The evolving relationship between humans and machines is the key theme of Gartner, Inc.'s "Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies, 2013." Gartner has chosen to feature the relationship between humans and machines due to the increased hype around smart machines, cognitive computing and the Internet of Things. Analysts believe that the relationship is being redefined through emerging technologies, narrowing the divide between humans and machines. 

In a financially stretched healthcare market, medical technology is sometimes seen as an expensive luxury. But use of the RIGHT technology can actually cut the overall cost of medical treatment and improve patient outcomes. You might be wondering how…

We live longer now, and we are more sedentary, so chronic diseases such as diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and Alzheimer’s are on the rise. These long-term degenerative diseases place a high cost burden on our healthcare systems. The sooner doctors can detect, treat, and/or prevent these conditions in patients, the more they can reduce this burden. This presents exciting opportunities for medtech companies to demonstrate R&D ingenuity.

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Moore’s Law predicts that every two years the cost of computing will fall by half. That is why we can be sure that tomorrow’s gadgets will be better, and cheaper, too. But in American hospitals and doctors’ offices, a very different law seems to hold sway: every 13 years, spending on U.S. health care doubles.

The pharmaceutical industry has evolved to be an integration innovator, embracing external discovery while jealously protecting the core business. But this type of open innovation is subject to operator bias and is driven by common industry needs and the blockbuster business model. Join us for our IM Channel One Ask the Expert Q&A on October 1st to learn how open innovation can bring unprecedented access to adjacent industries where unobvious technologies can have a major impact on pharmaceutical innovation.

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The not invented here syndome is commonplace around the world.  It probably stems from Ronald Coase’s treatise on the importance of transaction costs.  Coase believed that the cost of finding and recruiting talent meant you were duty bound to have the best brains within your organisation.  That was of course 75 years ago.  Has the world changed?

Quite probably so.  Organisations from a wide range of sectors are now opening up their innovation processes to people outside of their organisation.  GE for instance have ecoMagination and their recent partnership with Quirky.  Lego have their Cuusoo platform.  Darpa are using the crowd to design their latest tank, and so on.

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Microsoft announced tonight that it will buy Nokia's devices and services division. This is the part of Nokia that makes smartphones (and soon) tablets.

Microsoft will pay 3.70 billion Euro for Nokia's devices business. That's nearly $5 billion is U.S. dollars. Microsoft will also pay an additional 1.65 billion Euro ($2.2 billion U.S.) for the rights to Nokia's patents.

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African nations have called for continent-wide action to staunch the import of electronic waste, including old computers and mobile telephones from Europe where stringent environmental laws make exporting used goods cheaper than disposing of them at home.

In a document released this week, African countries that adopted an international convention on hazardous waste called for uniform action to end the import of discarded electronic goods containing dangerous components. In some cases, the products are sent as donations for reuse even though they are no longer useful.

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Contemporary tech titans seem to be of the same ilk: single-minded, determined, obsessive.

“Intense” with a “passion for perfection” and a “ferocious drive” is how biographer Walter Isaacson characterizes the late Steve Jobs. “Absurd in her obsession with detail,” reports Nicholas Carlson in Business Insider about Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer. “Obsessed with efficiency” and possessing “tunnel vision” notes The New Yorker contributor Ken Auletta in describing Google co-founder Sergey Brin. And Elon Musk, the head of Tesla Motors and Space-X, puts in up to 100-hour weeks to get everything just right.

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This position is aimed at a junior innovation management scholar wishing to establish a career and professional network within the innovation management community. This is a remunerated position, but of greater importance and benefit to the successful applicant is the learning and networking opportunity that the position provides within ISPIM and its network. The successful applicant will be the main executor of ISPIM Membership, Event, Services and Activity Communications/Marketing and will have direct contact with individual members & associates, associations, organisations, publications, websites and social media. The candidate will be fully promoted by ISPIM within the global innovation management community.

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A new species of "walking" shark has been discovered in a reef off a remote Indonesian island.

These sharks don't always rely on "walking" to move about — often, they only appear to touch the seafloor as they swim using their pectoral and dorsal fins in a walklike gait, said Fahmi (who only goes by one name), a shark researcher at the Indonesian Institute of Science who wasn't involved in the study describing the species. In the videoof the newfound walking shark, however, the animal is clearly touching the seafloor.

We’ve said it before on this blog (courtesy of MBA Career Management), but these facts deserve a second look: not only is the number of students starting their own business after graduation continuing to rise, but the incoming Class of 2015 may prove to be the most entrepreneurial class yet! This according to Wharton MBA Admissions data. And now that they’re here on campus, we’ve got more to share about the newly arrived class of 2015.

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Irish Innovation: While basic or curiosity research is important, Irish and European science lobbies are pressurising governments to give funding priority to it even though innovation does not necessarily follow from science. Helga Nowotny, president of the European Research Council (ERC) says: "Scientific curiosity, given sufficient space and autonomy, remains the most powerful driving force behind the completely unforeseeable transformations in how our societies develop. In order to understand what science can do for Europe, it is important to clarify what science - - that is, curiosity-driven frontier research -- cannot do for Europe: deliver results that can immediately be commercialised." True but Europe's more important problem is that it is poor at innovation, which mainly depends on utilising existing knowledge rather than new scientific discoveries. The scientists want to have control of budgets with no mission targets even though Louis Pasteur (1822-1895), one of Europe's greatest scientists, had the goal of improving public health and historically, the US government's spending on basic research, has always had some mission goal: the Manhattan Project; the Cold War, the Space Mission and Public Health.

The science of innovation is not really new but has been developing for a long, long time . . . perhaps for centuries, but certainly longer than we generally think.  Along the way, there have been untold numbers of revolutionaries, explorers and inventors who have contributed to our understanding of innovation ecosystems, sometimes reaching across hundreds of years to connect ideas.  One of those ideas linked across the centuries is trust.

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Health care organizations in North America are projected to spend more than $34.5 billion on health IT in 2014 to comply with health care regulations, according to a new report from Technology Business Research, Clinical Innovation & Technology reports. For the report -- titled "SourceIT Healthcare Report" -- researchers interviewed 225 health IT executives and line-of-business managers and conducted 25 in-depth interviews to learn about spending intentions, priorities and perceptions (Pedulli, Clinical Innovation & Technology, 8/29).

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We're all just so "busy" these days. "Slammed" in fact. "Buried." Desperately "trying to keep our heads above water." While these common responses to "How are you?" seem like they're lifted from the Worst Case Scenario Handbook, there seems to be a constant exchange, even a a one-upping, of just how much we have on our plates when we communicate about our work.

“Should I learn to code?”

MBAs who lack programming skills often ask this question when they pursue careers in technology companies.

Bloggers like Yipit co-founder Vin Vacanti have shared views on the payoff from learning to code, as have several students at Harvard Business School, including Dana Hork, Matt Boys, and Matt Thurmond.

I thought it’d be helpful to supplement bloggers’ perspectives with some survey data. I received responses from 24 of the 41 HBS students who enrolled over the past two years in CS50, the introductory computer science course at Harvard College.

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Verizon is laying claim to its name. The US phone company is spending $130 billion to buy the 45 percent of Verizon Wireless it didn't already own from Vodafone, its longtime British partner.

It's a high price—$59 billion in cash, the rest in stock, and almost as much as Verizon itself is worth. That in itself suggests that the future of telecom is in wireless, since the market doesn't seem to attribute much value to Verizon's traditional wired phone business.

There's been no shortage of media reporting on the ongoing decline in driving in the United States. Since 2004, Americans have been decreasing their per-capita miles driven every year. What's less clear is why it's happening. A new report shows just how little we understand the trend. In some circles, skeptics have balked at the dip, arguing it's merely an effect of the sluggish economy. Owning a car and paying for gas isn't cheap, so it's logical to assume when times are tough, people would cut back on automobile trips.

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Korea’s top ten enterprises will actively participate in the actualization of the “creative economy.” They have decided to invest 35% of their prospective investment monies into the biotech businesses, medical robot development, biomass plants, and other creative economy projects. 

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A Bay Area venture capital fund run by UC Berkeley and Stanford students believes that it need not look past the dorm room for investment opportunities.

In April, Dorm Room Fund, a $500,000, largely student-run fund, began investing in the startups of currently enrolled or recently graduated students in the Bay Area. It aims to address the lack of financial resources for students who have innovative ideas and help their startups grow into strong businesses. Startups chosen by the fund typically receive a $20,000 early-stage investment.

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