Smart Economy

25 Disruptive Energy Trends

I've been tracking several energy lists and blogs over the last 12 months. Numerous emerging energy trends are coming into clear view

25 Key Disruptive Energy Trends

1) Shift from an Oil dependent economy >>  Gas and Frozen Gas /LNG Economy (2010-2020) >> Distributed Energy Economy (2025-2050?)

2) Shift from single supplier dependence (EU, USA) '>> Diversification of Suppliers (oil, gas)>>Diversification within actual suppliers too

3) People will not pay exorbitant prices for conventional energy, sooner switch to sustainables (Economic feasibility ? Energy In/Energy out ratios and environmental-footprint, and technology feasibility all taken into account>> How does one comparison shop? price per BTU ? per impact on society? >>New Energy Taxes for Global Warming /Cooling?>>National or internationl Energy Certification rating system needed? a Good Housekeeping seal of approval for energy? ) (NEW-UPDATED)

Fossil Fuels (heating, transport,) >>Smarter Greener sustainable energy alternatives; more efficient PV solar, nano-solar, wind, wave, tide, geothermal, material recycling & high temp (plasma) burning; coal gasification; bio-diesel, hybrid battery, fuels cells, supercaps, >>Advanced greener sustainable energy alternatives: hydrogen economy, affordable fuel cells, microbial fuel cells, solid hydrogen pellets in your pocket, advanced bio-diesel, dumpsite gas reclamation, pocket sized biofuel micro-reactors

4) Conventional (farm and forest residue - limited volume and marginally economic) bio-diesel and ethanol >>naturally-grown & genetically modified (GM )blue green alga-based (fresh, brackish and salt water) hydrogen, bio-diesel and ethanol, produced at point of use with closed-cycle carbon recycling.

5) Shift from a centralized energy system >>distributed energy system (2025) (energy on the spot, generated where & when needed)

6) Externally supplied energy >>self generated energy applications (macro, micro, nano levels) ie peizo electric.

7) Energy Reliance (economic, political, technological ) i.e. EU on Russian gas  >>Energy self-sufficiency ie.  Sweden by 2015

8) Peak Oil / Peak Gas, uncertainty of current supplies, suppliers ie Russia & GazProm >> Wild Card ?  Severe unexpected energy supply disruption; supply shortages?  >>Wild Card?  Energy lottery supply goes to highest bidder vs market regulation >> Wild Cards? Governments (ie. Russia) continue to squeeze oil companies for revenues (raise taxes retroactively, etc) (NEW UPDATED)

9) Wasteful electricity grid distribution (copper wires) >>super efficient distribution grid (nanowires, superconductivity) 2020-2030

10) Point-of-Use Electrical Energy waste >>conservation (smart buildings, rooftop gardens etc)

11) Increase lighting efficiency, >> migration chain 'Incandescent to fluorescent to OLED

12) Increased heating efficiency'i.e. conventional centralized heating >> gold nano-particle enriched centralized heating

13) Traditionals take a stand: Strong Nuclear comeback; >>nuclear waste accelerated half life degradation >> New oil reverses coming online 2010-2015 >> dirty coal to cleaner coal

14) Energy & Politicals closely coupled: Strong Local Energy monopolies (EU, & Russia squeezing suppliers) >>open, cross-boarder competition (EU yes, but in Russia --unlikely in near term)>>Resource & Energy wars? (well as if we don't have them now....) (NEW UPDATED)

15) New Exotic Alternatives 2020 -2030?  >>moon-based Helium 3 mined for fusion on earth?  Feasibility ? 

16) New Exotic Alternatives 2020 -2030?'>>near surface methane hydrates (frozen gas);

17) New Exotic Alternatives 2020 -2050? >>17,000 feet deep mid ocean ridge, spread zones contain supercritical brines saturated with the gases

18) New Exotic Alternatives 2020 -2050?' >>some yet-to-be-discovered new-to-the-world energy source(s) ' see organic thermoelectricity (NEW)

19) New Exotic Alternatives 2020 -2050? >> harnessing lightning ?

20) New Exotic Alternatives 2020 -2050? >> harnessing ball lightning?

21) New Exotic Alternatives 2100+ >> Hurricane/Typhoon energy recovery system

22) Producer is consumer and visa-versa (fire pit, fireplace (pre-History) >> consumer decoupled from producer (Now) >>producer slowly disaggregated; consumer to consumer (C2C) Energy Trading; Peer2Peer (P2P) Energy swapping?  ;2015-2020 >>Energy Reciprocity; Consumers sell excess energy back to central producer 2010

23) Open System; waste heat, energy & waste byproducts (CO2 & other greenhouse gases) >>Closed cycle, carbon recycling Energy System; Utilization of entire lifecycle; CO2 reclaimation, storage, synthesis, reuse >>Atmospheric vortex engine (AVE) harnesses waste heat, converting it back into electrical energy

24) Energy Biomimicry; >>Synthetic photosynthesis (2025-2050) ?  ..the holy grail of energy?

25) Appliances that are energy hogs >>appliances that are super energy efficient

Framework & above materials will be used for a longer article on energy trends

(...thanks to Mike Hollingshead, Georgia Benois, Peter Leach and John Petersen for comments & additions to my initial draft  list)

© 2005-2006

Walter Derzko

Expert, Consultant and Keynote Speaker on Emerging Smart Technologies, Innovation, Strategic Foresight, Business Development, Lateral Creative Thinking and author of an upcoming book on the Smart Economy "

To arrange for an in house presentation or briefing on smart technology see here

To explore the opportunities and threats of any new smart technology in your industry - Contact Me or explore how we can work together

.....Strategy without action is a day-dream; action without strategy is a nightmare"- old Japanese proverb

".......Ours is the age that is proud of machines that think and suspicious of men who try to." - H. Mumford Jones

"Without changing our patterns of thought, we will not be able to solve the problems we created with our current pattern of thought."  A. Einstein

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."  - Margaret Mead

P. S. if this is your first visit to my blog, please go to our Welcome page

Smart automated Political Risk Analysis

Problem:

Corporations who are seeking to expand their international operations(either by making substantial investments in local corporations, by developing new products for new markets, or by establishing regional manufacturing, distribution, or sales facilities) often encounter substantial risks that greatly differ from the domestic risks they encounter at home. 

These include:

• physical risks (e.g., the kidnapping or assassination of executives),
• economic risks (e.g., currency fluctuations and discriminatory confiscation of assets),
• market risks (e.g., rejection by foreign consumers of products that were successful domestically), and
• technological risks (e.g., lack of a reliable telecommunications infrastructure)
• political risk

Political risk has been defined as

"… the possibility that political decisions, events, or conditions in a country, including those that might be defined as social, will affect the business environment such that investors will lose money or have a reduced profit margin,"

Examples include:

• corruption,
• punitive taxation, and
• arbitrary rejection of license applications. 

Political risks are best defined in terms of political events.  Political events result in part from decisions made by political actors-such as government officials (e.g., politicians, legislators, and regulators).  The decisions they make include decisions to expropriate property, to delay consideration of license applications, retreat on or disregard signed prior agreements and to ignore intellectual property violations.

These actors may be advised by influencers --certain non-government organizations (NGOs)-such as environmental, charitable, social, and religious organizations-who may also be considered political actors. as well.  In addition, political actors and influencers may include religious leaders, foreign investors, local oligarchs and business owners (who may be politicians, as well ) and others whose actions may affect political events.  The actors may be identified explicitly, or the events they generate may be the only overt signs of their presence.

The key to analyzing political events is obtaining good reliable information about these events.

This can be done in the traditional way with tried and true on-the-ground intelligence (see " A framework for conducting political event analysis using group support systems"; Decision Support Systems Volume 38, Issue 4 , January 2005, Pages 511-527) or with novel emerging smart decision support systems, such as a smart early warning system of internal armed conflict and a concept known as "Conflict Carrying capacity"

Smart Solution:

Researchers at Harvard and Ohio State University have been working for the past 6 or so years on an automated Political Crisis Early Warning System that anticipates the worst case scenario --internal armed conflict.

An early paper on was published in the Journal of Conflict Resolution in 2001. Conflict-Carrying Capacity, Political Crisis, and Reconstruction A Framework for the Early Warning of Political System Vulnerability by J. Craig Jenkins, Department of Sociology, Ohio State University and  Doug Bond, Program on Nonviolent Sanctions and Cultural Survival, Harvard University, Center of Excellence in Disaster Management & Humanitarian Assistance

Abstract

"The early warning of protracted political violence needs firm empirical footing in dynamic indicators of the political processes leading to political crises.  This study provides a conceptual framework for the analysis of conflict-carrying capacity (or CCC) defined as the ability of political systems to regulate intense internal conflicts.  CCC is indexed by the multiplicative interaction between the proportions of civil contention, state repression, and violence.  The PANDA Project (1983-1994) is used to illustrate the usefulness of this CCC index in capturing system stability in an institutionalized democracy (the United States), a bureaucratic-authoritarian regime (Mexico), an institutionalized Communist regime (China), and a peaceful democratic transition (Poland).  It provides early warning signals of civil war (Algeria, Sri Lanka) and moves toward political stability (Peru).  Civil contention and state repression are not destabilizing per se.  Rather it is the simultaneous combination of these with violent contention that leads to internal political crises and, alternatively, to political stabilization."

Source: Journal of Conflict Resolution, Vol.  45, No.  1, 3-31 (2001)

ETA: Now Recent work on the model has advanced far enough to provide fairly good predictive results.

N.B. This new foresight tool is unlikely to replace political analysts or futurists but provide them with a more robust anticipatory capability. This tool may provide the early warning signal of an event, but not the opportunity or threat windows that result.....that takes human intelligence.

2005-2006

Walter Derzko

Expert, Consultant and Keynote Speaker on Emerging Smart Technologies, Innovation, Strategic Foresight, Business Development, Lateral Creative Thinking and author of an upcoming book on the Smart Economy "

To arrange for an in house presentation or briefing on smart technology see here

To explore the opportunities and threats of any new smart technology in your industry - Contact Me or explore how we can work together

.....Strategy without action is a day-dream; action without strategy is a nightmare"- old Japanese proverb

".......Ours is the age that is proud of machines that think and suspicious of men who try to." - H. Mumford Jones

"Without changing our patterns of thought, we will not be able to solve the problems we created with our current pattern of thought."  A. Einstein

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."  - Margaret Mead

P. S. if this is your first visit to my blog, please go to our Welcome page

My Talking Search Engine..a sign of things to come?

Lonely with Google?  Bored with Yahoo?

Try an animated, talking search engine A search engine that talks back to you (or some would say at you.)

Ms Dewey is a search engine that features an animated 'librarian' that prompts you to enter your search terms and shows impatience if you're slow or you don't respond.  She's not very helpful, like a real librarian, but who cares?  She can be entertaining or irritating, sarcastic or insulting, depending on your point of view. (thanks to David Pollard for the tip and link)

http://www.msdewey.com/

2005-2006

Walter Derzko

Expert, Consultant and Keynote Speaker on Emerging Smart Technologies, Innovation, Strategic Foresight, Business Development, Lateral Creative Thinking and author of an upcoming book on the Smart Economy "

To arrange for an in house presentation or briefing on smart technology see here

To explore the opportunities and threats of any new smart technology in your industry - Contact Me or explore how we can work together

.....Strategy without action is a day-dream; action without strategy is a nightmare"- old Japanese proverb

".......Ours is the age that is proud of machines that think and suspicious of men who try to." - H. Mumford Jones

"Without changing our patterns of thought, we will not be able to solve the problems we created with our current pattern of thought."  A. Einstein

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."  - Margaret Mead

P. S. if this is your first visit to my blog, please go to our Welcome page

Design & Make your own Smart Wearable Workshop -Amsterdam

Smart clothing for smart users

"Tiny chips, cheap sensors and the possibilities of emerging smart fabrics, conductive yarns and cheap wireless communication (Bluetooth or even RFID ) make wearables easier and cheaper to make.

Arduino motherboards are small physical computing platforms: Arduino developed a fairly simple integrated development environment to deal with the small portable input/output board. With all these tools at our fingertips, nothing is stopping us from making our own smart coats, reactive hats and luminescent skirts.

To help you get started, Mediamatic is organizing a wearables workshop where you can develop your own Arduino-driven wearable. Assisted by Massimo Banzi, one of the creators of the Arduino board and several coding/soldering/sewing helpers you have three days to make your prototype in the stimulating surroundings of the Mediamatic Winter Garden."

Nov 10-12, 2006 Amsterdam

Telephone: 020 638 9901

http://www.mediamatic.net/artefact-12566-en.html

                                                                     ###

Spring 2007 Toronto

Talks are underway with the Design Exchange (DX) in Toronto  to host a series of workshops for various designers on incorporating smart technology into their designs. Stay tuned for details as they become available.

© 2005-2006

Walter Derzko

Expert, Consultant and Keynote Speaker on Emerging Smart Technologies, Innovation, Strategic Foresight, Business Development, Lateral Creative Thinking and author of an upcoming book on the Smart Economy "

To arrange for an in house presentation or briefing on smart technology see here

To explore the opportunities and threats of any new smart technology in your industry - Contact Me or explore how we can work together

.....Strategy without action is a day-dream; action without strategy is a nightmare"- old Japanese proverb

.......Ours is the age that is proud of machines that think and suspicious of men who try to. - H. Mumford Jones

"Without changing our patterns of thought, we will not be able to solve the problems we created with our current pattern of thought."  A. Einstein

P. S. if this is your first visit to my blog, please go to our Welcome page

Smart Maps; part 4 of 4; An emerging Global Intelligence Halo formed by smart satellites & ground sensors

An emerging Global Intelligence Halo formed by smart satellites & ground sensors--the really, really BIG brother !!

NASA's EO-1 (short for "Earth Observing 1") is a new breed of satellite that can think by itself with the help of AI programming to notice things that change (like the sudden plume of a volcano) and take appropriate action, such as monitoring that specific location before anyone even notices the event on the ground.

EO-1 can re-organize its own priorities to study volcanic eruptions, flash floods, forest fires, disintegrating sea-ice, and other unexpected events.  It can also use sensors from other satellites or on the ground as a "sensorweb" to respond to sudden disasters such forest fires.

"It's a powerful new way to study Earth," say researchers.

Full story here from NASA >> [...]

The million dollar question? will NASA or some else become the information broker for all this streaming data?

© 2005-2006

Walter Derzko

Expert, Consultant and Keynote Speaker on Emerging Smart Technologies, Innovation, Strategic Foresight, Business Development, Lateral Creative Thinking and author of an upcoming book on the Smart Economy "

To arrange for an in house presentation or briefing on smart technology see here

To explore the opportunities and threats of any new smart technology in your industry - Contact Me or explore how we can work together

.....Strategy without action is a day-dream; action without strategy is a nightmare"- old Japanese proverb

.......Ours is the age that is proud of machines that think and suspicious of men who try to. - H. Mumford Jones

"Without changing our patterns of thought, we will not be able to solve the problems we created with our current pattern of thought."  A. Einstein

P. S. if this is your first visit to my blog, please go to our Welcome page

Smart Maps; Part 3 of 4; Modeling and Mapping Blood Flow and Blood Clotting

A novel laboratory model has revealed clues to how blood clotting starts, an approach that has potential to reveal mechanisms behind  a variety of reactions within the body.

Researchers at the University of Chicago have crafted a simple model for predicting when and where hemostasis -- the technical term for blood clotting -- will occur.

The microfluidic system that they created focuses on the interactions between blood and surfaces patterned to trigger blood clotting. It allows the researchers to separately monitor clotting in both blood plasma and a chemical model.

The researchers, led by National Science Foundation CAREER awardee Rustem Ismagilov, believe the methodology may prove useful in a range of studies, adding a powerful tool for predicting the dynamics of other complex biochemical networks.

This image on the left shows clotting occurring on a large area of vascular damage, but not small areas. A chemical model for blood clotting developed at the University of Chicago predicted this phenomenon. The Chicago scientists verified this prediction in the laboratory using their microfluidic system, which enables them to manipulate fluids on a minute scale. The team’s in vitro experiments (conducting in an artificial environment), may also apply in vivo (in the living body).

Image credit: Nicolle Rager Fuller, National Science Foundation.

The system successfully modeled the workings of a complex biochemical network by showing how the start of clotting depends upon localization of clotting stimuli. The researchers were even able to use the model to predict behavior that they later confirmed with human blood plasma, finding that blood can be exposed to significant amounts of clotting stimuli, such as tissue factor, without initiating clotting.

Lead author Christian Kastrup and his colleagues present their research results in the Oct. 16, 2006, online Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

For additional information, see the University of  Chicago press release 

Future Research

Down the road, this could lead to a dymanic model and a smart map/ early warning/ Body Area Network (Ban) alert system.

© 2005-2006

Walter Derzko

Expert, Consultant and Keynote Speaker on Emerging Smart Technologies, Innovation, Strategic Foresight, Business Development, Lateral Creative Thinking and author of an upcoming book on the Smart Economy "

To arrange for an in house presentation or briefing on smart technology see here

To explore the opportunities and threats of any new smart technology in your industry - Contact Me or explore how we can work together

.....Strategy without action is a day-dream; action without strategy is a nightmare"- old Japanese proverb

.......Ours is the age that is proud of machines that think and suspicious of men who try to. - H. Mumford Jones

"Without changing our patterns of thought, we will not be able to solve the problems we created with our current pattern of thought."  A. Einstein

P. S. if this is your first visit to my blog, please go to our Welcome page

Smart Maps part 2of 4; Smart Traffic Prediction Maps

Yesterday we looked at Daily Plague Forecasts, to start our smart map series.

Today, I'll explore a Smart Traffic Prediction Map that has been developed by Eric Horvitz at Microsoft Research in Redmond Washington to help keep drivers away from traffic jams.

From New Scientist this week (Oct 21, 2006, pg 32):

"Few things are more irritating than leaving a busy main road to avoid a traffic jam, only to find that everyone else has had the same idea and you are stuck behind yet another queue.

Now a smart electronic map has been developed to help drivers find the best route, using information on nearby roads together with the day of the week, time, weather conditions and the speed of traffic on nearby roads.  Crucially, the software can use road configurations it already knows about to predict how traffic on unfamiliar ones will behave."

[...]

The software called ClearFlow, extends traffic prediction to all roads. Horvitz was able to train his model to predict with 80% accuracy how all side streets would react to changing traffic speed on main arteries."

ETA: available online for Seattle in 2007 via Windows Live. Other US cities to follow.

Full Text (subscription required) see here [...]

© 2005-2006

Walter Derzko

Expert, Consultant and Keynote Speaker on Emerging Smart Technologies, Innovation, Strategic Foresight, Business Development, Lateral Creative Thinking and author of an upcoming book on the Smart Economy "

To arrange for an in house presentation or briefing on smart technology see here

To explore the opportunities and threats of any new smart technology in your industry - Contact Me or explore how we can work together

.....Strategy without action is a day-dream; action without strategy is a nightmare"- old Japanese proverb

.......Ours is the age that is proud of machines that think and suspicious of men who try to. - H. Mumford Jones

"Without changing our patterns of thought, we will not be able to solve the problems we created with our current pattern of thought."  A. Einstein

P. S. if this is your first visit to my blog, please go to our Welcome page

Smart Maps part 1 of 4; Daily Plague Forecast

Have you noticed?  Maps are getting smarter....more dynamic and informative, from global maps, like the one below on disease outbreaks, to what I call BAN maps..body area network maps that track disease progress such as cancer cell spread or bacterial infection spread through the body.

Over the next several posts, I'll review some recent examples of smart maps that are made possible by  new web and graphics technology called Mash-ups, which combine 2 disparate date points sources such as health and geography.

Web-based maps are used regularly for keeping tabs on weather and traffic, so why not for disease outbreaks, too?

Smart Maps part 1 of 4: Daily Plague Forecast

Wired Magazine writes:

Get Your Daily Plague Forecast

[...]

The new Healthmap website digests information from a variety of sources ranging from the World Health Organization to Google News and plots the spread of about 50 diseases on a continually updated global map. 

It was developed as a side project by two staffers at the Children's Hospital Informatics Program in Boston -- physician John Brownstein and software developer Clark Freifeld.

While working on a state-funded program to track disease outbreaks in Massachusetts, the two discovered some inconsistencies in how information is reported.  Some sources, such as ProMed-mail, provide very specific data that is verified by medical experts, but the process can be lengthy.  At the other extreme, newspaper articles and blog entries come out far more quickly, but they are more likely to contain errors such as unconfirmed reports about avian flu infections in a country.

"You always have this trade-off between timeliness and specificity," said Brownstein.

To cheat the trade-off, the pair developed a site that collects data from various sources: the slow and accurate as well as the fast and approximate.  Freifeld created a computer program that scans text from RSS news feeds and web page "screen scrapes" to find information about a disease and where it was reported.  Using Google Maps, the site places icons that correspond to individual disease reports.

Full Wired Story>> [...]

See Map at http://healthmap.org

..tomorrow we will explore a global disaster alert map

© 2005-2006

Walter Derzko

Expert, Consultant and Keynote Speaker on Emerging Smart Technologies, Innovation, Strategic Foresight, Business Development, Lateral Creative Thinking and author of an upcoming book on the Smart Economy "

To arrange for an in house presentation or briefing on smart technology see here

To explore the opportunities and threats of any new smart technology in your industry - Contact Me or explore how we can work together

.....Strategy without action is a day-dream; action without strategy is a nightmare"- old Japanese proverb

.......Ours is the age that is proud of machines that think and suspicious of men who try to. - H. Mumford Jones

"Without changing our patterns of thought, we will not be able to solve the problems we created with our current pattern of thought."  A. Einstein

P. S. if this is your first visit to my blog, please go to our Welcome page

Newscast offers virtual anchor, personalized content

New technology from researchers at Northwestern University provides individual users with an automated, personalized newscast that is completely virtual, including a virtual anchor based on video game characters.

Co-invented by Kristian Hammond, co-director of Northwestern's Intelligent Information Laboratory (InfoLab), and graduate students Nathan Nichols and Sara Owsley, "News at Seven" collects, edits and organizes existing news stories based on a user's interests, then passes the formatted content to the virtual anchor.  Using Web resources like Google and YouTube, the system utilizes the text of news stories to retrieve video, images and blogs related to the content of the story.

"It's a completely personalized, completely automated news report using Web resources," explains Hammond, professor of electrical engineering and computer science at Northwestern's McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science.  "The system can create an original news package based on someone's interest, then deliver it on demand.  It is the first step in creating a world in which information is automatically gathered, edited and delivered to people based on their interests and needs."

Once it has assembled the materials, the system edits the news stories, replacing abbreviations and other phrasings that are appropriate for written text but not meant to be spoken.  News at Seven virtual anchors then present a cohesive, compelling performance that combines techniques of modern news programming with features made possible by the fact that the system is, at its core, completely virtual.

In this first version of the system, News at Seven produces a three-minute daily news update, featuring national, international and human-interest stories.  Information from blogs provides commentary on national stories.

Although a very young project, News at Seven already creates a compelling, cohesive, on-topic newscast.  With further research and development, the creators of News at Seven hope to offer a commercially viable replacement to the typical televised news show, offering instead a show tailored to a user's specific interests.  A brand new news package could be delivered daily, hourly or even every half hour.

Where do Google, Intel, Yahoo, Cisco, HP, IBM, Symantec and Tim Draper, Managing Director of Draper Fisher Jurvetson go for new smart ideas? Ukraine

SVOD-2006 Silicon Valley to open doors to Ukrainian High-Tech projects

The second technology investment conference Silicon Valley Open Doors (SVOD-2006) will take place at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California on November 16-17, 2006.

The SVOD conference is the only non-profit event of its kind, bringing dozens of high-tech innovators of Ukrainian and Russian origin to the U.S. sources of venture capital.

“The former Soviet Union countries, like Russia and Ukraine, are rich with great opportunities for venture capital discoverers,“ said Tim Draper, Managing Director of Draper Fisher Jurvetson. 

“The SVOD is a timely initiative, and we trust it will unlock tremendous investment opportunities in Eastern Europe. 

DFJ backed Eastern European teams that started major successes, Skype and Parametric Technologies.  Google and PayPal also have Eastern European founders."

The American Business Association of Russian Professionals (AmBAR) and the Center for Innovation Development (CID) of TECHINVEST Group (Ukraine) are organizers of the Conference. Venture capital firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson (USA) is the conference General Partner.

During the first SVOD conference, which was carried out in November, 2005 in Stanford University (California), high-tech projects from Ukraine and Russia were presented to dozens of VC's.

Ukraine presented seven IT, energy and nanotechnology projects --the finalists of Ukrainian High-Tech Competition, carried by CID.

Three of these projects received seed investments.

One of the projects that received investment is based on an innovative supercapacitor technology that has 2 times better power density compared to the leading global competitors. It was developed by a group of researchers from the Ukrainian Academy of Science. A US-Ukrainian JV company, ApowerCap Technologies Inc. (APCT) was established and received seed funding from TECHINVEST. A year later, the valuation of APCT was ten times the original investment. APCT was recognized as one of SVOD success stories.

At the SVOD-06 about 25 selected technology business projects from Ukraine and FSU countries will be presented to top-tier US venture capital firms and technology marketing and business development professionals.

SVOD-2006 is expected to attract over 200 participants.

The program includes project exhibits, presentations to Vcs, as well as seminars conducted by the leading Vcs, Stanford GSB faculty, and experts in the areas of technology business development, incl. IP protection.

Anticipated participants from the U.S. include prominent Silicon Valley venture capital firms such as DFJ, Asset Management, New Enterprise Associates, Institutional Venture Partners, Alloy Ventures, Doll Capital Management and executives from leading technology companies such as Google, Intel, Yahoo, Cisco, HP, IBM, Symantec.

Source: Press-release SVOD-2006

[This is not a new phenomenon. Scientists from behind the Iron Curtain helped many organization like NASA get off the ground (pun intended) after immigrating to the West before, during and after World War II ]

© 2005-2006

Walter Derzko

Expert, Consultant and Keynote Speaker on Emerging Smart Technologies, Innovation, Strategic Foresight, Business Development, Lateral Creative Thinking and author of an upcoming book on the Smart Economy "

To arrange for an in house presentation or briefing on smart technology see here

To explore the opportunities and threats of any new smart technology in your industry - Contact Me or explore how we can work together

.....Strategy without action is a day-dream; action without strategy is a nightmare"- old Japanese proverb

.......Ours is the age that is proud of machines that think and suspicious of men who try to. - H. Mumford Jones

"Without changing our patterns of thought, we will not be able to solve the problems we created with our current pattern of thought."  A. Einstein

P. S. if this is your first visit to my blog, please go to our Welcome page