The University of Washington is the most innovative public university in the world, according to a ranking from Reuters that came out this week—and rightly added some swagger to the step of leaders on Montlake.

As with all such lists, however, the Reuters Top 100 World’s Most Innovative Universities ranking is backward-looking, based on a sophisticated view of patent activity and academic journal publications from 2008 to 2013.

According to former President Ronald Reagan, the nine most terrifying words in the English language are: "I'm from the government and I'm here to help."

That thought, on display during Wednesday's presidential debates, is also at the heart of a battle raging between Democrats and Republicans, whose views about governement involvment in everything from health care and education to business are diametrically opposed.

We'll call him Mr. X. He has decades of experience working with some of the biggest players in the airline industry. And he hates flying every bit as much as you do.

The difference, though, is that Mr. X is probably more pragmatic than you or I. So while he originally agreed to this interview to expose the dirty laundry of the airline industry, what he ended up doing was offering a more nuanced explanation of why things were so bad. Thanks to the Internet, air travel has become price-point commoditized in a race to the bottom. And the industry, which is a service rather than a product, is caught up in a cycle of constant maintenance, rather than improvement.

Image: Flickr user shankar s. 

Waterloo Innovation Summit - Later on, the community evolved into a manufacturing hub built on boots, bacon and beverages. Now Waterloo is also a focal point for insurance data management and a venue for world-class university education.

It’s a community where innovation is not just imagined, but expected.

Czech job vacancies soared above 100,000 in August for the first time since 2008, as many companies struggle to find enough qualified staff in a bustling economy with one of the lowest unemployment rates in Europe.

The export-heavy economy grew by 4.4% year-on-year in the second quarter, the fastest rate in the European Union, thanks to rising orders and strong household demand, along with an inflow of EU development subsidies.

Image: Prague's Malostranská metro station. (Flickr/Carlos ZGZ)

These days, there is a lot of talk about “innovation hubs.” When people think about innovation, many think about tech-heavy areas like Silicon Valley or Austin, Texas with young start-up CEOs in jeans and hoodies. Or they think of big cities like Boston and Atlanta where giant companies invest in research and development for the next scientific breakthrough.

Cold Climate Housing Research Center in Fairbanks, Alaska However, rural areas can also be centers of innovation – places like Alaska, where the Cold Climate Housing Research Center is revolutionizing how people can heat their homes efficiently in the Arctic Circle, where energy costs can be staggering.

Image: Map of tech companies in Silicon Valley. Photo credit / source: tellerallaboutit.wordpress.com

The UTSA Libraries, in partnership with the Faculty Center, is proud to present author and media theorist Steven Johnson at 5:30 p.m., Wednesday, October 14 in the Main Building Auditorium (0.104) on the Main Campus. The event is free and open to the community.

LONDON — The number of fish and other species in the sea has been almost halved since 1970, according to a new report from the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and the Zoological Society of London (ZSL).

Numbers dropped some 49% between 1970 and 2012, the report says, with global population sizes of the Scombridae family of food fish that includes tunas, mackerel and bonitos falling by 74%.

If CIOs and IT leaders want an Internet of Things (IoT) initiative to be successful, they’re going to need to work with the business. But expect the relationship between the business and IT to wax and wane as the project develops.

“(IT-led) ideation efforts are good to bootstrap an IoT initiative initially,” Fred Hillebrandt, infrastructure architect at the Monsanto Company, said during his presentation at the recent Gartner Catalyst event. “But, at some point, you want the business to take the reins.”

 

Asia is likely to produce 45 percent of all growth in banking revenues between now and 2020. But McKinsey analysis suggests that global banks should focus their efforts on cities across the continent rather than adopt traditional country-driven strategies—as many do at present (exhibit). In both developed Asia1 and China, more than 95 percent of all banking growth will happen in urban areas. In the former, the greatest potential lies in the ten largest cities, though GDP growth will be higher in tier-two ones. The reason is that wealth in these developed economies is concentrated in regional financial hubs, such as Tokyo, Hong Kong, and Singapore. By contrast, the majority of China’s growth (which will be nearly as great as that of emerging and developed Asia combined) will happen in the country’s roughly 150 tier-two cities,2 which track the growth of GDP and population.

The U.S. Commerce Department today announced that 20 small businesses will receive $3.2 million in grants to spur American innovation and competiveness through federally funded research and development from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

Technical talent is in high demand. As of publishing this post, a LinkedIn job search for “Software Engineers” in the US reveals more than 100,000 open jobs. Adding a couple more tech-related roles (“User Designer,” “Data Scientist”) increases the total to more than 200,000 job openings. Job seekers looking to meet job requirements can enroll in a Master’s degree program, but that comes with a 2-year opportunity cost. Now, a shorter path is emerging: fully immersive coding bootcamps.

Jennifer Goff was fresh out of college when she landed a dream job at a thriving art gallery in San Francisco.

Before long, she climbed the ranks to become the director of PR and media. She loved it, but after three years in the role, she began to feel restless.

"I had adapted to the continuous deadlines, and had established smooth, efficient routines—yet I was less absorbed by the work," says the 27-year-old Goff. "I no longer had moments when I felt ‘in over my head.’ And, oddly, I missed that."

Peter Thiel knows a promising tech startup when he sees one. The investor was the first outside investor in Facebook. But does he have the same touch in biotech?

The prominent Silicon Valley venture capitalist’s investment fund has put its largest ever bet on a biotech company called Stemcentrx, a private and all-but-unheard-of San Francisco company developing cancer drugs that debuted this week with a spectacular valuation worth billions (see “Peter Thiel Backs Biotech ‘Unicorn’ Fighting Cancer Stem Cells”).

If you want to run a successful athletic coaching business, you should begin the process by understanding the mental, psychological and behavioral characteristics needed for success. This comprehensive list of ten characteristics of successful entrepreneurs, along with key questions to ask yourself, will help you get started growing your business. 

Successful entrepreneurs are either crazy, risk-embracing visionaries unafraid to gamble everything to bring their radical innovations to life, or they’re not.

Chances are, they’re not.

Owning your own successful business does require a bit of an independent streak perhaps, but what you really need are a broad set of skills, a good deal of relevant experience, and a willingness to try and try again.

Image: http://blog.udacity.com

For years, Maya Nieder suffered from severe developmental delays, including difficulty communicating and hearing loss. She endured multiple operations and countless tests before exome sequencing revealed a mutation in her genes that had never been seen before. For Maya and her family, the power of sequencing her DNA found an answer and ended a four year search for the cause of her medical illnesses. Maya was the world’s first crowdfunded gene discovery innovated through Rare Genomics Institute.  Now her parents know the cause, and they can stop searching.

In an annual survey of global venture capitalists, investors disclosed what they are most excited about — and what keeps them up at night.

When it comes to investment sectors, U.S. investors were most confident about cloud computing followed by mobile and the Internet of Things. That’s got to be a good forecast for the Seattle region, given it is home to several leaders in the cloud computing space and wireless, including Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and T-Mobile.

Image: 2015 Global Venture Capital Confidence Survey Results (Deloitte and NVCA).

(September 1, 2015 – Washington, DC) – The STEM Funders Network (SFN) announced today the 27 communities selected to pilot the national STEM Ecosystems Initiative. This project, built on over a decade of research into successful STEM collaborations, seeks to nurture and scale effective science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) learning opportunities for all young people. The selected sites from across the United States have committed to collaborate and share their work towards this common vision.

Image: http://www.stemecosystems.org

The hottest new form of seal transportation in Australia is humpback whales.

This enterprising seal was caught hitching a ride on the back of a humpback whale for easier access to some grub the whales were feasting on.

SEE ALSO: A pet rat and a therapy dog have the cutest Instagram you've ever seen

Australian photographer Robyn Malcolm captured the duo off the South Coast in New South Wales during a whale watching trip in Eden. Malcolm said at the time the picture was taken dolphins, seals, birds and whales were all feeding on bait fish.

Image: ROBYN MALCOLM/ DIIMEX.COM