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Wall Street Journal's Technology Innovation Awards

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the fun-places-to-work dept.

Carl Bialik writes "Gene-sequencing company 454 Life Sciences was selected as the Gold Winner in the Wall Street Journal's 2005 Technology Innovation Awards. 'Around 750 applications were screened by a Wall Street Journal editor, who narrowed the field to 104 semifinalists. Then a panel of expert judges from industry, research organizations and academia scored each entry and picked the winners.' (Listen to an MP3 clip on how the judges chose.) Other winners include a company that has developed a low-cost method for manufacturing RFID tags; Riverbed Technology's network appliances; Fujitsu's ID system that uses the veins in a person's palm instead of fingerprints; and the Agitator tool to debug code."

6 of 58 comments (clear)

  1. Other Awards by ackthpt · · Score: 5, Insightful
    • Yahoo & Google for developing technology to assist PRC in filtering news and tracking radicals
    • Music companies for unmitigated greed in trying to muscle Apple into increasing prices
    • Sony and Blu-Ray coalition on develping new standards which drive a stake through the heart of, and bury Fair Use

    Kinda have to keep in mind what Wall Street is really interested in.
    --

    A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
  2. How... by wpiman · · Score: 1, Insightful

    How many of these companies will actually be around in 2 years? Great products don't always translate into success.

  3. Its nice to see by mymaxx · · Score: 5, Insightful

    that someone recognized an innovation (see MIT's water purification solution) that isn't going to make a lot of money, but works to solve a serious problem.

  4. Doesn't Matter... by ackthpt · · Score: 5, Insightful
    How many of these companies will actually be around in 2 years? Great products don't always translate into success.

    Their IP will live on forever and be accumulated by some little holding company with a PO Box in rural Wisconsin. A year after any company produces a product anything like what their portfolio includes and they'll up-end the Bucket o' Laywers and it's Game On!

    --

    A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
  5. Flamebait by slashing1 · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Parent is an unfair characterization of the WSJ article. Obviously we are talking about companies with a profit motive here, but even nonprofit international aid and development organizations talk about the profit motive-- in the form of "sustainable development." The article specifically cites inventions that are not financially rewarding, for example

    "Clean water is not sexy, and $20 a year won't make anyone rich," says Robert Drost, a scientist at Sun Microsystems Inc.

    from the overall Honorable mention award. The overall Silver went to a company that is reducing toxic pollutants and decreasing greenhouse gas emissions through energy reduction.

  6. Re:Palm Vein identification? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Pulse. There is the possibility such technology could also detect pulse and surface temperatures and many other factors. Safety nets to prevent the hand removal thievery you mentioned. If that tech isn't in it now, I'm sure some kind would be added in the future.

    Daakon