BUToday notes the arrival of BigBelly Solar’s fancy garbage can today, with an animated feature explaining how they work. The school is adding 20 of the solar-powered trash compactors to the three already on its campus.
On the Daily Show, William Kamkwamba talked about building an electricity-generating windmill for his family’s farm in Malawi, using a library book as a guide, at the age of 14. He’s since presented at TEDGlobal 2007 in Tanzania, and wrote a book, “The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind.”
Toward the end of the interview, Kamkwamba explains how he found out about Google, at the TED conference: “I was like, ‘Where was this Google all this time?’”
Tonight is Game 1 of the Red Sox’ five-game divisional series against the Angels, which creates two near-certainties: Another Sox/Yankees ALCS; and “worker productivity” becoming an oxymoron at offices throughout New England tomorrow. This thing doesn’t start till 9:37 p.m., for Hendu’s sake, and postseason baseball tends to go well with alcohol.
But what baseball taketh away, it can also giveth, or whatever. The sport has inspired some nifty innovations in analytics, robotics and … let’s call it life sciences.
MIT News Office photo
• In spring training, the Sox, who even give their IT guy World Series rings, supplemented hitting coach Dave Magadan with the MIT Media Lab, naturally. For the last few years, researchers from the Media Lab’s Responsive Environments Group, has been strapping sensors to minor leagers while they’re batting at the Sox camp at Fort Myers. The info from accelerometers and gyroscopes could provide insight on differences in swing mechanics during a hot streak or a slump.
• Using an arm developed at MIT, University of Tokyo researchers have developed baseball-playing robots that could make the Fall Classic either more interesting, or entirely pointless, to watch. Think of all the time and money the Sox would save on scouting, not to mention free agency. And J.D. Drew would presumably be injured far less often if he were a robot. (more…)
New Atlantic Ventures managing partner Todd Hixon calls on East Coast innovators to change the local culture and rise up against Silicon Valley:
… We in Boston should take advantage of being the underdogs: create our own “rebel alliance” to shake off the yoke of California tech giants and VCs. California is a bit complacent in its achievement, and mired in fiscal crisis. Our society has entered into a period of reform. New technology drivers are emerging (biotech, clean tech) in fields where Boston has strong resources.
The Globe takes a look at Joule Biotechnologies’ helioculture, a process intended to generate ethanol from millions of photosynthetic organisms. MHT talked to Joule in July.
Cambridge-based public artists Mags Harries and Lajos Héder are the brains behind a solar-powered art installation in Austin, Texas. The flower-like solar panels soak up the sun’s rays by day, and give off colored LED light by night, according to Popular Science.
“Designed by Massachusetts art duo Harries/Heder, the SunFlowers are an art exhibit at heart, and stand over 30 feet tall. They collect power from the sun by day, and use that energy to power their blue LEDs at night. Up to 15 kilowatts of surplus power is sent back to the grid as payment for any maintenance fees the SunFlowers incur.”
The art duo also designed 300 Summer St., an artists building, and the Man from City Hall, a First Night exhibit from 1989 I’m not sure I believe really happened.
In today’s NewsFlash roundup, Dataupia may not be coming down for breakfast, Genzyme’s Allston problem gets worse, and Drew Bledsoe, VC, makes a cleantech investment.
Just two months after the company cut its staff levels by more than 50 percent, data-warehousing appliance company Dataupia Inc. is seeking to sell its assets, according to an online report.
Former New England Patriots quarterback Drew Bledsoe’s investment firm has invested $10 million in a Florida water purification technology company. Bledsoe Capital Group, founded in 2007 by the 14-year NFL veteran and Montana attorney Chad Wold, will receive a 33 percent stake in Ecosphere Energy Services LLC, a subsidiary of Stuart, Fla., water engineering and services firm Ecosphere Technologies Inc.
As a result of dumping the unfinished batches of Cerezyme, Genzyme will have to take an $8.4 million write-off in addition to the $14.2 million already announced. (more…)
Staff writer Jackie Noblett dropped by New England Business Day to talk about using pavement as an energy source. Researchers at UMass Amherst and WPI, along with Acton-based materials company Novotech, are developing technology that could take heat captured by asphalt and use it to generate hot water or steam, which could in turn be used to generate power.
The technology could also help cool cities down, which would be nice to have later on this afternoon.
The Burlington-based maker of mobile field administration software for the architecture, engineering and construction agencies announced in 2007 that it had closed a $6 million Series A. The second close on that fund brings Vela Systems’ Series A to $10.5 million, and its total funding to at least $11.9 million – including a $1.4 million angel round closed in 2006.
The two-year old Chelmsford company is developing plastic polymers that are tough and have high melting points that can be used as flame retardant additives. FRX officials said these materials do not include halogens like traditional flame retardants, making them safer for the environment. The materials can also be used as stand-alone plastics.
Two new sites — Happn.in, and Venturefizz.com, — are offering themselves up as hubs of all things Boston. One is tracking Beantown’s Twitter memes; the other is mapping the Bay State’s high-tech economy by aggregating job postings, company profiles, news feeds and influential tech blogs in one place. (more…)
BUToday notes the arrival of BigBelly Solar’s fancy garbage can today, with an animated feature explaining how they work. The school is adding 20 of the solar-powered trash compactors to the three already on its campus. 
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