking data center in Oregon and Google's free citywide WiFi network in Mountain View, CA. Chris also spearheaded many of Google's business development and M&A transactions and was on the founding team of the company's New Business Development organization.
The Wall Street Journal cited Sacca as "possibly the most influential businessman in America" and he was also recently recognized as a Henry Crown Fellow of the Aspen Institute, annually selecting 20 of the world's most promising leaders and public servants under the age of 45. In addition, Chris serves as an Associate Fellow of the Said Business School at Oxford University. Chris regularly appears on television, radio, and in print and has been featured in Business Week, Fortune, Fast Company, and on CNBC, BBC, CNN, FOX, and NPR as an expert in the realms of entrepreneurism, venture capital, and disruptive technologies. In parallel with his frequent keynotes at technology industry events, Chris is perennially hired by many of the world's largest companies, financial institutions, universities, and even some governments to speak about innovation, workplace design, and business strategy in a digital era. Back home, Chris is a fixture in the Silicon Valley startup community, and his reputation for fruitful and fun collaborations with early stage companies earned him a 2009 TechCrunch Crunchie Award nomination for Best Angel Investor and he was named as one of the top 10 angel investors in the country by Business Week."
(source: http://www.whatisleft.org/about.html)
, Venture Investor, Company Advisor and Entrepreneur as well as a former lawyer - Yossi Vardi
Yossi Vardi
"Joseph "Yossi" Vardi (Hebrew: ____ ______, born 1942) is an Israeli entrepreneur and investor. He is one of Israel's first high-tech entrepreneurs. For over 47 years he has founded and helped to build over 85 high-tech companies in a variety of fields, among them software, energy, Internet, mobile, electro-optics and water technology"
, Israeli entrepreneur and Co-Founder, International TechnologiesInternational Technologies
No bio available at the moment
Health and Medicine
- Karlin Bark
Karlin Bark
"Karlin Bark received her Ph.D in mechanical engineering at Stanford University in 2009 working under Professor Mark Cutkosky in the Biomimetics and Dexterous Manipulation Laboratory. She received her B.S. degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Michigan in 2003, and the M.S degree in mechanical engineering at Stanford University in 2005 with a focus on design methodology and controls. Her research interests include haptics, human factors based design, and robotics with medical applications. When not pondering the challenges of skin stretch, she enjoys keeping up to date on the latest in movies, television and theater, and spending quality time with her friends and family."
(source: https://www.grasp.upenn.edu/events/grasp-special-seminar-karlin-bark-sta...)
, Mechanical Engineer, University of Pennsylvania, PhiladelphiaUniversity of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
No bio available at the moment - Heather Bowerman
Heather Bowerman
"Heather Bowerman is a biomedical engineer and healthcare technology leader. She is the founder and CEO of Dot Laboratories, a San Francisco-based company that has developed the first diagnostic test for endometriosis, a disease that affects 1 in 10 women and is a leading cause of infertility. Today, diagnosis requires laparoscopic surgery under general anesthesia, and the average time to diagnosis is eleven years.
Prior to Dot Labs, Ms. Bowerman was a management consultant at McKinsey & Company and a Science & Technology Policy Associate at the White House under the first Obama Administration. While at the White House, she focused on the "Strategy for American Innovation" and the Administration's flagship innovation-focused legislation, the "America Invents Act." The AIA is often cited as the most significant piece of US patent reform since 1952. By training, Ms. Bowerman is a biomedical engineer, and was a Research Fellow at Harvard Medical School Office of Technology Development. Early in her career, Ms. Bowerman worked in New York City at a private equity fund where she handled the buyout of a portable molecular diagnostics company with key technology to combat epidemics of H5N1 and H1N1.
Ms. Bowerman was named one of 2016's top 35 innovators under age 35 by the MIT Technology Review. She is a frequent speaker (EmTech MIT, Handelsblatt Health, IBM Edge), guest lecturer (UC Berkeley Engineering, Bayer Healthcare), and Harvard Teaching Fellow in Nanotechnology."
(Source: https://www.technologyreview.com/lists/innovators-under-35/2016/entrepre...)
, CEO, Dot LaboratoriesDot Laboratories
No bio available at the moment - Prof. Muhammad Mustafa Hussain
Prof. Muhammad Mustafa Hussain
Dr. Muhammad Mustafa Hussain (PhD, ECE, UT Austin, Dec 2005) is an Associate Professor in the Electrical Engineering program of King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST). Before joining KAUST was Program Manager of Emerging Technology Program in SEMATECH, Austin. His program was funded by DARPA NEMS, CERA and STEEP programs. A regular panelist of US NSF grants reviewing committees, Dr. Hussain is the Fellow of American Physical Society (APS), Institute of Physics, UK and Institute of Nanotechnology, UK, IEEE Electron Devices Society Distinguished Lecturer, Editor-in-Chief of Applied Nanoscience (Springer-Nature), Editor of IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices, and an IEEE Senior Member. He has served as first or corresponding author in 86% of his 241 research papers (including 18 invited reviews, 19 cover articles and 104 journal papers). He has more than 50 issued and pending US patents. His students are serving as faculty and researchers in MIT, UC Berkeley, Harvard, Yale, Purdue, TSMC, KACST, KFUPM, KAU, and DOW Chemicals. Scientific American has listed his research as one of the Top 10 World Changing Ideas of 2014. Applied Physics Letters selected his paper as one of the Top Papers of 2015. He and his students have received 36 research awards including IEEE Region 5 Outstanding Individual Achievement Award 2016, TEDx 2017, Outstanding Young Texas Exes Award 2015 (UT Austin Alumni Award), US National Academies' Arab-American Frontiers of Sensors 2015, 2016, DOW Chemical Sustainability Challenge Award 2012, etc. His research has been highlighted extensively in international media like in Washington Post, Wall Street Journal (WSJ), IEEE Spectrum, etc. His research interest is to expanding the horizon of CMOS electronics and technology for futuristic applications.
, Associate Professor, Electrical Engineering, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST)King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST)
No bio available at the moment & King Abdullah University of Science and TechnologyKing Abdullah University of Science and Technology
No bio available at the moment - Yoshinori Ohsumi
Yoshinori Ohsumi
"Dr. Yoshinori Ohsumi was born in Fukuoka in 1945. In 1963, he entered to The Univ. of Tokyo, then he chose decisively to follow molecular biology as the path of his future. As a graduate student, Dr. Ohsumi studied the initiation mechanism of E. coli ribosome and then action of colicin E3, which inhibits the translation of E. coli cells by binding to its receptor. Near the end of 1974, he enrolled in Rockefeller Univ., to study under Dr. G. M. Edelman. First Dr. Ohsumi worked on in vitro fertilization in mice, then switched to work on the mechanism of initiation of DNA replication using yeast, which introduced him to yeast research. Dr. Ohsumi returned to Japan at the end of 1977, and worked as an assistant professor under Prof. Y. Anraku, at the Faculty of Science, The Univ. of Tokyo. Dr. Ohsumi decided to take up the study of the yeast vacuolar membrane. By making pure vacuolar membrane vesicles, he succeeded to show various active transport systems and a novel type of proton-pump, v-type ATPase on the vacuolar membrane. In 1988, Dr. Ohsumi became an associate professor in College of Arts and Sciences of The Univ. of Tokyo and opened up his own small lab. He decided to work on the lytic function of the vacuole. Soon after, Dr. Ohsumi found yeast autophagy by light and electron microscopy. Taking advantage of yeast system, he performed a genetic screen for autophagy-defective mutants. His group could get 15 genes essential for starvation-induced autophagy by the first screen, and started cloning of these ATG genes. Then Dr. Ohsumi moved to The National Inst. for Basic Biology at Okazaki, and uncovered that these Atg proteins consist of six unique functional groups, such as a protein kinase complex, two ubiquitin-like conjugation systems, a PtdIns 3-kinase complex and so on. Drs. T. Yoshimori and N. Mizushima in his lab started studies on ATG genes in mammals and a student also worked on plant, proving that the ATG system is well conserved in higher eukaryotes. However, up to now, Dr. Ohsumi has focused on dissection of the molecular mechanism of the Atg proteins in yeast. In 2009, Dr. Ohsumi moved to Tokyo Inst. of Technology, and continues to elucidate the molecular details of membrane dynamics during autophagosome formation and the physiological relevance of autophagy by combination of cell biology, biochemistry, molecular biology, and structural biology.
, Professor, Tokyo Institute of Technology's Institute of Innovative Research.Tokyo Institute of Technology's Institute of Innovative Research.
No bio available at the moment - Elliot Swart
Elliot Swart
"Elliot Swart's computer science education began at the age of eight, when he began programming in Logo. He went on to study computer science and engineering at Yale, did dermatology- and biology-inspired machine-learning research at Stanford, and worked on smart prosthetics at Johns Hopkins. Today he is co-founder and CTO of 3Derm Systems, a telemedicine imaging system that allows any user to take clinical-quality 3D images of troubling skin lesions and upload the images via cloud computing for review by a dermatologist. Elliot leads 3Derm's technology team in architecting and developing a scalable, high security platform for the transmission of these skin images, and oversees the development of the 3Derm imaging device."
(Co-founder and CTO, 3Derm Systems3Derm Systems
No bio available at the moment) & Elizabeth Asai (CEO, 3Derm Systems)3Derm Systems
No bio available at the momentElizabeth Asai
Liz Asai is the CEO and co-founder of 3Derm Systems. While studying biomedical engineering at Yale, Liz and her co-founder, Elliot Swart, invented a 3D skin-imaging device that allows a dermatologist to see a patient remotely and triage skin concerns. The two founded 3Derm in 2012 and financed their first two years of R&D through NSF awards and other public and private research grants. Liz is the youngest person to serve as Principal Investigator of a Small Business Innovation Research grant in the history of the award. Over the last five years the 3Derm team has conducted three clinical studies in order to demonstrate that their system is on par with an in-person dermatologist, and brought their solution to market in 2016. Liz is actively involved with local and national health tech policy groups drafting testimony and legislation advocating for telemedicine reimbursement. She serves as a mentor in the startup community and writes guides to help new entrepreneurs through the grant writing process. Liz was recently featured in LinkedIn's top 10 healthcare professionals under 35.
IT Hardware
- Doug Burger
Doug Burger
"Doug Burger is Director of the Client and Cloud Applications group in Microsoft Research's Technologies division. His group's goal is to build disruptive research prototypes that provide new directions and capabilities for Microsoft's product divisions. His group currently works in the areas of new datacenter architectures, specialized silicon accelerators, new device form factors, platforms for virtual and augmented reality, advanced optics, personalization and privacy of mobile services, and new mobile/cloud system architectures. Prior to joining Microsoft in 2008, he was on the Computer Sciences faculty at the University of Texas at Austin for ten years, where he co-led the TRIPS project. He is an ACM Fellow, and IEEE Fellow, and the recipient of the 2006 ACM Maurice Wilkes Award."
, Director, Microsoft's Research Technologies DivisionMicrosoft's Research Technologies Division
No bio available at the moment - James Dyson
James Dyson
"Sir James Dyson is a British inventor, industrial designer and founder of the Dyson company. He is best known as the inventor of the Dual Cyclone bagless vacuum cleaner, which works on the principle of cyclonic separation."
, Inventor, Founder, Dyson companyDyson company
No bio available at the moment - Prof. Peer Fischer
Prof. Peer Fischer
Peer Fischer is a Professor of Physical Chemistry (Univ. of Stuttgart) and the head of the MPG Micro- Nano- and Molecular Systems Lab at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems. He heads an interdisciplinary lab of scientists and engineers that develops chemical nanomotors and nanorobots. Peer Fischer holds an ERC Grant (2012) and has received an Attract Award of the Fraunhofer Society (2009). He has been a Rowland Junior Fellow at Harvard University (2004-2009), and a NATO Postdoctoral Fellow and Research Associate at Cornell University (2000-2004). He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge (1999) and a B.Sc. (First Class Hons.) in physics from Imperial College London (1995). Together with his group he has developed new 3D nanofabrication methods, made the first reciprocal microswimmer, and realized the smallest chemical nanomotors, as well as the first swimming soft microrobot that moves using body shape changes. Recently, the first acoustic hologram was developed in his lab. He is a member of the Max Planck – Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL) Center for Molecular Nanoscience and Technology as well as the research network on Learning Systems with ETH Zurich. He holds several patents on optical instruments, nanotechnology and robotic actuators. Peer Fischer is a Founding Editorial Board Member (2016) of the AAAS journal Science Robotics and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (2015).
, Professor, Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, StuttgartMax Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, Stuttgart
No bio available at the moment - Limor Fried
Limor Fried
"The Internet of Things (IoT) Institute has named ARRL member Limor Fried, AC2SN, of New York City as one of the 25 most-influential women in the IoT industry. IoT embraces the concept of connecting devices from cell phones to appliances and machine components to the Internet and/or to each other.
Individuals were named on the basis of attainment of leadership roles related to IoT, hands-on experience developing IoT technology, outstanding research related to IoT, and social reach, among other factors.
Fried founded the open-source hardware firm Adafruit from her MIT dorm room in 2005. The Manhattan-based company, which now employs more than 50 people, offers tools, equipment and electronic components targeted at the "maker" audience, including IoT technology. She was the first female engineer to appear on the cover of WIRED and was Entrepreneur magazine's Entrepreneur of the Year for 2012.
In June, Fried was designated as a White House Champion of Change.
As Adafruit's sole owner, Fried has become known for creating resources for and supporting the learning of electronics for makers of all ages and skill levels."
, Electrical Engineer and Owner, Adafruit IndustriesAdafruit Industries
No bio available at the moment - Meron Gribetz
Meron Gribetz
"A neuroscientist by training, Meron Gribetz spent years studying how the human mind and body work. A flash of insight at a New York bar – where he watched people both fail and succeed in communicating with each other using their mobile devices – inspired a desire to build a new kind of "natural machine" that could better connect people to each other and the world around them. Building on his research in both computer science and neuroscience at Columbia University, he developed the basic tenets that now underscore Meta's Neural Interface design philosophy. Today, he leads as the founder of Meta, the first company to deliver augmented reality (AR) designed around the way people are built to experience the world.
SOURCE: https://www.crunchbase.com/person/meron-gribetz#/entity"
, Founder and CEO, MetaMeta
No bio available at the moment - Nancy Liang
Nancy Liang
"Nancy Liang is the Senior product manager for Amazon Alexa. Previously, she launched some of the first consumer 3D-printed products at Shapeways, creating food-safe ceramics, and then co-founded a custom 3D printing company called Mixee Labs, whose team later joined Amazon.
SOURCE: https://lists.linkedin.com/2016/next-wave-top-professionals-35-and-under...
, Senior Product Manager, Amazon AlexaAmazon Alexa
No bio available at the moment
IT Software
- Greg Brockman
Greg Brockman
"Greg Brockman is co-founder and CTO at OpenAI. Previously, he was the CTO of Stripe, building the company from 4 to 250 employees."
(source: https://gregbrockman.com/)
, Co-founder and CTO, OpenAIOpenAI
No bio available at the moment - Jessica Butcher
Jessica Butcher
"A marketing pioneer and visionary technology entrepreneur with a demonstrable track record of building successful businesses from scratch over the last 15 years. Most notably, with Blippar- a business that has grown from a pub idea into an established global brand with a multi-million $ valuation in 4 years. (Named one of CNBC's Global 'Disruptor 50' Companies for 2015 - http://www.cnbc.com/2015/05/12/blippar-disruptor-50.html and Fast Co 'Most Innovative Companies' of 2016 - http://www.fastcompany.com/most-innovative-companies).
I have consistently been drawn to fast-growth, disruptive businesses through a desire to challenge established consumer behaviours and drive better business efficiencies and enhanced customer experiences.
At Blippar, I have in turns, overseen the commercial and marketing operations across Europe and the US and external communications and brand evangelism, driving the ever-growing global awareness of the powerful new verb 'to blipp'. Led Blippar to victory in a number of start-up competitions including Le Web, London and Mobile World Congress where the business was named 'Most innovative new tech' for 2012. In <4 years, the business has grown to over 200 staff across 10 global offices by working with many of the world's leading brands, boasts a consumer app audience >60M users and can stake it's claim to be the #1 platform of its kind internationally.
Named as one of the BBC's international list of '100 Women' in 2014, Fortune Magazine's global 'Top 10 Most Powerful Women Entrepreneurs' in 2012 and winner of the Natwest EveryWoman Iris (tech) award in 2013 amongst other accolades.
Experienced public speaker and press interviewer on the subjects of entrepreneurialism, women in business and technology, mobile and technology trends, visual recognition and augmented reality, interactive print and more."
, CMO & Founding Director, BlipparBlippar
No bio available at the moment - Valentin Heun
Valentin Heun
Valentin Heun is a PhD candidate and research assistant at MIT Media Lab, where his research focuses on new computer interaction paradigms for the physical space. He is interested in transferring benefits from our shared digital experiences to our physical reality. Currently he is using his interdisciplinary design and engineering skills to build tools that empower designers. His works have been published in academic conferences such as Ubiquitous Computing (UBICOMP, 2012, 2013), SIGGRAPH Asia (SA, 2012), Tangible Embodied and Embedded Interaction (TEI, 2013), Computer Human Interaction conference (CHI, 2013) and User Interface Software and Technology (UIST, 2014). He has been interviewed by online media outlets such as Fast Company, Vice, Verge, Wired, Core77, PSFK, the Daily Dot, Makezine and Boston Globe; received the 2012SIGGRAPH Asia
, PhD candidate and research assistant, MIT Media Lab
Emerging Technologies Prize and was awarded by Wired UK to the Smart List 2013, Fast Company's Boldest Ideas in User Interface Design 2015 and Postscapes 2016 Editors Choice Award for IoT Software & Tools. He works closely with industry collaborators such as Steelcase, Audi, Lego, Qualcomm, Sony and NEC to create a new human interaction experience with everyday objects. His talks and workshops are valued by international organizations such as WeSchool Bombay, Royal College of Art London, MIT Sloan School Executive Programs, O'Reilly Media, Natura Cosméticos, Deutsche Telekom and Porsche. Valentin holds a Master of Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the German Diplom in Design from the Bauhaus-University Weimar. He is a NEC fellow and was a EXIST scholar.MIT Media Lab
No bio available at the moment - Dr. Mohammed Ehsan Hoque
Dr. Mohammed Ehsan Hoque
M. Ehsan Hoque is a researcher interested in developing computational approaches to decipher and model the unwritten rules of human communication.
In particular, he is interested in applying emotion technologies in the domains of social skills training, public speaking preparation, customer service modeling, assessment technologies, and assisting individuals with social developmental disabilities.
Hoque received his Ph.D. in 2013 from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab. His thesis — "Computers to Help with Conversations: Affective Framework to Enhance Human Nonverbal Skills" — was the first of its kind to demonstrate that it is possible for people to learn and improve their social skills by interacting with an automated system. The thesis was showcased at the MIT Museum as one of the most unconventional inventions at MIT.
His work is recognized in the related areas of pervasive computing, human-computer interaction, and machine learning, including best paper awards at leading conferences. Over the years, he has won a number of awards, including the IEEE Gold Humanitarian Fellowship, MIT Tech Review Top 35 innovators under 35 (MIT TR35), and Best of Papers Awards at premier Human-Computer Interaction venues such as Ubiquitous Computing (UbiComp), Automated Face and Gesture Recognition (FG), Intelligent Virtual Agents (IVA), one of the most influential articles for IEEE Transactions for Affective Computing, and Google Faculty Research Award (2014, 2016).Some of his research prototypes have been deployed in Disney Parks, and at several public places of MIT, allowing open interaction with thousands of people and data collection for an extended period. The software that he has written as part of my PhD dissertation has been sub-licensed by several companies including Shell, FoxNews, StateFarm, & Hisense for commercialization opportunities. He is currently collaborating with ICICI Bank, one of the largest banks of India, to automate some aspects of customer service training as well with Educational Testing Services (ETS) to design the future of assessment technologies.
Hoque's achievements have been featured in forums for the general public such as Wired, Canadian National TV, National Public Radio (NPR), Boston Public Radio (WGBH), Time, The Daily Telegraph, The Atlantic, Wired, Wall Street Journal, and MIT Tech Review.
Now an Assistant Professor of Computer Science at the University of Rochester, Hoque teaches undergraduate and graduate students the potential impact of Human-Computer Interaction in every possible discipline that touches human lives. He also directs the Rochester Human-Computer Interaction (ROC HCI) Lab where he actively pursues his research.
, Assistant Professor of Computer Science, University of RochesterUniversity of Rochester
No bio available at the moment - Yann LeCun
Yann LeCun
"Yann LeCun is Director of AI Research at Facebook, and Silver Professor of Dara Science, Computer Science, Neural Science, and Electrical Engineering at New York University, affiliated with the NYU Center for Data Science, the Courant Institute of Mathematical Science, the Center for Neural Science, and the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department.
His current interests include AI, machine learning, computer perception, mobile robotics, and computational neuroscience. He has published over 180 technical papers and book chapters on these topics as well as on neural networks, handwriting recognition, image processing and compression, and on dedicated circuits and architectures for computer perception. The character recognition technology he developed at Bell Labs is used by several banks around the world to read checks and was reading between 10 and 20% of all the checks in the US in the early 2000s. His image compression technology, called DjVu, is used by hundreds of web sites and publishers and millions of users to access scanned documents on the Web. Since the late 80's he has been working on deep learning methods, particularly the convolutional network model, which is the basis of many products and services deployed by companies such as Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Baidu, IBM, NEC, AT&T and others for image and video understanding, document recognition, human-computer interaction, and speech recognition.
LeCun has been on the editorial board of IJCV, IEEE PAMI, and IEEE Trans. Neural Networks, was program chair of CVPR'06, and is chair of ICLR 2013 and 2014. He is on the science advisory board of Institute for Pure and Applied Mathematics, and has advised many large and small companies about machine learning technology, including several startups he co-founded. He is the lead faculty at NYU for the Moore-Sloan Data Science Environment, a $36M initiative in collaboration with UC Berkeley and University of Washington to develop data-driven methods in the sciences. He is the recipient of the 2014 IEEE Neural Network Pioneer Award."
(source: http://yann.lecun.com/ex/bio.html)
, Director, Facebook, AI ResearchFacebook, AI Research
No bio available at the moment - Peter Norvig
Peter Norvig
"Peter Norvig is a Director of Research at Google Inc. Previously he was head of Google's core search algorithms group, and of NASA Ames's Computational Sciences Division, making him NASA's senior computer scientist. He received the NASA Exceptional Achievement Award in 2001. He has taught at the University of Southern California and the University of California at Berkeley, from which he received a Ph.D. in 1986 and the distinguished alumni award in 2006. He was co-teacher of an Artifical Intelligence class that signed up 160,000 students, helping to kick off the current round of massive open online classes. His publications include the books Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach (the leading textbook in the field), Paradigms of AI Programming: Case Studies in Common Lisp, Verbmobil: A Translation System for Face-to-Face Dialog, and Intelligent Help Systems for UNIX. He is also the author of the Gettysburg Powerpoint Presentation and the world's longest palindromic sentence. He is a fellow of the AAAI, ACM, California Academy of Science and American Academy of Arts & Sciences."
(source: http://norvig.com/bio.html)
, Director of Research, Google, Inc.Google, Inc.
"Google is an American multinational technology company specializing in Internet-related services and products that include online advertising technologies, search, cloud computing, software, and hardware." - Helen Papagiannis
Helen Papagiannis
Dr. Helen Papagiannis has been working with Augmented Reality (AR) for over a decade as a researcher, designer, and technology evangelist with a focus on storytelling and creating compelling experiences in AR. Dr. Papagiannis was named among the NEXT 100 Top Influencers (#16) of the Digital Media Industry in 2013, and is featured as an innovator in the book, "Augmented Reality: An Emerging Technologies Guide to AR", published in 2013. Her work and research in the field include her past roles as Chief Innovation Officer at Infinity Augmented Reality Inc. (New York City and Tel Aviv), and Senior Research Associate at York University's Augmented Reality Lab in the Department of Film, Faculty of Fine Art (Toronto).
Dr. Papagiannis has presented her interactive work and Ph.D. research at global conferences and invited events including TEDx (Technology, Entertainment, Design), ISMAR (International Society for Mixed and Augmented Reality) and ISEA (International Symposium for Electronic Art). Her TEDx 2011 talk was featured among the Top 10 Talks on Augmented Reality and Gamified Life. Prior to her augmented life, Dr. Papagiannis was a member of the internationally renowned Bruce Mau Design studio where she was project lead on "Massive Change: The Future of Global Design", an internationally touring exhibition and best-selling book examining the new inventions, technologies, and events changing the world. She is the author of "Augmented Human: How Technology is Shaping The New Reality", published by O'Reilly.
, Augmented Reality Specialist (11 yrs+), Keynote Speaker, Author, and Consultant, O'Reilly Media and Augmented StoriesO'Reilly Media and Augmented Stories
No bio available at the moment - Oscar Salazar
Oscar Salazar
"Imagine a world where any child with a smartphone has access to a personal tutor who's familiar with his or her learning style. Where bots recognize the symptoms of a sickness you describe, so a healthcare provider can quickly and efficiently help you get better. And where transportation companies know where and when you need to get somewhere before you even tell them.
That's the world Oscar Salazar, a co-founder of Uber and now an independent entrepreneur, is excited about.
And he thinks artificial intelligence will get us there.
He's so bullish on AI that he predicts he'll spend the next five or 10 years — as well as a significant amount of money — working on AI.
"We've been discussing AI since I can remember," Salazar said in a recent interview at his regular haunt, an Italian restaurant in downtown Manhattan that he visits almost every day. "It feels real now… it's starting to feel that AI is not an obscure concept. It's actually something I can use to make my life easier and better."
Salazar thinks artificial intelligence will play the biggest role — and have the biggest impact — on three areas: education, healthcare, and transportation.
"They're fabrics for society," Salazar said. If you use technology to make these areas more efficient, "cities are going to be better and societies are going to be better.""
, Co-Founder, UberUber
The launch of Uber's self-driving pilot program in September 2016 marks the public unveiling of the company's secretive work in autonomous vehicles and the first time self-driving cars have been so freely available to the U.S. public." (source: http://fortune.com/2016/09/14/uber-self-driving-cars-pittsburgh/)
- Ryan Calo
Ryan Calo
"Ryan Calo is an assistant professor at the University of Washington School of Law. He is a faculty co-director (with Batya Friedman and Tadayoshi Kohno) of the University of Washington Tech Policy Lab, a unique, interdisciplinary research unit that spans the School of Law, Information School, and Department of Computer Science and Engineering. Professor Calo holds courtesy appointments at the University of Washington Information School and the Oregon State University School of Mechanical, Industrial, and Manufacturing Engineering.<br>Professor Calo's research on law and emerging technology appears or is forthcoming in leading law reviews (California Law Review, University of Chicago Law Review, Stanford Law Review Online, University of Pennsylvania Law Review Online) and technical publications (MIT Press, IEEE, Science, Artificial Intelligence), and is frequently referenced by the mainstream media (NPR, New York Times, Wall Street Journal). Professor Calo has testified before the full Judiciary Committee of the United States Senate and the German Parliament and has organized events on behalf of the National Science Foundation, the Department of Homeland Security, and the White House. He has been a speaker at the Aspen Ideas Festival and NPR's Weekend in Washington. Business Insider named him one of the most influential people in robotics.<br>Professor Calo is an affiliate scholar at the Stanford Law School Center for Internet and Society (CIS), where he was a research fellow, and the Yale Law School Information Society Project (ISP). He serves on numerous advisory boards, including the University of California's People and Robots Initiative, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), Without My Consent, and the Future of Privacy Forum. Professor Calo is a CoMotion Presidential Innovation Fellow for the class of 2015.<br>Professor Calo worked as an associate in the Washington, D.C. office of Covington & Burling LLP and clerked for the Honorable R. Guy Cole on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Prior to law school at the University of Michigan, Professor Calo investigated allegations of police misconduct in New York City. He holds a B.A. in Philosophy from Dartmouth College."
, Assistant Professor, University of Washington School of LawUniversity of Washington School of Law
No bio available at the moment - Jay Edelson
Jay Edelson
"Mr. Edelson, 42, is a class-action lawyer. He is also, if not the most hated person in Silicon Valley, very close to it. His firm, Edelson PC, specializes in suing technology companies, claiming privacy violations. He has gone after pretty much every tech company you have heard of — Amazon, Apple, Google — as well as many that you have not. His cases read like a time capsule of the last decade, charting how computers have been steadfastly logging data about our searches, our friends, our bodies.
Remember when companies started clogging your phone with text messages? Edelson sued dozens of them for that. Have you ever searched for yourself online and found that some of the stuff about you is wrong? This is the basis of a lawsuit against Spokeo, a search engine based in Pasadena, Calif.
If you have ever wondered how Facebook is able to automatically name your friends in pictures that you have uploaded to the social network, then you may be interested in a lawsuit Mr. Edelson filed on Wednesday. That one contends that Facebook has "secretly amassed the world's largest privately held database of consumer biometrics data.")
, Founder and CEO, Edelson PCEdelson PC
No bio available at the moment - Robin Feldman
Robin Feldman
"Professor Robin Feldman received a bachelor's degree from Stanford University and a J.D. from Stanford Law School, graduating the Order of the Coif and receiving the Urban A. Sontheimer Award for graduating second in the class. Professor Feldman also served in the Articles Department of the Stanford Law Review. After graduation, she clerked for The Honorable Joseph Sneed of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
Professor Feldman holds the Harry & Lillian Hastings Chair. She has received the Rutter Award for Teaching Excellence, the Visionary Award from the UC Hastings Board of Directors, and the 1066 Foundation Award for Scholarship. In 2015, she was honored by the American Lawyer Publications as one of the Women Leaders in Law & Tech, and was the sole academic to receive the honor.
Professor Feldman has published two books, Rethinking Patent Law (Harvard 2012) and The Role of Science in Law (Oxford 2009), as well as an extensive number of articles in journals at laws schools including Yale Stanford, Columbia, Virginia, and Georgetown and in the New England Journal of Medicine and the American Economic Review. Her work has been cited by the White House and by numerous federal and state agencies and members of Congress. She has provided testimony and commentary for committees of the US Congress and the California legislature, as well as the Federal Trade Commission, the Department of Justice, the Patent & Trademark Office, and the National Academy of Sciences. Professor Feldman has chaired the Executive Committee of the Antitrust Section of the American Association of Law Schools and has served as the Herman Phleger Visiting Professor of Law at Stanford Law School. She was elected to the American Law Institute in 2012 where she serves as an advisor to the ALI's Restatement of Copyright Project.
Professor Feldman is also the Director of the UC Hastings Institute for Innovation Law, which is dedicated to data-driven law-making and the active classroom. As part of the Institute, Professor Feldman runs the Startup Legal Garage, which has been named one of the most innovative law school program in the country and recognized by the American Association of Law Schools as one of the nation's "Innovative & Other Outstanding Programs." More information on the Institute, including disclosures on funding, can be found at http://innovation.uchastings.edu/)
, Professor, UC Hastings College of the LawUC Hastings College of the Law
No bio available at the moment - Christopher Sprigman
Christopher Sprigman
"Christopher Sprigman came to NYU School of Law in 2013 from the University of Virginia School of Law. Sprigman teaches intellectual property law, antitrust law, competition policy, and comparative constitutional law. His research focuses on how legal rules affect innovation and the deployment of new technologies. Sprigman's widely cited works have had an influence on important aspects of copyright law, and often belie the conventional wisdom about intellectual property rights. He was an appellate counsel from 1999 to 2001 in the Antitrust Division of the US Department of Justice, where US v. Microsoft was among his cases, and later was elected partner in the Washington, DC, office of King & Spalding before becoming a residential fellow at Stanford Law School's Center for Internet and Society. Sprigman received his BA in history magna cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania in 1988, and a JD with honors from the University of Chicago Law School in 1993. He subsequently clerked for Judge Stephen Reinhardt of the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and Justice Lourens H. W. Ackermann of the Constitutional Court of South Africa. Sprigman also taught at the University of the Witwatersrand's law school in Johannesburg."
, Professor of Law, New York UniversityNew York University
No bio available at the moment - Nicholas (Nick) Szabo
Nicholas (Nick) Szabo
"Nick Szabo is a computer scientist, legal scholar and cryptographer known for his research in digital contracts and digital currency. He graduated from the University of Washington in 1989 with a degree in computer science.[1]
The phrase and concept of "smart contracts" was developed by Szabo with the goal of bringing what he calls the "highly evolved" practices of contract law and practice to the design of electronic commerce protocols between strangers on the Internet.[2][3] Smart contracts are a major feature of cryptocurrencies[4][5] and the E programming language.[6]
Szabo influentially[7] argued that a minimum granularity of micropayments is set by mental transaction costs.[8][9]"
, Co-founder, 3Derm Systems3Derm Systems
No bio available at the moment
Marketing Communications
- Daniel Altmann
Daniel Altmann
"Daniel Altmann
, Co-founder and CEO, Naritiv
Co-founder and CEO, Naritiv
What do Coca-Cola, Marriott and "Pretty Little Liars" have in common? They've all teamed up with Naritiv, the Los Angeles-based startup helping brands dominate Snapchat. The company works with over 300 Snapchat stars — who collectively earn 16 billion views a month — to craft compelling (and disappearing) campaigns. Naritiv, which emerged from the first class of Disney's accelerator, helps brands reach Millennials and Gen Z more effectively. This demographic "is so used to getting what media companies want to give them," explains Altmann. "We are focused on creating a media brand that creates the way they do." This approach is working for clients: Naritiv's work for Freeform (formerly ABC Family) has helped them see over 1 billion views, 2 million screenshots and 6 billion seconds watched from fans. As for Altmann, the 29-year-old is already thinking about the next phase. He and the Naritiv team are determined to innovate on "the platforms most of the industry doesn't understand."Naritiv
No bio available at the moment - Jeremy Basset
Jeremy Basset
"Basset's role as head of Unilever Foundry sees him oversee technological and cultural transformation across the FMCG giant. Formerly global marketing strategy director at Unilever, he launched Unilever Foundry to drive the company's work with startups. As part of the initiative, furthermore, Basset's work involves partnering social impact startups with relevant Unilever brands that share a similar purpose and vision. Basset is a fierce advocate for using technology to drive social good, in keeping with Unilever's purpose-oriented corporate strategy. "The brands that really put sustainability at the center are growing 30% faster than the rest of our portfolio," he said earlier this year, noting that the business case is critical."
, Founder, FoundryFoundry
No bio available at the moment - Mallory Blair
Mallory Blair
"Mallory Blair
Co-founder and CEO, Small Girls PRShare
"Public relations is more than press hits," says Blair, 27. That's the foundation of Small Girls PR, the agency she founded along with Bianca Caampued. It's no longer enough to push out a 700-word press release and hope the media picks up on the story. Instead, Blair and her team think about capturing attention more like an advertising agency. "We come up with the types of campaigns typically pitched by creatives," says Blair. "Except we poise these moments for earned coverage rather than paid placements." That approach has attracted some big clients and even bigger attention. A recent New York Fashion Week campaign with TaskRabbit, promoting an Instagram Husband marketplace, generated more than 75 million media impressions — no ad dollars needed. The coverage included spots in ELLE and Harper's Bazaar, outlets where TaskRabbit had never previously been featured."(Source: https://lists.linkedin.com/2016/next-wave-top-professionals-35-and-under...)
, Co-founder and CEO, Small Girls PRSmall Girls PR
No bio available at the moment - Alexandra Dimiziani
Alexandra Dimiziani
"Alexandra Dimiziani
Global marketing directorAirbnb
San Francisco
_Newly-ensconced as Airbnb's global marketing director in San Francisco, Dimiziani previously led EMEA marketing duties for the accommodation disruptor, describing the job as a "match made in heaven". Dimiziani brings a unique background to her position, having worked in numerous roles across advertising, brand consultancy and marketing, building a range of experiences as diverse as luxury brand strategy and communications for brands such as Ralph Lauren; marketing highly-subsidized health products, like condoms, to the most vulnerable populations in central Africa for an NGO; producing global integrated marketing campaigns and leading content for Coca-Cola; lobbying government officials for tax exemptions; and, managing internal change and investor relations. Unsurprisingly, Dimiziani describes herself as an "entrepreneur at heart", noting that her 'lattice' career path is a "reflection of my deeply held belief that most innovation arises from extracting lessons and approaches from one area and applying them to another.)
, Global Marketing Director, AirbnbAirbnb
No bio available at the moment - Robert Dowling
Robert Dowling
"Robert Dowling
Founder/CEORobert Dowling is founder and CEO of Hudson Cutler, 2015's new agency of the year. His work with clients including BMW, AMC, Visa and Conde Nast has helped redefine marketing and set a new standard for the industry. HC's ability to combine traditional marketing and technology makes programs more relevant, compelling, efficient and measurable.
Prior to HC, Robert was president at FleishmanHillard and president at Weber Shandwick. He has been recognized for his award-winning work for clients including Samsung, Microsoft, and Cap Gemini among others.
, Founder and CEO, Hudson Cutler and Co.Hudson Cutler and Co.
No bio available at the moment - Elodie Monchicourt-Lecuyer
Elodie Monchicourt-Lecuyer
"Elodie Monchicourt-Lecuyer
Matriochka Influences
Paris"Innovation only makes sense if it genuinely responds to the expectations of the time"
After co-founding Agency Elan, the French firm that has effectively redefined consumer marketing in the country, Monchicourt-Lecuyer opted to start again in 2014, launching Matriochka Influences in a bid to integrate traditional communications with more modern influencer techniques. That has resulted in an approach that counts as relatively disruptive not just in France, but in the broader region too, helping Matriochka Influences win Best New Consultancy of the Year honours, thanks to cutting-edge work for L'Oreal Foundation (notably #ChangeTheNumbers, which helped improve the international visibility of women in science), Coca-Cola, Chanel and Biotherm.)
, Co-Founder and President, Matriochka InfluencesMatriochka Influences
No bio available at the moment
- Anna Balazs
Anna Balazs
Anna C. Balazs is the Distinguished Professor of Chemical Engineering and the Robert von der Luft Professor at the University of Pittsburgh. She received her B.A. in physics from Bryn Mawr College in 1975 and her Ph.D. in materials science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1981. Her research involves developing theoretical and computational models to capture the behavior of polymeric materials, nanocomposites and multi-component fluids. Balazs is a Fellow of the American Physical Society, the Royal Society of Chemistry, and the Materials Research Society. She was a Visiting Fellow at Corpus Christi College, Oxford University. She has served on a number of editorial boards, including: Macromolecules, Langmuir, Accounts of Chemical Research, and Soft Matter. She was Chair of the American Physical Society Division of Polymer Physics in 1999-2000. She received a Special Creativity Award from the National Science Foundation. In 2003, she received the Maurice Huggins Memorial Award of the Gordon Research Conference for outstanding contributions to Polymer Science. Recently, she received the American Physical Society Polymer Physics Prize (2016), the Royal Society of Chemistry S F Boys-A Rahman Award (2015), the American Chemical Society Langmuir Lecture Award (2014) and the Mines Medal from the South Dakota School of Mines (2013).
, Distinguished Professor, Chemical Engineering and the Robert v. d. Luft Professor, Dept. of Chemical & Petroleum Engineering, University of PittsburghChemical Engineering and the Robert v. d. Luft Professor, Dept. of Chemical & Petroleum Engineering, University of Pittsburgh
No bio available at the moment - Moungi Bawendi
Moungi Bawendi
"Professor Moungi Bawendi, PhD, is a Member of the Scientific Advisory Board of QD Vision and a tenured faculty member of Chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He focuses on creating zero dimensional semiconductor and magnetic quantum materials, and understanding the physical characteristics of molecular devices, including the chemistry, physics, applications and assembly of nanostructures. Dr. Bawendi was a Scientific Founder of Quantum Dot Corporation (ACQ: IVGN) that focused on utilizing quantum dots as biochemical labels for research and diagnostic purposes. Professor Bawendi received an A.M. in Chemical Physics from Harvard University and a Ph.D. from University of Chicago. He worked as a Post Doctoral Fellow at Bell Laboratories before accepting his academic appointment."
(source: http://www.qdvision.com/bawendi http://chemistry.mit.edu/people/bawendi-moungi)
, Professor, Scientific Advisory Board of QD Vision and a tenured faculty member of Chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyScientific Advisory Board of QD Vision and a tenured faculty member of Chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
No bio available at the moment - Rajiv Joshi
Rajiv Joshi
Dr. Rajiv V. Joshi is a key technical lead and research staff member at T. J. Watson research center, IBM. He is a member of IBM Academy of Technology. He received his B.Tech degree from Indian Institute of Technology (Bombay, India), M.S degree from Massachusettes Institute of Technology and Doctorate in Eng. Science from Columbia University, USA. His novel interconnects processes and structures for aluminum, tungsten and copper technologies which are widely globally for various technologies from sub-0.5μm to14nm. He has expertise in technology, circuit design, CAD, and predictive techniques and interest in predictive analytics. He received 3 Outstanding Technical Achievement (OTAs), 3 Corporate Patent Portfolio awards for licensing contributions, holds 59 invention plateaus and has over 220 US patents and over 350 including international patents. He has published over 185 papers in refereed journal/conferences with over 40 keynote/invited talks. He has also given many seminars at universities internationally. He has led successfully pervasive statistical methodology for yield prediction and also the technology-driven SRAM at IBM Server Group. He commercialized these techniques. He received prestigious BMM award in 2015 for outstanding contribution in science, technology. He is a recipient of 2013 IEEE CAS Industrial Pioneer Award. He is inducted into NJ Inventor Hall of fame along with Nikola Tesla. He is IEEE and ISQED fellow and distinguished alumnus of IIT Bombay. He is winner of the IEEE TVLSI best Associate Editor award in 2016. He is a Distinguished Lecturer for IEEE CAS and EDS societies. He is selected to serve on IEEE Board of Governors (BOG). He serves as an Associate Editor of TVLSI. He served on committees of ISLPED (Int. Symposium Low Power Electronic Design), IEEE VLSI design, IEEE CICC, IEEE Int. SOI conf ISQED and Advanced Metallization Program committees. He is SRC liaison with universities.
, Key Leader, Innovator, Research Scientist, IBM, a member of IBM academy of technology and IEEE CAS Board of GovernorsIBM, a member of IBM academy of technology and IEEE CAS Board of Governors
No bio available at the moment - Ramesh Ramamoorthy
Ramesh Ramamoorthy
Purnendu Chatterjee Chair Professor, Physics / Materials Science
Associate Laboratory Director, Energy Technologies, Lawrence Berkeley National LaboratoryProfessor Ramesh graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with a Ph. D. in 1987. He returned to Berkeley in 2004 and is currently the Purnendu Chatterjee Chair Professor in Materials Science and Physics. Prior to that he was Distinguished University Professor at the University of Maryland College Park. From 1989-1995, at Bellcore, he initiated research in several key areas of oxide electronics, including ferroelectric nonvolatile memories. His landmark contributions in ferroelectrics came through the recognition that conducting oxide electrodes are the solution to the problem of polarization fatigue, which for 30 years, remained an enigma and unsolved problem. In 1994, in collaboration with S. Jin (Lucent Technologies), he initiated research into manganite thin films and they coined the term, Colossal Magnetoresistive (CMR) Oxides. At Berkeley, he continues to pursue key scientific and technological problems in complex multifunctional oxide thin films, nanostructures and heterostructures. His group demonstrated the existence of a large ferroelectric polarization in multiferroic BiFeO3 films, in agreement with first principle predictions; they also demonstrated electric field control of antiferromagnetism as well as ferromagnetism, a critical step towards the next generation of storage and spintronics devices that are completely electric field controlled. His current research interests include thermoelectric and photovoltaic energy conversion in complex oxide heterostructures. He has published extensively on the synthesis and materials physics of complex oxide materials and his work is highly cited (over 55,000 citations, H-factor =110). He received the Humboldt Senior Scientist Prize and Fellowship to the American Physical Society (2001). In 2005, he was elected a Fellow of American Association for the Advancement of Science as well as the David Adler Lectureship of the American Physical Society. In 2007, he was awarded the Materials Research Society David Turnbull Lectureship Award, in 2009, he was elected Fellow of MRS and is the recipient of the 2010 APS McGroddy New Materials Prize. In 2014, he was recognized as a Thomsn-Reuters Citation Laureate for his work on multiferroics; these are TR's picks for a possible Nobel prize. From December 2010 to August 2012 he served as the Founding Director of the SunShot Initiative at the U.S. Department of Energy, overseeing and coordinating the R&D activities and funding (300M$/year) of the U.S. Solar Program. In 2011, he was elected to the National Academy of Engineering. From July 2013 to August 2014 he served as the Deputy Director of Oak Ridge National Laboratory. In September 2014, he returned to Berkeley and LBNL as the Associate Lab Director for Energy Technologies.
, American materials scientist, University of California Berkeley in the Departments of Materials Science and Engineering, and PhysicsUniversity of California Berkeley in the Departments of Materials Science and Engineering, and Physics
No bio available at the moment - Skylar Tibbits
Skylar Tibbits
"Tibbits, 31, is out to show that any material can achieve what he calls "robot-like functionality." At MIT's Self Assembly Lab, which he co-directs, he and his colleagues are programming physical materials that essentially build themselves. It sounds like some hazy, sci-fi dream: an object that changes shape on its own, without help from humans or machines. But Tibbits says this type of manufacturing could apply to any industry: a shoe that grows itself; a pipe that expands or contracts based on the flow of water. The objects store information in their geometry and respond to energy, like heat. "These programmable materials don't require any batteries, motors, sensors, computers, power," Tibbits tells LinkedIn. He got his start in architecture, working with famous firms like Zaha Hadid Architects, before moving to MIT. As for success, Tibbits says he looks for opportunities to surprise himself. "What is just fucking radical and awesome that we could be working on?" he tells LinkedIn. "How do we make it real and applicable to any industry and any challenge?""
, American designer and computer scientist
(source:https://lists.linkedin.com/2016/next-wave-top-professionals-35-and-under...) - Lining Yao
Lining Yao
Lining Yao is currently a PhD candidate at Tangible Media Group, MIT Media Lab. She is going to join CMU School of Computer Science as an assistant professor in 2017. Her work lies at the intersection of interaction design, material science, digital fabrication and biological engineering. Her goal is to combine natural and engineering approaches to develop physical materials with dynamic and tunable properties, such as shape, color, stiffness, texture and density. The design opportunities are embedded in the wide myriad of life: things we wear, live with and within, play with, eat or drink.
Lining was named Wired 2015 innovation fellow and has presented her work on the stage of Wired UK, Aspen Idea Festival, Tokyo Designers' Week and MIT Museum. She has exhibited her work at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and Dubai Design Week. She curated and implemented bioLogic exhibition for MIT Media Lab 30's anniversary in October, 2015. Upcoming exhbitions including Center Pompidu in New York,
In peer reviewed academic conferences, she has been awarded Best Paper award (UIST 2013), Nominated Best Demo award (UIST 2013), Best Talk award (CHI 2015) and paper Honorable Mention award (CHI 2015). She has won numerous design awards including 2016 Fast Company Design Award, 2016 A Design Award, Core77 Community Choice Prize Winner, Red Dot Award, iF Design Award and IxDA Awards. In addition, she has been collaborating with industrial partners including New Balance, Toyota, Cisco, Estee Lauder and Colgate to explore the future of wearable, mobility, communication, food and cosmetics.
Lining Yao received her master in media arts and science as a Cisco Fellow at MIT, where she developed communication toolsets that embody physicality, materiality and interactivity into remote meetings. Prior to MIT and the US, she had been deeply involved in Chinese local design and manufacturing industry in Shenzhen and Hangzhou as a design consultant and entrepreneur. She earned her diploma from Zhejiang University in China after attending the Industrial Design Department under the Computer Science School for 4 years, and the Clinical Medicine under the Medical School for 2 years.
, PhD Candidate, Tangible Media Group, MIT Media LabTangible Media Group, MIT Media Lab
No bio available at the moment
Media and Journalism
- Cory Doctorow
Cory Doctorow
"Cory Doctorow (craphound.com) is a science fiction author, activist, journalist and blogger — the co-editor of Boing Boing (boingboing.net) and the author of the YA graphic novel IN REAL LIFE, the nonfiction business book INFORMATION DOESN'T WANT TO BE FREE, and young adult novels like HOMELAND, PIRATE CINEMA and LITTLE BROTHER and novels for adults like RAPTURE OF THE NERDS and MAKERS. He works for the Electronic Frontier Foundation and co-founded the UK Open Rights Group. Born in Toronto, Canada, he now lives in Los Angeles."
(source: http://craphound.com/bio/)
, Canadian-British blogger, journalist, and science fiction author, Boing BoingBoing Boing
No bio available at the moment - Leo Laporte
Leo Laporte
Leo Laporte is an author, speaker, radio broadcaster, and internet podcaster with audiences all over the world. Every week he hosts shows on the TWiT (This Week in Tech) podcasting network including the #1 rated This Week in Tech, Windows Weekly, This Week in Google, MacBreak Weekly, The New Screen Savers, iOS Today, Triangulation, and Security Now. Founded in April 2005, the TWiT Netcast Network produces 19 video and audio shows and over 30 hours of programming each week for more than 6 million listeners and viewers each month.
Leo also hosts The Tech Guy, a nationally syndicated radio technology talk show every Saturday and Sunday on over 200 stations on the Premiere Networks.
On television, Leo was well known as the creator and co-host of The Screen Savers, and the original version of Call for Help on the 24-hour cable and satellite network TechTV (formerly ZDTV) 1998 to 2004. Before this, he created and was a daily contributor to The Site, an hour-long technology newsmagazine that aired nightly on MSNBC, CNBC International, and NBC Superchannel in Europe and Asia. Leo won an Emmy in 1997 for his work on The Site. Laporte has also appeared on such shows as Showbiz Tonight, Live with Kelly, and World News Now and written several computer books and magazine articles.
, Founder and Owner, TWiT Netcast NetworkTWiT Netcast Network
No bio available at the moment - John Markoff
John Markoff
"JOHN MARKOFF is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who covers science and technology for The New York Times. His most recent book is the forthcoming Machines of Loving Grace: The Quest for Common Ground Between Humans and Robots."
, Technology Correspondent, New York TimesNew York Times
No bio available at the moment - John Oliver
John Oliver
"John Oliver is an British comedian, political commentator, television host, and occasional actor. He is best known for The Daily Show with Trevor Noah (1996), John Oliver: Terrifying Times (2008) and The Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear (2010). Oliver left The Daily Show at the end of 2013, and began presenting his own show on HBO, in: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, the April 27, 2014. He also makes podcast The Bugle with Andy Zaltzman.)
, English comedian, writer, producer , political commentator, actor, media critic, and television host, late-night talk show Last Week Tonight with John Oliverlate-night talk show Last Week Tonight with John Oliver
No bio available at the moment - Kara Swisher
Kara Swisher
"Kara Swisher is one of the most influential women in tech, without actually working for a tech company. She's the executive editor and founder of Recode, a tech news outlet and events company, and has covered tech in Silicon Valley since 1997.
Over the years, Swisher has developed a reputation for high-profile scoops, a no-bullshit approach to questioning tech leaders, and cutting through the startup world's jargon and euphemisms. (This past weekend at Tech Conference 22 at Harvard Business School, Oculus founder and CEO Brendan Iribe mentioned one of his previous companies "pivoted" and Swisher shot back, "That's not a real word. It's called failure.")
She's also long highlighted tech's gender disparities, from pointing out the lack of women on tech company boards to uncovering stories of sexual harassment in the industry. Recently she announced she has ambitions beyond journalism: She plans to eventually run for mayor of San Francisco.
After moderating two keynote chats at Tech Conference 22, Swisher sat down with reporters Karis Hustad, Tori Bedford and Pooja Sivaraman to talk her political ambitions, covering tech and what the industry needs to kickstart real change for women in technology.)
, Co-Executive Editor, All Things DAll Things D
No bio available at the moment
- Melinda Gates
Melinda Gates
"Melinda Gates has become a public face for the Gates Foundation, taking a hands-on approach to solving issues around the world.)
, Co-Founder, Bill & Melinda Gates FoundationBill & Melinda Gates Foundation
No bio available at the moment - John Kerry
John Kerry
"John Forbes Kerry (born December 11, 1943) is an American diplomat and Democratic Party politician who is the 68th and current United States Secretary of State. He previously served in the United States Senate, where he chaired the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. Kerry was the Democratic nominee in the 2004 presidential election, losing narrowly to Republican incumbent George W. Bush.
Kerry was born in Aurora, Colorado and attended boarding school in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. He graduated from Yale University in 1966 with a major in political science. Kerry enlisted in the Naval Reserve in 1966, and between 1968 and 1969, he served an abbreviated four-month tour of duty in South Vietnam as officer-in-charge (OIC) of a Swift Boat. For that service, he was awarded combat medals that include the Silver Star Medal, Bronze Star Medal, and three Purple Heart Medals. Securing an early return to the United States, Kerry joined the Vietnam Veterans Against the War organization in which he served as a nationally recognized spokesman and as an outspoken opponent of the Vietnam War. He appeared in the Fulbright Hearings before the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs where he deemed United States war policy in Vietnam to be the cause of war crimes.
After receiving his J.D. from Boston College Law School, Kerry worked as an Assistant District Attorney in Massachusetts. He served as Lieutenant Governor under Michael Dukakis from 1983 to 1985 and was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1984 and was sworn in the following January. On the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, he led a series of hearings from 1987 to 1989 which were a precursor to the Iran–Contra affair. Kerry was re-elected to additional terms in 1990, 1996, 2002, and 2008. In 2002, Kerry voted to authorize the President "to use force, if necessary, to disarm Saddam Hussein," but warned that the administration should exhaust its diplomatic avenues before launching war.
In his 2004 presidential campaign, Kerry criticized George W. Bush for the Iraq War. He and his running mate, North Carolina Senator John Edwards, lost the election, finishing 35 electoral votes behind Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney. Kerry returned to the Senate, becoming Chairman of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship in 2007 and then of the Foreign Relations Committee in 2009. In January 2013, Kerry was nominated by President Barack Obama to succeed outgoing Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and then confirmed by the U.S. Senate, assuming the office on February 1, 2013."
, Secretary of State, US Department of StateUS Department of State
No bio available at the moment - Bill McKibbin
Bill McKibbin
"Bill McKibben is an author and environmentalist who in 2014 was awarded the Right Livelihood Prize, sometimes called the 'alternative Nobel.' His 1989 book The End of Nature is regarded as the first book for a general audience about climate change, and has appeared in 24 languages; he's gone on to write a dozen more books. He is a founder of 350.org, the first planet-wide, grassroots climate change movement, which has organized twenty thousand rallies around the world in every country save North Korea, spearheaded the resistance to the Keystone Pipeline, and launched the fast-growing fossil fuel divestment movement.<br>The Schumann Distinguished Scholar in Environmental Studies at Middlebury College and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, he was the 2013 winner of the Gandhi Prize and the Thomas Merton Prize, and holds honorary degrees from 18 colleges and universities. Foreign Policy named him to their inaugural list of the world's 100 most important global thinkers, and the Boston Globe said he was "probably America's most important environmentalist."<br>A former staff writer for the New Yorker, he writes frequently for a wide variety of publications around the world, including the New York Review of Books,National Geographic, and Rolling Stone. He lives in the mountains above Lake Champlain with his wife, the writer Sue Halpern, where he spends as much time as possible outdoors . In 2014, biologists honored him by naming a new species of woodland gnat— Megophthalmidia mckibbeni--in his honor.)
, American environmentalist, author, journalist, and Co-Founder, 350.org350.org
No bio available at the moment - Ban Ki Moon
Ban Ki Moon
"Ban Ki-moon is the eighth Secretary-General of the United Nations. His priorities have been to mobilize world leaders around a set of new global challenges, from climate change and economic upheaval to pandemics and increasing pressures involving food, energy and water. He has sought to be a bridge-builder, to give voice to the world's poorest and most vulnerable people, and to strengthen the Organization itself.<br>"I grew up in war, the Secretary-General has said, "and saw the United Nations help my country to recover and rebuild. That experience was a big part of what led me to pursue a career in public service. As Secretary-General, I am determined to see this Organization deliver tangible, meaningful results that advance peace, development and human rights.)
, South Korean statesman and politician and the current Secretary-General, United NationsUnited Nations
No bio available at the moment - Naledi Pandor
Naledi Pandor
"The Minister of Science and Technology, Naledi Pandor, will launch a roadmap to support South Africa's future investment needs and ensure researchers' access to world-class scientific knowledge will be launched in Cape Town on Tuesday, 4 October.
The South African Research Infrastructure Roadmap, the first of its kind in South Africa, is a strategic intervention to provide research infrastructure across the entire public research system, building on existing capabilities, and taking into account future needs.
Infrastructure includes facilities, resources and services used by the scientific community across all disciplines for research, enabling the generation, exchange and preservation of knowledge.
An initiative of the European Commission and South Africa through the two parties' trade agreement, the roadmap will provide guidance to the Department of Science and Technology on the deployment of infrastructure to enable research, development and innovation.
The roadmap is a vital blueprint, which will allow the country to set national priorities and to earmark funds for development and participation in pan-European research infrastructure activities. Infrastructure includes facilities, resources and services used by the scientific community across all disciplines for research, enabling the generation, exchange and preservation of knowledge.)
, South African Minister of Science and Technology, South African GovernmentSouth African Government
No bio available at the moment - Megan Smith
Megan Smith
"In September 2014, President Obama named Megan Smith the United States Chief Technology Officer (CTO) in the Office of Science and Technology Policy. In this role, she serves as an Assistant to the President. As U.S. CTO, Smith focuses on how technology policy, data and innovation can advance the future of our nation.
, Chief Technology Officer, Office of Science and Technology Policy
Megan Smith is an award-winning entrepreneur, engineer, and tech evangelist. She most recently served as a Vice President at Google, first leading New Business Development -- where she managed early-stage partnerships, pilot explorations, and technology licensing across Google's global engineering and product teams for nine years -- and later serving as a VP in the leadership team at Google[x] -- where she co-created the company's "SolveForX" innovation community project as well as its "WomenTechmakers" tech-diversity initiative and worked on a range of other projects. During her tenure she led the company's acquisitions of major platforms such as Google Earth, Google Maps, and Picasa, and also served as GM of Google.org during its engineering transition, adding Google Crisis Response, Google for Nonprofits, and Earth Outreach/Engine, and increased employee engagement.
Megan previously served as CEO of PlanetOut, a leading LGBT online community in the early days of the web, where the team broke through many barriers and partnered closely with AOL, Yahoo!, MSN, and other major web players. Megan was part of designing early smartphone technologies at General Magic and worked on multimedia products at Apple Japan.
Over the years, Megan has contributed to a wide range of engineering projects, including an award-winning bicycle lock, space station construction program, and solar cookstoves. She was a member of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) student team that designed, built, and raced a solar car 2000 miles across the Australian outback.
Megan has served on the boards of MIT, MIT Media Lab, MIT Technology Review, and Vital Voices; as a member of the USAID Advisory Committee on Voluntary Foreign Aid; and as an advisor to the Joan Ganz Cooney Center and the Malala Fund, which she co-founded. She holds a bachelor's and master's degrees in mechanical engineering from MIT, where she completed her master's thesis work at the MIT Media Lab.)Office of Science and Technology Policy
No bio available at the moment
Social Entrepreneurship
- Joshua Browder
Joshua Browder
"Joshua Browder is the creator of the world's first "robot lawyer," a chatbot named DoNotPay that has already helped overturn almost 200,000 parking tickets across the world. DoNotPay's technology has since been applied to other situations requiring legal advice, such as helping Syrian refugees apply for asylum. He is currently a sophomore at Stanford University."
, Founder, DoNotPayDoNotPay
No bio available at the moment - Felicia Curcuru
Felicia Curcuru
Felicia Curcuru is the Co-founder and CEO of Binti. Felicia was first introduced to the world of adoption many years ago when her family adopted two children. Years later, Felicia began volunteering as a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) for foster youth in San Francisco. Through these experiences and coming from a technology background, she saw a lot of opportunity where technology could improve the outcomes of families and children in the foster care and adoption world. She co-founded Binti and has dedicated herself to that since.
Prior to starting Binti, Felicia had a career in business and technology. She was previously an Engagement Manager at McKinsey & Company. She was later the first employee, Head of User Experience and Director of Business Development at FundersClub, a leading online venture capital firm and Y Combinator graduate. Felicia graduated from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. She is also a guest blogger on Huffington Post, SF Globe and Adoption.net. She is an avid traveler who has lived in 7 countries and speaks 3 languages. In her spare time, she enjoys playing tennis, dancing, cooking and hiking.
, Co-founder and CEO, BintiBinti
No bio available at the moment - Gayatri Datar
Gayatri Datar
"Gayatri Datar is a Dalberg alumna and co-founder of EarthEnable, a social enterprise with a mission to improve the health of low-income Rwandans through the use of earthen flooring created by locally trained masons. Last week, Gayatri was awarded an Echoing Green fellowship for her work with EarthEnable. We sat down to chat with Gayatri before she heads to Rwanda to work on EarthEnable full-time."
, Co-founder and CEO, EarthEnableEarthEnable
No bio available at the moment - Andrew Foote
Andrew Foote
After working in 7 different countries, Andrew became frustrated with international development and saw the light with community-led and market driven solutions, or what he calls social enterprise. He went on to manage an impact investing program and worked at a consulting firm helping nonprofits develop performance management systems. With Sanivation he has managed 30+ person teams in urban slums and refugee camps to achieve a simple vision: a sustainable world where safe and dignified sanitation is a reality for everyone, everyday. Andrew has degrees from Georgia Institute of Technology in environmental engineering and from Emory University in cultural anthropology. He has been recognized as a Halcyon Fellow in social entrepreneurship.
, CEO & Co-founder, SanivationSanivation
No bio available at the moment - Nicola Forster
Nicola Forster
"In Switzerland and beyond, the knowledge and innovative ideas of skilled young citizens find little access to political decision-making. This creates a significant discrepancy between political decisions and the desires and ideas of young citizens. Nicola responds to this problem by developing foraus, a unique grassroots "think and do-tank" that crowd sources ideas for political change from young citizens. By doing so, he is supplying the political system with fresh, innovative ideas. He is combating the political apathy of young people by turning
, Innovation Consultant and Founder and President, grassroots think tank foraus (Swiss Forum on Foreign Policy)
them into changemakers of traditional political systems. That way, he changes how young people are perceived by society and political decision makers: They are seen as experts on serious subjects and are empowered to impact political-decision making processes.)grassroots think tank foraus (Swiss Forum on Foreign Policy)
No bio available at the moment - Sana Odeh
Sana Odeh
"On the morning of 2016 Women's Day Dr. Sana Odeh posted some really good news, announcing that Facebook selected her along with 6 impressive women from around the world to be featured on International Women's Day 2016 due to her hard work at Arabwic ""Arab Women in Computing"". As Dr.Odeh said in her Facebook status this selection is the ""result of the hard and tireless effort of more than one hundred brilliant Arab Women in Computing (ArabWIC.org) steering committee leaders, 1500 members and 17 chapters in 17 Arab countries"". Yet another great achievement for Arab women world wide.
In the following get to know Dr.Sama Odeh through the strong but simple words written about her by Facebook team.
Professor Sana Odeh is the founder and chair of Arab Women in Computing, a remarkable organisation that supports thousands of women from the Arab world to develop their skills in computer science and build strong careers.
While meeting and photographing this wonderful woman, I entered in a world of technology with soul.
Sana grew up in a small town in Palestine. Back then she didn't imagine that someday she would make such a great contribution to empower and mentor so many Arab women.
After finishing high school, she moved to the US where she studied computer science. She realised that this is a field about the future that brings thousands of other fields together to make a difference in the world.
Five years ago, Sana started working at the New York University in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. She came to set up their computer science department from scratch.
She knew that the enrolment in computer science studies among women is really low almost anywhere in the world. But she was surprised to discover that in the Arab world, the majority of the students in this field are actually women.
She noticed the challenges and discrimination that most of these women have to deal with, so during a conference, she and other attendees decided to establish an organisation to support them.
So they began Arab Women in Computing and Sana's dream, to make a difference in the world, came true.
Sana used Facebook to organize Arab women around the world into different country chapters. In the organization's Facebook group, they can communicate quickly and effectively by sharing articles, exchanging resources, and planning hackathons.
Now she organizes hackathons each year where students from around the world work on developing social good solutions to problems in the Arab world.
Sana says that the strength and talent coming out of the Arab women is very impressive. And I would add that her desire to support them is truly extraordinary.
Sana told me that all these women are very powerful and ambitious, but they need mentoring and scholarships. For that, Sana and her team need support to continue this tremendous project that combines technology and soul."
, Clinical Faculty of Computer Science and Faculty Liaison for Global Programs of Computer Science, Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, New York UniversityCourant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, New York University
No bio available at the moment - Jake Porway
Jake Porway
Jake Porway is the founder and executive director of DataKind, a nonprofit that harnesses the power of data science in the service of humanity. He is an alumni of the New York Times R&D Lab, and has worked at Google and Bell Labs. A recognized leader in the Data for Good Movement, he has spoken at IBM, Microsoft, Google, and the White House. He is also a PopTech Social Innovation Fellow and a National Geographic Emerging Explorer. He holds a B.S. in Computer Science from Columbia University and an M.S. and Ph.D. in Statistics from UCLA.
, Founder and Executive Director, DataKindDataKind
No bio available at the moment - Fred Swaniker
Fred Swaniker
"Fred Swaniker (born c. 1976) is a Ghanaian serial entrepreneur and leadership development expert. He has launched five organizations that aim at developing leaders, primarily in Africa. He is the chairman and founder of the African Leadership Academy, an institution located outside Johannesburg in South Africa that aims to develop 6,000 transformative leaders for Africa over a 50-year period. He is also the founder of African Leadership Network, Global Leadership Adventures, and Africa Advisory Group.)
, Founder and CEO, African Leadership AcademyAfrican Leadership Academy
No bio available at the moment
- Anousheh Ansari
Anousheh Ansari
"On September 18, 2006, Anousheh Ansari captured headlines around the world as the first female private space explorer. Anousheh earned a place in history as the fourth private explorer to visit space and the first astronaut of Iranian descent.
Anousheh is a member of the X Prize Foundation's Vision Circle, as well as its Board of Trustees. She is a life member in the Association of Space Explorers and on the advisory board of the Teacher's in Space project. She has received multiple honors, including the World Economic Forum Young Global Leader, the Working Woman's National Entrepreneurial Excellence Award, George Mason University's Entrepreneurial Excellence Award, George Washington University's Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award, and the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award for Southwest Region. While under her leadership, Telecom Technologies earned recognition as one of Inc. magazine's 500 fastest-growing companies and Deloitte & Touche's Fast 500 technology companies."
, co-founder and chairman, Prodea SystemsProdea Systems
No bio available at the moment - Jeff Bezos
Jeff Bezos
"Jeff Bezos is an American technology entrepreneur, investor, and philanthropist. He is the founder, chairman, and chief executive officer of Amazon.com, which became the world's largest online shopping retailer. An Internet merchant of books and a wide variety of products and services, most recently video streaming and audio streaming, Amazon.com became the world's largest internet sales website. on the World Wide Web and a model for Internet sales.
Bezos' other business interests include aerospace and newspapers. He is the founder and owner of privately-funded aerospace developer and manufacturer Blue Origin (founded in 2000) with test flights to space beginning in 2015, and plans for commercial suborbital human spaceflight beginning in 2018. In 2013, Bezos purchased The Washington Post newspaper. A number of other business investments are managed through Bezos Expeditions."
(SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Bezos)
, Founder, CEO and Chairman of the Board, AmazonAmazon
"Amazon is an American e-commerce company--the largest e-retailer in the country, in fact--and cloud computing giant. It was founded in 1994 by Jeff Bezos. Originally known for selling books through its website (and later digital versions via its branded e-reader Kindle), Amazon has built up a customer service, inventory, and shipping empire that allows the site to shill everything from clothes to lawn furniture to janitorial supplies. It also sells digital content like movies, music, and apps; it's a consumer-electronics player with success stories (the wireless, voice-activated Echo speaker) and flops (Fire Phone); and its Amazon Web Services arm is a multi-billion-dollar provider of cloud-based services for business customers. It's even a Hollywood player, taking home two awards at the 2016 Golden Globes for original shows that stream through its Prime service. Yet the basics of Bezos's business philosophy--focusing on long-term customer loyalty over short-term profits and never-ending expansion into new businesses--have been surprisingly consistent over the years. And Amazon's obsession with efficiency explains why it's now delivering products in less than an hour via its Prime Now service, and why it hopes to be among the first e-commerce companies to deploy its own fleet of drones with Amazon Prime Air--a future fleet of autonomous vehicles that will deliver short-range packages instead of humans. SOURCE: https://www.fastcompany.com/company/amazon" - Scott Bolton
Scott Bolton
"Dr. Scott Bolton has 24 years experience at Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), spanning a wide spectrum of management, engineering and scientific positions for planetary missions including Cassini, Galileo, DS-1, Voyager, Magellan, Quasat, Solar Probe, and CRAF. His extensive experience managing multiple science investigations on both Cassini and Galileo provides an excellent background and skill set for his role as the Juno PI.
His experience at JPL spans mission design, instrument design and delivery, mission development, science planning, and science operations.
Dr. Bolton's management experience includes leading groups of scientists on Galileo, Cassini, his research group at JPL, and management of a team of engineers for Galileo operations.
In 2004 he became the Associate Vice President of the Space Science and Engineering Division of the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) where he manages the work of about 150 scientists and engineers.
Dr. Bolton led the concept development for the Juno mission including the invention of one of its key new instruments, the microwave radiometer experiment and has research expertise in multiple areas relevant to the Juno mission (microwave radio astronomy, radiation belts, magnetospheric physics, and atmospheric science)."(SOURCE: https://www.missionjuno.swri.edu/the-team/)
Scott J. Bolton is an American theoretical and experimental space physicist. He is an associate vice president of the Southwest Research Institute Space Science and Engineering Division.[1] His research area is planetary sciences with a focus on the giant planets and the origin of the solar system. Bolton is the principal investigator for Juno, a mission launched in 2011 to study Jupiter's origin, atmosphere, magnetosphere and interior structure,[2] part of NASA's New Frontiers program to explore the outer planets of the solar system.[3] Bolton previously served on the Galileo mission as a member of the plasma spectrometer team and plasma wave instrument team.[4]
Dr. Bolton is a Co-Investigator on a number of NASA missions including experiments on the Cassini-Huygens mission. Dr. Bolton chaired the Titan science group for the Cassini-Huygens mission and was responsible for the formulation of the scientific investigation of Saturn's moon Titan. Dr. Bolton has been a Principal Investigator with NASA on various research programs since 1988. His research includes the modeling of the Jovian and Saturnian radiation belts, atmospheric dynamics and composition, and the formation and evolution of the solar system. He has authored over 250 scientific papers, five book chapters, and consulted/appeared in numerous space science documentaries. He also received JPL Individual Awards for Exceptional Excellence in Leadership in 2002, 2001, and 1996, and Excellence in Management in 2000; and has received over twenty NASA Group Achievement Awards. Dr. Bolton maintains a relationship with JPL and the California Institute of Technology through a special appointment as a Senior Staff Scientist. Dr. Bolton also leads a number of educational programs aimed at developing science, math and art skills for children from elementary to high school and college level. As part of the NASA Juno Educational Outreach Program (E/PO), He has dedicated developed educational programs involving both formal and informal education including the creation of science and math curriculum driving new national standards for elementary level education (an age bracket known to be underserved in this area). Dr. Bolton has worked with a number of corporate sponsors dedicated to space science educational programs, including Lego, Universal, Sony, and Time-Warner. For example, Bolton and his team worked with Lego to include a trio of solid aluminum figurines representing Juno, Jupiter, and Galileo riding in the Juno spacecraft.[6]. For the Juno mission, Dr. Bolton created a collaboration between NASA and the Apple Corporation to promote education and public awareness of NASA space exploration and the relationship between the arts and sciences. This collaboration has led to the development of Apple's Destination Jupiter, the film Visions of Harmony and numerous music composition by various artists dedicated and inspired by space science. The collection is shown on the Apple Music site (Www.applemusic.com/DestinationJupiter).
Dr. Bolton partnered with the Lewis Center for Educational Excellence on an innovative educational program that provides elementary to high school students an opportunity to experience the scientific and engineering process directly. This program trains teachers on science and math education and provides access to NASA research facilities and scientists for hundreds of schools around the country.
Through his private company, Artistic Sciences, Inc, Dr. Bolton's has produced a number of musical concerts, art exhibits, scientific documentaries and videos aimed at inspiring and motivating children in academic studies. He has worked with a number of musical artists developing both educational and musical programs. He has worked with the composer Vangelis in creation the Vangelis Foundation in Athens, Greece dedicated to the combined study of Science, Math, Art, Music and Philosophy.[7]
, Principal Investigator, NASA's Juno missionNASA's Juno mission
No bio available at the moment - Jeff Greason
Jeff Greason
"Jeff Greason has 17 years experience managing innovative technical project teams at XCOR Aerospace, Rotary Rocket and Intel Corporation. As president and a co-founder of XCOR, he leads the engineering team that has developed ten different long-life, highly-reusable liquid-fueled rocket engines, a low-cost liquid propellant piston pump, and two manned reusable rocket aircraft – the EZ-Rocket and a prototype for a private customer. As part of his duties at XCOR, Mr. Greason has had the final go/no-go decision responsibility on hundreds of rocket engine test firings, more than twenty manned rocket flights, and has served as a flight test engineer aboard one of those flights.
Mr. Greason is the co-inventor of XCOR's Nonburnite technology, which combines aerospace fabrication practices with materials common in the semiconductor industry. Mr. Greason fabricated the first exploratory materials coupons in 2002 and is still directly supervising the coupon development work taking place at XCOR. He is intimately familiar with every aspect of the materials development to date. SOURCE: http://www.nasa.gov/offices/hsf/members/greason-bio.html"
, CEO and Co-Founder, Agile Aero, Inc.Agile Aero, Inc.
No bio available at the moment - Chris Lewicki
Chris Lewicki
"Mr. Lewicki has been intimately involved with the lifecycle of NASA's Mars Exploration Rovers and the Phoenix Mars Lander.
Lewicki performed system engineering development and participated in assembly, test and launch operations for both Mars missions. He was Flight Director for the rovers Spirit and Opportunity, and the Surface Mission Manager for Phoenix. The recipient of two NASA Exceptional Achievement Medals, Lewicki has an asteroid named in his honor: 13609 Lewicki. Chris holds bachelor's and master's degrees in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Arizona.
At Planetary Resources, Mr. Lewicki is responsible for the strategic development of the company's mission and vision, engagement with customers and the scientific community, serves as technical compass, and leads day to day operations."
, President and CEO, Planetary ResourcesPlanetary Resources
"Planetary Resources, Inc., the asteroid mining company, announced today that it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Government of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and the banking institution Société Nationale de Crédit et d'Investissement (SNCI). This partnership with Luxembourg's SpaceResources.lu initiative will advance technologies and lines of business toward the exploration and utilization of resources from asteroids. Just as Luxembourg accelerated the satellite communications industry through its investments, this funding for Planetary Resources Luxembourg will accelerate the space resources industry. The company's vision is to establish a new paradigm for resource utilization that will bring the Solar System within humanity's economic sphere of influence. The pathway in identifying the most commercially viable near-Earth water-rich asteroids has led to the development of multiple transformative technologies that are applicable to global markets, including the agriculture, oil & gas, mining and insurance industries. SOURCE: http://www.planetaryresources.com/2016/06/planetary-resources-and-the-government-of-luxembourg-partner-to-advance-the-space-resource-industry/"
- CRISPR Therapeutics
CRISPR Therapeutics
"CRISPR Therapeutics is a leading gene-editing company focused on the development of transformative gene-based medicines for serious diseases using its proprietary CRISPR/Cas9 gene-editing platform. CRISPR/Cas9 is a revolutionary technology that allows for precise, directed changes to genomic DNA. Our multi-disciplinary team of world-class researchers and drug developers is working to translate this technology into breakthrough human therapeutics in a number of serious diseases. In addition to our fully-owned programs, we have established strategic collaborations with Bayer AG and Vertex Pharmaceuticals to develop CRISPR-based therapeutics in other diseases with high unmet need. We have licensed the foundational CRISPR/Cas9 patent estate for human therapeutic use our scientific founder, Dr. Emmanuelle Charpentier, who co-invented the application of CRISPR/Cas9 for gene editing. We are headquartered in Basel, Switzerland with R&D operations in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA and some business operations in London, United Kingdom."
- Codiak Biosciences
Codiak Biosciences
"Codiak BioSciences is developing a broad platform for the delivery of macromolecules to the cytoplasm of diverse cells and tissues, to create a proprietary pipeline of novel, targeted medicines for diseases with high unmet medical need.
Our technology capitalizes on the unique properties of exosomes which have been shown to deliver nucleic acids, proteins, lipids and small molecules to various cell types. Codiak will build and expand upon the natural tropism of exosomes for delivery of payloads to specific cell and tissue types, to solve the challenges of delivering macromolecules across biological membranes."
(SOURCE: http://www.codiakbio.com/our-science/)
- Intellia
"Intellia is a leading genome editing company, focused on the development of proprietary, potentially curative therapeutics using a recently developed biological tool known as the CRISPR/Cas9 system. Intellia believes the CRISPR/Cas9 technology has the potential to transform medicine by permanently editing disease-associated genes in the human body with a single treatment course.
Our combination of deep scientific expertise and clinical development experience, along with our leading intellectual property portfolio, puts Intellia in a unique position to unlock broad therapeutic applications of the CRISPR/Cas9 technology and create a new class of therapeutic products.
The promise of the CRISPR/Cas9 system is the driving force behind the creation of Intellia. Our founders have a shared belief that this technology offers the potential for us to develop curative therapeutic options for patients with chronic diseases by addressing the underlying cause of the disease. It can bring new hope and cures to people who now have nowhere to turn for help.
- Kailos Genetics
Kailos Genetics
"Kailos Genetics is a trusted provider of personalized health information. Addressing unmet needs of healthcare consumers and their families is Kailos' primary reason for being. With its proprietary and robust DNA sequencing enrichment and laboratory information system, TargetRichTM, Kailos helps make personalized medicine affordable and accessible for everyone through the Kailos test. Founded in 2010, and based in Huntsville's HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology, Kailos is committed to providing a simple, trusted and affordable way to help individuals understand what's in their genes.
In June, Kailos announced they have entered into a collaboration with Huntsman Cancer Institute (HCI) at the University of Utah to develop a clinical-grade test for circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA). Backed by a $2.4 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the minimally invasive test will be used to monitor patients for breast cancer disease recurrence.
SOURCE: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160622005753/en/Kailos-Genetics-...
- Moderna TX
Moderna TX
"At Moderna, we are pioneering the development of a new class of drugs made of messenger RNA (mRNA). This novel drug platform builds on the discovery that modified mRNA can direct the body's cellular machinery to produce nearly any protein of interest, from native proteins to antibodies and other entirely novel protein constructs that can have therapeutic activity inside and outside of cells.
In preclinical, in vivo, proof-of-concept studies, mRNA Therapeutics™ induced the production of dozens of effector proteins and have actually repaired and regenerated damaged tissue to achieve long-term therapeutic effects. What's more, mRNA Therapeutics™ may address hundreds of diseases not treatable today. While current technologies target only secreted proteins (those that circulate in the bloodstream), mRNA Therapeutics™ can produce both secreted and intracellular proteins (those that exist inside cells), enabling the development of new medicines for disease targets that are untouchable with today's injectable therapies."
Communications Technology
- Bumble
"Bumble is a social discovery app with a unique twist: encouraging women to make the first move. Using a modern day Sadie Hawkins concept, Bumble creates a selective and meaningful environment for connecting with and discovering new people.
Notably, Bumble is run by a predominantly female team, which is a first ever in the tech startup world."
(SOURCE: https://bumble.com/en-us/press)
- Dark Sky
Dark Sky
"The Dark Sky Company specializes in weather forecasting and visualization. Back in 2011, we had the crazy idea that robots could predict the weather with down-to-the-minute precision, and thanks to a handful of generous strangers, we were able to give it a shot. Since then, those robots have become "scarily accurate," powering our own award-winning weather app, Dark Sky, in addition to thousands of other businesses, apps, and crazy ideas.
Dark Sky uses state-of-the-art technology to predict when it will rain or snow, down to the minute, at your exact location: we deliver hyperlocal forecasts, not just for your city or state, but right where you're standing. Whether it's rain starting in 13 minutes, or a snow storm this weekend, we'll give you the detailed information you need.
Dark Sky is the most accurate source of hyperlocal weather information. With down-to-the-minute forecasts, you'll know exactly when the rain will start or stop, right where you're standing. (It's like magic.)"
(SOURCE: https://darksky.net/app/)
- Didi Chuxing
Didi Chuxing
"Didi Chuxing is the world's largest comprehensive one-stop mobile transportation platform. The company offers the full range of mobile technology-based transportation options for close to 300 million users across over 400 Chinese cities, including taxi hailing, private car hailing, Hitch (social ride-sharing), Chauffeur, Didi Bus, Didi Test Drive, and Didi Enterprise Solutions. Statistics show Didi holds over 87% of the private car service market and over 99% of the taxi hailing service market in China. A total of 1.43 billion rides were completed on Didi's platform in 2015. As a practitioner in the sharing economy initiative, we are committed to work with communities and partners to solve China's transportation and environmental challenges using data-driven precision algorithms that optimize resources allocation. By continuously improving user experience and creating social values, we are committed to building an efficient, collaborative, and sustainable transportation ecosystem. Didi was named one of the World's Smartest 50 Companies 2016 by MIT Technology Review in 2016, and a Davos Global Growth Company in 2015.
SOURCE: http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/didi-chuxing-to-acquire-uber-chi...
- Line (Naver)
Line (Naver)
"Line is a leader among the world's messaging apps when it comes to making money from its users. The company steadily introduces new features, such as chatbot functionality for corporate marketing campaigns and group calls for up to 200 people. (In comparison, Skype limits group calls to 25 people.) In its home market of Japan, Line offers taxi booking inside its app and will soon provide phone service through a deal with Japanese carrier NTT DoCoMo. Its IPO expected later this year could value the company at more than $5 billion."
(source: https://www.technologyreview.com/lists/companies/2016/intro/#line-subsid...)
- Niantic
"Niantic, Inc. is the developer and publisher behind Pokémon Go, one of the most used and profitable apps of 2016, having been downloaded more than 500 million times worldwide. It was credited with popularizing location-based and augmented reality gaming, promoting physical activity, along with helping local businesses grow. The game was referred to as a "social media phenomenon," and was achieved the most revenue ever grossed by a mobile game in its first month, at $206.5 million.
- Shyp
"Shyp is an on-demand shipping startup headquartered in San Francisco that aims to combat the hassle of traditional shipping and delivery services. Users submit a photo of what they'd like to ship via Shyp's app, then a courier takes the item to a warehouse, where it receives custom packaging and is shipped via a major carrier like FedEx or UPS. Shyp is currently available in San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, and Chicago. In 2015, the company scored a $50 million round of investment to help fund future expansion and its first branding campaign, which plastered the New York subway with ads. It will have to handle packages in vast quantities to make big profits from the difference between the prices it charges customers and the rates it pays employees, which is why initiatives to appeal to businesses as well as consumers are key. In December 2015, for example, it launched a deal that made it easy for eBay merchants to ship items they'd sold. Within two weeks, its daily shipment count doubled.
- Verona
Verona's founder, Matthew Nolan a New York based entrepreneur, technologist, and peace activist. He's founded several other companies including Speek, a communication platform and Red Button, a software consultancy.
- Ampirus
"Amprius is a leading manufacturer of high energy and high capacity lithium-ion batteries. The company maintains an R&D lab and corporate headquarters in Sunnyvale, California; an R&D lab and state-of-the-art pilot production line in Nanjing, China; and a manufacturing facility in Wuxi, China.
Amprius is financed by leading venture capital and private equity investors including Trident Capital, VantagePoint Capital Partners, Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt, IPV Capital, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, SAIF Partners, Chinergy Capital, and Wuxi IDG.
In May 2016, Amprius demonstrated a revolutionary new tool for high-volume manufacturing. The new tool, a first-of-its-kind system for inline, continuous, and roll-to-roll production of three-dimensional silicon nanowire anodes, will enable Amprius to scale manufacturing and deliver lightweight and long-lasting batteries for unmanned vehicles, wearable technologies, and electric vehicles."
SOURCE: http://www.amprius.com/news/news_amprius_20160523.htm"
- Aquion Energy
Aquion Energy
" Aquion continues to raise money for its innovative batteries, which have made it a successful startup in a notoriously tough industry. Investors include Bill Gates and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers as well as the corporate venture capital arms of energy industry giants Shell and Total. Invented by Carnegie Mellon professor Jay Whitacre, the batteries are made with nontoxic materials that can provide long-term storage of energy from solar, wind, and other intermittent sources at a very low cost. Whitacre says the company's been disciplined in its development of a manufacturing process, basing it on existing models and materials to improve its chance of working."
- First Solar
First Solar
"First Solar designs and manufactures solar panels using a low-cost thin-film semiconductor technology and also develops solar farms that utilities can use. It differs from many solar companies in that it is in the black, making $546 million in profit in 2015 on nearly $3.6 billion in revenue.
SOURCE: https://www.technologyreview.com/lists/companies/2016/intro/#first-solar"
- SolarCity
"SolarCity® provides clean energy. The company has disrupted the century-old energy industry by providing renewable electricity directly to homeowners, businesses and government organizations for less than they spend on utility bills. SolarCity gives customers control of their energy costs to protect them from rising rates. The company makes solar energy easy by taking care of everything from design and permitting to monitoring and maintenance.
SolarCity is currently building a sprawling factory in Buffalo, New York, built and paid for by the state of New York. It will soon begin producing some of the most efficient solar panels available commercially. Capable of making 10,000 solar panels a day, or one gigawatt of solar capacity a year, it will be the largest solar manufacturing plant in North America and one of the biggest in the world.
SOURCE: https://www.technologyreview.com/s/600770/10-breakthrough-technologies-2...
- Sun Power
Sun Power
"Since 1985 SunPower has been leading global solar innovation. SunPower solar panels consistently deliver more energy and long-term peace of mind with the highest performing solar power systems available. SunPower is the solar energy choice of more homeowners and businesses around the world. SunPower panels have generated more than 18,000,000 MWh and the company holds over 200 patents for solar technology."
SOURCE: https://us.sunpower.com/company/
- Hydrao Smart Shower
Hydrao Smart Shower
"The Hydrao shower head is equipped with built-in LED lights that can tell you, roughly, how much water you've used. The Bluetooth LE device connects to an iPhone or iPad app, which lets you set three alert intervals — for example, five gallons, seven gallons and 10 gallons. For each, the Hydrao shower head will light up three different colors that you can see in the center of your show stream.
Hydrao fits any standard shower head and doesn't need batteries. Instead, it has a tiny turbine inside that uses the water flowing through it to generate enough energy to power the lights and the Bluetooth connectivity. Now that's eco-friendly."
(source: http://mashable.com/2016/01/05/hydrao-smart-shower-head-ces/#yg9TRAdgukqk)
- IDE tech
IDE tech
"Praising IDE's "faster, more cost-efficient and environment-friendly desalination process", Fortune hails the "engineering alchemy" that has allowed the company to rise to no. 2 in the Change The World list.
This list recognizes companies that have had a positive social impact through activities that are part of their core business strategy, rated by level of innovation, measurable social impact and business results.IDE achieved the number 2 spot (behind GlaxoSmithKline) due to its pioneering work in the desalination industry, where it is an undisputed technological leader. Fortune were especially impressed by IDE's global scale (plants in over 40 countries, including the new Carlsbad plant in California which is a game changer for desalination in the US) and innovations that include a wide range of energy- and cost-efficient desalination processes."
- Janicki Bioenergy
Janicki Bioenergy
"When the video of Bill Gates drinking water made from human feces went viral, Seattle-based Janicki Bioenergy was immediately inundated with phone calls requesting information about the machine behind the magic: the Omni Processor. More than 2 billion people around the world lack sufficient sewage treatment and are forced to defecate in the open, leading to infection and huge economic strain. The Omni Processor aims to help by turning human waste into a valuable product. It dries the sludge and removes the liquid, which becomes water vapor that can be made into clean, FDA-approved drinkable water. Other similar sanitation technologies are often short lived because they cost so much to power. The Omni Processor, however, is self-sustaining. The solid waste is burned to fuel a generator that creates electricity that gets fed back into the Omni Processor. Whatever is leftover can be added to the local power grid. Last year, Janicki launched a pilot program in Dakar, Senegal, where the machine is processing a third of the local septage. The company is taking orders for its new and improved machine, the Omni Processor S200, as well as working on a self-sustaining household toilet that runs on waste."
(source: https://www.fastcompany.com/company/janicki-bioenergy)
- Neotop
"Like many nations in the Middle East, water is a precious commodity in Israel. Luckily, it's an issue that the country is already addressing, using 60% recycled and desalinated water to power industry and agriculture in the country. One of the leaders in this movement to conserve water is Neotop Water Systems. The company is primarily concerned with maintaining water levels in Israel's reservoirs and aquifers through its Top Up water-ball system, which covers the surface of the reservoir in thousands of white balls, cutting evaporation by as much as 90 percent and cooling water by 4-9_C (39.2-48.2_F). The system is revolutionary because the color and construction of the ball actually helps prevent not only evaporation, but also the growth of harmful pollutants like algae and bacteria. According to cofounder Zeev Birger, this innovative solution could double Israel's farming water supply over the next few years."
- Proterra
"A new electric, zero-emission vehicle has an impressive range: The city bus can travel 350 miles (560 kilometers) on a single charge, potentially being able to complete a full day's work without needing to be recharged.
Set for release in 2017 from the startup Proterra, the Catalyst E2 Series electric vehicle debuted last week at the American Public Transit Association (APTA) Annual Meeting in Los Angeles. Proterra named the new bus for its unprecedented battery, which can store up to 660 kWh. In comparison, the Chevy's electric passenger car the Bolt has a 60 kWh battery, and the largest Tesla Model S has a 100 kWh battery."
(source: http://www.livescience.com/56148-proterra-electric-bus-long-battery-life...)
- Horizons Ventures
Horizons Ventures
"Horizons Ventures Limited is a venture capital firm based in Hong Kong with a focus on disruptive and technology-focused start-ups. Started in 2006, its start-ups are being spread around the world in 10 countries including the United States, Canada, UK, Sweden, Estonia, Germany, Spain, Luxembourg, Israel and China.
The company has funded some of the more well-known technology innovations of the last decade, including Skype, Siri, Facebook, Waze, Summly, Spotify and more. Its portfolio now consists of over 40 companies around the globe.
Horizons Ventures manages the private investment of Sir Li Ka-shing in the technology, media and telecommunications sector (TMT sector). Profits generated from the investment will contribute to his charity foundation Li Ka Shing Foundation, which dedicate to nurture a culture of giving, support reform initiatives in education and help advance medical research and services."
- Lux Capital
Lux Capital
"Lux is based in New York City and Silicon Valley. We are actively investing Lux Ventures IV, LP, a $350 million fund. We have $700 million under management.
We invest in seed- and early-stage ventures across multiple sectors, including: 3D printing; machine learning; artificial intelligence; flying robots; surgical robots; synthetic biology; genomics; satellites; space; drones; computational imaging and recognition; new materials; holograms; "fixers" for the future; the internet of things; connected hardware; the smart home and virtual reality.
About our name: "Lux" is Latin for light—as in: We look where others aren't and strive to shine a light on the unknown."
(source: http://www.luxcapital.com/about)
- OurCrowd
"Equity crowdfunding allows you to tap into the investment opportunities once reserved for big players like venture capital firms. At OurCrowd you can find exclusive opportunities to buy stakes in private startup companies for as little as $10,000, putting your money to work alongside experienced investors, and joining the growing trend of getting in on the ground floor rather than waiting for a company to go public. Today's biggest returns are going to private investments, and not to those who wait until a company goes public."
(source: http://info.ourcrowd.com/sem/cf-1/)
- Revolution LLC
Revolution LLC
"Revolution invests in people and ideas that can change the world. Our mission is to build disruptive, innovative companies that offer more choice, convenience, and control in the lives of consumers and businesses. We bring a unique strategy and approach to investing in and building significant companies.
A revolution's success rests in the power of its beliefs. When enough people participate in the revolution, embracing its beliefs and acting upon them, a "tipping point" is reached: The status quo is no longer acceptable and everyone becomes a revolutionary.
Notable investments include LivingSocial and Zipcar."
(source: http://www.revolution.com/)
- socialcapital
"Social Capital is a venture capital fund that aims to change the world by giving companies with disruptive ideas the money to carry those ideas out. With savvy investments in Box, Slack, SurveyMonkey, Wealthfront, and Second Market, Social Capital could have been content being a prosperous venture firm. Instead, according to founder and managing partner Chamath Palihapitiya, it's aiming to be "a progress factory." Social Capital invests in startups, but when "industries [are] so lumbering that they are really holding back human potential," the fund steps in and creates solutions itself in the form of new businesses. Among the five companies Social Capital has started are Glooko, a diabetes-management service that uses data to help patients better manage the chronic ailment (Palihapitiya's dad suffered from the disease), and Rama, a wireless carrier rolling out low-cost Wi-Fi in developing nations with an intent to disrupt the U.S. market as well.
Palihapitiya and his partners try to focus on companies that they believe could, by addressing enormous societal problems, affect a quarter of the world's population, employ up to 10 million people, and make up to $1 trillion for investors. Their metrics for success include no less than an uptick in "the GDP and the happiness of the markets in which we operate." Social Capital's world-changing ambitions reflect the priorities of its senior investment team, which has a rare 50-50 gender and ethnicity split for a VC firm. In fact, Social Capital recently partnered with tech-news site The Information to publish a ranking of VC firms' diversity, which laid bare the industry's monoculture."
(source: https://www.fastcompany.com/company/social-capital)
Health and Medicine
- Bioinformatix LLC
Bioinformatix LLC
"Bioinformatix designed and developed a patent-pending software program, Rx&You(TM), which is a cloud-based artificial intelligence platform that remotely monitors patient medication behavior in real-time across their whole regimen, and intervenes when appropriate to help solve medication non-adherence, and pharmacovigilance, and coordinates care across many providers to solve polypharmacy. It also creates large volumes of patient-generated data about medication treatment for Big Data analytics to provide major opportunities for maximizing treatment.
In addition, the platform helps pharmaceutical companies satisfy regulations in the US, Europe, and 27 American states that now require electronic reporting of adverse events.
For patients, this means having a reminder system for their whole medication regimen that is patient-centric, (e.g., mobile call vs. email vs. SMS text vs. direct messaging). Our patient-centric reminder system also allows patients to prioritize medications differently thereby improving access to the right type of intervention when they need it most.
For providers, this means illuminating a dark void of information to improve care quality. With Rx&You, quality improves because the provider knows in advance who is not adhering to their regimens on a dose-by-dose basis for every medication, when, and why. The provider literally goes from not knowing who, what, when, or why – to knowing all these things for every patient and medication in near real-time.
Payers benefit because they inure financial savings from cost prevention and containment. By decreasing non-adherence and adverse events, and coordinating care, treatment costs can be prevented from increasing, often by thousands of dollars per patient per year."
- Lark
Lark Technologies provides members a 24/7 personal health team in their pocket. Named "Top 10 Apps of 2015 out of 1.6 million" by Apple, Lark works with innovative health plans to provide 24/7 personal counseling services to tackle the worlds' most crushing chronic diseases. Powered by cutting edge A.I., Lark coaches text with members anytime, anywhere, within 2 seconds. And our approach works, with proven outcomes such as increased activity, improved sleep, weight loss, and disease prevention! Designed with the top behavior change experts and health experts from Harvard and Stanford, Lark, Uber, Airbnb, WeChat were named the 10 Most Innovative Companies in the World by Business Insider and Wall Street analyst Forrester Research named Lark "Most Innovative Digital Health Product of the Year".
Source: http://www.web.lark.com
- Roche
"Roche is the world's largest biotech company, with truly differentiated medicines in oncology, immunology, infectious diseases, ophthalmology and diseases of the central nervous system. Roche is also the world leader in in vitro diagnostics and tissue-based cancer diagnostics, and a frontrunner in diabetes management. The combined strengths of pharmaceuticals and diagnostics under one roof have made Roche the leader in personalised healthcare – a strategy that aims to fit the right treatment to each patient in the best way possible.
Lung cancer is a major area of focus and investment for Roche, and we are committed to developing new approaches, medicines and tests that can help people with this deadly disease. Our goal is to provide an effective treatment option for every person diagnosed with lung cancer. We currently have three approved medicines to treat certain kinds of lung cancer and more than ten medicines being developed to target the most common genetic drivers of lung cancer or to boost the immune system to combat the disease.
SOURCE: http://www.roche.com/media/store/releases/med-cor-2016-10-04.htm"
SPHERE is a highly multidisciplinary research collaboration funded by EPSRC, incorporating the research efforts of over 100 scientists, clinicians and engineers, mostly in the UK. Although it is fundamentally research rather than commercial technology, the technology is being deployed in real world settings away from academia.
Building on wireless sensor, video analytics and machine learning research, SPHERE has developed a unique and bespoke platform for sensing health-related behaviours at home over long periods. The sensor platform includes a novel wearable sensor that continuously streams activity and localisation data into SPHERE's own domestic IoT infrastructure, a group of depth cameras that gather posture-related video features from strategic locations in the home and a mesh network of SPHERE environmental sensors.
The aim of the project is to pervasively gather data on health-related behaviours and exposures in an unprecedented level of granularity and over periods of months and even years, within the participants own home. Applications include the avoidance of health risks (e.g. around sedentary behavior), the management of long term health conditions (e.g. diabetes), the better understanding of long term health conditions (e.g. early stage processes of cognitive decline in dementia) and the support of early hospital discharge after surgery (e.g. by monitoring recovery rates after cardiovascular surgery).
The SPHERE system currently exists in one house in the city of Bristol (UK) where volunteers have been coming to live for several weeks at a time. SPHERE is currently undertaking a programme of citizen engagement and research ethics that will see SPHERE's health IoT network being deployed in 100 family homes in the city over the next 6 months.
SPHERE's innovations also naturally include substantial work on new approaches to user participation in research and managing consent for very long term digital experiments within people's homes. SPHERE is currently working with nearly 300 members of the public, who are feeding into the research on topics around user acceptance, health applications, security, trust and data governance.
The SPHERE home sensor system gathers time-synchronised sensor data from wearables, appliances, the home environment and its depth camera system. The sensor streams are fused and brought to a central database for both activity detection and for the extraction of metrics such as quality of movement, gathered over periods of months without requiring any interaction from the participant - in other words, the participant's habitual interactions with the home become a clinical measure.
The final SPHERE dataset from its 1 year 100 home experiment will exceed 2 Petabytes - the dataset will be shared with academic and commercial research entities worldwide with the aim of opening up myriad as yet unanticipated health research opportunities around the capability of future home IoT systems, as those systems are beginning to emerge. SPHERE is already making datasets available for researchers in the UK and beyond through sponsored research challenges at international machine learning conferences (e.g. the European Machine Learning Conference, ECML2016).
Looking beyond the large scale deployment of SPHERE's sensors and machine learning algorithms, SPHERE is also pioneering in low-power sensor technology. Battery lifetime is a significant obstacle to many health applications of wearable sensing technologies and here SPHERE is targeting the development of wireless power transfer to wearable - it recently demonstrated a Bluetooth enabled sensor being powered at a distance of 2m from a WiFi transmitter - SPHERE's work on rectifier efficiency and power management for ultra-low-power sensors is well beyond the state-of-the-art and currently under submission to IEEE transactions (see the demonstration video on SPHERE's Vimeo channel).
SPHERE spans applied health research, ethics, computer vision, data mining, HCI, wireless communications and microelectronics. Starting at 3 UK Universities in 2013, the team now encompasses 102 people across 12 different Universities and active collaborations in epidemiology, orthopaedics, COPD and diabetes - in the clinical areas these collaborations are now the subject of on-going ethics applications. We believe it to be an exemplar of how to unite a multidisciplinary team around high priority problems in 21st century health.
SPHERE has generated a huge amount of national interest - it will be featured in a BBC documentary where the presented stayed in the SPHERE house (expected air date July 2016), has been visited by senior representatives of a number of multi-national corporations and has been visited by the chief executives or chief science officers of all three UK health and science research funders. SPHERE's director, Prof Ian Craddock, has given a number of keynotes at international conferences (including IEEE's world forum on IoT).
We invite you to see the SPHERE website, Vimeo channel and information booklet for more information.
- Ubiome
Founded in 2012, uBiome is the world's leading microbial genomics company. uBiome is funded by Y Combinator, Andreessen Horowitz, and other leading investors.
uBiome's mission is to explore important research questions about the microbiome and develop accurate and reliable clinical tests based on the microbiome.
- dnaNUDGE
dnaNUDGE – own your data, change your life
The world is facing a huge pandemic of obesity and related conditions, such as diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases, which are endangering lives and straining healthcare systems across the world. By 2020 it is predicted that more than 50 percent of the UK population will be obese, a trend projected to get even worse in the future.UK start-up dnaNUDGE is pioneering an entirely new breed of consumer genetics testing – bringing genetics to the retail environment and using it to empower customers and "nudge" buying behaviour. dnaNUDGE has developed a cheap and fast technology for out-of-the-lab, retail-based DNA testing, and has secured all global intellectual property rights for this genetic self-testing technology. The dnaNUDGE database is the world's first to map genetic predispositions to manufactured food products, with the potential to deliver a sustainable, cost-efficient and powerfully effective solution to the mass consumer through the Internet of things (IoT) and cloud-based mobile app technology. A recent UK nationwide survey, conducted by KPMG, confirms the acute need for such a service for the mass market, and in particular for the so-called "worried well"— consumers who are concerned about their wellbeing, however, failing to actively take any action towards improving their lifestyle. The KPMG study (not yet published) revealed that out of 2000 consumers, more 50 percent would use such a DNA-based "nudge" service – a significant finding.
DNA-based nudgeomics
We all know that DNA can reveal an individual's predisposition to certain diseases. Less well known is that a person's genetic blueprint can be analysed to make personal recommendations about diet, drug metabolism, fitness and even which cosmetics will deliver the best results. A wave of companies have entered the market offering consumer genetic testing coupled with generalist information – all you have to do is spit in a test tube and mail it – but, in addition to the difficulty for consumers in effectively interpreting the results, this comes at the high cost of signing away privacy and control of your genetic data.The DNA-based "nudgeomics" concept being pioneered by dnaNUDGE will deliver empowering genetic information services in a way that has simply not been seen before – completely private, totally secure, and direct-to-consumer.
Co-founded by world-renowned biomedical engineer Regius Professor Chris Toumazou, and published geneticist and leukaemia researcher Dr Maria Karvela, dnaNUDGE is harnessing ground-breaking and proprietary DNA testing and application technology to "nudge" people towards healthier shopping choices based on their unique genetic profile. dnaNUDGE is driven by the passion of CEO Dr Karvela for developing novel solutions to tackle disease and chronic health challenges. Her depth of genetics research experience is now being applied to deliver a new era of DNA-based personalised shopping that will not only create a richer, more empowered, and better informed experience for consumers, but will also help to tackle some of the major (and escalating) public health challenges of this century, including the epidemic rise in obesity and type 2 diabetes.
Professor Toumazou and Dr Karvela are disrupting this "ship-your-spit" market with a lab-on-a-chip that can speedily analyse an individual's DNA to provide all the genetic information needed to make completely personalised product choices. Using proprietary DNA semiconductor technology, dnaNUDGE is developing the first saliva-based, user-operated genetic test. The results, which are entirely confidential to the user, are analysed via a secure mobile phone app which personalises your shopping experience with a "DNA nudge" – bespoke recommendations of the products that are genetically optimal for you, at the touch of a button, and in the palm of your hand
Genetic information services for empowered consumer choice
dnaNUDGE is focused on user privacy and harnessing nudgeomics to power better lifestyle choices based on an individual's unique genetic make-up. Under the leadership and expertise of Dr Karvela – who draws on an extensive research background in genetics and stem cells, with a specialisation in cancer – dnaNUDGE is coupling innovative semiconductor genotyping technology with the world's first database that matches the nutritional values of individual manufactured food products to genetic characteristics, to provide completely personalised product recommendations through a wearable device or a mobile app.
dnaNUDGE's technology identifies single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), which are small DNA variations, in genes responsible for a range of functions including metabolism of nutritional ingredients, predisposition to intolerances, vitamin deficiencies etc. Without storing any genetic information, this provides the blueprint for highly personalised information services to enable informed shopping choices across a range of products. Whether delivered in-store by a shop assistant or administered by users themselves from the comfort of home, the result of the test is actionable genetic information communicated in lay terms, demystifying the DNA testing and analytic process and laying the foundation for a new breed of highly sophisticated genetics-based services with mass consumer appeal. This successful introduction of dnaNUDGE marks a major step towards the widespread deployment of consumer genetic information services that will have a profound impact on informed consumer choice and public health globally.Disruptive hardware and software technologies
At a retail counter, the consumer will select a DNA cartridge and input saliva via a cheek swab. The cartridge is inserted into a portable purpose-built analyser. Minute quantities of DNA will then be automatically analysed within about 15 minutes. The genetic results are then connected to the dnaNUDGE cloud database via a secure mobile app. Blockchain security techniques are leveraged to safely transmit genetic data.The app will then have locally stored the consumer's personalised results on the consumer's own smartphone (or a wearable) in the form of genetically personalised product barcodes. The consumer can then scan product barcodes via the app and find out easily and quickly which products are recommended for their genetic background.
Four disruptive technologies are being deployed:
1. Professor Toumazou's patented MicroChip DNA technology, which is the core of all semiconductor-based DNA sequencing instruments today.
2. Dr Karvela's unique database – the world's first to match food product information (for example, ingredients, nutritional values and so on) to individual genetic predispositions.
3. Using the optics and then camera of the smartphone as part of the DNA detection process
4. The phone camera is also being used as the DNA-based barcode reader for screening the products.
dnaNUDGE has partnered with major development companies, and is currently collaborating with Imperial College London. dnaNUDGE has secured significant private funding based on its innovation, and is currently trialling its consumer genetic information services with Imperial College London, ahead of wider commercial roll-out. The relationship with Imperial College London provides access to multi-disciplinary research expertise that will accelerate continued development and speed widespread consumer implementation of the solution. The technology has been featured on CNN and New Scientist Live.About nudgeomics – small changes, big outcomes
Computing science and neuroscience has long sought to uncover broader layers of understanding about human behaviour. From the human genome project and the brain map initiative to the spread of artificial intelligence, our modern lifestyle is being constantly redefined. The Internet of Things (IoT), CRISPR (Gene Editing), Big Data, synthetic biology, cloud computing, stem cells, smart cities – all of these "next big thing" concepts are now emerging – and often intersecting – to change the way we think about and interact with the world.Nudgeomics is a new concept to understand how our biology can influence our decision-making, how our choices should be architected, and how we inherently may express desire/bias for an option. Compliance and the perception of a recommendation for our actions is different when the authority is us, rather than an external body nudging us towards a preferred behaviour. Nudgeomics studies and seeks a gradual steering towards a better version of ourselves, without limiting our freedom and inherent desires in the evolving world of IoT. My DNA, my choice.
Over the years, personalised choice has been lost in the torment of marketing NUDGE theories [1] and economics, where man-made consumer trickery overrides the true biological genetic nudge. The concept of "consumer choice" has been completed distorted by the techniques of the digital advertising world and the consumerism nudge. A classic example of marketing nudge is the traffic light system for supermarket food products. Green, yellow and red may indicate to the customer how healthy or unhealthy a product is perceived to be for an average person. However, one size does not fit all when it comes to nutrition – each one of us is uniquely genetically wired to breakdown and absorb nutrients. Now, imagine you are in the supermarket. Your genes tell you that you should not go for biscuits with high saturated fat, even though they have less calories. Would you still go for the low-calorie ones…?
DNA and genetic choice traits can be used with authority in order to "nudge" behavioral changes. We as humans are 99.9% the same – less than 0.1% different. And that level of difference comes from single letter variations in our genetic code, also known as SNPs (Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms). It is the configuration of many genetic traits in unique ways (networks) that makes us who we are.
By interfacing the biological dnaNUDGE world to the IoT world, one can envision a world where DNA will inspire personalised choice, leading to optimum sustainable health and wellness. The nudge concept has had an important role among different communities – including behavioural psychologists, behavioural economists, neuroscientists and policy makers – with the aim of gently pushing people in a better direction without forcing them. Nudge theory has helped in understanding how people think, make decisions and behave. In fact, a NUDGE committee was set up by David Cameron in the UK government.
The vision for dnaNUDGE is improved public health, driven by consumers empowered by the information and assistive app technology to help them make the healthiest choices for their genetic characteristics. The aim is to deliver these services on a global scale and, using the principles of nudge theory, guide people with a "DNA nudge" to make better day-to-day purchasing choices, with the very real potential to generate a profound and long-term impact on health and wellbeing.
Small changes, big outcomes.References
[1] Thaler, R. H., & Sunstein, C. R. Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness.
[2] Bloss, C. S., Madlensky, L., Schork, N. J., & Topol, E. J. (2011). Genomic information as a behavioral health intervention: can it work?. Personalized medicine, 8(6), 659-667.
IT Hardware
" DJI released a new drone designed for agricultural needs; introduced a 4K-capable version of its best-selling Phantom drone; developed geofencing software that keeps users compliant with federal airspace regulations; opened a flagship store in Shenzhen, China; and released Osmo, the world's most advanced ''selfie stick." SOURCE: https://www.fastcompany.com/company/dji "
- Google, Inc.
Google, Inc.
"Google is an American multinational technology company specializing in Internet-related services and products that include online advertising technologies, search, cloud computing, software, and hardware."
- Nvidia
" Nvidia is distinguishing itself by offering an entire platform and accompanying software development kit for self-driving cars. The platform uses AI to give vehicles "360° situational awareness." Nvidia says that more than 50 automakers (including Audi, BMW, Ford, and Tesla), suppliers, developers, and research institutions are experimenting with the platform. Nvidia is also using its strength in gaming graphics chips to move into the VR market and released a platform (chip module plus developer kit) for drones last year. SOURCE: https://www.technologyreview.com/lists/companies/2016/intro/#nvidia "
- Oculus
"Oculus is the leader in VR technology. Most recently, Oculus introduced a new kind of VR headset that integrates full headset tracking, allowing new levels of immersion.
SOURCE: http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2016/10/rift-goes-wireless-ars-walks-aroun...
- Softbank (Pepper)
Softbank (Pepper)
" SoftBank Robotics designs and produces kindly and interactive humanoid robots. We believe in a future where humanoid robots will assist humans in their day-to-day lives, in their family lives, in their leisure activities and in their work. Our goal right from the beginning has been to make robots accessible to everyone, the aim being that they will become our daily companions. Leader in the humanoid robotics market, we offer robots who assist professionals from the worlds of education, research, health, distribution and tourism, as well as helping families and private individuals. We designed our first robot, NAO, in 2006. As a prime example of this amazing pioneering adventure, almost 9,000 NAOs are currently in use throughout the world, with particular success in the fields of research and education. In 2009, we launched the ROMEO project in collaboration with research laboratories and institutions, with the goal of intensifying our research into assistance aimed at people facing a loss of autonomy. We launched in 2014 the first personal emotional robot: Pepper. SOURCE: https://www.ald.softbankrobotics.com/en/about-us "
IT Software
- 3D4Medical
"3D4Medical Complete Anatomy is a ground-breaking 3D anatomical platform for medical students, medical professionals, and lifelong learners that's disrupting traditional ways of teaching anatomy. The stunning and impeccably accurate 3D visualizations and iOS optimized performance utterly transforms the way that people can learn about the human body."
- Airware
"Airware is already one of the biggest drone startups, having raised more than $70 million in venture funding, and it is poised to become much bigger. Rather than actually making drones, it provides a control system for any type of drone."
(source: https://www.technologyreview.com/lists/companies/2016/intro/#airware)
- Cyanogen
"Cyanogen is an after-market operating system for mobile devices based on the Android platform. Cyanogen began as open-sourced CyanogenMod (or CM), created by developer Steve Kondik in 2009 and built out further by its online developer community. Known for offering users high customizability on their Android-powered devices, CyanogenMod grew popular among Android enthusiasts who were unsatisfied with the amount of control Google retained over their user experience. Where many Android-based smartphones are shipped with space-hogging carrier bloatware, Cyanogen OS's regularly updated software lets users remove unwanted programs, create OS themes, boost hardware performance, and more. In 2013, Kondik left his job as a software engineer at Samsung to incorporate Cyanogen and commercialize its unique mobile offering. Since then, CEO Kirt McMaster has been explicit in his intentions to yank the Android experience away from Google, and has taken steps to make this happen. The company has partnered with manufacturers like Lenovo and OnePlus in efforts to get Cyanogen-powered handsets in millions of hands, and a recent deal with Microsoft to embed services like the personal assistant software Cortana and Skype into the Cyanogen OS gives it a leg up in sparring with the big green robot."
- Fanuc
"Fanuc began as part of Fujitsu and is the world's largest maker of industrial robots. It recently announced a novel technology that will connect robots to networks so factory owners can download apps to them. In June 2015, Fanuc also partnered with a Japanese machine-learning company to create artificial-intelligence technology that enables its robots to learn skills independently."
(source: https://www.technologyreview.com/lists/companies/2016/intro/#fanuc)
- Greenwave Systems
Greenwave Systems
Greenwave Systems is a global provider of Internet of Things (IoT) software and services with a steadfast commitment to accelerate technology to address industry needs and challenges. Its AXON Platform is used by global brands to connect devices (regardless of standard/protocol) and enable network-based services. AXON also provides device-powered real-time data that can be used to create a highly targeted, yet managed modular platform where services and applications are deployed and maintained.
While the industry struggles to decide on one ideal protocol, Greenwave's AXON Platform is able to bridge the communication gap between devices by translating all major protocols into one common IP-based language. Essentially, the technology acts as a translator for all connected devices to provide a seamless, hassle-free way to manage all smart things. AXON is the most comprehensive solution in the market and was most recently awarded the 2015 Broadband World Forum Most Innovative IoT Solution, the Postscape Editor's Choice Award for Internet of Things Breakout Startup, and the Red Herring Top 100 award, among many others.
The AXON Platform allows Greenwave to help its customers customize their product strategy and business goals to deliver managed services that increase their bottom line. Through its advanced management tools, customers can expect quicker deployment of products, better device lifecycle monitoring, and enhanced service levels. Greenwave works with its customers, employing this data to create diverse revenue generating business models for IoT. This is in refreshing contrast to the limitations of vertical platforms built to a specific narrow set of use cases.
AXON for Mobile IoT unites mobile IoT and residential IoT networks into a single, fully manageable network service where a variety of communications protocols are translated into the same standard IP-based language for a streamlined and compatible connected ecosystem. This unified service allows operators to scale up to handle billions of devices via Greenwave's implementation of Docker and develop additional revenue streams by introducing new services on a unique managed network.
Successfully deployed in over 3 million end points, the solution's comprehensive approach makes it easy for Greenwave customers to quickly deploy new offerings, enhance their service levels, and drive down associated costs.
- Improbable
"Improbable, which came out of work done originally when the founders were students at the University of Cambridge, is developing an environment for building virtual worlds at a new scale and complexity. With advances in robotics and driverless cars, such simulations have become more important as a testing ground. Improbable's technology allows large amounts of information to be shared between multiple servers nearly instantaneously, which is appealing to gaming developers looking to allow many players to experience a virtual world together."
(source: https://www.technologyreview.com/lists/companies/2016/intro/#improbable)
- TransUnion
Information is a powerful thing. At TransUnion, we realize that. We are dedicated to finding innovative ways information can be used to help individuals make better and smarter decisions. We help uncover unique stories, trends and insights behind each data point, using historical information as well as alternative data sources. This allows a variety of markets and businesses to better manage risk and consumers to better manage their credit, personal information and identity. Today, TransUnion has a global presence in more than 30 countries and a leading presence in several international markets across North America, Africa, Latin America and Asia. Through the power of information, TransUnion is working to build stronger economies and families and safer communities worldwide.
We call this Information for Good. http://www.transunion.com/business
- Applied Materials
Applied Materials
"Applied Materials President and CEO Gary Dickerson predicted on Thursday consumers will see a large adoption of organic LED displays for mobile devices and more drastic changes to the screen in the near future.
The manufacturing company Wednesday at an annual analyst day meeting outlined its innovation strategy to drive growth, which includes venturing into new technologies such as materials scaling and virtual reality hardware.It expects a compound earnings growth of about 17 percent over the next three years, the company said in a note to investors.
"We're seeing the biggest changes that we've seen in decades in [the] memory technology and semiconductor industry being enabled by materials innovation. ... We're also seeing a big change in display technology going to organic LED for mobile devices," he said on CNBC's "Squawk Alley."
He added, "I think in the future you're gonna see bendable, foldable, flexible displays."
He also said current versions for augmented reality and VR aren't "super exciting" at the moment, but innovations in smart devices will drive improvements.
Applied Materials' stock was trading lower intraday Thursday at $30.22 a share. The stock is up more than 62 percent this year."
- Argonne National Labs
Argonne National Labs
"Argonne is a multidisciplinary science and engineering research center, where talented scientists and engineers work together to answer the biggest questions facing humanity, from how to obtain affordable clean energy to protecting ourselves and our environment. Ever since we were born out of the University of Chicago's work on the Manhattan Project in the 1940s, our goal has been to make an impact — from the atomic to the human to the global scale. The laboratory works in concert with universities, industry, and other national laboratories on questions and experiments too large for any one institution to do by itself. Through collaborations here and around the world, we strive to discover new ways to develop energy innovations through science, create novel materials molecule-by-molecule, and gain a deeper understanding of our planet, our climate, and the cosmos. Surrounded by the highest concentration of top-tier research organizations in the world, Argonne leverages its Chicago-area location to lead discovery and to power innovation in a wide range of core scientific capabilities, from high-energy physics and materials science to biology and advanced computer science. A collaboration between the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE's) Argonne National Laboratory and Kyma Technologies focusing on advanced semiconductor devices has earned a spot in the second cohort of DOE's Technologist In Residence (TIR) Program. Through TIR, three DOE national laboratories will receive funding to advance collaborative research and development in their respective focus areas. DOE is making an investment of $400,000 in each partnership, an amount that will be matched by the companies selected for participation. The TIR Program is designed to streamline engagement and increase collaborative research and development (R&D) between national laboratories and private sector companies. It is also designed to strengthen U.S. clean energy manufacturing competitiveness, as well as the commercial impact of the national laboratories." Source: http://www.anl.gov/articles/argonne-and-kyma-technologies-win-spot-secon...
- Berkeley National Labs
Berkeley National Labs
"Berkeley Lab is a member of the national laboratory system supported by the U.S. Department of Energy through its Office of Science. It is managed by the University of California (UC) and is charged with conducting unclassified research across a wide range of scientific disciplines. Located on a 202-acre site in the hills above the UC Berkeley campus that offers spectacular views of the San Francisco Bay, Berkeley Lab employs approximately 3,232 scientists, engineers and support staff. The Lab's total costs for FY 2014 were $785 million. A recent study estimates the Laboratory's overall economic impact through direct, indirect and induced spending on the nine counties that make up the San Francisco Bay Area to be nearly $700 million annually. The Lab was also responsible for creating 5,600 jobs locally and 12,000 nationally. The overall economic impact on the national economy is estimated at $1.6 billion a year. Technologies developed at Berkeley Lab have generated billions of dollars in revenues, and thousands of jobs. Savings as a result of Berkeley Lab developments in lighting and windows, and other energy-efficient technologies, have also been in the billions of dollars. A team of researchers working at the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has demonstrated infrared imaging of an organic semiconductor known for its electronics capabilities, revealing key nanoscale details about the nature of its crystal shapes and orientations, and defects that also affect its performance. To achieve this imaging breakthrough, researchers from Berkeley Lab's Advanced Light Source (ALS) and the University of Colorado-Boulder (CU-Boulder) combined the power of infrared light from the ALS and infrared light from a laser with a tool known as an atomic force microscope. The ALS, a synchrotron, produces light in a range of wavelengths or "colors"—from infrared to X-rays—by accelerating electron beams near the speed of light around bends. The researchers focused both sources of infrared light onto the tip of the atomic force microscope, which works a bit like a record-player needle—it moves across the surface of a material and measures the subtlest of surface features as it lifts and dips. The technique, detailed in a recent edition of the journal Science Advances, allows researchers to tune the infrared light in on specific chemical bonds and their arrangement in a sample, show detailed crystal features, and explore the nanoscale chemical environment in samples."
Source: http://newscenter.lbl.gov/2016/10/13/nanoscale-infrared-imaging/
- Carbon 3D
Carbon 3D
"Carbon is working at the intersection of hardware, software and molecular science to deliver on the promise of 3D printing, enabling creators to think beyond the limitations of convention to design the parts and products that will drive the businesses of the future. Carbon's Continuous Liquid Interface Production technology (CLIP) was introduced simultaneously at TED 2015 and to the scientific community on the cover of Science Magazine (Science, March 2015). To date Carbon has received $141 Million in funding. (Carbon3D, Inc.) unveiled the M1, its first commercial 3D printer. The M1 leverages Carbon's breakthrough Continuous Liquid Interface Production (CLIP) technology and engineering-grade materials to deliver on the promise of 3D printing. While traditional approaches to additive manufacturing make trade-offs between surface finish and mechanical properties, the M1 produces high-resolution parts with engineering-grade mechanical properties and surface finish. Carbon's product solution and subscription pricing model represent an important step on the company's journey to accelerate the future of manufacturing." Source: http://carbon3d.com/news/carbon-unveils-the-m1-first-commercial-clip-bas...
- GlobalFoundries
" GLOBALFOUNDRIES is the world's first full-service semiconductor foundry with a truly global footprint. Launched in March 2009, the company has quickly achieved scale as one of the largest foundries in the world, providing a unique combination of advanced technology and manufacturing to more than 250 customers. With operations in Singapore, Germany and the United States, GLOBALFOUNDRIES is the only foundry that offers the flexibility and security of manufacturing centers spanning three continents. The company's 300mm fabs and 200mm fabs provide the full range of process technologies from mainstream to the leading edge. This global manufacturing footprint is supported by major facilities for research, development and design enablement located near hubs of semiconductor activity in the United States, Europe and Asia. GLOBALFOUNDRIES is owned by Mubadala Development Company. For more information, visit http://www.globalfoundries.com. At the Globalfoundries Technology Conference, the company announced a new 7nm process technology and the availability of embedded magnetoresistive random access memory (referred to as eMRAM) for the company's fully-depleted silicon-on-insulator (FD-SOI) process referred to as FDX. But more importantly, Globalfoundries appears to be stepping out of the shadow of its foundry partner. The eMRAM, which was developed in conjunction with Everspin, will be available for the 22FDX (22nm) process that is being qualified now and on future FDX process nodes. This announcement marks a change in memory structure from Flash and SRAM for storage and code execution, respectively, to an alternative architecture. The change from Flash was necessitated because the technology had reached the limit of its ability to scale beyond the current 28nm process. However, the benefit of this change is significant. According to the company, eMRAM will provide a 1000x improvement in both performance and write endurance over Flash. The eMRAM architecture also reduces the number of transistors per memory cell from eight to three and the number of mask steps required for the memory cells from thirteen to three, all of which will reduce die size and cost. As a result, eMRAM complements the FDX platform, which leverages planar (2D) transistor technology and manufacturing equipment to reduce the cost over the FinFET (3D) processes. The eMRAM technology and FDX platform are aimed at the plethora of embedded and emerging IoT applications that value lower power consumption and lower manufacturing cost over raw performance and it appears to be gaining wide interest. Globalfoundries has already established an ecosystem of leading semiconductor tool vendors referred to FDXcelerator and is engaged with 50 potential customers." Source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/tiriasresearch/2016/09/27/globalfoundries-em...
- Bigelow aerospace
Bigelow aerospace
"In May, NASA made its first attempt to launch Bigelow Aerospace's BEAM (Bigelow Expandable Activity Module). The BEAM is an experimental program developed under a NASA contract in an effort to test and validate expandable habitat technology. It will serve as a vital pathfinder for validating the benefits of expandable habitats. NASA will leverage the International Space Station (ISS) in order to test this technology for a two-year demonstration period."
(SOURCE: http://www.bigelowaerospace.com/beam/)
- Blue Origin
Blue Origin
"Blue Origin, the rocket company started by Jeffrey P. Bezos, the billionaire chief executive of Amazon, successfully separated a crew capsule from a rocket after it had lifted off on Wednesday, an important step toward Blue Origin's goal of carrying tourists into space. Earlier in the year, Blue Origin successfully landed New Shepard, its first fully reusable rocket."
(SOURCE: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/06/science/space/blue-origin-rocket-crew-... https://www.blueorigin.com/news/news/blue-origin-makes-historic-rocket-l...)
- Planet Labs
Planet Labs
"After two years in operation, the satellite-imaging startup Planet says it is now photographing more than 50 million square kilometers of the earth every single day. That's about a tenth of the world's surface area, or more than a third of its 149 million square kilometers of land. Indeed, in September 2016 alone, the company says it imaged 91% of earth's land mass.
Planet's plan is to make that imagery available to the public, with free basic access and premium accounts for higher quantity and quality data. It's likely to impact everything from finance and farming to environmental protection and human rights.
SOURCE: http://qz.com/816126/a-startups-constellation-of-tiny-satellites-is-now-...
- Rocket Lab
Rocket Lab
Rocket Lab's mission is to remove the barriers to commercial space. Founded in 2006, Rocket Lab believes that small payloads require dedicated launch vehicles and the flexibility not currently offered by traditional rocket systems. Rocket Lab has created a legacy of excellence by developing innovative solutions to ambitious aerospace problems for the likes of DARPA. Now Rocket Lab is working towards the first launch of Electron, a revolutionary launch system designed to meet the requirements of the rapidly expanding small satellite market, with customers including NASA, Moon Express, Spire and Planet signed on to fly. Rocket Lab is a privately funded company with its major investors including Khosla Ventures, K1W1, Bessemer Venture Partners and Lockheed Martin.
- SpaceX
"Space Exploration Technologies Corporation, better known as SpaceX, is an American aerospace manufacturer and space transport services company headquartered in Hawthorne, California, United States. It was founded in 2002 by Tesla Motors CEO and former PayPal entrepreneur Elon Musk with the goal of creating the technologies to reduce space transportation costs and enable the colonization of Mars. It has developed the Falcon 1 and Falcon 9 launch vehicles, both designed to be reusable, and the Dragon spacecraft which is flown into orbit by the Falcon 9 launch vehicle to supply the International Space Station (ISS) with cargo. A manned version of Dragon is in development. SpaceX is funded by government subsidies and contracts with multiple entities.
SpaceX's achievements include the first privately funded, liquid-propellant rocket (Falcon 1) to reach orbit, in 2008; the first privately funded company to successfully launch, orbit and recover a spacecraft (Dragon), in 2010; and the first private company to send a spacecraft (Dragon) to the ISS, in 2012. The launch of SES-8, in 2013, was the first SpaceX delivery into geosynchronous orbit, while the launch of the Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR), in 2015, was the company's first delivery beyond Earth orbit.
In September 2016, SpaceX's CEO Elon Musk unveiled the Interplanetary Transport System program, an ambitious privately funded initiative to develop space vehicles for use in interplanetary colonization.