Cities (urban areas or settlements) have been around for millennia. Over that time, cities have changed in form and function. But the way that people move around the city has materially changed only twice. Walking was predominant until less than 200 years ago, then came mass transit, the automobile and now autonomous cars and some substitution for driving by online technology.

Image: http://www.newgeography.com

MassChallenge marked the end of its first digital health cohort PULSE@MassChallenge with assurances from Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker that the Commonwealth would back a second class of digital health businesses and provide funding for health technology innovation center TechSpring. Health technology businesses with eye tracking technology for concussion detection, virtual reality to reduce social isolation for nursing home residents and a telehealth alternative to ambulance radios were among the 31 participants in the inaugural class to be singled out at the Boston event.

Last month economist William Baumol passed away at the age of 95. His death was universally mourned by members of the economics community, many of whom shared the view that he had passed before receiving a much-deserved Nobel Prize. One of us (Robert) had the great privilege of working with him, befriending him, and being able to regularly witness his economic wisdom, even in his later years.

Small businesses are encouraged to submit their technology ideas to HHS for funding consideration. Researcher-initiated ideas are proposed via the SBIR and STTR Omnibus grant solicitations (also called funding opportunity announcements or FOAs). Applicants should speak with an HHS SBIR/STTR program manager BEFORE submitting an application. Program managers will discuss the Institute or Center (IC)’s interest in the proposed technology and can offer application-specific advice.

To fill a pair of life-sciences buildings on the East Side it built during the past decade, Alexandria Real Estate Equities recruited big pharmaceutical companies, like Eli Lilly and Roche, as anchor tenants. Now the firm is focusing on startups it hopes will spur the next wave of growth at its Alexandria Center for Life Science campus.

Image: Photo: Courtesy of Alexandria Real Estate Equities - Alexandria Center for Life Science

After years toiling away in secret on its car project, Apple CEO Tim Cook has for the first time laid out exactly what the company is up to in the automotive market: it’s concentrating on self-driving technology.

“We’re focusing on autonomous systems,” Cook said in an interview on Bloomberg Television. “It’s a core technology that we view as very important.

“We sort of see it as the mother of all AI projects,” Cook said in his most detailed comments to date on Apple’s plans in the car space. “It’s probably one of the most difficult AI projects actually to work on.”

In a recent survey of 246 CEOs from around the world, "having the right culture to foster and support innovation" was rated the most important ingredient to ensure a organization's success. In other words, if innovation is the big fish companies are trying to hook, culture is the ocean in which those fish are swimming.

Image: http://www.ideachampions.com

In 1889, the company that Thomas A. Edison founded joined with two others to form what would become one of the most storied conglomerates in the United States. Called Edison General Electric, the company mirrored the growth of industrial America from the steam age to the age of electricity and beyond.

During World War II, General Electric supplied the United States military with executives and equipment manufacturing. In the postwar boom, G.E. sold appliances that helped free America’s housewives from the kitchen.

Image: Thomas Edison’s incandescent lamp, which used carbonized bamboo for the filament.Credit Associated Press

Every May, graduates cast off into the real world. On such occasions, those who’ve been there before — parents, relatives, teachers — take the opportunity to bestow hard-earned wisdom. Naturally, students are busy being caught up in the milestone: the meaning of one chapter closing and the promise of launching into the next. So, despite best intentions, even the most thoughtful, measured graduation speeches can dissolve once “Pomp and Circumstance” plays. Even the most instructive, inspiring book, which served as a life manual to others, collects dust.

Few issues are more foundational to driving improvements in human health than creating productive, progressive relationships between clinical medicine and the biopharmaceutical industry. The big public health problems that humanity faces today — including Alzheimer’s disease, cancer, and metabolic and infectious disease — will not be solved by either sector working in a silo. But the interface between the two has never been more tense. Legitimate concerns over conflict of interest that have resulted in overly extreme preventative policies are a central cause. It is time for all parties to revisit those policies and replace them with rules that recognize both true conflicts and true confluences of interest. They are essential to forging the strong collaborations that are worthy of society’s trust.

If your startup is looking for an angel investor, it makes sense to present your plan to flocks of angels, and assume that at least one will swoop down and scoop you up. Or does it? Actually numbers and locations are just the beginning. The challenge is to find the right angel for you, and for your situation. Here are some basic principles:

If you weren’t sure the influence of startups and startup accelerators before now, after this story there will be no doubt. Often thought of as the most progressive Pope to date, Pope Francis and the Vatican have announced a new startup accelerator. The accelerator, Laudato Si’ Challenge, wants to launch startups that “sustainably solve the global climate change crisis by 2030”.

Image: http://www.nibletz.com

Late last week BuzzFeed News reported that the site NowThisNews requires that all of its new employees sign noncompete agreements, which stipulate that employees can not work for competitors for as long as two years after their employment at NowThis. The noncompete even spells out the forbidden companies, including Vox, BuzzFeed, Vice, CNN, and adds a clause that more could be added to the list whenever NowThis saw fit.

Throughout the dismal presidential campaign, the plight of America’s manufacturing sector played a central role. Yet despite all the concerns raised about factory jobs leaving the country, all but 18 of the country’s 70 largest metropolitan regions have seen an uptick in industrial employment since 2011. And despite the slowdown in car sales, the job count continues to expand, albeit more slowly. 

Image: http://www.newgeography.com

If you work in the fastest-growing occupation in the United States–as a personal care aide assisting elderly and disabled people–you probably earn a little more than minimum wage. But that’s not enough to afford a two-bedroom rental anywhere in the country. In more than 99% of American counties, it’s not even enough to make a one-bedroom affordable.

“The world is transitioning from the Industrial Era that we have grown up in, into the Fifth Era of digital and biotechnology disruption and change. Most people are not sure how to participate,” says Matthew C Le Merle, a Silicon Valley insider, Managing Partner of Keiretsu Capital, an affiliate of the US-headquartered global angel investor network Keiretsu Forum. Matthew and another Silicon Valley insider Alison Davis in their book Build your fortune in the Fifth Era: How to prosper in an age of unprecedented innovation, say the wealth being built in the transition to the Fifth Era is being captured in the early stages of business formation. Entrepreneurs are changing the world and angels perch on their shoulders.

Image: MATTHEW C LE MERLE, Managing Partner of Keiretsu Capital - http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/

Many companies loudly proclaim their desire to innovate, but how many know what it actually takes?

The most innovative companies don't tell their employees how to innovate. They suppress traditional management and instead manage the chaos, trusting it will lead to creative breakthroughs.

Image: Alphabet Chair and Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt shares how institutionalized defiance + quick decision making allow innovation to thrive on this week's Masters of Scale podcast. (Photography by Jacqui Ipp) https://www.linkedin.com

Although startups based in California, New York, and Massachusetts have traditionally accounted for the majority of VC tech investment activity in the United States, VCs are spurring other hotbeds of innovation across the country.

With this in mind, we used CB Insights data to analyze the most active venture capital firm, by the number of investments into tech startups, in each US state from 2012 to 2017 year-to-date (through 5/17/17).

Image: https://www.linkedin.com

One of the biggest challenges to innovation is the middle part of the process - where most of the work is happening behind the scenes. As your innovation campaign progresses, you must continue to instill excitement across all team members, and find ways to reengage them as advocates. In this case study, we’ll examine how Dick’s Sporting Goods engaged their employees in product development and effectively encouraged them to participate in their innovation community.

According to Gartner Research, crowdsourcing is one of the least used, but most impactful digital hacks.This infographic looks at market predictions and the traits of successful crowdsourcing and innovation management programs in order to help innovators plan for the next generation of disruptions

Image: https://ideascale.com