Dyson – who is perhaps best known for his bagless vacuum cleaners – is calling for more investment and support for innovative engineering. Together with some of Britain’s most highly regarded industrial leaders, he has developed a number of policy recommendations which the next government should follow to make the UK more competitive and help the country leave the recession behind.

“We need to inspire and enlighten people: science and engineering can change lives, society and the economy,” said Dyson. “High tech exports create real wealth and jobs, and will help set us on a course for sustainable prosperity. If we don’t capitalize on our engineering expertise now there’ll be no turning back.”

The report suggests a stronger bond between universities and companies should be developed by changing the way education is structured. It says large scale projects must be put in place to prove the UK’s ability with high-tech infrastructure, claiming research and engineering has been ignored for decades in Britain.

I personally believe James Dyson is right. The UK has some inherent strengths. It’s the sixth largest manufacturing economy in the world, and has four of the top ten global universities. If they harness the best of both worlds, they can grow their high value add industries in a big way.

View a previously written post by Mouli Cohen about innovation

GreenRoad, which is developing technologies to encourage safe and fuel-efficient driving behavior, intends to use the proceeds to accelerate the deployment of its GreenRoad 360 service among new and existing customers.

GreenRoad 360, the company’s proprietary-based service, provides drivers and fleet managers with real-time, comprehensive and preventative feedback, analysis, reporting and coaching on drivers’ abilities, maneuvers, and patterns.

According to GreenRoad, driving behavior is the largest single contributor to driving safety and fuel efficiency, and costs the US and Europe over $500 billion dollars per year. A typical GreenRoad customer sees up to a 50% reduction in crash costs and up to a 10% reduction in fuel consumption within the first year. As a result, GreenRoad delivers an innovative solution that saves lives, saves fleets money in top vehicle expense categories (fuel, crash, wear & tear, insurance), and provides a cost-effective way to reduce emissions.

GreenRoad is headquartered in Redwood Shores, California, with sales offices throughout the U.S. and UK and an R&D Center in Or Yehuda, Israel, which has 90 employees. The company was founded in 2003 by Chief of Safety Hod Fleishman and CTO Ofer Raz.

I am excited to see Generation working with GreenRoad. GreenRoad’s job is to make our roads safer and greener, and I look forward to seeing what the two can do together to lead the way to cleaner, safer, and more cost-efficient transportation.

View a previously written post by Mouli Cohen about innovation

The 918 Spyder combines high-tech racing features with electric-mobility to offer a wide range of innovative new qualities. For example, it comes with a fuel consumption rate of nearly 78 mpg, which is truly outstanding, even for an ultra compact city car. But the Spyder is intended to offer the performance of a super sports car with a top speed of 198 mph, and a lap time on the Nordschleife of Nurburgring in less than 7:30 minutes, faster than even the Porsche Carrera GT.

How does a supercar achieve such range? The Spyder is a parallel hybrid like the Prius. This means that two powertrains – both gas and electric – can operate together or separately to keep the wheels turning. There are four modes that configure the powertrains for anything from maximum efficiency to maximum performance and everything in between. The E-Drive mode means pure electric power, and the car can reportedly last up to 16 minutes on electrons alone. Next up is hybrid mode, which would be primarily be used for everyday driving. The Sports Hybrid mode uses both powertrains, but leans a little more toward performance with most of the power reaching the rear wheels. Finally, the Race Hybrid mode means all systems are go for the lowest lap times possible.

The Spyder is one of three Porsche models with hybrid drive making their debut at the 2010 Geneva Motor Show. The trio – made up of Porsche’s new Cayenne S Hybrid SUV with parallel full-hybrid drive, the 911 GT3 R Hybrid race car with electric drive, and the two-seater high-performance 918 Spyder mid-engine sports car with plug-in hybrid technology – clearly demonstrates not only the great promise of this new drive technology, but also the innovative power of Porsche as a genuine pioneer in hybrid drive.

The highly-innovative 918 combines Porsche’s Intelligent Performance philosophy with the high-technology from motorsport, with classic but modern design to make what I believe is a truly convincing statement.

View a previously written post by Mouli Cohen about innovative concept cars

BASF’s contributions to the concept car allow for far greater fuel efficiency, a lower environmental impact, freedom of design, as well as greater comfort and safety. The i-flow’s energy concept provides an impressive example of high tech, encapsulating a modern diesel engine with a rigid foam polyurethane insulation system that protects both the engine and the environment. A brilliant effect is provided by a new mirror-like paint from BASF Coatings – the liquid metal basecoat makes the i-flow look as though it is chrome-plated rather than painted. In addition, the innovative iGloss clearcoat makes the paint surface both scratch resistant and weather resistant.

“The i-flow is a milestone on the road to the car of the future. Because Hyundai was quick to involve us in the development process, we were able to offer our full strengths. We are very happy with the outstanding results of our cooperation,” said Dr. Wolfgang Hapke, head of BASF’s Performance Polymers division, at the presentation of the new concept car in Geneva on Wednesday. “BASF proved to be a true partner, with whom we jointly developed innovative solutions for design and engineering. For example, our new ‘fluidic sculpture’ body language is particular well expressed by the innovative coating technique used for the i-flow concept car,” explained Thomas Bürkle, head of Hyundai’s European design center.

View a previously written post by Mouli Cohen about Hi Tech

The keynote speakers promise to maintain a future-oriented perspective, as each will explore a different aspect of next-generation displays. The keynote addresses will kick off on Tuesday, May 25. This year’s speakers will be:

• Dr. Sang-Soo Kim, executive VP, Samsung Mobile Display along with Samsung Fellow and SID Fellow
• Mike Sinnett, vice president/787 systems chief engineer, The Boeing Company
• Steve Bathiche, director of research, Applied Sciences Group, Entertainment and Devices Division, Microsoft Corp.

Another exciting event attendees won’t want to miss is the annual SID luncheon, being held on Wednesday, May 26. Terry Schmidt, chief scientist, Christie Digital Systems, Inc. will reveal what happened “Behind the Screens at the Beijing Summer Games.” Schmidt will walk attendees through the challenges of the high-tech setup in an outdoor venue of this immense scale, and explain how these displays contributed to the overall spectacle of this memorable event.

This is just a sampling of the exciting presentations attendees can expect at this year’s Display Week. More information on the program will be announced soon. You can visit www.sid2010.org for additional information, or follow SID’s Twitter at @DisplayWeek.

What makes Display Week so exciting to me is that it’s kind of like the electronics industry’s crystal ball, previewing display technologies that will enable the commercial products of the future.

View a previously written post by Mouli Cohen about Hi Technology

In general, entrepreneurs and green tech investors believe that putting a price on carbon emissions will act as an incentive for businesses to develop low-carbon energy. Many also argue that utility regulations need to change so that all utilities have an incentive to use energy more efficiently. Meanwhile, financing remains a challenge for many green tech startups because many businesses require hundreds of millions of dollars to produce their products at scale.

The ARPA-E agency was first funded last year with a $400 million budget with the goal of nurturing breakthrough energy technologies. ARPA-E Director Arun Majumdar said the agency is structured to yield “home runs” by focusing research in different areas, such as grid storage or carbon capture and storage, which can be developed within the next three to five years.

In my opinion, the success of early companies such as Tesla Motors, A123 Systems, and solar firm Solyndra show that new technologies are penetrating the market faster than many would have predicted five to eight years ago. But to make a large-scale impact, the industry still needs a handful of enduring success stories. I think we need a moment as a nation when a company goes public and its potential and success infects the average American, so that there’s a change in attitude toward this market.

View a previously written post by Mouli Cohen about clean technologies

The report found that the performing arts supported nearly 5,500 businesses and over 100,000 jobs in 2008/09 – a 20% increase compared to 2006/07 – with over a third of those employed in on-stage occupations. Between the two periods, the number of dancers and choreographers increased by half, while directors, producers, and administrators grew by 17 percent.

But despite nearly half of arts organizations reporting a rise in turnover in 2008/09, 55% did not invest in staff training, while 40% claimed they lacked time to implement training programs.

Just over 10% had accessed public funding designed to aid professional development, with nearly half of the staff receiving no training at all during the same period. ICT, technical, and administration skills showed the most severe shortages.

Pointing to the report’s findings, CCS chief executive Tom Bewick said: “The cracks are beginning to show. If this situation continues, there’s a real risk that the performing arts sector won’t have the skilled staff it needs to take full advantage of future business opportunities and this will prevent it from fulfilling its economic promise.”

With over 150,000 new jobs expected in the sector before the decade draws to a close (over half of which will be in “associate professional and technical roles”), I believe it is vital that performing arts businesses begin to invest in training for these roles as soon as possible.

View a previously written post by Mouli Cohen about arts & culture

First, it could indicate a significant revival of the U.S. technological innovation that has largely slipped away into the hands of China, Germany, and other nations. China is currently excelling ahead in terms of solar power development.

A fuel cell the size of a loaf of bread providing power for home and businesses would also significantly reduce some of the heavy costs of producing and transmitting electricity, as well as drastically cut down on the use of some fossil fuel products. Additionally, such a device would improve air and water quality, and could lead to byproducts yet to be explored or even imagined.

Several major corporations – Wal-Mart, Google, FedEx, Coca Cola, Bank of America, and Cox Enterprises – have ordered the cell boxes, which have been in development for nearly a decade by Bloom Energy under the supervision of a space scientist.

Although the “box” won’t be available for use in homes for several years, care must be taken meanwhile to prevent this promising new product from being smothered in the marketplace by other energy producers fearful of competition.

I personally believe that Bloom’s “box” should be embraced for what it is – an industrial breakthrough whose benefits to society and industry can be adopted and shared, not dreaded.

View a previously written post by Mouli Cohen about California Clean Energy

Last year, U.S. clean tech investments dropped to a five year low, from 72 percent of the worldwide total in 2008 to 62 percent, while Europe and Israel’s percent of the global clean tech market climbed to an all-time high of nearly 30 percent.

According to the CleanTech Group, an investment advisory service provider, despite the solar sector being the largest recipient of clean tech funding, concentrated solar thermal investment declined 90 percent.

In the absence of funding, utilities continued to bring capital and access to credit to the clean tech sector and are playing a fundamental role in getting more projects off the ground.

“North America still attracts the largest percentage of clean tech venture capital, but the fact that it is slightly down is worth noting,” says Dallas Kachan, a managing director at CleanTech Group, a consultancy that pioneered the word clean tech and owns it as a registered trademark. “It underscores that clean tech innovation continues to globalize.”

“As for overall growth in private capital, we believe we’ll actually see a recovery and record year in 2010 for cleantech fundraising,” says Kachan. “Not necessarily in actual venture investments in 2010, but we expect to see record funds raised aimed at clean technologies.

In the absence of a mandatory national cap-and-trade scheme, will voluntary carbon markets bear enough influence to generate greater price alignment between fossil fuels and renewable energy?

I personally don’t think so. While voluntary efforts will continue on a small scale, it will take government intervention in the form of creating and cap and trade market or implementing carbon emissions-related taxation to actually get the business environment to change.

View a previously written post by Mouli Cohen about environmental legislation

The UKIIF was announced by Brown last June and will target slow growing businesses, start-ups and spin-outs including those in the pre-profit and pre-revenue stages of development.

It was announced last month that a total of £125m from the UKIIF will be invested in clean tech and low carbon sectors.

The UKIIF has now completed first closing on the first £200m UK Future Technologies Fund with fund managers the European Investment Fund (EIF), who have in turn raised £100m.

Gordon Brown said: “This fund, seeded by the Government, is bringing private venture capital to growing enterprises. It is already providing £125 million of funding to high tech, low carbon businesses. From today, a further £200 million will be available for life sciences, digital and advanced manufacturing.”

I personally believe the leveraging of the UK government’s funds and expertise coupled with the European Investment Fund’s experience in the EU venture capital market will help the next generation of high growth, high-tech businesses.

View a previously written post by Mouli Cohen about overseas markets