This volume seeks a deeper understanding of the role and impact of technology innovation, the conditions and standards of life technology helps create, and the contents and discontents of technology in human society and in our world. Humanity grapples with multiple challenges on a grand scale including those related to our planet's existential questions, and concerns around demographics, people's aspirations, poverty, and human and environmental degradation. The drivers in the 21st century are globalization, population increase, poverty and the politics of resentment and depravation, the rise of new powers, the decay of international institutions, climate change, and the geopolitics of energy. The fundamental relationship between technology and employment is being transfigured, and nearing a threshold beyond which so many jobs are lost that the level of consumer demand falls below the level necessary to sustain healthy economic growth. Should anyone work at all; perhaps few humans need to work. Machines and robots can perform essential work altering the very meaning and essence of work, and may result in the end of work. The book describes a framework to transform public investments in discovery science to products and services of economic value and societal benefit. Innovative business models deployed through coordination and partnership with the private sector can lead to the creation of whole new industries. A publicly-funded technology startup program provides funds and guidance to help fledgling companies succeed in the market. Effective collaboration between industry and academia leads to sustainable high-tech businesses and increased long-term, leading-edge U.S. innovation capacity. The mission is to assist startups in their technology development efforts, and where applicable, to manufacture in America. The book features over four dozen startup profiles - these cover the entire technology spectrum, from the life sciences to materials science, from synthetic biology to medical devices, from nanotechnology to sophisticated instruments.
About the Author: Murali Nair is a program director in the Small Business Innovation Research program at the National Science Foundation. This program invests in hundreds of high-tech startups every year. Prior to this, he was the founder CEO of a wireless technology company. In this capacity, he raised equity capital for worldwide operations in the United States, India and China. Before this entrepreneurial endeavor, Murali was a systems engineer at a startup company that provided real-time, embedded ground control software for communications satellites. He also worked for Motorola Iridium where he was involved in all aspects of satellite operations. Prior to Iridium, Murali developed an entire space systems design laboratory from concept inception to fully operational mode and national prominence while at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. He is a graduate of the University of Texas and the Indian Institute of Technology.