Laurie Williams, Professor, Department of Computer Science, North Carolina State University

By Laurie Williams

According to a recent IBM Tech Trends report, both educators and students view security as extremely important. In fact, 56 percent of students and 44 percent of educators ranked it as one of the top three issues the IT industry will face over the next two years. In addition, a UK government report said that it may take 20 years to address the current cybersecurity skills gaps.

To help try and change that, North CarolinaStateUniversity is partnering with IBM to help better prepare the next generation of engineers with a secure-by-design focus and curriculum.

Why dedicate so many resources to building cybersecurity skills? The world operates with interconnected systems and as technology progresses these systems will only proliferate. The linchpin to success in securing these systems is in the design stage – not at the end of the process.

At North Carolina State University, my students are focusing on healthcare systems, specifically building and analyzing electronic medical record applications. The students leverage IBM AppScan to test these applications for potential vulnerabilities. Critical cyber systems must inspire trust and confidence. They must predictably protect the integrity of data and resources as well as the privacy of data owners, and perform securely, safely, and reliably.

Earlier this year, I had the opportunity to collaborate with IBM researchers to identify common themes and pinpoint some of the major challenges academic institutions are facing in relation to building next generation cybersecurity skills. Four common trends were identified:

1.)    Information security is increasing in relevance. No longer just a highly-specialized area, information security impacts people every day. It has become personal in an interconnected world that’s reliant upon smart phones, social media, e-commerce and cloud services. In other words, information security impacts us every day.

2.)    Increasing attention and demand from students, private industry and government agencies. More and more industries, from banks and financial services companies to aerospace and defense firms, as well as healthcare providers, are seeking graduates with specialized security skills. Training an expert cybersecurity workforce is now a national priority for many countries.

3.)    The field of cybersecurity has significantly expanded with more domains to secure and more ways to attack. This means more to teach and to learn. Today, attacks are extremely hard to detect; attackers are stealthier and more evasive. In response, academic programs are expanding beyond traditional areas like cryptography and countering sniffing and denial of service attacks. Cybersecurity education now covers new areas like cyber-physical attacks, the protection of heterogeneous systems and real-time security data analysis.

4.)    Academic programs are evolving from teaching purely the principles and theory of security to focus more on the practices. This is largely driven by the demands of industry and governments, as well as by students who want to focus more on real-world problems and practical challenges.

While these may be the four common themes we identified, in reality it will take all of us to create a more secure future.

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Laurie Williams is a Professor in the Computer Science Department of the College of Engineering at North Carolina State University (NCSU). Her research focuses on software security particularly in relation to healthcare IT; agile software development practices and processes; software reliability, software testing and analysis; open source software development; and broadening participation and increasing retention in computer science. Laurie has more than 170 refereed publications.

Laurie received her Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Utah, her MBA from Duke University Fuqua School of Business, and her BS in Industrial Engineering from Lehigh University.   She worked for IBM Corporation for nine years in Raleigh, NC and Research Triangle Park, NC before returning to academia.

Matthias Kaiserswerth, Director, IBM Research, Zurich

By Matthias Kaiserswerth

Steve Jobs famously lured John Sculley from a soda pop company to Apple in 1983 by saying, “Do you want to sell sugared water for the rest of your life? Or do you want to come with me and change the world?” In today’s business environment, the comparable challenge to a young engineer or computer scientist would be: “Do you want to create the next mobile app that makes your friends look like zombies or do you want to help transform the world of computing?”

That, in fact, is the challenge that we’re issuing today. IBM and ASTRON, the Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy, have assembled what some call a dream team of scientists to create a next-generation computing system capable of handling the ultimate big data challenge. Our project, called DOME, is a system for handling the deluge of data that will be created by the Square Kilometre Array, a radio telescope made up of more than half a million individual antennas that are to be scattered across southern Africa and Australia. When the SKA is completed in 2024, it is expected to process 14 exabytes of raw data per day. The data collected by the SKA in a single day would take nearly two million years to play back on an iPod.

We’re in the process of recruiting more than a half-dozen PhD.-level students to help staff the project–and we’re staging a virtual job fair to engage prospective employees. If you’re interested and qualified, visit the job fair Web site on March 26 at 5 p.m. Central European Time (Noon US Eastern Time). Only top students with huge ambitions should apply.

Click here to view the embedded video.

What’s so special about DOME and SKA? Because the telescope is to be made from so many individual antennas, the antennas are to be so widely scattered, and such a large volume of data is being gathered, a novel computing system must be developed to manage the process of gathering, storing and analyzing data from end to end. The system must have computing power that is many times that of today’s fastest computers. It must take up much less space in data centers and use much less electrical power than today’s most efficient systems. And the system will have to learn and adapt as it interacts with data.

IBM has a vision of the future of computing that we call the era of cognitive systems. We believe that this new era of computing will be as distinct from the current era, that of programmable computers, as this one was from the one that preceded it, the tabulating era. Increasingly, because of the emergence of big data, we will need computers that can learn and adapt–thinking machines rather than machines that wait passively for human commands. The SKA is not only the ultimate big data challenge; it also lights the path towards cognitive computing. Most of the fundamental scientific and engineering advances that will be required to fulfill the promise of cognitive computing will also be required to handle the huge demands posed by the SKA. Ultimately, these advances will transform business, government and our personal lives, helping us make better decisions, which, in turn, will make the world work better.

Breakthroughs targeted by the DOME team range data storage and networking to supercomputing and data analytics. We’re even creating a computer program that will help the designers choose the optimal technologies and architectures for DOME. Think of it as an intelligent design system.

There are plenty of projects for bright young computer scientists to work on these days, but it is hard to imagine other ones with the potential of rewriting the rules of computing, like DOME does. So, if you want to change the world, please look at what we’re doing.

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For more information about the SKA and DOME, read this white paper.

Technorati Tags: ASTRON, DOME, IBM, SKA, Square Kilometre Array

Dr. James Hendler, Professor and Computer Science Department Head, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

By Dr. James Hendler

Every single student in the Department of Computer Science here at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute has the potential to revolutionize computing. But with the arrival of Watson at Rensselaer, they’re even better positioned to do so.

Watson has caused the researchers in my field of artificial intelligence (AI) to rethink some of our basic assumptions. Watson’s cognitive computing is a breakthrough technology, and it’s really amazing to be here at Rensselaer, where we will be the first university to get our hands on this amazing system.

With 90 percent of the world’s data generated in the past two years, the ability for people and even traditional computing systems to make sense of this data has grown complex. The addition of Watson to our campus is very timely considering the growth of what some have termed “Big Data.” 

In 1976, Joseph Weizenbaum, a leading computer scientist, wrote a book called Computer Power and Human Reason: From Judgement to Calculation, in which he criticized the field of AI for trying to replace human creativity and thought with the power of computers.  He suggested that humans and computers were inherently different, and that trying to get computers to think like humans was an insurmountable task, if it was possible at all. 

I first met Weizenbaum when I was still a college student, and the arguments he made about the difference in the way humans and computer “thought” has influenced me throughout my career.  It always seemed to me that the combination of computers and people was the unbeatable one, where our creativity would be amplified by the computer’s power.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Weizenbaum died in 2008, so he wasn’t around to see Watson beat Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter at Jeopardy! in February 2011.  If he was, I think he would have been stunned to see just what a computer could do. But in playing with Watson in the time since the game, I realized that when people see Jeopardy! questions and also see Watson’s proposed answers, they can almost always figure out which one is right. While Watson gets many more of the answers than most people, it doesn’t get all of them. 

Together, though, it is clear that the human and computer can outperform what can be done by either of them alone. Weizenbaum would be sure to point this out, and I think he would also have reminded us that the documents that power Watson—whether famous novel or a page from Wikipedia—were all authored by humans. Watson processes documents in astounding ways, but it still takes us to produce them in the first place.

What we see, given this perspective, is that Watson ushers in the era of “cognitive computing.” It’s an era in which a machine is able to process documents and data in new ways and allow us to significantly amplify the capabilities of what humans can achieve.  Whether in health care, finance or other domains, Watson will allow us to explore what machines and humans can do together, when the computer functions more as a partner, than just as a calculator.  This is clearly a key part of the future of computing, and I think it is great that some of our students will be able to have hands-on experience with this incredible machine.

As the Head of the Computer Science Department, I can tell you that it is not just the machine that is incredible, but also our students. From freshman to doctoral candidates, the innovations that these young women and men produce are amazing. A very large percentage of our students get involved in research as undergraduates, and those of us who teach them are responsible for seeing that they are doing new and novel work. Here at Rensselaerwe have a nearly two-century-old tradition of giving our students access to the best technologies and tools that exist. I am very proud to be a part of our university’s partnership with IBM, which will help us continue this tradition.

I don’t know what Professor Weizenbaum would say if he was here with us today. I think he would be sure to stress the importance of the human brain in the partnership with any computer, even one this capable. But I think that amplifying the creativity of our students with the sheer power of Watson is going to allow us to do some amazing things. I’m excited to be in at the start of something that will help us answer the call of the Rensselaer motto, “Why Not Change the World?”

Technorati Tags: cloud, cognitive computing, IBM Smarter Planet, ibm watson, innovation, Watson

By Richard Silberman, Writer/Researcher, IBM Communications

During the past year, we’ve profiled nine exceptional “People for a Smarter Planet” who exemplify the spirit of change, innovation, creativity and curiosity that lie at the core of building a smarter planet. They are inventors and researchers, academics and executives, thought leaders, dreamers, risk-takers, pioneers.

These individuals come from a wide range of fields and possess an array of interests and expertise. What they all have in common is a passion for their work and a commitment to make the world a better place.

They include Ruhong Zhou, whose avian flu research may help prevent a global pandemic; Dave Bartlett, IBM’s smarter buildings guru; Bill Reichert, a Silicon Valley venture capitalist with novel advice for entrepreneurs; and sustainability expert Sarah Slaughter.

If you haven’t met them yet, here are nine People for a Smarter Planet you should know.

Technorati Tags: business analytics, cloud, IBM Research, IBM Smarter Planet, innovation, smarter analytics, Smarter Industries, Smarter People

Andreas Dummler, Director of Information Systems, ARBURG GmbH + Co KG

By Andreas Dümmler

As one of the world’s leading manufacturers of injection molding machines used to make plastic products, ARBURG GmbH + Co KG is essentially a manufacturer’s manufacturer. We are as committed to smarter manufacturing processes in our own plants as our clients.

One of our foremost priorities is energy efficiency. As a family-owned business, environmental responsibility is a significant part of our culture. We make use of necessary resources, but stay true to a guiding principle to use the most energy efficient production and management systems in our plants as possible. Key tactics in facility engineering and management include the use of geothermal energy, photovoltaic technology, combined heat and power plants, rain water, waste heat from production equipment, and the use of natural ventilation and extraction in our buildings.

ARBURG’s injection molding machines are used by a range of customers in the automotive, electronics, packaging, medical equipment and consumer goods sectors in some 100 countries around the globe. We build all of our products to operate in an energy efficient manner and optimize the energy consumption at our clients’ plants.

For example, writing implement manufacturer Lamy, saves several thousand Euros annually by using electric ARBURG machines in its manufacturing process. At the same time, the company, a market-leader inGermany that also enjoys a strong market position inWestern Europe, is able to shorten production cycles and get its pens and other products to market faster.

Since 2008 ARBURG has presented the annual ARBURG Energy Efficiency Award to a company that excels in its corporate philosophy and activities in the field of energy efficiency. It is important that the winner, like us, takes an innovative, holistic and global approach to the topic of energy efficiency.

This year the award went to Continental, one of the world’s leading automotive suppliers. The company has targeted a 15 percent reduction in CO2 emissions and energy consumption in its production facilities by 2015. To reach this target, electric ARBURG machines are used in the injection molding area.

Given this focus, it only stands to reason that when it came time to upgrade ARBURG’s IT environment to better meet the goals of the business, energy efficiency was one of our primary considerations. This does not stem from altruism. It’s primarily sound business. Consider that of the more than 300 global businesses recently surveyed by IBM and IDC, only 21 percent were operating highly efficient data centers; those companies, however, were able to spend 50 percent more on business innovation and growth.

ARBURG chose to build its updated IT environment on the IBM zEnterprise mainframe for its ability to improve energy efficiency while accelerating time-to-market for our products without compromising on quality.

With IBM zEnterprise, ARBURG is able to make better use of the large amounts of data generated daily across our core business areas of development, procurement, production, sales and services. By migrating to zEnterprise, we have reduced our energy consumption by 80 percent and cut power consumption for disk storage by 25 percent.

ARBURG’s IT environment is part of our larger, long-term energy efficiency approach, which extends from our own production systems and buildings to the efficiency goals of our clients. In addition to the importance of environmental stewardship, we have long realized that there are significant savings to be gained from reducing company-wide energy consumption. This has been a key consideration in all of our investments for decades and remains true today as we move to a new IT environment.

Technorati Tags: ARBURG, efficiency, Energy efficiency, IBM Smarter Planet, IBM System z, Smarter manufacturing

Phil Buckellew, Vice President, IBM Mobile Enterprise

By Phil Buckellew

Being a mobile business used to be straightforward – dishing up a web site for customers and partners to learn more.

But in less than a handful of years, mobile computing has shifted from a ‘nice to have’ to a ‘how to get ahead’ proposition. Our devices got smart and being connected and on the go, meant being in-the-know.

Smart phones and tablets now serve every whim and need, enabling people to accomplish virtually anything from almost anywhere, whether it is comparing prices, paying a mortgage, checking on the status of the supply chain, or providing quotes to a business partner.

For organizations today, providing a meaningful mobile experience means getting ahead and the companies that can’t adapt to this swiftly evolving definition of what it means to be a mobile business, risk getting left behind. Because with a swipe or tap of their finger, the would-be customers or partners will just find someone else who can.

That is why a new breed of organizations are redefining themselves, turning to advances in technology not simply to use mobile computing to meet customers’ needs today, but to re-imagine the way mobile will change how individuals perform their daily tasks and how organizations will interact with their constituents in the future.

Every industry will have its version of a mobile business, from mapping transactions and customer feedback with real-time intelligence to finding untapped potential and efficiencies.

And in emerging markets, mobile is creating a tremendous opportunity for these economies to leverage mobile to foster economic development, competitiveness, productivity, and growth. In regions like Africa, Latin America and India, more than half of these residents are using the web do so exclusively through mobile channels for banking, managing healthcare supplies or sending citizens time sensitive alerts.

In developed markets, industries are realizing the possibilities mobile presents.

After the economic downturn, construction company VCC armed its project managers with mobile devices and sent them out to pitch new projects in higher-growth industries. By using real-time analytics to evaluate projects, they were able to respond to RFPs more quickly and accurately and win 40 percent more business from one year to the next.

In theNetherlands, the city ofEindhovenis using mobile data to re-route traffic more efficiently. Drivers use an app to share their cars’ braking and acceleration patterns to the city, which analyzes this data in real-time to suggest alternative routes.

It’s clear that mobile will reshape industries, society and business the way the Internet did is a reality whose time has finally come true, after years of waiting.

This is putting enormous pressure on organizations to become mobile-enabled businesses, even as customers and technology keep changing the definition of what that means. Yet, industry leaders are pushing ahead, feverishly working on figuring out what works and what doesn’t, putting themselves out ahead on the path towards the mobile future.
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To learn more about IBM Mobile, please visit www.ibm.com/mobile-enterprise   

Find us on Facebook and follow IBM Mobile on Twitter: @ibmmobile, #ibmmobile

Technorati Tags: IBM, mobile commerce, mobile computing, mobile enterprise, Smarter Planet

Stephen O'Donnell, CEO, S1NED Ltd.

By Stephen O’Donnell

It has long been recognized that small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are the single most significant engine of economic growth in both developed and developing economies.   

SMEs account for between 60 and 70 percent of jobs in the 34 countries who are members of the Organization of Economic Co-operation & Development (OECD). In developing countries in particular, programs that encourage entrepreneurship and the development and expansion of business help create political stability and a thriving middle class. An economically successful middle class drives local demand, enabling the entry of larger enterprises that mature the economy and drive the development cycle.

But entrepreneurial SMEs are not the only drivers of local economies. We also see big companies placing more importance on being entrepreneurial.   

Today, large companies conduct entrepreneurship initiatives because they, too, need fuel for innovation, desire top talent and the need to sustain a competitive advantage. Smart companies are catering to entrepreneurs, allowing employees to pitch new ideas, even funding them. In the war for talent and innovation, companies have to think entrepreneurially in order to thrive.

And increasingly, large and small businesses are partnering to access the research, innovations and services they need to be successful. Large firms are joining with small firms to benefit from their leanness, nimbleness, and creativity. Small companies can also benefit by tapping into the larger distribution networks, financing opportunities and mentoring programs that large businesses can supply.

Generally, this need to grow and innovate can be difficult to implement, often constrained by risk-averse elements within a company, adequate financing as well as the availability of specialist technical skills and systems.

All businesses, large and small in all industries, especially in the current credit-tight environment, depend on loans to fund growth. In addition, tight budgets, understaffed IT departments and complex IT infrastructures are harsh realities for many corporations. Additional financing is required to remain competitive, innovate and grow. 

In addition to all of this, many governments are dedicating significant resources to develop the SMEs in their countries with more than a quarter of all public financial support programs primarily focusing on the SME segment. In the developing world, micro-finance initiatives are helpful, if somewhat constrained by relatively large fees and interest rates.

 What’s needed to propel SMEs even further? Tech skills.

Dispersing the right technical skills and capabilities is the other critical factor significantly impacting SME growth, longevity and job creation. Increasing technical skills is an area of significant focus but, so far, government-backed technical skill programs have achieved only limited success.

Research shows that SMEs who partner with large enterprises who go to market and serve customers together have been shown to be more successful than those who don’t adopt this strategy.

The development of a strong ecosystem of partnering SMEs with large enterprises should be a key focus, with particular emphasis placed on service creation, technological skills development, quality control and automation.

SMEs tend to be market focused and particularly strong in reacting to changing or developing market conditions. But the influence of partnering with larger companies to build stronger management capability, with an emphasis on turning market focus into product and service innovation, has driven the longevity of SMEs, resulting in stronger and more reliable employment growth. 

Driving business growth must be a major and global political imperative in order to drive job creation and support a widening middle class to create political stability. SMEs should focus on partnering with larger companies to combine innovation with stability, while remaining market focused and agile in serving customers.

Governments and financial institutions must innovate in the creation of appropriate financial mechanisms that are aligned to the needs of an individual business, while large enterprises should assist in the development of a strong and successful SME eco-system.

These partnerships are an essential prerequisite to the growth and success of both large and small companies.

Technorati Tags: capita, entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, IBM, small business, Small businesses, Smarter Planet, SMB

Linda Sanford, IBM Senior Vice President, Enterprise Transformation

By Linda Sanford

Over the past decade, IBM has taken a systematic approach to transformation and has dramatically reshaped the company.

Since I’ve been helping lead that effort, I’m often asked by clients for advice on how to transform successfully. I certainly don’t have all the answers, but there are a few things that most organizations can start doing to create a smarter enterprise. It all starts with creating a movement.

Create a movement. In the age of the social network, employees expect to be part of the process. Mandates from the top aren’t sufficient.

To galvanize IBMers around a common set of beliefs, we held a worldwide online jam nearly a decade ago that engaged the entire company on the question of IBM’s most basic values. At the conclusion of three days of passionate debate, we had set in motion a company-wide movement and created a unifying set of guiding principles that remain just as relevant today. Whether it’s jams, which we continue to employ frequently, or some other social business approach, you must engage employees to energize change.

Build a platform for continuous improvement. Over the past seven years, we’ve been evolving from a multinational model where we replicated IBM from floor to ceiling everywhere we did business to what we call a Globally Integrated Enterprise. We’ve done this by driving common world-wide process, standards and applications. We’ve capitalized on global skills, moving work to where it can best be done. For example, we’ve taken our shared services – IT, HR, Finance, Marketing, Legal, and other functions – and globalized them. Each shared service has a single global leader who is accountable for performance targets.

The integration of back-office processes produced more than $6 billion in productivity improvements from 2005 through 2010. We’ve taken what we’ve learned from the shared services and applied it to other aspects of our operations. With this foundation, we can continuously improve and achieve the productivity goals we’ve committed to in IBM’s 2015 Roadmap.

Equally important are our process improvements which are aimed at freeing up the time of employees. We want them spending less time on administrative tasks, so they can focus on living our values: helping our clients succeed, innovating, and building trusted relationships.

Pursue growth (as well as productivity). Building a global platform isn’t solely a productivity contributor. It’s a foundation for growth. It’s given us much greater flexibility in how we operate. We can now “plug-and-play” a ready-made infrastructure to set up shop, hire employees, and serve clients wherever we see the next big opportunity. You may have read recently about IBM in Africa. With the opening of offices in Mauritius, Tanzania, Senegal and Angola and with established hubs in South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria and Egypt, IBM today is present in more than 20 African countries with more expansion planned. Many believe this is Africa’s time, and IBM wants to be a part of it. With an agile platform for growth, we can.  

Apply technology for smarter transformation. Deploying new technology by itself won’t transform a business, but if applied shrewdly, IT can accelerate and enable transformation and kick start new ways of doing things.

At IBM, we’ve been taking advantage of new capabilities such as cloud computing and analytics to become a smarter enterprise. Over the past several years, IBM has deployed analytics across such operations as sales management, risk management, HR, finance, manufacturing and the supply chain, and others. 

IBM has established an internal analytics team to work with business units on projects where the creative application of analytics can improve business performance and make us a smarter enterprise – faster. We’re educating all of our people on how to use analytics to make data-driven decisions.

Master Change. Finally, effective change comes down to the “soft stuff” – the people side of change, which can be the hardest to get right. Recognizing the importance of the culture side of transformation, we’ve built skills in organizational change management and embedded this dimension in the plans of our transformation projects. We’ve also been focused on developing change leadership as a core competency for our next generation of IBM leaders.

Leading change is challenging. It’s a journey that never ends. Enduring organizations never stop reinventing themselves. The good news is, this is the golden age for transformation. Today, people everywhere are eager for a new, smarter way of doing things. To do it right, what’s needed is a thoughtful and strategic approach that involves the entire organization and is structured for growth.

Technorati Tags: Champion of Change, change management, digital transformation, IBM, IBM Smarter Planet, Smarter Enterprise, social business, transformation

Charlotte Davies, Crime Analyst, Environmental Investigation Agency

By Charlotte Davies

From tracking the illegal trading of ozone-depleting substances, to helping law enforcement agencies stop the trade of endangered big cats in Asia, data analytics increasingly is being used to fight environmental crime. Much like organized crime, environmental crime can be localized or global. Left unchecked, it can threaten biodiversity and species’ survival on a global level. 

Part of my mission as a crime analyst is to assist the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) in protecting the last of Asia’s endangered big cats — including the tiger, leopard, snow leopard and clouded leopard — which currently face various threats including habitat degradation, prey decline and poaching for their skin and bones. Using data analytics, my ability to track the illegal trade is now easier.

The worldwide population of tigers stands at around 3,500. The urgent need to save them has garnered the attention of key national and intergovernmental organizations. Despite global attention to this issue, these tigers continue to be threatened by the transnational, illegal trade in their skins, bones and other body parts.

For many years, the EIA, with its partner Wildlife Protection Society of India, has conducted covert field investigations into the illegal Asian big cat trade and encountered first-hand the traffickers and dealers involved. From the data perspective, these investigations generate a wealth of information. Historically, this data was stored in various formats — nominal information on profile sheets with telephone numbers and photographic records attached. EIA also kept tabs on enforcement events such as seizures and arrests, collating this historical information within a database.

Over time, the number of investigations increased and the amount of unstructured data grew. It became increasingly difficult to unbundle the vast amount of records. In a trade characterised by repeat offenders, favoured trafficking routes and persistent trading hubs, EIA sought a smarter way to organize the information — a method to interrogate and explore the inter-connectedness of subjects and events, and draw hypotheses. 

With IBM investigative analytics software, EIA can now visually and persuasively demonstrate the nodes of inter-related criminal activities, providing a clearer picture to policy makers of what is happening in the black market. Analytics help to arrange and integrate information, suggest and draw common themes, reveal linkages and hone investigations to where the impact will be greatest. 

By using this software, we’ve recently linked seemingly disparate cases of trafficking of different species to a group of enterprises, and then isolated further connections between associates of this network and additional trafficking cases in completely different countries. EIA can also export and share intelligence, tailored to partner specifications, with law enforcement agencies and other NGOs combating the illegal trade. Such results help EIA campaign for more meaningful and effective enforcement commitments.

EIA’s investigations into the illegal trade in Asian big cats — including tigers —  demonstrate not only that the trade exists and is ongoing, but also the dynamics of the criminality involved and the impact that targeted, intelligence-led operations can have in breaking up the networks perpetuating the trade.

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Charlotte Davies joined EIA in 2008, and works on illegal wildlife trade and forest issues. Join Charlotte and Shaun Hipgrave, Strategic Alliances, Intelligence Analysis, IBM UK, on  a People for a Smarter Planet tweet chat on Thursday, 8 November at 9:00 AM ET (2PM UK time). To join, follow #P4SPChat.

EIA is an independent campaigning organization committed to bringing about change that protects the natural world from environmental crime and abuse. EIA can be followed on twitter @EIAinvestigator.

Technorati Tags: Analytics, EIA, environmental protection, IBM, predictive analytics, smarter analytics, Smarter Planet, Wildlife conservation

David Lee, Executive Partner, IBM Global Business Services, Ireland

By David Lee

Internal combustion engines fueled by petroleum continue to power the vast majority of vehicles around the world and continue to produce the largest percentage of CO2 from the transportation sector.

Since transportation is one of the largest sectors in Europe, it’s no wonder the mission of the European Green Cars Initiative is to support research and development on technologies that help advance such things as renewable, non-polluting energy, transportation safety, and traffic flow. In other words, the group’s objective is to help create a smarter, greener, integrated transport system.

As part of this effort is a campaign to increase the number of electric cars on our roads.

The benefits of electric cars go beyond transportation. By adopting more sustainable transport methods such as electric vehicles (EVs), we could save kilotons of C02 each year while achieving annual net cost savings for consumers and governments, alike. EVs offer a viable solution to the problems faced byEurope’s auto sector.

Yet, the introduction of any new technology such as electric cars requires extensive research and pilot projects. In Ireland, ESB Networks is involved in a number of trials and projects to analyze the charging infrastructure and collect data on ongoing consumer behaviors and trends.

ESB Networks is also a member of the Green eMotion research project that aims to develop and deploy interoperable charging solutions for electro-mobility across Europe. This project focuses on achieving mass-market adoption of EVs through the development of standards, policies and interoperable systems so that motorists can easily charge their vehicles anytime and anywhere throughout Europe.

The selection of Ireland as one of the ten demonstration regions within Green eMotion was an obvious one, since it already operates an advanced charge point network that covers 82 percent of the country’s main towns and cities.

To be sure, Ireland has many natural advantages that make it an ideal location for the successful adoption of EVs. There are short distances between urban centres, we have the capacity to generate high levels of renewable energy, we have a single service provider that operates a unified distribution network across the country, and we have high levels of home ownership for overnight charging.

In addition to all of this, there is a growing desire by Irish consumer to maintain a responsible lifestyle and to embrace the EV opportunity. For example, in June 2012, ESB Networks invited citizens and organizations to apply to join a team of EV ambassadors and drive an electric car for one year. The hugely positive response of more than 12,000 applicants highlighted the level of interest the has in this innovative driving technology.

In support of this campaign, ESB Networks, in collaboration with IBM, which has worked extensively on EV technologies including batteries, is implementing a charging infrastructure as well as the IT and communications systems needed to support EVs across Ireland. Beginning this month, the system will have open accessibility for all energy supply companies and all types of electric vehicles.

(Left to Right) Peter O’Neill, IBM Country General Manager, Ireland; ESB Chief Executive, Pat O’Doherty; and Allan Schurr, Vice President, Strategy and Development of IBM’s Global Energy and Utilities Industry, announce joint partnership in which IBM will help ESB ecars implement a fully-integrated smarter charging IT system. The system will manage electric vehicle public charge points, which are being rolled out across Ireland by ESB ecars. The IBM EV platform will enable EV drivers to select convenient payment options and access all charge points using a single ID card.

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Technorati Tags: Battery 500, electric vehicle, electric vehicles, green energy, ireland, sustainability