September 2016

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 30 sep 2016

According to the first experts' poll conducted by Thomson Reuters Foundation (poll2016.trust.org), in partnership with Deutsche Bank, the Global Social Entrepreneurship Network (GSEN) and UnLtd, the top nations for social entrepreneurs are - (1) United States (2) Canada (3) United Kingdom (4) Singapore (5) Israel (6) Chile (7) South Korea (8) Hong Kong (9) Malaysia (10) France. The poll included survey of about 900 social enterprise experts (social entrepreneurs, academics, investors, policy-makers and support networks) in the world's 45 biggest economies. 85% of the experts said the number of social entrepreneurs finding ways of combining business with social purpose was growing although there is little data tracking the sector. According to Natalia Oberti Noguera, founder of Pipeline Angels (US), 'If someone's interested in financial return on investment, that's not a good fit. We're about so much more. We're about doing good, we're about doing well.' Nearly 60% of the experts surveyed cited three major challenges in the growing sector - people do not know what social entrepreneurs do, which makes raising funds difficult and selling to governments is an uphill struggle. Anne Katrine Heje Larsen, founder and CEO of KPH (Denmark), says, 'There are still too many people who view social entrepreneurs as a bunch of hash-fuming utopian people in knitted sweaters. They couldn't be more wrong.' According to Ayşe Sabuncu, co-founder of Impact Hub Istanbulin (Turkey), 'People do not understand social entrepreneurs create money making businesses like any other business, and they question the philosophy of it if the entrepreneur ends up making profit.' Andy Carnahan, a Swedish social entrepreneur, says, 'A greater understanding of how for-profit businesses can be a driving force for social good would help. We need this (awareness)...among the public who don't realize how much good can be done by a for-profit business that has a social good built into its business model.' Poll found that India, Philippines and South Korea are among those where social entrepreneurs were finding it easiest to access investment. According to Prashanth Venkataramana of Essmart Global, 'A lot of people see India as an opportunity overseas, especially in America.' Bank of America's 2016 survey found that 85% of millennials were interested in having a social impact through investment. It also found that women were more interested in impact investing than men. Peetachai 'Neil' Dejkraisak of Siam Organic (Thailand) says, 'World-class social enterprises are run by women in Asia. They do a really good job balancing the social and financial objectives.' Rosemary Addis, chair of Impact Investing Australia, says, 'Individual enterprises are finding a niche and finding they can engage the market and sell their products or services. But as a sector, the concept of social enterprise and purpose-driven business has not yet got mainstream awareness. That's a job ahead to educate the public.' Read on...

Huffington Post: U.S. Is Best Country For Social Entrepreneurs - Poll
Authors: Pietro Lombardi, Ellen Wulfhorst, Pauline Askin, Nita Bhalla, Alisa Tang, Belinda Goldsmith

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 27 sep 2016

Patient focused care delivery driven by technological advancements is bringing transformations in healthcare ecosystem. Experts in a panel discussion 'Future of Health Care: Technology Innovations' shared their views on high level technology that has been in use in Pittsburgh (USA) as biotechnology, informatics and medicine are used to create a more responsive system for both consumers and health providers. Dr. Rasu Shrestha, Chief Innovation Officer and EVP of UPMC Enterprises, said, '...we'll go with a 'best of breed' approach, solutions that work best toward specific ends and, while doing so, invest in interoperability, or making those systems talk to each other. This was 10 years ago. No one else was doing this; this was before 'interoperability' became the buzzword that it is today in the industry.' According to Prof. Don Taylor, Assistant Vice Chancellor of University of Pittsburgh, 'The future of health care coordination rests, in part, with analytics, the ability to make data useful in the same way companies like Amazon and Netflix are able to suggest what movies to watch or what products to buy.' Ellen Beckjord of UPMC Health Plan, while describing the current state of digital health information, used the analogy of the cookbook that contains unorganized list of all ingredients that are disaggregated from recipes. She said, 'Just because it's integrated and all in one place doesn't mean it's actionable.' Kim Jacobs, VP of consumer innovation for UPMC Health Plan, said, 'Close to 60% of UPMC's telemedicine encounters led to emergency room avoidance.' According to Prof. Steven Handler of University of Pittsburgh's School of Medicine, 'Telemedicine increases access to qualified professionals and reduces variability of care. It hits the sweet spot of medical devices, informatics and clinical medicine.' Read on...

Pittsburgh Business Times: Analytics key to future of health care coordination, panel says
Author: Lydia Nuzum

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 19 sep 2016

Comedian John Oliver in one of the recent episode of 'Last Week Tonight' on HBO described journalism industry's 'dire straits' and analyzed the depressing financial state of journalism in 2016 and the subsequent tendency for news outlets to focus on stories that get the most traffic. Moreover, he emphasised the importance of traditional reporting via newspapers that often get quoted by TV news channels. He says, 'It's pretty obvious without newspapers around to cite, TV news would just be Wolf Blitzer endlessly batting a ball of yarn around. The media is a food chain which would fall apart without local newspapers.' On the current financial situation of journalism, falling print advertising revenue and digital journalism, he says, 'A big part of the blame for this industry's dire straits is on us and our unwillingness to pay for the work journalists produce. We've just grown accustomed to getting our news for free and the longer that we get something for free, the less willing we are to pay for it...If journalists are constantly required to write, edit, shoot videos and tweet, mistakes are going to get made. It is clearly smart for newspapers to expand online. But the danger in doing that is the temptation to gravitate towards getting the most clicks.' Read on...

the guardian: John Oliver examines journalism's many problems: The blame is on us
Author: Adam Gabbatt

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 17 sep 2016

Researchers from Staford University [Po-Chun Hsu, Alex Y. Song, Peter B. Catrysse, Chong Liu, Yucan Peng, Jin Xie, Shanhui Fan, Yi Cui] have developed a low-cost, plastic-based textile that, when woven into clothing, has the ability to keep the body cool more efficiently as compared to the natural or synthetic fabrics that are used today. The research was published in journal 'Science' titled, 'Radiative human body cooling by nanoporous polyethylene textile'. According to Prof. Yi Cui of Materials Science and Engineering, 'If you can cool the person rather than the building where they work or live, that will save energy.' The new material cools by letting perspiration evaporate through it, as fabrics normally do. But the other most innovative characteristic of the material's cooling mechanism is that it allows heat that the body emits as infrared radiation to pass through the plastic textile. Prof. Shanhui Fan of Electrical Engineering says, '40-60% of our body heat is dissipated as infrared radiation when we are sitting in an office. But until now there has been little or no research on designing the thermal radiation characteristics of textiles.' Researchers engineered the cooling material by blending nanotechnology photonics and chemistry to give polyethylene, the material used as kitchen wrap, a number of characteristics desirable in clothing material. It allows thermal radiation, air and water vapor to pass right through, and it is opaque to visible light. Prof. Cui says, 'If you want to make a textile, you have to be able to make huge volumes inexpensively.' According to Prof. Fan, 'This research opens up new avenues of inquiry to cool or heat things, passively, without the use of outside energy, by tuning materials to dissipate or trap infrared radiation.' Read on...

Stanford News: Stanford engineers develop a plastic clothing material that cools the skin
Author: Tom Abate

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 09 sep 2016

Journalism industry faces numerous challenges and is going through a difficult phase, as comedian John Oliver recently expained in his show on HBO. But there is also a ray of hope as the demand for good content is high and there is need of editorial skills. Journalism aspirants, who aspire to be Bob Woodward or Carl Bernstein, may not feel happy about it though. Kayvan Salmanpour, chief content officer at digital marketing agency iCrossing, says, '99% of brands struggle with content because they publish without an editorial mindset. So I think (editorial is) hugely important - now more than ever.' He explains what brands can learn from media companies when it comes to content and suggests the following - (1) Hire an editor in chief who can have ultimate control of the content produced and can assure it's quality. Content represents the brand. (2) Create an editorial mission statement before anything else. There is need for clarity of objectives and everyone in the organization should be aligned to it. (3) Put the audience first as compared to brand/product first. Create content that is audience focused. Find the intersection between what the audience wants to read and what the brand stands for. (4) Don't try to be everything to everyone. Good content fits seamlessly between the brand and its target audience. It may even require conducting psychographic studies of the target audience and thinking about their habits in excruciating detail. Read on...

The Drum: Journalists, take heart - Content marketing needs you
Author: Lisa Lacy

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 07 sep 2016

Students have to be taught about entrepreneurship and innovation early in their educational stage to better prepare them to adapt to the technology-enabled disruptive future of the world of work. Experts predict that technology is transforming work so rapidly that 40% of the jobs of today will disappear within 10-15 years. According to The Committee for Economic Development of Australia (CEDA), advances in computer technology and automation would result in around five million job losses. Prof. Stephen Martin, Chief Executive of CEDA, says, 'If we do not embrace massive economic reform and focus on incentivising innovation, we will simply be left behind in an increasingly competitive global marketplace.' Jo Burston, serial entrepreneur and founder of small business platform 'Inspiring Rare Birds', has created an education venture 'Phronesis Academy' with Prof. Richard Seymour of Sydney Business School. According to Ms. Burston, 'Phronesis in Greek means practical wisdom - it's all about learning in action. There is actually no right or wrong and there is no pass or fail because we know that in entrepreneurship those things don't actually exist...We need to have young people thinking as entrepreneurs as they go into businesses because businesses are wanting to innovate. So the people who can innovate and create new revenue lines are the ones who are going to be highly regarded in their positions and I think there's an entrepreneurial mindset around being able to do that.' Jayant Prakash, business teacher at Darwin High School, says, 'It's very important to know entrepreneurial skills because every day we get up in the morning and we are dealing in the world of business, we want our young people to be innovative in nature and this subject gives them the chance to develop ideas.' Read on...

Huffington Post: Why High School Is The Best Place To Nurture Our Entrepreneurs
Author: Cathy Anderson

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 03 sep 2016

Multidisciplinary team of researchers lead by Prof. Amin Salehi-Khojin from University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) have engineered a process through a solar cell to mimic plants' ability to convert carbon dioxide into fuel, a way to decrease the amounts of harmful gas in the atmosphere and produce clean energy. According to Prof. Salehi-Khojin, 'The artificial leaf essentially recycles carbon dioxide. And it's powered entirely by the sun, mimicking the real photosynthesis process. Real leaves use the energy from the sun and convert carbon dioxide to sugar. In the artificial leaf that we built, we use the sun and we convert CO2 to (synthetic gas), which can be converted to any hydrocarbon, like gasoline.' Describing the process Prof. Salehi-Khojin said, 'The energy of the sun rearranges the chemical bonds of the carbon dioxide. So the sun's energy is being stored in the form of chemical bonds, which can be burned as fuel...Scientists around the world have been studying carbon reduction, as this type of reaction is called, for years.' Prof. Nathan Lewis of California Institute of Technology, who has been studying solar fuels and artificial photosynthesis for more than 40 years, says, 'UIC's development is only a small piece of an eventual solar fuel product that can be widely implemented. There's a lot of steps that need to occur to envision how these things would translate into a commercializable system, but it's a step for building a piece of a full system that may be useful.' Prof. Michael R. Wasielewski of Northwestern University comments, 'UIC's development could push renewable energy technology forward.' The research, 'Nanostructured transition metal dichalcogenide electrocatalysts for CO2 reduction in ionic liquid', was recently published in journal 'Science'. UIC News Center website (news.uic.edu) provides the following information about co-authors and collaborators of this research - Amin Salehi-Khojin, Mohammad Asadi, Kibum Kim, Aditya Venkata Addepalli, Pedram Abbasi, Poya Yasaei, Amirhossein Behranginia, Bijandra Kumar and Jeremiah Abiade of UIC's Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Department, who performed the electrochemical experiments and prepared the catalyst; Robert F. Klie and Patrick Phillips of UIC's Physics Department, who performed electron microscopy and spectroscopy experiments; Larry A. Curtiss, Cong Liu and Peter Zapol of Argonne National Laboratory, who did Density Functional Theory calculations; Richard Haasch of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, who did ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy; José M. Cerrato of the University of New Mexico, who did elemental analysis. Read on...

Chicago Tribune: UIC researchers develop artificial leaf that turns CO2 into fuel
Author: Ally Marotti