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Do you know that drones, also called unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), have practical applications that have nothing to do with weapons or espionage? No? Here are a few to consider: 1. They can save lives. In natural and manmade disasters, UAS can be positioned to survey damage, locate stranded and injured victims, and assess ongoing threats…

When I joined SRI International nearly 15 years ago, one man stood at the top of my people-to-meet list. He was a soft-spoken, friendly, sometimes stubborn man with big ideas on how to make the world a better place. Through the years, I was lucky not only to have many thought-provoking conversations with him, but…

The brain has amazing capacity to overcome large deficits, which means that by the time a neurodegenerative disease becomes apparent, the damage is extensive. In the case of Parkinson’s disease, for example, more than half of the midbrain region called the substantia nigra can be completely destroyed without any evidence of a problem. But once…

It would be hard to argue with the statement that parents of students have a right to expect their children’s teachers are well prepared and well qualified. Our collective social, economic and political well-being depends largely on the strength of the public school systems educating our children. Just as our future rests with our children,…

For the second year in a row, the Chilean Economic Development Agency (CORFO) is sponsoring five teams of entrepreneurs to spend one month at SRI for intensive training in innovation best practices. While here, the teams will participate in SRI Innovation Program workshops to learn how to develop new market opportunities, create successful business plans, and raise funding…

As part of SRI’s strong commitment to meeting client needs in Japan, I am a regular visitor to the country. In fact, I’m in Tokyo this week to host an SRI event at the U.S. Embassy with more than 150 business and government leaders from around the country. On the agenda: new strategies to drive…

A lot has changed since 1994. Back then, if you asked people what autism was, most would scratch their heads and respond, “You mean like that character in the movie Rain Man?” Ask the question in 2013 and you’re likely to find that many more Americans have not only heard of autism, but may be…

Though I spent almost my entire professional life at SRI, given a researcher’s necessary preoccupations it took effort to learn what was happening across this diverse place of intrinsic creativity. This became more apparent when I began compiling an account of that creativity, some of which turned out to alter the world. SRI’s new timeline of…

Prostate cancer is the second most common cancer in American men, killing nearly 30,000 per year. In 2004, I attended a conference where one of the nation’s leading researchers in the field declared that the gold-standard test for this disease was not successful at identifying dangerous invasive tumors. That triggered my interest in how to…

Anyone who has used a handheld video camera knows how hard it is to keep steady. A mild cough can turn footage from a kid’s soccer game into an amusement park ride. Now imagine mounting that camera onto a police cruiser or a 20,000-foot-high unmanned aircraft. These scenarios often result in distorted video that is…

Smart phones are everywhere these days, and they’ve certainly made our lives easier in so many ways, from connecting with friends and family to sharing the latest information with colleagues. As the business use of employee-owned smartphones and tablets proliferates, IT departments are struggling to implement secure and cost-effective policies that facilitate productivity while protecting…

From high school basketball games to sophisticated military operations, a strong perimeter is the first line of defense.  The challenge for commercial security is strengthening the perimeter without affecting business. Access control is a high priority for secure infrastructures such as nuclear power plants, corporate offices, universities, and financial buildings. The faster security can accurately…