Digital Reality: Life in Two Worlds
We have spent the last two decades capturing the real world, turning it into ones and zeros. Bits replacing atoms, where digital was cool and physical was the forgotten relative. This will reverse in the next decade – physical will become the new frontier, and digital will seem a little bit boring. Robots, sensors, 3D printers, UAV – information technology will evolve from providing access to supporting direct human interactions. In the words of Chris Anderson of Wired Magazine – Atoms will become the new bits. As Digital and Reality blend together, we are going to see a new human computer industry in which digital technology plays a mere supporting role. This session is rich in lessons for entrepreneurs, makers, and innovators—whatever you want to call people who want to start something—to instigate rather than follow, and to challenge the status quo. The talk will include demonstration of sensors that simulate our ability to see (data capture), feel (haptic), and make (3D printing).
Presenters
Ping Fu, CEO, Geomagic
Honored in 2005 by Inc. Magazine as “The Entrepreneur of the Year”, Ping Fu describes herself as an artist and a scientist whose chosen expression is business. In 1997 Ping co-founded Geomagic, a leading US technology company that fundamentally changed the way products are designed and manufactured around the world: Used for repairing vintage cars at Jay Leno’s garage to digitally recreating the Statue of Liberty, Geomagic aims to enable advanced design and manufacturing of personalized products that are made locally with global accessibility.
Before co-founding Geomagic, Ping Fu was Director of Visualization at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications, where she initiated and managed the NCSA Mosaic that led to Netscape and Internet Explorer. She has more than 25 years of software industry experience in database, networking, computer graphics, and advanced manufacturing.
Besides her CEO role at Geomagic, Ping serves on the National Advisory Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the White House, she is a member of National Council on Women in Technology, and on the board of directors at the Long Now Foundation.
Ping’s incredible story of personal and business resilience “Bend Not Break” will be published by Penguin in December 2012.
Saturday, March 9
