Innovation is about finding a better way of doing something. Like many of the new development buzzwords (which many of them are over-used on many business documents), the concept of innovation originates from the world of business. It refers to the generation of new products through the process of creative entrepreneurship, putting it into production, and diffusing it more widely through increased sales. Innovation can be viewed as t he application of better solutions that meet new requirements, in-articulated needs, or existing market needs. This is accomplished through more effective products, processes, services, technologies, or ideas that are readily available to markets, governments and society. The term innovation can be defined as something original and, as a consequence, new, that “breaks into” the market or society.
Innoveracy: Misunderstanding Innovation article points out that there is a form of ignorance which seems to be universal: the inability to understand the concept and role of innovation. The way this is exhibited is in the misuse of the term and the inability to discern the difference between novelty, creation, invention and innovation. The result is a failure to understand the causes of success and failure in business and hence the conditions that lead to economic growth. The definition of innovation is easy to find but it seems to be hard to understand. Here is a simple taxonomy of related activities that put innovation in context:
- Novelty: Something new
- Creation: Something new and valuable
- Invention: Something new, having potential value through utility
- Innovation: Something new and uniquely useful
The taxonomy is illustrated with the following diagram.
The differences are also evident in the mechanisms that exist to protect the works: Novelties are usually not protectable, Creations are protected by copyright or trademark, Inventions can be protected for a limited time through patents (or kept secret) and Innovations can be protected through market competition but are not defensible through legal means.
Innovation is a lot of talked about nowdays as essential to businesses to do. Is innovation essential for development work? article tells that innovation has become central to the way development organisations go about their work. In November 2011, Bill Gates told the G20 that innovation was the key to development. Donors increasingly stress innovation as a key condition for funding, and many civil society organisations emphasise that innovation is central to the work they do.
Some innovation ideas are pretty simple, and some are much more complicated and even sound crazy when heard first. The is place for crazy sounding ideas: venture capitalists are gravely concerned that the tech startups they’re investing in just aren’t crazy enough:
Not all development problems require new solutions, sometimes you just need to use old things in a slightly new way. Development innovations may involve devising technology (such as a nanotech water treatment kit), creating a new approach (such as microfinance), finding a better way of delivering public services (such as one-stop egovernment service centres), identifying ways of working with communities (such as participation), or generating a management technique (such as organisation learning).
Theorists of innovation identify innovation itself as a brief moment of creativity, to be followed by the main routine work of producing and selling the innovation. When it comes to development, things are more complicated. Innovation needs to be viewed as tool, not master. Innovation is a process, not a one time event. Genuine innovation is valuable but rare.
There are many views on the innovation and innvation process. I try to collect together there some views I have found on-line. Hopefully they help you more than confuze. Managing complexity and reducing risk article has this drawing which I think pretty well describes innovation as done in product development:
8 essential practices of successful innovation from The Innovator’s Way shows essential practices in innovation process. Those practices are all integrated into a non-sequential, coherent whole and style in the person of the innovator.
In the IT work there is lots of work where a little thinking can be a source of innovation. Automating IT processes can be a huge time saver or it can fail depending on situation. XKCD comic strip Automation as illustrates this:
System integration is a critical element in project design article has an interesting project cost influence graphic. The recommendation is to involve a system integrator early in project design to help ensure high-quality projects that satisfy project requirements. Of course this article tries to market system integration services, but has also valid points to consider.
Core Contributor Loop (CTTDC) from Art Journal blog posting Blog Is The New Black tries to link inventing an idea to theory of entrepreneurship. It is essential to tune the engine by making improvements in product, marketing, code, design and operations.
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Tomi Engdahl says:
3 takeaways for CIOs from Facebook CIO Tim Campos
https://enterprisersproject.com/article/2015/8/3-takeaways-cios-facebook-cio-tim-campos-0
The three takeaways Campos shared from his time at Facebook are:
1) The Power of Culture: “At Facebook, culture is everything and it’s an incredible timesaver,”
2) The Power of Innovation: Campos cited two key ingredients to innovation that he believes leaders can reinforce – the power to fail and whitespace.
On failure, Campos said: “When failure is not an option, you basically encourage the workforce to do the tried and true. And the tried and true by definition is not innovative.”
On whitespace, Campos used Facebook’s famous hackathons as an example. Employees are basically given three days off to go build what they want, with no expectations on output and no required product focus that they must follow. “You never know how these things are going to evolve. And by giving people the ability to fail and giving them the time to fail then you have created the necessary ingredients for innovation,” he said.
3) The Power of Data: “We use data to make decisions on everything. If there’s a product modification that we need to make, if there’s a product launch that we do, you can bet that there is a ton of data behind it that reinforces that this is a good idea,”
The power of data-driven business models
“Data is a powerful model for technology organizations to create economic value,” Campos said. If you get it right, data can be a unique source of differentiation because you can’t easily replicate data.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Competition showed: wearable open up big opportunities
Premier Farnell element14 engineering community’s Sudden Impact design competition has come to a conclusion. Wearable devices began to pick up in October 2014, and among the 12 finalists were selected as the winner in the US working for Cosmin Yorga.
The race was to figure out how to wearable devices could generate important real-time information, which allows to avoid serious injuries in contact sports. Echo Laying The Groundwork The contest was, it already includes over 350 000 designers element14 community.
element14 has equipped 12 finalists for the competition together with Analog Devices, Tektronix and with Electrolube technology
Each design and implementation was tested at the University of Leeds Beckett information technology and creative technology department. This estimate was compared with the designs effectiveness, sustainability, repeatability, and – most importantly – the ability to produce the manufacturers, athletes and medical professionals critical diagnostics information in good time.
After much consideration, element14 and Leeds Beckett chose the US Cosmin working in Yorgan winner of the competition. He has developed shock and the health status of the monitor is a great helmet shocks to the measuring head, body temperature, turns and position (using GPS). The solution can be used in a number of different sports.
Throughout the competition, the jury observed ways to solve engineering problems. How to measure vital signs, how to respond to medical measurement requirements, how to manage the power consumption of the hardware and how to exercise measurement data wirelessly in real time
Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3198:kisa-osoitti-paallepuettavat-avaavat-isoja-mahdollisuuksia&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
An Interview With The Most Powerful Woman In Health Care
http://www.forbes.com/sites/zinamoukheiber/2013/05/15/a-chat-with-epic-systems-ceo-judy-faulkner/
Judy Faulkner might not be a household name yet, but in the health care industry, she’s simply known as Judy. She is the founder and chief executive officer of Epic Systems, a privately-held $1.5 billion (2012 revenue) company that sells electronic health records—a position that makes her one of the few self-made women on the Forbes billionaires list. Her customers are top medical centers
Faulkner, rarely, if ever, grants interviews.
I was an undergrad math major, and a grad student in computer science. I’m hugely introverted, not atypical of math majors.
Tomi Engdahl says:
This digitalization boost business
What is the future of a successful business?
We saw before us a different kind of world than what we were used to. In addition to the vision of the future, we had to understand how future business operates.
Three years later, I can say that the replacement of the new technology is a relatively small change, when the change relate to the common business culture and manner, which is success in the digitalization era requires.
Digitalization is progressing and will shape all sectors – are you ready?
Although the digital revolution produces a headache for the industry, challenging the old traditional business practices and business models, there is a change to be seen first and foremost as an opportunity which should seize aikailematta.
What’s more down, the greater the risk of losing.
1. The changing context
We believe that the future of the world consists of various networks or ecosystems.
To ecosystems can operate effectively together.
New solutions can not be based silos within the organization, and must in principle allow work from anywhere and by any terminal.
They also have to be safe, easy to use, cost-effective, and simple to maintain
Digitalization can be used to improve productivity and business efficiency.
2. Superior Customer Experience
Traditionally, information technology has been utilized mainly in the development of the company’s operations, such as improving processes, improving labor productivity and automation of the order-delivery chain.
The possibilities and the change in consumer behavior brought about by new technologies, however, are clearly shifting its focus from investment in the development of personalized customer service and customer experience.
Digitalization makes it possible for us to get closer to our customers and, at best, help them before they even feel that need help.
3. New Business Opportunities
Digitalization makes it possible that we can do things in a completely new way.
The emergence of new businesses, such as to distribute or Sharing Economy, where consumers are selling themselves to each other amenities.
Digital, in the era of the background of the most successful ideas are often found in someone from outside the industry a new player who does not have old patterns of behavior weight cargoes.
In order to also traditional actors to succeed, must build an organizational culture that supports innovation.
It is essential to create an internal innovation process, in which new ideas can be systematically collected from the grassroots level and can be taken forward.
In the future, IT will play a more important role in all sectors.
This causes that all organizations are required know-how and understanding of information technology innovations and the new opportunities they bring about.
Source: http://www.tivi.fi/CIO/cio_100/nain-digitalisaatio-vauhdittaa-liiketoimintaa-3328323
Tomi Engdahl says:
Implant Fights Stroke, Tinnitus by Retraining the Brain
http://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/biomedical/devices/implant-fights-stroke-tinnitus-by-retraining-the-brain
Houston-based Microtransponder is using an implanted vagus-nerve simulator to turbocharge one of the brain’s most fundamental functions: learning. “What we’re doing with our VNS pairing therapy is trying to reorganize the brain,” says the company’s R&D director, Navzer Engineer.
Vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) involves a device, usually implanted in the body, that sends electric signals up into the brain from a nerve in the neck. Many of the organizations pursuing vagus-nerve-based treatments are targeting the brain’s centers that release neurotransmitters to treat conditions as various as epilepsy, migraine headache, and heart failure.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Today’s innovative companies are built on the shoulders of the engineering teams responsible for designing products. Smart companies invest in tools that translate into better products.
Tomi Engdahl says:
How To Make Your Stress Work In Your Favor
Change the way you think about your fight-or-flight reaction and make it work for you.
http://www.fastcompany.com/3049879/how-to-be-a-success-at-everything/how-to-make-your-stress-work-in-your-favor
Sometimes, stress can seem like a full-time job. Many of us try to avoid it or, failing that, manage or mitigate it. But, Kelly McGonigal, a lecturer at Stanford University and author of The Upside of Stress, makes the case for embracing the stress in your life.
“We have this story about stress that says when stress is present, there’s something wrong with me or something wrong with my life,” she says. But the reality is that there’s no stress-free version of your life available to you—it’s always going to be there.
Accept That Some Stress Will Always Be There
Look For The Message
Stress is often a reaction that’s trying to tell you something
Let Yourself Feel The Stress
The people who do best in stressful situations aren’t the ones who seem deliriously happy all the time. In fact, quite the opposite—being able to see the darker side of stress and what you need to learn from the stressor is essential to making it work for you, McGonigal says. That may mean feeling anger, recognizing injustice, or admitting mistakes.
Your Options For Dealing With Stress
When you realize the stressor is there and it’s real, you have options in how you’re going to deal with it:
Fight: Anger or blame are typically the drivers here.
Flee: This is where we shut down or pretend the stress isn’t there.
Fold: In this option, we surrender or become helpless.
Face: This option has us facing our fears and dealing with the stressor head-on.
Share Your Stress
Dealing with stress is difficult, and those who are better at it have a safe place to be open about what’s bothering them
Use It
While dealing with unrelenting negative stress can sap our energy and have a negative effect on performance, optimal performance is usually achieved with a moderate amount of stress
Tomi Engdahl says:
Why every member of your team should be a UX expert
http://thenextweb.com/uxdesign/2015/08/11/why-every-member-of-your-team-should-be-a-ux-expert/
Building a culture of User Experience (UX) awareness requires education and leadership. You’ll need some buy-in from employees across the different teams to get them to believe that they should care about UX, even if it’s not part of their core job description.
UX is by nature multidisciplinary. It requires the input of designers, information architects, usability specialists, and many others to make it happen. Getting a polished, final product requires more than just the design team.
If everybody thinks of how they want the user to experience and feel the product, that can go a long way towards ensuring a finished result with excellent design and functionality. Getting there may require a change in thinking, but it can be well worth the effort in the end.
Avoid the myths
Jerry Cao, a UX content strategist at UXPin, offers an excellent place to start: avoid the common myths that surround User Interface design. For example, he warns that functional designs don’t automatically create good experiences. User Experience is about creating a good feeling on the part of the visitor. So for a website, for example, customer testimonials can be a powerful way to create trust.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Google Won the Internet. Now It Wants to Cure Diseases
http://www.wired.com/2015/08/google-won-internet-now-wants-cure-diseases/
When Google co-founder Larry Page dropped his now-famous blog post revealing that Google was reorganizing itself as Alphabet, one of the most striking things was what he chose to highlight as the kind of work these newly independent non-Google companies would be pursuing.
“The companies that are pretty far afield of our main Internet products [are] contained in Alphabet instead,” Page wrote in the blog post announcing Alphabet’s existence. “Good examples are our health efforts: Life Sciences (that works on the glucose-sensing contact lens), and Calico (focused on longevity).”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Intel Is Teaching Its Gadgets to Mimic Humans
http://www.wired.com/2015/08/intel-giving-devices-senses/
Intel has very big plans for RealSense, the technology meant to enable our gadgets to learn and understand us, in order to better do the things we want. And the best way to achieve that? Make them mimic humans.
Today at Intel’s Developer Conference, CEO Brian Krzanich explained the company’s advances with RealSense, calling it the “sensification of compute.” “We want our devices to behave more like humans,” Krzanich said. “We want them to listen to us.” To do that, Intel is increasing platform compatibility to include ROS, Linux, Unity, XSplit, Structure SDK, OSVR, and Google’s Project Tango.
In one the most interesting.developments, Intel and Google are combining Project Tango (Google’s 3D mapping project) and RealSense into an Android SDK.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Intel CEO Sees A Bright Future For IoT, Developers
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1327458&
At the Intel Developer Forum(IDF) in San Francisco, Calif., on Tuesday, CEO Brian Krzanich said there’s never been a better time to be a developer.
“I’ve never seen such diversity of opportunity for developers,” said Krzanich during his keynote at the event.
That’s not exactly a novel sentiment. In 2013, the Outcast Agency held a media event based on the theme “The developer is king.” The event involved representatives from companies that depend on developers, such as Github, Google, Mixpanel, New Relic, and Stripe talking about why it’s a great time to be a developer. That was also the message coming out of Twilio’s Signal developer conference in May. The web, mobile platforms, and the cloud have all expanded the need for developers and the scope of their work.
Intel CEO Sees A Bright Future For IoT, Developers
http://www.informationweek.com/mobile/mobile-devices/intel-ceo-sees-a-bright-future-for-iot-developers/d/d-id/1321809
Tiny computers, real-time depth sensing, and breakthrough memory technology are among the innovations featured at this year’s Intel Developer Forum. CEO Brian Krzanich detailed how connected devices will change the way we all do business.
At the Intel Developer Forum (IDF) in San Francisco, Calif., on Tuesday, CEO Brian Krzanich said there’s never been a better time to be a developer.
Tomi Engdahl says:
IDF: Intel is trying to cure cancer with the cloud
Teams with OHSU to release an oddly-named Collaborative Cancer Cloud data analytics platform
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2422738/intel-will-try-to-cure-cancer-with-the-cloud
SAN FRANCISCO: INTEL HAS ANNOUNCED an initiative with the Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU) to try and cure cancer using the cloud and data analytics.
Intel and OHSU also announced that they will partner with two other large cancer institutions to extend this capability by early next year.
“We have chosen Intel as a partner in our quest to cure cancer through their unique availability to create an expansive ecosystem around a common, open platform like Intel CCC,” added Brian Druker, researcher at OHSU, who joined Intel on stage.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Why the BBC is stuffing free Micro:bit computers into schoolkids’ satchels
A meeellion devices to be hurled at Blighty’s nippers
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/07/07/bbc_microbit_final_specification_announced_a_million_devices_to_be_flung_at_schools_in_october/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Report shows direct correlation between technology and going to the pub
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2422653/report-shows-direct-correlation-between-technology-and-going-to-the-pub
RESEARCHERS HAVE proved that the march of technology is actually increasing the number of jobs available to humans, rather than making them obsolete.
A new study by Deloitte has shown that the rise in spending power has created better efficiencies and in turn created new demands and therefore new jobs.
Data gleaned from the decennial census figures for England and Wales shows a more balanced picture which indicates that jobs in decline, such as manual agriculture, are being replaced by greater numbers of creative and technology-based roles.
The report suggests that the majority of jobs being replaced by machines are difficult and dangerous ones that no-one really wants to do anyway.
In the case of agriculture there has been a 95 percent decline in manual labour since 1871, while the once buoyant industry in manual laundry has been almost completely replaced by technology.
Other big drops in manual labour include weaving and knitting, typing, which has seen a 57 percent drop, and the role of the company secretary whose numbers have dropped by half.
Tomi Engdahl says:
understanding of circuit design with the use of simulation tools as well as designing for reliability, manufacturability, and testability.
possess the necessary skills to design, simulate, and test their own original ideas.
have knowledge of industry, national, and international standards in electrical engineering.
have the practical design knowledge sought by industry that leads to employment.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Computer Science GCSE male dominated, but geekettes are ready to rise
Put down your ironing and get to the keyboard!
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/08/20/computing_cgse_male_dominated/
More teenagers than ever are studying computing, with a growing proportion being female, ladies, or persons of the contradictory gender.
Figures from the Joint Council for Qualifications show that the new GCSE subject of Computer Science is enjoying rapid growth.
It was brought in to supplement ICT (Information and Communications Technology), moving the emphasis from “what it does” to “how it works”, and in the first two years the number of students taking the subject has more than doubled, from 16,773 to 35,414.
Tomi Engdahl says:
http://www.fastcompany.com/3049879/how-to-be-a-success-at-everything/how-to-make-your-stress-work-in-your-favor
Tomi Engdahl says:
Intel’s Collaborative Cancer Cloud, an Open Platform For Genome-Based Treatments
http://science.slashdot.org/story/15/08/20/229215/intels-collaborative-cancer-cloud-an-open-platform-for-genome-based-treatments?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Slashdot%2Fslashdot%2Fto+%28%28Title%29Slashdot+%28rdf%29%29
Intel and the Knight Cancer Institute have announced what will be an open-source service platform, called the Collaborative Cancer Cloud. The platform will enable healthcare facilities to securely share patient genomic data, radiological imagery and other healthcare-related information for precision treatment analysis. Key to averting HIPAA privacy issues will be Intel’s Trusted Execution Technology, its embedded server encryption hardware that tests the authenticity of a platform and its operating system before sharing data.
Intel to pilot cloud technology for sharing personalized cancer treatment
http://www.computerworld.com/article/2974113/healthcare-it/intel-to-pilot-cloud-technology-for-sharing-personalized-cancer-treatment.html
With the Collaborative Cancer Cloud, Intel hopes to remove barriers that keep personalized medicine from scaling
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Meetings Will Continue Until Morale Improves
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1327483&
Ask any engineer about the biggest timewasters at work, and odds are meetings will be near the top of his or her list.
Engineers are hardly alone – their feeling are widely shared across the broader workforce. Among the reasons given in a 2012 employee survey by Business New Daily were: meetings that don’t start on time, stay on track or finish on time; meetings with no clear purpose or objective; or meetings that are boring or provide no new or interesting information.
The number one annoyance, though, was allowing attendees to ramble on, repeating comments and thoughts.
If you’re caught in such a meeting, you might wonder whether you can find a way to skip the meeting entirely next time, without being seen as “not a team player”. Here are few suggestions – not that I ever tried these myself.
The Meetings Will Continue Until Morale Improves
http://www.planetanalog.com/author.asp?section_id=3322&doc_id=564017&mc=EDT_EET
Tomi Engdahl says:
Working life will be revolutionized – this is expected at school
Right now, Fennovoima’s majority shareholder of change President and CEO Read more
Working life will be revolutionized – this is expected at school
Kimmo Taskinen
Työelämä mullistuu – tätä odotetaan koululta
The new basic education curriculum emphasizes, among other things, entrepreneurship and interaction. Experts agree that tomorrow’s school must pay attention to better students’ own interests.
Working life is changing rapidly and is more difficult to predict which occupations will remain and how the nature of work is changing in the future.
How schools can prepare for the changing world of work? One answer is that you should focus on to teach those skills in which the machines and artificial intelligence are not able – as interaction and creativity, flexible thinking.
- Interaction is the last bastion, which is a safe artificial intelligence. It requires the skills that can not be algorithmically present. Another human understanding, emotional intelligence, empathy, Saarikivi says Taloussanomat.
The key interaction skills include the ability to understand their own and others’ feelings and empathy. These can be to learn at school, for example, by working groups.
- Emphasized the importance of empathy in working life. The better you can identify with, for example, the customer’s status, the more relevant services can be created.
Now, school education is emphasized good memory. Saarikivi feels more essential is to know where to find information and what information is relevant and know how to evaluate what kind of information is reliable.
- Digitalisation consequence is that the complexity is increasing, all the time there are more options, and things change more quickly than in the past. It requires flexible thinking that is ready to change quickly if the situation changes.
Basic education in the new curriculum (pdf) highlights, inter alia, working life skills and entrepreneurial spirit, thinking and learning skills, interaction and self-expression and self care.
The curriculum of the pupils, for example, important to have experiences that will help realize the work and the importance of entrepreneurship and enterprise opportunities.
Students can, for example, a school project to study in small groups, air pollution or other natural phenomenon, to look at the bike road conditions or give feedback theatrical performance. In this case, the study is not just a loose curricular content cramming.
- Many young motivation, and for what purpose, and is being studied in the school, is somehow missing. When making is relevant and the results of work can take advantage of a wider, thus learning becomes more meaningful, Kumpulainen says.
He believes that while learning from your own motivation, the student commits to a better and it is not just the exterior of learning and performance.
Young people find their passion
For the future of young people to become successful in the labor market, the school should clearly more than before to help young people find their own strengths.
- Finland problem is that we have a significant number of young people, school-leavers attitude that I do not have any good and I can not correct anything. The school has provided knowledge and skills in all kinds of things, but at the same time your talent and passion has remained undiscovered
- When the government talks about the reform of education, one point should be that the trained decisively to the labor market for creative people who are able to become self-employed, and perhaps others. The attitude that if I can not find a job, figured it would be self-taught.
Source: http://www.taloussanomat.fi/tyo-ja-koulutus/2015/08/21/tyoelama-mullistuu-tata-odotetaan-koululta/201510637/139?rss=4
Tomi Engdahl says:
Davey Alba / Wired:
Google and Gallup survey: underestimating demand, and focus on preparation for subjects on required tests are key barriers to teaching computer science in K-12 — Huh? Schools Think Kids Don’t Want to Learn Computer Science — Times have never been better for computer science workers.
Huh? Schools Think Kids Don’t Want to Learn
http://www.wired.com/2015/08/schools-dont-think-kids-want-learn-computer-science/
Times have never been better for computer science workers. Jobs in computing are growing at twice the national rate of other types of jobs. By 2020, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there will be 1 million more computer science-related jobs than graduating students qualified to fill them.
If any company has a vested interest in cultivating a strong talent pool of computer scientists, it’s Google. So the search giant set out to learn why students in the US aren’t being prepared to bridge the talent deficit. In a big survey conducted with Gallup and released today, Google found a range of dysfunctional reasons more K-12 students aren’t learning computer science skills. Perhaps the most surprising: schools don’t think the demand from parents and students is there.
“Most principals and superintendents surveyed say it is important to offer computer science education,” the survey’s authors wrote. “However, given the tendency to prioritize subjects that are included in required testing, computer science is not a top priority.”
Perhaps even more troubling, the very people elected to represent the interests of parents and the community don’t seem to get it.
“Less than half of principals and superintendents surveyed say their school board thinks offering computer science education is important.”
Early Exposure
Though computer science can be learned from scratch on the college level, early exposure is crucial to attracting more people to the field. According to another study conducted by Google last year, those who had the opportunity to take an advanced-placement computer science exam were 46 percent more likely to indicate interest in a computer science major.
And just about everybody involved in educating kids seems to agree that this exposure is important. A majority of parents, teachers, principals and superintendents said they thought computer science was just as important to a student’s future success as math, science, history and English. Two-thirds of parents surveyed said computer science should be required learning in schools; in lower-income households, parents were even more likely to hold that view.
Tomi Engdahl says:
10 Differences Between A Boss And A Real Leader
http://www.lifehack.org/287785/10-differences-between-boss-and-real-leader
A boss is different from a leader. A boss can be a leader – but not necessarily.
A boss is your boss: the one with the nice, sleek room at the end of the corridor. A leader can be your supervisor or the colleague who sits next to you and shares your stapler.
There are two reasons why people don’t say “like a leader!” as a catchphrase.
A boss’ goal is to get things done, while a leader, not only gets things done, they empower and motivate their team. Real leaders make things better; they don’t just point out what’s wrong.
A boss is always the center of attention. A leader is someone who steps back and brings out the best in the team.
A boss’ goal is to get things done, while a leader, not only gets things done, they empower and motivate their team. Real leaders make things better; they don’t just point out what’s wrong.
A boss is always the center of attention. A leader is someone who steps back and brings out the best in the team.
People may respect the boss, but everyone loves the leader.
Good vs Bad Leadership
http://bensimonton.com/good-vs-bad-leadership/
Leadership in the workplace applies to managing people, not to managing things. And as I have previously defined leadership in the workplace, (watch and read here), leadership denotes the sending of value standard messages that most people then use to conduct their work. This means how industriously, cooperatively, openly, respectfully, caringly, honestly, neatly, cleanly, and the like to perform their work. Thus, we say that employees have been led in the direction of those standards.
How does an employee experience leadership? They experience it through the support provided by management and the quality of this support dictates the quality of their work. The support an employee uses comes in two forms: tangible and intangible.
Tangible support consists of training, tools, material, parts, discipline, direction, procedures, rules, technical advice, documentation, information, planning, etc.
Intangible support consists of feelings like confidence, morale, trust, respect, relatedness (or purpose), autonomy, ownership, engagement and empowerment.
Providing that support may or may not be clear to you, as the boss, but it is clear to whomever you manage, the majority of whom are followers.
Tomi Engdahl says:
10 Reasons Why Some People Always Seem To Know A Lot
http://www.lifehack.org/302232/10-reasons-why-some-people-always-seem-know-lot
Ever come across someone who really seems to know everything? They can answer questions about any topic, any field and any place. They have general understanding and can explain either in brief or well detailed how and why?
Most of the time, these kind of people make a really good impression and they seem to be doing pretty good for themselves professionally and in their private lives. They seems to progress really well and pursuit excellence in all they do. Here are 10 habits they have adopted to possess this rare skill.
1. They tend to read… A LOT
2. They are curious about other people
3. They teach other people
4. They participate in group discussions
5. They play board games
6. They watch documentaries on things that have shaped the world
7. They network
8. They work on their self-development
9. They never get comfortable
10. They have the utmost belief in themselves and their abilities
Tomi Engdahl says:
James Cook / Business Insider:
European investor Klaus Hommels launches new €350M fund, talks about current state of tech startups in wide-ranging interview — European investor Klaus Hommels is launching a new €350 million fund — we talked to him about the Silicon Valley of Europe and whether we’re in a tech bubble
http://uk.businessinsider.com/klaus-hommels-interview-about-lakestar-second-fund-launch-2015-8?op=1?r=US&IR=T
European VC fund Lakestar is announcing today that it is launching a new €350 million (£253 million) fund, Lakestar II. It will be lead by Klaus Hommels, the investor who has previously backed Skype, Spotify and Facebook.
Lakestar says its new fund will focus on early stage investments, such as seed funding and Series A rounds.
BI: There’s a lot of seed funding and early stage investments going on in Europe right now, with investor Saul Klein also focusing on newer companies.
BI: What trends within Europe are most interesting to you right now?
KH: The general things that everybody is looking at right now are fintech, and people are starting to look at health. I do not have a final take on it. We are looking at it, and some models are surely very interesting. But in general I try to also go with entrepreneurs that we have known for a lot of time. And those that have the passion and did already do something successfully, where they have proved that they are not doing it for the money, but rather for the excitement and the passion of solving that problem. And then I’m pretty agnostic on what they feel they want to do.
BI: What’s the biggest different between the European technology scene and tech in the US? Is it the amount of funding available, or the experience on hand?
KH: My perception is that Europe has developed amazingly in the last year. And with London being for sure the heart for fintech, I think every company where it is important to have a nice user interface, a nice graphic environment, are Scandinavians, especially the Swedes are fantastic in those. So, for example, when it comes to gaming, it’s very important how the haptic and the look and feel is, that’s why the Swedish companies dominated the gaming environment, with Rovio, with Supercell, with King, with Minecraft. There are certain specialisations happening.
Elsewhere, it’s the first time since around two or three years ago where more technology-minded people start to become entrepreneurs, which hadn’t been the case in the 2000s.
BI: A lot of big US VC funds like Google Ventures and Andreessen Horowitz are starting to turn their attention towards Europe. How do European VC funds stay relevant?
BI: And perhaps the other big question, not just in Europe, is whether we’re in a tech bubble. What do you think?
KH: Here’s my view: It’s very, very difficult to really analyse whether it’s a bubble or not
Read more: http://uk.businessinsider.com/klaus-hommels-interview-about-lakestar-second-fund-launch-2015-8?op=1?r=US&IR=T#ixzz3jkDEJlu9
Tomi Engdahl says:
Jillian D’Onfro / Business Insider:
How Udacity, profitable as of August, is using nanodegrees to drive student engagement and retention
The founder of Google’s top secret project lab has a new plan to double the world’s GDP
http://uk.businessinsider.com/udacity-google-x-founder-sebastian-thrun-interview-2015-8?op=1?r=US&IR=T
More than seven years ago, Larry Page and Sergey Brin tapped Stanford professor Sebastian Thrun to build a hardware innovation lab inside Google.
His efforts turned into Google X, the secretive “moonshot factory” that has produced some of Google’s most technically ambitious projects like self-driving cars, smart contact lenses, Google Glass and internet bearing balloons.
But after guiding Google X through its early years, Thrun relinquished the reins in 2012 to focus on a company he founded the year before, an education startup called Udacity.
Since day one, the company said its goal is democratizing education by offering free, online classes in techie topics like artificial intelligence and data visualization. But Udacity, like many other massive open online course (MOOC) startups, noticed that class completion rates only hit dismal percentages — less than 10% of people made it to the end of most classes.
Enter: Nanodegrees.
Instead of only providing a bunch of singular, lecture-style classes, Udacity partnered with major tech companies like Google, Cloudera, Facebook, and Salesforce to build classes that fit neatly into six credentialed, project-focused programs.
The idea is that anyone who completes one of the nanodegrees — front-end web developer, Android developer, data analyst, iOS developer, full-stack developer, or intro to programming — will be perfectly primed to get a job, since major tech companies actually help design the curriculum.
Because the average technical worker switches jobs seven times over the course of their career and the industry changes fast enough to render many university-learned skills obsolete, Udacity teaches the kind of bleeding-edge skills that can help people either get a new job or seek a promotion.
Read more: http://uk.businessinsider.com/udacity-google-x-founder-sebastian-thrun-interview-2015-8?op=1?r=US&IR=T#ixzz3jo0sGYYF
Tomi Engdahl says:
FarmTech: Drones Above, Robots Below
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1327504&
Twenty-four hour farming, autonomous tractors and driverless combines are no longer the stuff of agro-science fiction. Agriculture today is moving toward all these innovations.
The stereotype of a farmer planting his seeds, praying for good weather and waiting for the crop to grow, in fact, has never accurately reflected farm technology — either today or a hundred years ago.
Farmers are the ultimate “innovative tinkerers,” said Heidi Johnson, crops and soil agent for Dane County, Wisconsin.
Faced by technical issues with their farm equipment, farmers have always had to cope on their own. Old MacDonald never had an IT department. Brian Luck, assistant professor at the Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison, calls farmers an “innovative bunch.” He said, “They’re not just self-sufficient. They are also good at taking the first stab at developing something that’s close to what they need.”
Indeed, many new technologies you see emerging in agriculture today come from farmers’ ideas, he added.
Drones, robotics, molecular science, cloud services and the data analytics behind climate change are already part of farmers’ everyday lingo.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Open Organization: Igniting Passion and Performance
http://opensource.com/open-organization
The Open Organization aims to reshape the future of management and collaboration in companies and organizations who want to transform the way they do business.
This is similar to the the purpose of Opensource.com, with our mission to highlight how the principles of open source influence the world around us.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Have you revised your goals lately?
http://opensource.com/open-organization/15/8/have-you-revised-your-goals-lately
Tomi Engdahl says:
Hollywood Finally Gets Hacking Right with Mr. Robot
http://hackaday.com/2015/08/24/hollywood-finally-gets-hacking-right-with-mr-robot/
a new show on the USA network, Mr. Robot. The synopsis for the show was “Mr. Robot is a psychological thriller that follows a young programmer who works as a cyber-security engineer by day and a vigilante hacker by night.” Yeah, that sounds like another Hollywood crapfes
Show creator [Sam Esmail] isn’t a hacker himself, but he is tech savvy enough to see how poorly hacking has been portrayed on TV and in the movies. He knew he could do it better. The solution was good consultants
This is an accurate description of some of the exploits which have been demonstrated on the tor network.
The hacking isn’t all software either. Everyone’s favorite Linux single board computer is featured prominently in the first season. We can’t knock a show where a character looks at another and says “Ok, we all know what a Raspberry Pi is, what’s your point?”
Social engineering is also a recurring theme. We see everything from the old “dropped USB stick in the parking lot” attack, to a character thoroughly destroying the self confidence of a corporate drone as a method to get to his superiors.
Tomi Engdahl says:
One of Silicon Valley’s great contributions to the world has been the demonstration of how the application of entrepreneurship and venture capital to electronics and semiconductor hardware can create wealth with developments in semiconductors, displays, design automation, MEMS and across the breadth of hardware developments. But in recent years concerns have been raised that traditional venture capital has turned its back on hardware-related startups in favor of software and Internet applications and services.
Source: http://www.eetimes.com/radio.asp?webinar_id=12
Tomi Engdahl says:
Let Consumers Figure Out a Use Case for EEG
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1327514&
That’s what you could think of Imec an Holst Centre’s recent launch of an electroencephalogram (EEG) headset which the research centres hope will seduce consumers.
PARIS — Let consumers figure out a use case for EEG. That’s what you could think of Imec an Holst Centre’s recent launch of an electroencephalogram (EEG) headset which the research centres hope will seduce consumers.
Once belonging to the realm of brain research within medicalized environments, electroencephalograms (brain electrical signals) can now be picked up wirelessly at the surface of the head (without surgically implanted electrodes).
Lately, a number of companies have developed dry-electrode EEG headsets, hassle-free to put on, with the promise to control a number of electronic appliances and software only using brainwaves.
So when imec, the Holst Centre and the Industrial Design Engineering (IDE) faculty of Delft University of Technology promote a consumer-grade wireless EEG headset that can be worn comfortably and yet achieves medical-grade EEG data acquisition, the technological feat is certainly there, but who will be first to lure consumers into wearing it?
Consumer applications could include games that monitor relaxation, engagement and concentration, but the wireless headsets could also be used for attention training, sleep training and treatment of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), say the researchers.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Wired: IBM’s School Could Fix Education and Tech’s Diversity Gap
http://news.slashdot.org/story/15/08/26/0334256/wired-ibms-school-could-fix-education-and-techs-diversity-gap
Wired positively gushes over IBM’s Pathways in Technology Early College High School (P-TECH), saying it could fix education and tech’s diversity gap. Backed by IBM, the P-TECH program aims to prepare mainly minority kids from low-income backgrounds for careers in technology, allowing them to earn a high school diploma and a free associate degree in six years or less.
IBM’s School Could Fix Education—And Tech’s Diversity Gap
http://www.wired.com/2015/08/p-tech/
Since it opened in 2011, the likes of New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo and President Obama himself have praised the school as a potential solution to the nation’s high youth unemployment rate and its growing need for a skilled tech labor force. That makes tonight’s graduation more than a milestone for these six students. It’s a milestone for the model itself.
Supply And Demand
Tech companies are long on excuses about why they’ve been so slow to diversify their ranks, even in the face of constant criticism. But by far the most frequently cited reason is they can’t hire diverse employees en masse until the country builds a diverse pipeline of skilled tech workers. With P-TECH, IBM has done nothing if not create a prototype of that pipeline. Now, it’s calling on other tech leaders to take that prototype and do what they do best: scale it to the millions of people—in this case kids—who need it most.
For young people in the US, work is scarce.
At the same time, the demand for so-called middle skill tech workers is spiking. P-TECH isn’t the first school that’s tried to bridge this gap by giving kids college credit while they’re still in high school. But what separates the P-TECH model from other dual enrollment schools is how it has been embraced—even spearheaded—by businesses.
Tomi Engdahl says:
‘Gynepunks’ DIY Gynecology For Underserved Women
http://build.slashdot.org/story/15/08/25/2128201/gynepunks-diy-gynecology-for-underserved-women
Meet the GynePunks Pushing the Boundaries of DIY Gynecology
http://motherboard.vice.com/read/meet-the-gynepunks-pushing-the-boundaries-of-diy-gynecology
Tomi Engdahl says:
Ask Slashdot: Technical Resources For Non-Technical Disciplines?
http://developers.slashdot.org/story/15/08/25/1715249/ask-slashdot-technical-resources-for-non-technical-disciplines
He asked me if I could advise on how he could get knowledgeable in the relevant technologies, HTML and JavaScript, in order to better interact with their developers.
I haven’t found much I think would be suitable for his needs
Do you even agree that this is an appropriate approach or should he look to develop a working knowledge of these languages instead? Any other suggestions on how to approach this?
Comments:
He seems to have accounting skills and a business plan to develop. Focus on those skills — leave development decisions to the developers.
Take time to create some wire frame (pen on paper) mockups of workflows and business rules. Find similar layouts and “look & feel” from existing sites that he can give as examples to the dev team.
Account should not try to “get knowledgeable” in HTML and JavaScript. He will only seem more of an idiot.
1. Be a great accountant, and dominate your existing field. Teach developers how to make the products more profitable
2. Be a human and a user, and gain user and interface expertise, so you can say what you think about the product with authority and clarity. Tell the developers how to make a more usable product.
3. Can your expertise be used to improve the product? Accounting skills may be important for the platform to make money, and the financial analysis tools needed to understand the web platforms performance.
And on the technological side, get somebody that really knows this stuff, and in particular understands security aspects. Can be a consultant. The problem is that there is a ton of web-technology out there, and most of it is bad or at least not very good. Using the wrong tech can easily kill the project, either by never delivering or by delivering something that is not fit to be used.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Not an easy job – the director to yell for help
Digitalization common for successful businesses is that they have changed their operating model, strategy, culture, and leadership
Digitalization is, above all, leadership, and management determines the success. Basically, digitalization management is all about managing innovation.
This sign Kata Marielyst CEO Vesa Ilmarinen and CGI, the financial industry and digitalisation specialized service of the head of Kai Koskela new book Digitalization – company management handbook.
They wrote a business management book for the simple reason that it is the ordinary leader now needs a helping hand digitalization forward.
“We see that digitalisation is not a question of technology, but it is related to the fact that people’s behavior has changed, customers operate in a different way than before and companies are required to speed and transparency,”
If his view is considered digitalisation of successful companies, those in common is that they have changed their operating model, strategy, culture, and leadership to.
“The CEO and Executive Committee members are the key people who will make a difference.”
Source: http://summa.talentum.fi/article/tv/uutiset/ei-mikaan-helppo-homma-johtaja-huutaa-apua/212263
Tomi Engdahl says:
More meaningfulness of work – agile methods make good for coder
Agile software development methods can increase code base well-being. Occupational Health survey also indicated that the flow of information is improved.
Agile software development methods contribute to the code base well-being if they are applied as well. They can increase the intelligibility of the work, meaningfulness and manageability. Such results opting for Occupational Health and the University of Turku AgiES research project. Which ended in the spring project studied the impact of agile and lean methodologies, software developers wellbeing at work, especially in the design of embedded systems.
“The manner in which methods are applied to determine the significance of wellbeing. What more thorough methods are utilized, the more well-being and meaningfulness, ”
Source: http://summa.talentum.fi/article/tv/uutiset/lisaa-mielekkyytta-tyohon-ketterat-menetelmat-tekevat-koodarille-hyvaa/212308
Tomi Engdahl says:
Continuing Education: It’s No Surprise that Engineers Like Homework
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1327430&
Design News contributing writer and webcast lecturer Warren Miller learned that engineers who attend his online classes want to get very hands-on with learning.
I just finished lecturing my most recent online course for Design News’ Continuing Education Center, “Designing with SoC FPGAs.” During the course, presented by Digi-Key, I asked students a variety of questions, via online chat, and often the answers told me what aspects of the topic the typical engineer (since that’s the typical student for my courses) was most interested in.
In this last class, I decided to focus even more on the engineers’ desire for an immediate return on their time investment, structuring “System on Chip (SoC) FPGAs” similarly to a hands-on laboratory course. Students were able to use the free development software offered by the SoC vendor, which for this course, I selected Xilinx, to try out some hands-on exercises that allowed them to get familiar with the SoC devices, the tool flow, and design methodology. I also referenced several other hands-on examples Xilinx provides, as “homework.” Students had the option to try out additional example designs and dig deeper into advanced features and design techniques, if they desired.
I even offered optional class projects that featured the use of a development board for the Xilinx Zynq SoC FPGA that Digilent provides (the board is available from Dig-Key). Students were able to take example designs and run them through the tools, targeting the board with the generated program files.
Toward the end of the class, I asked students if they enjoyed the “hands-on” nature of the course and if they preferred it to some of the less-detailed courses I have done (many of the students have taken multiple Design News CEC courses that I have lectured). Perhaps not surprising, a vast majority of the students said they preferred a more hands-on course and even having homework assignments.
I asked if they were planning on doing the homework right away, and many said they did, but a large number also said they would put the homework “on the shelf” until they had the time or until their projects got to the point where they were ready to get into the details.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Albany Research Hub Drives Collaboration
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1327489&
The College of Nanoscience and Engineering (CNSE) has grown from a physics department at the State University of New York’s Albany Polytechnic campus to the hub of research and development for New York state. In a set of intricate public-private partnerships, CNSE is driving innovation across the chip industry while benefiting from consolidation.
“We react to challenges that the industry has identified,”
The R&D hub is designed to be vertically integrated, with competitors sharing expensive work on emerging technologies like lithography, which they can implement in processes down the line or license as IP. CNSE also hosts several architectural firms, which implement ongoing research such as in-building photovoltaics.
“What we’re good at is integrating: the technology, workforce training, economic development strategies across the state,”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Opening an FPGA-Based MIPS CPU Core to Universities
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1327535&
Imagination’s MIPSfpga program is designed to bring a new CPU architecture education paradigm to universities around the world.
“Education, education, education” — a simple slogan, but one that worked, and one that has contemporary implications for the electronics industry owing to the on-going shortage of newly-qualified electronics engineers, along with the concern that those new graduates are often not fully-equipped with the necessary skills to be useful to the companies that employ them.
In the area of CPU design, however, engineering students are getting a significant boost. One company has just made the unusual decision to give something to colleges and universities around the globe that will help students gain a better understanding of the fundamentals of programmable electronics.
In April this year, Imagination Technologies — most famous for its flagship products: PowerVR and MIPS — made a revolutionary announcement: as part of its university program, the company would start offering free and open access to a fully-validated, current-generation MIPS CPU in a complete teaching package.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Three Little Words Could Transform E-Commerce
No.more.streetnames
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-08-27/three-little-words-could-transform-e-commerce
Have you ever struggled to explain to someone exactly where you are?
U.K. startup What3Words is trying to make that problem a thing of the past. It has divided up the entire world into a grid of 57 trillion small plots of land, each associated with a sequence of three random words.
So tourists in London can use “casino.coach.bikes” as shorthand for “meet me on the nose of the lion sculpture at the south-west side of Nelson’s Column in Trafalgar square.” The three words can be deciphered by anyone who uses the What3Words app.
While it’s handy to precisely locate friends at a landmark or in a festival field, the app’s real value lies in its ability to transform markets that lack the rigorous postcode system found in much of Europe and the U.S.
Inadequate Addressing
Some 75% of the world suffers from inadequate addressing. This makes receiving goods bought online an exercise in wishful thinking, which hinders e-commerce penetration even in thriving economies. Similarly it makes getting aid or emergency services to the right people very difficult.
What3Words can provide precise addressing without having to wait for a state-run system to be developed. All users do is place a pin where they are on a map – online or on a mobile app – and it will deliver a three-word code that can be then used by the delivery company to locate that person precisely. It links, of course, to GPS coordinates, but uses an extremely simple and memorable mechanism to communicate them.
Festivals and Favelas
In many parts of Europe Navmii will be pushing What3Words’ capabilities at festivals, says Atalla, but it will have a much bigger impact in countries without addresses, such as parts of West Africa and Latin America.
“Where addressing is really poor, it’s a really nice alternative,” Atalla adds.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Science Has Its Problems, But the Web Could Be the Fix
http://www.wired.com/2015/08/science-problems-web-fix/
For many researchers, the scientific method is as close to a religion as they’ll ever get. The appeal is similar: The scientific method, rigorously followed, provides disciples with a hint of the objective truth an all-knowing god might impart. But the path to that truth is rocky. While the rules of the scientific method are wonderful guidelines, they, like religious commandments, can be broken. Scientists can make simple mistakes or be subtly biased by their desire for prestige, interfering with the sanctity of their results.
It doesn’t have to be that way. Right now, science is undergoing a correction of sorts—trying as hard as it can to remove all the little ways scientists get in the way of their own work.
Today, in a big step toward that correction, the Open Science Collaboration published the results of 100 psychology studies, studies that already had been done. By replicating those studies and checking to see whether their results could be reproduced, the project seeks to understand the ways in which science’s current procedures are flawed.
The results, published in Science, may on the face seem discouraging. The collaboration successfully reproduced less than half of the results of those 100 studies. Only 36 percent of the replicated studies showed significant results, compared to 97 percent of the originals.
Over the last three years, the Open Science Collaboration brought together 270 co-authors and 86 contributing volunteers to replicate the studies, all of which were first published in 2008 by three large psychology journals
“It makes it very easy to make parts or all of that data publicly available, to increase transparency and reproducibility,”
A framework like the Open Science Framework would support another element on a scientific utopia’s wishlist: preregistration. Right now, the method for evaluating research is shamefully subjective. Because people want new, novel claims, peer review—the step before publication when scientific colleagues comment on a paper—is likely to be influenced by the results of those studies. The solution, says Nosek, is to move peer review up, having a collection of scientists evaluate an experiment’s design before it’s even completed.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Raspberry Pi is succeeding in ways its makers almost imagined
Kids don’t want to code. They want to solve problems us oldies can’t perceive
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/08/27/the_raspberry_pi_is_succeeding_in_ways_its_makers_ialmosti_imagined/
“Grandpa is getting pretty old. Out there all alone on that farm, he has no one to look in on him, just to see if he’s ok. He’ll use the landline, but he’s beyond of the range of mobile, and he’s never been really great with computers. No Skype or emails. Grandpa does have internet. So I built this for him.”
Fingers fly across the keyboard, and now I’m reading the source code for an index.php page, another marriage of convenience between HTML and PHP. How’d this girl – all of eleven years old – learn to do this?
“A lot of it was trial and error.” Both she and her project partner blush a bit. “The PHP bits were kinda hard. But we found a lot of stuff on Google,” she confides.
Neither girl had written a line of code before this. They knew nothing about how to build a computer-controlled camera, or drive a computer-controlled display. But with Google’s help – and Raspberry Pi – they prevailed.
When the Raspberry Pi shipped to a planet excited geeks in the middle of 2012, it changed the way we taught IT. That had always been the intention of creator Eben Upton. Give the kids the goods and they’ll do the rest.
Look here, these kids are using sensors on a Raspberry Pi to read the air quality of the room, alerting asthmatics to seek an environment less likely to give them breathing problems. Over there – because sometimes the referees miss goals – a netball-crazed 11 year-old girl used an ultrasonic sensor and Raspberry Pi to create an automatic scoring system.
Consider three ten year-olds who fussed and fiddled with LittleBits – a mashup of Lego with the Internet of Things – until they found just the right combination of pieces to create a system that allows you to know whether that sushi tray gliding by on that continuous track has been sitting around a little too long to be safe to eat.
Each of these projects solve a real-world problem. They’re not speculative: they’re prototypes. The Raspberry Pi has proven to be more than just a way to get kids into IT. It’s broadened their canvas of possibilities. They can look at a problem, dream up a solution, and make it so.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Back-to-school tech: 9 devices and kits for the budding engineer
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/now-hear-this/4440231/Back-to-school-tech–9-devices-and-kits-for-the-budding-engineer?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_funfriday_20150828&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_funfriday_20150828&elq=843879ffee7b44c6bc2a768a767d825e&elqCampaignId=24559&elqaid=27788&elqat=1&elqTrackId=545d901fcaab45519a81e04260c50110
Tomi Engdahl says:
Analog Is More Important Than Digital: Scientific Proof
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1327551&
At least some of those functions survive, either as standalone parts or (sigh) as microcontroller functional blocks. And the real world, thankfully, remains stubbornly analog, which means that most of the truly interesting “digital” problems are really analog problems — grounding, crosstalk, race conditions, noise, EMC, etc.
We humans are products of the real world, too. Are we analog or digital?
The information that makes up a unique human being is mostly to be found in two places, in our genes and in our brains. The information in genes can be considered digital, coded in the four-level alphabet of DNA. Although the human brain is often referred to as an analog computer, and is often modeled by analog integrated circuits, the reality is more nuanced.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Mini Makers: Best 12 Maker Kits for Kids
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1327369&
Tomi Engdahl says:
10 New Arduino Projects
Arduino never ceases to innovate
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1327320&
Every month, makers come up with new and interesting projects using one of the more popular development boards — the Arduino. There’s a seemingly endless supply of uses for the Arduino that can be found in everything from robotics to home automation and everything in between. In fact, San Jose-based ppl4world used the popular board in their ArduSat (Arduino satellite) that launched from then ISS back in February of last year for community-based science experiments. With that in mind, it seems the board’s only limitations are maker’s imaginations. In this roundup we’ll take a look at what those minds have recently produced using the popular development board.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Increase Your Engineering Value in Just 20 Minutes a Day
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=31&doc_id=1327556&
Twenty minutes is how much time commercials fill in an hour-long TV show. Why not take 20 minutes a day to increase your value as an engineer.
In my latest quest to improve your abilities as an engineer, I explained how to create prototype circuits at home. As I was developing my own prototype, I went through my storage unit to pull out some of my parts and reference boards. This encounter produced some gems from my past that inspired me to write a blog about increasing your overall value as an engineer.
My goal is to increase your value in only twenty minutes a day.
Bettering your engineering skills involves both the physical circuit evaluation and solving equations. As it turns out, you can probably do both for an investment of under $100. Really?
I’m a power engineer. I’m expected to 100% efficiency at no cost. Of course you’ll settle for high efficiency at some cost.
Solving equations is a great way to improve your value. The time spent designing in most engineering jobs is 5-10%. Or at least that was my experience at larger corporations. That number increased at startups but not much considering I developed web pages, marketing plans, business plans….etc. With such a little amount of time invested, you can quickly lose your skills. This happened to me when I decided to go back to graduate school after three and a half years in industry.
How to Increase Your Engineering Value in Just 20 Minutes a Day
http://www.planetanalog.com/author.asp?section_id=3319&doc_id=564035&
As for the physical part of improving your value, life is so unfair. Components have shrunk to the point where us fifty somethings can’t even see the darn things. Further frustrating you is the inability to get a scope probe on the lead let alone hook it with the probe. As a final blow, who wants to spend tens of thousands of dollars outfitting a lab? Fear not my friends. El Cheapo to the rescue.
The best way to solve the dilemma of the physical circuit is to invest in the old style plugin breadboard with leaded components. I know what you’re thinking, good luck finding one and then purchasing the components individually let along finding leaded ones.
My solution for a physical lab platform is in the form of the Radio Shack Electronics Learning Lab
Prior to financial strangulation by divorce and cheaper labor, I intended to get one of these for each of my sons.
Perhaps you are thinking, “Big deal getting me a thirty dollar circuit that I have to analyze with a kbucks silly scope.”
As it turns out, there are several smartphone applications such as Oscilloscope Pro (See Reference 6) which turn your phone into an oscilloscope. Perform a google search and you will find both Android and iPhone applications to suit your needs. Just remember, there are voltage limitations to adhere to unless you wish to fry your phone.
Like oscilloscopes, digital multimeters (DMMs) have really come down in price. Walmart has DMMs (See Reference 8) for under $10.
In addition to smartphone-based oscilloscope applications, you can find some neat little signal generators too. Some versions have PWM capability.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Lights, Camera, Experiment!
http://science.slashdot.org/story/15/08/30/1436206/lights-camera-experiment
The New Yorker’s Jamie Holmes takes a look at How Methods Videos Are Making Science Smarter, helping scientists replicate elaborate experiments in a way that the text format of traditional journals simply can’t. The Journal of Visualized Experiments (JOVE), for instance, is a peer-reviewed scientific journal that now has a database of more than four thousand videos that are usually between ten and fifteen minutes long, ranging in subject from biology and chemistry to neuroscience and medicine.
How Methods Videos Are Making Science Smarter
http://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/how-methods-videos-are-making-science-smarter
The videos can be of particular help to researchers who are not naturally aware of the dexterity that a specific laboratory procedure requires. As Jonathan Butcher, of Cornell’s School of Biomedical Engineering, put it, “Not everybody is intrinsically a good gardener.” Recently, for example, Butcher’s colleagues sent him an e-mail indicating with skepticism that they couldn’t replicate some of his results. The procedure in question required gently swabbing off cells from the lining of blood vessels in the valves of the heart. When Butcher invited the researchers to his lab and watched them try it, he realized that they were oblivious as to how to do it delicately. “They just thought that scraping is scraping,” he said. After they observed a visual demonstration, they were able to replicate the procedure. Rather than repeating this process for numerous investigators, Butcher published a video in JOVE. Since then, he hasn’t been contacted by other doubters. Indeed, Pritsker said, the journal’s sweet spot is anything that requires animal surgery, in which the convenience of visuals veers toward necessity.
Since 2013, JOVE’s user base has grown by thirty per cent per year, and last year the journal, which is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, opened subsidiaries in London and Melbourne.
The consumption of methods videos remains modest compared with that of traditional, print-only journals. Poorly conceived videos can be as unhelpful as inscrutable text, of course, and no video will fully substitute for an in-person demonstration. They also aren’t as cheap to produce as standard journal articles, and there have been complaints about JOVE’s pricing structure. One point of concern is publication costs: researchers pay twenty-four hundred dollars to produce a video that is available only to subscribers, and forty-two hundred dollars for an open-access video.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Nerd Cave or a regular class? Coding of interest to girls more in suitable environment
Women have been in computer science and industry in the field only slightly, partly due to the fact that girls enroll even basic IT courses.
The American University of Washington found that girls’ enrollment IT introductory course tripled, if the class was refurbished to less geeky and more accessible.
The boys did not care what class they studied, but for girls it was important. The subjects were secondary school students, and 14 to 18 years of age.
Source: http://www.tivi.fi/Kaikki_uutiset/norttiluola-vai-tavallinen-luokka-koodaaminen-kiinnostaa-tyttoja-enemman-sopivassa-ymparistossa-3481567
Tomi Engdahl says:
Google, Sanofi Join Forces on Diabetes Monitoring and Treatment
Internet company’s Life Sciences business is working on devices to collect data on the condition
http://www.wsj.com/articles/google-sanofi-join-forces-on-diabetes-monitoring-treatment-1441026001
Google Inc. said Monday its health-care research unit agreed to work with European pharmaceutical company Sanofi SA on new ways to monitor and treat diabetes.