Archive for April, 2010
April 29, 2010
With about 1,000 things to juggle I can’t seem to find the time to write blog posts, let alone read which spurs some of my ideas on what to write about. After I get home get the kids fed, bathed, homework-ed, piano-ed, put to bed and caught up on emails, it’s almost 10:00 pm and I’m sapped or is that zapped…oh whatever. So here’s a copy of what I wrote for the Austin Technology Incubator blog on the Idea to Product Competition I judged last weekend:
I had the privilege of serving as a judge in the final rounds of the Idea to Product (I2P) competition this past Saturday, April 24, 2010. I always enjoy judging this competition and seeing how many interesting technology concepts the students either invent or enhance based on an existing technology. This year marks the 10 year anniversary of I2P and I remember being part of the early discussions when the competition was forming.
The Idea to Product® UT Competition is an early-stage technology commercialization plan competition, hosted by the Murchison Chair of Free Enterprise, which was started at UT in 2001. In the Idea to Product® Competition students create links between emerging technologies and market needs required to support later stages of commercialization. The I2P® Program educates students about creating viable products and services from technology, and has served as a stepping stone for entrepreneurship. Previous teams have produced work that has increased research funding, licensing of technology, and creation of new ventures. The competition has also served as a commercialization forum for faculty and members of the community. Faculty have been able to consider societal needs of technology and members of the community have been given an early preview of cutting-edge technology. The competition is sponsored by the Cockrell School of Engineering, the College of Natural Sciences, several engineering departments, along with several student organizations. Supporters of the event include the National Science Foundation, NCIIA, MOOT CORP, the Austin Technology Incubator, the Office of Technology Commercialization, Fish & Richardson, P.C., and the Herb Kelleher Center for Entrepreneurship.
The winners of this year’s University of Texas competition (the global competition happens later in the year) were:
- Digital Proctor
- CoolCore Technologies
- SpectraPhase
It was a really tough decision choosing the top 3 because in all the years I’ve been judging the competition, these were some of the best presentations I had seen. It was obvious the students worked very hard and were probably up many a late night! Check out the http://www.ideatoproduct.org/ut/ site to see videos of the presentations.
Digital Proctor helps online universities assess whether someone might be cheating using unique keystroke identification technology. They even have paying customers! CoolCore Technologies has access to technology that rapidly reduces therapeutic hypothermia after a heart attack, stroke, or traumatic brain injury. Most brain damage is done within 90 minutes of an incident and cooling down the body can significantly reduce death and long term brain damage. SpectraPhase has technology that is a real-time glucose monitoring catheter for inpatient care usage. It gives continuous, ultra-high accuracy readout of changes in patient blood glucose levels.
We at ATI wish them great luck in pursuing commercialization of their technologies (if they choose to do so)! I2P is a great way for students to get feedback on the commercial viability of their technology and product ideas, and I look forward to serving as a judge again.
April 21, 2010
Well it doesn’t solve everything, but for a kid it seems to take away pain. No matter how many times I explain to my kids that a band aid is supposed to just cover a wound so dirt won’t get in it or so that blood won’t spurt out everywhere, they still think it takes away pain. My daughter has a long scrape on her leg from trying to move/drive one of those big drivable electric rechargeable cars at a friend’s birthday party last weekend. Strange on many levels I know…she seems to have a little bit of tomboy in her like her mom. But before the driving incident she was making bracelets. When she first showed me the scrape she was calm about it. Then I took her inside the house, and she started saying how much it hurt. We cleaned it up and put a band aid on it. Then she was fine and went back to playing.
As soon as I take off the band aid because the scrape needs to be cleaned or to replace the band aid, excruciating pain all of a sudden appears! She refuses to take it off when taking a bath. She will only let me take it off for a few minutes to put Mederma or Neosporin on it and put another one on. I say to her “Why don’t we just leave the band aid off so the scrape can breathe? It’s not bleeding, and we really shouldn’t be wasting band aids.” Her response is to whine and moan in agony about how much it hurts and how much she needs the band aid because it hurts so much. She’ll even start limping and saying she can’t walk without the band aid. I sigh, give up the useless discussion and put another band aid on it. She smiles and goes off on her merry way.
Oh if band aids still held such pain relief magic for grown-ups, I would be putting them over my heart and head every day! 
Posted by Aruni
9:13 pm •
parenting •
April 19, 2010
One of the perks about blogging about parenting and business is that I sometimes get stuff and am asked to blog about really cool things. Disneynature’s PR folks reached out to me asking if I would be willing to blog about their new movie OCEANS coming out on April 22, 2010 (Earth Day). I said of course! I have seen some of the previews in the movie theater and it looks amazing! Plus my ears will enjoy listening to Pierce Brosnan narrate. I plan to take the kids to see it as soon as I can!
Start by checking out the OCEANS trailer (Click the link to see the trailer in High Definition). I included just some of the great pictures they offer to bloggers, and here’s the info:
Disneynature, the studio that presented the record-breaking film “Earth,” brings OCEANS to the big screen on Earth Day, 2010. Nearly three-quarters of the Earth’s surface is covered by water and OCEANS boldly chronicles the mysteries that lie beneath. Directors Jacques Perrin and Jacques Cluzaud dive deep into the very waters that sustain all of mankind—exploring the harsh reality and the amazing creatures that live within. Narrated by Pierce Brosnan and featuring spectacular never-before-seen imagery captured by the latest underwater technologies, OCEANS offers an unprecedented look beneath the sea in a powerful motion picture that unfolds on April 22, 2010.
“See OCEANS, Save Oceans” Initiative: Disneynature will make a donation to the The Nature Conservancy in honor of every guest who sees OCEANS its opening week (April 22-28, 2010). These funds will help save coral reefs in the Caribbean Sea. The details of “See OCEANS, Save Oceans” can be found on The Nature Conservancy’s website: http://adopt.nature.org/coralreef/saving-a-coral-kingdom.html. 400,000 advanced tickets for OCEANS have already been sold, meaning that Disneynature’s pledge to make a contribution in honor of everyone who sees the motion picture between April 22-28 has already translated to more than 790 acres of marine protected area in The Bahamas—and that number is still growing with advance ticket sales on the rise for opening week. More information about this can be found here: http://bit.ly/biTym3
Actor Pierce Brosnan To Narrate: Pierce Brosnan, an outspoken environmentalist active in promoting ocean conservation efforts, will narrate Disneynature’s OCEANS. Pierce has lent his support to the International Fund for Animal Welfare’s “Save the Whales Again!” campaign, as well as worked with environmental organizations including Sea Shepherd, California Coastal Protection Network, Ocean Futures Society, Oceana and Waterkeeper Alliance, among others.
Walt Disney was a pioneer in wildlife documentary filmmaking, producing 13 True-Life Adventure motion pictures between 1949 and 1960, including “Seal Island” (1949), “Beaver Valley” (1950), “The Living Desert” (1953) and “Jungle Cat” (1958). The films earned eight Academy Awards®.
To help spread the word about the importance of furthering education about the oceans, Disney has created informational trading cards as well as a Facebook quiz application that families can experience together. There are 15 trading cards in total, and they will be updating the site with new cards each Monday. 
You can download the trading cards.
The quiz application can be found on the official Disneynature Facebook Fan Page. Once you’ve completed the quiz, you can post your score to your Wall, allowing your friends to see how blue you are, and encourage them to take the quiz.
Additionally, several educators’ and activity guides can be downloaded via the official website by clicking on the “For Educators” Tab.
Posted by Aruni
9:39 pm •
environment •
April 17, 2010
Back late last year (November 21, 2009 to be exact) this quote fell into my in box from Jeffrey Fry’s daily quote email list: “The spirited horse, which will try to win the race of its own accord, will run even faster if encouraged.” –Ovid. I think I’ve met Jeffrey (also an entrepreneur) twice, but we’ve exchanged several emails about our life’s journey’s.
That quote hit me for some reason. And I just now realized that quote came in almost exactly a year after I stood at the Entrepreneurial Ledge (I wrote that post on November 20, 2008 with tears in my eyes) after having heard that the first company I founded had gone out of business. I subsequently heard that the assets had been sold to a manufacturing company and some of the people went to work for that company so the technology in some form has survived. I know that some people might find it cheesy or maybe even ‘girly’ to be so affected by such news because after all, it’s just a company. But to me it was like a baby. The people were important to me and I cared about them. I have heard many of my entrepreneur friends refer to their businesses as their baby. They equate the experience to one of giving birth to and nurturing it as best they can. Starting a business is a wild financial, emotional, and physical ride very much akin to rearing kids!
At any rate, after letting that quote sit in my Outlook Inbox for a few days or weeks…I can’t really recall, I sent the following email to my fellow Director’s at the Austin Technology Incubator.
I think this [encouragement] is an important part of what we do. As an entrepreneur (spirited horse) you have so many forces trying to bring you down, being critical, double guessing you, etc. that even the slightest amount of encouragement can keep you going and running faster.
Because our incentives are not set up like most investors/VCs, we can be liberal with our encouragement which I think is a huge intangible benefit we offer towards the success of our companies/entrepreneurs.
Giving someone (or a group) positive energy helps them see things they might not have been able to see or better said makes it easier for them to see things because they don’t feel threatened by criticism/limits. I’d say a good example of this is what’s happening with [XYZ Company] with their big business model change. But I can point to a few more companies as well who when encouraged and highlighted have increased their odds of success.
But that’s just me. I believe in energy flows/vibrations at the sub atomic level and if you’ve noticed scientists have been proving and writing about this phenomenon. And as someone who broke her arm at the age of 13 riding a big, black ex-race horse (whose name I think was Jude) who was inadvertently encouraged to run faster by another horse, I speak from experience.
I do believe that encouraging someone can go a long way to the success of that individual and/or the company. Of course, encouragement has to be tempered with reality. I don’t believe in the “let’s all win a medal for lifting a cup to our mouths” encouragement that some kids are subjected to because I think that sets them up for huge disappointment later. As we all know, we don’t get medals just for showing up to work. In fact, I like playing board games with my kids because someone has to lose and they have to realize that sometimes you win and sometimes you lose and in many cases the person who wins is determined by who draws the first card (e.g., Candy-land)! Plus when one of them starts to say ‘that’s not fair,’ it’s prime teaching time to let them know many things don’t seem fair in this world but they just have to deal with it.
But the right amount of encouragement, with a nice side helping of humorous perspective, can help someone (e.g., an entrepreneur) immensely especially during times when it seems like the rest of their world (investors, board members, employees, family) is pulling them down or doesn’t see or feel what they do. I think the mere act of believing in someone, helping them focus on their strengths, and being there for them during a tough time, can have a huge impact on their ability to reach their full potential.
As usual the gorgeous photo is by my good friend Sandy Blanchard. When I look at it, I see a flower that was encouraged by the right amounts of sun, rain, and nutrients to open up and present such stunning beauty to the world…
April 11, 2010
This weekend the Austin Technology Incubator is hosting 3 Day Startup (3DS). Bart Bohn, Wireless/IT Director, is the guy at ATI who facilitates and oversees this really cool event. 3DS is where 40+ University of Texas at Austin students from all different colleges get locked in to ATI and have to come up with a business. They work hard to flesh out ideas, build pitches, create prototypes, and sell their ideas. I dropped by yesterday (Saturday) late afternoon and stayed through evening to see what companies were forming and to ask questions and give them some advice. It’s great to feel the energy in the building as these budding and wannabe entrepreneurs use their creative juices to come up with what could be viable business opportunities. Some were interesting and others were well let’s just say a bit off the mark.
Tonight (Sunday) they presented their ideas in front of a panel of investors and entrepreneurs to get additional feedback. I was really impressed with the progress some of these teams made in their presentations from last night to tonight. Some of them were awake for close to 60 hours! I was never one for all nighters. In fact, I only pulled an all nighter once in my entire undergrad and grad years and it wasn’t even for a class. It was for some dumb consulting challenge in graduate school where about 1/3 of the night I was laying on the sofa exhausted and annoyed that we were working on something that seemed futile. I always figured that if by 2 or 3 a.m., I didn’t know the material, I wasn’t going to know it, and I just hoped that the answers would come to me when test time rolled around. Fortunately, enough them usually did because I wasn’t a crammer and usually paced my studying.
For a more official post on 3DS, check out the ATI blog post at ATI Hosts Spring 3 Day Startup 2010 for Student Entrepreneurs.
April 7, 2010
The spring flowers in Texas are blooming and this year they seem extra beautiful. I just had to share an iPhone picture of some bluebonnets, the Texas state flower, growing outside of the place I work. They seem to be extra big and extra blue this year. Flowers always remind me of rebirth…of Spring…of new beginnings. There are patches of bluebonnets and other Spring flowers all over the city, and whether it’s a tradition or required by law, they do not get mowed until they quit growing.
If only we could appreciate the beauty of people like we appreciate the beauty of flowers. I guess the difference is that flowers come and go so we see them anew each year and most of the people in our daily lives we see often. We seem to have a harder time appreciating the beauty in something or someone we see everyday…unless of course they make us smile inside or out.
Posted by Aruni
8:45 pm •
Just For Fun •
April 3, 2010
I actually finished a book from beginning to end when I went out of town for a much needed week long break a couple of weeks ago. This may not seem much to many of you but to me, I haven’t been able to concentrate (or have the time) to finish any book in a few years it seems like. The book I read is called The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom
(Amazon Link) by Joseph Haidt. Many of us search for happiness and never find it or are looking in the wrong places. We’ve all heard the saying that happiness comes from within. Well that’s partially true according to Haidt but there are so many other factors.
He performed extensive research and referenced many of the great thinkers, psychologists, philosophers, doctors, etc. to come to some conclusions of his own. I think many entrepreneurs are happy when they are able to see the tangible results of their efforts, but many think they will be happy if only they were to accomplish this one thing. But as we all know, there’s always the next thing, and we as a species have a hard time enjoying where we are and what we have accomplished. We have a hard time being happy with who we are because we compare ourselves to others.
The author directs you a couple of times to the website http://www.authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu/Default.aspx run by Dr. Martin Seligman, founder of Positive Psychology at University of Pennsylvania, so you can assess your own level of happiness. “Positive Psychology is a new branch of psychology which focuses on the empirical study of such things as positive emotions, strengths-based character, and healthy institutions. His research has demonstrated that it is possible to be happier — to feel more satisfied, to be more engaged with life, find more meaning, have higher hopes, and probably even laugh and smile more, regardless of one’s circumstances. Positive psychology interventions can also lastingly decrease depression symptoms. The research underlying these rigorously tested interventions is presented in the July/August edition of the American Psychologist, the journal of the American Psychology Association.“ You have to register to do the surveys.
Here is the review of the book by Publisher’s Weekly from the Amazon site.
From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak, lamented St. Paul, and this engrossing scientific interpretation of traditional lore backs him up with hard data. Citing Plato, Buddha and modern brain science, psychologist Haidt notes the mind is like an “elephant” of automatic desires and impulses atop which conscious intention is an ineffectual “rider.” Haidt sifts Eastern and Western religious and philosophical traditions for other nuggets of wisdom to substantiate—and sometimes critique—with the findings of neurology and cognitive psychology. The Buddhist-Stoic injunction to cast off worldly attachments in pursuit of happiness, for example, is backed up by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s studies into pleasure. And Nietzsche’s contention that what doesn’t kill us makes us stronger is considered against research into post-traumatic growth. An exponent of the “positive psychology” movement, Haidt also offers practical advice on finding happiness and meaning. Riches don’t matter much, he observes, but close relationships, quiet surroundings and short commutes help a lot, while meditation, cognitive psychotherapy and Prozac are equally valid remedies for constitutional unhappiness. Haidt sometimes seems reductionist, but his is an erudite, fluently written, stimulating reassessment of age-old issues. (Jan.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. –This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Since a couple of weeks have now passed since I read it and life has gotten in the way, the details are no longer clear to me but some of the things I remember are:
- I found it odd/irritating that most of the experiments referenced (e.g., monkey’s taken away from their mother and put in cages with wire frame mothers, babies being left alone to cry, etc.) were done by men. Freud, Spock and others thought babies should be sent to a baby farm away from their parents. There were a couple of women (Anna Freud) who also bought into some of this stuff, but I wonder if she had children at the time. I guess to me it seems obvious that happiness is partially influenced by your relationship with your parents/family and the amount of support/love you get from them. If your primary caregivers don’t accept you for who you are and don’t provide an environment where you are encouraged to discover your passion, it can make finding that inner happiness harder. There are those who make it to the top of the proverbial ladder who are still unhappy.
- I resonated with the example he used of the elephant and the rider. My favorite animals is the elephant and I used to collect images of them. According to Haidt, we forget that as humans we are both the elephant and the rider. As rational thinking beings we believe we are the rider controlling everything but if that elephant (base, primal, survival) decides it wants/needs something, there really is not much the rider can do other than find ways to train the elephant to move in another direction. The elephant can be responding to fear, love, soul starvation, body starvation, boredom, etc. but the rational rider has to think of the long term effects of reacting to those urges and guides the elephant to safer ground. As a flawed species, we don’t always do the right thing, our elephant desires are much stronger than we are and we fall off. But then we must get back up on the elephant and try again, because if we don’t the elephant runs a muck and tramples a bunch of people in its way.
- A study done on 4 year olds and marshmallows is an indicator of a person’s ability to achieve and in some way feel more happiness. I, of course, asked my kids the question and they passed. The study has a grown up in a room with a 4 year old and the grown up shows the 4 year old a plate with one marshmallow and another with two marshmallows. The grown up tells the 4 year old that he/she is going to leave the room for a little bit. If the 4 year old waits until the grown up gets back, the 4 year old can have two marshmallows. If he/she can’t wait, then he/she could ring a bill bringing back the grown up who would give them the one marshmallow. Those 4 year olds who could wait, did better overall in education, test scores, etc. and by exercising self restraint tended to be happier individuals. I’m not quite sure the direct tie, but when I asked my kids if they would wait, they both said they would so I temporarily felt a little relief as a potentially good mom.
- The big takeaway is that people usually can’t or don’t make significant changes in thinking or relating to people if they can’t train or convince the elephant why it’s better or at least cause the elephant to react in disgust to something. Trying to convince the rational rider why it’s important to lose weight if he/she is fat is intellectually easy, but until the elephant is trained/convinced/physically disgusted it usually is a moot exercise to attempt to lose weight just based on rational thinking alone.
At any rate, it was a really good, though provoking read. I started two other books The Art of Choosing
(Amazon Link) by Sheena Iyengar and Outliers: The Story of Success
(Amazon Link) by Malcolm Gladwell which I plan to blog about soon. The Art of Choosing (like The Happiness Hypothesis) were my uncle’s books and I had to leave them with him when I came back home so I’ll have to get my hands on a copy so I can finish it.
May you be well. May you be happy. May you be free from suffering. These phrases are part of the loving kindness meditation. Here’s another Amazon link to The Happiness Hypothesis.
