TechSight Snapshot Reports

While we are no longer providing contractor support to the Office of Net Technical Assessments (ONTA) of ASD(R&E) (now USDR&E), we are proud of the work we performed and are pleased to share some of the products that have been cleared for publicly release.  Over the course of several months in 2017, we helped ONTA develop several bibliometric reports on key emerging technologies using their TechSight system.  These TechSight Snapshot Reports were cleared for public release and sent to S&T News Bulletin readers and TechSight users on a monthly cycle.  After receiving multiple inquiries about where these can be found, we decided to […]

Top 10 Science & Technology Innovations for the Week of December 15, 2017

Ocean of Things Aims to Expand Maritime Awareness across Open Seas A transistor of graphene nanoribbons Researchers make solid ground toward better lithium-ion battery interfaces ‘Magnetoelectric’ material shows promise as memory for electronics Single-photon detector can count to 4 Quantum simulators wield control over more than 50 qubits, setting new record Teaching life a new trick: Bacteria make boron-carbon bonds Fully screen-printed monoPoly silicon solar cell technology Creating surfaces that repel water and control its flow Images of 2017 in physics

What does “Sciligent” mean?

Rather than write about it, I made the video below to describe where it comes from.Now, as to the pronunciation, the first “i” is long.  as in SAI – ligent, because the “sci” comes from “science” which also has a long “i” 

DoD/SBIR 14.2 Topics Announced

The latest batch of SBIR’s were announced last week.  You can view them all at the official site and also sign up there for e-mail announcements.   SITIS Topic # Program Solc Agency Title A14-081   SBIR   14.2    Army   Innovative Situational Awareness and Decision Making Algorithms on Open Architecture System-on-Module Q&A   A14-082   SBIR   14.2    Army   Projectile Energy Devices A14-083   SBIR   14.2    Army   Scalable Design Method for Reconfigurable Canard Actuation Systems A14-084   SBIR   14.2    Army   Hybrid Projectile Components Miniaturization A14-085   SBIR   14.2    Army   Hemispheric Imaging System A14-086   SBIR   14.2    Army   Room Temperature Ballistic Testing Backing Material A14-087   […]

Disruptive Innovation Explained by Clayton Christensen

When talking to clients and colleagues the term “disruptive innovation” will often be used.  In fact, this is popular enough that it appears in government solicitations.  Since the term was originated by Clayton Christensen several years ago, it has taken on a variety of different meanings.  It is certainly overused, but I often wonder if it is being misused.  It is important to recognize that the term comes directly from Christensen’s Disruptive Innovation Theory.  And although it has since strayed from this specific definition, it is important to keep its past in mind.Here is the original definition from Christensen:”A disruptive […]

The Three Technology Drivers (according to Neil Tyson)

Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, outlines the only technology drivers that have been behind big investment projects from the construction of the pyramids to the exploration of the new world to the Manhattan Project.  Making extraordinary investments in science and technology requires convincing the “checkwriters” (as he describes them) to invest not for reasons like intellectual curiosity or adventure but for very different reasons.  In his survey, despite expecting to find hundreds of reasons, he only found three: The War/Defense/Fear Driver Economic/Promise of Wealth/Greed Driver Tribute to Deity/Royalty/Adoration Check out the following video where he speaks at length about these: His […]

Receiver Operating Characteristics (ROC) Analysis (Part 3 of 3)

This is the third part of a three-segment series on ROC Analysis Code Development This particular client had a significant amount of data and was interested in varying the types of analyses that could be extracted from that data set.  As such, we knew that to complete this project efficiently and effectively, it would be our advantage to develop the analysis not as a spreadsheet (which is typical) but as a Mathematica program, which although is more time-consuming on the front end, pays some serious dividends in time-saving as it is repeatedly used.  Additionally, especially for this engagement, we knew […]

Receiver Operating Characteristics (ROC) Analysis (Part 2 of 3)

This is the second part of a three-part segment on how we use ROC analysis to help clients benchmark their diagnostic or predictive methods they may be developing. The following are introductory slides we provide as part of every client briefing to explain to them our analytical approach, and to quickly get them up to speed on the essential metrics we will be addressing.  In this case, it was necessary for us to provide a simple tutorial on ROC analysis. Slide 1: Slide 2: Slide 3 … and that covers the basic tutorial introduction that we provide for this type […]

Technology Valley of Death

The technology valley of death refers to the gap between two phases (typically basic and applied research) in the evolution of a technology where the risk is greatest that the technology will fail due to several factors, chief among them is finding a supporting body in the next phase to carry the technology. This technology transition represents the riskiest part in what is typically incremental advancements in the technology life cycle. Technology evolution is driven by technology push and application (or market) pull, though the two drivers are not so easily separated because they can be closely interlinked. This is […]