23rd June 2017 Beijing, China
What do you think of when you think about big data technology? A matchbox sized sensor may not look like much, but it can significantly improve the safety of key infrastructure; for example it can collect data on humidity, weather conditions, and traffic volume, analyse the effect of these on the structure of a bridge […]
29th June 2016 Copenhagen, Denmark
When we talk about tackling global challenges or delivering economic benefits to society, the focus is often on technological developments in the natural sciences. And rightly so – we need breakthroughs in clean tech to mitigate climate change and we need new developments in medicine to tackle antimicrobial resistance or dementia, just to name a […]
7th June 2016 Mumbai, India
Earlier this month, I joined the UK Science & Innovation Network as Adviser. I’m based in the British Deputy High Commission, Mumbai. It’s been a few weeks now since I started and I’ve already made peace with Mumbai’s hectic pace. One of the themes I will be exploring this year is precision medicine. It’s an […]
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8th April 2014 Washington DC, USA
Buzzword alert: If you haven’t heard the phrase big data, you may have been living under a rock for quite some time. It’s everywhere. When people are talk about ‘working in the cloud’ and making ‘predictions about elections,’ they’re talking about using big data. Sounds impressive, right? Well… if you don’t know what the phrase […]
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12th March 2014 Washington DC, USA
Africa has had a “bad start” to 2014. Or so I keep hearing. But I wonder, how does a whole continent have a bad start? Do a billion people collectively have a bad day? What people usually mean is that Africa has experienced a lot of violence this year. No denying that. Horrific atrocities in […]
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30th July 2013 Ottawa, Canada
National infrastructure for supercomputing-powered research High performance computing (HPC) has become an indispensable and enabling technology across all research fields. Some fields have a long history with computing such as computer science, astrophysics, weather (climate modeling) and engineering. In Canada, researchers are managing and analyzing immensely large and complex data sets from sources such as […]
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13th May 2013 Ottawa, Canada
In today’s ‘Information Age’, data is the fuel driving innovation in economy and society. Chris Yiu, head of the Digital Government Unit at the Policy Exchange (a leading London think tank) sits on the UK Government’s Data Strategy Board. He was recently in Ottawa to speak at the Data Effect conference about UK initiatives. I […]
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25th January 2013 Toronto, Canada
Earlier this week, Minister for Universities and Science David Willetts gave a speech at the Policy Exchange on “eight great technologies” which will help the UK grow and prosper over the next decade. You can read the speech here, the BIS press release here and the Policy Exchange pamphlet here. Let’s look at each technology […]