Supported by National Science Foundation (NSF) funding, a new innovation hub led by the University will aim to accelerate entrepreneurship, scientific research, and socioeconomic impact.

On Aug. 25, the NSF announced the establishment of its Innovation Corps (I-Corps) Northeast Hub, one of five new federally funded hubs. Each hub will be allocated $3 million per year for five years and will expand by adding new affiliates each year.

Image: The School of Engineering and Applied Science Candace Do / The Daily Princetonian 

In a little less than 100 years, mankind went from riding horses to spaceflights. Our insatiable desire for discovery and the constant need to travel ensured that the mobility sector saw progress happen at a lightning pace.

Living at a time of innovative new technologies, AI automation, renewable energy advancements and new standards for travelling, we are expecting groundbreaking developments in the upcoming decades that, most likely, will radically change the way we move.

Image: Hyperloop

The sector got a glimpse of its future recently as healthcare institutions and organisations composed their own blockchain models.

There are websites like trustpedia.io/trading-robots/ethereum-trader/ which can help you in getting profitable results in your Bitcoin expedition. Blockchain is a public ledger that is able to store information in a hashed manner. 

In recent times the healthcare industry confronted tons of complications and issues; however, blockchain technology is set to solve them all.

Navigating through never-seen-before circumstances requires creativity; it requires us to think differently. We can’t rely on our past experiences and simply re-hash what we have done previously. In fact, our previous experiences may even hinder effective decision-making, because things are changing so quickly. And what worked yesterday has no guarantee of working today.

Therefore, we need to apply new thinking, to come up with new types of solutions. But let’s face it, the current environment is not exactly conducive to creativity. We are working from home, socially distanced from teammates, family, and friends, juggling home-schooling, and spending evenings bingeing re-runs of Sex and the City (or is that just me?). ‘Creativity’ could not feel further from our reality.

Image: Zoe Aitken (main photo) is the head of consulting at behavioural science and innovation consultancy Inventium and has over 20 years’ experience helping organisations develop customer-centric growth strategies and innovation. In this guest post, Aitken offers top tips to being more creative in this less-than-creative lockdown time…  

The world around us is being disrupted by the acceleration of technology into more industries and more consumer applications. Society is reorienting to a new post-pandemic norm — even before the pandemic itself has been fully tamed. And the loosening of federal monetary policies, particularly in the US, has pushed more dollars into the venture ecosystems at every stage of financing.

Image: https://bothsidesofthetable.com

Based on my experience as a business advisor, most businesses don’t think about the need for change until a crisis occurs. This might be the recognition that competitors are surpassing your own results, financial growth has disappeared, or the pandemic has eliminated loyal customers. Only then do they begin searching for that one-time fix that will restore their leadership position.

Image: https://blog.startupprofessionals.com

Almost every early-stage startup who has approached investors for funding has heard the innocuous sounding rejection “I love your idea, but come back when you have more traction.” What does traction really mean to investors, and how much is enough? Let me try to clarify the rules, and what it takes to win at this game.

Image: https://blog.startupprofessionals.com

The venture world is growing faster than ever, with more funding rounds, bigger funding rounds, and higher valuations than pretty much any point in history. That’s led to an exponential growth in the number of unicorns walking around, and has also forced regulators and venture law researchers to confront a slew of challenging problems.

In the next 10 years, artificial intelligence is expected to transform every industry, and the catalyst for this transformation is 5G. Together, the two technologies will enable fast, secure, and cost-effective deployment of internet of things devices and smart networks. 

AI-powered 5G networks will accelerate the "fourth industrial revolution and create unprecedented opportunities in business and society," Ronnie Vasishta, senior vice president of telecom at graphical chipmaker and software platform developer NVIDIA, said in a special address at the 2021 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona several weeks ago. 

WASHINGTON, D. C. - Cleveland’s NASA Glenn Research Center will play a role in a new federal drive to cut aviation emissions by 20% by 2030 through the use of sustainable fuels and to replace all fuel currently used in the nation’s jets with sustainable alternatives by 2050.

Image: A United Airlines flight takes off from Cleveland Hopkins International Airport with NASA Glenn Research Center in the background. (Marvin Fong, Plain Dealer file photo) The Plain Dealer

Three hundred thirty-one years ago, the first piece of paper money was printed in the United States. The Massachusetts Bay Colony supposedly issued those first bills to fund military action in King William’s War. Flash forward to today, and those bills are as ubiquitous as the British pound or Chinese renminbi. In recent years, however, there have also been talks that those bills may be replaced with a newer form of money altogether: cryptocurrency.

Public sector organizations — from federal, state and local governments to nonprofits and healthcare businesses — are increasingly reaching out to leaders at Amazon asking, “How does Amazon innovate?”

It’s not just because Amazon has established itself as a model for innovation, says Dave Levy, who leads the U.S. government, nonprofit and healthcare businesses at Amazon Web Services (AWS). It’s also because AWS is working with so many public sector organizations to help them innovate, as well.

The annual Humans to Mars Summit kicks off in Washington, D.C. and online today (Sept. 13), and you can watch all the events virtually.

The three-day event, hosted by Explore Mars, will feature panel discussions and speakers from NASA as well as the agency's private and international partners.

"As we emerge from the COVID-19 crisis, Explore Mars plans to carefully introduce more and more in-person activities," Explore Mars CEO Chris Carberry said in a statement. "While H2M 2021 will be mostly virtual, if it is safe to do so we hope that our audiences around the world will conduct H2M gatherings at restaurants, bars, private homes, and other locations."

Image: The 2021 Humans to Mars Summit kicks off on Monday (Sept. 13). (Image credit: Explore Mars, Inc.)

The spread of the Delta variant is forcing companies that haven’t already mandated that their employees be vaccinated to consider doing so. Both the decision about whether to issue such a requirement and the policies for doing so are complex. Seven steps described in this article can provide guidance.

Andreessen Horowitz has made itself into a premier venture capital investing shop on Sand Hill Road.

And recently, it’s been hiring what seems like just about everyone.

WELLESLEY, Mass., Sept. 8, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- More Americans were starting and running new businesses last year despite the economic effects of the pandemic, according to new data reported in the 2020/2021 U.S. Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) Report released today by Babson College.

In 2020, the Total early-stage Entrepreneurial Activity (TEA) rate, which measures the percentage of adults 18-64 actively engaged in starting or running a new business, was 15.4%, down slightly from 17.4% in 2019, but equal to results reported in 2018. The new report shows Americans turned to entrepreneurship when faced with an uncertain labor market. Last year, one-half of entrepreneurs said they were motivated to start a venture because jobs were difficult to find, representing a 22% increase from 2019. Moreover, some 54% of entrepreneurs, and 43% of business owners, reported that the pandemic introduced new business opportunities.

Over the last half century, the global geopolitical balance of scientific, economic, and production capabilities has shifted away from US dominance. The United States is no longer in a singular position of global scientific and technological leadership, and China has become the largest producer and second largest market in the world. Meanwhile, we face equal or greater challenges than ever before on the home front, where economic inequality has increased, social mobility has declined, and political polarization is on the rise.

Congrats on getting to this point. We fund a lot early-stage companies and first-time founders at the Webb Investment Network, so we’ve previously given this question a lot of thought. We broke our roadmap to fundraising down to steps that I hope any first-time founder will find useful. I’d like to give a hat tip to Jonathan Pines, general partner, who helped me with this answer.

Build a model of how much capital you need and want. The first step is to assess how much money you will need. We suggest at least enough to cover operations (headcount, resources, etc.) for 12 to 18 months—no one wants to be raising money every six-to-nine months. Then, build in a good buffer, for example, six months to cover any uncertainty. 

Image: Margaret Jaszowska/Unsplash; Memed_Nurrohmad/Pixabay

When it comes to family offices and venture capital (VC), I have a unique point of view. I am a VC fund manager first and a family office principal second. My perspective comes from the outside in. I know the importance of applying a VC strategy to family offices and have seen the negative impact of a family office operating as a VC. 

My experience as a fund manager who has transitioned my family’s business to a family office has shown me what works and what does not. In a world where yields are globally low, maximizing those benefits as a family office is now more crucial than ever.

Throughout her amazing career, today’s guest has had a huge impact on the Tech Transfer community and continues to do so today. Kathy Ku has been working in Tech Transfer since the 1980s and in this episode she shares her unique journey describing her career moves as “happenstance.”

Image: Katharine Ku Wilson Sonsini