SIU Innovative Systems Conference SIUIS4 First Light

A very quick look at some photographs from the Southern Illinois University Innovative Systems conference, SIUIS4.

Flyover Country No More!!!

Tight security involved gas powered weaponry capable good for three to five rounds of T-shirt bombardment in this backpack-mounted platform. I'm sure 2.0 will be good for ectoplasm.

I'm all for elegant code, but there's something about cannon that just says one *really* cares about the project.

See also http://www.punkinchunkin.com/ for more insights into the Sport of Geeks. Now *that* is art.

No Good Deed Goes Unpunished

Anil Mehta, sweating the small stuff to make a good conference even better.

The weather's been outstandingly North Sea here in the Carbondale Illinois area, but I say that will make the Seattle area visitors feel right at home.

There was a nice level of enthusiastic chaos amongst the student volunteers pulling together services for the conference, and a pretty comfortable, smiling group of people moving through the event.

Like a said in another post: World View, Intimate Venue. Nice, bright folks pumped about what they're doing and the potential of it all.

Cheeze Pizza Cheese Pizza Cheese Pizza

The "Green Room" loaded with Pizza, coffee, and volunteers. (And hungry people like me sneaking pizza.)

Logistics were a little shaky, but this is the kind of conference where a few more bucks would really make it sing. Parking permit in advance would have been nice, 'frinstance.

I want to see another conference here in six months, oh please.

Low cost, low hype, high content, real people. Sahweet mercy what a refreshing spin on tech. All here in Southern Illinois.

Robots? Got 'em. UAVs? Sure.

These guys had just torn down a 4H robotics demo from the night before and bless their cotton sox were back putting it together for this conference. The group's also working on some interesting UAV concepts and I hope DARPA, et.al, pick up on the potential.

All for now. Two more good days of the SIUIS4.

-30-

The Illinois Way of Beautifying the Farm 1914

From the Internet Archive:

University of Illinois Agricultural Experiment Station, 1914

The Illinois Way of Beautifying the Farm

Chamber of Commerce Membership

Just took a look at the .doc application. Somewhere, there's got to be an abused MS Word application support group.

The writer exercised all possible font collections.

But wait. There's more.

$175 could get me, among other things, "INCLUDED IN CHAMBER BUSINESS DIRECTORY ON WEBSITE. FREE LINK TO YOUR WEBSITE."

So how much to keep them from linking to my website?

Verizon Growth from Soaring Inside Wire Maintenance

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/verizons-quarterly-earnings-drop-10-2009-10-26

1969 Trabant: Was für ein süßes fahren!

From archive.org

More information about the (in)famous Trabant can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trabant

World View, Intimate Venue: SIU Innovative Systems Conference October 29-31

Thursday, October 29 through Saturday October 31, the SIU Innovative Systems Conference will afford a world view in an intimate venue.

If you are a coolhunter, this little event will, I am confident, amaze you.

Go To The Conference

If the conference were in New York, Mumbai, Melbourne, Santa Cruz, Seattle, Toronto, Beijing, Moscow, etc., you would want to go. Don't assume because it's here that it will not be amazing.

It's in Carbondale, Illinois and I am glad that I will not have to fly to it.

Innovation isn't a new-fangled thing here. We had R. Buckminster Fuller and Anne Fuller right here, and there's even one of his surviving domes in town just a short hop from the conference. (The local non-profit taking care of restoring the dome could use some bucks so cough some, please at http://www.buckysdome.org/)

Thought Leadership from Leading and Emergent Technology Companies

Speakers represent, generally, technology leaders from senior positions in companies with a heavier emphasis upon network systems and electronics. Topics include exploration of new algorithms for network design in wireless communications, panel sessions on the economy, dynamics of networked information, a MATLAB tutorial, and topics which I would characterize as growing Social Entrepreneurship.

Companies: Cisco, LSI, Mathworks, Motorola, The Danda Group, Teradata, Calit2, Colorado Timberline, Avaya Labs, New Blankets Inc., Cadence Design Systems, Synopsis, Columbia University, Joule Labs, Equitech International LLC, The Element, Medergy, Bell Laboratories, Z.S. Associates and others.

This small conference has assembled truly impressive slate of presenters from the thought leadership of global technology:

Amar Nath Ray
Amit Sethi
Bonnie Horner
Brian Savin
Dewayne Hendricks
Dinesh Hiripityage
Flavio Bonomi
George Vanecek
Giampiero Campa
James Debelina
John Waclawsky
Joseph Deken
Nathan Nobbe
P. Krishnan
Paul Fleming
Qi Wang
Rich Goldman
Terry Galloway
Vijay Gurbani
Viswanath Annampedu

Das Blinkenlights! This kit rocks.

Based upon what I saw at the recent SIU Technology and Innovation Expo (TIE 2009), the serendipitous, intelligent, and enthusiastic demonstrations of student project demos will be the hidden gem of the conference.

Wind and water power, new interactive and immersive display technology, prototypes and "almost ready for prime time exhibits" are well worth the time. Many of these innovations need comparatively little funding (say, from a few thousand up to $500,000 to get product out the door, if even that much.) I've been calling it the milli-loan emergent market to contrast with the wee and wonderful micro-loans.

Rapt Musing: Human Beings At Conference! Hooray!

This is real. This is not synthesized by a soulless corporate puke (and I have been a corporate puke, albeit soulful). Yes! The guys with the pocket protectors who if I did not see during a due diligence meeting or a "strategic partnership discussion" with a somethingdotcom I'd move along fast to the next conversation. At the TIE 2009 last month, someone was having a problem with a demo (it was only batteries) but that is a wonderful experience. Real stuff. Maybe some blue sparks and flames. Something that does not represent distillation into a mega media sound byte.

Friends.

Some of the SIU student work evokes the efforts of organizations like Stanford University's Social Innovation Entrepreneurial Design for Extreme Affordability and very much reflects a growing maker culture (DIY, but I extend maker philosophy to manufacture of artifacts of all sorts, including code, hence techne in the name of this blog.)

In short: local (to me), smart, inspiring, and making me get "all hope up" which my great grandma Keneipp always warned against over in Saline County here.

The conference, now in its fourth year, owes its beginnings to the efforts of Anil Mehta, here also pictured in an article on the First SIU Intelligent Systems Exposition in 2007.

conference schedule is provided here at the main website.

PS: Fall Colors all over the place down here.

More Information Below

Website: http://innovativesystems.siu.edu/

Location:

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Viva Las Vegas

Very good friend is heading out to that joint.

This little homage seemed appropriate:




The town can be found here:

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USDA Policy Encouraging Local Economic Growth

USDA changing policies to encourage local food production in an All Things Considered interview with USDA Secretary Tom Vilsak.

Know your farmer know your food is focusing on creating wealth in rural communities.

Note that the policy of emphasizing the economic clout of smaller scale producers on the local economy has become more of a focal point for policy: entrepreneurs matter, throughout the network that produces food.

This production network goes well beyond the farmer or rancher. It encompasses the systems and people supporting markets. Distribution companies, information technology, newly transformed landscape companies, web designers, broadband providers, retailers...

So the first law of ecology from Garrett Hardin: "You cannot do only one thing."

More of the story at: NPR.org - Farmers Markets: Fresh, Local, Government-Approved

Get People to Food to People

Transportation systems for schools have high utilization at peak times and no utilization at others.

The Gothamist reports "Real Seniors Take School Buses To Buy Fresh Food"

This has been a recurring issue for me for a couple of years now: how to use things like transportation systems more intelligently.

Other things to fix:

• Integrate scheduling for county-based transportation systems in Southern Illinois (now only 5 days a week, inter-county complexity in routes/fares/extra fees/etc.
• Examine more efficient utilization of transport (for example, to pick up or deliver food) and manage health and safety issues through "intelligent boxes"which have telltales regarding handling of foods. These could even have features to allow only a certified operator to open the box (e.g., with a little bluetooth app for the food person at either end).
• Design for multi-use (buses with removable seats, etc.)

Ok. Time to weatherstrip the front door.... chilly day here.

Oh yeah. Most of the code for this exists in open source, I'd wager. Google Apps work too.

Reporting on SIU Technology and Innovation Expo (TIE 2009)

Back on the network, just in time to cover Technology and Innovation Expo (TIE 2009) at Southern Illinois University on Friday 9 October 2009.

The event will showcase SIU research projects.

I'm sorry that it's on a Friday before a three day weekend, but looks like a solid crowd.

And who could resist "'Electronic Nose' Research at SIU"?

They opened for Jefferson Airplane, I think....