Posts Tagged ‘MassTLC’

Happy 40th, Internet: Leo Beranek talks about the Series of Tubes in its infancy

Friday, October 30th, 2009

To mark the Internet’s 40th birthday yesterday, the Guardian traces the history of the Internet with a dense interactive timeline. Popular Science covers the same ground via text and photos.

Last week, Mass High Tech asked Leo Beranek, “the second B in BBN,” to sit down with MassTLC chair Steve O’Leary, in an exclusive dialogue about Beranek’s career in technology and entrepreneurship. The interview took place at the Harvard Club in Back Bay in anticipation of MassTLC giving Beranek its Commonwealth Award. In the clip above, Beranek talks about BBN’s role in developing the ARPANet, the forerunner of the Internet.

Keep an eye out for the more video of the interview and a complete transcript running on MHT soon.

MIT professor turns pickle into smoldering OLED pixel

Tuesday, September 29th, 2009

If I only had a nickel for every time I typed that headline … Vladimir Bulovic, of MIT’s Research Laboratory of Electronics, hooked a pickle up to what looks like a rotisserie spit, and got it to glow like an OLED pixel.

As Bulovic explains, OLED displays are 100-molecule-thick thin films hooked up to electrodes at the top and the bottom.

“The only thing you need to do next, is make sure you have a million individual little devices side by side.”

The gauntlet has been thrown — who among you will build the million pickle TV? MassTLC’s unConference is Thursday — let’s get this thing going as the next X Prize.

Via Popular Science.

Did the Beatles play NERD or did the nerds play the Beatles?

Wednesday, September 16th, 2009

By Rodney Brown

Rodney BrownIt was the latter last night, as the Mass Technology Leadership Council held the latest of its monthly Tech Tuesday events at Microsoft Corp.’s New England Research & Development Center in Cambridge, affectionately and appropriately known as NERD. The topic of the evening was the gaming sector in the Bay State, as MassTLC celebrated the official launch of its digital gaming cluster with a report on the local industry.

Tech Tuesday attendees rock out to The Beatles: Rock Band at Microsoft NERD.

Tech Tuesday attendees rock out to The Beatles: Rock Band at Microsoft NERD.

To help set the gaming mood, folks from Cambridge neighbor Harmonix Inc. set up a full set of its now ubiquitous fake instruments for attendees to try their hands at The Beatles: Rock Band. After a demonstration by Sean Baptiste, Harmonix’s manager of community development, who rocked out with other players from companies like GamerDNA Inc., game geeks from the crowd decided to step up and try their hand at being an erstwhile John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr or even George Harrison.

With the smell of pizza, beer and soda in the air, it could have been any basement in the Greater Boston area — if that basement was on the 11th floor of a building on the Charles River and could hold 200 people.

NewsFlash Roundup: Accucom, Spire, Millennium

Friday, June 26th, 2009

In today’s NewsFlash Roundup, Accucom changes its strategy,  MassTLC names award nominees, and Spire gets a loan.

• Accucom’s SafeID protects identity in e-commerce

Accucom Corp. launched a new business model this week, hoping to provide e-commerce retailers with an easier way to figure out just who they are dealing with.
Until now, the Boston-based personal data clearinghouse has dealt mostly with private eyes, curious neighbors and protective fathers-in-law eager to pry into an individual’s background using its network of public and private sources.

• MassTLC names Technology Leadership finalists

MassTLC announced finalists in the categories of private sector company, public sector organization, CEO, innovator and CIO of the year. The next batch of finalists — for the categories of emerging innovative company, CTO, investor and emerging executive of the year — will be announced July 16. Winners will be announced November 5.

• Millennium rebuked by FDA over labeling

Federal regulators have taken Millennium Pharmaceuticals Inc. to task over an advertisement for the company’s multiple-myeloma drug Velcade, calling the promotion “false or misleading because it overstates” the product’s efficacy.

The promotional materials in question were mailed to doctors ahead of the 2008 meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology in Chicago. Typically, such so-called “reminder labeling” is not regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

• Spire lands expanded $8M loan

Spire Corp., the Bedford-based solar panel equipment maker, has expanded its existing line of credit to $8 million with Silicon Valley Bank. The revolving credit facility adds $5 million of export-import credit facility to the company’s existing $3 million credit. 
Officials at the solar equipment manufacturer said the loan will be used to add liquidity and grow the company.

• UMass awards $1M grants to spur R&D

The 15 grants range in size from $15,000 to $170,000, and include projects in biofuels research, green computing, personalized cancer therapy, green jobs and entrepreneurship.

Bryant University Graduate School

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