NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 26, 2003--
American Superconductor, IBM and DaimlerChrysler amongst the winners for
2004; Losers Include General Motors, Microsoft and Nikon
A powerful ship motor with superconducting wires from American
Superconductor, ultra-sophisticated software from IBM that can make sense of
the crazy jumble of the World Wide Web, and a DaimlerChrysler
hybrid-electric truck that can become a pure-electric vehicle at the flip of
a dashboard switch - are just three of the six projects identified by the
editors of IEEE Spectrum as "winners" in a new special issue highlighting
the best and worst of global technology.
For the report, the magazine's editors considered six mainstay categories in
technology: communications, electric power, semiconductors, transportation,
computers and biotechnology. For each category, they picked a winner, a
loser and a Holy Grail - a grand technological goal that has been sought for
years, that would fundamentally alter a key industry, and that has so far
eluded the best efforts of engineers and scientists.
"With the signs of life becoming stronger every day in the technology
sector, it's time to take stock of some key initiatives that have the
potential to transform major industries or that are likely to squander huge
amounts of money, time and resources," said Glenn Zorpette, executive
editor, IEEE Spectrum. "IEEE Spectrum editors considered well over a hundred
technology projects, representing work on every continent. We picked six
outstanding ones, along with six that seem destined for obscurity. The
editors also turned up significant, surprising advances toward goals that
technologists have been chasing for decades.
"To pick the winning and losing projects, we considered the feasibility of
the goals described by the project leaders themselves," Mr. Zorpette added."We analyzed these goals in light of technical and technology-related
factors: regulation; competition; relevant technology and market trends, and
more."
To come up with their final lists of winners, losers and Holy Grails, the
staff relied heavily on the global resources of the IEEE. The professional
organization has nearly 400,000 engineers, computer experts and
technologists.
The results were surprising. Among the companies backing projects identified
as losers in the report are such giants as Microsoft, General Motors and
Nikon - confirming that size hardly guarantees strategic technological
acumen. Meanwhile, the winning project in the communications category was a
revolutionary data and voice network spanning all of the remote and sparsely
populated Canadian province of Alberta. The network's operator, tiny and
obscure Axia NetMedia, is relatively unknown, even among communications
experts.
The other winners identified in the report are the Allen Brain Atlas - a
project funded by Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen to map the human brain,
showing each gene, what it does and where it does it - and Sumitomo Electric
Industries' work on gallium nitride wafers, which will be the foundation for
new electronic devices that will power the next generation of DVD recorders
and other consumer and industrial products.
The other losers were: ENSCO Inc.'s Global Environment MEMS Sensors - a plan
to deploy billions of minute airborne probes to monitor weather; and two
initiatives associated with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). One is the
DOE's plan to develop and deploy a new fleet of advanced breeder power
reactors by 2030; the other is a carbon sequestration program designed to
genetically engineer carbon-eating microbes to rid the Earth's atmosphere of
excess carbon dioxide.
The January issue of IEEE Spectrum is available by subscription, on many
newsstands throughout the Northeastern United States and online atwww.spectrum.ieee.org.
About IEEE Spectrum
IEEE Spectrum is published monthly by IEEE, the world's largest organization
of technology and business leaders. Over 385,000 executives, engineers, and
computer scientists at the world's largest companies and universities look
to IEEE Spectrum each month for the latest news and most accurate
information about new important technology developments. IEEE Spectrum
readership comprises the largest concentration of high-tech professionals
and senior managers of any publication in its niche.
December 26, 2003 10:00 AM US Eastern Timezone
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