SciFoo 2010 and its Disney World of Big Ideas

SciFoo is annual gathering of scientists, technologists, and geeks in general held at Googleplex in Mountain View.

Thursday
SciFoo is 24 hours away. Pretrip planning becomes calm excitement as the participant updates grow on the wiki. The list reads like a runway show of scientists and technologists. Bob Langer, Frank Wilczek, Esther Dyson, Jaron Lanier, Bill Nye.

It’s not a name dropping contest. The list is interrupted by awesome descriptions of new people and ideas that are now on my Must-Meet/Must-See List.

Big Data: Exascale Astronomy

Open-source drug discovery: possible or not?

The Joys and Sorrows of Blogging on a Network

Do We Live in a Multiverse?

What is the minimum publishable unit? And should we start doing it?

Automating Science

Motivating People to Help the World's Poor

Lab Books 2.0

So I plan—the type of planning you'd do at Disney World to make sure you meet your favorite characters. Remember how dad would optimize the schedule to be first in line for Space Mountain and Tomorrowland Transit Authority? That's me scribbling people's bio's and the session suggestions.

We’re not in Florida and it’s not Disney. This is SciFoo at the Googleplex—Space Mountain has the possibility of going to a one of many multiverses according to Alan Guth, and the car designs in Tomorrowland could be explained by evolutionary design instructions presented by Cornell’s Hod Lipson. Instead of Cinderella, we get a Nobel Prize winning physicist, a fossil expert, a baby psychologist, a chemical-informatics-expert-turned-world-economic-data-indexer and a science toy expert. That and a guy who reconstructed Babbage’s Difference Engine.

Out of Legos.

Friday

Nature, Wired, Discover, PNAS, and the Science and Technology Sections of the New York Times have come alive.

Disney World turns into a Black Friday frenzy as folks dash to two-day scheduling board to secure session spot. Here's where I am awed the controlled chaos that the SciFoo team creates: Small details like blocking of certain hours for people arriving late. Printing every single

participate picture on the wall so you can recognize cool people to run into. Generous sources of caffeine. Handing out tiny little red notebooks to write anything, because you are swimming in ideas. Tim O'Reilly's strong suggestion to stay off the computer and focus on the content and face-to-face interaction.

Photo taken by Easternblot

Friday night begins to paint a multicolored picture of the weekend.

References to fire hoses are woefully inadequate. I meet up with Vaughan Bell, a British neuropsychologist working in Colombia, to plan a session “The State of Third World Science”. Logistics in place, we check out the outdoor bar, where I find some doughnuts with Michelle Khine and trade notes on lab-on-a-chip systems made from Shrinky Dinks. Carnegie-Mellon’s Adrien Treuille and I seem to be on someone's favorite invite list–we ran into each other at PCAST three weeks ago. The co-developer of Fold It and I trade ideas on nebulizer flow simulation.


Then I run into Simon Field from SciToys.com. We’ve never met–but we are on each other's list and spend the next couple days brainstorming ideas for my next medical device. Simon gave me a crash course on DIY optics which led to a laser microscope construction with two webcam lenses he gave me. This will come in handy as a class exercise if I write about instant prototyping anytime soon.

Saturday

Speaking of writing, it’s textbooks that have the group at 9 AM on Saturday all excited–the future of textbook that is. After that, I’m about to go to Matt Todd’s talk on Open Science but it's 10 AM and realized that Vaughn and I are up in Beirut (the name of the room) to kick off our discussion on Third World Science and Scientists. What else would you do on a Saturday morning in sunny California.

To find out about the conclusions of our talk click here. After this, it’s decisions decisions decisions so I crashed the lightning talks and pay attention to Three Rules for Mad Scientists (Garrett Lisi), Carl Zimmer's Three Rules to be Understood;

From his Blog:

After that, Jonah Lerer describes how to engineer aha moments, I have one of my very own. I run into rapid prototyping guru Hod Lipson from Cornell (Fab@Home). I get a crash course–I get a lot of the these over the weekend— on our RP tech and its future. He went on to host two sessions where he challenged us to describe the killer app for personal fabrication. My money’s diagnostic manufacturing and on-demand drugs for remote regions .

Fabrication, objects, convenience and immediacy took a back seat during a fiery discussion on the Templeton Foundation where I got to meet Dan Barcay of Google and Hal Abelson of MIT–Cambridge geeks tend to gravitate, especially when we can commiserate about the awful weather waiting for us back home. After mentally bracing the upcoming weather we brainstormed on using the new Android Inventor App for interfacing medical technologies in the developing world. Stay tuned for an update from Cambridge on that one.

Back in Cambridge is where you find Derek Lowe, of Vetter Pharmaceuticals who co-presented with Matt Todd on their quest to pursue the first-ever open source drug discovery platform. They are crowdsourcing drug discovery. Everyone can help!

That's in fact the point that Peter Singer is trying to convey when he talks about this book The Life You Can Save and its message about helping the poor through the individual commitments of everyday people.

It's 5 PM and my brain is running faster than I can talk—sentences seem to fade off as constantly get distracted…that’s Tim O’Reilly, wait did that other guy say prototyping structures out of DNA…I want to try Simon’s Air Canon.

I'm next and I’m not going to lie— kind of freaking out because no one voted for my session: DIY Medical Technologies. I'll be happy if 5 people show up–including a friend from MIT. MEDIKit in hand, I find that the room is full, the projector is ready (after some trial and error) and I try my darnedest to focus on being open and candid. We’re not selling research, we’re sharing what’s working and what’s not. This is by far the smartest group of folks I've encountered, let alone present to. They wowed me with their questions, challenge my positions, and played with our gadgets. DIY Medical Tech might make it after all.

As the evening opens up for dinner, I strike to strike a conversation with a bioethicist on the merits of regulatory reform for global health medical devices; schedule prototypes of diagnostics with Hal Abelson, learn about open source microscopy environments from Jason Swedlow.

It's easy, it's friendly and these folks have nothing to prove but everything to share. Disney should learn from Scifoo because for geeks, this is the Magic Kingdom, where we can wish upon a star, or rapid prototype your own.

Unite for Sight conference @ Yale

> I am at the Unite for Sight conference. A last minute registration +
> road trip with fellow D-Labbers led us to New Haven for the weekend.
>
> Some highlights
>
> - Appropriate surgical devices from BD (next post)
> - no wifi so it's difficult to blog
> - lots and lots of people!!!
> - Yale is prettier than MIT (but they don't let you bring drinks
> inside the buildings)
> - Blogging on the iPhone leaves much to be desired
>

What we've been up to

We're back everyone. After a long stretch of work that included some exciting and blog worthy moments, I've finally caught up with my RSS reader and Blogger to bring you more consistent posts.

We have been simply too busy to blog, which is a shame, because it's been the "good busy" type of busy. We've been awash with devices and great people who are more interested than ever in the convergence of medical technology and international development. That means more LTDC posts than ever in the coming weeks. While this is certainly not an IIH blog, I might as well explain what IIH (and by extension myself) have been up to.

Last week, CIMIT held their annual Innovation Congress which featured an Exploratorium which prominently featured global health medical technologies by the CIMIT Global Health Initiative spearheaded by Dr. Kris Olson and his crack team of innovation specialists [shown at left demonstrating their car parts incubator], as well as IIH technologies (thanks CIMIT!) working under the same tent (or thatch roof...)

We pulled allnighters trying to get newer prototypes delivered, last minute machining, and 3 am diagnostic reactions to make a good showing at the event. By listening to the crowd, it seems our team achieved that.


The week before CIMIT, we were invited to participate in the last session of MIT's Center for Biomedical Innovation's "Critical Elements of a "Learning Healthcare System" workshop, which featured a poster session on global health. We saw our friends at X Prize, M-Lab (MIT's Mobility Lab which designs mobility solutions for the developing world), the BAMM lab's CD4 microfluidic technology, and the other IIH, Innovators in Health which invented the uBox and uPhone telemedical systems for tuberculosis compliance.

Throughout this time, we were delivered the news that Interamerican Bank for Development is going to support us to bolster our collaboration with our Nicaraguan partners, CIES (Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios de la Salud) and CARE Nicaragua. The support will accelerate our collaboration with this dynamic organizational duo by deploying a set of field ready biomedical learning kits that will allow Nicaraguan innovators to come up with their own medical technology innovations. Check out the Scidev scoop here.

Beyond all this, we owe you updates on Joost Bonsen's Development Ventures and their great line up of startups to tackle the Millenium Challenges, my field notes from the upcoming Duke conference on Bioengineering Global Health, and another round of devices from the CIMIT event.

CIMIT Innovation Congress 2008

Dates: October 28-29, 2008
Location: Back Bay Events Center, 200 Berkeley Street
Boston, MA

CIMIT, which stands for Center for Integration of Medicine & Innovative Technology, is a unique consortium of hospitals and research labs in the Boston area. It is holding it's annual Innovation Congress which will include their Exploratorium featuring a dedicated section to Global Health. If you are in the Boston area, watch for IIH and LTDC innovations in the area including the XoutTB System, an incubator for the developing world by team led by Dr. Kris Olson, ClickDiagnostics, and several other devices and the innovators behind them.

Be sure to register early at
CIMIT

2008 NCIIA Annual Conference: Wrap up

3 : Hours in the ER before my DC flight due to Aerovax prototype airborne shrapnel landing in my left eye
7:30 : Scheduled departure from Logan to Dallas on Tuesday
5 : Number of liquid crystal displays on the Airtran Embraer Jet taking me to DC connection
1 : Number of check engine lights that rendered the LCDs useless and grounding the flight
2:30 : Arrival time into Dallas the next afternoonDespite the misadventures of travel, I left the 2008 NCIIA Conference wiser and humbled, having met an oustanding group of individuals and institutions working on fascinating products, educational strategies, and global challenges. I'm going to provide some detailed notes at the expanded Conferences and Lectures version of LTDC.

A quick preview:

• Paul Polack on Design for the Other 90% (it's not just the museum exhibit, it's going to change the face of business and products for folks in emerging markets)
• Sir Ken Robinson on creativity.
• The Small Engines group from the Global Innovation Center in Energy, Health and Environment at Colorado State University (guys I need a link here).
• Baylor University's efforts of transforming coconuts into Home Depot products
  

More after coffee break (Dallas has a severe deficit of Starbucks, though).

Little Devices That Could @ AAAS

Our friend Aman at state of the art THD Blog sent us an opportunity to participate in a global health panel at the American Association for the Advancement of Science conference in Boston Sunday February 17, 2008.

So for those of you based in Boston looking for a good excuse to dodge the weather on a Sunday afternoon, come by the Hynes Convention Center this Sunday and say hello.

There will be a discussion on the intersection of global health, technology, and the role of the entrepreneur. We owe the invitation to Usha Balakrishnan, CEO of Cartha, a fledging organization in the business of fostering innovative opportunities for social entrepreneurs and the next generation of thought leaders. Thanks Usha!

As additional incentive, Cat at AIDG has a great preview on all the other panels at AAAS for you to go to.

RECAP, AWESOME: Medical Technologies, Collaboration, and the New Entrepreneur

Last week, as announced, TiE held a forum at BU called Medical Technologies, Collaboration, and the New Entrepreneur.

What was supposed to be a talk on how to launch a medical device company (most likely Stateside) turned into a great debate on how to launch "market appropriate technologies" from experienced professionals who have been in the space.

I digested most of the relevant points below if you are interested.

Event Alert: Medical Technologies, Collaboration, and the New Entrepreneur

TiE is hosting a neat event at Boston University on health technology and how collaborative efforts have launched a generation of life saving products. More at TiE

Check it out tomorrow (register first) and hopefully I run into you.

Panelists

Kristian Olson, MD
Program Leader, Global Health Initiative, Center of Integration of
Medicine and Innovative Technology (CIMIT)

Aaron Sandoski, MBA
Managing Director, Norwich Ventures.

Barry Solomon, PhD
Founder, Circe Biomedical Inc.

P Laxminarain, MBA
Worldwide President, Codman, J&J.

Bernard Haffey, MBA
CEO, NDO Surgical.

Moderator
Jonathan Rosen PhD, MBA
Executive Director, Institute for Technology Entrepreneurship and
Commercialization (ITEC) , Boston University School of Management

When:
Monday, October 29, 2007: 6:30PM – 9:00PM
Networking & Dinner 6:30-7:00PM
Panel Discussion: 7:00-9:00PM

Where:
BU School of Management (4th Floor Executive Leadership Center)
595 Commonwealth Ave, Boston, MA ("B" Green Line Blanford Street Station)

PopTech! 2007: Social Innovation Accelerator

In news about super cool conferences that I miss, NextBillion reports that the folks in Camden have launched a Social Innovation Accelerator.

Their website offers the following criteria, and will start with a software for HIV+ patients called LifeWindows.

The Accelerator evaluates projects which:

• Embody a highly-differentiated, innovative, multi-disciplinary and potentially world-changing approach to a consequential global problems
• Will benefit from the unique skills of the Pop!Tech network
• Have a high multiple of impact
• Amplify the skill-sets of the social innovators involved in doing the work
• Leverage a “bottom up” or extensible community of participants (through open-source licensing, for example)
• Engage the intended community’s participation in the solution
• Have a clear path to becoming a functioning enterprise
• Can be completed in 24-36 months

Sounds like a great concept following other notable efforts, we'll be following them closely to see what other initiatives they hatch.

Hat tip to NextBillion

More at PopTech! 2007

ForSE 2007: Forum for Social Entrepreneurs

From our friends at TiE

ForSE 2007: Forum for Social Entrepreneurs

November 02, 2007
In partnership with TiE Boston and Desphande Foundation

OVERVIEW

Friday, November 2, 2007
11:30am - 7:15pm
Boston University School of Management
Executive Leadership Center, 4th Floor
595 Commonwealth Avenue
Boston, MA 02215

ForSE 2007 is the first conference dedicated to building a dynamic network of leading entrepreneurs, concerned professionals, investors, and thought-leaders dedicated to social impact. Join us for this inaugural event as we launch a new era in Boston's social venture community.

IDDS featured in the NYTimes

MIT's IDDS was featured in the Nwe York Times today! Great job everyone!

For those who aren't aware yet, IDDS was a month long event bringing students from around the world in to work on developing world technologies. The result was a fascinating array of projects that included better greenhouse systems, patient tracking systems, and clean water solutions!

The workshop was developed over the last year by Ms. Smith, Dr. Pickar and others after a meeting to discuss a “design revolution” — a shift in focus among companies, universities, investors and scientists toward attacking problems that hamper development in the world’s poorest places.

“Nearly 90 percent of research and development dollars are spent on creating technologies that serve the wealthiest 10 percent of the world’s population,” Ms. Smith said. “The point of the design revolution is to switch that.”

She added: “There are several different places where that revolution has to take place. We started thinking, ‘How do we train engineers so they might start thinking of this as a field of engineering they’d want to pursue?’ ”

More at NYTimes

Makerfaire 2007: Wish we were there

Today is the last day of Makerfaire 2007 out west.
Projects, DIY, inventors, makers, and some fellow LTDCers running around getting excited about microcontrollers, chipsets, and welding guns. Beautiful.

More at their site.

Tags: design, invention, conference, makerfaire

Debate: The "Business" of Eradicating Disease

BMES DEBATE
Social Entrepreneurship:
The "Business" of Eradicating Disease
May 16, MIT

The MIT Biomedical Engineering Society hosted a debate between 6 thought leaders in Venture Capital, Public Policy, Intellectual Property, Diagnostic Devices, Global Health Relief, and Pharmaceuticals.

It was a lively discussion, extended at LTDC Conferences and Lectures if you are interested.

Exciting points and questions raised were:

• Addressing the co-dependency of Medical Delivery, Affordability, and Drug Discovery.
• Common myths about Big Pharma (nicer than they are given credit for)
• The unsustainability of American health product subsidies (we pay more) towards developing countries (they don't pay their share).
  
• A $100 billion prize for an Alzheimers blockbuster in exchange for licensing?
• The conversion of fractured markets to rational markets. Where is the tipping point? Can you find it? Can you drive it?
  
• The coming age of real and profitable market opportunities in the developing world health markets.
• Redefining markets so patent holders can use them as a viable tool, not as a punching bag
• Finding the right technology, but more importantly---timing it
• If the Global Sales Opp/Product Dev <>
• Doctors in global public health taking on implementation science: The need to re-engineer the "global health product" from its failed business practices in global
  
• Encouraging single-use products aimed at developing world, not just trickle down dual-use technologies: Where's the funding? Where's the vision?

More at MIT

Invention2Venture: Affordable Technology

Today's I2V on Affordable Technology at MIT was a fanstastic learning experience. Speakers included:

Amy Smith and Sandy Pentland on approaches to technological development for the developing world; Iqbal Qadir, founder of GrameenPhone, on the need for an intelligent ecosystem of individuals where the right collaboration can thrive; Colin Bulthaup of Squid Labs gave us a tour of their innovation spaces. In addition, the NCIIA had some very interesting programs that are coming up to apply to including their annual E-Teams and newer programs aimed Sustainability.

The panel I participated in discussed how to take your project to the next level for funding, attracting resources, and engaging the decision makers and gatekeepers. More about this at LTDC Conferences and Lectures.

I'm totally wiped out after a week of marathon applications, middle-of-the-night prototyping, and a preparations for a mini vacation! More later!

Aerovax speaks at Lemelson Program's "Invention to Venture: Affordable Technology"

Invention to Venture: Affordable Technology

On Saturday (day after tomorrow), the Lemelson-MIT program will host a day long workshop on affordable tech. It's action packed, well thought out, and Esmeralda and Jose will be speaking on one the panels in the afternoon (about Aerovax, opportunities at BOP, and how to convey that to investors), along with Chuck Lacy, President of Vermont-based Barred Rock Fund and former President of Ben and Jerry's.

Here's the stats:

Workshop Details:

Conference Co-Chairs: Iqbal Quadir and Sandy Pentland

Date: Saturday, May 5, 2007 Time: 9:30 a.m. – 3:30 p.m. Location: Stata Center (32-155), MIT. The Stata is the weird building in case you don't know where to go.

Mention Aerovax at the entrance and you get a free inhalables measles shot, cherry and orange flavors upon request.

I think this will be fun...there's lots of panels. It will add the my backlog of entries for LTDC.

There is also some cool stuff going on this week---
part of EUREKA FEST.

Hopefully I'll see some you there. Okay, I was kidding about the measles, but you can learn more about it anyways.

International Development Conference at KSG this weekend!

Unlike last time, I didn't forget to register for this!

http://idcharvard.org/schedule.html

Tuesday: Global Health Challenge Symposium

THD Blog reminded us about Rice's Global Health Challenge Symposium on Tuesday.
This is part of a larger program at Rice called Beyond Borders:

Beyond Traditional Borders encourages students to transcend geographic and disciplinary boundaries to understand, address and solve health problems in the developing world through the design and implementation of new appropriate health technologies.

Perhaps anyone out there will take some notes for us, sounds like a great event.