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Innovator Founder and Editor-in-Chief Jennifer L. Schenker
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| Nearly 400 women from 50 countries convened in Paris May 22 and 23 for the Women In Tech Global Summit, an annual conference that aims to create a more inclusive and innovative science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) ecosystem.
Topics covered at the conference included cybersecurity (The Innovator’s editor-in-chief moderated a panel on the topic that is pictured here), the metaverse, AI ethics and policy making, industry 5.0 and tech for good.
The presence of speakers such as Christyl Johnson, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center’s Deputy Director for Technology and Research Investments (see The Innovator’s Interview of The Week) Sheikha Bodour Al-Qasimi, President of the United Arab Emirate’s Sharjah Research, Technology and Innovation Park and Judith Wunschik, Chief Cybersecurity Officer at Siemens Energy, as well as dozens of accomplished young women from developing countries, served as a reminder of women’s progress in STEM. But significant barriers remain. A panel on entrepreneurship and investment talked about how women continue to be underrepresented in digital sectors and startups led by women are still in the minority and raise less money. Speaker Sara El Hairy, France’s State Secretary for Youth at the Ministry of National Education, stressed that women are not only underrepresented in tech but in all leadership areas. As rapid advances in AI bring us to “the crossroads of the very future of humanity” female voices are needed more than ever, she said.
Read on to get some of the key takeaways from the conference and to learn about the week's most important technology stories impacting business. |
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| On February 24th, 2022, less than an hour before Russian tanks started rolling into Ukraine, computer hackers brought down the satellite communications system run by American firm Viasat, temporarily knocking out communications in Ukraine, Internet connections across Europe and wind turbines in Germany. Russia’s attack on Viasat was by no means the only cyberattack it directed at Ukraine. Wiper programs, designed to delete data, attacked systems across the country and hackers used malware called Industroyer2 to attack Ukraine’s electricity grid. Meanwhile cyber espionage to gain information and a barrage of fake news designed to mislead and shape public perceptions of the war have wreaked other kinds of havoc.
Indeed, there were more cyberattacks in Ukraine during the first four months of 2022 than in the previous eight years combined, according to a recent report by Google's threat analysis group. Russian government-backed attackers have engaged in an aggressive, multi-pronged effort to gain a decisive wartime advantage in cyberspace, says the report. This includes a significant shift in various groups’ focus towards Ukraine, a dramatic increase in the use of destructive attacks on Ukrainian government, military and civilian infrastructure, a spike in spear-phishing activity targeting NATO countries, and an uptick in cyber operations designed to further multiple Russian objectives such as hack-and-leak sensitive information to further a specific narrative, according to the report.
Ukraine has proved surprisingly resilient and there is much that companies and governments can learn from the besieged country’s cyber defense tactics, says James Appathurai, NATO Deputy Assistant Secretary General for Emerging Security Challenges, which includes emerging technologies, cyber, climate and security and counter terrorism. |
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Who: Christyl Johnson (PhD) is NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center’s Deputy Director for Technology and Research Investments. She manages the center's research and development portfolio and is responsible for formulating the center’s future science mission and technology goals and objectives and leading an integrated program of investments aligned to meet those goals. Johnson came to NASA Goddard from the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, where she served under the President's science adviser as the executive director of the National Science and Technology Council. She was a speaker at the Women In Tech Global Summit in Paris May 22 and 23.
Topic: What corporates can learn about innovation from NASA.
Quote: "When you bring in somebody outside of your area to look at your problem you can come up with revolutionary changes in the way you operate."
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| ANYbotics, a spin-out of Switzerland’s ETH Zurich university, has developed rugged four-legged robots to provide automated routine inspections for heavy industry, with the aim of maximizing equipment uptime and improving safety while reducing costs. Customers include Petronas, Shell, Siemens Energy, BASF and Outokumpu, one of Europe’s largest producers of stainless steel. |
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| Global investment in energy is expected to hit roughly $2.8 trillion in 2023, according to a new report from the International Energy Agency, with over $1.7 trillion of that set to go on clean energy technologies such as EVs, renewables and storage. In a sign of how the energy transition is progressing, the IEA’s World Energy Investment report said solar investments were expected to attract over $1 billion a day in 2023. In a statement, Fatih Birol, the IEA’s executive director, said investment in solar was “set to overtake the amount of investment going into oil production for the first time.” However, the IEA projects that coal, gas and oil are still on course to attract just over $1 trillion of investment this year.
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