It’ll be a while before autonomous vehicles perform on par with human drivers, an Orlando’s industry exec said Wednesday.
“Without major disruptions in the industry, it’ll be more than 25 years before self driving is safer than humans,” Luminar Technologies cofounder Jason Eichenholz said. “So we have got a long road ahead.”
Eichenholz’s comments came during a keynote at UCF’s Technology Venture Symposium, which brought UCF-connected businesses together in an online forum.
It’s the latest new event that aims to reconnect the community through virtual meetups and conferences amid the coronavirus pandemic.
UCF technology will host an online symposium Wednesday that will highlight Orlando’s tech community, giving a handful of UCF-connected startups a stage to show off their wares.
The daylong UCF Technology Ventures Symposium will be held as the region tries to emerge from the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
Because of the pandemic, Central Florida events for the last year have been largely limited.
Organizations have had to be creative to continue to help small companies in response.
An Orlando nonprofit’s push to collect “gently used” electronics for students and schools in need will renew at Otronicon.
It’s an effort to make sure the so-called “digital divide” doesn’t widen as more schools require students to work on electronics equipment at home.
Aeras Foundation’s initial drive at Bishop Moore High School helped the nonprofit connect with about 30 community partners, said Michelle Leeper, Aeras’ head of client relations.
“This problem is not going away. The arsenal needs to be bigger,” she said. “There are schools that have it all and others that do not.”
A government contractor from Minnesota has emerged as a potential buyer for the beleaguered BRIDG facility in Kissimmee.
Osceola County on Monday approved SkyWater Technology to negotiate with economic officials for ownership of the 109,000-square-foot facility off U.S. Highway 192.
The facility has been entangled in controversy since relations with University of Central Florida, a partner in the project, disintegrated over its profitability.
The county and school agreed to pursue other suitors.
As the U.S. and rest of the world see more satellites launched into space, they face obstacles other generations have not.
As more objects launch, more become space debris, floating around, taking up, well, space.
It’s a problem the U.S. Air Force wants to see more research on.
So it has tapped a Daytona Beach company located at UCF’s incubator at Research Park to pursue it.
Space Domain Awareness participated this week in the Air Force’s AFWERX Space Challenge as the only Florida company to take part.
CEO John Lee said the competition could represent a major accomplishment for his startup.
“It is truly the centerpiece of innovation for the space industry,” he said in a press release.
Space Domain Awareness part of UCF’s Innovation District program at the Research Park.
The innovation districts are incubators that help scalable companies in targeted industries. In particular, the organization has one program that highlights space firms.
EngageSpace
The Space Challenge is a part of EngageSpace, an Air Force and U.S. Space Force-sponsored program held this week online.
You can learn more about the program HERE. The event brings government together with industry.
Lee and cofounder Ethan Saxon started Space Domain Awareness last year when they both participated in an entrepreneurship program.
Their solution to the space debris problem includes tagging the objects that are floating in space in what they are calling “the world’s first orbital license plate.”
The company plans to have its first commercial test launch next year.
“The solutions submitted for these space challenges represent the bleeding edge of space innovation,” Brennan Townley, AFWERX Challenge Collaboration Lead, said in a release. “We’re excited to highlight these innovators and connect them with opportunities across the Space ecosystem.”
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Gordon Folkes’ Archer First Response Systems uses drones for medical supply delivery.
Gordon Folkes started his Orlando company Archer First Response Systems to use drones in new ways.
Thanks to a partnership with Tampa General Hospital, he has started to execute that plan.
Archer could soon be delivering medical supplies to those experiencing cardiac arrest.
“In the back of my mind, I knew the system should be a part of the 9-1-1 process,” he said. “But it felt like such a mountain to climb.”
Last week, Manatee County Public Safety Director Jacob Saur took a step to help Folkes climb that mountain.
Manatee County support
He backed a plan in front of commissioners to allow Tampa General Hospital to deploy Archer’s technology in the county.
The county commission approved the effort by a 6-to-1 vote.
Each Archer First Response System uses Internet-connected high-speed drones with onboard computers, GPS, and other technologies to deliver Lifesaving medical equipment.
The on-board packages include an AED, Narcan Nasal Spray and a tourniquet.
The systems cover an area of 35 square miles in under 5 minutes and are based out of fire stations.
Success at FSU
Folkes, 26, said he started flying drones as a hobby.
But that turned into a business venture as a sophomore at Florida State University.
That’s when he won The Jim Moran College of Entrepreneurship’s “Innolevation Challenge” with Archer.
At the time, he had targeted master-planned communities and golf courses.
That effort failed.
“I figured with HOA agreements, I could put one into a contract so there were no involuntary participants, which is what the FAA is concerned about,” Folkes said. “99.9% said, ‘No.’”
But Folkes saw a pivot after a successful meeting with a fire chief.
He says the first fire department official who heard his plan bought in immediately.
“It’s validating to have someone say, ‘You’re right, this is a solution,’” he said. “You have to find people who get it.”
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Manatee County board
In Manatee County, Saur presented Archer to county commissioners earlier this month.
He backed the plan in front of commissioners, telling them they should strongly consider the chance to be recognized as an innovative community.
He cemented that support for what would be a one-year pilot program with a follow-up post on LinkedIn.
“A lot of stars need to align for this type of pilot program to really get it into operation,” he told commissioners, noting that the initial cost for the county program would be $12, with Tampa General fronting most of the cost.
“This could set the technology for the future,” he continued.
There were some concerns about liability and insurance coverage for the new technology.
But the commissioners moved forward with the item, setting it up to return to the board if Archer gets approval from the FAA.
“I commend the staff for allowing Manatee County to be on the cutting edge of something new with technology,” commissioner Reggie Bellamy said during the meeting.
“Knowing we have a viable answer to a problem that kills 326,000 people a year kept me going,” Folkes said.
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Pat O’Connor kicked the tires on other sites when looking for the …
That’s especially true early on.
In the last eight months, opportunities to do that have been rare.
But the entrepreneurs, for their part, executed as if they had been pitching in a random downtown parking lot, alongside a blow-up movie screen with a train roaring by occasionally for years.
One last thing: I have to give major props to Devan Deratany of BlueWave Resource Partners, the night’s emcee.
She kept light and kept the program moving.
I cannot overstate the importance of that when trying something new.
Any slowdown could turn off those who attend.
I imagine she has a background in public speaking, as she fluidly worked through the previously mentioned hiccups.
So, cheers to Devan.
Cheers to the organizers.
Cheers to Drive-in Pitch Night, which I hope becomes a standard in our ecosystem’s “normal” schedule.
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