San Francisco, U.S.A. – 4G World 2012 Conference and Expo, the only conference and expo covering the entire ecosystem of next-generation 4G mobile broadband technologies, have opened the call for entries for its annual Best of 4G Awards program. The Best of 4G Awards will recognize those that are driving innovation and the adoption of 4G mobile broadband. Winners will be announced at the annual 4G World conference being held from October 29 to November 1, 2012 at McCormick Place in Chicago.

The Best of 4G Awards program includes a wide range of categories and is open to all members of the mobile ecosystem (including those not attending, supporting or participating in the 4G World Conference and Expo). An independent panel of judges, comprised of the industry’s leading analysts and academics, will review all submissions and select finalists and winners.

Award categories for this year’s Best of 4G Awards include:

• Mobile Broadband Technology Innovation
• RAN and Small Cell Technology Product
• 4G Smartphone and Tablet Product Innovation
• 4G Deployment (2012) by an Operator
• 4G Innovation by an Operator
• User Experience and Policy Management Solution
• Mobile Cloud Enabler
• Mobile Backhaul and Core Network Innovation
• Impactful M2M Application or Solution
• Solution for Spectrum Optimization
• Best ‘Connected Life’ Application or Solution
• Mobile Innovation by a Start-up

A product, service or solution may be submitted in multiple categories, with one entry per applicable category. The submission fee for each award entry is US$195. For more information on the Best of 4G Awards program, including details on award categories and links to the online submission form, visit http://www.4gworld.com/chicago/events/best-of-4g.php.

The call for entries closes on September 7, 2012. Finalists will be announced on September 25, 2012. Winners will be announced at the 4G World 2012 Awards Reception being held at the 4G World Conference and Expo on Monday, October 29, 2012.

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Potsdam, Germany — Several hundred innovation experts from all over the world will be meeting in September with Design Thinking pioneers in Potsdam near Berlin to discuss future-oriented models and methods. Innovative solutions for the fields of management, research and education will be a further focus area. The “d.confestival” is taking place from September, 20th-22nd. In its form combining conference and festival, a unique working atmosphere is created synthesizing creativity and productivity.

The event format will bring together for the first time managers, trainers and researchers who focus on innovation and innovative team work. Prominent participants will be, among others, the founder of SAP and Hasso Plattner Institute (HPI), Prof. Hasso Plattner, as well as Design Thinking pioneer David Kelley. Also present will be Oliviero Toscani, the mind behind the much-discussed Bennetton campaign. Companies such as Metro, Deutsche Bank and Deutsche Telekom will participate as well. Interactive presentations and workshop formats, a global innovation task as well as an exhibition area provide an international atmosphere and multiple opportunities for networking.

Host of the d.confestival is the HPI School of Design Thinking, at Hasso Plattner Institute. This is the first innovation school in Europe for university students and is based on the model of the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford University in Palo Alto (California). The needs of the users themselves are the focal point of Design Thinking. It goes beyond traditional innovation methods by synthesizing the interdisciplinary strengths of many problem solving strategies, thought patterns and communication cultures.

“Creative lateral thinkers and innovators from all over the world and from completely different fields of activity will together create something new and exciting,” Prof. Christoph Meinel, Director of the Hasso Plattner Institute, said. Prof. Ulrich Weinberg, Director of the HPI School of Design Thinking, added: “The d.confestival is the beginning of a collaborative event format combining the seriousness of a scientific conference with the lightheartedness of a festival.”

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Washington, U.S.A. – NASA is seeking proposals from accredited U.S. universities focused on innovative, early-stage space technologies that will improve shielding from space radiation, spacecraft thermal management and optical systems.

Each of these technology areas requires dramatic improvements over existing capabilities for future science and human exploration missions. Early stage, or low technology readiness level (TRL) concepts, could mature into tools that solve the hard challenges facing future NASA missions. Researchers should propose unique, disruptive or transformational space technologies that address the specific topics described in this new solicitation.

“Both science and human deep space missions pose serious challenges that require new, innovative technological solutions,” said Space Technology Program Director Michael Gazarik at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “Radiation, thermal management and optical systems were all identified in the National Research Council’s report on NASA Space Technology Roadmaps as priority research areas. This call seeks new ideas in these areas.”

Space radiation poses a known danger to the health of astronauts. NASA is seeking proposals in the area of active radiation shielding (such as “shields” of electromagnetic force fields surrounding a spacecraft to block incoming radiation) or new, multifunction materials that are superior to those that exist today are sought. NASA also is interested in new technologies for active monitoring and read-out of radiation levels astronauts receive during long space trips.

Current space technology for thermal management of fuels in space is limited. NASA is seeking early-stage technologies to improve ways spacecraft fuel tanks and in-space filling stations store cryogenic (very low temperature) propellants, such as hydrogen, over long periods of time and distances. NASA also is seeking novel, low-TRL heat rejection technologies which operate reliably and efficiently over a wide range of thermal conditions.

The next generation of lightweight mirrors and telescopes requires advanced optical systems. NASA is seeking advancement of early-stage active wavefront sensing and control system technologies that enable deployable, large aperture space-based observatories; technologies which enable cost-effective development of grazing-incidence optical systems; and novel techniques to focus and detect X-ray photons and other high-energy particles.

NASA expects to make approximately 10 awards this fall, based on the merit of proposals received. The awards will be made for one year, with an additional year of research possible. The typical annual award value is expected to be approximately $250,000.

Image Courtesy of  NASA

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Universe Day is an annual event that starts each December 31st at noon and runs until noon on January 1st. Universe Day seeks to pick up where Earth Day leaves off and to effectively solve our planet’s evolutionary problems from a universe evolutionary perspective.

“Universe Day is similar to Earth Day in that individuals and organizations all over the planet are encouraged to self-organize their own events to forward the Universe Day message. Universe Day is a no-ownership, no-egos, get-the-message-out-now event. Imitate it, adapt it, improve it. Steal it, even, if it hastens the spread of its message,” says Lawrence Wollersheim, Director of the Universe Institute and one of the founders of Universe Day.

The message behind Universe Day is derived in part from the wisdom of Albert Einstein, who said, “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” As many are aware, the challenges we now face on a planetary scale – such as radically increasing temperatures, nuclear and traditional wars, pollution, environmental degradation, lack of sustainability and a troubled global economy – have serious consequences.

Rather than allow ourselves to feel overwhelmed by these challenges, however, we can, as Einstein suggests, adopt an entirely new way of thinking. Such is the impetus behind Universe Day: to expand our approach to these issues by adopting the much broader Universe Evolutionary Worldview.

“The progressive evolution of the universe as a whole system is the power that sustains our physical existence – both personal and planetary. We are embedded in the unstoppable flow of the evolutionary process, which is the most dominant factor in all of life and in everything around us,” says Wollersheim.

“Recent innovations in cosmology and evolutionary biology have revealed more about the evolution of life and the cosmos in the last twenty years than in all the previous eras of human history combined, and our ability to accumulate more of this essential knowledge is accelerating. Humanity is now capable of understanding the full evolutionary scope of the biggest playing field there is – the universe.”

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