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With nary a sunbeam in sight, TVA and the Electric Power Research Institute on Tuesday unveiled a concept for charging the electric vehicles that are just beginning to hit the local highways.

Equipped with about 12 kilowatts’ worth of solar panels and a battery array with about five kilowatt-hours of storage, the six-parking-spot station will be used to analyze the potential impact of electric vehicles on the electric grid as well as ways to supplement that power. It is the first of two such stations to be built in East Tennessee and will serve as a research prototype to model how electric cars can be juiced up when they’re away from home.

via Solar Knowledge: TVA Unveils Electric Vehicle Charging Station Prototype.

Pretty fascinating technology that will support the upcoming launch of many electrical vehicle models.

The Nissan Leaf and Chevrolet Volt will be competing for eco-conscious car buyers who don’t mind paying extra to cut back on gasoline usage. In the case of the Leaf, gasoline is eliminated entirely. The tradeoff is that the car must be plugged in and recharged. Charging stations are popping up throughout Tennessee, but the Volt enjoys the flexibility of taking its juice from both a charger and a gas pump.

Federal and state incentives knock $10,000 off the price, for now. Here’s a look at three key comparisons:

via Leaf vs. Volt: A comparison | Nashville Business Journal.

I’ll be curious to see the response to the electrical car market.

I think the market exists, but the price of petrol will rule the day and the timing.

Education is an issue that always weighs heavily on my mind and the current time is no different.  The reason I am writing this post is to compare two issues that are only casually related, but that both truly matter on the world stage.  These two issues are the education of women in Afghanistan and Pakistan and STEM education in the United States.  While they may seem like they are a world apart, there is an interesting parallel that I cannot get out of my mind.  I hope you too will see this parallel.

In June of this year I had the honor to attend the Rotary International Convention in Montreal and during this convention I had the greater honor to hear Greg Mortensen 

speak about his work educating young girls and now women in Afghanistan and Pakistan.  Seeing this presentation has inspired me to read both Three Cups of Tea and Stones into Schools.  If you have not read these books, please do so as soon as possible.  It is simply amazing to see what can happen when one person, one man, chooses to make a difference.  I will not bore you with all of the numbers, but be aware that the number of girls being educated in these two countries has increased by over a factor of 10 as a result of Mr. Mortensen’s vision and the hard work of many within the countries.  The Taliban had worked to minimize, if not eliminate, the education of women because they understand the  value and power that women have in the household.  Even the United States military has gotten involved because they too see how the true long term power we can bring to that part of the world is education, especially the education of women and girls.

The parallel I see is that while one easily recognizable force, the Taliban, has impacted the education of women and girls, there are many factors that have had similar impacts on the education of young people in America.  The biggest obstacle I have seen to STEM education, especially Engineering education, is the deterioration of interest and proficiency in mathematics and the physical sciences in our country.  There are many reasons that young people lose interest in the sciences, but one of the most basic is that Engineering and Science is not viewed as “sexy” and “cool.”  There are some exceptions to this, such as the CSI series, but when was the last time you saw someone in the engineering field depicted as cool rather than as a “geek?”  Even the IT arm of Best Buy is know as the “Geek  Squad,” hardly a flattering name for a valuable group.

Statistics from the National Science Foundation show that while STEM graduates in America dropped during the 1990’s and 2000’s, there has been some improvement in the later 2000’s, a small glimmer of hope in my eyes.

Why is this an important issue?  Think about this; the professions that truly create value are usually the sciences, whether through new technology or drug discovery or a whole host of innovative ideas that are firmly rooted in the sciences and in engineering.  While meaning to offense to the legal profession, attorneys do not create wealth, they only redistribute it.  Accountants add no value, they only add up the results.

What can you do?  If you are a parent you can encourage your children to consider STEM careers when they think about  career choices.  If you are an educator, you can make your offerings interesting and contextually relevant for your students.  If you are a business leader, you can get involved in STEM initiatives in your region such as the ACE Mentor

program, an initiative that promotes careers in Architecture, Engineering and Construction.

Each of us can play a part.  You don’t have to go to a third-world country to make a difference.  You can do great things in your own back yard.

Plants take advantage of quantum mechanics to harvest sunlight with near-perfect efficiency—though only roughly 2 percent of that capture sunlight ultimately gets stored as chemical energy. Now scientists are studying how this light-harvesting step of photosynthesis is optimized by nature to learn how to mimic it in engineered systems for use in solar cells or artificial leaves that produce fuels directly from the sun.

via Power Plants: Engineers Mimic Photosynthesis to Harvest Light Energy: Scientific American.

A really fascinating article that I encourage you to read!

Almost 20% of UK consumers will use mobile handsets to make purchases over the Christmas period, research suggests, with retailers becoming increasingly mobile-ready.

via 1 in 5 to shop via mobile this Christmas – Brand Republic News.

Having done research in the mobile market earlier this year I am not surprised by this information.

I will be interested to see how this compares with retail shopping in the USA.  Our mobile penetration still lags most of the world.

A panel of venture capitalists who control a portion of the state’s TNInvestco dollars spoke out today in support of the biotechnology industry, arguing that Tennessee should look for more ways to support its growth.

Harry Jacobson of TriStar Technology Ventures, Gary Stevenson of MB Venture Partners and Joe Cook Jr. of The Limestone Fund spoke during Life Science Tennessee’s annual meeting this afternoon at downtown’s Renaissance Hotel.

The panel functioned as a bit of a pitch to incoming Gov. Bill Haslam, who was not at the event.

via TNInvestco firms talk up biotech future | Nashville Business Journal.

I would have attended this event, but I was speaking at another during the same time.

I look forward to the investing in Life Science area by TNInvestco firms.

India’s economy is projected to grow by 8.5 percent this fiscal year, and last year mostly dodged the slump that hit the US and Europe.

Trade between India and the US is expected to reach $50 billion this year. Last year, the US exported almost as much to India ($16.4 billion) as it imported ($21.2 billion). A study by the India-US World Affairs Institute linked those American exports to 96,000 US jobs.

“Many American companies still don’t think of India as a serious market. When I tell people that India has a trillion-dollar economy, many are shocked,” says Gunjan Bagla, principal of Amritt Ventures, a California company that advises companies on how to do business in India. “I’m hopeful that Obama’s visit will change that.”

via Why some young US workers now seek fortunes in India – CSMonitor.com.

If you are not aware and awake to what is happening in India, you need to get caught up.

In its first report on the use of “geosocial” or location-based services, the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life project finds that 4% of online adults use a service such as Foursquare or Gowalla that allows them to share their location with friends and to find others who are nearby. On any given day, 1% of internet users are using these services.

Location-based services such as Foursquare and Gowalla use internet-connected mobile devices’ geolocation capabilities to let users notify others of their locations by “checking in” to that location. Location-based services often run on stand-alone software applications, or “apps,” on most major GPS-enabled smartphones or other devices.

via 4% of online Americans use location-based services | Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project.

This is an interesting survey and it makes me wonder how Geosocial services will advance and change in the coming months and years.

In an era when privacy is a huge issue it seems that Geosocial services are heading in the opposite direction.  I predict that Geosocial services will migrate to the staffing world in the USA in a big way sometime soon and will dictate who gets a call and who does not based on ease of access to a certain locale.

Cisco Systems has introduced a videoconferencing system aimed at boosting the company’s appeal to consumers and stepping up competition with Skype Technologies SA.

The system, called Cisco umi, will let consumers carry out video chats from Internet-connected televisions. The device will cost $599 with a monthly fee of $24.99 for unlimited calling and video messaging and storage.

via Videoconferences aren’t just for CEOs any more | tennessean.com | The Tennessean.

Cisco is headed in the right direction, but competing directly with Skype will be a losing proposition.  It is hard to compete with Free.

Cisco should focus more on the business application, especially the small business and also find ways to integrate easily with Skype and other lower cost video-audio technologies.

I feel this market is about to explode and the two key factors will be value and connectablity.  He or she who meets both criteria will reap a bountiful harvest.

Nashville will experience a worker shortage starting in the middle of this decade, according to a report released today by the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce.

The shortage will be caused by retiring baby boomers, a smaller crop of workers to replace them, and continued job growth, according to the “Leveraging the Labor Force for Economic Growth” study, which projects that unemployment will return to pre-recession levels in 2015 or 2016.

via Study: Work force shortage looms in Nashville – Nashville Business Journal.

I am seeing many signs of this now and the greatest areas of need, the largest shortages, will certainly be in any technology-driven field such as IT developers, Project Managers, Engineering Project Managers and a wide variety of Healthcare Technology related fields.

As a geek who speaks, it is a great time to be a geek!