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Inspiring Minds
Sept. 2, 2020
 
 
EDISON AWARDS NEWS
 
 
Tackling Critical Human Infrastructure in 2020
Edison Awards

Across the world, aging infrastructure
and the increasing penetration of distributed energy resources are testing critical human infrastructure. New events continue to emerge that challenge the human ability to adapt and expose infrastructure vulnerabilities at an alarming rate. This tests existing grid resilience. Climate change has also driven significant fluctuations in weather and raises the pressure on these aging systems. Today, utilities, municipalities, and engineers are actively embracing data and using it to identify and root out the most significant vulnerabilities while simultaneously strengthening assets that make them more cost- efficient and sustainable.

What is critical human infrastructure?

It is generally understood that these infrastructures are facilities and services essential to society's operations at large. Although the critical infrastructures defined by each nation vary depending on areas of the world and their associated risks inherent to their country, many would include water, energy, food, telecommunications, transport and healthcare.

With great excitement, the Edison Awards announces a new category this year, "Critical Human Infrastructure, Water, Energy & Telecommunications."

Development of the modern electric grid was begun shortly after Thomas Edison successfully harnessed the power of electricity in the late 1800's with the creation of the first practical electric incandescent lamp. Infrastructures that integrate essential societal needs for energy, water, communications, and safety improve the quality of life worldwide, spur economic growth, and drive towards a more sustainable future. This category includes products, services, and infrastructures that enhance lives today and prepare for a more resilient, secure tomorrow.

These challenges will increasingly require integrated technology solutions that enable networks to talk with each other, share data, and give utility leaders actionable information about their systems' health and resilience. Technologies continue to emerge that offer new levels of communications and IT/operational technology (IoT). Convergence with hardware and software innovations provides utilities with more profound levels of insight while preparing them to meet the challenges of distributed generation head-on: ultimately delivering smarter, faster, and more resilient distribution networks.

Start your nomination for the 2021 Edison Awards for this category, or any of the other 14 unique categories covering all innovations released in the last year.

 
 
It is no mystery where new products come from... it's hard work!
Edison Awards
The first two time guest of the Inspiring Minds podcast, CEO of Whipsaw Design, Dan Harden joins Justin Starbird again to talk more about device and product design. When Dan was on last time, he and Justin talked in depth and detail about product design, how design companies go about working with clients, and how they create expectations about projects. On this episode, Dan dives deeper into how projects move through the process from concepts, to design, and then into commercialized products.

It is an important topic at the Edison Awards, because we have been fortunate to recognize some really amazing projects that followed this exact process.

As Dan points out, "it's a mystery, or maybe customers don't even think about where products come from. You go to the store and you see these things and you're like, Oh, it just exists. There are countless hours, weeks, and even years that go into the development of a lot of products out there, especially the more innovative ones that requires a lot of R&D, a lot of development, a lot of brainpower to pull it off. Process is everything. Process is key to innovation. You've got to have a sound process to get you there. Every project is different."

Dan has no secrets to success. Whipsaw has worked hard to bring many everyday products to life in a way that help create an impact, improve our lives, and make the public more healthy.

Listen to Dan and Justin on today's episode of Inspiring Minds!
 
 
IN THE NEWS
 
 
‘Digital infrastructure will enhance Africa’s economic recovery’
This Day Live
The Regional Director, Microsoft 4Afrika, Amrote Abdella, has stressed the need for African governments to invest in digital infrastructure, insisting that such investment can make the difference to Africa’s economic recovery. According to her, Africa faces many challenges on its path to becoming a global economic competitor, but explained that the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Africa’s development could either be a massive barrier to advancement or the spark that would light the fire of innovation and investment across the continent.
READ MORE
 
 
California’s climate and electricity crises require clean energy community microgrids
The Sacramento Bee
The rolling blackouts that started on Aug. 14 amid a record heatwave provide an alarming reminder of how fragile and obsolete California’s electricity system is. They should also serve as a call to action for building an entirely new system, from the bottom-up, based on equitably deployed clean energy community microgrids. With wildfire season fully upon us, more power shutoffs leaving Californians in the dark are imminent. Add an economic crisis and a pandemic and it’s clear there is no time to lose. We must rethink the 100-year-old electricity grid that is failing California.
READ MORE
 
 
CISA releases 5G infrastructure and cybersecurity strategy
Government Technology
As the U.S. moves closer to widespread 5G adoption, both government and industry must begin to consider the security implications for the new wireless technology. To help with that, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has published its strategic plan to secure the state-of-the-art telecommunications infrastructure from bad actors, spelling out five strategic initiatives.
READ MORE
 
 
New treatment removes more than 99% of hormones from drinking water
Innovation Origins
For years micropollutants in water that cannot be removed by conventional methods have posed a global problem. As a result, drinking water is often contaminated with these kinds of pollutants. Steroid hormones are just some of the harmful substances. They end up in wastewater through drugs and contraceptives that people ingest.
READ MORE
 
 
The future of cyber security — Pitting machine against machine
T_HQ
It’s been over 30 years since ‘the world’s first cyber-attack’ hit the headlines and cyber security has remained a persistent threat ever since. While the malware released in 1988 was a personal project of the Harvard graduate Robert Tappan Morris, cyber-crime has rapidly evolved from the world of academic research into a global marketplace of professional services. And as nation-states struggle for dominance, even governments have turned to hyper-advanced cyber-attack tools that can cause physical damage to their adversaries’ critical infrastructure.
READ MORE
 
 
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