Now’s the Time to Be a Woman in Tech, Says Leading Digital Expert

Forbes | Leo King | Dec. 19

http://www.forbes.com/sites/leoking/2014/12/19/nows-the-time-to-be-a-woman-in-tech-says-leading-digital-expert/

“Jessica Federer, chief digital officer at pharmaceutical and chemical giant Bayer, says there has “never been a better time” to be a woman working in the technology field. Federer, one of the most high profile women in digital in her industry, tells Forbes that adult women and younger girls wanting to work with tech should go for their dreams because of the clear opportunities on offer…Prior to joining Bayer, Federer was a program analyst at the US Department of Health and Human Services, helping to facilitate a nationwide discussion on a variety of pressing healthcare topics…Federer says working in tech offers its own challenges, primarily that in spite of data, “we still need to remember the context”. Only than can meaningful decisions be made…Ultimately, she says, patient and professional relationships are what matter. ‘Even though we are working with advanced technology, maintaining a digital relationship that helps people requires the same, if not more, effort.’”

 

Billions of Dollars are Set to Flow into These 7 Areas of Tech in 2015

Business Insider | Eugene Kim | Dec. 18

http://www.businessinsider.com/enterprise-tech-predictions-for-2015-by-vcs-2014-12?op=1

“Companies spend trillions of dollars on technology every year. The best investors can see which new companies are serving the needs of big enterprises, and invest accordingly. To uncover the hottest new trends in business tech next year, we spoke to some of the most successful enterprise-focused venture capitalists in Silicon Valley. This isn’t really a prediction of where businesses will spend, but these VCs believe that these new trends, combined with a much warmer market for tech IPOs, could make 2015 a great year for enterprise-focused venture returns. In the past week, we saw four companies go public at valuations over $1 billion. Emergence Capital’s Jason Green believes markets will only get better next year. ‘Markets are now receptive, there has been fundamental growth within the tech industry, and we are now seeing the broader risk tolerance that went away for a while. All of these factors lead to the potential for 2015 to be a big year for returns,’ he says.” (Big data, challengers to AWS, enterprise mobile apps, security, “Container” tech, “Share” economy, and beacons. Details are provided in full article).

 

UW Researchers Beg FAA to Regulate Drones, Allow Testing

Puget Sound Business Journal | Sarah Aitchison | Dec. 17

http://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/blog/techflash/2014/12/uw-researchers-beg-faa-to-regulate-drones-allow.html

“Seattle researchers are growing weary as the Federal Aviation Administration prepares to miss another self-made deadline for its regulation of small unmanned aerial systems or vehicles (UAS/UAV), set for the end of this year. The lack of guidance is hurting research abilities at the University of Washington and other public research institutes, researchers there say. The Congressional deadline for the FAA’s drone regulation is Sept. 30, 2015…While the FAA has yet to complete its regulations for use of UAV/UAS, the regulatory agency did established six flight test centers throughout the country where the machines can be tested. Washington state doesn’t have a test center – the nearest ones are Alaska (which includes sites in Hawaii and Oregon), Nevada and North Dakota. So if UW researchers want to test their creations, they have to get approval through a special FAA exemption known as a certificate of waiver acceptance… The FAA has since released hobbyist guidelines, but those don’t account for the research and commercial facilities that want to do drone testing and research. UW Dean of Engineering Michael Bragg said the FAA generally develops new policies in five to 10 years, but now the regulatory agency is moving much faster in response to the popularity of drones.”

 

Tech Hiring to Barrel Forward in Early 2015, Survey Says

Silicon Valley Business Journal | Jose Fermoso | Dec. 17

http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/news/2014/12/17/tech-hiring-to-barrel-forward-in-early-2015-survey.html

“Tech-industry recruiting website Dice.com says 75% of recruiters working for U.S. companies anticipate they will hire more tech employees in the first six months of 2015 than they did in 2014.

That is the highest percentage it has ever recorded for its semi-annual survey, which has been published since 2008, Dice said. The report also finds that 72% of companies plan to expand by “more than 10%” during the same time in 2015, compared with 65% anticipating hiring in last year’s survey.

These numbers reveal that the IT hiring market remains strong. Shravan Goli, president of Dice, told me in a phone interview that the market is especially strong on the West Coast. Candidates in this region are asking for more benefits, including an equity stake, sign-on bonuses, cash for car down-payments and access to recreation rooms at work, he said. Goli said companies are looking to hire professionals in all aspects of the technology industry, including product development and management, design and systems operations. He also said most employers are looking for more workers with software backgrounds than those in hardware.”

 

Tech Investors Plowing Money into Future Farms

The Seattle Times | Heather Somerville | Dec. 17

http://seattletimes.com/html/businesstechnology/2025258312_agtechfuturexml.html

“Investors and entrepreneurs behind some of the world’s newest industries have started to put their money and tech talents into farming — the world’s oldest industry — with an audacious agenda: to make sure there is enough food for the 10 billion people expected to inhabit the planet by 2100, do it without destroying the world and make a pretty penny along the way. Silicon Valley is pushing its way into every stage of the food-growing process, from tech tycoons buying up farmland to startups selling robots that work the fields to hackathons dedicated to building the next farming app. “The food sector is wasteful and inefficient,” said Ali Partovi, a Bay Area investor with large stakes in sustainable agriculture startups. “Silicon Valley has a hubris that says, ‘That’s stupid. Let’s change it.’ ” The booming activity around the so-called ag-tech sector has led experts to predict that its growth, in terms of the number of new startups and venture-capital investments, will in another five or so years outpace today’s hottest technologies. In the third quarter this year, venture capitalists and private-equity firms invested $269 million into 41 deals in agriculture and food startups, the highest dollar amount ever in that sector and double the amount invested during the third quarter last year, according to data from the Cleantech Group. Since 2009, investments into this sector have grown an average 63 percent every year.”

 

The Big Business of Police Body Cameras

CNBC | Jane Wells | Dec. 17

http://www.cnbc.com/id/102277770#.

“This week the Los Angeles Police Department announced it would spend millions of dollars to outfit all 7,000 patrol officers with body cameras, choosing a system from Taser. The hope is that a camera system will help build trust and provide accountability for officers and the people they encounter. A camera system costs a lot of money, but it could potentially lower the number of complaints and use-of-force incidents, saving the city money on lawsuits. But do cameras modify behavior? “Absolutely,” said Sgt. Josh Lindsay of the Rialto Police Department. This city of 100,000 east of Los Angeles has been using the AXON system from Taser for three years. In the first year the cameras were used, complaints dropped 80 percent, and use-of-force incidents fell by more than half, he said…Up next, Chief Farrar said the local District Attorney’s office will soon be able to tap into the system directly so that officers don’t have to spend time downloading clips onto disks to deliver to prosecutors. “You’re probably going to see live streaming video,” said Farrar about the next wave of technology. “Video going back to the dispatch center or to the sergeant’s computer or the sergeant’s cellphone, where they’re going to be able to monitor their employees and see what’s happening live right as it’s unfolding.”

 

The Year of the Biotech IPO: Many of Seattle’s Newest Public Companies are Lab-driven

Puget Sound Business Journal | Rachel Lerman | Dec. 17

http://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/blog/health-care-inc/2014/12/the-year-of-the-biotech-ipo-many-of-seattles.html

The Seattle-area saw six IPOs this year, but the biggest Seattle offering is yet to come.

Juno Therapeutics, which is hoping to raise $212 million in its IPO Friday, would eclipse the rest of the year’s offerings. The next closest is Acucela, which went public in Japan and raised about $162 million.

Last year, Tableau and Zulily both raised more than $250 million, a banner year for Seattle tech companies. But this year, it’s all about biotech. There were six Washington state companies that went public this year. Four of the six new public companies this year are biotechs, leaving no doubt that the Northwest is a key hub in the fight to cure cancer. Next year, we guess it will switch back to a tech-heavy year with several rumored tech IPOs coming in the next few months.