Solar Tile Combines PV Panel with Storage Battery

Researchers at the Amrita Center for Nanoscience and Molecular Medicine in Kochi, India have developed a mobile power unit that combines a super-capacitor with photovoltaic panels. While the prototype is bulky and crude, they promise to develop a thinner and flexible solar tile with improved storage capacity.

“After just four hours in the sun the Amrita Smart solar tile holds enough power to charge laptops and mobile phones in as little as two hours, and can store the energy for up to seven days if not immediately required.”


Reference and photo credit: Burgess, James, Indian Company Combines a PV Solar Panel with a Storage Device for Mobile Power, May 10, 2012
 

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Ray Kurzweil – Exponential Learning & Entrepreneurship

Ray Kurzweil is an MIT educated American futurist, who is known for his innovations in the fields of optical character recognition, text-to-speech synthesis, speech recognition technology, and electronic keyboard instruments.  Here is an excerpt from the Learning Without Frontiers Conference held in London in January 2012.  http://www.learningwithoutfrontiers.com

"His main prescriptions are for more project-based learning, led by the students' passions and interests, and for the incorporation of computers as 'amplifiers' of human thinking in the classroom."


Reference:  John Speller, Ray Kurzweil – Exponential Learning & Entrepreneurship, May 19, 2012
 

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Steve Job’s biography reads like a movie script. A modest background. A supreme genius that dazzles millions of people by making computing fun and user friendly. A difficult personality that got him fired from the company he founded. And then a come back, and a return to Apple Inc., to turn it into a multi-billion dollars company and a household name.

In this video, Steve outlines his vision in response to a question, in front of a group of people at Apple, Inc.

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Bey2ollak: A Social Media App for Cairo’s Traffic

In a sprawling mega-city with population approaching 20 million, traffic jams are a part of the common public experience. However, Google is offering a way to leverage ideas and brains of young entrepreneurs by organizing a business competition for innovative ideas. According to Google’s VP of emerging markets in South and Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, “We’re not interested in starting revolutions. We have no position. But we know that if you empower people with enough information and knowledge, they will make the right choice.”

One such project is a winner of $200,000 in seed money. It is a social media start-up known as Bey2ollak, whose free crowd-sourcing app allows local residents to report on and avoid traffic. “Bey2ollak allows drivers and passengers to use smart phones to report whether specific roads and bridges in Cairo and Alexandria are clear, clogged, or impassable.”

Video on Cairo's Traffic:



Reference: King, Noel, After Aiding Egypt's Revolution, Social Media Is Taking On Cairo's Traffic, May 22, 2012

Face.com's Age Recognition Technology

Face.com, an identity recognition app for social networks was developed in Tel Aviv. It was recently acquired by Facebook for $ 100 million.

It is designed to facilitate identity recognition on the web and mobile phones. When you upload a photo on the web, it is simultaneously scanned by the Face.com system, which has a database of 18 billion photos.  It would quickly match your photo to existing information on the net.  Face.com will continue to offer its technology and database to third party companies.

Reference:  Edon Ophir, Tech Tools, Tel Aviv Digital Edition

Waze: an iPhone App for the Road

Tel Aviv has many innovative start-ups, which are developing successful mobile applications. For example, Waze is a type of Wikipedia for mapping. “This application is not only a local hit, but a rising force in the United States, Italy and in other global markets.”

The maps are community-sourced and rely on inputs from users and map-editors. Its trend-setting traffic component notifies users about real time road conditions such as accidents, police check points, road hazards and other conditions.
  


Reference: Edon Ophir, Tech Tools, Tel Aviv Digital Edition

EdX Online Education Platform

EdX is a joint creation of MIT and Harvard University. “The partnership strives to bring online learning to people across the globe and offers online classes for free.” EdX courses use quizzes, videos, feedback and other methods to engage students in online learning. EdX is a non-commercial, nonprofit platform which received $ 60 million in funding from Harvard and MIT. It offers not-for-credit courses to a worldwide audience. It also received $1 million dollars in support from Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in May.

UC Berkeley is the first public university to join the EdX platform. “The addition of UC Berkeley will give the “edX” online effort its first expansion into a prestigious public university and a foothold on the West Coast away from its Cambridge, Mass. Base.”


Reference: Access Granted: EdX Offers Courses from MIT, Harvard, Metro NY, July 30, 2012 and UC Berkeley joins online education platform of Harvard and MIT, LA Times Blogs, July 24, 2012
 

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