The Engineering School at the University of Wisconsin in Madison recently held Innovation Days, a contest for undergraduate students where they vie for prizes based on their prototype inventions and design notebooks. The contest attracts over 50 students each year and thousands of dollars in prize money is awarded.

Contests like this one encourage creativity and the competitive business of engineering design. Take for instance students like Angie Franzke, a senior majoring in Engineering Mechanics and Astronautics. Franzke took home the Schoof’s Prize for Creativity and the Tong’s Prototype Design for her Concentrated Solar Collector. The device collects solar energy and focuses it on a copper block. This concentrated energy can create steam to run a turbine and generate electric currents.

These young people are the future of American innovation. They have the unconstrained imaginations of college students, combined with the technological know-how of top-notch engineering students.

Events like Innovation Days should be held at schools across the country. These contests could also be held across other majors and concentrations. Projects like this field innovation and students who participate are more creative and forward thinking. In fact, BrainReactions CEO Anand Chhatpar was an Innovation Days participant during his undergraduate career.

Now, the BrainReactions team looks at contests like Innovation Days to find the best brainstormers and idea makers. If these students have the foresight to design these groundbreaking technologies, think of what they can do for improving or creating products and services for established companies? The possibilities are endless, just like the pool of talent at colleges and universities.

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I just found out about this event which looks quite interesting. It was sent my way by Mr. Felix Bopp, who is one of my connections in Europe.

Check it out:

Summit for the Future on Risk
Club of Amsterdam
May 3-5, 2006
http://www.clubofamsterdam.com/summit2006.htm
Summit for the Future blog
http://summitforthefuture.blogspot.com

The Club of Amsterdam presents its global “Summit for the Future on Risk”, which will take place in Amsterdam on May 3-5, 2006. This second Summit will bring together international Thought Leaders to discuss significant, global challenges and opportunities. This time the speakers will focus on the subject of risk and the role of risk in innovation and global growth.

Why risk?
Without risk taking there is no progress, no growth and no prosperity. The Summit is an opportunity for participants to stand back and reflect upon the role of risk in enterprise and society, on how the global spectrum of risk is changing and to acquire new tools and thinking with which to harness risk as a force for growth in the future.

Frank-Juergen Richter, former Director of the World Economic Forum, in charge of Asian affairs, and speaker at the Summit: “As corporations confront uncertainties that pose important strategic dilemma in their
endeavour to grow into global players they need to understand the current and emerging risks associated with their business.”

Living with risk requires a trade-off, a vision of the good-gamble as well as the nerve to take that gamble. The complexity of modern life, the proliferation of new forms of communication and the deluge of available data
makes this more difficult than ever before. This Summit is an opportunity to think creatively about the role of risk in our lives as individuals, as members of organisations and as a society.

The topics are Life Sciences, Media & Entertainment, Trade - Asia, Healthcare, Corporate Governance, Innovation as Risk Taking, Knowledge based Risk Management, Values and Spirituality, Cross-Cultural Competence and Creative Leadership.

Club of Amsterdam
The Club of Amsterdam is an independent, international, future-oriented think tank involved in channelling preferred futures. It involves those who dare to think out of the box and those who don’t just talk about the future but actively participate in shaping outcomes.

We organize events, seminars and summits on relevant issues and publish findings & proceedings through various off-line and online media channels. Our goal is to become a global player and catalyst for innovation in
industries, science and society.

The Club of Amsterdam is a not-for-profit foundation registered in The Netherlands.
http://www.clubofamsterdam.com

More information:
Club of Amsterdam, Mr Felix Bopp, KNSM-Laan 15, 1019 LA Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Phone +31-20-419 0254, Fax +31-20-419 0266, summit2006@clubofamsterdam.com

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The American International Toy Fair begins Sunday, February 12 in New York City. This year, technology plays an even larger role, since 75% of the new toys feature microchips. A popular trend this year is robotics, including “Let’s Dance Barbie” which mimics a child’s dance moves, and a life-size robotic pony that reacts to petting.
In an article from the Associated Press, toy analyst Sean McGowan discusses toy trends remarking, “ Children are migrating to consumer electronics faster than toy companies can take them there.” These young consumers are abandoning traditional toys at a younger age, and moving towards hand-held video games and MP3 players.
This could have an effect on the next generation of college students. These young people could be less creative than previous generations, since activities like “dress-up” and coloring may be too archaic for them. Or the use of high-tech toys at a younger age could stimulate an interest in computers, robotics, and other technology fields. To understand their toys, this generation will need to have a more througough understanding of technology. It could lead to more young people going in to computer programming and engineering.
It is too early to tell where this high-tech toy trend will go, but it will be a fun trip along the way.

–Erin [erin.canty@brainreactions.com]

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In his State of the Union Address Tuesday evening, and in a speech at the 3M headquarters in Minnesota Thursday, President Bush outlined a plan to keep America intellectually competitive on a global front. He said in the State of the Union address,

“…to keep America competitive, one commitment is necessary above all: We must continue to lead the world in human talent and creativity. Our greatest advantage in the world has always been our educated, hardworking, ambitious people — and we’re going to keep that edge.”

To achieve this goal, President Bush announced his plans for the American Competitiveness Initiative, a three-pronged program focusing on science and research. First, President Bush is doubling the Federal contributions to physical science research over the next 10 years. Second, he proposed a research and development tax credit, to encourage technology advancements in the private sector. The third tactic, and possibly the most necessary is an overhaul of the math and science programs in America’s K-12 schools.

In the State of the Union Address President Bush said, “If we ensure that America’s children succeed in life, they will ensure that America succeeds in the world.”

Though the discussion of innovation was only a fraction of the President’s speech, it leaves me very optimistic. It may not be at the top of his docket, but at least the federal government is beginning to take a serious look at our country on the global innovation scale. The American Competitiveness Initiative, though broad and ambitious, is the first step. If President Bush makes a concerted effort to improve science and math programs in our schools that alone will improve American innovation.

–Erin [erin.canty@brainreactions.com]

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