A new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine outlines a research agenda for improving the commercial viability of technologies that turn greenhouse gases from the burning of fossil fuels into useful products such as fuels, construction materials, and chemicals.

To achieve goals for climate and economic growth, “negative emissions technologies” (NETs) that remove and sequester carbon dioxide from the air will need to play a significant role in mitigating climate change, says a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

Most of the alternative technologies to open burning and open detonation (OB/OD) of conventional munitions designated for disposal are mature, including contained burn and contained detonation chambers with pollution control equipment, and many are permitted to replace OB/OD of waste munitions, says a new report by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

Along with participation in the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) project – a large, international burning plasma experiment – the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) should start a national program of accompanying research and technology to build a compact pilot plant that produces electricity from fusion at the lowest possible capital cost, says a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

Biotechnology has the potential to be a part of the solution in protecting forest trees against destructive pest and disease outbreaks

A new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine recommends changes in the way that the U.S. Department of Energy manages science and technology (S&T) development in order to accelerate the cleanup of radioactive waste and contaminated soil, groundwater, and facilities at U.S. nuclear weapons sites.

Chairwoman Johnson, Ranking Member Lucas and members of the Committee, thank you for the opportunity to testify today. I am Marcia McNutt, president of the National Academy of Sciences.

Autonomous vehicles (AV) took center stage at the Chair’s Luncheon of the Transportation Research Board’s annual meeting today.

Mary Ann de Lares Norris is Chief Operating Officer of Oblong Industries. She brings her dog LouLou to Oblong's downtown LA headquarters.; Credit: Brian Watt/KPCC

KPCC recently reported on the tech world’s diversity problem. Technology firms face challenges in hiring diverse staffs of its coders, web developers and software engineers.

It’s also a challenge at nonprofits such as Southern California Public Radio,  parent of 89.3 KPCC, which has always sought to build a staff that reflects the region it serves. The section of that staff that develops the KPCC app and makes its website run is all white and mostly male.

But a small talent pool means the diversity challenge is even greater for nonprofits and even smaller tech firms.

“The first problem is that all of the people working for me are male,” says Alex Schaffert, the one female on KPCC’s tech team.  “I’m kind of focusing on maybe getting another girl into the mix.”

Schaffert can use the term “girl” because she happens to be the leader of the tech team:  KPCC’s Managing Director of Digital Strategy and Innovation. 

Why diversity is important

Schaffert recently launched the topic of diversity – or lack thereof – at a weekly meeting of her team. She expected a “stilted and awkward” discussion from the five white men on her team, but a few of them didn’t hold back.  

“Not having diversity represented on the team leaves us more susceptible to circular thinking and everyone sort of verifying each other's assumptions,” said Joel Withrow,  who was serving at the time as KPCC’s Product Manager. “It impacts the work. It limits what you’re able to build.”

Sean Dillingham, KPCC’s Design and Development Manager, said living in a diverse community is what attracted him to Los Angeles, and he wants diversity in his immediate work team, too.

“When I look at other tech companies, I will often go to their ‘about us’ page, where they’ll have a page of photos of everyone, and I am immediately turned off when I just see just a sea of white dudes, or even just a sea of dudes,” Dillingham said.

Big competition, small talent pool

Dillingham and Schaffert are currently recruiting heavily to fill two tech-savvy positions. When a reporter or editor job opens up at KPCC, Schaffert says close to 100 resumes come in.

"But if you post a programmer job, and you get three or four resumes, you may not get lucky among those resumes," she says. "There may not be a woman in there. There may not be a person of color in there."

In other words, the talent pool is already small, and the diversity challenge makes it even smaller. KPCC is competing for talent with Google and Yahoo and all the start-ups on L.A.’s Silicon Beach. 

Schaffert’s being proactive, mining LinkedIn and staging networking events to attract potential candidates. She’s also trying to make sure KPCC’s job descriptions don’t sound like some she's seen in the tech world.

"If you read between the lines, they’re really looking for someone who is male and is somewhere between 25-30 years old and likes foosball tables and free energy drinks in the refrigerator," Schaffert says. “So you read between lines, and you know that they’re not talking about me, a mother of two kids who also has a demanding career. They're talking about someone different.”

Pay vs. passion

Schaffert's challenges and approaches to dealing with them are similar to those of Mary Ann de Lares Norris, the Chief Operating Officer at Oblong Industries. Based in downtown Los Angeles and founded in 2006, the company designs operating platforms for businesses that allow teams to collaborate in real time on digital parts of a project.

“I think technology and diversity is tough,” Norris told KPCC.  She’s proud her company’s management ranks are diverse, but says only 12 percent of its engineers are female. “Pretty standard in the tech industry, but it’s not great,” Norris says. “We really strive to increase that number, and all of the other companies are also, and it's really hard.”

Like Schaffert at KPCC, Norris works hard fine-tuning job descriptions and communicating that her company values diversity and work-life balance. But sometimes, it just boils down to money.

"We have to put out offers that have competitive salaries,” Norris says, adding that she can’t compete with the major tech firms. "The Googles and the Facebooks of the world can always pay more than we can. So we attract people who are passionate about coming to work for Oblong.  And, of course, we also offer stock options."

KPCC doesn’t have the  stock options, but we’ve got plenty of passion. Could that be the secret recruiting weapon for both small tech companies and nonprofits?  

LinkedIn recently surveyed engineers about what they look for in an employer. Good pay and work-life balance were the two top draws. Slightly more women prioritized work-life balance and slightly more men chose the big bucks. 

Clinical Entrepreneurship professor Adlai Wertman says that, historically, nonprofits and small businesses actually had the upper hand over big companies in recruiting minorities and women.

"There’s a feeling that they’re safer, more caring environments, less killer environments, and we know that corporate America has been the bastion of white males," said Wertman. 

But Wertman says that advantage disappears in the tech world because of the "supply-and-demand" problem with talent. When big firms decide to focus on diversity – as some have recently — they have plenty of resources.

"They’re always going to be able to pay more, and in truth they’re getting access to students coming out of these schools in ways that we as nonprofits and small companies never will," said Wertman. 

Wertman worked 18 years as an investment banker on Wall Street, then left to head a nonprofit on L.A.’s skid row. Now he heads the Brittingham Social Enterprise Lab Enterprise Lab at USC’s Marshall School of Business. He believes that, early on, the big companies have the best shot attracting diverse tech talent. But in the long run, much of that talent will turn back to smaller firms and nonprofits.

"I think ultimately people vote with where they’re most comfortable, where 'my values align with my employer's values, and if I don’t feel those values align, then I’m going to leave,'" Wertman said. "Ultimately, I think, for a lot of women and minorities, there’s a lot of value alignment within communities that are doing good in the world." 

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

Asia Credit Card Production (ACC) has selected 

Shares of Energous Corp. skyrocketed after the company reported that it received certification from the FCC for its new, "groundbreaking" over-the-air, power-at-a-distance wireless charging WattUp® technology.

New research has investigated the many ways in which technological transfer occurs for wind power projects in developing countries. These range from trading with developed countries, to local innovation. In India and China, successful transfer was found to depend more on existing capabilities in these countries than international projects, such as the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM).

Demonstration projects can represent a critical intermediate step between research and development (R&D) and large-scale commercialisation; yet many involving new sustainable technologies fail. In order to map the internal and external factors that enable or prohibit demonstration projects from reaching their goals, a case study of 21 projects was conducted. Qualitative data collected from funding applications and interviews were analysed to identify key themes. Based on these findings, the study proposes a process model outlining the key activities for setting up a new demonstration project.

As the development of nanomaterials increases, a recent study recommends combining life cycle analysis and risk assessment to improve our understanding of the potential environmental and human health impacts of products containing nanomaterials.

Risk analysis and technology assessment (RATA) involves assessing the possible human, environmental and societal risks of a novel technology at various stages of the development process. However, best practices for RATA’s successful incorporation into large-scale research programmes are still in development. In a recent study, researchers present a case study of their efforts to bring RATA into practice within a large Dutch nanotechnology consortium. By outlining the procedures and products they developed and reflecting on their experiences, the researchers provide valuable insights for the future integration of RATA in technology development projects. The findings are relevant to stakeholders with an interest in supporting the design of key enabling technologies, including governmental agencies and industrial partners.

New research has investigated the many ways in which technological transfer occurs for wind power projects in developing countries. These range from trading with developed countries, to local innovation. In India and China, successful transfer was found to depend more on existing capabilities in these countries than international projects, such as the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM).

The available and emerging renewable technologies suitable for urban environments have been assessed in a recent study. Wind and solar technology can now be integrated into building design, and smart grids and metering can more efficiently manage energy production and demand at a local level. Investing in community-level renewable-energy projects can, therefore, help meet the future energy needs of towns and cities.

A participatory approach to waste management has been tested in Naples, Italy, a city which has experienced ongoing problems with the collection of municipal waste. This study tested a toolkit, which uses stakeholder engagement to improve waste-management decision-making. Residents and other stakeholders supported the use of a technological innovation to develop biomass fuel from municipal waste.

Sixty-four per cent of organizations in India and Europe invested in cloud technologies in the last two years, followed by IoT, where 51% firms made investments.

A recent study has assessed some of the environmental impacts of the production of batteries used with low carbon systems, such as photovoltaic cells and wind turbines. The results indicate that lithium-based batteries have the most significant impact, in terms of metal depletion and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, but more complete data are needed on possible toxic impacts to conduct a full comparison between batteries.

Networks of wireless sensors could be used to monitor traffic noise. A new study shows that the wifi sensor systems, although slightly less accurate than precision noise monitoring systems, can provide detailed information, with dense coverage, about traffic noise over a longer period. Their low cost and low energy requirements make them particularly suitable and attractive for use by local authorities or even community groups.

A major environmental challenge for wastewater treatment is the disposal of excess sludge produced during the process. The LIFE Perbiof project has been developing and testing a technology that will help to overcome this challenge. Results demonstrate it can perform highly effective treatment of municipal wastewater (removing 80% of the organic content) while producing low levels of sludge.

Polarised light forms the basis of many technologies, such as computer monitors. However, current approaches for making polarised light are inefficient, as they produce more than is ultimately used or needed. Researchers may now have found a way to directly produce polarised light using tiny nanostructures, called quantum dots, opening the way for more energy-efficient technologies.

Researchers have summarised the most effective ways that nanostructures can improve the efficiency and lower costs of photovoltaic (PV) solar cells in a recent analysis. Sculpting ultra-thin solar cell surfaces at the nano-scale has been found to effectively boost their efficiency.

Power plants are a major source of CO2 emissions and contributor to global warming. This study reports on a portable technology to remove CO2 from their combustion exhaust gases. Pilot testing on a coal burning plant in Poland captured thousands of kilograms of CO2 per day. This could be a viable future means of mitigating CO2 emissions from the power generation sector.

Cool pavements, which can be used to reduce the Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect, where towns and cities are warmer than surrounding rural areas, have been reviewed in new research. The review found that reflective pavements can reduce temperatures by up to 20°C and are more durable than evaporative pavements, which are less effective at temperature reduction but may have other benefits, such as reducing runoff.

Priorities for future environmental technology research and development were outlined by a study that surveyed experts in the field in 2010-11. The global environmental problems and potential solutions that new technologies could provide were identified and discussed in questionnaires and workshops. One of the main recommendations of the study was for a greater focus on flexible and cost-effective innovations that could alleviate potential environmental issues in countries with developing and emerging economies.

‘Climate-smart agriculture’ aims to sustainably increase agricultural production and increase resilience to climate change. One aspect focuses on climate-smart technologies. This study interviewed users and producers of these technologies, highlighting barriers to adoption and possible means of overcoming them, including increasing awareness, user-focused design and changes to policy.

Environmental impacts for a wave energy device, tidal stream and tidal range plants are potentially eight, 20 and 115 times lower respectively than for coal-generated power, averaged over five impact categories. An assessment of the amount of metal used by these technologies, however, shows an impact respectively 11 and 17 times higher than for coal- and gas-based power generators. These are the findings of a recent study, which compared the life-cycle environmental impacts of various wave and tidal energy devices with other forms of energy generation. The researchers conclude that wave and tidal energy plants qualify as ‘green’ technologies according to their definition, but that their impacts on marine ecosystems need further research.

A new study provides clues as to which innovative low-carbon technologies will successfully get onto the market quickly. The historical analysis of 16 energy technologies — from steam engines to wind power — found that the average length of a product’s ‘formative phase’ is 22 years. This important period of innovation in a technology’s development is shorter for products which do not need extensive new infrastructure or changes to user behaviour. The findings could help policymakers identify new technologies that can be deployed more rapidly to meet short-term environmental targets.

Indium, a unique metal, is in short supply worldwide and is not recycled at the end of its life (EoL). Indium is used in a wide range of technologies, causing regions across the world that are reliant on its import — such as Europe — to be concerned about security of supply. Primary sources of indium are thought to be sufficient for medium-term needs, but with growing demand comes growing concern over long-term supply. A new study has conducted a material flow analysis and examined secondary sources of indium within European ‘urban mines’ and in-use stocks (IUS) of indium products, identifying these as potential sources of 500 tonnes of indium — if it were recycled at EoL.

A new study explores how to weigh up the costs and benefits of technologies that extract phosphorus from livestock waste for re-use as fertiliser. Findings from a US case study suggest that recycling phosphorus in this way can cut both water pollution levels and the costs of cleaning up the mineral. However, the technologies’ long-term economic feasibility depends on the yield, quality, and market value of the recovered phosphorus.

Researchers use life-cycle assessment (LCA) as a tool to evaluate the environmental impact of products and technologies across their entire lifetime — from extraction of raw material to end-of-life (disposal or recycling). It is challenging to apply the conventional LCA method to new or emerging technologies, however, due to the sheer quantity of data needed for such studies. This study proposes a screening-to-LCA method that uses available data to systematically evaluate the performance of such technologies, and support the uptake of those that are most environmentally sustainable.

Since ‘virtual’ is the new normal, get imaginative on how you work, how you stay in touch and use technology to make this unique experience also a memorable on.

While energy-efficiency gains are needed to lower Europe’s greenhouse gas emissions, low-carbon technologies are also crucial if we are to meet ambitious EU emissions targets in the long term, new comparative research concludes.

The economic costs of replacing energy inefficient high-pressure mercury (HPM) lamps, used in outdoor lighting, with more efficient alternatives have been explored in a recent study. High-pressure sodium (HPS) lamps would be more cost effective than light-emitting-diode (LED) technology, although the researchers say LEDs could become more economical in the future.

Onymos has transformed the art of mobile apps development, where open standards HTML, JavaScript and CSS technologies are made use of, which in turn, cuts down the development time from months to days.

Udupi-based Robosoft was started in 1996 with Apple as its first customer. It is now evolving beyond mobile app development to add advisory capabilities.

At BT Global Services connections are our business. We are trusted by thousands of enterprises around the world, combining our global strength in networks, IT and innovation with local presence, expertise and delivery. Watch this video to find out how we can help you connect for a better future.

The environmental benefits of cleaner, more efficient transport may be offset by increasing distances travelled by passengers and goods, according to a new report by the European Environmental Agency (EEA). The report suggests that technology needs to go hand-in-hand with a policy package that improves, avoids and shifts transport emissions.

Tracing products through the supply chain is a key feature for all businesses and industries; this is currently possible via automated identification systems that link a product to a database to track its progress, and through information-tracing (‘infotracing’) systems that keep accessible records of this progress. A study now introduces blockchain technology as a way to electronically trace timber as it travels from the forest to final product, using an infotracing system based on open source and Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology that retains records in a secure, decentralised, distributed ledger.

A CIO talks about the need to make judicious technology spends in the good times.

Environmental policies must provide the right incentives for the development of innovative technologies that reduce pollution and mitigate the effects of climate change. A recent study has investigated the characteristics of policies that are likely to encourage green innovation and concluded that those that are stringent, predictable and flexible are the most effective.

New research has investigated the many ways in which technological transfer occurs for wind power projects in developing countries. These range from trading with developed countries, to local innovation. In India and China, successful transfer was found to depend more on existing capabilities in these countries than international projects, such as the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM).

China does not export cars to Europe, yet it has adopted the Euro emissions standard for vehicles. A recent study argues this is because international standards can encourage foreign investors to share advanced technical knowledge with companies in developing and emerging economies – thus bringing a package of environmental and economic benefits. In China’s case, its car industry is now better prepared for future trade in a global market, thanks to this strategy.

Policies to promote low-carbon technologies are more likely to be successful if they are flexible, have clear timeframes, and are mandatory, a recent study suggests. The researchers reached their conclusions by studying cases of low-carbon policies from around the world.

Effective risk governance is important when developing new technologies. This study assessed the approaches to governance of nanotechnology in Europe, based on a comprehensive review of literature and practices, complemented by discussions with key stakeholders. The study provides a new analytical framework for exploring the strengths and weaknesses of governance strategies and makes recommendations specific to nanotechnology.

New research reveals how scientists can monitor water quality in European lakes using sensors mounted on satellites. The technique is a promising and cost-effective new tool to classify and monitor the ecological status of lakes more reliably under the Water Framework Directive (WFD).