https://plus.google.com/u/0/115038019282085140142
Solve for X is a forum to hear and discuss radical technology ideas for solving global problems. Radical in the sense that the solutions could help billions of people. Radical in the sense that the audaciousness of the proposals makes them sound like science fiction. And radical in the sense that there is some real technology breakthrough on the horizon to give us all hope that these ideas could really be brought to life.
This combination of things – a huge problem to solve, a radical solution for solving it, and the breakthrough technology to make it happen – is the essence of a moonshot.
Solve for X is intended to be a forum to encourage and amplify technology-based moonshot thinking and teamwork.
Anthony Sutera
Anthony Sutera is an entrepreneur in communications, specializing in radio, satellite and wireless communications systems. He has over 20 years experience in creating and managing companies competing in the communications market. Anthony is currently the CEO of Chamtech Enterprises, a company holding several patents on its nano, spray-on antenna technology. Anthony founded Radeum Inc., DBA FreeLinc and was responsible for research and development and patent portfolio for the company`s Near-field Magnetic Induction technology.
Adrien Treuille
Adrien Treuille is an Assistant Professor of computer science and robotics at Carnegie Mellon. One thread of Adrien`s research seeks model-reduction approaches to complex phenomena such as animal morphology, human motion and large fluid systems. A complementary thread addresses scientific challenges through multi-player on-line games such as Foldit (protein folding) and EteRNA (nano-engineering). Adrien has won the NSF CAREER award, and was named one of the top 35 innovators under the age of 35 by Technology Review.
David Berry
David Berry is a Partner at Flagship Ventures and CEO of Essentient. He has founded several life science and sustainability ventures, including LS9, Joule Unlimited, Theracrine, Eleven Biotherapeutics, and Essentient. He received his M.D. from Harvard Medical School and a Ph.D. from MIT, where he served as a member of the MIT Corporation – its Board of Trustees. Among his over thirty scientific and academic awards, David was named as the Innovator of the Year under the age of 35 by Technology Review and received the prestigious Lemelson-MIT Student Prize for invention and innovation.
Kevin Dowling
As VP of R&D at MC10, Kevin Dowling is responsible for driving high-performance stretchable electronics technology into products and applications. Previously, Kevin was VP of Strategic Technologies for Philips Color Kinetics where he led the development of the company`s most innovative and successful lighting and control products. He was also Chief Robotics Engineer for PRI Automation and has been issued over 60 US patents. He received his BS in Mathematics, and MS and PhD degrees in Robotics from Carnegie Mellon University.
www.mc10inc.com
Daphne Preuss
Daphne Preuss is the co-Founder and CEO of Chromatin, Inc., a growth-stage company that is a leading developer of renewable energy crop feedstocks. Daphne co-founded Chromatin after inventing synthetic biology technology that enables rapid improvements of crop characteristics. Prior to joining Chromatin, Daphne was a Professor at the University of Chicago and led a research laboratory in the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. She serves on the Board of the Biotechnology Industry Organization. Preuss earned her Ph.D. at MIT and performed postdoctoral work at Stanford.
Privahini Bradoo
Privahini Bradoo is the Co-Founder and CEO of BioMine, a green mining start up aimed at recycling metals from electronic wastes sustainably and economically. Through her career Priv has been committed to helping combat climate change and move towards a clean tech based economy. Prior to BioMine, Priv led the commercialisation of several clean technology start ups, including LanzaTech and Microvi. Priv holds a PhD in Neuroscience from The University of Auckland and attended Harvard Business School as a Fulbright Scholar.
Robert McGinnis
Rob McGinnis is Co-Founder and Chief Technical Officer of Oasys. Rob invented the Oasys EO Desalination and Water Purification processes and co-invented of the Oasys Osmotic Heat Engine and Osmotic Grid Storage systems, and authored more than a dozen patents in desalination, water purification, chemical separations, heat exchange, and membrane and module design. He earned his B.A. and his PhD in Environmental Engineering at Yale University.
Mary Lou Jepsen
Mary Lou Jepsen is the CEO and Founder of Pixel Qi Corporation, a high tech start up with dual headquarters in Taipei and Silicon Valley. Previously she co-founded One Laptop per Child and served as its Chief Technology Officer and the chief architect of the $100 laptop. She served on the faculty of MIT and was the CTO of Intel`s Display Division. Mary Lou has also done considerable work as a high tech artist, and co-created the first computed holographic video system in the world at the MIT Media Lab.
Omri Amirav-Drory
Omri Amirav-Drory, Ph.D. is the founder & CEO of Genome Compiler Corp, a Synthetic Biology venture. Prior to starting his company, Dr. Amirav-Drory was a Fulbright postdoctoral research fellow at Stanford University School of Medicine & HHMI, performing Neuroscience research using Structural and Synthetic Biology methods. Dr. Amirav-Drory received his Ph.D in Biochemistry from Tel-Aviv university for Biochemical and Structural studies of membrane protein complexes involved in bio-energetics.
Michael Crow
Michael Crow, knowledge enterprise architect, became president of Arizona State University in 2002. He is designing the transformation of ASU into a new highly innovative, high speed adaptive knowledge enterprise which combines academic excellence, inclusiveness, and societal impact – a model he terms the `New American University.` During his tenure, ASU has established major new transdisciplinary schools and research initiatives and witnessed an unprecedented academic infrastructure expansion, tripling of research expenditures, and attainment of record levels of diversity.
president.asu.edu/
Mike Cheiky
Mike Cheiky is the President and Founder of CoolPlanet Energy Systems, which is developing carbon negative fuels. He is the only two-time World Economic Forum Pioneer in the Energy and Environment sector and has won numerous other awards including: the 2008 Strategic News Service Fire Starter Award and the 2007 Forbes List of Disruptive Technologists. He has 12 technology awards to date. He has authored 50 patents and cited in another 500.
Nicholas Negroponte
Nicholas Negroponte founded the MIT Media Lab (1980), WiReD Magazine (1990), and One Laptop per Child. He also wrote Being Digital, a New York Times best seller, and has funded 60 start ups, including Zagat, Sohu, Velti and Diapers.com. Nicholas has recently launched a reading experiment to learn whether poor, remote and primitive kids (5-10 years old) can learn to read on their own with a solar powered, Android tablet suitably loaded with immersive and constructionist material (2012, Ethiopia).
Juan Enriquez
Juan Enriquez is the Managing Director of Excel Venture Management. Juan has authored As the Future Catches You, The Untied States of America, and Homo Evolutis. Juan has been profiled as as `Mr. Gene` (Fortune) and `Darwin for the DNA Age` (Wired). He has helped found or guide over a dozen tech start ups including Synthetic Genomics, Zip Car, Xcellerex, Activate Networks. He sailed around the world with Dr. J. Craig Venter on a sampling expedition that increased the number of known genes by 10X. He negotiated a peace treaty with the Zapatista rebels in Mexico and was the Founding Director of the Harvard Life Sciences Project.
Neal Stephenson
Neal Stephenson is the author of the three-volume historical epic `The Baroque Cycle` (Quicksilver, The Confusion, and The System of the World) and the novels Cryptonomicon, The Diamond Age, Snow Crash, and Zodiac. He lives in Seattle, Washington.
Babak Parviz
Babak Parviz is McMorrow Associate Professor of Innovation at the University of Washington. He received degrees in literature, physics and electrical engineering and after completing a postdoctoral fellowship in chemistry and chemical biology, he joined the University of Washington as a faculty member. His areas of research include nanotechnology, micro systems and biomedical devices. He has received a number of awards including the NSF CAREER Award and MIT TR35.
Mir Imran
Mir Imran is CEO and Chairman of InCube Labs, a life sciences research lab. Mir`s passion is creating medical solutions that dramatically improve patient outcomes and change the standard of care. After earning an EE degree and attending medical school for 3 years, Mir began his career as a med-tech entrepreneur in the late 1970s and has founded over 20 companies since those early days. Mir holds more than 200 issued patents and is perhaps most well-known for his contributions to the first FDA-approved Automatic Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator.
Andreas Raptopoulos
Andreas Raptopoulos is a designer, inventor and entrepreneur. He is the founder and CEO of Matternet, launching a new paradigm for transportation using a network of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles. Previously, Andreas founded FutureAcoustic, a venture that developed a new platform for music that listens and reacts to the user`s environment. He works across the boundaries of business, technology and design and is driven by the desire to change the world and a belief that technology can be a force for immensely positive, widespread change.
