Innovation starts with corporate culture -- it needs to be fostered throughout departments, encouraged and, perhaps most importantly, followed up on. What defines innovation in the enterprise is constantly evolving and changing. In today's business climate, innovation hovers steadily around technology and keeping on top of the latest industry trends to stay relevant.

Pamela Rucker, chair at the Technology Advisory Council, and CIO Advisor for Women in Leadership on the CIO Executive Council, says that innovation is moving at lightning speed, allowing business to grow and flourish in ways they never could before.

Image: http://www.cio.com/

SEATTLE, WA – PitchBook and the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) today launched the inaugural PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor, a brand new quarterly report to serve as the definitive source of information on U.S. venture capital activity in the entrepreneurial ecosystem. According to the Venture Monitor, nearly 2,000 investors deployed close to $15 billion in venture financing to more than 1,800 companies in the entrepreneurial ecosystem during the third quarter. The third quarter marked the fifth straight quarterly decline in the number of companies receiving venture investment and a 32% quarter-over-quarter decline. Despite a relative slowdown in venture investment activity, a continued rise in fundraising activity and optimism from leaders in the investment community signal continued confidence in venture’s role to drive innovation, create new job opportunities and advance the economy.

Every year millions of refugees abandon their native lands. But the number of internally displaced people—those who leave their home yet remain inside their nation—is even greater and is rising fast (A). In 2015 alone, 28 million individuals were forced to make such a move (B). Ironically, many countries will protect and assist refugees who cross into their territory but give no help to people who migrate internally in response to violence, natural and man-made disasters, or evolving crises such as drought. The migrants may live under terrible conditions for years. By highlighting this disturbing trend, international agencies hope that aid to them will improve.

Image: https://www.scientificamerican.com

Is California going to experience a massive earthquake this week? Probably not. But judging from my Facebook feed over the last couple of days, plenty of people are worried. Warnings have gone out that there's a heightened risk of a major quake on the San Andreas fault due to an earthquake swarm near the Salton Sea. And yes, that swarm has changed forecasts a bit

Image: USGS

The nature of research is that there are always questions to answer. But, having questions for further research doesn’t mean there are not any facts.

Such is the case with immigrant entrepreneurship.

Like an encyclopedia for entrepreneurship, the Kauffman Foundation-created State of the Field summarizes the current state of knowledge about various entrepreneurship topics.

State of the Field’s immigration section begins with a fact: “We know that immigrants in the United States tend to be more entrepreneurial than the native-born population.”

Amazon will pitch in $10 million toward a new $110 million University of Washington building to help the school as much as double the number of computer science students it trains each year.

UW’s Paul G. Allen Center for Computer Science and Engineering is so full the program is spilling over into other buildings. Ninety percent of students who graduate from UW’s computer science program takes jobs in the state.

Image: We’re proud to support UW as they expand their computer science program," Amazon CEO --- ANTHONY BOLANTE | PUGET SOUND BUSINESS JOURNAL

IN the public mind, entrepreneurs have been reduced to young people who want to create world-changing businesses that can quickly reach $1 billion or more in market value—the fabled “unicorns.”

But is that all there is? A more useful definition of entrepreneur might be someone who sees an opportunity to create value and is willing to take the risk necessary to capitalize on that opportunity.

Yoshinori Ohsumi, a Japanese cell biologist, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine on Monday for his discoveries on how cells recycle their content, a process known as autophagy, a Greek term for “self-eating.”

It is a crucial process. During starvation, cells break down proteins and nonessential components and reuse them for energy. Cells also use autophagy to destroy invading viruses and bacteria, sending them off for recycling. And cells use autophagy to get rid of damaged structures. The process is thought to go awry in cancer, infectious diseases, immunological diseases and neurodegenerative disorders. Disruptions in autophagy are also thought to play a role in aging.

Image: http://www.nytimes.com

Salt Lake City—The Utah Science Technology and Research Initiative (USTAR), Utah’s premier technology-based economic development program, today announced its Technology Acceleration Program (TAP) has provided $639,000 to 12 early-stage companies throughout Utah in its pilot round, a result of the initiative’s new direction in helping build a robust innovation ecosystem in Utah. USTAR also released its annual report, which explains in more detail its new direction and enhanced focus on the commercialization of science and technology ideas generated from public and private sources.

When writing the screenplay for 1968's 2001, Arthur C. Clarke and Stanley Kubrick were confident that something resembling the sentient, humanlike HAL 9000 computer would be possible by the film's namesake year. That's because the leading AI experts of the time were equally confident.

Clarke and Kubrick took the scientific community's predictions to their logical conclusion, that an AI could have not only human charm but human frailty as well: HAL goes mad and starts offing the crew.

Image: Unsplash user Oliver Cole

The United States has on its Aegis-class cruisers a defense system that can track and destroy anti-ship missiles and aircraft. Israel has developed a drone, the Harpy, that can detect and automatically destroy radar emitters. South Korea has security-guard robots on its border with North Korea that can kill humans.

All of these can function autonomously — without any human intention.

In his landmark 1985 book, Innovation and Entrepreneurship, famed author and educator Peter Drucker wrote about an entrepreneurial society and its impact on economic development. “Entrepreneurship rests on a theory of economy and society,” he wrote. “The theory sees change as normal and indeed as healthy. And it sees the major task in society — and especially in the economy — as doing something different rather than doing better what is already being done.” What does it mean, then, to live in a society that is becoming more entrepreneurial? I see six major signs:

Mark Cuban has had a bumpy relationship with the healthcare community, but his approach seems to be evolving with a recent step into the world of healthcare venture capital.

According to Inc., the Shark Tank host is the latest to note the issues with healthcare’s middlemen, and has decided to do something about the problem by specifically targeting pharmacies. Cuban describes his vision as a world without the Main Street staple of modern healthcare delivery, predicting that “over the next 15 to 20 years, medicine will be so personalized there will be no drugstores.”

BUSINESS is full of weird and wonderful phrases – the stock market is piled high with “bears”, “bulls”, “white knights” and even “dead-cat bounces”.

Yet few phrases conjure up such colourful images as “business angels”, rich businesspeople who spread their wings and swoop down to invest money in start-up companies.

Image: http://www.scotsman.com

Advocates for the high-risk “angel investing”—writing personal checks to fund startups and small businesses—told attendees of the Baton Rouge Area Chamber’s monthly luncheon today that private funding can give startups a much-needed boost and the money is typically funneled back into communities if those companies are successful.

Many entrepreneurs have few options for raising money for their business venture aside from angel investors, said Mike Eckert, chairman of the NO/LA Angel Network, a group of 135 investors. That’s where his group of private investors comes in, with the network finding entrepreneurs and connecting them with people who can write the checks.

The Hampton Roads Innovation Collaborative said it's working with the city of Norfolk to launch a cybersecurity-focused regional business accelerator.

HRIC, formerly Technology Hampton Roads, and Norfolk will share the program management responsibilities, according to a news release. Allen Baker is the point person with Norfolk’s Department of Development.

Mattias Ulbrich, CIO of Audi, discusses technology trends in the automotive industry and how his team is enabling next-generation manufacturing practices.

Many companies are embedding sensors in product components and equipment to streamline manufacturing processes, improve yields, and create new business opportunities.

Herndon, VA (PRWEB) October 04, 2016

The Center for Innovative Technology (CIT) announced today the Commonwealth Research Commercialization Fund (CRCF) Request for Proposals (RFP) for FY2017. The solicitation opens today and Letters of Intent (LOIs) are due by Thursday, November 10th. Award announcements are planned for early June 2017.

The CRCF grows Virginia’s economy by supporting high-potential technology commercialization projects at Virginia's public and private colleges and universities, the private sector and nonprofit research institutions. A single solicitation for $2.8 million will be offered in FY2017, with five programs available for funding: Commercialization, SBIR Matching Funds, STTR Matching Funds, Matching Funds and Eminent Researcher Recruitment.

The chief scientist called for it. Harvard, Columbia and Stanford Universities already have them and RMIT and Victoria University are among the increasing number of Australian Universities that have them.

Entrepreneur-in-residence (EiR) programs are certainly growing in popularity, as is the broader field of innovation and entrepreneurship in the Australian economy, but why do we need them in our higher education system and why should each institution have one?

Image: http://www.startupsmart.com.au

Educators around the world are slowly rethinking the role of the arts and arts integration in their curricula in the wake of basic changes in the world’s economy ... revolutionized by the Internet and its progeny, the World Wide Web.

Arts integration not only enhances memory and retention. It engages students and dramatically fosters empathy, a must have skill in the new knowledge economy. Combined with project based learning or real world experiences, teachers can open doors for students, allow connections to be made and help give them the skills they need to compete in an economy that values not just knowledge but creativity, creativity that leads to innovation.

Image: http://www.huffingtonpost.com