IBTEC 2009 Winners

For developing a novel biodegradable bone screw technology, Ihealth from China’s Tsinghua University won the Intel+UC Berkeley Technology Entrepreneurship Challenge (IBTEC) and was awarded $25,000 from the Intel Foundation.

IBTEC is a week-long event that supports and promotes entrepreneurship globally by bringing together University sponsored start-up companies from around the world to share ideas and of course compete for the top prize. Founded in 2005 by UC Berkeley and Intel as part of Intel’s Higher Education Program, the IBTEC program is designed to incite young entrepreneurs to develop innovative technologies that solve real world challenges, build viable business models, and move that technology out of university labs and into the market for a positive impact on society.

The event culminated on Thursday with the eight finalist teams presenting their business plans to a panel of venture capitalist judges. Finalist business plans involved biodegradable bone screws, a Web site security technique that incorporates interactive video advertising, a home appliance that quickly and easily makes the staple food of India, a solution to combat pesticide concerns in Chinese agriculture, and automatic diagnostic testing for TB, among other things.

In conjunction with this year’s competition, Intel and the UC Berkeley Lester Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation also hosted the first-ever Global Entrepreneurship Leadership Symposium (GELS), which trained expert mentors to support local entrepreneurs in their regions. Attendees included investors, university faculty, business executives, entrepreneurs and government leaders, who will each take what they learned back to their home countries to support entrepreneurism, innovation and economic development.

It was truly inspiring to see these young entrepreneurs present their solutions for very real global challenges this week. Read more about the program and the winners here.

Do you have an idea for a disruptive technology that could inspire change throughout the world? Share it on the Speak Up page.

Last week, I participated in the International eLearning Summit, a gathering of educators and policymakers from 40 countries. It was heartening to see dedicated government representatives from around the world all talking and thinking about how an investment in technology can enhance their education systems.

Countries showing strong leadership in this area, including Portugal and Macedonia, are approaching it with a sense of optimism and hope. Their education ministers are saying what our own research confirms: that technology gives people new tools that are needed for thinking and problem-solving in today’s knowledge-based world, and that it provides access to a much broader range of learning resources than has ever been possible. These government ministers recognize that they have to adapt their schools to technology because the education of children is tied closely to the future hopes of their country. The intensity was high at last week’s conference as people talked about the possibilities for their countries going forward, from building a stronger workforce to creating nations with the capabilities to engage economically with other countries around the world.

My background as a social scientist and ethnographer makes me a trained observer, and as I listened to the various speakers, I could tell that investing in education is very hard for them. It’s hard financially and politically and socially and culturally. How do you argue for schools when there’s defense budget on the chopping block? But despite the unknowns, these first-movers are jumping in. They’re willing to learn as they go because they know their education system has to change as we make the transition to a global, information-based society.

The occasion of International Education Week (Nov. 16-20) seems like a good opportunity to reflect on this notion that education isn’t always easy. Education is an active pursuit and it often hurts. Sometimes it hurts for the right reasons, because learning by its nature isn’t easy. But it doesn’t have to be painful. And it certainly shouldn’t be painful for the wrong reasons.

Consider this: According to recent brain research, we learn a new concept better, faster and more completely when we’re exposed to it from several angles. This fact makes a compelling case for our newly gained ability to use computational tools and new media for learning. We’ve had many terrific learning tools over the past few centuries — the spoken and written word, lectures and texts, paper and pencil. But the tools we have in our schools today aren’t capable of representing multiplicity, relationships or perspectives. They convey meaning in one way, one element at a time. With innovative new computational tools, we have the potential for much greater reach, greater range and a greater ability to convey meaning.

There’s so much more to learn these days — more complexity, more relationships, more dependencies. Learning today requires the power of computing and communications to engage, to explore and to learn, to provide access to the right resources at the right time. Computing solutions that are appropriately designed and suffused with social and cultural relevance can be a powerful resource for kids and teachers around the world to broaden the range of their educational experience, to understand the relationships, to make the connections and to learn deeply.

At Intel’s Emerging Markets Platform Group, we’ve learned that this level of innovation isn’t likely to be free or easy. To achieve a first-rate educational system, governments first need to develop a thoughtful, holistic plan that involves the coordinated commitment of educators, private industry and the general citizenry. The best approach is one that recognizes the full impact of what it means to support technology in an education environment. In other words, it can’t be about sprinkling computers around for political largesse. It has to address software, support, training, maintenance, distribution and so forth, and it has to link the education system to economic development. Countries like Portugal and Macedonia recognize this too, because as they support schools and enhance the education experience for students, they are also developing new business models that create jobs and grow local industry. They’ve discovered that investing in education is a hard thing to do, but it’s the right thing to do.

If you’re reading this blog, I assume you’re interested in education. It’s your turn to comment. In honor of International Education Week, I invite you to share your thoughts on this site’s “Speak Up” section. How do you think your education system should adapt to meet the needs and hopes of your country going forward?

According to several recent studies, the United States significantly lags behind other countries when it comes to science and math education. Why is this and what can be done to improve performance? To address those exact questions, the Wall Street Journal launched the WSJ Education Challenge, sponsored by Intel, to raise awareness about what needs to be done to improve American students’ performance in math and science.

The Challenge, announced on October 26, asked the public to submit entries on what they believe to be the single biggest reason for the U.S.’s poor performance in math and science education and what can be done to improve it. Now, 5 finalists have been selected, and it is up to the public to vote on which finalist they agree with most. The winner will be announced on November 19 at 4 p.m. EST and awarded $5,000. Here’s a quick overview of the 5 finalists’ views:

• Gary N. Fife – The amount of time American children attend school annually is less than any other advanced nation. We must put in the time to improve educational performance.

• Anna C. Madison – Math and science teachers in the U.S. don’t have strong backgrounds in these disciplines. We need to increase incentives for people to elect to teach these subjects and then ensure they’re adequately trained.

• David H. Annandale – The U.S. education system doesn’t challenge high-potential students early or hard enough, as it caters to the lowest performing students. We need to give teachers the resources they need to cater to the abilities of their students.

• Ruth S. Washington – Our cultural values do not support high performance in science and math. Among other things, well-trained teachers are inadequately paid, society doesn’t understand what scientists and mathematicians do and young people aren’t encouraged to pursue these fields.

• Lynne H. Annandale – There is little or no incentive for students to perform better in math and science as news media do not cover academic achievement the way they cover athletic success. Publicizing academic events, such as MATHCOUNTS and publishing “All-Star” academic students lists as they do for athletes may encourage better performance.

Cast your vote now and let your voice be heard in the debate on how best to improve U.S. education. Do you have other thoughts on why U.S. math and science education is lagging and what we should do to improve it? Tell us on the Speak Up page.

Today, Intel, in partnership with Newsweek, released the results of a survey on global innovation which can be found in the latest Newsweek issue, on newsstands now. 

According to the survey, Americans have doubts about the U.S.’ ability to maintain leadership in technological innovation, and these doubts are based on perceived shortcomings in U.S. education. In fact, eighty-two percent of Americans think the U.S. lags behind other countries in math and science, and nearly half of Americans point to this as a key factor for the U.S. falling behind in technological innovation. These findings are consistent with concerns about the performance of U.S. schools in these areas – which we highlighted in last month’s survey of parents – and also echo the National Assessment of Educational Progress math test findings from last month, which reported that less than 40 percent of American fourth- and eighth-graders are proficient in math.

Also in the survey, we found that the majority of Americans choose math and science over creative thinking, business skills, or knowledge of world cultures as the foundation needed to drive future innovation.  Interestingly enough, respondents from China – which views itself as the contender to take tech innovation leadership from the U.S. – put greater emphasis on creative thinking and entrepreneurial skills than math and science.

What skills do you think today’s children need to drive future innovation? Will America’s poor math and science education contribute to the decline of our innovation leadership?

Read the full story here and weigh in on the discussion on the Speak Up page.

Science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education took center stage in Washington D.C. this week, as President Barack Obama and the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) met to hear presentations on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education, the role of science and technology in foreign policy and development assistance, and discuss its other activities. An webcast archive of the meeting can be accessed on the PCAST site.

Below are quick summaries from two interesting STEM related postings on the White House blog.

Women Use Science, Engineering, to Pierce Vitreous Ceiling

The effort to attract and retain more girls and women to careers in science, math, and engineering is still a struggle. That’s why the Obama administration is pursuing a number of strategies aimed at getting more women to join the scientific ranks in the years and decades ahead.

Before this year only twelve women had won science Nobels in the more than century-long history of the prizes, compared to 523 men. For the first time ever, three women won scientific Nobels—Carol W. Greider and Elizabeth H. Blackburn, in physiology or medicine, and Ada E. Yonath in chemistry. That means this year’s female surge instantly raised the grand total of female science Nobel Prize winners by a whopping 25 percent. Talk about bending the curve! Read the rest of the article here

Science, Math Get Honors in the Classroom

The Obama administration has pursued an array of approaches to bolstering science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education (also known as “STEM ed”). These have ranged from formal federal grant programs such as Race to the Top, which is providing competitive grants to states that pump up the innovation in their academic programs, to events such as Astronomy Night on the White House lawn—the historic educational fest earlier this month that brought 150 local middle schoolers onto the South Lawn after sunset, where NASA astronomers and others pointed dozens of telescopes at the Moon, Saturn and its moons, and the furthest reaches of the universe.

Science and technology are responsible for a very large portion of this nation’s economic growth over the past 50 years. And scientists and engineers today are in the best position to solve many of the most pressing challenges facing the nation and the world, including energy shortages, climate change, inadequate healthcare, and poor nutrition. Read the rest of the article here