As any scientist knows, there”™s a formula for everything. For innovation, it”™s a mixture of invention, insight and collaboration.
That”™s according to John Kelly, a senior vice president and director of research with IBM. He should know, last year IBM”™s Yorktown Research Center was a major player with 3,600 patents.
Kelly gave the keynote speech Nov. 7 at the IBM Industry Solution Lab, for the Business Council of Westchester”™s first in a yearlong series of seminars, focusing on innovation in the businesses of Westchester.
The seminar was hosted by Marsha Gordon, president and CEO of the Business Council of Westchester.
“We want to spotlight our innovative companies and encourage the business community to grow by thinking ”˜outside the box,”™” she said. “Our goal is to attract more and more cutting-edge companies to Westchester in years to come.”
“We can, and we will, attract cutting edge industries, forward thinkers, and the venture capital that backs it all up, if we focus our attention on developing an atmosphere that supports these kinds of companies,” said Ellen Lynch, president and CEO of Yonkers Industrial Development Agency.
Kelly elaborated on their observations and thoughts on Westchester”™s future. He said technological competition is on the rise in the world, pointing to Beijing as “the new competitive landscape.”
Kelly said he believes in collaborative efforts.
“Global companies realize, through collaboration, they can do things they could not do themselves. IBM and partners at Albany Nanotech will foster the next wave and development that will lead to more powerful, more portable and more affordable chips.”
At the lab a tour was given, screening the technologies that exemplify the type of innovation that the seminar described. The tour showcased developments such as the Genographic Project, a collaboration between IBM and National Geographic to digitally map the human journey around the world and throughout the ages, and a portable multi lingual verbal translator with 85 percent accuracy.
Kelly pointed to the staff of these projects, and the higher learning institutions that produce them, as an essential component of innovation.
“It has always been, and still is, that the best higher education programs are still in this country,” said Kelly. “As far as I”™m concerned we need to staple a visa to each PhD that comes out of these programs.”
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