April 2014

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 28 apr 2014

Most robotic components that are currently used are hard, large and heavy and therefore limit their speed and motion. But researchers like Saul Griffith are trying to change that. He is using soft, inflatable materials that are lighter, faster and even substantially strong. Soft in this context would signify lighter weight, lower cost, more efficient, more resilient, higher dynamic range, and tunable. Some of the examples of soft engineered robots in the current research include gripping eggs (George Whitesides at Harvard University), inflatable robotic arm, inflatable vehicle etc. Moreover the research have potential to be utilized in medical applications - prosthetics, aiding stroke victims, lessening spinal cord injuries, soft external muscles for aging population etc. Read on...

Engineering: Rethinking Rigidity in Design
Author: Tom Spendlove

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 27 apr 2014

Healthcare collaborations work towards bringing academia and industry together by pooling their resources and expertise to save costs and to bring breakthrough research, products and services for the benefit of society. To create such a collaborative ecosystem, three entities - Spectrum Health, Michigan State University and Van Andel Research Institute - have come together. A new lab is being developed to have basic and translational research to already existing Spectrum's competence in patient care and clinical trials. It brings academic focus as biomedical research is essential for medical advancements and developing novel treatments. According to Jeff Dwyer of Michigan State University, 'Life sciences and biomedical research linked to the clinical healthcare environment has really been growing already. It's been going so well, there is just need for more of this kind of space.' VP of research for Spectrum, Dr. Sandra Rempel says, 'The ability for us to bring new doctors opens up the door for future growth. The whole aim is to be able to come up with new discoveries we can publish and disseminate to the world and bring new information to enhance the field and cure illness.' In addition to their duty as clinicians they would now have an opportunity to focus more on research as principal investigators. Another goal is to create and build an academic framework for physician-scientists, medical students and graduate and undergraduate students to work together through established partnerships with VARI and MSU's College of Human Medicine. Dr. Rempel further explains, 'One of the things that really attracted me here is a very strong collaboration that already exists between all of the institutions. That kind of synergy allows us to grow beyond what each of us can do on our own. From collecting data to securing grants, the collaborations go beyond practical lab experience. We now have researchers who can take them into their labs. We see this as a great win-win situation for all the institutions involved. The whole idea is that when we collaborate, we get together as a group and exchange all our clinical and scientific ideas. We can write papers together, put grants together. MSU might get a grant, or we might get the grant and they would help... If we had a project, postdocs and students would come in and work on that project.' Read on...

Rapid Growth: Good Medicine - Medical research collaboration booms
Author: Marla R. Miller

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 25 apr 2014

In today's world there are diverse technologies that make social collaboration happen both at personal and professional level. These technologies provide workers ability to interact, participate and collaborate anytime and anywhere more efficiently without the need for their physical presence. Over the years this process of social collaboration has been consistently improving due to advancements in communication technologies. Autodesk has developed an infographic depicting and explaining the evolution of social collaboration. The main stages of this development include - Ray Dolby, Charles Ginsburg and Charles Anderson invented the first video camera with both image and sound recording (1956); Samuel Morse created Morse Code (1836); Alexander Graham Bell created telephone (1876); ENIAC was invented as the first all purpose computer (1946); Computer-aided design created for Watergate structure (1962); Xerox photocopying machine developed (1959); Doug Engelbart and Bill English invent computer mouse (1960); PLATO computer system developed at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign had started providing innovative communication tools like email, chatrooms, instant messaging, remote screen sharing, emoticons (1976); First network email sent by Ray Tomlinson on ARPANET (1971); First mobile phone call made by Martin Cooper on Motorola DynaTAC prototype (1973); PARC's Knowledge System Area created CoLab with workstations for group meetings and to collaborate on projects (late 1980s); Internet TCP/IP by Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn (1982); First commercial mobile phone DynaTAC 8000x (1983); Mac Portable by Apple (1989); Microsoft Outlook 97 as a communication hub with email, scheduling, contact management, task management etc (1997); World Wide Web made available that was developed by Robert Cailliau and Tim Berners-Lee (1991); WWW made free to anyone by CERN (1993); AOL connects email system to Internet and allowed users to chat and IM in real time (1997); GoToMeeting is launched for online meeting, desktop sharing and video conferencing (2004); Growth of social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest etc (2010s); 2.5 billion people are using Internet worldwide (2012). Read on...

Online Social Media: Evolution of social collaboration from 1950 to present
Author: Mark Chubb

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 24 apr 2014

Collaboration is an essential element of leadership and organizational success. But to bring people together, with their diverse views, skills, personalities etc, and then ignite, nurture and support collaborative effort towards a common goal is a challenging task for the leader. Technology provides effective tools to facilitate collaboration and imbibe it in workplace culture. Following are the 5 ways to achieve smart collaboration - (1) Build an online infrastructure for social learning and networking; (2) Set necessary limits for personal information sharing and always try to focus first on the work at hand. Keep it professional and respect other team member's privacy; (3) Disagreements and other negative issues have to be dealt with quickly, honestly and openly. Festering resentment undermines collaboration; (4) Ignite inspiration. Create a culture of sharing. Passion and engagement bring liveliness and provide inspiration. (5) Be natural and true to oneself. Don't fake personality traits and skill set. Sustained collaboration requires honesty and openness. Read on...

Forbes: 5 Leadership Secrets Of Collaboration Success
Author: Meghan M. Biro

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 21 apr 2014

Online marketing is evolving with variety of latest technologies available to marketers to seek attention of the consumers. Startups with limited budgets have to get the best out of their advertising campaigns. Technologies provide them tools to economize their advertising and also use it in the most effective and attractive way. But most still apply the broadcast standards to these new technology platforms. It is still the 'one-way approach' to advertising. Banner ads and resulting one-way impressions are often the popular online advertising methods and measures. But to involve and engage consumers, it has to become more intuitive and interactive, keeping in mind the user experience and content on the website. Read on...

ventureburn: Catching the eye - online marketing is about starting a conversation
Author: David Ross

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 19 apr 2014

According to the recent study by Google and CEB's Marketing Leadership Council, on an average, B2B customers are significantly more emotionally connected to their vendors and service providers than consumers. B2B marketers are trying to update their traditional practices to better connect with the business buyers that are evolving and behaving more like an individual consumer. The recently held 20th Annual ITSMA (Information Technology Services Marketing Association) conference's theme was 'The New Face of Marketing'. The four important observations, based on the presentations at the conference, that provide the current state of B2B marketing are - (1) Marketing is transforming from a cost center to a revenue-generator (2) Business-to-business (B2B) marketing is transforming to business-to-individual (B2I) marketing (3) Sales representative are becoming thought leaders (4) The new marketer is a Poogle (Merging of P&G's and Google's marketing skills) i.e. a composite of the old and the new face of marketing. Read on...

Forbes: 4 Observations About The New Face Of Marketing
Author: Gil Press

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 17 apr 2014

Collaborative environment encourages individuals and teams to work together with their full potential towards a common goal. But for effective collaboration, ability to face & handle dissent and criticism is essential alongwith respecting and understanding opinions of others. In many cases power differences and habits of remaining passive results in people avoiding to raise their voices, share opinions and express their views. Miki Kashtan, author of 'Spinning Threads of Radical Aliveness: Transcending the Legacy of Separation in our Individual Lives', shares her experiences on the effectiveness of encouraging free speech to foster collaboration. Her work primarily focuses on how full ownership of a common purpose increases motivation, how transparency and information-sharing result in wiser choices, and how effective feedback supports learning. According to her collaboration works when people know that others, especially those in power, take their suggestions seriously. Read on...

The New York Times: Want Teamwork? Encourage Free Speech
Author: Miki Kashtan

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 12 apr 2014

3D architectural design is changing the work dynamics of architects and their interaction and relationship with their clients. Popular softwares that assist them to design, draft and alter three-dimensional images include Archicad, Vectorworks and Revit. These softwares simplify the work by making subsequent changes in other areas when one aspect is altered or changed. But architectural experts differ in their opinion of the overall usability and impact of these softwares on various elements of architectural design. They argue that actual creativity is essential for design which these softwares cannot provide. Architect Gerard Damiani, who teaches at Carnegie Mellon University says that substantial number of architects in the school still believe that mastering hand-drawing is a required skill but there is less use of it as the course progresses where students focus more on computer-aided design. Most architects do believe that these softwares eliminate the tedious, routine and repetitive aspects of design work. Moreover they also help architects collaborate more efficiently with the project team and the client due to the ease of technology assisted sharing and feedback mechanism. Read on...

TribLive: 3D takes architectural design to next dimension
Author: Bob Karlovits

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 12 apr 2014

Jonas Damon, the Creative Director of frog, shares his views on 'traditional' (or outdated) forms and materials, user experience and the relevance of Dieter Ram's 'Ten Principles of Good Design' in today's world of design. According to him - 'Honesty' in design in the past was expressed by skilfully skulpting with and around a given product's physical conditions, rather than just hiding or disguising these. While these days 'honesty' is more complex and difficult to design for, as it's about the tangible aspects of the brand the product embodies. Traditional forms and materials have cultural value because of their iconic, built-in character; Hardware is an integral part of user experience. A true UX is multi-sensory. Industrial design has become richer since 'living technology' is being considered as a material. 'Living technology' represents those elements that bring objects to life, that make them animate and tie them to other parts of the world around us; Dieter Ram's principles are still relevant but some may not reflect today's times like 'Good Design is Unobtrusive', 'Good Design is Thorough to the Last Detail', 'Good Design is as Little Design as Possible'. Moreover a new design principle may be included, 'Good Design is Inclusive', as it would be more appropriate to current times. Read on...

Core77: Industrial design in the modern world: Short doc and exclusive interview with the 'frog' creative director Jonas Damon
Author: NA

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 08 apr 2014

A team of economists, Esther Duflo & Abhijeet Banerjee (both from MIT) and Arun Chandrashekhar & Matthew Jackson (both from Stanford), in their research paper 'The Diffusion of Microfinance', explain the effects of providing information first to the well connected people on the popularity of socially beneficial programs. They termed this new measure of social influence as 'diffusion centrality'. Researchers examined the spread of microfinance in India through word of mouth and found that when socially well connected individuals were the first to know and gain access to these programs it increased the participation by 11%. The surveys for the study were mainly conducted in the select villages of the state of Karnataka in India. The study also found that participants in the microfinance programs are more effective in dissipating information to others - 7 times more than those who know about the programs but not participating. The research can be utilized by microfinance institutions and nonprofit poverty alleviation groups to evaluate the most effective methods to introduce and implement such programs in local settings. Read on...

Asian Scientist: How Anti-Poverty Programs Go Viral
Author: Peter Dizikes

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 06 apr 2014

'Early adopters' are critical to fuel demand for technological innovations. They experiment and use technologies and often help in their improvement before they become part of the mainstream society. Moreover they also enable continued development of innovative products and services. But better rules, regulations and policies also play a very important role to drive innovations and consistent technological developments. Policies and regulations that demand continued maintenance of obsolete and legacy systems divert investments that otherwise would have been used for building new technologies. Article explores the implications of regulatory framework in the development of next-generation broadband networks in US. It mentions the recent decision of FCC to allow beta testing of 21st century broadband-enabled network in select areas as the step in right direction. Moreover the upcoming spectrum incentive auction that is expected to have fair and open bidding rules would ensure competition, continued innovation and convenience to consumers and benefit to communities. Broadband connectivity has potential and capability to provide effective and efficient healthcare and enable nationwide, interoperable public safety network. Other areas that would benefit from better regulatory mechanism that leads to investment in broadband technologies, both wire and wireless, include education, communication, professional development and entertainment. Read on...

GeekWire: Commentary - Smart rules needed to spark next-generation broadband in U.S.
Author: Tom Gurr

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 06 apr 2014

Innovation can become the part of the organizational culture when it permeates into organization's rank and file and doesn't just remain with the top leaders. Effective leaders develop innovation culture by encouraging and involving employees at all levels. Managers play an important role in bringing and building creativity and innovation into every aspect and section of the organization. Article suggests steps for managers that can bring valuable change in their company - Get everyone involved; Get rid of red tape; Free up the brainstorming experience; Build innovation into culture (Promote collaboration; Make innovation part of the performance review; Eliminate blame; Empower team members to make decisions); Act now; Get ambitious; Reward innovative thinking. Read on...

Business Management Daily: How to Be an Innovation Manager
Author: Lee Polevoi