PopTech Blog

Energy shop talk: Arun Majumdar on disruptive energy innovation

Beth Cohen — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 17:13:52 +0000

This week, we’re highlighting a few people within the PopTech network who are working on the forefront of disruptive energy innovations, utilizing new technologies, models and scientific discoveries.

Dr. Arun Majumdar is a busy and important man. Appointed by President Obama, Majumdar is the very first Director of the country’s only agency, ARPA-E, devoted to energy research and development that focuses on high risk, high reward technologies promising genuine transformation in the ways we generate, store and utilize energy.

While he got into the energy field because he grew up during the energy crisis of the 70s (some of you may remember the long lines, the searching for gas stations that still had gas, the system of buying gas on odd or even days depending on the last number on your license plate), Majumdar remains in the energy field because it provides him with a way to “give back”. His most deeply held belief about energy? The world is in transition with phenomenal changes in all fields, and US leaders in science and engineering – “the best in the world” – need to innovate in the energy space to enable the rest of the world to turn toward a future that will sustain the world’s population growth and enable economic growth. “That’s the biggest business opportunity for the United States of the 21st century.”

Free webinar series: SVA's Design for Social Innovation

Michelle Riggen-Ransom — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 21:49:24 +0000

Want to learn more about designing for social innovation? The School of Visual Arts’ Design for Social Innovation program is hosting a series of free webinars showcasing “360° of Design”.

The webinar series, beginning February 16th and running over the next few weeks, feature insights and thoughts from design technologist and Studio 5050 founder Despina Papadopoulos, design strategist and ethnographic researcher Marc Rettig, and executive recruiter Lauren McDonald, who’s speaking about how to get a job in design.

Learn more about the program and register for the webinars here. You can also follow them on Twitter @SVADSI.

And check out our interview with PopTech Board Chair and Founding Chair of SVA’s Design for Social Innovation MFA, Cheryl Heller, who talks about this new program.

Energy shop talk: Jay Keasling on plant-based fuels

Beth Cohen — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 21:44:20 +0000

This week, we’ll be highlighting a few people within the PopTech network who are working on the forefront of disruptive energy innovations, utilizing new technologies, models and scientific discoveries.

Jay Keasling (PopTech 2007) introduced himself to me at PopTech’s Energy Disruptors Salon as a professor at UC Berkeley. Keasling, who is considered one of the foremost authorities in synthetic biology, could just as easily have introduced himself as any of a host of other titles including Director, CEO, Department Head, and Scientist of the Year. I like him immediately. He is quick to laugh and at the ready with short, cogent, passionate answers to everything I ask him.

As a synthetic biologist, Keasling didn’t start out in the energy field. But his Nebraskan farm roots inspired him to apply the research he’d been conducting for years to search for new, clean-burning fuels using plants.

When I asked him what one message he’d like to deliver to the world, he was a little stumped. “Just one?” But in the end, his most important message was that if we give the industry the time it needs, we can completely replace petroleum with biomass that’s been converted into fuel.

Energy shop talk: Science Fellow Jessika Trancik wants to pick up the pace

Emily Spivack — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 16:49:28 +0000

In 2011 Science Fellow Jessika Trancik‘s lab, they’re hard at work to quicken the pace of energy solutions for transportation, heat, and electricity that won’t emit the copious amounts of fossil fuel-based carbon dioxide, which have caused global climate change problems. Trancik explained in her PopTech talk that we have about 50 years to alter our energy consumption so we need to act with intelligent haste.

One method to mitigate climate change, which she described, was to combine low-tech materials with higher technological information processing methods. For example, her lab is developing solar cells based on raspberry juice and titanium dioxide, an ingredient commonly found in toothpaste.

By utilizing simple materials with advanced models, moving quickly, and tailoring technologies to the environmental context, we can develop clean tech solutions to meet the world’s energy needs. “We are working on trying to accelerate the development of these clean technologies using knowledge of materials and physics and environmental systems and combining that with computational models,” concluded Trancik.

World Cancer Day Flashback: Siddhartha Mukherjee

Emily Spivack — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 17:06:11 +0000

On World Cancer Day, we’re highlighting the PopTech 2010 talk from Pulitzer Prize winning author Dr. Siddhartha Mukherjee. His book, The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer, and his stage talk explore the history of a disease that one out of every three women and one out of every two men will develop in their lifetime.