<incom> 2007 Tech Museum Awards

[Steve Cisler]

I'm working with the awardees to form a network for
mutual support. KnowledeX will also draw on expertise
from Silicon Valley and Santa Clara University, the
host institution.  We are hosting a conference on Nov.
8: http://scu.edu/sts/innovation/index.cfm

Here's the press release. These are not focused on
ICT, but all are using it in their projects.
Steve Cisler

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THE TECH MUSEUM OF INNOVATION ANNOUNCES 2007 TECH
MUSEUM AWARDS LAUREATES

SAN JOSE, SILICON VALLEY, Calif., Tuesday September 18
- For the seventh year, The Tech Museum of Innovation,
one of the country's premier science and technology
museums, has today named 25 innovators from around the
world to be honored by this year's The Tech Museum
Awards: Technology Benefiting Humanity. Presented by
Applied Materials, Inc., The Tech Museum Awards honor
individuals who are applying technology to benefit
humanity and spark global change. The esteemed group
of Laureates announced today was selected from
hundreds of nominations sent in from 68 countries.

In addition to the 25 Laureates being honored, Intel
co-founder and technology industry luminary Gordon
Moore will receive the 2007 James C. Morgan Global
Humanitarian Award, honoring individuals whose broad
vision and leadership are helping to address
humanity's greatest challenges, also sponsored by
Applied Materials, Inc. The Gordon and Betty Moore
Foundation has contributed more than $1 billion and
countless hours toward forming and investing in
partnerships that achieve significant, lasting and
measurable results in environmental conservation,
science and the San Francisco Bay Area.

Established in 2001, The Tech Museum Awards recognize
25 Laureates in five categories: Education, Equality,
Environment, Economic Development and Health. These 25
Laureates have developed ways to use technology to
improve the environment and the lives of people around
the world. All of the Laureates will be showcased at
The Tech in San Jose and featured on The Tech Award's
official Web site, www.techawards.org. One Laureate in
each category will receive a $50,000 cash prize,
announced during the annual Awards Gala, which takes
place this year on November 7th. The Laureates are
reviewed and selected by an independent international
panel of judges administered by the Center for
Science, Technology, and Society at Santa Clara
University.

"The Tech Awards program reaches out to innovators
from countries all over the world, and the quality and
impact of the work being done by the Laureates who are
recognized this year is just phenomenal," said Peter
Friess, President of The Tech. "It's our goal to
expand this program to become one of the premier
annual international humanitarian awards so that we
can shine an even brighter light on the innovators
from around the globe whose humanitarian efforts are
changing the world."

The Tech Awards collaborate with the United Nations
Development Programme (UNDP) through global outreach
efforts, giving people around the world the
opportunity to benefit from the successful
technologies recognized through the Awards. The
selected Laureates' projects address multiple
humanitarian efforts including international aid,
natural energy, multilingual education, bird flu
vaccine testing and self-sufficiency in developing
countries.

"The Tech Laureates represent an amazing group of
individuals and organizations whose creativity and
innovations are being applied to change the world for
the better," said Mike Splinter, president and CEO of
Applied Materials. "Every year, Applied Materials and
Silicon Valley welcome with pride this extraordinary
group that exemplifies the excitement and promise of
technology on which this Valley was built."

Sponsors for the five Tech Museum Awards categories
include: Intel for the Environment Award; Accenture
for the Economic Development Award; Microsoft for the
Education Award; and The Swanson Foundation for the
Katherine M. Swanson Equality Award. Sponsorship of
the Health Award is still available.

Below are the 2007 Laureates and a brief description
of the winning projects.

2007 Intel Environment Award

Emulsified Zero-Valent Iron (EZVI) Team, Jacqueline W.
Quinn, Cherie L. Geiger, Christian Clausen III,
Kathleen B. Brooks, and Debra R. Reinhart: EZVI was
created by placing zero-valent-iron particles into a
stabilized, biodegradable water-oil emulsion to reduce
environmental contamination risks when cleaning
rockets in NASA's space program.

Fundacion Terram: The Integrated Salmon-Seaweed
Cultivation project attaches algae to a salmon-net pen
to absorb nutrients from the salmon to clean the
environment. This technology reduces the demand for
natural seaweed using an environmentally and socially
integrated approach.

Marc Andr Ledoux, Consortium SudEco Industrie: Ledoux
combined two technologies to transform harmful aquatic
plants into new cooking fuel. A floating grappling is
used for fast and easy removal of the plants, which
are then compressed, dried and turned into pellets for
cooking fuel.

Joe David Jones, Skyonic Corporation: Skyonic
Corporation addresses the significant issue of
greenhouse gas emissions through the mineralization of
CO2 as carbonate compounds. It removes heavy metals
and acid gases to address both the current problem
with carbon capture and the future as demand
increases.

Solar Sailor: Solar Sailor created solar sail and
hybrid marine power which is suitable for a wide range
of applications from small unmanned vessels to large
tankers including ferries, cruisers and yachts.
Vessels using this technology have higher fuel
savings, unlimited range, passenger comfort and are
environmentally friendly with zero emissions.

2007 Accenture Economic Development Award

Anil Chitrakar, Babu Raja Shrestha and Prachet Kumar
Shrestha, Environmental Camps for Conservation
Awareness: Environmental Camps for Conservation
Awareness and Centre for Renewable Energy turned
Nepal's 300 annual days of sun into a safer light
source and an economic opportunity by developing a
solar-powered Tukioriginally a kerosene lamp that is
both costly and emits toxic fumesand by offering
microfinancing and training for people to make, sell,
and service the lamps.

Association La Voute Nubienne: The Association La
Voute Nubienne created the VN technique, which is the
first major replicable instance of the construction of
timberless vaulted, earth brick buildings in
Sub-Saharan Africa. It features a cable guide to
determine the radius of the vault, weatherproof
plastic sheeting and other modern features.

blueEnergy: BlueEnergy provides a low-cost,
sustainable solution to the energy needs of
marginalized communities through the creation of
hybrid wind and solar energy systems. By manufacturing
wind turbines locally, energy costs are kept low,
servicing is made easier and jobs are created in
disparaged communities.

CellBazaar, Inc., Kamal Quadir: CellBazaar developed
and provides an electronic marketplace that can be
assessed through mobile phones. Product sellers can
list their items on CellBazaar where they are visible
to 15 million rural and urban mobile phone users in
Bangladesh.

Kiva.org: Kiva.org allows users to browse through
profiles of qualified entrepreneurs on the Kiva
website and make a small loan of $25 or more. Kiva
pools money from individual users and transfers it to
a finance corporation that will administer the loan.
Journal updates allow lenders to see how their money
makes a difference in the lives of the entrepreneur.

2007 Microsoft Education Award

Canal Futura: Canal Futura uses television
communication to achieve sustainability by providing
free information, education and entertainment
representing a country's diverse culture. It is
watched 24 hours a day by 33 million people and has
trained 420,000 educators from social institutions and
public schools.

Elluminate, Inc.: Fire and Ice/Elluminate Live! is a
real-time virtual classroom software product used for
highly interactive live online classes, lectures,
demonstrations and meetings. This product helps
organizations increase student understanding,
productivity and access to instructors. Whether on
dial-up or broadband, Elluminate Live! offers equal,
collaborative experiences amongst different cultures.

Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in
Education: OER Commons is a teaching and learning
network whose purpose is to expand educational
opportunities for all by increasing access to
high-quality open educational resources. It is the
first comprehensive network where teachers and
students can access course materials and share their
own ideas and strategies.

Robert Shelton, Stephanie Smith, and Terry Hodgson,
NASA Johnson Space Center Learning Technologies Team:
MathTrax is an accessible education software tool to
help blind and sighted students learn and understand
math and science. It describes information in three
ways using "smart" text, non-verbal sound and custom
graphics descriptions.

TalkingITGlobal: TalkingITGlobal.org, is a free
multilingual online platform that employs Web 2.0
community tools supporting youth creating change in
their communities and around the world. Online
community users can create their own blogs and engage
in discussions, access opportunities and launch their
own multimedia expressions.

2007 Katherine M. Swanson Equality Award

Counterpart International: Counterpart Data Warehouse,
is a tool created in response to deadly crises such as
the Asian Tsunami that will increase the effectiveness
and transparency of international aid. It allows users
to address humanitarian needs by designing projects,
acquiring donated items, managing their shipment and
following up with recipients.

Devendra Raj Mehta, Bhagwan Mahaveer Viklang Sahayata
Samiti: Created the Jaipur Foot/Limb that acts as a
simple and extremely efficient prosthesis that
utilizes revolutionary technology that is both
effective and affordable. The Jaipur Foot/Limb allows
normal walking, running, sitting, climbing and other
daily activities.

Grameen Shakti (GS): Dipal Chandra Barua has developed
an integrated approach to renewable energy
technologies designed to reach rural people in
Bangladesh through the installation of Solar Home
Systems (SHSs), which are stand alone systems suitable
for providing renewable energy to remote areas outside
the reach of grid electricity. GS is also helping to
promote biogas technology and Improved Cook Stoves in
the communities it serves.

Innocence Project: Innocence Project provides direct
representation and critical assistance to prisoners
that may be exonerated by DNA testing. Their
ground-breaking use of DNA technology has been used to
free innocent people wrongfully convicted due to
systematic defects.

Tropical Forest Trust: Indigenous Peoples Voice
Programme developed computer mapping tools
incorporating iconic software and automated GPS
recording processes for use by illiterate indigenous
communities. This technology supports forestry
operations that identify and respect local religious,
cultural and resource sites.

2007 Health Award

Diagnostics Development Unit, University of Cambridge
& Diagnostics for the Real World: Uses Signal
Amplification System (SAS) technology as a diagnostic
format to greatly increase the sensitivity of
lateral-flow based rapid tests. This technology has
already translated into three new diagnostic tests for
the detection of Chlamydia, trachoma and hepatitis B.

Donald O'Neal, HELPS International: Guatemala
Cookstove Project addresses the respiratory deaths of
1.6 million women and children each year by reducing
the amount of required firewood by 60-70 percent. It
was designed and verified using computer technology to
monitor carbon monoxide and emission of carbon
particles.

PATH: Applied indicator technology for the Vaccine
Vial Monitor which is a small chemically active
sticker that adheres to the vaccine vial and changes
color over time as the vaccine is exposed to heat. The
Vaccine Vial Monitors allow health workers to
recognize and replace expired vials that would not
save lives or reduce illness.

P&G's Children's Safe Drinking Water Program: PUR
Purifier of Water is an in-home system delivered to
families in developing countries. The system provides
precipitation, coagulation, flocculation and residual
chlorination for 10 liters of water.

Vaxin Inc: Vaxin is developing a rapid-response bird
flu vaccine that can be manufactured without the
requirement of chicken eggs. Side effects and other
problems associated with the current bird flu vaccine
will be reduced or eliminated when this current
version is released on the market.

The Tech Museum Awards represent a collaborative
effort among educational institutions and businesses.
Key partners supporting The Tech Museum Awards include
Santa Clara University's Center for Science,
Technology and Society, presenting sponsor Applied
Materials, Inc., and global outreach partners the
United Nations Development Programme, the American
Council for The United Nations University, the World
Bank Institute, and Catholic Relief Services. Category
sponsors include Applied Materials, Inc., Intel
Corporation, Accenture, Microsoft and the Swanson
Foundation. Program sponsors include Wells Fargo,
Genentech, eBay, KPMG, Cadence, Celerity, The Frank
and Denise Quattrone Foundation, NASDAQ, HP and
Google. In-kind sponsors include American Airlines,
Forbes, Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide, Hotel
Montgomery, Fairmont San Jose and Siltronic.

About The Tech Museum Awards: Technology Benefiting
Humanity
The Tech Museum Awards: Technology Benefiting
Humanity, presented by Applied Materials, Inc., is one
of the premier annual humanitarian awards programs in
the world, recognizing and supporting solutions that
benefit humanity and address some of the most critical
issues facing our planet and its people. The Laureates
(individuals, for-profit, public and not-for-profit
organizations) recognized by the Program each year
must demonstrate: the use of technology to
significantly improve the human condition in one of
the five areas; evidence that a serious problem or
challenge with broad significance is addressed by this
use of technology; a noteworthy contribution that
surpasses previous or current solutions; a novel
application that represents a breakthrough or a
creative adaptation of an existing technology; the
potential for this use of technology to serve as an
inspiration or model for others. Laureates are
selected by a prestigious panel of international
judges organized by the Center for Science,
Technology, and Society at Santa Clara University, and
made up of Santa Clara University faculty as well as
leaders from educational and research institutions,
industry and the public sector around the world.

For more information about The Tech Museum Awards,
visit www.techawards.org.

About The Tech Museum of Innovation
The Tech Museum of Innovation is a hands-on technology
and science museum for people of all ages and
backgrounds. Located in San Jose, California the
Capital of Silicon Valley its mission, as a
public-benefit corporation, is to inspire the
innovator in everyone. Through hands-on exhibits,
educational programs, the annual Tech Challenge team
competition for youth, and the internationally
recognized Tech Museum Awards, presented by Applied
Materials, Inc., The Tech Museum of Innovation honors
the past, celebrates the present, and encourages the
development of innovative ideas for a more promising
future. For more information about The Tech Museum of
Innovation, visit www.thetech.org.