July 2016

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 28 jul 2016

Packaging is an important component of product handling, logistics, advertising, marketing and selling. There are variety of materials that are currently in use for packaging. Environmental challenges arise due to the waste generated through discarded packagings. The packaging industry is exploring better materials that can reduce environmental footprint. In spite of scientific breakthroughs in developing new packaging materials, there are issues related to their performance and price, inhibiting their mass adoption and usage. Bryan Shova, packaging designer and industrial design director at Kaleidoscope, explains sustainability aspects of packaging. He says, 'I dream of the day when material science and manufacturing can deliver on the promise of zero environmental impact, high performance, premium finish and low costs.' He explains, 'The viability of true sustainability is a complex economic challenge, and the ugly truth is that few consumers, brand owners or municipalities are willing to pay the premium price for cutting-edge sustainable packaging solutions. True solutions will come through "systems thinking" that requires the material supplier, manufacturer, retailer, consumer and the municipality to share in the premium costs and labor required to design, collect and recycle packaged materials.' He provides 10 principles for designing sustainable packaging - (1) Start with commodity materials that are commonly recycled. (2) Design the package from a single material. (3) Focus on the product-to-package ratio. (4) Design for assembly at the point of manufacture. (5) Avoid gluing and laminations. (6) Design for distribution. (7) Eliminate secondary and tertiary packaging when possible. (8) Design for disassembly. (9) Clearly mark the materials on the packaging components. (10) Use Lifecycle Assessment. Read on...

Packaging Digest: 10 ways to design sustainable packaging with intent
Author: Bryan Shova

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 25 jul 2016

Prof. Henry Chesbrough of University of California at Berkeley, coined the term 'Open Innovation' in his book "Open Innovation: The New Imperative for Creating and Profiting from Technology" that was published on 2003. According to website OpenInnovation.net, 'Open Innovation is a paradigm that assumes that firms can and should use external ideas as well as internal ideas, and internal and external paths to market, as the firms look to advance their technology.' Organizations are now more commonly adopting open innovation. As Prof. Chesbrough suggested in his research few years ago that nearly 80% of organizations were already dabbling with open innovation in some form or other. In 2015, Carlos Moedas (European Union's Commissionar for Research, Science and Innovation), outlined the goals for his organization as 'Open Innovation, Open Science and Open to the World'. Recently EU published a paper to highlight its commitment to an open and transparent approach to innovation and related policy initiatives. In terms of supporting open innovation throughout Europe, the EU's focus is in four key areas - PUBLIC SECTOR: By providing a regulatory framework that supports and incentivizes open knowledge and cooperation; FINANCIAL SECTOR: By ensuring that innovation-friendly funding is available; INNOVATIVE BUSINESSES: By reducing market fragmentation throughout Europe to help companies commercialize their work; ACADEMIA: By supporting the development of co-creation capabilities and the ease with which research finds its way into business. Supporting 'Open Science' is a key part of the EU's desire for more effective and open innovation as it facilitates the free movement of knowledge throughout the continent. In this regard, EU is focusing efforts in five key policy areas - Fostering and creating incentives for open science; Removing barriers to open science; Mainstreaming and further promoting open access policies; Developing research infrastructures for open science; Embedding open science in society as a socio-economic driver. The final component of EU's open innovation strategy is to foster international cooperation in research and innovation. Horizon 2020, is one such program in the direction of making open science a norm globally. Moreover, international cooperation is key to tackle issues like climate change, driverless technology etc. The paper concludes, 'Science and innovation are global endeavours and researchers should be able to work together smoothly across borders, particularly on large-scale common challenges. The strategic approach to EU international cooperation aims to develop common principles and adequate framework conditions for engaging in cooperation.' Read on...

Huffington Post: Open Innovation, Open Science And Open To The World
Author: Adi Gaskell

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 17 jul 2016

In today's highly competitive and fast paced world of business, innovation can be a differentiating factor and a source of strategic advantage. It can help businesses to stay ahead on the success curve. Risk-taking is an important component of innovative thought process and activity. Val DiFebo, CEO of Deutsch New York, suggests three ways to encourage employees to take risks and build an innovation seeking organization - (1) Explore Unchartered Territory: Encourage risk-taking by rewarding and applauding new ideas and by listening and building when teams want to do things that don't exist. Explore the uncharted territory strategically and patiently. (2) Support the Ideas: Provide support financially and practically. But budget carefully for risks involved. Be realistic when evaluating returns on these investments. Encourage employees to take calculated risks. (3) Be Passionate: It takes courage and passion to introduce new idea. Ask employees to bring ideas they are passionate about. Asking people to be a bit vulnerable encourages risk-taking and can be tremendously rewarding, as well as provide an element of team bonding. Accepting failures of the past and learning from them minimizes the risk of repeating them in future. A smart risk is well thought out and demonstrates that employees have looked at other options and genuinely believe that the risk is worth the gain. Read on...

Fortune: The One Thing Every Company Gets Wrong About Innovation
Author: Val DiFebo

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 15 jul 2016

Local communities require participation from its members for their better development. Individuals have to be proactive and should make valuable contribution, and work as a team to make a difference. Pawel Alva Nazaruk, social entrepreneur and owner of Better World International, suggest 7 ways to support communities and change neighbourhood - (1) Support Children - They Are Our Future: Support a child or team for a community activity. (2) Build A House - Sweat And Get Dirty: Find opportunities to help build homes for the disadvantaged. (3) Shop In Your Community - Keep Your Money In Your Local Area: According to American Independent Business Association, 48% of each purchase made in your local independent businesses stays in your community. Also helps create more local jobs. (4) Clean Up Your Neighborhood: Start from the area around your home and then organize a community cleaning event. (5) Take Part In Your Local Political Process: Vote for local representatives. Organize around issues of community development and support the best candidate. (6) Support Community Events: Support activities like farmers market and community gardens. Engage in events that create fun and build a healthy environment in community. (7) Be Friendly: Develop better relations with neighbors and other members of the community. Introduce yourself to the new member who joins the community. Be helpful, caring and supportive to members who are in need. Read on...

Huffington Post: 7 Ways To Support Your Community
Authors: Pawel Alva Nazaruk, Ray V. Bennett Jr.

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 04 jul 2016

Team of researchers from IIT-Madras (India) and University of Nebraska at Lincoln (USA), are developing an ingestible capsule, that can stay in human body for close to a week, with sensors that will take readings of an individual's calorie intake, that can eventually help in diagnosis of diseases like cancer and permit sustained delivery of drugs. According to Prof. Benjamin Terry of UNL, 'The capsule, made of biocompatible materials, works like a parasite by latching on to the intestinal wall.' The sensors communicate their readings to an external device through low-intensity radio waves. Prof. P. V. Manivannan of IIT-M, says, 'The device is kept a metre away from the body. We use only low intensity waves that don't harm the body.' According to experts, biosensors could help monitor factors that influence digestive health. Prof. Terry adds that the mechanism could also serve as a long-term vessel for capsule endoscopes, the ingestible pill-shaped cameras that permit physicians to record images of the gastrointestinal tract. Read on...

The Times of India: From IIT-M - Capsule in body to count calories, diagnose cancer
Author: Ekatha Ann John