VC-backed startups now free to chase SBIR grant money

The team at Discovery Machine, Inc. is happy and relieved that the SBIR program has been given legislative life and has moved beyond the seemingly endless struggles of all those caught in the continuing resolution purgatory. We thank everyone who worked so hard for so long to keep this economic engine running.

We see a few dark clouds in this new environment, finding larger companies more active in the submission’s competition and companies that are VC funded and owned now back in the mix. This has clearly taken some early tolls on the success rates for many a small firm.

A recent article by Greg Avery of the Denver Business Journal had what I view as a very nice summary of the VC related changes and is quoted, below. Discovery Machine wishes the best of fortunes to all companies who participate in the new SBIR program.

“VC-backed startups now free to chase SBIR grant money”

Denver Business Journal by Greg Avery, Reporter

Date: Friday, January 13, 2012, 4:00am MST

“For the first time in 10 years, startup companies majority-owned by venture capital funds are eligible again for hundreds of millions of dollars in research grants available to small businesses each year.

Legislation, buried in a national defense spending bill adopted on Dec. 30, allows federal agencies to award a portion of their Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grants to VC-backed startups.

It’s a reversal of a 10-year-old policy that excluded firms that were more than 50 percent owned by VC investors…….”

Knowledge is Power

“Knowledge is power” or so the saying goes.  But if it is so powerful, why don’t people treat it more like an asset?  To understand my statement a bit better, let’s look at the typical lifecycle of a professional.  Upon successful graduation from college, individuals venture into their desired career paths completely inexperienced and in most cases naïve as to what is awaiting them in the real world.  As time progresses, they begin to learn more things and seek new knowledge to satisfy their professional goals.  They may switch jobs and move up the proverbial ladder of success.  Their life passes them by and on the brink of retirement they are finally at the point where they know a great many things.  To them, those details make them powerful but they are ready to move on, so they retire.  The company they work for wishes them well and they walk out the door.

Although, the company always respected the individual, they do not always realize just how much power that person gave their company.  It comes back to the knowledge that person possessed and how they used it.  In this case, the company lost access to the knowledge and as a result lost power in the marketplace.  If only, the company had realized how the knowledge of an experienced person was affecting their business, they could have taken steps to retain that knowledge.

If only this company had heard of Discovery Machine, they could have captured the knowledge of their expert and deployed it throughout their workforce.  As a result, their company would have become more powerful instead of losing their most experienced individual.  Discovery Machine’s methodology and software is designed to document the tacit decision-making processes of experts and actually deploy it.   Knowledge is power and should be treated as a commodity.  Using an approach like Discovery Machine’s companies can harness that power and unleash its true potential.

2011, it was mostly a good year for Artificial Intelligence. I hope it was a good year for you!

2011 has been a great year for many associated with artificial intelligence. A few of the milestones have been IBM’s Watson Artificial Intelligence Application beating the world’s best jeopardy players (Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter) in February. IBM quickly put Watson to work in the Wellpoint  to help improve patient care through the delivery of up-to-date, evidence-based health care for millions of Americans.

Discovery Machine has had a great year to.  Our AI work with the Navy is receiving great reviews.  We released our VBS2 Behavior Modeling Console and entered a formal partnership with Bohemia Interactive.  We had a great  Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation and Education Conference (I/ITSEC) at the beginning of this month.  Hundreds came by our booth for demonstrations of our Navy and VBS2 AI solutions.

The sad event for the year was the passing of John McCarthy in October at 84.  John designed Lisp in the late 50s.  We have all done a little Lisp.  Late at night on the VAX  11/780 in the 80s I was not a fan but I am now. He also coined the term “Artificial Intelligence” at the famous Dartmouth Conference in the summer of 1956.

One of the best AI events this year is the closing of the Google’s sponsored AI contest at “aichallenge.org”, the winner was announced on December 23rd at 9:00 PM. The winner was Mathis Lichtenberger. He is a second year computer science student at the University of Lubeck  They say there is no prizes just “There is of course the glory and bragging rights that come with doing well in the best programming contest ever made.”  Mathis, give me a call and I will give a job!

So we end 2011 as an great year for AI.  I cannot wait for 2012 to begin. Have a great new year, see you in 2012.

Discovery Machine at I/ITSEC 2011

The Discovery Machine team just got back from I/ITSEC 2011 in Orlando, FL. We presented two papers and gave a demo at the VBS2 users’ group meeting. People from all over the world stopped at our booth to see the latest and greatest intelligent agents running in many different simulation environments.

The I/ITSEC Show Daily for November 30th reported on the General/Flag Officer Panel where each participant addressed the I/ITSEC 2011 theme of, “Prepare the Force; Secure the Future”. http://www.iitsec.org/Documents/IITSEC_2011_Show_Daily/IITSEC11_Day3_web.pdf

There were two key messages in the article that summarized the panelists’ comments:

1. There is a need to capture operational experiences and expertise from the past 10 years and going forward.

2. Modeling and simulation is effective at reducing training costs while still offering effective training.

Discovery Machine embraces these messages and offers a valuable solution. Our knowledge capture methodology was developed to allow any expert to conduct introspection and articulation so their experiences can be leveraged in executing models. At I/ITSEC we demonstrated the captured experiences as intelligent agents running in simulations. The captured experiences can also run as best practices where each best practice becomes an application.

Modeling and simulation offers large cost reductions by saving money on bullets, fuel, maintenance and risk to human lives. Discovery machine takes it one step further by creating a more realistic training environment through intelligent agents that not only help with training on doctrine but also cognitive decision making that is critical to adapting to new situations. The intelligent agents also reduce the workload of instructors so that instructors can focus on students rather than simulations. In addition, Discovery Machine has made authoring intelligent agents simple – no programming required. This significantly reduces the cost in creating and supporting training events.

If we didn’t get to meet you at I/ITSEC and give you a demo, please check out our website or give us a call.

Who says video games are just for kids?

Video games are cool!  Or so I always thought as a child and it was normal for me and my friends to seek out the latest and greatest video game system we could get our hands on.  I remember how others responded to this eager desire to acquire new games.  There was the hesitant acceptance of my parents who would struggle with equipping their child with something that; could rot his brain, make him lazy, and cause all the other negative effects that the supposed “experts” would have them believe; and having to be the ones that deprived their child of something he wanted.  There were also the grandparents who ascribed to the “he’s just a kid and will grow out of it” mental paradigm.

Although I’m sure their intentions were genuine my parent’s fears were unwarranted as video games did not reduce my intellect or eliminate playing with friends in the great outdoors.   Similarly, my grandparent’s assumption that I would simply “grow out of it” did not come to fruition.  I got older, I got more serious perhaps, but videogames remained at the forefront of my mind.  As I evolved as a person, so did video games.  They grew to the point of realism that they now encompass both the entertainment and training sectors.  They have been described as serious games, virtual worlds, immersive training environments, simulations, and countless other monikers.

Video games have become not only a passing fancy for children but a necessity for corporate and military training worldwide.  The world has finally accepted that intelligence can be injected into a “game” to make it serious and give it practical value.  Resulting training simulations reinforce concepts in students at a fraction of the cost as live training.  If you are interested in seeing some of the real-world applications of simulation technology, check out the fast approaching I/ITSEC, a showcase for the latest and greatest commercial simulation advancements.  I/ITSEC is the largest modeling, simulation, and training conference in the world and draws thousands of people each year.

Discovery Machine, has the privilege of being a part of this year’s I/ITSEC and will showcase our newest artificial intelligence applications.  Discovery Machine is enables our customers to capture the experiences of the world’s top experts and deploy it as training aids and devices.  We have simulated entities to perform complex military operations, interact intelligently with human operators via voice communication, operate as part of a complex social network, and more.

Discovery Machine has a number of partners and as a result is available in multiple simulated training platforms.  To see the latest that Discovery Machine has to offer visit us at I/ITSEC which is open from Monday November 28th to Thursday December 1st.  We are in booth #2880 and will have live demonstrations of our latest applications of serious games for training. For more information on I/ITSEC visit their website.