Emerging Technology : In The News

CHOP's innovative treatment for Leukemia shows tremendous promise

The New York Times Tuesday, December 11, 2012

The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) used a disabled form the AIDS virus to treat a young girl's leukemia. The results have been remarkable for 7-year-old Emma Whitehead and her family, and constitute a major breakthrough in the treatment of cancer. Doctors hope the new treatment, developed at the University of Pennsylvania, will eventually replace bone-marrow transplantation.

The treatment very nearly killed her. But she emerged from it cancer-free, and about seven months later is still in complete remission. She is the first child and one of the first humans ever in whom new techniques have achieved a long-sought goal — giving a patient’s own immune system the lasting ability to fight cancer.

Original Source: The New York Times
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Seattle ponders City of Philadelphia seed fund Startup PHIL

GeekWire Monday, October 29, 2012

Seattle's GeekWire considers how the recently announced City of Philadelphia seed fund Startup PHL would play in Washington State.

The jury is out whether these types of programs should fall under government agencies. Interestingly, the topic has become a key talking point in the race for governor in Washington state. Candidate Rob McKenna has continued to hammer Jay Inslee over an idea, which he has since dropped, to pump state pension money into startups.

Original source: GeekWire

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Art Museum among those dabbling in digital

The New York Times Monday, October 29, 2012

The Philadelphia Museum of Art is highlighted by The New York Times as one of several art institutions across the country that are utilizing digital platforms to engage audiences.

or example, next summer the Philadelphia Museum of Art is planning five simultaneous exhibits oriented to families, including an interactive watercolor project inspired by the award-winning artist and author Jerry Pinkney as well as an environment using fancy dress costumes from the early 20th century for children in a setting designed by the artist Candy Depew. “There is a small amount of technology, but that is not the focus of what we do with kids,” said Emily Schreiner, associate curator of education for family and community learning at the museum.

Original source: The New York Times

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Philadelphia area hospitals among nation's most wired

Nurse.com Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Nurse.com reports that Main Line Health (Bryn Mawr), Abington Health, Nemours/Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children (Wilmington, Del.) were among the top healthcare organizations for IT achievements, while Thomas Jefferson University Hospital (Philadelphia) and Chester County Hospital (West Chester) were among 25 most improved facilities.

The annual Most Wired survey, released in the July issue of Hospitals & Health Networks magazine, the journal of the American Hospital Association, recognizes healthcare organizations for information technology achievements in infrastructure, business and administrative management, clinical quality and safety and the care continuum. The survey also included questions based on concepts of meaningful use.

Original source: Nurse.com

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Science Leadership Academy's Lehman: Best ed app is a web browser

KQED Monday, October 15, 2012

KQED's Mindshift blog talks education and technology with the always insightful Science Leadership Academy Principal Chris Lehman.

Lehmann is famous in progressive education circles for his quote: “Technology must be like oxygen: ubiquitous, necessary, and invisible.” His point: The best technology allows students to explore and create “artifacts of their own learning.”

“The question is, how will technology allow students and teachers to network their learning, to collaborate with each other, to extend the reach of what kids can learn beyond the walls of the school,” he said. “How can technology be used to unlock what hasn’t even been thought of yet?”

Original source: KQED

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Yeah, but how do they make money? Philly's DuckDuckGo among tech's biggest names

Mashable Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Mashable looks at how some of the biggest names in tech make money, including Philadelphia search challenger DuckDuckGo (which still isn't profitable).

As one might expect, advertising and paid subscriptions are two major sources of revenue for these companies. The Internet has also given rise to a phenomenon known as “freemium,” when a company provides a base service for free but charges fees for certain premium features. For instance, Dropbox offers 2GB of free cloud data storage. If a user wants more space, however, he or she will have to pay up.

Original source: Mashable
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High-tech duet sounds great in Philadelphia, Illinois

NIU Today Monday, October 08, 2012

A violinist in Philadelphia and a cellist in Illinois performed a duo in real-time thanks to new technology enabled by Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, reports NIU Today.

“Since Internet2’s inception, all across the world I have been asked by musicians, ‘Can we play together?’ and the answer has always been no,” said Ann Doyle, director of cultural collaborations for Internet2. “It is with gratitude to the LOLA project team, that the answer is now yes!”

Original source: NIU Today

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UPenn researcher: Iran creating private internet

MIT Technology Review Monday, October 08, 2012

MIT's Technology Review reports on University of Pennsylvania-funded researcher Collin Anderson's findings that indicate Iran is building a private internet network.

Anderson gathered his evidence using two hosts based in Tehran. He has obviously had some significant help from inside Iran to carry out this work and acknowledges the help of a number of individuals he is unable name because of "self-censorship and intimidation" within Iran and beyond. That's clearly difficult and dangerous work that must be applauded.

Original source: MIT Technology Review

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At two million coupons downloaded, Philly's SnipSnap takes app for spin in Times Square

NBC 4 New York Monday, October 08, 2012

Philadelphia-based SnipSnap founder Ted Mann goes shopping in Times Square, demonstrating his company's digital coupon-clipping app for NBC 4 New York.

Source: NBC 4 New York
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New Urban Mechanics: Nutter's new office aims to accelerate innovation

TechPresident Thursday, October 04, 2012

Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter announced this week the Office of New Urban Mechanics, a new branch of city government he hopes will accelerate the implementation of innovative ideas.

It's also the context in which Story Bellows, the Philadelphia New Urban Mechanics co-chair, told Sarah Lai Stirland that Philadelphia's City Hall plans to use its "convening power" to solve problems. Rather than trying to hire a swarm of developers to implement an internal plan or pay a McKinsey or a KPMG hundreds of thousands of dollars to write a report, the New Urban Mechanics model would be to work within a city's own network to find solutions, try them out, and evaluate whether or not they were successful.

Original source: TechPresident

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Opera digitally mashed up with Barnes, Art Museum masterpieces at Academy of Music

Huffington Post Monday, October 01, 2012

The Opera Company of Philadelphia opens on Friday with its standard performance of La Boheme, but will also include digital images of priceless 19th century art from local museums, reports Huffington Post.

The 30 or so masterpieces were borrowed for the experiment from the Philadelphia Museum of Art and The Barnes Foundation, and transferred into digital Quicktime format. In a phone call with the Huffington Post, David Devan, the Opera's General Director, downplayed the "high-tech" aspect of the design, saying whatever technology was harnessed was done so primarily to "integrate these timeless masterpieces into a largely traditional set.”

Original source: Huffington Post

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UPenn helps engineer skeletal muscles to build robots that move like people

Design News Monday, September 24, 2012

University of Pennsylvania bioengineering professor Christopher Chen is working with a team from MIT on technology that will help build robots that move like people, reports Design News.

The team has genetically engineered muscle cells that flex in response to light. They plan to use these to create small, lightweight robots that are highly articulated, and that can move with the strength, flexibility, and fine motor movements of living creatures. The researchers are among the still small number of engineers in the emerging field of biorobotics.

Original source: Design News

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First Round Capital's Dorm Room fund could expand beyond Philadelphia

Pando Daily Monday, September 24, 2012

Pando Daily likes the idea of the University of Pennsylvania as Stanford of the East, reporting on new UPenn neighbor First Round Capital's Dorm Room fund.

Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and Facebook were started on college campuses. The thinking goes that if students were smart enough to create these companies, then they are smart enough to identify peers with potential. First Round is taking applications for its batch of eight mini-VCs on the Penn and Drexel campuses. Once its initial investment team is picked, those members will choose their own replacements as they graduate.

They’ll be given $500,000 to invest in companies (around $15,000 each) over the course of the school year.

Original source: Pando Daily

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Tampa-based Citizenvestor launches crowdfunding for municipal projects, in Philadelphia

Tampa Bay Business Journal Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Citizenvestor, which taps private funding for municipal public works projects stalled by the public funding pipeline, has launched in Philadelphia, reports the Tampa Bay Business Journal.

The company plans to begin crowdfunding in other cities across the United States before the end of the year. Tampa is on the list of cities to roll out this fall, Raynor said Sept. 12.

Original source: Tampa Bay Business Journal

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Center City startup Connectify takes to Kickstarter for multiple broadcband software

GigaOm Friday, August 10, 2012

GigaOm reports on Philadelphia's Connectify, which created a Kickstarter campaign to fund its project that would combnie Wi-Fi and 4G into a single, fat wireless pipe.

Why would you want to combine multiple broadband connections? Well, if you eat up gobs of bandwidth through file sharing, the aggregated connections would come in handy, but a more typical example revolves around connection management. Connectify’s software allows you to prioritize different links. If you were at an airport or coffee shop with spotty Wi-Fi but didn’t want to max out your 4G hotspot’s monthly data allotment, you could configure Dispatch to tap a free Wi-Fi network’s cheap bandwidth first and only resort to the 4G hotspot when Wi-Fi falters.

Original source: GigaOm

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