Robots With ‘Swarm Intelligence’ to Repair the World’s Dying Reefs
- Coralbots Team wrote in Technology, Environment and Sustainability
Coral gardening by humans is time-consuming, restricted to small areas, and impossible in the deep sea because of human diving limits. Our project, Coralbots, advances the current state-of-the art by creating a team of autonomous underwater robots with artificial intelligence to repair coral reefs. Coralbots is a truly cross-disciplinary project based at Heriot-Watt University in Scotland and the Autonomous Undersea Institute in the U.S. The team has expertise in marine biology (Dr. Lea-Anne Henry), artificial intelligence (Prof. David Corne), computer vision (Dr. Neil Robertson) and autonomous underwater robotics (Prof. David Lane and Dr. Richard Blidberg).
THE DESIGN 75: The Best Designers In Technology
- Rexy Tseng posted in Design and Technology
In the tech world, there has traditionally been more emphasis on engineering than on design. Build a machine that works first, and decide on the colors later.
No more. Innovative companies know that if they don’t get the design right — particularly as it relates to the user-interface — then they might as well not launch a new product at all. If users don’t get it, it doesn’t matter how innovative it is — you’re wasting your time.
Underground Music: This Awesome App Won New York’s Public Transit Hackathon
- Meghan Neal wrote in Technology, New York and Transportation
If you’ve taken the subway in New York recently, you’ve surely seen the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s new slogan: “Improving, non-stop.”
In that spirt, the MTA has been making an admirable effort to make riders’ lives better by embracing new technology. More than 30 stations now have WiFi available (and cell service coming too!), and there are plans to get the remaining stations wired within the next five years.
More connectivity also means more opportunity for creative apps to improve the transit system. These, the MTA decided to crowdsource.
Infographic: Improving the World, One Patent at a Time
- GOOD Partnerships and FFunction contributed in Technology, Innovation and Infographics
This content was produced by GOOD with support of IBM
Every Tuesday, thousands of patents are issued in the United States, with more than 250,000 issued in 2012. Patents recognize inventors and protect the originality of their ideas, so they can continue to create the innovations that power the world around us. From the technology you carry in your pocket to the type of flowers in your garden, they’ve all come from patents. For 20 years running, IBM has been awarded the most U.S. patents with 6,478 issued in 2013 alone. Check out some of their patents in the infographic above.
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Also: Check out IBM’s tumblr, IBMblr. We’re big fans.
Push for Good: This Week’s Guide to Crowdfunding Creative Progress
- Alessandra Rizzotti wrote in Technology, Design and Culture
Innovation makes the world go around, so why not crowdfund it? The best thinkers and ideamakers are the those who can make collective progress, so if we support their causes, projects, and ideas, we can be a part of bettering the future of our planet.
Maybe you don’t know what causes you care about yet, or maybe you’re still searching. Consider this a guide of the goodness you can get behind. Take a look at GOOD’s curated Kickstarter page, which we’ll be updating regularly, and check back every Saturday for a round up of our favorite projects from the crowdfunding world.
Here’s a success story that wouldn’t hurt to add a little crowdfunding to:
In 1988, the LA Times Magazine published a 25-year look ahead to 2013
- Renee Solorzano posted in Los Angeles, Technology and Future
See what’s accurate and what’s far off.
Welcome to the Global Citizenship Project
- Mary Slosson wrote in Technology, Living and Poverty
Welcome to the brand-new GOOD Global Citizenship project, a space where people who give a damn connect around issues of global health, poverty, and development.
Whether we live in Los Angeles or Lagos, Seattle or São Paulo, we are all part of the movement to creatively engage with each other and our surroundings to improve and strengthen our communities and our world.
Our mission is to uproot the idea that knowledge flows from global North to South, and that poor equals helpless and needy. We are more alike than the way we talk about power and poverty implies.
That’s where you come in.
We are looking for a truly global community of contributors from all walks of life. We encourage anyone to contribute to this conversation by posting relevant things you’re discovering online and simply tagging them with “global citizenship.” But we’re also looking for a select group of experts to contribute original thoughts, reporting, and help us identify key stories going on in your area. If you want to get involved with this growing Global Citizen Network let us know by applying here.
We hope you can join us in the celebration, and we’ll be in touch soon with exciting new ways of working together and bringing more GOOD to life.
A Library for the Subway
- Adele Peters posted in Design, Product Design and Technology
Let’s say you’re stuck on the F train, trying to ignore the person coughing on you, a screaming baby, and a someone staring creepily. (No, I’m not describing my morning). Wish you hadn’t forgotten a book? Here’s an interesting idea from a group of design students: using tech to bring you the first 10 pages of a popular book on your phone, and then telling you the nearest public library where you can go pick up the actual book. Nice way to possibly get more people back in libraries.
GOOD Video: Chronicling Coding for GOOD
- GOOD Partnerships wrote in Technology, Education and Video
Last October, GOOD and Apollo Group announced the launch of Coding for GOOD, an opportunity to gain skills in coding and, for one lucky participant, a chance to work with us here at GOOD. The program is our effort to bridge the skills gap through real-world application.
Participants had eight weeks to take sixteen free coding lessons and submit a final project using the skills they learned. The three finalists were flown to Los Angeles for a hack-a-thon at the Google offices in January that would help determine who would earn a desk here at GOOD.
Watch the video above to learn more about the three finalists and their journeys, plus watch the live announcement naming the Coding for GOOD winner.
This content was produced by GOOD with support of Apollo Group
Recess: An App to Help You Escape Your Laptop and Save a Little Energy
- Something Dangerous wrote in Technology, Environment and Internet
On February 8-10, GOOD held a Hacking Energy Culture hackathon at Maryland Institute College of Art, aimed at generating new ways to interface with energy consumption, waste, and preservation. Here’s the winning solution, from Nicholas DePaul, Katrinna Whiting, Kevin Zweerink, and Kacie Mills.
Millions of people use computers every day for work and leisure. But who keeps track of how much time they are actually spending glued to their screens? Or the amount of energy their devices are wasting?
Many of our friends and family complain about wasting time on their computers. We asked ourselves if we could design a product aimed at this concern, if we could somehow help all those screen-sapped souls around the world and reduce energy use at the same time. During the 24-hour GOOD Hackathon, we created the outlines of this product.
We call it Recess.
London’s Modern Digital Designers Adopt Gutenburg-Style Print
- DOWSER posted in Technology, Digital Designers and Printing
In the mid 1400s Johannes Gutenberg invented the first printing press, a technology which allowed information to spread far more rapidly thanks to what is now a simple concept: movable type. Nearly 550 years later, the advent of the internet had much the same effect, but you’ll have a hard time getting people to agree over which invention had a greater impact.
Hacking Energy Culture: Join a Hackathon with GOOD at MICA
- Keith Bormuth wrote in Technology, Environment and Waste
Next weekend, we’re bringing designers, developers, educators, and storytellers together to rethink our global relationship to energy. GOOD’s Hacking Energy Culture hackathon, organized by Senior UI Designer Doris Yee, will be held February 8 to February 10 at Maryland Institute College of Art.
Google’s New Tel Aviv Office Design Is Totally Over the Top
- Yasha Wallin wrote in in Design, Technology and Architecture
In December, Google revealed images of their brand new office space in Tel Aviv, Israel. Occupying eight floors and 850,000 square feet in the Elektra Building with stunning views of the city, this ambitious office space boasts three restaurants (non-kosher, kosher dairy and kosher meat), and an entire floor dedicated to “Campus Tel Aviv,” a new hub for entrepreneurs and developers that acts like a home base for start up companies. The entire campus was designed by Camenzind Evolution, in collaboration with Setter Architects and Studio Yaron Tal.
App Marks the Spot: How We Designed Tech to Find Open Parking
- Streetline, Inc. wrote in Design, Technology and Climate Change
Some cities estimate that upwards of 30 to 45 percent of their traffic is caused by motorists searching for a parking spot. This leads to frustration—when you’re going to the movies or out to dinner, parking can often be the step that stands in your way—and to bigger societal problems like to increased congestion and carbon output.
This was our inspiration for Parker by Streetline.
Sitegeist: A Data-Rich Mobile App To Help You Learn About Any Neighborhood
- Adele Peters wrote in Technology, Community and Cities
What do you know about your neighborhood? Sitegeist, a new mobile app designed by the Sunlight Foundation and IDEO, might help you learn a little more. The app draws from publicly available data on everything from demographics, to the average cost of rent, to recommended restaurants. All of the information is displayed in easy-to-read graphics.
